New Moon! New Moon!

Can you tell I'm excited about the new movie in the Twilght series? *wg*

Coca-Cola in your cake???

Have you ever thought of using Coca-Cola as an ingredient in your next cake? How about Kellogg cornflakes or Quacker oatmeal? I was surfing the web for brownie recipes and tumble across these recipes using...er...unusual ingredients. Read below and see what I mean. *wg* Frothy Coca-Cola and Banana Cake Ingredients: Cake 3 medium eggs 1/2 cup(s) light brown sugar 1/3 cup(s) Coca-Cola 1 1/4 cup(s) self-rising flour 1 cup(s) ground almonds A few drops of vanilla extract 3 large bananas, well mashed 5 tablespoon(s) butter, melted, plus extra for greasing Meringue 4 medium egg whites Pinch of salt 1 teaspoon(s) cream of tartar 1/3 cup(s) Coca-Cola 1 cup(s) light brown sugar 2 tablespoon(s) light brown sugar, combined with above sugar Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the cake pan or line it with parchment paper. 2. To make the cake, beat the eggs, sugar, and Coca-Cola in a mixer set to high speed for 5 minutes. You want the mixture to be completely frothed up. 3. Gently fold in the flour, almonds, and vanilla extract with a spatula. Then fold in the mashed banana, followed by the cooled melted butter. Transfer the mixture into the prepared cake pan. 4. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove from the pan and leave to cool on a wire rack. 5. To make the meringue, beat the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the mixer, again at high speed, until whisked up into soft peaks. Leave the meringue in the mixer while you melt the sugar. To do this, add the Coca-Cola to the sugar in a small saucepan, then heat gently until the liquid reaches 240°F (or what is known as "soft ball stage"), stirring continuously. Do not perform any other kitchen activities while you are doing this — it needs your undivided attention. 6. Now turn the mixer back on, but this time on a slow setting. Slowly pour most of the melted sugar into the whisked egg whites. 7. Now put the lid on the mixture and turn it up to full speed. After you have whisked the meringue for a minute or two, it should have the consistency of spreadable polystyrene (if such a thing existed!). Spread the meringue evenly over the cooled cake, pulling it into artful peaks. 8. This cake is best eaten within a few hours of making it, but will keep for 24 hours in the fridge. Cornflake Macaroons Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup(s) desiccated coconut, plus a little extra to roll the balls in 3/4 cup(s) Kellogg's cornflakes 2 extra-large egg whites 3/4 cup(s) superfine sugar 1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract Pinch of sea salt Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. 2. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl with your fingers, crushing the cornflakes as you go. 3. Wash your hands, then with your fingers still damp, firmly shape the mixture into golf ball-sized spheres. Roll each ball in a little shredded coconut. 4. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. These light delights will store in an airtight container for a few days but they are best eaten on the same day. Fish Sticks Coated with Oats and Cornflakes with Hellmann's Tartar Tartar Sauce 2 tablespoon(s) Hellmann's mayonnaise 1 tablespoon(s) chopped dill Juice of 1/2 lemon 1 teaspoon(s) Colman's dry mustard 1 teaspoon(s) capers, chopped 1 medium gherkin, finely chopped Freshly ground black pepper Fish Sticks 7 ounce(s) cod fillet, cut into strips Small pile of flour 1 egg, beaten 3/4 cup(s) Quaker oats 1/2 cup(s) Kellogg's cornflakes, crunched up in your hand Oil, for deep frying Directions: 1. First, make the sauce: Simply place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 2. To make the fish sticks, lightly coat the cod strips in the flour. Make sure that when you do this the fillets are not too wet. Pat them dry with a paper towel first if necessary. 3. Combine the oats and crunched-up cornflakes in a shallow bowl. Dip a strip of fish in the egg so that it is coated, then dip it into the oat and cornflake mixture and roll it around until it is covered. Repeat with the rest of the fish strips. 4. Deep-fry the fish fingers in moderately hot oil (350 degrees F) for 5–6 minutes, or until golden brown. Don't crowd the pan — cook in batches if necessary. 5. Serve the fish with the tartar sauce. Skippy Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 cup(s) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2/3 cup(s) light brown sugar 1 egg, beaten 3/4 cup(s) self-rising flour 1 1/2 tablespoon(s) self-rising flour, combined with above flour 1/2 cup(s) Quaker oats 2 tablespoon(s) (heaping) Nutella 2 tablespoon(s) (heaping) Skippy smooth peanut butter Butter, for greasing Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the baking sheet with butter. 2. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat them together until pale. Add the egg gradually, beating with the spoon as you go. 3. Add the flour and the oats and mix well. Finally, add the Nutella and Skippy. Don't mix in the spreads completely; they need to be nice and swirly. 4. Use a tablespoon to place blobs of cookie mixture on the baking sheet, making sure that they are well spaced as the dough spreads during cooking. Bake for 10–12 minutes until slightly browned. 5. Let the cookies cool before removing them from the baking sheet, otherwise they will disintegrate. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

Friday World Wildlife Fund Raising

This is the last Friday of the month, and here I'm bringing awareness to another wild animal that is in danger and needs your help. Since tomorrow is Halloween, I thought the vampire bat would a good choice. *wg* Help save them! Adopt a Vampire Bat Vampire Bat facts: Vampire bats inhabit the tropics and subtropics ranging from Mexico to Argentina and Chile. They are parasites and feed exclusively on the blood of other species, including livestock and wild animals. Vampire bats have 22 teeth, but use only about half of the sharpest ones for feeding. They peel back a small sliver of skin on their prey and use their long tongues to lap up the blood. Developing more slowly than other species, the young will often nurse for as long as nine months and may only reach maximum weight after several years.

Another landmark in my life gone

Man, I remember when the Internet was young back in the 90s. There were barely any websites out, Netscape was the first commercial browser, cyberspace felt like more like a small town, and Yahoo was the only search engine. Yeah, here I'm talking about the good old days. *winks* hehehe! And for those of us who were starting to explore this new world and experiment with website creation didn't have any places where to host them. Until Geocities came out in 1985! It was one of the first places which host websites for free. Gosh, I remember that they had these neighborhoods named after cities like HotSprings, Athens, SoHo, and Tropics. See, the idea was to group websites by content, although after a while people chose to put their websites in whichever neighborhood was available. Hehehe! Anyway, each neighborhood had a number of "lots" where you could build your website. I parked mine in Athens 8623. Yep, I became a "homesteader" (that was what you were called back in late 1986), and my first website went up at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8623/. Hahaha! My first attempt at a website was...well...pathetic. Heh! Oh, I did have the whole HTML down, but the images... UGH! Yeah, visually it sucked. But not for long! With the help of a couple of graphic artists, I began to experiment with PhotoShop and then posted my "creations" on my Geocities account. It was an exciting time, you know. It was all about experimenting...and learning. Heck, it was fun! I found out that Geocities is closing its doors today. *sighs* It's kind of sad, you know? Although I've not been to by it in a long time, I feel like a part of me is gone. Good bye, Geocities! It was really fun. And thank you... *getting teary*

A vamp movie for Halloween

Here I thought I'd not have something fun to see this October and along comes The Vampire's Assitant.

So big strike?

Today the unions and all those who work for the government were going on strike to protest about the 30,000 employees getting laid off starting next month. They claimed that they'd paralyzed the island. And of course as always people panic. (Thanks to the Well, the strike came and went. Here was business as usual. Other than for the public schools being closed (and therefore, the traffic being lighter than usual), it was just like any other day. Yep... Too much panic, not much of much.

Counting blessings

Since I've been in my new job, I've been under a lot of stress (which has caused me severe back pains) and extremely overworked. But with the economy as it is and 30,000 people getting laid off starting next month, I should take a good look at what I've got and shouldn't complain too much. So after the meeting with the Big Kahuna this afternoon, I should be thankful that at least I still have a job *knocks on wood* and don't have to worry about how I'll pay my bills and mortgage. And I also should be thankful that I'm getting a raise.