Get an image of a lizard that you want to use and put it in a layer on top of this one. You do that by simply copy/pasting it on the original. Adjust the size to fit the pile of chiles. You do that by telling it what dimensions you want or by tugging at the corners.

Outline the chameleon with a path and save the path. Change the path to a selection and use the selection of the outlined chameleon on the chile patch. That is, copy the chiles in the outline shape of the chameleon. Copy. Paste. That creates a chile-chameleon in a layer on top of the chile pile. That is, a transparent layer of chiles in the shape of a chameleon. Discard the original chameleon layer for it has served its purpose.

Copy the chameleon layer and adjust the chameleon's legs to make it look like it's walking if you can do that, and create a separate layer for each leg position. Name the chameleon layers, for example, original, front leg move, rear leg move, that sort of thing, or simply 1,2,3. The layers can be duplicated as a set, if you want the chameleon to walk off the page then create sets of chameleon layers and position the transparencies as if the lizard is walking.

Or, you can shake the lizard layer by creating just one alternate outline and copy it three times or four times and position it alternately layered so that it appears to shake when run in sequence. My British friends showed me this, with chameleons. A stack of transparencies positioned directly above the original image in the shape of the chameleon but cut from the rug and changes to the chameleon that when run as frames appear to shake, like the camouflage poodle on a patterned rug.

How did it come to be?Were the peppers tossed on the blanket?Arranged artfully?Or the third possibility: tossed and then "edited?"What about the blanket?Was it there to begin with?Or did the maker pull the blanket and the peppers together?See a combination, where there were only peppers, and a blanket, before?At which point the mystery takes a deep dive down To a place where silly questions have no place.

Those chiles are green. That means they are not ripe. But this you already know from your plant knowledge.

Bobby Flay went down southwest to learn himself about chiles, and it was so ridiculous the way he went around asking all those nice people in New Mexico what was their favorite type of chile red or green? They all looked at him nonplussed at first before responding because they are all the same chiles except at different stages but the people are all too kind to say, quit asking us that stupid question you dumbass. But now he's learned better.

Also chefs on Food Network continue to propound the nonsense about capsaicin heat being in the seeds. It's not. The heat is concentrated in the membrane that attaches the seeds to the pod. That stuff is hot, if the chile is a hot one, The inner clump and the ribs of the chile. You can test that yourself by getting the hottest chile imaginable and carefully removing the membrane with an X-acto and boldly fearlessly consume the seed. Hold it right there on your lip. Go on, try it, I said.

On 60 Minutes, Obama called the events in Libya "a bump in the road." He's getting flack for that. It's terrible phrasing but in the broadest sense not a lie.

In the same response he asserted that the US has been aligning itself with the forces of democracy and freedom in the Middle East, and that this was the right path despite the bumps.

Tell that to the Syrian rebels, who are being murdered daily. For that Obama won't even vote present. He made a public statement that the Syrian government rightly interpreted as saying the US would intervene only if they used chemical weapons against their own people. This enabled Assad to step up has assault with jet fighters, artillery and infantry.

Obama is acting as if the massacre in Syria does not exist. And of course the crack interviewer on 60 Minutes lets this pass. Steve whatever his name is. Fools. Both of them.

* I used Johnsonville Grilling Chirizo last time, cut open the sausage and pulled out the filling.

This has a nice medium heat. It's not blow your head off chili so it appeals to a wide audience. Also, it's easy on the beans (I like more in my home version) so bean haters don't mind, or it's less to pick out.

Chip Ahoy is, of course, correct about where the heat is in a chili...the membrane inside, not the seeds. If a seed feels hot on the tongue, it is because of residual membrane still attached to it.

Traditional Koreans prepare their ripe red chilies by slitting them lengthwise and removing the seeds by running a thumbnail through the slot. The really old school dry the split chilies in sunlight. Once dry, the hulls, with members intact, are ground in to coarse flakes to fine powders.

The seeds add nothing to the flavor of chilies, nor the foods prepared from same. I buy my Korean chili grinds from Korean owned groceries. Two pound bags, one coarse and one fine, last a long time. Just make sure they're Korean original, not Chinese, which is cheaper, seedy, and less well prepared.

You just can't convince my numerous Arabic food shops of that, however, they firmly believe the heat is in the seeds....and usually label their grinds as hot pepper seeds....that uniformly taste like pepper flavored wood chips.

"garage mahal said...CGI'm going after some kings next weekend off McKinley Marina pier. Some guys I work with have been killing them. You ever eat anything out of Lake Michigan? Or should I say, would you?"

Haven't, but would. I think you just need to limit consumption. Same as with many bodies of water.

As far as the chili powder substitution, go for it. I use it because it's easy, and chili is a lazy man's food. The rest of the recipe is fresh though.

Looks like the next shot at Romney from the left is speculation that he is refusing to reveal his tax records because they will show he participated in the IRS amnesty for tax cheats from the UBS whistleblower case.

Garage, The guy is a bastard. I hate when people do that. Once Wolfgang puck was interviewing his own mother demonstrating something special that she makes and she got to the secret part that could not be revealed and I'm all, what? I'm not even going to tell you what I thought after that, but it wasn't nice, and it ended, die with your recipe then.

I will attempt to compensate for his ill behavior.

If he rehydrated chile peppers, then that would be like those ristras Althouse showed a few days ago, the string of red peppers. You can buy the same things in bags.

They come in different strengths. They're everywhere over here. The problem is, they give no clue to their heat capacity so all that is experimental.

They are heated in a cast-iron pan to excite the molecules and get their dried oils moving. Just force them flat onto a hot pan for a few seconds, but don't burn them. They soften right up and puff a smoke to reveal their hidden essence. Then soaked in hot water and blended. Sieved to extract all the tiny bits. That's a very important step to those cooks, they want it completely smooth. Salted, flavored standard ways, and that forms a traditional sauce for tamales and such. It's very tasty just as it is.

So, cubed pork into a pot and browned all over the place and removed. In stages, do not crowd the pot. Onion, garlic, sauce from dried chiles, additional fresh chiles if you want chunks of vegetable chile, and who doesn't? potato if you want that in there, return the pork and boil until the pork comes apart. Which is fast. Tomato, peeled, if you don't then the peels come off by themselves and roll up into pins, disconcerting little tomato pins throughout the chile, or canned tomato, last because it goes mushy as the pork cooks,

Bay leaf. Cumin and coriander are the essential spices along with salt and pepper. Oregano is another.

Chipotles for smoke if you want that and increased heat, and additional vegetative chiles, powdered paprika for smoke and additional heat.

But no tricks like liquid smoke, or liquid bouquet, or worcestershire sauce unless you want tamarind, cooks use those because they're grasping for additional flavor that you can put there the real way without substitutions.

Pork cooks a lot faster than beef and lamb and other things. It surprised me how fast it goes, and how fast you can start eating it. Before it's done as stew, testing along the way, it's all good.

Consider beer, corn, pistole, which is corn treated with lye, not pistola which is a gun, masa harina for thickener, the same stuff used for corn tortillas, or soaked tortillas. Tomatillos, which have a papery outside that once removed leaves a sticky surface, and that cooks to something akin to a raw tomato but, eh, I don't know, once I over did it with tomatillos because a bunch came in a bag and it put me off tomatillos, honestly, I don't know what they're supposed to do.

chickelit that's a great quote by your father, "If people can't control themselves, the government will. If the government can't control itself, another government will." I'm printing it out and taping it to the bathroom mirror.Regards - Muns

Romney is finished. FINISHED, I tell you. The WH dinner at the Oval Room was SUPER FANTASTIC. The latest polls from Nate S. from NYT (he personally gave it to David Axelrod, who is mentioned in the Jaws movie - he is celebrity after all).

Oh, my, what a defeat for Romney. The best and greatest POTUS is 10% up with 340 electoral advantage.

This is hush-hush. Off-the-record. Romney is TOAST.

NB: Phillpe Rienes will be promoted to the WH in the 2nd term. We love the way he told F.O. to the reporter. If a reporter does not support us, we have one word: F.O.

Romney is finished. FINISHED, I tell you. The WH dinner at the Oval Room was SUPER FANTASTIC. The latest polls from Nate S. from NYT (he personally gave it to David Axelrod, who is mentioned in the Jaws movie - he is celebrity after all).

Oh, my, what a defeat for Romney. The best and greatest POTUS is 10% up with 340 electoral advantage.

This is hush-hush. Off-the-record. Romney is TOAST.

NB: Phillpe Rienes will be promoted to the WH in the 2nd term. We love the way he told F.O. to the reporter. If a reporter does not support us, we have one word: F.O.

David - "Tell that to the Syrian rebels, who are being murdered daily. For that Obama won't even vote present. He made a public statement that the Syrian government rightly interpreted as saying the US would intervene only if they used chemical weapons against their own people. This enabled Assad to step up has assault with jet fighters, artillery and infantry.

Obama is acting as if the massacre in Syria does not exist.."

Oooooooo! David evokes the supreme moral authority of "Tell it to The Victims!!"Part of the problem is we are realizing that a good chunk of the Noble Freedom Lovers fighting the "evil Assad regime" happen to be Salafists and al-Qaeda allies.

If they win, certain people say they will make Egypts Muslim Brotherhood gang look tame and pro-Western in comparison. And question if it is wise for the "compassion people" to force the US into erecting yet another vehemently anti-West, anti-Christian regime. (Minority groups are tolerated in Syria as long as they don't stir up shit. Syria has the biggest Christian population in the ME. Plus many other minorities that are not in constant fear of their safety.)

Yes, for the Israel-Centric posters, Assad is no friend of Israel. But what would replace him is in all likelihood worse.

Sometimes "dictators who kill their own people" serve the greater good of humanity if the people being killed want a dictatorship or even Islamist democracy worse than things under the evil dictator. Contrary to what the idiot Bush said about leaders who kill their own people, (like Lincoln??), being the most awefulest stuff Dubya could imagine.

Tim, funny that tri tip is so popular out there in CA, I have friends who moved here from CA, the hubby rags on Wisconsin beef and says one can't get good steak in Wisconsin, because it comes form cows as opposed to steer, how the hell would he know?

When you first start seeing other older people there comes the time when you have to face the inevitable...you have to meet "the children"!. I don't have any so my now wife had it easy. She had three, 2 were adults by their own rights, and the youngest I had met before(she was still a child).

So my wife fixes a big, big, BIG mess of chili, and invites me, her kids, and the kids partners. Now my wife had heard me brag about chili, I've had it everywhere, and everykind. Love the stuff. The hotter the better. So she tells me to get ready, she made the best chili in the world, and I was gonna' be introduced to it, and her kids at the same time!(no pressure)

So, it's late November, dark outside, the house was humid from her cooking, and the kids start arriving. Her son, who though shorter than me outweighed me by about 100 lbs., typical redneck for Kentucky, dressed in brogans, bluejeans, and a torn tee-shirt with some faded Nascar logo on it. Her older daughter came dressed as a vampire(going through a goth stage),with a prissy boyfriend that sent my gaydar off(I was right). And her youngest who still lived at home.

So we're all in the dining room and kitchen, making drinks, passing out crackers, and generally getting ready to eat. So we sit down, and laddle up the chili, and my wife tells me, "Get ready. This is the best chili you ever had" and the kids all nod their heads in agreement.

(I should add as an aside that very few people can stand up to my wife, she is a force of nature, so I do NOT blame the kids for what happened next.)

I get a big spoonful of chili and load my mouth up. It's got spaghetti, no beans, (no onions, I'm allergic), looks good. As it settles in my mouth, I roll it around my tongue like a wine taster...and an alarm goes off in my head...and I can't stop, it's a conditioned reflex...(OMG)I spit it out! I...spit...it...out!!!!

Every head turns to look at me(OMG! I spit it out!) The look on my face told some story that I couldn't hear. My wife says, with concern and worry(she thought I was ill) "What's the matter? What's wrong?"

I my shock and disbelief, I tell her the truth(OMG!)..."Jesus! That is the worst chili I ever put in my mouth!"(OMG! Did I just say that? In front of her kids!)

Silence settled on the house, like when you see yourself about to be hit by a car and you have enough time to notice, say "Oh shit!", and then you hear the screeching tires, smell the mustiness in the air. All of lifes' little things we don't notice while we are busy...

(OMG! What do I do? Tell the truth! Yeah! That'll work!) "Sweetheart, when you were making this chili, at any time, did you use any 'chili'?"Reply"No...why would I use 'chili'?"My response "Oh...I don't know...the name maybe""But everyone loves my chili, don't you kids?No one moved a muscle."Sweetheart, if this is what you have fed them for 20 years, telling them it's chili, then they don't know any better. This is just watery tomato sauce, hamburger, and spaghetti. There is NO chili in your chili!""Everybody I ever served this too loved it!""Then they lied to you. Here, do you have some chili powder?"

We doctored up that spaghetti soup til' it was edible. But I don't know why she just didn't throw me out. By rights she should have. I contend if we could make it past the chili fiasco, we can survive just about anything.

And she makes passable good chili now...one pot for her, and the big pot for the rest of us.

No pasta in the chili. I will start off with a little bit of rice and chicken stock though, with some dried arbol peppers thrown in before I add everything else.Have been experimenting with various habanero varieties, like the red savina and "chocolate" types. They go well with black beans.A dash of aromatic bitters brings out the flavors after the pot has been sitting for a couple of hours.