M-Pact

Poster from the M-Pact performance

Note: While I did help with the setup, I did not make it to their actual performance. 

Why you ask? The whole town completely iced over! 

(No joke! Some guy was actually ice-skating all over campus!) 

Adventures in Cooking: Molten Chocolate-Nutella Pudding Cakes Edition

 

Ready for a super rich chocolaty dessert? 

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  cup  unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
• 4  ounces  semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 8  tablespoons  (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4  large eggs
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1  cup  sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 6  tablespoons  Nutella

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mist 6 6-oz. ramekins with cooking spray. Place a roasting pan in oven; pour in 1/2 inch of hot water. In a bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and baking powder.
2. Combine chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl; cook on high, stirring once or twice, until almost melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth.

3. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs, vanilla, sugar and salt until pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Beat in melted chocolate mixture. Stir in flour mixture. Spoon half of batter into ramekins. Drop 1 Tbsp. of Nutella into center of each. Cover with remaining batter.
4. Transfer ramekins to roasting pan. Bake until cakes have risen and are cracked on top, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk...

My mother is currently in the process of organizing all the photos from when we were little. She set these aside to show me when I got home. Guess I've always been an optimist in a fluffy tutu!

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*Yes, I am aware that I am not in a tutu in the third picture.  It just made me laugh out loud!  How Broadway is that costume and pose?

Adventures in Cooking: 3 Musketeers Puffs Edition

I know it sounds a little different, but I actually liked these! It's kinda like a fast way to make pain au chocolat!

Ingredients 

• 1 package Pillsbury Crescents
• 1 packages of 3 Musketeers Funsize Bars (usually group of 8)

Directions

1. Place one piece of candy in the center of each crescent.
2. Fold crescent around candy, being sure to cover all of it. Pinch seams closed.
3. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake in a 375 degree F oven until golden brown, about 11 minutes.
5. Serve warm.

At the Spelling B-E-E

Last night we went to a dinner theatre to see a production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. At the show, they pick  four audience members to come up to the stage and be contestants in the bee. Given that I am a horrible speller, I was a little nervous to sign up (spell check actually corrected a word in this sentence already and I'm not telling which one!), but loving theatre and wanting to be a part of it plus having seen the show twice before and knowing that the words for audience members are super easy/made up, I decided to put my name in the hat (it was actually a bowl--hat just sounds cooler). After we ate dinner, someone that I guessed to be an actor in the show (the Vice Principle to be exact--and I was right!) approached our table. He asked if I was still interested in spelling and several more questions about me, but he didn't ask if I had seen the show before (the person did the 2nd time I saw the show--which I believe got my name crossed off that list!). I was told that at the beginning of the show the lady in charge would say that several spellers were missing, she would call my name, I was to go up to the stage, pick up my number 12 at "Speller Registration," and then one of the "kids" would find and ask for me to sit with them. He also told me that when my name was called to spell a word, I was to ask for a definition and then for the word to be used in a sentence. I can handle this. I join the stage, put on my number 12 placard, and head over to the kids. Olive runs over to me and says "Number 12! You're my friend! Come sit next to me!" Yes, Olive is a sweetheart! While the adults were at the mic explaining the rules of the bee, the kids introduced themselves to the audience spellers and were chatting/misbehaving. For instance, I briefly heard the Vice Principle say something about how he had been absent for 5 years before Chip (sitting behind me) said "Five years? That's nothing! I once had nonstop diarrhea for five years!" The audience member between us cracked up, and Olive turned around and hushed him with "That's gross!"

Time to spell! Now, for those of you not familiar with the show, while you are walking up to the mic to spell your word the announcer states a fact about you for the audience. The first audience member who was bald got: "Ben is recovering from head lice." Wearing a sweater, the next guy got: "David likes to distract his competitors by wearing argyle." (Logainne whispers to me, "It is very distracting!") My turn. I walk up to the mic and hear: "Kerri was Mattel's inspiration for their hot new toy, Barbie's little sister, Spelling Skipper!" Oh, that's not so bad! My word: apoop. Definition, please? "A nautical term referring to one side of the boat's deck." Sentence? "Guido, the seasick Italian sailor, said 'scusa me boys, I'm a gonna go apoop!" Don't worry, I spelled it right--good thing too, now I got to be a part of "Pandemonium," my favorite song from the show!  After dancing around the stage with the cast, I had to spell again, and this time there was no hope as I got a made up Irish drinking game that sounded like it had way too many ks and gs in it to possibly be a real word. Oh well. It's been fun. As they came over to sing the goodbye song, I notice that Mitch hadn't returned to the stage. Mitch is an ex-convict who is performing his community service by serving as the bee's official comfort counselor, handing out juice boxes to losing students. I was actually excited to be getting a juice box, but since he wasn't on stage, I got lead off by the remaining students and no juice box. Sad day! :(   As it turned out, the director of the show actually sat next to me in the audience, so I got to hear all his reactions to stuff (it was their opening night). He seemed thrilled with the production and was laughing like crazy, so that's a good sign!  Ultimately, it was a great night at the theatre, and I love that I got the opportunity to be a part of the show!

Dounda Christmas

Tree We Decorated in Doudna for Holidays

It’s a Chilly, Wonderful Life

This past weekend we had a tour production of "It's a Wonderful Life" come in. It was a show within a show with the actors pretending to be putting on a radio show broadcast of the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" tale- complete with radio sound stage. The frame story is that there is a terrible winter keeping all the actors from getting to the studio, so only the four currently there must convincingly put on the whole show (splitting all the voices for the whole town between them!). Saturday went well. My job was to help the actors get on from stage right, and, since they stayed on stage the whole time, I actually got to go out into the audience and watch most of the show! Getting to see how they made radio sound effects and watching four people pull off all the characters is definitely what made the show (four people playing everyone reminded me a lot of "The 39 Steps"). And now, with no elegant transition at all (and believe me, I tried to think of one for grand total of less than a minute), let's talk about Sunday. Ahhhh…Sunday (that "Ahhhh" by the way was me sighing, not screaming… although the screaming pronunciation may be appropriate too). What can I say? How about crazy blizzard that I was in no way prepared for? Yeah, that sounds good! It snowed. And snowed. And snowed. And snowed some more (and fyi, it was probably the most unsafe I have ever felt while driving. That includes monsoon after Hairspray). Get the picture? When I drove up to church in the morning I made up a game called "Guess-where-a-parking-space-is!" Nah, let's call it "Kerri-decides-where-a-parking-space-is!" Yeah, that makes me feel more powerful. Let's go with that! So, I decided where the parking lot and space was going to be and everyone else went along with it (wasn't that nice of them?). Back to the theatre. Now I am wondering if anyone would even show up, but to save you the nail biting drama, I'll just tell you that they did (though not as many as the night before). I am manning my station in the wings of stage right waiting for…. ahhhhh, another sigh, I hate to say names and I actually tried to think of a substitute for this one for a long time. Let's call him….hmmm… Batman. So I was waiting for Batman in the wings. Batman was supposed to go on stage and welcome everybody and basically start off the evening. Batman rounds the corner looking smashing in his cape (does Batman have a cape? Well, he does when he goes to the theatre anyway) and I get his mic switched on and ready. I hand it to him, hear the cue to start, and---wait for it--- my cell phone blares on at full volume. WHAT?!? My phone is never on and/or heard when it needs to be, but now? Really? Oh well. Batman didn't seem to notice and took off to conquer the stage (PS: I am really liking the name I chose, I should do this more often!). The show went off without a hitch. We even had a little celebration during intermission for a lady's 100^th birthday with cake for the whole audience (I was surprised that they braved the weather. Good for them!). After the show, we fought our way through the blizzard for some giant cookies (well, dinner with the cast too. I love getting to talk with them!). I made it back home and spent the next half hour thawing out. I was happy to be home, warm, and safe. It is a wonderful, albeit chilly, life.

Adventures in Cooking: Brownie Cheesecake Edition

Looks delicious, no?

Everybody loved it and said it was the best cheesecake they had ever had! 

What else can I say?

Ingredients:
10 oz. (1 pouch) brownie mix
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk chocolate chips, melted

Brownie Cheesecake Directions:
1. Grease bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
2. Prepare the brownie mix as directed on package. Pour batter into pan, bake for 15 minutes at 350F.
3. Combine cream cheese, whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour cheese mixture over brownie layer.
3. Spoon melted chocolate over the cream cheese mixture, then cut through with a knife for a marble effect.
4. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill.