A few of my favorite things...

For no particular reason, I felt the need to share some of my favorite things. :-)

1. On the rare occasion that I have time to read, some of my favorite books are ones that present normal ideas in a different light. One example is from Outliers, in which the author explains why professional hockey players in Canada all tend to have January/February birthdays. The reason that author Malcolm Gladwell noticed was because children's hockey leagues' age cutoffs are in December. Hence, the oldest, most developed children are the ones with Jan/Feb birthdays. Each chapter follows a different phenomenon. All of Gladwell's books follow similar topics. Freakonomics is another book in the same vein.

2. I am a faithful coupon clipper, (though I'm not quite as much of a genius as some) and I LOVE getting a good deal. I've discovered that you have to know how to work the system in the right places in order to get the best deal. My best recent example of this was last week when I got a pint of Starbucks ice cream (usually $4.49) and I had three coupons for it that took off $4 of the price. Luckily, I had a great checker at Safeway who ignored the fact that all the coupons were expired AND let me use multiple coupons for one thing :-) Can't beat $0.49 ice cream :-)

3. Since I've been on fall break, I've worked out every day, trying to get outside as much as possible. To keep my head busy while I'm working out, I've been catching up on my favorite podcast, Stuff You Should Know. A smattering of interesting facts of learned from it recently: employer-based health care started as a method of pre-paying for pregnancy/birth care for female teachers in the 20s; sarcopenia (or some of the physical effects of aging-stooping, drooping, some pain, etc.) can be reversed and prevented with physical exercise; and that the original Muppet Show characters can be directly correlated to characters on 30 Rock. :-)

4. Also, on fall break, I've baked bread a LOT. My goal has been to bake every day :-) So far, I've made zwiebach, pizza crust, bagels, and hopefully pumpkin chocolate chip bread from Simply in Season before the week is out :-) It does my heart good to see dough rising (I'm never sure it actually will) and then the smell of baking bread is unbeatable!

5. Finally, the most relaxing part of fall break has been catching up on my favorite TV shows (I LOVE the DVR) including The Office ("R is a very threatening letter. That's why it's called murrrderr and not muckduck."), Ugly Betty (Tu mama scared the living jesús out of me!), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("What do you want Frank, you fascist meat hog?"), Parks and Recreation ("Viva Mayor John Gunderson!") and Glee ("Not everyone has the walnuts to take a pro-littering stance, but I will not rest until every square inch of our state is covered in trash. That's why I pay taxes. It keeps garbage men earning a living, so they can buy tacos for their family.") Laughter is the best medicine, right? :-)

And, an added bonus favorite thing, one of my favorite blogs to read is 1000awesomethings.com, which is dead on, and so funny!!

What are some of your favorites?

You Right to Jail!

After a discussion at supper group tonight about the ridiculous situation the economy in, and how much responsibility the banks hold, we decided that the only thing that would make us feel better is if they went to jail. Which reminded me of this clip from last week's Parks and Recreation, which is a great show, by the way. (Especially if you like The Office.)

By the way, this is the recipe for the cookies I made for dessert, a great fall cookie :-)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Can't stop!

So, I'm basically in love with this recipe I found for poppy seed dressing (and yes, that's the extent of the excitement in my life). Because of it, I haven't stopped eating spinach/strawberry salad for like a week! (Also, I've served it to basically everyone who has walked through my door, which is a lot, as of late.)

I think it's a good recipe in general, but it's awesome with some champagne melon vinegar I got on clearance at SuperTarget a LONG time ago. :-) As usual, the recipe came from Allrecipes.

Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 c. mayo or Miracle Whip (I've been using mayo)

1/4 c. milk

1/4 c. sugar

2 T. vinegar

1 T. poppy seeds

Whisk all ingredients together and chill. Makes approximately 1 c. of dressing.

The only thing I've been changing is the amount of milk, because it keeps ending up really thin for me. However, as I type this, it occurs to me that maybe I could add some kind of thickener (cornstarch, flour, etc.) Have to try that...

Funky Photos

Ok, I'm just a touch obsessed with this website, www.funkyphotos.com See below :-)

Fall in AZ

Reasons I know fall is approaching in Arizona:

(And yes, there are places in Arizona that can look like this, though I took this picture in Boston last year.)

1. Ben has vegetable seedings planted in cups, ready to go into the ground.

2. Steve is searching my cupboards for tea.

3. Just went to church retreat :-)

4. Nighttime lows are under 80 degrees!!!!!!

5. Mornings and evenings are incredible.

6. My students are no longer angels.

7. Monsoon season is gone (and the humidity), which means my skin is instantaneously dry.

8. It gets dark at 6:30.

9. We vote on the church budget. Again.

10. Darla and I start considering making pumpkin homemade ice cream.

11. The Office is on again!!

12. We can sit outside at restaurants again (withOUT misters!)

13. The Diamondbacks are not in the playoffs. Again.

14. Mexican Independence Day gets celebrated in AZ (Sept 15)

15. Ben's birthday (Sept 25)

16. We start dreaming about wearing sweaters.

17. I start pondering what to get people for Christmas.

18. My kids start obsessing about the state fair.

19. We start obsessing about seeing the Figure 8 Races at the fair :-)

20. Ben and I start taking tandem rides :-)

Pie in my face!

I don't know why, but I had a craving for some old-school Coconut Cream Pie. This is even more odd, given my distaste for making pie crust. But, I figured the pie was calling my name, and who was I to deny a pie it's one true calling (to be in my stomach)? Hence, on my (awesome!) day off today, I made this recipe from allrecipes.com. By some stroke of luck, it turned out great (and now I want another piece of "pie in my face") so now I'm sharing the recipe with you. See what you think! [This is with the changes I made, below.]

By the way, best new trick I learned in the kitchen recently: Using a fine-mesh shaker container (which I had previously VERY occasionally been using for powdered sugar) for flour instead. Then you can use it to flour the counter or whatever without dumping a whole cup of it onto the counter and it being all clumpy, etc. And it's pretty :-) Don't know where I read this, but I've used it several times this week, including with the pie crust! :-)

Old-Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

1 14 oz can. Coconut milk

Enough milk, half & half, or cream to make a total of 3 cups (along with coconut milk)

3 egg yolks

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 c. cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked

1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Combine coconut milk, other milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in microwaveable container. Microwave for 5-7 minutes, stirring every minute, until mixture is thickened to a pudding consistency. Then fold in 1 1/4 c. toasted coconut and vanilla. Pour coconut mixture into baked pie shell and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Spread thawed whipped topping on top and sprinkle with remaining toasted coconut.

NOTE: To toast coconut, spread on ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until browned.

By the way, I was telling Darla about this pie, and she said, oh, was it the one from More With Less? I went back and looked, and realized I had made that one previously and loved it. It is made with more eggs, no crust (it "bakes it's own crust), and is baked instead of chilled. I'd forgotten how good it is, so I might have to make that one sometime soon too! :-)

Couldn't Do That Again If You Tried!

I can not get over this picture. (The cat in the piano tops it on the surprise-meter, but this is just about as funny!) I really have nothing to say about it, except that I am sharing it with you all for the joy of it :-)

For reference: this came to me by way of my iGoogle page, in which I have a Photo of the Day feed from National Geographic. Most of the pictures are pretty or interesting, but this one just cracked me up. I use them from time to time with my students. I haven't figured out how I'll use this one yet, but I'll spring this on them when they least expect it :-)