Toe-Tapping Thursday: Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes

This past weekend my friend Allyssa Milan posted a status on her FB about seeing this group in concert, and she included a video for one their songs.

"Who are these ladies, and why don't I know about them?" was my response after checking their video out. Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes have this 60's retro, soul/doo wop thing going on that is pretty damn fantastic! I'm just gobbling them up! They are new to me, so I have nothing else to add, but so far, I really like what I'm hearing. :)

I will leave you guys with the song that Allyssa shared, since it's the song that caught my attention - Love Letter. Enjoy!

Food Porn Friday: Appetizers

For this week's Food Porn Friday post, I want to talk about something I am craving, and that is an appetizer that I make usually during the holidays. You know, because we don't have enough food for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we gotta have something to snack on too. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished product, but I went to Google and got pictures of the specific ingredients you need. I'm posting them in order of how I place the items.

1. Crackers

2. Salchichon Goya

3. Guava Paste

 

4. Queso Blanco

(Alternate cheese) Queso de Papa

Now, if I remember correctly, when I was little and my mom used to put these together, she would also add a green olive to the top and skewer it all with a toothpick. I have been in charge of making these since I was maybe 8 years old, and I've never put them on there - I don't like olives. You could do the toothpick thing to make it look fancy and whatnot but I think it's just an obstacle. I gobble these puppies up! Don't need anything getting in my way. ;)

Now, because these ingredients are Hispanic ingredients you do have to either go to a Hispanic grocery store or a store with a big international section. If you shop at Walmart; they may have the slachichon there - my local Walmart used to carry it, they don't anymore. They do carry the the cheeses and guava paste, though. Again, sorry I don't have any pics for ya. But if it makes you feel any better, I won't be able to eat this probably for another 3 weeks or so.

Toe-Tapping Thursday: Bridges

Happy Thursday peeps, and welcome to another week of Triple T.

One of the things I really like about sites like Pandora and Spotify is that they recommend artists and songs based on your listening activity. It's such a great way to discover new music! A little over a week ago, Spotify suggested the song Bridges by Broods to me - O.M.G, what a good song! I'll be honest, I don't really know the lyrics. Can't really understand all she's saying, but her voice is just amazing and the melody is amazing and I love how the verses start. That's what hooked me to the song - the very beginning. Every time I hear it, weird things happen to me, I can't even describe it. It's like abruptly being transported into some ethereal world with flowy, silky, almost sheer garments, and waterfalls...and maybe fairies, I dunno.

So for your listening pleasure, I give you Bridges by Broods.

Food Porn Friday: Chocolate/Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Keeping with the "-less" theme of most of my recent baking, this week's Food Porn Friday is butter-less chocolate/peanut butter chip cookies.

I'll admit, the recipe I have with butter is in my opinion a lot better; but if you don't have butter at home and don't want to buy any or can't afford to buy any, this is a good alternative. The cookies are still good.

Now, this is the part where I type the recipe for you guys, but I'm being lazy, and since I got this from a website, I'm just going to link to that website. LOL. So click HERE to see the recipe. It should be the scaled down version that I used. It says it makes 22 cookies, I got about 18. Also, the recipe is just for chocolate chip cookies, but I usually buy the mixed bag that comes with milk chocolate and peanut butter chips, so that's the one I used. Enjoy!

Toe-Tapping Thursday - Red Eye

Another HAIM song cleverly disguised as a Kid Cudi track - hehe. They're my favorite band, I can't help it if I'm a wee bit obsessed. ;)

This song was everywhere this week! It came up in conversation this week because of the remix of My Song 5 which now features some dude named A$AP Ferg. He ruined that song. He should stay as far away from my HAIM as possible. But that got me thinking about collaborations, and the song Red Eye is a great example of how one should collaborate with HAIM. It's a great song!

Well, like a day or two later, I had a friend of mine post Red Eye onto her page - someone had turned her on to the track and she was really digging it. And a day after that, someone else posted it up. I felt like I couldn't go anywhere without it popping up. Not that I mind, I'd forgotten how much I liked this song until this week. Ended up putting it on my Spotify playlist along with all my other HAIM tracks. ;)

So for your listening pleasure, Kid Cudi featuring HAIM - Red Eye:

Food Porn Friday: Coconut Ice Cream (Homemade)

I know, I know - I'm late. But this was worth the wait! I JUST finished making coconut ice cream and it is DELISH!

A very good and dear friend of mine is moving out of the country next month and they have different electrical outlets out there, and she can't really use the things she has; so she has been trying to pawn off items on people. The moment she said she had an ice cream maker, my ears perked up! What!? I've been dying for an ice cream maker!!! So I graciously (*snickers*) volunteered to take her Cuisinart off her hands. Now, the condition which was put on me (which I totally agreed to) was that this was a loaner, because her husband is crazy about this thing and chances were he was going to want it back when they move back to the states in a couple of years. Not a problem - by the time they get back, I will be an ice cream making machine myself! :P

On the train ride back home, I looked at the little booklet and saw a very simple recipe for coconut ice cream, and I decided that would be my first project. I'm Puerto Rican, we love coconut. Now, looking at the recipe, there were a few things I wasn't crazy about, and decided to make some alterations. After tasting the final product, I'd say my alterations worked great.

 

I will leave you guys with both the ingredients from the booklet and the alterations I made. If you love coconut and want to make your own - do it! It's so creamy and delicious!!!

Cuisinart Ingredients:

• Heavy cream - 2 cups, chilled
• Whole milk - 1 cup, chilled
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Coconut extract - 1 teaspoon
• Shredded coconut - 1/4 cup

Alternate Ingredients:

• Heavy cream - 2 cups, chilled
• Coconut milk - 1 cup, chilled
• Sugar - 2/3 cup
• Coconut extract - 1 teaspoon

I didn't like the idea of having shredded coconut or flakes in the ice cream. It's actually one of the things I don't like about coconut - it's chewy and it gets stuck in your teeth and I swear there's always like a stray flake in your mouth the rest of the day. So I decided to use coconut milk instead - it gives you the coconut taste you're looking for without a mouthful of flakes. :)

I also cut the sugar down a bit. This wasn't in the original plan; it just happens that we were low on sugar, and 2/3 of a cup was all I had. LOL. I figured it was a good enough amount so I made the call and decided to only use that much. It worked great, I like how sweet it is with this amount of sugar. I think if I would have used more it would have been too sweet for my liking.

Toe-Tapping Thursday - Indestructible (Acoustic Version)

Ok sweeties, we're gonna have a quickie Triple T this week. It's after 1 a.m. I've been up since 6 a.m. and only slept about an hour. Long day.

Anywho, this week's Toe-Tapping Thursday is the acoustic version of Indestructible by Robyn. Now, Robyn first came on the scenes in the mid 90's with her hit single Show Me Love. (I still remember the All That performance of that song) Shortly thereafter, she fell off the face of mainstream music - at least to me - and I kinda forgot about her for years. Then somewhere between 2006-2007 I stumbled across her most recent (at that time) album and I fell in LOVE with her sound. Not the bubble gum pop that I associated her with. This was cool, and unique, and funny, and quirky, and it worked. So I've been a Robyn fan since then.

Sometimes I can go periods of time where I don't listen to her, and then out of the blue I'll think of one of her songs, or it'll play on my Pandora or Spotify and it's like I'm discovering her for the first time all over again. That's what happened this week - I was listening to Spotify radio and this song came on, and I fell in love with it all over again. I'm a sucker for acoustic versions of artist's songs (Living On a Prayer, anyone?).

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. :)

Truth

Actions speak louder than words

And your silence says it all.

Letting you hurt me after all these years...

I'm astounded at your skill

Not a word was uttered and yet I heard you loud and clear

You can tell me that everything is ok,

but we both know that's not the case.

I don't feel the same for you

And though you say I'm still your best,

I guess I'll never be that blessed.

Maybe I shouldn't have asked

Maybe you should have lied

Maybe we should admit defeat

And move on with our lives.

But we don't

We refuse

You fight for me and I fight for you

You stay in spite of my insults

I stay in spite of your lies

Sorry to say I think we've plateaued

We'll never get back what we had long ago.

Food Porn Friday - Pizza

No recipe for this week's Food Porn Friday. Instead, I will be talking about what I've been craving all week - pizza! Who doesn't love pizza!? There's a topping for everyone (cheese, bacon, anchovies, etc.) and there's also a crust for everyone (regular, thin, stuffed, etc.) I'm a huge pizza lover, and I'll admit I'm going a little crazy - I haven't had pizza in a few months. The woes of being unemployed.

So this is my current craving. I will continue to crave it until I eat it, whenever that is. I leave you all with pics I got from Goggle of pizza that I could DEF eat right about now.

 

Toe-Tapping Thursday: Sailor Moon Crystal Opening

With only two days until the premiere of Sailor Moon Crystal, this moonie has been on a Sailor Moon kick!

June 30th was the birthday of Sailor Moon/Usagi/Serena, so they had this big event in Japan and the people that went got to see the first episode - lucky bastards! BUT someone managed to record the opening theme AND the first transformation scene. *sighs* It was beautiful, I cried. The theme song has been stuck in my head since. Doesn't help that I've seen that video like 34343565000 times.

So for today's Toe-Tapping Thursday, I give you the new Sailor Moon Crystal opening, and as a bonus, you get to see the transformation scene as well. Don't mind the squeeeing - fans went a little crazy on certain parts. And I'll admit, while I was watching it, I reacted the same way. :P