Typical presentation of Vegetarian Pasta Chicken Finger Surprise

Do to popular demand, the recipe corner is back. To make today’s delicious meal, you will need:

• Whatever pasta you can find in your kitchen.
• A can of pasta sauce or tomato puree
• Frozen vegetables (it doesn’t matter what type they are)
• Feta cheese
• Vegetarian chicken fingers (frozen) from Trader Joe’s

Put the frozen vegetables in a pan on the stove with a little water and cook until they aren’t frozen but before they are burning. Pour in pasta sauce and continue heating.

While this is on the stove, put the chicken fingers in the toaster oven for the amount of time recommended on the box. You should also cook the pasta- it doesn’t matter if it is all the same type of pasta.

Pour the pasta on to plates and smother with sauce/vegetables. Crumble Feta on top. Take chicken fingers out of the toaster oven and arrange artfully on the plate.

MMMMM! Dinner’s ready!

Oh, and in case you live in the SF Bay Area, there is a WIND ADVISORY!!!

…WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM PDT THURSDAY…

NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE TODAY…REACHING SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF AROUND 35 MPH WITH GUSTS OVER 45 MPH EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT… ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION.

PERIODS OF STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE IN THE HILLS AND AT THE COAST THROUGH THE END OF THE WEEK. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST WEATHER UPDATES FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL WIND ADVISORIES OR HIGH WIND WARNINGS.

Kaati, not eating a bird

the office cat kills a bird in the courtyard and eats it next to your chair. No thanks Kaati, I’m not that hungry. You go ahead and finish it yourself.

Yesterday (April 23rd) was my 30th birthday. While some people fear this occasion, I was not particularly dreading it. I had a small gathering with some friends at the Dovre Club on Valencia Street in San Francisco. My friend Rob thought to bring a piñata, which is becoming a tradition for him.

Foods Co., Rob’s normal source for piñatas, was out of stock (Foods Co. is a discount grocery store where you can get a box of faux-Mexican cookies for that will feed desert to 60 people for $2.99 and you can get great deals on nearly-expired bread) so he had to go elsewhere and purshase a Sesame Street Piñata with streamers. This was fine, because I like streamers, and the candy tastes the same either way.

We couldn’t find anywhere to safely hang it inside the bar, so Rob rigged it up to the street-crossing sign out front, which happened to be in front of a very photogenic mini-backhoe. I managed to bust the piñata open after about four whacks, and everyone (by everyone, I mean my friend Andy while everyone else stood at the side and stared at the filthy sidewalk) rushed in and took their pickings from the selection of suckers and chocolate. Despite the razor-sharp staples that were protruding out of the sides of the piñata (watch out kids!) a good time was had by all- even though I am now officially “old.”

More photos here, if you dare.

Battle of the Creme Eggs!

I’ve been a huge Cadbury Creme Egg fan since childhood. While I have to admit I was disappointed when Hershey’s (who sells them under license in the United States) reduced the size from 40 grams to 34 grams in 2006, they are still my candy of choice. The following fast facts come from the Cadbury Sweppes Creme Egg fact sheet:

• In the UK, Cadbury Creme Egg is the most popular (unit sales) chocolate single sold between January and Easter, outselling its rival by more than 2 to 1.
• The Cadbury Creme Egg plant at Bournville can ‘lay’ 66,000 Creme Eggs every hour - more than 1.5 million eggs a day.
• Creme Egg is made all year round on the Bournville plant; even though we only sell the eggs to retailers between January and Easter.
• If you laid all the eggs made on the Creme Egg plant end to end, they would stretch all the way from the Bournville factory in Birmingham, UK to Sydney in Australia - that’s 12,000 miles!
• In the UK, over 200 million Creme Eggs are sold annually, 3 for every person in the UK.

If you get a chance, you should also check out their “Goo-ology” page, where Cadbury proudly boasts that that “Creme eggs come in to the world with a single purpose: to get their goo out.” I’m not even going to touch that one.
I was visiting Walgreen’s this evening, checking out the post-Easter sale in the candy aisle. Most of the candy had been cleared out to make room for a depressing array of summer items (now that the Christmas/Valentines/St. Patrick’s Day/Easter season is over). There were, however, a few creme eggs left- but few Cadbury ones. I noticed a box of Russell Stover Dark Chocolate Creme Eggs, so I tossed one in my basket as I am a big fan of dark chocolate. Then, behind all the other boxes of candy, I found one remaining box of Cadbury Creme Eggs. I couldn’t resist, so I tossed a few of those in my basket as well.

I poured a glass of fine merlot to accompany the creme egg tasting. I started with the Stover egg. The wrapper came off easily. The egg’s surface was dark in color, due to the dark chocolate, and yielded to the pressure of my teeth. The filling was thicker than a Cadbury Egg, and definitely more rich. It was chocolate. It had some sort of yolk in the middle, but the entire inside tasted like chocolate frosting. The flavor was actually a bit too strong, I think if it was a small bite-size candy it would be okay, but this was just too much “frosting.”

Creme Egg interiors: Russell Stover on the left, Cadbury on the right

Now it was on to my old favorite, the Cadbury Creme Egg. No surprises here, just classic Cadbury goodness. While there is definitely a place for the Stover Egg, it’s not at Easter. Maybe I could see myself eating one of those rich chocolate eggs at Chrismas, or maybe on Thanksgiving, the Cadbury Egg was designed with Easter in mind. I could see the Cadbury bunny in my head as the gooey goodness dripped down the chocolate shell and on to my hands. The intense sugar rush kicked in and I was quickly reminded of why I  scour the candy aisle on February 15th to see if the Easter Candy has arrived.

Cheesosaurus, originally uploaded by mark.hogan.

My birthday is still slightly more than a month away, but my friend went to Wisconsin this week and couldn’t pass up this dinosaur-shaped cheese souvenir. The real question is, will I be able to slice it so that the cheese that comes out is still shaped like a dinosaur?

Happy Valentine’s Day! Want to impress a special someone with an email-able candy treat? Want it personalized? Go to crytogram.com and make a conversation heart!

Special thanks to markasaurus reader Jessica for pointing out yet another wonder of the internet.

On Saturday, Natasha and I drove to Truckee, CA to see the snow and go snowshoeing. I didn’t realize that it was going to be nearly 50 degrees outside, which is approximately the same temperature as our kitchen in the morning. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very “wintery” experience, but was fun nonetheless.

We rented snowshoes at a place called “The Backcountry” and then headed to the other side of the I-80 to Donner Memorial State Park. The park has a small museum, camping, and cross-country ski trails in the winter. It is located at the spot where most of the Donner Party spent the infamous winter of 1846-1847.

The trail takes you to the edge of Donner Lake, along the shore, and then back to the museum. I think it is about a 2.5 mile walk. It is flat, and would have been pretty easy had we not been snowshoeing through heavy slush.

After our expedition in the wilderness, we headed to Truckee where we ate some “food” at a place called “Coffee And.” If you are a vegetarian, you might want to consider other options. It’s a pretty classic small diner-style restaurant where you get eight ounces of Italian dressing on a handful of iceberg lettuce and a cup of coffee in a questionably clean mug. They did have veggie burgers though, so I have to give them some credit.

(Vegan) Sausage Surprise, simply presented on a Japanese plate.

MMM. I sure love cooking, especially when it’s vegan. I’m not vegan anymore, but I was for a long time and old habits die hard. I came home tonight faced with an assortment of leftovers and frozen vegetables, determined to make a meal in just a few short minutes. Look at the mouth-watering concoction I came up with! Think you don’t have time to cook? Read along with Markasaurus, it’s easier than you think.

1. Pour frozen vegetables into a bowl with a small amount of water into a bowl and put a plate on top. Microwave for 3 minutes.
2. Pour hot vegetables into a bowl of cooked cous-cous (I had it from the day before). Add some chili powder, lemon juice and salt.
3. Microwave a Tofurky brand fake Italian Sausage for approximately 2 minutes, or until hot.
4. Dump the cous-cous/vegetable mixture over the sausage. Heat the whole thing for another 30 seconds in the microwave. Garnish with a garlic-stuffed green olive.

Move over Martha Stewart, Markasaurus is in the kitchen!

A few days ago, I was chatting with a coworker about frosting printers (I’m sure you have seen the cakes at the grocery store with pictures of people on them, or of a Little League baseball team, or somebody’s new puppy). A new printer had arrived in the office and we were discussing how great it would be if we could get a cake printer for the office- we could print our architectural drawings straight on to delicious buttercream frosting! Alas, it was too good to be true. Our office has a new color inkjet instead.

This led me to do some research, and I came across a product from a company called Kopykake (they must have figured out how clever it is to use the letter k instead of a c). The people over at Kopykake really couldn’t make it any easier, their signature “Kwik-Kopy III” device works in just three easy steps:

1. Simply take any photograph, drawing, logo or artwork, place it into the Kwikscan IV and press the Copy button.
2. The system automatically crops the photo or artwork and sizes it to fit the Frosting Sheets.
3. Within minutes, you’ll have a beautiful work of art, ready to be placed on any cake.

Note that it doesn’t just make dessert, it makes a beautiful work of art.

There’s nothing quite like slicing into a photo of your face with a sharp knife to celebrate a special day!