Food (and spring)

Lots of food recapping going on this time. Courtesy of Groupon, Peter and I were able to attend a cooking class at Gaynor's. Picking the class was a bit challenging but we both settled on the creme puff instructional, since that seemed the most complicated (other than the bread class, which we'd done last month). I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to try every recipe ourselves, but we did manage to eat quite a lot, and the cheddar wreaths plus all manner of eclair and creme puff were very good. The process isn't as exacting as I thought it was, so hooray! Maybe we'll even make some on our own in the future...although knowing how to make eclairs is dangerous knowledge if you ask me.


In other "firsts" -- I made the oreo-in-a-chocolate-chip-cookie monstrosity that's been going around the web (http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/)! I actually didn't much like the chocolate chip cookie dough - too much flour and chips made it really dry, but maybe that's what you need to keep it all together. Amusing presentation but the end product wasn't really better than eating its parts separately. Oh well! Making our first pizza entirely from scratch was WAY more successful - just a basic dough recipe, the machine, and some odds and ends in the fridge made a great dinner. Hooray!


Also there were humorous attempts to use up some old hot dogs, courtesy of http://www.cutefoodforkids.com/2011/03/egg-lion.html and http://justmydelicious.blogspot.com/2010/05/balonowe-serce-z-parowki.html (thank you tastespotting).


In future food news, I planted cilantro, mint, and rosemary for the spring (the basil and cuban oregano are still going strong) but only the cilantro seems to be really hitting its stride. This is only two weeks in! Hoping the rest of the gang will catch up soon. We will need a wider windowsill soon... =)


Peter and I have also tried our hands at, well, being handy. I got really tired of having to move stuff around both in one of the kitchen cabinets and in the back pantry, so we went to Home Depot for a long wood board and cut it up into different pieces based on our measurements. To my (only partial!) surprise, it turned out really well! Around the same time we also took down the air ducts in the kitchen and bathroom, which was sort of a disaster given that I doubt they've been cleaned in maaaany years. Lots of black dust monsters. But now the air circulation is so much better in the bathroom and I feel much more at ease about the crap that may be coming into the kitchen (for a while it deposited sticky dust all over our alcohol bottles above the stove, gross). Wee effort! Also (though I don't have a picture yet) we FINALLY bought a ton of frames and hanging hardware and hung posters and such in a more adult way (almost no more sticky tack!!). We really must be growing up...


Meanwhile, on campus, some nutty CMU freshman took a chainsaw to the beloved Fence. Everyone was outraged, and it was a stupid thing to do, but the result was kind of cool... I just wish they hadn't painted over this part so fast. There was also hail. Ping-pong sized, train-roar mimicking hail. Aaaand I won an honorable mention in the Study Abroad Photo Contest for a photo you may have seen before...


More recently, yesterday was CMU Carnival! Exciting! I took many buggy pictures, but this one was certainly the best - supermaaaaan runner! Also the booths this year were of the "When I was your age" theme and they were all great - Toy Story, I Spy, Legend of the Hidden Temple... all good stuff. Those crazy undergrads.


Finally, feel free to vote for pictures I took like four years ago as part of the Art of Science competition that the Science Museum is hosting: