Monday, June 20, 2011

Music Monday: Panic! At the Disco

Panic! at the Disco are back, along with their exclamation mark! They have a new CD, Vices and Virtues, which is a big pickup from Pretty Odd. Here's the song that's been stuck in my head:

Monday, June 13, 2011

Music Monday: Jeff Pianki

I've decided that every monday, I'm going to post a music video of a song thats been stuck in my head for you guys to check out.

This week, I'll be posting If Only by Jeff Pianki. His songs are really sweet, and have a really soothing sound. Plus, in this particular song, he says things in other languages. And I'm a total loser when it comes to people singing in other languages.

Oh, and if you like this song, you can download his entire EP for free at

And here's the video:

How to: make delicious leftover pizza in the oven.



I meant to write this on Sunday, because everybody orders pizza on Saturdays, and there's almost always leftovers. But whenever you try to microwave it, the cheese is either weird or the pizza is soggy. Ick. But I've found a way to make delicious leftovers every time.

You do need a pizza stone for best results, which can be fairly expensive (ranging from 30-50 dollars). However, you can buy a three piece stone set at target for 13.89here: (http://www.target.com/Bialetti-3-pc-Pizza-Stone-Set/dp/B000UC1A52. It comes with the stone, a pizza cutter, and handles (which are convenient, because pizza stones can get really hot!)



What you do:
1. Place the pizza stone, by itself, into the oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 F (~200 C) with the stone in it.
3. Once the oven is preheated, put the pizza onto the heated stone.
4. Cook the pizza for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your pizza. My advice is to experiment. Put it in for five minutes at first. Poke it/move it to see if its the crispiness/meltiness you like. If not, put it back in the oven for two minute incriments until its perfect for you.
5. Pull it out, add desired flavors(romano cheese, garlic, crushed red peppers)-Optional
6. Let it cool, enjoy!

Reminder: When you are cleaning the pizza stone, do not use soap! Using soap will embed a soapy taste into the stone, and every reheated pizza you make from now on will have it. Simply run warm/hot water over it after it is cooled, and scrape off anything that is stuck to it with a plastic card, or scrub it off with a wet washcloth.

Friday, June 10, 2011

How to: make a caramel frappe



What you will need:
-Blender
-Coffee (.5 cup, cooled)
-Milk or cream[not creamer, cream.] (.5 cup)
-Ice (about two cups)
-Sugar (about two cups)
-Caramel
-Whipped cream
**The ice, sugar, and caramel can be varied depending on the consistency and the sweetness that you want.

Steps:
1. Make the coffee, and set it in the freezer for a while. If you try to pour the coffee into the blender while its warm, it will melt the ice, and your frappe will become watery.

2. After the coffee has cooled, put it into the blender. Add the milk, sugar, caramel, and the ice last.

3. Blend the materials together (if you have a smoothie button on your blender, that works pretty well.)

4. Pour the frappe into your cup, top with cool whip, and drizzle caramel over the cool whip.

Enjoy!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Review: Mio liquid water enhancer

First impression: Great, another water enhancer. Another gross mystery substance that is going to give me heartburn and leave a bad taste in my mouth. But I guess it's worth a try.

The goods and bads for this product are listed at the bottom of the post, along with my rating (if you don't want to read the entire thing)

Well, I went on a little Kroger adventure trying to find the stuff. I found flyers everywhere for it, but actually trying to find the little bottle was a challenge. I walked up and down the juice isle before asking a worker, who told me that it was in the tea and drink mixes isle. (Duh. We all have our slow moments, but why are the drink mixes by the tea instead of by the juices?)

Anyway, after I walked down the drink mixes isle, I found the little bottle. It is small and silver, and shaped like a water drop (which is clever, because it's a liquid water enhancer.) There were about four different flavors. I chose the strawberry watermelon one.

I got home and filled up a water bottle with cold water, and squirted the red liquid in. I only put in a little bit at first, because I didn't want to overload my mouth with sugary heartburn, but with the little bit it really just tasted like funny tasting water. However, when I added a little more and shook it up I was quite delighted. Instead of being funny tasting and overpowering like most powder water enhancers, it was actually quite delicious. It tasted like kool-aid, except without the two cups of sugar. In fact, it's completely calorie free. And it doesn't have that weird fake-sugar taste that other calorie free beverages have. I was quite impressed.


RATING: 8
GOODS: A lot of flavor, you can choose how much liquid to pour into the water, clever design, zero calories, nice taste(doesn't have that weird sweetener taste), portable, no heartburn!
BADS: Expensive (It was three or four dollars), doesn't last that long, kind of ger burnt out if you drink it a lot.