Yellowstone and my Superpower(s)

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I have a superpower!

Or is it supposed to be superpowers and the term “superpower” is used only for a country?

But what if I have a single superpowers/superpower (?!), then also would it be called superpowers?

Well, for now, lets say I have a superpowers-nope doesn’t sound right, then let’s say I have a superpower- nope doesn’t sound right either, what if I just use extraordinary ability-yeah I guess that will sound better,so  lets just say I have an extraordinary power. And with great power comes great responsibilities (Ok! I couldn’t help using this line- it just flows when one talks about superpowers!)

So, I think I might be exhibiting a mild form of precognition.

Ok! I might be jumping the gun here but what if I have- won’t it be so cool! Oh the possibilities! (For the uninitiated who do not know what precognition is do check this out to know how cool having such a superpower(s) is!)

Anywho, the reason why I “believe” that I have a mild form of precognition is as such:

Recently we went for a vacation to Yellowstone (and that is why I have been MIA from the blogging scene). On our flight back from Bozeman, Montana to Salt Lake City, Utah I asked V what happens if lightning strikes a plane. And, V was like it shouldn’t affect the plane too much and then the discussion went to me trying to show off my vast knowledge on lightning, talking about ground to cloud lightning and blah blah blah..snore. Anyway, this discussion would have been irrelevant had it not been for the spooky turn of events that happened once we reached Salt Lake City, our layover destination.

We were supposed to catch our connecting flight to Phoenix from Salt Lake City. But once we reached SLC, we found our flight to Phx was cancelled because, and here is the spooky part- it was struck by lightning. Yeah I know spooky, right?

Nope? Well, the only reason you did not find it spooky is because I did not tell it right- if I had the story telling power of Steven Speilberg this incident had all the making of a Sci-fi movie- yup, I do live in my own dream world- don’t we all?

Apart from the excitement of the revelation of my superpower(s) (!), the overall trip to Yellowstone was great. I would definitely recommend a visit there if you live in US or even if you don’t, try visit the place- its breathtakingly beautiful! (And if you do, take me along- now that I have precognition powers I’ll prove real handy!:))

For now I leave you with pictures of our trip.

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Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

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It’s that time of the month again- the Secret recipe Club time. Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’ started this fun club as a way to try other recipes and help introduce bloggers to each others’ blogs. Every month, each member is assigned another member’s blog and he/she has to try and post about a recipe from that person’s blog. My assigned blog for this month was Heather’s Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks.

Heather has a great blog with a lovely collection of recipes. She is a special education teacher and loves reading and of course, cooking. Occasionally she also posts reviews of the books she reads as part of her book club. Though she likes cooking, but baking is where her heart lies, much like me. So it had to be a baking recipe of hers that I decided to give a try.

I haven’t made bread for the longest time ever- been too lazy- not too lazy to make bread but extremely lazy to clean up after the baking is done. I hate that part of doing anything in the kitchen. I do not mind the cooking or baking but hate the utensils that pile up after I cook or bake, and that makes me lazy to make anything. And, being careless as I am, I make a whole lot of mess in the kitchen while I am at it, so the clean up just puts me off before even starting. But Heather’s Jalapeno Cheddar bread caught my eye and I knew this was what I wanted to make. So out with the lazy bones.

The only change I made to Heather’s recipe is that I substituted a part of the bread flour with whole wheat and reduced the cheese used to 1 cup instead of 1 1/2 cups (I love cheese but sadly, my waist and hips don’t)

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Cherry Clafoutis

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So today V and I got locked out of our house. I hate these automatic locks. You have to be so careful when you step out of the house for even a second. And, when you are not careful, then you are stuck outside, hoping and praying that accidentally some window has been left open. Now our bathroom window was open- yay! or wait no yay!. The window was way up and we tried getting in through that, but couldn’t. We checked for any other window that was unlocked and luckily our bedroom window was open (now yay!). V was able to get in through that and once he was in, he let me in. Never thought I would be breaking in my own house. Like I said, I hate these automatic locks.

Now, for the last two weeks Foodgawker and TasteSpotting have been full of people posting about cherry clafoutis: a classic french country dessert. I have never eaten clafoutis before, but after seeing so many pictures and people raving about it, I wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to get rid off the cherries in the fridge. So for Office Thursdays I decided to make it.

The verdict: Its quite an easy dessert to make, if you already have pitted cherries. I did not, so the pitting took a little effort, though traditionally, the french leave the pits in, saying that they impart an almond flavor when baked within the custard, something no authentic clafoutis should be deprived of. But, I did not want people at V’s office accidentally breaking a tooth biting into the pits, so I pitted the cherries. As for the baked dessert- I did not care too much for it. I should have known that I would not like it even before making it because everyone said it tastes like custard and well, I am not a big fan of custard- in fact I do not like custard at all.

For an unbiased opinion I turned to V and asked what he thought of it and he liked it since he likes custard as well. But then his opinion isn’t completely unbiased. He never says he doesn’t like anything I make, which makes it really difficult to know what tastes good and what doesn’t. Anyway, it was polished off by his colleagues in office, so I am assuming it wasn’t that bad after all. But, as for making it again- I do not think I will be baking this until I try the real thing to know how it actually tastes and how close I was to the original thing.


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