Cookie Loves

Here ya go! cookies cookie cookies

Ghirardelli Ultimate Brownie Cookies 

One bag of Ghirardelli Ultimate Chocolate Brownie mix
2 eggs
1/3 C Vegetable Oil
*1/4 C Flour for high altitude

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or spray with non-stick spray. • Place oil and eggs in mixer and stir will fully mixed. Slowly add brownie mix and flour, stirring until a soft dough forms. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons, about 2 inches apart, onto cookie sheet.

Bake 8-12 minutes or until edges are set and surface of the cookie is no longer shiny. Cool about 1-2 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. Makes about 36 2-inch cookies.

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 Grundy's Chocolate Chocolate Chip (Grundy is my DH it's his concoction) 

 2 1/2 C Flour (this may be more or less; adjust for right consistency)
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 C butter - soft
1 C brown sugar
2/3 C sugar
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 C coco powder
2 T milk
12 oz or 2 C chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Add coco powder and milk. Slowly fold in dry ingredients until dough is smooth, but thick. Add chocolate chips. I usually chill the dough before baking, but it's not necessary...I just find it helps the butter not go all runny when baking. Especially on hot days.

 Bake at 375 for 9-11 min. Let sit on pan a minute or so before transferring to cooling area.

For regular chocolate chip leave out coco powder and up the flour a bit. For White Chocolate Macadamia Nut: Omit coco power 2 3/4 C flour 1 t rum extract 1 1/2 C white chocolate chips 5 oz FRESH macadamia nuts - if not fresh the cookies will taste rancid.

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Jello that Crumbles 

4 C four (maybe less)
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 C butter - soft
1 C sugar
1 pkg or 3 oz jello
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Cream butter till fluffy. add sugar and jello. add egg and vanilla. scrape sides. Slowly add flour till dough is smooth and holds together (kind of like pie crust) Using a cookie press form cookies onto ungreased baking sheet - or roll in log and cut in less than 1/4 inch thickness. Add sprinkles or maraschino cherries or nuts if desired.

Bake at 375 for 8 min. Transfer from cookie sheet onto cooling area ASAP. they harden up and are a pain to get off if they sit on the cookie sheet.

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 Soft Ginger Snaps 

1 1/2 C Shorting (like Crisco)
2 C brown sugar
1/2 C molasses
2 eggs
1 t salt
4 1/2 C flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t clove
1 t ginger

Cream shorting, sugar and molasses. Add eggs. slowly add dry ingredients. If dough is too sticky add a couple T of flour...should be soft, but not gooey chill dough for best handling. Roll in 1 inch balls and bake at 350 for 9 - 10 min. let sit for a minute then transfer to cooling area.

 Cookies may be rolled in sugar before baking or dipped in almond bark after.

Tesseract Cake

The photo progression of the Tesseract cake for Shiori's 5th birthday.

Frozen cakes make the day before

 

Couple types of fondant - black and white in color

 

First we put on Thor and then we begin!

Crumb coat base

 

Derails scaled to fit (sort of) the size of the cake

 

Cutting cube to fit diagram (ooo leftovers YUM)

 

Pause to make chili for dinner & eat lunch 

Laying on the first fondant layer and marking the center of the cake

 

Laying in the black fondant and placing the cube

 

Frost cube with white (cheesecake flavored frosting)

Paint in details & cube

Add blue sugar for cube sparkle (can't tell in pic)

 

Cut out other detail bits

 

Eat Dinner and put on Avengers

Paint the detail bit...very carefully

 

Assemble!!!!

1. Pipe on all the blue circuit stuff
2. Score the lines in the black
3. Paint some add-ons the right color
4. Try not to put knuckle in cube (that is done)
5. paint a WHOLE lot of silver

Done at 10 something pm

some teen reads

A lot of these are fantasy, but it's getting hard to find YA that isn't or that isn't about troubled teens. But here are some good reads Authors
 Casandra Clare 
Megan Whalen Turner
Sherwood Smith
Kristin Cashore
Mercadies Lackey
Vivian Van Veld
SOME Robin McKinley
Cornelia Funk
Scot O'Dell
Diana Wynne Jones
Sharon Shinn
Some Neil Gaiman

Books
Written in Red
The 13th tale
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Speak
Keturah and Lord Death
Dragon Sword and Wind Child
Beastly
Evernight
Shiver
Traveling pants books
Hoot
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Because of Winn Dixie
Secret life of Bees

What's the Point in Being Grown Up...

...if you can't be childish some times.

I've been doing a number of silly things this year.  Things that all those stuffy "normal" types would think no self-respecting 38 year old mother should be doing. Or thinking of doing.  Or just fantasizing about being brave enough to do.

I'm really not sure where along the years I settled into being "normal", but I'm fairly certain it's why I've gone and gotten depressed.  Why I hate myself - okay Hate is a strong word - maybe just dislike what I see when I try not to look in the mirror as a dash to the bathroom at 3 AM because I've given birth.

"Normal" is for wimps.  For women who need Valium or other medications just to make breakfast for the brood.  I am NOT that.  I refuse to be.

I am going to thoroughly and utterly and immensely geek out to my intergalactic hearts content.  You can join me if you want.

One Day In New York - Avengers style

Sung to One Night in Bangkok - Chess

New York, usual setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of Avengers in a
Show with everything but Phill Coulson.

Thor thunders – freeing Loki from the transport
Next thing you know a lot of witty retort.

Ship change -- don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Asgard -- or Jotenhime -- or Svartalfheim  - or this place!

One day in New York makes the Avengers humble.

Not much between the Hulk and poor Loki.

One day in New York and the bad guys tumble

Can't be too careful with your company.

I  can see Asgardians walking next to me.

One town is very like another when the Tesseracts opens a gateway, brother.

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be waiting out in space, not blowing up the city

Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

Chitauri, getting beat

Getting blown up as they turn down on Park Street

Get Loki'd! You're talking to a ruler
Whose every move just makes him cooler
I get my kicks above the waistline, fly boy.

One day in New York makes an Iron Man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy.
One day New York and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

NY's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Musical production or that Lady Liberty.

And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of blast I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the drones we use would not excite you.

So you better go back to your bunkers, your basses, your floating fortress --

One night in Stuttgart and the world's my oyster
If you kneel down I will make you free
You'll find me a god who wields a golden scepter
A little flash, a little mystery
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One day in New York makes an Iron Man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy.
One day New York and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Loki's Reading List

The official un-official list of books Loki checked out from the prison library. This is a list of both fiction and non fiction works.  See #LokisReadingList on Twitter for more or to add any you know of. *wink*

Adams, Douglas: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Adams, Scott: Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel

Basbanes, Nicholas A.: Patience and Fortitude, A Gentle Madness

Beagle, Peter S.: We Never Talk About My Brother

Boswell, John: The Dysfunctional Family Christmas Songbook

Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights

Brust, Stephen: Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill

Burgess, Anthony: Clockwork Orange

Burrough, Bryan: Public Enemies

Butcher, Jim: Dresden Files

Carnegie, Dale: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Chbosky, Stephen: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Christie, Agatha: Murder on the Orient Express, 

                            And Then There Were None, 

                            The Mysterious Mr Quin,

Cooper, James Fenimore: Last of the Mohicans

Dickens, Great Expectations

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov, 

                                    Crime and Punishment

Dr. Suess: Cat in the Hat,    Fox in Socks

Dumas, Alexander: The Count of Monte Cristo

Dyer, Geoff: Yoga For People Who Can't be Bothered to Do It

Follett, Ken: Fall of Giants, 

                     Winter World

Foster, EM: A Room With a View

Fowles, John: The Magus

Fry, Stephen: Revenge

Gaiman, Neil: Odd and the Frost Giants, 

                        Crazy Hair, 

                        American Gods, 

                        Anansi Boys, 

                        Good Omens

Garland, Alex: The Tesseract

Goodwin, Doris Kerns: Team of Rivals

Grisham, John: A Time to Kill

Hargreaves, Roger: Mr. Mischief

Harris, Thomas: Silence of the Lambs, 

                           Red Dragon

Hawking, Stephen: On the Shoulders of Giants

Hay, Sheridan: The Secret of Lost Things

Hayduke, George: Don't Get Mad, Get Even: The Big Book of Revenge

Heller, Joseph: Catch-22

Herman, Ellie: Pilates for Dummies

Hesse, Hermann: Steppenwolf

Homer: The Iliad

Hyde, Lewis: Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art

Jackson, John: The Black Book of Revenge:The Complete Manual of Hardcore Dirty Tricks and Schemes

Jonas, George: Vengeance

King, Stephen: Carrie, 

                         Full Dark, No Stars, 

                         Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

Kranz, Gene: Failure is Not an Option

Kunzru, Hari: The Impressionist

Logue, Mark and Peter Conradi: The King's Speech

Machiavelli, Niccolo: The Prince

MacLeod, Alister: No Great Mischief

Márquez, Gabriel García: One Hundred Years of Solitude

McBratney, Sam: You're All My Favorites, Guess How Much I love You

McEwan: Atonement

McLuhan, Marshall: The Medium is the Massage

Milton, John: Samson Agonistes, 

                       Paradise Lost

Moore, Christopher: The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, 

                                  Practical Demonkeeping

Moore, Alan: V for Vendetta

Nersesian, Arthur: The Fuck Up

Nietzsche, Friedrich: The Will to Power

Oxford, Kelly: Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar

Palahniuk, Chuck: Invisible Monsters: A Novel

Poe, Edgar Allen: The Cask of Amontillado, 

                              Pit and the Pendulum

Proust, Macel: À la recherche du temps perdu

Robbins, Anthony: Unlimited Power

Rowlling, JK: Harry Potter Prisoner Of Azkaban

Sagan, Carl: Contact

Samson, Rogelio : The Curly Hair Book: Or How Men Can Now Rock Their Waves, Coils And Kinks

Sendak, Maurice: Where the Wild Things Are

Shakespeare, William: Complete works

Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein

Speer, Albert: Inside the Third Reich

Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Tolkien, JRR: Lord of the Rings

Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace

Turow, Scott: Innocent

Walton, Nikki: Better Than Good Hair: The Curly Girl Guide to Healthy, Gorgeous Natural Hair!

White, TH: The Once and Future King

Wofford, Monica: Make Difficult People Disappear

Young, Toby: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People