putting CDs in the microwave is fun

yes, they know they're cute

reuben panini

My parents got us a waffle iron/panini press a few months ago, and we have put it to good use. It's especially good for making sandwiches like reubens because it eliminates the problems with the sandwich spilling its guts on the flip.

homemade pan pizza

Behold the awesomeness of pan pizza made in cast iron. Recently Banik also made a version of pineapple upsidedown cake in the square pan. Maybe one day we'll have a gas stove so that we can use the cast iron pans more.
Pre-cooking. ^

His jalepeno pizza.^

Guess which one is my pizza?

It was good, but would have come out fine with a bit less oil than this first attempt used. I'd forgotten about this until a few days ago, so there may be pizza in the near future.

Adventures with Pot Stickers

We made pot stickers last week, and we picked up some little gems of wisdom that I thought we should share. It was an unforgetable learning experience.

1. It is possible for pot stickers to stick to the pan too much.
2. If you aren't careful pot stickers can stick so much that they can carbonize onto the pan.
3. The chicken stock that is supposed to add flavour and make the pot stickers release from the pan will not necessarily help you out at this point.
4. If the pan is too hot, chicken stock can do something that is remarkably similar to vaporizing.
5. The remains of said chicken stock can also carbonize onto the pan.
6. All of this carbonization is really, really hard to get off. If I knew how to get it off, I'd tell you. The next attempt will probably involve oven cleaner....
7. You should really use a nonstick skillet to make pot stickers. Or skip the whole thing and try steamed dumplings.
8. Surprisingly, the dumplings (or remains there of) from this adventure were perfectly edible, and tasted pretty good.
9. Sadly, the peppery flavour of watercress can be lost if your beef dumplings contain a lot of strong seasonings. Alas.

The Black Hole of Jingly Balls

Every jingly ball we gave to the cats would disappear. We thought maybe Chew had a stash, but then he would run around looking for them. Shade isn't hiding them out of spite because he's too busy stealing all my damn mulch. We'd occasionally look under furniture for them, but it was no use. It was like they were just gone.

Today I spent hours cleaning and systematically looking for the damn things. I mean, where can you hide a dozen jingling balls? They aren't exactly subtle. Especially at 3 am.

Now, after Banik getting home and us having dinner on the couch, the last place we cleaned was under the couch. So appearently that happens to be the only place where Chewie can't get in to retrieve the jingly balls. >.<

Can you find all 12?!
As an added bonus, we also found the pieces that Chewie has been breaking off of the miniblinds. He makes life... interesting.

Evolution of the Household

The article has statistics for each decade from the 1950's to 2000's. They aren't terribly consistant, but it is interesting nonetheless.