Monthly Archives: March 2010

So long Grandma

Evelyn R. Hamzy

Evelyn R. Hamzy, 89, of Palm Beach Gardens, died Saturday February 6th, 2010.

It’s a shame I had to find out like I did. But at least I got to see you again when I went to Florida.

Cream Biscuits

Cream Biscuits ingredients

I came across this recipe from SmittenKitchen about an easy way to make biscuits and I had to try it. There are just five ingredients (well four if you don’t top it off with melted butter). You sift together flour, salt, and baking powder and then mix in heavy cream. The only problem that I have with this recipe is that it doesn’t mix smoothly or evenly. At least when I tried it by hand with a spatula. I’ll have to try it on a stand mixer the next time.

Baked in pan

The first time I made this, I just plopped down the dough onto a pan, sliced it with a knife and then put it into the oven. Unfortunately, it is not easy for the steam to escape using this method. The cooked biscuits are easy to stick in the freezer and the reheat later in a toaster oven.

Frozen biscuits

The next time I tried freezing the raw dough after I cut out a circle and topped it with melted butter.

Cooked Biscuit

You place a single frozen biscuit in a preheated toaster oven set to 350 and cook for 10-15 minutes. And it comes out like this! Which is best topped by sorghum syrup.

These biscuits are extremely tender. Perhaps too tender. I think you need to mix the batter more to encourage development of gluten.

Sardine Avocado Melt

Sardine Avocado Melt

After watching Alton Brown’s Live And Let Diet episode, I had to modify my grilled tuna melt sandwich. This time I used H.E.B.’s Jalapeno Cheese bread, Boar’s Head Monterey Pepper Jack Cheese, King Oscar Finest Brisling Sardines, and Hass Avocados. It turned out to be quite decadent. Definitely comfort food!

eBay woes

eBay Woes

So I tried to sell my 1DMarkIII camera on eBay and had the worst experience ever! It took me 6 separate auctions to finally find a real buyer for the camera. And the worst thing is the time it takes (close to one week!) for one auction to clear out when it is obviously a hacked account or a newly generated id.

eBay Problem #1

It costs hackers nothing to break an account or generate a new fake account. And it costs me close to a week to try to sell the camera again!

eBay Problem #2a
eBay Problem #2b
eBay Problem #2c

eBay’s customer service is incredibly hard to reach! There is no 800 phone number that I know of. You can only reach them through a chat service. But you have to first figure out the way past a “ask a question” firewall. When you finally do get to the chat service, you have to put up with being constantly transferred from person to person. Wow! There is no way to complain about the handling of customer service either.

I finally figured out that you have to set buyer requirements.

To add buyer requirements to your listing:

  • 1. On the “Create your listing” page, scroll down to the “Other things you’d like buyers to know” section, and click the “Add or remove options” link.
  • 2. In the window that appears, select “Block certain eBay users from buying my items.”
  • 3. Click the “Save” button.
  • 4. Back on the “Create your listing” page, click the “Change buyer requirements” link.
  • 5. In the window that appears, set your buyer requirements.
  • 6. Click the “Save” button.

Block buyers who:

  • * Don’t have a PayPal account
  • * Have received 2 Unpaid item Strike(s) within 1 month(s)
  • * Have a primary shipping address in countries that I don’t ship to
  • * Have 4 Policy violation report(s) within 1 month(s)
  • * Have a feedback score equal to or lower than -1

You also have to select the option that, if a buyer uses “a buy it now” option, they must pay immediately via paypal before the auction ends! That took me another auction to figure out. I just wish you could also require that a buyer have a positive feedback before buying an item.

And finally, just for grins, here is one response from a buyer:

HI THERE,MAYBE I KNOW THE ANSWER BUT WILL YOU TRADE YOU CAMERA FOR A BOSE LIFESTYLE 50 HOME SYSTEM AND A SECOND ROOM SET FO SPEAKERS,AND AND SOME CASH,IF YOU DON’T WANT TO,I’LL SELL THEM ON EBAY,REASON THAT I DON’T HAVE THE MONEY NOW IS CAUSE I BOUGHT A NIKON SB-900 ON AMAZON AND MY CAR BROKE DOWN I LIVE NEAR DALLAS IF YOUR INTRESTED I CAN DRIVE TO ROUND ROCK AND MAKE THE DEAL!!!!