Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Heat and Water, Flash Drives. Money.

I seem to have principally been concerned about Matt’s bone scan on Friday. Arranged to spend and hour or so at a friend’s house between the injection and the scan rather than sitting around in the hospital.

Regarding the heating repair which was postponed to Tuesday, our apartment actually got boiling hot because the sun was pouring in the windows, not that it was very warm outside. We do get the sun in t he winter and it turned out that today was one of the days when we did so. It was so hot I had to put on a lightweight shirt, so obviously we never even noticed the heating system being turned off. Not only that, despite making sure we had some water if we needed it, it was never turned off after all. Ah well.

Not much to write about today; one thing, I ordered two flash drives flash drivesthrough Amazon and they arrived today. I had ordered the smallest size I could find and paid, what I considered a reasonable price. They arrived today, direct from China by the look of it, and to my astonishment turned out to be 30 gig. I couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t want them so big. I just wanted them to be able to put some music on them but certainly not that much. I have already recorded 5 CDs and the space has hardly been touched. I think one of these sticks would take our whole CD library and still not be full and we do have a lot of CDs.

One thing, Matt’s got a pension increase in the mail today. A whole 7. It’s a bit of a joke really. Our rent went up by about $20 again this year.

This recipe sounded pretty easy as well as tasty. I found it at MyRecipes although it was from Cooking Light.

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash


Take your basic beef stew to the next level by making this simple, fragrant beef tagine featuring butternut squash.

Photo: John Autry; Styling: Cindy Barr
Cooking Light JANUARY 2011
  • Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 (1-pound) beef shoulder roast or petite tender roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 shallots, quartered
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 3 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 pound)
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Preparation
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add beef; toss well to coat.
2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef and shallots; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Add squash; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Have a great day

Jo_thumb[2]

16 comments:

  1. The title of you post drew me in. I couldn't NOT read it. LOL

    The recipe sounds good. :)

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    1. Yup, it's definitely on my list to be tried soon.

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  2. I like cilantro but I notice that some of my friends absolutely despise it and say it tastes like soap to them. I have a few flashdrives that are empty now; I had my photos on them till my computer friend talked me into an external hard drive. I'm so glad I went that route. It's nice to have all the pictures in one place now!

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    1. I have two friends who fell out with one another over cilantro because one fed it to the other "even tho she knew I didn't like it" she told me. How silly. I have all my pix on my desktop hard drive. It's so huge I don't think I will ever fill it up. Mind you, I don't have as many pix as you do. You must have thousands.

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  3. Glad you didn't freeze to death.
    Don't begrudge that much room on a flash drive. Just accept it.

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    1. Quite the contrary as it happened.

      I guess you are right, it just seems to be such a waste. Mind you the last time I bought a flash drive that big, it cost a lot more money

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  4. Good thoughts to Matt and you. I've yet to use the flash drive I got a year ago - thanks for the reminder!

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    1. Well, mine seems to have seized up or the Windows Media has gone kaput.

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  5. Your beef and squash recipe sounds delicious! There's nothing like some real comfort food at this time of the year! I'm impressed that you've already downloaded music on your new flash drive. You are much more tech savvy than I am, Jo! Stay warm, but don't boil over. Sending lots of positive thoughts to you and your husband.

    Julie

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    1. Does look good, I agree. Trouble is I seem to have run into some problems with the copying.

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  6. It's amazing how much stuff you can put on a flash drive. Technology continually surprises me--and sometimes scares me.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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    1. I agree Lee. My husband doesn't know anything about computers, but when we play music on our portable via a flash drive, he can't believe how much music is on a little stick.

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  7. So glad you guys didn't freeze. Prayers for Matt on Friday. I use a lot of Flash drives. I use them to hold pictures, stories, and misc. info. You can even scan important documents into your computer and save them (not that the government accepts copies, but oh well)

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    1. Double thanks Liz. I use them for all kinds of things too but have only recently started using them for music on our portable radio.

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  8. Yes. Prayers for Matt and you. Try not to worry too much x The only trouble I find with flash drives is they keep corrupting on me. I must learn to eject them slowly.

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    1. Thanks Pinky. I try and remember to eject flash drives properly.

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