French press coffee has been an important tool in the specialty coffee community for a long time, and it grows in popularity every year.  More and more families are buying them, considering how inexpensive they are to attain and how simple it is to brew with them.  They only take about four or five minutes to brew and produce excellently extracted coffee.  If you’re wondering what is the best coffee maker and you haven’t already tried one, then it is time to learn how to use a french press coffee maker.

How To French Press Coffee

• Heat water on the stove with a kettle.  It is highly recommended that the water is as close to 200 degrees Fahrenheit as possible, so use a thermometer if you can.
• Grind coffee grounds to a very course grind setting to ensure that there aren’t any coffee grounds sifting through the wire mesh and ending up in your coffee.  When you plunge the grounds you want to make sure that all of the coffee is trapped below so that your coffee is clean and pure.
• Pour the coffee grounds into the french press, follow them with the hot water.  Once they are mixed together set the lid of the french press on top of them and wait one minute.  It is important that the lid of the french press is on top to ensure that heat doesn’t escape.
• After one minute lift the lid of the french press and stir up the coffee grounds and water.  Most likely there will be a heavy foam at the top of the french press, this is normal and is part of the reaction of the coffee grounds to the water.  By stirring it all up you ensure a more thorough extraction from the coffee grounds.
• After another three minutes plunge the lid of the french press down, trapping the coffee grounds below and leaving nothing but delectable french press coffee above.

Once the wire mesh has been plunged down the french press coffee is ready to be imbibed.  You may want to move it to a thermos to keep it warm if you don’t plan on drinking it (or sharing it) immediately.  If you have any further questions, check out Peter’s blog for more information.

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One of the more important tools in any kitchen is the dishwasher. This can be very useful for cleaning pots, especially during the holidays, when food preparation will be developed and will be great for washing pots and pans. It’s a good idea to learn how to install a dishwasher, because you can save lots of money, but get satisfaction by doing a small project in the kitchen. You can learn how to install a dishwasher very easily in fact.

The first step you should do is carefully read instructions and manuals. Each brand of dishwasher may be different, so it’s important to go through the manuals that come with it. Sometimes you can even buy additional parts, such as staples and screws to fit the dishwasher into place. The next step is to check the location where you want to install. It should be near the water source, such as touch and also a good place to drain excess water. Ideally, the space under the sink will be the best choice, but you can decide, depending on availability of space in the kitchen. Also do a dishwashers comparison to find the best one for you.

Once you decide to put the tube and try to connect from an electrical outlet, respectively, and verify that they are working properly. The important fact is that you should keep in mind that the machine should be kept in the apartment. It is important to prevent accumulation of water anywhere. The last step is to start and see if it works well. If yes, then you have successfully completed the installation of a dishwasher. Otherwise, you have to follow the steps above to determine where he went wrong, so you can fix it. If you follow these simple steps, your dishwasher will work great.

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Refinishing wood floors can be expensive and time consuming, but it’s something that needs to be done. There are several steps you need to know before refinishing hardwood floors. Generally, you must know what you are doing before you do it.

Sanding is often one of the main things people do when they refinish a hardwood floor. However, if you do a little research, you will find that the sandpaper ruins the characteristics of the floor. If you think logically, when you sand the wood floor, you naturally lose some wood chips. This means that the floor becomes thinner. Another disadvantage is the fact that the sand can make a big mess and potentially leave wood chips on the ground. This makes finishing a lot more difficult. Another question to ask yourself is: How much does it cost to refinish hardwood floors?

You really should avoid sanding at all costs if you really want to take care of your floor, but what other alternatives are out there? Well, there are some that are just as profitable but cause no mess and they are extremely easy to do!

First, you must do as much repairs as you need on the ground. Over time, hardwood floors can chip and so you may need to repair or replace parts of it completely. If you need to replace the whole floor, you should try to get the exact same floor if possible. Thus, it will not look weird when you install it. It may seem obvious, but some people put the wrong floor in. Not only does it look bad, but it’s a waste of money too.

After replacing the wood in the area, the next step is to chemically refurnish the old floor with a mild tri-sodium phosphate. Be careful not to walk on the new floor. When you’ve covered the whole area, you must leave it for one day and then you will need to use a cleaner wax. Use this only on the older sections of the wood and then leave it for a few more days.

In general, it takes time to refinish wood floors, but it can be done quickly if you know how to do it. It is quite easy to do too. Just make sure to gather all the materials you need before you begin.

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If your floors are starting to look worn, scratched or damaged, it may be time to refinish them. Don’t worry if you have no idea how or where to start. It is not difficult to complete this project as long as you have the right tools and knowledge. You can get your floors looking new again!

First, before starting the finishing process, take a look at your old floor. Fill in all the large cracks or nicks. If your floor is not in good shape, you can use a commercial cleaner and some sort of spatula to scrape the old finish and start over. This is a great option when there are many cracks on the old floor.

The second step is sanding the floor. You can use a drum sander or orbital sander for the main part of the floor. You will also need an edge sander for areas around the walls and corners. To get well-sanded floors, start with heavy sandpaper and sequentially work your way up to a grain lighter paper. You will need to do more sanding though.

Then, it’s time stain the floor. You can make virtually any color using stains, but you must choose the color carefully. Another option is to keep the natural color of the floor, in which case you can skip this step. Also keep in mind the cost to install hardware floors.

The next step in DIY hardwood floor refinishing is to apply a finish. Again, you will want to follow the instructions on the box. Generally, at least two coats should be applied and you’ll have to arrive in time to properly dry the coatings. The special brush or roller is used to apply the finish smoothly and evenly.

Do it yourself wood refinishing requires some basic experience in DIY home projects and the right equipment. However, it is a simple and rewarding work that will increase the value of your home and polish your wood to show its natural beauty. The refinishing hardware floors cost is the last important thing that you must think about.

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Freeze drying (also known as lyophilisation or cryodesiccation) is an extremely effective method of food storage. It allows food to be stored for decades, at room temperature, while retaining most of its taste and nutritional value. It is, for all intents and purposes, the Cadillac of food storage.

Freeze drying was first invented during the second World War. Serum was transferred to the front lines to help treat wounded soldiers, but the problem was that there weren’t enough refrigerators available for their needs, and the Serum would often spoil by the time it reached its destination. Freeze drying was invented to solve this problem, allowing the Serum to stay chemically stable, and even allowed for larger loads as removing the moisture made each portion much lighter in weight.

The same process can be and has been applied to food, first by the US army and NASA and now by civilians. It involves freezing food, then allowing all the moisture contained within it to sublimate (turn directly from ice to vapor). Bacteria and enzymes that decompose food need moisture, and once it is completely removed the food becomes preserved. The end result is basically instant food- durable, light weight dried food that can be returned to its original form by just adding boiling water.

There are two modern methods of freeze drying: Using a freeze dryer, and using basic kitchen equipment.

USING A VACUUM CHAMBER
Using a vacuum chamber is the easiest and most effective way to freeze dry food. The process goes like this:

1.    Put the food in the freezer, and leave it there for at least 2 days. It must be fully frozen.
2.    Make sure the chamber of the freeze dryer is clean and dry. Cover the chamber, and start the dryer.
3.    Wait for the vacuum pump level to reach below 133 x 10-3. When it does, it is ready for freeze drying.
4.    Place the frozen food in the freeze dryer.
5.    Once the food has been freeze dried, put it inside a vacuum sealed bag. Reusable plastic bags can be used- just press the air out while sealing it.

DIY FREEZE DRYING
A freeze dryer with a vacuum chamber can be very expensive, and not within everyone’s budget. Luckily, with a little more time and creativity, freeze drying can be accomplished with regular kitchen equipment. Here’s how:

1.    Place the food you wish to freeze dry on a perforated tray (a metal mesh of cooking rack work great).
2.    Place the tray with the food in the freezer.
3.    The food will freeze in ~30 minutes, and over the next week, the water will sublimate away. After a week, it should be ready. Test it: Let a piece unthaw. If it goes black quickly, there is still moisture in it. If not, they are ready.
4.    Seal in air tight bags (again Ziploc bags can be used, but be sure to squeeze all the air out).

A good store of freeze dried food is durable and will last you for decades.

Good luck and stay prepared!

Read more from RamboMoe at preparedforthat.com.

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Lock yourself out of the house lately?  Don’t worry, you won’t need to become a locksmith to get back in.  Most pin and tumbler locks can be picked with a little luck and finesse.  Just make sure you only pick your own locks or you could wind up in a lot of trouble.

What will you need to pick a lock?

You’ll need the following “tools” to pick a lock:

• paper clip or safety pin
• tension wrench

Step 1

Take your paper clip or safety pin and bend it straight.  Then at the very end slightly bend it upwards so that it makes a “7″ with the bend being about as long as your finger nail.

Step 2

Insert your wrench into the lower side of the key hole.

Step 3

Determine which direction the lock needs to turn to open the door.  You can slightly turn the lock with the wrench to determine this.  You should feel that one direction has more give than the other.  Typically locks will open by turning away from the door jamb.

Step 4

Turn the lock the correct way with the wrench, putting a slight amount of pressure to hold the lock in place.

Step 5

Gently insert the bent end of the paper clip or safety pin into the upper portion of the keyhole.  Carefully feel around for the pins which move to unlock the door.  There are typically five pins you will need to lift upwards to open.

Step 6

Repeat step five until all the pins are lifted upwards.  Another quick tip to help this move along is to take a second paper clip and straighten it completely out.  Then slide the paper clip in and out of the lock.  Sometimes this will clip multiple pins and open them.

Step 7

Once all the pins are opened use the wrench to turn the lock and voila!

Congratulations you just learned how to pick a lock.

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With all of the streaming media, and awesome games available via your computer, and TVs behind huge and HD, you are probably trying to figure out how to connect my laptop to my TV.  There are some very simple ways to go about this, and also those that are a little more complicated, but still, none of it is really brain surgery when you break it down, and how to connect laptop to TV becomes a simple matter of a cable or two.

The easiest and best way to go about making this connection is to use HDMI.  HDMI is a digital signal that carries both HD video, and surround sound.  This easy connection will only require 1 cheap hdmi cable.  Don’t go buying some extravagant $100 HDMI cable, as this is completely unnecessary despite what the people trying to sell you those ridiculously overpriced cables tell you.  A $5 cable will do just as well as the $100 cable for use in your home theater.

If you don’t have HDMI output on your computer, perhaps you have a DisplayPort, or MiniDisplay Port.  Mini DisplayPort are common on all newer Macs, and DisplayPort can be found on a variety of computers.  This connection is very similar to the HDMI connection in that it carries HD video, and surround sound audio.  It will require some sort of adapter cable to switch over to HDMI to plug into your TV (because TVs don’t generally have DisplayPort inputs).  Since the signals are compatible, no expensive converter box is required, only the adapter (male Mini or Standard DisplayPort to female HDMI), and an HDMI cable.  These & HDMI are going to give you the best sound and video possible.

The other digital HD video outputs you’ll find on many computers are in the DVI family.  These connections carry video only though, so you’ll have to pipe in your audio using your headphone jack and a 3.5mm to RCA cable for stereo (not surround) sound.  You’ll still get very high quality video through these connections, and like the DisplayPort family, you’re going to have to use an adapter to switch over to HDMI in order to plug into your TV (though that’s not always the case – some TVs do have DVI inputs, so you’ll want to check that out before buying the adapter).

Finally, if you only have VGA, S-video, or RCA (composite – the yellow one) outputs on your computer, these are all analog signals and incompatible with the aforementioned digital connections.  If your TV has an S-video input, then this is going to be the best input to use, and a VGA to S-video cable will be required.  If you only have RCA, then you’ll need a VGA to RCA.  Again, you’ll have to use the 3.5mm to RCA audio cable for sound.

If you’re still wondering how to connect my laptop to my TV, please ask any questions below in the comments.

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Sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it?

Home wine making is actually pretty simple and not expensive – it could potentially cost you less money to make your own wine than a lot of other hobbies (I got started with less than a hundred dollars).  There is essentially only one thing that you need to do:

Find a wine making kit that meets your needs and interests.  Take your time in finding a kit because over the next six weeks (possibly longer) you are going to get to know this wine pretty well.  My first kit cost about $80 and was a red pinot noir – I chose that because it was what I wanted to make.  If you have a favorite type of wine, find a kit that offers that and buy it.  The kit will come with almost everything you need to get started brewing and fermenting.

What else do you need?

You should go to a home improvement store and shop around for a carboy (it’s just a big bucket) that meets your needs.  I recommend buying a five gallon carboy even if your first batch of wine is going to be fewer than five gallons – you may decide to increase in the future, and why waste money having to buy a second carboy just because you want to brew more?  Buy a five gallon one the first time and be set to go.

I also recommend finding high quality airlocks.  Yes, your kit will almost definitely come with its own airlocks but they aren’t the best out there, and the higher quality of your airlocks the higher quality of your finished product.  Even if you are new to home wine making you should consider shopping for some good airlocks.  You won’t regret it.

That’s it!

Yep.  It’s really that simple to get started.  Find a wine making kit for beginners (preferably, and yes they are labelled as such) and buy a carboy and some airlocks.  All the step by step instructions for making the wine will be included and are really simple.  Just follow them and you’ll be serving your friends and family delicious home made wine six weeks from now.

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Most people over the age of 55 have claim to experience leg cramps or some sort of muscle spasms, most frequently occurring at night while they are asleep. This unexpected and painful contraction of your muscles will wake even the deepest of sleepers up, sending many into a state of panic as there is usually not much to do except wait it out. Your muscle will tense itself to a point that seems altogether unnatural, and the slightest movement or flex in an effort to relieve the pain will likely cause even more pain for the time being. There are various things that can be done to help ease the pain, stop a muscle cramp that wont seem to go away, and also prevent them from happening altogether: read on for a guide on the most effective remedies and prevention techniques available.

Your first line of defense against leg cramps at night and all sorts of muscle spasms and malfunctions is a healthy lifestyle. Proper dieting and regular vitamin and mineral intake will almost certainly lead to a decreased rate of occurrence, and it is also important to allow your muscles stretching and exercise time so that they can perform to the best of their abilities – even when you are asleep. On the flip side of this, professional athletes and people who push their muscles above and beyond their current limits are very susceptible to painful cramps occurring during or after the exercise.

Various vitamins and minerals that you are supposed to have on a regular basis have been accredited towards healthy muscle function and cramp prevention, particularly potassium and magnesium, but the role these minerals play in any given muscle cramping episode is unknown for the most part, and some argue that none of these things actually play a role in most cramping at all. Salt is often used with some positive results to help prevent cramping, but the reasons for this is unknown and this can lead to another potential cramp culprit: dehydration. Water and electrolytes are likely the most dominantly used method to stop or prevent any sort of muscle cramp, but this isn’t the only option.

A remedy recently gaining popularity among people from all walks of life is actually based on an old Amish remedy that has been around for over 100 years. Combining only organic and natural ingredients, this potent liquid can actually keep all cramps from occurring for about 24 hours with just a sip or two.  It’s simply the best and safest method to deal with leg cramps at night, and athletes, coaches and chiropractors are beginning to catch on to this awesome solution to help prevent cramps from interrupting their game or event.

There are quite a few different products available that claim to help with muscle cramps – some of which natural and others prescription drugs and pain medications. If you are unable to get rid of your cramps through healthy lifestyle changes, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to begin a regiment of the strongest pain pill or prescription drug. The safest and most effective method towards dealing with a natural and common occurrence such as leg cramps at night is almost always the natural way. Anyone having problems should definitely give the Amish remedy a try as it seems the most effective, but you should always match this with improvement to your diet and physical health.

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The addition of a lighting system to your tennis court, whether it is a tennis club facility or just a home court, can be a great value to all players.  Club managers will find that a lit facility will recieve more business and be able to operate more efficient hours.  Obtaining memberships with other nearby competing clubs around can be tough, but with lit courts you have an edge on the competition.  Players love to play tennis after work, but in the off season the daylight hours can be short.  Adding lights to a single court for a home owner is an easier task because the scale of the operation is much smaller.  The benefit is largely the same though, lights will be a great convenience for all different types of players.

Choosing a Good Tennis Lighting Solution

To choose a good lighting system, it’s best to check with experts.  The most important parts of the system are the design, layout, and amount of lighting.  The professionals go by the ITF lighting standards to decide what constitutes a well-lit court, but for recreational play these standards are really just an ideal.  Trying to model your system loosely after these standards is a good idea. It’s also important to know that the best lighting systems will provide uniform light throughout the court.  For players to effectively see the ball at all times there cannot be any major dark spots.  Dark spots on the court will keep the player from seeing the ball well.  The most common mistake in a lighting design is to not implement lighting in the back court.  Extending the lighting system all the way through the back court will light the ball as it approaches the player.  This will help with uniformity and overall luminescence.

The ITF standard for a professional environment is 70 foot-candles.  This measurement must be taken at 14 different locations across the court and then compared for uniformity.  In general, the average should remain close and consistent to 70, but slight variation is fine.  Courts designed entirely for home use do not need to worry as much about this standard.  Only facilities that intend to host high profile tournaments should really spend extra resources to insure compliance with the standard.

Checklist for a Lighting System

When building a quality lighting system you should make certain to check with all these experts to insure safety.

• Construction – Mounting the lighting system on poles or ceiling fixtures.  Poles can either be mounted into the ground or a small enclosure of cement will be poured to hold them in place.
• Electrician – Wiring and power consumption of the lights.  The wiring will almost always be underground and out of sight, but it’s important to make sure the system adheres to all electrical safety standards
• Safety – Poles must be safely mounted and able to withstand environment conditions like wind and all electrical concerns should be dealt with.

A great tennis court lighting system is an invaluable tool to a club owner and a great addition to any recreational player’s home court.  Add some extra playing hours to your day and enjoy tennis after dark.  For more information about additions to make to your tennis court, check out TennisShoeView.

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