How to Make Peanute Butter Blossoms

How to Make Peanut Butter Blossoms
Ingredients:
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional sugar for coating
48 Hershey’s kisses

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 F.
2) Beat peanut butter and shortening until well blended.
3) Add both sugars, egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
4) Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat in gradually to first mixture.
5) Form into 1-inch balls, roll in sugar, and place on cookie sheet.
6) Bake for 8-10 minutes. Unwrap kisses and immediately press into cookie centers.

Notes: This is the original recipe that I sometimes alter. Recently I made slightly larger cookies and baked them a few minutes longer. You can also use butter instead of shortening. Butter will enhance the flavor, but shortening gives a flufflier texture.

How to Deal with Tooth Nightmares (Real and Imagined)

Live in a third world country for a few years with poor diet and dental care and probably obtain two cavities (I haven't confirmed yet). Then start learning to SCUBA dive and have pieces of your back molars pop off because of the water pressure. True story. Real phenomenon. I've never had bad teeth, until now, but I've had a lot of dreams in my life about something happening to my teeth, like all of them falling out or being broken.

My parents said that I ground my teeth as a child and it woke them up at night. I'm not sure if the grinding caused the dreams or vice versa, but they were probably connected somehow. I've heard that tooth dreams are a result of stress, which makes a lot of sense since people grit their teeth
when they're under pressure, no pun intended. However, for kicks and giggles I decided to research other possibe interpretations of this kind of dream.

1) Fear of death or growing old
2) Powerlessness
3) Fear of change
4) Fear or failure or embarrassment
5) Poor health (physcial, mental, spiritual, emotional)
6) Financial instability
7) Abandonment
/(Source)

I think a lot of these concerns apply to me, but they are general enough to apply to quite a lot of people. They are very real human fears. You could add a lot of additional things to this list and it could all be considered stress, a mental/emotional condition that may affect us physically in the way that we hold our jaw, which completes the cycle by again affecting our mind and emotions as we sleep, especially if we don't deal with that stress in a healthy way.

Now that it has actually happened - pieces of my teeth have actually come off, the fear isn't as great as I thought it would be. I was so worried that one day I would have cavities or other tooth problems and that it would ruin my teeth and affect me for the rest of my life. Now I realize that regular people just go to the dentist and get it taken care of. Unless you stick your wide open mouth in everyone's face, no one is really going to know or care that you have a few tooth problems.

As long as I am not in pain and my smile looks okay, I'll be happy. And even if someday something happened to my front teeth (Lord forbid!), I'll probably cry but then end up with some nice looking implants that no one will realize are fake. Unlikely, but at least now I know that I'll survive.

How to Waste a LOT of Time

Go to Addicting Games.

You'll never be able to leave.

One of my BOSSES once showed me this website I waste entirely too much time there. I'll find a favorite game and get stuck on it until I beat it. Some of them are really dumb, but the title is appropriate - they are addicting.

How to Make a Nutritious, Tasty, Fulfilling Snack

I have always been a big fan of sweet potatoes, but until recently I didn't realize just how nutritious they were. They are a natural source of dietary fiber, naturally occurring sugars, potassium, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron and calcium. I also didn't know quite how to enjoy them without butter and brown sugar.

Well, a few weeks ago I found a recipe for baked sweet potatoes chunks with a bacon maple glaze (similar the sweet tater fries you find in some restaurants). Before baking, you coat the chunks in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. I tested a piece to see if they were done baking and discovered that I LOVED the chunks even without the glaze. We ate it with the glaze that I made from maple syrup, but it gave me the idea to start making my own sweet potato fries with enough seasoning to make them delicious enough on their own.

You can cut your sweet potatoes into any shape you wish - chunks, fries, chips, etc. I would recommend baking them at 400 or higher. I've cooked them on a lower temperature for longer, but they don't get very crispy. I cook my chunks for about 15-20 minutes on each side, but that time would obviously decrese for thin fries or chips. You can use any kind of oil, but I think olive oil has the best flavor. I've also uses garlic and parmesan cheese on my sweet potatoes. I think I could eat these every day. It would probably make me a lot healthier!

How to Really Worry Your Family and Friends

Just happen to be visiting another country when unrest breaks out. My friend Rachel was in Egypt recently and toward the end of her trip I started hearing about problems going on in the country. She's back now, but one of the headlines on the yahoo page is about the protests that are breaking out.

I was living in Honduras in 2009 when the coup happened. If you don't know anything about it, the wikipedia article is a decent introduction - . I lived through the curfews and "state of exception." My friends and I saw protests, threatening graffiti, and a lot of unrest. At one point we were even on a bus on the same day that a bus from the same line to the same city was bombed. We had very nearly taken that bus, but were delayed in our departure. If I remember correctly, only part of the explosive device went off and the other part was defused or didn't function. If it had gone off as planned, everyone would have probably been killed.

If you understand Spanish or want to put it through an online translator, here is an old article I found about the incident. It happened on Thanksgiving Day when we were on our way to eat dinner with our missionary friends.

We were also in the country when they had a devastating flood and a major earthquake. I can't imagine the anxiety that we caused our families and friends. We didn't completely disregard their wishes, but we were there for a purpose and we completed it. There were probably people who were worried about Rachel while she was in Egypt, but I understand the call to travel, explore, and understand other cultures. I understand the missionary's call and will probably continue to listen to it the rest of my life.

How to Make an Oddly Satisfying, Slightly Nutritious, Low-Calorie, Semi-Caffeinated Drink

Sometimes I get in the mood for mountain dew, especially code red mountain dew. It was my friend during many final exam study weeks. I've never been a constant soda drinker, though I went through a stage when I lived in Central America because all of the cokes were made with real sugar instead of corn syrup. I'm much more likely to drink milk, water, juice, coffee, and tea now. However, I've recently had the urge for that code red flavor. I bought a pack but realized I was drinking it too often and that the sugar overload was giving me a headache. (It's not the caffeine. I tend to drink caffeine on occasion to help my migraines.) I bought the diet variety but no one really LIKES the diet aftertaste.

We tend to buy the simply orange juice at our house but the other day we decided to try the variety with added mango juice. I had just poured myself a glass when I remembered that I had already opened a can of diet code red mountain dew. Enter: Strange idea. I'm sure someone has done this before, but it was an original idea to me. I mixed the OJ and soda together. After all, mountain dew already has a citrusy flavor. The end result was rather tasty and it masked the diet flavor. The OJ does add some calories to the calorie-free diet soda, but it also adds some vitamins, so I'd say it's a fair trade.

How to Make An Amazing Pitcher of Southern Iced Tea

Sweet tea has been called the house wine of the south. There are probably some places outside of the south that offer this refreshing drink, but I had no idea that it wasn't a staple in all restaurants until I traveled out west one time and people snickered at me when I tried to order it. I lived in Central America for several years and although they offered sweet tea, it was usually made from a mix rather than brewed directly.

I love tea so much that I can drink unsweetened, hot, herbal, or just about any rendition and I take pride in the fact that I can make a proper cup of British tea, but my first love will always be southern iced tea.

Materials Needed:
1 cup of water per quart of tea you wish to make
1 family size tea bag or 2-3 standard tea bags per quart
tea kettle or saucepan
tea pitcher
sugar (approximately 1/2 cup per quart)
pinch of baking soda

1) To make a tea base, first boil water in a saucepan or tea kettle.

2) Place the tea bags in your tea pitcher and pour the water over them.

3) Allow the tea to steep for about ten minutes. Add a pinch of baking soda to cut the bitterness.

4) Remove the tea bags but don't squeeze them, as this can increase the bitterness.

5) Add sugar to taste and stir.

6) Serve over ice or refrigerate until chilled. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste.

Keep your tea refrigerated to keep it from spoiling.

Note: I do not recommend using a microwave to boil water. Water will not bubble even when at a boiling temperature, so it can become deceptively hot. When moved, it can bubble over and cause burns.