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Crockpot Cinnamon Almonds
CROCKPOT CINNAMON ALMONDS:
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Salt
1 Egg White
2 tsp Vanilla
3 cups almonds
1/4 cup water
Mix together sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk the egg white and vanilla until frothy. Ad almonds. Thoroughly coat almonds in the egg white mixture. Add cinnamon mixture to almonds and toss to coat.
Thoroughly spray your crock pot with non-stick cooking spray or you could use oil of your choice. I use spray olive oil because I do love me some savory flavors. Add the almond mixture.
Cook on low 3-4 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. In the last hour, add the 1/4 cup of water and stir well. This ensures a crunchy yummy coating.
Make sure to cook the nuts for 45 minutes after adding water. You have to stir really well.
Once finished, spread almonds on parchment to cool. Separate them a little so you do not have large clusters.
DNA This & That
So, got my results back from 23 & Me. I really like that it has a better breakdown over Ancestry.com. I have more of a handle on my English/Irish ancestry, but less about the others. Here’s a long post about it!
Also, a weird fact – You have 1 Neanderthal variant associated with a reduced tendency to sneeze after eating dark chocolate
European: 92.6%
European
British/Irish (31.7%)
1. Greater London
Broadly European (3.6%)
Western Asian & North African (3.4%)
Mmmuuuuusic!
So, I’ve been a remote worker on and off for years. My current gig is 100% WFH/Traveling. A lot of folks these days are struggling with the orders to stay at home and WFH if they can. The thing that keeps me going and sticking on schedule is my curated Spotify playlists. I curate them by my mood and whatever projects I’m working on each day. Here’s the list for today. Enjoy!
Cancer Update
So, I had a call with my Surgeon. We went over my MRI results and I need to go back in for an MRI/biopsy for my right boob. Yeah. My left is where we did the previous biopsy which came back as Invasive breast carcinoma. We knew that already, and we were to schedule the lumpectomy once the MRI results came back.
The left? Nothing different. For the right? Oh boy.
“There is an area of nonmass enhancement in the 10:00 axis of the right breast posteriorly, measuring 27 x 16 x 13 mm in size. This has some areas of persistent enhancement making it mildly suspicious for DCIS.”
So, they want to check it out. Next week, at 6:30 in the fecking morning, I’m getting a MRI focused biopsy on my left, to see if it is just something weird, or DCIS. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is non-invasive breast cancer. DCIS isn’t life-threatening, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on.
And now. What’s happening. Well, I go in next week for the MRI/Biopsy. And we will see what the results are, before scheduling surgery. Plus, the hospital is trying to get the surgeons to push out surgeries when they can, due to a lack of masks and other supplies. If that happens, she’s gonna put me on some sort of hormone drugs to halt the cancer from spreading, while we wait for an open spot.
More terrified feels and thoughts. Trying not to be overwhelmed by it all. I was tracking better mentally when we were thinking “oh, just a quick lumpectomy and some radiation”.
I cannot concentrate today. While I was writing the post, this song game on. Fitting.
Medieval Mushroom Pie
So, it’s definitely been a few years since I posted here. Mostly it has been updates to my convention schedule, which aren’t really that interesting I suppose. Still, it’s a good resource when I try to remember what I did and when. Hah! But it’s been ages since I posted any recipes. With the Coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a lot of folks who are now at home, and looking for things to do. A friend started a “British Bake Off” style Facebook Group, for folks to share recipes, bake things together during the “theme” weeks, and more.
I mentioned for Pie weekend I’d make Mushroom Pie. I have this recipe on another post, but it’s kinda of buried. So! Here’s the Mushroom Pie recipe I spoke about. This recipe came from a Swedish medieval music CD called “Figs, Fiddles and Fine Play”. I picked it up when I was visiting my Star Wars Galaxies Guildmates from Gorath. Bonus content after receipe!
Mushroom Pie
Ingredients:
17oz Mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 oz cottage cheese or Ricotta
1 oz Pecorino cheese
1 oz cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil to cook the mushrooms
Pie crust:
1 1/2 cup flour
5 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon salt
Mix up the pie dough and press it into an oven proof dish. Put the pie dish in the fridge while you cook the mushrooms. Wash the mushrooms and cut them in half if necessary. Saute mushrooms briefly in olive oil until they shrink a bit. Mix cheeses, oil and spices with the mushrooms. Put the filling in the pie crust and bake for 45 minutes in pre-heated 400F oven. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the pie and serve with a good ale.
Bonus!
Listen to their Bandcamp here for the album: https://erikaskupmark.bandcamp.com/album/fikon-fiddlor-och-finlir
A PDF of the whole recipe book: http://www.draam.com/falsobordone/cd/figs_fiddles_booklet_and_cover.pdf
A Bug’s Life
A million years ago, I was working at the Dell Factory Outlet in Austin. This total nasty lady came into the Outlet Repair Center, barged through the line, going on and on about how our products were shit, and that she was Very Important and demanded an immediately fix or replacement. Basically, it was this NL25 386 notebook. There was a known issue with the chassis, as seen here:
We did free replacements on the cases via recall. These were not manufactured at the Dell facility, and we had to send them off to New Mexico or something to get them fixed at the factory. There was about a 3-week turn around. Mind you, this was about the time the first Pentium chips were coming out in the mid-90s, and this Very Important Person was furious about her beat up 386.
I get it. PCs are expensive and laptops more so. Especially back then. She ranted and yelled and cursed. Of course, the sales manager went and talked to the back of the house tech support manager. We actually repaired walk-in PC repairs (or folks could send them in) at the Factory Outlet Service Center.
At any rate, she said she plugged the thing in, it poofed and sparked, then went dead. She demanded our techs fix it (even tho we didn’t have the parts. The tech manager agreed, due to sales manager escalating. Charge for us to look at it was $129.00. She agree and said to fix it.
She left her number (pre cell phone days) for her office and went away. Our team continued to help the line. Wasn’t 2 minutes later I got a call to come to the back.
A tech bench had a bunch of folks around it, some with cans of spray. The tech manager used a screwdriver to lift the unscrewed lid and hundreds of tiny roaches scattered. The rest of the team started stomping and spraying. The manager grabbed a bunch of dead ones (he was wearing gloves) and put them in a baggie. Taped the whole thing shut, with the big bag of roaches taped to the top. They refused to touch it further and told me to call her to pick it up.
The same folks who were waiting in line were still there in line. Since she was easy to reach, I called her from the Front Desk, instead of the back of the house (because i cannot abide abuse. Angry customers? Sure. Abuse? NEVER).
“HELLO MS SO-AND-SO? WELL, WE DID SEND YOU THAT RECALL NOTICE YOU REMEMBER AND YOU REFUSED TO LET US FIX IT? WELL, THAT’S WHAT CAUSED YOUR ISSUE. BECAUSE IT IS CRACKED, AND IT ALLOWED A NEST OF ROACHES TO TAKE UP RESIDENCE. YES, I AM SERIOUS. SOME BUGS ARE ATTRACTED TO ELECROMAG…YES, I AM SERIOUS. NO, THIS ISN’T A JOKE.
ANYWAY, YOUR NOTEBOOK IS PERMANENTLY FRIED, FULL OF ROACHES AND NOW WE HAVE TO DECONTAMINATE OUR TECH AREA. WE SUGGEST YOU COME PICK UP YOUR LAPTOP IMMEDIATELY. AND OH, YOU OWE US $129 FOR DIAGNOSING YOUR ISSUE. THANKS AND GOOD DAY.
When I hung up, the whole waiting room bust out laughing and also with nervous “ew gross” gigglesr. She arrived 10 minutes later, paid the $129 without speaking, grabbed her laptop and stormed out the building.
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