Let Dinner Tonight text you dinner ideas!

     This is quite possibly the coolest and most helpful thing I've seen in a while. Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine has a new text messaging service called Dinner Tonight by SMS. If you sign up for this service, the kind folks at Dinner Tonight will text you a recipe title every day. This is where the service gets cool. You don't like the title? Delete the text. It never came, and you can forget about it. You do like the title? Sounds like it might be tasty?


Dinner Tonight by SMS
Reply with the word "cook". The text messaging service will then text you a shopping list and email you a copy of the recipe. This means that I'm sitting at my desk, it's 5pm, and I'm wondering, "What am I going to make for dinner when I get home?" Boom, a text message with a recipe titled Penne with Two Tomatoes and Mozzarella. Sounds tasty, I think, and I reply. Boom, there's my shopping list, and I can mentally tick off what I have at home versus what I have to pick up from the store (mozzarella). I stop at the store, pick up my cheese, and when I get home, I sign on and have the recipe there, 20 minutes to make, and dinner's on the table.

     The recipes have all been about 20 minutes cook and prep time, too. It's really a brilliant service, and I am looking forward to the quick recipes that it will share. If you're interested and have a cell phone (no smart phones necessary), I suggest you try this out as well.

EDIT: As of 8/1/2012, This service is no longer available. Sorry, non-smart phone users!

A Visit to Happy Vally.

     Good afternoon, blogosphere. I've been in the lovely town of State College all weekend. On Friday, the weather was just lovely, and autumn is quickly approaching. State College is pretty much perfect in autumn--the trees are just spectacular, the football is plentiful, and the weather wavers from the rainiest, chilly days, to days of crisp sunlight and blue skies. I appreciate (and have experienced) both extremes this weekend, and I think they both have their charm. When it's rainy, State College is a great place to snuggle in with a blanket and watch the storms. It's also a great place to grab a camera and photograph the natural sublimities when the sun is sunny. You can still find places that aren't too busy in State College (even on a football weekend), and it makes me feel very peaceful. I've spent some of the best years of my life in this town, and I really love coming back.


Mt. Nittany in October

     Also, I had the pleasure of getting a new phone this weekend.



     This is the LG Dare. It has a touch screen, a 3.2 Megapixel camera, and a headphone jack for the MP3 player. Those were the three major selling points that made me like this phone. I just need to get some good ringtones into it and we'll be good to go. My phone number is the same, so don't worry about not being able to contact me. If you were able to contact me by phone before, you will still be able to do it now.