Organization / reminders / to-do / project-planning web site?

[cjsmith]

I just signed up with Backpackit, and while setting up my pages I got goose bumps.

I had done this before. No, not at this site. At another one. There are to do lists and organizational tools there as well. I can remember putting some stuff on a to do list. I can remember thinking that it could one day become a very helpful setup for me.

Now I can't find it. It's orphaned, a free account on some random helpful web site somewhere.

Anyone know of web sites like that? Heck, how about good Google search terms?

edit: FOUND IT!!! Remember the Milk.

Comments

[ambar.livejournal.com]

Basecamp and Backpack: http://www.37signals.com/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That Backpack appears to be the same Backpack I just signed up with... but hmmm, now that I see this, it could have been Basecamp.

Huh. Just created a Basecamp account to see if a) "cjsmith" was taken or b) I recognized the UI. Nope... although there's a lot in common with Backpack's UI.

Weird. Basecamp almost sounded familiar. I wonder if I did a 30-day trial once, and dropped it, and the site got an overhaul.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

Do you save the "thank you for signing up at our web site!" email messages? You could try searching those, if so. (I do, and for this reason. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I do, but, um, I save so much e-mail that it would take time to wade through it. (I recognize that this rather negates the whole point of saving mail at all. *sigh*) I suppose "zcat | grep" is my friend. 8-)

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I make Mail.app do the searching for me, but I'm spoiled that way.

Oh, hey, bonus crockpot recipe:

take whole chicken. remove packet of giblets from cavity. rinse chicken in cold water. optional: remove fat and loose skin. put into crockpot breast side down with (the contents of :) a bottle of Italian dressing. cook ~8 hrs on low.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oo nifty! Italian dressing, eh? I bet that recipe could be tweaked for just chicken breasts (less time, probably). Not as flavorful as bone-in, but possible, I'd guess.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

well, you complained about dryness in the chicken breasts last time. 1) chicken breasts are the most expensive part of the chicken, even more so if you are buying them boneless. 2) also the most prone to dryness.

If you really don't want to deal with a whole chicken carcass (which I can understand) try buying chicken thighs instead. bonus: the skin comes off really, really easily.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I am happy to trade money for time in this case, as I'm squeamish about disassembling meat. I don't know what to do about the prone to dryness part though. Wrap 'em in foil??

[ambar.livejournal.com]

No, I wouldn't wrap anything in foil that's going into the crockpot.

As I think klwalton mentioned in a previous cooking thread, what makes for tender meat is the connective fibers (collagen) melting in the cooking process. White meat (breasts) just don't have any of that stuff handy, so they prefer being cooked for a really short amount of time. Not ideal crockpot territory.

Here's another simple, good one:

get a boneless beef chuck roast (2-3lbs). Peel and slice 4 onions (I run them through a food processor). Put onions in crockpot, then a few slices of bacon, then the roast. Stick 5 whole cloves into the top of the roast (in the fatty bits for better flavor conduction). Put a few more slices of bacon on top. Cook and enjoy. (The broth produced comes out like the best french onion soup you have EVER had.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. So I should go for dark meat portions of the chicken, or red meats such as beef?

oooo! That one looks scrumptious. No liquids added? Just the juices from the meat and the bacon?

[ambar.livejournal.com]

Actually, most of the liquid comes from the breakdown of the onions, surprisingly so. :-) The original version (fussier and not written for a crockpot) is here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/ambar/47755.html) if you're curious. I'm guessing the bacon will provide the flavor and fat that the salt pork does in the original version.

Reading the original reminds me that I forgot to tell you to salt and pepper the beast before it goes in. If you're used to lightly salting (or not at all) your food in restaurants, you may need encouragement to be as liberal with the salt as you will need to be. Remember that you're salting 2+lbs of meat plus a lot of onion, not just sprinkling a bit meekly on top. :-)

*nod* to the dark meat question. Pork also crockpots nicely, but again the trick is to choose the tougher/fattier cuts (try pork shoulder or pork butt), as opposed to (eg) expensive and nearly fat-free pork loin, which will just dry out in the crockpot.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip about the salt. Indeed, I almost never add salt to something that shows up on my plate. (Well, occasionally some veggies.) So that tip was well-aimed.

Darn, and here I was thinking a crock pot would allow me to do most any recipe more slowly. *big drama-filled sigh* Poor me.

OK, what herbs would you add to stew beef? That's my next experiment (aka the only meat I have left in the freezer to try).

[ambar.livejournal.com]

Well, you can do the above with the stew beef if you want.

or, here's a likely looking recipe from a random web site, and afterwards, how I would modify it for a crockpot:



Helen's Stout Stew
2 lbs stewing beef (1" cubes)
1 large onion, minced
5-6 carrots cut in 1" cubes
4-5 medium potatoes, quartered
salt, pepper, oregano, thyme to taste
6 oz. stout or dark beer
2 cans beef broth
(or 3 cups homemade beef broth)

In a fry pan or Dutch oven, gently brown stew beef in a little oil. Add onions and continue to cook 2-3 minutes more until they are slightly cooked. Add broth, spices, and stout. Bring to a boil then put in 350° oven to cook for about 1 hour. Add carrots and potatoes and cook for another 30-45 minutes until vegetables and meat pieces are tender.


I would follow the instructions through cooking the onions, then dump the contents of the pan into the crockpot along with the rest of the ingredients.

a note on browning meat: it took me way, way too long to learn that "brown" doesn't mean "cook until it turns gray on the surface, that's long enough". Brown really does mean brown, and it develops the flavor in ways that your crockpot can't. For extra geekiness, google "Maillard reaction" and enjoy. :-)

oregano and thyme "to taste". For 2 lbs of each, try a (measuring!) teaspoon of oregano, and half a teaspoon of thyme. Rosemary is also good with beef.

Obviously, you can skip the beer if it's not something you have lying around the house...

[ambar.livejournal.com]

2 lbs of each

Er, make that 2 lbs of MEAT. Too much studying is bad for the brain.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

you'll probably get better results with thighs than with breasts.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I often get better res... um... I'll stop now.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

knew i could count on you :)

[ambar.livejournal.com]

and I should say, I'm guessing on the time. To refine, look up a chicken recipe in the booklet that came with your crockpot, and use that timing (assuming it calls for a similar amount, in lbs, of chicken). Typical timings are 4-6 hrs on high, 6-8 hrs on low.

When the meat is falling off the bones, it's definitely done.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*nod* Gotcha, thanks. First time I try a thing, I can definitely be hanging around poking at it every hour or so.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i think you can do porkchops with italian dressing, too. i'll hafta ask queensheba, as shes the local crockpot expert.

[airporter.livejournal.com]

My image of you has simply been devastated.

All this time I thought you were organized.






(/sarcasm) *grin*, *giggle*, *hug*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA fooled one person! ...for a short time! :-)

*hugback*