thoughts are free.

Hello lovely crock pot users I have quite the predicament.

I have a potluck to go to on Sunday, that I want to incorporate maple syrup into, and have like NO time to make anything (I am a student and only have 2 weeks of a condensed semester left.

Do any of you have any recipes that you love that contain maple syrup that do not have to be cooked for all that long? (or if they do reheat well?)

TIA!

1. Yes, it's Friday and I am actually updating right this very second. Although I'm going to keep it quick, because I'm here in New York and am very soon about to walk down to Times Square to try to get a glimpse of Sam Champion on GMA. So far, I've had such a fun time, missing home aside, AND I got some shopping done yesterday which was just, like, a great bonus. Today is lunch with my Penguin folks, then the YA Teen Author events tonight at the New York Public Library. For those of you who have asked if I'll be able to sign books after the panel, I haven't heard officially, but I promise if there is time I will do my best. Really! More info about the Festival is here.

2. Back at home, though, there's a VERY cool thing going on that I want to let the local folks know about. The School of Science and Math in Durham is trying to break a world record for collecting canned food for a food drive, and there are going to be all kinds of cool events happening there tomorrow. Want more details? Go here. All food collected will go to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, which is one of my favorite good causes. Give if you can!

3. As I said, I'm having a lot of fun here in New York. But leaving yesterday was NOT easy. My daughter is old enough to understand now when I have to take a trip, and while she did put on a brave face for most of the leaving process, there was, in the end, a breakdown and tears. I tried to keep it all cheerful and calm, until I got out to the car and at the end of the driveway, at which point I might have shed a few tears myself. Oh, dear God, this parenting thing can be tough. I did tell her I'd bring her a present, though, and she's requested a skull and crossbones T-shirt. (I know, I know: but she has these Halloween pants from Target that she adores, and a girl does like to match.) I feel like if there is ANYWHERE I can find a skull and crossbones T-shirt for a two year old, it's this city. So today, the hunt begins. Sniff!

4. Okay, so I just looked at my watch and I'm running way late for all I want to do. So this will be number four....

5. ....and a promise that Monday's entry will not be so wholly lame will be number five. What can I say? Sam Champion and JuJu Chang and G-Step are only blocks away. I can't miss the chance to see them in person, even if it's only a glimpse. It's almost as good as a skull and crossbones shirt!

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone!

Creole Chicken

1 pound boneless chicken thighs, skin removed, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 can (14.5 ounces) tomatoes with juice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
8 ounces fully cooked smoked sausage, sliced
1/2 to 1 cup diced cooked ham
1 cup chopped onion
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
a few dashes of Tabasco sauce or other hot pepper sauce
2 cups instant rice, uncooked
1 cup chopped green bell pepper

In crock pot, combine chicken, tomatoes, broth, sausage, ham, onion, tomato paste, water, seasoning, and Tabasco. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours. Add rice and green pepper to crock pot and cook for 10 minutes longer, or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.
Serves 6

Dexter: 4x04 Dex Takes A Holiday
1509 Caps
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Photos from winter trips in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Hey guys! Happy St. Patty's Day, and happy birthday to me! Yes, I am a shameless attention whore, and birthday wishes are not unwelcome. xD

ANYHOO, time to weigh in for Week 10 of the WINTER WEIGHT-LOSS CHALLENGE - the final week!

Please post your final weigh-in weight as of today - Wednesday, March 17. If you weigh in later today, please wait to post. If you weigh in after today, sorry, you're SOL for this challenge, but no worries - I'll start up a spring one soon (I'll post details in this challenge's results post next Wednesday).

As you all comment, I will replace your loss percentages and re-order the chart so those who've lost the biggest percentage of weight will be at the top.

Good luck to everyone! Thanks for sticking through this challenge with me. I'm proud of you gals and guys!

Winter Chart!

We're going to keep this short and sweet (Frank and birthday vgifts will be back next week). You've probably seen the updates to our main menu. Don't be alarmed. You'll find everything you need, just in slightly shifted format. Just so you know, we based these changes on input from both experienced and new users who were not familiar with LiveJournal. Our goal was to reduce barriers to usability and make LiveJournal more accessible and easy to navigate. Please note that this is a work in progress. We welcome your detailed suggestions in feedback. We thank you, in advance, for helping us improve your LiveJournal experience.

We've updated the global navigation menu:

Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find where:

• Scrapbook can now be found under Profile (thanks for your feedback, btw), along with Settings, Stats, and Edit Profile.
• You'll find all the tools you need to post and update entries under Journal, which includes posting and editing entries, managing comments and tags, and customizing your journal's style.
• Friends contains all of your friend settings, from filtering your Friends page to adding, removing, and finding new and existing friends on LiveJournal.
• Under Communities, you'll find links to manage your communities, accept community invites, and create new communities.
• Explore includes search features, RSS feeds, Question of the Day, and FRNK radio.
• Under Shop, you'll find links to upgrade or give a paid account, buy virtual gifts, purchase LiveJournal merchandise (like T-shirts), and view your payment history.

LiveJournal Mobile update:

We've enhanced LiveJournal's mobile site to improve usability and load times. We've made more of LiveJournal's features accessible via mobile, including posting comments, uploading photos, reading and commenting on friends' posts, finding and messaging friends, and more. We look forward to reviewing your feedback and recommendations for future improvements.

Other important changes:

• You can lock comments to prevent further commenting on a post, while leaving existing comments visible.
• We replaced the "Tell a friend" link with a new "Share This" widget that lets you share LiveJournal posts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.
• We changed some of the icons on entries (you can hover over the icons to view descriptions).
• You'll see a Tag count on your Tag management page.
• You'll now see the 10 most recent vgifts on your profile page. To remove vgifts, left-click on the vgift and choose whether you want to remove the vgift from your profile or delete it entirely.
• We've added options to help you control receipt of vgifts, which you'll find in My Stuff under Edit Profile. You can now enable vgifts from friends or everyone and disable anonymous vgifts.

We've got your fix:

• UPDATE: Rolling several updates into one listing here -- 1) Scrapbook should be back and working again. 2) The problem with the Update Journal page in IE6 and IE7 should be fixed now. 3) The problem with the userpic add-on package pricing has been fixed and refunds issued to anyone who was overcharged while the erroneous prices were in place.
• Non-conforming images will now be automatically resized for custom mood themes.
• Line breaks no longer count as two characters against your entry's character limit.
• We fixed a bug on the Manage Tags page so you can clear all tags and add new tags.
• We corrected the UI for the update.bml page so it displays properly in IE8.

Thanks again for joining us. Frank and company will be back next week!

I swear I am having one of those days where everything I do, technology-wise, seems to immediately self-destruct. My new phone suddenly won't sync with my computer (Oh, Centro, I miss you and your easy push-button Hotsync) I couldn't get my LJ client to start, and I am scared to even attempt to clean out my DVR in fear I'll blow it up entirely. My friend Lisa used to always say when things got wonky like this, Mercury must be in retrograde, but I don't have time to keep up with all that stuff anymore. Instead, I have learned to take a deep breath and step back. Unless, of course, a blog entry needs writing. In which case, I soldier on. Because that is how I roll.

Of course, even the wonky stuff doesn't stop me from adding more to my technology stuff. I guess I am a glutton for punishment. But my assistant Parker turned me on this week to flavors.me, which is a quick way to have a site with all your OTHER networking links in one place. It's a bit of a clunky set-up (and I don't think you can blame Mercury) but if you're looking for a free, somewhat-easy way to have a virtual business card, this might be for you. Or, maybe you just need something to waste a bit of time on. Don't we all?

In other news, in my last entry, a commenter took me to task for calling myself a "Tarheel" fan rather than a Tar Heels fan, implying that I wasn't a real fan if I couldn't get it right. I appreciate the correction, but honestly, I've always heard it both ways, at least here in Chapel Hill. I mean, we grew up chanting, "I'm a Tarheel born and a Tarheel bred, and when I die I'll be a Tarheel dead." (You could also, alternately, tell another Triangle team to go to very hot place, but I'll spare you that part.) I'd say that I'm a fan of the Tarheels, but also a Tarheel fan: I think, at least here, that the loyalty is what matters, not the specific term. But if any of YOU are big fans and know the proper usage, enlighten me. Because we are all about learning here.

Finally, this might be my last entry for the week, as on Friday I'll be in New York attending the NYC Teen Author Festival. I'm excited about getting away, but of course torn about leaving the toddler and being away from home. It's going to be a quick trip, though, crazy busy, so I hopefully won't have much time to worry about what's happening back here. (Parents reading say it with me: Yeah, right.) On this trip, I am determined to learn how to get around on the subway system, even though it gives my editor palpitations because she worries I'll get lost underground and they'll never find me. So here's my question, you New Yorkers: can I trust Google Maps to tell me the proper trains to take from one place to another? Or are they undependable? If you have experience, let me know. And, um, don't tell my editor. As far as she knows, I'm taking taxis or walking. I swear!

Have a good night, everyone!

Hey guys! I got this recipe off recipezaar originally and had to share it here. The only adjustments I usually make while cooking is I like to drain some liquid from each can before dumping it in. This way the soup is more of a chili. I also do not mash the tomatoes. I really love the chunks! Sometimes I throw in sliced mushrooms while cooking the ground beef and onions, too.

Ingredients

* 2 lbs ground beef
* 2 cups diced onions
* 2 (15 1/2 ounce) cans pinto beans
* 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can red kidney beans
* 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes and green chilies
* 2 (4 1/2 ounce) cans diced green chilies
* 1 (4 5/8 ounce) can black olives, drained and sliced
* 1/2 cup green olives, sliced (optional)
* 1 (1 1/4 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
* 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix

* corn chips, for serving
* sour cream, for garnish
* grated cheese, for garnish
* chopped green onion, for garnish
* sliced jalapenos, for garnish


Directions

1. Brown the ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain off excess fat and transfer browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or stockpot.

2. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes (I like to mash all of the tomato products before I put them in the stockpot--sometimes there are very large chunks of tomatoes, especially in the stewed tomatoes), green chilies, black olives, green olives, taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix.

3. Simmer over low heat for about 1 hour (or 6-8 hours on low setting in crock pot).

4. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them.

5. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapeños.

The USDA has a good fact sheet on Slow Cookers and Food Safety.

I am x-posting this here - this being my husband's post from yesterday - we need to find a place and would like to know of any decent agencies which might help us out. Thanks!

A friend and I are leaving for Ireland in a little under two weeks for the 27th of March to the 5th of April and things are still yet to be planned. So far our first three days will be in Dublin (27th-29th of March), and after that we're completely up in the air. I was wondering if it is worth it to get a railpass for the remainder of our days when we're on a budget, or would bus be the better way? We're both pretty nerdy and enjoy anything historical and plan on hitting up all the castles and landmarks in our path. So in that vein, what places you would recommend seeing, and places to stay in said cities (we're hosteling it). So far my ideas are seeing Galway which I have heard good things about a lot of the smaller/coastal cities but I don't think my fellow traveler is so much interested in that stuff. We have to be back in Dublin by the 5th for flight back home. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with planning things out myself so any help at all would be amazing.

I have three large bars of Lindt chocolate with chili. I would like to make a marinade, sauce, whathaveyou, to put on pork ribs that I will do in the crock. Has anyone done something similar? Do you have a recipe? A proven method? Any suggestions how to make this workable are much appreciated! :)

Dexter: 4x03 Blinded By The Light
1412 Caps
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please comment on my links post if you take something.

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What kinds of recommendations can you make for visiting Sweden? Is a weekend in Stockholm worth it, or should I go the extra bit and see more of the country in a week? Any recommendations for cities to see aside from Stockholm? I'm trying to decide if a weekend trip is worth it, basically, or if I should save my stirling for a longer trip.

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I found a recipe for Chicken Posole soup, and was thinking about trying it (but with Turkey...). However, I have some concerns about how spicy this soup might end up being. I like spicy/flavorful food, but not spicy/HOT. Can anyone tell me if this recipe will be HOT, and if so, how I could go about making it less HOT and more flavorful? Thanks for any advice you can provide!

( Chicken Posole )

I've got a Shepherd's Pie recipe that mixes the meat, veggies & gravy in a casserole dish and says "Cook in a slow oven, say 275°F for 2 hours." Would this translate to 4 hrs in a crock pot on low?

Then you just take that mix, cover with mashed potatoes and bake at 400 for about 30 min.

This is the first recipe I've seen for Shepherd's Pie that really seems to get the flavors simmering together and I'd like to try it, but am usualy short on time when I get home at night. I'm thinking if I can crock pot the meat one night, then bake it with the potatoes the next this could be very tasty and (dare I say it) fairly simple.