Pop-up note dispenser

I'm doing this post for a friend who requested directions for pop-up notes. I guess I made these for someone (an RA) for a special event (RA appreciation day) a couple of years ago and I'd completely forgotten about them until she mentioned them to me the other day.

For anyone interested in making these, this takes maybe all of 10 minutes to do and is super easy, and super fun to make. All you need is a sheet of paper (letter size, or bigger), scissors, and whatever you have on hand to decorate with.

I've never written directions for random crafty things before so here's my best shot. The pictures might be a bit blurry and not quite centered. Heh.

OK, so essentially, all you're doing is crafting a container for your personal pop-up messages. You probably should make all of your notes before starting your box.

Once you have that, just grab a sheet of paper out of your printer and fold it like so.

You *should* end up with 9 little sections. I usually just put the post it note in the middle as a guide. It doesn't really have to be perfect or anything.

This is now the trixiest part. I like to cut the corners on the paper so it looks a bit nicer, but it's not necessary. If you want to leave the corners on and just tape it up, that's perfectly fine.

The next part needs to be a little more exact. You may want to use an exacto for this like I did, or just use scissors if you don't have a blade around the house.

Essentially, we're making the hole for the popup notes. It's basically a large slit so that the note can pop up through it. You know, like a tissue dispenser.

So mark about a half centimeter slit on the center of the middle section (of the 9 rectangles).

And then cut it.

If you want a bit more strength on the hole part, you can put tape on top of where the hole is going to go (like a laminate). I suggest doing that if you're making this for a clumsy friend or kids. I didn't because I'm lazy.

OK, then back to your notes, you want to stick them together but do it so the sticky side alternates back and forth on the bottom (i.e. half of your notes will be upside down).

Then just lay the whole stack down, and pull the first note through the slit so it's ready to go.

That's basically it. You can now just turn it around, fold up the sides, tape it up or put a sticker to hold it together, and then decorate it however you want.

As you can see, I didn't do very much.

Now everytime you pull up a note, another one should pop up.

At this point, you can call it a day or you can glue the pop-up note dispenser onto a present or your face, or whatever tickles your fancy!

My love-hate relationship with brownies

I have to admit I've never been much of a brownie fan.

They're overly sweet and just not as satisfying as chocolate.

On top of that, I can't think of many other desserts that are as costly as making brownies (maybe tiramisu comes in close, with cheesecake not too far behind)

You know?

Well, maybe you don't know....

Also, brownie batters are really friggin finicky. I can't tell you how many brownie batters I've had just come out greasy hard-as-a-rock blobs. The WORST is when you've gone out and bought this expensive-o chocolate for it. UGH. That is the WORST. I've researched far and wide for an answer to this, but I've come up with nothing. There are certainly people who complain about greasy brownies but no one will answer. Come on Chris Kimball where are you? Harold McGee? Alton Brown??? For the love of god, Nathan Myhrvold???

I think I have a semi-answer to my own question though.

OK, so there are two types of brownie batters. There's the cakey type where you start with the creamed butter+sugar. Then you add your eggs, then your melted chocolate, vanilla, flour mix. This batter never ever ever breaks. It turns out some pretty great soft brownie with the yummy crispy layer on top.

Then there's the fudgey type of brownie. These recipes start out differently. You melt the chocolate and butter together to create an emulsion. To that you add eggs (important that it's room temperature) and vanilla. This is where I've run into trouble in the past. For some reason or another adding the melted chocolate at the beginning always makes my sugar mix a bit grainy? And I know it's the chocolate that's doing this, because if you make blonde brownies (with no chocolate in sight, this problem never happens). The sugar seems to never completely melt. And I'm afraid to put it on the heat because you know, chocolate will burn before sugar even comes close to melting (which creates a whole other problem in its own right). Anyway, if anyone has any tips, please do share. I'd love to know the science behind this. I've looked at photos online as well, and everyone who makes brownies this way seem to have a much grainier batter than the other way. Anyway, at this point, you really want to beat the heck out of your mixture. Once you put flour in, you really can't mix for that long so I think it's imperative that the egg yolk help to emulsify the mixture before any sort of gluten product hits the batter. If the mix separates out... try another egg yolk. Technically, the emulsifying properties of yolks should help bring the troubled batter back together.

At this time, I'd like to point out that I've looked at several dozens of recipes online from Martha Stewart to Alton Brown to Rachel Ray, and a lot of these celeb chef just DO NOT go near the "fudgey brownie" recipes (with the exception of Martha Stewart). Rachel Ray goes by the tried and true cakey brownies, Alton skips the chocolate alltogether and goes for a pure cocoa powder brownie. Martha has a pretty standard recipe for fudgey brownies, though but sans any tips. Even Larousse and McGee are pretty mum on the subject.

Once you put in your flour (and cocoa, salt, baking powder, and what have you), you mix just until it's incorporated. And there. It's done! You put that in your pan, cover it liberally with whatever you like on top of your brownie, and stick that in the oven for half an hour-ish until the middle sets, but isn't over baked.

And then you pray pray pray to the brownie gods for a favorable outcome.

I really think I should spend a week or two studying why the order of adding chocolate is so important. Maybe we've all been doing it wrong and chocolate shouldn't be added until after you have a sugar/butter emulsion?? But at the same time, the beauty of having small grains of sugar in the batter = the yummy fudgey quality of the brownies?

Anyway, these Mint-chocolate Hazelnut squares turned out pretty great. The brownie gods were smiling down at me today, I suppose.

At the risk of this turning out like a food blog, recipe follows.

Mint-Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

1c AP (all-purpose) flour

3T cocoa powder

1t espresso powder in 1t warm water

1/2t b.p. (baking powder)

1/2t salt

1/2c butter

4 oz chocolate + mint chocolate chips for sprinkling

1c sugar

1/3c nutella

2 large eggs

1 1/2t vanilla

1/4 c nuts (hazelnuts are obviously good, but walnuts will do OK as well)

1/4 c toffee bits

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper and grease that baby up.

2. Combine AP flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and set aside.

3. Being very very careful not to burn, melt your butter and chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave. Hint: Take it off the heat often and never stop stirring.

4. In a mixer, put in sugar and chocolate mixture and beat for 2 minutes. The texture will be a bit grainy.

5. Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time and beat beat beat for 3 minutes. Your batter will still have some sugar in it but the butter should not separate out. Add nutella, espresso mix and vanilla. Mix mix mix.

6. Add flour mixture and pray to the brownie gods that your mixture does not separate and mix only until all traces of flour are gone.

7. Pour batter into pan, "sprinkle" (more like release a flood of) mint chocolate chips, nuts, toffee on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until middle has set.

8. Let cool completely before cutting. This part is important especially for fudgey brownies. It's better, actually to keep it in the fridge, and when it's nice and cold, cut them up into 1" squares. It'll be amazing, I promise.

Some Sheep!

The county fair...

What have I been missing out on?!

Stumbling out of bed at 8 a.m., quick shower, and the tiniest layer of make-up on, I rumbled to Hamilton, Ohio to see what the fuss was all about.

Ah. The fair. The mere mention of the word brings to mind the sensations of the glaring sun of a warm summer morning, the bright colors of the ferris wheel and the buzzing anticipation in the air of animals knowing their importance this week. The whole county seems to be busy! Phone calls are answered amongst the sounds of baaaah and moos and the ever, "Let me get back to you when I finish loading my cows."

And so, as I arrived to the gate of the Butler County Fairgrounds in the wee hours of the morning to a quiet, yet vibrant ticket stand for the 2011 county fair, I was greeted by the fresh smell of excitement speckled with a bit of drowziness of the people who had decided to camp at the fairgrounds for the week.

I absolutely loved the gaudy colors of the county fair, its colors reminding me of something between carnivals and amusement parks.

The fair was still empty, with a few stalls open to serve the folks that needed breakfast, but approaching the Sheep Barn was a whole different story. You see, the 4-H sheep showing was going on this morning.

Before I segue into the Junior Sheep Show, let me babble a little about 4-H. Prior to Oxford, Ohio, 4-H was non-existent in my life. My school had Mu Alpha Theta (a math club), the French Club, Band, Future Business leaders of America, etc. We did not have a "Corn growing Club" or a "Tomato Club" (supposedly this was what the first 4-H clubs were called). Please. Of course, Ohio being the agricultural state that it is, gave birth to 4-H in the little town of Clarke, Ohio. Since then, it's grown to a giant youth leadership program that emphasizes youth growth and development with a healthy dose of a pro-agriculture agenda. Think of it as a boy/girl scout where instead of learning to tie knots and start camp fires, you learn how to grow grain, breed horses, and collect honey(also make robots, learn quilting, and make a business plan). It's pretty kick-bumbum as far as I'm concerned and I regret not having known of its existence before now.

For folks like me who've never stepped into a county fair, it's quite the experience of a lifetime. Imagine a ten-year old girl, clad with a sparkling fuschia hair band, leading an animal twice her weight around a small enclosed space covered in mulch, animal manure, and pee. Like I said, an experience of a lifetime.

You'd be hard pressed to find a suburban soccer mom encouraging her precious child to walk around a barn with a lamb head in her arm, never mind cattle weighing hundreds of pounds.

This event was intense! And the youth, aged anywhere from 8 to 18, experts in moving and positioning their animals for the judge.

I have to say, I sure am glad I'm not the lamb standing there while the judge feels my ribs and leg to judge how yummy I would be once slaughtered....

And you can really tell how much these kids have bonded with their animals. It's very heart warming to see with how much care and pride these youngsters guide and lead the livestock.

For me, the most exciting moment was watching the breeding ewe class. By far the most competitive class of all (16 entrants!), the winner was one of the lamb ewes from the Colegate Sheep Farm in Hamilton Ohio (the place where Paul and I get our freezer lamb!).

Boy was Carol Colegate excited!

After the competitions, Paul and I got a chance to walk around the fairgrounds and visit with all of the animals. It was the best $6 I ever spent.

The sheep lied down on fresh fluffy straw covered in little garments to protect their newly washed fleece.

I laughed and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Paul was pretty "meh" about it.

There were some breeds that looked so sweet

and other that looked just silly.

One baaaaaahed for its life as it was held by a mechanical arm

And others just got held down the old fashioned way.

The alpacas looked quite angry and annoyed. A sign warned me, "We spit!"

Look at that guy's evil eye.. haha.

And if one wonders if sheep were the only thing being shown that way... have you ever seen a chicken show?

A dog show?

I really envy these kids.. can you ever imagine my lazy dog ever being able to do something so dignified?

I heard the cattle show was supposed to be the next day and so kids took advantage of a slow summer afternoon to practice leading their cows around.

The other livestock exhibited in the various barns were in tip top shape. No factory farmed chickens here!

This man had no idea what kind of chicken he was raising until one of the 4-H told him he had a tufted arucauna of sorts (I already forgot the breed name.. heh). Man, these kids know everything!

Other furries included bunniesss!!!!

Watch out, this winner bites!

By far though, the most popular animals were the goats. Really, there were goats EVERYWHERE.

Seeing these cute little pygmies made me want to get one for my own one day :)

I especially loved the hand made signs a lot of these animals had. How modern.

My goodness were they friendly!

Paul and I didn't stick around for the demolition derby (maybe next year!) but we still had plenty of fun. All in all, a great first experience at the county fair.

I can't wait for the fair to come again next year! Thanks Butler County!