hello, lovely

• KNiiTTiiNG!!
  a Knitting Wii game? Seriously? I wonder what Joe would think… LOL
  (tags: knitting wii game)
• 10 Most Awesome iPhone Apps of 2008
  awesome. some of them i have, some of them i don't
  (tags: iphone apps geek apple wired)
• novamade: on birthdays and giving
  (tags: pattern knitting cowl malabrigo)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GABBY!!!

Wow, I can’t believe you are six already. Please stop making me feel old.

Love you,
Auntie Manda

I finally finished my first book of the year, and I think it was kind of a dud. It was nice to have closure on the trilogy, but it all just seemed to end sort of.. abruptly, especially considering all they had to go through to get that far. It just seemed a bit anticlimactic.

It was nice to see the last couple come into their relationship, and a lot of it was kind of predictable, but it was a nice entertaining read. This trilogy is much darker than the other romance trilogies that Nora Roberts is known for, and I think it was an interesting change. I just wish the final book was as good as the first two.

2.5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it if you’ve read the first two books, Blood Brothers and The Hollow to finish out the series.

It looks like I’m doing better at this whole blogging thing this year. We’ll see how well that goes once work starts up again. Yesterday, we had another lazy day. Slept til noon, woke up… lounged around all day, and finally showered and dressed around 5:30 so we could go shopping. Since we got the new TV in the bedroom, we’ve been looking for the pillows-with-arms (aka “bed rest pillows”, apparently). Joe found out that there were available ones at a local Sears, and I had some Macy’s gift cards to spend, so we stopped at Macy’s first to see if they had them. They didn’t, but I did find the Crock Pot I wanted, and we went to Sears to get our pillows. They only had one, unfortunately, but it was on clearance so we bought it anyway.

We stopped at Target, too, to get a couple of things, and on a whim we went over where they had pillows, and we found another one!! Score! So we got two arm-pillow things, and a crock pot. Unfortunately, when we got home and opened the crock pot (which came with a mini dipper crock pot), it was broken. I took it back today to exchange it, and now we have Crock-Pot-y goodness!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to use it until next weekend. I don’t feel comfortable setting it while we’re gone all day, especially for the first time we use it, so Saturday, we’re having some sort of something in the crock pot, and I CAN’T WAIT!

Okay, so for Christmas, I decided, after seeing a commercial, that I needed to get the cats at my mom’s house a Christmas present. Usually they’re happy with mounds and balls of wrapping paper, but considering the item that was being advertised, I figured they deserved something special.

Enter Chia Cat Grass!

My mom just sent me video of the cats enjoying their Christmas present, but I couldn’t view the video for some reason. Thank you, Vimeo. Now I can also share it with you.

Today is a very rare type of day. Today is one of the very rare days where I don’t have to be at work and Joe does. (*insert Nelson “HA HA!” laugh here*) How am I spending it? Well, I spent the first two hours lying in bed and reading.

Then I got up and decided to catch up on blogs… I knit for a bit. I read some more blogs. I knit a little more. Now I’m enjoying a steaming mug of Ghiradelli Hot Cocoa (which is DELICIOUS! I think it rivals Starbucks, and I LOVE their hot chocolate. All it needs is some peppermint.. and some whipped cream or marshmallows, hehe.) courtesy of a work gift basket, and I’m about to go knit some more while I listen to some podcasts.

I still haven’t showered or brushed my hair or even changed out of my pajamas. I think everyday should be like this.

Happy 2009, yall!! I hope 2009 is better than 2008!

I also posted this on my Facebook. Kinda cute.

FOG is the big news story of the day in SAN FRANCISCO!

Actually, apparently it’s pretty dense fog (visibility at 200ft), and it just decided to roll in, but still…. it kind of cracks me up.

Wow, when they say “daring”, those bakers MEAN IT!

Today is Daring Bakers Challenge Post Day! I was awful at photo documentation this challenge. By the time I remembered I needed photos, I was done. I should have taken pictures of all the dishes I used. I don’t think I’ve ever used so many dishes to make something! LOL I’m glad I didn’t decide to make this the night before my work holiday potluck. It was very, very labor- and time-intensive, and I would have been up ALL NIGHT.

This month’s challenge was hosted by Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry and Marion from Il en faut peu puor etre heureux. We had to make a French Yule Log, courtesy of Flore (http://plaisirgourmand.perso.cegetel.net/index.html). I can’t read the website because it’s in French, but I didn’t see the recipe on the website here. If you speak French or are feeling daring on your own accord, I suggest trying to find it. Or check out Hilda’s December Challenge Post for the basic recipe.

I spent literally all day in the kitchen yesterday, making this dessert. Thankfully, I had the apartment to myself. First things first, I ran to the store to get some things I didn’t actually have (like enough chocolate, and some Special K for one of the layers). We had to make and include 6 separate elements into the Yule Log. The recipe was 18 pages of instructions and possible flavor substitutions. I stuck with chocolate, which seemed to be the easiest to find ingredients for if I didn’t have them on hand.

The six basic elements are as follows:

1. Dacquoise Biscuit
2. Mousse
3. Ganache Insert
4. Praline (Crisp) Insert
5. Creme Brulee Insert
6. Icing

The first element - Dacquoise Biscuit. This is a biscuit comprised basically of almond meal, sugar, and egg whites. My oven, which is notorious for cooking things in a fraction of the time called for in the recipe, actually seemed to take the whole 15 minutes the recipe said it would. I spread the batter out a bit too thin in some places, and those places burned, but over all, it was okay. The leftover pieces were delicious.

After the biscuit was finished, I put together the Creme Brulee section. It needed to infuse for an hour, bake for an hour, and freeze for another hour. I boiled everything together as the recipe called for, then I let it sit and infuse. I made a vanilla creme brulee. I did have a problem with the parchment paper coming unattached from my pan, which created a weird little section where part of it broke off, but other than that, I didn’t have any problems. My oven cooked this a bit faster than the recipe amount, but I think it came out fine anyway.

While the creme brulee was baking, I made the crisp insert. I couldn’t find the recipe for the praline, so I ended up skipping that part, but I made a chocolate crisp. I melted the chocolate together and crushed some Special K (since, you know, it’s healthy … LOL), then stirred it all together to coat the cereal. This was my favorite part of the recipe, and I could see myself making chocolate coated Special K just for fun. I rolled the chocolate/Special K mixture between a sheet of wax paper folded in half an stuck it in the fridge. The piece that was made after rolling out was way too big for my mold, so I snacked on the leftovers while making the rest of the sections.

After that, I set about making the Chocolate mousse. This ended up being a lot easier than I expected it to be, even though I was certain I screwed up the Pate a Bomb. I actually did screw the mousse up because I somehow had the wrong amount of cream needed to mix in at the end. After it set, I went back and mixed in the rest of the cream, and it became a bit lumpy. I let it set again, and it still came out moussey, but there were lumps no matter how hard or often I mixed it together. No worries, though, it tasted just fine. I would make the mousse again on its own, though, for sure.

After the mouse, I made the Milk-Dark Chocolate Ganache, and it was also very tasty. I didn’t have any problems with it, and I think it probably came out close to perfect. After the ganache, I made the icing, which also came out with no problems. I did end up having to make another batch of the icing though, because even though it coated the spoon, I couldn’t make the icing stay on the sides of the pan.

After the icing was made, I started assembling the mold.

Layer 1 - Icing.
Layer 2 - 1/3 Mousse
Layer 3 - Creme Brulee Insert (yum)
Layer 4 - 1/3 Mousse
Layer 5 - Chocolate Crisp
Layer 6 - 1/3 Mousse
Layer 7 - Chocolate Ganache
Layer 8 - Almond Dacquoise

Then I stuck the thing in the freezer for a few hours. I couldn’t wait until the next day, so after the whole thing set in the freezer a bit, I unmolded it onto a plate. I realized that the sides didn’t have any icing on them, so I made another batch of icing & poured it over the whole thing. I froze it a little longer, then took it out to cut a slice.

It definitely isn’t as pretty as some of the others I’ve seen, but it is delicious! It’s very rich, and I think if I were to do this again, I’d try some of the other flavors instead of making it Chocolate Fest 2008. I think it’s TOO much chocolate, as if there ever were such a thing. These challenges have been SO fun… I’ve made things I never thought I’d ever make, and I’m very excited about it. I can’t wait to see what 2009 will bring, but here’s hoping next month’s challenge is a LITTLE less involved. LOL