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RECIPE OF THE MONTH
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SHRIMP ENCHILADAS VERDE
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound peeled cooked shrimp, (see Ingredient Note), tails removed, diced
- 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 2 4-ounce cans chopped green chiles, (not drained)
- 2 cups canned green enchilada sauce, or green salsa, divided
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1 15-ounce can nonfat refried beans
- 1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheese, such as Mexican-style cheese blend, Monterey Jack or Cheddar
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Preparation Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Combine shrimp, corn, chiles and 1/2 cup enchilada sauce (or salsa) in a microwave-safe medium bowl. Cover and microwave on High until heated through, about 2 1/2 minutes. Spread 1/4 cup enchilada sauce (or salsa) in the prepared baking dish. Top with a layer of 6 overlapping tortillas. Spread re-fried beans evenly over the tortillas. Top the beans with the shrimp mixture, followed by the remaining 6 tortillas. Pour the remaining sauce (or salsa) over the tortillas. Cover with foil. Bake the casserole until it begins to bubble on the sides, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil; sprinkle cheese on top. Continue baking until heated through and the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes more. Top with cilantro and serve with lime wedges. Tips & Notes Make Ahead Tip: Prepare through Step 3, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Allow the cold baking dish to warm slightly before placing in a hot oven. Ingredient note: Shrimp is usually sold by the number needed to make one pound. For example, "21-25 count" means there will be 21 to 25 shrimp in a pound. Size names, such as "large" or "extra large," are not standardized, so to be sure you're getting the size you want, order by the count (or number) per pound. Both wild-caught and farm-raised shrimp can damage the surrounding ecosystems when not managed properly.
Fortunately, it is possible to buy shrimp that have been raised or caught with sound environmental practices. Look for fresh or frozen shrimp certified by an independent agency, such as Wild American Shrimp or Marine Stewardship Council. If you can't find certified shrimp, choose wild-caught shrimp from North America-it's more likely to be sustainably caught. Thanks to... |
V.I.P. TREATMENT
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Now, for only pennies a day, you can protect your home from costly and annoying plumbing and electrical problems!
The
"Diamond Club Plus" is a private membership service club that's limited
to 22% of our clients. It isn't available to everyone because we
couldn't possibly keep up with the work load.
We're offering
it only to people like you who really love your home and want to
protect it from unexpected plumbing and electrical breakdowns or worse...
water damage or electrical failures!
It really
is plumbing and electrical security for your entire home! Take a look
at the following member benefits...
You go to The Front Of The Line! When a Diamond Club Plus customer calls in, they move to the head of the line regardless of what is on the board.
You get 20% off any work done! *This one is huge! This even applies to water heaters, faucets and other repairs that you may need. *Excludes larger bid type work.
Your membership is FREE! Every dollar you pay will accumulate in your private account that can be used for any future work done. For example; If you have paid in $14.95 a month for 10 months, you will have accumulated just under $150 that can be used for ANY plumbing or electrical work done.
Call Today, You're Worth It!
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PLUMBING
FUN FACTS
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Famous and often controversial rockstar Ozzy Osbourne was a plumber's apprentice before getting into the music industry.
The word "plumber" dates all the way back to the Roman Empire. In Rome, pipes were originally made from lead, which is "plumbum" in Latin. People who worked with lead were called Plumbarius, which was eventually shortened to the word we use today.
At 140 degrees, it takes five seconds for water to burn skin. At 160 degrees, it takes only half of a second. Home hot water systems should be set to no hotter than 125 degrees.
In Japan, some urinals have voice-activated flushing mechanisms. The urinals respond to several commands, including "fire."
The term "plumbers" was a popular name given to the covert White House Special Investigations Unit established during the presidency of Richard Nixon in response to the leaked "Pentagon Papers" documents. Their job was to plug intelligence leaks in the U.S. Government relating to the Vietnam War; hence the term "plumbers".
Sir John Harington is credited with inventing the flushable toilet in 1596, hence the American nickname for it, "the john
In a typical home, more than 9,000 gallons of water are wasted while running the faucet waiting for hot water.
As much as 15% of your annual water heating costs can be wasted heating this extra 9,000 gallons. WE CAN SOLVE THIS WITH
OUR PREMIERE HOT WATER RECIRCULATION PUMP
Though we all have heard the many slang-words of which his cognomen is probably responsible for, the truth is... there is no hard evidence anywhere that English plumber, Thomas Crapper was the inventor of the modern-day amenity that often bears his less-than-flattering name (it's believed Crapper may have bought the patent rights from another man - Albert Giblin - and marketed the concept as his own).
If a drip from your faucet fills an eight ounce glass in 15 minutes, it will waste 180 gallons per month and 2,160 gallons per year.
A low flush toilet can save you up to 18,000 gallons of water per year.
WE CAN SOLVE THIS WITH
OUR PREMIERE WATER
SAVING TOILET
The Earth has somewhere in the neighborhood of 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons (326 million trillion gallons) of water on the planet. Roughly 98% of our water is in the oceans of the world, and therefore is unusable for drinking because of the salt content. That means only around 2% of the planet's water is fresh, but 1.6% of that water is locked up in ice caps and glaciers. Another 0.36% is found in very deep, underground sources - meaning only about 0.036% of the planet's total water supply is found in lakes and rivers (our main supplies of drinking water)!
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ELECTRICAL
FUN FACTS
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 One lightning bolt has enough electricity to service 200 000 homes.
First Lighthouse to use electricity - Statue of Liberty (1886)
In 1800 Count Alassandro Volta made the "voltaic pile", a battery.
His experiments,along with Luigi Galvani, applying electricity to frogs legs and making them jump when touched by an electric wire prompted Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to write FRANKENSTEIN in 1818.
In 1957 a battery was discovered in Bagdad. It was made by the Parthians, who ruled Bagdad from 250 B.C.E. to 224 C.E., and was used to electroplate silver.
The Brooklyn Bridge was the first bridge to be lit using electricity.
Every year, American homes waste more than $13 billion in energy - an average of $150 per family.
More than 10,000 homes in the United States are powered entirely by solar energy.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was one of the most well known inventors of all time with 1093 patents.
During the whole of his life, Edison received only three months of formal schooling, and was dismissed from school as being retarded.
The Livermore Centennial Light was manufactured in 1901 by the Shelby Electric Company. It is a hand-blown bulb with a carbon filament. It uses approximately 4 watts of electricity. The bulb has been left burning continuously in the firehouse as a night light over the fire trucks since 1901.
The first use of water to generate electricity was in 1882 on the Fox river, in the USA, which produced enough power to light two paper mills and a house.
10 percent of total US generating capacity is fueled by natural gas, about the same as hydropower. More than half of US capacity is coal-fired, with nuclear accounting for 20 percent.
Electrocution is one of the top five causes of workplace deaths.
An electric oven uses one kilowatt-hour of electricity in about 20 minutes, but one kilowatt-hour will power a TV for 3 hours, run a 100-watt bulb for 12 hours, and keep an electric clock ticking for 3 months.
An Electric eel can produce an electric shock of up to 650 volts at one ampere.
A 100 watt modern light bulb emits about 1600 lumens, while a single flame oil lamp form the 1800s emitted about 2400 lumens.
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Water Saving Tips
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1. Never pour water down the drain when there may be another use for it such as watering a plant or garden, or for cleaning.
2. Verify that your home is leak free.Many homes have hidden water leaks. Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a leak.
3. Repair or replace dripping faucets. If your faucet is dripping at a rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year.This adds to the cost of water and sewer utilities, or can strain your septic system.
4. Check for toilet tank leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If the toilet is leaking, color will appear in the toilet bowl within 30 minutes.
5. If the toilet handle frequently sticks in the flush position letting water run constantly; replace or adjust it.
6. Place a bucket in the shower to catch excess water and use this to water plants. The same technique can be used when washing dishes or vegetables in the sink.
7. In the shower, turn water on to get wet; turn off to lather up; then turn back on to rinse off. Repeat when washing your hair.
8. Insulate your hot water pipes. You'll get hot water faster and avoid wasting water while it heats up.
9. Store drinking water in the refrigerator. Don't let the tap run while you are waiting for cool water to flow.
10. Do not use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food overnight in the refrigerator or use the defrost setting on your microwave.
11. Kitchen sink disposals require lots of water to operate properly. Start a compost pile as an alternate method of disposing of food waste instead of using a garbage disposal. Garbage disposals also can add 50 percent to the volume of solids in a septic tank, which can lead to malfunctions and maintenance problems.
12. When washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet.
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Dear ,
Thanks for taking the time to review this months newsletter. As we head into the spring season, many will be initiating long awaited home improvement projects. I have included in this and other recent newsletters, tips to help "do-it-yourselfers" as well as those seeking out professional contractors. Because some of this information will be relative for months, I have chosen to repeat some of these story blocks in addition to our new information found in this current edition. Note: if using a contractor, be sure to check out our "Spring Projects" section.
We have received several calls from our long time clients who unfortunately, failed to properly winterize their outside hose bibbs and consequently, discovered leaks when they went to turn them on. You will find detailed instructions for the proper process to winterize and de-winterize outside hose bibbs, in previous editions of these newsletters. If you have any friends or relatives who you feel could benefit from these instructions, please forward their e-mail address to us and we will see that they receive them.
We have extended our "Recession Discounts" to all our repeat customers and I have included a reminder of what those discounts were.
Finally, for you food connoisseurs (which I am a proud member), I hope you caught last months "Recipe of the Month", baked spaghetti, you may want to go back and get it. It is one of the best dishes I've ever tasted! And of course, your "Recipe of the Month" for this month is an excellent dish as well.
Thank you for your continued patronage,
Bill Casey/GM
P.S. I welcome any and all input from my readers whether it be content you'd like to see or offer; or just good old fashioned critique!
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Is Your Toilet Costing You A Bundle?
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Is your toilet more than 30 years old? The EPA says 900 billion gallons of water are wasted
annually through older toilets. And this says nothing of the toilet with that "Phantom Flush". You know, when you here the toilet in the middle of the night running and nobody has been near it. I have good news. If you would like to upgrade your toilet to the number one model in the market (Toto drake), you can save $100 by mentioning this story. And for those who simply cannot afford the initial investment or may have a problem with that "Phantom Flush", here are some tips to get by until you're able to upgrade to new toilet...
Before I get in to the cure for the common "Phantom Flush", I am going to explain the simple workings of your toilet.
There are two major parts that make a toilet. One, the water reservoir or toilet tank, and the toilet bowl (P-Trap).
 The toilet bowel, or P-Trap, keep smelly sewer gases from entering your home. Every plumbing fixture is required to have one for this very purpose.
So, again, the primary pieces of your toilet are the toilet tank or the reservoir and the toilet bowl or P-trap.As you can see above inside the toilet tank, there is a "flapper". This flapper will keep the water in the tank, filled up to the water line, until it is flushed. As the flapper comes up, the water quickly enters the bowl emptying the contents. When the tank is empty, the flapper goes back down and the fill valve will re-fill the tank up to the water line, ready to be flushed again.
THE "PHANTOM FLUSH" - A phantom flush is when the flapper has worn out and has begun leaking. As the water leaks into the bowl under the flapper, the fill valve does what is supposed to do, keep the tank filled, hence the "Phantom Flush".
This can often times be remedied by simply replacing the flapper. But for a more complete job, replacing the fill valve, supply tube and handle (if it is worn), will be your best bet. In a worse case scenario, the entire tank innards, flush valve and all, will need replacing. We recommend you use a professional if this is the case.
For help with any of this or to schedule an appointment, Please Call...
503-620-9111
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Man rescued from Salem house fire
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Story on  
"When fire fighters entered the burning home, they
found the man unconscious on the floor.
By Brad Ford Wednesday,
April 21, 2010 Salem Fire Department crews were
called to a house fire in the 1100 block of 14th Street SE at 3:37
a.m. When they arrived, they found the house had flames on the front
and one side.
As fire fighters
started attacking the flames and entered the house, they found an
elderly man who was unconscious on the floor. He was taken to Salem
Hospital and then flown on Life Flight to Legacy Emanuel Hospital's
Oregon Burn Center. His name and condition haven't been released. The two alarm fire drew 22 fire fighters, six engines, a
ladder truck and paramedic units.
The
fire was caused by bad wiring." Note: "The
fire was caused by bad wiring." Not to sound like an alarmist, but this story is one that occurs 1000's of times a year. This man was lucky. Many are not so lucky. The real sad thing is that many of these disasters could have been averted with a professional electrical check up.
How about your home? Is your electrical system safe? Did you know the average kitchen uses as much electricity as an entire house did built in the 1960's.
As our electrical needs increase, electrical panels are often times, not upgraded to accommodate the larger load. When an electrical system becomes overloaded, it creates heat. And of course, too much heat can result in home fires. Don't take it for granted that your electrical system is safe. It doesn't matter that "it's been working fine for 40 years". Remember your last flat tire? I'll bet it worked great until it went flat; right? Don't wait for a flat tire - electrical disaster. Get your system checked out today if it is older than 20 years especially if major remodeling has been done. For a limited time, we are offering a complete electrical system evaluation for only $39.50 (reg $269)
To Schedule Your Evaluation,
PLEASE CALL...503-643-8833
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DRAIN DISASTER PREVENTION - WHAT TO LOOK FOR
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|  If the drain pipes under your sinks look like the one above, you have a serious problem! Notice the scale and leaking. The scale is actually the trap that has rotted clear through.
If you have these types of metal or chrome, p-traps, inspect them for signs of this scale. If you notice this kind of scale, don't touch it; your finger would likely go through creating a leak.
These are the problems that are easily identified. But how abut those drain lines you can't see? Below is an example of an old (40 years plus), cast iron drain line under the basement floor. This line is what would be expected in a basement carrying away laundry and kitchen waste. You can clearly see the the pipes completely rotted through. One of the quickest ways to cause these pipes to rot like this is to pour liquid "Drain Openers" down the drains. Regardless of what the label says on the bottles, if the product is strong enough to eat through stoppages, it may be strong enough to rot your drains.
A good alternative to these harsh drain openers is Drain Maid. It is a harmless bacteria that will eat away the build up that clogs drains. The only caution is that you only want to use Drain Maid after a mechanical drain cleaning. if there is any build up in there when you use it, it may break away and cause a clog. Drain Maid is an excellent and safe drain maintainer.
Don't Wait For The Drains To Clog - get A Maintenance Scheduled Today!
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First Aid in Electrical Emergency Situations
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- Call 9-1-1 for medical and rescue assistance.
- Shut off the electrical current, if safely possible. This could mean unplugging a cord, removing a fuse from the fuse box, or turning off a circuit breaker. Often simply turning off the appliance will not stop the flow of electricity.
- If the current can't be turned off, wait for help to arrive. Stand back. If there is no help around, a non-conducting object like a broom or a chair could be used to push the victim away from the source of the current. It's best just to wait for help, however, to avoid adding yourself as another victim.
- Once removed from the electrical current, if the victim is faint, pale, or shows signs of shock, lay him/her with the head slightly lower that the main part of the body and feet elevated. Cover the person with a warm blanket and wait for help to arrive. Provide no food or water.
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SPRING PROJECTS
The time to plan is NOW!
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With money harder to come by for all of us these days, it's more important than ever to begin your spring / summer project planning, early. Whatever your project - remodeling, additions, plumbing or electrical rejuvenations - projects large and small, there are some important things you need to know before you begin. Using A Contractor
- Always check their CCB (Construction Contractors Board), number. For larger jobs, check to see if there are any unresolved complaints with the CCB.
- Ask for at least three references and contact these people to see what their experience was.
- Check with "reputable" internet resources like Angie's List. Because there is a very small membership fee to use this service, customer comments are usually more representative of how the company actually performs and relates with the public.
- Last but not least, what does your gut tell you? Regardless of what I discover with the prior steps, if I'm not comfortable with the person at my door, I go onto someone else.
When seeking out a contractor, keep in mind that quality work always will cost more than sub standard "cheap" fixes. Indeed, in a slower economy, the hit and run contractors are out in force. And of course their bids are lower than most. But remember, there is a big difference between price and costs. The initial price from a cheaper contractor may end up in fact, "costing" much more when the corrections and do-overs begin to show up.
 Doing The Work Yourself
- Make sure you understand and have a plan for each step needed to take your project to completion.
- If you are doing electrical or plumbing work, check with local and state codes to ensure you are complying with them.
- Be sure to get the proper permits for any work that may need them, especially plumbing and electrical work. This will directly affect, good or bad, the long term resale value of your home.
By doing these things well in advance, you will be in a great position to enjoy a trouble free project with expenses that are understood well ahead of time. Good Luck!
Feel free to contact Casey's Plumbing, Metro's Best Electric or Rooter n Drains, if you just need some advice with any of your projects. Casey's Plumbing - 503-620-9111
Metro's Best Electric - 503-643-8833
Rooter - n - Drains - 503-643-4433
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A WORD FROM THE OWNER
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It's
getting to be a real problem in our world today. Innocent homeowners
call contractors looking to have work performed on their home. A
service person shows up, and the homeowner doesn't think twice about
letting that person into their home. They presume that person is
honest and coming to help them with their problem. All too often these seemingly innocent calls turn tragic.
Not
long ago, I read about a Florida woman who was killed by a registered
sex offender who was performing work in her home. In another instance,
a service technician in the Minneapolis area was convicted on several
counts for stealing from customers' homes. In yet another story, an
unsuspecting housewife in Missouri hired a contractor only to have him
call back two weeks later and make lewd remarks over the telephone.
What if this guy had done more than just make telephone calls? You
don't think about this possibly happening until it's too late.
You and your family deserve to feel comfortable and safe in your own home; to live life without fear.
Women home alone with small children, the elderly, or the disabled
shouldn't have to be wary of their security when calling a contractor.
As a person who's been in this industry for years, it sickens me that
this has become an issue... but it has.
Knowing this, we have
made a commitment to you and all of our loyal customers. You will
never have to worry about a person from our company that enters your
home or be concerned about their true intentions. As a service to you,
every single one of our employees is background checked and drug
tested. No criminal or drug addict will ever wear one of our
uniforms. We have one of the most difficult hiring processes around,
and only people of high moral character are given the opportunity to be
employed by us. We then take these hard working people and provide
them with the best technical and communication training offered in the
country. So, you'll know that when one of our people shows up, they're
upstanding citizens who are eager and able to help you with any and all
of your home's needs.
Many
contractors in the home services
business do not bother to practice such stringent policies... But
that's what distinguishes us from the rest. Indeed, recently when
screening applicants to fill an opening we had for a journeyman
plumber, only a very small percentage passed the drug screening. And these people are now working for someone!?
When
you call Casey's Plumbing, Rooter n Drains or Metro's Best Electric,
you know you're dealing with professionals who care about your personal
safety, the safety of your family, and the well-being and security of
your home. We feel that's the least we can do for you.
Thanks your continued patronage.
Sincerely,
Bill Casey / GM
Casey's Plumbing Inc.
Rooter n Drains
Metro's Best Electric
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MONEY SAVING COUPONS
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Cannot be used with other offers or work previously performed.
PRINT OUT OR MENTION ABOVE COUPONS FOR ANY WORK PERFORMED.
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