This 'n' That

Occasionally I come across a website with a name that I find ridiculously appealing. It's even better, of course, when it turns out to be an excellent website. That is the case with Awkward Botany. Someone on Twitter linked the Seed Oddities article, which was very interesting.

There are several interesting articles on Atlas Obscura. A 1930's House of Tomorrow is for lease, but the new tenant will have to restore it. I would like to see pictures when it's done. And The Exotic Pepper Project! I am low-level excited about this. I hope the Pumpkin Habanero makes its way to my neck o' the woods before too long.

The Public Domain Review is a great history/literary site that I really want to make more time for.

100,000 Stars looks like a fun, scientific thing to play with.

In praise of autochrome. These old color photos are lovely.

Random Linkage

Rubik's Cakes - a cute party idea

Hidden Haikus

Artist Will Wilson - Portraits, still life, animals, and more

Six Pie Recipes

Colormind - I haven't taken the time to play with this yet but it looks interesting.

Glass house - Beautiful! Definitely do not throw stones.

Candy Geode - You'll need a few friends to share it with.

Planet Building Blues - An interesting blog if you have time to do some reading.

Newest Vice

Prepared food industry, I hate you. You keep on coming out with irresistible stuff. And by the way, Mother Nature... I don't hate you because you do some really awesome work but let's be honest, you are a cruel bitch sometimes. Like, the way you make stuff that's bad for us taste so good. But back to the prepared foods industry and this evil temptation.

I know... almonds are healthy, right, so this isn't that bad? That's what they want us to think. They don't want us to read the required Nutrition Facts part of the label and see that it has 14 grams of fat and 13 grams of carbohydrates per unrealistically small serving.

So far we've tried it on whole wheat bagels and on graham crackers. The jar is almost empty. I'm going to try to resist the temptation to buy more. For a while.

Just a Recipe

I don't know if I'll make this for Thanksgiving because I already had plans to make something else but these pumpkin pecan brownies look really good so I will make them sometime.

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Grocery Store

Now is the season of the dread Pumpkin Spice Invasion. That stuff sends out mind control rays that make you think pumpkin spice flavored everything is a fantastic idea. Did you know that? No? Maybe it's just me.

I've always been mostly indifferent about it but this year it seems like I'm seeing more pumpkin spice flavored stuff than ever. Pumpkin spice Cheerios, pumpkin spice instant oatmeal. I'm not a big fan of Cheerios in general. Some of the flavors (apple cinnamon for example) actually do taste pretty good but I guess it's the size and texture of Cheerios that I find off-putting. It makes me feel like I'm eating cat food. But anyway, for just a second I was tempted to grab the Pumpkin Spice Cheerios because, pumpkin spice!

I did buy the pumpkin spice instant oatmeal. It's actually not bad but it's not great either and the smell of it bothers me a little bit. So I decided to put it in oatmeal cookies. They were good because, cookies!

I don't know where the pumpkin spice temptation comes from. I'm not even a big fan of pumpkin pie. I mean, I like it okay; I always eat at least one slice every Thanksgiving. After all it would be weird to eat Cool Whip by itself. But it's not one of my top ten favorite pies. So I don't know why pumpkin spice flavored everything else would seem like such a good idea. Just the novelty of it I guess. Either that or mind control rays.