Cinnamystery solved

Monday, December 22, 2008 at 3:46 pm (Writing by Ear)
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I try not to indulge too often in money-frittering treats. But I have my rituals. If I’m picking up a sister at the airport, I’m always early enough to get coffee and a cinnamon scone at Au Bon Pain. If I want to reward myself, I go to Panera for coffee and a cinnamon scone. In fact, I find it hard to pass up a cinnamon scone whenever I see one and haven’t just eaten a 3-course meal. (Although, Starbucks’ Web site weighs them in at over 500 calories a scone! I’d be better off eating the meal.)

Gluttony aside, for years I’ve wondered just how they get those crunchy cinnamon bits that make the scones so addictive. I started seeing cinnamon chips at the store a couple years ago, but they’re like butterscotch or chocolate chips — melty not crunchy. I tried a recipe for cinnamon muffins that had you make your own crunchy cinnamon-sugar crumbles in the oven, then mix them into the muffin batter and sprinkle them on top. They were good, but time-consuming, and still not the same as my beloved cinnamon scones.

Now I think I’ve found the answer. After googling and finding others with the same question, I hit upon someone who recommended these Cinnamon Flav-R Bites® from King Arthur Flour. I swallowed hard and ordered two bags, figuring the $17.50-including-shipping would still get me a lot more scones than I could get at $2-$2.50 a pop in the coffee shop. (I still can’t believe I spent that much on baking chips, but oh well.)

scone-dough1

I picked a scone recipe off the Internet — praying it would be a true scone (crumbly) and not like the recipe I tried last time that turned out more like triangle-shaped muffins (cakey).

scones

Turns out, it was pretty good — still not as crumbly as I like, but maybe because it doesn’t use a whole cup of butter (2 sticks) like the one recipe I saw and rejected for a slightly less decadent version (using “only” 1 stick, and I used a new Smart Balance butter-blend stick to boot). I guess I’ll have to try the richer one sometime to compare. 

For now, I’m pretty content in my cinnamon-induced haze. I don’t care what the diet gurus advise. You can find happiness in pastry and coffee…at least until your fat pants don’t fit anymore.

We can often endure an extra pound of pain
far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal
of an ounce of accustomed pleasure. 
                                                         ~Sydney J. Harris

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Haunted Baby Take II

Friday, December 5, 2008 at 6:35 pm (Writing by Ear)
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Last year, I posted about some of my most memorable Christmas toys, and Baby Drowsy topped the list as my all-time favorite. I mentioned how, some 15 years later, my youngest niece got a Baby Drowsy of her own, which she promptly used to torment her older sister, earning Drowsy a new name: “the haunted baby.”

Seems another talking babydoll is the newest contender for haunted-baby accolades. I hadn’t heard the buzz until Mike told me about it a couple nights ago. A Fisher Price/Mattel doll includes some religious propaganda amidst the billing and cooing. This site describes it much better than I can — and you can listen for yourself and make up your own mind.

I can hear it clearly. Cute baby sounds and then haunted baby takes over, proclaiming “Islam is the light.”  What bothers me most is the manufacturer’s matter-of-factness and basic denial that anything was amiss, not even admitting, “Oh, there might have been a problem, we’ll look into it.” (Can you not hear, people?) They apparently deleted the offending portion of the tape, without admitting anything was there in the first place. And what about all those proselytizing dollies on the shelf?

Way to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.

Clearly, someone or a group of someones messed with your doll’s tape. Doesn’t sound that implausible or that hard. Simply denying it ever happened is just lame.

Yet another reason to eschew new fad dollies (Mike and I noticed one that peed and pooped — and proudly proclaimed so on the box. Ewwww.) and stick with tried and true toys — if you can even find them anymore and feel confident they’re not going to contain lead paint or melamine or cheap plastic parts that will break off and choke your child or come in ridiculous packaging that you and your favorite hacksaw can’t penetrate. I’m almost afraid to look for Drowsy and see what she’s morphed into. Better she live forever in pleasant and funny memories.

Corporation: An ingenious device for
obtaining profit without individual responsibility. 
                                                     ~ Ambrose Bierce

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I’m not dead yet.

Monday, December 1, 2008 at 10:27 am (Writing by Ear)
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Nothing like a little Spamalot to spice up an otherwise too fast and too little accomplished long weekend. We bought tickets months ago, but as the day, yesterday, finally arrived, we lamented having to get up, get dressed, get out in the steady rain, and get ourselves all the way downtown. Lounging in front of the Steeler game sounded so much more appealing. (Speaking of getting dressed, when did it become acceptable to go to a show at Heinz Hall or The Benedum in jeans? Half the people there looked like they had just stumbled onto a Broadway performance while running out for a pizza at halftime.)

Fortunately, we made the effort (having already paid +$120 for tickets is always a good motivator). Funny, funny show. Especially delightful that they worked in several Pittsburgh references during the performance — at one point the Lady of the Lake added a stirring “Pittsburgh’s goin’ to the Suuuuper Bowl…” to one of her solos, another character added a long bit at the end of a monologue about the ‘Burgh and the Steelers and waved a Terrible Towel and actually worked in the score of the just-completed Steelers-Pats game, and another referenced Pittsburgh as the home of famous people like Andrew Carnegie and the Primanti Brothers. It was fun, and we wondered if they do that in every city. (Or, if, as soon as the lights go up at intermission in other cities, someone in the theater shouts out the score of the football game and everyone cheers.) Ya gotta love the ‘Burgh.

So, after a brief blogging hiatus, largely due to lack of inspiration (it’s just a flesh wound), I’m back, trying to look on the bright side of life and admiring the curtains.

The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.
                                                                 ~ Oscar Wilde

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