Super Ginger Cookie Recipe - they bite back...

Hello.

So, I spent the first half of my evening making Christmas presents for my relatives and I'm sure they're going to love them.  However, after spending too much time and thought on a dog coat, I decided to make cookies.

See, Missy and I went on down to our local Dutch market today with a friend and we picked up some crystallized ginger slices.  I have recently discovered how much I like ginger, so I thought, "Hm, slices of ginger coated in sugar must be amazing!"  Well, so you know, sliced ginger coated in sugar is amazing, but oh my goodness!  It is POTENT!

Here's the cookie recipe I made up to use some of my new ginger!

Super Ginger Cookie Recipe

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 cup of blenderized, crystallized ginger slices - Pop a handful of these tasty bits into your blender and use your "Chop" function.  As the pieces get smaller and smaller, they'll start to collect around your blade and cause your blender distress.  Just take a butter knife and fluff them out and reblend til they're as small as you'd like.

1 2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup quick oats
1 tbsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1: Preheat your over to 350 degrees.
2: "Soften" your butter and then add the sugar to it.  Cream it together.
3: Mix the molasses and egg into the butter/sugar mix.
4: Mix in the blenderized ginger being careful to separate the ginger (or else you'll get super potent bits in your cookies.)  Set aside.
4: In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients.
5: Dump the dry stuff into the butter mix and, well, mix.
6: Spoon the batter onto your cookie sheet and bake for about 8 minutes.

When you get them out, let them sit on the cookie sheet for about a minute before trying to get them off or else you'll get smooshed cookies - like mine.  "Patience" is SO not my middle name.

If the rate of disappearance is any indication, Missy really likes these cookies.  However, she keeps giving me the rest of her cookie when she bites into a big piece of ginger.  So, let that be a warning to you - really separate that ginger in step 4!

If you mix up a batch, let me know how it goes or if you figure out any improvements or how to really separate that ginger!  Enjoy!

Movie and Soundtrack Review: Tangled

Hello.

The Daddy-Man and I took Missy to see Tangled - the new Disney film about Rapunzel - last Friday.

Tangled movie poster

The characters are charming, the animation is wonderful, and I love the soundtrack.  However, I'm not really sure about the movie on the whole.

Flynn Rider from Disney's Tangled

See, I read somewhere that a year or two into production, the whole movie got reworked in an attempt to market it to young boys.  So they changed the charming prince into a wise cracking thief and decided to model their chase scenes off scenes from The Bourne Identity franchise.

My main problem comes from, what seems to me, a disjointedness in the way the story is told.  One moment it's all chase, dodge, laugh at the impotence of the lawmen and then it's all we're two people falling in love. Disney's desire to make this a boy friendly film that doesn't alienate girls just really threw me.  I guess Tangled fails to meld the two as seamlessly as Aladdin.  Aladdin is a story about a boy falling in love and then proving himself worthy.  Tangled is about, well, it's about a girl meeting the world and a boy that discovers how shallow he is and then grows up?  I'm not sure.

However, Tangled is a far cry from the Rapunzel I know.  In the story I read when a little girl, Rapunzel is forfeited to the witch/enchantress in exchange for the lettuce her mother craved while pregnant.  The witch wanted the child so she'd have someone that loved her - no magic hair involved.  The witch locks the girl in a tower and raises her.

Then one day, a prince hears the girl singing and finds out how to get inside.  The prince convinces Rapunzel to run away with him, but before they can enact their plan, Rapunzel happens to mention to the witch how tight her dress is lately and the witch figures out she's......pregnant!

In disgust, the witch puts Rapunzel in a wooden crate and ships her off to sea then lays in wait for the prince.  He shows up thinking they're going to elope and instead gets blinded by the witch and falls from the tower.  Meanwhile Rapunzel's box has landed on a distant shore and she's given birth to twins.

Years pass and a ragged beggar shambles into town.  He pauses by the well, listening to the twins playing, and Rapunzel comes out and recognizes him as the prince.  Her tears fall into his eyes and his health is restored.  The witch?  Well, when she pushed the prince out of the tower he took the hair rope with him and we're to assume she died of thirst and starvation, alone in the tower.

Now, this would have been one wild Disney movie.

Anyways, my favorite scene is when Flynn and Rapunzel are realizing that they're in love with each other. The cinematography is just breathtaking.

From Disney's Tangled

Who knew that Zachary Levi could sing like that?!  This soundtrack ranks right up there with other Alan Menken greats like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.  Mother Gothel's songs, voiced by Donna Murphy, are at times humorous, jeering, and haunting.  Her "Mother Knows Best" reprisal gives me chills!  Mandy Moore does an amazing job as Rapunzel and I ADORE her voice.  As for Zachary Levi, I'm just disappointed he didn't do more singing!

If you want to preview the soundtrack in it's entirety, go look up "Disney's Tangled Soundtrack" as posted by CaptainLadyAce on YouTube and you won't be disappointed.  The picture below this paragraph is what's used as the background for the posts on YouTube.  Missy has been bouncing back and forth between "Mother Knows Best," "I See The Light," and "When Will My Life Begin" since we found them on YouTube yesterday.  She's got them just about memorized.

From Disney's Tangled

Bottom line: I give the movie a 4 out of 5 since it's trying to be two things separately but never a cohesive whole.  The movie doesn't really have anything that should terrify a child (though Mother Gothel can get pretty creepy), so I'm pretty confident a 2.5 yr old could safely dig it.  The soundtrack gets a 5 out of 5 since it's simply amazing.  If I was going to take off for anything, it would be because of how the songs are arranged - in sequence with vocals, and then without vocals.  But, that's not really got anything to do with the music, so I don't feel justified in taking any points.  You can buy it on iTunes for $9.99, just FYI.

Between you and me, Missy is getting the soundtrack for Christmas.  Yeah - we like it that much.  So, go ahead, get trampled by a rhino...  :)

Our Military Family Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day with our military family.  Unfortunately, Katie and her husband, The Big Squid, were taking pictures that day, so I didn't take many.  Here are the two I did take though.

This is their Charlie's Angels shot

Princess Bellerella, Princess Rotten Rose, Princess Screams At Bugs

I hope you all had marvelous Thankgivings and safe Black Fridays.  Now, it's time for some made from leftover turkey gumbo!

Life According to Missy: Why she needs her own tree

We were out and about the other day and happened to pop on in to Target as I needed to get some more ornament hooks.  Having been raised by a mother that likes to put Christmas music on for Thanksgiving dinner, I've always been rather anti-traditional Christmas stuff and I HATE Christmas music.

So, that means when it comes time to decorate our Christmas tree, I like it to be pretty non-traditional and decorated with completely hand-made ornaments.  Every year I make a new batch of ornaments and that day I needed more hooks.

Anyways, we're wandering around in the "Christmas Crap," as I call it, and Missy spots some little Christmas trees that are the perfect size, just for her.  Immediately she started up with, "Oh!  It's SO cute!  Can I have this?  Can I have this?!  Please, please, PLEASE!!!"

Normally I don't give in to what I call "Terrorist Demands" but she was so earnest and so very cute that I started to bend.

I said, "And why do you think you need this tree?"

She replied, "We've got our family tree downstairs and that's for our FAMILY but this tree is just for me."

I asked her, "Aren't you part of our family and so isn't the 'Family Tree' your tree too?"

To which she replied, "That's the family tree for you guys, and this is my tree.  I love this tree because I do."

Really, what can you say to that?  So, of course it ended up coming home with us.

PS: Mother, I understand now why you were always eager to put up all your Christmas Crap.  I myself have had our tree up for nearly 2 weeks now.  I'm sorry.  However, I still hate Christmas music.

I've SEEN the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef!

WOW!  I am beat.  We left for D.C. at 3:50 p.m. and just got back at 11:15 p.m.  Needless to say, it has been a LONG afternoon/evening.  Anyways, let's cut to the chase: I have seen the hyperbolic crochet reef at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and it is AMAZING!!!

Over 400 people contributed more than 1,000 crocheted or knitted pieces of yarn corral, starfish, sea cucumbers, jellyfish and more.  The oldest contributor is over 100 and the youngest is Missy Moo at 3 years old.  She was pandered to all evening by lovely grandmotherly types and boy did she eat it up.

Take a gander and stare in amazement...

Some of these were made out of trash to show man's effects on our corral reefs

The two most important people in my world - aren't they cute?

Sea cucumbers made out of yarn make me laugh

Missy with Jennifer Lindsay, the Community Reef Coordinator

Near our contribution - Jennifer told me she calls that area "The Little Mermaid Grotto"

I love my little family.

If you're in the Maryland/D.C. area, I heartily recommend that you stop over at the Museum of Natural History to see the reef.  If the private viewing for contributors hadn't been so very packed, I would have taken a picture of the reef in its entirety, but I think the pictures I did take show how very cool it is.

After the reception, we headed on down to Chinatown and got some Mexican food.  It's too bad Missy fell asleep or she would have been in heaven.  LOL.  

Life According to Missy: How to become a boy

Hey All.

So, I was busy last night making some turkey hairbows for Missy and her friends like these:

I'm really loving them.  I got the inspiration and (really rough) instructions here on Agape Love Designs.  I'll try and do a tute on these later this week so you can have more precise instructions and measurements.

Missy likes hers a lot, as you can see:

Well, you can't really see how much she likes it.  Just take my word for it.

Anyways, back to the story.  I was working on those hairbows last night and kind of let Missy have the run of the living room.  I'd turned on a show for her, got her a glass of milk, and provided her with some grapes.  After about half an hour of pure crafting bliss (i.e.: no interruptions from Missy), I decided to go check on her.  Here's what I found:

She'd taken that red bottle of leave in conditioner, that's only meant for the tips of your hair, and used it to plaster all of her hair to her head.  She smilingly informed me that, "I've got BOY HAIR NOW!!!"  I guess I should be grateful that getting "BOY HAIR" didn't involve scissors.

Can you find the kitty cat?

She just can't seem to let Halloween go.

Board Game MANIA!

Missy and I were cruising through Toys R Us after her dental appointment last week.  We were there to pick up a bike reflector that had been inadvertently left off her bike when it was put together.

Anyways, they are having a HUGE sale on Hasbro board games right now.  Then, to top it off, Hasbro is offering rebates too!  So, our $10 Candy Land and $10 Chutes and Ladders were both reduced to $3 and each had a $2 rebate.  That means both cost me $1.  As my buddy Katie at The Squid's Accomplice says, "That's better than a stick in the eye!"

Here are some pictures of Missy opening her first board game:

Missy Moo's new bike

A few weeks ago, we were in Toys R Us and The Daddy-Man suddenly decided that Missy Moo needed a new bike since she's outgrown her tricycle.  Here are a couple pictures of us out an about, trying the new bike.

This last one is my favorite: