Bacon, Egg and Toast Cups

From MarthaStewart.com:

Try cooked, crumbled sausage in place of bacon or make a vegetarian version with sauteed spinach. Dress things up with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

• Prep Time15 minutes
• Total Time35 minutes
• YieldMakes 6

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sandwich bread
• 6 slices bacon
• 6 large eggs
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter 6 standard muffin cups. With a rolling pin, flatten bread slices slightly and, with a 4 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut into 8 rounds. Cut each round in half, then press 2 halves into each muffin cup, overlapping slightly and making sure bread comes up to edge of cup. Use extra bread to patch any gaps. Brush bread with remaining butter.
2. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium, until almost crisp, 4 minutes, flipping once. (It will continue to cook in the oven.) Lay 1 bacon slice in each bread cup and crack an egg over each. Season with salt and pepper. Bake until egg whites are just set, 20 to 25 minutes. Run a small knife around cups to loosen toasts. Serve immediately.

Cook's Note

Standard muffin pans come in 6- or 12-cup size; if baking 6 items in a 12-cup pan, leave empty space in between. Nonstick pans are nice but not essential. Beware of very thin pans, which often lead to burning. Place pans on a baking sheet to make them easier to get in and out of the oven.

Easter is Evil

I had SUCH a bad week in terms of eating healthy.  Well, last week, I mean.  The week began with the celebration of Passover.  I ate FAR too many hard boiled eggs.  For some reason my Mom always makes hard boiled eggs and we pass them around with the Green Vegetable that is part of the seder.

There's always plentiful desserts and all sorts of yummy things to eat at Passover.  At least at my house, it's sorta like "Jewish Thanksgiving."  Wine, several courses, matzah galore...  not to mention the fact that we had a seder two nights in a row.  So that was the bad start to the week right there.

Thursday of last week was my BIRTHDAY!  So of course I wasn't planning on eating healthy that day either.  We went to Friendly's (my personal fav hehe) and got all kinds of fried noms that Dr. Oz wouldn't approve of.  And umm yeah we got a big ice cream cake too.  :)  By the way, Danny got me the BEST present - Pride and Prejudice on DVD!!  I've wanted this damn movie for YEARS now and nobody had ever gotten it for me.  But Dan finally did and I've watched it at least 5 times since then.  YAY DANNY!

OK so after that, you'd think I'd have had my fill of bad foods and stuff.  But no.  Sunday was EASTER!  Dan and I went to the movies, I had wayyy too much popcorn.  Then we came back and it was time for Easter Dinner, and I managed to polish off my plate of roast pork and mashed potatoes.

But I have an ISSUE with Easter.  Easter is Evil.  Why?  Because all the treats for Easter are SO BAD!  I mean, sure, you could say Christmas has a ton of 'naughty snacks' too.  But Christmas I associate more with sugar cookies and gingerbread.  However, Easter is known for chocolates filled with creamy things.  Like cream.  Or peanut butter.  Or caramel.  And the BEST Easter candies are the HUGE bunny chocolate things.  Of course now that it's the day AFTER Easter, all these naughty chocolates are 50% off and my Mom bought a bunch.  TO TORTURE ME!  *cry*

iMac Withdrawal

Well, last week my iMac had a massive hard drive failure.  It's kinda like the equivalent of a stroke... but for a computer.  And now you might say that my iMac is in a coma and will not wake up.  It's all very sad.  I had a bit of a panic attack about this last Wednesday.

Luckily, Danny helped me figure out that I could take the computer in to the Apple Store on the weekend, and find out exactly what was wrong w/the damn thing.

My mom, Rachel and I went to the Apple Store, and the guy ran some high-tech tests.  He said there were over 2,000 errors on my hard drive.  Not good.  It would have to be replaced.  I told him how much it sucked that this was happening, since my Apple Care had just expired last month.  He said that they don't even MAKE the 250GB hard drives anymore, so I'd get a free upgrade to the 500GB.  I asked how much this was going to cost.

He said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it for you."

OMG!  He took pity on me and is getting me the new hard drive for FREE!!!  YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!

So now I have to wait for the hard drive to come in (he had to order it from elsewhere) and then take my iMac back to the store for them to actually do the replacement.  For the time being, I'm stuck using my Asus PC laptop instead.  Thankfully it's nice and fast, and my boss said he'll install Photoshop and Premiere on this laptop for me, which was very nice of him.  But I'm still going through Mac Withdrawals.

On my Mac, I took full advantage of the OS X Leopard capabilities, specifically using Expose and Spaces.  I would keep all my work related Finder windows, and a separate browser full of work email and links open in one Space desktop.  Then I'd use another browser in a second space for all my personal crap.  And I would use Expose constantly to switch between windows.

Now when I'm using this PC, everything is smushed into one desktop.  I can't keep work and play separate.  It sucks!  I really miss my iMac and I just can't wait til it's fixed and happy and working again.  I don't even care if I lose all my files (tho I am going to attempt to salvage whatever I can, if my plan works, this evening).

I'll keep everyone updated on my iMac status!  For those who care, here's a scary error message I'd gotten on my mac:

Mobile Blogging!

This is my first attempt at blogging from my new Blogger App!  I got my Optimus V smartphone last week and I've been pretty obsessed with it!  Between that and the new Pokemon game coming out, I've been quite preoccupied lol!  Not to mention that I've been helping Melissa with all the wedding planning...  don't have much time for blogging.  But maybe with this app that will change. :-P

Photoshop Effect Trial

Just for fun, I've been trying out some different comic book effects in Photoshop.  Here's the link to the tutorials, in case you want to try:  20 Insane Comic Book Style Photoshop Effects

I haven't tried them all yet, and I probably never will.  But I did try the first one and dabbled with some others.  Here's a "finished" attempt!  (I could have messed w/the levels some more but whatever!)

It's not as good as the one in the tutorial, but that's cuz I had to take the photo myself using Photobooth and the shitty lighting in my room.  I think it's good enough for practicing purposes, though!  :)

Cottage Pie Recipe

My friend posted this on Facebook so I am copying it here for safe keeping!

I can has Cottage Pie?

YES U CAN HAS!

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef (angus please!).  If you want a veg version go for some veggie crumbles or just leave out the meat
• olive oil
• 1/2-1 can tomato puree or 2 grated fresh tomatoes 
•  a few tbs Sriracha (Rooster) hot sauce (use to your own taste)
• 2 tsp thyme leaves
• 1 tsp oregano or italian seasoning
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• garlic and onion powders
• 1 regular sized bag of frozen mixed veggies OR fresh chopped carrots, peas, green beans, and corn (NO potatoes!).  Don't use canned, they've got a ton of sodium and are soggy
• 1/2-1 cup chicken or vegetable broth or water
• 7 potatoes (or more or less depending on preference), peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/2-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 knob butter (yes I wanted to say knob)
• splash or two of milk
• ground pepper
• parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Saute onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until tender.  Add garlic and saute a bit longer.  Add ground beef or crumbles and brown evenly, breaking up any clumps with your spatula.  add salt (optional), pepper, garlic and onion powder and stir to distribute evenly.
2. Add vegetables, tomato puree, broth, thyme, oregano, cayenne and sriracha and bring to a simmer.  Cover and cook 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.  Consistency should be of a very thick stew, not too much liquid, yet saucy
3. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water with the cubed potatoes to a boil.  Cook for 15 minutes or more, until the cubes are cooked through and easily mashed with a fork.  Drain.  Using a fork or potato masher, combine and mash potatoes, butter, ground pepper, milk, and cheddar cheese.  Your choice whether to have it super smooth, but I prefer it more of a "country" mash.  
4. Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit.  Pour the beef mixture into a large baking dish (this makes a lot FYI, I use a deep ceramic roasting pan) and spread evenly around.  Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese.  Top with mashed potato mixture, spreading*carefully* so entire top is covered.  
5. Bake, uncovered for 30-45 minutes until mashed potato top turns a bit golden.  Serve!

My Latest Obsession

Last weekend, I went to the city to visit Danny, as usual.  We celebrated Valentine's Day early since I had to be back on LI to work and such on Monday.  On my way back, I didn't have time to call the house before getting on the train back to my town.  And since I don't have a car, I have to call my mom to get a ride home from the train station.

As you would expect, I called the house from the train, using my crappy cell phone.  For those who don't know, I currently have a Tracfone.  It's a pay-as-you-go phone service, I prepay for minutes and then use them up, and the cycle continues.  In the past I've attempted to connect to the internet using this phone, only to discover (to my dismay) that I was being charged for the time it takes me to write out the web URL I want to visit using the number pad.  It's safe to say that this phone totally sucks.  What I didn't realize was the full EXTENT of the suckiness.

So I called my house.  Nobody answered.  I called my mom's cell phone, no answer.  Then I tried my dad's cell, and yup you guessed it, no answer.  At this point I was starting to slightly panic, because I was already on the train and was going to have to find SOME way of getting home, hopefully without having to pay $7 to take a taxi.  I kept trying, finally left a voicemail on my mom's phone.

Once I had done all that, I noticed that my phone had used up 10 minutes of air time.  Just for dialing and listening to the ring of a phone that was going unanswered on the other end.  I mean, REALLY?  They charge me for waiting for someone to pick up??  That was the last straw.

I've decided that a new phone is not only a fun thing to get, but it was now a NECESSITY.  I'd been looking at cell phone plans and things before, but now I'm starting to get serious.  Tracfone might be [somewhat] cheap and convenient, but it doesn't really do everything I want my phone to do.  Not to mention that my Tracfone is archaic and has zero features (except Tetris).  What I'd really like is to join the rest of the world and get a SMARTPHONE.

No, I'm not a spokesperson for any cell phone company.  But I must say that I'm smitten by Virgin Mobile's "Beyond Talk" plan.  For $25 a month (taxes and fees included yay!) I could get 300 minutes, and unlimited text, email, data and web.  My little sister has had a smartphone for like a year and I've been desperately jealous of her ability to google things at a whim.  With Virgin Mobile's cell phone plan, I think I could actually be able to do this as well!!  I've pretty much decided that I want to get this phone:

It's called the LG Optimus V Android.  It's $149, available at my local RadioShack and compatible w/that Beyond Talk plan that I want.  The price isn't unreasonable for a smartphone... and I just NEED THIS DAMN THING!  I'm toying with the idea of getting this phone like, as soon as I get my first paycheck from my new job.  (I'm starting part-time with them, so I know my check won't be huge but I'm pretty sure I could swing $150.)  This phone has EVERYTHING that I want.  It's 3G, WIFI-capable, access to the Android Market, has all the silly apps I'd need, it's touch screen...  need I say more?  So yes, I'm kind of obsessed with this phone right now.  I feel like I've been stuck in the stone age with my current cell phone and I want to upgrade!  NOW!  Please?  So hopefully within the next month I'll be getting this new phone.  Hopefully I won't have to change my cell number (I'm worried that the 646 area code will prove to be problematic when trying to transfer, since I now live on Long Island) but at this point... it would be worth it.  I'll post emphatically if/when I get this phone so um... stay tuned?  

OH and in case you were wondering, my mom got my voicemail and was able to pick me up at the train station, so I got home just fine.  :P