Do you recognize the Nintendo System above? It is the original NES that came out back in the 80's I believe. My kids pinched and saved and I matched their savings at a certain point and we purchased this system many years ago. It came with Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. We still have that system, packed away and in tact. But, since then we have had (or my son has had) N-64, GameCube and the Wii. Mario and Luigi have been a part of our lives for a long time! Since today is Mar 10, it is unofficially recognized as Mario Day, because when you push "Mar" and "10" together, it looks like it spells "Mario"! So, today's Friday Fave question is...
What is your favorite Mario Game?
1. I will go first! My favorite Mario game is MarioKart for the Wii! When I first started playing this one, I was terrible at it. I always died on Rainbow Road and on almost every other road as well. But, I got better and better at it until I was able to beat people on the World Wide connection! I have to admit, I was a little addicted to this game for awhile. (It was embarrassing to my children.) I loved being Princess Peach. Whenever she would shoot someone with a shell or pass them on the road, she would look back and say in her high little voice, "Ha Ha!". It made me laugh every time. I stipulate for the Wii because I am not so great at it with the control pad. I like using the Wii steering wheel. I am a little disappointed that Nintendo doesn't support the World Wide connection anymore on the Wii. But, it is still fun to play against my kids, who can all still beat me.
2. Now we are going old school because Madalynn surprised me and chose this original Super Mario Game for the original NES! We were always way behind when it came to updating to the new game systems. We usually ended up getting them when they were about ready to come out with the next big thing. So, even though Madalynn is one of the younger siblings, she remembers playing this and how much fun it was back then. Getting Mario to land at the top of the pole at the end of a level was so exciting! The old system and the games are still available on Amazon!
3. Lindsey chose a game that we all loved. I almost picked this one as well, Dr. Mario! My kids are so good at this game, it is unreal. I could never beat them, but I kept trying! (I think I have mentioned in this post how competitive we tend to be about game playing.) When Lindsey was in college, some friends were having a tournament and "let" her play, warning her that they were all really good and she might not be able to keep up. Wrong thing to suggest to Lindsey. She wiped them all out. This game is really challenging, but there are tricks to it and you have to be quick. We would have big tournaments when everyone was home. I don't know if we ever chose a grand champion, but LIndsey and her older brother, Aaron were really competitive against each other and are contenders for the title!
4. Alicia chose in the same vein as Madalynn by picking Super Mario Bros, only for the Wii U. The graphics are so much better, of course, and the Wii U is so much fun! I feel like it hasn't taken off like it should have because having that little private screen really adds a new element to the games. Son Tyler and his wife Jessica have one and we have all enjoyed getting everyone together and playing on the Wii U. Plus, making your Mii on the Wii U is totally cool as well because you actually take a photo of yourself and the Wii uses that image to create your Mii from that. It is hilarious!
5. This week's guest Fave picker is Adrian Maruri, my son-in-law, and Alicia's husband. (He is the one that shared the delicious Ecuadorian Recipes here and here.) We had to invite Adrian because we don't know a better connoisseur of video games than he is. He especially loves the old school games and for his pick chose Super Nintendo's Mario Paint. Have you ever heard of Mario Paint? Many people haven't and Adrian says that more people need to be made aware of it. He played this game in his youth and let me tell you, I have seen him in action on it and it is pretty amazing. Not only can you design works of art on this game, but you can write music as well. I have seen Adrian design a tee-shirt design on it, plus he has written music that actually sounded good! Of course, he is an artist and a sound engineer. When I tried to make a line of music on it, it sounded like, well, like I had written it. Budding artists and musicians out there will really enjoy this game. Thanks Adrian for sharing your expertise with us!
What is your favorite Mario game? There are many more to choose from! Maybe you can celebrate Mario Day with a little family fun playing Mario together tonight! Dr. Mario or MarioKart tournaments are a blast! If it is still cold in your part of the world, Hot Cocoa Bombs turned on their sides look a lot like the bullets on Mario games. Just add an eyeball! They can add to the theme of your impromptu party! Sometimes these are the fun moments that everyone remembers later as some of the best family times. We always experience lots of laughter and excitement. Mario games are a fun and lighthearted ways to enjoy each other's company.
On another topic, many people ask me about how I went about starting a blog and how bloggers earn money. I am still working on the earning money part, but the two resources listed below have helped me tremendously to get as far as we have on our blog. Weebly makes it easy to start a blog, I recommend the Starter package to begin because then you can blog as often as you want. I have been really happy with their customer service. Share-a-sale is a way to team up with affiliate marketers whose products you like. They give all kinds of tips and ideas to new bloggers as well. So, if you have a desire to get your thoughts out there, these are two great resources.
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I imagine you coming here week after week, anxiously awaiting to see what the next delicious recipe is that I am going to share with you, hoping against hope that THIS TIME will be the time I do something Vegan. There you sit, hand on your mouse, you click on the link from the email you got from us (because you are on our mailing list right? We give you special free stuff, who doesn't like that?). Your heart starts to pound, beads of sweat forming on your forehead. Can this be the week? She asked us not to give up on her... Well my dear readers, let me not dash your hopes another week. This weeks recipe is a tasty taco salad, and the best part? It's VEGAN! The meat in it is Vegan, meaning no cows were harmed in the making of this recipe. The cheese is vegan, meaning no animals were milked in the making of this recipe. The chips are vegan, and to be quite honest I don't really know what that means since I've never heard of a non vegan chip, but Madalynn informed me that Vegan chips are a thing, and, my friends, when I say I am going to make you a vegan recipe, I mean it! Probably the most fun part of this recipe is where it was made, and whom I made it with. As you know, PH and I are mid move. We had to be out of our old house last weekend, but we can't move into our new house until this coming weekend. So, during this week we are living out of a box on the side of the road, but my mom did say I could use her kitchen if it were for the blog. Kidding! Luckily my brother and sister in law had already planned a vacation for this week, so we're staying in their house (you saw some of their home in this post here). Of course, my mom welcomes us into her home any time, but she was excited to take part in my recipe, and to use her new blender to make some tasty salsa to go along with it. I learned while I was in Vermont, did I ever tell you I lived in Vermont? I went to law school there. Anyway, while I was there, I found out that Taco Salad is a southwest thing. It is such a quick and easy recipe, and it's tasty, filling, and very healthy! When you make it with a plant based protein such as this vegan meat from Beyond Meat, it's even better! Normally I buy Beyond Meat from Fry's, our local grocery store. However, my mom did the shopping for the recipe and couldn't find it, so she got this brand instead. It still tasted great! The cheese we used was Daiya brand cheddar cheese. We bought a lot of different chip options to show you examples of good Vegan chips. We used the Blue Corn Tortilla chips, and they were delicious. My mom also made more salsa in her new blender. She didn't have red peppers this time, so the salsa turned out a little more green in color. My mom called it salsa verde, I just called it tasty! So, now you have a new recipe, a vegan recipe, an easy to make recipe, a delicious recipe, AND, if you're not from the Southwest, a new type of recipe! Bon appetit!
Ever since I first shared this post about sprouted wheat flour, I have been thinking about other applications for the process. One recipe that kept popping into my head was one for waffles using the whole kernels of wheat rather than grinding them into flour. That was one of the reasons I needed my new blender! (Here is the link to the blender!) I thought that the sprouted wheat would make a much lighter, healthier waffle. While the old way was good and kind of amazing to be able to make waffles without grinding the wheat first, the waffles did tend to be pretty heavy and overly filling. The sprouted wheat flour made such a difference in the lightness of my bread, that I figured it might do the same for the waffle recipe. So, I sprouted more wheat. In the morning I woke up and my wheat was nicely sprouted. I am going to dehydrate the rest of the wheat, but I reserved 2 cups of wheat for this recipe. Later, after I dehydrate the wheat, I will try the recipe again to see if there is a difference. I used to make this recipe with totally dry, unsprouted wheat kernels, so I know it will work, I just want to see if the texture and lightness is different. Now you just bake the batter in a hot waffle iron. This recipe makes 20, 4 inch squares. My waffle iron cooks two squares at a time. I have the Toastmaster Belgian Waffle Iron. So, I call that 10 waffles that look like these. (see below) But, here is a better deal on the Toastmaster 4 section Belgian Waffle Maker. This recipe makes plenty of waffles to feed 5 people, but I think if you need a bigger batch, the blender could easily hold another 1/2 of the recipe. Otherwise, you could make a batch, pour it into a bowl and then make another batch, because it whips up in about 7-8 min. Click on the button to copy the recipe! So, go ahead, sprout some wheat! Get a blender! Get a waffle iron! Make breakfast and make your family happy and healthy! Here are some past posts about sprouted wheat, or breakfast you might enjoy: Come back on Thursday for Renny's Recipes! It is going to be great!
I have been in the market for a new blender for a while now. I still had my personal sized blender, (the Bullet), but I needed a larger one that could make smoothies for more than one and do other recipes that needed a larger capacity container. Over the years, I have gone through quite a variety of the $20 range blenders. I wanted something that could crush ice, without leaving little chunks behind. I also wanted something that could chop up fruits and vegetables without burning up the motor. I knew I needed something with more power so, I started asking around and reading reviews on Amazon.
My Decision!
Oops! I almost forgot to take a picture of the first thing I made. See how it is partially blended at the bottom! This is salsa! I just threw in large chunks of the veggies I was using because I wanted to test this machine out! I set it on the salsa function and it was so awesome to see how the blades would work back and forth. The wide base of the blender pulls the food down into the blades easier.
The salsa came out perfectly! Not too pureed and just the right sized little chunks to pick up with your chip! ( If you want a delicious recipe for salsa, click here.)
Cleaning the Machine
Here are my best blender cleaning tips:
I am having so much fun with my new big blender! Going for a little higher quality was definitely worth it! For me, so far it seems like the Oster Pro 1200 was the right choice. The price for the quality makes me feel like I did a good job shopping, saving and making a well informed decision. I hope my work helps you out. Now, I have a really good idea, using my blender, to share with you soon. I can hardly wait!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
April 2024
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