Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe Leaked

Posted on October 17, 2008 by D Murry

Chipotle Burrito

I love Chipotle and I love their rice.  While browsing the internet to try to figure out how many calories a Chipotle burrito has I stumbled across a posting with the ingredients for the cilantro-lime rice.  The full batch ingredients are as follow:

Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice

  • 12 pounds of rice (uncooked)
  • 3 cups soybean oil
  • 1 cup fresh cilantro
  • 2 Tablespoons salt
  • 1/2 cup lime juice

Directions: Cook rice as package states, add the rest of the ingredients.

Pretty simple, but oh so yummy.  Now you ask, when will I ever need 12 uncooked pounds of rice?  I guess that is a bit much, so here it is divided by 27.43  (12lbs = 192oz/7 oz per cup = 27.43 cups) for a more reasonable amount.

Normal Serving Size of Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice

  • 1 cup of rice (uncooked, about 7 oz)
  • 2 Tablespoons soybean oil (okay, it’s technically 1.75 US Tablespoons)
  • 2 teaspoons fresh cilantro (1.75 US teaspoons)
  • Dash of Salt (.22 US teaspoons)
  • 1 teaspoon of lime juice (.875 US teaspoons)

Directions: Cook rice as package states, add the rest of the ingredients.

So there you go, now I want Chipotle.  Anyone else have any of their other recipes?  Oh by the way, they do not officially post their nutrition content, but most people estimate 800-1200 calories depending on what is ordered and the quantity delivered during assembly.

Posted in Life, Recipes | 4 Comments

Get Rich Slowly Tips, Tricks and More

Posted on October 15, 2008 by D Murry

This past spring, I opened up a brokerage account with Banc of America Investment Services since I have the majority of my money in Bank of America deposit accounts.  The advantage here is next day transfers between accounts when most other services take multiple days.  They also currently offer 30 free trades a month if you have $25,000 in deposit accounts (Checking, Savings, CDs).  If not, the rates progressively decrease depending on what kind of checking account you have established.

Since then I have poured over many different documents from MSN Money, Google Finance, Motley Fool and many others.  After all this, I was left feeling like all the information I read was written by experts and was not real life experiences.  This is when I ventured off to look for some blogs to read about personal non professional experiences.  The following blogs I have been reading off and on for a few months:

Money Blogs

  • Five Cent Nickel – Decent tips and personal experiences for everyday personal finances.  The great deals for credit cards and savings accounts are always highlighted on the right.
  • Get Rich Slowly – “personal finance that makes cents” is the tag line and is all about sensible personal finance.  Really good tips that followed his journey to becoming debt free.
  • The Rich Canadian – The RC is a different approach from the above blogs.  He freely posts his net worth and claims to be richer than most people reading his blog.  There’s an even more interesting twist with reviews about energy drinks.
  • My Money Blog – Decent site about saving money and investing with an overall goal of $1million net worth by age 45.

One interesting point to make about all of these making money blogs is they all offer up some sort of ad system to boost their networth.  So that’s that for now.  I’ve added a link list to the sidebar to track these sites more easily.  I’ve also added the categories Life and Money as a few new topics to blog about.

Posted in Life, Money | 3 Comments

XOHM WiMax in Baltimore

Posted on October 8, 2008 by D Murry

Sprint’s next generation (4G) network XOHM WiMax Broadband network claims they are set out to revolutionize the way we connect by allowing the same kind of connection at home and on the go.  I don’t believe they are too far off from this claim.  However, I would hold out on the mobile devices until the 3G and 4G devices are available so it will be possible to connect in other cities where XOHM is not available yet, from the Press Release:

Sprint will be the first and only wireless carrier to launch a dual-mode 3G – 4G access device expected later in the fourth quarter. This device will extend Sprint’s mobile broadband leadership by offering the power of the NOW network — the largest 3G data network in the U.S. — with the fastest data speeds among all national carriers available on this new 4G network in Baltimore and in future markets.

I recently saw the XOHM kiosk’s at the Fells Point Fun Festival in Baltimore and briefly played with the Nokia 810 connected to the WiMax network.  It worked as expected and browsed to all the pages I went to with out delay.  I wish I could justify the cost for one of the Nokia 810s.  I overheard one of the guys working the stand talking about the speed tests they had been trying on the laptops all day.  From what I heard he said some have been slower than advertised and some have been decently faster than the stated, “We define High Performance level as average 2 – 4 Mbps download speed and 0.5 – 1.5 Mbps upload speed.”

I did not really think about it being a possibility of using this service until I received my recent cable bill and saw my promotional offer of $33/month for a year from Comcast has expired.  It has been raised to $42.95/month.  This is on the border of being too much to pay for internet, even with an advertised 6Mbps+ down.  (I’ve actually been averaging 10Mbps with DSL Reports speed tests.)  XOHM is offering a special until 12/31/2008 for $50/month for 2 devices for the lifetime of the account.  Baltimore, MD XOHM CoverageThis means that it is possible to get a wireless modem to plug into an existing wireless network and an express or usb card for a laptop connection for $50/month!  The individual options are not as good of a deal at $25/month for 6 months and $35/month thereafter for the Home connection.  While, the mobile option by itself is $30/month for 6 months and then $45/month afterward.

I could justify the $7.05 more a month to have a mobile broadband card to use in Baltimore (soon to be in more cities and eventually with 3G networks). The coverage area is currently strong where I live, but does not exist where I work.  I would imagine I could use the mobile broadband card at home and get 2 – 4 Mbps down and 0.5 – 1.5 Mbps up on the laptop  and on the modem connected to the network.  Definitely an intriguing offer to think about.

Posted in News, Technology | Leave a comment

Hot Deal on Acer Aspire AS6930-6455 16″ Notebook PC

Posted on October 1, 2008 by D Murry

How good of a deal is the Acer Aspire AS6930-6455 16″ Notebook PC available for $599 until 10/4 at OfficeMax?

Acer Aspire AS6930-6455 16" Notebook PC

Description

  • Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 Processor
  • 16.0″ WXGA Crystal-Bright Display
  • Windows Vista Home Premium OS 64-bit
  • 250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
  • 4096MB Memory
  • Integrated webcam & microphone
  • 8x SuperMulti DVD Burner
  • Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/b/g/n WLAN)
  • Intel graphics media accelerator 4500MHD
  • Dolby 8-Optimized Surround Sound with 2 built-in stereo speakers and subwoofer
  • 1-Year Limited warranty

I’ve been keeping an eye out on laptops and trying to figure out what to do with my desktop; either upgrade it and keep using it or turn it into a media center/server and buy a laptop.  My preference is on the last one, but that option is also the most costly.

The big thing with this laptop is it has the new Intel T5800 processor in it that runs at 2.0GHz/800MHz front side bus.  The previous generation processors were the T5750 at 2.0GHz/667MHz and the T5850 at 2.16GHz/667MHz.  So I started my comparison shopping by searching for the processor and finding other models that will be using it.

So far nothing even in the range of $599.99.  The one last thing I decided to do was see if I could build my own Dell and see if the Dell Member Purchase Program would offer a better deal.  Problem, the T5800 processor is not yet available for customizing in a laptop so my builds below are approximate.  One thing that is mandatory for me is wireless N as I just purchased the Dlink Gigabyte Wireless N Router. The images go to the complete PDF summary of each build.

Dell Inspiron 1525

Dell Inspiron 1525 – $884 – Intel T5850, 4GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Wireless N, 15.4″ display

Dell Studio 15

Dell Studio 15 – $924 – Intel T5850, 4GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Wireless N, 15.4″ display

So the final verdict seems to be that the OfficeMax price on the Acer Aspire is the best deal for a laptop in its class right now.  My only major complaint might be that the 16″ display, while still at 1280 x 800 pixels makes the laptop a little larger than a 15.4″ without really giving more screen realestate.  It also comes in at a pretty hefty 7.49lbs which is about 1lb heavier than most in its size.  I’m going to have to give this one some thought.

Posted in Computers | 1 Comment

Zune 8gb/16g vs. iPod Nano 4G

Posted on October 1, 2008 by D Murry

The first thoughts after seeing the new commercials for the iPod nano was that it looked extremely similar to the Zune 4gb/8gb/16gb that has been out since before Christmas 2007.  The Zune Scene forums does a really nice comparison.  First similarity in form factor is they do have the same overall dimensions.  The only really noticeable difference is the nano has a 2.0″ screen while the Zune has a 1.8″ screen.  The resolutions are the same at 320 x 240 so there should not be too much of a difference in quality.  The new nano has an accelerometer which allows it to sense orientation and play movies in the landscape mode.  This is something that the Zune has done from the start with all videos defaulting to landscape without an accelerometer to know its orientation.  It allows the width of the screen to be used while watching videos.  Although at 2.0″ inches it is still a bit small to really watch videos on.  It just allows the nano to have a more “normal” form factor instead of the previous “fat” one that was  wider than tall.

Although, I am bias to the Zune as I have hands on experience with the 8gb and 30gb I feel it is a better product technology wise as it has wifi and an fm radio built in.  This allows flagging and purchase of songs heard on the radio over a wifi connection along with syncing to a music collection.  Microsoft has also upgraded all previous Zune’s to the newest firmware, which is a huge plus for my 30gb Zune.  I do feel Apple used the Zune 4gb/8gb/16gb as a model for the 4th generation nano based on the landscape video viewing mode and similar form factor.  What are your takes?

Posted in Technology | 12 Comments

Google Does it Again

Posted on September 24, 2008 by D Murry

Google announced today on CNN that they will be giving away $10 million to an idea that will change the world to celebrate their 10th anniversary.  The project is called Project10 to the 100, another play on numbers as Google’s name is.

The project’s slogan is “May Those Who Help The Most Win” and the basic idea is to come up with a new innovative idea that will change the world for the better.  They referenced Google News being created by a Google engineer after the September 11th attacks and the Hippo Water Roller, which has improved water transportation in countries like Africa that do not have a running water supply.  Their opening video explains it all.

I’m turning the wheels in my brain trying to think of an idea.  Anyone want to work together?  Good luck to all!

Posted in News, Technology | 2 Comments

Corporate Networks Not Necessarily Web 2.0 Compliant

Posted on September 23, 2008 by D Murry

Today, I decided to update my iGoogle start page to include a Google Gadget for a “To Do” or “Task List.” I occasionally use the “Task List” with Microsoft Outlook, but I would rather have the ability to log in from anywhere in the world to see my list.

This was not as simple as I thought due to the nature of corporate proxies blocking various content.  I still don’t quite understand the nature for blocking certain sites.  I generally feel as a professional that we should be allowed to use any tool that helps us get our jobs done.

I use two different corporate networks during the day.  The first one shown below is how my iGoogle page looks from Company 1.  The problem here is Google Gadget images are routed through an anonymizer proxy that is blocked.  This makes the majority of the Gadget’s with images almost completely useless.  At least Company 1 does not block Gmail and Calender.

iGoogle Company 1

Company 2 looks much better as they do not block the anonymizer proxy that displays pictures for Google Gadgets.  However, they do block Google Calender, Gmail and Woot!.  They do not block the anoynmizer that displays the Woot! images for the Google Gadget, but I can not click on the link to follow it over to their site.

iGoogle Company 2

As far as the “To Do” lists go, I added the top 5 lists that came up in the search.  After playing around with them, I prefer using the list that was developed by Google.  It’s simple easy to use interface that does the trick.  The list from Lab Pixies doesn’t work well on Company 1’s network and only allows 7 items on the fancy yellow pad.  The third most popular list allows drag and drop sorting of items, but puts long list items in a scroll box.  The 4th one is just a sticky notepad, which I might keep for quick notes.  The final one called MyListy is the most fancy with a myriad of features that work quite nicely.  However, I just want to keep things simple and do not need a tabbed “To Do” list so the Google one wins for now!

Posted in Technology, Tips | 26 Comments