Carbonite, Minions, No Peace.

I sell Avon, right? So a customer called me yesterday and placed an order, I went to enter the order in my Avon database and it wouldn’t open properly. All the stuff I had on customers, past and current orders, etc. etc. was gone. The backup was gone, the database was gone, my tranquility was gone. I checked my laptop but the last backup I had copied to it was from June 2012. Panic. Then I woke up, I have a continuous backup system called Carbonite which I pay for every year and which is off site. Opened up the files, backed up my Avon programme, lo and behold it worked again. Wonderful. I have been using this backup programme for years, I don’t know why it took me so long to think about it. Nor is it the first time I have had to use it. One of the best times is if you have to restore your whole system, although you have to install all the programmes, Carbonite has all the data saved for you. Great and a time saver.

I trust you have noted my new Spunky Soldier badge. I am a minion for L. Diane Wolfe for her hosting duties in the A to Z Blogfest taking place in April. Really this real minion picture is what we should all be showing in our capacity as minions. Did you see the movie, Despicable Me? I tried to watch it because I thought the minions were so cute, but found the actual movie to be a waste of time. Despite the fact that I am an animation fan par excellence, I thought this one was despicable. Anyway, that is a digression. I had a visit from one of my fellow Spunky Soldiers today. I need to go visit the others so we can get to know one another.

I stayed at home on Monday afternoon instead of going bowling as I was feeling a tad off colour. I ended up listening to drilling and banging in the apartment upstairs, just what I needed. Think they are laying new carpet. No peace for the wicked. We would really like new carpet in our apartment but the furnishings would be a big problem, not sure how we would cope. Need to get in touch with the realtor.

I love rice – it makes a nice alternative to potato or pasta. This sounds like an enjoyable dish.

Spanish Rice Bake

By The Gluten Free Goddess
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

Make this Southwestern-inspired rice dish as spicy or as mild as your taste buds prefer. We serve this as a vegan recipe, but if you love cheese, try topping it with fresh crumbled goat cheese.
Ingredients

• 2 cups brown rice, long or short grain
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus a splash to moisten the rice
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1  sweet or red onion, diced
• 1  bell pepper, red, yellow, or orange
• 1  fresh yellow tomato, chopped
• 3/4 cup roasted or frozen corn kernels*
• 2  roasted or fresh green chillies, seeded and chopped
• 2-3 tablespoons lime juice
• 1-2 teaspoons chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro or Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 14 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes with green chillies with juice
• sea salt, to taste
  

Instructions

1. Cook the rice in 5 cups of fresh water. Use a rice cooker to do this or cook the rice in a covered pot.
2. While the rice is cooking, heat a skillet over medium heat and add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add the garlic, chopped onion, sweet bell pepper, and cook for five minutes.
3. Add the fresh yellow tomato, roasted or frozen corn kernels, roasted or fresh green chillies, and lime juice, to taste. Stir-fry very briefly, just until crisp-tender.
4. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
6. When the rice is cooked, assemble your casserole: spoon the cooked brown rice into a casserole dish. Add in and stir dashes (to taste) of: sea salt, chilli powder, cumin, touch of cinnamon, and chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.
7. Add a splash of extra virgin olive oil to moisten the rice. Stir.
8. Add the fire-roasted tomatoes and the skillet vegetables. Add fresh chopped herbs, to taste and toss to combine.
9. Cover and bake for 25 to 35 minutes until the rice is piping hot and heated through.

Tip
Note* To roast frozen corn, spread kernels on a baking sheet and roast at a high temperature until slightly charred; or pan roast them in a large dry skillet until sweet and toasty.

Have a great day

Rain, Murder,

The Canadian Open Golf Tournament was virtually rained off this weekend, there were pictures of them squeegeeing the greens with gallons of water on them, they finally managed to finish it on Monday although there had been talk of it running into Tuesday. We have had so much rain lately. Yesterday afternoon we couldn't see the park for rain it was coming down so heavily and the water pouring off the balconies sounded like hundreds of taps had been left running. Where, oh where, is summer??? Actually, we went bowling and when we came out of the alley it was sunny - we thought about sitting out when we got home, joke - that was when the rain started lashing down. A headline in our local paper this morning "Police: Texas woman accused of killing newborn son ate part of his brain, chewed off toes" a horrifying story. Read here unless real life gruesome would upset you. We can't imagine how any mother could do what this one did to her child although she says "the Devil made her do it". She will, no doubt, end up in a sanitorium rather than receiving any kind of prison sentence, she is clearly mentally unbalanced. Matt always finds it difficult to understand mothers killing their own children because he figures the bond between them is normally so strong. There is a video link on this page to a kayaker, Taylor Bradt, who plunged over the Palousie Falls in Washington State. There is also a link to an article about him. In our opinion he is totally nuts, the falls are close to 200 ft. high and he expected to be hurt when he got to the bottom. Why, pray tell, would you do something you expected to be hurt by?? In fact he was lucky and all that happened was he sprained his wrist. In the picture you can just see his kayak - I wonder who took the video for him. The inset is of him being interviewed by GMA and demonstrating something from a kayak. I have mentioned Carbonite before, I use them as a backup system and they are, in my opinion, absolutely fantastic. The programme just runs in the background whilst you are using your computer. I have had occasion to restore my PC a couple of times and I have found it very successful. I highly recommend them. I have just renewed my subscription as I would hate to be without it. This recipe, which I found in my email from Cooking.com comes from Eating Well who's recipes I always enjoy. We cook a lot of them. This sounds an excellent way to do chicken and will be on my list for the next week's meals. Asian Chicken Salad Source: © EatingWell Magazine 6 servings, 2 cups each Crunchy vegetables and tender chicken breasts tossed in a tangy vinaigrette make a refreshing main-dish salad. If you poach the chicken yourself, reserve 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid to make the dressing. Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrigerate the dressing (Step 1) for up to 2 days. INGREDIENTS For the Dressing: 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce 3 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil 1 1/2 teaspoons chile-garlic sauce (see Ingredient notes) 3 tablespoons canola oil 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon tahini paste 3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth or reserved chicken-poaching liquid For the Salad: 2 tablespoons sesame seeds 8 cups shredded napa cabbage (1 small head; see Ingredient notes) 1 1/2 cups grated carrots (2-3 medium) 5 radishes, sliced (about 1 cup) 1/2 cup chopped scallions 3 1/2 cups shredded skinless cooked chicken (about 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast) (see Tip) To poach chicken: Combine two 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth, 2 chopped scallions, 2 slivers fresh ginger and 2 cloves garlic in a large skillet; bring to a simmer. Add 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast and cook over medium heat until no longer pink inside, 10 to 15 minutes. The flavorful poaching liquid will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Ingredient Note: Chile-garlic sauce is a spicy blend of chiles, garlic and other seasonings; it is found in the Asian section of the market. Napa cabbage has an elongated head and is pale green in color with tender, tapered white ribs. Its tightly packed, crinkled leaves have a crisp texture. Discard the cone-shaped core. One small head yields about 8 cups shredded. FOR THE DRESSING: Combine soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil and chile-garlic sauce in a glass measuring cup; stir to blend. Heat canola oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce mixture to the pan; bring to a simmer. Whisk in tahini and broth (or poaching liquid); cook until reduced slightly, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool. FOR THE SALAD: Heat a small dry skillet over medium-low heat. Add sesame seeds and cook, stirring, until lightly browned and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a small plate to cool. Combine cabbage, carrots, radishes, scallions and chicken in a large shallow bowl. Stir dressing to recombine and drizzle over the salad; toss to coat. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. Have a great day.

More on Gustav

Gustav is 2 hours away from landfall and could still increase its strength. At present it is packing winds of 115 mph which is quite bad enough. To Marilyn who says she loves storms, I have experienced a number of hurricanes, from a distance and I assure you, to stay if you can run is totally foolish, although I have just seen an interview where people did try to run and got stuck in the traffic for hours so ended up going back home. They estimate there are about 10,000 people left in New Orleans, however around 2,000,000 have evacuated the coast. They sure learned their lessons after Katrina. These are killer storms, Katrina killed something like 1,600 people, they are not storms you just sit around and watch. Even if you have reason to suppose your home is strong enough to withstand the winds, there is still the storm surge which is a major factor on the coast of Louisiana. Luckily it was never a problem where we lived in North Carolina. Just to add to the problems, they are predicting 12 to 14 inches of rain which is enough to cause floods on its own without any storm surge. If you want to sit around and 'watch' all that Marilyn you will be all alone and maybe no longer with us afterwards to tell the story of how exciting it was. The picture is again from the Weather Channel and if you want to view their latest videos click here to see what they have to say. Bush will not be attending the convention for McCain today because he is keeping his eye on the hurricane and after so much criticism last time, he and the government are poised to bring relief to the area straight away. One thing I wonder, having had a lot of experience evacuating from hurricanes, is where all these evacuees will go. Its all very well to ship 2 million people away from the coast, but there won't be hotels which can cope with that many people. I don't know if they have shelters set up somewhere away from the coast or what? Its a lot of people to deal with. By the way, it is Labour Day in Canada and the States today, what a heck of a way to spend a holiday, running from Gustav. Animals are a big problem too. Hundreds of pets were abandoned and drowned last time, hopefully more people will have taken their pets with them. I know some of the Canadian animal shelters went down there to rescue as many animals as they could. We contributed a few dollars to help. I don't know what happens to cows and horses etc. although I remember seeing pictures of dead pigs floating by. I sure wonder what happens to wild animals. Some might be safe enough in burrows unless those flood of course. Picture from webranding.typepad.com - shows a sad little group of dogs on top of a house. There are dozens more even sadder pictures of what happened to some pets during Katrina. On a happier topic, I think I have mentioned Carbonite before, it is a wonderful programme. I first came across it from the Canadian Association of Retired People generally referred to as CARP (there is an AARP in the States) who recommended it. It is a backup programme and just sits in your toolbar and quietly does its job whilst you get on with whatever you are doing. The other day I realised I had lost a whole folder of pictures that I had been using for this blog. I checked back into Carbonite's restore feature and there it was. A couple of clicks and a short wait and now I have all my pictures back. Marvellous. Everything is stored on line and encrypted for safety. I can't recommend it highly enough. You can try it for free at this address so you can see for yourself how good it is. I am not certain, but I think it costs around $56 a year and it is, in my opinion, worth every penny. If you had lost as much stuff as I have over last 20 years or so through forgotten or inaccurate back ups you would be leaping at this. Another wonderful programme I use is Plaxo which stores all one's email addresses and keeps everyone up to date. If I change my email address, every one of my contacts on Plaxo will be notified automatically. Not only that, I lost the addresses once and Plaxo had them all stored safely for me. Plaxo's Page will tell you all about it. It even tells who, among your contacts, has posted blogs in any week. And no, I don't have a financial interest in either of these websites, I only wish I did. I mentioned, a week or so ago, a dish Matt does with baked tomatoes. Taking plum tomatoes, cutting them in half, adding fresh basil, salt and olive oil with a dusting of sugar or Splenda and then cooking them for a couple of hours in a slow oven. He did them over the weekend and they were delicious as usual. I took a photo to show you the tomatoes before they went in the oven. They got devoured too quickly once they came out so I forgot to take a picture of them then. He does add a little extra olive oil after about the first hour of cooking. You end up with some lovely flavoured oil which can be sopped up with a nice piece of crusty bread. MMMMMM. I have mentioned tomato toasts before, a thing we used to do in the States when we had a really nice back deck, was to lightly toast a Ciabatta bun, rub garlic on it, spread a little olive oil, some well seasoned tomato and a slice or two of Havarti cheese. We just popped them back under the grill long enough for the cheese to start melting and then ate them sitting on the back deck watching the birds sipping on a beer at the same time. That was the life. This picture isn't quite the same, but it shows you the type of bun we used to use. We did not close the bun but put filling on both halves. I've just had breakfast and I am making myself hungry. I have remembered another sandwich I make for myself, especially, butter two slices of decent bread (no not mayo, butter) then add, in layers, some lettuce, onions, tomatoes and cucumber with plenty of salt and pepper. Put the top piece of bread on and smoosh it down. The flavours meld and are wonderful. It doesn't need anything else I promise you. Have a great day.