From The Files – Chicken with Rosemary Sauce

rosemary2

As I was fixing dinner the other day, the phone rang. Expecting it to be some random telemarketer, despite being registered on the Do Not Call list, I was surprised to see a number I knew on the Caller ID. It was then that I had a decision to make. See, most weeknights my default selection is for recipes that are quick. I tend to leave the long and lazy recipes for the weekend when I have more time to put into them. So I basically had to choose between a quick “how ya been?” before the timer went off or playing a round of phone tag with my caller. Continue reading “From The Files – Chicken with Rosemary Sauce”

I Hate Cut And Paste

I’ve never been skilled in crafty things.  It was evident early on.  My  school arts and crafts projects were dreadful:  the ashtray from kindergarten (remember when we actively encouraged young children to make ashtrays for mom and dad…good times) was nothing more than a baby blue glazed blob of clay, my soda bottle vase had huge gaps between rows of yarn that we glued to the outside to make a “pretty” design, and let’s not even dwell on the macaroni or tissue paper art.  I don’t know how I came home with straight A’s on my report card because I don’t know how I managed to pass art.

Things didn’t get any better as I got older.  There was that one time in college with the fabric covered photo albums but that was about as successful as I got.  And in hindsight, that was pretty bad too.  Thanks to Martha Stewart, my self esteem got even lower when I couldn’t recreate a single one of her Good Things crafts.  Damn that woman and her glue gun.

So crafts and I don’t spend much time together.  I remember dreading the assignment when I was pledging my sorority to make a college that said something about me.  What I really wanted to do was show up to that meeting with a blank piece of paper.  But like a good student, I busted out the scissors and glue for some old fashioned cut and paste.  To this day, I hate cut and paste.  Not because of that collage, but because even with a craft as simple as that, my skills are woefully lacking.

There’s another reason I hate cut and paste that has nothing to do with crafts.  I hate cut and paste because this blog does not have one of those nifty “print” buttons I see at other websites.  WordPress.com, oh wordpress.com why can’t you include that in your templates?  Sure, I could just “print page” and whatnot but then the page format is all wrong and the sidebars print and it’s just not what I want.  So each post that I print out has to be cut and pasted from wordpress into Word.  And then I have to change font, and resize images, and change page margins.  What a pain.  Between Exit 51 and BAH, I’ve been blogging for over two years.  That’s a lot of cut and paste going on.

And what about you?  Are you less inclined to actually try one of the recipes posted here since there’s no pretty “print page”?  I hope not.

I was convinced there was no solution to this cut and paste problem until I either learned how to code or convinced The Mistah to code for me.  And then I stumbled on a blog post that may change my life.  It explained how to set up a “print page”.  My days of cutting and pasting my own blog posts may be behind me.

Now, you’ll see a {Printable Recipe} hyperlink on my posts that will open up a browser window with a formatted and printable copy of the recipe.  Don’t be alarmed when it takes you to a site with a completely different name, nobody has hijacked BAH.  It’s just that until the print function gets built into my blog the right way, the printable recipes have to live somewhere else.  Since this somewhere else happens to be a completely different website, and BAH only links to it, there may be glitches from time to time depending on how the Interwebs feel.

I don’t know about you, but I’m happy to be able to put down the scissors and glue and get back to cooking.

UPDATE:  Once I started working on incorporating links to printable versions of the recipes in my posts, I started to get a little uneasy.   Sending you to another website, even if it was one that I set up, just didn’t feel right.  It also meant that you could bypass BAH altogether and go straight to Site B to download the recipes.  So, I’ve found an alternate solution.

It may be a bit clunkier since it involves you opening pdf files in your browser.  But as long as you have a pdf reader (they’re free you know) installed on your computer, you should be fine.  Just look for the {Printable Recipe} link, click, open, and print.

Wow, I feel much better now.

EDF Update

inventory

After the decision was made to Eat Down the Fridge (EDF), the first step was to figure out what was in the fridge.  And the freezer.  And the pantry.  Because I had absolutely no idea what kind of supplies we were sitting on.  So instead of going grocery shopping during Week 1, I sat down and made lists, our EDF roadmap.  All that chickenscratch you see up there?  That’s what we had in the freezer and pantry.  And yes, my handwriting really is that bad.  Looking at that list, how many different meals do you think we came up with?  If you don’t include leftovers, the count is currently at 17.  So far, we’ve had: Continue reading “EDF Update”

Not So Fast

Leftovers

I don’t want to come off as judging a book by the cover or anything, but when someone calls a recipe “Quick This” or “Easy That” I expect it to be quick or easy.  Preferably both.  If I find it to be otherwise, I’m disappointed for sure.  But before I throw the recipe away in a huff, I stop and ask myself whether the final dish was good.  Because like a little black dress or sensible shoes, there’s always room for a good recipe. Continue reading “Not So Fast”

Who’s Afraid Of…

Monster

Halloween is the one day a year that we revel in ghouls and goblins, witches and warlocks, and all manner of frightful things.  Not only do we revel in them, we invite them to our homes with the promise of treats.  We invoke the names of Bloody Mary and Black Aggie and we watch through finger shielded eyes as Jason and Freddie pick off helpless teenagers who go outside. Alone.  At night.  When there’s a killer on the loose.  The other 364 days, we hide from our fears. Continue reading “Who’s Afraid Of…”

And The Award Goes To…

MAJOR AWARD

When I listed seven things about myself in my Kreativ Blogger post, I omitted a very important fact…I always follow directions, unless I don’t want to.  Then I make up my own rules.  Pretty convenient, huh?  I mean, when it comes to important stuff like traffic laws, anything having to do with electricity, or the ratio of vodka to tonic in my drink, I’m a completely by the book kind of girl.  But where I think I can get away with it, I’m a little more free with my interpretation of the guidelines. I got to thinking about this when I had to give the KB award to seven other bloggers.  Why seven?  Why not as many as I want to recognize? Continue reading “And The Award Goes To…”

It’s A Major Award

kreativblogger

Anyone who has ever been a roommate of mine can attest to the fact that I have an unnatural, almost freakish compulsion to watch A Christmas Story (ACS) anytime it is on television.  The Mistah learned this the hard way one Christmas Eve as I sat glued to TNT during their 24 hour ACS marathon.  That man, he puts up with a lot without so much as a complaint.  He just went down to the basement where he had days worth of European Soccer games waiting for him on Tivo.  Nothing says Happy Holidays like quality time spent in front of the tele. Continue reading “It’s A Major Award”

Spice It Up

spices
this fabulous image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellessu/2647580861

How do you make roast chicken not boring? Spice it up. My all time favorite spice source is Penzy’s. They have a huge selection of the best quality spices at really reasonable prices. And if you’re lucky enough to have one of their retail stores near you, stop what you’re doing right now and go there. Because those of us who get our Penzy’s fix via mail order will never know the experience of walking in the door and being completely enveloped by the aroma of ginger and cumin and pepper and sage. Unlike the olfactory confusion you get when walking by the perfume counter in a department store, somehow all these different smells work together. And they’re intoxicating. I can only imagine what it smelled like along the Silk Road from all the exotic spices making their way to the New World. Continue reading “Spice It Up”