Easter's just a few months away.
I give you links related to original peeps
- Peep Research , with a new special of Peep Surgery
- An American Peep in Paris
and of course,
- Lord of the Peeps

Purple peeps are my favorite, though it hurts my stomach and teeth to eat more than one at a time.

I have been privileged to work with the Ronald McDonald House for the past few months on a Web site redesign. After being invited to join their marketing committee by someone with whom I work (and president of their board), I took over the responsibility of updating their site, and introduced a plan to recreate their site using weblog software .
Implementing it took on a sense of urgency in the past few days, as they are announcing the new site in their next newsletter. So, aside from a few behind-the-scenes tweaks, it is set to go.
The Ronald McDonald House of Buffalo gives children and their families a welcoming, supportive "home away from home" while being treated at local hospitals. People come from around the world to receive medical care in our region, and staying in a hotel for days - or weeks - at a time isn't always an option. The RMH provides so much more - the chance to connect with other families in similar situations, a real kitchen, and dozens of other amenities make an otherwise traumatic time a little less burdensome.
The Ronald McDonald House is there for those families who live out of town and who are depending on Buffalo hospitals to keep them alive. Imagine that a child in your family is injured in a car crash and requires months of intensive care. Or is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and needs weeks of chemotherapy injections. Could your family afford that hotel bill? Could they travel from their hometown to the hospital every day? Would they have any type of support system in another city? My guess is no.
I feel honored to have been part of this, and look forward to adding new features and content. If it means that one family sees information on that site and it helps them, it has been worth it.
For those of you who eat at McDonalds, the Help with all your Heart campaign will continue through February 14. Pitch in a buck or three when you place your order; these funds stay in the area to make this House possible.

Goes good with chili or meatballs, the recipes for which I will post soon. For the meatballs, it works particularly well, since those also have to be in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. I modified this from the directions on the back of the (Quaker) corn meal package.
Ingredients
1 cup ap flour
1 cup corn meal
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. honey
1 egg
splash of veg. oil
Tools
Big bowl
Spoon
8 x 8 pan
olive oil spray
Steps
Combine all ingredients, mix well
Pour into greased 8 x8 pan
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

The only other time I've had bread pudding (besides tonight) was at a Kahunaville in Syracuse at least 4 years ago, so I"m not sure what the final result was supposed to look like. This turned out to be less like a pudding, and more like a banana crisp. Tasty, nonetheless. Bread pudding is also the perfect recipe for using up that food in the kitchen that everyone has laying around in a "good, but not good enough to eat" stage - like day-old bread, very ripe bananas and almost-funky milk.
Ingredients
Bread, ripped into small pieces or sliced into cubes.
(enough to fill an 8x8 pan)
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup oatmeal
3-4 ripe bananas, sliced
1/4 c. (half stick) softened butter
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
Tools
superlarge bowl
spoon
8x8 baking pan
Steps
Combine the bread, milk and oatmeal in a large bowl. Set aside for 15-20 minutes. Use this time to put away all your dishes and clean off the counters - you know you've been putting that off for days.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl. Mix very well. The butter can disguise itself as bananas, and you don't want to bite into a chunk of butter. Or do you?
Pat the mixture into the 8x8 pan.
Bake for at least 30 minutes, or until it's mildly crispy on top. Do not burn. The original recipe said to cool before serving, but I couldn't wait.
If anyone has a better suggestion for making it more puddinglike, please tell me!

Note: I softened the butter by microwaving it on a defrost setting for 15 second. Your microwave may require more or less time.

I give you ... the Hasselhoff :
first, an astonishing video
then, a haunting visual image
Anyone else have a favorite Hasselhoff link?

Mmm mmm good.
Ingredients
3-4 large pieces of chicken, cooked and shredded
4-5 cups of chicken broth (or use bouillion)
1 regular can of diced tomatoes
1/2 small can of diced green chiles
1 medium onion, chopped/diced
1-2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tsp. cilantro
4 tortillas
olive oil
Tools
1 large stock pot
1 saute pan
spoons
Steps
Saute onion and celery (or any other veggies that tickle your fancy); set aside.
Start to heat the chicken stock.
Saute chicken in olive oil (you can use the same pan as the veggies - just don't do the chicken before the veggies).
Add the diced tomatoes and chiles to the broth.
Bring to boil.
Reduce to simmer.
Once the chicken has cooled a bit, shred or chop into little bits.
Add the veggies and chicken to the broth.
Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add the spices, simmer for about 10-15 more minutes.
This will give you time to make the crunchy tortillas.
Slice the tortillas into strips - about 1/2 inch by 2 inches.
Rinse out the saute pan and pat dry. Add about a 1/4 c. of olive oil.
Put on medium heat - watch for splattering!
Add the sliced tortillas and cook until crispy. Be careful, or they scorch and get too brittle.
Serve the soup with some tortillas on top. Grated cheese can be used too, but this meal was hearty enough without it!

As I drove into work this morning, lamenting the fact that all morning radio show hosts sound so horribly, inexorably uninformed, I started thinking about what my own education lacks.
Math would be the obvious one, but since I did well in advanced math classes from 7th to 11th grade, that's not entirely appropriate.
Science is another possibility, but I made it to, and through, AP Chemistry in 12th grade, and I wasn't completely bad at it.
Mechanical skills would be a strong contender, but now I have an able tutor (J) who walks me through the basics of car fixin', construction, electrical stuff, and the like.
So I settled on my inability to speak or to write fluently in another language. I took three years of French in high school, as most public schools demand, and that wasn't nearly enough. I dabbled in German for a semester, but the instructor was too awful to even consider another semester. The only thing I got out of another 2 years of college-level Spanish was the ability to count to 100 en espanol. I can't even trill my r's.
Now, it's back to French. I'm great at guessing the English/Latin cognates, which makes reading a lot easier. I'm starting by reading through the Radio-Canada.ca site each morning; other suggestions for sites would be appreciated!

Contrast this article by Ron Kovic (author of Born on the Fourth of July ) with the "patriots" featured over at Operation Yellow Elephant .
I'm well aware that joining the military in any capacity is an intensely personal decision. I also believe strongly that any pundit, politician, member of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists , and citizen - and their children who are over 18 - should have been the first ones on the planes over to Iraq to "bring them democracy."

This past weekend, we started to look for a place from which to order a wedding cake. The actual wedding is not for awhile, but I'm a planner, and we're planning ahead. Besides, it was a chance to eat cake, something that I don't believe I have ever refused.
Some advice: don't tell the bakery staff that the cake is for a wedding. An event? Sure. A celebration? Of course. But the minute the words "wedding" or "bride" get introduced, the price skyrockets and options become incredibly inflexible. I was disappointed. How hard is it to bake 4 square cakes, of a normal, average height, with white frosting, simple light purple piping on the edges, with lots of space for fresh flowers on the top (supplied by me)? Apparently, this bakery "doesn't do that," although they clearly had the pans by which to do them.
I have a very simple idea for the cake that does not involve tiers, excessive architecture, or complicated frosting. If I wasn't worried about doing other things that day, like getting married, I'd be content with baking and decorating this dessert on my own.
Aside from figuring out who to invite and how to print my invitations, the only other thing on my mind for this "event" is finding a sparkly pair of shoes in some shade of silver or purple.

This is a highly modified version of Rachael Ray's Shepherd's Pie recipe. The first time I had anything like this was just a few years ago; the assembly takes a bit of work and preparation, but it made enough for two large dinner servings, one lunch and one set of leftovers.
Ingredients
5-6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 big tbsp. plain yogurt; you can also substitute sour cream
1/3-1/2 c. milk
1-2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 c. chopped mushrooms
1-1.5 lbs. ground beef; per (e:ladycroft), you can also use a meatless product
1 cup beef broth
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
paprika
Tools
large pot
large saucepan
small saucepan
colander
whisk
potato masher
rectangular casserole dish*
(*you can use a 9 inch round pie pan, but you'll probably end up with enough ingredients for two. Either make two, or adjust the ingredients down)
Steps
Peel, slice and dice all veggies.
Add potatoes to large saucepan; fill with water, add a few shakes of salt, and cover; heat on high to boiling until the potatoes are ready to be mashified.
Put other chopped veggies in a bowl; set aside.
In large saucepan, brown up the ground beef; salt and pepper to taste; use some olive oil so the meat doesn't stick or burn.
Once the meat is done, add the veggies; cook until the onions turn translucent.
In the small saucepan, combine the butter and flour; whisk until the butter is melted; add the beef broth, and whisk for another minute; this mixture will turn into a thickish gravy (but not horribly thick). Don't leave any lumps!
Once the potatoes are done, drain them, add the yogurt and milk; mash 'em up!
Put the veggie-meat mixture as a first layer; drizzle the gravy over it; you can add a cup of cooked peas at this point, but I didn't have any on hand.
Pile the mashed potatoes on the casserole; smooth with a spatula.Sprinkle some paprika on the top, and place under the broiler until the top potato layer is just browned; mine formed a thin, flexible crust.
Eat and enjoy. Add salt to taste. The worst part of this recipe is the cleanup - all those pots and pans don't fit in our dishwasher, and they fill up the sink!