Saturday, November 28, 2009

Curling Zone App for the iPhone!

http://www.curlingzone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=87c05c42eb1ead735e776ec1e311f1ff&threadid=8476

CurlingZone Mobile. The first dedicated mobile application for curling news, scores, rankings, and more - right on your phone. Now available on the iTunes Store!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Apple Napoleons

I haven't been working much with mixed media or sewing lately. Part of it is because its curling season, and part of it is because I'm interested in cooking/baking right now.
I was thinking I would try to make 1 new recipe every week, but I can't always do that. So, maybe in lieu of working on art, I will cook/bake at least 1 new recipe every 2 weeks. I'll shoot for once a week, but it gets pretty crazy around here.

I made Apple Napoleons today.



Tasted pretty good. The apple was a little overcooked, but I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 45 min
Serves: 4

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons sugar
1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed
all purpose flour for work surface
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 small Granny Smith apples, peeld, cored, and cut lengthwise into 1/3 inch thick wedges
2 cups sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar. Place pastry on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture. Carefully roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out eight 3 inch squares, and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with more parchment and another baking sheet. Chill in freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

2. Bake pastry in oven until crisp and lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Remove top parchment and baking sheet. Transfer with bottom parchment to a wire rack and let cool.

3. Meanwhile in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium high heat until foam subsides. Add apples, cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add remaining cinnamon mixture. Cook until apples are tender but not falling apart. Let cool completely. To assemble, top the pastry with whipped cream the apples; repeat with another layer of each. Serve immediately.

Stinky Pick and the Itchy Butts.




Thursday night I went with my friends Maya, Joe R, and Paula to see Jeff Dunham at the Tacoma Dome.

We got to the Tacoma Dome just before 6:30 pm and there was a line to the parking lot. We drove around them and parked in the free lot a couple of blocks away (thanks to Joe's knowledge of the Tacoma area).

We got on the light rail and took it into downtown Tacoma, where we ate dinner at Harmon's Brew Pub. I had a sampler of beers, Maya had a vanilla porter, and Joe and Paula had a pint of the Pale Ale. The restaurant was super crowded and service was slow. Event when the restaurant emptied out, our server was slow.

After dinner we took the light rail back to the Tacoma Dome. We got their just as the opening act, Brian, The Guitar Guy was finishing up. We got a chance to see the packed arena before Jeff took the stage 15 minutes later.

Jeff opened up with an amusing story of flying to Oregon and there being so much fog that his plane had to land at a small closed airport/airstrip.

After that intro, he started with Walter. Walter is usually my least favorite of his puppets. This time, it ended up being the longest and 2nd best act of the night. There were some politically incorrect jokes about Native American Indians and Indians that were hysterical.

He segued into his bit with Achmed the Dead Terrorist. It started off like most of what I'd seen on TV and You Tube. There were a couple of times that where his ad-lib was so funny, he lost where he was in his act. My favorite was Achmed picking on Brian, the warm up act. Brian came out to play a theme song for Achmed, and Achmed went on about calling him Stinky Pick. Brian was laughing so hard, he kept bringing up his hand to cover his mouth, and then Achmed would go "Ah, smelling your Stinky Pick again..."

Peanut and Jose Jalapeno on a stick came next, but in my opinion it just wasn't as funny.

When Jeff came out for his encore, he came out with Bubba. Bubba was a puppet that I saw Jeff with over 10 years ago. Apparently a group of people had emailed him to bring Bubba. He apologized and said he was going to use a cheat sheet, because he hadn't used Bubba in an act for so long. Much to his surprise, half the audience quoted the Bubba punchlines.

It was a great event to attend!

Monday, November 02, 2009