Ellie's Blog

What Ever Happened to Bronto and His Diet Coke Castle?

If you haven't yet, go check out the tragic story of Bronto and his diet coke castle - made out of, yep, you guessed it, Diet Coke cans drunk by myself and Rebecca Corliss. We are both Diet Coke addicts and... silly people.

But Bronto's folks are just as silly. Here's DJ Waldow & friends' video response to the whole story:

Ricotta Stuffed Bell Peppers... And Apple Cinnamon Muffins

This week's "Adventures in the Kitchen" was perhaps less successful, though still interesting and tasty. I chose a few recipes - some of which I just scrapped altogether, some of which turned into something completely different by the end. Instead of talking about those other - not completed, let's say - recipes, I'll share one dish I did indeed make:

Feta and Ricotta Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 2 large (red or green) bell peppers, halved lengthwise, seeds and ribs removed
• 1 cup (4 oz) crumbled feta
  
• 1 cup (about 10 oz) ricotta cheese
• 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tbs chopped fresh dill
  
• 3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
• Salt, to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (the juice from 1 large lemon)
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cups baby spinach leaves (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Lightly oil a baking dish just large enough to accommodate the pepper halves in a single layer.
3. In a medium bowl, mash together the feta and ricotta until well-combined.
4. Add the parsley, dill, garlic, lemon-pepper seasoning, and salt, stirring well to combine.
5. Fill the pepper halves evenly with the cheese mixture.
6. Tansfer to the dish and drizzle with lemon juice and oil.
7. Cover and bake for about 45 minutes, or until peppers are tender.
8. Serve warm, over the spinach leaves (if using).

Results:

So I didn't have feta. Or half of the other ingredients. I basically just grabbed as many of the ingredients as I could find and threw them all in the oven. And it was quite tasty! Seems like a fool-proof recipe, which is pretty awesome.

Source: The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

In addition to all my (attempted) main course dishes, I also made muffins! Tasty (if I may say so myself) apple cinnamon muffins. After hoarding a few for myself, I brought the rest into the office... and they were immediately devoured. Hope everyone liked them!

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the extensive, expert recipe is... well here is my secret recipe (shh don't tell anyone): 1 box of apple cinnamon muffin mix (organic!) from Whole Foods + chunks of fresh apples = delicious muffins!

Enjoy!

Five Fun Facts About Ellie

This is only my second blogger meme (read my first and this one too), so I'm still pretty excited about these things. In particular, this meme.

To get you up to speed - what happens with these blogger memes is that a blogger will write a post like "6 Reasons Why I Blog" or "Five Fun Facts About Me" and "tag" a number of other bloggers (by mentioning them by name and linking to their blogs) so that they follow in suite.

Well, Mike Volpe tagged me (and the rest of our awesome marketing department) in the "Five Fun Facts" meme. So here goes:

Five Fun Facts About Me

1. When I was younger, I wrote and illustrated a number of books with my friends. I really wanted to be a cartoonist or children's book illustrator when I grew up. (By the way, I still have those books - maybe someday I'll scan them in and post them here... if I get the OK from my co-authors.)
2. My other childhood dream was to be a mermaid. I think this had more to do with liking The Little Mermaid than (coincidentally) my last name (Mirman).
3. I am an organizational geek. The Container Store and art supply stores are my Heaven. I am all about lists and color coding.
4. I really enjoy learning new languages and visiting new places, but very rarely stick with any one language (I've studied at least 5 languages, but most I didn't get past the beginner level) or visit a given place more than once.
5. Up until a few years ago, I did not eat pizza. I'm not lactose intolerant or anything, but I do not like tomato sauce and, until about halfway through college, did not go anywhere near pizza. Still, all my pre-college friends would, without a doubt, drop their jaws to see me eat pizza. (I started eating pizza again about halfway through college because not eating pizza is almost as crazy-sounding to a college student as not eating chocolate. Rest assured, I do eat chocolate.)

As for the tagging, I'll let you, my readers, do the work for me... those of you who want to jump in on this meme, go ahead and blog about it and leave a link to your post in the comments below. (What a fun little way to learn more about each other...)

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas, Crustless Roasted Red Pepper Quiche, & Pineapple Fried Rice

Last week I blogged about the recipes I had chosen to cook this week. In an effort to cook more, and to cook new and interesting things, I'm going to be picking new recipes each week to try out.

In preparation for my kitchen adventure, I went grocery shopping on Saturday for about 2 hours. Then I immediately got to work on my chosen dishes, while The Wedding Singer played in the background.

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas

The eggplant lasagnas were pretty darn tasty - hard not to be, considering it's roasted eggplant. I definitely used too much ricotta cheese - it was my first time making any sort of lasagna and cooking with ricotta cheese at all. Also, I accidentally started following a different recipe part way through, since my cookbook grouped all the eggplant recipes together, and the page accidentally turned. I figured it out when the recipe directed me to poach an egg (hence the eggs in the photo). Overall, pretty great. I used fresh tomatoes instead of pasta sauce too, and it worked pretty well.

Crustless Roasted Red Pepper Quiche

I like the idea of this recipe, but the roasted red peppers I got had more of a kick than I realized. It was ok, though in the future I might actually go for fresh red peppers instead. Also, I think the sliced tomato on the mini quiche (instead of many tomatoes on a large quiche) adds a nice artistic touch.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Simple and easy, and quite tasty. I forgot to get some of the spices I needed, so I supplemented with whatever I could find - which was a dash of soy sauce (how appropriate). I also used brown rice instead of white rice, which I think made it even tastier (and healtheir).

Overall, I think my first week of "Adventures in the Kitchen" was a success. I'm definitely going to try to keep this up. I've got a lot of recipes marked in my cookbooks that I want to try, so hopefully that will help motivate me. Stay tuned!

To go back and get the recipes for these dishes, check out my last blog post: Adventures in the Kitchen - Week 1

Adventures in the Kitchen - Week 1

A new year, a time to try something new. Also, a time for very cold weather in New England, a time to avoid going outside as much as possible. So I've committed myself to trying to cook more - and cook more new things - so that I also can bring tasty food for lunch at work and avoid going out every day.

Taking the lead from fellow HubSpotter, Karen Rubin, I'm going to blog about my adventures in the kitchen (check out Karen's blog for some serious recipes and tasty adventures). This will help me actually stick to my resolution, and will also give me the opportunity to share another aspect of my life with my devoted readers.

Week of January 19, 2009

On the roster for this coming week:

Mini Eggplant Lasagnas

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant, at least 12 inches in length after trimming
• 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 12 tbs pasta sauce (of your choice) - I'm going to try sliced fresh tomatoes
• 16 tbs ricotta cheese
• dried oregano
• 4 tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 475F.
2. Slice the eggplant in 24 (1/2-inch-thick) slices and arrange on a lightly oiled baking sheet. 
3. Brush eggplant slices with oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 425F.
6. Assemble in 8 stacks on one of the baking sheets:
1. 1 eggplant slice
2. 1/2 tbs pasta sauce
3. 1 tbs ricotta cheese
4. sprinkle of oregano and pepper
5. [repeat 2 more times]
6. top off with 1/2 tbs Parmesan cheese
   
7. Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until heated through and Parmesan cheese has melted. Serve warm.
   

Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs peanut oil
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 3/4 cup chopped pineapple (fresh or canned)
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed peas and carrots, cooked according to package directions, drained - I'll be using whatever vegetables I happen to have and think will go well
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the scallions and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes.
3. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
4. Add turmeric and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
5. Add rice and cook, stirring, until thoroughly coated with the turmeric mixture.
6. Add the pineapple, mixed vegetables, salt, and pepper, cook and stir until heated through. Serve warm.

Crustless Roasted Red Pepper and Cheddar Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained well and patted dry, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 tbs fresh parsely, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 8 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Arrange peppers in the bottom of lightly oiled pie plate (8 1/2- or 9-inch - though I'll likely make multiple mini quiches in muffin tins).
3. Top with all but 2 tbs of shredded cheese.
4. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Slowly pour over bell peppers and cheese.
5. Top evenly with tomatoes.
6. Bake in center oven for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Sprinkle with remaining cheese the last few minutes of cooking.
8. Cool, cut, serve warm.

You'll note that these recipes do not actually go together - I didn't make an effort to do so. I picked out three of the tastiest recipes (that were also relatively easy) from one of my new cookbooks. I also simplified the language of the recipe for this blog post.

These recipes came from The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen - yum.

 

 

Photo by Deluxx

A Tragic Story About Bronto & His Diet Coke Castle

Credits:

Bronto: Himself

Ellie: @ellieeille

Rebecca: @repcor

Personas: For Coordination's Sake

In my earlier post, I talked about concreteness - or, more specifically, concreteness as a form of constraints - in helping our minds focus and be more creative.

On a broader level, concreteness has two main benefits vis-a-vis the reception of your ideas:

• Concrete ideas are easier to understand and remember.
• Concrete ideas make it easier for us to coordinate our activities.

I want to skip to the second, less obvious, point: concreteness allows coordination. The idea here is that by not only being specific, but by being concrete, a diverse and otherwise disconnected group of team members are able to rally on one clear and concrete idea.

One example of this that immediately came to mind ist that of buyer personas. Personas are fictious characters created to represent different user types, an archetypal person whom your company may want to reach. Personas allow employees across an organization to visualize and understand who they are marketing or selling to or building a product for. Ask yourself: is it easier to create a marketing campaign to your Uncle Joe who owns his own packaging company, or more generically, a small business owner?

Made to Stick authors Chip and Dan Heath propose the analogy of the mind's memories as velcro - with the more "hooks" (velcro consists of a series of hooks on one side) you have, the stickier the memory. If you picture each detail about your Uncle Joe the small business owner as one of those hooks, it's clear how easy it will be to understand and reference who he is, his preferences, and so on. It's a lot easier to build a product that works for him, create a marketing message that speaks to him, and more effectively sells your product to him - or someone like him.

Photo by andybardill

"THIS IS NOT SPAM" Um, Yes, It Is.

If your message says "THIS IS NOT SPAM" then yes, yes it is.

I just got my first purely spam Facebook message that literally began with "THIS IS NOT SPAM". I'm not a big eye-roller, but I can't help but roll my eyes at this.

As I've gotten more active in the social media world (blame Twitter), I've been getting more and more requests to connect (mostly on Facebook, a few on LinkedIn) from people that I don't actually know. I don't recognize their names or their photos or can't figure out how we're possibly connected. I've struggled a lot with figuring out how to respond - accept the friend request? Let it sit in pending forever? Ignore it and limit my profile only to my close friends?

I haven't quite figured out for myself what I'll do in these cases yet, except for the case of getting a purely spammy request. Yep, in that case I just blog about how spammy social media can get.

Am I Really a Millenial? To a T, Apparently.

I was really curious, considering that I fall into the category of "Millenials" (people born between 1980 and 2000), if this article (and this one and this too) about managing Millenials would be at all on target.

I was pretty shocked to find that I agreed overwhelmingly with most of the article. They described Millenials as:

• Confident - being raised by parents they believed in the importance of self-esteem (and remember those middle school classes all about building up your self-esteem?).
• Hopeful - all you have to do is look at the percentage of McGill students who majored (or minored) in International Development Studies - IDS is, I believe, the most popular program at McGill these days, drawing all us hopeful Millenials who want to save the world.
• Optimistic and Practical - oh boy, that's me.
  
• Goal Oriented - I sometimes forget how old I am, just by virtue of how much I think about the future.

Interestingly, Millenials are also compared to Baby Boomers, partly due to the size of the generation and the results stemming from that... in particular, the sheer size of the Baby Boomer generation led to such competition that Baby Boomers were expected to do what they had to do to get ahead - working extra hours and so on. Same with Millenials, except that Millenials will put in the extra time and effort, but, because we're in high demand (and know it), we expect something back.

Here were some of the tips outlined for managing Millenials:

• Millenials are "techno-savvy" so ramp up your website and use technology to appeal to Millenials.
• Set expectations from the start - if the job requires grunt work, be upfront about it. 
• Keep in mind that Millenials like to work collaboratively (goodness, you can see some of these differences just within our small marketing team...).
• Millenials like guidance. We've grown up with great leaders and not only appreciate input, but expect it.
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T (OK, maybe not from the Millenial years, but I love it).

Well, fellow Millenials (or non-Millenials)? What do you think?

My Lonely Home Office

HubSpot is in the process of yet another office move (same building, different floor), so today all of us are working from home. It's my first real taste of what it would be like to work from home full-time.

Sadly, it's been somewhat lonely working from home today. No turning around to chat with my fellow marketing folks, or going out to lunch together in Kendall Square.

As you may be able to tell, I've been blogging more than usual today, and I've also been chatting (on twitter, gchat, and even our corporate IM service spark) quite a bit. Now I totally understand how twitter was dubbed "the virtual water cooler" that was especially appealing for consultants and startup folks who worked from their homes. You just can't go so long without chatting with people! Especially as a (supposedly) social marketing person.

Still, there are benefits of working from home. It's quiet and it's easier to focus. Well, sometimes it's easier to focus. I brought my computer out to the dining room in an effort to create a real home office workspace. Above is an actual photo. You can see I've got all the necessities - computer, notebook, HubSpot pen, glass of water, lunch dishes, nailpolish, and my mac not too far away... ha.

I'm looking forward to getting into our new space on Monday morning. We're moving into a bigger space that actually fits the entire team on the same floor. It's been a while since we've all fit on the same floor. It'll be nice to see my sales friends who have, for so long, been separated from us. In the new space, we'll be dangerously close to each other. For today, I'll be chugging away at my work from my home office, and maybe stopping into the office for HubSpot TV this afternoon, which will be on location in a conference room. Woot!

Title First

In school, I think you're taught to write the body of a paper first and then go back and write the introduction and title. I could never do that. I needed to write the title first, and then the introduction, to frame my thoughts and prepare myself for writing the rest of the paper.

I just finished another chapter of my new favorite business book, Made to Stick. This chapter, focused on making your ideas concrete, sparked so many exciting thoughts that I just can't squeeze them into one blog post. So this will be one of a few posts on the topic of concreteness.

Jumping to another story. (Don't worry, they all tie together in the end.) In college, I took an educational psychology class on creativity (side note: how awesome is it that?). One thing that really intrigued me was the concept of fostering creativity through the use of constraints. My hypothesis was that, by imposing constraints in a creative situation, the result would actually be more creative.

The authors of Made to Stick conduct an experiment that, although it's meant to illustrate the concept of concreteness, it more specifically addresses the power of constraints.

Here's the experiment:

Step 1: Grab a pen and paper and spend 15 seconds doing the following: Write down as many things that are white in color as you can think of.

OK got it?

Step 2: Now, spend 15 seconds doing the following: Write down as many white things in your refrigerator as you can think of.

Remarkably, most people are able to list as many white things from their refrigerator as they can white "anythings". Which is pretty odd, right? Because the contents of our refrigerators are much fewer than the contents of the whole universe. The authors say that "concreteness is a way of mobilizing and focusing your brain." I'd say that here concreteness is imposing constraints on your brain, and, yes, it helps you focus, and you're more able to think more creatively about something more focused.

So that's why I always start with the title first. This blog post is an example of just that. Coming up with the title first helps focus my thoughts and helps me write something more coherent (and hopefully interesting). Otherwise, with my attention span and tendency to get excited about lots of different things, I'm sure my blog posts would be absolutely all over the place (which in a lot of cases, especially "in the old days", they certainly are). Why is it that teachers teach us to write the title and introduction last, anyway?

Photo credit: churl