Vegetable Beef Soup

Laura’s Blog Entry

Here is the recipe I mentioned the other day. It is easy to make with prepackaged “beef for stew” that you can get at the grocery – basically a roast that it already cut into chunks. Or you can do what I do and use left-over pot roast. Yum!

1 lb. beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes ***

1 cup onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups beef broth
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Brown meat in a small amount of oil in a large soup pot. When meat is partially cooked, add onion and celery. Saute until meat begins to brown and vegetables are softened. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.

Add 4 cups beef broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer 1 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the soup pot. Simmer slowly until vegetables are cooked.

*** I like to use 1 lb. of diced left-over pot roast instead of the stew meat. If you do this, skip the 1 1/2 hour cooking time for just the meat. Just sauté the celery and onion and garlic alone and then combine all the ingredients and let simmer.

This works well in a crock pot – because you don’t have to really watch it. Just brown the meat and onion and celery on the stove and then add to the crock pot. Simmer on high for the first 1 1/2 hours if using stew meat. Then on low a few hours until the vegetables are done.

Serves 4.

Thing-A-Day 4

Laura’s Blog Entry

Time to wrap this puppy up, don’t you think? What? There is one more week? You’re kidding, right?

Here’s what I’ve learned from this experience. I love taking photos. But not every day. Every… single… day. I’m like having to do stuff, and go places so I can take photos. It interferes with naps and stuff.

But I soldier on…

Day 15

Garter Stitch Scarf

I am getting coastered out and needed an alternate project that didn’t require increasing and going around and around and around. I had enough left-over yarn to do one more of these scarves in the earth tones, so I started it. Maybe Neil will get a scarf this year, after all.

Day 16

Coasters, Coasters, Coasters!

See what I mean? I’ve done quite a few. I want to get 16 more done before I set up my store. I also have an order from a friend for a different colorway – turquoise, brown and green. I am doing them next to liven things up.

Day 17

Crazy Socks

I also worked a bit on these socks. Had to stop because I needed to find the pattern and see what to do to start the heel. This takes concentration, so I set it aside for when my brain is less murky.

Day 18

Here is a rare photo of my little pickle. I guess since I posted it on the other site I’ll put it up here. We went ice skating last Monday at the rink in the center of downtown. It was much colder this time and her cheeks were so red!

Day 19

Already posted this one on this blog last week, but for continuity sake I will post again. My lovely binder. We are getting on so well together.

Day 20

This turned out so cool. It was a very blue photo, and I just pumped it up more toward purple for a neat effect. I also increased the exposure and the sharpness. It’s fun to play with effects. I am just using the ones in iPhoto.

Day 21

Vegetable Beef Soup

I will post this recipe next time. It is really, really a good hearty soup.

Day 22

This is my notebook from our study group that is meeting in our home. We had our second meeting on Friday night. It is going well. I like photographing things with type on them and messing with the perspective and focus. I think this notebook is cool – a nice size and a nice design that makes you want to open it up and do the work inside.

Day 23

This was taken at a local mall. They have an indoor carousel. Why? You may ask. Because it is a mall. And kids there need to be driven crazy. Don’t you know anything?

The horrible colors and all the reflections kind of captured how I feel when I am in the mall. Ick! Too many people and it is too loud.

I’ll post the rest of the month once I’m finished. Four days to go. Darn you leap year!

The 2-Minute Battlestar Galactica

Neil’s Blog Entry

In June of 2007, I was asked by Kevin from the UK about making an in-game movie for his upcoming Battlestar Galactica game. He had seen some of my animation work and thought I’d do a good job with it. Well, I just finished the video and so I’m posting a low-resolution version here for you all to see.

The idea was to compress the first 2 seasons or so of BSG into a 2 minute video. For those of you who follow the show: it starts at the ending of the miniseries and goes up to the point where Pegasus rescues Galactica at New Caprica from the third season. After the TV movie “Razor” came out in November, I included a few scenes based on that. All in all, it was fun – but it was hard work and rather tedious at times.

All of the animation was done in Cinema 4D, a 3D modeling/animation program. The guys making the game sent me a great set of fan-made, low poly 3D models of the Galactica, the Pegasus and the rest of the ships that appear in the show. “Low poly” means that they can be drawn by the computer very quickly and therefore are very well suited for computer games.

During the animating, it was important to emulate the look of the show – like the shaky hand-held camera effect and the high contrast lighting and overall blue color tone. It was also important to me to not just simply copy the scenes from the show, but to add my own personal take on these scenes. And I think I achieved a balance between recognizable shots from the show and my own creative interpretations. One of those interpretations, the scene showing the arrival of the Pegasus, is one of my favorites. I enjoyed making it look like a hand-held camera trying to get the smaller ship into focus as it gets closer and closer.

Once the scenes were animated, they were composited in After Effects. The particle work (gun shots and stuff) was done mostly in After Effects using the great Particular plug-in from Trapcode. I also did the sound effects – for that I used Soundtrack by Apple. The music is the remake of “All Along The Watchtower” from the BSG Season 3 soundtrack.

So that’s it. It’s finally done. Which makes Laura very happy because I’ve been spending many evenings glued to my laptop rather than to her. And that’s all I’ve got say about that.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

Tortilla Pizza – for Mr. Bee

Laura’s Blog Entry

Couldn’t be easier:

Flour tortilla (If you can find ones that are a bit thicker, they are the
best, but any will work.)
Pizza Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
Any pizza toppings you like

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place tortilla on a heavy cookie sheet. Top with just enough sauce to cover the surface. Don’t go too heavy on the sauce or it will be soggy.

Top with shredded cheese.

Add your toppings – I like pepperoni, mushrooms, onion and green pepper. Sliced cherry tomatoes are great, too.

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 7 minutes. Timing is tricky. Watch closely on the first one to see when the cheese is bubbly.

Cut into wedges with pizza cutter and serve.

Hope you enjoy it!

Thing-A-Day 3

Laura’s Blog Entry

Curses! Creative Wednesday was foiled yet again by a snow day! But I will not be stopped – it will be Creative Thursday tomorrow. Now that I am very full of Chinese Buffet (Crab Rangoon…. Mmmmmmm) and have on my fuzzy slippers I thought I would get a jump on the next blog entry tonight.

I have kept up with Thing-A-Day, just barely. A few nights I was scrambling because I hadn’t made anything or been inspired to take a photo. But so far I have been faithful. In my next life I hope to be an undisciplined slacker. They seem to have all the fun.

Here is a summary of my efforts:

Day 9

This is looking up into a Japanese lantern that was hanging from the ceiling at the Ingrid Michaelson show.

Day 10

Sagwa Ingalls Wilder

Neil has dialog that goes along with it:
“Life gets kinda tough out here on the prairie.” OK, so I was desperate on that day.

Day 11

I love this little teapot. It belonged to Neil’s grandmother Johnson. It’s retro, yet modern.

Day 12
Two food photos:

Hot Chocolate

Tortilla Pizza

We use tortillas to make individual pizzas. It works great, just don’t use too much sauce or it won’t get crispy.

Day 13

Thyme

The only thing in my herb garden that isn’t brown and dried up.

Day 14

Drafted the script for the March Podcast.

And a photo from our Valentine’s lunch.

I’m tired of loading photos, so that will have to do for now. Except for this:

In case you forgot.

43 Folders… and Counting

Laura’s Blog Entry

The last entry mentioned a new organizational system that I am implementing. It is now underway and I am experiencing what I hope will be a growing sense of calm.

There is so much on our collective family plate right now. All super-cool, fun, exciting stuff. But it is taking a toll. I kind of suck as a parent right now. I am resenting the boring stuff I have to do because there is more fun stuff I could be doing. Don’t really like who I am right now, so I’ve got to make some changes.

Thanks to Accidental Creative, which I have mentions a number of times before, I have discovered some resources to help manage the chaos. It took me a while to start digging into the resources there because I had to first realize that yes, those resources can be for me, even though I am not a creative professional with a creative professional’s income. Guess what, the tools apply, whether I am getting paid or not. Who knew?

Once that obstacle was cleared I decided that I was worthy of participating. I have been soaking up resources and seeing what I can apply to my juggling act of a life. One such resource is the book Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I always thought it was for CEO’s and executives, but I decided to at least give it a look.

Heavenly days, this book is what I needed! I was halfway there with my current systems for managing our schedule and paperwork flow and financials. But the system David Allen teaches fills in the gaps. And simplifies everything. Today I made a cool little binder to get everything rolling.

(Note that I put my computer to Depechemode.com for the photo. I am that kind of a fan.)

I now can have all my ideas, projects, and crucial reference materials all in one spot. In a binder. I love me some binders. And this one is cute and black and little. With labeled tabs. Sigh…

I have also discovered Merlin Mann and his website 43 Folders. He has a killer system for managing your email inbox. Click this link to see the presentation he gave for the employees of Google. Very helpful if you, like me, have over 300 messages in your inbox. Yikes! I have started applying his plan to process all my new messages. Next I just have to go back and process all the old ones. There will have to be some cake at the end of this project or it will never happen.

It was fun to have an excuse to go to the office supply store over the weekend and buy just a few items and implement some changes. One of my great joys in life is a stocking up trip to the office supply store.

Already my jaw is starting to unclench, so I seem to be on the right track. The fact is that yes, I am Laura Smith, a stay-at-home mom who is easily overwhelmed. Deal with it. I am starting to.

Valentine’s Wrap Up

Laura’s Blog Entry

It is a relaxing Sunday after a busy week. I thought I’d reflect a bit before I dive into my new organizational plan for my life that starts tomorrow. More on that later.

I am really getting into this Valentine’s Day stuff. We make things; we eat good food. Why was I so against it for so long? It started earlier in the week when Mari gave me a cute card she made:

Clever girl, that one.

Then Neil called on Thursday and asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. Yea! That is a real treat. He took me out for my favorite lunches – what he calls “frou frou” food. I love a good vegetarian meal. And that’s what I got at the Kona Bistro. It’s only been open since 1997 and this was my first time there. Sad, really.

I am most happy to say that I broke my run of bad “wraps” at this meal. I have never had a good wrap in a restaurant. Ever. Yet I keep ordering them. It seems like the perfect concept: some kind of protein, nice vegetables, green leafy stuff, cheese, and some sort of dressing or condiment all wrapped in a tortilla. What’s not to love?

Well, finally there is something to love. This wrap included a couple of kinds of sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, and goat cheese with a little French mustard, wrapped in a spinach tortilla. Fabulous! It made me so happy. Of course the slice of Opera Cream Cake we split might have had something to do with the happiness, also. There is a specialty bakery in town called Bonbonerie. Many restaurants serve their desserts because they are breathtaking. This is a mulit-layered chocolate cake with an opera cream between the layers. To die for. Seriously this made me deliriously happy. They also do a White Chocolate Raspberry for which I would do something drastic.

Then if that wasn’t enough of a treat, the three of us went on a family date to the Barnes and Noble in the evening. Everyone got to get a little something – a book or CD – and then we sat down in their little Starbucks and had dessert. I had a massive chocolate cupcake with tons of fudgey icing. Sign. I remember it well. I also got an album that I have wanted for a long time to replace my vinyl version: You and Me Both, by Yaz(oo).

This week was also good in ways that didn’t require eating chocolate and spending money. On Friday night we started a new group that is a part of Consumed, a study we are participating in through our church.

Through it we are able to examine what exactly is consuming us in our daily lives and think about what we really want to be consumed by. It was fun to open our home to some new friends and we look forward to meeting with them over the next 6 weeks. I always grow through these experiences and gain insight that helps move me along in the direction in which I want to go. Regular times of reflection are key to staying on track.

We rounded out our whirlwind of activity last night by hanging out with Ari and Tracey, a couple of Neil’s art school friends with whom we have recently gotten back in touch. They have an adorable baby and it was nice to unwind and watch Neil as Ari recounted stuff from their college days Neil had totally forgotten about. Oh how we all have changed! But we’re all still passionate about the creative process and being a part of it.

It was a good week. And one reason it was good will be the subject of my next entry. I think I have landed upon a strategy to help manage the overwhelming chaos going on in my brain. I know. I am relieved, too.

For my Valentine…

Neil’s Blog Entry 

Here’s a little Valentine I cooked up for the love of my life.

Ingrid Michaelson

Laura’s Blog Entry

Yea! All is right with the world, the babysitter showed up and no one got sick and had to stay home! Neil and I saw Ingrid Michaelson last night at the 20th Century Theatre in Cincinnati. It is a nice little venue and the sound mix was great.

She is very sweet and funny and had the crowd in the palm of her hand. I was proud of Cincinnati – she kept saying that this was her best show so far. I really recommend you see her if you get a chance. Great vocals and lovely harmonies. She is definitely quirky. Can’t say anyone else I can think of would do the theme song from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” as an encore and pull it off.

I was feeling very silly and giddy because I’d never had my picture taken with celebrity before. Here is a slightly blurry shot, but hey, I’m excited about it, OK?

Except for the bunch of drunks next to us – who I had to ask to quiet down – it was a perfect night. Neil was about to tell them to “Shut it!” But I beat him to it. I leaned over and politely asked them to talk a little quieter so I could hear. The one tallest guy kept saying stuff to try to annoy me the rest of the show. Whatever. What are you, 12? Picking on a girl who is 12 inches shorter than you? Ooooo, impressive!

Everyone else just gave them dirty looks. Like that will do anything. The drunk are oblivious to dirty looks, people.

Neil was kinda shocked I took the initiative. He should know that no one should ever mess with my concert-going experience! It cost me the price of two tickets and a babysitter! If it had come to blows I’m sure Neil would have stepped in. He’s always got my back, that guy.

And to end on a positive note, I got my CD signed. Thanks, Ingrid. You are the best!

Thing-A-Day 2

Laura’s Blog Entry

Soldiering on with a Thing-A-Day. Tony told me the whole thing was a Zen concept. I am kinda feeling that now on day 8. Here’s a summary of the last few entries:

Day 5

Bagels

Finally got around to making the bagels that Venus and Nicole have been talking about. And it was well worth it! They taste like ones from the bagel shop. These are topped with sesame and poppy seeds. Tip: also sprinkle on kosher salt with the topping. It tastes amazing. I think I’ll get some onion flakes; that sounds good, too. Mari has requested that I do Rosemary and Olive Oil flavor next. Yes, I think that I will! Then I want to do Cinnamon Raisin. I think I will use those cinnamon chips that you can get in the chocolate chip aisle.

Yum! I am making more as soon as I get more bread flour.

Day 6

Ring

This is a detail of my ring from Depeche Mode’s Exciter Tour in 2001. Neil and I both got one, but I have since stolen his and I wear it as a thumb ring. You snooze, you lose, Bud. Exciter was such a fun show. I’m really glad I have something concrete to remember it by.

Day 7

Spinach and Pear Salad with Pine Nuts

I made up a salad with ingredients on hand. Recipe below.

Fresh spinach leaves
Fresh ripe pear
Pine nuts (or substitute your favorite nut – almonds, walnuts and pecans would also be good)
Shredded mozzarella cheese (or substitute cheese you have on hand. Parmesan is quite good with pears.)
Italian Dressing

Toast nuts in the oven at 350 degrees for 2-4 minutes until they just start to brown. Watch carefully – they burn easily. Let cool.

Assemble spinach on individual serving plates.

Slice pear into thin slices and layer over spinach.

Sprinkle on cheese.

Add your dressing and then top with nuts. Adding the nuts last keeps them from all falling to the bottom.

Day 8

Sugar and Creamer Set

This is a little creamer set that was an engagement present from a family friend in 1990. She bought it when she was young and on a trip to England. She passed it on to me because I love all things tea-related.

These little china pieces are a symbol of a phase we are in as a family. It is a bit of a purging cycle. I am working to reevaluate the necessity of most of our possessions. I had totally forgotten I had this until I was rearranging a cabinet. The criteria I am using for most things is that if I have forgotten that I even had them, they need to go. But this set is special.

If it stays then I need to use it. What’s the point of having things stored away? Things should be enjoyed. Otherwise those things own us, we don’t own them.

In closing, I have been quite inspired by what I’ve seen and read on the Thing-a-Day site. If you are a Hello Kitty freak like I am you will appreciate this post by rakka. Brilliant!

PS – Neil and I are going to see Ingrid Michaelson tonight! I have painted my fingernails, so it is obviously a seriously exciting night.

I need to go pick an outfit to go with my accessories – my Tasty Jewelry cocktail ring and my gothy boots! Shut up. And no I don’t get out much.