Not my fault

Wow, it's been a busy week. And it's only Tuesday. I've decided that for the sake of my own sanity, I should take a quick break.

I was reading the news when I came across an interesting article. According to researchers, the human brain processes images of objects differently than it processes faces and hair. There are even people who suffer from facial blindness and hair blindness. This means that although they have no other noticeable visual impairment, they just plain don't notice what people look like.

Now, I'm no scientician, but I think that's probably me. I have serious trouble recalling faces, to the point that I honestly had to go find a mirror when I had to put my eye color on my passport application. I just couldn't for the life of me remember what color my eyes are (I seem to remember putting green on the application, but I still don't remember seeing them). I've always wondered if everybody else sees faces the way I do or if I'm just weird. I guess this settles it.

Scomboli

This week I cooked for my dinner group, and I thought I would share. Actually, the recipes I used were mostly from Sara, so almost anyone who reads this blog could just get them from her. So, my real purpose is to record this for my own use later. Hurray for selfishness!

Scomboli is not difficult, but it is a bit complicated. You have to have a lot of balls in the air at the same time (especially if you are foolish like me and try to also do a salad and dessert at the same time).

First, make bread. I used this recipe (scaled up from Sara):

3T yeast
3/4 C warm water
3 C hot water
4.5 T sugar
1.5 T salt
7.5 T oil (I'm sure there's an easier measurement than this, but I don't know the conversions)
9 C flour

Mix the yeast, warm water and sugar. While the yeast rises, mix everything else. Mix in the yeast. Let rise 10 minutes, stir down or knead. Repeat rising and kneading steps for an hour.

While the dough is rising, prepare the toppings. Fry up a pound and a half of sausage, and cut about a pound of pepperoni into slightly smaller pieces (1/4's or so). Mix:

1 beaten egg
1/2 C oil
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t basil
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Split the dough in two or three parts (probably best to do 3) and roll into rectangles. Put on toppings, starting with oil mixture. Top with a pound of shredded cheese. Jelly roll and allow to rise for 30 minutes. Bake 30 minutes at 350.

I also did a really delicious salad from Sara's recipes. Heat 1/4 C apple cider vinegar with 1/2 C sugar (to let the sugar dissolve). Once it's fully dissolved, remove from heat.
Add:
1/4 C oil
Any spices you have that you want to add (I used salt, oregano, basil, and Mrs. Dash)

Pour mixture over 1 bag spinach. Add 2 cans mandarin oranges and about 1/2 lb cooked bacon. In the future, I would probably make about 1/2 as much dressing. Or just more spinach.

And last but not least, a dessert. This one actually comes from Mom's recipes, not Sara. It's a blueberry coffee cake.

2C flour
1C sugar
1T baking powder
1t salt
1/3 C softened margarine
1 C milk
1 egg
1C blueberries

Beat everything except blueberries till smooth. Put about 1/2 of the mixture in a greased 9x9 pan. Layer blueberries on top of that, and pour the rest of the mixture on top. Add topping (below) and bake at 350 for an hour (the recipe says 40 minutes, but that's never enough).

1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C flour
1/2 t cinnamon
1 T margarine

when done baking, top with glaze:

1C powdered sugar
2 T milk
1/4 t vanilla

It's really good. Sorry the post was so long. Enjoy!

New Zealand...is there anything they can't do?

In case I haven't made myself clear in the past, I love New Zealand.

First there was Lord of the Rings, which showed me that New Zealand is where I want to live (also that I want to have lots of little hobbit kids with Rosie and run around barefoot). Then there was Flight of the Conchords, which showed me that New Zealanders 1, hate Australians 2, are really funny and 3, get to say "yis" and "bid" instead of "yes" and "bed".

Today, New Zealand has amazed me again. The Weta Workshop (the guys who did lots of the special effects for Lord of the Rings) have made a woman into a mermaid. I don't mean for a movie. A woman who lost both her legs to an illness wrote them asking to make her a mermaid so she could swim, and they made her a functioning mermaid suit. Like, she can put it on and use what remains of her legs to move the tail and actually swim.

How awesome is that?

Bare knuckle air hockey

So, the other night Dan Anderson and I were at a friend's house playing air hockey. I'm not sure exactly how it came to this, but one of us got the bright idea of playing without the mallets. We balled up our fists, put them vertically on the table (as in with our arms directly above the hands) and used our fists to hit the puck. It was like bare knuckle boxing, but with air hockey.

This was actually really fun, if somewhat painful and stupid. It made for a much more calculating game, as you had to decide how much it was worth trying to hit the puck on that particular pass, or if you would just let it bounce back and let your opponent take another shot.

One of the pucks we used was not round, but an octagon with pointy corners. That was definitely the hardest. I still have a red mark on my right hand from where I tried a little too hard...

Surprise!

Science has come out with a huge surprise today. It turns out that when women dress in revealing attire, such as bikinis, men tend to objectify them more. Yep, it's true.

Brain scans show that when you show men pictures of women in bikinis, the part of their brain associated with tool use is activated, and the part associated with interpreting other people's intentions and feelings is shut off.

It seems so...logical.

Quotes

Best unnecessary quotation marks ever.


[edit- I take it back. This is by far the best.]

Jet Packs Was Yes!

Well, folks, it's time. Science has brought me an invisibility cloak, it has brought me energy guns, and now it has finished the hat trick by bringing me a jet pack. That's right, a jet pack.

I think I'm going to quit my job and become Booster Gold.