Today, I spent part of my day volunteering at Glide feeding low-income people. It was a lot of fun, although it was kind of sad to see how much food is thrown out (apparently they don’t like carrots or rice?).

Also, after work, Sharon and I made a pie! It was a chocolate pecan pie and it was made from scratch (yes, even the crust) and it was the most amazing sweet pie I have ever had. Srsly. (Yes, that is a pi on the pie.)

I recently purchased these earphones from Woot! (Excellent deal at 2/$10, plus shipping.) I’m very happy with them… the sound quality is a ton better than the JetBlue headphones I had been using (but, of course, not nearly as good as my $300 Shure headphones). Whee more music-listening things.

(Also? Lala is doing amazing things for me. The ability to access my music library from anywhere with internet… and the ability to pay $0.10 for any song I can think of that I want? Amazing. You should sign up using my referral link.)

I’ve also found a good pancake recipe I like here. It’s particularly good because it doesn’t require milk, which we often don’t have on hand. Reproduced in case the site goes down:

1 C. Flour
1 Tbsp. Sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1 C. water
1 Tbsp. Oil

Life is good again. It’s been a mostly relaxing week at work, in stark contrast to last week… and this weekend will be quiet in stark contrast to last weekend. Yay life.

I tried making coke cookies today. They turned out rather strange, actually. Reasonably tasty, but not my first choice in sweet.

5/6 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 c butter
1/8 c sugar
1 egg white
1 can coke

Boil the coke until it is reduced down to less than 1/8 cup. Melt butter and mix melted butter with sugar and egg, and stir in reduced coke. In a separate bowl, mix flour with baking soda and powder. Mix liquid into flour mixture, place onto cookie tray, and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 12 cookies.

For softer cookies, use more butter and/or use the egg yolk instead.

Om nom nom nom. Next time will be root beer and 7-up layer cake. I could frost it with coke frosting. That might be fun.

I was bored today so I figured I would try making something different for lunch. These are kind of fun.

1 package mac and cheese, plus milk and butter for it
1/4 package frozen vegetables, reheated
3 egg whites

Prepare mac and cheese as per package instructions. While still hot, mix in vegetables. Allow to cool. Mix in egg whites and shape into patties. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Yesterday Sharon and I also made tasty Devil’s Food cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips. Mmm sweets.

Life has been pretty awesome lately.
I recently bought plane tickets for Carnival. I’ll be in Pittsburgh April 10 through April 18.

Last night was baking and Rock Band at Sharon’s. I tried making Elephant Ears using this recipe and they turned out pretty awesome. I also made cinnamon cookies and they turned out pretty tasty (not greasy at all, because I didn’t use very much butter).

Elephant Ears

1/4 c butter (actually more like 1/8 is sufficient)
1 c flour
5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c milk
1 tsp cinnamon

Melt butter. Mix flour, 2 tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Stir in milk and 3 tbsp butter.

Flour surface, knead dough a few times, then roll out. Brush with remaining butter and sprinkle with 3 tbsp sugar and cinnamon.

Roll up dough, cut into four pieces, place onto cookie sheet (cut end up) and flatten into cookie-like shapes. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

Cinnamon cookies:
1 c sugar
1/8 c butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything together to form dough. Form into 1/2-inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.