Today’s recipe is a quick and easy summer desert that takes less then five minutes if you’re a fast chopper.

Ingredients (as always, these can be adjusted to size and taste):

1/2 a cantaloupe melon
5-10 large strawberries
6 desert shells (think strawberry shortcake cakes)
1 small container of yogurt (any flavor) (optional)
Favorite ice cream (optional)
1 tub whipped topping (I prefer the regular, but if you use flavored, remember that you already have a strawberry flavoring in the desert…chocolate would go good though)

Prep:

Remove the tops and tips of the strawberries, then cut into small slices, they can either be circular (cut from tip to end) or diced (cut lengthwse, then cut the halves into smaller pieces), but make sure they’re SMALL.

Cut the half of the cantaloupe into smaller wedges, no more then 1/2 to 1 inch in width, cut off the rind (using a steak knife, slid the blade between the orange flesh and the rind, careful not to get any green on the meat….though if you’re like me, you can clean it up a bit with the knife). Cut these wedges into smaller chunks via dicing.

Assembling:

Start by putting one desert shell on a plate, and filling the center with cantaloupe, add a healthy dollop of yogurt or whipped topping, then add a second desert shell (center side up) and sort of mush the two halves together, so that they stick, do NOT over mush…or else you’ll have a flat desert.

Repeat with the strawberries, placing them in the center of the shell and adding yogurt/whipped topping. Place the last desert shell center side DOWN, so that it ‘cups’ the strawberries. Add more whipped topping, or even a small scoop of your favorite ice cream on top. The yogurt and ‘mushing’ action should keep your tower from falling over (I carried two of these through three rooms without incident).

If using ice cream, feel free to add up to three more small scoops around the edge of the plate, then dot the remaining cantaloupe and strawberries artfully on top of the scoops (I used a fan method for mine) for an attractive arrangement.

Repeat with the remaining shells.

Serves two, should be eaten immediately, but CAN be stored (without the ice cream) in the fridge for a few hours if the fruits are dry (not juicy). Be careful of slight cake sogging from the yogurt however. No calorie info as I’m too tired and sore to do the math, it’s mid range, healthy for the fruit and yogurt, not so much the desert shells and ice cream.

Which brings up an interesting point, three desert shells are very dry, so if you like moister cake (or like me, are a fan of ice cream/cake soup), I would recommend using the ice cream, and letting it sit for a minute so the cakes can soak up the ice cream and yogurt.

Let me know what you think, mum and I loved this to death, but I love other people’s opinions on my ‘creations’. Also tell me if you tried other fruits, I want a good list of what goes well with this.

(Temp name: Leaning Tower of Summer…yeah, I’m not good with naming things)

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not keen on fashion, especially when I’m hot and feel like I’m sticking to everything I own. Usually when such a time occurs, I grab the nearest length of loose cotton fabric, wrap it around me in some fashion and call it good. This usually means I’m dressed for the height of summer in a sheet toga or have a strip of cloth wrapped around my breasts with shorts.

Please note, I only do this INSIDE THE HOUSE, I don’t even visit the front yard in this manner.

But recently, I had an interview with a home healthcare worker, and my mother brought these incidents up when we were discussing the ‘mental’ aspect (if I had any problems that made myself a danger to myself and others, if I had rash behaviors, so on). Only, the way she mentioned it, you thought I was walking down main street with the kitchen sheers around my body.

I LIKE being comfortable, I grew up in the deserts of So. California and HATE the heat, not to mention, the eleven years down there taught me I don’t get along well with it, I get really sick and temperamental in the heat. Staying cool is my number one priority in the summer.

But now, I’m so embarrassed by what she said, I can’t bring myself to drag out my altered toga sheets or banding cloths because I’m afraid of what she thinks of them and who else she’s told the story to in a way that implies I’m crazy for wearing them.

I just…I wish she’d accept the choices I make in life…or at least, not imply to complete stranger I’m off my rocker for lounging around in a Harry Potter printed Toga.

*sigh*

(BTW, anyone else do this? Please tell me I’m not the only one with odd fashions when it comes to the heat….)

certain times when you want your mommy.

Throwing up on your dental hygienist is one of those times.

I saw a butterfly up close today for the first time in years.

…I can’t decide if I want to smile or sob over that fact.

So now that E3 is winding down, we have some pretty nice results in for those looking for new items, specifically in the KH and LoZ fandoms.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Apparently, I’ve been living under a rock when it comes to LoZ, because this is the first I heard about it. Spirit Tracks is the third installment in the Wind Waker timeline (for Zelda fans, that would mean the third game in the child line after Ocarina). The game play looks interesting, between the train (yes, train. Link drives it…so squishy cute with his little cap!), the Phantom (uh, yeah, this is my confused face), and just the general ‘feel’ of the game play. The colours are bright the graphics are interesting to view, and I have an urge to run over the sheep. I just wish I knew more about the storyline, for instance…what the hell happened to a flooded Hyrule?!

Untitled Zelda for Wii: slated for 2010, which gives us 18 months to fin out more. All I know is it’s for Wii, it may be a TP branch (or at least the artwork is similar), it could possibly deal with memories and player perceptions (er…), and might incorporate Wii Motion Plus (anyone got any info on what that is? I’ve been out of the Nintendo loop). They have enough of it done, that it could have been showcased at E3 2009, but they decided to put the focus on development and promote Spirit Tracks instead, so hopefully we’ll be getting some glimpses soon! Artwork for ZeldaU http://www.cubed3.com/media/2009/June/jb/fullzelda.jpg (I hate to point it out..but someone’s been ripping off the Great Fairy design from Wind Waker….can we please not mix up our art? Be interesting if the theory that she’s the embodiment of the Master Sword is true…of all Link’s female companions, only the Master Sword has never ditched him)…and apparently it’s a different era then TP…damn design.

KH: Days - Not much to say, except it’ll be released September 2009 in North America and was released May 30th in Japan.

KH III: This one is a bit more tricky, they mentioned they probably WILL be developing a new game, except they want to finish working on Birth by Sleep first, which is apparently having issues…and that’s about all I know.

KH Birth by Sleep: Delayed production due to problems. Is said to be a prequel to KH III…except, going by screen shots, it’s a prequel to the whole series! Yeah, English not working with some of these translations.

And that’s it on my front, I know there are news on other great games, but…they’re not my cup of tea so I don’t have anything more!

Okay, seriously, is it that hard to let me order my own damn prints? I put in all the information, splurging a bit (my rent’s getting upped so I’m getting while the getting is good), and after waiting for a weird ass ‘redirecting to page with more secure features’ message…

I get this lovely note:

(yes, that is a connection error image, your browser is not fucking with you).

So now I don’t even know if my order went through! But, I contacted them, so hopefully I’ll know. Sucks, because I probably won’t have the ‘courage’ to order them again and for a full set of 5×7’s of my best images at only $8.50…pretty rocking! *pouts*

And on a more “Real” note (not me bitching…just whining like a baby), mum had another one of her ‘let’s kick Sait out’ moments tonight. This time, she wants to sell the house and move into some sort of mental health ‘assisted living’ place…or something.

She’s tired of never having enough money to pay the bills (between us we make 1800$ a month, our house payment alone is 600$, then we have direct tv, phone, electricity, insurance (house/car), prescripts, food, pet food/supplies, heat (which was shut off), ect, plus loans to Uncle Mike and Grandmere), she’s tired of the house being a disaster because her home healthcare worker is a complete DUMBASS (seriously, ex 1: Mum put a large jar opener that needed to be washed after a year lost in the garage for “Ditzy” (not her real name) to wash…it sat there for three weeks before we got tired of it and washed it ourselves (well, mum did, she she SHOULDEN’T BECAUSE IT’S HEAVY), ex 2, I offered ‘Ditzy’ 60$ this month if she would help me organize my room which was still boxed up and slightly trashed from the room change a month or so ago. She spent two hours sitting there picking the lint off her pants while I worked because she ‘didn’t know where anything went’ (um, duh, that’s why the crap is still in boxes, no one knows where it goes).

Essencially, it’s just a lot of shit piling up at once. And I completely understand where she’s coming from, dude, it’s hard right now, life sucks big time.

But…It’s my home as well. I’m not just a roomate, I’m her fucking daugther (who else would pay 450, now 500$ a month rent for a room and kitchen access?! Plus, without my foodstamps? She ain’t eating.

It’s not just she promised I would never be without a home (which she has, several times, even swearing not to sell this house so I do always have it..but dude, it’s my childhood home! It’s where I grew up!

Plus, emotional issues aside, the house is trashed. The bathtub wall is coming off, it needs to be re-painted, the house stinks from years of smoking and pets who can’t figure out what a literbox is for (don’t even say it, I am doing everything I can, including owning two literboxes, I cannot figure out why Onii finds it repulsive and mus attempt to pee in my room), the front yard is molding (oregon rain + mold loves us), we have a serious ant problem, and there are cracks in the freaking windows (stupid fucking contractor).