iPad Class

 

The Virginia Department of Business Assistance recently offered a free class for business people to learn some tricks with their iPad.  Lots of people have an iPad and there are scads of things you can do with it.  But most people don't use it to its full potential.

The class was held in the Greenfield Center.  I was familiar with Greenfield because of a few occasions I have had to sit in on the Board of Supervisors meetings.  It is a beautiful place.  It has plenty of parking and friendly people to direct you.  Go check it out.

 


A lot of the class covered the new features you get with the latest ios7 update.  I wanted to download the update, but my iPad kept telling me I was no longer connected to the internet.  This despite the fact that I was getting my emails.  I mentioned this to the instructor, Sandy Ratliff, before class and she explained this happened some times and I needed to do a hard reboot.  I felt like Bill Cosby with his Noah routine.  ("Riiight.  What's an ark?")  What's a hard reboot?  She explained that it was similar to turning off your computer to restart it when it freezes.  Simply hold down the power button in the upper right corner and the home button in the center of the bottom edge of the screen.

I had to do it twice and then the computer recognized that I was connected.  But it was going to take about 4 hours.   And I would need to be plugged into a power source so the computer wouldn't die in the middle of the download. Oh.  I waited until I got home and did it there.

Already it was worth the cost of the class.  OK.  The class was free.  But already it was worth the trip to the class.

The new update does tons of things.  More than I could grasp in one class.  But then it also did the things I hate.  The icons look different.  The computer forgot the password to our Wi-Fi.  My email looks and acts differently.  You know.  All those annoying things that make it a pain to figure out what you knew how to do a few hours ago!

Do you know how to get Siri, your personal assistant?  Not anyone connected to Tom Cruise.  Once you go to SETTING, then GENERAL and turn on Siri you can do a lot of things by voice command alone.  You can look up things on the Internet and send emails without touching the iPad.  And she is very responsive.  And she types faster and more accurately than I do.  Plus, she doesn't even need to use spell check!  You can even correct her pronunciation. That's fun for me, but imagine someone who is disabled.  Now they can send emails or get into tweeting.  I don't tweet or twitter, but I do send emails!

A lot of time was spent on saving information in the cloud.  Then if your computer or iPad dies or is stolen you can still have access to all your data.  There are a lot of free sites for a limited amount of data.  If you need to store more data, you will need to store it in different places or just pay for the additional space.  I am not ready to  explore this, but will need to do so soon.  Or perhaps I can hire a third grader to come and help me.

Ms. Ratliff showed us a bunch of useful apps that you could get for free and some she liked that cost a few dollars.  She was good at explaining things and used humor to keep us listening.  A great teacher. 

The iPad will also do some photo and video editing, something I would like to explore.  Maybe I need another class for that.  Or just time to sit and fool around with it.  Or that third grader.

 

She also showed us how to get Emoji on our keyboard.  This lets you expand way beyond a smiley face.

 

This is an app that allows you to add a bunch of different emoticons to your typing/emails. 

 

I don't know how much I will use it, but it was fun to find!  ( SETTINGS/GENERAL/KEYBOARD/INTERNATIONAL/EMOJI)
 
 

Sure, she showed us a bunch about remote printing and data storage and work related things, but we had time to do some fun things, too.

It was a fun class and I am looking forward to taking more classes at Greenfield.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Our family likes most things British.  So much so that our daughter spent a few years studying there and now is married and living in England.  One of the desserts I try to get when traveling there or visiting a pub here in the United States, is Sticky Toffee Pudding.  This is not the Bill Cosby/American version of pudding.  In England, a pudding can be sweet or savory, but is frequently a gooey dessert.  Sticky Toffee Pudding is basically a date cake covered in buttery toffee sauce and then served with more buttery toffee sauce.  If you are on a diet you will be hating me.  If you are looking for a dessert to spoil someone, keep reading.  I think this will be my new Christmas dinner habit.

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

2 cups dates, pitted and then finely chopped
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
orange zest
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

 

 

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Spray an 8 inch cake pan with Pam and set aside.

 

Chop the dates by hand.  I found a pit (see it there in the upper right hand corner?) and if I had used a food processor it would have been minced up with the dates and given a terrible crunch to the cake. 

 

Place the chopped dates in a heat proof pan. Sprinkle the baking soda on top.

 

Boil the water and pour it on top of the dates.  Give them a stir and set them aside.

 

Place the flour, baking powder, salt, allspice and the zest of an orange in a large bowl.  Set aside.

I use a Kitchen Aid mixer for beating butter light and fluffy.  I can do other things while it beats away.  Scrape the sides down and beat for about 4 minutes.  Add the brown sugar and vanilla and keep beating.  Light and fluffy, remember?

Then add the eggs one at a time, scrape down the bowl between each one.  It may start to look curdled.  That will go away when you add the flour.

 

So add the flour, but do it half at a time.  Add half the flour, beat until combined, scrape down the sides.  Then add the other half and beat until combined.

 

Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the date mix on top.  Then fold it in gently.

 

When combined, pour it into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. 

 

Test with a toothpick to make sure it is done.  It should come out clean with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.

 

Remove the cake from the oven and poke a bunch of holes all over the top of the cake.  Pour half of the warm Toffee Sauce over the top of the warm cake.  Do not taste the toffee sauce or you won't have any left to use later.  Save the other half for pouring on top of the cake when serving.

Toffee Sauce

1 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Start the Toffee Sauce when the cake is about half way done.

 

Place all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Heat until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved, stirring frequently.

 

Sometimes the cake is served cut up into chunks and soaked with the toffee sauce.  I just used a square of cake and poured the warmed sauce over the warm cake just before serving.  You may want to double the Toffee Sauce recipe.  It would be great on ice cream!  And if you truly want to spoil someone, add a bit of whipped cream or Cool Whip on top.



Even with company for dinner and sending her home with a share of the S T P , we still had more for us!  On the second day, I warmed up the cake and the toffee sauce.  This time I cut the cake part into chunks and poured the remaining sauce on top.  It was even better than the night before.  So that is the method I recommend.  And what we will have for family celebrations in the future.