For today's hobby, making cookies, we enlisted the help of Patty and Dempsey. In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat-baked treat, containing milk, flour, eggs, and sugar, etc. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit.
Dempsey, avid fan of Hell's Kitchen, demanded that we help him prepare for next season's auditions. As part of the requirements, Dempsey had to send in a "video cooking instructional to be judged by the Hell's Kitchen staff." Basically, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and also made it into this week's hobby. We'd wish Dempsey luck with his audition, but with this video, he made the show for sure.
Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of butter (basically, a whole stick)
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
-1 egg
-1 cup of flour
Instructions:
Step 1: Combine flour, sugar, and butter
Step 2: Separate egg yolk; save egg white for later
Step 3: Mix egg yolk and vanilla extract
Step 4: Mix all ingredients together until blended
Step 5: Roll dough into balls on cookie sheet(around 6 balls)
Step 6: Beat egg white with fork, then gently press cookie ball with fork; sprinkle sugar on top
Step 7: Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 350F
Step 8: Enjoy
Learn from our mistakes! Make sure to soften the butter before trying to mix it, be gently when pressing the cookie ball with the fork, and don't dump too much sugar on top. Also, all these mistakes were made by Dempsey. Oh Dempsey, when will you learn?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Online Puzzle
Following up on last weeks hobby, I decided to link to an online puzzle.
>>Try out the hobby for yourself<<
Just be careful not to throw pieces outside of the game window like I did, because apparently, you can't get them back.
Remember our instructions, start with the corner pieces. There are only four of them.
>>Try out the hobby for yourself<<
Just be careful not to throw pieces outside of the game window like I did, because apparently, you can't get them back.
Remember our instructions, start with the corner pieces. There are only four of them.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hobby 7: Puzzle
Today's hobby is popular across the world, from the scavengers of Africa to the steelworkers of Germany. It's none other than the puzzle! In a basic puzzle one is intended to piece together objects (puzzle pieces) in a logical way in order to come up with the desired shape, picture or solution.
You know those steaks that are so huge that if you eat it, you get it for free? Yeah, we found that in puzzle form. Proof of purchase and a picture of the completed 300 piece puzzle was all we needed for a full rebate. Basically, why wouldn't we accept this challenge?
Materials:
-Puzzle
-All 300 pieces (missing pieces will ruin this)
-Table
Pros:
-Group activity
-Might impress Birju
Cons:
-Takes a lot of time
-Missing pieces
Remember, start by flipping all the pieces over, then move on to corner pieces. Basically, Jo kept on insisting we stop doing this terrible, terrible puzzle, and despite Patty and Mike's better judgment, we never got to complete our work. If we had finished, our puzzle was supposed to be a barn and a tree of some sort.
You know those steaks that are so huge that if you eat it, you get it for free? Yeah, we found that in puzzle form. Proof of purchase and a picture of the completed 300 piece puzzle was all we needed for a full rebate. Basically, why wouldn't we accept this challenge?
Materials:
-Puzzle
-All 300 pieces (missing pieces will ruin this)
-Table
Pros:
-Group activity
-Might impress Birju
Cons:
-Takes a lot of time
-Missing pieces
Remember, start by flipping all the pieces over, then move on to corner pieces. Basically, Jo kept on insisting we stop doing this terrible, terrible puzzle, and despite Patty and Mike's better judgment, we never got to complete our work. If we had finished, our puzzle was supposed to be a barn and a tree of some sort.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Hobby 6: Making a Popsicle Stick House
New week, new hobby. Today we are building something everyone can enjoy, a popsicle stick house.
It all started when we were walking down the isles of the local hobby store, buying anything that looked good. Stumbling across a bag of popsicle sticks, Patty suggested, "Let's build a popsicle stick house! It's so easy to do too; we did these in kindergarten." Jo quickly responded, "Patty please. We are men. I think we can handle something a little more complex. Like a dragon or a boat." "Yeah, nothing short of a popsicle stick mansion. Trust me, I took wood working back in highschool. I know this stuff," Mike added.
"We're sorry. We're so sorry."
Materials:
-Popsicle sticks
-Glue
-Paper
-Scissors
-Weights
Cons:
-Making the roof
The goal was to get so good, we can make something like this out of popsicle sticks:
Basically, making the house was incredibly hard. Especially the roof. We edited out the part where we struggle to make the roof. Please don't do this hobby.
---
See how to make a roof for your house in our followup post: Hobby Followup - Popsicle Stick House Roof
It all started when we were walking down the isles of the local hobby store, buying anything that looked good. Stumbling across a bag of popsicle sticks, Patty suggested, "Let's build a popsicle stick house! It's so easy to do too; we did these in kindergarten." Jo quickly responded, "Patty please. We are men. I think we can handle something a little more complex. Like a dragon or a boat." "Yeah, nothing short of a popsicle stick mansion. Trust me, I took wood working back in highschool. I know this stuff," Mike added.
"We're sorry. We're so sorry."
Materials:
-Popsicle sticks
-Glue
-Paper
-Scissors
-Weights
Cons:
-Making the roof
The goal was to get so good, we can make something like this out of popsicle sticks:
Basically, making the house was incredibly hard. Especially the roof. We edited out the part where we struggle to make the roof. Please don't do this hobby.
---
See how to make a roof for your house in our followup post: Hobby Followup - Popsicle Stick House Roof