I Love This Pic

Of my brother Russ. It has a nice Abbey Road feel to it, and it's so him, way up on a rocky ledge!

I <3 Cacti

Really, they are so cool! And prickly! And they are all over southern Arizona. That Guy made fun of me for taking so many pictures but I'm in NJ and we only have boring pine trees and such. Incidentally, there is no shade in Arizona. Its just small shrubs and cacti everywhere. I guess it's perfect if you are skinny enough and can hide behind a cactus. If you go, prepare to wear sunglasses constantly, and then just look like you are wearing sunglasses because the rest of your face will turn bright pink from all the damn sunshine. It's enough to make you wish you were one of those leathery old people with skin like a catcher's mitt. I bet you can go at them with a tattoo gun and not leave a mark.

Anyway here are a couple cool cactus pics, and one of us at a Spring Training Dodgers game.




We visited my family too, so That Guy must have been going crazy, being surrounded by so many sleeping Morrisons. More pics and stuff on that later, this will have to hold you off for now:

Egg-cellent

For someone who doesn't like eggs, I sure have become reliant on them lately. I used my last one the other day to make The Pioneer Woman's Baked Fudge, and now I'm out and want to make cookies. Boooo. Turns out, when you have a yen to bake something, you pretty much HAVE to have eggs. I usually get the six-pack, but maybe will upgrade to the full dozen to prevent such atrocities in the future.

Here is a dish that uses LOTS of eggs (recipe to come at a later date. I lost it). Crepes, just like mom used to make! (No really, my mom made these for special occasions...such as, when we felt like doing all the work and eating crepes for dinner.) The greatness about making these is that I currently use the same blender she did for like, my entire life! It works great but I think the blades could be sharpened. Oh and because you must be dying to know what is inside these cute little packages, here it is (not all in one crepe, btw): Sugar, apricot jam, grape jelly, cream cheese and blueberries, maple syrup.

Mmmmm delicious!


(*Footnote: In writing this post, I realized...That Guy and I had these for brunch one day, making that the ONLY time I EVER had crepes at home for anything other than dinner. Wow, what a legacy!)

Things I Did...

This weekend I went on a cleaning streak. I decided the bathroom was dusty, so I cleaned it top to bottom. I must say it sparkles now! Does anyone know the best way to clean soap scum from a vinyl shower curtain? I might try the washer method. I dusted the living room, Swiffered all the floors, and even "let" That Guy beat the bathroom rugs outside.

I did bake too! Yesterday was a good day for Honey Yeast Rolls because they take forever to rise. I wish there was a pic of the finished pan but alas there is not.

Instead, here is a preview of Arizona highlights!

A Couple Congrats...

...that won't be read by their recipients.... ;)

On this page on the right are links to a few blogs I read often. Two of them recently won awards at The Bloggies:

The Pioneer Woman won three awards, including Blog of the Year! Whoooaaa!

Cake Wrecks won Best Food Blog and Best New Blog, even though, by the author's own admission, it doesnt really count as a food blog. But hey, who is going to turn down a nice pat on the back?

And Emily of Sugar Plum might or might not have won a contest involving Top Chef (she didn't post the results yet)! Yay!

Tobyvision has yet to win anything.

Yup 2 posts in one day...it's magical! On an unrelated note, I made granola again. It turned out GREAT this time! I'm calling that a win. Go me!

7 Steps to Happiness

1. Put a little bit of honey and brown sugar in a pan.
2. Heat it up so it is barely bubbling.
3. Place sliced banana in the pan.
4. Turn over slices after a minute, wait another minute.
5. Pour it all over toast schmeared with peanut butter.
6. Eat.
7. Die happy.

The end.

Arizona Fever

I will be going to Arizona Thursday, so don't expect to hear too much from me.  Maybe I will post from there, maybe not.  Won't YOU be surprised!   I'll be visiting the rents and various others that found themselves out there. Which leads me too...

Let's hope i don't catch Arizona Fever, wherein one visits the state and decides to move there. This disease has stricken several people I know, including my brother and sister in law. Another friend is fighting the disease but remains in NJ as yet. My father and stepmother are wintering there. Photos to come, then you can decide for yourselves if it's worth it.

Real or Not?

Is it really baking if you make something from a mix?  Last night I made awesome Mint Chocolate brownies, from a mix.  No Pudge Fat Free mix, to be exact. Just add yogurt.  They are really awesome. Next time I'm going to make plain ones with peanut butter cups or maybe Oreos in them. They will probably be awesome.  Anyway, does using a mix mean I didn't really bake Someone asked me if I bake every day, and I said no, the last time before this was Sunday. But that got me thinking if mixes count.  

I highly recommend No Pudge if you are looking for brownies that might not fill your arteries with fudginess.

Enlarged to Show Texture

It's time for an explanation of the image at the top of the page. It is a rainbow cake. Thorough (but a little annoying) directions for construction of the cake can be found here.

I made this colorful nugget of fabulous in a bundt pan, and layered the different color batters into it accordingly. It baked up in a sort of horseshoe shape, because the outsides baked first. I didn't think of this or else would have used more blue and less red (I did the opposite). Then I cut off the top to flatten it and turn it out onto the plate. The pic above is pre-turnout. It just looked so pretty! Then it didn't come out of the pan properly and broke in half. Oh well. Frosting the cake was also a bit of a debacle, so there are no pics of that either.

I did get a few rainbow cupcakes out of the leftovers, so heres one pic of those, and a couple good cake ones.  I will try this again someday.  

Follow Up

Once again, The Daily Show proves itself to be the most informative show I watch. Here is a link to their segment about Twitter.

Previously in our story.