Good Article

Everyone should read this article by Jeff Bleich, chairman of the Cal State University Board of Trustees, even if you are not a CSU student.

The Fifth of November

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. (Holla*)
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!

I love that Eli already loves books!

Countdown to LCROSS

This morning NASA will be shooting a probe into the moon at 6000 mph. The probe will shoot a huge plume of debris which will be analyzed to see if the moon has water. This is important as NASA moves towards building a permanent lunar base. For any who are interested, you can watch the impact live via the probes onboard camera here. You have to really want to see it live, because the impact is scheduled for 4:31 PDT.

Nuts!

I am confused about something and I want to see if anyone in cyberspace agrees with me because so far everyone that I've talked to in real life about this looks at me like I'm crazy.

I understand that a shelled nut means the shell has been removed, but it sounds so counter-intuitive to me. If you took the shell off wouldn't it be un-shelled or de-shelled??? A shelled nut sounds like a nut with a shell. If I say I "covered" Eli, that doesn't mean that I took a blanket off of him. That means that I put a blanket on him. I think that the description "shelled nut" needs to be changed because I cannot be the only one confused by this. I am going to start a petition to send to the nut industry. Who's with me?!?!

It was hot today!

Am I in Arizona? Someone needs to remind the weather that summer is over now.

Cooking

I very recently (in the past month or so) have been really interested in cooking. In the 3 years that Michelle and I have been married, I can count the number of times that I cooked dinner on 1 hand. And each time I cooked, dinner consisted of overdone scrambled eggs and underdone toast. I hated to cook. Cooking was the most stressful thing to me. Everything happened so quickly and I was never prepared. But I recently tried to make a couple things and it turned out ok which gave me a lot of cooking confidence. I made a decent batch of divinity and a decent batch of peanut butter fudge. Then Michelle and I saw Julie and Julia and I started making dinners. So far I've only got me feet wet with casseroles, but they have all turned out pretty well. Cooking is no longer stressful and I really enjoy it now. I'm going to crack open The Joy Of Cooking and try my hand at some of the fancier kinds of cooking. Occasionally I'll share some recipes that worked. Today, I'll share the easiest peanut butter fudge recipe in the world (from Alton Brown):

1 cup peanut butter (I recommend chunky to add texture)
1 cup butter
1 lb powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Microwave peanut butter and butter on high for 2 mins. Stir and microwave for another 2 mins on high and stir again. Add vanilla extract and (sifted) powdered sugar and mix into peanut butter/butter mixture. Pour mixture into lightly greased 8 X 8 inch pan and cover with wax paper and refrigerate until chilled. Slice into pieces and store in air tight container for up to 1 week.
***Warning: this recipe creates an insanely sweet fudge. I used about 3/4 lb of powdered sugar and it was still so sweet that you bypass the sugar high and go straight to sugar coma.

Easy peasy. I added melted chocolate to the top for a Reese's effect and it was pretty good.