Five-fer Friday

Lately I have been cooking most of my meals at home and bringing my lunch to school regularly. I find myself eating much more fruit and veggies...even if one of those veggies is broccoli. Every week. Seriously. I go through like 4 stalks a week between cooking with it and snacking on it. I like broccoli.

As part of preparing more of my own food, I have been planning what I make. I literally write down what I plan to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner each week. That way I know what I need to get from the store ahead of time, and I have actually been using up things and not throwing away spoiled food. To help broaden my food horizons, I have been trying new things or retrying things I haven't had in years. So today's five-fer is five of the new foods I have tried (or retried as it were...)

1. Almond Butter--now I love peanut butter, I actually don't eat it all that often, but it is just delicious and comforting. And, come on!, a PB&J sandwich with a glass of milk? Delightful. I had been wanting to try almond butter for awhile. I rationalized: I like peanut butter, I like almonds. The kind I bought was a "no stir" kind (I guess more of the non-national brand nut butters tend to separate and need to be stirred). The oil used for it is a little strong tasting, but I really like the flavor of the almond. This particular nut butter isn't as sweet as the national PB brands (think: Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc) so it actually pairs well with some uber-sweet strawberry freezer jam I made this summer. So I will be eating more AB&J sandwiches!
2. Star Fruit--I remember as a kid liking star fruit...and it was awesome, because when sliced it was...STAR SHAPED! I saw some at the HT and bought one. I got it home, sliced it all up...took one bite...and threw the rest away. It could have been I got a under- or overripe fruit. Or maybe I just don't like it. That coupled with how expensive they are...I won't be buying star fruit again.
3. Non White Rice--I like rice. Seriously. It is my preferred carb (ahead of potatoes, bread and pasta). I have always just bought long grain white rice. Because that's American. But then I thought I'd give some other rices a chance, especially since I bought a cheapie rice cooker (on sale for $6...woot!) and can just throw in the rice and water and press a switch and walk away. So I saw this brown basmati and red rice mix...that had some other stuff like barely pearls or something. I thought that's a good thing to try. And, I don't hate the stuff, I actually like the texture of it--some stuff in the mix has a slight crunch to it (not crunchy, really, just you know, more substantial than fluffy white rice). But alas, I can't deny it. I am a white-rice kinda girl.
4. Onigiri--I will seriously OD on this stuff sometime soon. Onigiri are basically rice balls. They can have fillings or not. You take sushi rice (or any shorter grain rice that will stick together--brown or white) and make it into a ball, put a little filling in there (anything salty and not too oily or watery, I've had tuna+mayo and dill relish+mayo) make sure the filling it inside the rice and press it all together. You can shape it into the more traditional triangle shape and there are even fun molds where you can shape them....like...as an elephant's head! Hee! (and yes...I have bought that mold so I can have elephant-head shaped onigiri). It sounds so basic and not particularly delicious...but I find this stuff magical. Seriously. The next filling I plan to try is crab+avocado. I can't wait. It excites me.
5. "Sesame Brittle"--there is this pancake mix I LOVE that I get at World Market. I had ran out over the weekend so I went to stock up on more. While I was at World Market, I had to browse around. I found this little sesame candy thing. It was like $0.50, so I thought I'd give it a whirl (cause...I like sesame seeds!) This stuff is best described as sesame brittle. Except, as opposed to peanut brittle where it's a handful of peanuts in a sea of brittle, this stuff is a little rectangle of sesame seeds bound together with the stuff. So basically you get the bit of sweetness with the brittle part, but you can still definitely taste the sesame seeds. This stuff is my new favorite candy stuff. Each pack comes with 4 rectangles (that are about the size a domino, albeit much thinner). I somehow rationed those 4 rectangles to last 3 days. Heh. This weekend I will definitely be stocking up.

Late Night Fill of Phil (hee! pun!)

Ok, that was a lame title. Get over it.

As has been our relationship (via tv, that is), I spent another late night with Phil Dalhausser (oh yeah...and I guess he has a partner to...that guy..with the facial hair...or just hair in general, really). But this late night ended with Phil and the Hairy One getting gold medals in men's beach volleyball.

So, with the last crushing spike of the ball (by my beloved, Phil) that won the third match and thus won the gold, there erupted much excitement...and...much man touching.

Many guys have some sort of phobia about touching other men, unless there are balls and stuff involved (double entendre included). In sports, it is ok to pat your teammate on the ass. Granted, you also probably throw in a fist bump to keep up the macho-ness, but ass-touching is A-ok!

Winning the gold brought out the man touching. Here is the proof. Now, that is extreme man touching. Live it was more of a man-tackle turning into a deep, exciting, horizontal man-embrace.

I don't mean anything negative about it...but it's true. Yes they just freakin' won an olympic gold medal, and honestly, I'd probably soil myself if I was in that position. But the man love was in full force.

Consequently, in an earlier blog, I was wishy-washy about me finding Dalhausser attractive. After seeing his official team photo time and time and time again, I am no longer wishy-washy. Phil Dalhausser is an attractive guy.

So Phil, call me!

Five-fer Friday

It's that time of the week! This Five-fer will be a movie review of Redbox movies. I have finally rented 5 movies from the Redbox and I will now list them starting with my least favorite and ending on my favorite.

Redbox Movies

1. Flawless--Ok, so I must first confess that I was thinking this movie was another movie. But when I realized it wasn't the movie I thought it was (this was when it got to the DVD main menu) I saw it had Michael Cain in it (that's usually a good sign) and had Demi Moore in it (I thought...meh). It's not a bad movie, it's ok. It just kinda feels like it's been done before (story-wise).
2. Juno--I had high expectations for this movie, so that might sway my thoughts a little bit. It was a good movie, I just didn't think it was great. I was happy that what I thought was the best part of the plot they don't even hint at in all the previews. It's definitely a movie that most people would want to watch though. I just didn't think it was as great as the media portrayed it to be.
3. Meet Bill--I was hesitant about this movie because of Jessica Alba. I feel she is kinda 'meh' and you know, just could bring the movie down (I feel this way about Jessica Simpson too--I liked the story of Employee of the Month, but think that she is so idiotic and overrated that I didn't like the movie AT ALL). Anywho, the description of this movie on the Redbox thingy was spot on. It's kinda one of those movies that's not great, not bad, but there is just something charming about it. Aaron Eckhart is great in this movie, and his facial expressions are so funny. There are several laugh out-loud moments in this movie (which wasn't so good when one was right after I took a big sip of coffee and ended up spitting it all over myself).
4. The Other Boleyn Girl--This movie took multiple trips to the Redbox to get. I felt it was such a good movie. I tend to enjoy fictionalized history movies (you know, based on real events but with some creative license to the details), so this is right up my ally. I thought the storyline and acting in the movie was great--one minute you would feel bad for one of the Boleyn sisters (which, side note, I didn't realize Anne Boleyn had a sister!), the next you felt she was getting what she deserved. I thought Eric Bana was great playing Henry VIII (more than just the chubby, tyrannical guy you typically see in picture of Henry VIII). I will be watching this movie again (might buy it at some point).
5. Waitress--I Loved Loved Loved! this movie. It was so cute. You'll laugh one minute, cry the next. I think Keri Russel did a fantastic job in this movie. Plus, Nathan Fillion is pretty easy on the eyes. You should definitely watch this movie! I will buy it the first time I see it in a store(oh, Target, why don't I ever see it in your store!)--I don't care if it cost $20 or whatever. LOVE this movie.

Yay! Cookies!

So I was all eager with my Nicole vs. Cupcake blog idea. I even baked 2 different cupcakes and wrote the blog entries all up. But since blogger will not let me have my fun and post pictures, the cupcake baking is put on the back burner.

But that doesn't mean I'm not baking. I find something theraputic about making stuff from scratch (well, really measuring out stuff and watching my stand mixer do all the work).

Every Christmas, my department has a cookie extravaganza. Basically it's "bake stuff and bring it into the office for everyone else to eat." This is good/bad because I am in the lab closest to the office, and we have some terrific bakers in the department. So normally I make snickerdoodles. I tried making the same recipe, that has given me GLORIOUS results every Christmas, a few weeks back and it was just kinda...eh. Not bad but not GLORIOUS. I tried another recipe and the same thing. I think it might have something to do with the temp/humidity level in the summer vs. the winter that is affecting the texture and all.

Anywho, so I decided to find some new cookie to bake. Why not chocolate chip? The recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag is meh. It's ok...but not that great in my opinion. I found another recipe online for what was supposed to be the best chocolate cookie EVER. So, just to be safe I compared it to the Tollhouse recipe and there were a couple of differences and I decided to give it a whirl.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have found my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Recipe by Rachel Rappaport at Coconut and Lime. I added my changes/notes in green.

1 cup + 6 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt (I use table salt without iodine)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz. chocolate chips (yeah...I never measure this out, I just kinda dump them in. Most bags are 12 oz, I try to estimate 2/3 of the bag)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray one cookie sheet with spray oil (I use butter flavored faux Pam). Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (I start the butter and sugars creaming in my stand mixer, then measure out everything else and spray my cookie sheet, unfortunately, I haven't timed how long this takes me--but my end color is much lighter than even light brown sugar). Add the egg and vanilla and combine thoroughly. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the sweetened butter. Once combined, add chips and distribute evenly using the mixer on the lowest setting (ok, I make sure I am right by my mixer when I do this because sometimes it will hit a chunk of chip-filled dough just right and my mixer will jerk. I don't think it would fall over or anything, but in case anyone has this issue...my mixer will occasionally rock). Form cookies by dropping 1 tsp of dough on the sheet two inches apart. Smoosh them down a little then bake until light brown, about 12 minutes. (I use a cookie scoop (essentially a mini ice cream scoop) I'm not sure what size it is, but I generally get a between 24-30 cookies out of a batch, so it's close to a tsp). With the fresh dough I only bake 8 minutes and they are perfect--except for the left most cookies are a little extra brown at the edges, but that's just because my lovely apartment oven doesn't heat evenly)



Now, I have never baked the entire batch at one time. There is a definite decline in the absolute tastiness of the baked cookie as it sits over a few days. So I scoop out the entire batch and freeze most of them in tupperware. That way, when I want some fresh baked cookies, I just pop a couple on a cookie sheet and voila! Now, for my frozen dough I like my cookies medium rare. So for my perfectly medium rare cookies, I turn on my oven to 350. Plop the cookies onto a butter-flavored faux-Pamed patch of foil (I am lazy and don't like doing dishes) and put them in the oven (I know the oven is not warm yet, this is just my process). I take them out 11 minutes later and they are perfectly medium rare. Now, I find that with the cookies being medium rare, they do better to sit for about 10 minutes after coming out of the oven, just so they can "set" a little more. This will all be different based on the behaviour of your oven and how you like your cookies. If you have a built-in light for your oven, use it. That way you can at least get a sense of how far along in the process they are cooking (ie--how much they have spread out). It's always better to open the door as few times as possible.

I have made this recipe several times and it has not failed me yet. It's pretty quick and easy to get from start to warm cookies. Try it, you'll thank me (and Rachel for actually coming up with the recipe)

Hip Hip Hooray! (not to be confused with Hip Hop Hooray)

This is an obligatory Olympics post. There are rules that all bloggers must discuss it. Well, technically I already have, but more more more!

So, Mr. Phelps has secured himself a spot in the record books for winning 8 gold medals in one Olympics. And a couple of those races were nut cutters. I think it makes it more interesting that he just squeaked out a couple of his gold medals as opposed to him just completely obliterating the field.

Also, Walter Dix, who I mentioned waaay back when I talked about the US Track and Field Olympic Trials, won bronze in the 100m men's event! Yay! I was so excited, him being a fellow FSU alum and all. So, whenever they were talking about Walter Dix, they usually mentioned FSU. This is how it would unfold:

Random Announcer #1: in lane 3 is Walter Dix, who recently was running in the NCAA at FSU (insert a squee from me)
Random Announcer #2: Walter Dix, who ran for FSU (insert squee from me), usually finishes better than he is expected too
RA#1: Walter Dix needs to run his races better, he is no longer at FSU (me: squee!)

You get the picture.

Also, the Olympics are seriously getting me on a bad sleeping cycle. I mean, I absolutely MUST stay up to 1:30am so I can watch Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser play beach volleyball. (side note: is it just me or is there something oddly attractive about Phil Dalhausser, the man is freakin' tall and all...and I wouldn't say he is uber hot or anything...but yet, I find myself staying up until 1:30am to watch him....if it was just Todd Rogers...eh). But staying up until 1:30am and then trying to get up by 8:00am. Not fun. Not pretty in regard to the dark circles and under eye puffiness from the lack of sleep. But it's ok. I'll still stay up late to watch Phil Dalhausser.

Since I've segued into Olympic boys who I find cute....I absolutely ADORE Brendan Hansen. So, ok, that's not the best photo...but he's in a speedo...hee! Anywho...he is so adorable. I felt so bad for him when he didn't get a spot in the 200m breaststroke at the US trials and then didn't medal in the 100m breaststroke. So sad. Plus, now that swimming is over...it's even MORE sad because I won't see him on tv now.

Five-fer Friday

Last week, I told you about my celeb man crushes. Well, ladies, now it's your turn. Same rules apply as last time: only a couple of girls are long-termers on this list, this list is subject to change based on my whims.

Female Celeb Crushes

1. Mandy Moore--I just think she is so pretty. She looks good with varying hair colors and lengths. It just makes me jealous. Especially when I bring in a photo of her hair to my hair girl and say "I want that hair" and hair girl informs me that my hair looks nothing like Mandy Moore's hair. Exactly.
2. Rachel Bilson--This girl is cute as a button. She is a wee thing and she is just so gosh darn cute. I imagine I'd want to pick her up and put her in my pocket. Or something.
3. Kiera Knightley--Ok, so I know Kiera can sometimes look really emaciated. And she tends to talk through her teeth. But I just think she's pretty. And I like the movies she's been in. And I included this particular picture (that although isn't a shot of her face) because it shows the stunning stunning green dress from Atonement.
4. Rachel McAdams--I also just think she is so so pretty. And I am a fan of the movies she's been in...especially Mean Girls. Hee! Oh...don't hate...you know you like that movie too!
5. Tina Fey--What is not to love about Tina Fey? She's pretty. She's smart. She's funny. I love her in glasses too.

Mais non, bitches!

So, first off, let me state that I am soooo on Team Phelps. I am all for this guy winning 8 freakin' gold medals at the Olympics.

Anywho, so last night was the final of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. This was one of the races that Michael Phelps did not win gold in last year (the US team got bronze). The US team was not favored to win this event--the French team was.

But then, one of the French swimmers, Alain Bernard, supposedly said something about how the French were not worried about the Americans because they were going to smash the US team.

It was an amazing race and the US team won the gold by 0.08 seconds. As well as crushing the WR by something like 4 seconds (although, to be fair, the top 5 teams in that final all swam faster than the old WR).

So that's 2 gold medals for Phelps, with 6 more events to go!

Five-fer Friday

Today I will share my five male celebrity crushes. Now, I must say that this list might change next week (or really, tomorrow). Only a couple of the people are long-termers. Some come and go depending on if they've been in movies/tv/whatever recently or you know, I watched some old movies they are in.

Famous Boy/Man Crushes

1.) Jim Gaffigan. The LOVE of my life. He's a comedian. He's older. He's freakishly pale. He wears women's blouses. And thongs. It's love. I hugged him once. It was magical. (I would post a picture...but blogger hates my pictures.) Just search on youtube for his name and "hot pockets" or "holidays." The "hot pockets" bit is probably his most famous one. My favorite bit is his "holidays" bit. I love him...there is nothing more to say.

2.)Colin Firth. He's adorable. British. Seems like a nice guy (in person and all). And how could you not love him after Bridget Jones's Diary??? And in Love Actually? And in Pride and Prejudice? And in like, everything he's been in. So cute.

3.) John Krasinski. He's cute. He has an essence of dork to him. I love him on The Office and I am deeply involved in the Pam/Jim romance on that show. Uh...I guess he can get bonus points because he is close in age to me? Heh.

4.) Henry Ian Cusick. He plays Desmond David Hume on Lost. (and I love me some Lost!) He is so dreamy. He's (half) Scottish (I think Irish and Scottish accents are the sexiest thing EVER). He just oozes man sexy.

5.) James Marsden. He's a more recent one, being in 27 Dresses. But he just has some classic good looks to him. And he has a really nice smile and his eyes get all crinkly and squinty. Two things I love (nice smiles and squinty eyes).

Booo Storms!

There were some crazy storms that popped up Saturday afternoon. Heavy rain, strong winds and hail.

It knocked power out, knocked down huge trees/tree branches--general storm shenanigans.

There were some trees that got damaged in my apartment complex, but thankfully not the one right outside my apartment (because I would have definitely ended up with a tree branch through the window).

But it did break my poor little tomato plant stalk. Before I was even able to get a single tomato! (and there were about 10 little green guys just waiting to ripen). Can you make fried green tomatoes out of little cherry tomatoes? You know, instead of slices just little balls of fried green tomatoes? Hmmm...

Five-fer Friday

I had another list that I was going to post today, but I decided to save it for another week. Today's Five-fer Friday is just a list of random things on my brain today, because my brain is random, at best, today.

1. my usually questionable/weird data is still being so. I was so excited about the potential results from this new batch of experiments, and while the results might still pan that way, my excitement has fallen a notch or two. Luckily, my advisor is still optomistic enough to keep me going.
2. I write a post about Cute Boy. And who do I see like 10 minutes later? Cute Boy. It was just basically a glance because I was in the middle of something and didn't have time to stop and say hi. But I saw him. And he saw me. The dorky behaviour will continue.
3. Ok. John McCain complains that the media is devoting more time covering Barack Obama than him. So first the media reports on the fact that they are spending more time covering Barack Obama and not John McCain. Then John McCain paid for advertisements that spend most of the time focusing on Barack Obama. If the media reporting bias is there...how about this...1) the media back off on the Obama time and 2) McCain air advertisements that tell us who he is and what he is about...as opposed to spending millions to talk about Obama.
4. Tax free weekend is upon us. I will definitely be stocking up on some pens, sharpies, highlighters and legal pads. Plus I'm going to buy a bigger jump drive (mine is just a wee 128MB...I've had it since that was an acceptable size). Plus if I find any clothing that suits my fancy (just basic, everyday stuff) I will purchase that too. And with no tax. Woot. It's too bad that I haven't found a new laptop yet--then I would buy that this weekend too. But I'm not rushing the new laptop purchase, I want to make sure I get exactly what I want.
5. It's August.