I Made That: Homemade Cheez-Its

store boughtLike any normal red-blooded ‘Murrikan, I love Cheez-Its. Recently, my roommate started the Paleo diet and I scored nearly a full box of these cheesy wonders. I thought it would be a wise idea to store them at my desk for those times in the day when I need a little snack. BIG MISTAKE.

When I opened the box between morning snack time and lunch, I thought “oh, I’ll just have a couple.” A couple turned into one handful, which turned into another and another and another before I put the box in my desk where it would be too much trouble to reach in for just a few more. Then came afternoon snack time, the appropriate time for Cheez-Its. I could not control myself and ended up eating about half of what was left. By the time the end of the day rolled around, there was only about a quarter of the box left. “Good,” I thought. Just enough for a snack on Monday and I will never bring the entire box of Cheez-Its to work again.I posted of my gluttony on Facebook and a friend reminded me of the recipe she sent me for homemade Cheez-Its. I felt adventurous this week and decided to make them again using this recipe. Continue reading →

A Guide To Adding Blue Flowering Plants To Your Garden

Blue. It’s calming. It’s the color of the sea and the sky. It’s ice and snow. It’s the eyes of a long lost lover who left you standing in the rain or a bucket of the cleanest, purest crystal me…oh, wrong article. We’ll get back to that later.

Let’s talk about blue for the yard. Blue is my favorite color. My back wall is painted that color. My closet is full of blue shirts. It reminds me of France and the coast. Alas blue plants really don’t work so well here in the desert, but to make up for that most of my containers are blue. Green bounces nicely off a deep blue.

Below are 15 blue or blue flowering plants that I love or have come to love. Continue reading →

Majestic Purple Plants For Your Garden

Purple.  It’s the color of royalty, one of the three colors of Mardi Gras, and one of the must have colors in any garden space.  It can heat up a cool toned garden or cool off a hot toned garden.  It works well as a wall color, but for me it shows its best face is when its attached to a plant.  Here’s a list of 15 purple flowers and plants that you can add to your garden for some truly amazing results.  Programming note: for this series, I am trying to feature new and upcomming hybrids and little used plants that people aren’t as familiar with as well as some of my personal favorite plants in the color theme. Continue reading →

Alleged Human Rights Violator Narendra Modi Comes to Wharton School of Business

The chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, will be a keynote speaker at an upcoming conference sponsored by the Wharton School of Business at their 17th Wharton India Economic Forum and held at the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

So who the hell is Modi and why should you care? He is accused by some of genocide in the 2002 Gujarati riots for one. General oppressor, religious bigot, and despot, for another. But he can charm your socks off, was on the cover of Time magazine, and has more charisma than Bill Clinton according to the Atlantic Wire. Continue reading →