Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar

The second I saw this title, I know I had to read it. It didn't disappoint. This is basically Philosophy 101, abridged, told using jokes as examples. Quite a few of the jokes were so funny, I had to read them out loud. I'm sure my wife enjoyed that. Great stuff.

Book 92

Rainbows End

I read Rainbows End on the strength of a review at Boingboing.net. I can see why they loved it. This is a near future mindwhirl of a book, with some of the human/technology interface ideas of Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and some of the history/family feel of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. There's a worldwide conspiracy plot line, a family who is mixed up in it with their own plot arc, and some great characters. A cured Alzheimer's patient who has last his ability to write award winning poetry; his granddaughter, child of brilliant parents with a bit of a Nancy Drew feel; and her stepmom, suffering psychological damage from neurological overtraining. Every page seemed to have cool, interesting, nearly possible ideas and concepts expanded in fiction form. At the same time, though, it wasn't over written. Enough was left to the imagination to make it tempting and tantalizing. Highly recommended.

book 91

Concentration

Julien, concentrating hard on a game of Scrabble Sorry...

Pumpkin cake in a jar

Time for one of my holiday baking traditions, pumpkin cake in a jar. This is from a recipe that my mom made years ago, and I started making every Christmas a few years ago. They make great gifts for coworkers or neighbors, and since they're sealed in a jar, they keep unrefrigerated for quite awhile. Much longer than I've ever been able to keep one around without eating it, anyway. Here are some pictures, and I'll share the recipe at the bottom.


A dozen jars, set out on a baking sheet ready to be filled. I think they still need a shot of nonstick spray inside at this point. The Silpat is only there to keep the jars from sliding around.


The cake batter. Making a 12 jar batch of this is pretty much maximum capacity on my 9 cup Kitchenaid mixer.


Jars filled and ready to bake.


Sofia was very curious about what I was baking and why I was taking pictures of it...


Cakes baked and out of the oven. Have to hurry a little at this point to get the lids so they can seal as they cool.


Jars lidded and cooling. The 42 minutes at 325 degrees is for the next batch that just went in.


Three of the five dozen jars I'm making this year.

Pumpkin Cake in a Jar

Ingredients / 8 jars / 12 jars
Shortening / 2/3 cup / 1 cup
Sugar / 2 2/3 cups / 4 cups
Eggs / 4 / 6
Pumpkin / 2 cups / 3 cups
Water / 2/3 cup / 1 cup
Flour / 3 1/3 cups / 5 cups
Salt / 1 ½ tsp. / 2 tsp.
Ground cloves / 1 tsp. / 1 ½ tsp.
Allspice / ½ tsp. / ¾ tsp.
Cinnamon / 1 tsp. / 1 ½ tsp.
Baking soda / 2 tsp. / 3 tsp.
Walnuts (optional) / 1 cup / 1 ½ cups
8 or 12 pint-size, wide mouth jars with lids and rings for sealing
Wax paper circles cut to fit inside jars

Cream shortening and sugar together, adding sugar slowly. Beat in eggs, pumpkin and water. Set Aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add to pumpkin mixture and stir well. Stir in nuts, if using.

Pour batter into greased canning jars, filling half-full. Place jars on cookie sheet. Bake upright in preheated 325 degree oven for 45 minutes. (Cake will rise and pull away from sides of jar.)

When done, remove cookie sheet from oven. While still warm, place wax paper circle on the top end of the cake. Wipe sealing edge of jar. Place lid on jar and close tightly with ring. Let cool fully; jars should seal as they cool.

To serve: Open jar, shake cake out. May need to slide a knife around inside of jar to loosen cake. Warm cake in oven if desired. Slice and serve.

This recipe was slightly adapted from the cookbook Recipes from Riversong, Pat Crocker, Moulin Publishing, 1996.

Santa hat cupcakes

Since I had apparently been cured of my inability to make decent cupcakes while making the vampire cupcakes at Halloween, I decided to make some Christmas cupcakes. Not sure where the idea came from, maybe the domed shape of a cupcake, but I thought it would be cool to frost them to look like little Santa hats. I did a few google and google image searches and found lots of Santa face cupcakes, but no Santa hats! Surely I can't have been the first person to try this. Anyway, here's the process in pictures:


Start with whatever kind of cupcakes you want, I used a basic yellow cake.


Pile some red frosting up into a cone shape. I used a bag, but you could probably spread it into shape just as easy...


Because I had to spread the red frosting a bit anyway so it didn't look like, well, a big red poo.


Frost a white border around the bottom, and a white pompom on top. Voila!

I'm sure someone else could make these look a lot better, my cupcake "production values" weren't the best this morning. But they were fun to make.

Selling Out

Well, that was a stronb second book in a series. I read the first one, Keeping it Real, last week, and a couple of other things before this one. Very nice progression. Fairly gutsy writing, and I must say, I'm waiting for the third one now. Not sure if this is planned as a trilogy or what, but I'm going to read it out...

Book 90

Horse

Had all the cousins over last night - my job was to be the "horsey."