Sweet Tart for RAINN

Once again, I'm a Sweet Tart for the Sweet Charity auction benefiting RAINN. Given my difficulty in writing to prompts of late, I'm only offering baked goods this auction.

You can see my offer here - basically bidders choice of a variety of baked breads or chocolate chip cookies, and I'm making things for the top 3 bidders (US only due to freshness issues with shipping).

Bidding starts April 1st and closes April 10! Bid early, and Bid often!

All's well....

Well, after my freak out on the vitamin D and milk front, Organic Valley got back to me and informed me that generally they add the vitamin D in an emulsion of sunflower oil, though it's subject to change. Which is very nice to know, though I've found a store that is still selling it without Vitamin D.

But better yet, I've found that Organic Valley here has started selling yogurt! And it's without vitamin D or stabilizers. For sweetener they are using Agave Syrup, so that's even better. It's about the same price as other organic yogurt brands (that i can no longer eat) around here, and saves me from having another appliance taking up space! :)

The vanilla doesn't taste very vanilla-y to me, but the berry blend is great.

Okay, now to get on with my cleaning instead of procrastinating...

Watch this space for flailing...

I may be having a baking catastrophe...

a 9x13 pan is apparently not equivalent to long baking sheet....doh..hopefully it's risen as much as it will.....Or will be very very sturdy....

Whoo, it didn't rise over the sides of the baking sheet..though that may have been due to my continuous poking.

In case you are curious, I was making this recipe of oatmeal fruit bars. The baker was right when they advised me to not cut down on any of the liquids even if I was using whole milk and whole yogurt. It did end up quite dry when mixing the final step. Overall, very easy recipe to follow, though I attempted to line my baking sheet with silicone paper and that didn't quite work since the mix was a gooey and stickey and moved the paper more than it spread. Should be fun to clean the pan.

However, it is very yummy. And I don't have to feel bad about the chocolate for breakfast given the amount of fiber (plus some fruit) in them. This plus a glass of milk will make a nice change from plain oats in the morning. Oooh, I should see about figuring out the taking a picture of these with the iphone and posting it...

Ooh, and as a bonus, the chocolate glaze mixture can serve as my lazy-man's version of icing when I make doughnuts (or cake if I get adventurous) next. *claps hands*

*splutters in awe at the hipocracy*

So, since it's just pedophilia, and no one really got hurt, the pope is saying refrain from judging sinners....

The same guy who has no problem excommunicating people that helped a 12 year old survivor of incest get an abortion?

They get judged, but let's not judge the rapists, or judge the men who allowed them to continually rape??

Dude, I hope someone told you that you may have just provided the incentive for a lot of people to find a friendlier religion to convert to. You know, one that's run by sane people that have no problems with gays or judging people that hurt the defenseless.

Words do not even begin to express it, but the icon does.

The pope said Jesus taught people to "not judge and not condemn one's neighbor. Let us learn to be intransigent toward sin — starting with our own (sin) — and indulgent with people."

Hmm, I seem to remember Jesus saying something about what would happen to those that would hurt a little child...I think that goes double for those enforcing those "Vatican policies that kept the abuse secret [which the pope] doesn't blame for making the situation worse". Methinks someone might find (assuming his spaghetti monster in teh sky is what he thinks it is) that his so-called "infallibility" that comes with his office doesn't extend to everything when his number gets called.

I declare victory.....

My apartment may not look any more put together, but I accomplished the tasks I've envisioned for the past few weeks (ever since buying a new metal rack) in which:

1. the yaffa blocks got declothed and moved to the living room to serve as overflow DVD storage (the rest of which are niftily hidden in compartments in the couch);

2. my suitcases arranged in the book closet such that I can actually easily remove the most used ones without bothering the gigantor behemoth (which I would never ever be able to wrestle on a train by myself)

3. the things on my ikea almost-coffee table removed so it could be relocated to hallway though it takes up sizeable portion of hallway (with the hopes that I will stop burying one of my recliners in work stuff and keep shoes organized)

4. the rubbermaid container of off-season clothes removed from closet and relocated to where ikea-thing was to serve as stand for stereo speakers in bedroom

5. the newly purchased wire rack put inside newly vacuumed closet to serve as a hopefully more organized place for folded clothes.

Which, while doing all of this, I think I shall post-pone any plans for a big vacation this year in lieu of buying a grown up bedroom set that includes a dresser that contains NO PARTICLE BOARD that likes to decorate my clothes as if I stored them with hamster bedding. Doing so will greatly reduce the amount of folded clothes floating around my closet. And give me incentive to actually keep my bedroom clean since I won't loathe it anymore.

Still, progress. I may be eaten by clothes in the middle of the night that have reached sentience, but I will go out declaring small amounts of organizational victory since the suitcase tanks will not be part of the assault....