Rice - what NOT to do!

So it's about noon & I'm trying to decide what to fix for supper yesterday evening - just in case I need to thaw something. I have smoked sausage so how about that with rice and beans? But instead of just plain ol' white rice, how about it cooked in chicken broth for flavor & then . . . not just white rice but half white, half brown. Sounds good so far. Except I wasn't counting on the fact that the instructions call for 2 1/2 cups of water to one cup of brown rice, while only 2 cups of water for white rice. Well if I'm only doing 1/2 c. of each rice, then I'll do one cup of water for white & 1 1/4 water for brown. Seemed to take forever for the water to cook into the rice - that should have been my first clue. Finally the rice seemed moist & ready to serve. One bite told me more than I wanted to know. While the white rice was just a little too "sticky" - the brown rice seemed granuley (if that's even a word). Crunchy was more like it! Now I know that brown rice tastes different - it has a "nutty" flavor - but crunchy was not the texture I was aiming for. So do NOT try this at home! In the future IF I ever decide to do this again, I will cook the 2 rices separately to ensure even cooking for both. The rest of the meal was wonderful - well, what I got to eat. Midway through my daughter called - as she has a habit of doing lately right after we sit down to eat - I could have told her I'd call her back but I didn't - so that's my fault. I ended up letting her talk while I ate! And what did I do with all that leftover rice? Well by that time I couldn't salvage it - so it'll be in the dump where all the little critters who take their nightly strolls can enjoy it! I just hope they all don't go running for the hills!

Scrapbooking

I have a scrap 4 you business - most people say "how neat?" or something to that effect when I tell them. They'll also immediately ask "how much do you charge?" - I am not a retail store. Nothing is priced exactly the same. You can't come in, pick out a product, pay & get out. This is a lot more involved. Especially if the pictures need to be captioned. I need to know who's who, what's what, where it is, when it was, why it was, and possibly how it came to be. I want to be able to give you a story when it's all said and done. If you had wanted just random photos in a book, you could have gotten a photo album to do that. Or still - just a box where you throw pictures in until you are ready to look at them. Maybe you'll remember when it happened, maybe not. I bet that's what your grandchildren will say someday - NOT!!! I have boxes full of photos from my grandparents young adult years - I have no idea if they are related to me or friends of my grandparents. No clue as to where they were, what they were doing, or any special stories about the event or the photo. Luckily, my mother was able to help me put names to faces for the most part. I want my kids and grandkids to know the story. Wouldn't you? Have you ever been to an antique store or a flea market and found lots of old photos? Those are someone's ancestors - but we don't know who because they people who found them didn't know who they were so they pitched them or sold them. That's like selling your grandmother or your immigrant g-g-g-grandparent. Don't let your pictures be without a story.
So the answer to the above question is - prices are a little different depending on the size of album, how many pages it has, how basic or embellished it is, etc. Also - do I need to do computer journaling or will you really write all the journaling when you get the album back? Do you want your pages scanned and placed on a CD so you have a computer copy of your scrapbook? Do you want copies of the photos in case you need them for other scrapbooks or to have in case something happens to the ones in the scrapbook? If I were to just charge for materials - that would be like saying my time is worth nothing. I have found that those willing to spend that little extra for the quality albums I design are the ones who will treasure these scrapbooks forever. It is history and preserves a part of the present and the past.
In my spare time - when I'm not designing scrapbooks for others - I'm working on my own personal books. I find it cathartic and relaxing - it also gets me away from the television! If you want to invest in this type of preservation go to my business page at http://nanasnovelties.tripod.com/home.html and check out some of my designs. Then give me an email so I can help you preserve the past!

Into the Black Hole . . .

and never to return! That's what happened to the post I made on April 7th! And it was a good post too - something about having to live without use of a computer or - EGADS! - no email or internet for over a week! Lots of stuff about how my dh played "Super Computer Doc" for a few days until he got the patient ready for ICU (which he admits is one step out of ICU now). Still on the critical list - but working. I can now get online, I can check my emails, I can look at .jpg files, I can use the word processing & Excel programs - wow what was life like back in the day?! I even installed software that I had bought 6 months ago but haven't been able to install due to lack of enough RAM - now I have tons of it! Of course wouldn't you know it - but as soon as I created something in this new scrapbook program - and tried to print - NOTHING!!! My printer is out of ink - so back to the good ol' computer store I go today after work to pick up some ink - this time I'll get both cartridges because I just know that my black ink will be bone dry soon.
So how was your week?