My true love

Alton Brown will be at the orange county fair on Thurs, July 29 at 5:30PM. I will also have to find a way to be there. I think i may have a convienent 3:30 doctors appointment that day.

They couldn't possibly have picked a stupider time to schedule him. oh well, it'll be worth it.

anyone else want to come?

edible lamps

This weekend on "While You Were Out," instead of paying the money for stained glass they decided to make something that would look similar. they took some sort of acetate, lined up gummy bears in an attractive pattern and melted them in the microwave. Now it was unclear how they enclosed these now melted gummy bears, but somehow they added another sheet of acetate, bent it into a half cylinder and made 2 wall mounted lamps out of it.

It was definitely cool, because it's not my house. I hope those people don't have ants.

Why don't I have a better job?

I don't understand.

I've been doing a lot of faxing lately and maybe that will be a separate post, but since I've been standing by the fax machines I've had lots of time to go through the box that they put resumes in. Currently there are only 5 resumes/cover letters in the box but they all have very, very basic grammar errors. I don't understand why they couldn't just press spell check, or grammar check. Because it would have caught these problems.

Meanwhile my resume is pristine, clear and simple. I don't use big words for the sake of using big words (like 2:5 of the resumes). Everything is spelled correctly. When I write my cover letters I never say crap like "Please call me so we can discuss how my capabilities can be applied to the realization of your companys goals" [yes, company plural, not company posessive]

Am I doing something wrong? Should I make major grammar errors. Should I be wordy and vague? Should I sound like a person who has never written anything in my life and make it seem doubtful that 7:10 times I can form complete thoughts into complete sentences?

I am very glad I am going back to school. And maybe in a year I'll quit working and do it full time. Because one thing is obvious. I need to be in a supervising and hiring position. And if people call to inquire about resumes they sent that weren't up to my standards then I will tell them that we don't hire people who have more than 2 errors in their resume and maybe they should think about having someone proof read it for them.

I don't understand why I can't get a better job if this is the caliber of people out there. Is it because I refuse to use buzzwords?

I'm going to hang out by the fax and wait for more resumes, and memorize these people's names. If they get hired, I may just have to quit.

p.s. I'm well aware that my blog is nowhere near perfect gramatically, and most of the time i can't be bothered to use capital letters. It is NOT a resume though, and the only job it will find me is when I become famous and they publish it as a book.

more is better

3 razor blades really are better than two. who knew? I'm glad I ran out of my normal razors and found something new around the house. I'm now a believer.

McLunch

Just when I thought I was safe, and wouldn't have to eat at McDonalds for a while they bring back $1 chicken nugget tuesdays. I will not go today. Next week is another story though.

burn baby burn

I finally did it. I was a little too hasty with my spring rolls and I finally got a small burn on my wrist from the 350 degree oil. Oh well, it's hardly noticeable and I'm hardly dying. It was totally my fault, no fault of the deep fryer, except for having the most useless basket in the history of deep fryers.

The spring rolls were great though, and a steal at $.99.

Not lovin' it anymore

The McDonald's neopets promotion is now over. I'm sad because I still need 5 more. I'm happy because I can stop eating the food.

I've pretty much given in and decided that I've been totally screwed by the lady on ebay and i've lost my $28. And I will never see those neopets i ordered. So, yesterday (thurs) I made a last ditch effort to collect the neopets the old fashioned way. I went McDonald's yesterday. A new record for me. I went at lunch time to the wonderful one that gave me 2 unis last week. but alas, they were completely out of neopets. they did however try to offer me at least 4 different types of toys they had left over from previous promotions. I didn't even try going to the other one by my work, because they ran out of toys last week. I considered going to the one in the mall, which i could have reasonably made it to and back without being more than 5 minutes late. But I went 2 hrs before closing on wednesday, and they only had wockys, and lots of them.

So, after work I headed to the McDonalds that I thought would be my heaven. And it turned out it was, on wednesday. Wednesday they opened their 2 "customer satisfaction" boxes that held some of all 16 toys. ALL 16!!! But yesterday they only had grundos. And, this is the ugly frog thing with antennas that I'd been avoiding the most. But, I bought it anyway.

Then I tried another McDonald's on my way home. This also proved useful, because I picked up a red yurble and a yellow quiggle. I also tried minute maid strawberry soda, which I highly do not recommend. uggh! I don't know if i didn't pay attention to every other mcdonalds i'd been to the the last month, but I'd never seen it before. And hope to never see again.

Then I got greedy, I thought I'd go a little out of my way to try the mcdonalds by el camino community college. I figured these were people desparate to prove to someone that they were grown up and legitimate. That mcdonalds would have plenty of toys left. But no, they were completely out. They did have some kind of cool wizard lego toys that i almost bought, but with 3 happy meals in my car already i decided against it.

I tried to ask people to buy their display of neopets in the plastic case (the promotion was over after all). But the only one who had a reasonable, informed answer told me that they couldn't sell those toys. The give them to the workers after the promotion is over. I should have totally gotten a part time job at mcdonalds. I bet i'd really like making egg mcmuffins.

I need 5 more neopets, and I guess I'll end up buying them individually on ebay. Unless anyone has them to donate to my cause. Factoring in the techo that Stephanie is going to give me these are what I still need:

Aisha
Blumaroo
Moehog
Lupe
Shoyru

I don't feel so bad, I made a good show of trying to get them. The only one I had an opportunity to buy, but turned down because I thought i was getting it on ebay was the moehog.

p.s. I have an extra yellow ixi if it'll make anyone trade me for one that i need. I'm also considering listing my cloud scorchio on ebay. Last night one sold for $10.50 plus $3 s/h

Malibu and Malibu?

Malibu rum has new flavors. and a funny new radio commercial featuring rastafarians giving job advice.

The point is, the classic coconut-pineapple taste that you get from ordering malibu and pineapple. can now be acheived, with much less liquid by having a stiff drink of malibu coconut and malibu pineapple. they also have malibu mango, and i'm not quite sure the world is ready for mango rum. i know they've been increasing in popularity ever since that 1996 win in the pilsbury bake-off. but, i just don't know.

now, a few years i swore off alcohols in the 40 proof range. this meant goodbye girly things like midori and malibu. then i realized you could get most of the taste more of a kick when you just added some vodka. silly me for taking so long to realize that. even the stupid beauty bar knew that, you can get malibu, vodka and a splash of pineapple juice served in a martini glass and a crappy manicure for $10, plus tip. for a better $10 martini and manicure i recommend the lighthouse cafe in hermosa beach on wednesdays.

so here's my new drink idea--not that it's all that new or different.

1 part malibu coconut
1 part malibu pineapple
langers coconut-pineapple juice to taste

this from the person who wouldn't buy a bottle of tequila because i would never finish it, now is relying on owning 2 flavored rums. maybe when i open the school themed bar....

Hmm..

Berkeley legalizing prostitution?

Obviously they can't legalize it, because they're just some dumb city. But they can decriminalize it, i guess. Maybe those massage parlors will open again. And, any poor kid who somehow ends up on a web cam having sex with a prostitute will only have to be embarassed, and not worry about legal action against him. And that gay purple teletubby will not only be welcomed openly by the city council, he can have a prostitute while he's visiting too.

An open letter to the Berkeley city council.

Seriously, city council. I don't know why you would decline to comment on legalizing prostitution, you do so much other crap. Afraid you'll all finally be ousted for pissing off too many people? We know your opinions on teletubbies, and we know you hate students, renters. What about prostitutes? I need to know, so i can form the opposite opinion.

I don't care anymore. I'm never going to live in Berkeley again. But really, do something useful for a change. Stop bitching about how the University takes over your precious little hippie hovel and realize that without the University you might not even have a hovel. And that thing about not being able to "own" pets. Pure crap. Maybe I should come steal your dog. Since you don't own him, it's not really stealing, is it? Work on apartment buildings near campus, bring in some corporate money to help. You know what also would be helpful, allowing businesses to stay open past 6pm without a special permit. Focus on things you can change, not the things you can't. And remember that law about sitting on the sidewalk? Don't do any more crap like that. You're as useless as the ASUC, but older, so you should know better.

If you stop debating useless and stupid things, you'll probably have more time on your hands than you know what to do with. Let me offer you a suggestion: Instead of debating, and passing bills and such post your dumbass ideas on a blog. It will take up your time, you'll still allow people to hear your useless ideas, and it will improve your typing speed. Believe me, this blog thing works to relieve your boredom.

p.s. I just heard about w ketchup, you may want to purchase some so you can debate it and declare it evil. If you do, can I please buy a bottle off of you? It only makes sense to buy in bulk, and I don't eat very much ketchup.



wow, i must be really bored today.

Duh!

Now for the least surprising news ever:

Close Female Friends Help Women Through Depression

help me! i need mental stimulation. give me suggestions of text heavy web pages (so it will sort of look like work) that will amuse me.

My video game post

What's wrong with me? I'm posting about video games. I bet you all never thought you'd see the day.

My sister somehow convinced my dad to fish our old atari computer out of the garage, because she thought it would be fun. I don't know the the exact model off hand, but this thing is a good 20 years old. And because we had this, we never got a nintendo, therefore not exposing me to loads of pop culture that would have proven useful for me in the future.

and then i read this this on yahoo news today.

I haven't spent much time with the new/old toy yet. But, so far, IT'S B-O-R-I-N-G yet oddly time consuming. You think i'd just stop when it's not fun anymore, but i just keep waiting for it to get good. For a person who spends no time playing video games, you'd think they would be a bit harder. and maybe less boring. at least the music is good.

i have yet to play the classics like pac man, donkey kong, q-bert, dig-dug and pong. but if the games i have played, including popeye, frogger and food fight, are any indication, i should just sell the whole thing on ebay.

i guess video games are not for me. the new ones are too hard, and the old ones are too boring.

classic games convention. whatever!

You're a pepper too

Thanks to this Sunday's LA Times Magazine I now have a huge list of restaruants that sound good, but are too much trouble to go to, and also, are not inviting to the un-celebrity likes of me. And I like to think that being a girl, who on occasion can flaunt my sexuality to get me things would help me in these situations. But, this is LA and there are already a gazillion other girls, who are blonder and surgically enhanced trying to do the same thing.

Luckily, for me this drink is fully explained and pictured:

The libation is called You're a Pepper Too, and it is just the thing of you've had the daylights slapped out of you for no reason. You get an 8-ounce bottle of the original Dublin Dr Pepper, along with two sidecars, one with Absolut Vanilla and the other with Monin brand organic vanilla syrup. And there's Dr Pepper Jelly Bellies to boot. Not approved for sniffling first-graders, but quite and attitude adjuster nonetheless.

In the picture it's served with an adorable giraffe swizzle stick. It looks fantastic. And with the non-celebrity substitutions of regular dr pepper, and torani vanilla syrup, you'll have quite the cocktail.

On a side note, I don't drink enough. It's not really worth it for me to buy entire bottles of alcohol, because they'll never get finished. I have half a bottle of absolut that i opened a year ago. I need lydia back, we encourage eachother to drink well.

Cat Olympics!

i never go on vacation. yet, somehow, i'll be out of town on the day the cat olympics will be in santa monica. *sigh*

Meow Games

Frying update

It's been a while since i've had a frying update. Maybe next week i'll have something good to post, but for now:

trader joe's frozen crab cakes = delicious
especially when served on a bed of cheddar mashed potatos (not deep fried)

also, I finally fried the last of these frozen hash brown patties that my dad accidentaly bought. they were completely raw, unlike the delicious pre-browned kind found in every supermarket and trader joes. Don't ever buy the completely raw kind. they're just not good.

Disappointments

This weekend, trying hard not to be "LA," but failing miserably, I gussied myself up and took a trip to the Beverly Center. Now, the Beverly center, for those of you who don't know or have forgotten, is disappointingly far from the freeway. This is a very bad trait in locations, and usually keeps me from them. But, Beth was driving, so I was fine. We managed to get there, finally, purchased a few sale items and made our way up to the food court where we were going to the A&W restaurant to get a root beer shake. Now, the A&W store is a magical place. I'd never seen one before the first time I went to the beverly center, and since then I've seen them attached to Kentucky Fried Chicken establishments, but never stand alone. And, nowhere besides the beverly center did they have milkshakes. Root beer floats, yes. But not a milkshake in sight, not even the regular flavors. And let me say, as strange as it sounds, the root beer milkshake may be the best milkshake I've ever had. And, I've had a milkshake or two in my day. This is made with some kind of root beer flavored syrup. So, we make our way up the escalator toward the food court, look around, look around again, and alas, there is no A&W in sight. Now I will never have a root beer milkshake ever again. And that makes me very sad.

Also, failing to not be LA, we stopped by Fred Segal, where someone on ebay said they carry a line called "Barbie Vintage" and I wanted to try on a shirt, to make sure it wasn't too small for me, the way this size Large Barbie tanktop is at Hot Topic. Of course there's no Barbie in sight. There is however, a large pile of "disney vintage" shirts.

Also, in the disappointments category, no neopets yet. And I got an email from some freak who contacted me because he saw that I won an auction by the seller, and he won an auction and hasn't gotten his thing yet. I spent $28, and if i don't get my neopets, drastic measures may need to be taken. I have the mailing address, and I recieved an email confirmation that my payment was recieved, so the address is valid. Now may be the time to start plotting revenge. You all can help.

so, right now i'm a good 700 calories lighter from not having a milkshake, and pissed off about ebay. Of course, that will all change when i find a set of high numbered baby-sitters club books selling for a low price.

I like competitions

i don't really like competiting myself. can you think of a more non-competitive profession than librarian? But competition is fantastic. Especially watching it on tv, or reading about it in the new book i'm reading called Cook Off- Recipe Fever in America by Amy Sutherland. Apparently cook offs are quintessentially American. And I'm pretty darn quintessentially American (in the good sort of way). Really, if we can think of something, we can think of a way to make it competitive.

Sit me down in front of the tv watching iron chef, junk-yard wars, animal face off, trading spaces, the pilsbury bake off, food festivals etc and i'm set. people who are good at what they do make me happy. and watching them fight to the death (or for a new stove) is even better. And that word freak book about competitive scrabble. I love the crazies!

McDonalds cont'

The McDonald's i went to yesterday has pictures of its charity projects on the wall and stuff. it's a little odd. but this little kid probably under 4 yrs old points at some old picture of someone and Sam the 1984 olympic eagle, and asks "who's that". and with only a very short pause the mom answered back correctly that it was sam the eagle. I thought for sure that she wouldn't know. She looked like the dumb type. Obviously she wasn't smart or she wouldn't be feeding her kids such food at such a young age. then I tried to figure out how i knew the answer was sam the eagle. i have no memories of the 1984 olympics. certainly, the olympics are boring now, they must have been horribly boring for my four year old self. and i don't know any olympic mascots since then. i'm confused. was sam super popular, or is it just an la thing? i just used the phrase "la thing". arrgh!

I'm lovin' it

So apparently torrance elementary schools got out at lunch time today. and all the children converged on the local McDonald's establishments. I was not aware that this would happen today.

First I went to the one on crenshaw and skypark (by the crossroads) and was jarred as I walked into a room full of children playing with their quiggles. there must have been at least 30 of them. and i went to the counter to ask what toys they had and the lady showed me a grimace driving a car and said that was the only thing they had. i'm not blind! i saw the quiggles! not that i wanted a quiggle, but the neopet promotion doesn't end for an entire week. apparently all of those horrible children had got the last of the neopets. i hardly believe that, but we'll see. I needed a short pep talk from lydia at this point, but continuted on my way. I'm debating writing to McDonalds about this. It got lydia a white ixi.

I finally got to the McDonald's on PCH just off of Hawthorne where they have a small room for kids and video games, so it kept the main part of the place less kid dense. And i saw a few kids with grundos, but I decided to wait in the relatively long line because I couldn't believe my luck could be that bad. And it wasn't. First, my order was taken by the nicest Japanese boy I'd ever seen at a McDonald's. He was well groomed, friendly and generally helpful and good at his job. And he had unis! I got a red and a yellow. and lydia promised me her blue. that means i'll have all the primary colors, and I can breed them into secondary colors!! (okay, maybe it doesn't quite work that way)

The lovely Japanese order taker, gave me the unis. The order filler people also gave me two grundos. I was in such a good mood that I was honest and gave them back. Besides, no one likes the grundo.

Now I can finally stop going to McDonalds. I'm going to get that set from ebay, eventually. And, I have doubles of all the ones I want doubles of, except maybe the aisha. But, it may be too late for that.

Two happy meals is more food than I realized. It's too bad I forgot to get apples instead of fries in one of them.

neo-loneliness

It's been exactly a week since I won my neopets auction. And It's been exactly a week since I've heard anything from the girl who has the toys. And she hasn't left me feedback. Will I get my neopets, ever? This I can't blame on the former president.

Meanwhile, while on ebay I checked out the auctions for the complete set of 109 neopets toys:
the ronald mcdonald house made $1,715.00
and the neopet charity made $1,225.00

that's $15.73 per toy. if you go to a cheap mcdonalds you could get 7 happy meals for that price. not too shabby for some cheap marketing toys.

give me 5 years. then I should be able to competitively bid on things like this.

I do not get paid enough to talk to the mafia

Seriously, I do not get paid enough, really, to make me want to answer the phone from non-mafia people. When there's a chance the Nigerian mafia is calling there's no way in hell I'm picking up the phone. I don't care what my boss says. So I smile, and I nod and let her go to lunch confident in the fact that if Claudio from Chile calls or Mike from Scotland calls that I'll answer. They can leave a message, they're nice guys, and will completely understand that I'm not answering the phone because I want to live.

I only like the Al Capone type mob, or maybe Sonny from General Hospital. But Nigeria, there's no glamour there!

Now to explain myself: One of our sales reps got a lead from this shady guy in Nigeria. We're pretty sure it's a money laundering scheme because we quote them absolutely ridiculous prices and they're willing to pay without even trying to bargain. We ended up saying that we can't sell to Nigeria, but this guy keeps calling.

I so do not get paid enough.

Care Bears, STARE.... we care... we care... we care...

Since my internet connection is down, and posting to this blog was supposed to be my new hobby, i think it might be time to tell you all about my sunburn. WARNING: this may be more info than you need to know.

the guys at victoria's secret are marketing geniuses. and they have a line of bathing suits. i got the best one of the lot. just the bottom, because i'm still not comfortable with those ridiculous pieces of triangle fabric that they consider a top. and it's black, with magenta trim. AND... a heart cut out on the butt. Genius! it allows you to give in to their marketing campaign and wear a skimpy bikini with major VS sex appeal and feel like tyra banks. Yet, you can still aspire to be good and cheerful and all that's right with the world, like a care bear.

I think I will be victoria's secret bear. I laid out for an hour on sunday, completely covered except the heart on my butt. It's friday and my heart is still pink as ever. I really have to admit that my ass is adorable. I didn't have much of a strong opinion about my butt before. But now that I'm practically a care bear, it's great. Also, I want to spread joy throughout the land. It's a good thing I don't know any care bears songs, because I would be singing them. It's also good that I've been taking belly dancing, because I bet it'll help with my care bear stare.

Mail for all... In honor of me

Now, I like Ronald Reagan as much as the next person. Maybe more, because of my elementary school brainwashing. He was my first president and I've had nothing but good feelings toward him, because I was 0-8 when he was in office and not exactly capable of analyzing his attitudes and policies. I just knew what I learned in school about civic duty and all that. The president was an good, important man. And, It's very sad that he had alzheimers, and it's sad that he died. But we don't need to have a federal holiday! Some things transcend people and should carry on as scheduled, like mail!!!

Mail is often the highlight of my day. I get catalogs featuring necessities like leg lamps, and postcards and sale ads from Joann's promising me 40% off any single regular priced item. I even get a few bills, but they don't mar my enjoyment of mail, especially when you've ordered something online and are waiting for it... like neopets! I mailed off the money order to a girl in irvine yesterday. That means, she could have potentially recieved it today, potentially mailed off the neopets today and I could potentially have them tomorrow. But no, the ex president had to go and die, and they had to shut down the government. And I won't have my neopets until Monday at the very earliest, but probably tuesday or wednesday. Now, based on what I know about my first president, which is deplorably little, I'm sure that he would want me to have neopets. He was a regular guy with a little longing for the cowboy live he loved so much in movies. And I think he'd understand, and encourage the neopets to get to me quicker. So, when I die, I want the mail to continue. Also, it'd be really cool if I could still have mail but close down all the schools. Because I understand, I want people to get the day off to sit by their mailboxes waiting for their packages.

In the meantime, I'll see you at McDonalds.

shopping

Hine says that shoppers crave unpredictability. Something on sale one day is full price in another blah, blah, blah, and that makes things interesting:

You never know what you will find in a dollar store, only what it costs. (Hine 105)

Best news ever (if you're from Japan)

Barbie has a line of clothing for adult women that they're selling in Japan and could possibly sell in America.(although I'm afraid they're japanese shaped adult women and not me)

anyway, thanks to lydia for finding this website. if you can read it, please tell me what it says:

http://www.sanei.net/brands/index.html

click on "Barbie"

Woman Claims to Have Longest Bridal Veil

from yahoo/AP

KORNEUBURG, Austria - Here comes the bride, and there goes her veil — all 1.7 miles of it. Eva Hofbauer went to her wedding on Wednesday claiming to be wearing the longest bridal veil in the world, the Austria Press Agency reported.


Her groom could only watch, robbed of any attention, as Hofbauer was assisted by hundreds of young people who carried the veil into the church in Korneuburg, a town on the Danube River just northwest of Vienna.


Mayor Wolfgang Peterl said he hoped the veil would earn a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The previous record-holder was said to be a Japanese bride whose veil was 1.2 miles long.

hmmm...

what if you took a twinkie and injected it with nutella...

and then deep fried it...

also, i went to the jelly belly website to see if they had anything to say about Ronald Reagan. They did. But this is much more interesting.

http://jellybelly.com/Cultures/en-US/NewsEvents/NewsStories/Wedding+Beans.htm

somehow i think i'll manage to have a jelly bean free wedding. although i'm not promising anything to the kind people who have said i could plan their wedding on the TLC show.

Bet you don't read this to the end

is our increasingly short attention span a good thing? http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24409~2197660,00.html

neo-craziness

so, i'm trying to stop being crazy about the whole neopet happy meal thing, but things like this make it very, very hard.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5902391736

my tuition for next year is just over $600 per class. I can assuredly say that i want to go to library school more than i want 109 neopets. i think.

http://www.neopetsfoundation.org/

do you think they need someone to wear the chia costume?

the 20 minutes later update:

i bought the set of 16 neopets on ebay for $28 (free shipping). That's $2 cheaper than the buy it now price. At the 44 second mark it was only 23.50. darn those last second ebay people! but now i can relax a little, and stop forcing myself to eat happy meals. thank goodness that next months promotion is going to be awful and i can stop buying them then.

things i've fried

things fried in my house in the last few weeks:

successes:
cod
catfish
corn dogs
onion rings w/beer batter
onion rings w/corn batter
broccoli
won tons
donuts
bananas
black berries
strawberries (tastes like and inside out funnel cake)
chicken
croquettes

failures:
fries (this is my fault for not giving the oil enough time to heat up)
cookie dough
strawberry hershey's kisses

mixed results:
pickles (i don't like them to begin with, so i couldn't make the final decision)

things to try soon:
twinkies
whatever the american equivalent of a mars bar is
oreos
ice cream
salmon
ham and cheese sandwiches
pb&j sandwiches
corn bread batter
more potato things

I Want That!

What I'm reading now:

I want that! How we all became shoppers by Thomas Hine

From the front cover:

Shopping has a lot in common with sex. Just about everybody does it. Some people brag about how well they do it. Some keep it a secret. Most people worry, at least a little, about whether they do it right. And both provide ample opportunities to make foolish choices
_______________

You don't need Barbie. You do need water, but you don't need bottled water. Nobody needs a ceramic sculpture of mother and daughter hippopotamuses, but at under eight dollars, few would label it a luxury.
-Page 16

___________________

One study revealed tha tif you put mena nd women on treadmills the man will walk faster. But if you put the same couple in a mall, the woman will walk faster. Women feel that they are accomplishing something when they shop. Men don't.
-Page 27

*****************

Books I returned to the library yesterday.

*The ultimate brownie book : thousands of ways to make America's
favorite treat, including blondies, frostings, and doctored brownie mixes Weinstein, Bruce, 1960-

I made cormeal brownies--surprisingly good--
and I made S'mores brownies-- slightly disappointing


*Salt : a world history Kurlansky, Mark.

Very interesting, but i read all 400+ pages and there wasn't really a wrap up. I learned a bunch of things, but no point was made

*Driven : how human nature shapes our choices Lawrence, Paul R.

good-recomended by Alton Brown. Not quite a beach read though.

*Retro desserts : totally hip, updated classic desserts from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s Brachman, Wayne Harley.

Very disappointing. not enough pictures, and the recipes were much more complicated than they needed to be

*My 1,000 Americans : a year-long odyssey through the personals Morton, Rochelle.

quick, fun, easy read. A british lady living in America goes on 1,000 dates with people who answer her personal ad. She used the rule of calling every third message in her voicemail box, no matter how crappy they sounded. And she went on a date with them as long as they didn't sound dangerous, or were pleasuring themselves on the phone with her.

*Food festivals of Southern California : traveler's guide and cookbook

apparently southern calif. goes all the way up to monterey. I love food festivals and want to visit them all. the book could be better though.

also on the apple cider kick:

mix 3 parts apple cider (trader joe's brand of course) and 1 part butterscotch schnapps. it may be the best drink ever. Not particularly alcoholic, but delicious.

I haven't tried it, but i bet if you add in some vodka it will be legitimately alcoholic. or i wonder how spiced rum would work. hmmm....

Post 1!

Hello, welcome.

Just though I'd let you all know the best donut recipe ever. I stole it from someplace online. I used trader joe's apple cider. I think that makes the difference. Don't be fooled by the baked apple cider donut recipe that's floating around. If it's baked it's a small cake, not a donut!

Vermont Apple Cider Doughnuts

1 cup apple cider
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoonbaking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
vegetable oil or shortening for frying

2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup apple cider

Boil apple cider in small saucepan until it is reduced to 1/4 cup,
8 to 10 minutes; cool.

Beat sugar with shortening until smooth. Add eggs and mix well,
then add buttermilk and reduced cider. Stir together flour, baking
powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in another bowl.
Add to liquid ingredients; mix just enough to combine.

Transfer dough to lightly floured board and pat to 1/2-inch thickness.
Cut with 2 1/2- to 3-inch doughnut cutter; reserve doughnut holes
and reroll and cut scraps.

Add enough oil or shortening to fill a deep pan 3 inches; heat to
375'F. Fry several doughnuts at a time, turning once or twice,
until browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove to paper
towels with slotted spoon.

For glaze, mix confectioners' sugar and cider. Dip doughnuts while
warm; serve warm