Happy Halloween!

This month, I received quite a number of Halloween forward emails with pictures of dogs in their costumes. My favorite part of these (besides them being super cute) is that the dogs must be so well-behaved to let their owners dress them up like this.

Because tomorrow is Halloween, I decided to post my favorites from those emails (in no particular order):

I LOVE Harry Potter! This costume of Fluffy is AMAZING.

This actually looks freakishly real to me..

I like the minimal effort in this. I don't think Obie would let me leave a bag on his head.

This is just funny. Who thinks of this?

Terrible. That bottom looks so uncomfortable!

So cute!

This cannot be real...

Took me about 5 seconds to figure out what it was, but once I did, I think it's so creative!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Obsessed...with Pumpkin Carving

I am not feeling very well today (or the past weekend). All we really did this weekend was carve pumpkins (oh and corn maze on Friday night). I was going to write a blurb about each one of the pumpkins and talk about the trial and tribulations, but I'm just too tired and uncomfortable to do so. So here they are (note- all mine have a signature star on them):
My first Monster. They called him Bug-a-boo (no reference to Destiny Child's song).

Second "Sneak Peek" pumpkin.

Third Executioner.

These ones are T's.

He did an extra Mummy last night too, but I didn't upload the photo from my camera yet. We did all 6 pumpkins on Saturday. It was exhausting on my cramped hands and neck, but it was a lot of fun!

Happy Halloween!

Top Chef: Just Desserts

NY Daily News reported that Bravo annouced today that they are going to start a new spin-off series called "Top Chef: Just Desserts." The show is expected to air in 2010, but no judges or contestants have been selected (for casting info, go to www.BravoTV.com/casting).

Frances Berwick, Bravo's VP and general manager told Variety that the show was inspired in part by the difficulty that desserts have posted for "Top Chef" cooks.

"Their Achilles heel is usually the desserts," Berwick said of the "Top Chef" contestants. "As this has gone on, we've been thinking that it would be fun to do a 'Top Chef' with experienced pastry chefs. We've had a few pastry chefs on 'Top Chef,' but they haven't gone too far. It's just a different skill."

I am so very excited about this! And just last Thursday, they annouced they were picking up a second season of "Top Chef Masters." Ahhh I love Bravo!

NY Lottery- Such Cute Commercials!

Eeee! So cute! I want to get my dog pajamas too! They have another cute one with bunnies too.

Balloon Boy Raps

This is terrible. The mouth on them!

Circle the Cat

R sent me an email a few days ago with a link to a Halloween game and I finally got a chance to look at it a few minutes ago. I then proceeded to spend the past 10 minutes trying to beat it. It was frustrating figuring it out, but I finally did after probably 25 attempts. Click here to play.

There's a similar game on the iPhone called CatchaMouse. It's not as difficult though. I played until level 14 before I got bored of it.

Test Failed

Click to enlarge the photo. Dr. M sent it to my email the other day and I got a smile out of it.

Let's Bowl

There's a man, Floyd Burns, in Mesa who is turning 80 years old today. He plans on bowling 80 consecutive games. This is his third time bowling his age in games to celebrate his birthday. KVOA news said, "When he turned 77, Burns bowled 77 games in 12 hours, 32 minutes. His average score was 164. At 78, he bowled 78 games in 12 hours, 20 minutes - earning a score of 214 on his 78th game." Burns says he'll start bowling at 8 a.m. and bowl 10 games at a time on two lanes. He'll also bring along his five bowling balls.

And this is why I love old people. They're so cute. There's an old man who bowls on the league next to mine on Thursdays and he's really good. He bowls really slow and he doesn't have much strength, but his technique must be good because he almost always gets the spare (I've never actually seen him get a strike). I tried to take a picture of him once, but I didn't want to be awkward. I did high five him a few times though.

That's some stamina for an 80 year old. I cannot imagine bowling for 12 hours straight. When I bowl on my league (Team Shih Rex & Co.--currently in first place!) every Thursday, I am pretty beat afterwards and that's only three games. When I bowl for fun, I get tired and bored after 5 or 6 games. Anyways, here are pictures of my shoes and ball. I do want a new ball though. Mines about 4 years old and has many dents and cracks in it

Baked Good Recipes Tested

Long post ahead. In the two months since I've moved back to Tucson, I've definitely been baking a lot more. Two reasons for that: 1. I actually have my baking utensils available- I never took them with me when I packed and moved home. 2. When I make two dozen cupcakes, I have people who will actually eat them; between coworkers, roommates, and sorority sisters, things don't last more than 2 days usually.

Last week, I made two batches of Zucchini Spiced Muffin with Cream Cheese Frosting (from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes). These were very good and moist. I omitted the walnuts the first time and forgot to make the frosting (still good without it), but I thought it was missing something so the next time I added them and made the frosting and I think they were much better. Recipe found online here.

N wanted to try the Chocolate Gingerbread Bar from the Food Librarians blog so I said I would make them last weekend. I read the Everyday Food recipe that she used and a review of it. The reviewer said it was bitter (from too much molasses) and too gingery so I used Martha Stewart's recipe. I couldn't find my square pan so used a round one instead. I did not like the taste of this very much. It definitely tasted like fall from the ginger and pumpkin pie spices, but the texture was a little dry for me and I did not think the chocolate tasted very good. For chocolate recipes, I prefer to use real chocolate or a mix, not just straight cocoa so that could be why. I might try the other recipe sometime later this fall to see if it makes a difference. Recipe found online here.

Everyone has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. After making a dozens and dozens of chocolate chip cookies in the years I've been baking, I've finally found one I really love. The King Arthur Flour recipe is delicious. The cookies are not too crispy and not to chewy and the almond extract really makes a difference. Recipe found online here.

I really don't like cupcakes. I dislike its cake to frosting ratio. I think they are hard to eat. And the stores that sell them are way overpriced for the amount of work it takes to make them. But my sister always ask that I make her cupcakes so one night I searched online for awhile looking for a cupcake recipe that sounded good. I decided on the Vanilla Cupcake with a fake Vanilla Butter cream Frosting from the famous Magnolia's Cupcakes and they were great. This will be my go-to recipe for cupcakes now. They are very vanilla-y and moist (I added two extra tablespoons of butter to be sure). Recipe found online here.

The Food Librarian's blog is one of the only baking blogs I check regularly. The recipes she chooses are fairly simple to make and she gives good tips on substitute ingredients which I like. Thus, I often make things she posts.

T had made brioche the week before (which are sooooo good and I know I shouldn't eat so many because they are full of butter) and I remember reading one of her post with a brioche tart so I wanted to make that. I asked him to make me a batch one night because we had bought some pluot plums and nectarines. The result was decent, but I would not make these again. The brioche got a bit soggy from the fruit and jam and so I thought it was a perfectly good waste of delicious, buttery brioche. Looking at the picture from the Chez Us blog that posted the recipe, maybe I should have made one giant tart instead of the little tarts I like. Recipe found online here.

Another copycat from the FL blog, was Mark Bittman's Olive Oil Cake. I've always wanted to make an EVOO cake because I've read that they have good texture and flavor and the librarian herself gave it a good review. When I made it, T was nagging me again about weighing my flour because I usually just scoop (I know it's wrong, but it's so much faster). As always I ignored him, but as I was mixing, I realized it did look like a bit too much flour, however, it was too late to remeasure so I went with it. The cake turned out okay, but it was a bit dry. I actually made the orange glaze and that really helped it out. Overall I might make this again if I was in a citrus cake mood. Recipe found online here.

I'll try to post my baking blogs on a more regular basis now so I can actually say more about the recipe and how it turned out. Because I posted six different things, I didn't want to to make this longer than it already had to be. Happy Baking!

p.s. I also need to actually build my light box to take pictures of the food. These photos are horrendous. I apologize.

H1N1 At My House!

My roommate had been sick for a few days and went to Urgent Care yesterday. She found out she has the H1N1 virus. And last night, T started getting a fever. Initially he thought it was all in his head, but we took his temp and it was 99.8. He progressively got worst as the night went on and so we borrowed my sister's humidifier and poured in eucalyptus oil to help him breath better. He looked so cute trying to breath it all in. Then, he wouldn't stop inhaling it which only made him cough worst, not so cute.

Meanwhile, I feel perfectly fine and I'm not worried about getting sick. The doctor didn't give my roomie anything anyways so if I did get it, I'll just take some Nyquil and Tylenol and wait for it to pass. My house smells like Vick's Vapor Rub the moment you walk in.

SATC 2 Spoiler

Already confirmed to make an appearance on the new Sex and the City movie sequel was Liza Minnelli (she'll sing a song at the wedding of Stanford and Anthony). And now OK mag confirms the movie to have two new celebrity appearances, Penélope Cruz (appearing as herself) and Miley Cyrus (not sure what her role will be, but perhaps a younger Carrie as there were rumors she wanted to play that part for a SATC prequel).

I can't wait!

[image via www.sexandthecitymovie.org]

Jamie Oliver's New Show

Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef, has a new show coming to ABC next year. He has done shows in Britain on improving school lunches and encouraging people to eat healthier and living better. And now he wants to move that to the States.

His production company chose Huntington, West Virginia as their location because of the 2006 CDC report of them being the fattest and unhealthiest city in the United States. And Jamie Oliver plans on shaping them up. The people of Huntington are not too happy about it though because they do not want to get stuck with the fattest city label. Too late I guess.

I tried to find the video of him dancing in the Village People costumes, but its not available for embedding and I can't find it on YouTube so you can see here.

[image via dailymail.co.uk]

Track Crime in Your Neighborhood

Been crazy busy at work so I have not really found time to blog, but saw this on the news yesterday and thought it was interesting.

Pima County Sheriff's department has purchased service to a website called CrimeReports.com for $12K a year (paid for by money seized from drug dealers and other criminals). You can now see on a map what criminal events occured in your neighborhood and it's free.

I went to the site and looked up my home address and there was nothing nearby (thank goodness!). I searched my zip code and just about 7-10 miles away, there were neighborhoods full of crime such as assault (no injury), theft (larceny), theft (vehicle), robbery, assault (domestic violence), etc. TONS! The site is really slow to load and move around the map so that was annoying.

Overall though, pretty crazy stuff going on in Tucson. Information is updated every 24 hours, so the information citizens obtain is timely and accurate