Mango Muffin Madness!

I've never been much of a culinary artist of any sort, really, but as you can see, my roomies and I have been trying to cook up new dishies. Recently I tried my hand at baking on my own for the first time. By that, I mean that I have baked before but usually with someone else who is typically more knowledgeable about cooking and sort of ends up taking over.

We had some mangoes that were way too ripe so rather than feeding them to the worms, I decided to mash them up to put in mango muffins!



I found this recipe on About.com but tweaked it a little due to availability of ingredients in my kitchen. The texture was great, but the taste was just okay. It was not quite sweet enough. I used the same recipe a couple days later using cherries instead, doing some more tweaking. It was not until my third try at muffins that I realized the vanilla extract I used in place of coconut extract did not provide any sweetness. Eek. I added more sugar, a little more salt to bring out the flavors, and cinnamon, and they tasted a lot better, but they could still use a little improvement. It's all about trial and error right? I do very much enjoy trying out different stuff. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of muffins to eat and not enough people to eat them, so what did I do? I brought them back to my mom who likes things that aren't too sweet and she actually sort of liked them. ^_^

By the way, these are the first pictures I am posting that I took with my new camera, the Canon Powershot S90. Weeee!

Exciting Environmental Eye-Openers!

Have you ever driven in a car and swerved, thinking you're about to run over an animal moving across a street, only to realize it's a black plastic bag lying in the middle of the road? Do you feel disgusted when you find that perfect spot on the beach, lay down on your mat, and right as a nice ocean breeze blows through your hair, along with it comes a rustling plastic bag in your face? Hopefully that will happen less often with the following news now in play...

In case you haven't heard, this month a state-wide ban on single use plastic bags at pharmacies, grocery stores and liquor stores was passed in California! San Francisco was the first city to do it in the nation and now the whole state is following suit. This is pretty exciting news, since it will help eliminate a lot of litter, reduce our dependence on petroleum and hopefully kill less animals who inadvertently choke on them, thinking the bags are food. Recycled paper bags will still be available for purchase for a nickel each.

There are people who oppose this ban, but I think they're just afraid of a little change. If this ban is such a bad idea, why has the idea of bringing your own bags to the market worked so well in Europe and Asia all these years? Apparently, according this article, a state politician by the name of Ted Gaines says that the ban is going to cost his family $50 a year to buy paper bags. It costs like a dollar for a reusable bag. You can buy 10 bags for $10 and use that other $40 on more groceries.

I'm hoping BYOB (bringing your own bag) will become as routine a practice as bringing money/credit cards with you when you go out. Nowadays there are plenty of foldable bags that fit in your pocket or purse easily, so it's really only a minor inconvenience. Most of the time, you know when you need to go out to buy groceries and whatnot, so pack accordingly. It'll save you your nickels and you won't have to wonder what to do with all those plastic bags collecting in your home. Change your bagging habits and save some change (and space!). :]

Also in plastic news, there are some crazy smart young people out there who have been making some amazing discoveries. Sixteen-year-old Canadian Daniel Burd discovered a microbe that eats plastic, and a Taiwanese high school student by the name of Tseng I-Ching, also 16, has found a bacterium that eats styrofoam. The possible side effects of the use of these plastic-eaters haven't totally been looked into yet, but what the heck? These are KIDS. When I was 16, I wouldn't even have been able to tell you what was in plastic, let alone what could break it down. Wonder what people will come up with to complain about these exciting pieces of news, that these brainy youngsters make normal people feel too inadequate?

Whatever helps to avoid this from happening...

photo from seaturtle.org