50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Nine

As promised, this week's post comes a bit late. I spent the weekend in Leipzig, without my laptop, and so was unable to update about my weekly creative explorations. I am here to go back in time with you, though! This week, I put together an infographic containing a checklist for the SEO process. First I compiled my list, and then started playing with possible design ideas before deciding to go with a lovely circle chart to represent the cyclical nature of SEO. I've since shared my infographic all over the place, and will re-share it here, now. It's gotten some positive response, which has been lovely. It's also up on my Behance portfolio.

SEO Checklist Infographic

In addition to my infographic work this week, I also took some pictures around Leipzig. I didn't bring my DSLR camera with me, so these are from my basic point and shoot, but there's still some fun ones.

Federal Capital Building, Leipzig

Statue of JS Bach outside Thomaskirke.

Thomaskirke

Nikolaikirche

Pink flamingos at the zoo

Gorilla

Finally, in closing, here is a video of the silly armadillo running around like a mad armadillo thing at the Leipzig Zoo on Sunday.

This post is ninth in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Eight

The quarter is winding down, which means the weeks have been quite busy. But the good news is that this week is finals week, and I'm off to Leipzig this weekend to celebrate spring break! So expect a delayed 50 Weeks Post for week nine as a result.

This week, I experimented in the kitchen again, and came up with a delicious macaroni and cheese recipe thanks to a cheese find in the grocery store. I already blogged about that, so check out the link for that recipe!

The other creative contribution I have for the week was a trip to Brighton on Sunday. It was extremely cold, but I braved the cold for a bit of time on the pier taking photographs (by the sea, Mister Todd...). I also thought I'd treat myself to a delicious crepe by the sea, but the birds thought otherwise. While I was enjoying the atmosphere, I got bumped from behind. Assuming I had just been bumped into by a stranger who wasn't paying attention, I carried on. But then I realized that the crepe in my hand was gone, and I was only holding an empty cup. And suddenly screeching birds were swarming me, and it was a bit startling.

Then I realized why. My crepe was lying on the dock a few feet in front of me, and seagulls were frantically fighting over it, and I was in the midst of it all. A seagull had intentionally flown into my head and stollen my crepe from my hand. I was attacked by a nasty bird for my food. It looked a lot like this:

I hate birds, for so many reasons. I've since dubbed Sunday as The Great Crepe Caper. Well. All excitement and bird-hating aside, I did take some nice photographs.

The Royal Pavilion from the street

Approaching the pier

Brighton Pier

The last photo I captured before The Great Crepe Caper

Jubilee Arch to the Lanes

Hmmm. Well, let's end the note on a slightly more positive note, shall we? This song was in my head the entire time we were in Brighton (except maybe during the Great Crepe Caper). I sang this song once during my voice lessons in college.

This post is eighth in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

Lemon Apricot Pasta With Chicken and Broccoli

I decided to experiment for dinner tonight, and it was insanely delicious. I had plans to make lemon pasta for myself, and I had all the ingredients on hand. I popped over to Waitrose on my home though so I could get some chicken to go with my pasta, and while there inspiration struck. I had already decided to get some broccoli for future macaroni and cheese recipes, and thought that it would go well with my lemon chicken pasta tonight. Then I headed over to the cheese section to see what might be good on top, and discovered Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese with apricot chunks. I love apricot, and I thought that lemon and apricot sounded like a good flavor combination, so I decided to give it a go.

 The end result tonight was a wheat spaghetti with a light lemon cream sauce, capers, broccoli, chicken, and the apricot cheese crumbled on top. It was absolutely fantastic; just the right mix of sweet, tart, and creamy. Plus it was very filling, so I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow! A win all around.

So, here's how I made my fantastic dinner tonight!

Ingredients:
Pasta of choice (I had wheat spaghetti on hand, but I'm always a fan of angel hair when it comes to lemon sauces)
Chicken breast (I had two, so I decided to cook two as I don't have a freezer)
Broccoli
Laughing cow cheese (2 wedges for the sauce)
Wensleydale cheese with apricot (you can substitute here if you need; go with any soft, crumbly, mild cheese and chop apricot -- fresh or dried, your choice)
Lemon juice (1 tablespoon -- more or less to your own tastes)
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary for flavor

First, get a pot of water boiling and cook the pasta normally. I like to boil water with salt and olive oil in it, personally. Meanwhile, wash and chop your broccoli (and enjoy Dana Carvey choppin' broccoli while you're at it). Then add the broccoli to your boiling water to cook it a little bit (I did this, then later added it to my cooked chicken...you can save the broccoli to cook with the chicken if you prefer, stir-fry style. Whatever flavor you want, and however you want the broccoli cooked).

Anyway, I started cooking my chicken at this point. Rinse the chicken breast(s), and cut it up into bit-size squares. Or strips, however you want to eat your chicken with your pasta. I like bite-size chicken because it cooks faster, and it's easier to eat when everything is done. Anyway, I cooked my chicken in olive oil with salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary for flavor. Cook until the chicken is turning golden-brown and there is no pink.

Drain the pasta as normal, and set aside while you mix your sauce. The sauce is simple; pour a bit of olive oil into the pot (I eyeball, usually enough to cover the bottom of the pot), and put a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese in to melt. Add the lemon juice, and once that's nicely mixed up, put the other wedge of cheese in. Add water as necessary to help the consistency of the sauce. I wanted it to be a little more liquidy than creamy. I didn't put much water in, though. Anyway, stir it all up nicely until you have a smooth sauce. I don't have a whisk, which I'm sure would have simplified the job. A spoon worked well, though. Add the pasta back to the sauce, and stir.

Finally, add the chicken and broccoli to the pasta and mix a bit to get sauce on that. Dish a helping into a bowl or on a plate, and crumble some cheese and apricots on top. I also sprinkled a little more garlic and rosemary on top. That's it! You have an easy, healthy, filling, flavorful dinner! Bon apetit!

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Seven

Ahhhh week seven. It's been quite the busy week! The Technology for Marketing & Advertising conference/trade show took place in London, and Fast Web Media presented weatherFIT there. I got to hang out, look at the other businesses and their services, and just have a grand old time. I did put together a Vine to promote the weatherFIT booth though, which is never quite a simple task. You have 6 seconds to put together an interesting story. Recording the video isn't particularly easy either, as you have to know exactly what you will film and for how long. But inspiration struck, and I made my 6-second sale.

I had to do some graphic design this week for my promotions class as well. It's nice when you have a graphic design degree and you're not in a design class. Expectations for your work are considerably lower, and people are impressed with what you threw together in a matter of minutes. I mean, uh, spent all week sketching out and meticulously editing. Yeah, that one. Anyway, I created a postcard for my marketing materials.

And lastly, I went on a couple of excursions this weekend and brought the camera along once again. I went back to Camden on Saturday and snapped a few shots (mostly from the bus on the way there, but a couple by the Camden Locks). Then I went out to Hampton Court Palace today, and took plenty of fun photographs all over King Henry VIII's old stomping grounds. And not once was I compelled to sing my favorite Herman's Hermits song ever:

Wait. Can we take a moment to acknowledge how adorkable that guitarist is?! If he were 50 years younger...

Anyway, good ol' Henry VIII. What a guy. He had a nice place though, so I'll give him that. I leave you now with pictures of my weekend wandering about London.

Riding the bus to Camden Town.

The Camden Locks

Hampton Court Palace

Choir boys preparing for chapel.

The Fountain Courtyard

This post is seventh in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

Pesto Mac 'n' Cheese

Mmmmm. I love pesto sauce. And I love macaroni and cheese. I don't even mind cooking dinner for myself if it means combining those two delicious things. Recently, I found some pesto at the Little Waitrose down the street, and I couldn't pass it up. I should probably look into making my own pesto, but for now, let's go with what I've got. Anyway, after a busy day of homework and traipsing around London (in very touristy places that were overrun by slow tourists who like to stand in the way looking confused), I decided to treat myself with some pesto macaroni and cheese. However, the way I tend to operate in the kitchen is I think of something that sounds good, and I just experiment. So that's what I did tonight. I found a good start for my sauce, and I think future experiments will improve on it.

Here's what I used:
Pesto
Laughing Cow cheese (you know I'm addicted to it)
Grated parmesan cheese
Shredded cheddar cheese
Skim milk
Pepper
Noodles of choice

First, get a pot of water boiling to cook the pasta. I always like to add olive oil and salt to my boiling water. Once it's up to a boil, cook the pasta according to the directions, until al dente. I usually just let it go to town; when you cook as much pasta as me, you can eyeball when it's ready!

While that's going, get a smaller pot for your sauce. I stuck a wedge of laughing cow cheese in the pot over low heat to let it start melting. I put in about 1/4 cup of the pesto sauce, and stirred. You should probably grate your cheese prior to making the sauce, but I decided to just shred right over the pot and occasionally stir it in. Put however much cheese you'd like in; you already have a great consistency with the pesto sauce, you're just adding cheese for flavor. In my case, I'm addicted to cheese, so I put probably 1/2 a cup in total.

Depending on the consistency of the sauce, add a bit of milk in. You may opt for no milk, which is fine. Be careful not to put too much in, as it can cause the cheese and milk to separate. Anyway, this is something I can improve on next time; like, say, starting with a traditional cheese sauce and adding pesto to it.

I sprinkled in some pepper, and let the sauce sit on the lowest heat setting possible while I drained the pasta. Then fold the pasta into the sauce, and you're ready to go! I meant to top it all with some rosemary garlic breadcrumbs, but forgot because I was hungry and it looked good.

If it's green, it counts as a vegetable, right?

The end result? It certainly could have been prepared in a better way, but it tasted phenomenal. Pesto and mac 'n' cheese really ought to be combined more often.

Here are some things I would recommend experimenting with, and things I will probably try in the future (when I have them on hand):

Smoked cheese (I usually go gouda, but any cheese with a smokey flavor really adds to mac 'n' cheese)
Jalapeños
Cottage cheese for a moister mix (this is best for baked mac 'n' cheese)
Broccoli

Update: I re-made this tonight (March 3rd) and it was fantastic!

Tonight, I used two wedges of Laughing cow instead of one, and didn't use any milk or cheddar cheese. I added some lemon juice to it however, which gives the sauce a wonderful tang along with the other flavors. Put however much parmesan cheese in as you fancy, sprinkle some garlic and rosemary in, and prepare for a quick, easy, and delicious meal!

Any other suggestions or ideas to try? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Six

Week six...feels like an eternity ago (probably because I took nearly a week to get this post up). But it was another week busy with content creation for Fast Web Media, and I spent the weekend driving around the English countryside. There seems to be some unwritten rule that every time I come to London, I must go to Stonehenge. So the time came last weekend that I went to Stonehenge once again, and assured that the rocks were all still standing undisturbed in the middle of a field. After an hour there in the freezing cold, we went to Bath, where I...did all the same things I had done the previous time I went to Bath. Ah well, c'est la vie.

So, what have I got to show for this last week?

First, my blog contributions for the week at BIGprofile:

1. Twitter Hacks: How to Make the Best of a Social Faux Pas (Or Avoid It Altogether)
2. Google Announces New Enhanced Adwords Campaigns
3. 7 Tips for Running a Successful Twitter Campaign

Also, while on the subject of blogging and content creation, I have big news: I wrote a blog about using Facebook's new graph search along with Google, and it has been accepted as a guest post on a marketing blog! (I'll share it later)

Finally, in closing of this blog, here are some pictures from my weekend at Stonehenge and in Bath.

A landscape of Stonehenge.

A portrait of Stonehenge.

The birds! It's like something out of a Hitchcoke movie.

Tourists making their way to Stonehenge

The Roman Baths

Bath Abbey in the background of the Roman baths

A father-daughter moment at Bath

View of Bath from The Crystal Palace Pub

Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey

This post is sixth in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.