So this night starts with a quick, very easy run around the track at the gym. Early on, I kept having to maneuver around a couple of teenage girls walking and eating candy. It was torture. It smelled so good. They’re pretty lucky I didn’t push them and take it!

But I got home and started preparing for tomorrow morning’ s long run. Only 8 miles, but I’m hoping to start very close to 7AM in preparation to run at that time for the Tucson pikermi.

First step, check the weather. Ouch. It’s going to be around 24 degrees? And it’s going to snow a few hours before and a few hours after? At least if it was going to be snowing during my run it might be a couple of degrees warmer….

Second step, check ‘what should I wear’ on Runner’s World. I usually choose that I like to feel ‘cool’ during my runs. SHORTS? Are you kidding? I redid it, saying I like to feel ‘in-between’, because I am not going to be comfortable wearing freakin’ shorts in 24 degrees. If i was a longer run, I might go with the 3/4 tights since it would get warmer during the run… but only 8 miles doesn’t leave a lot of time for warming up. It’s pretty much going to be 25 degrees when I finish.

Really, I could use some encouragement that 24 degrees won’t be that bad. I’ve run in that before, and done just fine. It’s just that the first run of the winter in that cold…

Update! As of this morning, Dave Belanger had rethought his position and is compensating Suzanne McMinn for her photo. Woo! Go power of blag-o-sphere!

http://chickensintheroad.com/dailyfarm/dave-belanger-writes-a-check-for-2100/

I just wanted to be sure you were all aware of some recent copyright issues on the old interwebs.

I was kind of late to this story, but if you haven’t read the incredible story of Cooks Source magazine plagiarizing a blogger, here it is on her own blog. Turns out Cooks Source barely has any of their own material; almost all of it is pulled from other sources with out permission from or credit to the initial source. The Cooks Source Facebook page has been taken over by people making fun of their entitlement and in the discussions there is quite the list of other articles and organizations from which they stole material.

Yesterday, one of my favorite bloggers, a fun and charming woman named Suzanne McMinn found a photograph in Daily Goat Journal which she knew to be hers. The photo was taken a a friend’s farm. Suzanne used the photo on her website, and gave her friends permission to use it on their website. Their website gives all credit and ownership of the photo to Suzanne.

The Daily Goat is one of several magazine’s published by Countryside Publications. According to Suzanne, they also publish “Backyard Poultry, Countryside & Small Stock Journal, and sheep! Magazine.” The Daily Goat used the photo both online and in print, only mentioning it was a photo on Suzanne’s friends’ farm.

Suzanne contacted the head of Countryside Publication, and was basically brushed aside as unworthy of attention by Dave Belanger. She wrote them a letter threatening legal action if they do not compensate her for the photo, and as of now they have merely added ‘photo by Suzanne McMinn’ to the website. They have not agreed to compensate her, to remove the photo from the website, or to admit their mistake in not doing so in the next print issue of Daily Goat.

Please, if you read any of the above publications, let them know how unhappy you are that they have used material without permission and seem to be ignoring her now that she has called them on it.

All of us who write on the web should be aware of copyright issues, what we can do to protect ourselves, and what we can do if our material is used without our permission. Likewise, we should also be aware of how and what we can use without permission, and how we must give credit when appropriate.

Also, if you want some fun reading, are interested in how to do things yourself which every person in the world used to know how to do, are interested in farming, or really love recipes, check out Suzanne’s site – chickensintheroad.com

Being that we have no kids, the most exciting thing about Halloween is usually trick-or-treaters.  But, there are no trick-or-treaters at our house; all the kids do trunk-or-treat (ask if you need an explanation for this sad tradition).

Last year, and this year, we’ve gone to a friends’ house in a big neighborhood with lots of kids. They have a get together while all the kids are out getting their load of candy, and the adults eat good soup and drink homebrew.

We decided to bring this fun treat this evening: http://jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/10/candy-corn-jello-non-alcoholic.html

First, you prepare the condensed sweetened milk, which starts with the gelatin. We learned lots about gelatin today! Like, if you put it over low heat, it slowly dissolves without any interferences or stirring…

You add the s.c. milk, and it turns into this.

We found these cake pop molds at the kitchen store. They looked perfect for the candy corn shape.

A lot of dealing with gelatin is a waiitng game. So you let this layer set, and you start the orange jello part.

Here we learned a very important lesson. You add this on top of the white layer and it doesn’t disturb the white. However, if you add this and let it sit so the heat affects the white layer and then add more orange, and adding more will affect the white layer. So don’t add orange, let it sit for a minute, and then add more. Just add the orange layer once.

And you add that to the mold and wait for another 40 minutes….

To make the bottom of the candy corn, you add food coloring to the s.c. milk mixture.

Here we learned another important lesson. When we finished the first batch and removed them from the molds, the bottom layer wasn’t overly attached to the others (meaning, it sometimes fell off…easily reattached, don’t worry!). However, we decided for the second batch we’d make sure the yellow mixture was hotter so that it could bond to the orange layer, and it worked much better (no falling off layers…)

And then you wait… and after figuring out how to get them out of the mold, you have….

A freaking cute little jello candy corn!

We followed the recipe, and they are non-alcoholic, however we fully intend that next time we make them we’ll add orange liquor. We also have plans for this mold (besides cake pops!), such as Christmas Trees and red, white, and blue rockets for the Fourth of July!

It was a ton of fun. I highly recommend playing with food you’ve never worked with just to see what happens!