Growing Masses Search Results

How To: Why 'Whipping' Cooked Pasta in Sauce Creates a Perfect Dish

Most cooks know they should stir pasta a few times while it's cooking, for obvious reasons: as the noodles cook, they release a glue-like starch that makes them stick to one another. Stirring prevents them from clumping together in an unwieldy, inedible mass. Now Mark Bittman in The New York Times discusses a great technique from Italy that helps you produce a plate of tender, toothsome pasta evenly coated in rich sauce every time, but it involves stirring the pasta at the end of its cooking ...

News: I'm a Mac, and I Kicked PC's Ass Last Year... Or Did I?

Apple computers have long been maligned as the computer for Starbucks aficionados and graphic artists. "Dude, have you used Excel on a Mac? It's terrible," says everyone that owns a Dell. The whole PC versus Mac battle was encapsulated in what I think to be the greatest ad campaign of all time, "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac." And yes, I know that PC really stands for Personal Computer, which means that a Mac would be a PC, but for the sake of the article, it will mean all things non Mac.

News: How to Win a Trip to Explore Antarctica (Sponsored)

Air New Zealand is looking for a spokesperson for the Antarctica: No Ordinary Place, No Ordinary Assignment project, a two-week adventure in Antarctica, where the chosen candidate will join National Geographic photographer Jason Edwards to document environmental issues and important research being conducted by research teams sponsored by Air New Zealand and Antarctica New Zealand.

Street Art Tricks: How to Blend 3D Prints into Real-Life Objects

While graffiti may never be fully accepted by the masses, it has already become a very large medium for creative artists across the globe, who make mundane and austere cityscapes a little more interesting for the rest of us. Walking past this Banksy stencil on my way to class (at UCLA) made my day. Art like this can cause people to stop and appreciate the otherwise boring and blank walls that surround the city. It can stir up artistic feelings, pensive thoughts, and other emotions stored insi...

How To: Discover the Hidden Colors in Everyday Objects with This DIY Video Spectrometer

A spectrometer is a device that splits light into all of the different colors it's composed of that can't be seen with the naked eye. It does this by using a prism to refract or bend the light. Jeffrey Warren over at Public Labs created a tutorial showing how you can make your own video spectrometer and create spectra like the one pictured below. Any guesses as to what the subject is? Believe it or not, that's what whipped cream looks like when viewed through a spectrometer. You can do this w...

How To: Do the ab twist to tone the obliques

The truth is, it's not about how many repititions of an exercise you do; it's about how well you hold the form and what kind of exercise you do. Heck, you could probably do 1,000 sit ups a day and still have some extra flab on your belly. That's because sit ups only tone the upper portion of your core, making the rest liable to grow chub.

How To: Make nitrogen enriched manure tea for garden plants

Are your plants dying? Are they in dire need of some fertilizer? Is your compost not cutting it anymore? Well, save your garden plants with this recipe for nitrogen rich manure tea fertilizer. It's a really easy all natural fertilizer anyone can make. You can collect manure in your pasture or buy it by the bag at a garden center. You can also reuse the manure over and over again. Keep chemicals out of your garden and go green!

How To: Fertilize & deadhead roses

In this how-to video, you will learn how to fertilize and deadhead roses. Late summer fertilization is okay for these roses. Make sure to water them in well, as this is key. Deadheading in late summer will give you a fall bloom cycle with the roses. Deadheading will mean cutting off dead blooms. Hips are dead blooms that have fertilized. These make seeds and some are either sterile or will actually grow. To properly deadhead, go down to the second or third five-leaf. Cut at a 45 degree angle ...

How To: Add color to the garden with perennials

Southwest Yard and Garden featuring John White, Dona Ana County Extension Agent, hosts a 6 minute clip with co-host Master Gardener Valois Pearce both of Dona Ana County, New Mexico host a short web show featuring plants that can easily survive on smaller amounts of water over typical plants. They begin by discussing the full sun Ice Plant, which comes in many species and colors as well as their hardiness, but unfortunately are easy targets for wildlife. They then move onto the Gopher Plant, ...

How To: Identify fruit tree problems

This video describes problems with fruit trees and how to deal with them. One problem is Chlorosis, identified by yellowing leaves with green veins between the sections of the leaf. This is caused by a micronutrient deficiency (usually iron) that results when the tree roots are unable to absorb all the nutrients from the soil. This problem can be temporarily treated with a foliar spray of iron. Another problem is pruning wounds with decay that results when trees are not pruned correctly. They...

How To: Propagate your favorite houseplants

John White discusses how to propagate houseplants. You will need a potting mix called a “soilless” mix, which contains only vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. In addition you will need a sharp knife, a pruner and a weeding hormone to help induce root growth on the cuttings.

How To: Understand the basics of food safety in cooking

"Foodborne illnesses are responsible for more than 75 million illnesses, more than 230,000 hospitalizations, and approximately 5000 deaths each year in the United States." In this six-part video lesson, learn about the basics of food safety in a commercial food enviornment. In the first video, three types of contamination are gone over as well as how improper handling can allow food to become dangerous to your patrons. In video two, learn about proper holding times and temperatures, and what ...

How To: Build a wormery

If you don't have room for a full-scale compost heap, you can always employ the services of some worms. In this handy vermiculture how-to, you'll learn how to build your very own wormery.

How To: Understand English phrasal verbs & compound words

The presenter, Ms. Jennifer explains how compound words are formed from phrasal verbs. With examples she explains how the meaning and pronunciation differs when compound words are formed from phrasal verbs. She explains the difference between 'show' and 'show off' by showing her collection of fans, and showing off with one of her beautiful fan from Japan. Then she explains the difference between 'show off' and 'show-off', giving examples and makes the listeners clear about compound nouns also...

How To: Make Santa Maria style BBQ tri-tip

Mr. Paul Righetti teaches us a Santa Maria BBQ tritip lesson. The beauty of Santa Maria Style barbecue is that it delivers big flavors while being relatively easy to prepare. You can even take some flavorful shortcuts with Santa Maria Style Barbecue products by Susie Q,s Brand and Cowboy Flavor, among others. So fire up the grill and let'€™s get started!

How To: Quick roast chicken and potatoes with Gwyneth Paltrow

"Fast food" can be healthy and gourmet! Foodie Gwyneth Paltrow hosts this quick cooking show to take you through the steps of a roast chicken and potato meal. You'll need a chicken, a couple lemons, garlic, rosemary sage, thyme, pepper, olive oil, and fingerling potatoes. You don't need to be a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow's to enjoy the tasty meal prepared in this mini cooking show from her website GOOP.

How To: Plant seeds using a pinpoint seeder

It can be a real challenge to plant your seeds in evenly-spaced lines. In this episode of Growing Wisdom, Dave Epstein will show you how to use a four-row pinpoint seeder to plenty your seeds. Using devices like this, planting seeds in even lines will be a whole lot easier.

How To: Prick out bedding

If you grow your own bedding plants one of the main jobs over the next few weeks is 'pricking out'. This is when seedlings are transplanted into larger pots or trays to give them more room to grow on. The ideal time to do this is when the seedlings are at the two-leaf stage and before the true leaves have developed, or as soon as they are large enough to handle. When done at this stage of growth there is less shock and root disturbance to the seedlings and they will establish and grow on much...