Hearts.

If you haven't checked out Kate's blog, lady business, you should. It's excellent.

She has a regular feature that I love called "on my way too..." where she documents neat things she encounters on her way to different places. I love her way of showcasing the special things that we often miss because we're blinded by the mundane.

Taking a page from her book.. err... blog, I thought I would share something that I found on my way to my parents house.

The little girl next door drew hearts on every side walk section in the cul-de-sac!

Does that brighten your day, or what?

Blender?

So this weekend I was gifted some potatoes. And by some I mean about 10kg. In short, lots of potatoes.

I gave away a bunch, and still had heaps of potatoes. So, I purchased a bunch more leeks and decided to turn some of the potatoes into soup.



"Well, there's yer problem!"



This morning, I was in the middle of blending a batch in my trusty blender the blender I inherited from my grandmother, when pfffffttttt a bunch of smoke shot out of the bottom, along with some pulverized rubber pieces. I'm no expert, but I'd say that's not good.

So now I have no blender. And chunky soup.

Now I can't decide whether I should get another blender (which I rarely use) or a food processor (which I've never owned before).

Thoughts? Anyone prefer one over the other?

House Plants II.

About a month ago, I posted about the easiest plants that I know of that can be grown around the house. The kind that, even if you live in a basement suite and only have artifical light, will grow quite happily. This time around, I give you "Advanced Plants (for Modern Living)".  These require a bit more complicated care (like more regular waterings and feedings) and specific light conditions.

Growing up, my mother always had African violets - and they always seemed to be blooming. African violets have velvety, fuzzy leaves that don't like to get wet, meaning you need to water them from below, which takes a bit of care. They also don't like too much moisture, so you should put the bottom of the pot in water, let it stand for 20 minutes or so, then drain the water away so the roots don't rot. To be their happiest, they like indirect sunlight/shade and regular feedings. They can flower year round, but mine don't... (my mothers are always blooming! ... not that I'm jealous or anything...)

Another free and awesome plant I received was this Dieffenbachia. The attractive dappled leaves unfurl from the main stalk, and new shoots seem to be popping out the bottom. This one lives next to my north facing living room window... it tolerates shade/low light, but prefers partial shade. (When it was on the other side of the room it wasn't very happy... I switched it with a Sansevieria and they are both happier now.)

At St Patrick's Day, my mother bought me this Shamrock plant. The three lobed leaves grow on stalks coming out of a main "root" under the soil. This one has flowered almost since the day I got it! Occiasonally a stalk will fade and die, but new ones are always shooting up from below. One of the neat things about shamrocks is that they have very sensitive leaves! This one folds up at night and appears to go to sleep (early evening the leaves start to droop like it's tired.. poor baby!). Prefers bright but indirect sunlight and very regular waterings.

Who doesn't know Aloe? Mine is the strangest looking plant (I received it as-is... it was a "donation" to my home when I moved...). Without a woody stem, aloe can't grow too tall without falling over, giving this one a limp appearance (it desperately needs repotting). New shoots are also sprouting out the bottom... Being a succulent (a fat plant that retains water) it can go long periods between waterings, and can handle being ignored!
The leaves can be cut off and opened to reveal a soothing gel, great for burns and cuts. Anyone want some aloe?

This pretty hardy, tolerant and attractive plant is a Croton of some sort. I really have no idea what kind (I got it for free....). They prefer bright locations, but it doesn't have to be direct sun. The leaves can be yellow and green or red and green, giving it a very different look. (And when it flowers it gets the cutest little poofy-looking blooms on the end of a long stalk!)

Autumn Leaves.



Yesterday was the first day of Fall. Happy Belated Autumnal Equinox everybody!



Fall is one of the most beautiful seasons to be in Canada... The weather is perfect for cozy sweaters and scarves without requiring you stuff the feathers of an entire goose into your jacket to keep warm. 
(Rather, this is typical fall weather. The weather is pretty cooking hot right now...)



My friends who live in other climates insist on calling the season "Autumn" (Australians... sheesh...) but I continue to explain that we call it "Fall" since that's what the leaves do. (The fact that it helps us remember how Daylight Savings Time works is just a bonus...)

There is not enough light in the winter time for trees to continue to photosynthesize, so trees go into a kind of hibernation, when they live off the sugars they produced during the summer. When the days begin to shorten, the tree will reabsorb valuable nutrients and compounds from its leaves, and store them in the trunk. Leaves are fragile structures, and are dropped for the winter. (This allows the tree to get rid of wastes, save energy, and deter pests.)



Leaves are green because they contain a green pigment called chlorophyll; chlorophyll is the compound that allows plants to turn solar energy into chemical energy that can be used to make food. Other pigments are present as well, but there is so much chlorophyll that all we see is green.

Chlorophyll is continually made by the plant all summer - when the days shorten and the tree starts preparing for winter, it stops replenishing its supply of the green pigment and the color fades. The other pigments that were present all summer can now be seen: yellow comes from a compound called xanthophyll, and orange is due to carotenoids.



Some plants will start to produce a different pigment at the end of the growing season, anthocyanin, which causes leaves to appear red. Brown leaves result when all the pigment in the leaves degrades, leaving only the cell walls behind.



Check out the anthocyanin in this Japanese Maple!

All trees have different amounts of these pigments in their leaves, and some do not produce anythocyanin at all. This allows each species of tree to appear different as the season changes; higher biodiversity in an area means that a greater rainbow of colors will be visible!



So get out there, put on your favorite fall sweater (or continue wearing your short shorts, as the weather allows) and enjoy the beautiful colors put on display by Mother Nature!
(And when they are no longer as stunning to look at... I hope you enjoy crunching them as much as I do!)



Revolutions in Physics.

By now, most people will have heard about the paper that was published yesterday by scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Physics (if you haven't, read this first).  Essentially, they obeserved results in their huge underground partice accelerator that are inconsistent with our current understanding of physics. The mass media avaliable to most people who have a basic understanding of science is making this sound like a very big deal... which it could be... but it also could not be.

Papers detailing the results of scientific studies are published to make the rest of the scientific community aware of what the researchers did, and how it worked out. Another reason is to allow peer scrutiny of the results. The CERN researchers are publishing their data, not because they think they can explain it (in the last line of the paper they explicitly state "We deliberately do not attempt any theoretical or phenomenological interpretation of the results.") but because they want other people to attempt to replicate their results before any attempt is made to try to formulate an explanation.

This blog discussion explains very nicely why we shouldn't be jumping up and down just yet...

And of course Randall Munroe gives us this witty perspective...

 To be sure, the results are unusual. Einsteinian physics states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. The speed limit of the universe is 300 000 kilometers per second, and while objects can get close to this, they aren't ever allowed to actually exceed it. These are exciting times; these results could be explained away using our current model, or a larger theory may need to be developed to explain them.


Is this the face of a man who
would lie to you?
From here.



It is worth noting however, that the headlines that say "Einstein proved wrong!" are grossly overestimating the matter. Einstein revealed the incompleteness of Newton's physics, yet Newtonian physics continues to be a reasonable explanation for how things in our daily lives work. Newtonian physics works very well with objects that are travelling at slow speeds; when looking at objects that are travelling at very high speeds, we need to use relativity. Newton wasn't "proved wrong" so much as he was proved "not totally right"... there was missing information, and the technology avaliable at the time wasn't advanced enough to say otherwise.

We know that Einstein's physics works (thanks to time dilation and the mass-energy equivalence the GPS in your phone works... and so do atomic bombs) but the question is about whether or not it offers a complete picture. It's worth remembering that it  has been 106 years since Einstein first published his Theory of Special Relativity. Think about how far much more we know now!

Just like the Michelson-Morely experiments revealed the holes in Newtonian physics, this recent CERN could reveal the incompleteness of Einstein's Relativity. It will take years to do the many trials that need to be done to confirm or deny the results. It is just far too early to say.

This is the heart of science, the mindset that sets it apart from so many other disciplines. Scientists know their knowledge of the universe is incomplete... new evidence that contradicts what we think we know needs to be examined and rigorously tested. If it proves "true" our explanations for the ways of the world need to be modified... not the other way around.

Aside... Reading "science articles" in regular newspapers always makes me giggle. The media's understanding of science is so naive that a study can be published (by very wonderful and smart researchers I'm sure) that suggests a possible link between two factors, and the media will jump all over it with the enthusiasm of Tom Cruise on Oprah's couch. "Guess what!" they will shout, "Scientists just discovered that X causes Y!!" Well, maybe. Suggesting that two things are related and saying that one causes another are two totally different things. One study does not a rule make.

Soup.

Mother Nature is one fickle lady... one minute it is cold here in Alberta (the leaves are falling, the geese are honking, and a chill is in the air...) and the next you'd think it was mid-summer again. Today, the sun is shining, and I had to roll the windows down while I was driving. This is a stark contrast to this past weekend, when it was cold and wet and rainy and perfect weather for making soup.

I have a deep love for potato soup... it's warm and filling and all kinds of wonderful. This summer, I also discovered the wonder that is cauliflower soup. And I love leeks. So this soup seemed like a very natural thing for me to invent. (and it's gluten-free! yay me!)

Potato-Leek-Cauliflower Soup

(it almost seems like I should go whole-hog and name it using all the ingredients, but

Potato-Leek-Cauliflower-Bacon-Cheddar Soup seems to be too much of a mouthful)

Since I pretty much made this up while cooking, the directions and ingredient amounts are sketchy at best. But with such fantasticly tasty things being mixed together, how could it go wrong?

3-4 Baking potatoes, peeled and cut into roughly equal pieces

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into pieces (stems are fine!)

3 leeks, chopped

1 medium white onion, diced

4 pieces of bacon

cheez whiz or cheddar cheese

half&half (or full cream)

chicken stock

salt & pepper

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, and boil until soft.  In another saucepan, cook cauliflower in just enough water to cover and boil until soft.

Meanwhile, fry bacon until cooked, and remove to cool before crumbling. In the remaining bacon fat, fry the onions and leeks until cooked.

When potatoes are soft, drain and mash. Using a blender or food processor, puree potatoes in batches until smooth (here is where you add the chicken stock and half & half... just enough so that the blender blends!) Return potatoes to large saucepan over low heat. Blend the cauliflower and cauliflower water until smooth, and add to potatoes. Since my blender only handles so much at a time, I did this in batches, and included the leeks and onions in some batches so they would blend in as well.

I would suggest chopping the bacon up and adding it, rather than puree-ing it in the blender with everything else... it retains more flavor that way!

When the soup is blended, add the cheese! Cheez Whiz works well since it doesn't get stringy in the soup, but I find cheddar has a stronger flavor (I used some of both). If the consistency of the soup is too thick, add more chicken stock! Salt and pepper can also be added to taste. (Taste often... that way you can decide how much of everything it needs!)

Serve with a bit of grated cheddar on top!

Pureed leeks and bacon may not look super appetizing,
but it's SO YUMMY!

This makes lots of soup, which is great for lunches and to share! (I find it doesn't freeze the nicest... it kinda gets grainy)

Peanut Butter.

A few days ago, I wanted to make a quick dessert to take to a friend's house... but it had to be gluten-free! (Most of my baking is decidedly not gluten-free.) Since I happened to have mini marshmallows and butterscotch chips on hand, I whipped up some peanut butter squares.

I mostly followed my friend Stef's recipe, but I didn't have quite enough butterscotch chips, so they were a bit softer than they should have been because I somehow figured that extra peanut butter would make up for it. (It didn't.) So if you want to make them yourself (of course you do... because they are heavenly) you should follow her directions better than I did!

They were a big hit at the little get together I went to... even if they did spend most of the night on the patio so they would stay firm...

Film Snacks.

In a previous post, I mentioned that a friend of mine was working on the prelim for a wildlife documentary... well, there are updates!

The 4th Annual Film Snacks competition is hosted by Discovery Channel for amateur film-makers to create a 2 minute video on an environmental theme. Check out Jamie's submission!


I am also a butterfly whisperer.




Now, I didn't do any of the filming for this piece... it will be a little while before any of my stuff is seen. However, I have made my debut on the website! You can check out my funny biography, and try to guess which parts are real and which parts are fake. (I'll give you a hint... I can indeed make balloon animals! Don't ask why.)



And lastly, here is a really dodgy video I shot in the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, in the dark, of a platypus, while some annoying man talks in the background. Dodgy though it may be, I've never been so excited about 10 seconds of footage in my life.

Pot Stickers.

It's starting to feel a bit like autumn... there's a chill in the air... the leaves are starting to change color (the ash trees along the boulevards are always the first to go)... the days are getting shorter... pomegrantes and clementines are in the stores... and I feel like making hearty, warm foods.

Seasonal favs pomegrantes and clementines.
New fruit bowl thanks to Jamie!

I woke up this morning feeling exceptionally motivated, and it seemed like a good time to make and freeze some stuff. Dumplings are one of my favorite comfort foods, but they are rather time consuming to make. I figured today I would make a bunch and freeze them so they can be cooked in a pinch at a later date!

Ginger Pork Pot Stickers

Recipe modified slightly (but not much) from Guy Fieri's recipe...

1 pkg wonton wrappers (can be found near the bean sprouts at Safeway)

1 lb ground pork
2 " fresh ginger (grated)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped fine
2 T soy sauce
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 white onion, minced.

1 egg, beaten

Not so appetizing to look at...

Mix the pork, ginger, garlic, onions, soy sauce and oil in a bowl until thoroughly combined.

Wrap about 2-3 tsp of pork mixture in a dumpling wrapper, sealing the edges with egg (I fold them up... I used to try making them look like dumplings or perogies, but they fall apart too easily).





It's like a little package of goodness!



The dumplings can be stored under a damp paper towel on a cookie sheet until you are ready to cook/eat them (cooking is very fast) or frozen on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bagged for later.

In a large pot, bring water to a rolling boil. Cook about 10 dumplings at a time (depending on how big your pot is) for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to drain (a wire cooling rack is handy for this).

If you like, you can fry them after this, but they are just fine as is!

Serve warm with dipping sauce!

Om nom nom...

What kind of dipping sauce you ask...?

soy sauce (about... 1/4 C?)
honey (maybe 2-3 T?)
Sriracha Rooster Sauce (one small squirt)
powdered ginger (1 tsp? 2?)

As you can see, the dipping sauce is not really a recipe. I don't measure, I just mix ingredients and then taste, and see how it is.. Too much Sriracha can be fixed by adding more honey and soy sauce.

Awesome depiction of Sriracha by The Oatmeal

Zumba.

This evening, I had my first experience with "Zumba" - a latin-dance based exercise class. There is one offered after school for employees of my school board, so I went with several collegues to try it out... and it was great! I am a big fan of salsa, merengue and bachata, and look forward to learning a few other dances (maybe I will finally conquer samba?) in a fun environment!

It is a 7 week class, and I am already thinking "oh man.. I have to miss the 6th session for the science conference I've been looking forward to for months?"! (That is how much fun I had.)

Not all Latin music is created equally (compare this classic by the Queen of Salsa with this pop-y latin beat...) but it is all danceable!

Coffee Cake.

I always enjoy trying out new recipes, but it doesn't seem to happen as often as I would like. Since I usually give away a lot of baking, I tend to stick to things I know work out. This weekend, I decided I really wanted coffee cake, and branched out by trying a recipe from a gorgeous cookbook I received as a house warming gift. I adapted this from The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book's recipe for "Macadamia Nut Coffee Cake", except I didn't have any macadamia nuts (or "macadamia nut oil"... because who does?) but it was pretty darn tasty anyways!

Macadamia Nut-Free Coffee Cake

Topping:

2/3 C flour

1/3 C sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

6 T cold butter cut into small pieces

Cake:

1 + 1/2 C flour

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C sour cream

2 large eggs

1/2 C vegetable oil (or "macadamia nut oil" if you are fancy enough to stock that in your kitchen)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9" round cake pan (they recommend a springform pan, but I ended up using my 9x13... it was good, but a bit thin...)

In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients, using fingers or a pastry cutter to make a crumble.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In another bowl, combine wet ingredients. Stir the wet mix into the dry, whisking until smooth.

Pour half the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle half the crumble topping over the batter. Cover with the remaining batter, (they call for 1 C chopped macadamia nuts at this point, but I didn't have any) and sprinkle the remaining topping over everything.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (They called for 40-45 minutes... I did 40 minutes and in my oven it was a bit too long... would have been better at about 35 minutes I think!) Allow to cool before serving.

It's very tasty warm or at room temp! (Trust me!) The two layers of the crumbly topping give it a nice flavor boost, although I upped the spices a bit to make up for the lack of nuts.

Note to self: awesome red plates make for trippy pictures.

Books.

I love books.

There is something soothing about cuddling up on a rainy day with a hot, steaming mug of tea in one hand, and a beloved book in the other. A day spent lounging in the sun is also made better with a good book in tow.

I am also not a book snob; almost all books have an equal share of my affection. My personal bookshelf is teeming with novels (both good and trashy) of all persuasions (mystery, fantasy, romance, historical, graphic), biographies, science literature...

While I have a fairly decent collection of books, it's kind of my addiction... there is always one more book I would love to have! I dream of one day having a room devoted entirely to books (preferably one with a ladder to reach the top!). So when I stumbled upon this website... Words cannot describe my envy.

Kind of reminds me of this...

...droool.... Excuse me whilst I pick my chin up off the floor.

Spiral Tunnels.

Anyone who has ever taken the Kicking Horse Pass through the Rockies (if you've driven the Trans-Canada, you've been through the Pass) will have seen the signs for the Spiral Tunnels. Most drivers pass right by, but many stop if only for the excuse to stretch their legs. Yet the Spiral Tunnels aare a fascinating part of Canadian history, and reveal the power of understanding simple machines.

Just west of the Continental Divide lies what was called "Big Hill" - a stretch where the railway needed to descend about 330m over a 16km straighway between the mountains. This may not seem like a very big deal, but it was the steepest part of the entire cross-Canada route. (According to the information signs at the lookout, the engine of a 5-car train would be a full 5m below the rear!) Trains travelling up the pass required twice as many engines to make it to the top. And even though safety switches were installed (the train equivalent of the truckers runaway lane) disasters were very common. The first train to ever use the completed line derailed, plunging into the river.

In order to save time, money and lives, an ingenius solution was devised; a new path would be created for the rail line by blasting into the mountains, no easy task in 1906. The track could loop around, extending the distance the train took to go from the summit to the valley floor (a spiral is the railway equivalent of a switchback). Two partial loops were excavated under Cathedral Mountain (called "Number One" and visible from the road up to Takakkaw Falls) and Mount Ogden ("Number Two" - the tunnel visible from the highway).

The highway running down the middle is the site of the original line.

The Spiral Tunnels are an example of a simple machine - in this case, the ramp or inclined plane. Using my awesome MS Paint skills, I will attempt to explain why an inclined plane creates a mechanical advantage.

In physics, work is not the same thing as effort, even though we tend to use the words interchangeably in every day life. (force is the closest approximation to effort) Work is the product of the amount of force needed to move an object over a certain distance and the distance moved. Whether you lift an object straight up, or slide it up a ramp, you do the same amount of work, since the height difference is the same in both cases.

The longer distance provided by the ramp means that it takes less effort to do the same amount of work (arrive at the same result). The engineers who designed the Spiral Tunnels needed to increase the distance travelled by the train to achieve this effect - they used a corkscrew pattern since they couldn't do it in a straight manner. (A screw is another simple machine... it is just a circular inclined plane).

By stretching out the distance, the trains experience a 22m elevation change for every kilometer of distance (a very safe rate compared to the extreme 45m of elevation per kilometer of Big Hill). In the case of the Tunnels, a sufficiently long train can actually pass over itself while it goes through the loop.



The engines are exiting the tunnel at the bottom, while the rear
of the train continues to enter up top.

Typically, when one stops at the Spiral Tunnels lookout, all one can see is some holes in the trees on the other side of the valley. When we stopped on the way back from Golden, we saw not one, not two, but three trains using the tunnels! It was very exciting (trust me)!

Nasturtiums

I consider myself to be a fairly normal person. On the whole, (at least when I am out in public..) I try to avoid doing strange things. Occaisonally though, one forgets that what one considers "normal" others may consider "strange".

One of the things I've discovered is not considered normal is eating flowers. I don't eat all flowers (something I would never advocate since some can be poisonous!), in fact I really only eat one flower... Tropaeolum majus. Nasturtiums.

I have very few memories of my maternal grandfather; he died when I was very young. He always had a very large garden, and always grew and ate nasturtuims. I remember picking the flowers as a little girl, eating the peppery petals and sucking the nectar out of the bell at the back. Not only can you eat the flowers straight out of the garden (though I do recommend checking for bugs first), they make a delightful addition to salads, and I'm told they can be used in soups and dressings as well.

Ever since I was old enough to garden on my own, I have grown nasturtiums. In our cold climate, they are considered an annual, but if the weather is mild enough they will self-seed. Typically I will buy a little seedling 6-pak from the greenhouse, and that will supply my nasturtium needs for the summer. Last year, however, I attempted to let my leftover flowers self-seed, and I collected the remaining seed pods to try to plant this year.

In the spring (before the crazy onslaught of mosquitos and rain) I planted some seeds, since there was no sign of the self-seeded germinating. When that also showed no promise, I resigned myself to purchasing another batch, and planted away.

Apparently I should have waited, as both the newly planted seeds and the self-seeded ones shot out of the ground after the crazy amount of rain we got in July! Patience in gardening has never been my strong suit. In addition, I accidentally bought trailing nasturtiums rather than the normal variety... and now that we've had a few weeks of nice sunshine-y weather my garden has exploded with nasturtiums! They are everywhere! The trailing ones are growing stems about 3 feet long and taking over other areas of the garden!

Note to self: jumping the gun when it comes to planting means more work down the road.

Anyone in need of some lovely edible flowers or seeds to grow their own? I seem to have a lot...

Sunsets.

One of the strangely lovely things about being in rural Alberta at this time of year is the amount of dust in the air. You wouldn't think that would be a good thing, but it makes for some fabulous reddish/purple sunsets, like the one I tried to capture this past Labour Day weekend...

The problem with trying to capture sunsets is that photographs never do them justice. With the water being mirror flat, the reflections and clouds only added to the beauty. This one was phenomenal...

Han Solo.

During last week's baking venture, Star Wars was my cooking movie of choice.

I love Han Solo. (let's be real, girls... who doesn't?)
He's good lookin', wise crackin', Captain of  the Millenium Falcon, a reluctant hero... the bad boy who discovers his compassion when confronted with a feisty princess. (As well as a scruffy-looking nerve-hurter...)

One thing Han is not, however, is a scientist.

Incredulous that Obi-Wan and Luke could possibly doubt that the Millenium Falcon is anything other than the "fastest ship in the galaxy", he says...

"You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?…It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

"Ain't like dusting crops, boy."

Now. I should mention that I once took an astronomy-physics class, where the second question on the midterm was something to the effect of "explain why Han Solo could not have made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

Simply put, the parsec is a measurement of distance not time, much like the mile or the metre. Specifically, it is a distance of 3.0857x10^16 m. Now, this is a phenomenally large number; it is not practical or meaningful to discuss distances in numbers so huge. So scientists pretty much invent new units to make their math easier. For example, the average distance from Earth to the Sun is a 1.4960x10^11 m, which sceintists call an Astronomical Unit (AU). It is much easier to think of distances between planets in AU's rather than meters or kilometers. Another example is the light-year, which may sound like a unit of time, but is still a distance measurement - the distance travelled by a beam of light over the course of a year. One light year is 9.4605x10^15 m, which is still a gigantic number. It is much more convenient to use light-years when talking about the distance across solar systems compared to using meters.

A parsec, then, is 3.26 light-years, or a really big distance. So big that most of us don't encounter this unit of measure in our daily life, but it's useful when talking about distances across galaxies.

So, back to Han Solo.

"Making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs" is like saying, "I made it to the grocery store in two kilometers yesterday" when you live three kilometers away. It just can't be done.

There are a few explanations for this strange phrase.

Han could be making stuff up to make himself sound way cooler than he already is and to justify the expensive price he demands of Obi-Wan and Luke. He could also have no clue what he is talking about, but that's pretty unlikely for someone with such awesome flying skills.

He could mean that he took a short cut (such as you usually take a three kilometer route to go to the grocery store, and you just found one that is only two) but that still doesn't make much sense. Grammar is not one of Han's strong points.

Another explanation could be poor research on George Lucas' part. Let's face it... Parsec is a pretty cool sounding word, (it sounds like a unit of time after all) and who among us hasn't been guilty of using words before totally knowing what they mean?


"These are not the droids you're looking for..."





Rainbow Cupcakes.

It was one of my good friend's birthday last week, and there was a bit of a BBQ get together at her house. I decided I wanted to make cupcakes for the occasion... Knowing her, I wanted them to be Rainbow Chip, with pink icing.

But, obviously, I wasn't going to make rainbow chip cupcakes from a box! I don't use packaged cake mix unless I can help it. I tried using a basic vanilla recipe (which I modified slightly) and adding sprinkles to the batter before cooking.

With Star Wars on in the background, I used the following recipe (adapted from cupcakes: a delicious collection of recipes). I should mention that I found the vanilla cupcakes slightly underwhelming... the rest of the attendees at the birthday party (and at the campfire the next night) thought they were great, but I was expecting better from a book that includes the word "delicious" in the title....(rainbow-y bits aside).


"But with the blast sheild down I can't see a thing!"

Rainbow-Vanilla Cupcakes

2 1/4 C flour

1 1/3 C sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C + 1/4 C milk

3 tsp vanilla (I upped this considerably from what they recommend)

1/2 C butter, softened

2 large eggs

1/4 C rainbow sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners (I used Winnie-the-Pooh because if you're going to make rainbow chip cupcakes... go big or go home, right?)

Combine the dry ingredients together, and add the milk, vanilla and butter, and beat with a hand mixer until blended. Then add the eggs and beat until smooth.

Gently mix the sprinkles into the batter (I divided the batter into two smaller batches... which worked out nicely. The sprinkles soften after a while, and the color runs if you over stir!) and fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake for about 18 min. Let cool before icing.

Rainbow bits!

For the icing, I had a bunch of cherries lying around, and since I needed to make pink icing, I figured, why not?

I made a basic butter icing, and just chopped the cherries, warmed them a bit to soften them up, and tossed them in.

In the future, I would highly recommend removing the skins first, because I ended up picking them out after, which was considerably more work than skinning would have been. I didn't mind little cherry chunks, but the skins didn't really get any smaller... The things you learn. It tasted great though!

Note to self: Remove skins first next time...

Overall, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. The cupcakes were tasty, but aside from the rainbow bits nothing super special (I will definetly be on the hunt for a different vanilla cupcake recipe) but the sprinkles worked out wonderfully! I would definetly make rainbow chip cupcakes again. The icing was also really awesome! I decorated them with the gum paste flowers that did not arrive in time to put on Penny's wedding cupcakes, and I love the Pooh/Tigger/Piglet wrappers.

Cute!

Talented Friends.

I have some seriously awesome, talented friends.

In a past post, I mentioned some friends of mine who were involved in Edmonton's theatre festival, getting some great reviews on their shows!

Also, my dear friend Dominique (you can find her blog on the side) just returned from Portugal after representing Canada at an Underwater Hockey Worlds tournament! (Yes, it is a sport. You should look it up!)

And just last night, my friend Jamie launched her website for her up-and-coming wildlife documentary project. We live in a pretty awesome world, and she is making it her mission to give us some insights into just how awesome, quirky, funny, and down right cool the things we share it with can be.

Expect some fan-freaking-tastic video footage shot by myself to be appearing soon, as well as some of my pictures!

Pictures like this young Rocky Mountain
Big Horn Sheep!

Pet Peeve.

This is probably as close to a rant as I will come on this blog. And it's not even a rant... more a complaint and a question all rolled into one.

Regardless of personal views, I do not usually criticize the oil industry, especially not in a public forum. While I am not the least in favor of the methods taken to get the oil out of the ground, and I appreciate the environmentalists for drawing attention to a critical issue, the oil sands is an extremely complicated situation tied up in environment, politics, history and money.

Mostly, my criticisms come from the fact that I don't understand why certain things have to happen the way they do. For instance... take this picture...

Alberta in a nutshell...
Mountains. Oil. Farms.

I took this picture on the way to Golden in February... somewhere along Highway 22 north of Cochrane. I also drive by one of these on Refinery Row almost every day.

Now, can someone please explain to me why flaring like this is the best way to get rid of production waste? If it is not feasible to sell or transport it, fine. If the fuel often needs to be released to relieve pressure, fine. But really, if you have to burn it, wouldn't it be possible to, at the very least, stick a boiler on top of this gigantic flame and harness even some of the energy?