Pentimento

Pentimento Is Blacked Out Today In Protest

I couldn't figure out how to add a blackout module to this Typepad blog, so I'm letting this image do instead.Please click this Google link and sign the petition. Keep the Web Open This is IMPORTANT!

 

 

 

Roast Beef Carbonnade ala Wilkerson

Tonight's dinner at the Wilkerson Estate was Roast Beef Carbonnade with a slight twist to our tastes. (Technically, my tastes). 

Since this isn't really a cooking blog, I'll just hit the highlights and say I used a beef shoulder roast cut in large chunks, 2 large onions, 6 Yukon gold potatoes, bacon chunks, 5 carrots, 1 bottle of beer, 1 cup of beef broth, and a spoonful of chopped garlic.

The inspiration for this meal came from the Food Channel's Melissa d'Arbian's recipe Pot Roast Carbonnade which I watched her make this week on her show Ten Dollar Dinners.

I think what hooked me into making this recipe was that one of the first things she did was cook the slab bacon in large lardons, remove them and then add the slices of two onions. The aroma of those cooking always excites my tastbuds! From there on I pretty much followed her recipe except that I added the potatoes and didn't add 6 prunes and dried thyme.  The last two I didn't have in my pantry.

I think the whole thing was a success though, so Jim said.

 

How I Recovered Deleted Files After Emptying The Recycle Bin

I Got Them Back Intact!

Right now, I am so pumped about this I can hardly type! No matter how I write it I know I'm going to come off like a used car salesperson, but I have to tell you about this FREE program I found that helped me recover my deleted files after I had emptied the recycle bin.

First, I should say that I was a total twit and should have known better, but I was trying to clean up some duplicate file folders on my external hard drive. Paranoid wench that I am, I had made a backup of my Yates family picture files at one point and had two locations in my external drive for those files. I emptied one bunch of the folders and put the few pictures in them in the more full ones.

Brian Kato's Restoration

Anyway, to make a long story short, I did a search in Google for the words 'recovering deleted files after recycle' and found almost the exact words here. The name of the freeware program is Restoration and you can download it using this link. (The link is an .exe file, so your AV will be prompted to scan it, but I had no alerts or problems).

 

This is not an affiliate post. All opinions are mine.

Review: Tea And Dessert With Debbie Macomber

On December 23rd my friend Sheryl and I attended Tea and Dessert with Debbie Macomber here in Port Orchard, Washington. It was our first time attending one of these Macomber functions so we didn't really know what to expect. In my mind, I was wondering if we'd be able to sit wherever we liked, and how long it would last. I've eaten in the Victorian Rose Tea Room many times so I knew that any food or beverage was going to be delicious. We were not disappointed! See my previous post Lunch At Debbie Macomber's Place. (That's me on the left in the picture).

Even though it was a Christmas celebration with the tea room and gift shop decorated for the season, it was very nice that the whole atmosphere was friendly and low key. No hoity-toity stuff (even though this generous and kind lady had just donated a half million dollars to our local Salvation Army!) like white gloves and hats. 

Each place setting included a cup and saucer, the standard accoutrements like cream and sugar, and a special envelope that said, "A Holiday Gift For You From Debbie Macomber" and included eight specially printed recipe cards. One of the cards was for the dessert we would be having with the tea which was 5 Minute Cranberry Walnut Cobbler, one of Debbie's recipes from her cookbook.

Sheryl and I had a very good time, but it was enhanced by our table companions. We were joined by Cathy and Betty, daughter and mother respectively. Cathy lives here in the Olalla area and her mother Betty is visiting from New York. I don't think any of the four of us was expecting to have such a good time with 'strangers', but we certainly did!

Debbie went to every table in the restaurant and spoke briefly with each person. What a lovely lady and so full of fun and laughter. After we had all been served our beverages and desserts Debbie went up a couple steps on the stairway to the upstairs and spoke to all of us about her life as a successful author, with short funny anecdotes describing the hilarious things people have said or written to her. She spoke about all of her children (her daughter Jody was in attendance also), including her son Dale who took his own life earlier this year. I know it couldn't have been easy to do that.

When Debbie got to our table we were able to take some pictures and speak to her for a short time. She asked where we all lived and if we had ever been to one of her gatherings before. As I said before, three of us live in the Port Orchard area, with Betty being from New York. Cathy asked if she could take a picture of Debbie with her mother and of course Debbie said "yes!". We were sitting right across the table from Betty so got out my camera and took a photo too.

I think red was the color of the day, don't you? We all had so much fun that day with our new found friends Cathy and Betty, that Sheryl suggested we get together again with them before Betty has to go back to NY. So, that's what is happening today! We will be having lunch with them at the Victorian Rose at 1 PM.

Happy New Year from Pentimento blog!

Happy 2012 To Everyone!