crayola kid

Yesterday, I made some delicious focaccia bread from scratch. I had hoped to have a new video of that adventure up today...but I'm experimenting with Windows Movie Maker and I will spare you the gory details of file conversions gone horribly, horribly wrong to tell you that it just didn't happen. Whatever I do, it'll have to wait until Saturday, because...

I'm going on a four day silent retreat! In fact, I'm leaving in about an hour and won't be back until Friday! I'll be staying with the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, going to Mass and prayers with them and all that, but I'm generally just trying to spend some silent time alone, away from the ministry--and the Burgh--for the first time in a ridiculously LONG time. (Other than Rome, the last time I was out of the city was...Christmas.)

So please pray for me over these next few days. Or if you're not the praying type, I would appreciate it if you'd send some good thoughts my way! Thanks everyone...and I'll catch you on the flip side!

Love you, miss you, blah blah blahhhhhhhhhh...

yat-dot-dot-dot-dot...HEY!

I went to a Pirates game at PNC Park last night with a friend (we got free tickets a few weeks back at a meeting for the Pittsburgh Kids Foundation). The Pirates played against the Milwaukee Brewers and lost...of course.


Now, this is not to say that I could do any better...we all know about my softball skillz (which, if given a point value, would be at -9 right now), but really? Get your stuff together, Pirates! You get paid to do this! I mean, come on. You know you have a bad team when fans stay just long enough to see the Pierogi Race (you know, those Polish dumpling things) and then they leave. Seriously, check this out.


FUN FACTZ!


Did you know...
...the Steelers have won the Super Bowl six times?
...the Penguins have won the Stanley Cup three times and are in the playoffs right now, possibly to win a fourth?
...the Pirates are statistically the worst team in all of professional sports history with SEVENTEEN losing seasons in a row?


I saw a shirt once that said, "Pittsburgh: City of Champions" and then underneath in smaller print it said, "...and the Pirates." Yup. That about sums it up right there.

i strive for egg-cellence!

I made these little egg thingies...check it out! And let me know if there's a recipe you think I should make on my next "episode"...and maybe I'll give it a try!

ALSO, it might be best for you to actually watch the video on YouTube so that it's not cut off on the right hand side...and you can do that by double-clicking the video itself. The weird thing is that it's going to open a new window and start playing the video automatically in that one, but it'll also play in the blog one, so be sure to pause it so you don't have a lame echo. Cool? Cool.



Love you, miss you, blah blah blah!

dress for success!

So the cupcakes were wonderful! I ended up bringing most of them to softball practice on Thursday night, and I brought the rest to Bruster's (the ice cream place where one of my kids works) and gave a cupcake to everyone who was working there.

OH YEAH, did I mention that I'm an assistant to the outfield coach on the St. T's youth summer softball team? I know, right?! I told one of my mentors from college that I'm doing this, and he said (and this is a direct quote), "You will be an awesome softball coach. Or at least comic relief, which you do pretty well." Yup...that about sums it up. Moving on...

Today, I tried a recipe for homemade flour tortillas. They're super easy to make and super delicious! I'm really loving this foray into the world of cookin' stuff I've never cooked before! Maybe I'll try some exciting crock pot concoction next. The thing is, I have to be very calculated whenever I take the time to actually cook stuff, because there's only one of me...so whatever I make has to be easily refrigerate-able (is there a better word for that?) and/or freezable so I don't end up wasting a bunch of food and money! Because wasting food and money is LAMESAUCE to the EXTREME!

Here's the recipe for...

Flour Tortillas!

2 1/4 c flour (I used the regular all-purpose stuff, but I'd be interested in trying a wheat flour of some sort just for funzies)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (I thought this was a bit too much, though, so maybe cut a little)

2 tsp vegetable oil

a titch over 3/4 c. hot milk

Put the milk in the microwave for 60 seconds and leave it until you need it.

Measure out all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add in vegetable oil and mix it all together a bit.

Slowly mix in the hot milk until the dough ball comes away clean. Adjust with more or less milk and/or additional flour (but not too much!).

Mix the dough for 3-4 minutes, then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it once or twice to shape it some. [I actually overlooked that entire sentence when I made them, so I didn't mix it for a full 3-4 minutes or knead it at all...no wonder it was so sticky! Oh well...ZOOPSIES!]

Divide the dough into 12 equal balls. Roll each ball into a 6-inch circle on a lightly floured surface (I don't have a roller, though, so I just pinched them out until they were thin enough) and cook them on a griddle (or a frying pan--that's what I used and it worked just fine!), roughly 30 seconds for each side.

Voila! And there's so much you can do with these little guys! You can make open faced sandwiches or a little flatbread salad, or you can slap some peanut butter on there for a little afternoon snack! I'm going to experiment and see if it would work for a grilled cheese sandwich or even just straight-up toast. We'll see!

Coolio...well, I'm going to go be awesome now (or should I say, keep being awesome, since I'm always in a state of awesomeness...HAHA). Love you, miss you, blah blah blah!

there's a vial of world peace sitting on my bookshelf

Tonight at about 11:00, I decided that I wanted to make some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. So...I did. The last batch actually just came out of the oven! I'm going to let them cool overnight and then whip up some peanut butter frosting in the morning...and bring a dozen to the office. Because let's be honest--there's only so much baked goodness that one person can take!

I found two spiders in my apartment today. When I find a creepy-crawly in the place where I live, I always put them outside because I can't handle the sound bugs make when you step on/squish them. Now, you may (or may not) have heard about my little run-in with the GIANT DEMON CENTIPEDE last week...honestly one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, but OH WELL! Something had to be done, so I manned up and took care of the situation...with a good bit of screaming and shuddering and jumping about. Okay, so when I went outside with the GDC last week, there was a guy coming in from his car or something...I had seen him before coming and going with his two small children (creepy like bugs...children, that is). So anyway, this dude that I don't know at all got to see firsthand how a pansy like me deals with the scary GDC situation. Well, tonight when I brought the first spider out, Random Dude was there again! He actually said to me, "Another one, huh?" and then commented on how it wasn't nearly as big as the last one. God bless him! If I knew which apartment he lives in, I would leave a cupcake at his door in the morning. But alas, like so many saints, he goes unnamed. And alas, if the ants are as big a problem throughout the whole building as I they are in my apartment, that might be terribly disastrous. Or at least very sad. Well, happy for the ants (until I crush them)...so you get the idea.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm actually really tired from all this cupcakin'...so I'm going to do my dishes and then go to bed! But before I do any of that, I would like to show you a very random video:

o happy fault

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.
~The Exultet


I'm off to church soon, but I've got a video in the final stages of the uploading process on YouTube, so hopefully by the time you read this, it'll be all processed and ready to go (though I say "hopefully" because sometimes YouTube is on the fritz and randomly stops uploading, so...we'll see).