Recipe: Pitta Pocket Treat

Simple, sensual and sweet, this is the tastiest fancy-pants treat you can make in under four minutes.

Take a pitta bread 'pocket' and make this happen:

Tip: Apply heat

Secondly, open the bread and butter it.
Spread in a nice amount of strawberry jam.

Now comes the fancy bit:

Mon dieu

Yes. Brie cheese!
Pop a few slices of brie into the pocket.

Heat further to melt the cheese.


Is a 'Pitta Pocket Treat' any use?

Verdict: Can't answer - too busy stuffing my face with nom nom treat.

Rant: Ready Meal Packaging

I just spent six minutes preparing a 'ready meal'.  

Not dissimilar to this one.

The instructions state 'remove film lid carefully with a scissors'.

There is a reason or two they've phrased it thus.
Firstly it is an intricate operation. You do need a scissors.
Definitely no chance of grabbing a corner and ripping off the lid, the plastic is too thin.
A knife is no good either because the glue is too heavy.

It literally needs to be snipped with careful precision around the side of the tub.

Now it's not just me is it, but aren't these things supposed to be convenient? Is that not the entire reason behind them?

Why do the company who produces the meal not have a better plastic and glue set-up?

Probably expense. And so, they come up with the delicately phrased instruction.
If you're prone to over-thinking such things with a mild amount of paranoia (as I, for instance) just might be, you'd be forgiven for being wary of eating this meal at all.
Surely the company include the specific instruction to avoid lawsuits - it's the only reason for any health and safety instruction these days, let's face it.

Is that plastic, when melted into the food particularly carcinogenic? You have to wonder.


So ultimately...:

Is having to cut ready meal packaging off carefully with a scissors any use?

Verdict: No indeed. It defeats the purpose of the 'ready meal' being quick and convenient and is a little worrying to boot.

Review: blogger.com

I just started using blogger.com for a new review blog if you didn't notice.

I have used blogger (or blogspot.com as it's also known) previously, so I have enough experience to let you know straight up: it has its faults.

To be fair, it's very easy to set up (assuming you have a gmail account).
It's very intuitive in terms of getting a decent design together.
Blogger has templates you can choose from and modify as you see fit.

  Like this, see?:

You don't need to know a dot of programming code - everything is there and very accessible - colors, fonts, background pics (you can upload your own if you like).

Within an hour you will have cobbled together a great looking blog that also reflects your personality and your taste and it will definitely project something at least close to what you are looking to portray with your blog.

Also, it promotes a sense of community, which is very important amongst bloggers.
It's easy enough to follow and comment other blogs you might enjoy and before long you'll have built up a nice community of fellow bloggers.


Managing your blog in general on blogger is really handy - the layout of the dashboard and tabs is extremely accessible. Some more intricate settings are a little tucked away, but not too difficult to find if you use your brain.


However, blogger falls down for me at a crucial point.

Posting.
I find posting quite tedious - especially in terms of popping pics in to my posts. I upload or link and they appear a line or two above where I intended - i.e. where the cursor was. Why is that?

Also, line breaks never conform when published as to how they were while editing.
That includes when I dare delve into the 'edit html' option in posting mode.

Finally I've also found another little bug in linking text to URL's. Sometimes it happens that the pop up box into which I'm supposed to paste the link isn't 'active'. And when I paste, it appears in the post itself - behind the edit box.


On the one hand it's a great interface - very manageable and intuitive.

On the other, get it together blogspot! - bloggers blog and posting is really number one!
If that isn't as smooth and intuitive as your log on and design procedure then expect a lot of people to drop out after a couple of posts.


At the end of the day...

Is 'blogger' any use?

Verdict: It'll do (just don't annoy me while I'm posting - I'm likely to scream at you).

Review: This Any Use?

My first proper post will be more of a preview than a review.

I just made a blog site and it's called 'This Any Use?'
You can find it at http://isthisanyuse.blogspot.com/ but you already know that since you're here.

It has a colorful if hopefully subtle layout and style. Surely it will be modified as time goes on.

  Here's a taste:

It's a shame the description insists on staying gray regardless of what methods attempted in template designer, but perhaps in time this issue will be resolved - with a proper banner if necessary.

There isn't much else to say about the site in terms of review since it's so new.


It looks quite attractive and if it delivers on its promise it could be a decent enough resource.

Is 'This Any Use?' any use?

Verdict: Looks promising, hope so.