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Elizabeth Weintraub
Have You Checked Out the New Macbook Air?
Never thought this Sacramento Realtor would be purchasing a new MacBook Air, but stranger things have happened. I bought my MacBook Pro 3 years ago and figured it would last a while. Problem is while I have 16 GB to handle all the specific software I use to sell real estate in Sacramento, the hard drive on that MacBook Pro is only 256 GB.
Back in the day, way before MacBook Air, a hard drive with that configuration would be plenty. In fact, I come from the days of 40 pound portable computers with 20 GB hard drives. Not anymore. Especially not with Dropbox and iCloud, which I’ve successfully divvied up between my Mac Mini desktop and my laptop. But now I am down to less than 10% of storage on my laptop, and that is a bad thing, which will only worsen. No external hard drive would solve that dilemma.
The amazing thing about my MacBook Pro versus the MacBook Air is the MacBook Air can run for 12 to 13 hours on its battery. My MacBook Pro lasts 3 hours, if I am really lucky. The resolution is far superior, and it weighs only 2.75 pounds. Since my MacBook Pro was a clean install and not a migration, I can easily migrate data to my MacBook Pro.
Not to mention, I can get a 1.5 TB drive, which is what I ordered. But the really super duper amazing thing is Apple.com is giving me an $1,100 credit for my MacBook Pro. Which means my husband doesn’t have to haul it off to recycling. And I get a $2,500 machine for about $1,400.
I would have never before considered a MacBook Air for my use in my Sacramento real estate business. But Apple makes this product irresistible.
How to Bake Coconut Pretzels in a Microwave Convection
Now that we have a new appliance, I figured it was time to figure out how to bake coconut pretzels in a microwave convection oven. It is especially a delight to use the convection setting in Hawaii so we don’t have to turn on the oven and heat up the house. Further, although we have a convection oven at our house in Sacramento, I’ve never used it. Why? Because the oven works just fine. No need to learn how to use convection.
Well, that, and I don’t cook in Sacramento so I would never use the oven anyway.
I started out to make bread in the microwave convection, which worked like a charm. So I graduated to bake coconut pretzels because the photos in the 2005 GE Convection Microwave cookbook I just bought, the only one available, made the pretzels look so danged yummy. I’m afraid my photo isn’t as beautifully conforming as the cookbook, but they taste delicious. I also used shaved coconut instead of shredded coconut.
My husband had to help me with the recipe because not everybody can write. For example, the recipe called for rolling out a 16-inch square and then folding it in 3 pieces. Pieces! What did that mean? Well, they meant fold it into thirds. Not 3 pieces. Words have meanings, people.
My poor husband first sent photographs of folding a napkin in thirds, and the position of the rolling pin to explain the intended process. But some South Pacific server hung up the transmission so he had to call and show me with FaceTime.
Here are the ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 cup butter sliced
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 envelope dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 3 egg yolks
Toppings:
- 1 egg white slightly beaten
- 1 cup coconut
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
Put flour in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry knife. Cover and refrigerate.
Pour cream, water, sugar and salt into a pan and heat to 120 to 130 F. Stir in yeast until dissolved.
Remove bowl with flour and butter from the frig. Add the warm cream mixture and 3 beaten egg yolks. Mix until just moist. Don’t over mix. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to bake, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 16-inch square. Fold in thirds.
Roll dough into a 10 x 20 inch rectangle, beginning on the short side.
Use a pizza cutter and cut 1/2-inch strips. Form each strip into a pretzel. Here is a video of how to form a pretzel shape. Hey, you might THINK you know how to make a pretzel but you probably don’t. Full disclosure: I had to watch it several times, hitting pause and sliding the lever back until it sunk into my brain. It is very hard for me to work with 3-dimensional items.
My brain works just perfectly when I need creative answers to complex problems. I can logically piece together results versus possible outcomes. Put me in an emergency situation, and I am calm, level-headed. But some things that seem simple to other people can be a challenge to me.
Once, I built an indoor fireplace and covered it in bricks. Figuring out how to do the top, bottom and sides so the grout lines matched was very difficult. Like installing a dropped ceiling is also hard when you are forced to think upside down and backwards. But I like to challenge myself. Hence the coconut pretzels.
Now, soon as the pretzels are arranged on a baking sheet, brush with beaten egg white. Combine coconut and brown sugar and and sprinkle on each pretzel. Preheat convection setting on the microwave to 400 degrees. Bake 16 minutes.
I should mention that you are supposed to toast the coconut but since I used shaved coconut, I did not toast it. It toasted itself in the oven. Also, be sure to use the right side of the hotpad when removing the cookie sheet.
My neighbors said I should have baked a double batch. They really loved them. I ate one but I do need to get these little fat bombs out of my house because I cannot be trusted around sweet baked goods. Guess I will take the coconut pretzels to Kona Haven Coffee tomorrow and hand them out.
How Often Do You Check Your Email?
How often do you check your email in today’s high tech world? Almost everybody sends a text message, even longer book-length text messages. However, I still work primarily email-based. When sending files or attachments to my clients, I need email. I could share documents via any assortment of online storage options, but my clients would struggle, and I like to keep things simple and easy for them.
For example, vendors routinely send me links to Google, but my email is not Google based. I use Google for as little as possible, primarily because its do no evil premise is a joke today. I prefer to pay directly for services I can rely on and control.
Far as the norm for checking your email, I’d guess, based on responses I receive, that most people do it a couple times a day. If they don’t have a smartphone, they need to use an actual computer or an iPad. In fact, speaking of iPads, I just got rid of AT&T because I don’t use cell service anymore. It’s a waste of money to pay for it.
Yesterday morning I received an email from a fellow who said he and his wife have decided to buy a condo in Midtown Sacramento and wanted to know if I could help them. Absolutely. I love working with clients who contact us directly and are ready to act because I know they’ll be in escrow within hours if not a few days.
We responded immediately, and our buyer’s agent extraordinaire Josh Amolsch contacted the buyers. They responded to say, oh, they already bought a condo last year and the email had been stuck in their email outbox since October.
I’m thinking, is 4 months a reasonable time not to check your email? My email downloads to my computer every 2 minutes. But as a Sacramento Realtor, I’m a bit of an extreme. Out of curiosity, I looked up the condo in the tax rolls. Actually, they ultimately ended up buying that condo last February, 11 months ago. That’s a long time not to check email or notice there was an email in the outbox. If you’re connected, emails should automatically release.
Now this makes me wonder how many people even use a desktop computer anymore. Everybody has laptops. Are desktop computers going away? And look at that phone in the top photo. Have you seen anything that honkin’ big lately? Does anybody but my husband use a landline?
Why Customer Service is an Oxymoron
Ain’t it the truth? If you want your real estate business to explode overnight, just go on vacation. What can happen in early January, you may ask? Oy. But between my laptop, my iPad and iPhone, I am never without communication of some sort. Unless, of course, I leave my phone in my at home, but then I still have my Apple Watch.
That photo above is of the rabbit in the terminal at the Sacramento Airport. I know lots of people in Sacramento don’t like it, but I find the structure attractive and invigorating. It makes me think my plane will be on time. Even though that is a fallacy and there is no logical reason to believe it. Because if a flight can be delayed, it will happen and they often don’t tell you. But that is to be expected.
See, this is the problem. We have become so accustomed to bad service, delayed flights, lost luggage, it’s become the norm. The standard. In fact, there are people alive today, living in this 22nd Century who do not know that at one time receptionists used to answer the phone and those same people would transfer you to a department if you needed help. Employees in that department worked at the company. They cared about their job, and they cared about their customers. They would actually solve your problem or die trying.
Today, that person is overseas somewhere. Pretty soon there will be no person at all. Nobody will answer your call, and nobody will help you. We have inferior and bad customer service but at least by god we have some semblance of customer service. And everybody is happy because there are few of us left alive who remember we once had good customer service. Do you remember when department stores had employees who were elevator operators? They wore a uniform, white gloves, and a little monkey hat. They ran the elevator by closing the criss-crossed metal doors and raising the arm that made the elevator go up and down.
Every customer who crossed the threshold to get on the elevator was greeted, and when you left you were wished a good day.
No, of course you don’t remember elevator operators because if you are a Millennial, you were not born yet. If something doesn’t work, you throw it away today. You don’t expect excellence from a company because you have no idea what it is. You’ve never seen it. And that is a shame because you are missing out on a great pleasure — the right to complain and bitch about it.
When we stop complaining, we have lost the battle.
Fortunately, clients never complain about The Elizabeth Weintraub Team. We under-promise, over-deliver, and superior customer service is our #1 goal.
Adventures in Cooking Hawaiian Laulau in a Crockpot
In many ways, Hawaiian food is foreign to mainlanders, but we can all agree that Hawaiian laulau in a crockpot is easy and simple. Just because it’s unusual — odd mostly because we use plants found in our yard — doesn’t mean it is not a very tasty dish. Laulau is really fabulous. It takes 8 hours to steam on low in the crockpot, so a little preplanning is necessary.
The photo above, btw, is something I found online, not my finished dish. I did not take a photo of my Hawaiian laulau in a crockpot because it is not pretty. Doesn’t stop the flavor, though. Don’t let the appearance fool you. The laulau is the rolled leaf package. Nestled with ahi poke, lomi lomi salmon, kalua pork, rice and, of course, macaroni salad. Poi is in the bowl, which is sort of a tasteless pudding, made by pounding steamed taro root with a pestle.
While my husband was visiting last week, I decided to make Hawaiian laulau in a crockpot as a way to welcome him to the islands. There are as many ways to make laulau as there are types of southern barbecue. Lots of variations. And because ancient Hawaiians did not have a crockpot, they buried it in the yard.
Most of our yard is lava rock, so no burying for us. Besides, we have a Costco in Kona, so off we went to buy a crockpot. My husband says only I can walk into Costco to buy a $20 appliance and walk out with a KitchenAid mixer, a new Dyson vacuum cleaner (to replace the Hoover I ruined vacuuming the garage floor) and a kitchen scale. Don’t get me wrong, we got the crockpot, too.
Also, I should mention that to the best of my recollection, I have never before bought nor used a crockpot in my life. Yes, in many ways, I have led a sheltered existence. Had no idea how they worked or that it is basically two settings, four hours on high or eight hours on low. Just plug it in. How easy is that? Our new fancy crockpot even came with a locking lid; however, you absolutely do NOT want to lock the lid when making Hawaiian laulau in a crockpot.
Next, we were off to Taniguchi’s to buy a pork butt shoulder roast, Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt (it is red), and a package of taro leaves, which is sold already bagged in the fresh produce section. Laulau, btw, means leaf, leaf.
The recipe I found online called for lining the crockpot with banana or Ti leaves, which supposedly you can buy frozen. Our neighbor has Ti plants, so we could have “borrowed” a few from her, but the banana leaves would require more traveling. However, you can also cheat the process by using aluminum foil.
Here are the ingredients you will need:
- 4 pounds of pork butt shoulder roast
- 3 tablespoons of Hawaiian Alaea salt. (Adjust down if you are sodium sensitive.)
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 8 Ti leaves or banana leaves (or use aluminum foil)
- Package of fresh taro leaves
If you use Ti or banana leaves, line the crockpot with the shiny side up on the bottom and the sides. You want to create an atmosphere for steaming,
Begin by cutting up 4 to 6 pounds of pork butt shoulder roast into 1 1/2 inch chunks. We used a full 3 tablespoons of red salt but in hindsight, personally, it would have been fine with one tablespoon. Pour in 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and mix the meat with the salt and soy sauce.
Using two taro leaves one on top of the other, place 4 pieces of pork in the center. Fold over and roll up, placing seam side down in the crockpot. Continue until you have stacked all the packets. Pour 1 cup of water over the packets. Then arrange Ti leaves on top (shiny side down) to seal the dish for steaming. Place aluminum foil on top and put the lid on top to keep it secure.
Set the crockpot to low and cook for 8 hours. See, it’s so simple, even a Sacramento Realtor could do it. Serve with a side of steamed brown rice or poi or both.
I brought several packets to my neighbors because this recipe made far more laulau than we could consume. Further, it’s the neighborly thing to do. Surprisingly, our neighbors never tasted laulau. What a treat for them: the pork is so incredibly sweet and moist. You are also supposed to eat the taro leaves with it.
So, what did the neighbors think? Mr. Neighbor said the dish was salty but not “too salty.” Mrs. neighbor loved the laulau but she really enjoys salty things. I readily admit it was too salty for me. My husband liked it and, bottom line, that’s all that really matters.
