Stove Top Popcorn

I have always thought that making popcorn on the stove was a very difficult thing to do.... you can thank my mother who ruined a good pot by burning the oil/popcorn so bad on the bottom it was black for years....and it was one of those old thick pots with the yellow outside! Our house smelled like burnt popcorn for weeks... I can remember it as if it was yesterday.
Well we have no microwave here in Brazil so I decided I needed to learn how to do this. It would be so much easier while traveling. I don't ever recall actually eating stove top popcorn in my life!
So I did some searching and read a few "recipes" for doing this. After some talking with friends (yes it takes a village to raise this cook!), I decided to go with plain old butter and yellow corn.
What I did:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup yellow popcorn



I started up my gas stove top on high . This alone still freaks me out... I really need to by one of those point and click lighters because I feel I'm going to burn myself every time I use the match...and the fire extinguisher is on the first floor- we are on the 15th! Got a 2 qt pot and put my 1/4 cup of butter in it and 3 kernels and just kind of moved the pot over the flame. I watched my butter get a little brown and wondered if I was already screwing up. But then one of my kernels popped...and I might add scared the crap out of me! Then I added the 1 cup corn, put on the lid and continued to shake pot. I was so excited when it started popping. I'm such a little kid. After a couple moments I realized my 2 qt pan wasn't big enough because popcorn started pouring out (and then starting on fire since the flame was still going). I quickly dumped some on to a near by cookie sheet and continued to pop. I have no idea how your suppose to tell when the kernels are all done. I had plenty of popcorn so I decided that was good. After eating most of it I realized I had about 1/4 cup of kernels still at the bottom  of the pot but the bottom was also dry. So if your reading this...do I need to put more butter in next time and keep the bottom with butter to get that last bit to pop? Or do I need to just pop longer? I was nervous of burning it. I think my 3/4 cups of kernels that did pop probably made about 8 cups of popcorn. Next time I need to only do 1/2 cup of kernels. Luckily London LOVES plain popcorn...so he got a little pot of it. I love butter...so I heated up some more butter and then covered mine in salt. Oh yummy goodness! I don't think I can go back to microwave ever again.

The old iPod

After 5 yrs of having my product {red} iPod and a couple computers later.... I figured out today how to get the music OFF my iPod and into my iTunes so I could use it with my new iPods!!!! Old red has been on her way out since she feel in the tub in the Philippines. I was practicing hypnobabies in the tub and she got pulled in....shows true character that she was able to still play though!
I got online and did a search and found this site- http://www.macworld.com/article/54342/2006/12/twowaystreet20.html Once I had the program downloaded I found I had to do things a touch different. Once I got the music on to my desktop I wasn't able to do the normal "add to library" function in iTunes. Instead I had to copy and paste the music into my iTunes music folder. But even after I did that it wouldn't show up IN my iTunes....then I found out I had to click on each song (4GB worth) and it then saved it properly. Took a long time and there is probably an easier way to do it.....however I got to listen to my wedding music again!
"Some Where Over the Rainbow" by IZ and "I'm a Believer" by Smash Mouth has been listened to most of the night <3

Acai

Acai is a local fruit that is pronounced a-sigh-EE, emphasis on the EE not the sigh (so I have been saying it wrong!). I have heard TONS about this fruit from people in the USA on all its amazing health properties. And I know the juice is CRAZY expensive state-side. Since its dirt cheap here I thought I would give it a try. I'm not 100% sure what the fruit itself tastes like because I haven't found that yet. What I did find was Acai na tigel. This seems to be how most of the Brazilians eat the fruit. They take the pulp of the Acai and then mix it with a touch of soy milk or syrup and ice then blend. This makes it into a sorbet texture. They then add sliced banana and sprinkle with granola. To make this little dessert there are a variety of ways apparently.
If you add orange juice to the pulp that seems to be the popular way to drink it. We tried both ways. Not bad, not wonderful either. But i'm told that the location we went to was just ok and that we needed to try more places because its amazing. So I will keep trying.
I forgot my camera in the car when we hit up this stand so here is a picture thanks to Wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A7a%C3%AD_na_tigela
And a video thanks to youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzVWzBpqz1o

My new years resolutions for 2011

1. To do 5 new things (or more) every month of 2011.
2. Two days a month wireless....well no internet or tv that is. Music is ok.
3. Read 5 books by end of the year.

There you have it. Sounds pretty easy I think. I'm going to use this blog to track my progress and show what I did new, on my wireless days and what books I read. :) After all my life of nothing but traveling has changed up some, so if this blog is going to continue it needs to follow the life I have. Don't worry my plan is to keep traveling so there will be fun travel posts still!

The card is done!

Thanks to mary and shutterfly and target I got our cards done!

Snapshot Snowman Holiday

Christmas cards and holiday thank you cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Corpus Christi, TX

We flew in yesterday and are going to be staying at the Residence Inn while here. Troy stayed at the Holiday Inn on the beach last time and he swear this place is nicer location. We have tons of food/malls/stores in walking distance but the beach I would have to drive to.
On this job Troy is an Operator instead of his normal Chief position. The reason being he is learning a new technology. I will not go into the nitty gritty because I would bore you all. The short version is now he has to be the guy that works night shifts...that should be interesting since he doesn't function well past 2am. Also it makes me glad we got a one bedroom hotel room instead of the normal one room. This way London and I can actually be awake and at home without bugging him (well TO MUCH anyway).  Anyway he did his training today and was done early so we got to do a little exploring.
Random things I learned today about Corpus Christi....
1. One of the monkee's (band) is from here (Nesmith)
2. Said monkee's mom was the inventor of liquid paper
3. Farrah Fawcett and Eva Longoria are also from here.
4. Corpus Christi was declared the “Birdiest City” in the nation with more individual species counted than any other city.
5. A portion of the movie Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Alec Baldwin, was filmed on the USS Lexington.

There don't you feel smarter now :D