America's Top Model Season 18

I was let down with the all-star season (cycle 17) - there wasn't live stuff except the first episode and there were only two or three girls I really liked and they didn't win. Plus the weird cut/ refilming of the season finale.

Anyway, having watched all of Britain's next top model, I am super excited for this US season because half of the contestants were previous UK contestants. I don't expect to recognize them all, but I am excited that the shows are colliding. :) I find it funny that the first complaints are about not understanding the accent. After watching plenty of non-US shows, I don't have that problem and forget that it can be a problem for some.

This is a fun twist because the US ones were starting to bore me. Now, if Tyra can avoid making it all about her, I might really enjoy this season.... Here's hoping!

Spicy and Sweet

I love spicy foods. And I have recently found that I like spicy chiles (cayenne) with just about everything (the only exception I can think off offhand would probably be with caramel, but I could be persuaded otherwise). I like it with savory foods and with sweet. Here's how it happened:

This past summer, I tried Trader Joe's chile mango floes, sweet mango popsicles with spicy chilli powder. They were good but confusing - a very spicy frozen snack. I had never tried such a combination, but heard that similar sweet with spicy combos are popular in South America.

When it got colder, I tried making some Aztec hot chocolate. At the time, I had a specific recipe I followed to make the spicy hot chocolate drink. This I thought matched better, hot sweet drink with spicy.

Now, recently, I was shopping at Trader Joe's and picked up some dried mango with cayenne (chile spiced mango) to give that a try. Love it. Not as confusing like the popsicles because they don't have a temperature component, just the flavor aspect - the spicy with the sweet.

Today, in lieu of my regular thermos of coffee, I have made Aztec hot chocolate from memory and am enjoying that very much. Here's the general recipe (I didn't measure anything): hot chocolate packets ~1packet for 10oz water, cayenne powder ~1tsp, cinnamon ~1tsp, hot water. Mmmm, sweet and spicy. Give it a try if you like spicy stuff.

the Social Network movie

It took me forever to watch The Social Network and then longer to finally post this. I don't have much for a review - it was a good movie, that's pretty much all there is to it. Not an action movie or comedy, more like a based-on-life character study, so it was informative and interesting. Not to say they may not have made some characters more unlikeable or likeable for movie-purposes, but it is an entertaining adaptation of reality.

Most (all?) of the outdoor college campus scenes where filled here at Johns Hopkins, so I had been meaning to watch it eventually (no matter how the movie did) so that I could keep on eye out for the Hopkins scenes, specifically the ones with my office building since I know they changed the exterior for a few days so it could say Harvard and the name of one of their buildings.

So this will be quick, mostly listing times in the movie that were shots of my campus. Mainly the beginning credits (that caused a re-route of my walk home one evening) and then a few other short walking scenes.

I was actually reminded to watch this because there have been spotlights and cameras off-campus this past Fall for other filming. The upcoming HBO show Veep was using Baltimore for scenes that are supposed to be Washington, DC.

Based on the version of Social Network I watched, here are the times that show Hopkins:
5:55 to 7:37, of which 6:14 was at the time of filming my walk home that got rerouted due to filming and 7:10 is the breezeway (overlooks the 'lower quad' and my building, Latrobe, can be seen)

7:22-7:34 Latrobe! (my office building/ civil engineering and mechanical engineering building) is used as the exterior of the Harvard dorms

11:27-11:36 more Latrobe!

19:28-19:53 Shaffer Hall, in the same quad as Latrobe


So that was additionally interesting for me because of the Johns Hopkins connection.

A purple bag

I don't want to make this blog about handbags, but I have to share this purple beauty. <3

Rebecca Minkoff's Circle Quilt Casanova in purple shine with silver hardware

I had a hard time capturing the color in the pictures (ever since my camera broke I have not gotten the hang of taking great photos with hubby's old camera). But this is a pretty perfect deep purple (between the flash and non-flash picture colors), perfect with the silver hardware. And the circle quilt pattern makes it wonderfully smooshy!

Of course I love the cute matching tassel and surprising leopard lining (and matching dustbag).

The size is great, especially as a crossbody bag (my preferred style). Not too big but bigger than the RM MAC which I love but can be a little tight if I am carrying one or two more things than normal.
... Sorry, I am messy so the background is a disaster...

<3

The hair...

I had tried to get some better pictures with the violet dye, so here are those:
indoors:

 outdoors:

Sadly, my hair looked black or blue which was not my intent, so I have since dyed to a 'normal' brown. However, I really dislike having a normal hair color now, so I might try out one more purple color (without bleaching). I have heard good things about a British hair color brand called La Riche and their plum purple in the Directions line. I have heard some reports that the color does not bleed as much, so I may be going for one more purple attempt soon.

Easy Cheesecake Recipe

I recently decided to try making cheesecake again. I had a bad experience about 10 years ago with a family recipe and the inside didn't cook all the way. So I looked up some easy recipes and tried my luck. (Not to ruin the suspense... but it worked so well I've made it multiple times.)

Filling:
16 oz (two 8-oz packages) cream cheese
2 eggs (beaten)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Beat until smooth - *I recommend using an Immersion Blender

Crust
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (~one package inside box)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/8 cup water
Melt butter, mix all together, press into pan.
Does not require pre-baking if pie will be baked.

Bake 350 degrees for ~50min

My first one (I made less because I put a portion into a not-so-good attempt of pumpkin cheesecake, but this tasted great and didn't need to cook as long - only about 30min).

 

For my second one, I blended in some frozen strawberries (which is why the color looks different).

 Before serving, I spread some strawberry topping on top.

I've also used half of the cheesecake filling recipe for muffin filling. I made pumpkin muffins with cheesecake filling and can't wait to try this again with chocolate muffins or brownies.

*I added the recommendation for using an immersion blender after talking with a friend who has many cheesecake-making problems. She believes her problems (sometimes explosion, sometimes collapse) had to do with how much air was in the cheesecake mixture. She uses a hand mixer and I have used my immersion blender for this recipe and never had a problem. So maybe that's the key? Anyway, it is worth mentioning.

Hair Updates

While I have purple hair, I figured I'm make one more attempt to get stronger color. So more bleaching, and then the purple. Then I'll let my hair grow out and trim the purple until the roots get long enough.


So here are the details of my re-dying attempt.

Bleach with Clairol Textures & Tones Permanent Moisture-Rich Hair Color in Lightest Blonde. This is not made for white girls like me, but my hair was resistant to bleaching last time and this was cheap, so I figured it would be my best bet. And it did work much better than with the Splat color bleaching method.

This time my purpling product was initially Manic Panic Semi-Permanent Hair Color Cream in Ultra Violet. But I found one container was not enough for all my hair. Also, this violet shade is very blue-toned. So the top of may hair looked purple in sunlight but dark blue in the shade and indoors, the rest of my hair was a light brown from the bleaching.

Not enough product, so got some Jerome Russell Semi Permanent Punky Colour Hair Cream, this time in Violet, and did the rest of my hair and blended it with the other color up top. It looks pretty dark in the pictures, and still looks bluish indoors and in the shade, but I am hoping it fades more purple (less red-toned like previously). I will also try to get some better pictures of the color... Here's what I've got:

That's where I am with my purpling hair attempts. :)