Friday Randomness

I’m thinking perhaps it may be time for NaBloPoMo around here. Maybe a good idea to try to challenge myself to post every day, because crap, I feel less inclined than ever to do so. It’s not that I don’t get any pleasure from it…it’s that when I post all of the time, my brain works that way, and little things in my life inspire me. However, when I don’t post often, my brain doesn’t work that way, so I forget my blog is even here for days at a time. Not what I want from this space. So, let’s see what happens, shall we?

So, what can I tell you? Well, Maya is taking Journalism this year, and had her first byline in the school paper. An excellent review of the Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes concert she saw in September. I’ll admit to you that I was a bit nervous about her going into San Francisco with a friend to see the concert, with no adults. She’s a good kid. Her friend is a good kid. I don’t really worry about them doing something dangerous or wrong (though of course good kids do those things, too, but you can’t think about that when you’re deciding whether to let your 17 year old go out with her friends). But I do worry about some idiot doing something evil and her not being ready to deal with it, or perhaps her getting into a situation where no one would know what to do. These things happen once in awhile. But they took BART, they had a GREAT time, and her picture was even in a local newspaper. Whew.

I tried a new recipe that I’ll call ‘Mimi Bars’. My friend Cherry told me about them, so even though it’s not HER recipe, I’m tempted to call them ‘Cherry Bars’, but for obvious reasons, that might lead one to believe there are actual cherries involved, which in this case, there are not. I’ll share the recipe, if you promise to take your insulin first, because O.M.Gosh*, these things are SWEET. The sweetest thing I’ve ever had, perhaps. Yummy, though.

Mimi bars

9×13 glass baking dish.
1 & 1/2 cubes butter,
1 Duncan Heinz butter cake,
1 package kraft caramels (unwrapped)
1/3 cup milk
1 & 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Preheat oven 350°.
melt butter in pot on stove, turn off stove.
Add cake mix.
Stir til stiff.

Press half of this mixture onto baking dish, bake 8 minutes.
Melt caramels & milk on stove.
Sprinkle choc chips on top of cake as soon as removed from oven, drizzle caramel.
Crumble remaining cake mixture on top.
Bake 11-13 minutes.
Done!
Let cool overnight and cut!

A few tips.

1st, maybe try lining your pan with foil or parchment or something, because when that caramel gets cold in the fridge overnight, it’s difficult to cut from the pan. Might be easier to remove it from the pan, and THEN cut it.

2nd, Cherry said if you eat these BEFORE cooling overnight, they just don’t rock for some reason. Conversely, I can tell you if you try them right out of the fridge, they’re so-so. However, if you cool them overnight in the fridge (wait, the recipe doesn’t actually say they have to go in the fridge…perhaps I made that part up?), and then bring them back to room temp, they’re amazing. Really good. But you only need one. One is enough. You will very likely not go back for more.

What else…I’m writing this on Halloween, and it’s 8:00pm, and we have had a total of ZERO trick-or-treaters. Living in a townhouse/condo complex sucks. There are 4 kids in our complex who are of age (though young), yet they do what we did…pack the kids up and take them to a neighborhood with sidewalks and houses. What goes around comes around. We didn’t take Maya trick-or-treating here, and so we don’t get any. Sigh. I want to see a cute pre-schooler in a lion costume or something.

Anyone trying out the new TV season? Since we have free cable right now, I’ve been giving it a shot. My favorite shows are not new…Parenthood and The Good Wife, but I’ve also tested The Crazy Ones, The Michael J. Fox Show, and Mom. Meh all around. If I’m bored and in the mood to watch TV over reading a book, I’ll watch any of them, in this order:

1. Mom ~ Allison Janney is great, and so far I’ve gotten a few laughs out of it.
2. The Crazy Ones ~ A show with Buffy is going to be good, right? And Mork? But it’s just OK. I kind of like it, but if I miss it, I don’t care.
3. The Michael J. Fox Show ~ So far, I’ve seen 3 or 4 episodes, but the only reason to watch is being bored, not wanting to read your book (happens sometimes when I’m tired), and the only other thing to watch is stupid reality TV. I like Michael J. Fox. He was really good on The Good Wife. I’m not convinced the writing is that great.

Maybe I have something else to say, I’m not sure. But it just occurred to me that if I’m going to try to write every day in November, I’d better save a little something for tomorrow, right?