The View From Home

Ever wonder how much money employees at the University of Oregon get paid?  I certainly have. I have known for years that this information is public, I just haven’t known where to look and this morning I finally found it.

So if you have ever asked yourself what your professor gets paid or are curious about what researchers make the following website will help you find those answers and will direct you to all of quarterly and annual reports on what UO employees are paid.

• http://ir.uoregon.edu/alpha

Working from home can be a wonderful experience. If you think you have what it takes to work from home you might stand a chance at landing the notoriously difficult to find work from home job.

The jobs are out there, but are rarely listed. Most companies avoid listing these positions due to the sheer quantity of unqualified applicants they receive. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, just that they are may not know how to acquire the right talent.

One place to start out is to see if your current employer would be willing to let you work from home on a full time or even part time basis.

If you don’t think your current employer will go for a work from home situation or if your current job just won’t convert well, consider taking your external search to sites like about.com and dice.com. Your chances of landing a telecommuting job go way up if you are in a technical computer based industry. Many companies don’t allow telecommuting immediately. This is usually to ensure that you are familiar with company protocol and to ensure that you can do the work while being managed.

As a side note, watch out for scams. Transcription jobs do exist, but are a popular scam area. Never take a job that makes you send them money or that send you a check that you get to keep part of after sending the rest on.

2work-at-home.com/telecommute.shtml offers a list of telecommuting friendly companies. You may also want to check out gilgordon.com as it is a great resource for telecommuting research.

In the end, remember to treat the job search seriously, putting in the same type of effort that you would for a traditional job. Anything less and you may be left day dreaming.

Cafe Yumm! is a small chain of restaurants located in the great northwest. Their simple been and rice bowls are amazing and full of great organic produce. The trouble though is that they aren’t available anywhere else.

I have some friends who are teaching English in China and have begged and pleaded that someone find a recipe on how to make Yumm Sauce. After doing some research, I came across a couple recipes. Each one had a few substitutes and variations. After sending the recipe to Katie, who is one of my friends in China, she tried it out with additional modifications from the recipe below as ingredients are often hard to come by when abroad.

Cafe Yumm Sauce

Although this is not the official recipe, I believe it comes very close.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup canola oil (preferably cold pressed)
• 1/2 cup almonds (for a creamier sauce, use almond flour)
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (available at Whole Foods grocery stores)
• 1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans, cooked
• 1/4 cup soybeans, cooked (not green edamame beans)
• 1/2 cup filtered water (important for flavor)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
• 1-2 garlic cloves (small to medium size)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro

Directions

1. In a blender or food processor blend almonds beans and oil.
2. Add all other ingredients and puree until creamy smooth.
3. Cover and let stand in the refrigerator for one hour.
4. Don’t cover too tight, remember the yeast.

Notes:

• One recipe said to use 1/2 cup silken tofu as well as soy beans. Another suggests that the two can be interchangeable, while the most likely recipe only mentions the soy beans
• One recipe suggests nutritional yeast, while another suggests brewers yeast and fast acting yeast as an alternative.
• Another source suggests to double the amount of garlic.

What Katie had to say after trying this recipe:

YEA for YUMM!

We tried to make it this afternoon. The garbanzo beans are harder to
get ’round here, but I found a can at the import store The lemons
are tricky too, but I know a place downtown that usually carries them.
It ended up being pretty darn good.  I wish I had a can of the real
thing to compare, but from my memory it was close.

Here’s what I did differently:

• We decided that the soybeans were going to be too much trouble to soak and cook on our limited time schedule, so we bought soft (not silken) tofu and it worked just fine. You could probably add more than the 3/4 cup I used as the sauce was still pretty potent.
• added 2x the garlic and will scale back next time.
• used fresh cilantro instead of dried
• had to use a packet of regular fast acting yeast. 4 hours later, I think it is still active even in the fridge! I would cut that back to 1/2 packet at most-I could really taste the yeasty flavor. After letting it rest in the refrigerator for an hour I blended it again. It helped get the rest of the almonds smooth and made it look more edible. It got kinda foamy.

Mom brought over some brown rice when they came to visit, so Josh and I tried to recreate the whole thing (minus avocados and olives). I even made sour cream. Josh said that ours were better because we ate them with authentic chopsticks.

A couple of weeks ago we made hummus. Again, tricky to get the garbanzo beans, but who knew it was so easy!

–
Katie

There are several different forms of Vanilla to choose from and most are not readily available in the super market. Whether you are looking for Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Sugar, or simply Vanilla Beans, it is important to consider the growing region as that affects the flavor. Professional chefs and foodies prefer to buy Vanilla beans because it gives you full control of the flavor profile you are cooking with.

I don’t recommend using cheap vanilla extract as it is often an imitation, using chemicals to replicate the real thing. Real vanilla extract is expensive, however is quite simple to make. simply cut 3 vanilla beans in in half, scrape out the seeds and put all of it into a quart of vodka. Place that in the shade and shake occasionally. After about 3 months, you have your own extract and it is much less expensive then buying vanilla extract.

Where do I buy vanilla beans? Well, you have several options. You can go to a specialty spice store, just make sure they do a lot of business and have fresh product. Nothing is worse then stale herbs and spices. You could always go to Walmart, or your local grocery store, but you won’t likely know what growing region the beans come from. Tahitian and Mexican vanilla beans taste very different. The other option is to shop online and to look for specialty stores. I definitely recommend this option as you will probably find the best prices and best quality vanilla beans to buy if you shop around.

Knowing where to buy vanilla beans, or buy vanilla extract makes a huge impact on your expertise as a cook. Nothing says experienced foodie as seeds from the vanilla bean mixed into homemade vanilla ice cream.

When you lose your job, find yourself out of work, are fired or laid off it is important to know your resources. It is important to be on top of things and to file for benefits quickly. The state of Oregon offers several services and resources to help get you back on your feet quickly.

How do I file for Unemployment Benefits?

Here are three ways to file for unemployment benefits which include going to your local unemployment office in person, calling them over the phone, or online.

Submitting your application online is by far the easiest method. Calling direct is great if you don’t mind really long hold times. I don’t imagine this applies to all offices, however my local office was extremely busy and their policy is to work with one client at a time. Which means that you get their undivided attention once you get a hold of them.

The Online Claims System is your starting point for everything related to filing for unemployment benefits. Before you file your first claim, you must first establish your account.

Be sure to have everything you need to start your claim before you actually enter the system. If you take longer then 30 minutes to complete your registration you will have to start over. Once your have the prerequisite data, you can file a new claim.Upon completing this you will need to go to the imatchskills.com website to set up an account to help you find new employment.

The very next Sunday and every Sunday following a week of unemployment you will need to return to the Online Claims System to claim a week. You won’t get paid for your first week, as it is your waiting week, but don’t delay on it.