Happy Pi Day

Celebrating the geekiness that is 3.14 March 14th. Now let's all eat pie.

(It's an old photo I uploaded to my page on Deviant Art, from back when I was eating animals more regularly)

Check out more about Pi Day

Fail Loaf - A Very Distracted Orange and Banana

It started with an ordinary sort of a query: what do I do with a pile of oranges and two bananas that are getting older by the day?

Amongst my web search, I found a blog called Hot From My Oven that features baking experiments as well as all sorts of tried and tested recipes of vegie cuisines. The photos looked really yummy, so began my search for the ingredients. Why on earth do I have so much flour?

I suspect it was part of groceries Mr M. got it for his non-valentine's surprise cooking for me.

Of course, a Facebook friend decided to reply as to why I had so much with this clip, totally distracting me from my mission for a good few minutes:



Getting everything else was fine, except I failed at zesting once again

We now have a juicer now though so being able to do this was very exciting:

I was not the only one distracted, however. It may have had something to do with me dressed like this...

Because I can, and because it was this year's V-day gift from Mr M. And it's photo evidence that I did in fact mix in some form of sweetner. Apparently it wasn't enough as the loaf turned out quite bland; in fact, extrodinarily boring. The photo of the end product looks ok though, and the slices are a little more tolerable with extra topping of honey. As I can taste the occasional spec of orange, it may have been better if I had zesting skills. Or fresher oranges. Or more bananas. Perhaps actually measuring out the amount of honey may have been a good idea too, considering I was posing for the photo at the time and not really paying much attention to the task at hand.

Original recipe: Low Fat Banana n Orange Loaf

Here endeth the lesson in giving smexy cooking a break for a while...

Love, light, be awesome


PS: Yes that is Luffy's flag from One Piece in the background.

TED Tuesday #3: What You Don't Know About Marriage

To appropriately follow from last post with Mr. M and I clawing at each other. While it's light-hearted and there's some stereotyping, the only criticism I've got is it's very heterosexual. Perhaps swapping the word 'marriage' to 'longeterm relationship' works better.

A lot of people complaining about how 'uneducated' her conclusions were and how 'self-centered' the 'comedy routine' was. For me, it has inspired to bake more if nothing else...

Apples, Carrots & Zucchinis, Oh My!

I'm rather proud of myself for having packed most of my personal things - art equipment were straight forward as they normally live in a box anyway, books and documents are out of the office (and same with the shelves that house these things), and the only clothes that are not packed are the ones in the washing machine and the uniforms I'll be wearing the next few days.

So I moved to the kitchen (to do the epically piled dishes). Mr M. came to help me mid-way, which just so happened during a break in playing World of Warcraft.

In the back of my mind were the slow planning of how to consume food stuff in the fridge. I already did a stir-fry, which crossed fingers will last me 3 lunches. Searching for baking recipes that didn't involve so many eggs or the requirement of baking paper (I ran out last night), I finally typed into Google:

The first on the search result was Chef De Cuisine's Carrot Zucchini and Carrot Muffins which sounded easy enough to make.

It went something like this:

Turn the oven on. Tick. 375 degrees FAHRENHEIT, which translates to 190 degrees CELSIUS. I wish more online recipes specified.

Got all the ingredients...
I don't have oranges. I do have lemons though, I got them off the trees at work.
I don't need the bi-carb as I have self-raising flour.
I also don't have cinnamon, so the 'Mixed Spice' it was; MasterFoods does a cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg jar.

Got 3 bowls, a grater, the specified measuring cups and a chopping board. I like mixing things thoroughly so I didn't want dry lumping onto the veggie mix. I also tend to mix the wet and dry better when I do it in small compartments.

Got the dry. Tick. The first cup was the last of the refined white self-raising flour, so I was able to break open the wholemeal self-raising flour for the 2nd cup.

Grated the veggies. Tick.

Grated the lemon zest. Fail. The rind clogged up the grater, so I used juice from half that lemon instead.

Followed the rest of the recipe, non-eventful. I did grease the muffin pan with butter though, which was not mentioned.

25 minutes passed and the kitchen was smelling delicious! I also made Mr M. a cup of chai tea so I don't believe the cinnamon smell is going anywhere anytime soon.

By the time this blog was posted, I had 3. Mr M. had 1, plus his chai. I probably shouldn't have eaten such quantity, but in my own opinion, they taste damn good.

Carrot Zucchini and Carrot Muffins Recipe

Top 5 House-Warming Gift Wishlist (The Kitchen Edition)

Please note that these can also be applied for either Mr. M's Birthday (in which case I'll be using them by default) or my Birthday which happens not too long after both the move and his birthday.

#5 - Doctor Who TARDIS Talking Cookie Jar

Let's just assume there's plenty of space inside for all the cookies.

#4 - Labcutter Science Cookies

After I mix dough for science. Plus I've got to have something to put *inside* the TARDIS won't I?

#3 - Star Wars Chop Sabers

Eat food, we must. Maybe my carving skills will upgrade to this level one day.

#2 - Pizza Pi Cutter

If I have the Pi Cutter, I promise to make one of these again.

#1 - Octopus Surprise Mug

Because, rather than an actual favoritism of a specific genus of mollusc over another, I enjoy more exaggerating the stereotype, and the feedback of people's reactions. Mr M. will no doubt shake his head at this and mutter 'You Japanese and tentacles, I don't know,' and go back to whatever else he was looking at on his monitor.

What geeky gadgets do you have in your kitchen?

Love, light, be awesome