Sunday, October 26, 2008

10/26! Make A Wish!




This year could see you outgoing, positive, generally happy, young at heart, or able to see the bright side to most any situation. You might have the opportunity to enjoy travel, competition, being a team player, the life of the party, or the one who lights up a room, and your exuberance or confidence could become contagious. You could demonstrate a gift for boosting the esteem of others, however, you can be exhausting, draining, or be feeding off the energy of others around you, or overlooking the suffering of others. You may get carried away, have manic tendencies, or not know when to slow down, relax, or quit, but learning to balance a sunny, extroverted disposition, with the need to chill out once in a while, can result in genuine gratitude for just being alive. This could be a really exciting year for you.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Candy!

I used my candy thermometer for the first time and added a new sweet to my repertoire. As usual, I was inspired to make this particular thing because I happened to have peanuts lying around. And what's a better treat made with peanuts than peanut brittle?




For a first attempt it was damn near perfect. I think the only thing I might do differently is use raw peanuts or add the peanuts later in the cooking. The taste was great and the texture was crunchy that melted into sticky-smooth. It also didn't linger on your teeth like candy likes to do, which was an unexpected bonus.

I found so many recipes that equated peanut brittle with Christmas. It's not part of my holiday memories, but it might be this year.

Monday, October 13, 2008

New Wave Mix Tape

I came across a tape the other day that I made from an LP called K-Tel's The Beat. It's a good compilation of new wave groups. I was shocked to find Mixwit had all of the songs on the tape except for one called You Hit the Spot by Graham Parker. No big loss since it's my least favorite song of the bunch anyway.

The better known songs are part of this lyrics quiz called One Hit Wonders: New Wave Trivia, which just told me:


You got 10 questions correct!

If you scored between 8-10, fantastic! The frosted hair look is so you!

Don't I know it!









MixwitMixwit make a mixtapeMixwit mixtapes





Incidentially, I only have five of these songs on my iPod. It would have been six but the Depeche Mode song didn't make the cut.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Banana Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I love coffee cake. How can you not if you like coffee? I wanted to make a coffee cake and decided to try this recipe because I had bananas on hand. It turned out good, but I'll reduce the sugar next time since it was a little too sweet.


I used the streusel recipe from my usual sour cream coffee cake, which calls for brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. I made about double what the linked recipe calls for because it seemed scant.


Pretty and delicious.