Harry Potter and the Incredible Cakepod

Lately I've been reading a lot to pass the time (and to maintain my sanity while taking a month-long summer course-2 days left!). With the release of the sixth Harry Potter movie (Half-Blood Prince) coming up fast (two weeks from tomorrow, in fact) I decided to re-read the last 3 HP books, since I have read them less times than the first four and am a bit fuzzy on the details. The problem is that when I read the last two for the first time last year (long story why I hadn't read them sooner) I read them in quick succession, so I didn't give myself enough time to absorb the details. This time around, however, I'm determined to pace myself...somewhat. I may even wait until after I see the movie to start the seventh book (I'm 3/4 through the 6th at the moment). I was thinking of reading this book, which basically goes over the different theories of what would happen in Book 7 (obviously written before Deathly Hallows was released). One of my biggest regrets is that I missed out on the last chunk of HP fandom. I stopped reading HP after the 5th book came out for personal reasons, which took me a few years to come to terms with, by which time the hype had passed. Sigh. But I'm trying to make up for missed time now. (: Next year will mark ten years-a whole decade!!!-since I first read Harry Potter. That's a bit mind-boggling.

In other news, I finally succumbed to the pressure, got with the times, jumped on the bandwagon, sold my soul...however you'd like to think of it. I got my first MP3 player. Until recently, I had held steadfast to my cd collection and trusty battery-sucking cd player. Why should I go digital when my cds work perfectly fine? Well, the last straw was a frustrating experience in which I tried unsuccessfully to burn all of my favorite songs on a cd. So for my birthday, my parents told me they'd pay for an mp3 player of my choosing! They gave me a gift certificate to Costco for $94 (which they had received for free), and said they'd pay the rest. As you can see, I ended up choosing an iPod Nano. I wanted to compare different brands, especially the Zune, but Costco only had iPods and a 2GB Sandisk player, so I went with an 8GB Nano. It's quite pretty! With the gift certificate, it was only $50-much preferable to the $130+ it costs elsewhere. It didn't take long to figure out how to use it, and I've since purchased a clear case so it won't get scratched up. Now I can listen to podcasts! So exciting.

And on that note, I must share a sad/disastrous moment of mine:

If you'll pardon the overused reference, my cake was...a lie. I kind of broke it, you see. Let's just say I am investing in a new set of cake pans before I attempt to make cake again. >_< Anyway, it turned out all right; I just frosted the other half and served it with ice cream. My original intention was to make an ice cream cake by spreading ice cream between the layers and then freezing the cake before frosting it, but you see how easily that plan was foiled. Sigh. Another time, perhaps.

Oh yeah, I'm 20 now, by the way...no more teenagedom for me! Sayonara.

A Sugary Update

My Eurocrem craving has been sufficiently placated (for the time being):

I showed my mom around the Asian Market yesterday, and besides getting another package of cookies and that jar of Eurocrem I had been eyeing, I also found a Eurocrem candy bar! I am officially addicted. [:

Also, I made cookies with my friend today! Or rather, I made cookies while he held the cookbook for me. ;) I tried a new recipe from my Nestle cookbook called "Jumbo 3-Chip Cookies"-usually we only have semi-sweet chips at my house, but we had a bag of white chocolate♥ chips in the cupboard, so I decided to combine! The recipe called for milk choc. chips as well, but I think milk chocolate is a bit overrated (plus I didn't feel like buying a bag of them), so I just modified the recipe a bit and they turned out GREAT. They're much bigger than the cookies I usually make (it called for 1/4 cup scoops!!! instead of the usual rounded tablespoonfuls). They turned out just like the cookies from Paradise Bakery & Mrs. Fields'-now I know their secrets! (Use both granulated & brown sugars, less salt, and larger scoops of dough.) Mwaha.

...I blog about sweets a lot, don't I? 0:)

If I were a rich man...I'd buy a lifetime supply of Eurocream-filled cookies.

I have book/movie/music cravings the way people crave certain foods. I have to be in just the right mood to read/watch/listen to something, or else I can't enjoy it. Well, tonight I had a sudden and random desire to watch Fiddler on the Roof, so now I'm watching it while typing this and trying not to burst out into song. ♥

There's this pottery place called As You Wish near my house. Basically it works as follows: you pay a fee to sit at a table, then you choose a blank ceramic piece from their collection (items range from the useful-such as bowls and pen holders-to the decorative-including kittens and mermaids). Then you grab some paint and paintbrushes and get to work! When you're finished, you pay for your piece and leave it with them. They fire it in their kiln, and you go back two days later to pick up your newly-glazed, shiny item! It's a lot of fun.

I prefer to spend money/time on things that won't just sit around collecting dust, so I chose a couple of tiles (to be used as coasters) to paint. At first I was just going to paint one, but as my idea evolved I realized it wasn't going to fit on one tile, haha. It took me at least two hours to paint (arts & crafts + perfectionism = a terrible thing) but it was worth it! I think it turned out really cute. They're not attached, btw; it's just that the full design can only be seen when they're placed side-by-side.

Okay. So there's this grocery store about 10 minutes from my house, creatively called "Asian Market", that sells imported goods-mostly Asian food items (imagine that!) but also some things from Europe. Well, I'd been wanting to go there for quite some time and my friend finally got me to go. As soon as I stepped in the door, I knew: I'd found My Place. Home. Heaven. Whatever you want to call it. Imported goods, far as the eye can see! Edible imported goods!

Well, we were there to get snacks to sneak into the movie theatre (I usually don't condone rule-breaking, but no way am I paying $10 for crappy movie theatre food. If I'm going to eat junk food, it's going to be delicious and cheap, by golly!) So we went straight to the snack food aisles, and I fell in love. After much browsing (and drooling), I laid my eyes on this [above] package, and I knew I'd found the perfect snack. Cookies w/chocolate filling, not made by Nabisco? Heck yes.

But the packaging was nothing compared to the taste of these babies. One bite during the previews and I was hooked. I'm-moving-to-Europe-to-be-closer-to-the-source-of-this-goodness-hooked. The cookie wafers themselves had a nice flavor, but it was the chocolatey cream (Eurocream, which, I found out, is like Nutella but 1,000,000,000,000,000...etc. times better) combined with the crunchy cookie texture that got me. I will never call another cookie delicious again.

Yes, I did just spend most of my blog ranting about imported cookies. ¬_¬;; No regrets...next time I go to the Asian Market I'm buying a jar of Eurocream and as many packages of those cookies as I can afford. They're made in Serbia, btw. Guess the Balkans know how to please the taste buds! Usually I steer clear from pre-made/packaged cookies (I figure if I'm going to take in a ton of calories, they're going to be made by me in my own kitchen where no preservatives are added), but for these I shall definitely make an exception. [/rant]

...Drat, now I want some of those cookies. Well, I have class in the morning so I'd better get some rest.

Adieu!