Don’t Spend Your Birthday Like I Did Mine!

Hi all. Hope you enjoyed the previous weekend and, like me, are already looking forward to the next one!

 My Mother’s Day Flowers–h’ain’t they purty?

  Standard Birthday activities–on Mother’s Day

I wrote this on Saturday afternoon, while taking a break from an evaluation that shouldn’t have been as tedious to write as it turned out to be. My brain felt about to explode.

That’s how I felt Friday night too, after tentative birthday plans to get me an awesome PB and chocolate icy-cream dessert at Friendly’s wound up sidelined by unexpected trips to my local satellite emergency room.

Yep. I had spent most of my b-day afternoon doing some of the easier parts of the report that took up about seven hours this weekend. A coworker had dropped in. While we chatted I heard a thump that sounded like it came from upstairs. Long story short: hubby was soon calling me from the other room. He’d “blacked out” briefly after choking on coffee and hit the hardwood.

Luckily, he didn’t hit his head, but his elbow certainly didn’t look happy and he had a nice little cut just above his hip that was turning some nasty shades of purple real fast. My darling also has a cardiac history, so we trotted off to the ER. That was about 4:00 PM.

Two hours later we were told he’d be transported to the mother hospital for overnight observation. I went home to pick up a few items for the guy.

Younger son came home and headed out to garage, as per mom’s request, to check if lawnmower was inside. (Hubby had forgotten he’d already asked older son to put it away, so it seemed odd that it wasn’t in the yard when I got home.)

Yucky story short: Mom tunes in to younger son crying and shouting for help from outside the garage. (That horrid sound may never leave my ears.) He was sort of plastered to door, with the tips of the middle fingers of both his hands stuck in the hinged space between the garage panels. Thank God I’m not the panicky type and quickly lifted the door until the gap widened and he could slide his hands out. The boy hit the ground. He panicked, and as the pain set in he got a little hysterical. When his eyes started rolling back I was sure he was going to pass out. (Getting that big kid off the ground would have been a feat. ‘Nuff said.)

Calmed the kid down and headed back to same ER with him in tow. Since I’m the primary insurance holder, the registrar girls had already scanned my insurance card when hubby showed earlier. They looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh, it’s your birthday today?”

“Uh…yeah.”

Got the younger one home by nine. Older guy needed a ride to a practice for an upcoming affair he’s part of. Dropped him off and headed back to hospital to wait for hubby to be transported. Made it home a little after ten.

Here’s hoping next year’s commemoration of the day I was born is a little less dramatic. Boring works after that.

Never boring, however, is Nadal at a final on clay. We’ll take Rafa’s win in Madrid!

Have a great day and a great week,

Joanna

Today is my birthday!

Happy Friday, Happy weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all to whom this applies!

Since the “techie” blog I wanted to post is no where near done, I had to do something. (IDK, virtual cakes just don’t cut it for me. I’m thinking about something from Friendly’s though. Bet you can’t guess. )

Anyway, thought I’d do a quick share of some awesome music by an up and coming star! As life and a small world would have it, I went to school with his dad (who, I am VERY sad to say, passed about three years ago).

Tam’s dad was also very into his music. If memory serves me well, he loved his drums. What I remember most though, was a question he posed: if I had to lose one, would I give up my sight or my hearing?

Tam’s dad would rather not see than never be able to hear music again.

With that, I present to you Tam Justin Garcia. Take a few moments and listen to Liquid Universe. (You’ll be very glad you did!)  Then, if you would be so kind, visit his Facebook and Twitter pages and share about him some more? Thank you!

On a tennis note, Rafa Nadal topped David Ferrer in the quarterfinals at the Mutua Madrid Open! (Just cause it’s my b-day—of course! Last night my older son caught me watching another match and asked if it’s “tennis season” again. With the tennis channel, this is now a very welcome and fun year-round thing! Which also means, you may be constantly in-the-know about tennis whether you share the passion–or not! )

Have a great day all!

Joanna

Romance and Malware/Adware Removal

Good morning and happy Saturday everyone. Looking forward to the Madrid Tennis Open Championships getting underway! The top four men are scheduled to head up the draw. (That would be: Rafa, Roger, Nole and Andy.) VERY interested to see how it will be seeded; who will be the last man standing, as well as how it might impact Roland Garros (a.k.a., the French Open Tennis Championships) later this month. (It’s all hubby’s fault. He opted for a FIOS package that included Tennis Channel. )

Thanks to those of you who stopped in this past Monday! Here is a photo of the loverly flowers hunny surprised me with AFTER we promised each other no gifts, just a card. He NEVER listens and I should know better.

So go figure. Last night before going to bed I drafted a post. (It’s been relegated to the future.) As you’ve already figured I got sidetracked after I started working on removing the annoying Snap.Do toolbar and its default landing page. My older son must have inadvertently downloaded it while installing software for his friend’s iPhone. It looks like this and is ANNOYING AS ALL GET OUT. Not that it gave much return for taking up space, and I’ve learned it HIJACKS your browser. Kept redirecting me to its advertisers,  with some links to my queries at least halfway down the page. (I happen to like my Google, Bing! and Yahoo! search engines, thank you very much.)

Okay, no biggie, right? All I have to do is go into the Control Panel and uninstall the program.

NOT!!!!

I let the 16-y/o take over. He said something about custom, Advanced Settings and who knows what else under Control Panel then wielded some digital magic.

Or so he thought.

Now I’m irritated. Off to Google, where I typed in how to disable snap.do (or something similar). Yay! for auto-complete, at least in this instance, , and for REAL search engines, where anyone can find answers to any topic s/he can imagine.

I wound up Malwaretips.com.

I immediately found Stelian Pilici‘s rockin’, totally free and highly detailed how-to article. He made it easy for me to get right to work. (All steps to do so for each browser are listed with lots of screen shots to guide you. Takes a few minutes, plus time to run the adware cleaner.)

I had to try a few times b/c I neglected to follow ALL the steps. I’m thinking running the AdwCleaner was the magic, but only after I’d taken the time to tweak BOTH the browsers I have enabled. That would be Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.) BTW, Stelian made sure to include a direct link to the AdwCleaner in the article I sighted.

What are the morals of this story?

1. As tempting as it seems to click ACCEPT when installing software off the net, read the terms and conditions (or at least scroll through them) first! Often there are boxes to un/check that can save you the trouble of having to remove items you don’t want later on. (On the bright side, I am now empowered with a tool to handle this sort of nonsense in the future.)

2. Don’t be afraid to look for an answer to your problem on the internet, especially if you’ve learned one or two things along the way. Be prudent before you click away, but at least read a how-to article. You might be surprised at how much you can handle on your own. (Techie stuff often appears more overwhelming and complicated than it is. BUT: Most of what I’ve learned has built on itself and/or can often be generalized to solve many problems.)

3. Save Malwaretips.com in your favorites! And don’t forget  to thank the guys, SHARE and/or even donate to help keep their VERY VALUABLE efforts going.

4. PC users in particular, run your malware and antispyware programs. Regularly! (Okay, I’m as guilty as the next person.) Dump cookies and run Disk Cleanup  And keep your anti-virus software up to date. (I’m seeing a short Part 2 to this article evolve here. Hope to have it written and up by next week.) I might actually be done!

Thanks, folks, and have a wonderful weekend!

Joanna

Red Velvet Pancakes At Home?

Hi all,

Trying to get myself back into a routine. I am so good at getting in my own way.

Wow. We may have entered a new era in clay court tennis. (View the winner of “The Little French Open” here.) So mad I missed the match! (Yes, I know I can find it somewhere on line. We’ll see what time–and overloaded memory–allow.)

Let’s move on. Last week older son said something about a renowned pancake chain and a new (?) red velvet variety. Mom thinks: Hmm. Can we make this for son at home?

Anyone who REALLY knows me is in on the fact that I don’t necessarily like to cook. I do, however, enjoy trying new recipes and getting creative with adapting them.   I have a special place in my heart too, for recipes that look complicated and elegant when done, but are actually quite easy. (Make the “chef” look amazing, know what I mean? ).

So I hit up the internet and found a few recipes. (I SO love the world wide web.)  I wound up going with this one that I found at recipegirl.com. I invite you to go to Lori Lange’s blog for the recipe (which, actually, came from a guest blogger, Tidy Mom, a.k.a., Cheryl). Are you all with me?

Here I’ll list the two minor changes I made to Tidy Mom’s recipe. (Hubby thinks I should follow a recipe to the letter, but those who spend a lot of time in the kitchen know tweaking is often what makes a certain recipe our own.) I also went with a basic cream cheese glaze. (That recipe follows.)

Tidy Mom’s recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of flour. I’m thinking I used about 2/3 white whole wheat and 1/3 white flour.

As per Cheryl, I also used a “buttermilk substitute,” (1 ½ cups of plain non-fat yogurt mixed with 3 tbsp of milk). She linked to here for this one and other alternatives. My choice worked really well.

Finally, I added a bit more milk to thin the batter to my liking—not unusual for any pancake recipe.

Note: I saw no significant difference using liquid food coloring (less than the 1 tbsp called for, since I ran out). Some recipes suggest red food paste gives a deeper red. IDK as I have no experience to fall back on.

I happen to like preparing pancakes on a griddle, but a good (preferably non-stick) frying pan works every bit as well. Also, rubbing the griddle with a canola oiled-napkin worked better than spraying it with cooking spray. I’ve never liked the speckled appearance pancakes get with that.)

Basic cream cheese glaze (easily increased as needed):

4 oz. cream cheese* (softened)

4 oz. butter* (softened)

2-3 tbsp milk

½ cup confectioners sugar

(*I use the whipped versions. Think it makes for a lighter glaze.)

Using an electric mixer (or by hand) cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add milk and confectioners sugar. Continue mixing until glaze is as smooth as you want it. Serve over warm pancakes. Refrigerate (or try freezing) leftover glaze.

There you have it! These really were excellent, rich with flavor and brought together perfectly by the cream cheese topping—my favorite part of anything red velvet, hands down.

The finished product. Yum.

The finished product. Yum.

So, where do you stand on cooking? Do you follow recipes to the letter or does your brain start tweaking whenever you read one the first time? Are you a fan of pancakes? If so, what’s your favorite kind? Would you rather make reservations?

Have a great day and ttfn,

Joanna

Quick ‘N’ Healthy Tuna Salad

Hi everyone. Checking in after another busy week. Seems like there is something that has to be done every evening. Not one seems long enough.

Yes, another recipe. Came up with this one last week for some leftover tuna salad. Chances are, it’s not new, although it is to me, lol. Sorry; no photo. (Shakes head.) I always think to share the recipe AFTER I’ve put together the dish.  (At least there’s no stove-time. )

I usually stir a 6 oz. can of tuna with mayo, onion powder (no onion breath) and a little sea salt. I top a slice of toasted multi-grain bread with cheese and half the tuna mixture and serve  it open-faced with a side salad of baby lettuces. Low-fat raspberry vinaigrette and a sprinkling of feta cheese brings it all together. Yum.

Wasn’t in the mood for that combo, since I’d had it the day before–and I was trying to skip the bread.

So:

I took the leftover tuna salad, chopped a quarter each of a red bell pepper and cucumber and stirred all together with fat-free Italian dressing. (I was out of the raspberry vinaigrette and too lazy to grab the feta from the fridge. I also love being able to add an unlimited amount of veggies to up the fill-factor w/o adding a significant amount of calories. Next time too, I might cut back the mayo or just skip it. )

Done.

Ridiculously filling and satisfying to chow down, especially for someone—like me—who prefers eating with utensils vs. biting into a sandwich.

And yes, this can easily be used to fill a pita, curl into a wrap or create an open-faced sandwich as I usually do. I imagine you can top cold pasta with it too, for an impromptu side or main dish.

I’m also thinking chicken (grilled or canned) could easily be substituted for the tuna and that either or both would could be the basis of a great appetizer: as finger sandwiches or served in a bowl surrounded by crackers, toasted pita, etc. Heck: skip the meat or fish and serve the peppers, cucumbers and feta mixed with the dressing for a vegetarian spin.

What are some of the easiest and surprisingly tasty, satisfying dishes you concocted? Share them here or link back to your site. It all works and it’s all good.

Have a wonderful weekend, folks!

Joanna

Pizzaiola! A.k.a. ‘Pizza Meat’ at my house!

Happy first Friday of the new year, everyone! May God bless all of us with peace and health as the days of 2013 unfold!

This is up there with the awesome rosemary-wine chicken recipe at my website. Beyond easy but elegant and flavor-loaded to the point people will think you were cooking all day. (My favorite kind of recipe!) Just a note: this was the ONLY meat my older son would eat when he actually started touching meat at about 12 years old. There is hope for those fussy guys, folks!

To serve four you’ll need:

1-1/2 lb of top sirloin steak—if possible, have a butcher cut it as thin as humanly possible then pound it even thinner at home.

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce (or use your own)

3-4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

Fresh parsley, coarsely chopped

salt/pepper/oregano to taste

oil (I sauté the meat in canola then use extra-virgin (EVOO) for the garlic—more detail below)

In your largest fry-pan (I’m a fan of non-stick), heat some oil—just enough to cover the surface of the pan when you swirl it around over medium-high heat. Quickly brown the meat on both sides for up to a minute each. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem done it will cook through later. Work in batches as needed, placing the browned pieces in a shallow bowl. Reserve the juices in between batches.

After you’ve browned the meat, wipe out the pan and add a few tablespoons of EVOO (or more, depending on your taste). The pan is hot, so you’ll be working faster and using a lower flame/heat setting (medium, I’d say). Heat the oil a little then stir in the garlic; sauté until golden. (Don’t let it burn!) Stir in the tomato sauce, oregano, salt and pepper and allow the sauce to heat a bit, even bubble a little. Add the reserved juices and stir. One piece at a time, add the meat to the sauce, turning to coat on both sides and tucking one piece under another as needed. Add parsley and some extra EVOO here too, if you like; cover, reduce heat to low and heat through. (Don’t overcook or the meat may get tough.)

Keep warm in pan or transfer to a serving plate and done! Sometimes, I just put the pan on a trivet and serve from there. Make sure you’ve got crusty Italian or Portuguese bread to sop up the awesome beefy sauce you get from this one. Pair with a green salad and/or pasta and dinner is ready. BTW, leftovers—assuming you’ll have any—are even more amazing b/c the flavors have had time to come together better, and any extra sauce can be used over pasta or even stirred up with browned ground beef.

Enjoy and happy weekend!

Joanna

The Lazy Potato

Welcome to Friday and to another installment of super-easy recipes!

For my son’s and Nanny’s birthdays–just liked the way this one looked

This is probably nothing new, but it’s the delivery that wound up turning this take on home fries one of my favorites to make in a pinch!  Cut up a batch the other day, put ‘em in the oven and went for my walk. (Hubby was home to make sure the house didn’t explode, lol.) By the time I got back, home fries were done!

Here’s what you’ll  need:

One med-lg Eastern or Idaho per person

Canola or olive oil (bottled or spray)

Sea salt/Pepper/Adobo/Garlic salt (any or all, depending on your taste)

Your sharpest knife. I love the old-fashioned Quikcut/Ginsu or this Sportsman from Ronco:

Quikcut is the top image. Sportman is on the bottom.

Here’s what to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (If you have a convection or convection-like option, you’ll want to activate it. Makes your finished product crispier!)

Wash/scrub each potato. (You will NOT be doing any peeling! )

 

Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise to create potato slices. (Cut as thin or thick as you like, depending on your taste and how quickly you’d like potatoes to ready.)

Arrange potatoes IN A SINGLE LAYER on a (preferably perforated) pizza tin or cookie sheet. (See photo.) THIS IS THE KEY TO EASE!  YOU WON’T HAVE TO TURN THE SLICES ONCE THEY’RE IN THE OVEN!

Perforated pizza pan

Brush the potatoes with oil (or spray with cooking spray). If you’re really fancy and want more flavor, use an oil infused with a flavor you love–garlic, rosemary, oregano, etc.

Sprinkle with any/all of the seasonings listed above and feel free to add your faves: grated Parmesan cheese, oregano–even a little lemon rocks it.

Flip the slices and repeat the oil/seasoning process.

Place in the oven and let bake approximately 20 minutes (longer for thicker cut potatoes), to desired tenderness and/or crispness.

Remove from oven and start eating!

The finished product–uh…yum!

Tip: Place a cookie sheet lined with foil under the perforated pan. That will catch any oil that drips through and save you a lot of oven-cleaning time. I mean, what cook–lazy or not–wants to do that?!

So what are some of your standby super-quick and easy recipes? Feel free to share, or let me know and you can post your recipe here as a guest, along with some tidbits about yourself!

Have a great weekend!

Joanna

With Whom Would YOU Sing?

Thanks to the Happiness Engineers at WordPress.com for the prompt for this post. Thought it would be fun to take on and makes for good audience participation, don’t you think?

Of course I’d love to duet with Donny Osmond–any of those wonderful Broadway covers he did on Somewhere in Time would do. So would my dream role: narrator to his Joseph (and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).  Go figure: the narrator on the Canadian soundtrack looked so much like me–thinner of course–one of my sons pointed to the photo and said, “That’s you, Mom.” (I wish! He was quite a bit younger then, but I’ll take it. )

Then there is my birthday buddy, Bono. How cool would it be to share the mike with him on Stuck in a Moment, Vertigo, The Sweetest Thing or my absolute U2 favorite: Walk On?

And I’d so sing with Kevin Bacon on pretty much any cut from any one of their amazing CDs–Tuesday, Old Guitars and the one we all heard first: Only A Good Woman.

So who would YOU sing with? Come on and play along!

Joanna

This One’s Trouble! Cheesecake too!

Okay, I had to do it. Wasting delicious food is a no-no, right? Especially when it’s cheesecake related?

I’m blaming my online quick-cooking-from-scratch guru Stephanie (modernchristianwoman.com) for this one. She posted this awesome and ridiculously easy no-bake individual blueberry cheesecake recipe. Of course I tried it and had to play with it. (The recipe did lose out a tiny bit on the ‘from scratch’ end–but there are easy ways around that with a little creativity, depending on the ingredients you have on hand.)

First: I did the math and came up with a 9-inch pie version: two blocks of softened Neuftachel (makes for a firmer pie since this is a no-bake); 3/4 cup of sugar; vanilla and a squeeze of lemon/orange/lime–your choice–to taste. Mix on medium speed until creamy and well-blended, about 5 minutes. Spread it in a 9-inch prepared graham crust–or one easily made from scratch from 1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup sugar. (Toss together then spread in a glass pie pan.) Top with fresh fruit and/or chocolate chips, chill for a few hours and you’re good to go. (I suppose you can freeze it too.) Positively perfect for a super-quick and elegant dessert in a pinch!

Second: Here’s what I did with the leftover cream cheese mixture. I spread it on store-bought oatmeal cookies and topped each with half a fresh strawberry. Done! Like I said, you can’t waste it! BTW, I’m sure homemade oatmeal, chocolate chip or sugar cookies would work as a base, as would graham crackers.

So, special thanks to Stephanie for inspiring me in more ways than one! And to my iPhone-touting son who takes photos for his mom and emails them to me on the spot. (Even though I took the top photo, lol.)

Look for another super-quick recipe next Friday–perfect for back-to-school breakfast!

Have a great weekend. Please feel free to SHARE! Thanks!

Joanna

Are You Published or Want to Be?

Happy Friday, friends! For those of you in the area who might consider joining me, I’ll be at the Howell Library, Howell, NJ tomorrow! I’d love to see familiar faces and some new ones, too!

Here’s the flyer!

What I Wish I’d  Known—and Done Differently—

 BEFORE I Got Published!

WHERE:     Howell Library   318 Old Tavern Road;    Howell, NJ 07731 (732) 938-2300

WHEN:         July 28, 2012    10 AM-12 Noon

That manuscript burned a hole in your hard drive. You prodded it, polished it to a blinding shine, then sent out query letters to agents and editors. Nothing to do now but wait for a response, right?

Maybe not.

New Jersey author of romance and women’s literature, Joanna Aislinn, has been there, done that and earned the tee-shirt. Armed with the knowledge and perspective only hindsight brings, Joanna will share important tips on what aspiring and soon-to-be-published authors should do while waiting for that first contract.

Joanna Aislinn’s debut novel, No Matter Why (originally published by The Wild Rose Press), was hailed by her editor as “…what a contemporary should be…an emotional journey…a beautiful story well told.”

When not working her day job or attending to a husband, two boys and two cats, Joanna is crafting sequels, planting seeds for future stories of love and commitment, judging contests, networking and expanding her writing and speaking horizons. Friend her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/joannaaislinn) and follow her on Twitter (@JoannaAislinn).

                                                                                                             

For a variety of articles and tips on craft, social media and so much more, check out Joanna’s blog (http://joannaaislinn.wordpress.com) and website (www.joannaaislinn.com).