So he came in late, reeking of whiskey among other things . . .
As I said a few days ago, I started a new job. While I'm still living in cubicle land, at least I have a window that lets in some natural light. It's kind of nice to be able to go stare out the window for a few hours minutes . . .
My family and I are trying some new things when it comes to preparing our evening meals. There's a couple reasons for this:
1. I want my kids to be able to prepare their own meals. I don't mean being able to make Mac and Cheese from the box - I mean be able to cook from scratch.
2. I also want them to be able to buy food. I don't mean pick the thing that influences them the most based on TV commercials, I mean understanding what is a good, balanced meal.
The way we do this is my wife and I take turns cooking at home. We also switch each week so that my daughter and son take turns with mom or dad each week. If you're not cooking then you are cleaning the kitchen after supper. I don't mind this because I really do like to cook. I like to try new recipes, new cooking methods, and different ethnic foods.
Last night I tried a recipe for Mediterranean Penne Pasta that I found at The Delicious Life. It got thumbs up from everyone. Even my daughter, who is pretty hard to please, thought this one was pretty good. I changed the recipe a bit to suit a family of four, and added a few things, but it really did turn out great:
Prepare 16 oz of Penne Pasta.
Mix 1/2 cup Olive Oil and 6 TB Balsamic Vinegrette. I added some Greek seasoning to this mix, but some fresh spices would probably enhance it considerably.
I used a package of prepared, Romaine salad mix that you can get at the grocery store. I added some shredded Mozzarella, American and Monterey Jack cheese and some crumbled Feta Cheese. I also threw in some crumbled bacon bits.
Mix the pasta and the vinegar/olive oil mix until the pasta is well coated. Blend it into the salad mix and . . . Voila!
It takes about 12 - 20 minutes to prepare and we had about a serving and a half leftover. We probably could have served about six people. What's more, if you already have some of the ingredients around the kitchen, this meal would be pretty cheap to prepare.
Enjoy
1. I want my kids to be able to prepare their own meals. I don't mean being able to make Mac and Cheese from the box - I mean be able to cook from scratch.
2. I also want them to be able to buy food. I don't mean pick the thing that influences them the most based on TV commercials, I mean understanding what is a good, balanced meal.
The way we do this is my wife and I take turns cooking at home. We also switch each week so that my daughter and son take turns with mom or dad each week. If you're not cooking then you are cleaning the kitchen after supper. I don't mind this because I really do like to cook. I like to try new recipes, new cooking methods, and different ethnic foods.
Last night I tried a recipe for Mediterranean Penne Pasta that I found at The Delicious Life. It got thumbs up from everyone. Even my daughter, who is pretty hard to please, thought this one was pretty good. I changed the recipe a bit to suit a family of four, and added a few things, but it really did turn out great:
Prepare 16 oz of Penne Pasta.
Mix 1/2 cup Olive Oil and 6 TB Balsamic Vinegrette. I added some Greek seasoning to this mix, but some fresh spices would probably enhance it considerably.
I used a package of prepared, Romaine salad mix that you can get at the grocery store. I added some shredded Mozzarella, American and Monterey Jack cheese and some crumbled Feta Cheese. I also threw in some crumbled bacon bits.
Mix the pasta and the vinegar/olive oil mix until the pasta is well coated. Blend it into the salad mix and . . . Voila!
It takes about 12 - 20 minutes to prepare and we had about a serving and a half leftover. We probably could have served about six people. What's more, if you already have some of the ingredients around the kitchen, this meal would be pretty cheap to prepare.
Enjoy
I've been a bit absent lately. We moved into a new place and I have a new job - starting Monday. So hopefully this picture of a couple of ducks in the creek by our house will be a sufficient bribe for your forgiveness.
Adobe released Photoshop Express to the masses - online as a beta web service. I wandered over there and took a look at it. It has its ups and downs, but for the most part I think it's a pretty good offering. Some initial critiques suggest that it's a pretty decent offering.
You're going to need an email account to sign up. After you've validated the email account you can start working with the service. The first thing I did was upload a picture that I took of the tree in my front yard on a rainy day.
It's your standard picture.
After you've uploaded your picture to your library, you can select from a variety of actions to take with your uploaded image.
I chose to edit the image and use a number of the available edits. Here's a screenshot of the editing screen using the autocorrect feature.
By hovering over the smaller boxes located at the top of the workspace, you can instantly see the effect applied to your image. All told I applied autocorrect, exposure, pop color, and sketch effects to my photo. In the end, this is what I ended up with:
Not bad, as far as I'm concerned. Once you're done, you can email it, embed it, or download it, to name a few options. I chose to download it to my laptop.
Overall, I think this service is a pretty good deal to the average user. It's very simple to use, available wherever there is a connection to the Internet ( I used the wi-fi connection at my local library ) and, of course you can't beat the fact that it is FREE. This is great for those unwilling to shell out $100 - $800 for software belonging to the Photoshop family.
On the downside ( I gotta be fair ) you may only use JPEG images with Photoshop Express. That is a bit of a limitation, but most consumers will upload images taken using their digital cameras, so that shouldn't be a huge problem.
Photoshop Express allows you 2 GB of storage space. I imagine that it won't be long before people will exhaust that allocation. I expect that after a period of time a premium account option will be rolled out so that people will be able to purchase accounts with more storage space and perhaps, other types of effects.
You're going to need an email account to sign up. After you've validated the email account you can start working with the service. The first thing I did was upload a picture that I took of the tree in my front yard on a rainy day.
It's your standard picture.
After you've uploaded your picture to your library, you can select from a variety of actions to take with your uploaded image.
I chose to edit the image and use a number of the available edits. Here's a screenshot of the editing screen using the autocorrect feature.
By hovering over the smaller boxes located at the top of the workspace, you can instantly see the effect applied to your image. All told I applied autocorrect, exposure, pop color, and sketch effects to my photo. In the end, this is what I ended up with:
Not bad, as far as I'm concerned. Once you're done, you can email it, embed it, or download it, to name a few options. I chose to download it to my laptop.
Overall, I think this service is a pretty good deal to the average user. It's very simple to use, available wherever there is a connection to the Internet ( I used the wi-fi connection at my local library ) and, of course you can't beat the fact that it is FREE. This is great for those unwilling to shell out $100 - $800 for software belonging to the Photoshop family.
On the downside ( I gotta be fair ) you may only use JPEG images with Photoshop Express. That is a bit of a limitation, but most consumers will upload images taken using their digital cameras, so that shouldn't be a huge problem.
Photoshop Express allows you 2 GB of storage space. I imagine that it won't be long before people will exhaust that allocation. I expect that after a period of time a premium account option will be rolled out so that people will be able to purchase accounts with more storage space and perhaps, other types of effects.
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