Hello carbs, my old friend.

Pic of the week 

A friend of mine - the guy in the white sweatshirt you see there in the distance on the left side of the picture - had a birthday this week and decided to do some socially distant socializing, so we all met up at a drive-in theater that's still open.  Double Indiana Jones feature - Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.  It's been YEARS since I'd seen either of those.  Didn't remember how many Nazis were involved.  It was a fun outing, though, and so nice to have some human interaction, even if it was a car-length away.  Apparently while we were there, LA had an earthquake.  This theater is far enough out of town that I didn't feel it. Also, these movies made me miss practical effects. 

Quote of the week

"And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?"
-The President of these United States, the leader of the free world, that paragon of calm, mature, measured advice, suggesting this week that maybe we ought to inject disinfectant directly into our bodies.  *earth-shaking facepalm*  Y'all. Don't drink bleach.  K?

What's going on?

Eat, sleep, sew, read, nap, TV, lather, rinse, repeat.

Nothing new to report around here, really.  I've managed to kill another air plant.  Honestly, I don't know how I do it.  These things are supposed to be nearly indestructible.

What I'm watching

Andrew Lloyd Webber is helping to raise money for the arts and artists affected by the pandemic by putting a filmed version of one of his musicals on YouTube for 48 hours every weekend.  It's called "The Shows Must Go On."  So far he's done Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with our very own Donny Osmond, Jesus Christ: Superstar, and The Phantom of the Opera. This weekend's offering was Love Never Dies - the sequel to Phantom.  And folks.  It was bad.  If you ever see this show advertised anywhere and think to yourself, "Ooo!  Maybe I should get tickets!"  Save yourself the trip and book a massage instead.  

What I'm reading

Reading this one for a book club.  I just started it, so I don't have many thoughts to share yet, but it's good so far!

What I'm puzzling

This one is beautiful, and fun, but challenging.  Lots of amorphous color blobs.  

What I'm cooking

Snickerdoodle bread pudding with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and cinnamon drizzle. I kind of made this up.  I love bread pudding and over the years have discovered that it is actually quite easy to make a delicious bread pudding out of lots of different things (I've used old bread, croissants, brownies, cinnamon rolls, cookies, etc.  Basically anything that was baked will work as a base for bread pudding.).  Very basic bread pudding is eggs and milk with a little sugar poured over bread and baked. A good friend of mine, who knows me oh-so-well, sent some of my favorite Ruby Snap cookies from Utah for my birthday.  My roomie was having a pretty rough day this week dealing with the anxiety of a global pandemic and so I whipped up a little bread pudding using some of the cookies as a way to have a little moment of joy among the chaos.  Bread pudding recipes vary in what they use, but here's what I did:

Snickerdoodle bread pudding with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and cinnamon drizzle for 2 (Honestly, this was rich enough that probably 4 people could share it, but who are we kidding?)

3 Snickerdudettes broken into pieces

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

3 tbp brown sugar

However much cinnamon you want.  I think I put in a tsp or so.

Mix the egg, milk, sugar, and cinnamon together and pour over the cookie pieces (I have a little baking dish that's probably 1 pint that I used. Because it's so small I could actually only fit about 2 and a half cookies.  Had to take one for the team and eat the rest of the 3rd cookie plain.). Let sit at room temp for an hour or so, or in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the cookies soak up all that saucy goodness.  Bake @ 350 until a knife inserted comes out clean: 45-60 min. 

Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese @ room temp

1 T butter @ room temp

1 T brown sugar

1 T honey

1 t vanilla

1 t cinnamon - or however much you want.  Up to you.

Mix it all up until smooth and slap that madness on to your bread pudding.  I used a LOT of frosting and still had some leftover, so make some pancakes for breakfast the next morning and go to town.

I also happened to have some of Trader Joe's cinnamon bun spread on hand and topped it off with a little drizzle of that.

This sauce was a little thinner than I would have liked, so I'd recommend substituting part or all of the milk with cream, or using 2 eggs and less milk.  Honestly, you can google "basic bread pudding recipe" and find 1 trillion recipes, so do a little experimenting and find something you like!  One of my faves is this one from the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, and I ESPECIALLY love the custard sauce that goes with it, but I didn't have any cream on hand, so I went a different route.

What week is it?

Pic of the week 

Spent some time in the park this week.  The weather was the loveliest and the park wasn't very busy and it's walkable.  Don't worry, I kept my distance from any other people and had my mask handy.

Quote of the week

"Pull the lever, Kronk!"
-Izma.  I haven't watched The Emperor's New Groove in YEARS and did it for a movie party with some friends this week.  It was so fun!  I think it's one of the most underrated Disney movies.

What's going on?

The days are all bleeding together, ya know?  Let's see...this week was filled with laundry, reading, watching TV, sewing masks, a couple of fun movie nights with friends, puzzling.

I did discover a social media trend called Dalgona Coffee which is a Korean whipped coffee.  I adapted it for chocolate milk and it's super tasty and fun!  You take 2 T of cocoa powder, 2 T of sugar, 2 T of hot milk (the original recipe calls for instant coffee, sugar, and hot water, but using water with the chocolate ended up not working out so well) and whip it up with a hand mixer for a few minutes until it's foamy and delicious.  Then you put it on top of a glass of cold milk and mix it in.  Honestly, it's essentially just chocolate milk, but more work, but for some reason it tastes so so good.

Also.  Can we talk about all of the treats?  There are so many.  I ordered myself a batch of brownies from a baker in Utah who makes the most delicious things, and then a friend of mine sent me cookies for my birthday, and also I may have picked up a little bit of Easter Candy, and THEN my roommate made some cookies the other night and there are just so many treats!  I'm not really complaining, but also, so many treats.

What I'm watching

Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Fun series!  They made a movie of it a few years ago which was garbage, but the animated series is a lot of fun.  It's giving me something to watch while sewing all of these masks.

What I'm reading

Language warning on this one.  And a bit of content.  Honestly, though, it was a really interesting concept.  The idea is that women develop this ability to build up and use electricity in their bodies, thus instigating a shift in the power between men and women in the world.  This book looks at how that might play out and I think it's a fascinating thought experiment.  

What I'm listening to

Continued advice from experts to remain at home as much as possible.

What I'm puzzling

This one was so pretty and fun!  I don't generally do puzzles more than once, but I might make an exception for this puzzle.

What I'm cooking

Homemade pasta.  Easier than you think, and SO delicious.  Plus, it freezes really well!

All the media consumption

Pic of the week 

It's been rainy this week, but the sun came back out yesterday, and what with this weekend being a holiday and my birthday, I decided to get out of the house for a drive.  This is a shot from the side of the road by Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu, which is normally an awesome place to go check out tide pools, but all beaches in Southern California are currently closed, so I just had to enjoy the view from the roadside.  Plus it was a fun drive and nice to get out of the house and get some fresh air for a couple of hours.

Quote of the week

"May 15."
LA county extended our stay-at-home order until the middle of May.  And apparently you will soon be cited for not wearing a face mask in public.

What's going on?

It's my birthday!  I'm 37 today.  At this age my parents had 4 kids - two of whom were teenagers - and moved us all to Richfield.  I, on the other hand, have plants that are several months old, and just moved one of those plants from the floor to a plant stand.  Now, you tell me who accomplished more with those 37 years.

Breezy week.  Not much going on, honestly.  Some movie nights with friends, puzzling, reading, sewing masks, and generally trying to keep spirits up.

What I'm watching

I don't know that this documentary is changing anyone's mind about anything, but I found it insightful and humanizing of one of America's most polarizing political figures.

What I'm reading

This was kind of a...cute?...murder mystery.  Don't know that it's a must-read, but it was fun.

What I'm listening to

This episode of Hidden Brain, which essentially talks about the difference between rule-following vs. free-flowing cultures.  I love insights like this that help to provide perspective for systems and beliefs that I don't necessarily agree with.  Helps to build empathy.  

And this episode of Brene Brown's new podcast.  This episode specifically talks about grief in a really interesting and helpful way.  Especially relevant as we seem to be experiencing some collective grief at the moment.

What I'm cooking

Carrot apple salad. Or slaw.  It's all the same.  I used this recipe as the base, but adapted it based on what I had available. I got a BUNCH of carrots in my produce box this week and they usually go to waste because I don't eat a lot of carrots, but I didn't want that to happen, so here we are.  I substituted the craisins for sunflower seeds, and put some turmeric and chili pepper powder in the mayo.  I used this slaw to top some crispy tofu tacos and it was honestly heavenly.  

Lions and tigers and breads, oh my.

Pic of the week 

Story Pirates is still kickin', friends.  One of the ways we're doing that is by filming digital shows for schools via Zoom.  It's best if one can have a blank wall and the camera at face height.  So this is my setup to make that happen.  You can also see the puzzle I'm working on in the background.  Quarantine is going well.

Quote of the week

"Do you know how lucky you are to find that?"
Grocery store clerk talking about my flour.  Yes, sir, I am WELL aware. 

What's going on?

This week's theme is baking.  I have too many treats.  COVID-19 is gonna turn into COVID-25 pretty quickly.  Chocolate chip cookies, double-chocolate banana bread (which is a bit of a misnomer because it was 0% bread and 100% cake), carrot cake cookies.  That's what happens when you get one of the last giant bags of flour from Target.  Perhaps I'll even make some bread with it.

Life in quarantine continues.  Puzzles, a little work with Story Pirates this week directing and filming a digital show for a school in LA, tutoring, infrequent trips to the grocery store to pick up supplies, afternoon walks in the sunshine to maintain my sanity, and I even started sewing masks for local hospitals - which is a great way to get through some TV shows, honestly.

How's everybody holding up out there?  It feels like we're kind of settling into this a little bit.  No?  Just me?  It's been kind of fun to have Zoom movie nights and get-togethers with various groups of people.  Gotta maintain that social contact.  Ya know?

What I'm watching

Y'all.  This. Show. Was. BONKERS.  Truly a train wreck of a story.  Couldn't look away. And EVERY TIME you think it can't get weirder, it does.  This world is a wild, wild place. 

What I'm puzzling

Exquisite Creatures II.  This box is VERY misleading.  You think it's going to be a circular puzzle, but you're WRONG!  It's a square puzzle and almost all of the edge pieces are essentially indistinguishable from each other.  The bug part was pretty fun.  The other part...

What I'm cooking

Chocolate Banana Bread.  Again, this is not bread.  REPEAT - THIS IS NOT BREAD.  This is cake masquerading as bread because it is baked in a bread pan.  And it's delicious.  Honestly.  A friend of mine posted on Instagram that she had received some from a friend of hers and I just couldn't resist making some - especially because I happened to have a couple of bananas that were past their prime.  And we can't let that sort of thing go to waste, now can we?