Cookies from Cake Mix

Alrighty, so even though Ms. Bernier sort of put the kabosh on blogging, I’m still going to fill my quota of 15 blogs before I leave high school forever.  So, when I did a food blog before I got the most hits I ever have, so here’s another one:

Cookies From Cake Mix (these are beyond delicious, trust me)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

1 chocolate cake mix (also good for Funfetti, but you need to add more flour, also Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate cakes mixes work really well)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup chocolate chips (3/4 cups also works, I find 1 cup to be a bit much)

DO NOT ADD WATER.  THIS RESULTS IN AN EPIC FAIL.

Pretty much add all of the ingredients together and plot onto a tray in cookie form (you don’t have to bother to grease the tray).  Cooke for 10-15 minutes.  They are quite tasty and appear to be homemade.

Victorian Houses

I really, really, really, REALLY want to live in an old Victorian house when I grow up.  This is pretty much a necessity to my happiness in the future.  I have been scoping out some in Northampton, but the problem with these houses is that most of them have been turned into apartments which makes me sad.  I want one all to myself and eventually just my family.  There’s this sweet neighborhood in Springfield full of old Victorian houses and I want to buy one and fix it up.  But, there’s the whole thing about living in Springfield, which I’m not to keen about.

So, I was originally going to drive around and be a slight creeper and take pictures of Victorian houses that I would want to live in/save from a wrecking ball, but…I have to have fifteen posts since April by May 28, so I didn’t have time.  Instead I have google image searched for good ones.  Also because of this obsession of mine one of my favoritest shows is “If Walls Could Talk” but it doesn’t seem to be one anymore .

So here are some of my favoritest Victorian houses that I want:

This house is located in British Columbia.  I have never been to British Columbia, but this house is very nice.  The description from the website I got it from said it’s now apartments, which makes me sad.  Also, the side porch has been glassed in, if I were to own it I would change it back to the original.

This house is located in Sandwich, New Hampshire.  It claims to be a Folk Victorian.  It is a bit simpler than a lot of other Victorians and I think that fact that it is located in New England might play a part in that.

This house is in Georgia and I feel as though it is in my Victorian Houses coloring book.

The turret is my favorite part.

I don’t really know anything about this house.

Alrighty, now I’m not really going to have an commentary because I am too lazy.

Alright, I have to talk about this house.  This is the house they live in in Charmed and I have always been jealous of them.

I am sure that there are many more I could include, but class is almost over.  If you live in any of these houses I am incredibly jealous.

Why We Need a Scheduled ‘let’s eat dinner together as a family” holiday.

I wrote this awhile ago back when I didn’t know how to work wordpress so it became a page instead of a post, so I’m making it into a post.

Two weeks ago as I sat watching television, an ad came on. This ad was about how Monday, September 22 was “eat dinner as a family day.” Strangely, my mom was also watching TV with me. This is a rare occurrence during the school year when my mom works as a high school teacher. So I turn to my mom and said, “Mom, we better have dinner together as a family this Monday.” She replied, “We better since they made a holiday for it, oh wait, we have Pomona Grange” (if you’re wondering what this is, that will take a whole other blog to explain). I then realized that I had to work on Monday. So, I guess we were unable to celebrate that holiday.

But wait, why do we even NEED this holiday?! What has the world come to that there is a day created so families will eat dinner together? I almost ALWAYS eat dinner with my family. And for that matter, I call it supper. In my life dinner is a fancy lunch, but according to dictionary.com it could be both. So, anyways, has the world really turned into a place where families no longer socialize? Where eating a meal together is a struggle?

Maybe it’s just rare that I spend so much time with my family and it’s not just sharing a communion together, either. In my house there is ONE TV, a TV that we all sit around at night to say, watch a Red Sox game. We don’t each have a TV in our rooms so that we can be as far away from each other as possible. In fact, the only time I am ever in my bedroom is when I’m asleep.

Why do we all feel that we must have our personal space? Space so personal, it’s difficult to have our family members in the same room. Has anyone ever thought about how this could possibly be why so many families are dysfunctional? WAKE UP PEOPLE! How bout you have dinner with your family every night?

The Era of Bad Music and Bad Dancing

On this past Saturday evening I chauffeured a group of friends to the Union Station to attend the Prom.  As we were waiting for the real party to get started, we noticed the fact that we could barely hear the music.  Granted, we were the second to last table away from were the DJ was, but still, the music was not loud.  So, as we sat socializing the DJ played songs like “Love Story” and “Hey There Delilah”, which aren’t bad, but, quite overplayed.  Unfortunately, the music got progressively worst.  From  songs like “Stanky Legg” to some messed up version of the great Savage Garden hit “Truly, Madly, Deeply”  where some female screamed the lyrics to a fast beat.  It was thoroughly disappointing.  But, as much as I would like to blame the DJ, not all of the fault lies on him.  The fact is we are unfortunately living in The Era of Bad Music.  Now, I don’t have an prejudices against any genres of music, I feel as though they all have their good and bad qualities, but specifically most of the bad songs this man played were of the Hip Hop and Rap varieties and, well, that’s because we were at a high school prom where Hip Hop and Rap songs were expected.

I began noticing how we are living in The Era of Bad Music three years ago when I attended my first Semi-Formal.  Dances in Middle School were always a really good time.  Dances in high school were a completely different story.  Every song that was played seemed to suggest that everyone must grind with everyone else.  I did not receive this message and neither did my close friends.  As the years past the music got progressively worse.  The past two years at the Semi-Formal and at the Prom I had to endure listening to songs with intense beats and lyrics that made no sense.  These songs also seem to brainwash my peers to grind and I wonder why this is.

I was interested in learning the origins of “grinding” so I went to Wikipedia.  They did not provide me with a lot of information.  Their definition is: a type of close partner dance where two or more dancers rub their bodies (especially the genitalia) against each other in a sexually suggestive manner.  Now, in my opinion, this sounds completely inappropriate for high school students to be displaying at a school sponsored event.  Essentially you are having sex with your clothes on.  They also say that the movie Dirty Dancing displays grinding.  This is sort of true, but not really.  The grinding I have witnessed is really the humping another person.  In Dirty Dancing there is an actual dance that Johnny must teach Baby.  I feel as though grinding actually takes no skill and the people are not facing each other.  I have also noticed that no one seems to be enjoying themselves while grinding.  I observed one freshmen couple doing the deed and they both looked as though they were  having the worst time of their lives, like it was a chore they must complete.  Come on people, think for yourselves!  Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean that you have to or are supposed to.

Grinding has led me to believe that we are also living in The Era of Bad Dancing.  Because the fact is grinding isn’t dancing.  Yes, you may be moving to the beat of the music, but the intent isn’t to just “move one’s feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps, esp. to the accompaniment of music” (thank you dictionary.com) your intent is to have someone hump you or be humped by someone else in order to look like everyone else/be close to a member of the opposite sex.  Seriously, do that behind closed doors because it is completely inappropriate in public.  Where’s the swing dancing of the fifties?  Lost, just like music that once made sense and I’m embarrased to a part of the generation that will be categorized by “the grind”.

ViVi

This post is about my kitty cat ViVi (prounounce this V.V.).  ViVi is one of the craziest living creatures that has ever been known to walk this earth.  The first time we met ViVi she was a little kitten that fell asleep in my sister’s arms.  This was not her true behavior as we soon learned.  ViVi was born a barn cat in my uncle’s barn and so we picked her out and wanted to take her home.  So, one day my crazy cousin Marilyn threw ViVi into her truck and traumatized her for life.  Ever since this time ViVi gallops through my house at a very fast pace and believes that all petting leads to playing, meaning she attacks you.  Denise calls her “the Devil cat”, I think that this hurts ViVi’s feelings, because in her old age ViVi has calmed down a bit.  But anyways, ViVi would like to think that she is human so she insists on sleeping at the head of the bed instead of the foot.  This means I often wake up in the night with ViVi fur in my face.  ViVi also sheds like crazy because she has long hair, meaning she’s only allowed on one couch in the family room and it’s the uncomfortable one that no one likes to sit on, which means she sits on the floor and looks at you with sad eyes.  ViVi also has a thing for wet hair, I think that it’s my shampoo that she’s addicted to, which means she loves to rub her head against mine when my hair is wet.  This also causes her to start eating my hair.  ViVi also like to lie on her back with her legs wide open.  We find this a bit inappropriate, but it also makes us giggle, especially because she attacks you if you try to pet her belly (Laura can testify to this).  ViVi is also exceptionally pretty and here is a picture of her:  .

ViVi also goes outside and likes to play with animals.  ViVi is amazing and I cannot think of anything else to say anything about her.

Brain Twins

So, I haven’t written in a while due to have the worst week of my life last week.  I pretty much had a billion things due and an AP test, so I have returned to the world of blogging.  Today I’m going to talk about Brain Twins.  If you are unaware of what Brain Twins are they are people that share amazing mental capacities.  This means that they are thinking the same thing at almost every moment of every day. My sister and I share this rare ability.  You do not want to be up against us in Taboo or Catch Phrase and we almost always pick each other’s cards in Apples to Apples.  This ability really freaks out my mom, especially when she was on the phone with my sister and I was also sitting in the room and we were saying the same things but we couldn’t hear each other.  It was really awesome.  Alrighty, I don’t have anything else to say on Brain Twins, but at least I blogged.

Denise Elizabeth Barstow

Well, I just came to this computer and I saw that Diana was logged onto wordpress.  So I thought: hehehehe I can write disgusting, vulgar, and mean comments so that Diana will get her blog taken away!  But alas, I am too nice to do that to her.  I love that girl.  So as punishment for being so careless regarding minimizing and staying logged on at a school computer, I will do something worse!  I will post my blog hehe

coldnoodles.wordpress.com

Muahahahahahaaaa!

Love Denise

Ah, The Greatness of Old TV Shows

Over the past few years the Hallmark Channel and TV Land have opened up my eyes to more great television.  I grew up watching I Love Lucy, Happy Days, BWitched, I Dream of Genie, and some Gilligan’s Island on Nick @ Nite and it was quality television.  They were shows that my whole family could enjoy, to little six year old me to my fifty-eight year old dad.  They were amusing and most importantly, appropriate for people of all ages.  As the years went on I discovered Laverne & Shirley and then one summer evening M*A*S*H, which has become my favorite show (I’m even wearing a M*A*S*H shirt right now).  Most recently I discovered The Andy Griffith Show (it will not let me italicize that), which my parents and I love to watch every night on TV Land while we have to suffer through commericials for The Cougar.  Shows like The Cougar and pretty much every other reality TV show out there, has made me realize that old TV shows were just better.  Now, I do follow a few shows today like Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, but these shows don’t really compare to any of the past.

The thing is, those shows were simple.  Every episode had a message and most were heartfelt, true comedy.  They also didn’t take a great effort or brains to be able to understand them.  They were there for entertainment.

There’s also a period of greatness in the 90s.  Three shows come to mind:  Home Improvement, Boy Meets World, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  For some reason two of the three have been deemed worthy enough of Nick @ Nite status, which is just ridiculous, because when shows I grew up watching get put on Nick @ Nite I feel incredibly old and I’m truly not.  I think Nickolodeon really needs to rethink that and bring back the greats.

So, I think that you should all go out there and discover true television for yourself.

Oh Myron, How I Love Thee and Your Chicken

A few years ago I was on the hunt for a dish to make for a Girl Scout pot luck supper.  As I was looking through my mom’s recipe box I stumbled across the recipe entitled “Myron’s Teryaki Chicken”.  I soon learned that Myron was my aunt’s boyfriend in college and he was from Hawaii.  I then questioned why she hadn’t kept him around.  Hawaiian connections would have been sweet.  So anyways, I went out and bought the ingredients and made this delicious dish.  The recipe is below.

Myron’s Teryaki Chicken (please file under “M” for Myron)

1 1/2 lbs + of chicken (boneless breasts)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice wine

1/4 cup sherry

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch.

Mix everything but the chicken and the corn starch together.  Cut up the pieces of chicken and add them to the sauce.  Bring this all to a boil.  Turn to low with a lid on and cook for 45 minutes.  Remove the chicken.  Dissolve corn starch in a 1/4 cup cold water and add it to the teryaki sauce.  Bring it to a boil for a few minutes and then add the chicken back in.

Cook two batches of 3/4 cup of rice.  Serve and enjoy!

Trust me, it is very delicious and because of Myron my family now has alcohol in the house (we aren’t drinkers).

This post is dedicated to Nikki because she likes cooking blogs and always looks at them and now she will always look at mine .

BTW, it’s Nikki’s birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKKI!

Poetry…April

April is National Poetry Month, this means that English teachers go crazy trying to make you aware of poetry/they haven’t taught it to you yet and this is the greatest time of year to do so.  My English teacher likes to go a little crazier and set her super slow computer up to a projector to show us some Def Jam.  We usually convince her to show us at least four different poems, even though our AP test is looming in the distance.  There was this one time, three years ago, in her first year of teaching, that she showed us some Def Jam to my class (we were freshmen…) that wasn’t exactly appropriate for our 14 and 15 year old ears.  It was awesome.

Anyways, since April is poetry month I was informed that if I went to this poetry thing at Hampshire College I would get extra credit.  Now, Hampshire College is practically in my backyard and in all my years I have never been there.  Hampshire College is pretty well known for being weird.  I’ve heard rumors of clothes optional dorms and the fact that the whole campus has a distinct smell.  So, I convinced one of my friends to go with me and we went.

We were like the fourth and fifth people to show up and when we got there we realized that the feature we had come to see actually wasn’t “performing” until 9, it was 8.  So, after we tried to steal some poetry books (we were unaware that we had to pay for them) we settled in for an hour of open mic.

It was REALLY AWESOME.

Now, I’ve never really had a beef with poetry, but I know a lot of other people that do.  Really, I don’t understand their hate of it.  It’s really not that hard, especially if you ignore all that meter and rhyme stuff.  Just free style it and then you can have fun with it.  I greatly enjoy watching Def Jam and I give people a lot of credit to go up there and pour their souls out in a poem.  There was this one guy who never seemed to wear shoes.  I mean, his feet were really dirty.  He got up there and pretty much recited a love poem and this other girl got up there with a memorized poem put out their for all black women.  It was powerful stuff.  I won’t lie, I was jealous that I didn’t have anything awesome to read.

Then, the feature got up and this was pretty exciting, because he’s like famous…and stuff.  He also managed to write a poem based off of everyone else’s poems that had come before him.  He was Taylor Mali and he was highly amusing.  I bought this sweet $5 pen that had his poem “What Teachers Make” inside of it.  He also inspired me to participate in the 30-30 challenge next year.