Spaghetti dish

  
I was out of penne, but I had some spaghetti, so this is a different version of my "penne dish".. =)

  
Left: Most of the ingredients.. Spaghetti, broccoli, aubergine, vine tomatoes, onions, beef mince, olive oil, soy sauce, sea salt, black pepper, white pepper.. I also used milk, eggs, cheese, garlic powder, and sugar.. (I think that was the lot!)

Right: I had a layer of spaghetti in the oven dish (=half of the spaghetti I'd boiled for this), and this picture shows a layer of fried onion and vine tomato. I chopped two of each, fried the onions in olive oil and some sugar, and then added the tomato, leaving it on the pan to get a bit mushy, while I was chopping other stuff.. (Oh, I also seasoned the onion & tomato mix, with soy sauce, sea salt, black and white pepper..)

  
Left: A layer of grated mild white cheddar..

Right: A layer of fried broccoli and aubergine.. I started with frying the broccoli in olive oil (plenty of it, since especially aubergine kind of soaks it in) as I was chopping the aubergine, then added the aubergine bits.. I seasoned with soy sauce, sea salt, black and white pepper, and garlic powder.. It was getting a bit dry, so instead of adding olive oil, I actually added some butter.. =)

  
Left: A layer of fried beef mince.. I seasoned with sea salt, black and white pepper, and garlic powder.. (I ran out of soy sauce - otherwise I would have added some, lol..)

Right: The rest of the spaghetti.. (As it had been waiting for a while, it had dried a little bit - didn't matter, though! The top is supposed to get crispy in the oven..)

  
Left: Another layer of grated mild white cheddar..

Right: After slowly pouring the milk and eggs mixture all over.. I used three large free range eggs, and 750ml full milk, whisking the eggs first, with a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, some black and white pepper, and then I added the milk, mixing it all together.


After one hour in the oven (gas mark 6). The gas oven always burns that one spot, but I love the top very crispy, so I don't mind. (I could turn it at some point, but I rarely bother climbing down from the attic, just to turn the dish..)

Child abuse on TV: Toddlers & Tiaras

I hadn't actually seen full episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras until recently, and if possible, I'm even more disgusted with the child beauty pageants as I was before..

Lots of little (mainly) girls who are very tired and uninterested, and look like they'd rather be anywhere else, just doing child stuff - you know, playing with toys, watching cartoons, doing stuff with friends and/or siblings, etc.. But their obsessed (and often, obese) mothers (and some fathers) have decided that their child will be a beauty queen, and that's ALL that matters.. It's like they don't even see that their child is suffering / not having any fun at all, or if they do see it, they are totally ignoring it..

Children are dressed up to look like cheap whores, before they have even learned to walk.. When they are old enough to walk, they're taught awful routines, and everything is fake.. Fake tan, fake hair, fake teeth (to hide their own teeth).. Tons of makeup, trailer park whorish glitter outfits..

One mother had decided that her daughter was going to do pageants, before the child was even born, and when the child was born with some health issues, the mother actually described her child like this: "she looked like she had Down syndrome.." - with a mixture of shame, disappointment, and revolt on her face.. "I was so upset that she wasn't the cutest little thing.." Priorities, eh? (And how could any mother say something like that, of their own child?!? Besides, all Down people are cute as they tend to be sunnier than the rest of us.)

There's so much wrong with the whole child beauty pageant idea, that I don't even know where to start..

It gives children some very fucked up values while destroying their childhood. Many of those parents seem to hand out parental love like dog treats - when the child performs well, they get some love, but when the child messes up the routine (or otherwise fucks up their obese & obsessed mother's big plan), they get a frowning and upset mother..

This form of child abuse is banned in France, and other countries should ban it as well. Let children be children. There's nothing wrong with organising events where children can perform stuff, but only if the children actually want to perform, and they should be allowed to be themselves - when you put fake tan, fake hair, and tons of makeup on a child, and dress them up all tarty, it really gives them the message that they are not good enough as themselves. That creates some very shallow people..

Foggy morning over a year ago, in Bray harbour (August 2012)

I've been flickr'ising more pictures, which had virtually piled up.. This was a morning that turned foggy as I was walking home from the shops, so I took my shopping home, and went to the harbour with my camera.

Phone support - with interwebs

My mam needed help with setting the lock numbers on her new luggage, so I tried to assist over the phone. I didn't know exactly what type of luggage she'd bought - just the brand name, but I found instructions in Finnish, for a few different types of locks used by that brand, only I didn't know which lock was used in her luggage.

Let's just say that I describe stuff better than she does, and after the first phone call, I was almost certain that I knew which of those lock versions was used.. LOL

I found a video for that particular lock type (see above), so I phoned my mam again, and this time, we managed to get it sorted. It was easier to give phone support, too, when I could actually see what she was supposed to be doing. (And just when we were done, I could hear the doorbell, and her friend's son arrived to help her with the lock! Jeez..)

Postcard from North Korea

A Finnish net friend visited North Korea, recently, and had sent me a postcard from Pyongyang, which arrived today! =D

Fried aubergine slices, mmm..

I fried these aubergine slices in olive oil (and some butter, because there wasn't that much olive oil left), seasoning with spicy Herbamare, black pepper, garlic powder, and soy sauce.. Really nice..

I'd love to see "rock stars as normal people" type photo shoots

For some reason, every time I see a picture of Michael Monroe, I have this mental image of a fictional photo shoot where he's dressed up as a businessman, wearing an expensive grey suit (a bit different from the ones I've robbed for the photoshop job above), no makeup, and where his hair is cut short (or, it would probably have to be a short wig).. I haven't the slightest idea why, but it's been going on for years now.. LOL

As it will probably never happen in reality, I've done a photoshop version.. =D

Anyway, I think it would be a fun idea - to have a series of photo shoots of rock stars as "normal people". And I mean "normal people" as in, people with "proper jobs" or such.. Heh..

If anyone has actually done such stuff, please, leave a comment with a link!

(Facebook version)

Onion & mushroom omnoms

This was SO good.. Fried onion and oyster mushrooms, with double cream, seasoned with black and white pepper, and sea salt. Mmmmm..

Handbag clearance

    

Yesterday's achievement: more organised handbag..

Usually, I keep my handbag contents in small freezer bags, to keep everything clean and well organised, but it had been a while since I'd changed the freezer bags, and everything had gotten a bit messy..

This time, I'm trying to keep things organised with less freezer bags.

I'm actually planning to make a new handbag, and I have the materials for it already, but I'm still working on the design.. I want it to be über-practical.

Organising Flickr sets with lots of pictures

Generally, I try to upload stuff in chronological order, so my monthly sets don't need organising. But sometimes, it's not possible, and I'll want to organise the sets on Flickr.

I've often agonised with sets that have lots of photos - dragging stuff through it all can be a pain..

But it's much handier when you SHRINK THE ICONS! =D Just hit "Ctrl" + "-", and keep hitting them again until your icons are small enough. Tada!

When you're done, hit "Ctrl" + "0", to get back to normal size.