Category Archives: Food

Geek-ly Roundup: Awesome Posts from Other Places

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Starting this week, I’m officially changing the format of the Geek-ly Roundup to make it a place where I promote other bloggers I follow. There are some great people writing awesome stuff about games, crafts, anime, etc., and I want to share their work with all of you on a regular basis. Each week from here on, I’m planning to highlight a post or two from several different blogs that I enjoy reading. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy these pieces, as well!

I think we’ll call that a wrap for the link roundup this time. I’m planning to do this every week (though not necessarily on the same day every time), so send me links to cool stuff if you think it should be featured.

One a Day #3: Girl Scout Cookie Crunch Bars!

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Earlier this year, the Internet was abuzz with articles heralding the coming of a new candy bar based on Girl Scout Cookies. Well, the Crunch bar/Girl Scout Cookie mashup arrived in stores this month, and I just have one thing to say: omnomnomnomnom…

Sorry, that was me finishing off my Samoa Crunch bar. Anyway, these things are absolutely fantastic. There are three different varieties of these limited run chocolates, each based on a different Girl Scout Cookie. Overall, the concept is brilliant: mash together two amazing junk foods, only sell the candy for a little while, and everyone will buy it. Well, it worked on me, anyway. Here are my thoughts on these tasty treats.

  • Peanut Butter Creme (AKA, Tagalongs): Though yummy, this is the weakest of the flavor trio. They remind me of those Little Debbie Nutty Bars I used to eat as a kid (not exactly a compliment). Then again, I was never a huge fan of Tagalongs.
  • Caramel & Coconut (AKA, Samoas): Wow. The Samoa Crunch bars are crazy sweet. I couldn’t eat more than half of one of these in one sitting. They do remind me a lot of the cookies they’re based on, though, so they get bonus points for that. These are pretty good.
  • Thin Mints (I guess they decided not to change the name on these.): These are the best of the batch. Thin Mints are my favorite Girl Scout Cookies, and the Crunch bar version doesn’t disappoint. They aren’t too sweet, and the minty flavor is perfect.

The bottom line? Nestle created a winning combination with these candy bars. They’re pretty true to the cookies, and they are just downright delicious. Have you tried these yet? What did you think?

Seriously, these things are amazing.

Whosday: Happy Fish Fingers and Custard Day!

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Oh, dear. It appears we have another holiday to celebrate.

The official Doctor Who Facebook Page has declared April 3rd to now and forever be Fish Fingers and Custard Day. It’s the second anniversary of the original airing of “The Eleventh Hour,” in which the Eleventh Doctor has little Amelia help him figure out what food he likes. Turns out, it’s fish fingers and custard.

 

Ick. Well, I’m assuming it’s gross, anyway. Some people must like it, because the fans have been posting response videos to that clip. I suppose I could give it a go sometime. Does anyone know if I can buy ready-to-eat custard in any US grocery stores? What? I’m just curious. (Read: supposedly it’s easy to make, but I’m recovering from a sinus bug and don’t want to cook if I don’t have to.)

Frankly, I think I’d rather make and eat these fish fingers from Bakingdom.

Aren’t they cute? And guess what? They’re COOKIES! If you think they look tasty, click on through the picture or the link above it and check out Darla’s recipe. (While you’re there, read the rest of her blog if you have time. She makes some of the cutest, most delicious looking baked goodies I’ve ever seen in my life. See that TARDIS in the background? That’s an apron she made! I haven’t had time to actually try out her recipes, but I tend to bookmark a lot of them for future use anyway.)

In any case, happy Fish Fingers and Custard Day. Have you tried this appalling sounding dish? If you have, was it better than it sounds? Also, feel free to share recipes for fake fish fingers that are actually sweets.

Happy Pi Day!

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Pi is my favorite number, so I always get excited when March 14th rolls around every year. (See what I did there? Rolls? Round things roll, round things are circular, the area of a circle is πr^2…)

If you’re looking for some fun ways to celebrate today’s awesomeness, search no further! Here are several amusing things you can do today to better enjoy this wonderful holiday.

1. Sing Pi Day songs. I remember a couple of these from middle school, when my geometry teacher let us bring in pies and make merry in celebration of our favorite number. For example, this classic, which is sung to the tune of Oh, Christmastree, was very popular:

Oh, number Pi, Oh, number Pi, Your digits are unending.
Oh, number Pi, Oh, number Pi, No pattern are you sending.
You’re three point one four one five nine,
And even more if we had time,
Oh, number Pi, Oh, number Pi, For circle lengths unbending.

There are some more Pi Day songs here and here. Happy caroling!

2. Eat pie. I really hope I can do this today. Might not be able to get to it until pretty late, but I’m going to try. Check out these awesome Pi Day pies. I did not make them, unfortunately.

3. Throw a Pi Day party. You can combine Pi Day songs, Pi Day pies, and even Pi Day drinks to have a very nerdy party. Check out this recipe from ThinkGeek. I suspect most of the fun is in the making.

Image from ThinkGeek. Yes, that is a Pi-shaped ice cube on the glass. Click the picture to see the tray it came from!

4. Do some brain teasers. Go play some Professor Layton (there’s always a circle puzzle in there somewhere), check out this site with a Pi Day sudoku board (it’s round), or check out the Pi Day challenge. No, I haven’t done the challenge puzzles.

5. Memorize digits of Pi. 100,000 of them here. Start memorizing!

You get the general idea, right? Do something fun involving Pi on its special day.

Do you have anything planned for Pi Day? Have you had any crazy Pi Day celebrations in the past?

(Fun fact: this post only took me about 15 minutes to put together…I needed a quick break from a research project and figured I’d test how fast I could finish it. I’m pretty proud of myself. :) )

Geek-ly Roundup: Cupcakes!

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I’m having a bit of a cupcake craving, so this week’s roundup is going to consist solely of delicious looking cupcake recipes. Let me know if you try any of these! Also, don’t forget about our Doctor Who craft contest, which ends September 30th. Check the contest page for details. Without further adieu…the cupcake recipes!

Mario cupcake scene! (via flickr)

Mario cupcake scene! (via flickr)

Food Fridays: Sugar Cookie Caramel Milkshake

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You might recall from a few posts ago that I made some pretty delicious TARDIS sugar cookies for our Doctor Who watch party. I had a ton of cookie scraps left over from when I cut the edges off to make them rectangular, so I’ve been making some really yummy sugar cookie caramel milkshakes out of them. I like to think of it as a twist on cookies and cream.

First, the ingredients.

Sugar cookie milkshake ingredients

Sugar cookie milkshake ingredients

You can use any caramel, sugar cookies, and milk that you want, but if you’re going to use vanilla ice cream, I highly recommend Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. That is the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had. I even like to eat it without toppings, and I’d never wanted plain vanilla before I tasted this stuff. It’s also wonderful on brownies and pie. :)

I used the amount of ice cream shown in the blender above (I think it was 4 scoops) for a milkshake just for myself, so you’d want to use a little more if you’re sharing. I’d say go easy on the milk at first, and add more until you achieve a consistency that you like.

Next, add cookies and caramel.

In the blender...

In the blender...

It’s pretty much trial and error here. I used what probably equates to 2 medium sized cookies, and I got a really nice sugar cookie flavor for the shake. I had to chew a little, so maybe next time I’ll use fewer cookie pieces. As for the caramel, I just added a couple of good squirts, and it worked out well.

I blended my ingredients on the blender’s “shake” setting. Here’s what it looked like in the glass.

Sugar cookie milkshake

Sugar cookie milkshake

One of the benefits of using blue cookies was that my milkshake was very colorful. It looks kind of like confetti! In any case, it was tasty, and I didn’t have to waste my TARDIS cookie leftovers. Double win in my book. :)

Have a good weekend!

Doctor Who is Back! (Spoiler Alert!)

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Last night I went to a really fun “Let’s Kill Hitler” watch party. In truth, we didn’t do much other than eat dinner and Who-themed desserts while watching the episode, but it doesn’t take more than that to be a fun party for me.

I’m going to share some pictures of the goodies we had at the party, and then I’m going to share some of what I thought of the episode. So beware…spoilers after the cupcakes!

I made TARDIS sugar cookies to bring to the party using a slightly modified version of this recipe at All Recipes. The modification? Blue food coloring. (I added it during the vanilla step.) I now know that food coloring doesn’t cut it for keeping the cookies blue as they bake, and I also realize I’m not the best icing decorator. I think they came out cute anyway.

Blue Sugar Cookie Dough

Blue Sugar Cookie Dough

I found that the easiest way to ensure the cookies came out as close to rectangles as possible was to just flatten them out myself before putting them in the oven.

Flattened dough

Flattened Dough

Oval-shaped Sugar Cookies

Oval-shaped Sugar Cookies

As soon as a batch finished, I cut the rounded parts off of each cookie to make them rectangles. Now I have a bunch of cookie bits and nothing to do with them…maybe I’ll make a milkshake. :)

Cutting off the rounded edges

Cutting off the rounded edges

Once I had all of my rectangular cookies, I decorated them with icing to make them into little TARDISes. I had a tube of the black icing, but I had to put the blue and white icings into plastic baggies and cut a corner to fake a real decorating bag. Still, I think they turned out pretty well for my first cookie decorating venture.

TARDIS Sugar Cookies!

TARDIS Sugar Cookies!

After the cookies were finished, I went over to my friend’s house to help her make dinner and cupcakes. She actually used a gel dye in her Blue Velvet cupcakes and I swear, those little beauties came out TARDIS blue. They were also absolutely delicious!

Blue Velvet Cupcakes, Pre-icing

Blue Velvet Cupcakes, Pre-icing

More of the blue velvet cupcakes

More of the blue velvet cupcakes

Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Blue Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

They're TARDIS blue!

They're TARDIS blue!

To make things even more Whovian, we had some really cute bowtie pasta with dinner.

Striped bowtie pasta!

Striped bowtie pasta!

Now that I’ve gotten through the awesome food part, let’s talk about the episode. (This is the part where you should leave if you don’t want to be spoiled. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it yet, you really should stop reading. Well, you’ve been warned.)

***Spoilers Ahead!***

I personally loved “Let’s Kill Hitler.” It was funny (“Rory, put the fuhrer in the closet.”), it tied up loose ends, and it created more questions.

I was pleased with the River Song explanations we were given. Now we know why she dies in “Forest of the Dead”: she used up all of her remaining regenerations on saving the Doctor. We also know that she was with her parents pretty much their whole lives in her previous regeneration (resulting in Amy naming her daughter after…her daughter), and we got to see her regenerate into the person we all know and love (at least in looks). The reason she became an archaeologist was explained as well: she wanted to look for the Doctor after he, Amy, and Rory left her to recuperate from using up all her regenerations. We also learned that the TARDIS herself taught Melody to fly. So, she really did learn from the best. :)

Melody’s regeneration was also quite amusing. Just like the Doctor, she checks to make sure she has all the parts she’s supposed to have. She plays with her hair in a similar way, and she even has the same reaction to new teeth.

There were some great Rory moments, which I loved, and there were some “Gah, why did you do that to Rory, Moffat?!” moments as well. Rory got to punch out Hitler, tell him to shut up, and stuff him in a closet, which was cool. He also apparently can drive a WWII era motorbike. But those bits of him as a kid…I felt so bad for him! Amy even thought he was gay, when in fact he’d just liked no one else but her the whole time. Poor guy.

Another interesting thing we learned in “Let’s Kill Hitler”: the Silence are in fact a religious group. So…does that mean the aliens from “The Impossible Astronaut” are not necessarily the Silence, but a part of the larger organization? Also, what is the ultimate question, and what happens when it is asked? (I could make a Hitchhiker’s Guide joke, but I’ll refrain from doing so.) These are just a couple of the many questions I have.

For example, if Melody ended up a toddler in New York last time she regenerated, how’d she get to Amy and Rory in the first place? How did the brainwashing happen? If this is her first meeting with the Doctor, where in their timeline will we see her again? (I’m pretty sure she’ll be back, so I wonder how they’ll work this out since they’re supposed to be meeting in the wrong direction.) Will River Song really kill the Doctor? Hopefully they aren’t setting up an end to the series. According to the Wikipedia article on regeneration, time lords get 12 regenerations, and he’s only used 10. Of course, Doctor Who kind of does what it wants, so that number could easily change.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season and having some of my questions answered. I also won’t be surprised if some of the “explanations” I’m so happy to have turn out to be completely untrue. They could easily be nothing more than an elaborate scheme to pull the Doctor and company into an even crazier death trap. But enough of what I thought…what do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts on Doctor Who’s return in the comments! :)