Why Letters of Recommendation are Irrelevant

As part of my job, I read college applications. I take this pretty seriously. If a student took the time to submit a complete application, I think that I should give it due time to review. Many admission decisions are pretty cut and dry without spending too much time meticulously combing through the entire file; others require a deeper perusal, to include verification of proper high school curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and the letters of recommendation.

Unfortunately, all too many letters of recommendation give me no more insight to a student's ability to succeed in a college environment than a Magic 8-Ball. Most letters don't warrant more than a cursory glance because I have read all of the glowing letters that spout over-the-top plaudits for (usually) average students. Still, once or twice a year, I get a noteworthy letter, and this year was no exception - usually one extraordinary in it's helpfulness and one extraordinary in it's uselessness. My extraordinary (positive) letter came from a good friend who used to work in college admissions and now works as a counselor at a private high school. The letter was forthright, but had style and personality. It also gave me insight into the student that I could not have gleaned from the application or even a personal interview with the student. My OTHER letter arrived this past week:

To Whom It May Concern:

[Student's Full Name] is the student who is going to make a difference in your classroom. I have had the pleasure of knowing [student] for two years. I taught English 11 and World Literature 12. He is a mature young man who gives positive direction for the other students. He is a true role model for others to follow. [student] is intelligent, creative, mature, hardworking and wants to create a positive influence in all he deals with. He excels in all he does with great determination.

[Student] has demonstrated high levels of initiative in learning. wants to make a difference in his life; he is not going to settle for second best. He realizes life is very competetive. knows that he has to earn everything that comes his way. [Student] realizes that education is a privilege and he is going to take full advantage of it. Based on performance, his rite of passage into college will be a smooth one.

[Student] realizes that school is a multi-faceted experience. [Student] is a vital part of [High School Name]. He has strong leadership qualities.

[Student] has left a great mark on me. He realizes education is the foundation cornerstone in starting a rewarding career. [Student]'s initiative to study in your college shows that he has taken the time to find the college that is going to put him on the right foot and in the right directions to give him every opportunity to use education to make a desirable candidate in any profession he chooses to follow.

[Student]'s hard work, responsibilities, creativity, long hours hitting the books, extra curricular activities, self esteem, and strong Christian values has prepared him for the tasks he will be expected to complete in college. [Student] is well rounded and will be a desirable candidate ofr you to consider.

I highly recommend without hesitation [Student] to your institution. He will be a positive asset to your school. You will end up being as proud of him as I have been and [High School Name]. Please do not hesitate to call me with any questions.

Sincerely,
[Teacher's Name and Subject Area]

Stop for a second and try not to focus on the grammar and syntax errors (if you can read my writing, this should be a piece of cake!). The reason why this letter is useless is not really in the content. Rather, the reason why this letter is useless is that it appears to have absolutely no basis in fact.

The student in question submitted a transcript that includes an overall grade point average of 1.7 and standardized test scores almost 33% below our average - almost to the point that one would wonder if the score was for one section of the SAT or the composite score. Lastly, the student earned a grade of 'D' in the course which the letter writer claims to have taught. What about the grades and test scores that this student earned supports the letter that this teacher sent? Why on earth would a teacher who graded a student as barely passing offer up this positive letter of recommendation.

This student was clearly not going to gain admission with or without the above letter. Unfortunately, the letter leaves me with a negative impression of the writer. If I were to receive another application with a letter of recommendation from this person, how could I take what they say seriously? Further, won't this experience come to my mind when I read another application from this high school? I surely don't mean to indict an entire high school on the basis of one bad letter of recommendation, but I think it would be hard to not think of this when I receive the next application(s) from this school.

I can only think that the letter writer was just phoning this one in. I get asked all the time how many letters of recommendation should accompany the application. People give me a baffled look when I give them my standard answer. I usually tell people that they only need one - but, one good one, which they are not likely to get. I go on to explain that sending me five letters that all say pretty much the same thing - how wonderful the student is - "she plays six varsity sports;" "he is working on curing cystic fibrosis;" "when he farts, it smells like roses!" - are not helpful. I would trade five letters filled with unabashed praise for one clear and concise assessment of a student's strengths AND weaknesses. Yes, believe it or not, most 17 year-olds have weaknesses. You would never know it from most letters of recommendation (see above), but the letters that ignore any possible areas in which the student can improve often hold no weight with me. Letters that directly address any student flaws immediately cause me to go back and readdress the letter writer's assessment of the student's positive traits.

Teachers and counselors have the ability to return the letter of recommendation to some relevance, but in it's current form, these letters serve no purpose other than to make the average student's file a touch thicker.

**Welcome Carnival of Education readers! If this is your first visit, you may want to stop by the Introduction page. That will give you a brief overview of what to expect to see elsewhere on this site. This is not a single-focus blog, so you will find posts here on more topics than just education. I do travel a lot for business, so I have quite a few posts (and pictures) of where I have been and the food I have discovered on the road. My finances are equally as important to me, and my work in college admissions allows for some unique perspective on the college search and financial aid.

I am glad you stopped by, and hope that you might poke back again sometime soon. The newest posts can be found by clicking on the "Home" tab at the top of the page.

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Love and White Castles

File this under "Is It Any Wonder I'm Single?"

White Castle is going upscale for Valentine's Day this year. They are offering hostess seating, candlelit dinner, and your own server as part of their dinnertime promotion. As with many an upscale restaurant on this festive holiday, reservations are required. Right now, all I can think of is how bummed I am that there is no White Castle nearby for me to have a proper Valentine's Day celebration. Yep - hard to believe nobody's scooped me right up, huh?

If you would rather treat your sweetie to a sack of Whiteys in the comfort of your own home, White Castle is offering a take-home deal with "eight cheeseburgers, one sack of fries, two regular soft drinks, coupons and keepsake items to heat up your homespun romance." For $20, I would consider this, if only to find out what "keepsake items" White Castle thinks will "heat up my homespun romance." I can't imagine what a White Castle sex toy would look like. [shudder]

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Announcing the Carnival of Dining Out

I have recently sent articles to the Carnival of the Recipes and the Carnival of Personal Finance. I have searched and searched but could not really find an existing carnival devoted to a combination of my two favorite activities - food and travel. When one travels, one tends to dine out quite a bit. I guess also being a single guy lends more to grabbing a meal in a restaurant than cooking and cleaning, too.

I hope to have a monthly review of all of the best posts related to dining out. If there is more than enough demand, perhaps we can go bi-weekly or weekly, but that is probably a few months away, at the bare minimum.

I will be hosting the first edition on February 1, 2007. Subsequent editions will be held on the first of every month thereafter. Submissions are due by 5 pm ET on the last day of the month preceding the carnival. Posts should be current (*within the month), not submitted to other carnivals, and contain your own original content. Acceptable topics include:

• Recent dining experiences at a local restaurant
• Recent dining experiences at a restaurant while away from home on business or personal travel
• Commenting on your local/national restaurant scene
• Commenting on the state of the restaurant industry
• Almost anything else (within reason) that deals with restaurants and dining out

I will admit to having a bias for locally-owned and operated establishments, and when I am hosting, I will give spacial preference to those dining experiences that do not involve national, corporate food entities.

If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the Carnival of Dining Out, please contact me. I will post future hosts here and on the Blog Carnival web site.

*Leniency for the first edition will be considered, as you may have an "all-star" post that was previously not suitable for another carnival. In the future, all articles should be current.

I hope that this becomes successful, and you enjoy reading the articles as much as I will.

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Time for a Career Switch? Try Grocery Stock Clerk!

Working in college admissions provides me with a lot of job satisfaction (on most days!), but, as I have mentioned before, it does not provide me with a pocketful of $100 bills on a bi-weekly basis. I have grown to accept that (to some extent). I accept that I will be underpaid relative to society - police officers, teachers, doctors, fast food employees, etc.

OK, the fast food thing was a joke....I think.

This week, Money magazine released it's annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For 2007. Surprisingly, my employer was not listed among these fine 100 companies (I was shocked!). My favorite supermarket, however, was ranked #57. Publix is a fine company, and I spent one summer working there in between my freshman and sophomore years of college. I worked in the deli, and it was a decent job until I decided that I could make more money working my own business over the Thanksgiving weekend than I could working in the deli. Apparently, Thanksgiving is a busy time in the grocery business. Who knew?

Florida Today had an article about Publix' ranking today. In the hard copy of the paper, there was a chart that highlighted some of the figures mentioned in the article. The one that stood out for me was the average salary for the most common hourly wage job - grocery stock clerk. On average, these folks make $27,453 per year! More than $27k for stocking groceries! Why did this number, in paricular, leap out at me? The starting salary in my office for an entry level admission counselor is $27,500. An extra $57 per year over the average stock clerk, and yet our office generates nearly 80% of the university's operating budget of about $119 million.

Yes, I know that I am comparing starting salary with average salary. It doesn't matter - the comparison is staggering, and surely doesn't make me feel better about my job. I also don't think that my university is unique in underpaying their admission staff. Admission counselors are charged with recruiting new students, a process that includes many days and nights of business travel - time away from family and friends. Most typical business travelers earn more than the average stock clerk at the supermarket. In addition to recruiting, we are also charged with evaluating prospective students' applications - and holding their hands through the entire process - have you sent your SAT scores? did you send all of your recommendation letters? do you have questions about financial aid? etc. Yes...the people who decide whether or not your children get into college make marginally more than the guy who puts cans of soup on the shelves at the supermarket.

The long-standing perception is that the people who work in the admission office are the people who couldn't get "real jobs" after graduation, so they took this entry-level position until something better comes along. There are some people, though, who find that they truly enjoy representing their university to prospective students - they enjoy seeing families moving students into their residence halls on the first day of Orientation - they take pride in seeing "their" student recruits successfully traverse the stage on the morning of commencement, because they just "KNEW" they were going to make it.

Next time you are at the grocery store picking up a dozen eggs and a jar of pickles, think of the guy moving pallets around the docks and the people back at the university reading your daughter's college application.

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Carnival of Personal Finance is up!

The latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is posted over at Get Rich Slowly. This was my first submission to this carnival, and I hope to enter more during the 2007 calendar year. Word is that there were 92 submissions for this week, and some didn't make the cut. I am glad that my article was chosen. Go check out some of the other topics...I know that I have some reading to do myself.

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Stuff You Oughta Know - Version 2.0

I would like to think that the reason I haven't posted too often is because I have spent hours tweaking the layout and design of this site. The truth is that I probably wouldn't have spent that time posting anyway. Still, within the last couple of weeks, mostly due to Blogger's recent upgrade, I was able to do a drastic layout change with relative ease. Understand...I know very little about HTML, CSS, or any of the other helpful acronyms that would make maintaining this online life a little easier.

The most useful information that I found came from Hackosphere. This guy knows a whole big lot about making Blogger templates a lot more usable. He writes in a way that even a relative moron like myself can follow. From Hackosphere, I learned to turn Blogger's two-column format into a stylish three-column page; to reintroduce collapsable posts; and to make the label tabs underneath the header, making it easy to find the most popular categories. I suppose the bigger thanks goes to the folks at Blogger for adding labels/categories to the newest version of Blogger.

Hopefully, some snazzy new colors, shiny new functions, and a renewed commitment will help push me to post more often.

Type rest of the post here

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Smart Move 2006: Healthcare Reimbursement Account

This is the time of year when I spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing obsessing over what went right and what went wrong in the previous year. This is my own way of planning what actions to take to ensure more right things and fewer wrong things in the current year.

I think one of the smartest things that I did happened almost by accident. My employer, like many others, offers a number of medical insurance options. To boil them down to their simplest parts, each plan offers to cover a percentage of medical expenses, descending in value commensurate with the required payment assumed by the employee - 90% (the most expensive plan); 80%; 70%; and "risk-reward," which also covers 80%, but has higher deductibles, annual maximums, and co-pays. The previous year, I had the 70% coverage, which cost me $35.78 every two weeks. The cost for the same coverage for 2006 increased to $37.57, which I thought was pretty reasonable. It seems that I have heard nightmare stories from co-workers, who need to insure their whole families, about double-digit percentage increases in health care coverage.

After I signed up, when I read through the plan coverage, I found that I was eligible for a new benefit - the Healthcare Reimbursement Account (HRA). This new account was funded exclusively by my employer, to the tune of $60/month, and the money could be used by me in a manner similar to that of a medical Flexible Spending Account. In effect, I would be paying about $80/month out of my pocket in medical insurance, and getting $60 of that back to be used to any incurred medical expenses. Some common examples of what the money could be hospital services; physician, dental, vision and chiropractic services; eyeglasses, contact lenses and saline solution; co-pays and deductibles; prescription drugs (including co-pays); home health care; durable medical equipment; and drug and alcohol rehabilitation - almost everything except elective cosmetic surgery. Note: If I had additional dependents on my health plan, my monthly HRA reimbursement would be $120/month; the "risk/reward" plan comes with a $90 monthly HRA payment for singles, and $180/month for families. In addition, the money that remains unused each month earns interest while it sits in my account. The money rolls over from year to year (unlike a medical FSA) and becomes fully vested and portable after three years of participation in this plan, otherwise you would need to spend all of the money prior to terminating employment.

I am fortunate in that I don't spend too much time (translation: don't spend much money!) with doctors. One of the reasons why the 70% plan is a viable option for me is because I can assume some additional risk and hope that I can continue to live a relatively healthy life. I was choosing the 70% option anyway - so, this new benefit didn't really encourage me to assume this additional risk. It was literally, an added bonus, for me.

It is incredibly easy to use. I was sent a debit card last year and I use it just like I would use any other debit or credit card at my doctor's office or pharmacy, etc. I used it at the doctor's office flawlessly - my $20 co-pay was immediately credited, and deducted from my account. I also picked up a prescription and some over-the-counter medication at the drug store. For that transaction, I had to send in a copy of the receipt (so they could be sure that I didn't purchase Twinkies, I guess). I sent in a fax and received a letter in the mail a couple of days later approving the charge. Easy as pie.

Since I didn't bother to crunch any numbers before making my selection last year (I was just really re-upping with what I had), I need to sit down and do that this year to compare the relative value in downsizing my plan to the "risk/reward." It would save me about $8 per paycheck (nothing substantial), but also give me an additional $30/month in HRA money.

I don't think that my employer did a particularly good job of educating people about the availability of this additional benefit - and that it would be paid by them, into an account, for the empoyee. Clearly, this is designed to encourage the insured to assume more risk, as that would be less expensive for the insurance companies. You would think that employers would WANT their employees to sign-up for something that would save them money in health care costs in the long-term. I suspect that when it comes time for choosing plans this year, their will be a better effort to educate people on this plan.

Assuming I can keep up my relative health, my biggest question will be on what to spend the money? I am considering saving for LASIK surgery, but treating this like "found money" in the meantime.

**Welcome Carnival of Personal Finance readers! If this is your first visit, you may want to stop by the Introduction page. That will give you a brief overview of what to expect to see elsewhere on this site. This is not a single-focus blog, so you will find posts here on more topics than just recipes and food. I do travel a lot for business, so I have quite a few posts (and pictures) of where I have been and the food I have discovered on the road. My finances are equally as important to me, and my work in college admissions allows for some unique perspective on the college search and financial aid.

I am glad you stopped by, and hope that you might poke back again sometime soon. The newest posts can be found by clicking on the "Home" tab at the top of the page.

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Dining Out: Best of 2006

Consider this post the sequel to last year's Best of 2005 list.

It seems like I traveled more this year than in years past. Unfortunately, a lot of it was to the same places I have been in the last couple of years. That's not really such a bad thing - I don't suppose that I would have wanted to return to the same places if I didn't like it there - but, since fellow ROGUEfooder "wanderingjew" laid down the challenge of only using places that are new this year, I thought I would have a tough time coming up with a Top 10 of just new places. As it turns out, I had to whittle down a list from about twenty. I will deviate from my past rule of only including restaurants recommended by the Sterns. Still, I think that the quality of the following 10 destinations would prove worthy. To rank one ahead of another would be a grave injustice (but, #1 will be considered #1 for those who feel that there should be a definitive "winner."

10) Smitty's; Lockhart, TX

Central Texas is my absolute favorite place for BBQ in the whole country. The picture of my own meal, however, does not nearly sum up the quality of Smitty's the way this picture of one of their smokers in action does. In addition to serving this wonderful food, the staff here was very freindly and cordial - allowing me to take a number of photos, with full run of the place. I enjoyed a plate that consisted of two healthy slices of beef shoulder (brisket) and two pork ribs. I was trying to eat light so that I might also get to Kreuz's Market (and compare the two!), but alas, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, once again. My plan is to make it back to Lockhart sometime in February. The thought of getting my hands on some of that beef is probably what gets me through the next few days!

208 S Commerce St.
Lockhart, TX

9) Tony's Restaurant; Bridgeton, MO (RIP, as of 12/06)

I am glad to say that I made it to this hidden treasure before it's untimely demise in late 2006. This picture doesn't do the size of this omelette justice. If I was told that there were a half-dozen eggs in there, I wouldn't blink. The menu did not mention that this was an item to be served family style, but it fed three healthy adult males with no problem at all. The pancakes, wonderful as they were, had no business being on the table. These two plates made for too much food for three adults. The best part of the whole meal - that cost of that omelette was around five bucks.

8) Grimaldi's Pizza; Brooklyn, NY

This is the scene outside Grimaldi's most of the time that they are open for business. New Yorkers, impatient bunch that we can be, will wait - for something worth waiting for. Grimadli's pizza is one of the things worth waiting for. In my case, excellent company made the wait for a table and the food seem all too short. Don't poke in expecting to grab a slice to go - there are no slices at Grimaldi's. Even calling and ordering in advance may not get you a pie any quicker. Everyone is queued up together, egalitarianism at it's best. Upon completion of your pie, bang a right out the front door and walk a block or two down to the water and grab a fine dessert at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

19 Old Fulton St.
Brooklyn, NY

7) Dinic's; Philadelphia, PA

Located inside the Reading Terminal Market, Dinic's is destination food in Philly. Pictured above is the roast pork, served "wet," which is just as it sounds - drenched in it's own juices. A side of locally produced Herr's chips is the accompaniment. It would take you weeks to eat your way around RTM without duplicating any single establishment, but Dinic's is on my list of places to hit whenever I am in town. Everyone may tell you that the touristy thing to do in Philadelphia is to get a cheesesteak from Pat's or Geno's. Let the tourists head there while you get a better meal at Dinic's. Everything pictured above was less than $7 (including the fountain drink).

Reading Terminal Market
51 N 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA

6) Pho Van; Portland, OR

This was my first experience with Vietnamese food. I am sure that part of what made this meal exceptional was the company - fellow ROGUEfooder Mr. Chips, and his family - Trudy and Sam. I will be darned if I could remember the name, but the bowl pictured above was my entree, which included BBQ pork, large shrimp, ground pork and veggies in a chicken broth with vermicelli noodles. This bowl followed some excellent spring roll appetizers (well, the bite or two that I managed to sneak in before Sam torched the rest!), and was more than I could finish. What you see pictured above was about $7. I only hope that I didn't set the bar too high with my first Vietnamese experience. The odds of me being able to walk into any other local restaurant expecting to get this same quality is are probably not that high.

1919 SE 82nd Ave.
Portland, OR

5) Puerto Sagua; Miami, FL


The aforementioned "wanderingjew" traveled down to my home state for some baseball and eating, and I met up with him and a friend of his down in Miami. After a sunny afternoon of Marlins baseball, we drove down to Miami Beach to eat some of the best Cuban food served outside of Havana. This picture isn't even my own meal, but upon being served, I immediately regretted not ordering the seafood enchilada.

700 Collins Ave.
Miami Beach, FL

4) Avalon Diner; Houston, TX

Sitting at the counter at the Avalon Diner is like taking a step back in time to the 1950's. I suppose that the 1950's wouldn't have seen the Avalon in as strange a place as a strip mall, but sometimes you just have to roll with the times. A burger, fries, and a shake - All-American comfort food, if ever there was such a designation. In addition to the hand-dipped shakes, the Avalon still squeezes the lemons and limes fresh for their homemade lemonade and limeade, respectively. Seems like every town used to have at least one of these places. Now, they are stretched far and wide.

2417 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX

3) Primanti Brothers, Pittsburgh, PA

When I mentioned to friends that I was heading to Pittsburgh, every single person told me that if I only had time for one meal, that meal should be the sandwich made famous in Pittsburgh - the Primanti Brothers. I will admit to being skpetical - a sandwich with bread, french fries, and cole slaw all slathered on a sandwich together did not really appeal to me. I am a basic fellow - I want to taste the meat in a sandwich, and am usually resistant to any and all condiments. Still, I was told, this slaw is different...the fries add a unique texture....it's an experience. I figued that the worst case scenario would be that I would never have to eat another - and I could claim the experience as done. Instead, the sandwich, and the experience was unforgettable. I was seated at the counter in the original Strip District location, next to two college buddies, in town on summer break. One lived in Pittsburgh his whole life, the other was visiting from NY. For the NYer, this was his "must" experience in Pittsburgh, too.

46 18th St.
Pittsburgh, PA

2) Round Rock Donuts; Round Rock, TX

It is almost hard for me to justify a "Top 10" spot on donuts - but, these donuts are THAT good. I made two visits to the Austin area in 2006. In March, I stayed in Round Rock, and Roadfooder "Bushie" sent me to these fried doughy delights. When I booked my hotel for my October trip, I clearly wasn't thinking about donuts, and booked a hotel on the south side of Austin, near the airport. Waking up and needing a donut fix, I drove about 1/2 hour, in driving rain, to Round Rock to get my hands on these treats. They raised the price from my first visit to my second - up a nickel now, to FIFTY cents a piece. On a recent road trip, I stopped at a roadside Dunkin' Donuts and found donuts had risen in price to 84 cents. I know that it is only 34 cents per donut, but a difference of about 40% in price, for quality that is not anywhere close is a complete injustice. Round Rock Donuts is just one more reason to look forward to that February trip.

106 W Liberty St.
Round Rock, TX

1) Ess-a-Bagel, New York, NY

I try not to throw around the label of "best ever" too often, or it loses its impact. Unfortunately, I don't know any other way to say it - these are the best bagels I have ever eaten. Period. The cinammon raisin that you see right in the middle are fresh and warm out of the oven. I ordered a half-dozen, and walked out towards my hotel. As I was walking, the heat from the bagels permeated the bag and began toasting my hands. Between the physical signs of the warm bagels, and the aroma coming out of the bag, I couldn't resist reaching into the bag and tearing off a hunk of fresh bagel as I walked. The crusty exterior texture blended with the chewy interior to make bagel bliss. My boss often asks me to bring back "real" New York bagels whenever I travel to the Motherland. If she only knew, she would think that anything else I had brought back to this point was absolutely inferior!

831 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10022

As I look back at the remaining restaurants on my 2006 list that didn't make the cut, I could easily make ANOTHER Top 10 list that would rival most anybody's travels. It really was a good year. In the next couple of days, I will try to highlight some of the honorable mentions, some of the places that would have made a Top 10 if there was no "first visit" rule, and feature my biggest disappointment of 2006.

I wish you all good eats and safe travels in 2007!

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2007 New Year's Resolutions

I am not usually a resolution guy, but what else should one blog about on New Year's Day? They may be a little vague, but I like success stories.

I resolve to take more days off from work in 2007. I am ending the year with nearly 200 hours of vacation time banked (and another 350+ hours of sick time, too!). Fortunately, they will all roll over to the new year (of course, I have another 160 vacation hours to earn in 2007). I will make every effort to NOT grow the number too much higher than 200.

I resolve to blog more often in 2007. Who knows if anyone cares what I have to say, but dammit, I am going to say it. I took too many extended periods of darkness in 2006, and will make every effort to not let that happen again. I will also submit articles to blog "carnivals" in an effort to increase exposure and readership. This is really about making the next resolution a little bit easier....

I resolve to make more money in 2007. I make a pathetically small salary, even with an almost 10% salary bump this year. Another 10% is a pipe dream, so I need to figure out how to make money via other means. I did some consulting-type work for a friend the last couple of years to boost my income, but that will not be available for 2007. Passive income streams, like investments, selling things on ebay, and the small amount of revenue generated from my own web site would help. This is really about making my NEXT resolution a little bit easier....

I resolve to further reduce my outstanding debt in 2007. I am down to two outstanding credit lines - my mortgage (relatively small - I owe about 1/3 of the value of my home) and my student loan (for my outstanding balance, the payment that cleared a few days ago reduced the number to the left of the comma by one!). Obviously, the benefit to reducing debt is to free up the money being paid to creditors to do the things that I like - travel, good food, baseball, and gambling (both the Vegas variety and the much more common investing in the stock market!). 2006 saw the elimination of all credit card debt and medical bills. Hopefully, I will be able to keep that going in the new year.

Lastly, the tough one...I resolve to live a healthier lifestyle in 2007. I need to exercise more and eat less crap. Throw in a few vegetables, and I can be on the right path. For me, this will easily be the toughest of the tough. I have very little willpower when it comes to exercise AND eating healthy. Still, I am going to take a shot at this one. Look, I know that I love fried chicken and a good corned beef sandwich. I am confident that I can continue to eat those things - in moderation - but interspersing some miscellaneous green things and a walk on the beach every now and again can only do good. BTW - this is the first time this sort of resolution has been even thought of by me.

Hopefully, I will be able to revisit this list in a few months and say that progress is being made on all accounts. If not, I am not going to jump off the causeway...this time! :-)

I wish you all luck in whatever resolutions you choose to make for 2007.

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Carnival of the Recipes

The latest edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is posted over at Booklore. This was my first ever carnival submission, and I plan to enter more during the 2007 calendar year. Go and check things out at the carnival. There are a number of good recipes for the chef in all of us.

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Holiday Cookin'

Traditional Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, and a veggie - is the meal that I could eat four to five times a week, if I had to. I love turkey - white meat, dark meat, legs - you name it. If I am in a restaurant and they have turkey dinner on the menu, I have a hard time choosing something else - especially a homestyle New York diner. Cooking turkey dinner, on the other hand, is a tough deal for a single guy. Cooking a turkey has a complexity level that exceeds heating up a can of soup or microwaving a bag of popcorn (my usual home cooking!) by a large margin. The holidays, though, bring out the best in me.

I had Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's home where I was one of 35 guests. While happy for the invitation, "seconds" to take home were not an option. Heck, I was lucky to get "firsts" - some of those people could eat! Ever since, I have been eager for some turkey dinner. Publix, apparently upon hearing of my want for turkey, had them on sale for 79 cents a pound last week. I picked up a small bird (less than 10 lbs.), and based on this Roguefood.com thread, I decided to make the stuffing the focus of the meal. Any good turkey dinner should be measured on the merits of the accompaniments, as well as the flavor and texture of the turkey, itself. Naturally, I tweaked the recipe to my own liking (soft pretzels were not an option, and the original recipe lacked traditional stuffing seasonings). The full recipe and photos of the adventure can be found after the break...

PRETZEL STUFFING

• l box Snyder's broken sourdough hard pretzels
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 cups chicken broth
• Add ground pepper, rosemary, thyme, sage to taste
  

Saute onion & celery in butter until soft. Mix in pretzels & remaining ingredients. The original recipe calls for the mixture to be set overnight in the refrigerator. In this case, that was not an option, and the end result worked. I may try it next time - just to see what difference it makes.

Bake in casserole dish (I used 13X9 Pyrex) at 350 for about 25 minutes.

The stuffing (yeah, I know that if it is prepared in the stove, as opposed to in the bird, that it should be called "dressing" - I just don't care) turned out delicious. The pretzels definitely add a different flavor and texture compared to what most folks usually expect from traditional stuffing.

At this point, I was still pretty skeptical. We had some seasoned and sauteed onion and celery and some broken pretzels. But, things started to take shape....

I won't lie. There is a good reason that there is a box of Stove Top sitting on the counter. If this stuff turned out bad, I wasn't having dinner with no stuffing! There is a part of me that thinks that this is common sense and needs no mentioning, but....DO NOT ADD SALT. There is plenty on the pretzels. I didn't think that the final product was too salty, but I like Stove Top - and that stuff is loaded with salt.

No worries, though - it tasted as good as it looks! One of the truest stuffing tests is to see how it holds up the next day as leftovers, and I happily report that the flavor and texture didn't lose anything overnight in the fridge.

The ultimate plate of food - mashed Yukon Gold potatoes (five potatoes - almost one whole stick of butter - a ratio that should be set in stone), green beans, pretzel stuffing, and mixed light and dark turkey - all covered in homemade giblet gravy. I am pretty sure that THIS is what God created on the eighth day.

Never satisfied, though, I am thinking about making a sweet version of the pretzel stuffing. It works with bread stuffing, right? I think I can add apples, cinammon, and maybe raisins. If it happens, I will do a follow-up post.

**Welcome Carnival of the Recipes readers! If this is your first visit, you may want to stop by the Introduction page. That will give you a brief overview of what to expect to see elsewhere on this site. This is not a single-focus blog, so you will find posts here on more topics than just recipes and food. I do travel a lot for business, so I have quite a few posts (and pictures) of where I have been and the food I have discovered on the road.

I am glad you stopped by, and hope that you might poke back again sometime soon. The newest posts can be found by clicking on the "Home" tab at the top of the page.

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RIP: Tony's Restaurant; Bridgetown, MO

I hate for this news tidbit to get buried in the comments section of a months-old post, but a commenter posted today that Tony's Restaurant, which lured me in with their "Missouri's Largest Omelet" sign is no more.

I have not been able to find a news article that substantiates the post (not that I am doubting, but I do like accountable sources). In the meantime, I am going to assume that the story is true and I will mourn this omelet (a true bargain at around 5 bucks!) and the pancakes, too.


UPDATE: I have been contacted by the owner of Tony's Restaurant's granddaughter, and she tells me that the fire was attributed to an electrical fault in the kitchen, not a grease fire as the original poster had mentioned. She also tells me that the restaurant will not reopen in its previous location, but that her father is planning on opening a place nearby sometime soon. So long as that omelette makes the transition to the new place, I am there.

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Live Long and....Prosper???

I would have to live an awfully long time to prosper from Prosper, that's for sure. At least, that's my take on the peer-to-peer lending service that seems to be all the talk in the personal finance blogosphere.

Lazy Man is all for it.
Scott is all for it, aslo.
It sounds like Mapgirl is wading into the shallow end of the lending pool.
~Dawn of Queercents gives the borrower's prospective.

I guess I am on the outside here, but my experience has not been that positive, and I don't know that I want to repeat it a few more times before I am sure. I wanted to start off with a relatively low amount of money, so I transferred $300 into my Prosper account. I authorized the transfer FROM my account on 11/15. It left my bank account on 11/16. It arrived, for use, in my Prosper account on 11/20. Since I initially didn't get the handle on standing orders, I ended up bidding (and subsequently winning) for the same auction twice - $100 and $75. I won another auction for $100, too. I now realize that with such a small amount of money to lend, I would have been better off with bidding on six $50 loans and spreading my risk, but there weren't many listings that met my lending criteria (higher credit grades with interest rates > 10-12%), so I figured I would do better to get my money lent out than to let it sit without earning interest.

I won both my $100 and $75 bids on the first loan on 11/21. This loan is still "pending review." Two-and-a-half weeks later, and Prosper is still verifying the loan? You would think that they would start the approval process when the request goes into the queue, or maybe when X% of the loan is funded. Still, two-and-a-half weeks seems like an awfully long time - even if this is supposed to help my money be more secure.

My other $100 loan was approved at 12.5% interest on 11/22. That loan was just completed on 12/5. I will receive my first payment of $3.73 on January 5 if all goes well. I figure it is going to take a lot of $3.73 monthly payments - and no defaults - for me to feel the least bit prosperous.

Right now, I suspect I won't be too bummed if my other $175 worth of loans don't ever fund. For a rate of return that is less than what the stock market will return this year, it seems like a lot of risk and a lengthy time with your money spent sitting idle. Actually, it is not sitting idle, exactly. Prosper is surely making money off of my money. Heck, you can guaranteed returns in a high-yield online savings account around 5%, so how much of an added risk factor should be counted on to yield enough to offset the difference between Federally guaranteed and high risk?

Tired but Happy does a pretty thorough job of discussing many of the things that I don't like about Prosper, but somehow manages to put a positive spin on it. Hmmm? Maybe I am just doing something wrong?

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Airport "Roadfood"?

It may be that I have finally reached my travel limits this fall, but I am starting to see an increase in the quality of the stories - even the fluff pieces - in USA Today. This morning, the McPaper had a story on eating locally in airports, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Travel Globally, but Eat Locally, Between Flights

They list the Salt Lick BBQ in the Austin airport as their choice for that airport. I will add that, purely from an eating standpoint, if I were to ever WANT to be stranded in an airport, Austin is the place that I would want to be stranded. Not only do they have the Salt Lick, but they also have Matt's El Rancho, a popular, local Tex-Mex joint; Amy's Ice Creams, which I will soon feature in their own thread; and a location to pick up my beloved Round Rock Donuts.

On top of all the eating, the Austin airport is relatively small, the rental cars are on-site, and it is located in one area of Austin that is not heavily congested right now. That all adds up to make Austin my current favorite airport in the country.

My preference is still not to eat in airports, except under the most unusual circumstances, but if you are trapped or making a connection, some of the places listed in the article may save you from another run of McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts or Chili's Too!

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Where'd Y'Eat?

I started a thread with the same title at my favorite foodie discussion board. It highlights the vast collection of food porn I have collected over the past few weeks. In most cases, I think my photography has gotten exponentially better since I first started taking photos of my food about a year ago.

A friend recently showed me a book that may inspire an idea for myself. Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth is a wonderful "read." Actually, I don't know of anyone who has read it. Most people just look up what the guy ate on their birthday, or holidays and such. I think I can start a blog (keep the giggles to yourself) about the daily food intake for 2007. Of course, my thinking is that I will be appalled at the sheer volume of food that makes it into my trap, and will subsequently eat less. For instance, I would hate to post a week straight (there's that cackling noise again...cut it out!) and have the series contain not a single vegetable. That has been known to happen in my real life, so this may hold me more accountable to what I eat....maybe?

Anyway, I am still just bouncing the idea around. If you have any feedback, or if you found out that someone else is doing this already and has the idea copyrighted and will sue me for 10s of dollars, throw it in the comments section!

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Say It Ain't So!

Once again, history in baseball means absolutely nothing when focused on the future and the almighty dollar. Baseball America is reporting a pretty major shake-up among the AAA baseball ranks. AAA is the level closest to the major leagues; affiliates are usually located in larger metropolitan areas; and don't shuffle major league affiliations quite as often as some of the lower level.

All the moving around started when the Phillies announced that they were moving their top affiliate from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to Allentown, via Ottawa (they purchased the Ottawa franchise, and are remaining in Canada until the new stadium in Allentown is ready next year). That left the Scranton area as a desirable destination, and the Orioles, previously located in Ottawa looking for a home. In most years, the simple thing that would have happened is that the Orioles (who, right about now might be wishing that they were still affiliated with the Rochester Red Wings) would move to Scranton. Ummm...not this year. Enter the New York Yankees.

The Yankees affiliate had been in Columbus, OH since the late 70's. Scranton is a lot closer to the Yankees fan base, so they make an attractive courting partner. The problem is - Yankees fans are EVERYWHERE. They have a great fan base built up in Columbus. They don't need a nearby affiliate for injury rehab assignments, as they have teams in Staten Island and Trenton, NJ. In a year in which the Mets are not conceding any back page headlines to the Evil Empire, they also decide that Scranton would look pretty good, so they tell Norfolk (their AAA home since **1969**) that, well, they love Norfolk, but they think they might want to see other people. If you are Scranton, who would you rather have - the Yankees or the Mets? Duh. Most people wouldn't even blink before taking the Yanks.

The Orioles (remember them?) will likely jump into bed with Norfolk. That leaves the Mets and Columbus (the former Yankee affiliate) without dance partners. OK...enter the Washington Nationals, who have been relegated to AAA purgatory in New Orleans the last few years. The Nats jump on Columbus - leaving the Mets to toil in AAA hell...New Orleans. Ugh.

I always wanted to go and see the Mets in Norfolk. I understand that the ballpark there is a top-notch minor league facility. Instead, I am left to mourn the loss of another part of my childhood.

RIP...

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Much Love for Money Saving Tips

During my blog semi-hiatus, I have neglected to mention (and thank for the traffic bump) the No Credit Needed blog, and the mission to come up with 100 of the very, very, very best money saving tips. I have contributed my own suggestion, and if you have something to add, please do. I am looking forward to the complete list of 100, as there are already some excellent suggestioins.

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Meat, meat, and more meat!

Why would anyone go to Texas and not just gorge themselves on ounce after ounce and pound after glorious pound of red meat? I don't even think that I tried that hard, and I came away from one week in the Dallas/Fort Worth area having packed away steak three nights, barbecued beef brisket three times for lunch, and two of the most phenomenal hamburgers I have ever consumed.

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me the whole time, and didn't get photos of the steaks (the best of which was the "Panhandle" at Love and War in Texas) or the brisket. I ate at Spring Creek, Randy White's and Sonny Bryan's - and ol' Sonny B is still the king of Dallas 'Q. However, I did take care of you, all those who seek food porn. Read on, my friends...

Finishing my high school visits in Fort Worth usually means one thing - a trip to Kincaid's. The fact that Kincaid's makes a darn fine burger is not a big secret in Fort Worth. One of the college counselors I met with even seemed a little jealous that I was headed out that way! As is standard for me, I had a hard time finding the place - it is a little hidden, just off Camp Bowie Blvd, just outside of downtown. Once inside, I made my way to the counter to place my order. The staff is sharp, and greets all guests pretty quickly. I ordered the bacon cheeseburger with fries, and it was prepared fresh and quickly. Everything is packed and prepared as a to-go meal, but many patrons eat in at stand-up counters and long, family-style tables that are anchored throughout the restaurant. For additional photos, click to see below the next review and then the fold.

I don't usually need to have my arm twisted to go and visit the uber-talented kids up at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, either. TAMS is a residential high school housed at the University of North Texas. I usually meet with one or two students while I am there, and the college counselor is excellent. Still, if I am going to drive 45 minutes outside of Dallas, there had best be a meal attached to this trip, too! About 10 minutes west of Denton is the tiny town of Ponder, which may or may not have a stop-light. I am not going there in search of traffic control devices, though - I am going for one of the best hamburgers in the country.

Ranchman's Cafe serves up some excellent dead cow. They lure a crowd from Dallas, Fort Worth, the mid-cities, and all over for dinnertime steaks. At lunchtime, they lure me back year after year by serving some of the freshest hamburgers, grilled under the watchful eye of an on-site perfectionist owner. I am a little surprised that the Texas Burger Guy hasn't made his way out to Ponder yet. This place would be right up his alley! Being a New Yorker, Texas hospitality always throws me for a little bit of a loop, but the gang at Ranchman's Cafe is straight of central casting for Texas friendly. In addition to making a meal you would want to buy, you will also feel good about spending your money will such fine folks.

Follow along below the fold and see the great pictures of the food (and menus!)....

The exterior of Charles Kincaid's former grocery store. Now, Kincaid's sells only hamburgers (well, there is a limited menu of other items, but who are we kidding?). The car on the right was my rental for the week, a snazzy (if purple) Hyundai Azera - a surprisingly nice luxury car, which is probably somewhat affordable.
This is the bacon cheeseburger I ordered. Actually, this is the replacement for the bacon cheeseburger that I ordered. I neglected to omit the mustard from my order, and when it arrived, I asked the counter guy for a an extra bun bottom to eliminate the bulk of the mustard-y taste, but he insisted on remaking the burger. The standard dressed burger comes with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and mustard. The crinkle-cut fries were tasty, but unspectacular.
A good view of the burger, mid-meal. Note the grease-stained paper, which has already soaked up some ample burger juices.
The interior of Kincaid's. As mentioned before, the seating is all family-style, and some is not seating, at all. The oversized blow-up thingies hanging from the ceiling make for odd decor, but I think I want one of those Shiner bottle-shaped ones for my office!


For those of you who enjoy reading menus in establishments like this.
I have heard Ranchman's Cafe referred to as Ponder Steakhouse, as well. Maybe having two signs with different names on the exterior of the building doesn't help dispell the confusion! :)
Let me assure you...this is a man's hamburger. It is 1/2 pound of freshly ground beef (yes, they do their own, on site). Those fries were an actual potato mere moments before this picture was taken. Come to think of it, the hamburger may have been a cow up until just a few minutes before that. My server (Allison?) informed me that Ranchman's is now serving these burgers as DOUBLES, as well. She told me that they have a regular customer who can put away two of those bad boys in one sitting (no fries, mind you). Most people get a little freaked when they see some dope taking pictures of his food. Not Allison...she actually said that she has the same hobby. She may be my kindred spirit!
If we are going to use the food porn analogy, this would have to be the money shot. The lettuce on this burger was just filler, but the tomatoes, bacon, and melted cheddar were burger perfection. The Mrs. Baird's bun was almost enough to hold this beast together, but, in the end, wasn't quite up to the task. I am not sure there is a bun that WOULD be up to the job of holding this burger together.
The interior of Ranchman's, an exquisite historic building, built next to a bank that was once robbed by Bonnie and Clyde. The doorway in the rear leads to an addition that was built more recently for extra seating. The gentleman standing on the left is Dave Ross, owner of Ranchamn's, who offers first-time visitors an opportunity to sign his guest book, which has entries from around the world.

The only downer of the day in Ponder was that I didn't order the pie. In the past, I have had the apple pie and the buttermilk pie. They were both divine, and I knew that I wanted something sweet. Still, I had been referred to a place in Denton called the Southern Fried Pie Company. My plan was to attend my meeting at TAMS and then seek out some delicious fried pies. I researched the place previously, got directions from the gang at TAMS, and drove out to the middle of town. Unfortunately, the Southern Fried Pie Company is no more, or so I was told by a local, after making three or four passes looking for a storefront that did not exist. Not only was I bummed, but I was also pie-free as I made the 45 minute trek back down to Dallas!

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Completely DIS-Interest-ed

I usually take whatever I read from The Motley Fool with a grain of salt, as it seems most of their articles are just a tease to get you to buy their premium product. This article, An Appalling Lack of Interest, is no different. However, it hits close to home for me, as I am a Wachovia customer and shareholder. The author calls out Wachovia for their pathetic savings account interest rate of .35% per year. Heck, .35% would be TRIPLE what Wachovia pays me - a paltry .11%, as of my last account statement.

I am not mad, though. I wised up along the way, and moved the bulk of my savings from Wachovia to ING Direct. My ING account pays 4.35% interest - not the BEST offer out there, but a very easy interface to use, and a very generous new account bonus, which more than offsets the loss of a few cents in interest. Had I kept the same balance at Wachovia as I now have in my ING account, I would have earned about $5 in interest over the course of the year. As of today, I have earned almost $170. By the end of the year, between interest earned and account referral bonuses, I will have made enough money to make one full extra payment on my student loans. It may not seem like much, but chiseling away at that last non-mortgage debt is coming along nicely because of the alterations I made to my lifestyle. Changing my savings account was nothing that I would even notice on a day-to-day basis, but sure pays a healthy dividend over time. Moreover, I have had more incentive to raise my balance in the savings account, because I am actually seeing the interest amount grow every month. Had I left the bulk of my savings at Wachovia, I am inclined to think that my savings would have been relatively stagnant.

ING posted my interest on the last day of the month, as they always do. I am still waiting for the shiny new NICKEL I will receive from Wachovia this month!

If you are interested in opening an ING Direct account, please let me know and I will send you a referral. With a $250 opening deposit, and no minimum balance requirements after that, you can earn a $25 bonus (making 10% on your money immediately!), and I will get $10 for referring you.

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Hello, Yeah, It's Been Awhile....

....not much, how 'bout you?

With apologies to both England Dan and John Ford Coley, I realize I have been pretty neglectful lately. There will be some good posts coming up, as I am typing this from Pittsburgh, PA in the middle of a four day weekend, covering four cities, four baseball games, and 500 miles of travel. As a matter of fact, as I glance down at the clock, I am EXACTLY in the middle of this trip -- two cities down, two to go, and my flights gets back home just before midnight late Monday.

So far, things are not going quite as planned. My outbound flight was delayed over 2 hours, negating my planned dinner in Cleveland. I slept in a little longer than I planned today, so my trips to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh and the Andy Warhol Museum were scrapped. I suppose I needed the rest, but vegging in the hotel for the better part of the morning was not what I had in mind. I was also supposed to meet up with an online friend from Roguefood.com for lunch, but I guess she was called in to work and couldn't make it.

No worries. I am enjoying this trip immensely, so far, and things are shaping up to get better tomorrow. I am meeting up with two college recruiting friends in Baltimore, and I am very excited about my first trip to Camden Yards in 10 years. I am also anxious to replace the memories of my last trip there. My overriding memory is that it was the place where I broke up with one of my favorite ex-girlfriends (heck, SHE invited me to a baseball game!). My appreciation of different baseball stadiums wasn't quite as refined then, either, so I am curious to see where Camden Yards, often highly regarded from most folks who have been to a few stadiums, rates with me.

I wrap up this trip with a day game in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon. There's still a lot to do - including a four-hour drive tomorrow morning - and 5:30 is going to come around quickly, I suspect. I hope to have posts upcoming on frugal vacationing (or, more appropriately, properly using your resources for a vacation); where to eat in the 'Burgh, Charm City, and Philly; and why I don't think I will ever cheat on Hertz again!

The only teaser pic that I have right now is this one...and it is only because I hope this dolt who walked in front of my camera got nice and blinded.

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