Pumpkin cakey bread!

Adapted from this recipe:

I made pumpkin cakey bread the other day and added a cup of 60% cocoa Ghirardelli chocolate chips, a handful of candied ginger, chopped, and golden raisins. It was awesome. I had to use a cake pan, which was good, but will definitely make muffins next time!

I doubled the recipe, using a 15 oz can of pumpkin, and used pumpkin pie spice and some fresh ground cinnamon in place of the suggested cinnamon and ginger. Didn't have the pepitas, but what I had was great. May add pecan next time.

The double batch made one super 9" round pan. It was a bit gooey in the middle and fully cooked on the outside. Cooked about 45 minutes, knife came out clean but the center was almost too raw, whereas edge was cakey-bready-perfect, like a nice zucchini bread.

Didn't get a picture. It was too yummy! :D

These pumpkin swirl brownies look great, must make soon!

No on 8, SF rally!

OMG, y'all, I finally managed to upload my No on 8 rally photos!
I blame camera battery. And laziness. But still, they were on my computer mere moments before I uploaded to flickr, which I'll take as a win. :D

There are many great posters, but the Liz Taylor one I chose for the cover may be my favorite. :P

I would have embedded it here, but blogger is thwarting me, and my attempts at html are apparently not good enough. ;p

Heh. The photo uploader was in another window. Silly me!

Written & Print-Screen'd last night

Perfect fireworks weather, eh? Bf and I had that last year in western New York state, too.
But folks in my neighborhood have been setting them off for about two weeks, so... a few more tonight, for sure.
So yeah, definitely bring some warm stuff to BlogHer. If you're planning to check out the beach or Wharf, a leather jacket would not go amiss. Even on a nice day, it is windy by the water!!!
A few years ago the Burning Man newsletter, the JRS, said, "here in San Francisco, where it is 55 degrees year-round...", and I assure you, they were only partly joking. :P
Certainly this is a good amount warmer than our winter weather, with lows that occasionally dip into the thirties.

6 Random Things Meme from VDog

The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random Things About Al_Pal:

1. I love making delicious, stupidly salty food from pantry items. I’m considering a blog to list the recipes.
2. Every one of my fingers, except my right thumb, are double-jointed.
3. When I’m not checking out this group of family-journals, I’m with my "freak family" of Burning Man people, or my "geek family" of Harry Potter fans.
4. In fact, I’m going to a convention for HP fans in Chicago this August...and taking my boyfriend with me.
5. In the past, I went to a few cons with my youngest sister – so this promises to be a different experience!
6. I love living in San Francisco, but am also very glad that I’m in the ‘beach town’ part of the city. It’s quiet and mellow, but I can hop on a light-rail [trolley] and be downtown in 20-40 minutes.

Um...I don't really have six people here, at least not yet. Maybe if I decide to integrate some of my Burner friends into my Auntie life, I can tag... But I'm usually a tag-killer anyhow. I guess that is a seventh random thing!

The chickpea salad was Yum!

Oh yes! So good. I didn't end up using artichoke hearts, but I did manage to use mozzarella, by taking four string cheese sticks, quartering them lengthwise, then slicing them all. There is a nice view of the "rounded cube" of cheese in this photo. :D
This pasta salad was very well received! Like I said in my previous post, I used fresh basil, but I didn't use any of the other suggested herbs, just salt and pepper. Yum!

Chickpea & pasta salad

Friend shared this recipe. I'm out of tomatoes and not willing to go to the store, but I'm going to try pasta with chickpeas, black olives, red onion, red bell pepper, fresh basil, and vinegar and olive oil. Maybe artichoke hearts!

Parent blogging article; thanks to V!

In parenthood, sometimes a blog is born
Pretty interesting. Mentions BlogHer, Twitter and a few stats.

Thanks to VDog for hosting an awesome Mother's Day celebration! ;D

New widget, Lil' green patch

Yeah, it's from the dread lord Fazebook that I found the Green Patch, but it is quite rather fun and hooray for saving a bit of rainforest without having to spend money. Heh. :P

The widget does NOT take you to the book of fazing. :P
[though I'm unsure what their options are. Guess I should check that out]

completely overcast today

I'll see if it's any clearer downtown...
I was reading Bossy's SF recap and saw a comment about "are the skies always blue in Cali?"
Nope. :P
the famous SF fog is saying Hai.

VDog offered up this meme for making an album cover...and I got some pretty fun results. The instructions are on her page there [and I think she's the only one who might ever read this] so I'll just list mine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_McCormick Kenny from South Park! Hee!

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 1965
US black nationalist leader (1925 - 1965)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesrdoe/2168143262/