Rob Thomas' "Cradlesong" album! Only for today - 12/12/09.

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Okay - now that I'm high on blackberry wine fumes from where Mom was dousing the Hermit cake... whoa -

Thank you to diamond9697 and katernater for the virtual cookies! yay!


That's the extent of the 'yay' though. I have to work 2hrs over at work 3 days this week - which means I don't get to leave until 0200 (usually leave at 0000). :( The money part will be nice, but the staying there that long won't be. We tend to get really punchy around 0130. It doesn't get better after that. 10hr days are just too long - ugh.


Oh - forgot to update the countdown!


Dominica Vacation Guide

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So, in the previous cookie entry there were:

• Sugarcrafter's Chocolate Crinkles


• Snickerdoodles


• Alton Brown's Toasty Coconut Macaroons

In this entry, there are several more:

• Alton Brown's Sugar Cookies - totally yum even w/o icing


• Easy Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies - I used Hershey's Hugs in mine *g*


• Jell-O Pastel Cookies - except I didn't include the Jell-O and I put them through a cookie press and topped 'em with sugar sprinkles =)


• Cut-out Cookies - a recipe from a friend of my mom that makes a zillion cookies! (recipe below)

( Cut-out cookie recipe )


I also made another batch of Snickerdoodles so my family types would stop snarfing my cookie gifts!

This weekend, niece and nephew will get to cover the kitchen in icing and sprinkles for great decorating art! Hmmm - I think we need more food coloring. *makes a note*


At some point between now and Christmas, my friend's coming over to make Hermit Cake. If anyone wants that recipe, let me know. =) ETA: Hermit Cake recipe - just looking, it looks to be the same as the one my grandmother and mom have been making for years.

ETA: I got my 'Inner Child Secret Santa' goody box yesterday! (I mailed mine today! I promise! It should be there in 2 days or so!) My goody box had: A My Little Pony, 2 Matchbox cars, a PEZ dispenser and a holiday card! Very cool! Thank you, Secret Santa! =)


Also - my hockey countdown! XD


Dominica Vacation Guide

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I've mixed up batter for one batch of cookies and completely finished 2 others.

The batter I mixed up for baking tomorrow (it has to chill and set first) are the Sugarcrafter's chocolate crinkles. B/c what could be bad about chocolate cookies rolled in powdered sugar? XD

Next is the Snickerdoodles recipe that my mom's been making for years (though this recipe leaves out the measurements - you can get the recipe by inputting an e-mail - so I'll put those in later under the cut). It's from an old Pilsbury cookbook that bills itself as 'The New Pillsbury Family Cookbook'. And if you'd like to know how old it really is - it has a 'new' section on microwave cooking! *g*

And Alton Brown's Toasty Coconut Macaroons - one of my faves!

Tomorrow I'll bake the chocolate crinkles and maybe whip up the batter for sugar cookies. I'll probably wait until Tuesday to mix up the batter for the Spritz cookies so that I can bake those on Wed when I'll have plenty of time before I have to take my dog to the vet.

( Snickerdoodles Recipe )

In other news - goddamned opossum! The fucker was in the trashcan and skittered out of it when I took my dog out just now and scared the fucking hell out of me. Damned thing.

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I'm starting on my cookie baking for Christmas. I'm not sure when I'll get to the cut-out cookies - or if I'll even do those this year. I probably will, b/c the neice and nephew like to slap frosting and sprinkles on cookies. =)

I'll pull the complete list together once I'm done with everything. =)

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Made Red Velvet cupcakes again. Yes. The same ones from the last time. The Red Velvet cupcakes of awesome! Mom made a cheesecake. And much of dinner/lunch tomorrow is prep'd and ready.

I have to work, so we're eating around 1400 or so (which, since my time schedule is shifted, is still nearly breakfast for me, but that's okay. It also means I can pack some up to take for dinner at work too.

At some point I'll be making a cheeseball. And later - lots and lots of cookies.


I need to work on my Yuletide assignment. I've done a little, but I need to find some time to focus on it. Cool thing is - I think I have an idea. So, go me! XD


Stars currently are tied w/ the Blues at the end of the 1st/start of the 2nd.... let's see how that goes.


Also, I have mentioned that hockey game I'm going to, right? Dec 16th!

---

countdown clock thingy ->


Dominica Vacation Guide

ignore the 'vacation' part... it's the best one I could find that didn't use Flash

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I should probably write this now-ish, right?

( Yuletide letter for 2009 )

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Yup! 16 December 2009 - I'll be at the Stars vs. 'Canes game! (GO STARS!) It's a Christmas pressie from my mom - bought the tix today. We'll be BEHIND THE BENCHES AT CENTER ICE! woot!

While we *could* have gotten seats right behind the glass, those cost just a smidge out of the price range and these will be just as good, if not better, b/c - dude - CENTER ICE! On the red line. And the seats right behind the glass - those were sort of off to one side, I think (and twice as much).

So far, these are the best seats we've gotten for a hockey game. I had seats once 3 rows back from the glass and they were great (at the MCI Center in DC) and Gretzky was playing then and the Rangers lost, but they were kinda in the corner. Not awful seats (damn good ones really for the price), but not the best. It was hard to see stuff down at the other end of the ice - so when the Rangers were playing defense it was kind of 'argh'. But hockey guys from 3 rows back? Oh yeah - that's cool!

These will be the best seats I've had for a Stars game though! So woot! First Stars game, we were like 20 rows back (MCI Center), then the next one - about 10 or so (RBC Center). These will be, technically, 2 rows back, but right behind the bench, which takes up about 3 rows of seats that would be there w/o the bench. But, I think I can handle 5 rows back, behind the bench. =)

31.5 days and counting!

ETA: countdown clock thingy ->


Dominica Vacation Guide

ignore the 'vacation' part... it's the best one I could find that didn't use Flash

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Am I the only one who thinks this commercial from Reebok is sitting right there on the 'offensive' side of the line?




Forget the part where it's just a boring-ass commercial. There's the part where they keep panning/zooming to the woman's ass, like some annoying perv following her around. This doesn't make *me* want to buy these shoes, even if they walk me everywhere I need to go and I don't have to exert any energy at all. Sorry, just no.

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Okay, so I had to make something for this little get-together/going-away-party thing at work, so I decided on red velvet cupcakes. My original plan was to grab a box of mix and a canister of frosting and do it that way. Then I did a FoodNetwork.com search for 'red velvet cupcakes' and got a couple good hits - one was Paula Deen (love her!), the other was Terri Wahl from Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Now, she wasn't the most demure challenger he's had, but she had red velvet cupcakes. So, I took a peek at her recipe and it's not all that different from Paula's, except the exorbitant amount of frosting she makes.

Anyway - I made those instead and they are TO DIE FOR! I halved the frosting recipe and I STILL have too much! It's in the fridge and I might make Paula Deen's Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies tomorrow to use it up. =)

I told the #dw channel that I am really sad for anyone who doesn't get to try these cupcakes. And xb95 smooshed his face against the LCD to get at the cupcakes. Sadly, they don't travel well via internet. :(


Tips if you decide to make these:

• weighing the ingredients will produce a more even result; if you don't have a scale, you'll need to find a conversion chart



• I sifted the flour b/c it breaks it up a little and delivers smoother cake; cake flour would be even better, but it's a little pricey



• be sure the sugar is fully dissolved in the oil and buttermilk before adding anything else or the oil will separate and you'll have oily cupcakes (which was the #1 complaint I read in the comments for this recipe)



• the measurement for the red food coloring is a whole bottle - the little kind that comes in a box by itself (not the little tiny ones that come in the multi-packs)



• bake them for about 15 minutes and check them, then every 5 mins after that or you'll over bake them (I actually turned the oven back 25* after the first 15 mins, but my oven's weird)

I didn't change anything about this, except I added about an extra tablespoon of cocoa powder b/c I wanted a little more chocolate flavor. Typically I use baking Splenda, but went with the regular sugar since I wasn't sure how Splenda would do in the oil. Maybe next time I'll try with the Splenda and see how it goes. I'll also probably use half wheat flour too.

Now I must away to get ready for work.

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Death Masks audiobook came in the mail today! It is shiny! It is 9 discs! It is 11.5 hours of James Marsters reading one of my favorite Dresden novels!

The rest of the mail? Not nearly as interesting, except the Wolverine: Origins comic. But I'm behind on my comics, so I can't read that one yet.

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I think I'm getting my hockey-groove back. (thanx to wychwood and rihani for the mini-boost!) It's been a few years since I've actively followed the NHL - what with ESPN screwing the league over some time back (well, that was part of it - we won't get into that) and RL and stuff... but - need to get back in the groove. Need to learn who all plays for my team now and see if I can track down the guys I still follow who've wandered elsewhere.

So, I managed to catch the last period of the Stars/Leafs game tonight on the audio feed - hey, I had to watch Monsters vs. Aliens - Mutant Pumpkins from Space! - and yay! Hockey!

( Hockey game stuff )

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Not some of my best work photographically since my usual camera was broken and I was using my point-and-shoot digital, but they are photos of the convention!

They can be found here:

Gatecon 2008


Feel free to take a breeze through the rest of the gallery if you'd like. I have a few other conventions to upload photos for and I'll be working on those some this week.

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Wonder if anything's changed:

(strikeouts are old responses from when I did this a year or so ago)

( Read more... )

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Ever wanted to be Dr. House? Now you can - b/c he's a video game:

http://kotaku.com/5280633/play-doctor-with-house


Alas, I don't have any of those consoles, so I won't get to play anytime soon, but it still looks like fun! =)


ETA: I take that back, I do have a PC... now, just gotta find out if my crap-tastic graphics card will work with this game. *sigh*

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Done early even! Go me!

20 icons made for house_md20in20, all of Stacy Warner.

~ Rules ~
.01 - No hotlinking
.02 - Textless aren't bases
.03 - Gank if you'd like
.04 - credit to highlander_ii



~ T E A S E R S ~




( 20 of Stacy Warner )

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All proceeds go to charity - why? B/c it's the 'Hoggin' All the Covers' album by Band From TV.

Details here!

So, if you don't have it and you'd like to, TODAY 21 October* ONLY it's $1.99

Snap it up before the deal's over. =)

It's a really fantastic album and the band had a lot of fun putting it together.

Band members: Greg Grungberg, Bob Guiney, Hugh Laurie, James Denton (I keep wanting to type him as 'Jamie' since that's who he was on The Pretender - I'm trying!), Bonnie Sommerville, and a host of others. It's a big ole celebrity band for charity!




* ETA: fixed the date b/c I obviously have NO idea what day it is!

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Okay, so it's been longer than 20 minutes - RL came up and caused a delay. =)

Anyway, cupcakes: out of oven, cooled onna rack and ready for snacking... almost!

Next: once the chocolate ganache cools, I can dip the cupcakes in it and they'll be done.

I did 'test' one without ganache just to make sure it was good. It is. Though, I think I overbaked them a little. Next time - need to cut back the baking time by about 2 more minutes I think. I didn't bake them the whole 30, but I think I needed to cut the time back to about 25 minutes. *makes note for next time*

The 'little dry' thing has a pretty easy fix - drink milk with them. =)

They are good though! I also might cut back on the chocolate chips in the cookie dough part *just* a tad. Also might try them with milk chocolate chips rather than semi-sweet too.

I hope you've enjoyed my cupcake baking updates. *g* I'll possibly have one more after I get the ganache on them.

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Cupcakes are in the oven and *damn* they smell good!

I used baking Splenda instead of sugar, so I didn't have nearly as much cookie dough as I was expecting. Though, that could've been because it was a 'giant cookie' recipe for the dough - which tends to be a little firmer since you'd be making one BIG cookie, rather than a bunch of little ones. But it had a bucketload of chocolate chips in it, which I don't see as a bad thing. XD

I'll have another update in 20 minutes when they come out of the oven. =)

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sort of -

it's in a similar vein to our lovely omnomnom comm, but it's an RSS feed of a blog that is addictive to read, especially because it has PHOTOS of all the things the lady bakes/cooks!

It's called sugarcrafter_feed and it's got TONS of lovely things to make!

And I totally blame priscellie and her twitter link for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes that I'll probably end up making later today.

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There will be spoilers, most likely, so ( behind a cut we go )

~~ SPOILER WARNING ~~


( that tetchy thing irking me to death - SPOILER FOR FUTURE EPISODES - covered )


Also: have some DW invite codes (since I have eleventy-billion):

PRCMCP7W6VTRPAAACEJL
48KNYJ7RM8XRXAAACEJM

Please comment to let me know who snapped 'em up. It doesn't matter who - I just wanna know. =)

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Picked up a copy today and I have a bone to pick...

Dear Dreamworks -

Please - PLEASE - explain to me why you were so lame and did not release MvA in 3-D? It can obviously be done, given the BOB movie that comes with some copies of MvA is in 3-D and comes with '4 pairs of 3-D glasses'.

What, exactly, is the reasoning behind this? The movie is 1000x's cooler in 3-D. I thought that was kind of the point!

No love -
Me - currently trying to find a way to have Dr. Cockroach blow you up and give me a 3-D copy of the movie

Beyond that - the movie's still v. cool.

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I'll class this as a spoiler...

It's about House, M.D. S6 stuff. Nothing truly 'episode specific', but in case you're avoiding any and all tidbits about S6, I'll cut -

( the grrr is under here )

Imma go see if I can figure out how to do a custom mood theme on DW now.

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I signed up for house_md20in20 - make 20 icons in 20 days - and I picked Stacy (I love Stacy). There will be themes and things that the icons go with. 20 I think I can manage. Maybe I won't get bored halfway through like I would trying to do 100.

(I made a mood theme once and though 'never again' - b/c 150 little images is just too damned many.)


Now I just need a cheering section and someone to poke me every few days once this thing gets rolling to find out how many icons I've done of the 20.

Maybe I'll keep a running count. *eyes calendar* Sign-ups close on 9/30. Not sure when the themes are posted, but probably around then.

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