Recipe: Spinach Calzones with Quick Tomato Sauce Last Night's Dinner

Truthfully, this was more like last month's dinner but I am still trying to catch up after the holidays. I make pizza fairly often during the summer and fall, but since I prefer to cook it on the grill, my winters tend to be long, dark pizza-less nights of the soul. But I recently found some dough in the bottom of the freezer and decided to give calzones a try. They came out amazingly good and were quite simple. Of course, I didn't make my own dough, which would make this a bit less simple, but even so, the whole process is straightforward as can be. You can obviously customize the filling to suit your tastes, I happened to have some spinach on hand and my pantry is always full of garlic so that is what I went with.

Click through for the recipe.

It's Nice to Be Appreciated

It's a nice feeling when someone takes the time to read your blog and maybe leave a comment. It is a superb feeling when that person includes you in her top 5 under-appreciated blogs of 2011 list. Tiffanie has all types of cool things going on over at corner blog and scores extra points for being an architect, the profession I would surely pursue if I had to do it all over again. I stumbled across corner blog and subsequently featured her work on Ohdeedoh numerous times because she keeps doing cool stuff. Anyway, thank you Tiffanie, and I know I am supposed to pay it forward by naming a few of my own favorite smaller blogs, but I honestly don't read too many at this point (I sound like such a dick, right?). Hopefully I can get a list together by the end of the new year.

A Video Christmas Card

Every year I try to write and record a Christmas song. This year was tougher than usual to find the time to get it all done, and there a 1,000 things I would do to fix it up if I had the time. But I don't, and I'd rather take a walk with Olive on this cold clear day than spend another couple of hours in my basement studio anyway.

For a free download of this song head on over to my ReverbNation site and click on the download button.

Click through to get the lyrics and to read an article I recently wrote about the process of writing this particular song.

Recipe: Black Bean Polenta PieLast Night's Dinner

 As winter approaches I find I look more to the pantry and less to the fridge for my ingredients. Partly due to the fact that we are trying to eat seasonally as much as we can, and partly due to the fact that things made from pantry staples tend to stick to your ribs: beans, grains, pasta, lentils, etc. These dishes lend themselves to cold nights. This particular recipe I threw together last night out of desperation, since I was away over the weekend and did not have a chance to hit the grocery store. It turned out quite good and was achieved in under thirty minutes. I also like the possibilities it presents for modification. For example, this is a Mexican-flavored dish, but if you replace the black beans with cannellini beans, replace the salsa with some pesto or marinara, mozzarella for cheddar etc. you will get a totally different dish built on the same simple framework.  Click through for the recipe.

How Jerks Like Me Police Craigslist

I have a real problem with craigslist over-posters. They offer the same useless crap three or four times a week and it drives me up the wall. This morning, possibly because I was rudely awakened at five a.m. by an inconsolable little angel, I decided to do something about it. Oh yeah, I'm a badass all right. Welcome to nerd justice, or the equivalent of an English major's drive-by shooting. This sucka just got served!

To the guy selling Land Rover Leaf Springs - $100 (Keene/Swanzey)

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Date: 2011-12-02, 6:40AM EST
Reply to: sale-s2z7n-2731695944@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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Let me explain to you how craigslist works. There is a rule about over-posting, wherein you should not post the same item more than once a month. Sure, lots of people break that rule, but it is there for a reason, so as not to clog up craigslist with the same stuff. So if someone likes to browse by area, let's say Keene for instance, he doesn't have to look through ten ads for Land Rover Leaf Springs in the space of two weeks.

But over-posting is not even your worst offense. It is your inability to grasp the basic concept of how browsing on craigslist works. Do you really think an item as specific as Land Rover Front Leaf Springs is something a casual browser is going to suddenly realize they need? That dude who is idly looking for a local bargain of some sort is not going to come across your ad three times in three pages and at the third viewing suddenly smack his forehead and say 'Man, I have to have those leaf springs.' I feel comfortable in stating this unequivocally since your posting for Leaf Springs has run once or twice a week, every week, for seemingly forever.

Here's how it works: someone who needs something specific, such as a set of Land Rover Leaf Springs, is going to go to the search bar and enter...wait for it...'Land Rover Leaf Springs'. Or maybe 'Leaf Springs Land Rover'. Either way, your post will come up, undoubtedly first in the listings, because it will be the only one in the listings. You have zero competition on this front. You have cornered the Land Rover Leaf Springs market on the Keene/Swanzey area craigslist. So even if you posted, say, ONCE A MONTH, you would still be first! Congratulations! You win.

So take what you have learned here today and please apply it. It will save you time and help the Keene/Swanzey craigslist listings become a bit less cluttered. Thank you.

Cool Vintage Camera NighlightsOhdeedoh Post of the Week

Image by Flickr member Jayfish licensed for use under Creative Commons

This guy takes vintage thrift store cameras and turns them into nightlights. Pretty awesome. Check it out.