Brie and blueberries

I want desperately to make this.

via modcloth

What you need:

• 1 large wheel of brie
• 1/2 jar of high quality, real fruit, blueberry jam (Barbara suggests Chantaine All Natural Wild Blueberry, but your favorite will do!)
• 1 pie crust (the ready-made kind is easiest, but feel free to make it from scratch!)
• 1 egg (just the white)

What you need to do:

• Preheat the oven to 350.
• Using a large, sharp, flat knife, cut the wheel in half horizontally so that you are left with two round halves (do not remove the rind). Set aside.
• On a non-stick cookie sheet, lay out the pie crust. Trim or roll out the crust so that it is in a circular shape, twice the size of the brie wheel.
• Place one half of the brie wheel in the center of the crust, rind down.
• Spread the jam evenly over the brie.
• Place the remaining half of the brie on top, rind up. It should look like a brie and jam sandwich!
• Carefully fold the crust up over the brie, smoothing out any bubbles and wrinkles. The entire wheel should we covered by crust.
• Once the brie is covered, flip it over so that the smooth side of the crust is facing up.
• Brush the crust all over with a light egg white wash. This will make your crust golden brown. If you’re feeling artistic, class up your appetizer by using the crust trimmings to make grapes, leaves, stars, hearts, letters – whatever you choose! Remember to brush your crust creations with egg white, as well.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden.
• Serve with fancy crackers, and let the compliments commence.

More One-A-Days

Day 2

Day 3

Hodgepodge post of three unnecessary things

1) This is one (of a tentative four) of the "one-a-day paintings" that I am making for David to hang on the naked white walls in his new dorm room:

2) JFF (just for fun), this is what I would look like with blue eyes (a bit freaky):

3) Me trying to entertain but just being awkward, instead:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD (hope this doesn't ruin it)!

Happy Birthday!

Cute video

Biodegradable question mark

Before I begin, I'd like you all to reconsider letting me handle your children.   Because, as you can see in the photo above, I take more of a hands-off approach in my so-called handling.  In this particular case, I decided to let little Carson fall straight into a face-plant while I quietly watched.  I'm just glad there is photographic evidence of this event.

And, yes, to answer your question, those are Thomas the Tank Engine light-up sneakers available for kids, but not for adults.  I checked.

Anyway, to get at what I meant to blog about here:  I bought biodegradable sandals a few days ago and they arrived at my home in MD, just in time for when I got in late last night.  I always worry about buying things online because I never know if it's going to be as good in person as it looks online (but this worry has yet to stop me from buying inordinate loads of unnecessary things).  I am pleased to say, though, that the sandals are very pleasing.  I think they look better against my tanned feet and painted toenails than they did on the pasty mannequin's feet that were online.  Too, they are super light weight and I feel like I'm walking around barefoot (minus the obvious set-backs of actually walking around barefoot)!  And as an added bonus they make me feel hip with an urge to rip pretty flowers out of the ground and put them in my hair.

Today I took them out of their green shoebox and into the real world for a test run.  I went to the movies (I saw District 9* and want to go back immediately).  When it ended, I left the theater in a mad hurry because I was going to be late for a doctor's appointment (follow-up for the wisdom teefers).  So, on my jog through the parking lot to my car, I stepped in some gum.  At the time, it didn't really matter.  It was nothing but annoying because of how my left foot stuck slightly to the sidewalk and picked up things like newly cut grass and toilet paper.  

When I got home, though, I tried to clean it off.  Again, it was not for aesthetics but more for practicality because I didn't want this piece of gum picking up anything else along my journeys (sadly, though, this doesn't prevent me from picking up even more gum).  Whilst I was scrubbing it off with some kind of wet-wipe my mom gave me, I began to wonder exactly how biodegradable my sandal was.  Was the moisture in my wet-wipe going to be enough to assist some kind of microorganism breakdown?  When I consulted the wisdom of the inter-webs I found no definite answer to my definitely silly question.  And, while there is much debate about things termed biodegradable and their degree of biodegradability, the European Union (you may have heard of them) qualifies something as biodegradable if it can break down into carbon dioxide, water and other organic matter...within six months.  Yikes.  I can only hope that the EU doesn't technically call my sandals biodegradable.

To going green,

Monica

*You should go see the movie.  Need some encouragement?  Check out Alexa's praise for District 9 here.

Boredom

This is what I did in the wee hours of the morning when I was extremely bored and indecisive:

From right to left and left to right, colors: Indian River Ruby, Glitter Pink, Aventura Azalea, Tamiami Tulip and Bikini Pink