This weekend, we are going to Canada... yes, AGAIN. Sunday is my dad's birthday, so we are going to take him out to dinner Saturday evening. I used to always bake him a blueberry cheesecake, but with his high cholesterol and the difficulty with transporting a cheesecake over the border, i am making him these super duper easy cookies.

First, i start with a chocolate cake mix.


After sifting the mix, adding a stick of softened butter, 2 eggs and used all my muscles, i get this thick batter.


Using an old tablespoon measuring spoon and a couple of spoons, i plop the cookies onto an ungreased sheet, then roll them into wee balls.


It hardly makes any mess at all.


They spread a little, so i am careful not to have more than 12 to a sheet.


After 10 - 12 minutes in the oven, an additional 5 minutes to cool on the sheet, i put them on a rack to cool.


They taste like brownies.... YUM!

Can't decide between a Pug and a Boston Terrier?

Well, why not get a Bugg!

*****
I wanted to post a picture from this site, one of the very few i found, but they had some sort of copyright warning. So to not get anyone in trouble and be a nice girl, for a change, i thought i would refrain from posting a picture.

This GED stuff is... often exhasting. I just finished a GED Supplimental Package of Social Studies and i feel... worn out. My brain is so not used to thinking and it is complaining.

No, Brain, you cannot go watch t.v.; you need to study!

I graded the packet a few minutes ago. Out of the 152 questions on Editorial Cartoons, Drawings and Diagrams, U.S. History, World History, Geography, Economics and Civics and Government, i got 133 correct.... which, if i got the math bits right, is about 90.79%, or as i rounded to, 91%. Not bad. And what i assume to be a pass. I was concerned about the U.S. History the most, seeing as not much of it is taught in Canadian schools... and i would assume the Canadian perspective is different.

What i have been finding out about the social studies parts of the GED is that is is very much based on reading a passage and answering questions on it. However, it does assume the reader has some basic knowledge of some key U.S. Historical events. Those gaps are not as big as i thought they were, thank goodness. I am learning to find what the test is looking for, not what i think... oddly enough.

Teach says i might be ready to write the predictor soon, and the GED within weeks.

The process is..

First day of class, i wrote a very short 10 - 20 question test. Then, i wrote a TABE test based on the results of that first test. Then, i was given a score. The score meant nothing to me... what the hell does 12.9 mean, teacher man?! Turns out it means that 13 is the highest i can get. OK, so i did really well on the reading portion. Reading well means doing well on all the other sections, including the science and social studies. Yay. Math, i think i had a combination score of 9 something. They say an 11 is needed to write the infamous predictor.

** note to self -- try to use US spellings... color not colour **

The predictor is, apparently, a sample GED test. The whole deal. The 8 hours sitting in a room filling in dots that correspond to the correct answer to a question.

If that goes well, sign up for the next GED.

Studying daily. Brain complaining....

e:Paul .. i love you and i so appreciate all the work you do on e:strip. Hell, i wouldn't be bitching about this if i didn't love this place, right?

My posts keep disappearing from the Read The Latest list... But if i go directly to my post, it's there.

This is the one that is gone this time:

01/11/07 15:46 - 43F - ID#256

It's supposed to snow or ice or be cold and icky out... so... what better thing to do but look for ice cream recipes online!!??!

Since i got my ice cream maker, i have been itching to use it, even if i don't always feel like eating ice cream in a big slightly drafty house in the winter.

More than anything, i want cinnamon ice cream. No one sells it, or at least it is rare to see in the grocery stores. And i so don't know why... i love love love cinnamon.

Had cinnamon toast for breakfast... a childhood favorite.

Found a couple of recipes online.. some at the cuisinart site. The dark chocolate sorbet looks good, and very simple. I may even have the ingredients -- water, white sugar, brown sugar, cocoa. Opps... no, we don't. Oh well. I won't die if i don't do it today.

Yesterday, e:Uncutsaniflush and i ate at a new mexican restaurant. So new their sign isn't even up. It's in the old Denny's by the corner of Niagara Falls Boulevard and Sheridan. Driving by not too long ago, i saw a sign -- one of those portable ones -- that said "authentic mexican food". So, we decided to wander in to try it.

Yum. It's no El Charro, the place in KNoxville Tennessee e:Uncutsaniflush and i hold all other Mexican restaurants up to as a comparison, but it was damn good. And i would recommend them.

We picked up a take out menu, since neither of us got further than the lunch specials and the vegetarian section looks good. Spinach Burrito is on my list of must trys...

Hmm... i feel like cooking and eating... i wonder if i have PMS?

So, what is a girl to do if she doesn't have a need or desire to go out during a rainy/snowy/icey day? Make ice cream!!

My first try was ok. Raspberry sorbet for my beloved. I didn't have as many frozen raspberries as i should have, so it was a bit too sweet. e:Uncutsaniflush doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but when he wants sweets he wants them very sweet... so this fits the bill. Next time, more raspberries, less sugar and a tiny bit more lemon juice.

My second try didn't go as well. Cinnamon ice cream. I used a bit too much sugar, again, and a tiny bit too much cinnamon. Plus, the big boo boo was not letting the mixture cool enough before putting into the ice cream maker. Next time, i might just try steeping cinnamon sticks instead of putting in the powder.

This try... banana ice cream!! Oh, i hope it tastes as good when it is completely hardened as it did when it was soft serve from the ice cream maker!! At the last minute, i added walnuts and chocolate chips too. I cooled the mix in the fridge overnight while the ice cream bowl froze, too. So it should be yum!!

Of course, i could just find recipes instead of inventing them like e:jenks suggested...

Thanks for hosting another house party, e:PMT !

Here are my snaps... in no particular order, even if i was trying to keep them cronological.

e:Terry was delicate most of the night



e:Zobar started the evening off with a flash!


Did someone just bring this bubble maker, or was it a birthday gift for e:Paul ?





e:Libertad and e:MK being anti-bubble!


I swear, it all started because i mentioned that e:Matthew 's jammie bottoms looked like something Edward Gorey would draw, and the next thing you know, e:Dragonlady7 is reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies to us. Story Time! Yay!!


We barely got through that when we were told to get our hinnies out and watch e:Paul smash is porniata (sp?)


e:Oda got her sugar on


and e:Mike should have said no


e:lilho wanting no one to say no


Brothers


Sisters


The gang (nice heart, e:Carolinian ! )


Someone looks tired!


The only picture, all night long, i got of e:Matthew ! He just doesn't misbehave enough!!


Last but not least, the Birthday Boy...

Leezie was my nickname in highschool. Then, amongst the crowd i hung with, pig latin became popular (oh, i know, we were the coolest), and i did my best to drop the nickname Leezie! Those of you that know pig latin may understand why.

I have been sofa bound for a couple of days. Saturday night hit it me hard. I thought i escaped the cold bug e:Uncutsaniflush had... but it looks like i didn't. Damn it.

On another far more possitive note...
Happy Birthday, e:Paul!