"I am envisioning a mini paper towel holder"

My hair is perpetually tied back in a messy bun (except when I have my winter hat on). I like low-maintenance hair care. I do actually "do" my hair when I go out...which happens like three times a year. In the meantime, I am the proud owner of about a bazillion hair ties. I like the ones that don't "break" my hair.

The problem is that I leave my hair ties everywhere. Chances are that if I visited your home in the past, I left a trail of them behind me. I was in desperate need of a place to keep them.

So I uttered those eight words my dad LOVES to hear, "Hey Dad, I have a project for you." I explained what I needed and then said, ""I am envisioning a mini paper towel holder." My dad is pretty clever so I left the rest up to him. And, as always, he came through. Check it out!

My bathroom is decorated in a lilac shade with silver accents so I painted it to match. I feel so much more organized having it.

My friend Oscar returns

Thank you, thank you, thank you Writer's Guild of America, for ending your strike and giving me one award show to indulge in in this year. Even better, Jon Stewart is hosting! Love him! YAY!

I have settled in for an evening of Oscar viewing with a tapas-inspired meal of Asparagus-and-Spinach Toast with Fontina Cheese, Garlic-Sizzled Mushrooms, and a mini eclair (it is so adorable!)

I have been watching the red carpet show on E! (Um, I have never watched American Idol but is Ryan Seacrest always this annoying?) My take on the fashions (for whatever they are worth...LOL, I am sitting here wearing yoga pants, a long sleeved tee, and UGG slippers...quite the fashionista am I) and other red carpet goings-on...

• I think I would vote for George Clooney if he ran for President.
• I love Anne Hathaway's dress except for the weird drapey piece of fabric on her left arm.
• Why is The Rock at the Oscars?
• Every time red carpet commentators mention Katherine Heigl, they almost ALWAYS say, "I adore that she is not a size zero" as though she is plus size or something. I believe I read somewhere (before the Lenten celeb gossip sacrifice) that she is a size 6. Quelle Horror!!!
• Note to self: Flower and feathery embellishments are apparently in. (See: Anne Hathaway and Jessica Alba.)
• I think Jennifer Garner gets my vote for best dressed. Can I be her when I grow up?

That's all from me! Enjoy the Oscars!!!

Answering one of life's most important questions

Last weekend, my mom and I did a little (well, a lot) of retail therapy that included a few stops at Wal-Mart. On one of these trips, I spotted a display of Reese's Peanut Butter Easter Eggs, and immediately asked, "Oh, Mom! Can I get one PLEASE?" as I tossed it in the cart. Then, as we loaded our bags into the truck, I excitedly looked for the egg in the bags, found it, and savored every bite on the drive home. Yes, I am a five-year-old in 25 plus year old's body.

But I think everyone had Reese's on the brain this week because we spent a fair amount of time at the office discussing the Peanut Butter-to-Chocolate Ratio in the various Reese's products. I firmly believe that the holiday Reese's products--Easter Eggs, Christmas Tree, Pumpkins--have more peanut butter than the standard peanut butter cup. (I also contend that the holiday peanut butter seems "fluffier.") But then a colleague had tried the Reese's Peanut Butter Easter Bunny and mentioned that it seemed a little low on the peanut butter. Interesting. My mind immediately began turning. Then I read in my hometown newspaper that my high school science teacher was retiring. So in her honor, I strapped on my chemistry goggles and stepped into my lab (er, my kitchen) and present the following:

A Very Scientific Inquiry:

The Case of the Reese's Peanut Butter-to-Chocolate Ratio

Hypothesis
I propose that the Reese's holiday peanut butter cup items contain a larger amount of peanut butter than the standard items, thereby having a higher peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio. Note: The only holiday Reese's items currently available for this lab were Eggs and Bunnies. I am sure there is an old Tree or Pumpkin laying around somewhere with it's chocolately coating taking on that white hue that old chocolate takes on. As other holidays pass, I will update the results.

Materials


Reese's original peanut butter cup
Reese's Big Cup
Reese's Easter Egg (My neighborhood grocery store is apparently the only food emporium on the planet to not have Easter candy. I had to take to icy sidewalks of DC and trek to the CVS in the next neighborhood over to find one.)
Reese's Easter Bunny
A Digital Scale that measures in ounces and grams (I measured in grams to detect small differences.)
Toothpicks (my high tech scrapey tools)

Procedure
I separated each item into two bowls: One for the peanut butter; the other for the chocolate parts. To get the most accurate separation, I used a toothpick to scrape the peanut butter off of the chocolate. Once separated, I weighed the peanut butter parts and the chocolate parts and recorded the data.

Data

The weights for the peanut and the chocolate were as follows. Using this data, I also calculated the peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio for each item.

Reese's Item	Total Weight	Peanut Butter Weight in grams (Percentage of Total Weight)	Chocolate Weight in grams (Percentage of Total Weight)	Peanut Butter-to-Chocolate Ratio
Original Cup	20	8 (40%)	12 (60%)	0.67
Big Cup	40	10 (25%)	30 (75%)	0.33
Easter Egg	34	20 (59%)	14 (41%)	1.7
Easter Bunny	36	6 (17%)	30 (83%)	0.26

(P.S. I html coded that data table all by myself....GO ME!)

Conclusion
As I predicted, the Reese's Easter Egg had the highest peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio. However, this high ratio is not found in all holiday items as the Easter Bunny had the lowest pb-to-chocolate ratio.

One thing that I noted is that the wrapper for Big Cup brags that the Big Cup "Packs some serious peanut butter." Except that it doesn't. Think about it. The Big Cup contains just one cup in a package for a total of 10 grams of peanut butter If you bought the regular cups with two in pack, you would have 16 grams of peanut butter...all for the same price!

Another observation that I made is that the texture of the regular cup was more chalky than the other items'. Maybe I had a slightly aged cup.

So I was completely fascinated by these results. I cannot wait to weigh other holiday Reese's items as they become available.

(And, yes, I am fully aware that I have far, far, far too much time on my hands.)

When in Wisconsin, pack boots.

When I was packing for my trip home for President's Weekend, my mom told me to pack boots. I laughed it off and packed my cute new Merrell's instead. Yeah, yesterday we had to go to Younker's and buy winter boots for me. (And the boot selection in February is pretty slim pickings but I found the least ugly of the uglies.)

There is soooo much snow! And it's still falling.

And Lady is loving it...even though the snow is deeper than she is tall.

Her floppy ears are just about my favorite sight!!!

In the name of love...

For someone who loves holidays as much as me, I have not posted a lot of entries about Valentine's Day. It is one holiday that I have a hard time getting into. Mainly because I have never had a good Valentine's Day. LOL, if I do at some point, be prepared. There will be a million Valentine's Day posts.

I have received a few Valentine's Day cards--including a scratch & sniff card!--in the mail. (Getting the cards in the mailbox is just not as retro chic as getting them in a brown paper bag attached to your desk though.) I wanted to share with you one very special card in particular.







Duke Children's Hospital is near and dear to my heart and that of my family's--one heart in particular. My sister Judy was treated at Duke when she just a baby for a heart defect. Thirty plus years later, her heartbeat is as strong as ever. The doctors at Duke literally helped to heal a broken heart. Even Godiva chocolates certainly cannot claim that.

Last year, the Radiothon for Duke Children's Hospital raised over one million dollars for the kids at Duke! That just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy all over! My favorite part of this radiothon is that the money actually goes to the kids in the form of games, books, craft supplies etc. One year, the proceeds were used to build a playground for the kids!

We spend Valentine's Day focusing so much on the romantic aspects of the holiday. But please take this holiday time to reflect on the compassion and generosity that we can associate with the heart just easily as we do love. Whether it is donating to charity, volunteering for a cause that you believe in , or even just casting a smile in the direction of someone who looks like they could use one, please just take a moment, set down your chocolate truffle, and give a little bit of your love!

Can we hang this on the fridge?

I remember when I was in first grade and I colored an awesome picture of a killer whale during Science class and my Mom hung it on the refrigerator. I have no idea why I remember this. I do remember being obsessed with killer whales but I think I must have outdone myself in the coloring department on this one.

For whatever reason, the fridge was like gallery of accomplishments. Report cards, pictures, "A" papers were brought home and "Can we put this on fridge?" was asked. I kind of miss that. Sometimes after a long week of work, it would be nice to have an tangible output of work that you could show off. Ha, well I guess I could send my Mom a copy of my SAS programming code to hang up but I don't think she would get all excited about it.

But for this moment, I am making this blog my own personal refrigerator and posting some work from my "other" job. [For those of you who only "know" me through this blog, I work on weekends at Whole Foods in the Whole Body department (think vitamins, lotions and potions, books) .]

Seriously, it's a fun a job and I love it so much. I especially love it around holidays. The store is completely decorated and many of the displays take on a theme related to the holiday. Valentine's Day is no exception! I was super excited because I was able to design my own display for a variety of items and I think it turned out soo nice!

The products in this display include Bucky's aromatherapy wraps, Pacifica candles (I LOVE Pacifica products!), chocolate, books on fondue and chocolate, mini fondue kits, and some lovely tulips from our floral department.

I think variations in height make all of the difference in displays so I used a table and two wooden crates covered with red tablecloths to create the bottom portion of the display. The display's red background is sparkly red wrapping paper.

I think my favorite part of the display is quote from John Lennon that is on the front edge of each shelf: "Love is a promise, love is souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear." With four lines and four shelves, the quote was a perfect fit!

Farewell Britney, Lindsay, and Paris

As a kid, Lent meant fish sticks and cheese pizza on Friday (I totally woke up craving fish sticks on Ash Wednesday this year. LOL!) As an adult, every year I chose to give up something entirely for Lent.

One of the side effects of an early Easter is that Lent begins in early February. The other side effect of an early Easter is that it is still the middle of winter when the big bunny visits, so please make sure your Easter bonnet has wool ear flaps and that you buy long underwear that coordinates with your Easter dress.

With the Lenten season coming so soon after New Year's, I have been left doing a lot of self-reflection. For New Year's, I contemplated what I wanted to improve or accomplish in the year (and I am totally rocking my Goddess-lutions...except for the knitting). With Lent, it becomes a question of what can I give up for the season. For all of my year of catechism, I have never been clear on the rules of Lent. Does the sacrifice have to be a vice? Or does it have be an indulgence? One year I gave up cheese (while I was living in Wisconsin...it was a challenge); one year I gave up candy.

And this year's Lenten sacrifice is both a vice and an indulgence. Anyone who knows me know that I LOVE celebrity gossip. I live for US Weekly's "Stars - Just Like Us" pictures. Ask me and I can probably tell you where the celebs are spending their Spring Breaks/Christmases/New Year's. I know baby due dates/wedding dates/divorce finalization dates.

But lately, I have just started to feel sorry for the celebs. Yeah, I know, when you seek fame, you have to deal with the side effects. And I am absolutely certain that some celebs thrive on and even encourage the paparazzi coverage. But I have to think (or at least hope) that there some out there who really just want to take their kids to the park or go to Starbucks without the photographers covering their every move. It has just become toooo much and makes me feel kind of icky that I encourage it by reading it.

So for Lent this year, I have given up celebrity gossip. Now this is a little tricky because celebrity gossip and headline news have almost become synonymous. Celebrity deaths and rehab comings/goings are stories on the network news. There is no way to completely escape it; it is just part of the world we now live in. But I have forgone celebrity gossip website completely. They have been deleted from my "favorites." Four days in, I'm still going strong.

I know one person backing away from the gossip probably won't make a huge difference but I feel better about myself for taking this step!

Just plain deliciousness: Caramel Crunch Ice Cream Bars

So a brief wrap-up of my Super Bowl Sunday:

Number of quarters of the game I actually watched: 3
Excitement level of the quarters of the game I actually watched (scale of 1 to 10): -7
Number of quarters I missed because I was on the train home: 1
Excitement level of the quarter of the game I missed (scale of 1 to 10): apparently 1 million
Number of commercials that I liked: zero. Is it just me or were they all lame?
Amount of spinach dip deliciousness that I consumed: Yeah, I stopped counting.
Amount of sleep I got last night: Not enough. This is one vote for living on the West Coast. Seriously, could they schedule this game at a different time?

Thanks Deanna for hosting such a great Super Bowl party! My contribution to the festivities was a stack of Caramel Crunch Ice Cream Sandwiches. I have to say that these sinfully sweet treats may be my favorite dessert EVER! So good!!!

I found the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I have been coveting this cookbook for a long time and finally caved in and bought it! So many good recipes in this book!

Caramel Crunch Bars

Ingredients

For the base
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or coffee
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ounces finely chopped milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate

For the topping
6 ounces finely chopped milk chocolate or semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup toffee bits (Rebecca's note: My grocery store didn't carry the toffee bits so I just bought a bunch of Heath bars and chopped them up in my MiniChopper. A side note, I really love living in the city but I seriously miss full-sized grocery stores stocked with every product. Yeah, it is nice to live by Bloomingdale's but I really, really miss Super Wal-Mart and Super Target so much!)
1 quart vanilla ice cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Put the pan on a baking sheet.

For the base:
Whisk together flour, espresso powder, salt and cinnamon. In a large mixing bowl, add butter and beat until light and creamy. Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy, 3 minuteish. Beat in vanilla. Pour in the dry ingredients and cover the mixing bowl with a towel so the flour does not spray all over everything. Turn the mixture on low speed - mix just until the dry ingredients are almost all incorporated. At this point (you can remove the towel), add the chopped milk chocolate. Stir the mixture with a spatula until combined. You will have a very heavy, sticky dough. Scrape the dough into the pan, and with the spatula and your fingertips, cajole (great word!) it into a thin, even layer.

Bake about 20 to 22 minutes or until the base is bubbly. It should look like it is trying to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 24 minutes. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack.

To make the topping:
Scatter the top of the hot base with the chopped bittersweet chocolate and put the pan back into the turned off oven for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove and immediately spread the chocolate mixture all over the top. Scatter the toffee bits (or Heath bar mixture) on top of the melted chocolate and gently press down to adhere. Place the baking pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

To assemble the ice cream sandwiches:
When the bars have cooled (I let mine sit overnight), cut the bars into rectangles of equal size (well, to the best of your ability. This is hard). Match up similar sized rectangles. Spread a thin layer of vanilla ice cream on top of one of the bars and place the other bars on top.


I wrapped each of my bars in wax paper. They bars can be frozen individually for up to two weeks (I think). But really, if they are still in your freezer after two weeks, you have far more willpower than I!

Final Word: So fantastic! I made two pans of bars and ended up with 2 dozen ice cream sandwiches.

Happy Pancake Week!!!!

We are right smack in the middle of National Pancake Week! I did not know that pancakes were celebrated for an entire week. This makes me wonder, does French Toast get the same treatment? Nor did I know that the reason for the celebration was the rapidly approaching Lenten season (which reminds me, I need to decide what I am giving up!)

"Pancake Week is grounded in ancient tradition. During the Middle Ages, it was common practice to prepare for the austerity of Lent by purging the pantry of luxurious foods such as eggs, butter and milk. These ingredients often became big batches of pancakes. To this day, many communities around the world feast on pancakes all the way through Shrove Tuesday--also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras--before the season of moderation begins on Ash Wednesday. In fact, another name for Fat Tuesday is Pancake Day." (All Recipes.com)


Huh...the things you learn! I will confess that I do not eat pancakes a lot; I tend to be an oatmeal or shredded wheat with blueberries for breakfast kind of girl. But I also love treating myself to pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream when I have brunch my parents (a special little tradition every time I visit home!).

But on the occasions that I do make pancakes, I have a favorite recipes that I found in Shape magazine...way back in 2003! These blueberry banana pancakes are tasty and easy treat, fairly nutritionally sound, and also a great way to use up those mushy bananas!

Blueberry Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 very ripe medium bananas
• 1 cup nonfat milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (do not defrost)

Directions

Coat a griddle or large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and preheat. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well with a fork and set aside. In a large bowl or food processor, mash bananas until mushy. Add milk, egg and vanilla and mix or process until blended. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and mix or process until just blended (tiny lumps should still appear; do not overmix or pancakes will be tough).

Ladle 3 tablespoons of batter onto hot griddle for each pancake. Top each with 1/2 tablespoons of blueberries. When bubbles appear around the edges of pancakes, after about 2-3 minutes, flip and cook 1 minute. Transfer pancakes to a warm plate.

So, do you have a favorite pancake recipe? Or favorite topping? (I prefer strawberries and a little whipped cream or peanut butter or just plain ol' maple syrup!)

And has your love of pancakes ever inspired you to make a music video devoted to the pancake? (And if it has, you SO better share it!)