So, I laughed aloud the other night when I ordered Chinese food for delivery from the awesome Billy Lee’s Chop Suey House since Howie was at a meeting. This was the fortune in my cookie: “You find what you’re looking for; just open your eyes!”

I didn’t just laugh when I read that, I roared. It’s not often something so perfect shows up in a fortune cookie. So, I made a little sign, writing “Mansight…” and drawing a heart. I affixed the fortune in the heart’s center and placed the sign on the fridge.

Saturday morning, I asked my beloved if he’d noticed the fridge.

“Yes….”, he said, a little testily. I asked him when he noticed it and he replied, “This morning.”

I put it on the fridge Tuesday night.

That, friends, is mansight.

Happy valentine’s day, Howie – I love you dearly!

DAK Turbo Bake II and Oster 5838 breadmakers

That DAK breadmaker was a GREAT thrift store find. I love this thing!

It’s different than other breadmakers. First, you put the ingredients in the opposite order from most bread machines: dry ingredients first, then liquids on top. It has temperature sensor in the post on which the paddle sits’ the sensor gauges the dough ball or loaf’s internal temperatures and adjusts the baking cycle accordingly. It has a turbo bake setting that uses heat to expedite the rising process. It is a convection element to it as well, with a fan coming on periodically during its cycle. And, it has a cool-down at the end that keeps the bread from getting overcooked and/or soggy if you don’t remove it from the pan right away.

Though it doesn’t have a dedicated wheat bread cycle, I make 100% whole wheat recipes in it frequently and they turn out just fine. That might be owing to the above-mentioned smart technology.

It’s a shame the DAK company went defunct, because this machine really is a wonder, works great. There are many other fans out there, and plenty of videos on YouTube.

Here’s a DAK Turbo Baker IV model, making a heavy, low-carb bread. That gives any machine a workout, and this owner is happy with his DAK.

Here’s someone’s video of the same model I have:

I do have the manual for this machine, and as soon as I have a little time, I’ll upload it to my website. I know there’s a lot of people looking for it, along with a thriving parts market. As far as recipes go, just about any bread machine recipes will work in it. I just reverse the usual order of ingredients so the liquids are added last.

I need to make some videos, too. Right now, though, my walnut-wheat bread’s ready and I need to take it out of the pan!

When I saw this site, icaughtsanta.com, I smiled. What a fun, original idea! Best yet, I have a discount code for my readers. But more about this later.

Our girls, despite their being four-footed, got to see Santa. See for yourselves!

Santa was just reaching into his bag of toys when he heard a low growl...

Santa likes his reindeer well enough, but he had to pet the sleeping puppies before heading back up the chimney.

Time’s a wastin’….Head over to icaughtsanta.com, upload your photo, and watch St. Nick appear. I have a coupon code for you, too: SANTA50 will get you half off your order. This is great fun!

Any American knows this saying. However, tonight division would have been my friend, had I heeded the word. My cookies fell (or failed) because I didn’t divide. Yes, that little word “divided” is very important in recipes. It means to reserve a portion of the full measure set aside for another purpose.

I made this yogurt cookie recipe tonight and missed that little word when it came to the nutmeg. Instead of putting 1 teaspoon in the cookie batter, I put 2 in.

I’ve been on a quest to find the yogurt cookie recipe my grandma made. Grandpa threw out many of her recipes in the years following her death, so that recipe was lost to us. I thought I might have found it with this one. I still wouldn’t know, though, because these turned out, shall we say, less than appetizing. Nasty, unless you’re a real nutmeg fiend.

There’s plenty of dough left over, too, because I made a double batch in anticipation of a get-together tomorrow. I stopped after making a few dozen of the things and the remainder of the dough’s headed for the garbage. It was a double disappointment since I still don’t know whether these will approach grandma’s recipe. Another time!

Here’s the recipe, only I modified it so no one else will miss the divided part!

YOGURT SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter ( softened)
- 2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt*
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg, >divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:
Cream butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, yogurt, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, vanilla, salt, flour, and soda. Beat until smooth. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.

Combine 1 teaspoon nutmeg and 1 tablespoon sugar; sprinkle over each cookie. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies will look soft. Remove from cookie sheet immediately. Makes 8 dozen.

SOURCE: Southern Living Magazine, May 1974.

*I used Sonyfield Farm Plain Whole Milk Yogurt. I read you can make this recipe using fruit yogurt as long as it is a smooth yogurt like lemon with no chunks of fruit in it. I’ll likely use fat-free yogurt next time, though with so much sugar and butter, I don’t see what shaving a little fat off for the yogurt would benefit us! I will not use sugar-free if I try a flavored one, though.

While I was chatting with my electronic friend, I asked something about fees. She directed me to the fees page, cleverly circumventing my question. I know, I know, she’s not real. She had the same effect on me as the monotone GPS voice which, though it doesn’t really change inflection, sounds like it does. Turn left. Turn left. Turn left!

In a moment of frustration, I typed, “this is useless”. You see how the conversation went downhill from there.

The conversation quickly went downhill.

My big question is, will PayPal cover my virtual hospital bills for my virtual gunshot wound? That little snip got me right between the eyes! Thank God she’s really tiny. Just sayin’.

You have to click the green “Create Mine Now” button on the page to get to the design app. The app is a little clunky, but fairly intuitive. I experimented with it tonight, uploading some retro kitchen advertisements for fun.

It’s great fun to be able to customize an appliance. I participated in a market research focus group several years ago where participants were asked if they would pay extra to have the ability to somewhat personalize their major appliances with custom inserts and knobs. I’ve not seen it happen, unless I’ve missed it. Still, people are all about personalization now. Skins are in, for everything from cell phones to iPods to laptops and tablets.

But back to the app. Once a user’s designed her dream Crock-Pot and clicks to add it to her cart, a message comes up warning the user, “This is the final time you will be able to view your customized Create-A-Crock™ Slow Cooker.”

When I saw this, I realized the flaw in the campaign.

Kudos to Crock-Pot for putting this idea out there. However, they missed a huge opportunity when they didn’t also provide a means for users to share their designs with others. I’m not talking about sharing as in buying a Crock-Pot to give as a gift, though that is the company’s goal. I’m talking about letting users share pictures of their creations with friends and family via social networks, mobile MMS, and e-mail. Users might have created profiles in order to save their designs, providing Crock-Pot with fresh prospective customers’ information for their database.

Viral marketing involving personalization pops up everywhere (think OfficeMax and ElfYourself) and yet it’s nowhere to be found with this product. It’s a shame, because I think it could have driven a lot of traffic to their site. People like to play with apps like that. The longer a user stays on your site, the more they buy in to what you’re selling. These users might have created their own designs or, if allowed, ordered duplicates of their friends’ creations.

Pterodactyl in the Fall: I looked down in the parking lot and mused to myself, “That leaf looks just like a pterodactyl.” Then, I did a double-take and realized it *was* a pterodactyl. There absurdity of all this made me laugh aloud and get out the camera (of course!).

Nom nom nom...

Reminiscent of King’s Christine and From a From a Buick 8, this story contains some vivid, creepy imagery and features a car. I read it in a darkened room – just by chance, not by design.

To be honest, I found myself just a tad nervous as the story unfolded. One thing I love about King’s writing is his attention to characters; he fleshes out both major and minor (read: expendable) characters. In just a few spare sentences, he makes you care about these people and dread for their futures. There is plenty for them to dread here.

Unlike those who speed by on the turnpike without a thought, several good Samaratins pull off into the abandoned Mile 81 rest area to aide what they think is a stranded motorist, or, as the case becomes, several stranded motorists.

The tension builds as the story progresses, but left me feeling let down. For all the build up, I thought the ending was pretty simplistic. Then again, it IS a novella, the literary equivalent of a half-hour sitcom. Still, though it was a short ride, it was a decent one.

I would love to see this car described in more detail — maybe in a subsequent book? We never find out where this entity went, so something tells me we’ve not seen the last of the Morphing, Man-Munching Mudmobile.

For under three bucks, get it for yourself and let me know what you think!

The cat lost its tail in an unfortunate weed-whacker event.

Very upset, the woman grabbed the cat and its severed tail and told her neighbor she was taking the cat to Walmart.

Her neighbor said, “Why on earth are you taking the cat to Walmart? You should take him to the vet!”

The lady replied, “Don’t you know Walmart’s the largest retailer in America??”

Maru, the box-obsessed Asian Kitty on YouTube, would concur.

Too small box and Maru:

He takes box love to a whole new level. I just loves me some Maru kitty.

UPDATE: Oh, my gosh. I was just browsing Amazon and found out there is a Maru book coming out in August: I Am Maru. No way…How fun!

Man, I love the Internet.