World Nutella Day

In honor of World Nutella Day, I decided to finally make some cupcakes I've been wanting to make for a while: chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream. It took a while, but I found a fabulous blog with recipes for both the cake and the frosting (I left the coffee out).

I decided to sprinkle half of the cupcakes with chopped hazelnuts and leave the others plain. Either way, they taste AMAZING. The butter in the cake makes it super moist and gives it a nice crumb. And the Nutella in the buttercream cuts the sweetness and marries wonderfully with the rich chocolate cake beneath.

If you try these cupcakes, let me (and the recipes' author) know. I think that if you like chocolate and/or Nutella, you'll love them too.

Blog Pimpin', Spendin' Cheese

My friend Charles claims to 'not know' who writes this blog, but I suspect it's him. And by "suspect," I mean that I am 99.9% sure that he writes it. And so far, it's darned entertaining. Which would explain why we're friends, n'est-ce pas?

2009 Book List...So Far

So, I was at B&N with the husband on Sunday, which is always dicey. See, me in a bookstore is like Carrie Bradshaw at the Manolo boutique. Nothing economically sensible will come of it. However, I refrained from buying any books because I decided I'd rather purchase them for my Amazon Kindle reader.

Instead, I decided to make a list of the books I saw that I really want to read. Unfortunately, per usual, there was neither pen nor paper in my purse. I decided to go the 21st-century route and take photos of each book cover with my camera phone, and use said images to compile my list. I didn't graduate magna cum laude for nothing.

In some semblance of order, the book list goes a little somethin' like this:

NOTE: I decided to give each book a rating of 1-5 stars. You guess which is the high end.
The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs - 4 stars
The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max
Under The Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
A Three Dog Life by Abagail Thomas
The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith
Deluxe by Dana Thomas

Hopefully, I will get to purchase and read all of these books in short order. They're all in paperback, so that SHOULD make the Kindle price lowish.

Monday Musings - Vol. 1, No. 4

Happy Monday, readers! (I pretend that I have more than a few dear friend-readers, it makes me feel like I'm actually a cool blogger or something.) I thought about doing a Super Bowl-themed Musings today, but I decided against it. Too cliched and lame. Even for me. Aaaaand away we gooooo...

Seeing that your profit sharing account declined in value by over 6% last year is sad. At least I didn't actually pay my own money into it. Sorry, employer.
Still getting used to the new hair color. It's pretty and I like it, but it only makes my pale skin look that much paler. A Mystic Tan might be in order soon.
I would eat more oranges if they weren't such a bitch to peel. And I hate trying to get all the pithy stuff off the actual fruit AFTER I peel the skin away.
To my old, faithful, oversized Doc Marten oxfords: I wish I knew how to quit you.
Does smelling your own hair make you creepy? The Aveda products are just too fabulous-smelling not to sniff.
I slept like crap last night. I think I was afraid of my new hair color rubbing off on my pillowcase. Tonight should be better.
Hannibal Lecter Dwight nearly made me pee my pants last night. With laughter, not fear.
My shoulders are sore.
The only reason I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day this year is because we made reservations at Jake's and I loooooove me some Jake's.
Speaking of seafood places, I ordered a gift card through our rewards program at work for Legal Sea Foods. We don't have one in Portland, but there is one in Boston. One meal paid for, 9 more to go.
I should get my official Red Sox Nation citizenship card in the mail by the end of the month. Still not sure how I feel about that. I mean, it got us a great deal on tickets, but it seems weird to become part of a nation that I'm pretty neutral about.
If you are not watching Friday Night Lights, you need to start. Now. I mean it. Now.
Only 8 months until next football season. Oh dear.
Re: spending and the craptastic economy. By spending money, I'm stimulating the economy, right? But considering I probably buy a lot of stuff that's manufactured overseas, am I also taking money AWAY from the economy? Or has globalization made the whole "Buy American" thing a farce anyhow?
Time to dash. Big business group meeting starting in 10 minutes.

Super Sunday...Hair

I never color my hair. But I got a wild hare - pardon the pun - lately and decided to punch up my natural reddish tint a bit. I got a little more red than I bargained for... (ignore the red eye please)

But I really like the hair. A fun change and it's only demi-permanent, so it'll fade away after about eight weeks or so. And I guess if I like it well enough, I can always go back to the salon and have them do the same color with the permanent formulation.

Also, nothing smells better than Aveda hair products. Love them.

Monday Musings, Vol. 1, No. 3

Today is a good day - the rugs I ordered for our kitchen are at Crate and Barrel so I'm driving to Bridgeport Village tonight and picking them up. This leads to my first Rambling of the week:

It's rad that some stores will let you order stuff over the phone and if they don't have it in stock, they'll order it for you and ship it to their store, free of charge. Love that.
Sad ramble re: the shooting in downtown PDX on Saturday night. How tragic that so many of those teenagers hurt were far from their homes. I hope people don't start assuming downtown is just too unsafe, because that's not true. Random acts of violence can happen anytime, anywhere.
Nutro sucks. Charging me $4 more per bag for 5lbs less of dog food sucks. We're in a recession, people. Don't be greedy.
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Year of the Ox!
How much money do you think those clowns who send in their gold jewelry to Cash4Gold.com actually get? It seems like a total ripoff if you ask me.
I love our new kitchen floor. Pictures coming soon...stay tuned.
The local NBC affiliate has a news show on at 7pm with a feature called Hot Box. I cannot tell you how much that makes me laugh.
What's the sales tax rate in Boston? I need to know how much shopping I can get away with in June.
Speaking of...I HAVE RED SOX TICKETS! And I didn't even have to buy them from scalpers on StubHub or via some shady Craigslist post.
Is it weird that now that peanut butter is all over the news b/c of salmonella contamination, I'm really hungry for a PB&J?
In other food news, I just got some Santorini egg white salad from Trader Joe's and it's delicious. Kinda spicy, even.
The disgusting air in Portland is making me crazy. My hair hates it, my skin hates it, and my lungs hate it.
If the Blazers make the playoffs, we'll need every dollar from our tax refund to cover the ticket costs, I bet.
Prince Harry found out he was dumped because his girlfriend's Facebook status changed from "In A Relationship" to "Single." Oh my.

Finally, a FOTC-style shoutout to Adrea, who I think is my only blog fan/reader. Thanks, Adrea!
If you are NOT Adrea and DO read this blog, leave me a comment or something. Give me some feedback!

Monday Musings - week off

The Musings take a backseat this week to history. I'm watching the inauguration right now and my thoughts are all jumbled. Relief, happiness, joy, fear, worry, doubt...but mostly, to borrow from our new president, I'm hopeful. Let me be clear: I know that President Obama is not a miracle worker. He is not a one-man force of nature. But he is committed to making us a better country with a brighter future.

Times are precarious and we are a nervous nation, but my hope is strong and my faith in our new president is stronger. Today is the start of a new chapter in our history, and we have the opportunity to do as our predecessors have done and make our way out of dark times into that bright future, full of promise. I'm ready to do my part. Are you?

Monday Musings, Vol. 1, No. 2

So...time for another edition of the Musings. I've gone back and re-read my post from last week and it's pretty random, which I guess is the point, but I hope to get better and more incisive with these as I go along. Baby steps...

Booking a flight to Boston with miles points isn't as easy as you'd think. Even when booking over SIX MONTHS in advance. But we got it done.
If the Cards-Ravens are in the "Super" Bowl I'm not gonna be pleased. I'll watch, but I won't like it.
I'm tired of Wal-Mart trying to convince me that they are awesome. I refuse to believe that mess.
Golden Globes ramblings: Renee Lemon Face, WTF was that? My girl-crush, Anne Hathaway, needed a better dress but still looked gorge. What the eff was Megan Fox even DOING there? Not enough shots of the 'Kras...come on, Getty Images, help a sister out. LOVE Kate Winslet...LOVE her.
What is a better lunch option: turkey or ham sandwich? Either way, I'm having the Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips with it.
When does the new Lupe Fiasco CD come out? I'm gettin' antsy here.
You are never too old to be thrilled with getting free foam fingers at a sporting event. Never.
I've been craving sfogliatella like crazy lately. Gah.
My new pink Cupcake Courier is so awesome. I need to get excited about making some cupcakes so that I can use it. Maybe when the kitchen floor is finished.
Latest NFL Draft rumor: the Niners will pick Michael Crabtree from Texas Tech. Um, YES please.
Even though there are times when they drive me nuts, I'm so glad we have our doglets. They're pretty awesome.
I love that Albertsons keeps carrying my favorite oatmeal (Quaker Instant Weight Control variety pack) on sale. 2 for $4 - shut up.
There is a weird heartbeat noise that plays in the background of the Pampers Swaddlers commercial that I never noticed before we got our new home theatre. The subwoofer really magnifies it. Creeps me out.
I'm excited to try my new mascara. It's the Cover Girl one that Rhianna endorses.

A Busy Weekend...

This weekend we went to the Blazers-Warriors game on Friday night. Additionally, we started the demo on our existing (ugly) kitchen floor so that Nick can install the new laminate flooring next weekend.

First: the Blazers game. We got to the Rose Garden a touch earlier than anticipated, but that gave us time to return a cracked pint glass that I'd been lugging around to each game since Christmas. Ideally, we would have exchanged it for a new one but none of the team stores have gotten new shipments of pint glasses in since the holidays. Lame.
We got to our usual seats (Sec 329, Row E) and settled in for what we hoped would be an easy victory to end the recent homestand. Uh, no. The Blazers started off pretty sluggish, so we were feeling frustrated. And then, lo and behold, two team promo event staffers came up to our seats with a giant gift bag and told us that we had been chosen as the game's Alaska Airlines First Class Fans of the Game (or whatever it's called). Suh-weet! Free stuff AND upgraded seats to Section 114!
We follow the staffers down to the seats, which are actually first-class Alaska Airlines seats, but there is someone sitting there. Huh? Long story short, the seats had accidentally been overbooked and we couldn't sit there. No big deal - our friend Ashley was sitting in the Block Party seats (which is a really cool row in Section 122 - midcourt) and told us to come sit with them. Since we got to keep the goodie bag, which includes 4 first-class upgrades on Alaska flights, I was all about it.
We spent the rest of the game in the Block Party seats, the Blazers put together a great second half, and we walked out of there with a 113-100 victory which means...free chalupa coupons AGAIN! I have waaaaay too many chalupa coupons.

As for the remainder of the weekend, Nick started the demo of our kitchen floor. He's taking up the old vinyl flooring and backerboard so that we can install some oaky laminate flooring. The things we do to ready a house for sale...my job in all this is to come along with the Shop-Vac (which by the way, since I can't have a Dyson Pet, I have to love my Shop-Vac instead) and clean up the debris afterward. Fact: I have inhaled a LOT of dust and flooring debris and my sinuses are KILLING me today. Bad idea jeans to not wear a mask or some such thing while cleaning up. Oh well.

The kitchen floor, which has been an eyesore for the entire time we've lived here (nearly 4 years now!) is our final BIG indoor project! I never thought I'd see the day but it's coming soon. Once the floor is done we just have some small touchup/hardware updates to make to the house and then we can move to the yard. Oh our poor yard...what a mess!

Monday Musings - Vol. 1, No. 1

I've decided that this year is the year I will become a (semi-) disciplined blogger. My first post of this new year is something I like to call Monday Musings. Inspired by Bill Simmons' ESPN column where he occasionally posts his "Ramblings", I'm going to use my Monday posts as a catch-all for the random thoughts tumbling around in my head.

WARNING: I have a lot of random thoughts tumbling around in my head.

Without further ado, here I go:

Is curly hair worth the hassle? I think so. But I fear perms, because I had one when I was a kid and it was gross.
The cafe at work today served too much rice with my pork and squash curry.
Don't tell my husband, but I like being 'assigned' the job of painting when it comes to home repair. I seldom mess it up and it's pretty easy, compared to other home repair stuff.
When my dogs are play fighting I think how cool it would be to film them and post their antics on YouTube. I need a hobby.
Speaking of hobbies, I still need to find one that is cheap and not overly frustrating to learn.
I find myself spending about 63.7% of my days lately thinking about our planned June trip to Boston, so if that doesn't work out, I'll be really mad. Like, uber-mad.
Why didn't the umlaut appear over the "u" in "uber"? Is this RTE anti-umlaut?
If the Blazers can't get their poop grouped without Brandon Roy, they aren't nearly as good a TEAM as their management told us they were. In fact, I'd go so far as to say "THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!" right now.
The new Pepsi logo: meh. I don't understand why they change their logo every other year.
Same with the NFL logo change before this season - I wouldn't have noticed had it not been pointed out to me. What a waste of money.
The chicken, spinach, and artichoke Lean Pockets are wicked tasty.
Cashmere - even cheap cashmere from Old Navy - is fabulous. I love it.
When I buy stuff by myself at Home Depot, I get hit on EVERY time by at least one of the middle-aged dudes working there. I don't like it.
I'm almost as excited for Lost's S5 premiere as I was in the weeks leading up to us getting our doglet 4 years ago. Sick, I know.
Peyton Manning probably needs a big hug. Poor guy - Indy's D is really really bad. But the Chargers' punter is also really really good.
Something that bothers me about the Blazers' player intros: now that Rudy Fernandez is in the starting lineup, he gets introduced in Spanish. But he speaks Catalan. And Nicolas Batum, who is from France, has started every game so far this season and not ONCE has he been intro'd in French.
And finally....15 days. Get ready, America.