What does "gsossa" mean, anyways?

It’s pretty simple really.

“gsossa” is my shortened version of a term I’ve been using for some years now: “Greensborossa.”

Ok, so what does “Greensborossa” mean? Again, simply—and randomly—“Greensborossa” means “in Greensboro” in Finnish.

Why, yes! That is random!

Well, some years ago, I delved into Finnish, a language I’d often refer to as sounding like some alien-talk. I loved hearing my Finnish friends in college talk and I even duped myself into thinking that the little Suomi I learned was enough for me to jump into Estonian, too! Well, after I learned that “Helsinki” would turn into “Helsingissä,” I thought I was on a roll. Wow, I am writing this from memory so I hope I am not screwing up any of the spelling!

Oh, those were the days.

Well, I am trying to keep up with my Spanish, get back into to German and re-establish flirting with Italian and Russian in my downtime (because I have so much downtime).

Within the next week, I’ll start my Mandarin Chinese and Arabic classes. Am I crazy?! Ah, it’s ok. It’s excercising the mind.

Maybe I should figure out a way to exercise the body, too, so I won’t feel so bad noshing as I’m flipping through my “E Nagu Eesti”…

These maakera ads used to crack me up.

"Greensborossa" as a search terms always seemed to link to golf news...but, wow, now it's a lot of my stuff! Ooooh, and even a Wikipedia page! Fancy.

Sweet Dreams

I miss Chris.

:(

Well, at least this post is keeping my blog somewhat consistent.

Anyhow, today I gave my mother a tour of Greensboro which mostly consisted of me taking my eyes off the road, pointing, and yelling, "Look, see right there?!"

I'm glad she likes the city.

I got my first "order" this week for some bake-a-licious treats. For a wedding party! Man, that was a fragment. Anywho, they aren't for a wedding wedding, just a party celebrating a wedding some of my friends and I couldn't attend in December so...looking forward to it! I mean, I'm not getting paid, it's for my friends, but it's a grand excuse for me to break out the KitchenAid this week. Woohoo!

Goooooooood night! Dreaming of frosting...

(Triple sad-face for missing Chris.)

PB & Hey!

Really, really late last night/really, really early this morning, I couldn't sleep so...I made cupcakes.

Of course.

I spent the earlier part of the night finishing up "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" which, by the way, has an intermission.

After falling asleep at random times during the movie with one thought flying through my head ("Gosh, I can't help thinking that ol' Noam here resembles George Bush 1 and 2."), I finally jumped up and found that I was pretty awake.

(Naps are refreshing. I wouldn't mind big government mandating siestas, would you?)

I almost had to force myself to make golden/yellow/plain old cupcakes. The other times that I tried the supposedly tried-and-true recipe, it came out tasting odd to me. Like, in the way that a cynic would go...ew, these taste vegan. That's why I usually make the chocolate cupcakes from the book, which are A-W-E-some, but after this week's hit--the maple cupcakes--I thought I'd give the golden another chance.

Well, I still didn't like them but I figured that a dollop or fifty of some good old frosting would save the day. I decided to wait until the next morning to whip something up. The next morning, meaning, after noon, but that's neither here nor there.

I wanted to try out a strawberry-type frosting, but even after making a strawberry puree, it was a little much for me after just waking up. I figured that a chocolate frosting would work but that would have been such a cop out. So, I ended up trying something that I thought would be only so-so...but it was only so-so AMAZING!

My golden cupcakes with light, fluffy, delicious-ness-ness peanut butter frosting:

I used the fresh ground peanut butter that I buy from Earth Fare for my choco-peanut-butter-smoothies, but I haven't made those for a while now so I figured that this would be a good way to out the PB to work. I was a bit afraid that the texture of the peanut butter would be too grainy or thick or whatever but it worked out woooonderfully!

I tried out a new frosting method to get the sides relatively smooth for buttercream...something like this which gives the frosting some height. Look at that cupcake truck! Here's an inside look on the frosting:

Cupcakes for breakfast are OK. Don't let anyone tell you different.

The frosting was so fluffy that the amount wasn't overwhelming or too sugary/grainy.

Speaking of frosting...what a trip. When I was younger making cupcakes, I did the normal knife-to-tub and spread from there. When I recently starting using pastry bags and piped the stuff I was soooo proud of myself and excited. BUT, at this point I feel like the it's a cop-out and one that is labor-intensive at that! I may just need to explore different tips (and one that doesn't make chocolate frosting look like poop, please). I started using ganache and I love it for it's shininess and the hard candy coating that I get. Love it! The hard candy coating with the fluffy cupcake is just fun and still unexpected. I've never done it, and I don't plan on doing it, but I don't like the whole tiny-dollop-in-the-center-of-the-cupcake thing, like this. Yes, it is a very beautiful cupcake, but that frosting is so pretty, give me more! Well, the frosting shouldn't overwhelm the thing, but in my case today...thank goodness for peanut butter.

Later!

Smoke is smoke wherever you go.

Recently, I've come across something quite entertaining:

the newspaper.

Well, the newspaper online. I felt guilty for only making an effort to buy the Sunday paper, and not even a Sunday paper subscription, at that. I'm not sure how, but I started reading the News & Record online. And, I'm not sure when, but I started reading the comments on there, too.

Enter-freaking-taining.

Well, at this point, I've noticed that the same and relatively small group of people are forever commenting on the articles, letters to the editor, etc. Hm, I wonder if the people commenting are also often the same people who send in the letters to the editor that are published. Anyhow, now onto some thread of thought I've noticed in the recent squawk over the smoking ban.

Some people opposing the smoking ban are opposed to the suppression of their rights to smoke and/or the rights of private establishments deciding whether or not they will be smoke-free establishments. Along that line of thought, some people have recommended that if someone who is offended by cigarette smoke, he/she has the right to not visit establishments that allow smoking.

Ok. Now let's wait a minute. I'm not really even going to get into the whole--Oh, you have a right to smoke wherever you want? Well, what about my right to breathe cleaner air?!--thing. It's a public health issue, people. Your smoke is just straight-up nasty. Yay for being nasty.

Anyways, back to the--Well, you aren't being forced to go into establishments that allow smokers.--argument. Ok, that is very true, but if that is the sentiment, then how sad and limited are the lives of people if that were their reality. If 95% of restaurants (I am totally making up numbers here) allow smoking in one way or another and I was steadfast in not wanting to inhale second-hand cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke, then what a lame life I would have as a foodie. Ok, I'm a fake foodie, but that's just not fair. Come one, you can smoke any where you want in...um, I guess I'll say "private". Maybe your smoking is social (even if you are smoking alone...at the bar...with a beer you could have bought for half-price at Wal-Mart). Maybe you only smoke when you drink (awesome!). Wherever you do it, when you do it shouldn't matter. (Oh, wait, it can be an addiction, sorry.)

THE POINT (which I haven't made yet) is that, every restaurant isn't the same. Your smoke will always be the same. Maybe I am missing some important nuances about smoking cigarettes in public, but when your smoking "right" in a restaurant, let's say, trumps my goal of experiencing the food and atmosphere of that restaurant, it's really sad. If I have to limit myself to all of the restaurants that are smoke-free, yes I might appreciate that they are smoke-free, but...the food might suck.

We are on this Earth...together.

I know that in the current situation involving Haiti, action is more important than words.

Still, this situation just made me think of a thought that I've often had twirling in my head ever since, I suppose, I started my geography degree back in the day...

But, before I get to that, I'd just like to point out that I am not one to make sweeping hypotheticals concerning human nature e.g., "Can't we all just get along?" and "If women ran the world, there'd be no war."

In any case, I often think, Why do we humans waste so much time trying to fight each other when we have bigger and less discriminating things to worry about, like natural disasters?

Ok, now I'm done ignoring sociology or history or whatever it takes to describe the convolution of civilization.

I feel really, really bad about the earthquake in Haiti. That is a disaster. This event should have no lack of sympathy worldwide. I am watching the rescues unfold and am interested in what recovery will look like.

And, just to be pop-topical, there is nothing worth saying about Pat Robertson.

Good night.

These cupcakes remind me of breakfast.

Instead of making Power Balls tonight, I decided to stop procrastinating and finally try out the (vegan) maple cupcake recipe I have. I lacked maple essence or flavor or whatever it's called, but the 1/2 cup of maple syrup was enough to make me think of waffles. :)

I didn't know if I would frost them or not and was on my way to making a quick ganache with some Ginger Green & Black's. Green & Black's was on sale, 2/$5, last month all over town. That was weird, but it worked because I've got a stack of the bars in my kitchen waiting to be devoured.

I finally ended up making my trusty ol' (vegan) cream cheese frosting and slyly dumped an extra ingredient--more maple syrup--into the mix. Having this KitchenAid mixer makes this a million and a half times easier than using a hand mixer. I burned out the motor in my one hand mixer but fortunately, I have a back up still tucked in it's original box...wait, what the heck...fortunately, I got a freakin' KitchenAid mixer!

Yay, domestication! Woohoo! Ok, back to reading Jezebel...haha

Ok, I digressed. Let's take a look at these babies:

The regular. Boooring, I know.

Ended up shaving some of the ginger chocolate on there.



This was done for kicks...and to calm my shame of discarding too much frosting.

Enough of this...time to eat! My New Year's resolution is to bake more cupcakes, so there!

Or something to that effect. I also bought some celery yesterday to offset the cake, so...

Good night!

The "d" word

I've been thinking.

I know, I know...the holidays are over and, hey, I'm staring at my Christmas tree feeling guilty about procrastinating and not cleaning that mess up.

When I racked my brain for gift ideas this holiday season...when I wentout to shop...when I finally made the purchasse...I thought that I should stop and do something else.

I figure, why not buy some food and donate to a food pantry? Why not buy a toy and donate it to a cause I find worthy? Why not give some money to whom I wish?

I mean, come on. Plenty of days I spend money on frivolous things. Well, let me take that back. I buy things, perhaps, capriciously, but I do so with a muted sense of adventure and indulgence and I truly appreciate the experience whether it ends up good or bad. Sounds like addiction :) Look, I am talking about trying a new smoothie flavor here, or buying a fancy cupcake, not anything big. But, I can get those "good" feelings doing the "d" word...you know, donating.

Sometimes the capriciousness can find itself in donating but sometimes you want to do enough research to make sure you are all-around content with your donation.

Anyways, instead of the [insert whatever here] that I was going to get today or may get tomorrow, I'll think of others who may not be so close to me that I will drive and spend gas to find the perfect ribbon for a personalized ornament.

But, I can donate some canned goods.

Give time, give stuff, give money. Whatever. It's not that hard. But don't just do it because "it's not that hard." Do it from the heart...and the head.

Mmmmm...well, that's what I was thinking just now.