Am I wrong in looking at Wired's slideshow of survival gear that's just crazy enough to work and thinking "I'll take one of each, please"?

Hallmark doesn't make cards to promote the event, but May 10 is National Astronomy Day in the US, and I can think of no reason why it shouldn't be an international event. (Sadly, the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History is temporarily closed during its much-anticipated restoration and expansion, and the Dallas Museum of Nature & Science's planetarium apparently doesn't have anything scheduled at all. However, the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas, a wonderful crew of folks, is hosting a Star Party in Frisco Commons Park on Saturday night, and you can bet your bippy that the Czarina and I will be out there. The weather is one of the reasons why May is one of my favorite times of year in Texas, especially with the honeysuckle blooming and the Mexican freetailed bats returning to eat the local bugs, and access to telescopes on a night like this is just gravy.)

Being a Canadian girl, I tried biscuits & gravy for the first time last summer and this idea/thought only recently popped into my head.

You know how you make sausage gravy for biscuits and gravy -- using the drippings of the fried sausage & crumbling a little bit into the mix as well.

I was just wondering, can you do something similar with bacon? SHOULD you do it with bacon???

Just curious.

X-Posted to trashy_eats

Hi, I really need some help here! I had a banana bread recipe that was posted in this community bookmarked and saved in hotmail for a looong time (I think it's been 2 or 3 years). Now this entry is gone http://community.livejournal.com/cooking/3464812.html . And I cannot find my printed copy that is usually kept in the kitchen.

This is the BEST banana bread recipe ever... seriously. My family and friends are going to freak out if I can't find this and make it again! The only big thing I remember that made it different is that it had no oil and it had a cup of sour cream (I used fat free but it still made it soooo moist).

I'm doing livejournal searches and memory searches and even google searches. I can't believe the post is missing. That will teach me to save a bookmark instead of copying the recipe in an email to myself!

Thanks in advance for ANY help :D

Hey everyone!
I've been making a bagel sandwich for my bf to take to work every morning this past week while I've been on vacation.
Since I start work on Monday, I'd like to prep some of these sandwiches ahead of time and either refrigerate or freeze them for the week so that my bf can just take one as needed.
The bagel sandwiches consist of: Toasted bagel with plain fat free cream cheese on both sides, a "fried" egg, and smoked salmon.

Ideally, I'd like to make 3 or 4 of them on Sunday night, wrap them tightly and put them in the fridge. Will they last until Friday at the latest?
I could freeze them, but microwaving it all may be gross.
If I refrigerate, by the time the bf gets to work, they should prob be good temp to eat as is.

Any ideas/suggestions for storing?

I'm baking a cake with Italian Meringue buttercream today for a friend, and when all is said and baking done, I'm going to have about 9 egg yolks leftover (both the cake and icing use whites only)--any ideas on what the heck I can do with that many yolks so they don't go to waste?

Hey everyone. I'm stuck at home today and I really want to bake some bread. I have a recipe for whole wheat bread that sounds perfect, but there's one problem... the recipe calls for potato flakes or potato flour, neither of which I have on hand. Does anyone know of any substitution I can make, or can I replace the amount of potato flakes with more flour?

For reference, here is the ( recipe )

It looks like it's going to be a very beautiful day. I should be out already, before it gets hot; now that it actually gets light before seven, maybe I can start getting out earlier, even when I don't have someplace I absolutely have to be. The only thing is, that means I have to go to bed so early, and I HATE THAT. I love morning, but I love night more.

I'm listening to something silly and pretentious on KPFA, with a group of announcers that sound exactly like the NPR commentator sketch that used to be on Saturday Night Live. How's this: "I believe in using food that's deeeeeply flavorful..." Makes me want to eat a bowl of cornflakes.

And then they want me to send money? Please. Cornflakes are expensive.

Yesterday my aunt and uncle came up to visit my parents, so I got to see them too, for awhile. Yay train! though on the way here they were on some crazed, frenzied field trip train, already frontloaded from further on down in the valley, and these kids were going to Sacramento...

I spent the rest of the time doing the wash and working on my little CSS exploits. I haven't been at all methodical, and of course I'm a dead beginner, on all levels. I rely on books I pull off the shelf of the very small library section, and they never have the same books twice; I really should be making my own notebook-- I even bought the notebook-- but so far I just haven't. I read a little, then I feel like I have to try it for awhile, then I go back and read some more and hopefully improve my understanding somewhat.

I have to admit, after reading all this propaganda on style vs. content, I have to wonder if it's not a little overstated. I wonder if there isn't more resistance to it than just inertia; it seems very efficient for multiple pages which are mostly text, but in other cases it seems as clear-- and sometimes much easier-- to build by hand, piece by piece. Well, obviously I know nothing about this. But I don't think style and content are always necessarily that distinct, especially given the kinds of pages which have proliferated recently, says the Queen of Outer Space.

Wednesday I went to the eighth level of hell I mean the library to change the text colors here and on goldenshore. My computer won't display any of the color choice interactions for S1, and only minimally for S2 so it's not much worth changing. I love my Basic Accounts. I love my six userpics and my simple layouts and I hope they don't take them away.

From http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/vu-nef050208.php

New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.

The study was conducted by a team of anthropologists, geologists and botanists headed by Vanderbilt University’s Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Tom Dillehay and was reported in the May 9 issue of the journal Science.

The paper, which includes the first new data reported from the site in 10 years, includes the identification of nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 to 13,980 years ago, confirming that the upper layer of the site, labeled Monte Verde II, was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas.

...A multimedia version of this story is available on Exploration, Vanderbilt's online research magazine, at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/monteverde.html

Also see a Christian Science Monitor article on this and Oregon findings as well as America's Clovis vs Pre-Clovis Controversy.

From http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_7DZB9W_Eng

A number of elite tombs from Ancient Egypt are now accessible to all thanks to the launch of the Mastabase. The Mastabase is a CD-ROM containing descriptions and hieroglyphic inscriptions of scenes of daily life from 337 Mastaba tombs. This resource will make research into these elite tombs a lot easier. On 13 May 2008, Dutch Egyptologist René van Walsem will officially present the MastaBase in Leiden.

A Mastaba is an elite tomb from the Memphite area in Ancient Egypt (2600-2150 BC). The tombs contain scenes depicting daily life, often accompanied by inscriptions. Elite tombs are extremely complex works of art. They contain various main themes, which are further divided into sub-themes. Main themes are, for example, scenes depicting offerings, farming, fishing, et cetera. The theme fishing, for instance, can then be broken down into various sub-themes, such as fishing with a dragnet or seine, the transportation of fish and the processing of fish.

I plan on making White Chocolate Mousse for my boyfriend today but there are a million different recipes! I once made chocolate mousse for French class in high school & it was a simple recipe because I was like 14 when I made it... everything I'm finding seems pretty complex, & I've been trying to avoid the gelatin ones... this one http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1713,149173-243198,00.html sounds pretty good, but I was wondering what everyones experience was when it comes to ingredients & what works best!

Any fabulous mousse recipes are welcomed as I can just replace chocolate with white chocolate ;]

Conversation between Steve and Me about Harry

Steve- I don't think you should have punished him.
Me- Why not?
Steve- Because he owned up to it and he told the truth.
Me- (annoyed) Steven, HE STOLE MY JEWELRY!!! He took it without asking.
Steve- Well I don't think you should have punished him.
Me- (exasperated) Even he thinks he should have been punished. He came up with the punishment himself.
Steve- You should have told him it wasn't necessary because he told the truth. He shouldn't be punished for telling the truth
me- (shakes head) Then you're an idiot!
Steve- Miss Texas doesn't think you should have punished him either.
me- Then you're BOTH idiots.

I'm sure I read somewhere that rice paper rolls could be frozen, but all the recipes I have say "not suitable for freezing". Has anyone ever frozen them, and if so, how successful was it? I really like them, but we always end up wasting half of them because they have to be eaten pretty much straight away. It would be nice to have some on hand for lunchboxes and the like.

I've started making smoothies for breakfast - I used some juice, two bananas, a kiwi, and then get it cold and the consitency right, I used these pre-made frozen berry/fruit mixes made especially for smoothies.

Now I've run out of those, and though I can find plenty of frozen berries, they all suggest cooking them before use which ruins the purpose for me. I tried cooking some and refreezing them, but it was a soggy disgusting mess.

I'd just use the regular frozen berries, but we've actually had a few cases here (Denmark) recently, with people getting sick from not cooking them before use. (I can't remember what. E.Coli. I guess?)

So, I'm asking you guys --- could I just buy my own fresh fruit and freeze it? The things I'd use would be berries, pineapple and mango.

Thank you!

I also took a Brady Bunch Quiz and a Chinese Horoscope Spanish Vocabulary Quiz.

OK. I think I'm done for now. I'd really like to stay up till 2:00 A.M. and watch the demise of Kai Winn, but I'm really really tired: no reason.

I need a new quiz. I'm going to look for one now.