Smoked Salmon Anyone??

Well, if you're anything like me you have to buy smoked salmon already smoked and already baked or grilled, etc. if you want it. But while I was at Costco last weekend browsing/buying more hamburger patties (Kirkland's Top Sirloin no less), I turned around from the freezer case and noticed these cedar planks shrink wrapped and labeled Grilling Planks. I thought to myself, what??? These just look like a bunch of nicely cut cedar fence boards decorated with two salmon silouhettes burned into the corners of them.

Then I thought, "What a waste? Even for just under 10 bucks!". Couldn't I just go to Lowe's or Home Depot and pick up a fence board and cut it into grilling size pieces? Well, my wife was still at her professional conference and I didn't know if she'd laugh at me or not so I brought 'em home! But if she thought it was silly or she had heard they didn't work very well or something, etc. then we could always take them back. Costco is known for their very generous return policy.

So Saturday, here we are a week later and I'm dying to try these things out.
"Hey, we still have some of that fresh Salmon in the freezer." I know, some of you purists out there are calling that last sentence an oxymoron! It's not fresh if it's in the freezer! The salmon was flash frozen but the bags lost their seal. I know big bummer, but believe me it didn't seem to affect the taste of the fish. Just finished the leftovers at lunch today and they were still good! Okay back to the lovely planks...

Basically, before I divulge more detailed information about the most wonderful taste that comes from using grilling planks while grilling salmon the whole point of this post is that if you even remotely like salmon and you even remotely don't mind grilling it once and a while... please give the grilling planks a try. They rock your taste buds socks right off! I'm serious! Hey if you don't like 'em, no loss really to you. They're not even 10 bucks, like I said. But good night nurse, it's least you could do to get the most "Oh my goodness!" out of your taste buds! Next time you're over visiting, remind me we'll try 'em! Absolute yumness!

Okay back to business... so all you need to do is soak one board in warm water for a minimum of 20 minutes. No problem. We can do that. And grill it on low! Okay that takes a little bit of patience but still no problemo! The idea is for you to smoke the plank on low while having it not catch fire and flame! The smoke adheres to the fish while cooking and is the most amazing thing you've ever grilled in your life... Okay so you're thinking, hey buddy, I've grilled some pretty mean burgers in my day... but no sorry you haven't! Okay maybe but this is nothing close to a really good burger! Grilled salmon when you're starving is even better! The patience you have to endure for this thing works up your appetite until you could eat a fence post and that might even taste good... Okay sorry got a little out of control but if you don't try it I can't help you. That's all there is to it!
Welp, let me know how it goes!

GMAC Bank's Money Market Savings Account @ 4.61%

Back in November, I blogged about a savings account with an unbelievable rate of return. I have since been enlightened and educated. While several online only savings accounts continue to crop up, GMAC Bank has their rate currently at 4.61% and seems to be holding their leader status since I heard about them in January. Their rate in January was 4.21% and in just a few short months they've already bumped the rate four tenths of a percent. The APY (Annual Percentage Yield) will always be slightly higher and assumes you will leave every penny you have in the account today for the entire year.

Sorry Emigrant, but GMAC has you beat on two fronts: Interest Rate and the usability of their web site. The look and feel of a web site can make a huge impression on a user about the validity and quality of service they can expect from a company or bank in this case.

I only have a few complaints about GMAC:

1. If you have no home telephone, they require you to fax in your latest cell phone bill to prove you are not a terrorist because the Patriot Act requires it. Now for some reason Emigrant didn't seem to care that I didn't have a home phone. I found this out only after spending about half an hour filling out their application online. I got to the very end and lost everything because there I was not able to be verified. Please call customer support. Well I finally called customer support and they had no knowledge that I ever attempted to fill out an application. This leads me to complaint number two.

2. The two or three times I have called customer support has been within last hour of their day. Wait times have ranged from 25 minutes (I almost hung up!) to a whopping 45 minutes (you would think I really wanted to hang up by then). But I stayed on because I wanted the better rate. After I was officially awarded an account I haven't had to call them since. All that said, maybe times have changed and they have improved their response time.

So far I've earned $20 in the past two months and I'm a happy camper knowing some of my money is working for me not me working for money although I do that on a daily basis! Please, let me know what you think if you're a current customer.

TaxACT Free Software

I've used TaxACT's free software for two years now and I am very pleased with their results. Last year I opted for their $12 option which included one free E-file otherwise I think it was around $7 for the E-file alone. Their software is easy to use. For my '03 return I used their web option, which was very slow and didn't allow me to save the return. Last year while preparing my '04 return I used their downloadable software and installed it locally on my own computer. It worked much better and faster.
If you don't want to re-enter your info every year I recommend going with their lowest pay option if you've used it previous years. I think this is pretty much standard with any tax package.

Check it out: www.taxact.com

Tax Exempt Municipal Bonds

This Tax-Exempt/Taxable Yield Equivalents might prove to be helpful if you decide to invest in some Municipal Bonds.

Wanna get out of debt fast?

After attending a very imformative seminar the other night on Equity Management and Repositioning by Jonathan Carter, I took to reading the book he gave out The New Rules of Money by Ric Edelman.

Fabulous book. Outdated I'm sure but the principles are still intact. I think Jonathan swears by it or is one of his top 10 recommended books.

But I appreciate Ric's free tips on Eliminating Debt. It's probably right out of one of his books. You might think getting out of credit card debt is a simple task. Just stick to it and make more than the minimum payment so you're not still making payments when you retire. But knowing why and some great examples really send it home.

Sandisk Cruzer Mini 1.0 GB Flash Drive On Sale

Office Depot had the best price over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend last week. On Black Friday I couldn't resist picking one up. For $59 in-store and $30 in rebates, the next best price was $39 at competing stores. On top of that Sandisk's Cruzer Mini comes with Encryption software so if you lose your flash drive your data will be difficult to crack!

100% Liquid Savings Account @ 4.00%

Emigrant Direct's AmericanDream Savings Account is your answer for a 4.00%, completely liquid, no minimum deposit, savings account that is FDIC insured. The only disadvantage is that it can take 1 - 5 business days for funds to be transferred back into your checking account! Small price to pay when you plan ahead for big expenditures. Oh!... did I mention it's entirely managed online. To start up you receive a letter via snail mail to ensure that you are who you say you are for security purposes.