Monthly Archives: March 2013

A Dinner Idea

I’m generally the cook of the house. That means that, most nights, I’m the one that plans and prepares dinner. I have no problem with this. I love to cook and am pretty proud of my skills in the kitchen. Especially as I was raised in the care of two women, my mom and grandmother, who did not cook really at all (we ate out a lot). Plus, it makes me feel like I’m taking care of my family.

That said, coming up with new things that everyone will eat is often quite hard. Bethany does not eat red meat and is mostly vegetarian in general. Beatrix is as picky as five year olds often are and when she does eat she eats like a bird. My Mom, who is living with us right now, is on a special diet seemingly on a meal by meal whim. And I have been trying to monitor my intake of carbs and overall balance of protein, fruits, and vegetables. Yet, somehow, we manage.

Sometimes, we end up trying something new because I invent it based on ingredients we have on hand. Other times, I see a new recipe and am inspired. But other times, even though I’m generally the cook, it is often due to Bethany suggesting a recipe that we end up breaking the routine.

Well, Bethany has a friend who has a great family cookbook called Parents Need To Eat Too as well as a blog of the same name. It is perfect for situations like ours where you have many tastes to please and only about a half hour at the end of a long and busy day to do so.

Tonight we tried this one from the blog and it was amazing:

Roasted Butternut Gnocchi in Blood Orange Brown Butter | Parents Need to Eat Too

Near gourmet in concept but simple to pull off in actual execution. Rich and full of flavor. Seriously, it was fantastic. It just so happened that we had a similar circumstance as the author — a squash and a blood orange that were on the edge of use so it worked out perfectly. Bethany had by chance roasted our squash the night before hoping to find something to do with it.

I served it with a side salad of baby kale, chard, spinach, carrots, and tomatoes. It served four nicely with some leftovers.

So, if you are the cook like me and were wondering what to do for dinner tonight, I can’t think of a better suggestion.

Responsive

Sometime in the past, I put a wish out into the world. I can’t even remember when. It was out there, somewhere on the Internet, where a friendly soul might happen by it and respond. The wish was that this site be mobile friendly. I did not have the knowledge on how to go about it and trying to learn by researching online only led me to articles that made my head hurt. So, I put it on my list of future needs and there it stayed.

A couple of days ago, my friend Chris Bowler mentioned he had seen my wish some time ago and had, simply out of good will and wanting to do a kind deed, done some mock ups of some possible mobile friendly modifications that could be made to the site. They were all stunning, yet still, I did not have the skill to make heads or tails of how to use them. So, he offered to do it for me. No strings attached.

To say I’m grateful would be an understatement for sure. Gobsmacked my be more appropriate. Such kindness is so increasingly rare in this world. Yet, if you are reading this in a mobile browser you can see it in evidence.

So, thank you Chris Bowler for going above and beyond an act of kindness with your responsiveness. It means so much to me.

And, if you do read this on a mobile browser, Chris has an excellent site that is worth supporting and you should thank him for it by becoming a member.

Simplicity, Ingenuity, & Gumption

One of the things I love, mostly due to my other regular online writing job is that I often get sent previews of apps that are not yet released to the public. Sometimes, these are offers to get in on the beta test, sometimes it is a link to download the app to check it out and give my feedback, sometimes, it is just a pitch for an idea for an app.

It is the last of these that I especially love because a great app begins with a great idea. And, while I see a lot of good ideas showing up on my digital doorstep, on very, very rare occasions a great one shows up. Ones that, once seen, I literally burst out laughing with glee and excitement. Though almost always sworn to secrecy, which I always keep, it is these apps that test such resolve the most.

I’ve started to notice a trend with the apps that garner my personal praise. Some traits that they almost always share. These would be:

  • Simplicity — They are almost always dead simple apps. They usually only do one or two things, really. Yet, the thing they do is almost always a very useful thing. The interesting thing is that it is often the case that there are many other apps already that do those same one or two things. Which brings me to…

  • Ingenuity — What sets these apps apart is that what they do they do not only well but in a way that no one has yet thought of. Then, once you see the way these apps do that thing you know instantly that it is the right way to do it and you wonder why no one else has done it that way before. Because, it is obvious that it is the way it should be done. Then, it occurs to you that the reason no one else has done it is that no one else has had…

  • Gumption — The gumption to not only think of the best way — the now obvious way —but the willingness to do the hard work to get it done. Because the right way sometimes takes courage, or time, or is just a plain straight-up hack. But, gumption is what it takes to get the job done.

And when these three traits come together… Ooh boy! You might have a great thing on your hands. And the world needs more great things.

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