Yesterday involved two hard drive crashes and one huge blog crash.
Happy Friday?
For the past several months, I’ve been having issues with my blog going down or being slow to load during peak hours, so I finally decided to move OSG to a Dedicated Server and as anticipated there were some major hiccups!
The good news is that the blog is now on its own private server! It’s roomy, sleek, speedy, and it should have much less (if any) downtime as compared to the previous set up. Yes, I’m knocking on wood…
The other good news is that Eric was able to recover the content from the two crashed hard drives. We’ll never know why two of our hard drives decided to crash 24 hours apart, but I’m thankful that I have a tech savvy husband or I’d probably still be using a typewriter and rotary phone.
Although, some days its tempting…
(Dad, can I borrow yours?)
Housekeeping complete, let’s get down to the stuff you didn’t see on the blog over the past couple weeks!
As you may know, I only post my favourite recipes on the blog, but there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Check out the pictures below for a little behind the scenes action over the past couple weeks.
This fruit pizza was my pride and joy.
All that gorgeous chopped fruit, the sweet sauce…the photographs…
and one bad crust made from Teff flour.
[I should have made this cinnamon sugar fruit pizza crust!]
I scraped the fruit and sauce off and we enjoyed it sans crust.
I made grilled peaches on the BBQ and I concluded that I like peaches way better fresh. They were just plain ‘ol mushy and sad looking. What did I do wrong?
I made a wildly addictive Parsley Walnut pesto for dinner one night, adapting this recipe.
It basically involved me spoon feeding myself over the processor bowl until Eric had to pry it from my lifeless hands.
If you’re classy and whatnot, you can have it over pasta with a classy sprig of parsley.
I prefer spoon feeding, personally.
I whipped up a creamy Avocado Lime Dressing. It was great over pasta. I used my 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta sauce as inspiration, and added some lime & lime zest, apple cider vinegar, decreased the garlic & oil, etc.
One lucky day I was actually able to snap a picture before I inhaled my lunch.
I’ve been enjoying a huge stir-fry with some type of protein (chickpeas, beans, quinoa, etc) and my favourite instant creamy dressing for lunch lately.
Instant Creamy Dressing: Mix 2 tbsp hummus with apple cider vinegar (just enough to thin out). Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Instant. Addictive. Try it!
Confession: I’m so addicted to this dressing, I sipped it from a mason jar once.
Maybe more than once.
That’s a bit embarrassing.
A couple weeks ago, I made cheezy stuffed peppers with brown rice.
Great in theory.
Bad in outcome.
The filling was super tasty on its own, but once cooked in the peppers it got all watery! What’s the secret to non-watery stuffed peppers?
I must find out.
Happy Caturday!
Ooh that fruit pizza looks yum! Good luck with your new server! Hopefully you have had all the bad computer luck you’ll be getting for a while now! :) And thank god for ‘tech savvy’ husbands! :)
Haha Caturday is my fave day of the week :)
I totally agree that peaches are better fresh. They have their enzymes intact that way too!
I’ve found that with grilled peaches it is best saved for peaches that are underripe and very firm. Ripe peaches I never bother to cook in anything, unless I have a ridiculous abundance.
Peaches are one of those fruits that do not ripen any further once they are off the tree, so grilling is the best way to deal with unripe one. The caramelisation sweetens them and they do not turn mushy as ripe peaches do when grilled.
thank you!
I am glad to know I’m not the only one who has bad tech luck but really happy it’s all been resolved. High five!
Everything still just looks so amazing! You indeed have a gift :)
Congrats on the new host. My server in Utah recently relocated. It was nearly seamless but there were a few interesting interruptions. Glad you were able to recover your data. I would like to borrow Eric. I love hiking in the mountains but this tech stuff is going to kill me.
As always, great food ideas and fabulous photography.
Yeah, I’ve noticed syrupy water collecting in my roasted peppers. Maybe you could roast the peppers first, and drain?
That’s great Eric was able to recover data, I’m very familier with that doing it a lot at work. They always crash at the work time possible. The pizza looks wonderful, well everything does on this post and I’m ready for another breakfast. :-)
Drove by the Belwood triathlon this morning…are you doing it this year?
I think you did it last year; am I right?
Angela! I’m not sure if you did, but to get rid of the water taste of the peppers, cook them in the oven with the tiniest drizzle of oil for about 20-30 minutes before you stuff them so they’re shrivel, then cook them in the oven for a bit longer when stuffed. They’ll have that delicious roasted flavour, rather then the over powering taste of when they’re raw. Hope that was helpful!
Hmmm I’m not sure if this would work! But what if you poke tiny holes at the bottom of the peppers so that the water drains out? In theory, it sounds like a good idea :)
My hard drive is on it’s way out, along with my laptop. It’s 7 years old which is ancient for computers but I just love it and don’t want it to die!
Hi! I dont think I’ve ever commented before, but I have a tip for the peppers. The way my aunt makes them is she precooks the peppers, then also semi-cooks the rice in EQUAL parts water until they are about half way cooked, that way when they roast in the oven they finish cooking and absorb water from the other ingredients. Hope i
I helped! :)
That picture of your cat is beautiful!! And FYI every time I read your blog, I just want to try every single food item you post. Why oh why can’t you be my neighbor?? Like Mr. Rogers but without the sweater vest?
haha I do have a crazy Christmas sweater I could wear just for you!
That’s even better! Hopefully it includes tons of glitter, puffy paint, and reindeer!!
what a coincidence, KERF just made some stuffed peppers that she didn’t really enjoy either! I hope you figure out the secret to great stuffed peppers soon :)
Haven’t commented here before, but…I just have to say, I tried the hummus/apple cider vinegar dressing today and HOLY NEW ADDICTION! So simple and so delicious!! It’ll be on my lunch salads every day this week. :)
Hahaha Sketchie looks so cute. And that coming from what I would call “not exactly a cat person” must count double! :)
I have a chunk of tofu in my fridge and I don’t know what I should do with it. Throw it out or does anyone know a good recipe? I am still so ambivalent when it comes to tofu, I seem to never get it right when it comes to marinating … o.O HELP please!
I have computer issues all the time – we actually just bought a desktop because our laptop died. Talk about a bummer!
For me, the secret to non-watery stuffed peppers is my crock pot!
When I makes stuffed peppers, meatless or otherwise, I usually par-boil the peppers quickly just to heat them and soften them just ever-so-slightly. That way when I bake them it’s just long enough to melt cheese OR just heat the filling because everything is already cooked!
I was going to say this exactly. Par-boiling the peppers makes for a really delicious stuffed pepper.