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Posts Tagged ‘food’

Happy Popcorn Easter!

March 28th, 2011 by pladd

My mom sends the BEST packages. Granted, they don’t come as frequently as they used to, since I guess she assumes that now that I’m Making It On My Own I can buy my own giant Mr. Potato Head or demonic singing hamster robot. They are even more exciting now because of their rarity! And the fact that Rachel is marginally less likely to throw them from a third story window through annoyance (or bloodlust?). This weekend I got a popcorn egg decorating kit! I assume for the lesser known holiday of Popcorn Easter, when a giant, sentient corn ear travels to houses at night and leaves popcorn eggs for all the children.

In case you are behind the times, a popcorn egg is just like a popcorn ball, but egg shaped!

Between hardboiled eggs and Cadburry Cream eggs on the Egg Tastiness Spectrum

The kit came with a bunch of different candies and marshmallows, and a tube of white “chocolate flavored candy glue” to attach them to the egg. It also had instructions that stated (among other things) that you would need “scissors and creativity!!” Megan insisted that reading the instructions was totally necessary but I was filled with the spirit of POPCORN EASTER ADVENTURE and paid her no heed.

Me, paying Megan no heed! Later she bit me in punishment.

Unfortunately, Steven, with characteristic and annoying artistry, clearly made the best popcorn egg person:

He's happy because he's made of smashed tootsie roll and popcorn!

After softening up the green tootsie roll, I twisted it in strands to give my guy greasy looking hair! Also, his mouth was made of pink Good N’Plenty pieces.

The owl napkin holder does not approve

Megan decided not to compete with Steven’s face making skills and did a pattern instead:

So ready for Popcorn Easter right now!

Unfortunately, the colorful sprinkled pieces ended up tasting like death inside:

The popcorn eggs themselves tasted delicious! Way better than the candy we had used to decorate them. I can say that this was, without a doubt, the best Popcorn Easter ever! Thanks, Mom Ladd.

Tagged: food, holiday, Mom Ladd, popcorn

Posted in Food, Things I've Made |

Cupcake Lasagna

January 28th, 2011 by pladd

It’s a proven scientific fact: everything tastes better as a cupcake. And, as hard-hitting investigator Roque has long suspected, I have recently been diagnosed with cupcakephilia. That’s right; I can only eat things in cupcake form. It’s a terrible debilitation, but somehow I soldier on.

I used the recipe I found here at Can You Stay for Dinner? and it was so much easier than normal lasagna! The hardest part was definitely finding wonton wrappers, which are used instead of noodles. I ended up finding them at the Harris Teeter in the fancier, professor-populated part of town, in the produce section near the polenta and tofu. I thought stacking the ingredients in the cupcake tins would be hard or too messy but it ended up being really easy! I wish I had taken pictures of the process, but I was too hungry at the time!

Here is the finished product:

Like a tiny basket of tastiness!

I’m thinking about planning a party where everything is a cupcake. And inviting Roque.

Tagged: cupcakes, food, Roque, things I've made

Posted in Food, Things I've Made |

13 Adventures: #9 Southern Season

December 18th, 2010 by pladd

So this is kind of a lame adventure because I didn’t bring my camera, but it is the only thing remotely adventurous I did today, besides play Super Mario 64, which is even less visually appealing. So: Southern Season is this giant store that sells gourmet food plus lots of tableware, but I never go in that section. They also have cooking utensils, pots, and pans, all extremely overpriced, plus greeting cards, some North Carolina/UNC merchandise, and a fancy restaurant attached. Do not be fooled by any of these add-ons. It is really all about the food.

And, for me, even more specifically, all about the chocolate. They have a massive chocolate counter where you can get almost anything from Godiva to locally made truffles. Plus another whole aisle of chocolate bars with anything from mint to pink peppercorns to bacon to varying kinds of sea salt in them. Personally, I am a huge fan of salty chocolate so I always stop here, at least to look! There’s also a section with international candy/treats and kinds that are hard to find now, like Fruit Stripe gum. My other favorite thing to get here is from the locally-made/North Carolina section, Carolina Moonshine Crunch. It is basically chex mix covered in white chocolate. I used to get almost the same thing when I was younger at this macadamia farm–except there it also had macadamia nuts in it and was called “White Trash”. Today we were mostly getting Christmas presents, but since we were stuck behind these meandering old people right next to the Carolina Moonshine Crunch I assumed it was a sign that I should buy some for myself. Basically, it is like eating a dream.

Also available at Southern Season: a cutting board shaped like North Carolina (guaranteed to make your bread or cheese taste 30% more like lighthouses and the Daniel Boone). Lighthouses and Daniel Boone are what North Carolina is all about.

Tagged: adventures, food, southern season

Posted in Uncategorized |

Thanksgiving Reborn! Like a tasty Phoenix!

November 23rd, 2010 by pladd

I suspect there are more people than you’d think who dislike most or all traditional Thanksgiving food. My personal opinions are:

Turkey: Bland and uninteresting
Gravy: Incredibly suspect and not to be trusted
Cranberry Sauce: Just give up and be JELLO already
Mashed potatoes: Acceptable
Stuffing/Dressing: Good. Or, I guess I should say, the variation of it my family makes is good. The kind that comes from a box that Steven likes tastes like eating instant grits before cooking them.
Green bean casserole: Why would you want to adulterate perfectly good green beans?
Sweet potato casserole: Too sweet unless it is literally just marshmallows on top of a sweet potato. None of this brown sugar/melted butter nonsense.

And the thing is, I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks most Thanksgiving food is just kind of eh, at best. And still almost everyone eats the same thing every year, just because it’s “tradition”. Lame.

If you’ve ever heard me rant about weddings at all (and anyone who asks me anything like “Have you set a date yet?”, hears my entire speech of righteousness), you know that I hate doing things just for tradition’s sake. Somehow as a child I got the impression that once I became an adult, no one was going to tell me what to do ever again. Obviously, this is untrue, and I admit that I need to follow orders at work and school. But I’m not going to let society push me around if I don’t have to. Which is why I have always vowed that once I became master of my own Thanksgiving, things would change. The menu would be replaced with my six favorite foods, the things I was thankful for. That menu would look like this:

Spaghetti
Homemade bread
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Fried Rice
Broccoli and cheese
Chocolate mousse

And it would be the BEST Thanksgiving ever! For me. This year, I realized that this dream could become a REALITY. Even though I am not having Thanksgiving alone, I realized I could become master of my own Thanksgiving by being on the ball and forcing everyone to agree to make their one favorite food instead of the usual nonsense. And it worked! So far the menu looks like this:

Spaghetti (Me)
Chicken fingers (Steven)
Meatloaf (Thomas)
Some kind of pie (Mom Ladd)
Some kind of vegetable thing (Dad)

Don’t look now, Charlie Brown, but it’s going to be the best Thanksgiving ever, because I’m going to willingly eat every dish on the table!

What foods would you bring to Thanksgiving 2.0?

Tagged: food, holiday, Thanksgiving

Posted in Uncategorized |

Things I’ve Made: Fruity Oaty Bars

May 14th, 2010 by pladd

Today I was so inspired by a letter from Roque, that I decided to actually honor my pledge of blog updates WITHOUT FAIL every Tuesday and Friday (other weeks I’m more inspired to maintain my reputation as a pathological liar). In this letter, Roque commented that “as far as I can tell, all of the food you eat in NC is normal meals morphed into cupcake form”. While this is mostly true, last week I tried and failed to construct the famous octopii-endorsed, shit-flipping-causing, Fruity Oaty Bar for our Serenity movie night.

After much debate, I decided to use this recipe, although I was especially bad about having the correct ingredients. I never seem to have the right size pan, and am horrible at remembering to double everything on the fly. Also, I randomly decided to pour snack mix on top. So here is my revised recipe (with notes about mistakes I made):

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 cups oats
However much jam you have
1 package of Fruit & Nut mix with dried fruit and different kinds of nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line whatever size pan you have with wax paper.
This part was fine.
2. Cream butter with sugar and salt. Add flour. Stir in oats.
This is the part where I realized my pan was too big, so I’ve doubled this recipe to match.
3. Press about 3/4 of the mixture into the pan.
4. Place jam in small saucepan and cook over lowest heat until it becomes liquidy, pourable, and looks vaguely like congealed brain or Halloween-style blood. Pour jam over pan.
I also underestimated how much jam I would need so it was more like a light dusting.
5. Sprinkle remaining dough and Fruit&Nut mix over jam.
6. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes.

Also, they cause fires.

Tagged: food, recipe, Roque, serenity

Posted in Food, Things I've Made |