Mystic Access Podcast Chris Nova, Kim Nova

Welcome to the 300th episode of the Mystic Access podcast! Wow! We begin by delving into a little of the podcast's history, Kim's involvement, and how excited we are to have hit this very cool milestone.



We also thank everyone who attended our day-after-Thanksgiving open house! It was awesome, as always. If you missed this one, we'll be doing it again next year, as well as another open house sometime in late July, 2024.



The Majority of this episode contains a discussion of HumanWare's Stellar Trek and our newly-released audio documentation on this innovative GPS device. We're joined in the castle by Mathieu Paquette, who talks about the Stellar Trek, its many features, what's coming in future updates, and more. We also share about how our documentation, which is free to everyone, can help you decide whether the Stellar is the right device for you. We hope you enjoy this fun discussion.



Thanks, as always, for listening and spreading the word about our podcast. We appreciate you.

Welcome to our annual food edition! Our friend and former co-host Lisa Salinger joins us to share in all things delicious. Get ready for fun, laughter, and easy recipes to love both during the holiday season and throughout the year. All recipes can be found below.



First, though, a couple quick event-related announcements. Our phone comparison event is being made available as a download rather than a live event. Registrations were very low, so we made the decision to just put this up as a free download as soon as possible. I'll send an announcement to our free Events mailing list as soon as the audio is available. If you had hoped or intended to join us live, and you had questions, please send them to us via email and we'll do our best to answer in the audio.



And speaking of events, we will be holding our annual open house on Friday, November 24, between 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM eastern time. You must register to join us at the event. To do so, please visit:

https://www.mysticaccess.com/openhouse



This is an annual event, and is always so much fun. Feel free to come for 20 minutes or stay for the entire time, it's all up to you. And no, you don't need to talk if you'd rather not. This event is never recorded, and we look forward to it every year.



To make this episode even better, Kesel Wilson, editorial director with National Braille Press comes by the castle to talk about 2023 holiday picks. Is there much better to celebrate all things festive than books and food? We think not!



Hope the start to your holiday festivities is simply wonderful! Now, on to the recipes!



Citrus Rainbow Carrots

(Excerpted from: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/citrus-rainbow-carrots/)

Makes

6 servings

Prep/Total Time: 25 min.

Ingredients

2 pounds medium rainbow or regular carrots, diagonally sliced

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest

2 tablespoons orange juice

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1. Place carrots and enough water to cover in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, until tender, 8-10 minutes. Drain; return to pan.

2. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over medium-high heat until carrots are glazed, 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Test Kitchen Tips

Rainbow carrots can be deep burgundy, golden yellow, jeweled orange or creamy white in color.

Be careful to only zest the outer layer of orange peel. The white part underneath is bitter.

One medium orange will yield about 4 teaspoons grated orange zest.

Nutrition Facts

2/3 cup: 132 calories, 6g fat (4g saturated fat), 15mg cholesterol, 445mg sodium, 19g carbohydrate (12g sugars, 4g fiber), 2g protein.



Lemony rice

One and 3/4 cups chicken broth

or

1 3/4 cups of water and two bouillon cubes or the equivalent

 1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup white rice, not instant or minute rice.

Bring the broth and lemon juice to a boil in a saucepan. Add the rice, turn to low, cover and cook for about 18 minutes. If you normally cook your rice for 22 minutes, cook it for 20 instead. The acid in the lemon juice breaks down the rice a bit, and if you cook it for the normal amount of time, it will be too mushy.



Applesauce Sweet Potatoes

(Excerpted from: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/applesauce-sweet-potatoes/)

Makes

8 servings

Prep: 15 min.

Cook: 4 hours

Ingredients

3 pounds sweet potatoes (about 5 medium), peeled and sliced

1-1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup glazed pecans, chopped, optional

Directions

1.

Happy Halloween, everyone. To finish off the spooky season, we reminisce about favorite costumes from our pasts, fond Halloween memories, and Halloween mishaps. We bet this segment brings back fun memories for you, too.



If you enjoyed our discussion of the Kapsys smart Vision 3 phone last week, don't forget we're having a free event comparing multiple accessible cell phone options. It's on November 16, and you must register to attend. Please paste the following link into your favorite browser to get started:

https://www.mysticaccess.com/phoneclass



We think we may have provided the wrong impression to you in the past, and we hope to change that with a story. Our technology can have epic failures, and not all our outings are fun or stress-free, either. Learn more in this episode. What should you do when technology goes wrong?



Thanks, as always, for listening! Talk to you in November!

In today's episode we begin by sharing our spooky finds for the Halloween season, including coffee mugs and animated friends. All our new goodies are from Target's Hide and Eek Boutique Collection. Have you done or purchased anything for enjoying spooky season?



We also demo the Smart Vision 3 cell phone from Kapsys. How does it differ from other popular cell phones with speech? What cool features does it offer? While you'll hear a lot about it in today's episode, we're also happy to invite you to a free event in November where we'll do further comparisons and answer your questions about the phone. If you're part of our Events newsletter, you'll receive joining info soon.



Thanks, as always, for listening.

In this episode we share about our trip to the Apple store. While we went there to help out a family member, we ended up coming home with goodies for ourselves, too. We talk about our impressions of the experience, the items we purchased, and Kim shares some vocal thoughts on Watch OS 10.



Speaking of Apple watch, we have a sad and sudden announcement about our Apple Watch audio tutorial. Stay tuned for more news on that topic in the new year.



We also provide a few demos from our new Apple HomePod mini for your enjoyment.



As always, thanks for listening! Happy October!

We have two demos in this episode that we hope will be useful and fun for you. First, Chris explains why he bought a pair of Bluetooth glasses and demos how they work with both the Stellar Trek from HumanWare and his iPhone 14 Pro. We show how they sound by a busy street, on a phone call, and more. To check out the WGP Smart Audio Glasses with Anti-Blue Light and Open Ear Speakers with Bluetooth Connectivity, please visit our Amazon affiliate link. We receive a small commission if you choose to order via this link.



Next, Kim has a super exciting update to share about the Philo streaming service. Not only does it offer about 70 channels for $25 monthly, but it also now includes audio description on some of its live channels. Visit Philo at this link. To learn more about the audio description Philo offers and how it works, visit this page in their Help center.



What content would you like us to cover in future episodes of the podcast? What do you want to hear more or less of? We'll soon be offering polls on our site so you can share your thoughts. Our first one should be ready by our next episode and we'll share a link in the show notes. In the meantime, thanks as always for listening and spreading the word. We appreciate you.