Technically, It is still Tuesday.

Bam! Link to the bone art. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/06/the-creepy-art-of-human-bones/ The artist’s name is Francois Robert, so I was pretty close.

Project 2012 Update

A baby turtle at the farm I work at. Yes, I am ending a sentence with a preposition.

EVIL COOKIE!

Me laughing my head off at who knows what. Taken by my brother.

Peonies at Nichol’s Arboretum

Peonies at Nichol’s Arboretum. (Pennies at Nickel?)

Sleeping beauty inspired photo taken by my brother. (Those flowers smell terrible.)

Taken by my brother. I’m not that sunburned in real life, the camera just makes everything brighter than it is.

This one reminds me of a water lily for some reason. I didn’t use any sort of filter on my camera, it just somehow came out looking really dark in the background.

My brother planking in a really old tree.

Cool street art in Stratford. I went on a school trip to Stratford and saw Much Ado About Nothing. It was funny and I actually understood most of it.

A picture taken on the same trip on the same day, but not by me.

More street art in Stratford.

Tree sweater in Stratford.

Taken by one of my friends at an art gallery/shop in Stratford.

That is some serious skill, carving that bear so it is perfectly balanced.

I think the shop was called Indigene or something like that.

Jumbo candy apples in Stratford. They are so ridiculously big and sugar coma inducing that I just had to take a picture.

Me with a pirate bear. Taken by my friend.

Stratford

A unicycle I found at the farm where I work. I know it isn’t a cool photo, but it’s a unicycle.

Sura. He lives at the farm where I work.

 

 

 

Cooking With Popeye-Marbled Banana Bread

I attempt to make marbled banana bread with a recipe from the post punk kitchen. I messed up a few times, but it still turned out well. I make this all time and everyone loves it.

They Have a Zebra!

My internet is up and I am back to posting videos. I will post new vlogs every Tuesday and new cooking videos every Saturday. Tomorrow’s cooking show? Banana bread. Yum!

My internet is finally back up!

My internet is finally back up. I am sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I will be posting some videos and pictures soon.

Words of the Week

Numismatist

A coin collector

My grandpa was a numismatist.

Mochi

A Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice that is pounded into paste and then molded into shape. It is often filled with something such as red bean paste or ice cream.

Mochi filled with red bean paste are my favorite.

Anserine

1. Goose-like, silly, or foolish

2. A dipeptide in the skeletal muscle and brains of mammals and birds.

My brother often acts anserine.

Carpe diem!

Project 2012 Update

Here are a bunch of photos I haven’t uploaded before now. I’m too lazy to put captions, so just ask if you have questions. Carpe diem!

Saturday March 3rd and Sunday March 4th (NOLA)

(This is straight from my New Orleans journal, complete with missing words and misspellings. The things in parentheses are things I added now for clarity.)

Saturday Morning

How do I have no clean clothes? How is all our luggage going to fit in the van?

I am so not looking forward to a 28 hour train ride.

I need to sleep!

Saturday Evening

I slept the entire train ride except for a short break to eat and watch young frankenstein. It was a good moovie. (Here I drew a really bad sketch of Igor and labeled it “world’s worst picture of Igor”.)

Sunday

The NO train was a few hours late to Chicago. Late because of “routine track inspections” and there was a power outage. (In this case “routine track inspections” means ‘There was recently a tornado in this area and we need to clear the track of debris before we can drive on it.”)

A nice Amtrak employee watched our luggage during the layover.

Jamba Juice is delicoes. (Yes, I spelled it wrong in my journal. I had some Jamba Juice during the layover.

“You’re awesome…” activity (Gail had everyone on the trip write in each other’s journal why they think that person is awesome. Thanks to everyone who wrote great comments in my journal.)

Sunday: When I got home

I hate unpacking!

Finished NOLA trip shirt (I wrote “NOLA Trip 2012″  on the front of the shirt that everyone put their hand prints on and some websites on the back of the shirt. Picture below.)

Front of the shirt

My brother’s birthday (I gave him a pressed penny and a postcard from New Orleans.)

This trip made me think about the importance of education and made (me) question my career goals.

(I thought I had finished posting all my stuff about New Orleans a long time ago, and then I found this so here it is.)

(Carpe diem!)

Friday, March 2nd

School tour. Pen pals. (When we went to deliver the letters we wrote to the school so that we could start a pen pal program, we got a tour of the school. When we first walked into the building, we all had to sign in and then have someone lead us to the office. When we got to the office they told us that the principal and vice principal were on vacation. When the secretary finally found out why we were there, the principal magically apparated back from his vacation and lead us on a wonderful tour. The school was very tidy, but clearly too crowded and under-funded. The art department was two tables in the public library. When we were walking around the hallway I heard kids dancing to Beyonce and singing “We Shall Overcome.”)

Finished doors.(The bathroom doors that I helped paint yesterday.)

Watered plants again.

Made more signs.

Moved carpets.

Macks house. Balcony.(Mack’s house had a nice, big balcony.) Fireplaces.(His house also had 3 fireplaces.) Pigeon poop.(It was my job to help clean pigeon poop off the upstairs’ floor of Mack’s house.)

Yay for showers!(I guess I was pretty excited to get the dust and pigeon poop off.)

Walmart run. (We went to Walmart.)

Levees. Really short. Partly made of chain link fence. (Here I drew a little doodle of a chain link fence. I attempted to take pictures of the levees, but my camera doesn’t take very good night pictures.)

Update: I wrote this post in March and somehow it didn’t get published until now. Sorry for the delay.

Ferrero Rocher Knockoffs

Ferrero Rocher Knockoffs

My aunt made some mini muffins with jam and crushed peanuts on top. They reminded me of Ferrero Rocher candies. I then had the idea to make mini chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache and crushed hazelnuts on top to mimic Ferrero Rocher.  Here is how I did it.

1. Make the mini cupcakes. You could use any chocolate cake recipe, but here is the one I used.

1 & 2/3 cups of flour

1 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. white vinegar

1/2 tsp. vanilla and hazelnut extract

Some finely chopped hazelnuts

-Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. You can just use a wooden spoon, you don’t need a mixer.

-Add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla and stir until it is well combined.

-Pour into greased 3 dozen mini cupcakes.

-Bake at 350 for about 6 minutes. Check with a toothpick often.

-We added vanilla and hazelnut extract to our mini cupcakes,  and finely chopped hazelnuts, maybe 1/4 cup? We didn’t grease the mini cupcake tins and they stuck a bit.  So spray empty tins with Baker’s Joy or grease them somehow.  My aunt says she has never had the 8 x8 cake or reg. size cupcakes stick. My aunt also says “Change up the recipe with different chopped nuts,  mini choc chips,  dried cherries, and extracts.  Replace part of the water with applesauce or pure maple syrup.  Be inventive!”

2.Wait for them to cool and then take them out of the mini cupcake pans.

3. Make a chocolate ganache. Ganache is a fancy word, but don’t be scared; ganache is very easy to make.  I made a double boiler out of two pots and melted mini vegan chocolate chips with a little bit of soy milk. This is not an exact science; just mix in the soy milk or regular milk until the ganache is the consistency of …I don’t know. A milkshake? As long as it is semi-pourable and drips of the spoon, it is good to go.

4. Put down some parchment paper or a cookie sheet. Set a cooling rack on the paper or the sheet. Put the cupcakes on the rack and drip the ganache on them until they are thoroughly coated.  I used parchment paper, but if you use a cookie sheet you’ll be able to more easily scrape the chocolate drips back into the double boiler and use them.  I dripped a lot of chocolate on to the parchment paper, but it turned out okay because I made way too much ganache anyway.

5. Quickly sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top before the ganache cools.

6. Wait about an hour for the chocolate to cool before eating. If you can’t wait that long you could probably put them in the fridge to help them cool faster.

7. Wrap in gold foil, put them in a box, and pretend like you can afford a big box of Ferrero Rocher. Everyone thought these were great and they are vegan, which regular Ferrero Rocher isn’t. Plus “chocolate covered cupcake things” is much easier to pronounce than Ferrero Rocher.

Carpe diem and have fun baking!

The finished product. I made a batch of about 25 and the next day only 2 were left.

 

Help Stamp Out Hunger!

I want to let you know about Help Stamp Out Hunger. It is this Saturday: May 12, 2012.

The United States Postal Service will pick up bags on non perishable food at everyone’s mailbox that day. They specify non perishable food as canned foods, food in plastic jars and bottles, boxed foods, and bagged foods. No glass containers and no expired foods. The USPS will then deliver to food to local shelters or food banks.

All you have to do is go through your cupboard, put some non perishable food in a bag, and put it by your mailbox this Saturday.

Facts From The Website

Nearly 49 million Americans face hunger, including more than 16 million kids. 1 in 6 Americans are at or below the poverty level and face hunger. 1 in 7 Americans use food stamps.

Facebook Page

Website

For my readers in other countries: The Help Stamp Out Hunger program is only in the US, but there is probably a local food bank or shelter you could donate to on your own.

Spring Break 2012

Today is my second day of class and it is going well. Here is a compilation of clips from my spring break. READ BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT THE HORSES
The brown horse with the halter on is 35. Yes, 35. That is why he has a gray face and doesn’t run very fast. He had his halter on so he could be given his medicine. He doesn’t have it on all the time. The smaller black horse is about 25 years old. He is also well taken care of. Carpe diem!

VEDA Update April 28th

I forgot to post this yesterday, so I don’t know how helpful the VegFest info will be. Carpe diem!

More Fun at MSU and Funeral Flowers

I guess the title isn’t perfectly clear; I did not have fun at the flowers, however I did take pictures of them. I think you can tell which pictures are the flowers and which are me goofing around, so I really don’t think captions are necessary. None of the pictures of my brother are posed. He just doesn’t pose.

 

Creepy Tunnel at MSU

I went to MSU today. Of course, instead of going to the stadium or dairy store, I crawled around in a dark tunnel and got drops of dirty street water all over me. That’s what I do for fun.

Yep, I touched some dirty leaves while I was in the creepy tunnel. LOOK at the shadow!

And then I took a series of photos playing off the light and dark halves of the tunnel thing. It’s not even a tunnel, but that’s what my brother called it and it just stuck and now everyone calls it a tunnel. Anyway, here are the photos.

And then I took some pictures of my mom.

I’m Back! (and I have lots of pictures)

I have not been posting pictures everyday like I said I would. In fact, I haven’t done a proper Project 2012 update since February 20th. For the next few days I will be bombarding you with photos to make up for the 66 days I have missed. I also set up a Flickr where I will be posting some pictures that won’t be posted on my blog.

I found it!

I love hula hooping!

Look at the hawk! Darn, he just flew out of the shot.

It is spring break and I have only one class next semester, so I should be able to get back on track with Project 2012. Carpe diem!

Save Wesley United!

Remember when I wrote about United Wesley Church and how it was going to become a digital arts center?

Well, that may not happen now because another church across from Wesley is trying to buy it and make it into a parking lot.

Here is some more about the petition.

The Wesley United Methodist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana is an important historical landmark. It was built in 1838 by a congregation of free blacks, whites and slaves. It is known as the second-oldest African-American church in New Orleans and the eighth-oldest African-American church in the United States. Wesley United is important to the community, the city and culture of New Orleans.
The Wesley United Methodist Church is located on Jackson Avenue, New Orleans in Central City. Central City is a high crime area and suffers from unemployment.
Since Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005, the church community has relocated.
The Wesley United building has been abandoned. A nearby church is planning on purchasing and demolishing Wesley United to make space for a new parking lot, which will serve that church’s personal needs.
We propose to purchase and restore this historical building, and turn it into a digital arts center for learning music and culinary arts centers. This would better the people of Central City by giving them the ability to learn new skills, ultimately creating meaningful work.
Raising awareness for this project is the first step to saving the Wesley United Methodist Church. Show that you care about the well-being of this community, its people.

Link to the petition.

Link to the Save Wesley Facebook page.

Please help save Wesley by signing the petition and encouraging your friends to do so as well.

Even Bigger Break is Needed

I will actually be taking a bigger break from blogging than I anticipated. Due to some unforeseen stuff(I know, how eloquent), I will not be blogging, making videos, or doing script frenzy until at least April 27th, but probably longer. I wish you all the best during my break. Carpe Diem!

Google is inventing glasses

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/04/05/150056779/googles-new-glasses-and-the-war-on-serendipity

I almost thought the video was a joke, but the glasses are real. I guess the glasses seem cool at first, but I think they would get really annoying after a while.. I don’t even text because I would be annoyed by people bugging me all the time. The thought of having people’s texts pop up in my face while I am eating breakfast is horrible.

Another Break from Blogging

I will be posting very minimally for the next two weeks due to exams. I will continue making VEDA videos, but I will not be posting them on my blog. If you want to see them you can click the link to my youtube channel which is in the upper right hand corner of my blog or you can go to youtube and search spinachandmangos. During this break I will also be editing my New Orleans videos, so be on the look out for those.