Mom's Birthday Party

Mom's birthday party at Bob and Bonnie's in Sierra Vista, Az.

Posting here so family can grab the pictures and so that the guest quartet can access their videos. Click on the pictures below for larger versions and use the Download function to grab the "full" size (1600 wide) pictures for your own albums. Links to the barbershop quartet videos are at the end.

Photos and movies taken with an Olympus Stylus 1010 digital camera. Blog, pictures and videos uploaded with Picasa 3 (need to have accounts on Picasa Web Folders, Blogger and YouTube to do the uploads).


Party table during dinner ... I forgot to get pictures of the cake ... oops


Kids and parents in the living room ... the dining room just wasn't big enough for all


Julia playing with her brother Willow


The barbershop quartet "Watering Hole #3" ... they actually sang first at the party, the pics aren't in chronological order.

There are videos of the quartet singing that I posted on YouTube:

The Java Jive

My Wild Irish Rose

New blog, old posts

Well I've decided to move my occasional and random bloggings again. I've had blogs in a few locations, none with more than 4 or 5 posts. Recently I've started using Facebook alot to connect with old friends but Wall posts aren't the same as blogging at all.

So I'll be trying to find some of my other posts and re-posting them here. That means the continuity of the site will be a bit odd, since this is technically the first posting but there will be posts that show up with earlier dates.

I also post some things on Google Documents, since its easier to write and edit there in some cases, and I can post to this blog by sharing those documents. Pretty handy. Right now I'm just setting things up.

There is no agenda to my blog. I'll post random weirdness that has happened to me, or a good recipe if I've done something worthwhile, etc.

Geoff's simple baked mac&cheese

History

• Rev2: 2008-04-28 - added Variations
• Rev1: 2008-04-17

Ingredients

• 1 box of "premium" macaroni and cheese (like Kraft Deluxe or Velveeta Shells and Cheese ... ie has a pack of soft cheese not powder)
• 2 small or 1 extra large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2tsp Salt
• 1/2tsp Black Pepper
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (sharp cheddar, colbyjack, whatever sounds good)
• Baking dish just large enough to hold cooked pasta
• Optional: Handful of breadcrumbs (japanese panko works great as does anything else)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Prepare the pasta as per box instructions
3. While pasta is boiling whisk together milk, eggs, cheese packet from box, salt and pepper until cheese packet is well mixed
4. Put 1/2 of the cooked pasta in dish, pour 1/2 of cheese mixture from above over pasta
5. Spread 1/3 of the shredded cheese over dish
6. Remaining pasta and cheese mixture in dish
7. Evenly spread remaining shredded cheese over dish
8. Optional: Evenly sprinkle dish with handful of breadcrumbs
9. Optional: Dash of pepper to taste over dish
10. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, until cheese is beginning to brown and small air bubbles are rising around the edge
11. Let cool and set for 5-10 minutes

Variations

• Use 1/2 Mozzarella or italian cheese blend along with oregano / italian spices on top
• Rotini works well, especially flavored rotini
• Double the amount of pasta and just add enough cheese to spread across the top