Check out our* Steph Shaw on a very early morning TV gig in New York today. The guy out front who keeps hogging the camera? That's Swedish singer Anders ("the Sting of Stockholm") Holst. Okay, so he's the star and she's the backup. Some folks need to get their priorities straight.
Here's the link. (I can't embed the video.)
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Category Everyday Life: [first] [previous] [next] [newest]
Meet Feudal Effort, the latest addition to the comics list on my Sursum Corda page:
I find it fun. Sometimes there's a bit of mildly objectionable language, but nothing the nephews can't handle, and I don't think the grandkids are reading my comic list yet. :)
You can get to know the characters here.
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Category Just for Fun: [first] [previous] [next] [newest]
Mutton dressed as lamb.
I can and do text, finding it quite useful at times, mostly because not all phones send and receive e-mails, and because our overseas friends can receive texts for free...
...but I just don't get why anyone who knows how to type would prefer texting. And although in extremity I will do it, I have a deep aversion to abbreviating words, omitting capitalization, and leaving out punctuation.
You will often see me with headphones on and mp3 player in my pocket...
...but today's Zits is me!
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Category Everyday Life: [first] [previous] [next] [newest]
Our Memorial Day celebration concluded with a lovely dinner at at a friend's house, to which we brought wine and dessert. This friend is one of those on whom I am not hesitatant to inflict culinary experiments, and this cake was one. I began with a simple vanilla cake base from my Boston Cream Pie recipe (credit my friend LCS). It is a single-layer cake, which I sliced in two horizontally with a serrated bread knife. I heated passionfruit jam a bit to make it thinner, and mixed it well to make it smooth. This I spread generously on the first layer. After adding the second layer, I used a pastry brush to glaze it and the sides with the thinned jam. Then I added the fruit: fresh strawberry halves and whole blueberries, canned apricot halves and peach slices. Using the brush again, I glazed the fruit with the jam.
I must say we were all very happy with it! Apricot or currant jams are more traditional for this sort of dessert, but I think the passion fruit flavor made this cake the success it was.
What I plan to do differently next time (and there will be a next time):
- Use a higher percentage of whole wheat flour in the cake. (This time I used a 50/50 mixture of white whole wheat and all-purpose flours).
- Use less sugar in the cake (the recipe calls for 1 cup, but I think less would work well—the jam makes it sweet enough).
- Possibly make the inner layer of jam thinner.
- Use fresh fruit exclusively if I can't find firmer canned fruit; the apricots and peaches were rather mushy—though that did make cutting the cake easier than firm fruit would have.
