Wannabe Risotto

I know what you are thinking: "Boy this blog has sucked lately." And while I don't think it's completely sucked, I have been rather uninspired in my posts. However, today! Yep, today! I have for you...a simple, fake risotto, using orzo pasta instead of rice. Think of it as homemade Rice-a-Roni, sans rice. I just ate a whole heapin' bowl of it for dinner, but you can use it as a side too. Ok, yeah, that is probably better. Know-it-all.

1 cup uncooked Orzo
2 1/2 cups hot water (give or take)
2-3 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp Butter
1-2 Clove garlic (to taste)
1 tbsp Lemon juice (optional)
Some Dried Basil (live dangerously - just wing it)
1/4 to 1/2 cup or so Grated Parmasan
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and melt butter and olive oil. Mince garlic, and saute it around in the pan until it gets all soft and comfy. Put the UNcooked pasta in, and let it toast slightly to a golden brown. Then add one cup of water, and let it return to a boil. Stir often. Keep adding water, 1/2 cup at a time, after each addition is absorbed. It will take 25-30 minutes, and will start to look creamy. Taste for doneness occasionally too. At the end, add spices, lemon, and cheese. Yum.

Ruff Night

TG's mom has a nightshirt that I find amusing: it has dogs all over it and says "Ruff Night". Hahahaha...puns. Anyway last night I woke up around 4:30 and was wide awake. After a while, blueish daylight started streaming in the window. Then I was finally falling asleep, and suddenly had the sheets ripped off me so quickly I was startled back into wide-awakeness. I could have punched That Guy...which I did, in the arm, this morning. Then he said "Why did you keep pulling on the sheets last night?" Hmph.

8-bit Trip

Got 1,500 hours to kill? Then you can make your own tribute to video games out of Legos! I know I posted a couple videos lately, but this is just too cool to pass up:

Grand-ola!

Ha! I wrote a pun!

Courtesy of Sugar Plum (again), I made granola! It's not the first time I made it either, and I'm pleased to say it was not a baking total failure.

This grand-ola (ha!) was different because it has mashed banana right in it with peanut butter, brown sugar, cocoa, and honey. The original also had banana chips and chocolate chips added in at the end, but I thought those would have been too sweet for me (never thought I'd say those words, but since I've hit the big 3-0 some odd things have come out of my mouth, such as "I'll just have iced tea" and "11:30? I'm going to bed."). I might have overbaked it just a bit, because my oven sucks and everything overbakes, but it's still pretty good.

Three Sheets

Here I am going to give a shout out to one of the funniest shows on TV: Three Sheets. The host, Zane, goes around the world to learn about cultures by drinking with the locals. He also investigates the history of the regions and liquors there, and it's educational, and informative, blah blah blah. Mostly, it's really funny, and you get to watch him get drunk on things like vodka with snakes in it and every kind of beer imaginable. We do not get Fine Living Network here, which is the channel it's on now. So anyone that DOES get it, should definitely watch, as they are trying to get another season!

Apple Jack Muffins

And now back to our regularly-scheduled blogging...

I really wanted muffins yesterday. It's this library book's fault:

Specifically, this chapter:

All those delicious recipes, what was I supposed to do? So I had to make muffins, but did not have time to go to the store and get ingredients, and also had limited extras to use in them (the Cranberry Upside-down ones will have to wait). So I adapted the Applesauce Bran Muffins to be Apple Jacks Muffins.

I've learned to keep applesauce in the house for baking purposes, so I had that; then it was just a matter of using Apple Jacks instead of the bran cereal required in the recipe. I realized that there was NO added sugar in the recipe, but figured the sweetness of the cereal would be enough, since I crushed them slightly before adding them. Well, it wasn't. These are just not sweet. The flavor is good, but needs to be kicked up with sugar a bit. However, now, after sitting in a sealed tupperware container for a day, they actually taste a bit like pancakes. Weird, huh?

And yes, burnt Apple Jacks taste just like you think they would.

New Things

Though it's really cute, it's not the outside...


But the inside that counts!


I cannot stop smiling.

Ace of Cakes, and a Birthday!

It is That Guy's birthday!

Happy Birthday Hun!!

To celebrate, we had a few friends over for a surprise party. Good times were had by all!  Our fridge has never seen so much beer.  

I decided to go all out and make a super-cool cake.  This would be my first attempt at a themed cake, so I figured the Question Box from Super Mario Brothers would be easiest...it's just a square, after all.

Now, here is where I am supposed to go "it ended up being the hardest thing I've ever done and nothing went right and f* birthdays."  But actually, it was great! All went exactly as planned, just took a little time, since I was going at it inexperienced.  Oh, and I don't have a pic, but as I layered the cake, I stuck those gold chocolate coins in it randomly (still wrapped). So every piece served had coins in it! Here is the cake after layering and cutting the sides even, with two sides frosted:

From there, it was a matter of frosting the other three sides, and using a piping bag and tip to apply the question mark. All black frosting was from the greatest creation ever created: Frosting in a tube that you put a tip onto and pipe out. You can use any style tip and just screw it on there and the frosting is ready to go. Science!And just look at the perfectly smooth frosting:
And a couple of dramatic "night" shots:

On the whole, I was happy with the way the cake turned out (even if a few spots are lopsided!), and TG was very happy with it as well. Only problem: we have a LOT of leftovers. I'd like to invite everyone over for cake, just show up whenever you'd like (Yup...still no job)!

Whew.

Hi there. How have you been? I've been good, but very very busy. It's been a hectic few days, I am finally sitting down to relax and write to you. And watching the 15th inning of the Red Sox/Yankees game.

I had a visit from my sister-in-law Erin, and her two very young children...wow they wear you out. It was fun having them around, though! We also had TG's niece over to play with them one day. I think the kids had fun together. We went glow-in-the-dark miniature golfing, and played lots of Wiiiiii!

For her visit I made zucchini bread, courtesy of Sugar Plum. Yuuuuummmmmy!

Zucchini Bread: artist's rendering.

I've also been visiting the library, shopping around for TG's birthday gifts (for Monday), and getting ready to make him a cake. Today I found myself with four egg whites leftover from custard-making for said cake, and I went to what everyone's go-to leftover egg white recipe should be: Meringues. They are light and crispy cookies, and sooo good! And fat-free! I kind of feel odd calling them cookies, though, because they aren't like cookies at all. You make the meringue and basically dry them out in the oven more than bake them. They bake at 200 degrees for almost 2 hours. Then you bake 4 layers of cake. Oh wait, no, don't do that.

You know that song by Dave Mathews Band, "Ants Marching"? Yeah.