Twilight Can Haz Cheezburger
This video is the trailer for Twilight redone with a Cheeseburger instead of Bella. Enjoy.
Kitchen Klutzes, Petit Fours
Swimming in the deep end of the kitchen without inflatables
The products of the day
So, my friend Jen and I, in our ultimate good judgment decided to make Petit Fours. These are really cute little cakes that are individual sized and very fancy, usually layered and filled with some type of jam or frosting and fondanted to make look like little presents or what have you. So, of course we decided that, even though we don’t often succeed in our baking, we could do this. No sweat, right?
Like I said, we have great judgment of our skills in the kitchen (insert unjustified overconfidence). Really what we want is to make things that look really pretty and taste really good. See, that shouldn’t be so hard, right? Um…well I guess if we had any idea of what we were doing we would do better but…usually we get good taste OR pretty but never both. And sometimes we get neither.
A little background since this is the first post that I am writing on this topic even though Jen and I have been baking for a few months. We started doing this because we were both interested in learning how to bake/cook things we don’t normally cook but couldn’t find any classes around here to attend. So we figured, it can’t be that hard, right? We will just teach ourselves. Oh, and watch Alton Brown for the occasional hint or tip. Pretty much the blind leading the blind.
Anyway, like I was saying, we decided to make petit fours. Click here if you would like to see how they should actually look when done correctly. These are not our petit fours. These are our petit fours.
Our petit fours...
And you will have to forgive me because I just decided to start writing about this so I didn’t take pictures throughout the whole process which would have been much more amusing for you for sure. I mean, we had stuff everywhere. I mean, I read all of the reviews of petit four recipes and read how much trouble and effort was other bakers put into theirs, the good and bad results, all the tips and hints and warnings not to acutally do this. And what did we decide to do? We did it anyway and still thought we would end up with something beautiful and tasty. Did we take other bakers (who probably have more time and experience than us) advice? No.
Anyway, I started out by making marshmallow fondant (all the advice I read about fondant out of the box says it tastes like sugary cardboard) on Thursday morning before I left for work. I couldn’t have taken pictures if I wanted to, I ended up with hands that the staypuff marshmallow man would have pined over. It was really sticky and gooey and awesome. Anyway, the fondant turned out okay. Jen was in charge of making the cake ahead of time and we froze it to get it to not be so moist. Then we cut it, things were going well. It was once we tried to frost it to put on the fondant that we started to realize that this might not be such a good idea.
It looks like a candy cube of some type
We got about 6 done in half and hour and I decided that we should sample the wares, especially since they were not looking the beautiful part, hopefully they would taste the delicious part. The taste wasn’t bad, it was just super duper sweet. Like instant sugar headache. We kind of gave up at this point, refusing to decorate the super sweet sugar clumps that we had created. My suggestion if you want to make petit fours is: go to a bakery and get professional ones. They look and taste much better.
So, what do we do? Emergency back up plan. We made cake pops. These turned out really good, they weren’t too sweet and it was a good way to use up the extra cake.
Well, they aren't super cute but...
Cake pops are pretty simple, you take leftover cake, add some melted butter and cream cheese and milk (we used soy milk) and mix it all together until it will stay in a ball. Make little balls and put them in the freezer to solidify them, then dip them in melted chocolate (or in our case white chocolate). The recipe calls for sucker sticks but we modified it to use pretzel sticks (mostly because we couldn’t find any sucker sticks at the last minute and we were struck by ingenuity or despiration or both). So, it all worked out really well but as usual we did not succeed in our plans to rule the baking world. Oh well, there is always next time.
It's the pretzels that make them gourmet
Robotic Legs for the Lazy
The Japanese have finally solved the problem of people having to walk. They are developed these robotic legs from Honda to make walking and standing easier. Finally I was sick of having to get up and walk to the fridge from my couch and now I have these robotic legs to assist me thanks Honda! Am I the only one or do these things look really uncomfortable on the crotch. It makes walking easier but it crushes your nuts so its a bit of a trade off.
Why Gay People are Still the Big Losers
November 8th was a monumental event and big changes came to America especially for minority groups. One glaring exception was gay people who were shocked to see state amendments against gay marriage pass in three states most surprisingly liberal California.
California was shocking because recently the state supreme court okayed gay marriage but now that decision is in question. It wasn’t as if the pro-equality side didn’t have enough money to run a campaign. They raised almost twice as much as their opposition. Polling suggested that people were favoring the pro-equality side but when the time came to vote it was apparent that many people were not honest with how they really felt about the issue.
Election Day is Here!!
Well it’s been almost two very long years but finally the big day has arrived, Election day. In a way I’m just glad tomorrow it will be over I hope. Every ad out there has been for a politican or an issue in the last few week. All I have heard is why should you vote for, who is or what has been lying, and other assorted distortions about the candidates or issues. With all this I can understand people who don’t vote thinking the only options are a both bad. However this is the only shot that everyone over 18, not a felon, and voting republican gets a say. I would love to not think that the republicans will not try to steal this vote but don’t put anyting past these guys. That’s why it’s so important to vote. The people not the neocons need to have their voice heard. If you think that’s the election is over, it’s not. Lets not forget the last two elections. Okay enough of the liberal in me just vote people. Even if the line is long, you only have one day to have your say.
Socialism: Let us understand it, so we are not afraid
 ZOMG!!!11!! |
There is a lot of talk lately in this election about Barack Obama having “socialist views” and being “a socialist.” For some - especially those who grew up during the Cold War - this evokes an image of radical Socialism as practiced in Soviet Russia and Mao’s China. Or is that Communism? What is the difference anyway?
The idea of Socialism has been around for a long time - longer than German philosopher Karl Marx (who wrote The Communist Manifesto). Socialism is a set of ideals and not a type of government. Examples of types of government are Representative Democracy & Constitutional Republic (United States), Parliamentary Democracy & Constitutional Monarchy (United Kingdom, Canada), Direct Democracy & Parliamentary Republic (Switzerland) and Socialist Republic (Cuba) … among many others.
Having “socialism” written down as a set of ideals came out of Europe where people had been struggling with class for centuries. Industrial revolutions made the worker more valuable but also the CEOs of the time much richer. Common people wanted to be recognized as a more important part of society and given more rights and better compensation for their work.
McCain Thinks Western Pennsylvanians are Racist
Apparently John McCain has switched sides and now is against his supporters. Actually he makes a huge gaffe and the recovery he attempts afterwards is painful to watch. Listen to how silent the crowd goes after he says he agrees with Obama and his supporters. It is made all the more worse by how confident McCain looks before he screws up the line.
Here is the clip of Murtha that McCain was attempting to respond to.
Best of Cleveland Haunted Houses 2008, Legend of Scarecreek
I’m writing the haunted house review this week. We went to the Legend of Scare Creek in Canton. If you haven’t been there before I can give you simple directions go to the middle of BFE and then turn left and go another mile. Seriously the drive up there takes forever and once you get there the drive way also takes forever.
The first thing you will notice is that its freakin’ dark in the parking lot. There’s like one light and that’s it. If you follow the crowds of people up the hill eventually you’ll arrive at the ticket booth. The have pizza, candy and hot apple cider in case your also hungry. The ticket says that there are five haunted houses for you to go to. Trying to visit them in order is problematic though.
Best of Cleveland Haunted Houses 2008, Stalker Corn Maze
A little introduction for this one before I start into the review: We were originally going to go to both the Stalker Haunted Corn Maze and the Trail of Terror which are both haunted houses just south of Canton on the same highway exit #193 for Bolivar/Zoar. I know, really cool town names. Anyway when we got to the Trail of Terror’s parking lot (you take a bus over to the acutal event) the parking lot was barren. I was confused because I had just checked their website for prices. Eventually we found a guy in the McDonald’s parking lot and he told us that there was flooding and it had ruined the trail and they didn’t have the funds to fix it. He also assured us that this info was on their website. Please click on the link above and tell me if you see it because I couldn’t find it. Anyway, this was very sad for us because this is one of the best houses we had been to last year. 
Stalker Haunted Corn Maze
We went to the Stalker Corn Maze two years ago as well so I will spend some time talking about the improvements they have done since then as well as an overall review. Read the rest of this entry »
The Best of Cleveland Haunted Houses 2008, Pandora’s Box
Pandora’s Box is a two house haunted attraction located at 6091 Heisley Ave in Mentor, OH.
Alouette’s Review:
House 1: House of the Dead
Rating for House of the Dead:
The following paragraph contains descriptions which may be seen as spoilers!
House of the Dead was pretty good. This house was too short, though. This house use a lot of image projecting equipment to enhance long lonely hallways (in which they have few or no actors, possibly to cut costs or something?). The effect is cool but not scary, though it does add a nice touch to the atmosphere of the place. The definite highlight of this house is what I referred to as “the birthing canal” for lack of a better term. Basically it’s a black tunnel that is made in a similar manner to the Halloween inflatables in peoples yards. It’s all black and completely engulfs you, it makes you feel like you are stuck in it and you have no idea how long the tunnel is. Also, it feels like there are people pushing on both sides of it (not sure if there are people or if it’s just from your party going through which seems more likely), pushing you around from side to side. It is very intense, I really didn’t expect something like that at all. My second most memorable moment was the Voodoo room where vines above you actually rain down on you as you walk through. It also has a giant animatronic monkey skeleton which is pretty cool.
House 2: Reapers Castle Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry Obama, Whites are still afraid of Blacks
I’m pretty sure there was a duh kind of moment when the good people over at newsnet5.com wrote this article: Racial Views Steer Some White Dems From Obama. I have to say I’m pretty sad about it and I know a lot of people like to think that we aren’t some backwards country where people are still racist. Wait a minute. I don’t know if a lot of people think that way but I know I do. I know it’s just wishful thinking on my part but honestly, people are really going to vote for McCain not because they they believe in his point of view or like his attitude or think he’s cooler than Barack. No, they will vote for him because he isn’t black.
How sad is that? In an age where we like to think of Americans as progressive thinkers who have learned a hard lesson after four additionally painful years (at least most Americans according to the latest poll I heard which put Bush at a 29% approval rating) people are making a very very very important decision based on the fact that McCain would be better because he is white and old. Or maybe it’s just because he’s white. Read the rest of this entry »
