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As with any other recipe, there are several variations for pho. The first recipe listed below is my own that has been adapted from various recipes that I have tried. Through trial and error, my recipe includes ingredients that I believe gives the broth an extra strong flavor and depth of flavor. However, I am still working on improving it so it will change from time to time. That is what is so great about cooking! See my pho blog for my experiments in seeking the perfect recipe.

People who have never tried pho may prefer a milder flavored broth and can use another recipe or modify it. One of the reasons I have inlcuded an ingredients page is to provide education on how each ingredient works to flavor pho. Hopefully, it will serve as a guide to help you tweak your recipe.

4 beef marrow bones
1 large onion
1 2-inch piece ginger
4 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 t fennel seeds
5 cardamom pods
8 cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
3 stalks lemongrass (optional)
1 bag of rice noodles
8 ounces raw beef sirloin (or similar), thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 package beef balls (optional)
1/2 cup chopped green scallions
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup fish sauce
salt and pepper

Garnishes
Thai basil
saw-leafed herbs
bean sprouts
lime wedges
Thai chilis

Grill onions (and lemongrass) and beef bones or the meats you are using. You can use an indoor grill or also put it in the oven or my easy method of pan frying it which works just as well. Place the onions and bones/meat in a pot and fill it to 2/3 full with water.

Add spice sachet which includes the spices you want to use: star anise, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, and fennel seeds. (Note: breaking the cardamom pods before placing it in the sachet helps to release the flavor.)

Bring to boil, then simmer for 3-4 hours or longer. Skim frequently to remove residue.

While broth is simmering, prepare fresh ingredients. Wash bean sprouts and other garnishes such as saw-leaf herbs and basil leaves. Chop green onions and cilantro. Thinly slice one onion.

Remove brisket (if you used brisket) and slice it thinly. Remove spice sachet and discard.

Blanch rice noodles according to package (usually for 5-7 minutes).

Arrange soup bowl by placing a mound of rice noodles, brisket, green onions, cilantro and sliced onions in bowl. Also place several thinly sliced round beef in bowl. If you are using beef balls, cut them into thirds and warm them in boiling water or use some of the broth.

Arrange the basil leaves, bean sprouts, saw-leaf herbs, wedges of lime, and chilis on a small plate.

When broth is almost done, add fish sauce (more or less to your preference).

Pour boiling soup into bowl and serve. The boiling broth should cook the thinly sliced beef. Serve a bowl of pho with the accompaniments and a small dish of plum sauce and Sriracha. You may also serve extra fish sauce in case anyone prefers their broth a bit stronger.

I’ve been told only good pho can come from the streets and restaurants. Home-cooking simply does not work, mostly because equipment and time. I love restaurant pho except for two things: the broth isn’t rich enough, and most of all, THE MSG. Everytime I eat pho, afterwards, I feel like I haven’t drank for days, I start feeling numb and dizzy, and I get headaches.

But there’s just that flavor of good pho that I can’t describe. Is it the star anise? The cinnamon? The beef bones? The ginger? The onion?

I researched on the internet, and found many many recipes, all with different ingredients and amounts. So I decided to take all of those ingredients and average them out together. I also took different methods and combined them. The resulting recipe looked like this:

6-7 lbs beef knuckle/bones
3-6 lbs oxtail

2-3 lbs back/short rib bones
1-2 lbs beef neck
1-2 lbs brisket/flank

4-7 anise pods
3 cinnamon sticks or 6 cassia chunks
4-6 whole cloves**
2-3 cardamom pods
1-2 tbsp fennel**
2-3 tbsp coriander seeds
2-3 bay leaves

1 tbsp black peppercorn

1-2 large chunk of rock candy
2 tbsp salt
quarter cup-4 tbsp fish sauce

2-3 large onion
6-7 inches ginger

1 large parsnips* if using 3/4 daikon, use only one carrot or parsnip or half of each.
3/4 large daikon*
1 large carrot*

-soak bones over night
-trim fat from meat and bones and discard
-place oxtail, ribmeat/neckmeat, flank, and bones in pot and bring to a boil. Boil for at least 3-5 minutes and let simmer for 10 minutes
-remove bones and meat and rinse.
-add to pot meat and bones and bring to boil
-let scum rise
-poke hole in scum to observe broth; when scum ceases to rise, begin skimming
-add two more quarts of water and bring to another boil
-skim some more
-bring down to simmer and remove oxtail, flank, and ribmeat; leave a quarter to half of oxtails and add some fish sauce and sugar
-simmer for at least 3-4 hours OR simmer overnight and remove bones in the morning
-meanwhile, toast one half of spices. Mix together spices again, and then ground one half of spices. put ground spices in cheesecloth bag/fine sieve teaball and whole spices in large teaball
-dry roast onion and ginger under broiler or on a skillet or over gas stove; remove black parts
-place oxtail, rib/neck, flank in pot
-if using cardamom, crack cardamom and steep in broth for 30-45 minutes prior to adding other spices and remove once fragrant
-simmer for an hour
-place onion, ginger, and spices in pot
-simmer for 15-30 min
-remove oxtail, flank, and ribmeat/neckmeat when tender (keep in broth longer if still tough); take off meat and soak in cold water. Slice flank into thin strips. Reserve meat for later and return bones to pot
-simmer for 15-30 min
-simmer for 1 more hour
-taste broth; add back onion or spices if flavor is lacking
-strain broth with cheesecloth and remove fat
-take vegetables, onion, ginger and at least 3-4 egg whites and shells and grind coarsely in blender
-take broth and let cool to room temperature
-mix in egg white mixture
-increase to simmering temperature while stirring constantly
-stop stirring when coagulation starts
-allow an egg white raft to form and poke a hole in the middle to allow bubbles to escape
-remove raft after 30 minutes
-move to rinsed pot and bring to a boil and then let simmer
-add fish sauce, salt, sugar, and pepper to taste

There were things I changed during cooking. I left the bones to simmer for three extra hours because I thought the stock was a little thin.
A recipe that’s very rough around the edges, but I actually tried it out. And they were right: this was extremely labor intensive and time consuming. The whole kitchen including me was covered in beef fat and particles. There were many things I noticed about the resulting liquid

It did not smell like the pho I ate in restaurants. It smelled overwhelmingly like star anise and carrots, which was not something I planned for. I noticed that when I was roasting the ginger and onion and crushing up the spices, I had that EXACT same smell of pho from restaurants on my hands. I had no clue why it wasn’t present at the end of the cooking. Perhaps the aromatics had evaporated away because I boiled it too long.

I also noticed that the stock was very lacking in flavor. It tasted like slightly beefy water. So I added a VERY large amount of fish sauce until it tasted okay.

Then the taste test arrived. I prepared some noodles, cut up some of the beef from the stock and cut up some rare beef. I chopped scallions and cilantro and basil. I prepared the bowl and poured in the hot stock. Topped it off with some pepper.

The results? It was actually pretty good…but it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t something I would consider absolutely delicious, and it definitely did NOT taste like the restaurant styles. First off, I noticed that it just tasted like regular beef broth with a hint of fishiness. In fact, I didn’t really think it was beefy at all. I didn’t detect my of the ginger, onion, spices. The broth almost tasted like a blander vegetable broth my grandmother made a while back. And I think if it weren’t for the generous amounts of fish sauce I added, the broth would have been unpalatable. However, on the contrary, the soup was VERY rich. It was so unbelievably thick. Afterwards, my hands were actually sticky from the gelatin. And the spoon was glued onto the bowl. Wow. And when I refrigerated it, the stock became a stiff block of Jello.

I keep hearing that more bones equal more flavor, but I’m seriously starting to doubt that. I’m starting to think that the gelatin and the richness of the stock actually is muddling up the flavors of the aromatics. Perhaps I am using poor quality ingredients. I bought the beef bones from an asian grocery store. It came in a bag and I didn’t really find much marrow content in the bones. However the bones were VERY heavy in cartilage and fat. Perhaps I should buy bones with more meat and marrow.

Maybe next time, I’ll add more ginger and onion, add less bones and more meat, and leave out the toasting of the spices.

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Not sure how many quarts you were making but that sounds like a huge amount of bones. I would add enough bones to cover with water. Some meat on bones is nice. Beef is the key for pho. I would definately toast the ginger and onion. Keep the star anise, cinnamon, garlic and clove and black pepper. Veggies adds are not traditional. The whole skimming thing eludes me- unless I boil vigourously which you are not supposed to do for stock- I never get much skum from bones. Basically, put the bones and aromatics in water to cover and simmer with barely a bubble for 6 to 8 hours. Strain. Proceed with soup assembly. In my experience the brisket or tendon that are long cook items are separately cooked and are all add-ins like the raw beef. Cardoman, fennel and bat (!) - NO

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Hi Takadi–

I’ve been making pho for exactly the same reason you mentioned–I want a bigger, beefier taste. In looking at your recipe, I notice three things I do differently: first, I omit many of the ingredients you include, second, I brown the meat before I make the stock, and third, I boil the flavoring components for the last 15-30 minutes only. Here’s a bit more detail:

First the stock:

1. I use only meaty cuts when making the stock–generally oxtail and chuck
2. I always brown the meat in a saute pan or in the oven prior to making the stock (this is not traditional Vietnamese technique).
3. I pack the meat in the stockpot relatively tightly, then cover with cold water by only 1″
4. I bring the stock slowly up to a simmer and cook for about 4-6 hours.
5. About 2 hours before the stock is complete I add chuck or any other beef I plan on plating with the soup (browned first).
6. Note I don’t use any carrot or vegetables to flavor the soup at this point.

Flavoring the stock:

About 15-30 minutes before the stock is complete, I add:

1. handful of shallots that have been peeled then roasted on a gas burner until completely black (roughly 8-12 blackened shallots for about 6 quarts of finished soup),
2. 6″ of peeled, ginger that has also been roasted on the gas burner until black
3. star anise, clove, and cardamom. (while I can’t say with any accuracy how much spicing I use, it’s probably about 4-6 star anise for 6 qts of soup, along with 3 cardamom, 4 clove, 12 peppercorns

About 5 minutes before the soup is done:
1. Add fish sauce until the flavor is appropriate (it may be undersalted at this point, but with the correct ‘fishy’ flavor)
2. Add salt if it needs it
3. I generally don’t add sugar, but mostly because I don’t remember it. I think it would be great either way.

The things in your recipe that may be giving you a flavor different from what you were expecting are the carrots, bay leaf, fennel seeds and coriander seeds. If I were you I would definitely omit the first three and probably the last as well.

Good luck on your next batch–it’s well worth it for a rich, beefy bowl of pho!

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I finally cooked a batch, and the end result was good, but not great. I don’t have a camera so I couldn’t take pictures

This time I added way fewer bones, probably about 3 lbs. I used hindshanks with the meat around them, a couple of oxtails, and some bones with marrow I bought from the store. I used about a 6 cloves, 3 whole star anise, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 cardamom pod, a teaspoon of black pepper and a teaspoon of coriander seed. I used about two large onions and about 6 inches of ginger. I roasted those and I toasted the spices. I also put about half a daikon root into the stock.

The end result was surprisingly bland, despite the fact that I probably added a cup of fish sauce and loads of salt. It smelled like pho during cooking, but after a while the smell just dissapated when I was straining the stock. I have no clue what’s going on. I felt as if the stock was a bit sweeter than I expected, but there was something about it that was lacking in depth.

I blanched the bones and the meat. I then roasted the bones in the oven for about half an hour and brown the meat. I simmered all of this for about an hour before I added the onion and ginger. I simmered for another hour before adding the daikon and spices. I simmered for another two hours.

Did I do anything wrong? I am just not getting why I can’t get that bright restaurant flavor. Too little bones? Tommorrow’s another day….
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I found this very very interesting

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/441951

”

Many Hounders have professed their mom’s pho to be the best. I am no different, and recently asked my mother to share her secret to the amazing steaming hot bowls of lovin’ that grace our table when I come home to visit the Pacific Northwest.

When I asked, she took out a step stool, a rickety thing covered in red leatherette, and opened a cupboard. Inside, on the very tippy-top shelf, she took out a jar. Inside swam a sea of anise stars in a brown liquid.

“Sherry,” she said.

Yes, sherry-soaked anise stars are the secret to my mom’s incomparable bowl of pho bo (for you whitey tighties in the audience, or just newcomers, bo is beef). You basically buy the most crappy sherry available, fill a used Smucker’s jam jar to the gills with anise stars, and pour. It must steep at least a few months to taste right for soup. I don’t know if that’s useful (or just gross) to anyone else. Thought I would share.

Does anyone else’s mom have a secret ingredient? Spill the bo here!”

I’ve heard all sorts of claims of secret techniques or ingredients that makes their particular pho special, all from adding dried sea worms, adding a bit of tendon, etc. If anyone has any particular peculiarities about their pho broth I would be interested in hearing them

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Over the past several months, I’ve been periodically making batches of pho broth, trying different things in an attempt to get somewhere near the flavor of the broth at the good local restaurants.

With the huge variation in recipes I found online, it was difficult to come up with a good starting point, especially since many of the ingredients are things I had little or no experience with. After a lot of reading, I thought I had identified the common elements and had a good understanding of how they worked together, but the more I try, the further I seem to get away from the target.

So we have bones, meat, aromatics and spices. My current formula is:

6lb beef leg/knuckle bones
3lb chuck roast
2 yellow onions
2x 3″ pieces ginger
3x 3″ pieces cassia bark
8 whole star anise
8 whole cloves
10 black cardamom pods
1 tbsp black peppercorns
2oz chunk yellow rock sugar
1 tbsp sea salt

Boil the bones. Slice the onions and ginger in half lengthwise and put them under the broiler for about 15 minutes total, turning half-way. Smash the ginger good. Add the bones, meat, onions, ginger, sugar and salt, and 7qt water and simmer for 6 hours or more. Then toast the spices for 2-3 minutes in a pan, and thoroughly crush the cardamom pods. Put them in an infuser and drop it in the broth, simmer for another 30 minutes. Then strain and cool overnight, and defat the next day. I add about 1 tbsp fish sauce to each bowl when I reheat it.

And while the broth smells very aromatic when it is simmering and when reheating it, it just lacks the spice flavor and even aroma of the restaurant stuff in the bowl. I would have thought MSG, but even the smell of the restaurant broth is 10x as potent.

I’ve learned a lot from trial and error. Biggest thing is that the flavor of the spices evaporates out over time, which is why I now add the spices only for the last 30 minutes - maybe that’s still too long or not long enough, or possibly the various spices take different amounts of time to release their flavors. Or something else I just considered last time around - maybe just reheating it to a full boil is evaporating off most of the flavors from the spices (next time around, I plan to try tasting it as it finishes simmering, before it cools and needs to be reheated).

Aside from the lack of spice, the broth is very beefy, and with the noodles, garnish, and meat, my homemade pho blows away the restaurant stuff in every other category. Seems like I’m close but need a breakthrough to get the rest of the way there.

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Just from my Indian experience, here is what I think, not necessarily correct:

you have 9 lb/ 4.5 kg meaty stuff: 8 cloves 8 cardamoms etc. 30 min

per 2 lb in slow cooker or slow oven ALL UNTOASTED 3-4 cloves, because these are not often fresh, small piece cassia bark 1 inch or more, green or black cardamom 3 green or black 1-2, peppercorns as you wish, star anise, i would cook cook low and slow 6-8 hours with the spices in cover on, very low in oven

You can even dum by sealing with dough ring a dutch oven. Broth will be clear and very fragrant. We do not make pho but similar broth with lamb or goat trotters or marrow bones and shanks. Shank bones of beef then and oxtails.

Pho is a classic yakhni with a garam masala!! Nothing more!

Roasted onion is for color and slight taste. You may consider adding some raw sliced onion and ginger with meat for deeper taste.

This post has been edited by v. gautam: 07 May 2009 - 01:17 AM

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I’ve been simmering the broth in a stockpot on the stove, uncovered. I thought about at least partially covering the pot while simmering to limit evaporation, but temperature control could be a problem - it already simmers a little fast uncovered at the lowest heat I can get, though I haven’t tried the simmer burner on my stove yet. Maybe I will try that and cover it next time.

The first few times I made pho broth, I added the spices right at the start of simmering. Within about 15 minutes, the aroma was strong in the steam rising out of the pot, and it stayed that way for an hour or so. But then the aroma started to weaken, and by 2 hours in, it had almost completely gone away. After it was finished simmering, it just tasted like beef broth with some onion flavor and no trace of spices. This is how I learned of the evaporation problem.

Then I found an article in the Washington Post by the guy who owns Pho 75 here in the DC area (the one in Rosslyn has the best pho I’ve ever had). His recipe said to add the spices at the end. In fact, he specified just 10 minutes of simmering with the spices. I tried 30 minutes (after 10 the aroma wasn’t very strong yet), and I could finally taste a little bit of spice flavor, but very subtle, and all I could really taste was the cassia and a little anise. The cardamom and cloves just seem to be lost completely.

Are the oils evaporating out too quickly while simmering? Am I simmering too long? Is there too much heat? Is reheating the broth to a boil destroying it no matter what I do? I dunno. I’m a scientific person so I just want to optimize the procedure and be able to replicate it over and over again.

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One more thought. Are the essential oils from these spices fat-soluble? Could the oils be accumulating in the fat layer that forms at the top of the broth? I wonder if removing the fat layer the next day is effectively removing all of the spice flavor from the broth.

I just noticed a detail in the Pho 75 dude’s recipe, where he strains and defats the broth BEFORE adding the spices. I wonder if removing the excess fat first is a critical step to keeping the flavor and aroma in the broth.

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All the essential oils are terpenes YYYYYYY structures, di to sesquiterpenes. Evaporation, extraction with steam is one way they are extracted, say from rose petals! So you are releasing everything to the atmosphere by simmering uncovered.

The other poster also has a point that some fractions are fat soluble, or at least soluble in non-polar solvents like alcohol, and removing the fat removes some flavor. That is why the Vietnamese blanch the bones first, to remove a slight amount of superficial grease and protein scum. Then get shank type meat, move down toward the ankles, and also some oxtail from Chinese grocers who sell tail from cows over 30 months: older, leaner, more flavorful for soup meat.

Having blanched and washed, put in spices. Please do not buy the spices in the little pho packets sitting in Oriental groceries! Rather, go to Indian groceries where there is the chance for higher turnover but choose your shop carefully. If you are in Silicon Valley or in places with high So. Asian populations, you have a better chance of fresher spices, but not necessarily: the packers can be unscrupulous.

Penzey’s etc. may be better, but the Indian grocers still offer a pretty fair deal in my opinion. I am just anxious that others not feel cheated! You won’t be, I buy my spices there!! Do a trial run, being a scientist and be prepared for failure.

Load up your dutch oven with the high dosage of spice I indicated, raw onion, a smaller shot of raw ginger AND DID YOU NOTICE the ALCOHOL EXTRACT + ALCOHOL INPUT of TAKADÏ’s Hon. Mother?!!! That Alcohol IS SEHR GUT!! It pulls out more flavors from the spices. Please very gently pound the black & green cardamoms to open them up and very lightly bruise their seeds. Please leave their husks on.

We generally put a dough seal on the lid to seal it tighty and let the oven do the cooking. Stick it in, set it to 225-250F (or lower) and forget it for some hours. If you have a separate portable electric oven for turkey cooking and can seal it with dough, there are temperature controllers that can regulate current + temperature precisely and fit between wall socket and appliance. You can set it to 180- 190F and forget about it for 9-10 hours. Switch off and let cool. Skim fat with strainer. You will have clear wine like stock.

Even that may not be necessary. Low settings may be obtained, e.g. 180F in large oval crockpots. Sometimes these are on clearance sales at Walmart, $34, esp. those with indwelling temperature probes! The edges of the glass lid easily can be sealed with a dough ring, there is a nice ledge. Pressure does NOT build up because of the slow cooking, no head of steam.
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Thanks for the detailed information, I appreciate your time.

I’ve seen oxtails mentioned a lot in the context of pho. Do oxtails provide a different flavor than the bone+chuck combination I’ve been using? I get the leg/knuckle bones at a local Asian market - they have oxtails too, but I’ve never used them before. Would I just use bones and oxtails? In other words, are oxtails a direct substitute for the meat?

I got my spices from Spice House online. I’ve been very happy with the quality of their spices and the prices are reasonable. I stay away from the pho spice packets, because I like the control of building from scratch and knowing exactly what goes into my food. I’ve got enough of the spices to last probably 20 batches of pho.

You mentioned using untoasted spices. I’ve always toasted the spices - is there a reason that untoasted is better for this application? And what about the raw onion and ginger as opposed to charring them?

I definitely plan to try the low, controlled heat method with a sealed vessel, as I can see the advantages of this technique. Unfortunately I don’t have a dutch oven, but I’ve wanted to buy one for a long time. Probably won’t happen overnight, but soon.

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I think oxtails just happen to be one of, if not the, most flavoursome bone part. Naturally, that creates a more intense flavour for the soup.
As for toasting spices, my mum doesn’t do this (she doesn’t even use ginger) and she makes the most brilliant pho. I kid you not.

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Oxtails add body & depth without clouding: please do not use American style oxtails that are from younger, very fat animals, very expensive too. Asian stores carry tail from OLD, dairy CUTTER grade animals, much thinner, cheaper too!! More easily/effectively cleansed in the preliminary blanching.

Oxtail has meat, bone and some tissue between vertebrae that provides gelling for just enough body to the broth. So it is a complete package, no need to buy meat & bones separately. You also should eat the left over or make it into a hash. Tissue that are in constant motion and stress [e.g. having to support the mass while moving], like calf muscle, shin meat, neck, tail, etc. seem to accumulate the flavor and other components necessary for a good broth.

Toasting spices, in the Indian context, is when you want to do several different things in near-waterless meat braises that are SEETHED in fat, or for adding as a flavor enhancer at the very end. Those applications are not indicated here in water extraction. Toasting imparts a certain flavor but also drives out aromatic oils to the atmosphere! You can create a little toasted powder, that we call garam masala powder, cassia, green cardmon whole, and cloves [sparingly] and hold this. You may experiment for one bowl by sprinkling in 1 small saucepan of broth a pinch of this garam masala to see if it wakes up the flavors before serving. That is what is done in India. Whole spices during braises or water cooking, plus perk up with toasted powdered spices at finish. Just try, but only one experimental bowl of your many bowls!! And go up in the heating saucepan by pinches. Light toasting to deeper toasting, as you choose, adds another variable like coffee roasts!

Ginger is a personal taste. Very long cooking makes ginger taste steamy. The point here is not to generate steam, even when cooking long. You decide what to include.

Dutch ovens, enamelled cast iron 5 qt, can be had new for around USD 35-40 at Target, Chinese manufacture. They are good enough for 95% of everything you need to make, including complex biryanis! Or lamb pilafs. Fill them 2/3 or more, and that will easily be 5-6 lbs of oxtail, and you will have enough broth for 15-20 big bowls of pho. plus you can add you gan-na tendon here as well so you can enjoy that with your pho, or your tongue, too, tripe nicely blanched, librillo tripe + honeycomb tripe. Put them all in and you are good to go.

This type of cookware is very affordable and 8 quart Club aluminum dutch oven lined with non-stick also affordable. Thunder/Tarhong is a brand to look out for, for decent prices. Don’t get fooled by big European names. Leave those to people with more money than sense.

If you are not very freaked out by bits of protein swimming in your pho broth, a stainless steel PRESSURE COOKER, 6 or 8 quart is great. Load her up as per safety directions with blanched oxtail, any shin bone & meat, ear, tripe, tongue, tendon, spices. Bring her up to pressure gently and let her rock gently without any loud escape of steam for the appointed time or less because you are going to cool until the pressure drops by itself. You will have one fantastic broth, still very hot.

Skim with strainer and then paper towel. Get your cutting board out, and slice all the goodies, slice your raw steak, fix your greenies & noodles and you are good to go.

That same fine mesh skimmer will fish out the whole spices and some of the coagulated protein. Eat the protein with rice. Us Asians never throw food away. After all we eat clotted blood [protein] with relish, so what’s wrong with that other protein? I find cosmetically clear broths and all weird in this instance when so much gunk gets dumped into the pho while eating [jungles, chile sauce, 5 billion types of meat, you name it, what can you see of the broth anyway???

Happy experiments. Don’t freak out the family!!

copied from Robin Fogarty website:

http://www.robinfogarty.com/tenthingsnewteachersneedvideos61.html

Ten Things New Teachers Need by Robin Fogarty

Chapter 1: A Knowing Colleague as Counsel.about the Policies, Practices, and “The Politics”!

Focus: Mentoring
Video: Finding Forrester (Clip of Forrester helping boy to learn how to write).
Question: How does this mentor demonstrate the power of one on one mentoring with examples from the film clip.

Chapter 2: A Place Called School and “My Room” for Kids to Grow and Groom and Zoom!

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Video: To Sir, With Love (Clip of classroom scene in which he lays down the rules
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Video: Breakfast Club (Clip of kids meeting for the “breakfast club”).
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Question: Discuss role of standards in terms of curriculum that has both rigor and richness.

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Video: Dead Poet’s Society (Clip of teacher telling kids to rip out the pages as a dramatic way of talking about what he values as curriculum).
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Focus: Differentiation
Video: Mr. Holland’s Opus (Clip of Mr. Holland teaching the boy how to play the drums in the marching band.
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Focus: Performance
Video: Music of the Heart (Clip in which high standards and quality are clearly represented through the music).
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Chapter 10: A Winning Way with Parents.to Report, to Relate, and to Celebrate
Focus: Parents/Community
Video: Pay It Forward (Scenes when mother first meets teacher).
Question: How might teachers invite parents to participate in school

Not sure if other brands to the same, but immediately after consuming home-made cinnamon rolls made with No-Name brand cinnamon powder, my teeth become very sensitive to cold water.   I have a vague memory that other cinnamon rolls do the same thing… will have to remember to do some more controlled tests.

Nomadic biker stops to investigate google map vehicle.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=65.824979,-144.062058&num=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=65.825111,-144.06194&spn=0.003871,0.014741&z=17&layer=c&cbll=65.825159,-144.061871&panoid=EeI6rc85H1dWYldXa3iXAA&cbp=12,304.34,,0,20.63

http://www.incrediblethings.com/

www.printersmith.com

I have a very strong suspicion that ingesting galangal can cause some very strange, highly detailed, vivid dreams.

 After an update was applied in mid-April, an error shows up on all powerpoint files -

“PowerPoint was unable to display some of the text, images, or objects as slides in the file (name) because they have become corrupt. Affected slides have been replaced by blank slides in the presentation and it is not possible to recover lost information. To ensure that the file can be opened in previous versions of PowerPoint, use the Save As command and save the file with the same name or a new name.”

The particular update causing this problem is KB2464588 .  Uninstalling this update fixes the problem, however, it opens up a security hole that this fix was supposed to close.   

1. disable autospelling as mentioned above (start powerpoint 2003 with empty presentation, change options, quit)
2. open a presentation with the mentioned error
3. change to the master view and delete one of the images (there should be at least one image as this is causing the error as far as i understood)
4. undo the deletion with CTRL-Z and save the changes
5. now assign the “new” master to all existing pages
6. save the changes again

There’s also a hotfix from microsoft that’s supposed to fix it, but some people are having problems with it - and from Microsofts’s description, it was rushed out:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2543241

http://lastbit.com/pswcalc.asp

Found a very interesting blog discussion here:

http://littlelocavores.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-orange-isnt-orange-food-dyes-in.htmlWhich even has a response from Karen Mathis - Director of Public Relations at the Florida Department of Citrus

to summarize :

Citrus Red #2 is allowed on early early season fruit, which are mature internally, but still has not developed orange/red pigments .   Apparently it is rarely used, and only in the beginning of the season.

which means that early Florida oranges are probably best avoided… 

However, just thinking out loud , I remember hearing that pretty much the entire Florida orange crop is already sold to juice companies, if this is true, then that’s good news, as it would be unnecessary to artificially color them (probably illegal and costly too) .    Doing a little google kung-fu verifies this: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pi036  , 95 percent of the florida orange crop is processed for juice, while the remainder goes for fresh market.   So a little napkin math goes like this -

If Florida makes  14,620,000,000 pounds of oranges in a year, 5% of that goes to fresh market, so that means 731,000,000 pounds .   A single orange is around 0.5 pounds .  So that means 1,462,000,000 oranges goes to market .   Assume 10 percent of these oranges are early market, which means 146,200,000 oranges could potentially be artificially colored if the conditions are right.

This site http://www.orangejuicefacts.com/faq.html states that 80 percent of america’s orange juice is made from Florida grown oranges.

Strangely enough, the University of Florida IFAS extension site, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pi036 says that Florida growers produced 79% of the oranges harvested in the U.S.   So did the orangejuicefacts site just extrapolated the total U.S. orange production and assumed that orange juice is also 80% sourced from Florida?

http://www.cabletiesandmore.ca

After peeling some tangerines recently, I noticed that the pith in the peels were coloured strangely.  

See attached picture - the picture does not do it justice, it actually appears much more orange than that - a lesson to me that I should’ve put a black/grey/white balance card in there.

A little google searching reveals that citrus red #2 is legal and commonly used to colour non-industrial oranges .   One blog quotes :  ”can cause eye lense clouding, kidney damage, vomiting and circulatory collapse.It may also cause allergic reactions and get this, cross-react with clothing, hair dyes, and sufanilimides.  Application to skin can cause peeling and deaths have been reported after application to the skin!  It may also cause CANCER!” - I’m going to have to search for the original sources of that.

 Update - May 4 - still not exactly conclusive that these mandarin/clementines are dye coloured.   I’ve thought of a possible test that might work…  lightly soak a napkin in vegetable oil and rub the skin of the citrus…  if it’s covered with a dye, some should rub off onto the napkin.   This is on the premise that Citrus Red#2, 1-(2,5-Dimethoxy-phenylazo)-naphthalen-2-ol,  is not soluble in water, but in many organic solvents.

1.  Update - May 5 - decided to search through some legal statutes, and using the key words “1988. Florida Citrus Fruit Laws. Florida Statutes. 601.” which I got from the wikipedia page on Citrus Red 2 , google found a pdf file of the Florida Citrus Fruit laws 2009.   
2. So the key word to search for in this pdf is “artificial coloring” , this will get you straight to chapter 20-32 . 

 20-32.001 states that the business/individual must notify the Division of fruit and vegetables that they intend to color fruit.

20-32.004 is a weird one -

Prohibited Coloring Matter - No coloring matter may be used in coloring oranges, Temples, tangelos, or K-Early Citrus Fruit which continues to enhance the color of the fruit after application

Ok - did I get this right?   There’s food coloring that continues to color the fruit after application?  What does that even mean?   Why would they take the time to specifically say that in a statute?

Then there’s a huge section on what can be colored (notice the american spelling of colour that I’m using) :

20-32.005 Early Varieties.
For varieties of oranges known as early oranges (as Hamlin and Parson Brown), and K-Early Citrus Fruit, the maximum shade or
hue of such fruit, after coloring, shall not exceed the average characteristic natural color of such fruit when naturally fully colored,
which is hereby defined as: Munsell Color Notation, Hue five and four-tenths yellow-red, Value six and fifty-eight hundredths, Chroma twelve and six-tenths (5.4 YR 6.58/12.6).

20-32.006 Midseason Varieties.
For varieties of oranges known as midseason oranges, for Temple oranges, and for Tangelos, the maximum shade or hue of such
fruit, after coloring, shall not exceed the average characteristic natural color of such fruit when naturally fully colored, which is
hereby defined as: Munsell Color Notation, Hue four and four-tenths yellow-red, Value five and ninety hundredths, Chroma thirteen
and one-tenth. (4.4 YR 5.90/13.1).

Specific Authority 601.10(1), (7) FS. Law Implemented 601.10(7) FS. History–Formerly 105-1.12(6), Revised 1-1-75, Formerly 20-32.06.

20-32.007 Late Varieties.
For varieties of oranges known as late oranges, (as Valencia, Lue Gim Gong, and others), the maximum shade or hue of such
oranges, after coloring, shall not exceed the average characteristic natural color of such fruit when naturally fully colored, which is
hereby defined as: Munsell Color Notation, Hue four and eight-tenths yellow-red, Value six and twenty-five hundredths, Chroma
twelve and two-tenths (4.8 YR 6.25/12.2).

Specific Authority 601.10(1), (7) FS. Law Implemented 601.10(7) FS. History–Formerly 105-1.12(7), Revised 1-1-75, Formerly 20-32.07.

20-32.008 Tolerance.
A tolerance of 10% by count shall be allowed for over-colored fruit. Any fruit of which the natural color exceeds the color of the
applicable standard above, shall not be deemed over-colored if coloring matter is applied for the purpose of uniformity.

Specific Authority 601.10(1), (7) Law Implemented 601.10(7) FS. History–Formerly 105-1.12(8), Revised 1-1-75, Formerly 20-32.08.

20-32.009 Mixing Fruit Prohibited.
No fruit colored in accordance with this rule shall be mixed with fruit not so colored.

Specific Authority 601.10(1), (7) FS. Law Implemented 601.10(7), 601.83 FS. History–Formerly 105-1.12(9), Revised 1-1-75, Formerly 20-32.09.

20-32.010 Marking Containers.
(1) All boxes of artificially colored fruit shall be prominently and conspicuously labeled “Color Added” in boldface type. Such
designation shall be a part of the main label affixed or stamped on each box, or shall be stamped on the top of the container or
immediately adjacent to the main label.
(2) When approved bags are used as containers for artificially colored fruit, the label on each bag or insert tag shall prominently
and conspicuously show the words “Color Added” in bold face type.

Specific Authority 601.10(1), (7) FS. Law Implemented 601.10(7), 601.11 FS. History–Formerly 105-1.12(10), Revised 1-1-75, 8-1-77, Formerly
20-32.10, Amended 10-15-95.

20-32.011 Time and Temperature Limitations.
In the process of artificially coloring oranges, Temple oranges and Tangelos, in accordance with the rule, the temperature of the
coloring solution applied to oranges shall not exceed 120º F., and the period of application shall not exceed four minutes; the
temperature of the solution applied to Temple oranges and Tangelos shall not exceed 115º F., and the period of application shall not
exceed two and one-half minutes.

This error suddenly started happening after trying to start the Windows Installer Service .   Trying to install other software won’t work if the installer service is off.   Running updates to the installer service also did not work.    The final thing that did work was:

c:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe /unregserver
c:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe /regserver

 Then start the installer service.