Month: March 2005

  • The Death Knell for the Atkins Plan

    There is a simple explanation for my lack of blogging this week: I have been shamelessly stuffing my face with beautiful, delicious carbs. Oh yes, we bought a bread machine. “Of course, we’ll just use it to make low-carb bread and pizza dough,” we rationalized. That didn’t last long. The Snook started researching recipes on the Internet, and suddenly his inner baking demon – starved for activity for nearly two years – broke free. We spent over a hundred dollars at the grocery store last night just on bread-making supplies. We got, like, five different kinds of flour (including one ten-pound bag), spices, powdered milk, nuts, fruit, sun-dried tomatoes, potato flakes, yeast, seeds, honey, butter, everything. And now we’re eating it all. We’re fat, but man, are we happy.

    Bread Machine

    The First Loaf

    In the event you want to enable our addiction, does anybody know any can’t-miss bread machine recipes we should try? We’ll also take any technical tips you have. I made my first loaf last night from a mix, and it was also our first attempt at using the timer feature to have the bread ready just as we got out of bed in the morning. It wasn’t perfect though, mostly because the flour and water seem to have caked up overnight and hence there was a bit of lumpy, unblended flour at the bottom of the loaf. It still tasted good, but we want to work out the kinks. Anybody else experience this?

  • Cordarounds

    I’m not sure what the point of horizontal corduroy pants is, but their website is so cheeky and fun that I’m almost tempted to get the Snook a pair. He wears through his cords so quick. But – eek! – eighty-eight dollars? I could sew him a pair for less than that.

  • Schmaltz-O-Rama

    As I’m sure the other ND alumni did, I received in my inbox today an invitation to check out lovetheenotredame.nd.edu. “Self,” I said, “I bet you dollars to donuts this is a treacly Flash movie set to a plinky-plonky piano that will make you feel all warm and nostalgic, only to leave you slightly cold with the plea for donations at the end.” I was not disappointed. That’s not to say it isn’t well done; ND’s marketing is always really spiffy and professional. It’s just that it’s become utterly predictable to me. (And I admit I snorted a little when I noticed that both pictures in the “dreams come true” frame are of minority students.)

  • Craft Corner Death Match

    This Craft Corner Death Match thing sounds pretty interesting. Does anybody know what channel it’s on? Not that I’m likely to get it here, but I may be able to talk Mom into taping it for me if it’s good. Or maybe I could just invite Amy and Helen over and we can recreate it at home!

    You have three balls of Feathers, two bin liners, a Dremel, a dozen pipe cleaners, and an assortment of novelty hole punches. Today’s Challenge: create a poncho suitable for a dethroned craft queen’s re-emergence into polite society. GO!

  • Beer-Battered Asparagus

    Note to self: If the Deep-Fried Feast ever goes ahead, be sure to include Beer-Battered Asparagus as a starter. That looks yum!

  • Women’s Statistics

    These statistics on women are so stupid. Ooh, half of Aussie women are uninterested in sex? We’re sedentary and have negative body issues? Is this a surprise to anybody? The real wonder is why they didn’t go on to point out that those percentages basically apply to women in Western countries across the board. They’re making it out like the women here are some sort of exception, when in my experience that’s just not the case.

  • Mancho!

    As the Aussies knitters are well-aware, the poncho craze has finally landed on our shores. I’m so over it already. The poncho is officially this year’s Feathers scarf, mark my words. The only fun left to be had is in mocking the people who wear really daggy ones. Gadgetgirl has found an example of one of the rarest (and ugliest) breeds: the Man-cho. Good grief. Could that poor male model look any more like Derek Zoolander? Actually, thanks to me, he can. I should so make the Snook one of these and embroider “Blue Steel” on the front.

    Derek Zoolander in a poncho

  • US Green Card Info

    Bookmarking for Later: Great AskMeFi response about getting the Snook a U.S. green card someday…

  • Virgin Risotto

    The Snook is the resident Italian cooking expert, but since I have Fridays off and he doesn’t, I figured it was my turn to treat him to a nice dinner of risotto. So I found a recipe for Asparagus Risotto and headed to the shops. I decided to add a bit of protein with chicken breast but otherwise I pretty much stuck to the recipe as written. The Snook was dubious about the addition of cream and rosemary but he became a convert in the end. It was delicious. I was worried that I’d added too much broth and it was too soupy, but ultimately it glommed together just right into the perfect melange of blessed, blessed carbs. Yum. Highly recommended.

  • Trogdor the Sock Destroyer

    The sight of my own dear husband darning his socks this morning prompted me to take action… by asking MetaFilter for advice. Are there any socks he can’t put a hole in?