Morning Cuppa

This was the first picture taken with my Blaze 4G smartphone.

I took this picture of my breakfast because I was amazed how much it looked like a cup of fancy espresso coffee.  It is not.  It is my hot farina aka cream of wheat.

I doctored it with cinnamon, sea salt, Truvia and Pumpkin Spice before adding the water and heating and water was absorbed by the wheat.  Then added a tablespoon of peanut butter and a half cup of applesauce and heated it again.  By then I could tell I had not added enough water at the beginning as it was so thick it accumulated on the stirring spoon in a big clump that would not fall off.  So I added a third of a cup or so of water and heated again.

When it was just the right thickness for my taste (which is on the soupy side) I filled the 16oz cup two thirds full.  Then put a big dollop of plain yogurt on top with a couple teaspoons or so of half and half around the rim,  Then I sprinkled flax seed and hemp hearts over the top and gave the pumpkin spice jar a few hard shakes over the surface.

I spent many hours again today with my fingers glued to the Blaze,  But I had three clear goals:

1. figure out why I still can't make or receive calls. Very frustrating since the main reason Ed wanted to do this for my birthday was so we could communicate more often during the day.  We've only connected via the phone three times and they were all cut off after a short time.  Most attempts don't even get through.
   
   It's still a mystery but I think we're closer to solving it. Two error messages keep getting are clues.  One saying the SIM card is not ready.  The other saying something about not registered on network.  And that last seems to have something to do with using the Wifi here for calling.
   
2. get ebook aps for all the formats my ARCs come in and get all my ARCs loaded on the Blaze.
   
   I have Kindle and Adobe aps now but still need to find an epub reader.  Still haven't loaded any books and am thinking will run into the same problem as with any other attempts to connect device to device.  Error messages.
   
3. the third goal was to gather all the aps etc. needed to create a blog post start to finish.  Learn to use the camera.  Find and learn a photo editor. Learn methods for sending the photo where I can access it with Blogger.  I was hoping Picasa but every time I tried I got error messages.
   
   I have Blogger and Google Drive, Gmail and Google Calendar.  And having listened to Ed rave about it for months, I got EverNote.  That might have solved the problem of getting files to where another ap or device can access them as it apparently syncs across devices and interacts with several common aps.
   
   I wanted to be able to make this post start to finish from the Blaze but finally had to give up and email the photo to my sister so I could get to it via my Gmail on the Aspire to download it.

But if I had succeeded in creating this post from the Blaze, it would have been much shorter--little more than a caption for the photo explaining: 1st pic taken with Blaze.  1st post created from Blaze.  Because it is still a challenge getting any text typed on those tiny touch keys.

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Quick and Easy Chicken Dinner

One time last spring my sister was out of ideas for dinner.  I twas past due for a grocery shop so it seemed every one of our go to meals was either missing a crucial ingredient or the meat was frozen solid.  So I started rummaging in the fridge, freezer and cupboard to get an idea of what was available.  By the time I was done I had a concept.

I'd started with tomato sauce since she had recently bought a large carton of it at Costgo.  Surely there was something I could do with tomato sauce.  We use it to make soup but usually that is a simple tomato soup spiced with one or another of the Mrs Dash seasonings and stretched by adding water 1:1 and then thickened back up with tapioca flour.  But we have made a hearty taco soup with burrito leftovers before.

That was the vague concept I began with but we hadn't had burritos or nachos recently and if we'd had the ingredients for them I wouldn't be foraging for a new idea.  So I began by looking for likely items to put in a hearty soup.  But when I came across the package of frozen chicken breasts a lit up picture as tho in a slide show popped into my head.

I've made this two or three times a month ever since.  It is simple and quick and something I can do without any help.  Tho the first time I had my nephew pull it out of the oven for me.  With my tunnel vision I can't see the oven edges or even the racks when looking at the dish I"m reaching for.  Which makes it nerve wracking to put things in or pull things out of a hot oven.

Step 1:  I've never made it the same twice.  The first time and one other I've steamed the zucchini on the stove while the chicken dish was in the oven.  But the simplest way is to layer the zucchini on the bottom of the shallow backing pan.  I've experimented with different cuts.  The first few times I used the coin shape.

But I discovered that cutting it lengthwise in quarter inch strips was faster.  But this time the zucchini was very long and I should have cut those strips in half to make it possible to lift out a serving by sliding a spatula under the zucchini under the chicken piece.

Step 2:  Lay the chicken pieces on top.  I've done this with several cuts and sizes of chicken breasts.  These were called chicken tenders and were smallish and thin and many of them had broken in two while frozen.

Several times I've come close to frostbite on my fingers after handling the frozen piece to put the jigsaw puzzle together.

Step 3:  Usually, for a meal intended for 4-6 (or 4 plus leftovers for 2) I use two of the 15oz cans of tomato sauce.  But this time I had only one can and I tried to stretch it by adding water but was too impatient to bring it to a boil to add the tapioca flour to thicken it back up so I ended up with real soupy sauce this time.

Last night I seasoned it with Mrs Dash Tomato, Basil, Garlic which makes it taste much like spaghetti sauce.  But my favorite seasoning is the pizza flakes which are primarily crushed and dried red peppers.  That makes it taste like pizza but is quite spicy.  Another way I like is to use Mexican flavors--chili, jalapeno, cilantro, onion, garlic.

Step 4:  I thought I'd got a picture of this step too but either I forgot or it didn't take for some reason.  But the last step before putting it into an oven preheated to 375 is to spread cheese across the top.  You could use any of the cheeses or even combine them.  And you can use either shredded or sliced.  We usually use shredded mozzarella but we have used shredded Colby and shredded cheddar and the Mexican yellow and white blend which I believe is mozzarella and cheddar.

Last night I used the shredded mozzarella and was quite generous with it spreading over a cup of it on, hoping to compensate for the over sauce.

Step 5:  Bake for 50 minutes to an hour depending on the thickness of the frozen chicken pieces.  I usually set the timer for 45 and then check it, estimating how much longer it might need.  One time when using quite large chicken breast that were nearly half an inch thick and so big that only five would fit it took an hour and 15 minutes.  The sauce should be boiling and the cheese melted and starting to brown on top.  And the fork should slide easily into and back out of the thickest piece of chicken so I try to remember to place that one in one of the front corners.

The first time I described this dish to my husband he told me that I'd just made Chicken Cacciatore substituting the zucchini.

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