Tag Archives: blogging

Pregnant Goldfish and Taco Seasoning

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I’d be willing to bet you that you couldn’t guess what the top search term was on the blog the other day. Any guesses? I seriously doubt you will guess this. Unless your guess involves fishes. And baby fishes.

An image of a Common goldfish

An image of a Common goldfish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here it is…”how to tell when a goldfish is pregnant”. Seriously? LOL. Why would you think I would know when a goldfish is pregnant?! Little fact about myself: I have never owned a fish in my life. I once wanted a fish, but I think my mom said it would get smelly  or something. Or that could have possibly been when I asked for a turtle. I was/am a HUGE animal lover.

Well are you interested in finding out how to tell when a goldfish is pregnant? I feel slightly obligated since it was the top search term. After a little research, I have found that, like humans, their bellies swell. You can also usually see lumps in their tummies from the eggs, and their tummies are a slightly lighter color due to the stretching. So there you go goldfish lovers. Your little lesson on how to tell if your goldfish is pregnant.

Now that we have that cleared up, let’s talk food, shall we? I made some a taco seasoning mix. As you may know, I love mexican and southwest flavors. Hello? Remember my taco salad, Mexican Lasagna, the salsa I made for SRC, Mexican flair wraps, Spanish rice, or the Cheesy Chicken tortilla bake? I think I’ve proved my point. I love mexican food and flavors. So here we go, super simple. Just mix up these spices right here, rub them on some chicken and cook it, or you can mix it into some brown rice to flavor it up a bit. Be creative! You can even use it on oven baked fries to give them a little mexican flair.

Taco Seasoning Mix

(from Brown Eyed Baker)

4 Tablespoons chili powder

2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon paprika

3 Tablespoons onion cumin

1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

  1. whisk together all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container and rub seasoning on any meat, tortillas, or anything else you choose!

Random Fact of the Day: Sarah Bernhardt, a famous 19th and 20th century actress slept in a coffin that she took every where with her.

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Promming! (PART TWO)

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Note: This is part two of “promming!”, which is my adventures of last weekend with.. guess it. prom! For part one, click here. 

Once I got home I looked down the street and saw one of the girls in my prom group already taking pictures with her date. I was still in running shorts and a zip-up… so I kind of flipped out and ran all around the house getting ready. I threw on my dress, threw some make-up on my face and called it a pretty. I think my mom photographed every second on me getting ready. I’m honestly a little shocked she didn’t catch one of me in my underwear. *phew!*

We then proceeded to take more pictures than anybody ever would have thought possible. We were a little unfamiliar with the lens on our Nikon, so a bunch of our pictures turned out fuzzy, but we still ended up getting some good ones. We took pictures of just me at the house, pictures with my date at my house, pictures at this garden place with my whole group. It was one big picture frenzy. My mouth and cheeks got the workout of a lifetime.

After pictures we headed over to the dance. FINALLY! It was awesome!! It’s funny how similar prom is to a wedding. They served up salad, chicken, veggies, potatoes, and a choice of chocolate cake or cheesecake. I got the chocolate cake. If you know me at all, you know that’s like a total no-brainer question. And then we finally got to go on the dance floor and shake our bootys. It was an awesome time…my legs were actually sore the next day! (embarrassing) After the dance, we headed over to the post prom party at the park district, where they had tons of rooms with games and prizes and food and pictures. Sooo much stuff to do there. My date and I got a caricature drawing that turned out awesome. I look pretty great, if I say so myself. Hopefully he’ll give me a copy soon, I seriously wanna frame the thing!

Confused as always

They had loads of prizes they were giving out every half hour like $50, $100, $250, $1000, iPads, beats by Dre headphones, gift certificates, you name it. I didn’t win anything but a few of my friends won money and gift certificates. The whole post prom party ended at 3 A.M. I was ex-hausted! I got home, took a shower to get all the yucky hairspray out of my hair, then passed out on my bed. I knew I had to get all the sleep I could because…

Me and a few friends headed over to Six Flags Great America for the day. We left around 9 A.M. and took the hour drive to get there. We got in the park, got in line for our first roller coaster, were soooo close to the front of the line, then an announcement comes on. “We’re sorry, but due to severe weather conditions, we’re going to have to close down this ride”. So we’re like, okay this sucks but at least we can go on some other rides. All of a sudden lightning comes from like every direction. I have never seen so much lightning, so close, in my entire life. The ground was literally shaking and it felt like the earth was going to crack. Needless to say, we took off in a dead sprint to the car. It was a total bummer that we just drove all that way to not even get to go on one roller coaster, but luckily we had a plan B. We headed over to one of my favorite places in the world, Lake Geneva (where my friend/date has a lake house) and ate lunch there at this incredible little place called Popeyes, not to be confused with the fast food restaurant, Popeyes.

After lunch, we decided to head back home and watch a movie at my house. We picked “Drive”, it’s got something for everyone. Blood and action for boys, Ryan Gosling for girls. #winning. Overall it was an awesome weekend that I would never trade for anything in the entire world. Maybe some mint chocolate chip ice cream….but probably not.

Random Fact of the Day: An Astronaut can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space. The cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.

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Double Chocolate Peppermint Oreo Stuffed Cookies

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Time to break out the Christmas cookie recipes!

This here is actually a spin-off of Jenny’s Oreo Stuffed Cookies. With the combination of flavors I chose, these would be a great addition to your Christmas cookie platter, or just a cookie for any regular old day!

Instead of using the traditional chocolate chip cookie, I decided to go with a double chocolate chip peppermint cookie. Mint and chocolate are one of my absolute favorite combinations, so this was a total no-brainer for me!

I also chose to use mini Oreos since we just had a couple little bags laying around, but feel free to use the regular-sized Oreos. I actually recommend using the regular sized if you really like to get the whole Oreo experience. Double-stuffed makes everything better, too!

Double Chocolate Peppermint Oreo Stuffed Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract (or mint extract)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

about 20-30 mini Oreos or about 10-15  regular sized Oreos

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In mixer, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, then stir in vanilla and peppermint (or mint) extracts. Gradually stir flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into the creamed mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips.
  3. If using mini Oreos: Scoop 1 teaspoonful of cookie dough and place in hand, top with a mini Oreo, then top with an additional teaspoonful of cookie dough. Smoosh it together, form into a ball, and place onto the cookie sheet. Repeat this process until there is no more cookie dough or Oreos.
  4. If using regular sized Oreos: Do the same as the mini Oreo process (above) except use a tablespoonful of cookie dough.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 10-13 minutes or until edges are set. Watch these carefully! They may appear not done, but if anything-take them out early because they can get pretty crispy fairly easily.
  6. Allow cookies to cool on cookie rack then finish cooling on a wire rack.

Random Fact of the Day: Bruce Lee was so fast, that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars

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Sorry for all you readers that don’t have a blog, you might not completely understand what I’m about to talk about. But I guess e-mail works kinda similarly for this.

Here it is…spam.

What the heck is up with spam?! I don’t understand it one bit. Like what’s the point? Is somebody having fun doing this? Like are they just commenting all this random stuff on everybody’s blogs for kicks and giggles or what?

Some of them can be so mean, too! Like if you’re gonna send me a spam comment, at least be friendly!!

I seriously get the strangest spam comments. Care for some samples?

“Hiya Riva,
I have no idea how many medals I have!!! What swimming club do you belong to? How often do you train? Are you going to write into aqua zone?? If so, I will be looking out for your letter….. I wrote my first letter to aqua zone in 2008 and was best of the bunch too. My younger sister was best of the bunch in 2009!!!
From Holly xx”

My name is not Riva. It is Casey, thank you.

“What’s the best natural or at-home acne treatment?”

Do you seriously want me to give you a recipe for acne treatment? I assure you it will have chocolate..not sure how that’s gonna help ya.

“The next time I learn a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to read, but I actually thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you can fix for those who werent too busy searching for attention.”

Thanks to your comment, missy, I am now whining about you. Are you happy?

“Finding a good vitamin is one of the vital factors to living a vibrant life. For me, this supplement has always proven to be the greatest. It just gives your soul what it needs and it doesn’t have all of those terrible side effects as all of the bad ones. It’s also one of the less costly ones out there.”

Yeah, I agree vitamins are good. Why did you comment this on a brownie recipe?

“I?d should check with you here. Which isn’t something I normally do! I enjoy reading a put up that can make folks think. Also, thanks for allowing me to remark!”

I’m lost.

Anyways, here’s a super yummy bar recipe that you can munch on while pondering the concept of spam. If you haven’t noticed from the pictures about, it combines 3 of my favorite things! 1. Chocolate chip cookies 2. Oreos 3. Brownies. A winning team right there, folks!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars

(adapted from Kevin and Amanda)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 oz.) chocolate chips, I used chunks
1 pkg Oreos (I used about 24 cookies)
1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix, prepared
1/4 cup hot fudge topping, optional

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a glass 9×13 baking dish or line a metal 9×13 baking dish and grease with cooking spray or oil.
  2. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to thoroughly combine.
  3. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly incorporate into the mixer until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
  4. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of prepared baking dish. Top with a layer of Oreos. Pour prepared brownie mix (with hot fudge topping mixed in, if using) on top of Oreo and cookie layer.
  5.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Random Fact of the Day: Bulgarians participating in a survey voted the “chushkopek” (an appliance for roasting up to seven peppers at a time) the most revolutionary household advance of the 20th century, beating out the electricity, television and the cell phone. - The Week Magazine, 1/15/10

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Double Brownie Batter Ice Cream

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I have to take the mother of all tests this morning. Pretty much the one that determines the rest of my life. Pretty much.

Isn’t it funny how they call a test that takes from 8 AM to 1 PM a name with only three little letters. Har har. 

Have you guessed it yet?

The ACT. AHHh I’m scared!!!! I just want to have all the answers transferred into my brain. Like a helpful brainwashing. Yeah! Someone out there has to know a way. There must be one. 

Till then I’ll calm my nerves with this stuff. The creamiest ice cream I have ever tasted. And let me tell you, I don’t even LIKE chocolate ice cream! It makes me thirsty..I do not know why. But this stuff is like a whole new world of chocolate. MAKE IT

Double Brownie Batter Ice Cream

1 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. white sugar

1 t. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2 T. Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)

1/2 c. plus 2 T. Dry Brownie mix**

about 3/4 c. chopped up brownies**

  1. Mix all the ingredients together, except the chopped up brownies. Use a whisk to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. During last 5 minutes of freezing process, mix in brownie chunks. Freeze in freezer for 2-4 hours before serving, or until firm.

Random Fact of the Day: The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

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