Monthly Archives: September 2009

Two recipes gonna try out

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Whole Wheat Pizza dough

NGREDIENTS

* 1 teaspoon white sugar
* 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

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DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Blueberry Bran Muffins

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
* 1 cup nonfat milk
* 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 1 egg
* 2/3 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup blueberries

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What to Drink?
Hot Non-Alcoholic Coffee
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or use paper muffin liners. Mix together wheat bran and milk, and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together applesauce, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat in bran mixture. Sift together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into bran mixture until just blended. Fold in blueberries. Scoop into muffin cups.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.

I’ll let ya know how they turn out next week. I need to buy ingredients.

A fun and interesting project

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I’ve been working at a role playing site for many years (Dragonmount). I’ve had various different positions and various different jobs from it. But right now the biggest thing that it’s missing is a role playing character database linked into their message boards.

Once upon a time Dragonmount had a message board system tailored to the idea of multiple characters. It was a custom built message board using asp. It got old quickly and the server we were on floundered under the load, so after many changes Dragonmount had some issues and abandoned the message boards.

Dragonmount doesn’t have any different character logins and the chances of it happening again are pretty slim, as the format of Dragonmount has changed dramatically over the 11 years of its existence. But in the general vein that a character database linked into the message board system I’ve started working on a plugin for MyBB.

Unlike many of the other message board systems out there, MyBB has a plugin system. What this means in layman terms? Basically I can add function and features to the message board with out having to rewrite the core files. So you say? Well when you change core files you have to manually update when there is a patch to the system. And as all web software there is almost a gaurantee that there will be a patch you would have to do that to. With MyBB you don’t have to worry about it. All the modifications are contained in new files and thus will not be overwritten unless the changes to the core files happen to add the exact same file name to the new system. So all in all I can make a pretty massive change to the message board system and not have to worry about losing or having to majorly work around them when there are security fixes and the like.

I love MyBB for this very reason. But back to the project.

Back in the day when there were different character logins at Dragonmount each post you made you had the choice to use which ever character you wanted. This is one of the main features of the plugin I am working on. In addition to this is the ability to create a character biography that is linked to the character. Thusly maintaining a character database.

This is a pretty massive project and I’m learning a lot about how to make a plugin for MyBB. Currently I have working on my local copy the Create a Character function and the Public Character Listing. There is still a massive amount of things to do. I’m currently working on trying to get the approval link on the Public Character Listing to only show up for those people who are in the right user groups. Not really an issue, just currently were I stopped before writing this post.

I could really make this an elaborate project, but this is a simplified version of my “perfect” play by post message board system. My way is not the “perfect” way for everyone it’s just my vision of what I think is needed for a role playing game like this. Its not even a plugin yet, right now I’m just modifying the system manually, I’ll make a plugin later after all the functions are working so I’m not troubleshooting the functionality with the plugin issues of setting up the files appropriately.

It’s fun and I enjoy the time I spend on it. It’s a good programming project for me and it helps me understand MyBB‘s underlying system.

The Differnece between the girls

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It never ceases to amaze me the differences between the girls. I still get the “oh they look like twins” comments from strangers, when they clearly do not look like twins – Kathleen has brown hair and eyes and looks like me and Samantha has mouse brown hair and blue grey eyes and looks like her father. I know every kid is different and I’m not even talking development in this particular case, just their personalities.

Sammi is a social butterfly, when we are with people, particularly ones she knows she goes from one lap to the next with no problem. Kathleen is shy and really only goes from kid to kid, she tolerates adults but she isn’t as big into them until she’s been around them for a while, an hour or two at the minimum.

I sit and i watch the girls play. Kathleen likes to build things and create things, her biggest thing right now is making tents. She likes to figure out how things work, she never really put a person in a house or even rolled a car around on the floor until she saw her sister do it. Sammi on the on the other hand loves to sit and play with her toys. She’ll take a handful of them and put them in their house, or drive the cars around the floor. There isn’t any pushing of buttons just pure imagination. I really love how they play, they don’t play together much, they are usually fighting, but Sammi almost always has to go whereever her sister is.

It’s just really cool to watch them grow.

Kathleen is drawing pictures now, not just scribling on paper. She has drawn a bunny rabbit, some fish, people and her current favorite is drawing faces – happy, sad, doesn’t matter just faces. She’s really starting to draw real well. It started out with just circles for eyes, now the eyes have color in them but the whole circle isn’t colored in, just like a real eyes.

Sammi has started to color a bit, which is really good considering she never really had any interest before we went to New York. She’s also looking like she’ll be a lefty. She eats with her left hand and I’m pretty sure she’s favoring her left hand in most things, she definitely eats better with her left.

New Theme and New Feed

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In the near future I will be putting up a new theme AND switching from the feed currently here to a feedburner feed. I just wanted everyone who subscribes to know that the feeds will be changing soon. I will let you know the day before I do it. I want to put it all in at one time instead of two separate things. So I still have to finish the theme.

More Sleep?

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Okay last night was a mixture of good and bad. Sure Samantha had fallen asleep yesterday afternoon on the floor of the bedroom with her sister bugging her on and off it wasn’t that great of a sleep and I don’t think it was really all that long, but I generally don’t time naps if they take them. So Sammi had trouble going to sleep. She took about an hour or so to get to bed, and in that process Kitten got woke up, so I then had to deal with her on getting back to sleep.

I am not quite clear that if after Kathleen went to sleep that no one else woke me up. I know I got out of bed at least once, but that was my typical I have to go potty wake up call. I’m not sure they woke up until hear me now 4:15am. Now this isn’t nearly as bad as the 2-3am ones I have been getting. I have to get up to make Shea’s lunch at 4 anyway. But instead of them sleeping in their room Kitten came into mine saying she didn’t feel well (which she’s been saying all week long with no other evidence that she is – but stomach pains are hard to tell unless it’s coming out either end and it’s not). Anyway we started with Kathleen, Samantha, me and ended up Kathleen me, Samantha. As they both wanted to touch and snuggle with Mommy. Which I knew would be the case but Sammi insisted that she wanted to lay down in the middle at first.

And Sammi had trouble going back to sleep after that tossing the covers all over and me already missing one as I wasn’t on my side of the bed I was already chilly it wasn’t a fun morning to get back to sleep. But it’s 8:30 and they are still sleeping mostly, I think my typing is waking them up. It’s thursday it’s not such a big deal if they don’t sleep well tonight. We don’t encourage naps during the weekend anymore than during the week, but it’s less stressful on all of us when Daddy doesn’t have to wake up at 4am.

Sleep?

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Who needs sleep? I’m really amazed at how little good sleep I can live off of. When each of the girls were babies it was expected to be awake more than not. Kitten has always been a problem when it comes to sleep. Staying dry (in pullups) and the TV have curbed most of her waking nights. Granted she will still wake up and want milk and the DVD turned back on, but that’s maybe once a night unless she’s not feeling well or something.

Sammi use to sleep great, now not so much. Now that she learned how to open doors, and well before that too she’s not doing so well. I don’t know what changed with her, but she went from sleeping great to waking several times in the middle of the night for hours on end. My assumption is that her genetic disposition for insomnia kicked in late. Problem with Sammi is she won’t stay in her room and watch tv. It’s much better than it was when she slept alone now that her sister is with her, but now I also have to deal with one of them waking the other up, and that generally causes major headaches in the middle of the night.

Some nights she goes to bed well and others I spend a good 3 hours putting her to bed before she’ll stay and then having to do the same thing again later in the night/early morning hours.

I’m running on empty. While they are doing slightly better the last few days I’m not sure if it’s progress or if it’s just a lull in their current pattern. I’m hoping it’s progress but with Sammi you never know. She’s pushing the Mommy buttons well though … “kiss” “hug hug hug” and the best one thus far “love you”. She’s yet to say it to Shea but she’s said it twice now once to me and once to Grandma and Grandpa. She’s also pressing her luck with the 20 min wake up calls in the middle of the night.

So I struggle for a good night sleep and hope that I’ll catch up again. It makes concentrating and working very difficult. Thankfully a good supply of Dr. Pepper is found in the fridge. Which is a whole nother thing I shouldn’t be doing but priorities.

Labor Day & Pets

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I can’t say how much I miss being home when family gathering holiday’s roll around. My day was uneventful, I didn’t even plan to barbaque. Not that my grill would work if I wanted to anyway. I haven’t grilled all summer long thanks to not having the money to refill the gas tank for the grill.

I’m having a hard time with missing Diamond. I try not to let the girls see how much it hurts. I’m not worrying about doing something wrong with her, I just miss her to death. Shea doesn’t want another one yet. And I understand why. We can’t afford a puppy right now anyway. To many added expenses.

I have suggested fish to him but he and I both agree that it’s difficult finding a place with the girls in their I must get into everything stage. I suggested a cat. My initial thought was that it would be cheaper than a dog but they too need licensing and vet visits after the initial kitten stage. The biggest thing there though is it might help with the mice population in the winter time. Dunno how they do it but every winter we get little critters in our attic and house, at least since Katrina anyway I don’t recall having them before then.

I’m not sure if we’ll have a pet anytime soon. Maybe once at the beginning of next year after a tax refund comes in. I did get one bit of news from Shea that in March if they strike, he plans to go to work through the strike. That was awesome news as we really couldn’t afford it other wise. And it’ll leave our tax refund for things that are more important like getting me a new computer, hopefully Windows 7 will be available I really don’t want to have to upgrade and/or get Vista at all lol, but we’ll see. I’d love to get a MAC but don’t think that will happen. Besides I couldn’t play WoW on it, don’t think WoW installs on the MAC, much less all my design software. We’ll see.

Smokey Pasta and Chicken

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OMG, I can’t believe I’ve not posted about this yet. This is by far one of mine and Shea’s most favoritist dishes of all time. (and yes I know that’s not a word :P)

I was watching Ultimate Recipe Showdown and one of the winners did a similar pasta. Five cheeses bacon mac and cheese. You can get the TGIF modified version on their menu.

Here’s the basic proceedure I use.

I boil my pasta as package directions indicate. I use Ziti, Penne or Elbow Macaroni. My kids prefer the latter, my husband one of the former, but all is good.

Cut about 3/4 lb to 1 lb of bacon into bite size bits and fry them in a pan until crispy. Be cafeful with your bacon selection, the wrong one can really ruin the meal. It must say smoked and really shouldn’t be low sodium as we don’t add any salt to anything other than the pasta water.

When the bacon is crispy take it out of the grease and drain, but don’t drain the grease from the pan we need it! I generally use all of the renderings, but that’s up to you if you want to and how much liquid you intend to use. I don’t measure much these days so I can’t tell you how much. A typical roux is 1T of fat, 1T of flour to 1 cup of liquid depending on your consistency you want more or less liquid.

Add flour to the bacon drippings. I generally use three small handfuls of flour. Cook the flour so it’s cooked and gets rid of that flour taste. Stir in the milk and/or half and half. I typically use 2% milk but any other than skim should work fine. It’s about 1 quart of liquid but again I don’t actually measure when I’m doing it.

Add in about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese into the milk bacon dripping mixture. Stir together until desired consistency.

Drain the pasta and pour the cheese sauce over it.

I generally grill chicken about 3 breasts and then cut it up into small bite size pieces, throw it into the pasta and sauce and add in the bacon, mix well and heat the rest through and blends together nicely.

While this is not a low fat meal it is AWESOME! It makes even better leftovers. And this is coming from someone who does not like leftovers.