Off-The-Wall Cooking

I just have to pimp this site a little, because I’m finding I totally love it for simple house chores… and it totally gives me something to do when World of Warcraft is down for maintenance!

It’s called Chore Wars and it’s basically a chore tracking site that awards experience and gold.

What is Chore Wars?

Chore Wars lets you claim experience points for household chores. By getting other people in your house or workplace to sign up to the site, you can assign experience point rewards to individual tasks and chores, and see how quickly each of you levels up.

Experience points are tracked both as weekly high-score charts, and as ongoing character sheets – every time you rack up 200XP of chores, your character gains a “level”, and their class changes to match the type of chores that they’ve been doing.

Course at our house it’s just me and Erik, but it really lets me show off how awesome I am. You can too by checking out my tracker in the side menu. We’ve agreed that if I finish a certain amount of “adventures” I will collect real world loot! I can see how this would also be greatly appealing to getting kids involved in household chores, since I act like a 5 year old sometimes.

It’s totally free, but there is an pay upgrade option and they’re currently working on more things to add in! Check it out for yourself, especially if you’re in a shared living environment or have kids.

http://www.chorewars.com/index.php

The madness is slowing… Making some updates on the page and very soon new crafts and foods shall appear! Have a kitchen to finish decorating first… c.c

…to be busy!

I’ve actually been BUSY as of late, hence the lack of posting. One week alone was spent with my mother making cookies for Christmas! Most people we know will be getting them as gifts and boy are they scrumptious! That combined with some real live work for myself has kept me good and busy, but looking forward to the new year, when the holidays are finally over, I shall resume my posting glory and show you some boredom curing foods and crafts!

Yay!

ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER! Itty bitty counter space.

There’s nothing like having a good cookbook. A source you can trust for recipes aplenty. I found myself in the bookstore the other day, browsing as I do (You can really only ever browse when you have no money…) and found myself in the cookbook section. So many books dazing me with their colorful covers. I’m sure the staff thought I had gone comatose and other customers took wide paths around the drooling mannequin that I was. After a loud gaggle of women passing awoke me from my dream state, I picked up a few books and thumbed through them to see if there was a collection I’d want to purchase.

Alas, the internet has jaded me. Where were the comments, ratings, and search button? How would I know that this recipe would suit me right out of the book? Would it be too spicy, too bland? Do I need to do a little kitchen dance to get the dough to rise properly? After having treated myself to so many delicious meals, how could I force myself to endure possible mediocrity?! So home I headed, empty handed, but happy in knowing the internet can provide me with the foody goodness I seek and all for free.

So that brings me to the best cookbook ever. My laptop. A wifi connection, a place out of harms way in my kitchen and I have a cookbook of thousands of recipes. Not to mention its other abilities to keep you entertained while you cook! Load up YouTube for some funnies or how to ice that cake you’re baking, read the news or fire up Pandora for some music to go with my magic dough dance. And if you have the kitchen demons like I do, throw a little cling wrap over it. As you can see for mine, it’s on the bar ABOVE my working area so it stays fairly clean.

Remember, if it loads web pages, you have the Best Cookbook EVER.

I like to cook, a lot. The people around me would have me believe I do it quite well, my own tongue would agree with them. Little do they know of the deep dark chaos that surrounds this crafty art. Short of my boyfriend and parents, few have witnessed the carnage that is left in the wake of a day of my cooking. Try as I might to keep counters and stoves clean, the simple act of me entering the kitchen seems to unlock a Pandora’s box of food particles.

As if possessed by mighty kitchen demons, the food I touch spreads across the flattest, cleanest surfaces of the kitchen congealing almost instantly into rock hard food cement. No matter the precautions taken, the demons find their way to these surfaces and latch on as if it is the only thing to save them from a fiery hell. Alas, this mighty sacrifice of clean brings upon a meal of much deliciousness and happiness to all stomachs that take on its foody goodness. Once the meal is consumed and the kitchen emptied, the demons slip back into their domain, leaving their food handholds in tact. After the demonic food storm has passed, the kitchen may be reentered and a sponge and soap acquired. The gore shall be washed away… until next time.

And this is why sometimes I have no posts to make. Busy cleaning the kitchen!

It doesn't have to be pretty, just delicious!

I found this recipe on All Recipes(of course) and seeing it had over 3,000 reviews I decided it was lasagna time. I gathered the ingredients, which looks like more than it is and got to work! The result? Truly the best damn lasagna I’ve ever had. Cheesy, meaty, saucy, gooey and so full of flavor. I can’t wait to dig into the leftovers sitting the fridge. So avoid buying a prepacked old and frozen lasagna… whip out your 9X13 pan, a large sauce pan or dutch oven, and 3 hours of time and make the World’s Best Lasagna! Continue reading →