11. Moon Pies

Yum Yum Yum

As soon as I saw Rex's video I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Anyone that knows me well knows I love to cook, any excuse to experiment and make something new. So after watching Rex's video I really wanted to make a Moon Pie.

 I've attached a short video from Greyson Explains youtube channel who explains amazingly well what a Moon Pie is:

The Biscuit

The biscuits used are graham crackers the UK equivalent would probably be something like a digestive biscuit. I've tried a couple of recipes but couldn't find a perfect one so this is a collaboration of about six different recipes.

Ingredients you will need:

- 380g Plan White Flour

- 180g Dark Brown Sugar

- 1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

- 4g Salt

- 115g Honey

- 2tbsp Vanilla Extract

- 5tbsp Milk

- 2 bags of Marshmallows (white)

- 2 bars of Dark Chocolate 

Making the dough:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. 

Mix together the flour, brown sugar, bicarb & salt in a bowl (If your're lucky and have a mixer feel free) Mix all the ingredients together well. Whilst that is mixing, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla extract. Then mix together.

When all the ingredients are mixed together, Lay out some cling film and cover lightly with flour, place the ball of dough in the fridge for approximately 2 hours as it's quite a sticky dough.

Once thats done flour your worktop and roll out the dough with a depth of 1cm. Then use a round cookie cutter  and cut out your biscuits.

I then sprinkled caster sugar mixed with cinnamon on top and baked for 20-25mins.

The Marshmallow

Once my biscuits had cooled, I then needed to create the marshmallow filling. I attempted to make my own marshmallow but sadly this ended in what I can only describe as the marshmallow man from ghostbusters coming out my microwave. 

The easier alternative is to buy some marshmallows and put them in the microwave for 15 seconds. This then goes into a piping bag and spread across the biscuits which are then joined. 

The Final Result

Once this is done melt the chocolate over some boiling water and dip the biscuits in and then let set in the fridge or if your impatient like me the freezer.

And finally a quote

"A cake is a very good test of an oven: if it browns too much on one side and not on the other, it's not your fault - you need to have your oven checked"

          Delia Smith

10. Animated Astronaut

The First Thing - An Old Sony Television

Strangely enough, the very first thing I thought of when I saw Craig Osgood's drawing of an astronaut was an old Sony television. I can't really remember the actual images that I saw on that television, but for some reason I think I remember going around to a friend's house in 1972 when I was 6 years old so that we could all watch something which was far more exciting than any Hollywood blockbuster of today, but which at the same time seemed entirely normal and to be expected by my 6 year old self who had grown up immersed in several years worth of men walking on the moon. This miraculously exciting event was viewed on that small, foreign, Sony device which at the time was unusual in itself because it wasn't until many years later that it became commonplace to purchase electronics and gadgets produced by Japanese companies.

I can't remember any earlier times when I watched astronauts live on television but I can figure out the year of this instance because we had just moved from one area to another in San Antonio, Texas in time for me to start first grade at my new school and thus I know is was 1972. ( Yes, I know that I incorrectly put 1973 in the video titles. Sorry about that. I was a bit hasty in trying to complete the project. )

With a little help from everyone's favourite answer machine, Google of course, I have managed to pin down the fact that that was the last time anyone ever watched men walking on the moon. It was the Apollo 17 mission and it seems strange to think that it was so long ago. I was reminded of those moon walking days more recently when my children were excited about watching the somewhat similar, but let's face it, no where near as exciting or amazing, highest ever skydive by Felix Baumgartner which was streamed live on the internet and viewed by my children on a white MacBook. One day of course they may think back nostalgically to that event and the quaint old technology of the day.

San Antonio, Texas

My earliest ever memory is of when we moved to San Antonio from my birthplace of Denton, Texas when I was about 3 or 4 years old I think. A couple of years later, we moved to the house on the left in this Google Street View screen capture. It looks just the same to me now really, although I'm not sure if that now-cut-back tree trunk was there at the time or if it must have been planted after we left. As an added bit of trivia, after a couple of years living in this house we ended up moving only just across the street to live in that house for a few more years before we eventually moved to the Kansas City area that I now consider more the place where I really grew up. It's a real nostalgia trip to take a virtual walk around Google Street View to see the route I used to walk to school and remember some of the friends I knew when recognising the other streets and houses in that neighbourhood. My elementary school and the outdoor swimming pool are still just as I remember them although the school has changed it's name. It used to be called Sunset Hills Elementary. Whenever I think of that outdoor swimming pool it reminds me of hearing the Earth, Wind and Fire cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" being blasted through the loudspeakers while we splashed away in the bakingly hot Texas sunshine. To this day I still don't like to go swimming outdoors unless I'm so hot I'm already dripping with sweat. Needless to say that is an extremely rare occurrence in England where I now live.

Mix It All Together

So my creation is a bit of a video mash up of the memories in my head created by seeing Craig's astronaut along with a bit of cheeky humour just because I couldn't resist, and at least it makes me laugh. Hopefully you will laugh too when you watch it.

9. Aaaaagh! I’m Getting Old!

The First Thing....

I'm going to be honest I really enjoyed Rex's post but the first thing I thought of when I had a quick glance was that I needed a cup of tea before I read it. (Which I did) I do find a good cup of tea can solve pretty much any problem.

So the second thing I thought of was when I was growing up and all those crazy ideas (some that I still have) about what I wanted to be and do.

Space, the Final Frontier

Every young boy wanted to be a astronaut at some point and I wasn't any different. I also loved to doodle and colour in when I was younger. So I found a notebook grabbed some pencils and pens and began to doodle away. 

So I began by sketching out my idea

I then inked over the design using a Sharpie and erased the pencil.

and voila, we have a astronaut (I don't know what happened to his right glove but hey)

I've been on holiday this week and have one more week left. I thought i'd do something productive so I have signed up to a series of painting classes to see what thats all about. So hopefully some of the future posts could be paintings!!!!

And as this seems to be my thing now i'll leave you with a quote:

"You have brains in your head you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose"  

Dr Seuss

8. Growing Up

Craig's Animated Gif

I was very happy to see that Craig Osgood is keeping the art of the animated gif alive. It reminded me of some animated gif's that I made from photos of myself and put on my website many years ago. The other thing that it reminded me of the fact that I quite often seem to accidentally take a series of photos which, as I scan through them on the camera, are revealed to being an animation of one kind or another. Or in the case of this animation of Maggie and Arthur, the images are the result of what happens when you give your children permission to use your camera and they are left to make funny faces as they please. I didn't know that they had even taken these photos. I only stumbled upon the images later on while browsing through all my photos and decided that it would be fun to bring them to life.

Family Photos

The other place where these animated faces present themselves to me on a regular basis in within the "Faces" feature found in both iPhoto and Aperture. As you skim your pointer over the thumbnails of each person you are presented with a flip-book style animation of all the photos you have of that person within your photo library. When that person happens to be your own child with the photos dating from their birth to the present day, then what you get is a condensed history of that person's entire life. I have thought many times that I would like to turn this accidental discovery into a proper presentation and now, thanks to the inspiration from Craig's money growing on trees, I have. I took three individual screen captures while skimming through each child's photos within iPhoto and then cropped and assembled the results in Motion 5 together with a bit of decoration for good measure. You may have noticed from the result that it becomes apparent that my children are to be commended for putting up with the number of times that I have taken photos of them over the years, but then they are my favourite reasons for owning a camera so I must thank them profusely.