The Rest of the Story and a Zoe Update

     I had several comments about the menu that was on my tablescape last week. I found it in with a box of vintage postcards. I decided to see if I could find out a little bit more about the ship. I was very excited to be able to find an actual picture of it.

     The R.M.S. Caronia was a British ocean liner, launched on July 13th, 1904. She was built for Cunard by John Brown & Co. of Glasgow. She left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York on February 25th, 1905. After a successful 1906 cruise from New York to the Mediterranean, the Caronia was used often in the following years. 

     The Caronia was briefly placed on Cunard's Boston service in 1914, but the start of World War I caused her to be requisitioned as an armed merchant cruiser. In 1916, she became a troopship and served in that role for the duration of the war, returning to the Liverpool-New York run after the war was over. In 1920, the Caronia was converted to burn oil instead of coal. She sailed on a number of different routes, including: New York/Boston from Liverpool; New York from London; New York from Hamburg; Quebec from Liverpool; and New York from Havana. 

     Her last voyage, from London to New York was on September 12th, 1932, after which she was sold to be disassembled. Initially sold to Hughes Bolckow for demolition at Blyth, she was resold, renamed Taiseiyo Maru and sailed to Osaka, where she was scrapped in 1933.

     I would love to know who owned the menu that I now have...but that may just remain a mystery.

     Some of you have asked about Zoe. She will be 5 months old in a few days. She is slightly taller than our old beagle. Her body type is entirely different than our past 2 beagles. She has long legs and a very lean body. This means that she can reach things off the coffee table, jump on all the furniture and jump high enough (think trampoline) to pull the throws off the back of the couch! She just lost her first baby tooth. We still have trouble when they are both loose at the same time. The older dog really instigates the problem but Zoe thinks she wants to play. She isn't completely housebroken yet, but she is making good progress and is certainly where we would expect her to be at this age.

     Having two dogs that don't get along has proven to be much more difficult that we anticipated, but we don't for one minute regret adding Zoe to our family. We just won't have 2 at the same time again. Our older beagle continues to hang in there as she nears 16. Her back legs seem to fail her at times for a few minutes, but she gets back up and keeps on going. Her goal in life right now is to get to every dog biscuit of Zoe's before Zoe can eat it!

I am joining Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch for

Tablescape Thursday since this post concerns last week's tablescape.

Please visit our hostess!

Computers...A Love/Hate Relationship

Yesterday wasn't a good day. For a week or two, I have been having some problems with Internet Explorer shutting down frequently and then restarting. Over the past few days I have done all the "normal" things I do when I have a computer issue. I ran my virus scan, checked for malware, upgraded from IE 8 to 9 and back to 8 again, checked the disk, defragmented the hard drive, tried several restore points and so on. You get the picture. I googled repeatedly looking for answers and as it was getting worse, I attempted a recovery suggested by someone I googled. Big mistake. Whatever I did...made things worse.

After my "repair" I started getting messages. The first sign of a real problem came when my computer didn't recognize my iPhone and I couldn't fix that. Shortly after that a message popped up that my virus protection was turned off, but I couldn't turn it back on. When I tried to Google to see what might be going wrong...I discovered that IE would no longer open. It was broken/fried/gone. My computer showed that it was still there, it even showed it was running-but it wouldn't open. Long story short, I started this process at about 10:00 a.m. yesterday and I finally went to bed at 2:00 a.m. this morning. I did learn a few things during the process that I thought I would share with you.

1. It was very obvious that my issue was with Internet Explorer, not the computer. I was extremely lucky that I had a secondary browser on my computer so that I could still research things to try. I happened to have Google Chrome and it was still working.

2. I was also lucky that I had a couple of USB Flash Drives at home and I was able to remove all my pictures and my taxes etc. from the computer before I took the last drastic step.

3. It was a serious mistake to make a repair without writing down what I'd done. The suggested repair had me looking up a file, clicking a couple of places and shutting a few things off. I think that I created more of a problem than I had originally and the steps were too complicated for me to remember how to reverse them. I should have taken notes as I did it-lesson learned.

4. I ended up taking my computer back to factory settings. In other words, it is the same as when it came out of the box. I have a Satellite L675 laptop and I really didn't want to have to replace it. Factory setting is a very drastic step, but it also cleans up all the junk we accumulate on the computer. It took a long time and several steps. I had to go online to find out how to do it as they no longer send a recover disk with a computer. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming.

5. So far, I have only found that my daughter's tax information didn't save to the flash drive  for some reason. I lost all of my favorites and the items in my favorites bar as well as the Swagbucks Toolbar. I also lost all of my songs on iTunes (I know-I should have been saving to The Cloud). That isn't a big deal as the songs are still on my phone. As of yet I haven't found a way to move them from the phone back to the computer and that isn't the end of the world.

So-my reminder today to each of you is to:

1) Backup your files and photos to a flash drive (don't just plan on it like I did).

2. Add a second browser, even if you don't use it.

3. If you make changes to your computer-write them down so you can reverse them later.

4. If you have iTunes/iPhone/iPod-use The Cloud if you are going to be upset losing your music.  

I am still a bit stressed, exhausted and very hopeful that I won't still have issues.

My tablescape for this week, isn't happening.

I also don't have to find a way to work a new computer into the budget!

I call that success!

Mr. Food Helps With My Super Bowl Snacks!

     I'm sure many of you did exactly what I did yesterday...I ate too much! We went to a lovely Super Bowl party, where everyone brought something yummy to eat! Every day on our local noon news, Mr. Food has a recipe at the end of the show. Sometimes they look good, sometimes not so much. I never try the recipes. I decided for the party to finally give two of them a try. The first was a bar cookie-Lime Margarita Bars (click here for recipe).

     They were very easy to make and I really liked the combination of the salty pretzel crust and the almost cheesecake type filling. Mr. Food showed them with a little whipped cream on top, but I didn't think that would hold up during the party. I dusted them with powdered sugar and sprinkled a few of the remaining crumbs from the pan on top of the bars.

     The second recipe I tried was an appetizer-Border Biscuit Bake (click here for the recipe). This was also very simple to make. Refrigerator biscuits are cut into pieces, tossed with a jar of salsa and covered with cheese, peppers and olives. After baking you end up with a pull apart "bread" with a Mexican flavor. I used 4 cups of cheese rather than the 3 cups in the recipe. I found this to be very good, but just a little dry for my taste. I baked mine 40 minutes and I would reduce that by a few minutes when I do it again. I also would probably serve sour cream and/or guacamole on the side to garnish it with. The flavor was very good and hot from the oven it was gooey and delicious, it needed a bit of sauce or something after it cooled. I did read in the Mr. Food comments that some people added cooked meat before baking which would certainly be delicious. So-did you eat too much? I'm back to eating a bit healthier today!

Simple, Delicious and Good For You!

     I love soup. I think I could be happy having soup every day, even in the summer. My favorites tend to be cream soups, but we know those aren't the best for us. So, I'm always looking for recipes that are both healthy and taste good. I recently read a recipe that sounded delicious and of course I had to change it a bit for our tastes. I think you will like this one.

Hearty Chicken Soup with Beans

Ingredients

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 oz. dried pinto beans

8 oz. dried great northern beans (you can either soak both of the dried bean varieties for 2 hours and drain, or do as I did and in a large pan, cover them with water and bring to a boil, then drain them)

2 T. olive oil

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped (I like to add some of the leaves)

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

pinch of garlic powder

32 oz. chicken broth (low sodium)

2 cups of water

Put the chicken in the crockpot.

You can see that mine was still frozen.

Coarsely chop the celery and carrots and add to the chicken

Add the rinsed and soaked (or slightly boiled and drained) beans to the mix.

Add oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, bay leaves, broth and water.

I set my crockpot to 4 hours on high temperature,

you can adjust yours accordingly.

Before serving remove the bay leaves and shred the chicken.

     My husband had seconds...that always means that it is a success. We just had crackers with ours, but cornbread or a crusty French bread would be delicious.

I am joining Michael @ Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday.

Please visit our hostess.



A Touch of Romance

     The menu on my table today is a bit unusual. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you may decided that you are glad you aren't having this meal. I love trying to imagine what it would have been like to be on that ship in 1911. I'm sure the table was elegant, the women were in beautiful gowns and the service was impeccable. I added the menu to my tablescape as this weeks "touch of whimsy" for my Valentine's Day setting. You can see the wine list later on in the post.

Please excuse the smudge on my photos.

I took a food photo before these and had a dirty lens and didn't know it!

     This table doesn't really need much explanation. The white plates are Certified International China and the red plates as well as the ruffled red and white salad plates are Crate and Barrel. I used a pink/red flatware to tie in the pinks in my centerpiece. 

Red roses, pink and red tulips, red netting and

candles reflect off a large circular mirror.

The tiny pitcher is actually a Crate and Barrel soy sauce pitcher,

but I loved it because it was so tiny. It had to come home with me.

They just don't make Valentines the way they used to.

I am joining Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch

for Tablescape Thursday.

Please visit our lovely hostess.