It's that time again

It's February 10th already. And you know what that means: less than a week until... the Great Backyard Bird Count! Oh, yeah, you thought I was going to say Valentine's Day, didn't you. I'm saving that for another day.

SO, what's this bird count thing? Basically, you sit at home and stare out the window. You can do this in a depressed manner, if you like... that may help round out the Valentine's Day season. If you see any birds, try to figure out what they are (this can help), and then submit the info. It doesn't take long, and there's the added bonus of creeping out any neighbors who see you sitting at the window, simply staring (even better... with binoculars). Rockin'.

Snow day!

Aww, it's the last random recipe of January! Don't be sad. I may post more next month.

Today's recipe is filed under "didn't quite turn out as expected." Tortilla snowflakes! Just fold a tortilla, then cut out shapes, just as you would with a paper snowflake. Careful, cuz they like to break. Unfold the tortilla, then bake at 350 degrees (F) for 10 minutes or so, til it's crispy. The recipe I found had some funky steps after that, like melting chocolate chips on it, but it sounded too complicated. Sprinkle powdered sugar or a cinnamon/sugar combo on it (may need to butter it up a bit to make the topping stick).

End result was okay, but not wonderful. What I did learn was how easy it is to make my own baked (i.e. substantially healthier) tortilla chips! Woohoo!

Pixies:

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!

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.

Save the world. Plant a flower.

Sorry. I'm going to introduce you to two addictive games. Have a good time!

First one: Bloomin' Gardens

Second one: Blow up!


Games with plots? Whatever. I <3 casual games.

Say what?

To demonstrate what a fun and exciting person I am, I'm going to give you a list of my favorite words, complete with hyperlinks to random and totally unrelated tidbits.

Words:

Archipelago
Reticent
Indigenous
Vestige
Haberdashery

For Nerds' Eyes Only

Sorry, non-nerds out there. You might not be able to comprehend the vast amount of humor in this posting. Maybe next time I'll say something about TV shows or something more widely understood by mainstream America. Maybe.

But today it's tech humor. Yaay!

Part 1: A Joke.

Years ago, when Apple first came out with their text-to-speech applications, two computer guys decided to use it to settle a score: the pronunciation of the name of a popular Unix text editor. The application is called vi. One guy said, "It's pronounced 'vye,' and rhymes with 'sky' or 'bye.'" The other guy disagreed, saying, "you just say Vee Eye -- it's just the names of the letters, it's not a word."

So into the talking computer application 'vi' went. And it said...

"SIX."

(get it? vi = roman numeral 6. oh, never mind.)

Part 2: Chaos Theory.

This picture demonstrates how not to set up your network. Yikes.

Part 3: Toys.

Specifically, USB toys. (fine, and some funny USB storage devices)

- You've heard of thumb drives, right? But you probably didn't think there was a real THUMB drive, did you?
- I don't know what to say about this digital storage device.
- This is arguably old technology (4 years -- that's ancient in computer terms), but it's still clever. It's a USB-powered rice noodle strainer.
- Everyone needs one of these. It's a USB-powered hamster wheel.
- If you're a workaholic (like me), you shovel your lunch down at your desk. Dropping too many crumbs into your keyboard? Clearly you need a USB-enabled duck-shaped vacuum cleaner. Why don't I have one of these?
-Have you declared war on your cubicle neighbors? It's your civic duty. Surprise them with a USB cannon, then beat them down with a USB-powered rocket launcher.

Who comes up with this stuff??

Reasonably useless information

Every now and then various family members pass on relatively interesting pieces of information. Here are some fine examples:

From my brother:
Can't decide where to eat lunch? Spin the Wheel of Lunch. You can even run such queries as (your zip code) and "Thai," and it'll limit your options to Thai restaurants in the area. If you want details, read the explanation.

From my mother:
Go to google maps. Click on "get directions." Ask for directions from New York to Paris. Scroll down to Direction #23 or so.

From my sister (The Conqueror):
A new TV show! It's called Robin Hood, and it's on BBC America. It's about Robin Hood (did you not guess that already?). I discover many good shows on BBC America. Examples: Look Around You. My Hero. Shakespeare Retold. And I'm sure there are others.

You are getting very sleepy...

I'm back, and already going into withdrawal due to the lack of Danishes. That's right, I was in the motherland of the tasty pastry -- Denmark! I have lots to say about that trip... but as I just returned this afternoon, tonight I need to make sure I don't get jetlag. If you suffer from insomnia or otherwise want to readjust your sleep schedule, here are some things you can do to bring the Sleep Fairy:

- Origami instructional videos: I like origami. That said, narration-free instructional videos on how to make origami figures are sure to get your eyelids drooping. For example, see how long you can get through the one on making a paper angelfish. I can almost handle one minute... Almost.

- Practice drawing perfect freehand circles. Hmm, haven't I seen that guy before?

- Watch a lecture on a topic you know nothing about. For instance, I might choose something that relates to my arch-enemy: Economics. Even better--I could watch a video of someone sleeping through an economics lecture.

- Nature sounds. Trees blowing in a gentle breeze. Crickets chirping. Waves crashing. Crackling fire.

Wow, it really works! I've pretty much put myself to sleep...