Dana Bell

This is something I mixed up to use some Manicotti shells that I had from a previous meal plan. It's manicotti stuffed with cheese and elbow macaroni, and covered with a chunky sauce. This recipe is a little time consuming, so you'll want to plan for it.

14-16 Manicotti shells

Sauce
1 lb ground beef
1 lb Italian Sausage (links or ground)
2 15 oz cans tomato puree
1 15 oz can tomato paste
4 T brown sugar
2 T basil
2 T oregano
2 T parsley

Filling
5 oz small elbows (or other small pasta)
1/2 lb ricotta cheese (grated)
1/2 lb italian cheese mix (grated)
(mozzarella, pecorino romano, etc.)
8 oz cottage cheese
2 eggs

Slice lengthwise, peel and cook Italian sausage in a saucepan.
Drain on paper towel
Brown ground beef in saucepan
Add tomato puree and paste, brown sugar.
Add fresh parsley, basil, oregano.
Cut sausage into small cubes and add to sauce.
Set Aside

Cook manicotti until firm, but not hard (al dente). Drain and then fill with cold water. This will help keep it from sticking and make it easier to handle when filling.
Cook elbows until firm, drain and cool.
Mix cheeses, cottage cheese, eggs in a bowl. Add elbows to the cheese mixture. Make sure it is still manageable. if you have too much macaroni, you can add it to the sauce.

Use your preferred method to stuff the manicotti with the cheese mixture. I do it by hand, though you could spoon it in, or use a piping bag with a large opening.

In a glass 9 x 13 pan, cover the bottom with the sauce. Arrange the manicotti on top of the sauce. Spread the remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle again with Parmesan and serve.

Alternately, to make it a bit more presentable, warm the sauce and manicotti separately. Top the manicotti with the sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan, and garnish with parsley when served.

You may substitute ground sausage, although the diced sausage (along with the elbows in the cheese mixture) gives the dish its distinctive chunkiness.

Over the past few years I've wanted to find a way to organize my ever growing book library. Last week I stumbled across a tool that will really help. The Library Thing allows you to catalog your books on-line. If it was just something to type all the information for each book, I wouldn't be all that impressed. The thing that really sold me on The Library Thing was the ability to search various on-line libraries for a book in my library and click to add it and all the background information to my collection.

You can search libraries like the Library of Congress, Amazon and about 80 others. You can search by title, author, as well as various numbers that books come with nowadays (ISBN, LC). The coolest thing about the Library of Congress search is that the record often includes Dewey and LC numbers. I use Dewey (I've always been partial to numbers) and when the record is added from some other library, I can search the LC listings for the same subject and use that Dewey number.

Another cool thing about The Library Thing is the ability to share your library and view entries in other people's library. If there are comments you can read what others think about a particular book. And there's more, groups, talk, tags, and illustrated covers. That's just an overview. If you like, check it out at http://www.librarything.com/. Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dbell154

Over the past few weeks I've been going to garage sales and finding some good deals in computers and parts, including some $10 computers and even some $2 boxes (computer w/o peripherals). It appears that people are feeling their computers are getting old or out of style and so they need to get new ones. The flat panel monitors are nice, and advancements in technology are a good thing for business and heavy duty users, but the computers I've been picking up are very adequate for running the software that is installed on them.

Home computers sold today are incredibly over-sold. Rarely do home users need the memory or processing power that are now being installed in new systems and the pushing of dual-core systems is almost laughable. Poorly written software, and bloated operating systems are leading forces in driving manufacturers to build higher-power systems, while software developers are constantly chasing operating system features. One could develop a conspiracy theory for all of this.

Then there is the actual mismanagement of computers, where users are throwing caution to the wind to make things easier. ... One of the things I've seen lately on computers that people are selling in their garages for $10 is a system slowed down by viruses and spyware.

Upgrade options.
Most users don't understand the modularity of modern computers. They think, for example, that they need to buy a new computer in order to get a flat-panel monitor. Or they don't know that their mouse, keyboard and printer will work on a new computer. A few may opt for some more memory, but forget about trying to sell just a new motherboard/CPU to them.

Commercially, the problem is similar.
The field of Information Technology, both in the retail sector and internally within organizations, is hardware-driven. Computer consultants would rather sell a million dollar upgrade than configure the system they have for a fraction of the price. IT departments are also installation-oriented. Instead of developing solutions, they would rather buy new systems, lease some turn-key software, and spend weeks training staff on how to get around in the caves of options to get to the few that they will actually use.

Just last week I developed an Access database that the department has been trying to get for two. It took about 2-3 weeks, while I was also working, as a press operator in the print shop. I'm not too sure that IT professionals understand the concepts of things, like a SQL Server database. That Access database used some information copied from the SQL Server, and it will have to be manually updated when the SQL Server information changes. A simple link to the main database would make that automatic.

Much of business is based on "big talk", and this is no more true than in the field of Information Technology. Instead of addressing an accumulation of software issues, or upgrading a component, people would rather just buy a new system and trash the old one, or plan a system-wide upgrade. Other than motherboards and CPUs, there's not that much improving change from year to year, yet I suspect there are many companies that plan to get new computers every 2-3 years whether they need them or not, giving meaning to the term landfill. The IT techs will sell it with the idea that the old systems don't have this or that, giving credence to the need for the latest.

I wouldn't call it a backlash, but there is some hope. Individuals, often without pay, are constantly bringing out software solutions that will meet many users needs, and that run on systems 5-10 years old, and I suspect faster than a similar application written in something like .NET, on a new Vista box. That's just one aspect of the road that Microsoft is traveling. That's not to say Microsoft hasn't done some good things, but then that's not the theme of this entry.