The pseudo-nerds attempt at techno-salve

Computers. I'm seriously beginning to hate them. I spend far too much of my time using them and they give me nothing of value in return. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally against them, I just want the one I'm using to be less of the hassle that it is. To be honest, I can't wait to get a laptop, then I can forget about my PC for a while and let it dwell on its lonliness for a while. Yes, my computer is a sentient being, I swear it! Of course, this will mean that my computer issues will transfer to a new medium, so I won't be able to escape them all that easily.

So why do computers have to be so much hassle? Why are there people out there hell bent on destroying everyone's desktop machine for a few measley moments of laughter and mirth? The amount of time I've spent 'protecting' my computer from virus and hacker attacks is incredible. When I'm not casually browsing for information, I'm updating all of my virus and spyware applications so that my computer doesn't implode from random external unwanted attention! And despite this attention to detail towards my computers protection and survival I STILL get some little bugger who thinks he's clever because he's slipped in through the back door during a nano second of downtime.

Recently I was having issues with pop ups telling me there was some problem with my registry (something I knew to be untrue) and could think of no other way to stop these annoying buggers from intruding on my life than to reformat and rebuild the hard drive from scratch. I also thought "Why not finally get around to installing that Ubuntu Linux software while I'm at it". Oh. Dear. I was under the false impression that this would make my life easier and more carefree than usual. I've never had issues with reformatting before, things should be 'peachy'. Everything appeared to be going okay with the whole project (except that windows didn't understand the concept of 'repartitioning', thankfully Linux did), the new partitions were in place and Ubuntu installed perfectly! Time for Windoze.

Hands up those of you who have ever had a problem with Microsoft's 'pioneer' operating system...I suspect there will be a very large number of hands in the air right now. Having only ever used this one OS, I've encountered many a problem with it's ability to do anything. So, I was not at all surprised (but incredibly frustrated) to find out that it had completely wiped over the boot loader for Ubuntu, so that I no longer received the 'dual boot' option at start up. "That's fine," I thought. "I'll just reinstall Ubuntu and fix it all up"

Now I'm beginning to think all software companies are out to get me. Ubuntu cannot recognise it's existence on the hard drive, and (with the help of it's arch nemesis Windoze) has wiped out our F: partition. Meaning the loss of nearly 40gigabytes of information and programs. Including backups of our recordings! Here's hoping we can salvage the situation and get things back into working order.

Can you see now why I'm beginning to hate computers?

Dementia in the kitchen: A culinary adventure

Time passes swiftly when you're not watching. Another anniversary snuck up on me the other day, and it's one I'm always thinking about, so it really surprised me when I almost forgot it. In retrospect however, there were things I did which could represent a bit of an unconscience acknowledgement of the momentous occasion. Anyway, I'm not here to lament on my diminishing memory here, I'm here to guide you through the process of creating a delicious anniversary meal completely off the cuff!

I don't claim to be a culinary genius, but I can be creative enough in the kitchen to make each evening's meal a taste sensation (or complete and utter tastebud killer). In an effort to save money I've taken up preparing a great deal of our meals from scratch. On this occasion I had decided (after much indecision) on chicken sausage rolls. Anyone who has ever eaten chicken, or a sausage roll, knows that to combine the two in the exact fashion you make regular sausage rolls, can result in a rather bland dish that smells a lot like onions. If you don't, it tends to result in a rather bland dish that smells a lot like onions.

The first time I ventured down the road of the home made sausage roll resulted in a meal with about as much flavour as a piece of shoe rubber and left us with rather horrid onion breath. The kind of onion breath that could strip paint off walls. So this time I planned to try something different, and hope that it would be flavoursome.

With a plan in my head I made for the kitchen to start preparing, only to find missing ingredients. A quick trip to the shop (store) to pick up missing items ended up with me buying more than initially planned and a complete change to the recipe. So, with new ingredients I set about making dinner.

Chicken Sausage Rolls with Spinach and Fetta Cheese

1 lean chicken breast; minced
1/2 onion; finely chopped
75g frozen spinach; shaved
1/2 block of fetta cheese; thinly cubed
2 sheets puff pastry
8 whole black pepper corns
salt; to flavour
mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 180 celcius.
Allow pastry to thaw at room temperature (or however the package says you should deal with the pastry)
Mince the chicken breast. I used my hand mixer, pulsing it til the meat was minced. You can use a food processor or hand mincer or whatever you have handy. Place the meat into a bowl.
Finely chop the onion, slice the fetta and shave the spinach. Grind the pepper corns with a mortar and pestle. Add onion, spinach, fetta, herbs, salt and pepper to minced chicken. Mix together thoroughly.
To mix the filling, use your hands for the best mix, but you can also use a spoon.
Lay first sheet of puff pastry flat and spoon half of the filling onto the second quarter of the sheet. Spread the filling so that it looks 'sausage' like and reaches both edges of the pastry. Fold the shortest piece of pastry over the filling, then carefully roll until completely closed. Place on a flat oven tray. Repeat with second pastry sheet.
Cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serves 2 - 4 persons.

Why not try it out and see how you like it. It went down a major success here at Camp Ward, and has been requested for another meal at another time. Go on, you know you want to. Bon apetite!