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Tinypliny's Journal

tinypliny
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01/26/2012 18:33 #55983

Kale, tomatoes and almond soup
Category: eating in
Okay, another quickie but super delicious soup. This time in 20 minutes (because nothing was pre-cooked today).

0. Put in some orange lentils to cook in the rice cooker.
-- From here on it's a timed contest between you and rice cooker!
1. Heat the wok to a high temperature (this is a given. If you don't get this by now, you might as well order pizza)
2. Add a tablespoon of sesame oil
3. Add some dried red chillies, shredded coconut, garlic and ginger fine chopped.
4. Meanwhile dry toast some almonds on a nearby burner.
5. Saute garlic/ginger till garlic turns a faint light brown.
6. Toss in finely chopped Kale. Stir fry till BRIGHT green.
7. Salt it (the kale will let some water out)
8. Add some finely chopped ripe tomatoes. Toss till mixed with Kale.
9. Toss and saute till tomatoes are fairly done.
10. If you have a decent rice cooker, the lentils should be done by now. Add to the spiced kale-tomato mix with generous amount of water and bring to a low simmer.

And you are done! Garnish with fresh chopped basil and lightly crushed toasted almonds!

01/26/2012 11:04 #55982

Toshiba motherboard fried
Category: i-tech
My grand Toshiba died just before Martin Luther's weekend. It wouldn't start. It was exactly 6 months old and well within it's 1 year warranty. So I shipped it off to the Toshiba depot, I always had a high opinion of Toshiba. My last 3 laptops have been Toshiba. I recommend Toshiba to everyone I know. But this whole fiasco shakes my faith in Toshiba rather substantially.

They sent an email back saying that they would like to charge me for these

MOTHERBOARD - $150.01
KEYBOARD - $19.34
And labor costs $60. (TOTAL OF $229.35)
..
California Customer will incur California sales tax on parts charge



What on earth does the warranty actually cover then??? I suspect, NOTHING.

Toshiba machines are, for the most part, reliable and well- performing. I hate that my machine died. However, this is the first time I have actually done heavy continuous processing on my laptop and experimented extensively with linux non-stop since I got it. Maybe the laptop wasn't up to the rigors I put it though. Maybe my high opinion of Toshiba came from my years of light everyday processing needs and not day-in-and-day-out of number crunching applications.

This is such a massive disappointment! I don't know whether to pay the $229.35 or just let it be shipped back un-repaired to take a stance against scalping.

tinypliny - 01/26/12 18:08
I wonder how much a motherboard actually costs...
tinypliny - 01/26/12 18:07
Yes, it is completely a hardware failure. They should technically cover it in warranty. But obviously they think this is a way to make money. I am sick of talking to their tech support call centre (I think it is based in India, btw) who specialize in annoying customers thoroughly.
metalpeter - 01/26/12 17:22
Oh something else just crossed my mind.... You use Linux and not windows do you think that maybe they don't know how to fix it and have linux work.... My sis got a virus and found out the hard way still not sure what she is doing about it that it isn't covered by best buy or by the anti virus people bastards..... But unless you altered the computer physically (lap top not desk top) it should be covered?
metalpeter - 01/26/12 17:18
That is Hard ware it should be covered ..... I think you should write them back and say that is supposed to be under warranty and they need to fix it for free or explain how it isn't covered and why!

01/25/2012 18:33 #55981

Awesome soup for a winter's day
Category: eating in
I wanted to get back to work fast so I made a super fast soup just now in 10 minutes flat. It was so tasty, it's all gone. I want to remember this soup on horrible days when I don't feel like cooking.

1. Heat the wok to a high temperature.
2. Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
3. Immediately add some cumin and dried chillies
4. Add chopped red onions. Stir around till coated with the cumin, chillies and oil.
5. Add chopped ripe tomatoes. Stir around for a minute or so. Smash the tomatoes.
6. Add pre-roasted acorn squash. Stir till incorporated into the tomatoes and onions.
7. Add pre-cooked quinoa.
8. Add a generous quantity of fresh basil.
9. Add some water (preferably water that has been used to cook beans or lentils)
10. Salt to taste.

And you are done. Best soup ever!

01/24/2012 17:24 #55977

Spatula of dreams
Category: eating in
Behold... and then behold some more!

image
tinypliny - 01/25/12 08:17
I never liked wood spatulas before but I now have several scratches on my big new wok and frying pans from my stainless steel spatulas. :/ Over time these scratches produce irregularities that leads to stir-fries burning easily at the high temperatures you cook them in. And I am sure bamboo is much tastier than teflon. ;-)
paul - 01/25/12 07:55
I don't love wood n bamboo ones they always seem to degrade over time. I have a stainless steal one I really love.
tinypliny - 01/24/12 23:29
that thing is HUGE. I literally have to stand at one end of my kitchen to stir things at the other end. Which also tells you my kitchen is tiny... but you get the idea!
tinypliny - 01/24/12 18:14
I have NEVER had such a nice spatula before. The possibilities are... well possibilities!
tinypliny - 01/24/12 18:13
You nailed it.
metalpeter - 01/24/12 18:08
Yes Whacking is fun I'll be right over.... Oh wait I forgot you mean the Mafia Whack and cut into pieces and then dump parts by the Hollywood sign ? HA.....
tinypliny - 01/24/12 17:54
I cannot help drooling over this spatula! :) You could easy whack people with it AND saute kale!
tinypliny - 01/24/12 17:52
that is so weird. I did not post that picture of the skies this time. It kind of got carried over from the last post. I have seen this happen before, in (e:Paul)'s posts!! (e:Paul) - is this a bug in your (e:strip) application or a bug in the camera software of ice-cream sandwich? What do you think?? This feels like a bug!
metalpeter - 01/24/12 17:32
Ah two for the price of One....

01/23/2012 17:05 #55972

Cloudy orange
Category: buffalo
Puffy and gorgeous

image
libertad - 01/23/12 20:01
I wish i wasn't in my cube.
metalpeter - 01/23/12 17:32
cool looking sky