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Are you a hoopy frood, like me?

If so, you better have your towel with you today! As today, is Towel Day.

For those not familiar, Douglas Adams was one of the funniest writers of our time. He wrote a wonderful series of radio plays which were converted in a a series of books and a TV show and later into a really awful movie. This was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In this, Mr. Adams wrote:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical
value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

After Mr. Adams's death some lunatics decided to create Towel Day as a tribute to his genius. I only heard about it this year (about a week ago to be more precise) and decided to join in on the fun. And the fact that I'm telecommuting to work today had absolutely nothing to do with that decision. *grin*

Tags: 2001, adam, avoid, Books, cli, Code, coffee, con, desert, gallery, HAL, IM, Link, movie, quote, radio, series, sleep, tv, war, Weather, work

Fruit Trifle

Ingredients

• 1 Pound cake
• 3/4 c Strawberry jam
• 1 cn Pitted apricots (1 lb,14 oz) - drained and pureed
• 11 oz Mandarin oranges - drained
• 1/2 c Marsala or cream sherry
• 2 c Vanilla custard
• 1 c Heavy cream
• 1/4 c Superfine sugar

Directions

1. Split cake into thin layers, spread with jam and half the apricot puree, and sandwich back together.
2. Cut into bars, about 1-by-2-inches, and pack into a 2-quart serving dish, arranging oranges in and around cake.
3. Pour Marsala over top, spread with remaining apricot puree and cover with custard.
4. Cover and chill 2 hours.
5. Whip cream with sugar until stiff.
6. Frost on top of trifle and decorate with candied fruits, if desired.

This recipie should yield about 10 servings.

[Editor] This is a recipe Ariesna found online someplace and wants to try making sometime.

Tags: desert, Food, recipe

Chocolate Butterscotch Scotcheroos

Chocolate Butterscotch Scotcheroos

Ingredients:

• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 pkg. chocolate chips
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 cups Rice Krispies
• 1 pkg. butterscotch chips

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, cook corn syrup and sugar over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture begins to boil.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in peanut butter.
4. Mix in cereal.
5. Press in buttered 9x13 pan.
6. Melt over hot (not boiling) water chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, stirring constantly until smooth.
7. Spread over cereal mixture.
8. Chill until firm, about 15 minutes.

Tags: cookies, desert, Food, recipe

Recipe: White Chocolate Orange Cookies

These cookies were great. Made them for a friend who can't have regular chocolate chip cookies.

White Chocolate Orange Cookies

Ingredients (makes 2 to 3 dozen)
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 to 3 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C).
2. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
3. In large bowl, cream butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and grated orange peel. Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and stir to just combine. Stir in white chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.
4. Drop by tablespoonful onto an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, turning baking sheet around at the halfway point to ensure even browning. Let stand for 2 minutes than remove to racks to finish cooling.

Tags: cookies, desert, Food, recipe

Recipe: Autumn Cheesecake

I recently ran across a site called Cooking For Engineers, which has somewhat inspired me to want to do some cooking again; however I'm a bit busy right now so I'm just going to post a recipie that I successfully tried out last year.
› Continue reading

Tags: cheesecake, desert, Food, recipe