We like the variable-speed dial, the large pulse button, and the preset options, but wish it had a larger jar. And while it's billed as a quiet blender thanks to a secondary cover that fits over the jar, we found three other models that ran quieter. The blender did well for the most part, but left behind the second-largest amount of kale pulp in our smoothie test. Hamilton Beach Professional Quiet Shield Blender: While it has the smallest jar of all the models, it punched above its weight.But this model left a lot of kale pulp behind during the smoothie test, and the lid is also the most difficult to remove. A built-in timer helps keep track of your work, while a sensor in the base knows when the jar is properly seated and prevents the motor from accidentally turning on when it's not. The jar is one of the easier ones to clean, thanks to the round shape. During our testing, we found there was a lot to like about it. Breville BBL605XL Hemisphere Control Blender: This model is currently out-of-stock.We also like the safety feature that allows users to turn the blender on only once the jar is properly seated. On the plus side, it has one of the more user-friendly dashboards, with a mix of presets and a variable-speed dial. This model also required extra effort to emulsify mayo. That might be understandable if we were attempting to turn peanuts into peanut butter, but for the basic tasks we were testing, we'd expect better. Oster Versa Blender: This blender seized up on us twice, which we assume it did to protect the motor.These two models have the same smart cord-management system built into the base, which is good, considering that the power cords on both are around 50 inches long. Salton Harley Pasternak Power Blender: This looked to be made in the same factory as the Cleanblend, though it has a slightly smaller, 1,500-watt motor.The dashboard includes a variable-speed dial and a pulse switch, but for the price, we'd expect better smoothie results. Cleanblend Professional Blender: This had the highest-wattage motor of the models tested (1,800 watts), but it didn't blow us away.The blender is also a monster-it was the heaviest model we tested, at more than 14 pounds, and nearly the tallest, at 18 1/2 inches-not really countertop-friendly. Waring Xtreme Hi-Power: While this was the most expensive blender we tested, it failed to emulsify egg and oil into mayo.Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik The Competition
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Sometimes, brown spots on basil aren’t due to disease or pests at all. Improve air circulation to remove the moist, dark areas where slugs thrive. Treatments: Use diatomaceous earth or crushed eggshells around the base of plants as a barrier slugs can’t cross.Įncourage toads in your garden-they’re natural slug predators-by adding toad houses. Symptoms of Slug Damage: Ragged holes and bleached or brown spots, coupled with tell-tale slime trails. Soft, large-leaved plants like basil are especially vulnerable to these slimy pests. Make sure your treatment is safe for edible plants, and follow directions carefully. Treatments: Many insecticides will easily treat aphid infestations, including organic options like insecticidal soaps and neem oil. Symptoms of Aphid Damage: A sticky black substance on leaves, curled and spotted leaves, stunted growth. AphidsĪphids are tiny soft-bodied insects that suck sap and nutrients from your plants’ leaves and stems. Like most plants, basil is susceptible to plenty of creepy-crawly pests that like to munch on the leaves, causing browning, holes, and other damage. Treatments: Again, there are no good treatments once your plant is infected, but you can help prevent infection by watering at the soil level and improving drainage and air circulation. Symptoms: Brown or black spots on the leaves, as well as brown or black streaks on stems. Bacterial Leaf Spot or Basil Shoot BlightĬaused by the bacterium Pseudomonas cichorii. Though less common than fungal diseases, bacteria can also infect and damage your basil plants. Treatments: There are no good treatments for basil downy mildew, but you can help avoid it by maintaining good airflow around your plants, watering at soil level, growing downy mildew resistant varieties, and buying from reputable growers whose plants are disease-free. Symptoms: Leaves will begin to yellow, brown, and curl, much as they would if nutrient deficient, but the giveaway is the presence of grey or purplish fuzz, like mold, on the bottoms of the leaves. Downy MildewĬaused by the oomycete (a fungus-like parasite) Peronospora belbaharii. You can help avoid introducing fusarium wilt by buying only plants and seeds from reputable growers whose products are certified free of diseases. Remove any potentially infected plants at once. Treatments: Unfortunately, there aren’t any! This is a very difficult disease to treat, and it can linger in the soil for years. Symptoms: Brown streaks on the stems beginning when the plant is eight to ten inches tall, followed by brown spots on leaves, then leaf death, and eventually the complete death of the plant. Join our Facebook Group About Houseplants and Gardening This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. It is an ideal that is shot right through “Walking Papers 2” – and the album is all the better for it.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. “There is no reason not to be great” is not just hyperbole. Walking Papers are a band who do things for the right reasons, and do things in the right way. “King Hooker” with its blusey boogie is almost like an updated version of ZZ Top, while although “WP 2” ends with its most sprawling moment, the lengthy “Right In Front Of Me”, it somehow fits together. The bass and keyboards meld superbly on “I Know You’re Lying” and Angell indulges himself with a brilliant solo on the sleazy “Into The Truth”.ġ3 songs is reasonably lengthy for an album these days, but whilst some of these might occupy very disparate territory, it is a remarkably consistent record. When dealing with Walking Papers you are dealing with a real musical chemistry. “Before You Arrived” is infused with something rather modern and funky and there is an edgy, unsettling air about “Don’t Owe Me Nothing” but as if to dare you to second guess them, they add a heavy dynamic to “This Is How It Ends”. “Hard To Look Away” is something a little more visceral, but they can never resist doing it their own sweet way. It’s just that they often like to work in the shadows as on, “Yours Completely” which has an electricity, not to mention lyrics that suggest “we stick together like pages in a dirty magazine.” “Somebody Else” has some filthy harmonica to show that. Make no mistake, though, WP can do rock n roll. Instead, this is almost soulful – largely thanks to Anderson’s efforts, and he is all over “Red And White” too, with his piano as things change pace, and Angell responds with a brilliantly brooding performance. Motley Crue and “Girls, Girls, Girls” this is not. “Death On The Lips” for example starts with the thought “those girls weren’t thinking about the weather, when they decided what they were gonna wear tonight”. Maybe their greatest strength is their ability to come at things from a strange angle. The guitar work is mighty, and the lyrics: (“the truth is somewhere near the middle, that’s why I prefer the edge”) are clever and feel, perhaps, a little more confessional than before. Lofty ambitions for most, but it is immediately obvious from the hum of opener “My Luck Pushed Back” that they were right to set the bar. As Angell puts it: There’s no excuse to not be great anymore. Actually, they are a little more than back, they are returning with a mission. Angell, a gifted singer and guitarist and formidable frontman (as he showed again with Staticland last year) and Martin, the one-time Screaming Trees drummer formed the band, along with the brilliant keyboard player Benjamin Anderson (who had been with Angell in Missionary Position) and the four bonded to create something special on the debut.įast forward some five years and they are back. In fact – with the greatest respect to McKagan – Walking Papers were about Jeff Angell and Barrett Martin mostly. The inference in all of this was that this was about fun, a return to the grass-roots if you like. Nothing too unusual in that except for the fact that said four-stringer is Duff McKagan, who also plays the bass in the biggest rock band in the world (no more clues). Opening for Alice In Chains, going on ridiculously early at the start of a three-band bill, after they finished, we looked over our vantage point on the balcony to see the band’s bassist signing autographs without a care in the world. One of them particularly sticks in the mind. MV saw Walking Papers a couple of times on their first go around. After five years, they’re back for round two There seems to be a universal law that the smaller and younger you are, the more stuff you need to have with you when away from home. Which doesn’t leave much room for taking multiple surf craft on the trip. Traveling with really little kids can be relatively easy, despite how much junk you need to take for them. Location: the closer to home, the better is a good start. Obviously, the age and interests of your kids (and/or grandkids) will heavily dictate the sort of features you will seek in a surf destination. But as general comments, here are the sort of matters that need to be considered (and probably roughly in this order) . Well, it’s time for me to squidaddle for now.Having said that, there are some redeeming features. You have lived long enough to see your kids become parents and cope with the sleepless nights and the unrelenting constancy that is parenthood. You have travelled a lot and been fortunate to surf many waves in many lands. Maybe your kids have taken up surfing and you have enjoyed the privilege of sharing ocean time with them. At some stage along the way to a ripe old age, the ardent surfer will want to take the family on a holiday that will provide surf options. There’s still time to grab a ticket if you are lucky enough to be in Placencia this weekend! It’s an event that’s definitely got my seal of approval. This year marks the 10th year of the ball, and I can’t wait to see what the local chefs are cooking up for us on behalf of our local fire fighters. Expect to see everything from our local Belikin beer through to classic rum and fresh coconut cocktails – although I personally have my whiskers crossed for a seaweed shake from Brewed Awakenings. In addition to the towering tables of food, there’ll be plenty of drinks on offer as well. The desserts, ranging from tropical fruit-infused gelato through to key lime pie and coconut flan, had me promising to swim an extra lap or so of the bay the next day. In past years’ explorations I’ve spotted curries, jerk chicken, taquitos, plantains, fragrant rice, classic Belizean sides and incredible amounts of freshly caught seafood. Think organic, freshly grown ingredients prepared with Caribbean flair and a hearty dash of the Creole. The town’s local restaurants donate plates of their best-loved dishes, and there are always plenty of whisker-licking good home-cooked morsels to try out as well. You’ll find Mexican, Afro-Caribbean, Spanish, Mayan and British cooking side by side or rolled in together – which is quite literally the case at Taste of the Peninsula.Įach year brings tables and tables laden down with the most incredible food I’ve seen this side of the ocean. One of the things that sets Belize cuisine apart is its astonishing melting pot of foodie traditions and techniques. However, as someone who puts away 100-150 pounds of vegetation a day, the Taste of the Peninsula event is always a highlight. Held in full view of our stunning beaches, the ball gives us all a chance to kick up our heels (or flippers) to hours of live music and enter to win some great prizes – and all in the name of helping out our brave fire fighters.Īdmittedly, your resident manatee reporter doesn’t have the smoothest moves on the dance floor (unless Octopus’s Garden comes on, then all bets are off). One of the big events on our yearly calendar is the Flaming Heart Ball, which raises money for the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department. We like to look out for each other and give back to the place we’re so lucky to call home. You’ve probably realized by now that here in Placencia we’re a pretty close-knit lot. |
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