Saving Blogs, Picking Your Nose,

Over the weekend I was thinking about Stephen Tremp who, at the beginning of the A to Z, lost his blogs, all his blogs, going back to when he started I believe, through no fault of his own but because of the Google/Blogger robots who check your site and somehow decide what is viable and what is not. It happened to me with Google Adsense although I didn’t lose my blogs.  The annoying thing about this, there is no recourse, no person to appeal to, nothing. So ever since I started blogging I was going to Blog2Print or Shared Book on a regular basis (these days I do it every 6 months) and making a book of all the blogs for that half year. I then download them which costs me all of $7 and change, and up until recently I printed them all. This way, I have them saved on Blog2Print, on my desktop computer, in print and on a flash drive. I forgot, I also have an off line backup programme I pay for every year, so I think I am fairly safe when it comes to not losing my words. You can pay more for your blog books depending what you want to achieve, but I don’t bother as I have nobody who would want to share them. At the moment I have 10 blog books, starting December 07, that’s a lot of blogging.

Here’s a link to an article I read during April, Picking Your Nose and Eating It May be Good for You I couldn’t believe this, but it turns out that a Saskatchewan associate professor says this may be a way nature intended for you to boost your immune system. Just thought I would share this with you. Some of the comments are revealing to say the least. It appears that mother may have been wrong when she told us not to do this, but I cannot think of anything more unpleasant that seeing people picking their noses all over the place and then eating it. Yuk. If anyone follows this please do it in private. Looking for pictures, there were some horrifying ones, grosses me out.

This drink was recommended for Cinco do Mayo which was yesterday so I’m a bit late, however, I didn’t get the recipe til yesterday either. I like Margaritas, not sure about the chili part though.

Mango Margarita

Contributed by David Yan
SERVINGS:Makes 1 drink

At the Casa Noble estate, bartender David Yan created this margarita to showcase the property's own tequila. He coats the rim of the glass with citrusy Tajin-brand chile powder, but any powdered chile will give the drink a fun kick.

1. 1 lime wedge
2. 3 ounces silver tequila
3. 1 small mango—peeled, pitted and coarsely chopped (3 ounces)
4. 1 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
5. 1 tablespoon chile powder, such as Tajin (see Note)
6. 2 ounces orange liqueur
7. 1 1/2 ounces agave nectar
8. 3 ounces grapefruit soda
9. 1 cup of ice

1. Spread the chile powder in a dish. Moisten the rim of a margarita glass with the lime wedge; dip the rim in the chile powder to coat. In a blender, puree the mango. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into the glass and serve.

Notes Tajin chile powder gets its tang from dehydrated lemon juice. It is available at Latin markets and online at mifiesta.com.

Have a great day.

Blog Books, Jan 1, Tardar Sauce.

Yesterday I made my blog book: all my posts from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2012. I do this every 6 months. I go to Blog2Print or Shared Books and it costs about $7.45 or so to download your book. You can spend more money and get soft cover or hard cover books, not worth it to me, but I usually print up a hard copy and keep them in binders. Not really sure why, but been doing that ever since I started. That was in October 2007 by the way. I never knew I could babble quite so much. I haven’t actually printed any of 2012 yet, need to get on with it. It’s a bit heavy on ink doing that of course, I have so many colour pix. Bit heavy on that shelf too by the look of it.

Our New Year’s Day didn’t contain much excitement, we just spent the day relaxing. I had cooked a rib roast for New Year’s Eve (delicious), so we ate it cold for supper with collards which we both enjoy cooked in oil, garlic and vinegar. Otherwise we really didn’t do much of anything. I did do a bit of sorting out in my computer room – it needed it. Didn’t do as much as needed but I made a start.

I have been fascinated, for some weeks, by a cat picture that keeps coming up with one caption or another on Facebook. I discover it is called Tardar Sauce the Grumpy Cat. She certainly looks grumpy. I can’t seem to find much about this cat but I did find this video which shows her in relatively normal cat positions. I assume she is actually a cute kitty with an unfortunate looking face. Some of the comments attributed to her have been hilarious. I haven’t owned a cat in years, not since I was a child, but this cat really appeals to me.

I used to love bacon wrapped items like this. Haven’t done them for a number of years, there are all kinds of recipes but this is the one that reminded me of them this last few days and the picture made my mouth water remembering how much I used to like them. There were Devils on Horseback (liver) and Angels on Horseback (oysters) to name a couple. Gotta get some bacon this week.

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Contributed By: Diana, Cooking.com

Make these simple appetizers and they'll be the first to run out at a gathering. Just 5 ingredients make these delicious treats!
INGREDIENTS

2 cans whole water chestnuts

12 oz bacon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise

DIRECTIONS

Wrap drained chestnuts in 1/3 piece of bacon and fasten with a toothpick. Place in two foil lined pie plates or cake pans. Mix brown sugar, chili sauce and mayonnaise.Pour over chestnuts and bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until bacon is crisp.

Have a great day

Scanners and Blog Books, New Words, Cholesterol.

We had to go to Staples for some computer paper yesterday and I had a quick look at scanners. What I ought to buy was about $70 before tax, what I wanted was about $100. However, we have kind of decided to wait until we are on vacation to see what is available in North Carolina. The one I was interested in had the ability to take negatives and print pictures from them. I saw one similar when I bought my previous scanner, I would like to get one – ve shall see!!

Talking of paper, I didn’t tell you about the dumb thing I did the other day. I mentioned quite a while back about Blog2Print or Shared Books. You can get them to make books from your blogs which they will then print for you in hard cover, very expensive, soft cover, still expensive, or you can download and print yourself, cheaper. The other day I printed up the latest and once I had finished all 300 some pages, I realised I had already printed it before and it was the wrong book. What a waste of paper, ink and time. Grrrrr. I print the pages on pre-punched paper which makes life easier and that’s what we had to get yesterday. I can’t believe I was so stupid. Until I started printing these books, I had no idea just how much I waffled on in these blogs. So my thanks to all of you who follow my bletherings. (Good old Scottish word).

That reminds me, I heard something about the Oxford Dictionary announcing new words to be added to the dictionary, I gather staycation is one and I believe twitter (in the electronic sense) is another. I see vuvuzela has also been added, how funny. This is the link to the Times list of all the new words and phrases. http://newsfeed.time.com/new-words-in-the-ode/

Although we are now out of asparagus season, I came across this recipe yesterday which is part of a recommendation to eat more nut fats for cholesterol fitness. Basically the article said to eat more nuts of all kinds to help lower cholesterol and clear out your arteries. I wonder if Nutella counts.

Roasted Asparagus with Pine Nuts

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/roasted_asparagus_with_pine_nuts.html

From EatingWell:  Spring 2003, The EatingWell Diabetes Cookbook (2005)

Roasting is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to cook asparagus. Here we give it an extra flourish with a quick sauce of reduced balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts.

4 servings | Active Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1 1/2 pounds asparagus

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt, divided

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spread pine nuts in a small baking pan and toast in the oven until golden and fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl to cool.
2. Increase oven temperature to 450° F. Snap off the tough ends of asparagus. Toss the asparagus with shallot, oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a large baking sheet with sides. Roast, turning twice, until the asparagus is tender and browned, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring vinegar and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt to a simmer in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, swirling the pan occasionally, until slightly syrupy and reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 5 minutes. To serve, toss the asparagus with the reduced vinegar and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

Nutrition

Per serving : 112 Calories; 5 g Fat; 1 g Sat; 3 g Mono; 0 mg Cholesterol; 12 g Carbohydrates; 5 g Protein; 4 g Fiber; 150 mg Sodium; 491 mg Potassium

1 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 2 vegetable, 1 fat (mono)

Have a great day

Blog2Print or Shared Books, Weather Difficulties.

Having more time today, I have finished making my Blog Books up to June 2009. As I started blogging in October 2007, I ended up with three books. These are now sitting in a folder on my computer and cost me approximately $23 for all of them. Now I am thinking about printing. I haven't checked them all, but the first book is about 426 pages which is the best part of a ream of paper not to mention the ink this would take up. Do I really want to do this, I am having to think about it very serious. I have, in fact, 2 reams of paper with punched holes in the sides which I would like too use up and which would work very well for this project, but ink is another matter, it is, as I am sure you know, pretty expensive stuff. One can also share these books with others and do all kinds of stuff with them. Just to see what it looked like I printed the cover page of the first book. At the top is the name of my blog, at the side it shows the dates from-to. Having downloaded them I have found the pictures actually moved around somewhat, and I don't think I can change them now. I'm not sure, I will have to look into it. I heard that Satima (Satima's Blogspot) has made herself a book too. On the news this morning, something like 2,000 passengers has been stuck in the Channel Tunnel, known as the Chunnel to most Brits. Apparently the Eurostar trains were never designed to cope with the extreme differences between the warmth of the Chunnel and the freezing temps all over Europe at the moment. There was talk of passengers being stuck for 11 hours. Not funny if you have the faintest touch of chlaustrophobia, but then maybe you wouldn't have taken the trip if you had. According to an article on line at http://www.guardian.co.uk/ four trains have broken down due to the temperatures. and people have been evacuated. I gather Europe is having a really bad time with winter weather at the moment, somewhat worse than here and they are less prepared for it. There is a storm heading up the Eastern Seaboard in North America at the moment, but I think it will miss us, I am pleased to say. Sorry for the Easterners though, so far they have had lots of snow in Boston and Philadelphia according to the news reports. This was in a recipe from Crisco this morning and I like the look of it. I am not quite sure why you would take the gills out of the mushrooms, but that's what it says. Portobello Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crostini Crisco Canada Makes: 16 pieces MUSHROOMS 2 tbsp (30mL) Crisco® Canola or Vegetable Oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 lb (500g) portobello mushrooms, trimmed and sliced 1 tbsp or 1 tsp (15mL or 5mL) chopped fresh thyme or dried ½ tsp (2mL) salt ¼ tsp (1mL) pepper 2 tbsp (30mL) chopped fresh basil GOAT CHEESE 4 oz /½ cup (125g/125mL) goat cheese, softened 2 tbsp (30mL) unflavoured yogurt or sour cream 2 tbsp (30mL) chopped chives 1 clove garlic, minced BREAD 1 baguette, cut into 16 slices ¼ cup (50mL) Crisco Canola or Vegetable Oil 1. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms and thyme, stirring until the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in basil. Keep mixture warm by covering with foil. Mixture can also be made 2 hours ahead and rewarmed on low heat. 2. Combine ingredients for goat cheese in bowl. This can be made a day ahead and refrigerated until ready to use. Allow mixture to reach room temperature before using. 3. Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Place bread on baking sheet. Brush with oil. Bake in preheated oven 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden. 4. Spread 1 tsp (5mL) goat cheese mixture on each slice of toasted bread. Top with 1 tbsp (15mL) mushroom mixture. Serve warm or room temperature. TIPS: • This is a delicious holiday appetizer. • To clean mushrooms, gently remove the gills on the underneath of the mushroom with a spoon. Rub them with a damp paper towel. Have a great weekend.