Author: Cupcakey

Trying to be normal

Personal

A few weeks ago Steve and I finally started going out versus staying here at my house. I’m able to transfer into a car with ease versus being unable to previously. We haven’t done too much yet as I haven’t wanted to go too crazy. We’ve done the usual like driving around aimlessly, going out to dinner (Oh Chilis how I have missed you!), grocery shopping at Walmart or Target, or running to Tiger Direct to replace a mouse of mine.

I haven’t been too enthused to try going to the movie theaters yet. I already get bitchy enough when people stare at me. Oh boy don’t even get me started on that! I’ve had people literally just stand and stare at me while I’m getting into/out of the wheelchair and car… It’s an awkward feeling but at the same time ridiculously infuriating. Unfortunately not much I can do about ignorant folk but just deal with it for a little while longer.

Aside from the general woes my only issue right now is my financial status (read: broke). I’ve been busting my ass off with trying to land some remote gigs but have just not been able to hook any real good offers. I’m laying myself out there for just about everything but as I should have expected the job market is still bleak. I would just like to be able to have money in my pocket to ensure that I’ve got cushion should I have an emergency I need to fund.

Please 2 be given me j0bz peeps!

Breaking out of the mold

Personal

For almost a year I have been relying on premade themes from places like WooThemes and Elegant Themes for my personal site. I just didn’t have the time nor patience to devote development work to my own website. It definitely showed as I just didn’t feel like updating my site.

A few days ago I randomly felt inspired to work on a new theme and I actually stuck with it. I’m known to work on something and get as far as coding out the header and then quitting on the rest of it. I just don’t like working for myself as I start to hate it a few days later. I’m very pleased with myself as I’ve finally gotten a theme done that isn’t just tweaking a premade.

I decided to go more on the CSS3 route with some features (eg: rounded corners) as I am an ass backwards developer. I am still trying to force myself to work in Photoshop to get a PSD going then to code it up. Unfortunately I prefer the code out the framework then shove in colors and images. Truthfully it’s a method that’s worked out okay for me so I suppose that’s why I still stick with it.

Oh I almost forgot! I have finally? switched domain names. I was ridiculously bored and hated atourworst.org. I had registered a few other domains along with icupcake.org, but ultimately this was my winner. Atourworst.org should now entirely redirect to iCupcake.org; There are going to be some errors here and there but I have it set to log and email them to me so I can fix as I see them. The biggest will be images in posts, so I’ll get around to that momentarily. If you spot any problems, let me know. For what it’s worth, this was not designed to support >IE7. Don’t bother checking in there 😉

Crockpot BBQ Beef Brisket

Uncategorized

There is nothing better then smelling BBQ beef brisket simmering in a crockpot all morning and afternoon in anticipation of being ready in time for Sunday night football with the Chicago Bears. The lingering aromas of the homemade BBQ sauce will leave you drooling and constantly peeking at the crockpot in hopes that everything magically cooked itself in minutes.

This recipe is enough for 7-9 servings pending serving size

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds beef brisket*
  • 2 yellow onions
  • 1 green peppers
  • 4 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground mustard
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. Prepare your beef brisket by trimming away any excess fat on it. Or you can do this process once the meat is tender and ready.
  2. Rub the mustard, cumin, and liquid smoke on the brisket. You can either wrap in foil to marinate in the fridge, or just use it immediately.
  3. Cut the onions and green pepper into strips of your desired width, mince the garlic and put it into the crockpot.
  4. In a separate mixing bowl combine the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder and cayenne pepper. Mix the ingredients until the sugar is dissolved and liquids are combined.
  5. Place some of your onions on the bottom of your crockpot, then place the beef brisket on top. Place the remaining onions, green pepper, your mixing bowl (which is now your homemade BBQ sauce), and beef broth over the brisket.
  6. Set your crockpot to low and let it simmer for 7-8 hours until brisket is tender.
  7. When the brisket is ready, it should be falling apart. Take a large prong fork and shred the brisket within the crockpot.
  8. If your mixture is still a bit watery, you can add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1/4 cup of cold water. Stir in the mixture little by little to achieve the desired thickness.
  9. Once you have your brisket shredded, you can leave it simmering on low for another hour to allow it to soak in more of your sauce.
  10. Serve your shredded brisket on a yummy kaiser roll and dribble some of your new BBQ sauce over it and serve up with a side of cottage cheese and a huge dill pickle spear.

* In lieu of the costly beef brisket, you can always use skirt steak or even pork tenderloin for a pork version.

Crockpot Beanless Chili

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I’m a big fan of chili and an even bigger fan of using a crockpot. When I put together this recipe, I didn’t realize I was out of beans (chili, red and lima beans–I don’t care which kind, I use whatever I grab), but I went through the recipe and decided to add in more vegetables to compensate for the loss of texture and thickness.

This recipe is enough for 4-5 servings pending serving size

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground chuck/beef
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 green or red pepper
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 1 8oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 5.5oz can tomato juice
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. In a large saucepan cook your ground beef, onion, garlic over medium heat until the meat is no longer raw, then drain the grease.
  2. Dice your cucumber and green pepper to your desired sizes, then place in crockpot.
  3. Add the tomato sauce, tomato juice, water, spices then your cooked ground beef to the crockpot.
  4. Turn crock to low if you wish to let it simmer for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-4 hours.
  5. Serve in a bowl with some diced onions and cheese on top and enjoy!

You are free to manipulate this recipe to your own palette. I prefer my chili with a kick, lots of spices, veggies and meat. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried this recipe and what you think of it; I’m open to any and all comments!

Patience is a necessity

Personal

On Tuesday of next it’ll have been three months since my accident. It’s so weird to see the progress I’ve made, which is a lot, but that I still have a lot more to go through in the upcoming months. Thanks so much to everyone that left comments, it meant a lot to me!

Today I had my 30 day follow-up with my orthopedic doctor to get my wrist cast off and to check on my hip and tibial plateau. The good news is that my cast came off, and I had a little more mobility than he expected. The bad news? Looking over the xray for my wrist he noticed that I have about a 4.5mm gap by one of my carpels. He said this is because I have some sort of torn or damaged tendon. Either way, there’s a high chance I’ll be referred to a hand surgeon to have it repaired or reconstructed in the next few weeks. This is all pending though since I go in next week for an MRI on the wrist. I’m hoping it’s not too bad but seeing as though it’s been 3 months, surgery seems likely.

My knee is doing perfect as far as healing goes. The only noticeable thing is some calcification forming over one of the pins, but it won’t affect any mobility as it’s on the inner side of my leg. The biggest disappoint during my appointment was my hip’s poor recovery. It’s been 11 weeks post-op, and the piece of broken femur that’s re-attached with three pins is still not fusing with my original femur. As such, I have to wait another 30 days for my next checkup, and still cannot do any physical therapy to start walking again. I’m also stuck wearing my hip brace for a long time, as he mentioned he’ll have me wearing this while I’m going through PT.

The only real good news was that he was comfortable enough to allow me to increase the weight-bearing status of my right leg. I can put up to 30lbs of weight (or pressure) on the leg. So while it wasn’t what I wanted, it’s still something I can deal with. I was really just hoping to be able to start PT this month, so by October 6th (my best friend Amy’s birthday) and October 11th (Steve‘s birhday) I’d be able to go out and have some fun to celebrate their birthdays. But alas, my extreme dance moves will have to be put on hold for awhile!

Other than that I’ve been quite busy with my hosting company, and two other side projects of mine. My goal right now though is to start getting back into freelancing full-time as my cast is now off. Reason being is not only has my money dwindled quickly (insurance, bills, yadda yadda) but all of my bills from being in the hospital have been coming in like crazy. I do have health insurance now which thankfully covers almost 90%. I still have a lot of bills to be processed but my biggest one ($235,000) is actually being processed right now so this is my main bill I’m worried about.

Well, this post is long enough so I’m calling it quits! 😛