Are you asking for a Food Network Challenge????

So me and Dan kind of ♥ the food network. And we ♥ craft times too.

So watching lots of Ace of Cakes and Cake Challenge, I threatened boasted I could do it. Dan totally called my bluff by finding me a fondant recipe at AllRecipes.

But lucky for me it looked pretty simple, so we loaded up with supplies and gave it ago.

We decided to make a Settlers of Catan cake!



Not Shown: Me hand mixing that fondant for an hour. Seriously, it was tough going mixing it with a spoon, but once I got the first bag of icing sugar in, it stopped being so goopy and I started using my hands to kneed it.



We got a plain cake, but Dan wasn't having any of that. She went crazy with the food colouring, good start to the cake.



How can you have tasty craft times without food colouring? Dan is mixing the main part of the fondant to drape over the whole cake.



You have to put a small layer of icing on the cake or the fondant won't stick, and it rolls out way easier if you put it between two sheets of wax paper.



We both picked up a corner, flipped it on and it easily draped around the side. We just had to trim off the extra.



This is me making the hexes that would make up the game board. I got lazy and didn't want to do the whole board, so I made at least one of each type. I was especially proud of how the brick tile turned out.



We found out that working with it this thin and kneeding it enough to get the colours mixed, made it too soft to really hold a shape, so the fondant got to spend a bunch of time in the fridge



Somehow Dan managed to mix black for the robber, but it was super soft, so it sat in the freezer for a while til it cooled down.



Dan starts putting the island tiles onto the ocean.



The island is made.



Dan's awesome robber! and the roads and settlements and dice markers she made too.







Finished Settlers of Caketan.





And it even tasted great! Plus we made way too much fondant, so I might try to so something else with it later.

17 year road to victory

I went out to my parent's place tonight to pick another fan and some coolers. My dad has been babysitting my cousin's kids and hooked up the old Super Nintendo for them to play. While our two best games (Super Mario World and Super Metroid) were missing, the third best game was already in the machine. The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare. I have never come close to beating this game, it's just that tough. Or it WAS that tough until tonight!







I am the greatest man who has ever lived!

Whedonite

So what with the last two amazing episodes of Dollhouse, Volume 4 of Buffy Season 8 coming out, and a week long Firefly spoof / fan service over at XKCD... it's a good time to be a Joss Whedon fan. And if I can somehow get ahold of a copy of Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog it'd be even better

Hurrah for summer!

OMG internet! They make Dr Pepper flavoured Mr Freezies. I am gonna eat so fricken many of them

Quote of the day

So, at the Mart there is a little ticker in the breakroom. It has little info like accident free days, stock quotes, who's b-days are happening and an inspirational quote. The last time it was updated with a 90s classic: "Free your mind and the rest will follow"

En Vogue was in my head all day

Here we Remain

Dear The Internet. As far as comic books about zombies go, you can't do better than the Walking Dead. Go read it, cause it's awesome. It would make for a fantastic HBO series. Much like OZ, since somebody dies pretty much every issue. But, here they'd be dying cause of zombies instead of gang violence so it's better.
Man, it = hot outside today. I worked in the garden center trying to get it cleaned up. It is not very clean, but it might at least open tomorrow.
Tomorrow is also cheap prints and free cake at the photolab. Don't let me forget to bring my film in The Internet! Also, don't forget to remind me not to eat the cake, since the lab is pretty much saturated in chemicals that give you cancer when you ingest them.

Patio sets (and how I hate them)

Oh man Blog. Wal-Mart shoppers really ♥ their patio sets. Patio sets really ♥ being heavy. This why I don't ♥ patio sets.

Also, I spent like a good 3 minutes looking up the ascii code for heart. It's just ALT 3!!! That's super simple. It's easier than actually spelling heart for sure. It's not like the Interobang ‽ (ALT 8253) or the not-equal sign ≠ (ALT 8800). Those are 4 numbers long, in addition to turning on the numberpad section of my Lappy's keyboard. I use them but I don't expect others too. but the heart symbol? That's too easy to just let it sit there.

Too long (can you feel it?)

So, it's been forever since I wrote anything here that wasn't just, "hey look what I found on the internet". So, I've moved, got a cat (named Mellow cause she kinda is) and back when there was still a bit of snow I bought a bike. Pedal kind, not vroom vroom kind. Anyways, now it's fairly springish out, so i went for a little 30 min ride. Man, I = out of shape. But how could this be? My legs are like the only defined part of my body. There are muscles and stuff. But it turns out that walking muscles ≠ biking muscles. They're not even close. They used to be close, but then biking moved away, and neither of them have twitter, and walking doesn't have texting on his cell phone plan... and well, they haven't seen each other in a while. Sure, they'll get together and share a beer every few years when schedules collide, but they aren't really pals. So it was a little strained today when I surprised my legs with a bike ride. They'd forgotten the inside jokes, and even now they feel a little bit weird about the whole ordeal.

Healthy choices

I pretty much only eat bread and peanut butter. In the interest of health, I have switched from white bread to whole wheat bread. In the interest of compromise, I have switched from margarine to real butter.

Conflicted about Dick

Dick Grayson that is! The CW is making a new DC Comics show, and it's about a character I think would make the best show evers! But they are making a show about Robin before his parents died. So, we'll have a young (or teenaged if I know the WB) Dick doing trapeze routines with his folks and probably having a love triangle with a bearded lady and the tattooed contortionist while solving Scoobie Doo-ish mysteries. Even saying that I'm excited for it, I mean it's DICK GRAYSON! Oh wait, it isn't. We can't have all the giggling that would cause, so they'll rename him "DJ".

I think they just went the wrong way with this. Instead of doing a Pre-Batman show, you do a Post-Batman show! After all, Dick Grayson, becomes a 20 something dude, gets all into fights with his "dad" and heads off on his own to start again in a new city with new villains and becomes a cop as an alter ego. That tv show already writes itself! Plus this way he's trained as a detective and knows how to fight. And you get a wide array of costumes to choose from.

All the Robin costumes:
Dick's Robin (pretty bad), Tim's First (awesome) and Current (still cool)

And all of the Nightwing costumes:
First (awful) Second (still bad) and Current (my personal choice)

Plus that way they could at least have Batman guest star in an episode for sweeps week, or at least have Alfred or one of the new Robin's show up.

Thank you Oni

I bought the Hardcover collection of Local that just came out today. When I saw the price on the Diamond shipping lists, I figured it was a softcover. This is a beautifully crafted book, and an amazing story. I know I've said to go out and buy comics before, but I am serious today. I don't know anyone who wouldn't enjoy this story. It will be your new favorite book

C-C-C-Call me on my cell phone

Got a cell phone yesterday

Just like Mama-san used to make

It seems that a lot of these posts are about me cooking something delicious. Either I am a fantastic cook, or I have poor taste in food. I'm betting on me being a fantastic cook, with a little help from a friend I call internet. Oh, and Danielle helped too.

The other day after a trip from Sobey's we couldn't get in the driveway because there was some sort of panic involving cops and firemen and a tow-truck. So we just kept driving down the hill and I decided that we should hit the little Korean convenience store and pick up some beans to make some red bean buns. I'd bought some frozen there a while ago and they never got anymore in, so I looked up recipes. Most said to go buy red bean paste but if you're gonna make something for the first time, go all the way.

Of course after we got the beans we had to go back up to Walmart (that being my 4th trip of the day) to pick up a steamer and some more baking ingredients.

I can see why all but one recipe called for the paste, since it took 2 days to make! Soak the beans in water for a day, then boil them for 2 hours, then drain and repeat, then chill with cool water, drain and repeat, then completely strain, then cook again in a pan with arse-loads of sugar. We made way more than we needed, so now that's frozen and jazz and will be easier for next times.

Then it was all kinda standard dough making stuff, mix, kneed, rise, cut, shape, fill with beans, fold it up, rise some more, then cook time. We had more dough than would fit in the steamer, so we baked two of them that finished quicker. They were a pretty good crispy pastry with a sweet innards of red been paste. But the steamed ones are fantastic! Instead of crisping, they sort of cook slower and more even and turn out as this weird spongy, chewy consistency that doesn't make sense unless you've had them.

They turned out like this:



They are fairly great, and super filling. One doesn't look like much but it's enough.

Shimmer

So, I've been getting into woman's wrestling now, ever since seeing that it can be really good on TNA when they're allowed to wrestle instead of be in bikini contests. I found out that all the good new female wrestlers came from an indie promotion called Shimmer, that is nothing but woman's wrestling and it is amazing! I found the latest 2 dvds of it and they do everything that the guys do, with some pretty cool looking new moves that I'd never seen before, and some moves that have been banned from WWE cause they're too dangerous, like the Kudo Driver.

Strong Bad's Wii

So the Brothers Chap have a game out for the Wii now. Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People! My game was complimentary of course since I am ever so attractive. Got it yesterday and played for a bit, it's exactly what you'd expect it to be since telltale games made it. Point and click adventure with more jokes than you could think possible. And you can make some teen girl squad cartoons!

Tim Hunter's Yo-Yo

So I picked up Neil Gaiman's old Book's of Magic today at the comic book store and it's a pretty good tour of the DC universe's magic characters, even if it is quite old now. Plus it's Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess for one of the issues, so you can't go wrong. Or at least I couldn't go wrong.

I was watching Last Comic Standing, but I'm very upset with you America since you voted on stupid British guy with the Bass instead of Canadian National Treasure Sean Cullen. Bad America! Bad!

MST3 K 00

So, yesterday, me and Danielle watched the Riff Trax for 300. If you don't know what Riff Trax is, its the dudes (or at least one dude) from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 doing their mocking commentaries for new movies. You pay a few bucks, play the audio file in sync with the movie, and laugh til you die or the credits roll.
We still have one to watch for the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory done by Michael J Nelson and Neil Patrick Harris, but we don't actually own the movie. It just looked to good to pass up!

Sloppy Josephs

So Danielle is on the Simply For Life now, which might lead you faithful viewers to believe that I am also on the healthy town train. And that is just untrue. When confronted with a half a pot of brown rice to feed myself with, I added ground beef, molé sauce, cheez whiz and then served it all served on a toasted hamburger bun. My friends is quite delightful. They are Sloppy Joes ++! Indeed they are Sloppy Josephs, because the full Joseph makes me think of Stalin. A hearty man who restricts freedoms. And this is a hearty sandwich that restricts freedoms... of arteries

101 Word Stories

I found this page through Penny Arcade months ago, but everybody should check it out cause it's fairly awesome.

This modern day version of a bible story is pretty great: @JOB

From Hank

So yesterday I get off of work and walk out to the car to find something under the windshield wiper. I figured it was a flyer or something, then I saw that it was a little Walmart Photo envelope. So I assumed that it was some discount thingy that some poor sap had to go around and put on all the cars, in the rain no less. So I grab it and written on it is "please open and call". This is where the question marks started sprouting from my head. Geoff works in the photo lab so I figure he's left me a note or a prank or something. Or maybe one of the cute boys left me his number! So I open it up and inside is a little slip of paper saying:
(HANK)
I have the same car as you, same kind and color. I was wondering if you need any parts for it.

and then he left his number.
This is the weirdest thing that has ever been left on my car! I mean, think about it a little. This guy has the same car as me, but it can't be working if he is offering it as parts to me. So is he just wandering around town looking for '99 Saturns? But I don't even think it's that since he didn't have an envelope prepared, he had to go into the store and get the one from the photo center. So he earnestly believes that my working car out in the parking lot is worth his time to go inside and write this note. That is just bizzare...