Potluck #51: Holidays and Cooking and Recipes - Oh My!

I love anything pumpkin and love to watch Paula Deen. Pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing on the Food Network website were just too tempting. To make 24 small bars rather than 48 I went to Recipe Ingredient Conversion Calculator to halve the recipe.

Original Recipe:

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated Sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps. ground cinnamon
1 tps salt
1 tsp baking soda

Icing:
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softenened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix and low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter in to a greased 13 by 10 inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Adjusted Recipe:
Pumpkin Bars
2 eggs
3/4 cup + 1 Tsp + 1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7.5 oz can pumpkin
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Icing:
4 oz pkg cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I entered the directions on the conversion calculator. I wish the directions would reflect the changes in the amount of the ingredients such as size of baking pan and length of time to be baked (if any). When halving the recipe I would probably use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan, but bake for 30 minutes.

To good eating and a Happy Thanksgiving,

Diane

Consumers Howto #44: How to Make

All the sites were easy to search for what projects/information you were looking for as they were all categorized. The How Stuff Works videos were well done with a fantasic looking recipe for Chicken Zucchini Linquine. Really want to follow that one at home. On the otherhand, i viewed an Irish soda bread recipe with pictures of two little girls about 2 and 4 (although adorable) not giving much in the way of instruction and the text was very limited. Wiki.how had extensive written directions, but no pictures. I looked up making beads from flour and water and no end result to view. At Expert Village I viewed snowflake making and it took opening 5 videos to get instructions on a simple project.

That chicken zucchini linguine looks great and I intend to make it. The chef shows details on slicing the boneless chicken breasts lengthwise and provides reason for doing it that it provides more even cooking. She shows how to smash the garlic and noting it should not be put in pan wihen first cooking chicken as it will toughen. She shows how to cut the zucchini into little strips. Nothing is left for the person following the recipe to have to figure out on their own. All the blanks are filled in. Will give a review on this recipe once I have prepared it.

Spring Cleaning #28

Getting it Done is great from loading up that bucket to acting on your bucket and getting those things out of the bucket. I particularly like the process part that says do one item at a time unless new comes your way that will take less than two minutes.

However, that bucket keeps getting filled up with new more pressing items that take more than two minutes, despite all your good intentions at the beginning of the day. GTD doesn't address managing priorities and monkey wrenches being thrown in. Being flexible also plays a part in getting things done. Responding to the unexpected in a calm, collected way and not being too rigid to keep to your TO DO list.

In Zen Habits disconnecting is mentioned. This is difficult to do when you are serving your internal and external customers. I can't imagine checking your email only twice a day. I did like the part about the inbox. I do have numerous folders in my email and file or delete items weekly, even sometimes as I check them if I know it's a keeper I don't need to review anytime soon or a delete email.

REVIEW in GTD is something I do need reminding of. Those things on your TO DO list can get lost in the shuffle and unless your list is viewed, there's no need to have a to do list. I am not a write it now kind of person and usually juggle in my head, not a very reliable source. Keeping a list or calendar is something I force myself to do.

I do write appointments down on the desk calendar and have only recently begun keeping a calendar in Outlook. I did try the Google calendar and Remember the Milk with items. I didn't like Remember the Milk with only Today, Tomorrow and Overdue. For the long range I like the Outlook and Google. Having to check when I bought refreshments in 2005 would have been easier had I used the Outlook Calendar then. This prompted me to be more diligent to note appointments on the Calendar.

This is Postits signing off with one less thing on my GTD list!