Upgrade Accomplished

So yeah, Windows 7.  It’s shiny.  Shiner than a Mac, even.  :D

Things I love:

• The taskbar: Mouseover window previews and pinning favorite locations.  I want the Mac’s Dock to start doing this.  Now.
• Window resizing: Especially useful for widescreens.  Just drag to the top to maximize, drag to a side to fill up that half of the screen.  I’ve been using it a lot more than I thought it would.  Probably not as useful on low resolutions though.
• Themes: Oooh, shiny.  Though they still are using pretty low-quality pictures, it seems.  But an automatic background changer?  ♥ And the screen when you log in is just beautiful, though I know it’ll be dated in a couple of years.
• Super-quick install: And it came with almost all of the drivers I needed.  Was just missing an NVIDIA driver, but the Windows default worked great.  The NVIDIA one didn’t really add anything but their control panel, it seems.

Things I don’t love:

• All Programs: Folders at the bottom? Seriously?  Should’ve been fixed after Vista.  Though auto-alphabetize is pretty nice.
• Had problems with screen resolutions.  On my 16:10 display, 1440x900 works great, but 1280x800 adds huge black bars on the top and bottom, squishing the desktop itself.  Wasn’t resolved after I reinstalled the recommended video driver.  Pretty annoying considering the system fonts seem smaller than they were in XP.

It’s running pretty awesome under 64-bit on a Dell Precision T3400, even though my Experience Index is 3.5 because of the graphics card.  We’ll see if it’s still as shiny in a few months when all the programmers figure out how to bog down the system.

Also upgraded: Zoo sweatshirts.  General consensus: they’re hideous and we’re never wearing them off zoo grounds because of the giant “ZOO” on the back.  At least they’re black instead of the ugly beige they were before.

Not really upgraded, but still updating daily, amazingly enough: Lilies & Lemons.  Taking decent photos everyday is kinda hard.  I’m not happy with the photos on November 5, but then again, I did come home and sleep until I had to get up to see Labyrinth.  -__-;;

Photo Project: Lilies & Lemons

Remember that list of band/blog names? Well, I finally have a reason to use one.

I've been experimenting a bit more with my camera, and with the experimenting has come an interest in photography blogs. Photojojo had posted an article on collaborative photoblogging. I thought it was an excellent idea, good practice for getting to know my camera (and possibly a chance to get familiar with Wordpress). However, my would-be collaborator was reluctant and balked at the idea of a themed photo a day, and I grew frustrated as I couldn't find a template + plugin combo for Wordpress that I liked. So, I'm continuing it as a solo project for myself, since it seems most of my friends are doing NaNoWriMo this year and it's well-known by now that I fail at that.

Introducing Lilies & Lemons!

My goal is at least one decent photo a day for the month of November (to start with). I'm not doing any particular theme since the main goal is just to get used to taking photos every day. If it's a success, I'll continue on.

I'm still tweaking things on the site, so expect things to change for the first week or so.

Technical Difficulties

Moving this blog from blog.maegmariel.com to www.maegmariel.com was harder than expected.  I'm making way for a possible photo project... :D

Fall Colors

If you asked me what my favorite season was, I would say fall, closely followed by spring. I would say that I like the moderate and cooling weather, the smell of the leaves, the celebrations as birthdays and Cowtown Jamborama come up. And the colors. And I'm trying to figure it out, but the colors seem absolutely stunning this year. I drive around and think, "Wow, that's a pretty tree." Then I have to tell myself that pulling off to the side of the road or interstate or wherever to take a picture would not be a good idea. I'm not sure why I'm so amazed by it all this year, if it's a sign of change within me or if it's just my newly discovered photobug brought about by the new camera thinking, "That would look awesome!"

Recipe: Orange Beef and Rice

Orange Beef and Rice is another recipe that my mom found on the Internet in some random corner that has found a permanent spot in my personal cookbook.  It's as delicious as it is non-photogenic (I took pictures of the finished product and decided that good taste dictates I not put those online.  As my mom's boyfriend once put it, "It looks like something I'd feed the cat!").  Despite it's name, it's not a stir-fry reminiscent of a Chinese restaurant; it's a one-pot dish that's perfect when the weather starts to turn cold and you're too stubborn to turn the heater on (like me).

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms
• 1 c. shredded carrots
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 6 oz. wild-and-white rice pilaf mix
• 1 c. orange juice
• 14 oz. beef broth

Briefly heat oil in large, deep pot over medium-high heat.  Add beef and onion.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms, carrots, and garlic.  Cook another 5 minutes.  Add pilaf mix, orange juice and broth; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed.

And the secret ingredient that I add to make it fan-freaking-tastic?

King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Seriously, this dish isn't done without these.  And I have to get two 12-packs for just me, because I'll eat half of a pack while cooking, then another 1 or 2 rolls every time I reheat a bowl of it, plus the two rolls per bowl full I'm actually eating.  It's pretty sad, but pretty tasty, too.

A Year Later, I'm Still Here (But My Tastes Have Gotten Weird)

Yesterday was my one-year anniversary in IT. I considered bringing in cupcakes or donuts to work, but decided that it was too much work and too early in the morning for me. So no big celebrations, besides the one inside me this morning when I checked how much time off I had and saw my 7 2 days worth of paid vacation time. :D I'm feeling more comfortable with what I'm doing there now, thankfully. Maybe this time next year I'll actually know what I'm doing.

A year in IT also means it's getting close to a year since I moved out. I'm still amazed at how easy the adjustment was. I guess that means I was ready for it? One thing I've noticed is how my culinary tastes have changed. I'm blaming all the food blogs I subscribed to right around the time I moved out. It used to be that I'd question the reasoning behind a sandwich that was just bread and cheese (like grilled cheese) and wonder what's the appeal in white bread and plasticky cheese? But yesterday, I saw this grilled cheddar panini with apple chutney, and instead of labeling it a glorified grilled cheese sandwich, I labeled it delicious. Lazy me thought that I should be able to find apple chutney at one of the grocery stores here (I live by five of them, one of them slightly fancier than the rest), and silly me, upon not finding apple chutney, decided to replace it with apple butter.

But you know what? Apple butter with bakery bread and a good smoked cheddar is pretty damn good. One of the few meatless meals I like. (And one of the few where I actually use my toaster and microwave: toast the bread first, then put on the toppings and nuke them for 30 seconds and voila! Instant faked panini.) Does this make me strange?

Edit 10/9/2009: That sandwich? First I made it with an artisan smoked cheddar with paprika that I got at the cheese counter at one of the stores. Expensive, but pretty good. But I found out it's mind-blowingly good with a more mass-produced (but still expensive compared to Kraft and the rest) apple-smoked cheddar that I know and love. And here I was wasting it on burgers... :D Also? That BBQ Tea Rub is good on it too.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

See those? Those cookies? Yeah, finally figured out that Earl Grey tea cookie recipe.

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teabags Earl Grey tea leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 2 teaspoon water
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

Note: What I did with this batch was actually 2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp water, but the vanilla taste overpowers the tea taste in my opinion with those measurements. They're still delicious though.

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add vanilla, water, and butter. Mix together until a dough is formed. (I seemed to have better succes with my hand mixer once I boosted up the power to maximum. I didn't do that with the last batch and that might have been part of my problem.) Form the dough into a log onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and roll the log smooth. Freeze now, or chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. When chilled, slice the log into 1/3 inch thick pieces. Place on baking sheets and bake until the edges are just brown, about 12-15 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

So, the differences from the original recipe: the amounts of vanilla and water and the time to bake. I found that when I'm baking them, after 12 minutes they look a little anemic, but after 15 minutes they look like this:

More cookie pr0n (including the lengths I had to go through to make pretty little cookie cutouts from frozen dough) can be found here.

Putting the Kitchen to Good Use

One of the promises I made to myself when I moved was that I would actually cook for myself--none of this eating out.  That lasted until about March, when the dishes started stacking up too high because of a malfunctioning dishwasher.  I reaped some good benefits from it, like losing about 10 lbs. of weight.  But from April till today, I've been eating out for both lunch and dinner almost everyday, and during Cowtown I could feel the effects of it: I was sore and exhausted, crabby and easily irritated (more than usual), and to top it all off, I had no money.  I knew something had to change.  So again, I made a promise to cook for myself again.

Monday afternoon, I went through a wiki where I stored all the recipes that I find interesting and/or delicious and picked out a couple dozen that sounded good.  I wrote down all the ingredients, marking down which ingredients were used for multiple recipes, and went to the store, grabbing the ones that were cheap, sounded really good, and/or were used in multiple recipes.  I came home, weeded down the couple dozen recipes to the few that I had the ingredients for, looked for a couple more that I now had the ingredients for (mostly desserts ^____^;;;), and started figuring out what I was going to eat.  (I found out it's mostly chicken.  ^___^;;  How I came to gather so many chicken recipes, I have no idea.)

So Monday night I started.  I made a double batch (or what I was deeming to be a double batch out of rationing) of BBQ Tea Chicken.  I ate half that night and made myself prep the other chicken breast for BBQ Chicken Packs Tuesday (which didn't end up so much like packs as mini BBQ chicken pizzas -___-;;).

Tonight I decided on a recipe that my mom found online a few years ago, Lemon Chicken Sauté:

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved
  
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 c. lightly salted butter
• 1/3 c. honey teriyaki sauce
• 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. sugar

Roll chicken in flour to coat.  Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray.  Add butter; melt.  Add chicken breasts.  Cook over medium heat until chicken is lightly browned (5-7 minutes).  Remove chicken; set aside.  Stir in teriyaki sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and sugar.  Return chicken breasts to pan; simmer 3 minutes.  Turn chicken breasts over; continue cooking until fork tender (2-3 minutes).  Serve over rice.  (Especially drizzling some of the leftover sauce over the rice.)

And I will tell you this: it was delicious.  Going through my dessert recipes, I realized that I still had all the ingredients for Earl Grey Tea Cookies from a batch I made a while ago.  I decided to whip up those.  The dough is currently chilling in the freezer.  Hopefully it'll end up alright.  Last time I made them, the dough seemed a lot more doughy; this time it crumbles easily.  But I may have put in another teaspoon of vanilla or water last time, the dough was so soft then.  Here's to hoping for the best!

[And on a completely unrelated note: I really really love the storytelling intro to Zelda: Wind Waker.  I still remember the excitement I felt the first time I saw it.  And it still makes me remember A Link to the Past, which is still one of my favorite Zelda games.]

Edit 10/1/09: Yeah, I think the tea cookies ended up a FAIL this time.  ;___;

Firsts

So, there's a first for everything.

Including me being honked at for driving defensively (stopping and waiting for a car to pass the opposite direction before making a left turn instead of gunning it and turning in front of the car).  Usually I'm the one insulting other drivers for delaying me a few seconds.

CAUTION: Awesome

So, yeah.  My “new” TV that Troy and Merinda decided to donate to me.  Much bigger than my old one.  Much shinier.  And it actually shows colors the way they ought to be (no more magenta blood when watching Dexter).  And my PS2 actually formats my DVDs (widescreen when I can) to the proper aspect ratio, so I don’t have to bother with plugging in my laptop to make sure the people on-screen aren’t deformed.  Which means that I sat at home and watched the first half of the first season of Dexter all weekend.  ^___^;;

But I’m glad I moved the TV when I did, since today I came home to this:

I got a notice taped to my door last week to make sure that maintenance could get through to do work on the balconies.  I didn’t worry about it too much since they can just walk right onto my patio, no going through the apartment at all.  I just didn’t realize that they would tape off my patio to make sure that I don’t screw around with the temporary supports holding up my upstairs neighbor’s balcony.  So, considering those doors were the only way I was getting my old TV out and the new one in, good thing I moved that on Sunday night.  ^____^;;