Tuesday, January 15, 2008

DANG THAT LOOKS GOOD

I gave my first Financial Fitness workshop today and it went just swimmingly. I had seven people initially sign up and Brenda got three emails saying people canceled but three came so I was happy. I hear we have a 50% show rate anyway so I was only expecting three. I had some very minor technical glitches but nothing that disrupted the presentation as a whole.

Glitch 1. To get the presentations on the computer that hooks up to the projector you have to email them to yourself then download them onto that computer. I did this with no problem. However, I neglected to close out my email when I was done. Therefore, every time I got a new email during the presentation a window would pop up that said “you have new mail”. It would go away after a few seconds but it was slightly embarrassing.

Glitch 2. Not only did I not close out my email, I didn’t close out anything. Therefore, when I needed to go to a website during the presentation, I had to sift through all these mucky windows to get there. I thought it made me look a little technically incompetent. I also flubbed the should be seamless transition back into the slide show.

Glitch 3. This is actually not a glitch, I just thought it was. There is a remote thing by the computer that I assumed you were supposed to operate your presentation with. I couldn’t’ make it work so I operated the presentation by mouse. I guess that is just how it works.

Needless to say those errors are really minor. On a scale of 1-5 I received one 4 and two 5s for the presentation and two people said they planned to take action on what was discussed so that is a good thing. I was even able to answer all questions. Tomorrow’s presentation may be another story. While the material is easier only three people signed up. We’ll see what happens.

Although I haven’t had a Foodie Friday in some time, I thought now may be a good time for some foodie stuff. Why? Because Mom sent pictures from Christmas and that means you can see the Christmas Pizza. Yes, my family eats pizza for Christmas dinner. We never had a tradition and one year my sister said she wanted pizza and fudge. It stuck. Shoshana and her friend Will handled the crust, cheese grating (mozzarella, romano, provolone), and ingredient chopping while I made the sauces and picked ingredients. This year we made some beautiful pizzas.


Pesto
3 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 cup + (or so) olive oil (add more if needed)
Squirt of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste (All this stuff is really to taste)

Toppings
Artichoke hearts
Spinach
Feta
Onion
Fresh Basil

The lemon juice was a totally new thing to my pesto making but it really hit the spot. I tasted it and thought it needed citrus but wasn’t sure but Shoshana suggested it and I knew she was right. It was delicious.


Red Sauce
1 big can of whole tomatoes drained
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil
Dash sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
Mushrooms
Onion
Fresh Garlic
Fresh Basil

I think we ended up adding some of the drained out tomato juice to the sauce for volume but you can’t blend it all together, then you don’t get the nice chunky quality.

1. When the Witch Doctor Life/ throws his silent bones/ some are crowned kings/ while others lose their thrones

2. Hot Cha where are you/ Everybody’s eyes are closed/ I can’t see why I miss you so/ So Hot Cha where are you. Hot Cha, They Might Be Giants. Identified by Monica

3. Little bag of bones been out all night/ Little bag of bones been out all night/ Can you hear him scratching at the screen door. Kitty, The Presidents of the United States of America, Identified by Jason.

4. On a rooftop in Brooklyn/ One in the morning. Watching the lights flash/ In Manhattan

5. Look on yonder misty mountain/ See the young monk meditating/ Rhododendron forest/ Over dusty hills I ask you. Epistle to Dippy, Donovan. Identified by Monica

13 comments:

Traveling Matt said...

2. Hot Cha - TMBG

5. Epistle to Dippy aka My theme song - Donovan

When I come over for TV next time, let's make pizza. Lovin YOU!!!

Foofa said...

EEEWWW gross. I'll have to get the crust recipe but it sounds like a plan. Them pizzas were Tas-T!

Traveling Matt said...

oh wait, i can make this grosser...
Lovin' YOU...sister.

Urban Chick said...

You two are funny.

Anywho..congrats on the presentation success.

And that pizza looks A-freakin-MAZING. Once my oven gets rockin, I'm going to have to try my hand at it. I'm not really into the making a crust from scratch yet, so I'll probably use the whole wheat crust from Trader Joes.

Phil said...

Mmmmm. And, what in the presentation? Subjectwise?

Anonymous said...

I'll send you the crust recipe. I think it needs work, so feel free to play with it.

I recognized song #3 but never could have guessed name and artist without some extra research!

Glad to hear that the workshop went so well! BTW, I've never seen anyone make the should-be-seamless transition back to a PowerPoint show. It should be so simple, but everyone messes it up. I think the best way to do it may be to use alt-tab to return to the desired application...

Jason said...

Thanks for the recipe; Shosh lost her USB with it in the ocean or something bizarre.

On to business:

#3 - "Kitty" - The Presidents of the United States of America (one of my ex-girlfriends had the CD)

#4 - "You Said Something" - PJ Harvey

Katrina said...

Jason beat me to #3. Love that song, hell, love the whole album. That's another one I should break out of the pile and give a listen to again, it's been too long.

The last time I made homemade pizza I was 16 and it was for my birthday. My 3 best friends and I did it. We had a blast and if memory serves correctly it was actually pretty good.

Here's to hoping today's presentation goes as well as you want it to.

Foofa said...

Monica- Super yuck!

Urban Chick- I am not the crust expert in the family but it was pretty easy to do. By the time the sauces and ingredients were ready to go the dough was ready to stretch. i think the whole process took about an hour.

Phil- It was a general basics of Finance presentation. Today I'm doing one on renting an apartment, if anyone shows up.

Mom- alt+tab was my plan but because I had so many things open it was pretty messy.

Jason- Is there anything that girl hasn't lost in the ocean at some point?

Katrina- I might have to just bust that album out myself. It was surprisingly fun.

Woozie said...

The Christmas pizza sounded good until the mushrooms bit ;)

RandomlyAccessedMemories said...

Those there, are some beautiful pizza pies!

I still have dough in my freezer from the last time we made pizzas... and cookies, and other stuff.

Foofa said...

Woozie- the pesto one is all you.

Ern- thanks, that's why we took pictures.

CS said...

Good for you on the presentation.

And, dang, that really does look good.