June 2011 is shaping up to be a packed month for me and my fellow beer and wine fans.  If you think a good bottle of wine or a cold lager is as much a part of a day outdoors as the bright sunshine, then check out some of these great events happening in our own back yard this month:

June 5:  11th Annual Casa Pacifica Food & Wine Festival

June 8 – 12: Surf Brewery’s Grand Opening Week in Ventura

June 10:  Australian Wine Dinner at Brooks in Ventura

June 11:  Santa Barbara Zoo Brew.  We went last year and it was really crowded but still a lot of fun.  Eat something beforehand though because food is very limited and lines are long.

June 12:  Ojai Wine Festival

June 17 – 18: Second Annual Salute!  Finely Crafted Beer and Food Festival in Ojai

June 25:  Santa Barbara Wine Festival at the Museum of Natural History

Wow… my liver is going to need all of July to recover!  Hope you can make it to at least one or two of these events and support our local purveyors of fine food, beer and wine.

If I missed any events please tell us about them by posting a comment.  Thanks!

This Saturday, May 8, letter carriers throughout Ventura County will pick up food donations right from your home.  All you have to do is leave a bag of food next to your mailbox prior to delivery and they will make sure it gets to our friends here in Ventura County who desperately need food.   They especially need canned soup, canned veggies, pasta, rice and cereal.

Could this be any easier to do??  I hope you’ll participate as I will.  If you prefer to send money you can mail a check made out to FOOD Share Inc. to:

Food Share
4156 Southbank Road
Oxnard, CA 93036

For more info or to verify this info call Food Share at 805-983-7100 or visit http://www.foodshare.com.

“The Taxpayers Right to Vote Act is a dagger aimed directly at a movement to enable municipalities to offer renewable green power to their residents in competition with private utilities.” – LA Times

This has to be one of the most deceptive ballot campaigns I’ve ever seen in California.  This so-called “Taxpayers Right to Vote” proposition is actually a cleverly-disguised attempt by PG&E to eliminate competition and take away our choices for power.   Of course PG&E doesn’t care a wit about your right to vote, so what has them scared enough to spend about $35M on this campaign?

Two words: Renewable Energy.  They’re scared because municipalities that are so inclined may build windmills or solar farms in their towns and start offering energy to residents as an ALTERNATIVE to PG&E.   Right now cities and counties have the right to do that if they decide that it’s in their best interest and makes fiscal sense.  PG&E wants the public to have to vote on it though, and NOT WITH A SIMPLE MAJORITY!  They want 2/3rds of the voters to have to say “yes” in order for cities to be able to do this.  So if 65% of the town wants their city to harness the wind and offer renewable energy they still won’t get it.  And whom do you think will have more money to spend on the ads leading up to the vote – PG&E or a small town?

Please VOTE NO on 16.  Let PG&E compete with the cities by offering renewable energy as well and at a reasonable cost.  PG&E’s profits exceeded $1 BILLION last quarter even as most people are struggling to pay their bills and 12% are unemployed.  Now they want to squeeze us even tighter with this bill.   Please don’t let PG&E win!  For more info visit www.noprop16.org.

So your first question is probably:  Why on earth would you want to move your iTunes library FROM a cool Mac TO a boring old PC? Well it’s a good question and I do feel rather like I’m going the wrong way on a one-way street.  But my trusty iMac just turned 9 years old and has only a 55 GB hard drive (my ipod has 64!) and less than a GB of RAM.  So it’s not much fun to use anymore and I just don’t have $1200 to shell out on a new one right now.  My PC laptop that I use for work is not sexy but it’s bulked up like an East German athlete in 1984.

That’s why I made the move, and my hat’s off to Apple because it was simple and straightforward.  The only real danger here is that you may think too much and over-complicate it.  If you want to know the logic behind why you’re doing all these things you can read a very informative article here… I’m basically just showing you the Cliff’s Notes version of how to do it.

Also, unless you know how to network a PC and Mac together, you will need a Portable Hard Drive to make this happen.  I used an 80GB Iomega drive that I’ve had forever… you can get these very cheaply now.

Here’s how to move your iTunes library from your Mac to your PC

STEP ONE: Open iTunes on your Mac.  Go to iTunes > Preferences.  When the pop-up window appears click the Advanced option in the top menu.  Then you should see this screen:

Now if your “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” box is already checked, then you need to UNCHECK it and select OK.  Then go back to the same screen and check that same box and click OK.  There will be a short progress bar and then you can continue.

STEP TWO: Still on your Mac, go to File > Library > Organize Library

Now select “Consolidate Files” and click OK as seen below.

It will let you know that it cannot be undone which is fine, so just click Continue.

STEP THREE: Now it’s time to move those songs.  Plug your portable hard drive into your Mac.  Go to your Mac Hard Drive menu and confirm that it’s there.  Now click on your Mac hard drive and you should see a foldeer called “Music” under that will be a folder called “iTunes”.  Double click the iTunes folder and you will find two things we need to move: a folder called “iTunes Music” and a file called “iTunes Library”.  Drag both the file and the folder to your portable hard drive.

Depending on the speed of your USB connection and size of your library you may now have time to take in a movie.  Or in my case with my 9-year-old Mac, the entire Wagner Ring Cycle.

STEP FOUR: Now we move over to the PC.  If you don’t already have the latest version of iTunes on your PC you’ll need to download that now.  Eject your portable drive from the Mac, then disconnect it and plug it into your PC.  Go to “Computer” in the Start menu and confirm the drive is there.  Now open your “Music” folder on your PC and you should see an “iTunes” folder.  Drag both the iTunes Library file and the iTunes Music folder from the portable drive to this folder.   Again, this may take a while to transfer.

STEP FIVE: This is where I got stuck but the solution is very simple.  I was able to see the music files in the folder and play them directly, but iTunes wasn’t seeing them and listing them out for me.  That’s because the file that we moved called “iTunes Library” needs a different extension for the PC to recognize it.  So right click on that file on your PC and add “.itl” to the end of it.  Now close iTunes if you have it open, and re-open it while holding down the SHIFT key on your PC.  You’ll get a window that says Choose iTunes Library.  Click “choose library” and then double click on the iTunes Library file (which should now have the little iTunes logo next to it instead of a blank page).

iTunes will now index all your songs and display them  along with all your playlists.  I hope this worked as well for you as it did for me, but if not I refer you to the much more complex and detailed article here:  http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/.

Cheers!

This recipe was in an old Sunset magazine and it’s now my absolute favorite thing to make for our annual Super Bowl party.  It’s really not that hot unless you bump up the serranos.   I cheat a little bit too… I buy the canned fire roasted green chilis at Trader Joe’s.  It’s really tough to have to char and peel those little bastards by hand.  And god forbid you should rub your eye while you’re doing it!

What really sets this dish off though is serving it in a bowl over a warm piece of cornbread and topping it with some sour cream.   It’s also easy to make a day or two ahead and store in the fridge till the company arrives.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1  chicken (3 to 4 lbs.), cut into 8 pieces
• 2  whole bay leaves
• 1  tablespoon  whole black peppercorns
• 5  teaspoons  salt
• 1  package (1 lb.) frozen corn, defrosted and drained
• 2  green bell peppers, halved, stemmed, and seeded
• 4  Anaheim or New Mexico green chiles, halved, stemmed, and seeded
• 4  serrano chiles, halved, stemmed, and seeded
• 3  tablespoons  canola oil
• 2  large yellow onions, chopped
• 2  tablespoons  minced garlic
• 1  tablespoon  ground cumin
• 1  tablespoon  ground coriander
• 2  cans (12 to 15 oz. each) posole or hominy, drained
• 2  cans (15 oz. each) white beans, drained
• 1  can (28 oz.) whole tomatillos, drained and roughly chopped
• Lime wedges, chopped cilantro, and tortilla chips

1. Put chicken in a large pot with bay leaves, peppercorns, and 2 tsp. salt. Add water to cover chicken by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook, adding water as needed to keep chicken covered, until chicken is cooked through, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and let cool. Pour broth through a strainer and reserve; discard spices. When broth is cooled, skim off as much fat as you can.

2. Preheat oven to 400°. Spread corn in a baking pan and roast until it begins to turn bronze, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

3. Reset oven heat to broil. Arrange peppers and chiles, cut side down, in 2 baking pans and broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat until skins are black, 5 to 8 minutes (remove each as it blackens). Let cool, then peel and coarsely chop.

4. Heat canola oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, spices, and remaining 3 tsp. salt and cook, stirring, until onions are translucent, 4 minutes. Add peppers, chiles, and corn and cook 3 minutes. Add posole, beans, tomatillos, and 7 cups of reserved cooking broth; freeze remaining broth for later use. Bring stew to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.

5. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and discard. Use 2 forks to shred meat off bone. Add meat to pot and simmer until chicken is warmed through, about 10 minutes. Serve topped with lime wedges, cilantro leaves, and tortilla chips.