Morning! Welcome to another week of Stuff We Like, brought to you by Freddy and Freddy's family.

My grandpa turns 100 this week. What a huge milestone, right? Well, my family thought so. We decided to make it a pseudo-family reunion. I say pseudo because my mom's side of the family has always been close. We spent almost every Thanksgiving and Christmas at her parents' house. Over the summer grandpa and grandma would take some of the cousins and go to airstream rallies, alternating who and where. But as we got older, started going to college, it got harder.

Then we started getting married, people moved away because of jobs-sometimes overseas-and then the life changer of kids. (Expensive little devils/angels). Even at my grandma's funerals we weren't all able to come together because it was so sudden-despite her long illness-and the funeral happened so quickly. Whoever could come made it and we leaned on each other, consoled grandpa, and did what families do-tell stories. Out of grandma's funeral came the plans of coming together again, because there was a realization that we had missed each other. A lot.

We spent the next couple years trying to figure out how to bring the family together. Grandpa's 100th birthday became that focus point for us.

We're even crazy enough to actually want to rent a house together-one that fit all of us. 35-40 people in one house. 4 generations. A lot of beach time. Bike time. But mainly, a lot of talking, cuddles, card games, food, Minecraft, more food, and family togetherness.

While there are stressful moments. Moments we need to ourselves. Disagreements on how we want to do things. None of us would change this week.

Hi everyone Toni here with another episode of Stuff We Like... Surprise, surprise I'm doing another food post. I recently celebrated 5 years at my job. To celebrate I thought I would make some cupcakes to take in to thank everyone for putting up with me for so long.

Now these aren't your typical cupcakes with icing and looking all fancy like... These are Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes. I can't remember where the recipe came from, but I've been making these since I was a child. Although I haven't made them in years. I don't know what made me think of them recently but I did, and thought I'd dust off the old recipe and see if they were as good as I remember them being. 
  

Chocolate surprise cupcakes are a chocolate cupcake mix with a cream cheese an choc chip surprise baked into the middle of it. They are divine! They're amazing fresh out of the oven, cold, or even re heated for 25 seconds in a microwave, just enough to warm it through and make the choc chips go gooey.

CHOCOLATE SURPRISE CUPCAKES

 

Ingredients

Batter:
3 cups flour                                         Filling:

2 cups sugar                                        250 grams cream cheese

½ cup cocoa                                        1 egg

2 teaspoons baking soda                     ⅓ cup sugar

2 cups water                                        pinch salt

⅔ cup vegetable oil                             175g chocolate chips

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

 

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Lightly grease muffin pans or use paper cup-cake liners.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda. Add the water, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream the cream cheese with a spoon. Add the egg, sugar and salt. Beat till smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Now, fill each muffin cup ⅔ full with chocolate mixture, and then place 1-2 teaspoons of filling on top.

Bake at 180 deg C. For about 20 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched. Makes about 18 cup-cakes.

Angel's our resident technophobe and she doesn't make any secret of it. So we might be just a little surprised about this one...

pod·cast
/pädˌkast/
noun: podcast; plural noun: podcasts

1. 1. a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

It took me a bit to even understand what a podcast was, I'll admit it. It's a thing. You listen to. On your computer? Why would I do that when I have a perfectly good radio? What sort of content would be compelling enough that I'd want to mess with things like apps *shudder* and downloading files that probably wouldn't work for me?

Fine, it took me a bit to catch up. But the first podcast that really caught my attention was Welcome to Night Vale. Surreal, hilarious in a dark and sometimes disturbing way with a wonderfully quirky narrator and a bizarre cast of reoccurring characters, Night Vale masquerades as a local radio news show for a mysterious town somewhere in the southwest of the US. If you haven't listened, do so. It's wonderfully strange stuff.

Welcome to Night Vale

But beyond entertainment podcasts, a certain squirrel and then other folks have pointed me toward podcasts relevant to the business and craft of writing and specific to the LGBTQ and spec fic writing communities. Some podcasts I've been enjoying on this front:

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Hey, I know everyone's light years ahead of me on this. But I get excited when new stuff actually works for me, and I wanted to share. :)

I know what you're thinking. Only Freddy could write a SWL about band-aids, but it's totally reasonable I swear. I have proof why band-aids are awesome. If you get squeamish easily don't look at the next photo. (It's totally not that bad).

Last Wednesday I was attacked by this blister! I didn't even notice it until after it had torn open (<---- same person who walked around 3 days with dislocated elbow), but when I noticed it, I did because it hurt. Isn't the blister in the most inconvenient spot? That part of your toe bends all the fucking time. How is a band-aid suppose to stay on that sucker? 'Cause you want one when wearing shoes and walking around all day. Otherwise all sorts of crap ends up in it and you could get an infection. (Not the best way to lose a toe BTW, or foot really. Or a leg. That could happen too.) )

So WHAM!

BEST BAND-AIDS EVER! They stay put. They don't feel funky. And they come off when you want them too. TRIFECTA. So, yes, my Stuff We Like post is about Band-aids, but who hasn't had a blister from hell?