Nests of Jelly Birds

Jelly birds make chocolate nests, and lay jelly beans. I mean, jelly eggs. Oh, whatever, I just want to provide another random recipe.

OK, today's simple, random cooking lesson is on candy birds' nests. This is a variation on the "chocolate haystacks" recipe, which itself is quite simple. Melt chocolate chips, then mix in a little bit of peanut butter. Stir in chow mein noodles. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto waxed paper and carefully smoosh down the center parts. Refrigerate the nests til the chocolate solidifies, then add jelly beans to the middles.

Hmm... this would probably be a good Easter or springtime treat. Ah, so maybe I'm a few months early... At least I used Valentine's Day colored jelly beans.

Yum, sushi!

Anyone who knows me knows of my love for sushi. Oh, wait, it's the opposite. I'm not a big fan of that particular Japanese dish. Or most other Japanese dishes. However, I do like this version. Start with a fruit roll up (unrolled). Add shredded coconut. It wouldn't be sushi without fish... I used the Swedish variety. Roll it up, then slice it. Mmm, sugary...

Feeling pelagic?

I wanted to keep up my January theme of funky foodstuffs, so I went a-lookin' online for creative ideas. And then I found one: cream cheese and olive penguins! Cute idea, sounds easy (only three... er, four... ingredients - large olives for body, small olives for head, cream cheese, and carrots). It was surprisingly aggravating (and messy) to stuff the cream cheese into the olive body. Ah, well, here's my attempt:



Sarah - sorry, but don't ask me to make these for you!! :)

Alphabetical Pizza

I keep coming across these random recipes, and I just have to try them out. This one came from some Men's Health recipe book. You take a pre-made pizza crust (I used one of the Boboli's mini crusts), then top it with Chef Boyardee's alphabet-shaped pasta with meatballs. I couldn't find the Chef Boyardee version, so--despite warnings that Spaghetti-Os are too "soupy"--used the equivalent Spaghetti-Os product. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese on top, followed by oregano. Bake til heated through. Voila! As a bonus, you can practice making Scrabulous words while you're eating!

Eat dirt

I might as well continue on my "unusual foods" trend. I mean, why not? It's not as if there are TV shows to discuss. Tonight's food is a favorite from my childhood: DIRT CUPS! Yum.



You've probably heard of these before. It's simple... chocolate pudding, then mashed up cookies. Most people use Oreos, but I can't stand Oreos. Instead, I opted for crushed chocolate mint Milanos. Much better. Top it with a gummy worm or two.

Seafood!

Making my meatloaf cake masterpiece got me thinking about other recipes that are great to take into work the next day. So tonight I made a meal based on my love of giant sea creatures. Credit goes to Taste of Home's Fast Fixes with Mixes cookbook (recipes are fast and creative). The name of this recipe is "Octopus and Seaweed." It's just ramen noodles + a few drops of green food coloring + hot dogs with the bottom 4/5ths cut into 8 pieces.

And here's the end result:



Looks a little better than it tastes... I'd forgotten how salty ramen noodles are!! Ah, well, it was worth it!

Let them eat cake!!

One of my 2008 new year's resolutions is to finish up the family cookbook that was supposed to be a 2007 Christmas gift for my family. It's nearly there. I might actually keep this resolution. Lately I've been cooking and photographing various family favorites (or possible new family favorites) for the book.

Tonight's dish was one I've been wanting to make for a long time: meatloaf cake! I had made the idea up when Emily was taking cake decorating classes. Naturally, when I looked it up later other people had already done it. That's the problem with the Internet -- it's really hard to feel unique and creative. No matter how clever you think you are, someone has probably already thought of it.

Back to the cake. The recipe is very simple... you cook meatloaf (ground beef or turkey) in two small round pans, then stack them (using mashed potatoes in the middle to make your layers stick together). Frost it with mashed potatoes, decorate with cherry tomatoes and ketchup, then serve! Mmmm... Dessert for dinner! Almost. This dish is recommended for April Fool's Day, if you're planning ahead.

Naturally, you want to see pictures. I'm not the pastry chef of the family, but hey, it turned out halfway decent! Except the ketchup was rather uncooperative. See here:





Happy eating!

The end of a good year

Actually, 2007 wasn't that great of a year. I'm glad to see it go. To wrap up, for your benefit, here are a few highlights of my 2007 blogging:

Look Around You
Judging books by their covers
Birds
The IT Crowd
Shipwrecks
Windows Vista and Nostradamus
Visiting SoVA
Last-minute travel
Valentine's Day - How to stay depressed and alone
Tutorial on writing Valentines
Luck with Kitchen Appliances
New Years' Resolutions
Famous Danes
Holidays and Palindromes
UFOs
The Fashion Conspiracy
More Music
More Denmark
Staying in mansions
A new car
Computer humor
Defcon 2007 Badge
L33t hax0r on Teen Jeopardy
Fish jokes
L33t street sign
Golden birthdays
Last but not least, my birds.

Happy New Year!!

Thumbs down.

I didn't say it--Radiohead did! Something about a New Year's Eve performance of In Rainbows?

Details: http://current.com/items/88799983_thumbs_down

Hmm. I wonder if it will be rebroadcast. I already have plans to see Carbon Leaf that night!

My sister is a bad influence.

I've been in Florida for one day, and Emily has already got me playing isketch. It's like Pictionary, except totally different, because Pictionary is called Pictionary and isketch is called isketch.

Jolly fun.

A different take on...

New take on:

- Chocolate: B.T. McElrath. Delicious!

- News and information: Current.com. User-controlled content, videos, music, etc. Users can even submit their own commercials! And they update you on what's hot online--latest Google Trends (#1 right now is "Elf on a Shelf"), viral videos, and other data to help you know how to live your life.

- Charging your ipod. I make no claims as to whether or not you really can charge an ipod using a USB cable, an onion, and Gatorade. But this YouTube commentary (edited slightly for grammar) is priceless:

Comment: So when you stick that plug in the onion, will it ruin the USB port cable?
Response #1: It will with out a doubt ruin the onion
Response #2: well duh
Response #3: well done captain obvious. Dont want to wreck an onion cause they are so expensive.
Response #4: especially with absorbed gatorade

Birds and basketball

Have I mentioned that I have birds? Yeah, I do. Their names are: Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach. Aw, I'm kidding. Any Dickens fans? Those are the names of Miss Flite's birds in Bleak House. If you're illiterate, you can watch this version. It's really, really good.

Anyway, one of my parakeets has recently trained himself to play basketball. I put some large wooden beads on the bottom of the cage... he picks them up, and throws them out of the cage. With gusto. Or anger. I can't tell which.

It's so exciting, I made a video just for you! Aw, c'mon, it's only 30 seconds.

mooseekah

Ah, music. That little light in our lives. Did you know that American Idol runner up Blake Lewis' CD came out today? After work I stopped and bought it. Yeah, I know, buying a physical CD... that's so 90s of me. But not many "buy music" apps or sites are supported under Linux. My sad life.

Anyway, a few thoughts re: this new masterpiece. Hmm... maybe "masterpiece" is the wrong word. On the plus side, when I listened to it I definitely didn't think, "oh, those mean producers; I can't believe they made him sing those songs." There are even a couple of songs that I could see myself listening to more than once.

BUT... there are quite a few songs that sound a bit too "boy band" for my taste. And there are a couple that I can only describe as a beat boxing Savage Garden. Listen to the CD. You'll know right away which ones I'm talking about.

Ah, well, my Radiohead CD is on the way now, too. In Rainbows is splendid! I'm always amazed by how every Radiohead album is new, innovative, and distinct from the other albums... but at the same time, they're distinctively Radiohead. Ahh, Radiohead. And OK Computer. My favorite CD of all time.

What more can I say?

All that controversy

This evening I saw the new movie The Golden Compass. As I was watching TV a few days ago I saw something about pre-release screenings in my area. Sure enough, one of the screenings was at the movie theater only a few miles from where I live. After all the brewing controversy over the books (which I haven't read), I was very curious. Plus, my brother-in-law worked on the movie.

Overall, I enjoyed it... it was much darker than I had expected, and had some surprisingly frightening parts. As for the controversy bit, as far as I could tell, the author seemed to be arguing against the 17th Century Roman Catholic church. Yaay, Galileo!

Hmm... I don't want to give anything away, since the movie doesn't officially come out until next week. But I will say that it ends with a major cliffhanger. I kept thinking, "It's gotta be ending soon, but there seems to be a lot of plot left. How will they wrap it up?" And then it ended... "Oh, that's how. A sequel."

After the movie I waited around to see my brother-in-law's name in the credits. The "Rhythm & Hues" section started, and then the picture cut out... The sound was still working, but you couldn't see any more of the credits. Nice. Sorry, Rob, I still don't know if you REALLY worked on the movie... :)

Anyway, in closing, the movie is definitely not one for young kids. The plot is creative and innovative, and visually, the movie is great. It's just a tad scary for wee lads and lassies. For grownups, though, I'd definitely recommend it.

I hope we understand one another

I don't really have anything to say at this immediate moment, but I noticed that my November blog posting count was fairly low. So I'm going to flashback, and talk about my first ever blog -- on Look Around You. OK, no I'm not. I'm just going to link to that article, and display the video for Little Mouse.



Ah, yes. That's why I love it. You rock, Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper. You rock. I'm still depressed that the screening of the Peter Serafinowicz Show (that is, the one I had tickets to see while I was in London) was canceled... Alas. Maybe someday it'll show up on BBC America...?

Little Mouse Lyrics.