Some Like It Hot!

Project Proposition:
One night I invited my parents over to the boyfriend's and I made my famous Tilapia Fish Tacos with Fresh Kroger White Tortillas (its a staple, brand loyal item in the pantry).

My mom brought over Pink Chili Mayo that she found the recipe for on Food Network.

My boyfriend proceeded to savor the left over Mayo by putting it on everything. After much nagging, I agreed to make it for him with the promise it would be significantly spicy. Here's the original recipe:

Pink Chili Mayo:

• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I found these at Kroger in the Tex Mex section)
• Juice 1/2 lime
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the mayonnaise, sour cream, peppers, and lime juice in a blender and process to a puree. Refrigerate the mayo for 1/2 hour to let the flavors to blend; taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Yield: 8 servings

My Thinking:

To make this thing spicy, I'll drop in lots of jalapenos. Lots was not enough fire. I used to secret ingredient, I put a dab of Red Roster Sauce and a dab of tubed cilantro. My mom loves cilantro and usually customizes her mayo with fresh cilantro and garlic.

Both my Mother and I used light Sour Cream and Light Kraft Mayo.

Success:

This recipe is all about making it your version of "spicy". The chipotle peppers in adobe sauce give the mayo great taste and can be used for sandwiches, tacos, salads and so on.

Mishap and Consequent Success

Project Proposition:
Set up my Mac Time Machine software with my Western Digital HD.

My Thinking:
Piece of cake! Apple makes these things so easy.

Warning:
I am following the setup instructions when my MacBP asks if it's okay to swipe my whole HD to back up its business. Not thinking of the potential outcome (or wanting to use my external HD other backup) I decide that's okay and give my Apple the permission to wipe clean my HD. This included wiping out the windows component to pick up my external HD.

So My PC no longer picks up the external drive....great.

Solution aka Success:
Fix it via Apple
Fix it via Windows

Much thanks to my G.F.F. who provided the links!

Oranges to Apples

Project Proposition:

Transfer my iTunes library on my Dell to my new MacBook Pro (belated to do by 1 month).

My Thinking:

Surely it can't be very difficult to accomplish this task - will back up all my music on an external drive and try to network my Dell and MacBP.

3-4 hours later....and settings screwed up on my external hd.....don't ask...

I found this link, and of course it was on the Apple Support Website.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

Success or Mishap?:

Networking my computer with Samba failed because it was not very user friendly (aka let me skip through reading the instructions and hope for the best). I will give myself a "mishap" for over-thinking the situation and a "success" for finally accomplishing my end goal.

End Note:

Yes, I feel silly for having to post this, but I am sure that I am not the only person in the world that has encountered the epic battle of Windows vs Apple.

Do you want fries with that?

Project Proposition:
After being inspired by Bakerella (and by fate having all the materials necessary to take on such a task) I decided to do something fun for Father's Day.
Here is the Bakerella link Fast Food Fun.

My Thinking:
I made some gluten free vanilla cupcakes from a box mix for my G.F.F. (gluten free friend). I set aside 4 or 5 cupcakes after realizing there was brownie mix in the pantry. Also, I manage to find some nutella (to be the "glue") and left over Gingerbread Men decor. Furthermore, I had some sugar cookie dough in the freezer. So why not put all these great treats to use?!

Buns of Gluten Free Goodness - I cut the cupcakes in half horizontally.

Burger Brownie - I just dropped the brownie mix in a cupcake liners and cut the brownies down to size accordingly - think smarter not harder.

Nutty for Nutella - I used the nutella to hold the brownie burger patty to the cupcake bun, and to stick on my green Xmas dollops for lettuce and red sprinkles for ketchup.

Sweet Fries - I rolled out the sugar cookie dough flat and cut up in long skinny rectangles to bake on a cookie sheet. I added some sugar to look like salt and did a bit of fry trimming after baking and cooling.

Success:
The mini sliders came out great - Dad was impressed! Below are some pictures. Also, I got a lot of positive feedback via FB. Thanks Bakerella for the idea (and making me hungry every time I check out your blog...)

Near Future Topics...

As I stated yesterday, I have been a little too busy to update my blog. However, I have still been busy doing projects, here is what to come....

• External Hard Drive Excursion
• Hang Man Hanging Clothes Rack
• A Picture Worth a 1000 [Minus 955] Words
• My Mint Julep
• Do You Want Fries With That?
• Empty Nesters
• Sister Sister
  

Now if only there were more hours in the day.

....Determined

Success:
As promised for an update - my defrag worked (no clue how long it took because I let it run throughout the whole day). I successfully defragged my hard drive by approximately 40%, did a little more cleaning up of uncessary files and ran it again with less than 15% space available (took about 30 minutes).

Thank goodness this was not a mishap...

To be determined....

Sorry for being MIA, have been busy - but lots to come!

DEFRAGMENTATION.

Talk about a scary word.

Projection Proposition:
Clean up my old Dell - restore to better working condition by getting rid of some old pictures and backing up photos to an external hard drive. (External Hard Drives for Dummies....there's potential for a new post....)

My Thinking:
Go through and uninstall old/unused programs, clean up registry files, etc. This article gives suggestions of places to clean up before defragging your computer.

I went to go analyze my c drive this morning. I got an error saying I didn't have enough space to defrag (apparently you need at least 15% free space perform defragmentation, however you can choose to override this error, I only had 7% space available).

Success or Mishap?
TBA

Because of the space error I believe a couple things may happen.
1) It will take forever for my defrag to complete
2) My defrag will not complete
3) My computer will crash

Will keep you posted....(keep your fingers crossed)