Happy Halloween Yeh Scurvy Seadogs!

Ye lilly-livered landlubbers! Mangy dogs!  Soggy scoundrels!  Barbarous bilge rats!  Wrathful wenches!  Nasty knaves!  Ruthless readers!

One of Captain Z's many vessels.

          I'm not sure how many countries celebrate Halloween, but I do know that the end of summer and winter's approach is celebrated in different ways in many cultures.  Here in the United States we celebrate by dressing up in all sorts of costumes.  Kids go door to door saying "Trick or Treat" filling their bag or pillowcase with candy throughout the night.  Some really ambitious trick-or-treaters will fill their bag, go home to unload, and fill it again before the night is over.  Most places have a designated time for trick-or-treating and any houses that want to participate leave their outdoor house lights on to invite the kids to come get candy.

          For the kids, this night is all about dressing up, hanging out with their group, and getting candy.  For adults who participate in the holiday this is a time to see the variety of costumes, greet visiting neighbors, and spend time with whoever is with them passing out candy.

The 'ganger and I in 2009.

          When I get to pass out candy I like to turn on spooky music, get in my best costume, place a doppelganger on the porch, and stand perfectly still in the doorway like a dummy.  I watch, motionless, as my victims come strolling up the driveway.  Some of them notice me right away; some of them don't see me until they go to knock or ring the doorbell.  Those who do see me go through a variety of emotions that play clearly across their faces.  I love that moment.  They wonder: Is that real?  Is it alive?  Why isn't it moving?  Perhaps they are even wondering for a fleeting moment if it is safe to approach.

          Ding-Dong...

2007 window decoration?

          OF COURSE IT'S NOT SAFE TO APPROACH!  Who approaches the house of a creepy clown and thinks they will leave unchanged?!  I have made many cry, I have made many jump.  But my favorite experience was back in 2004 when I was dressed very much like this.

2005 Two-Faced Clown

          Some of my high school classmates thought they weren't too old to go trick-or-treating.  So, just like everyone else, they approached my house.  But lo, the arrogance of male teens, their cockiness and swaggering steps led them to my porch, and I watched, just as I always do, silent as a statue.  The alpha male goes to ring the bell without noticing me and it's too late!  My head swivels to follow his movements and that slight motion sends him stumbling backwards with fear.  Ha!  I scared the big bad football player.  His two buddies laugh at him, as I wordlessly pass out the candy.  The only break in my facade is a small smirk I can't contain.

          Even my one year old nephew didn't shy away from the bloodier version in 2006.  Instead he enjoyed grabbing the nose off of my face and putting it back on.  I wish he has left it off, no nose = no fall sniffles! Ba-da tsh!  Hey, I'm a clown.  I'm supposed to be funny and make bad jokes.

Honestly, what did you expect?

          Passing out candy on Halloween is one of my favorite things to do.  Apart from scaring older kids, I love seeing all the little kids and proving to them that I'm not nearly as scary as I look.  For some reason an unbelievably large number of people are very irrationally afraid of clowns.  I would like to break this misconception that all clowns want to lure you in with a balloon just to pull your arm off.  Why would I want your arm, anyway?

An extra arm would really throw off my symmetry.

          Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that so many people's hackles raise at the mere mention of a clown; it makes my job very easy.  And I did make scaring a job.  In 2008 I passed an advertisement for a  haunted house I'd never heard of and I checked out the website noting that they were looking for volunteers.  I had set a goal for myself to do something new independently, so how could I pass this up?

Welcome to my lair.  Enter at your own risk, and do stay for dinner.  I'm nearly finished with the last group.

          I experienced my first audition and discovered a dark side of me that  had been hiding all these years. He wanted the last scream ever heard from a dying girl- I screamed the scream of a girl who doesn't know how to scream.  He wanted a cannibalistic clown- I ate the flesh off of my victim and threw away the bone, starving for more.  That's what he was looking for.  Every weekend in October I resided in my small clown room with my fellow clowns, scaring people so badly that many actually peed their pants.  The chainsaw guy counted wet pants running toward cars each night and we monsters cheered loudly at the end of the night gatherings.  We truly were a family of minions and we loved our job.  The owner of the haunt has the right personality and responsible attitude that it's no wonder he's able to expand each year with more minions and more visitors and the property owners just keep giving him more freedoms and space to grow.

          I worked there two years in a row and tried again last year, but the hairspray, dust, and face paint fumes irritated my lungs too much.  I lost my voice and ended up quite sick the second year.  I came home after the preview night last year and blew brown dust out of my nose and could already feel my throat getting scratchy so I decided to hang up the wild striped jacket and just enjoy  haunted houses as fresh meat, instead.

          This year I celebrated Halloween with my friends on a weekend.  It was very fun, but it's not quite the same when you aren't enjoying nervous glances all night long.  Of course, had I gone in full costume I bet those glances would have come my way.  D and I were zombies in the early transition stage and since we'd just butchered ourselves a zombie, I got a little blood on my hands.

          Today I couldn't sit idly by and let everyone else celebrate my favorite holiday without me.  I do not have a costume at my apartment and I did not realize I was going to have a professor actually encourage us to dress up for class.  If I had known that I would have brought everything, just for his class.  He came dressed as an Imaginary Thing.  Similar to Dr. Seuss's Thing 1 and Thing 2 but instead he was Thing √-1.  I thought that was clever. I had an exam today that I've spent several days studying for so I knew I wouldn't have much time for getting dressed up. So I searched Pinterest for nail polish ideas and was lucky enough to find an idea that matched my available colors.

          The three coats of white took a long time since that's not a quick drying polish, but rolling up a strip of newspaper into a tube and using it to blow the red onto my nails was fun! It was very quick and made every nail look different.

          I was Dexter's girlfriend for Halloween. What were you?

Slaying My First Butternut Squash

          Yes, another food blog.  Is that three in a row?  Look at me getting all busy in the kitchen!  I set a goal for myself to try making one new food item each week while I'm at school.  Since I'm living on my own and I don't have any witnesses to my massive failures (haven't had any yet), I feel confident enough to search the internet and try making foods I've never even heard of before.  I like making sweets and main dishes.  Side dishes I concoct without recipes for the most part.

Cottage cheese, Super Orange Emergen-C packet, mandarin oranges. Yum!
Just keep mixing until it stops fizzing so much.

          This week I really want a main dish because the past two weeks I've been living off of leftovers and microwavable foods.  I finally went grocery shopping after I turned my lab report in Tuesday evening, and my body was very happy to have fresh fruits and vegetables again!  I bought two whole bunches of bananas so that I can let a few bananas brown for bread, eat a few fresh, and freeze the rest.  Frozen bananas are great for smoothies and shakes.  The Chunky Monkey Shake is one great use for bananas that also temporarily satisfies the chocoholic in me.

Mixed veggies and chipotle ranch dip with my cottage cheese concoction.

          As my lab report was printing I hopped onto Pinterest and checked my food board.  I looked around a bit dismissing recipes that called for lots of ingredients I don't have, or lots of complicated steps or equipment I don't have.  I really wanted soup because that's my favorite fall dish.  I finally found a recipe for a butternut squash soup.  My only experience with butternut squash was a dish my mom made over a year ago and I loved it.  I don't even remember what it was anymore, but the happy part of my brain lit up so I checked the recipe and decided this is something I can do.  My next step was researching how to pick a good butternut squash.  I took notes, wrote down the ingredients on my shopping list (my sister-in-law got me a magnetic to-do/grocery list pad that is really useful), grabbed my lab report and  headed out.

Got this idea from Pinterest, sadly no directions, just a pretty picture.
I had an old egg to use up and a fresh bell pepper to play with.

          I headed to Aldi as my first store since they usually have better prices on everything.  I got about half the items on my grocery list there, skipping a few that I am willing to pay more for a specific brand.  Then I headed across the street to that big box store we all love to hate.  You know what?  That big box store had butternut squash twice the size of mine for a third the price as Aldi!  I wanted to go back across the street and return my little squash in favor of one of these big, cheap ones, but I didn't.  Does anyone know of a website that you can type in a grocery item you need and it will tell you the cheapest place to get it within a certain radius?  That would be really useful.

          Today was a pretty easy-going day and I was hungry after class for something real and something not frozen.  By real I mean a meal that's actually prepared, not just a frozen item or a few odd items eaten separately and called a meal.  Yesterday after I got home I finished my egg that was past its date and since it tasted so good, something with egg in it sounded good for today.  So I grabbed an egg, my potato that is growing eyes or sprouts, dark orange bell pepper, that leftover mozzarella cheese from this weekend, butter, and spring mix salad.

          I melted the butter on a frying pan, added the bell pepper, baked the potato and added that in chunks then cracked my egg onto it all.  I remembered to add the pepper while it was all cooking but I threw the salt on afterwards.  I melted the cheese into everything until I had a lovely mass of egg and potato.  I scooped all of that into the bowl that had salad already waiting in it, then added a few more leaves on top with the hopes that this bag of salad will disappear into my stomach before it gets a chance to mold like last week's spinach.

          This was surprisingly yummy!  I called my mom while eating and inquired about how one cuts up a butternut squash.  See, I may be living on my own, but I still need my mama.  She has so much practical knowledge from years of working in the kitchen, raising kids, owning a home and yard that when I have a question about life, I know I can turn to her for the answer.  And even if she doesn't know the answer she can usually point me in the right direction or we can just chat for a while.

          After I said goodbye, I got to work stabbing that squash!  It felt like carving a pumpkin, but this time I was eating it instead of displaying it.  Butternut squash smells a lot like pumpkin, too!  So I cut it open, scooped out the guts, and got to work skinning it.  Two things to be grateful for: longish fingernails and my kitchen guardian angel.  It's amazing anyone lets me hold a knife!  Remember that confidence I mentioned earlier?  Let's be honest, I have false bravado and determination when it comes to cooking, and lots of luck. I don't have confidence or skill, yet.  I am clumsy with knives and incompetent with a lot of other equipment. If you want something blended, though, I'm your girl.

Butternut Squash Soup

          I chopped up the squash into non-uniform pieces.  How do people get uniform pieces from round foods?  Then I chopped up the leftover onion from egg drop soup that D and I made a few weekends ago.  I got that recipe from high school foods class.  It's much better than what most restaurants call egg drop soup. The onion got thrown into the baking pan with the squash and I started my oven at 450 F.  I added the salt, pepper, and oil and mixed everything together before spreading it out.  While that started roasting I prepared the chicken by cutting up two breasts and adding salt, pepper, and oil.  After 15 minutes of roasting I added the meat and let it roast about 25 minutes longer for a total of 40 minutes, then the squash was softened enough.

          The roasted meat and veggies (is squash a veggie?) got thrown into a large pot (whew, I wasn't sure I had one large enough) and the broth and spices got added.  Wow, coriander and cumin smell good.  My spice rack is really growing.  I started that simmering with my scary gas stove.  I grew up with electric so using gas just makes me nervous.  It's a really old appliance so it's hard to adjust the temperature.  I have a habit of accidentally turning it off when I'm just trying to turn it down.  With a stroke of genius I brought out the blender and blended several large chunks of squash and some bits of onion instead of just squishing the squash (haha, that's fun to say) against the side of the pan.  I probably should have blended more squash since the chunks aren't really tasty to me, but it worked at thickening the soup.  Simmer some more and eat!

          I am happy I made this recipe because it is much better than frozen food or leftovers and I just love soup.  So I have to call this a success!  As orange as it is it must be packed with vitamins, too.  The spices definitely make the soup taste complete.  There is something sweet about it and I think it might be the squash.  The squash has a texture like potato.  If I could find a faster way to cut up the squash without potentially losing body parts then this recipe would go on my "make again" list.  I give it a Grade: B based on first impressions.  It is nowhere near the "choking it down" flavor range but it might take a few bowls before I start dreaming about it.  As I continue eating it, though, it is growing on me more and more. So perhaps by the time I post this I'll be in love with this soup.  Hey, it could happen!  I'm excited to find more recipes that call for coriander or cumin.  I know my mom uses them because this soup is reminding me of her home cooking.  I mentioned she's a great decorator, did I also mention she is an amazing cook?  That's why I've never felt the need to really practice cooking.  Anything she makes would be better than anything I can make.

          The biggest downside to this soup is that it serves 6-8.  Convert that to Z sized serving and we're talking a dozen or more!  Well, the author says it freezes wonderfully so perhaps I'll split it between smaller containers and freeze them to pull out when I really want soup.  We'll see how much of it I can finish this weekend, first.

*** Edit 11-1-12
          I am now on my last bowl of this soup and I can definitely say I like it.  I blended up the rest of the onion and squash bits and added a little extra water to the individual bowls if I felt they were too dry.  I added more salt and pepper until it reached my liking.  Today I added leftover mozzarella cheese and that was the trick!  Cheese, to me, completes a meal, so I am now happy and will be sure to have shredded cheese on hand next time I make this.  There will be a next time.

          As you can tell, I love trying new foods.  If you have an idea of a recipe I should try please leave me the recipe or a link in the comments and there's a very good chance I'll give it a try.  The link for this recipe is the title, if you didn't notice.  I think I'll start doing that for recipes that aren't my own.  Have a fantastic Friday!

A Spooky DZ Halloween Party Food Adventure

          I love that my man is willing to help me make treats for parties!  He is such a big help and has some clever ideas, too.  The thanks goes to his mom and sister for drafting his help each Christmas when it came time to make thousands of treats.  He gained lots of experience and knowledge.  So I guess he won't complain when I ask him to help me make a few dozen easy treats.  He will troll me a little, though, and I love that, too.  What's working in the kitchen without trolling?  Boring, that's what it is!

          Saturday was our friends' Halloween party.  Last year I threw a small Halloween themed lunch for a few friends and I had a lot of fun making the spooky treats.  Spaghetti brains with garlic bread, make your own caramel apple with caramel in the slow cooker to stay melted, bread stick bones, a floating frozen hand in the apple cider, and Halloween cupcakes were all a lot of fun to make.  My mom and sister helped me prepare a lot of that food, and I was very grateful for their help.  This year I volunteered to bring a few things to help take some of the workload off of the hostess.

Zombie Ribs with Zombie Dipping Juice

          I accidentally hit a zombie with my car on my way home Friday night, and I figured, why waste perfectly good spoiled meat?  So I hauled the monster into the back of my little car and took him home.  I know zombie ribs are a popular entree at my house and a great quick food idea.  Why  not share it with my friends?

          This is sort of a cheater recipe because it is so easy.  You need a whopping 3 ingredients, a cookie pan, and Pam or some other cooking spray.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 

*pizza dough in one of those exploding rolls

*pizza sauce, at least 8 ounces per dough roll so it's extra juicy

*mozzarella cheese, at least 1 cup per roll so it's good and cheesy

          I made a doubled recipe so I bought two rolls, 24 oz of sauce, and 4 cups of cheese.  

Step 1: Spray the cookie sheet with cooking spray to prevent the dough from sticking.

Step 2: Flatten out the rectangle of dough, spread the pizza sauce over half of the dough lengthwise add cheese to the same area and fold the other half of the dough over.

Step 3: Press the seams together so that all the goodness stays inside.  You can poke holes in the top of the dough but I did one with holes and one without and didn't notice a difference.

Step 4: Bake in oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

          Time to make my pizza bread into ribs.  Most intact zombies have 24 ribs so I cut each pizza dough side into 12 ribs and put the extra sauce into a bowl as dipping juice.  These were rather popular at the party, and for as fast as they are to make this recipe is definitely a make again.  Grade: A  I left the leftovers at home so my sister could finish it since the actual recipe is named after her on Mom's recipe card.  I took the leftover mozzarella home with me, though. I can always find places to add extra cheese.

          The only problem I ran into when making these ribs was subduing the zombie.  Apparently getting hit by a car doesn't kill them right away like it does in some movies.  This sucker put up quite the fight and both D and I ended up a bit mauled.  I think we averted disaster, though, our skin isn't turning colors.  Boy I sure could use a snack though, something gray and intelligent perhaps?

Salty Halloween Treats

          I found this recipe on Pinterest from Free Cake Info and again you only need 3 ingredients: smaller sized pretzels, Hershey's hugs, and candy corn.  I also used a cookie sheet and parchment paper.  I let D do most of the work on these while I worked on the witch's hats.  We laid out the square pretzels on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet until the pan bottom was nearly full then we started unwrapping the chocolates to place on each pretzel.  The oven was preheated to 350 degrees F.  My silly D decided to start placing wrapped hugs on the pretzels and he chided me for messing up his pattern when I unwrapped them.  So I replaced them with wrapped chocolates and fixed his pattern.  Next thing he decided to start making his own pattern and I patiently waited and worked on the witch's hats as he wrote me a little love note in chocolates. =D Yes, he is the sweetest which is perfect since Saturday was Sweetest Day.

          D then finished his task of unwrapping the chocolates and he placed them in the oven for 3 minutes.  When he brought them out to let them cool and start placing the assorted candy corn on them, they melted and oozed all over.  Apparently 3 minutes was longer than they needed.  We waited a long time and they still would not solidify much but D managed to get a piece of candy into each hug and he placed them in the fridge to cool and harden.  

          Here is where his experience comes in handy.  When it was time to pack them up for the party he was smart enough to use cut up pieces from the used parchment paper to separate layers of candies so they didn't all stick together.  I would have just tossed them all into the container and ended up with a lot of candies stuck together.  We left the candy pumpkin attempts out of the container since we ran out of room and they oozed the most, and they were ready to go.  I ate one pumpkin and my parents ate the other two when they discovered them left on the counter.  That one little pumpkin was quite yummy, but I really want... mmmm.... brains?

          These were a big hit at the party and I made sure my friends took some home with them, and D took some home when he left my house that night.  He deserves the credit for how well they turned out and in fact he deserves a lot of credit for all the help he gave me Saturday!  Don't worry, I made sure my friends knew. Who can resist bragging about how helpful their man is?  I can't.  I give these candies a Grade: B+ Next time they don't need to stay in the oven for 3 whole minutes and that will make them an A+ for sure.  Delicious!

Halloween Witch Hat Cookies

          Isn't simple wonderful?  These cookies are another Pinterest idea from Explore. Dream. Discover.  Once again you only need 3 ingredients: Hershey's kisses, orange tube icing, and Keebler fudge stripe cookies.  I got the double fudge cookies so they were black through and through.  How do you make these super difficult and absolutely adorable little edible hats?  Put a ring of icing around the base of a kiss, press it into the center of the upside down cookie, then add another ring of icing around the base of the kiss to look like a ribbon.  I wanted to add bows but the tip of the icing tube wasn't narrow enough for it to look right.  I placed the cookies on parchment paper while I waited for them to dry then, for added effect, I placed them around a witch's hat on a round pizza pan for support.  This really made the treats feel like Halloween.  D was amazing again and wrapped the whole thing in cling wrap so we could transport them without losing any cookies.  Grade: A+, super easy to make, no mess with the parchment paper, and very fast.

Slimy Worms!

          I must admit that I saved the best for last.  This one also isn't simple.  If you want to make simple worms for a party then buy gummy worms, put them in chocolate pudding and add blended Oreos to look like dirt and mud.  That is simple.  If you want slimy, gross, realistic and fantastic worms, then do this.
Instructables: Bowl of Worms

          You will need:

*2 3oz packages of raspberry jello (or any red jello)

*1 3oz package of unflavored gelatin (I just bought a 6 oz and a 3 oz package of raspberry)

*3/4 cup whipping cream (I chose heavy)

*3 cups boiling water

*15 drops green food coloring

*100 flexible straws (pull them flexed, can use more if you want)

*tall container (or a 1 gallon ziplock bag and a bread pan with potholders to fill in the extra space)

          Combine gelatin in a larger bowl than I have pictured, and add boiling water.  Stir.  Let cool to lukewarm then add whipping cream and food coloring and stir again.  I didn't let mine cool far enough and when I added the cream it curdled a bit, but somehow the finished product wasn't affected by that.  I then placed my straws without a rubber band into a 1 gallon ziplock bag and added the jello right into them.  I let out as much air as possible and tried to make sure the jello fully covered all of the straws.  I then laid them sideways in a bread pan and shoved about 3 or 4 potholders into the side to keep the ziplock bag in a shape that kept the straws covered.  I then put this into the fridge overnight and hoped for the best!

          The next day I was pleased to see that the curdling didn't seem to stick around and the jello was very firm.  I took the entire brick of jello and straws out of the bag and put them on a plastic cutting board.  Now comes the messy part.  This is a REALLY messy task.  The jello is sticky and slippery all at once and if you don't like those kinds of textures then you won't like this part of the process.  My job was cleaning off the straws of all the excess jello.  There was about as much excess jello as there were jello worms.  But I wouldn't use more straws unless I could find a way to get the jello to stay in those straws during the setting process.

          It's a good thing D and I were early-stage zombies for the party so it didn't matter that our hands were stained red.  D was amazing and took on the task of squeezing 100 worms out of their straws and placing them into the bowl for the party.  He put one finger on the end of the straw and slid his other thumb up the straw, squeezing the worm out.  That worked quite well but it took a long time and was very sticky.  Using a rolling pin was a suggested idea for making this go faster or holding the straws over warm water.  So try it out and find what works best for you.

          Sadly I do not know how well these would have been received because they got left in the fridge during the party.  But they looked gross and tasted amazing.  I enjoyed slurping down a few worms when D and I got back that night and I brought the rest back home with me.  They are starting to flatten and stick together so don't make this too far in advance if you want individual worms for your presentation.  I give them a Grade: B because they are fun and taste great but they are messy and time consuming.  So I would only make them again if I can come up with an easier way to get the worms out of the straws and to clean the straws.  Also, my worms have the full opaque stripe following the length of the worm because that's the way the cream floated and settled in the straws lying sideways.  If you want your cream to be at one of the ends you'll have to stand the straws vertically; the cream floats.

          All in all Saturday was a very fun day!  I got to see some great friends, eat amazing food, and spend the day with my sweetie.  I hope you all had a great weekend and have a fantastic week!

Z Food Adventure- Peanut Butter Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

          Along with good old going places and seeing things adventures, I also enjoy adventures that happen close to home or in the kitchen.  I'm living on my own for the first time this fall and that means that I can either eat prepared meals bought in stores or I can make my own.  For the most part I love eating lots of fruits and veggies throughout the day.  They put me in a better mood and I feel like I have more energy when they are the majority of what I eat.  Now, I eat my veggies with very liberal amounts of dip, so that adds some unhealthiness to the healthy factor, but I'm not worried about that.

          Today's adventure starts online.  I decided to give Pinterest a try and I joined late this summer.  I heard how useful it was for putting a bunch of links in one organized place for me to use whenever I need.  So I got on and started pinning housework tips and food ideas.  Then of course I started pinning all the random glorious fun things out there, too, and haven't stopped.  But what use is Pinterest if all we do is pin things?  Aren't these links here so we can actually use them?  That started me on my food adventures.  I started placing specific recipes that I wanted to try on Z Food Experiments.  I've had a lot of success with those recipes.  If you're on Pinterest and haven't tried anything you've pinned I urge you to pick something and try it this week.  You'll feel like all those hours spent surfing and pinning are no longer a waste of time.

          All the fun I've had in the past couple months in the kitchen got me thinking: if people are posting their kitchen ideas on Pinterest I would like to share my successes and failures, too!  That's right, I am not afraid to share a failed idea.  It might save someone else time by preventing them from making my same mistakes.  So today I share with you a failed idea and tips on how to potentially improve on it.

Peanut Butter/Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt

My camera does not take very good indoor pictures, yet. I'm still working on that.

          I saw recipes on Pinterest for making your own ice cream using bananas or various yogurts so I thought I'd give it a try.  My fridge is sadly very empty right now.  I am out of all fresh fruits and veggies, and the rainy weather has prevented me from wanting to go out and buy groceries.  So I've been getting creative with what I do have.  Yesterday I added canned mandarin oranges and an orange flavored Emergen-C packet to plain yogurt.  That was very yummy and the Emergen-C made the yogurt fizz a little so it had a slight tickling of the nose effect.  Since I am lacking fruits and veggies in my diet right now I figured adding vitamins in an alternate way was a good idea.  I would bet kids would enjoy taking vitamins that way, too.  That idea gets an B+ on my grading scale below; I'd like to try adding a bit of cottage cheese or make cottage cheese the main part of it next time.

          I still have lots of plain yogurt left and the expiration date is nearing so I figured today I would see what adding peanut butter can do to yogurt.  I added a forkful and tasted it and was quite pleased.  So I added more yogurt and more peanut butter and decided, why not, let's add three Oreos and see what happens.  Well good news/bad news.  Good news: the peanut butter flavor certainly comes through!  Bad news: too much peanut butter!  I realize now why in peanut butter ice creams they don't put much in.  It does not take much peanut butter to get plenty of flavor.  So don't add two or three very large forkfuls to your cup of yogurt, that's too much.  I can't really taste the Oreos, either and that's sad.  I tried it right after I made it and after freezing it and either way the peanut butter is just too much.  It becomes very creamy yogurt, though!

One cookie broken and mixed in, 2 cookies still whole and moistening.

          So it is not a total loss and if I added more yogurt I could probably fix it, but I think a cup of yogurt is enough to eat in one day.  Vanilla yogurt might be better, too, to add more sweetness.  If you're wondering, leaving it in the freezer about an hour was not quite long enough to completely solidify it.  So if you want to try this you  might expect to wait 2 or more hours to get a good frozen yogurt.  I think I'm going to try mixing strawberry jelly in the yogurt and freezing that next time.  I'd also like to try a peanut butter and jelly frozen yogurt.  If I do, I'll let you know how it goes!

          If I'm going to start making foods it might be helpful to have a way to judge the results.  Below is my initial grading scale that I'll use to rate my food adventures.  Today's recipe receives a C+ meaning it has potential to be much better, it isn't bad, but the idea of eating the entire dish doesn't excite me.  I love peanut butter and like yogurt so I will try this again with modification, and when I do I'll come back and edit this blog with a footnote to let you know how it went.  I'll also try to be more precise in my measurements so you can try it if you want.

Food Adventure Grading Scale: 

A- Excellent! Definitely plan on making it again.

B-Tasty success, might need slight adjustment to reach perfection but is good the way it is.  Make again.

C- Has potential for greatness but after X amount of bites eating becomes a chore.  Will try again with modifications.

D- Can't finish it without immediate modification, won't try again.

F- Not worth trying to fix and won't eat another bite.

A Fall D&Z Adventure to Pilcher Park

          It is time to tell you a tale of an actual adventure.  Adventures can just happen on their own or they can be planned, but no matter what, something is likely to surprise you.  D and I enjoy adventuring.  Our second date was our first big adventure, and there were plenty of wonderful surprises on that day that we'll both remember for a long time.  No, not sappy romantic surprises; it was just our second date, sheesh.  But that is not the adventure I'll tell you today.  I'm here to tell you about our most recent adventure.  An adventure to the Pilcher Park Nature Center's greenhouse.

          This is our second adventure to Pilcher Park and it is exciting to see how much it changes from spring to fall.  The trails look completely different when they are bathed in oranges and reds instead of the fresh greens shooting out of the decaying browns of winter.  I was most excited to see what was blooming inside, though.

          We were not disappointed.  D has never been in the greenhouse before this adventure, and I think it's safe to say he wasn't bored by it.  Pilcher Park is a popular wedding and photography location.  If you go on a weekend you can definitely plan on some sort of event happening.  Today was no exception.  The outside was set up for a wedding and the groomsmen were exploring the interior.  In the front room we saw a young child getting photos taken, and in the next room an older couple was getting pictures.  So we kept right on walking through to the tropical area.

          I was more than happy to move right through to this room since it is my favorite!  Where else can I see birds of paradise?  There are many exotic plants in this room full of vivid colors.  And in the very center is a well-stocked koi pond with a waterfall feeding into it.

          Of course that waterfall makes for a perfect photo opportunity for D and I, and we took advantage of that.  There is a very good reason that this place is so popular for those who want great photos.  Even if you just love plants this is a great place to explore.  Beyond the tropical room is a room full of spiky and thorny plants you'd expect to find in the desert.

          Several very large jade plants are in the center of the room.  I have one growing at my parents' house that I expect will reach that size someday.  Pilcher Park has all the greenhouse plants labeled so it was nice knowing that I correctly identified my jade plant.  That also means that if you want to know the name of any of these plants I would be able to find out quite easily.  I don't pay much attention to names when I'm exploring, though.  I'm too busy clicking away with my camera and checking out the plants D doesn't want me to miss.  I know I have a keeper when my man excitedly points out more potential photos instead of groaning about me taking so many. =)

          We finally got our chance to explore the front room and D and I thoroughly enjoyed noticing the variety of very colorful leafy plants.  Green on the outside with a purple ring toward the center, purple on the outside green on the inside, purple on the outside with darker purple on the inside, hot pink beside green, hot pink inside light pink inside green, and the ones you see above that look like a firework going off inside the plant.  These plants are just beautiful.
          Next we headed outside and as I took some photos of roses I noticed my man sneaking off.  Next thing I know he's peaking out from behind a tree and I can't stop myself from grabbing a shot of that.  That's right, he supports my passion for photography and is a big goof like me.  Perfect!

          We took a walk around the outside of the greenhouse where our eyes were assaulted by pinks, purples, and beautiful blues, but what stood out most was a rare photo opportunity indeed.  D spotted a sluggish grasshopper climbing in the chilly leaves.  I like bugs a lot, especially the ones that can't bite or sting. So spitting bugs with wings I love!  You know what I mean, that brown "tobacco" juice they spit on you when you hold them.  I don't mind that.  And if you don't know what I mean then you need to get out there and go grasshopper hunting!  Those bugs are fun.  Tie some thread around a really big flying grasshopper and you have a flying pet on a string!  If you're not brave enough to do it, then give the idea to a kid and watch what happens.  It is fun, especially when a bird swoops in and eats your temporary pet.  Ok, that was actually a sad day, but we still laughed.
          I told you, every adventure has a surprise in it, you just need to get out there and find it.

10-11-12

All those colors on one plant were begging for a photo shoot.

          I love days like today, days with neat numbers.  October 11, 2012 is actually a day I've been looking forward to this year because of the 10-11-12 pattern.  Did you realize that today is only a neat date in the U.S. and perhaps a couple other countries?  Most countries put the day before the month.  So on November 10th the rest of the world will be making sure to write a check or make a journal entry so that they can write 10-11-12.
          Are you getting the feeling that I'm a little silly and perhaps a little nerdy?  If I told you that Pi Day is also one of my favorite days would that change your mind at all?  March 14 is the date that math teachers want to bring pie into class to get their students excited about irrational numbers.  There is a very exciting Pi Day coming up in a few years 3-14-15.  I definitely should do something special on that day!  Alright, I will let you in on a little secret: I am not a little nerdy, I am a HUGE nerd!  That's no secret to anyone who knows me, but perhaps my fabulous prose and beautiful pictures have been able to prevent you from drawing that conclusion until now.

See, I'm distracting you again. : )

          The next cool number day coming up is 12-12-12.  Now I have some questions for you.  Do you notice dates with neat numbers?  What are some things you might do on one of those days or what did you do today?  And here's the fun one: what should I do to celebrate 3-14-15?  Please leave your answers in the comments.  Let's see how many people are brave enough to admit they enjoy these days, too.

Captain Z's One Wish

         As promised, I am back to let you  know the only thing I would ask of you as my fellow adventurous scallywags.  My purpose in starting this public narrative is to be able to share the fruits of my passion with you. Photography is one of my passions and after seeing my parents' kitchen walls become covered in photos I've taken, I realized my pictures are at least a little above average.  I was honored and delighted that my mom, who has great decorating taste, found my photos to be worthy of decorating the room where the most family time occurs.

Thank you again, Mom.

          Since this realization, I decided that posting my photos on Facebook where only close friends and family can see them is not enough.  Maybe someone else would enjoy seeing and even using some of my photos.  My boyfriend's sister recently asked for permission to make sketches of my photos for a portfolio, and I was delighted all over again!

          So here I am, and here are my photos.  They are for you.  As I said last time, please feel free to use them.  Copy and save them to your computer, use them as desktop backgrounds, share them, print them and hang them, Pin them (I do), use them in class projects, enjoy them!  The only thing that I ask is that you please give me credit for them.  I am placing my name on each photo to make giving credit easy.  I am dating them and even adding the location if they were taken in public places so that if you feel inspired you can explore those places, too.  If you would like to know what a certain plant is, feel free to ask.  I don't know all of them, but I can try to find out for you.

I like the way the grass stands out among all the warm colors.

          I recently bought myself a new camera, and I've been playing around with it a lot.  I'll tell you about my camera adventures another time.  Fall is a great time to see what a new camera can do with all the bold colors.  On my way home today I decided to play with the sunlight and leaves around a beautiful sugar maple.  This tree has been bright orange, red, and green all mixed for over a week and I've already visited it once before today.  Last time, though, it was overcast so the sun wasn't shining through the leaves consistently.  I was also using my own settings on the camera instead of the auto mode.  Today I let the camera show me what auto can do.

          I was quite pleased with the results.  The leaves on this tree aren't all changing at the same rate.  Some are still mostly green while others are mostly red/orange.  The changes happen from the outside, in.  They start turning orange around the edge and it slowly moves in and darkens.  This picture demonstrates the many stages of color change very well.

Of course, not all trees change at the same time either, or in the same way.  This is why we all love fall instead of seeing it as a foreboding sign of winter coming (Game of Thrones, anyone?).  My boyfriend was in California over the summer and he was told that in the fall the leaves don't change color. I better start calling him D because calling him boyfriend is strange when we're not little boys and girls anymore.  I can't imagine going through fall without watching leaves change color.  The few falls we do get where the leaves don't get the opportunity to change before turning brown or falling off the trees are sad seasons.  Winter needs a proper welcome!

          My last stop before heading indoors was a tour around the yard.  I had to stop to capture this image because I like the stages of dandelion growth, too.  How many of you still want to pick these puff balls, make a wish, and blow?  The mischievous side of me always enjoyed blowing these through the yard when the wind blew towards our neighbors with no dandelions in their yard.  Who doesn't want these beautiful yellow flowers dotting their yard?  The leaves are soft for stepping on barefoot and even edible!  Oh well, I guess not everyone is as appreciative of natural beauty as I am.

Ahoy, Mateys!

          Right now you're probably expecting the whole "Hi, I'm Czarina... blah blah blah" introduction.  But do you really care who I am?  You're probably not reading this adventure because you're interested in me, not yet at least.  You are likely here from a link or reference that sparked your curiosity.  I love curiosity.  Satisfying your curiosity is my goal, but a good book doesn't give away all the fun and gory details in the beginning or what would be left to keep you coming back?  My amazing (to me) pictures? Possibly, since that's what brought you here in the first place, but I'm not willing to take that chance.  Besides, I love a book with twists and surprises.  Perhaps my story will have a few.

          There you go.  You're welcome.  Feel free to copy and paste it, print it, Pin it, whatever.  All I ask for is a little credit.  Taking pictures has been a hobby of mine since I got my first, cheap, film camera back in grade school.  That's right, kiddos, back in the 90s cameras weren't all digital.  You had to put a film roll in your camera, wind the little scroll thing (Oops, you caught me, I don't know technical terms) until you see the number, and then you can take your pictures.  After you take a couple dozen, you wind the scroll thing to the end of the roll, take the roll to the pharmacy to be developed, wait a few hours or a couple days depending on how patient you are and how much you are willing to spend, then you finally get to see whether or not your pictures even turned out any good.

What family doesn't have pet ducks?

          I have so many low quality and blurry, yet heartwarming photos from my childhood.  I got my first digital camera for Christmas in 2001.  When I picked it out my dad and I believed it had a viewing screen on the back, or at least I hoped so, because that is what I really wanted.  I would finally have a chance to know if my picture was good right after the beep sounded.

This is the clearest photo I took that December in its full size.

          Uh-oh, you guessed it, Dad and I were both wrong.  Sadly, the picture quality was even worse than a film camera!  The images were very small and often blurry, there was no zoom or focus button, and there wasn't even a flash.  Poor quality did not prevent me from taking hundreds of pictures with it throughout the following years, though, until...

My grandest adventure brought me to this picture and hundreds more.  Stick around to hear about it.

...I had a very good reason to buy myself a brand new digital camera with all the bells and whistles in 2008.  Perhaps ALL is an exaggeration, but at the time I didn't know how to use them to my advantage anyway, as you'll learn.  If I get a blurry photo now, I take another shot right away and another until I get the shot I wanted.  As this picture shows, sometimes the right amount of blur can make an image truly magical.

        Oh dear, I'm afraid I've said too much for a first entry.  You might already be thinking you know a thing or two about me.  So I'd better stop here.  Please come back next time to learn about my One Rule of this adventure to help us to share in our delight.