Random Tid Bits

1. I got a new assignment ready for my students. Every year I take a photo that I've taken, add things to it, cut it up into pieces, and they have to recreate it. There are times where I use a preexisting photo I've found online. The results are pretty fun. 

This year I went with a few vacation photos, and added old Warner Brother characters to it. I figured they'd be perfect for desert land. My co-worker must not be familiar with the desert. She told me I needed cartoon flowers in there. The desert lacks flowers. I agree it could use a bit more, but with the time I have it will have to do.







2. Our convention center got renamed. It got bought out, so they have to change everything along with it. It's quite the controversy! Who bought it out? CHI Health. Why is it a controversy? This place is about their medical care. They charge an arm and a leg. Then turn around to spend $$$$ on a convention center, and have to have their stupid name on it. Cher is coming to preform at CHI Health Center Omaha. She may get confused, and go to a local hospital instead. LOL  





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3. Mica was in class talking to someone about something. He went to grab his books, and noticed his library book was gone. Instead of telling his teacher he came home to tell me. He was pretty pissed. I was pretty pissed that he didn't say something to his teacher. He thought they were too lazy to deal with it. So me, and outsider can really take care of this? Nope! I was getting more mad, but stopped and thought - He's not the asshat that took the book.
   
   I said, "You need to go to the library, explain what happened, and ask the procedure to buy the book. If possible could I buy the book on Amazon? Then you'll have to pay me back. You aren't in trouble for taking anything, but you need to learn how to better deal with situations when they happen."
   
   He went to school, walked to homeroom, and saw his book on the floor by a trash can.  He didn't have to talk to a Librarian after all.
   
   But he was instructed by me to talk with his teacher (he has her every other day). He had to tell her what happened. Part of his problem is time. He feels like there is no time to talk to teachers, which sadly there isn't. In situations like this he needs to make time. He did it. She had a talk with the class. The joy of middle school. 


4. Mica will need some therapy someday. Travis turned on his emergency horn today when Mica was walking home - by the car. He walked around the car to see if one of us was there, nope. Then it started honking again. He kept jumping back, and looked to see if he did something wrong. Isaak was inside laughing so hard. We all were really. Are you a prankster? Travis so gets it from me. I'm the worst. I'd hide behind every wall to jump out at people if I could. 


5. They never introduce new people at work. It annoys the crap out of me. We're so small. Really you can't introduce people that work there? Yet when the group came that comes once every five years to grant us our accreditation we're all the sudden important enough to introduce. Ha! 

Fruit Pizza #recipe

I love desserts. So I may have a sugar tooth! I have gone on diets just to eliminate sugar for awhile. Kind of detoxing off of it is good to do.

We had Emerson's 7th Birthday and my 42 Birthday Party last weekend. 

My sister was making a sorbet desert. I love sorbet, but I hate graham cracker crust things. I don't mind graham crackers. I just don't like them all crushed up.

So I made a fruit pizza!

I have the recipe below, but I'll explain it as well.

First off I made a batch of ice cream cone sugar cookies for Travis' work and my work. The cookies had different flavors: Chocolate, Strawberry, Lemon and Vanilla. All that was good, but it left me with left over frosting. I just used the vanilla to make the strawberry and lemon. Now I have lemon and strawberry extracts.

I wanted to use the left over frosting on the Fruit Pizza - as much as I could.

1. I rolled out a batch of homemade cookie dough onto a round pan.

2. I used the ice cream cone cookie cutter - backside to imprint the dough, not to cut it. They are part of the big circle, not separated.

3. Then I painted the cones with blended egg yolk, and sprinkled them with brown sugar.

4. Then I baked it on 350 degrees for 9 minutes, or until light brown.

5. I let the crust cool.

6. I frosted the cones with some frosting I had left from the cookies I made.

7. I put plain cream down in the middle.

8. Isaak topped it with fruit that Travis and I cut.

9. The fruit in odd spots like the cherries on the cones, and grapes on the edges were cut in 1/2. I spread cream cheese on them to act as a glue. It worked really well!

Fruit Pizza by AlissaSpiehs-Apel on Scribd

It tasted great too! What's your favorite desert? I think I love chocolate cake with chocolate frosting the most!

Avocado Pudding Recipe

When I see something a little different I want to try it.

Recently I saw a recipe for Avocado Pudding on facebook. Travis was making a Mexican dish, so I thought I'd try this for desert.

Avocado Pudding Recipe

I looked up recipes for, "Avocado Pudding" there are a lot of recipes. Apparently this isn't a new idea.

It's super easy to make. Everything goes in a food processor in any order really. I left the amount of sweetener up to you. At first I just added a drop of plain liquid Stevia. That was fine for Travis that doesn't have a sweet tooth. The boys and I wanted a drop more added to each of our own servings.

Avocado Pudding by AlissaSpiehs-Apel on Scribd

Options: 

I thought just like chocolate bars come with different flavors, you could add flavors into this recipe easily for a different variations.

• NuNaturals Nustevia has different flavors for their liquid Stevia. You could try using a flavored Stevia instead of one without any flavor.
• We just got chocolate bars that had a sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper in them. I could see that in the Avocado Pudding as odd as that sounds, it could work. Just don't add too much. Just a sprinkle!
• Another thought was to add peanut butter powder if you're a peanut butter lover like I am. 
• If you don't like Stevia you could use any sweetener really: White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Syrup, Agave Syrup are just some ideas.

Cool:

You will want to make sure it's chilled before eating. I thought the cold milk would chill it enough. I tasted it when I was done making it, and it needs to be chilled more for sure.

I won't say it tastes just like the pudding from the box. It has more of a Mexican Chocolate kind of a taste. It's healthier for sure!

It makes enough for 4 servings. Perfect for my family. If you are making this for just 1 person consider cutting the recipe in 1/2. You can serve it in ramekins like I did, or the Avocado skins like I saw on facebook. 

Do you like to try different things like I do, or do you stick with eating what you already know? 

Deserted in the Desert

Ok so we weren't deserted in the desert. I just thought that sounded like a good title. Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has a neat desert. Beneath the desert is their Kingdoms of the Night exhibit. I'll take you through that that in another post. Both the Desert Dome and Kingdoms of the Night cost $31.5 million dollars to construct. It's the world's largest desert exhibit. It opened in 2002.

The first time I went into the desert I swore it was hot and dry. Now it's not so much. As soon as you walk in it's sunny though. It doesn't matter what time of year it is. It's just pretty, and it feels like you're in the desert.

At first there isn't a lot of animals you see. Some birds, but mostly plants and rocks. After you walk a little ways in there's some neat looking animals.

The creature above (I don't remember its name) hangs out with Meerkats. One day that we went they were up, and active, while the other day the Meerkats were sleeping.

There are turtles that swim below them.

As we walked a little further along, ducks greeted us. Look close on the 2nd picture they have the color teal by their tail feathers.

Ordinary just got more interesting. 

Birds are here and there. 
 

A Road Runner stopped just long enough for me to take its picture.

 

A Vulture just perched looking kind of freaky.

 

The Wallabies like to hide. I've been there where they were playing a jumping tag. They move quick. This time one was just observing what was going on below.

Plants are everywhere. All different types of plants. There are animals that eat cacti.

Prickly Pears are the only type of cactus that grow in Nebraska naturally. 

The Bob Cat posed for us. I wouldn't want to get too close to it though.

The fox was chillin'.

The Coati is a member of the racoon family.

There are water areas, and spots you go under to see snakes, and other creatures. The lighting isn't very good to take photos in those areas.

These look like ground hogs, but I don't think they are.

You can't leave the desert without seeing a Warthog.

The one thing I wished they had would be Burros. They're so cute. Maybe it's just too small to have them there. Otherwise we love the desert!