Sunday, March 31, 2013

Cooking: Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza

Last night I was in the mood for a bacon cheeseburger pizza.  I had half a pound of thawed ground beef that I couldn't do anything with because it just wasn't enough for a family of three to have burgers.  I could have created a stir fry, but with several strips of bacon left over from BLTs earlier in the week, this was a natural solution.  Click through for the full post, including my recipe.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

HtH: Garden is In?

Technically, the best bed of my garden has been in since November, when I planted my garlic for overwintering.  The outer leaves (?) died back a little in the winter cold, but now they're sending up multiple new shoots.  Each green leaf (?) equals another clove in the bulb, so I'm happy to see their new spring growth.

If you look down the middle of the garlic bed, you will see a brassica that also survived over winter.  To be honest, I don't know if it's a broccoli, or a brussel sprout, or a cabbage.  I tried to start several of them, and the sprouts just kept dying on me, until I spotted this little guy near the edge of the bed where the water had washed the seed, so I transplanted him.  We'll see what he turns into.  Click through to see the rest.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Food and Cooking: Oven Roasted Veggie Goodness

Welcome to my new food obsession... oven roasted vegetables.  While various veggie types get added or subtracted, there are four core ingredients in my current favorite side dish: onions, yellow squash, zucchini, and garlic.  Salt and pepper to taste, roast in a 350°F oven for an hour.

The mix you see here has carrots and sweet potato in it.  I've been known to dice up a tomato (getting close to ratatouille there) as well.  This amount shown here is enough for a side dish for three people at two meals, and it's incredibly cheap and easy.  I will sometimes make this in small dice instead of slices, refrigerate, and use as a relish on burgers or chicken.  It's incredibly tasty on a burger, so much so that you don't even need ketchup!  Click through to see the recipe.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

We Were On A Break

There must be something about the post-holidays that makes me react this way... I just take a break from my blog.  It's not intentional, but between the warming weather, my child's school schedule, and various other factors, I'm just not writing on my blog.

I even set Facebook aside this time... *gasp*!

The new factor this time around was the totally insane flare-up of negative internet activity on Ravelry and Facebook over the credit card processing system breach on Knitpicks.  I was angry.  Then I got paranoid.  I went around removing personal information where I could.  I was changing passwords, deleting accounts I no longer needed (or no longer trusted).

Then I was just sick of the whole internet thing altogether.  I took a break.

Don't get me wrong, you still have to check your email (paperless statements, family, etc.) but I found myself hanging out on forums less and less.  It was like the bad guys had finally invaded the last haven of the geeky.

Yeah, I know... the bad guys moved in to the internet neighborhood almost before they were done putting in the "drywall" so to speak, but I never really felt their presence until now.  I had two credit cards fraudulently accessed in two months.  After the first, I blamed my husband using it at the local gas station, or my daughter's lack of PC security.  After the second, I started scouring everyone's machines, looking for viruses and malware.  There were screaming fights involved, mostly because my daughter has Aspergers and she considers her computer to be an extension of her personal space.  I am NOT supposed to go anywhere near it. 

Then the Knitpicks news hit.  Finally I had an answer... sort of.  They claim I'm not one of the people who were exposed.  I don't think they realize who was exposed.  Whatever.  Two cards, both used at their site, both used fraudulently not more than two months after KP closed their breach?  Yeah, I'm putting money on them.  It's there, or Amazon... which admittedly is also a possibility.

So I'm cagier now.  I got a new card from a company that offers virtual card numbers... a one-use CC number that is no longer valid after you use it.  Unfortunately making payments is not as simple as it is with my bank-attached card.  There it's just a matter of transferring funds.

Anyway, my point is... I've been gone.  This is why.  I'm back, but I may not be quite as active.  Also, I'm starting a second blog... not to replace this one, but compartmentalize things.  This one will remain my personal blog... an online diary, if you will.  The other is going to be more focused.   I'll share that one with you all when it's actually doing something.  For now it is dormant, but there will be some exciting stuff very soon.