The cadbury creme egg cake experiment

While reading through one of my food blogs I found a post talking about how they have cadbury creme egg McFlurries in England. I wonder if it will catch on and come to the U.S. I would love to taste one, but I bet they would be way too sugary. While reading the comments I found another link that lead me to the cadbury creme egg cake experiment on Jay Barnes' blog. In his experiment he attempted to bake a cake with cadbury creme eggs instead of regular eggs to see what happened. It was an amusing read even though he does cuss a bit. I couldn't believe he threw out the cadbury egg "shells" after he got the yolks out though. I would have eaten them, yum.

Recipes floating in my head

A lot of the time I will get an idea for a recipe by watching a commercial on tv, reading something on the internet, or by a meal in a restaurant. Lately, I have a few recipe ideas floating in my head that I have been meaning to try. A lot of them have been in my head for a while. I thought if I put them down in writing that maybe I would actually make them.

One recipe that I would like to try is home made chicken noodle soup with home made stock. I found a great recipe on Macheesmo's site. I visit his site regularly. His recipe uses a whole chicken and looks great. Can't wait to try it. I also recently found some great Asian noodles that are sorta ramen like that I mixed with shrimp and a little soy sauce. I would love to find an Asian broth and make my own pho bowl.

The other two recipes I would like to try are on an Italian theme. I would first like to try to make low acid tomato sauce. Tomatoes are acidy and bother my stomach, but yet I've been craving some baked ziti recently. I hear that you can add baking soda to tomato sauce to make it less acidy so I would like to try it. The other Italian thing on my mind is ravioli. Most ravioli you can get has cheese in it. Again I can't eat regular cheese, but I bet I could make ravioli from scratch and it would be even yummier. I'm sure the filling won't be too hard. I just have to figure out the dough. I'm not sure if I can buy ready made dough somewhere or if I have to make it from scratch which I could probably figure out how to do. I may need to buy a rolling pin first though lol.

Hello Kitty Hell

I found a great new Hello Kitty site called Hello Kitty Hell. This blog is maintained by a man whose wife is in love with Hello Kitty. More so than I am I have to point out. Her husband does not like Hello Kitty at all and shows his distaste in his blog posts. He also posts about all of the wacky items that have been found with Hello Kitty on it. Some examples are a whole hospital where actual children are born in with a Hello Kitty theme, a Hello Kitty patch for someone in the military, and Hello Kitty wedding dresses. Great read, but some posts are nsfw.

Domokitty

What do you get when you put Hello Kitty and Domokun together? Domokitty! Only one was made by David Faller and it was sold to charity. Very cute!

Colorful Turkey Hamburger Rice

I tried a new recipe I found online for dinner tonight. I was excited to try it because it sounded yummy. I found the recipe at Heather Van Vourous's site on the recipe board posted by Missy.

It started off a little rough because I didn't read the directions carefully. I put the uncooked turkey in the pan when it should have been cooked first. That was easily fixed though and all went fine. I excluded a few ingredients though. I didn't add onion and celery because they bug me and I didn't include green beans and peas because Jeff doesn't like them. That would have been a full pan if I had added all of those things. My pan was stuffed as it was. I also substituted couscous for rice because we didn't have any real rice around.

In the end, it came out pretty well. It was all mixed together in the pan and looked kind of like a stuffing. Jeff did not like how it looked and that it was all mixed together. He tried it and said it tasted fine but didn't like how it looked. I didn't mind it and actually really enjoyed it. I'm going to bring the leftovers for lunches this week. Should be yummy and filling, which is just what I need in the middle of a work day.

Private Practice

I just got done watching the last episode of the three episode arch where Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice crossover. I have watched Grey's Anatomy from the beginning. I watched it before it was popular. I was hooked from the very first episode. So when Private Practice spun off of it I gave it a chance. However, I didn't like it and stopped watching it. Recently, I have watched Private Practice for the last three weeks because of the cross over event and it has reminded me why I don't like this show. It is too over the top. Grey's Anatomy I know is dramatic and everyone is sleeping with each other and it's not anything like real life. I know this. However, it seems like in Private Practice they try to go beyond that. Each episode is like an after school special that is on steroids. From having to decide to surgically make a baby male or female to violence in high schools to parents leaving their children to making a dying teen pregnant so that she can have her wish of being a mom come true before she dies. It's crazy. I am glad this arch is over so I can go back to not watching Private Practice anymore.

Animal Crossing City Folk

For Christmas I received Animal Crossing City Folk for the wii. I had been playing Animal Crossing Wild World on the Nintendo DS and enjoyed the game. The main premise is to decorate your house with different themes of furniture, and to collect/sell/fill the museum with fish, sea shells, fossils, bugs, and paintings. I was excited to try it out on the wii. After playing the game for a few months I feel like I am able to write a review on the wii version.

In the Nintendo DS version you are able to have a house with five rooms. One main room, one back room, two on the left and right, and one on the second floor. In the wii version you only get three rooms. There are too many furniture options to only have three rooms. In the DS version it is easy to get rare fruit when in the wii version if you don't visit a different player's towns it's really hard to get them. I still haven't found a piece of rare fruit. In the DS version after being friendly with a character they will give you their picture which gives you extra points on your house score. I don't think this feature is available in the wii version which sucks. Another annoying thing is the letter writing. It is horrible to have to write letters to the players with the wii mote. We invested in a usb keyboard, which makes letter writing much more bearable.

What are the good things about the wii version? It is easier to get money in the game for one. That is a good thing. I also like being able to see all of the furniture options on the big screen. In addition, the wii version has some new special holidays that are fun to take part in. The wii version also lets each character have their own house, which is good if you have more than one person playing the same game. In the DS version Jeff would have had to share my house with me and we would have to split up the rooms. In the wii version he can decorate his own house however he wants.

Overall, I like the Nintendo DS version better.

Beef Domokun

I have a soft spot for Domokun. I think he's cute. I have started a growing collection of Domokun dolls and memorabilia. This is why I got excited when I found this link. Jessamyn found the beef and added a creative touch. It's a Domokun made out of a beef tendon. Awesome job, but a little gross!

Falafels

I made falafels for dinner tonight. I had wanted to make them for a while, but hadn't because the directions always say to fry them. I am avoiding all fried foods since it isn't healthy and my tummy couldn't handle it. Today while wandering the grocery store isles I realized I could pan fry them. This was an exciting prospect. I found a packaged mix where the instructions only called for water to be added and bought two so we would have leftovers through out the week. I could of just made them from scratch instead of buying a mix, but it's easier and quicker to just buy the mix.

When I got home I started making them. All you have to do is pour the dry mix in a bowl and then add one cup of water. Then stir the mix and water together and then let it sit for 7-8 minutes. After it sits, spray the pan with pam, shape them into balls, and then brown them. They turned out to be falafel pancakes, but still good. We had them with pita and ranch dressing. Well Jeff did since I can't do dairy. They are very filling and healthy. I can't wait to use them for snacks while at work.

Hello Kitty Watch

I have loved Hello Kitty ever since I was a child. My mother used to buy me Hello Kitty merchandise when I was young. I still love Hello Kitty stuff and get excited when I see stuff with her face on it in stores. And yes, I know that Hello Kitty stuff is everywhere and that there is no way I could collect it all. That doesn't stop me from searching for Hello Kitty on whatever I may be looking to buy at the moment.

I am in the market for a new watch. I like my current watch, but I am looking for something a little different and something that matches more things as my current watch is a light purple. I was randoming around amazon.com and found this watch. Wow. It is so pretty. It's silver so it would match anything, it looks professional (not too childish) and it has Hello Kitty on it!! I think it's a little expensive for my tastes, but I'm tempted. I'm not sure if someone would take me seriously if I went to a job interview with that watch on though. Doesn't stop me from drooling though.

Tagalongs

Today I bought a box of girl scout cookies. I had wanted to buy a box, but I actually hadn't seen any girl scouts around. I bought my favorite kind of girl scout cookie - tagalongs. They are so good. They are the ones that are part cookie part peanut butter and then dipped in chocolate. Yummy. The only problem is that they are 9 grams of fat for two cookies. With my annoying stomach issues I have to eat very low fat or my stomach protests. So I will be rationing them out. If you divide 9 by two you get 4.5 grams of fat. That isn't bad. So if I eat one cookie per day or every couple of days my stomach should be fine. I hope so anyways. So that is what I'm going to do. It's hard to stop at just one, but I will do it. I have put them in the freezer because they are yummier that way and because they are out of sight so I won't be tempted.

Starbucks Oatmeal

A couple of co-workers today decided to go on a Starbucks run in the middle of the day. I overheard their plans and went online to the Starbucks website to see if I wanted anything since I don't drink coffee and I knew they would ask if I wanted anything. I came across their new "Perfect Oatmeal". I had read on one of my many food blogs that their oatmeal was ok so I decided to try some. I got their brown sugar oatmeal.

The oatmeal itself was ok. They don't make it from scratch. I hear they make it out of packets like many do at home and then heat it up. It was kinda bland and needed more flavor. It was also a little watery, yet still kinda thick. I liked the thickness, but it didn't impress me that much. I can make oatmeal at home that doesn't cost anything and I can put whatever I want in it.

The thing that really bugged me though was their website. I was trying to look at the ingredients in the oatmeal and trying to find out if they make it with milk. To actually look at the nutrition information for the foods on the menu you have to put in your zip code which I think is dumb. Then the site decided not to work and kept giving me errors. After playing with it a while I finally got it to work and tried a few Starbucks in Delaware. All the sites said no nutrition information available. So I tried in different states to see if only Delaware sites didn't have information. Nope. Every Starbucks site that I tried had no nutritional information listed. On their site they do say you can substitute soy milk for regular in their coffees, but they didn't specify what they normally make their oatmeal with. Very annoying. So instead I googled Starbucks and oatmeal and nutrition information. I found the amount of calories, but I couldn't tell if it had milk in it. I did find some other blogs talking about it, but nothing concrete.

*UPDATE*
My stomach did fine with the oatmeal so I'm thinking that they use water in their oatmeal instead of milk. I also googled it again with different terms and found two different articles mentioning that they use hot water in their oatmeal. I'm glad to hear that even though their oatmeal wasn't the best. If I'm in a pinch I would definitely try it again.

Fortune

I had my chinese food for dinner as mentioned in the entry below this. However, I saved my fortune cookie for a snack during break from class. When I opened my fortune I got a chuckle. My fortune said: "You have the ability to analyze and solve any problem." Very fitting to open in the middle of statistics class isn't it? I think I'm going to tape it to the front of my statistics notebook.

Class

I have class tonight. I'm actually excited about it. Yes, I'm a nerd. I'm taking a certificate program on statistics. Hopefully in the end it will help me find an awesome job. Tonight I think we are just going to go over basic statistics like summary statistics. Hopefully all will go well.

Since I won't be going home for dinner I picked up some chinese from the place near work for dinner. It's sitting in the fridge at work and is making me hungry. I feel like it's calling out to me lol. I think I need to pack more interesting lunches that satisfy me more.

Pandora

I recently discovered and have been playing with Pandora. Very cool site. When you first come to the site it asks you to enter one musician or song you like into the engine. That will create a music "station". After that Pandora will play songs that are similar to the song you entered. You can add in a variety of artists to one channel like I have the Classical music mix channel for when I work. On it I have Josh Grobin, Yanni, Apocolyptica, Enya and more. It's a great way to hear new artists I've never heard of before.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Jeff and I aren't doing anything real exciting today. Just enjoying each other. I did get beautiful roses though. Thank you! We thought about going out to eat tonight, but all restaurants will be overpriced and crowded tonight. I rather cook in. We thought about making sushi tonight, but I'm not 100% sure what we will be making tonight. Here is an idea for a cool project if you find yourself with too many candy hearts.

It's supposed to snow tonight and I don't want it too. It's been warmer recently and I love it. What I am able to experience that is. Whenever it's been warm I'm usually stuck in work and miss it all. Oh well.

A bit more snow

So we did get a bit more snow yesterday. As it got dark it was flurrying outside, but nothing major. However, when I got up in the morning we had a dusting that covered the ground and our cars. I think we got an inch and a half total. Not much of anything. It was a pain cleaning off my car though, all the snow kept blowing back at me.

Today is a slow day. Nothing that exciting going on. I'm looking forward to this weekend. We don't have any big plans but that's ok. It will be warm and nice and relaxing, just the way I like it.

Must see tv tonight? American Idol is on, which is good. I'm sad that they cut out most of the parts with the bad singers. That was my favorite part. Bones used to be on Wednesdays but it moved to Thursdays. There isn't that much on anymore on Wednesdays.

Snow

It's snowing out. Well it has been since this morning. I woke up to the top of my car covered in a light dusting of snow. It doesn't seem to be accumulating much on the roads or the cars at this point. The weather channel says we are supposed to get anywhere from 2-4 inches with a crazy evening commute, but at this point I'm not sure. We would have to get a lot of snow in the next couple of hours to reach that.

Right now I'm bored. I've exhausted my list of url's I normally visit. I think I'm going to challenge myself to write at least one entry in here a day. Lets see if I can keep up with that.