The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Disappearing Breadsticks

These are kind of funny looking, but I love to snack on my whole-grain breadsticks.

They are made from oatmeal and other flaked wholegrains sold as breakfast cereal.  I put the flakes in the grinder cup of my Magic Bullet and turn them into flour, then add spices such as fennel and rosemary and fast-rising yeast, along with enough honey to activate the yeast and warm (115 F) water.   My liquid to water ratio is 1:3 and I use one teaspoon of yeast per cup of flour. 

I only bake a few at a time, otherwise I would eat them all, but I make the dough ahead and refrigerate it.  This is the same recipe I use for pizza crust. 

I baked these in my Black and Decker Infrawave countertop oven on the pizza setting.  I got it at BigLots for $59 and like it as much as my NuWave, although it is not big enough to roast a chicken. 

Addiction Alert!

I don't know which is more addicting for me -- playing online games, or familiarizing myself with new game sites.  I like short games that you can play while multitasking, rather than the ones that require high speed and high concentration.  

When Noggin offered to pay me to write a post about their site I was pretty happy because I had never heard of them before.  So I went right over here to have a look:

noggin

It was sort of hard to drag myself back here, but eventually I decided that the frogs in the Froggy game might become extinct if they depended on me to rescue them. 

Later I went back to check out their classic pacman for a while:

noggin games

I play these kind of games to take a little mini-break from time to time while working online.  So after a while I decided to see if I could be of more assistance to the lost frogs.   This time I got 3 frogs safely across the road and across the river.  

Although registration is not required to play the games, it was easy to register and upload an avatar.  The games I played online there did not require special plugins or downloads.  Since the games are free, they do display ads when each game is first loaded, but they are short and do not interfere with the play.

I did not check all of the games out, as they have over 300, but the ones I played seemed appropriate for children.  However, I think they would also be fun for casual gamers of any age.  

In addition to being relaxing and fun, according to some recent studies casual games play a role in health and wellness. 

I'm So Glad Spring is Coming

Also called Sword Lily, because the name Gladiolus was derived from the Latin word meaning "sword," glads are wonderfully flamboyant flowers.

My favorite dollar store has the corms on sale, so I bought several colors and put them in pots outdoors, but this little guy gets to stay in my kitchen for the time being, as I want to watch him grow close up and not dirty.

And speaking of the freshness of spring, although I do not usually put music on my blog, this is just so special I am breaking my own rule (from perfectjeannie)

Enjoy:

Going Rogue on the Internet?

I'm not much of a media person, but most of my friends are.  So I have to try to keep up with it in order not to be a complete stick in the mud.  Accordingly, I just went over to IAMROGUE to view a video on one of my favorite movie-making guys, Tim Burton.

Burton has reinvented Alice in Wonderland, and I think, could not have chosen a better actress than Mia Wasikowska to play the lead.  But in this video he is talking about art instead.

IAMROGUE, by the way, is sort of a bridge between us and entertainment, offering movie trailers, music, TV, sports, pop culture, and more, all wrapped up with social networking, so why not check it out:

concert tickets

Also, if you want to be the next Susan Boyle, did I say they have contests? Just peruse their talent search link.  

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This post is sponsored by IAMROGUE.com/contests

Food Tie Wraps - New Gadgets for the Kitchen

A dear family member sent me something new to blog about:

It is a set of silicon food tie wraps for meat or vegetables with a handy storage bag.  I haven't tried them yet, but it seems they would be terrific for lifting meat out of the pressure cooker -- beef tongue, for example.

The ties are safe to use up to 482 degrees F (or 250 C) and I learned from "Ask Jill" (The Veggie Queen) that the inside of the pressure cooker is about 250 degrees F which she says is about 40 degrees hotter than boiling water.  

I love beef tongue cooked with bay leaves and cloves.  I do not salt the tongue, giving it instead a splash of Bragg's Amino Acids seasoning after it is cooked.

I make the tongue in my Wolfgang Puck's Bistro pressure cooker.  It was on sale at Big Lots of all places, and such a deal that I picked one up for my vacation place.  But then I liked it so much it ended up staying at home.  Yes, I like it even better than my beloved, but now ancient Farberware Electronic Multicooker.  The removable bowl is lighter and easier to lift out, and therefore easier to clean.  Also because the sides of the bowl are thinner, it holds more food with the same counter space, and also cools faster to the touch. 

Like the Farberware, it operates silently and has various cycles for different foods.   Today I made Cauliflower/potato soup, then pinto beans, chicken, and finally a Japanese noodle dish one after the other.  No more cooking for a few days.