Peppermint Brownie Trifle

My mom needed to bring a dessert for a Christmas party at the job she just started.  Since I've had great success using my baking skills to buy friends at work, I volunteered to whip up a Christmas-y concoction.

First, I baked baked two batches of brownies.  I accidentally bought the cheap value mix that is only supposed to make an 8x8 pan, but I just spread it out really thin and made it take up a whole 13x9 pan.  This was only the first of several errors that could have potentially ruined things, but I managed to make them work somehow.  Once they were cool, I cut them up into bite sized pieces.

Then I made some pudding Cool Whip stuff.  It's supposed to be a semi-lite frosting recipe, but it always comes out too goopy to actually frost things with.  However, it makes fantastic trifle filling.  I intended to make this with a box of peppermint instant pudding that I could've sworn that I bought, but apparently I didn't.  I made another trip to Meijer only to discover that they were sold out of the pudding.  What a waste.  Instead, I improvised.  I used vanilla pudding and added red food coloring and peppermint extract.  It ended up working out quite nicely.

Then I whipped up another batch of the pudding Cool Whip stuff, but I only added green food coloring to this one.  I was afraid that too much peppermint would make it crazy since I'd also added some to the brownie batter.

Then I chopped up some Oreos.  The red ones are just regular winter ones.  The green ones are mint flavored.

My mom picked out a pretty glass bowl and I started layering things.  First I put a layer of brownies on the bottom.  Next, I spread some of the green pudding.  I added some more brownies and some red peppermint pudding.  In the middle, I added a layer of mint Oreo bits.  I kept layering until I ran out of stuff.

On the top, I sprinkled the rest of the chopped Oreos for a pretty red and green topping.

A side view.  It was so tasty.  I know I say that about everything I make, but this was crazy good.  Some of my mom's co-workers demanded the recipe.  I made a similar trifle in the fall using pumpkin spice pudding and spice cake, so you can use whatever flavor combinations make you happy.  Here's the peppermint brownie recipe:


2 packages brownie mix, cooked according to the directions on the box (or you can use any kind of cake mix)
2 4-serving packages of instant vanilla pudding (or whatever flavor you want the frosting to be)
1/4 cup peppermint flavored creamer
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 3/4 cup milk, divided
16 oz. Cool Whip, divided
8 oz. cream cheese, softened and divided
2/3 cup powdered sugar, divided
red food coloring
green food coloring
12 mint Oreos
4 red Winter Oreos
1.  Cut the brownies up into small squares.
2.  In a large mixing bowl, blend 4 oz. cream cheese and 1/3 cup powdered sugar together.  Add one package of pudding mix.  Stir in the peppermint creamer, peppermint extract, and 3/4 cup milk until the pudding mix is dissolved.  Add red food coloring and blend with the mixer on low until it starts to thicken.  Fold in 8 oz. of the Cool Whip.  Set aside.
3.  Mix remaining cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Add the second package of pudding mix.  Stir in one cup of milk until the pudding mix is dissolved.  Add green food coloring and blend with the mixer on low until it starts to thicken.  Fold in remaining 8 oz. Cool Whip.
4.  Chop Oreos and place into separate bowls.
5.  Place a layer of brownie pieces on the bottom of a large bowl.  Cover with a thin layer of the green pudding mixture.
6.  Place another layer of brownie pieces on top of the pudding and cover with a layer of the red pudding mixture.  Sprinkle some of the mint Oreo pieces on top.
7.  Continue layering until all of the brownies have been used.  Make sure there is enough pudding to completely cover the top of the trifle.  Sprinkle with red Oreo pieces and remaining mint ones.
8.  Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Upcycled Cardigan

The ugly Walmart sweater that I cut up into a skirt in the previous post had a red twin.  It just so happened that I had some scraps of red satin-y fabric from another project that I recently finished, so I decided that I would turn the ugly sweater into a cute cardigan with shiny lining along the inside flaps.

I started by cutting straight down the center of the front of the sweater.  I can't promise that the cut was completely straight because I just free-handed it from the point in the v-neck, but I did the best that I could.  I figure nobody will really notice if it's a little off anyway.

Then I cut out two long, narrow pieces of the red satin-y fabric, one for each side of the center of the cardigan.  I pinned them, right sides together, to the front of the cardigan and sewed.

Then I ironed the edges down to hide the hem and sewed another seam along the inside of the satin lining.

And this was the result.  I didn't add any buttons or closures because I didn't feel like dealing with any of that.  The best part is that now that I have the method down, I have an even cooler cardigan project in the works.

Sweater Skirt Take Two

Actually, the title of this post is a lie.  I made this sweater skirt first.  I just liked the second version a whole lot better.  Plus, this one ended up a lot shorter because it came from a women's v-neck, so I can't really wear it to work.

I started out with this ugly, kind of gross sweater I bought on clearance at Walmart a few years ago.  I was getting rid of it (and its red twin that got chopped up for another project) because it's too big for me now.

I traced out the sides of the skirt and then cut them out.  Just like on the other sweater skirt.  Then I sewed everything together and made a waistband.  Simple as pie.

More plaid flannel!  Yay.  Apparently I'm going through a phase.

Last weekend, I had to help out at a Santa breakfast at the school my  mom used to teach at.  The skirt made a perfect addition to my elf costume.  I literally have no dignity in my life.

Disney Ornament Upgrade

While I was working at Disney last year, I came into possession of a cute little Minnie and Mickey ornament.  I love Christmas ornaments and I love Disney stuff, so it was pretty perfect.

The only problem was that the back of it said "2009 Passholder."  Since I clearly was not an annual passholder in 2009, it seemed kind of silly to hang it on the tree like that.  However, all was not lost, because with my trusty bottle of Mod Podge and a compass, I was able to personalize the back of the ornament in such a way that the passholder part was covered up.

Don't let that orange compass fool you.  It's actually completely horrible and borderline useless.  Still, I persevered and got it to draw a circle.  It took me a few tries to get it right because the compass kept moving, but eventually I got a usable round template for the picture.

Then I dug through my file of hundreds of pictures of my family's visit to Disney World last Christmas in search of the perfect Christmas Castle picture.  I didn't find one.  It seems that all of our Castle pictures were taken at night in poor lighting conditions.  After all these years, we really should know better than that.  Anyway, after narrowing it down to a few options, my mom and I selected this one because it seemed the most likely to fit my purposes.  Then all I had to do was figure out how to make the printer do what I wanted, which required a couple of tries.  I figured it out eventually, and used the template I'd cut out to trace a circle around the good part of the picture.

Then I cut it out and glued it to the center of the ornament with Mod Podge.  I set a thermos lid on it and stacked a travel mug on top in order to make it as flat as possible and left it to dry for a couple of hours.  When it had completely dried, I painted the back of the ornament with another coat of Mod Podge to seal the picture in.  I did one more coat and decided that it was secure enough to go on the tree.  This is what the back looks like now.  It's currently our only ornament because we put the lights on the tree and decided to wait for Jeff to come home from MSU before finishing decorating.  So now we have a mostly naked Christmas tree sitting in the family room.  At least it has this one ornament.

Peppermint Poke Cake

We all know that I love Pinterest recipes, and for good reason.  Now that it's December, it's time for me to switch from pumpkin to peppermint as my baking obsession.  I needed to make a dessert for a meeting at our house tonight, and I turned to this recipe I'd found for Better Than Christmas Cake.  It was super easy and super delicious.  The only problem was that it had to refrigerate for 4-6 hours before it was served, so I had to make it yesterday and then wait more than 24 hours to taste its peperminty goodness.  It was pure torture, but so very worth it.

I started by baking a plain old Devil's Food cake mix.  I doctored it up by adding a bit of peppermint extract to the batter, because let's face it: you can never have too much peppermint.  Once it had cooled, I used a wooden meat masher handle (does that thing have a technical name?) to poke a bunch of holes all over the cake.  I may have also sampled some of the crumbs that got stuck to said handle.  They were tasty.

Then I whisked together some sweetened condensed milk (ew) and York peppermint patty creamer and poured it over the cake.  York peppermint patty creamer is almost enough to make me wish I liked coffee.  I'm strongly considering adding it to my hot chocolate next time I make it.  We have a gigantic bottle now and nobody in our house drinks flavored cream.  Or I could just make another batch of this.

The next layer was made up of a jar of hot fudge sundae topping mixed with a bit more of the peppermint creamer and poured on top of the cake again.  This picture looks much tastier than the one above which sort of looks like the cake was eaten by mold.  I assure you that it was not.

I was actually supposed to mix a cup of chopped Oreos in with the chocolate, but I forgot.  Instead, I chopped them and sprinkled them on top.  This made it a lot harder to spread the Cool Whip top layer without picking up a bunch of crumbs, but I persevered.

Then I chopped another cup full of Oreos (the red winter double stuffed kind) and sprinkled them on top of the Cool Whip.  Perfection.  All I had to do was while away the hours waiting until it could be served.

The wait was so worth it.  It was gooey and pepperminty and sweet and chocolatey and everything you could ever want in a dessert.  Well, almost.  I also enjoy peanut butter, caramel, and pumpkin pie spices, among many other things, but you get the idea.

Here was my version of the recipe:

1 box Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix, prepared
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1 1/4 cup York Peppermint Patty dairy creamer, divided
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Kroger hot fudge sundae topping
2 cups (12 cookies) chopped double stuffed holiday Oreos, divided
8 oz. fat free Cool Whip

1.  Make the cake mix according to the directions on the box and add the peppermint extract to the batter.  Bake according to the directions and allow to cool completely.
2.  Get a straight, round kitchen utensil (ideally a wooden spoon) and poke a bunch of holes all over the cake.  Have some fun.  This is the best step.
3.  Mix 1 cup of the creamer with the can of condensed milk and pour over the cake as evenly as possible.
4.  Warm the hot fudge topping in the microwave for 30 seconds and then mix together with the remaining 1/4 cup of the creamer.  Stir in 1 cup of the chopped Oreos.  Pour this on top of the cake too.
5.  Spread the Cool Whip over the cake in a smooth, even layer.
6.  Sprinkle the remaining Oreos over the top so that they look pretty.
7.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours so that the delicious ingredients have time to soak into the cake.

Makes 24 servings, 301 calories each according to my MyFitnessPal recipe calculator.

Sweater Skirt DIY

Recently, I've become quite the sweater aficionado.  I spend a lot of time convinced that I'm never going to be warm again, and it hasn't even really gotten cold yet.  This doesn't bode well for the rest of winter.  I've also come to realize why animals spend the fall months packing on as much body fat as possible: it's fantastic portable insulation.  Anyway, now that I've shed 40 pounds of it, I've taken to wearing sweaters to keep warm.  I'm kind of in love with sweater dresses, and I've been wanting to refashion a giant Salvo find into one, but I haven't found one that I like yet.  Instead, I settled for this adorable brown argyle one and turned it into a sweater skirt.

This is what the sweater looked like originally.  It was a men's XL that I got for $1.  I love 5 for $5s at Salvo.  They're pretty much my favorite.

I used another skirt that fit me tightly as a template for cutting out the front and back.  Centering it was easy because I lined up its back seam with the middle row of argyle and just trimmed along the edges.  I would recommend taking even more out of it because the first time I wore it, it fit fine in the morning, but by the end of the day, the fabric had stretched out and I had to keep pulling it up.  I fixed it by taking the side seams in again, but I don't have any pictures of that.

Then I put the two pieces of fabric right sides together and sewed side seams.  I started at the bottom and worked toward the top so that the sweater's original hems lined up.  I folded the top parts over and sewed them into a waistband.  That was it.  These modeling pictures seem to indicate that I wear an excessive amount of plaid flannel.  I can't help it; I'm cold all the time!

I liked it so much that I wore it to work the next day with some fleece-lined tights and another sweater.  This is me pushing Penny away so that the picture wouldn't feature her trying to sniff my crotch.

This is what it actually looked like.  I kind of love it.

Stretchy Paneled Skirt Refashion

I've gotten into a bit of a crafting mood lately, largely thanks to Pinterest, and one of my first projects was to turn a large, ugly red garment into a cute, fitted skirt with black side panels.  I don't really know what the proper description of the original piece of clothing would be.  It sort of looks like a skirt and jacket pair, but they were connected into a sort of dress by a satin lining.  I picked it up at a Salvo thinking that we might be able to use it for a costume for a picture, but it didn't end up working out.  Instead of just throwing it away or re-donating it and wasting the money I had spent, I decided to refashion it into something wearable.

This was the original garment.  Actually, I had already cut the skirt off when this picture was taken, but I arranged it back inside so that I could have a "before" picture of how ugly it really was.

Then I had to slave away with my seam ripper to remove the lining that had attached the skirt to the top portion of the red thingy.  I hate using the seam ripper more than anything.  It's incredibly tedious and usually means that you screwed something up.  Then I took the side seams off of the skirt so that I had two rectangular pieces of fabric.

I was getting rid of this stretchy tank top because it's too big (!) for me now and also I never really liked the way it looked with anything I paired it with.  As you can see, I also forgot to take a "before" shot of this one, but this is what the front originally looked like.  I cut the back of the tank top off using the ribbing as a guide to make it as straight as possible.  Then I folded it in half hot dog style and cut it down the center so that I had two panels.

I free-handed all of the cuts and measurements, so I'm sure a lot of the seams are crooked.  I measured my waist to see how large I should make the skirt and then subtracted an inch since I didn't want to mess with buttons, zippers, or a drawstring.  The natural stretch of the black fabric is enough to hold the skirt up.  Then I trimmed the red cloth using the same fold-it-in-half-and-hope-for-the-best method that I used on the tank top.  If you look closely at the little diagram I made on the sheet of paper, you will see why I shouldn't attempt to do math in the middle of the night.  I had to take in the side seams after I put the skirt together because it was way too big.  It caused the side panels to be slightly narrower than I had originally intended, but everything worked out in the end.

Once everything was cut, I started sewing.  I pinned one side panel to the front section of the skirt and made a straight seam.  I kept the original hems on both garments so that I didn't have to deal with hemming it myself, so I started at the bottom and stitched toward the top of the skirt so that any unevenness caused by the stretchy fabric could be trimmed and hidden by the waistband.  Then I pieced the next panel in, and finally added the back of the skirt.

Because I used straight cuts, when I tried it on, I found that the back of it had an awkward gap that didn't fit me well.  I decided to add a pair of darts onto the front to eat up some of the loose fabric.  I decided where I wanted to place the first one and then used the fold-it-in-half method with the aid of a tape measure to make the lines for the darts symmetrical.

You can sort of see the darts that I traced out in this picture.  I don't own any actual fabric chalk, so I used this awesome purple marker that I love.  I wouldn't recommend doing this.  Then I sewed the darts and finished the skirt by folding down the top and sewing a waistband.

Ta da!  Now I just need somewhere to wear it.  I had been hoping that it could be a work skirt, but it turned out a bit too short for that.

About that NaNoWriMo Thing...

So during November I got this crazy idea to participate in NaNoWriMo.  Actually, I arrived at the decision at around 10 pm on Halloween, and then hovered around my computer for the rest of the night waiting for the stroke of midnight so I could get going.  I spent the month slaving away over my laptop keyboard in an attempt to complete the seemingly impossible task of writing 50,000 words of a novel in just 30 days.  But I did it!

As luck would have it, I had outlined a story a few months ago, so I had a plot and characters and setting ready and waiting to go.  I've never done anything like this before, so I handled it exactly the way anyone who knows me would expect me to.  I printed out my detailed outline, character sketches, location descriptions, and lists of strong action verbs and adjectives, and put them all in a binder with color-coded tabs and a whole bunch of loose leaf paper.  Really, the only downside was the fact that the loose leaf was wide ruled instead of college ruled.  I somehow managed to persevere, though, despite a nearly tragic mishap with a spilled water bottle in my work bag that left the bottoms of the papers slightly crinkly (and nearly claimed the life of my phone).

I'm a month behind on most of my tv shows and my reading of The Hobbit in preparation for watching the movie ground to a halt, but I hit 50,000 words on November 28th, two whole days early.  Then I promptly went out and bought myself a Slurpee.  Because I deserved it.

This story still has a long way to go.  I have close to 50 chapters sketched out and I finished November somewhere in the middle of the 10th.  I don't know if I'll ever get around to finishing it (or if I'll ever actually show it to anyone), but it was nice to get the words that had been rattling around in my head out onto paper. It was also fun to have a sense of purpose for the first time in a while.  Maybe that'll be what keeps me going.  I am, of course, taking a writing break.  I've got a whole load of craft ideas that I've been waiting to work on, and a lot of hours of tv to catch up on.  I like to think that it won't take long for me to get back to writing.

We Were Too Full for Second Breakfast...

Denny's is currently running a Hobbit themed menu in conjunction with the upcoming Hobbit movie and my friend Gabi and I decided that we really wanted to sample the Middle Earth fare.  Our only problem was that we apparently live in the only town in the country that doesn't have a Denny's within five minutes.  We had to make a special trip up to Lakeside Mall just to get some Hobbit food.  It was worth it, though.

We started off with red velvet pancake bites.  I have no idea how these relate to the Hobbit (or to pancakes, for that matter), but they were far too tasty for me to care.  Then I ordered a Hobbit Slam, which was by far the best thing I've ever gotten to say while ordering in a restaurant.  My Hobbit Slam (!) came with pumpkin pancakes and lemon seed cake french toast.  The pancakes were amazing.  I'm pretty obsessed with pumpkin, so I might be a little biased, but they were heavenly.  The seed cake, on the other hand, wasn't so good.  It was ok, though, because that left my stomach free to hold even more of the pumpkin pancakes.

All in all, it was a good day.  Especially since I discovered that I had my copy of The Hobbit in my purse.  Naturally, I had to pose for a picture with it and my pancakes.  Now they can live on in my memory forever and ever.  One of my other friends asked if we had eaten Second Breakfast, but I was so full from our Hobbit feast that I barely ate for the rest of the day.  Yum.

Weeping Angels are Scary...

I'm sure you're well aware that I'm kind of a nerd.  If not, I suggest that you take a peek at the title of this blog.  It's easy to read since I still haven't gotten around to 'Shopping a nifty header for it, so the name looks all boring.

Anyway, I'm pretty obsessed with Doctor Who, so I decided that I wanted to make a Who-themed pumpkin for Halloween.  But what to make?  I saw some TARDIS templates online, but I like making faces on pumpkins.  That's when I realized that there's nothing scarier than a Weeping Angel.  I don't know why, but they creep me out more than any other Who monster.  They're terrifying.  I found a couple of templates, but I didn't think I had quite enough pumpkin carving talent to pull them off.  Plus, my printer was out of ink.  I decided to free-hand a template of my own.  This was a major accomplishment for someone like me who never quite progressed beyond the ability to draw stick figures.  This is what it looked like:

Then I taped it to my hollowed out pumpkin and traced it with a poking stick (I'm assuming this has a technical name, but I have no idea what it is.) so that I could carve along the dotted lines.

This was the final result.  It's pretty scary if I do say so myself.  DON'T BLINK!

Oh, and since I'm such a huge nerd, I decided that it would be fun to dress up as the Tenth Doctor.  A perfectly timed gust of wind helped my hair live up to Ten's awesomeness in this picture.

Don't even blink.  No seriously, don't do it.

NaNoWriMo Away!

I've been aware of National Novel Writing Month for a couple of years now.  I'll admit that the first time I saw a Twitter friend mention it, I thought the idea was a little bit crazy.  This year, however, I decided to dive in.  I tossed the idea around for a few days as I saw other people on Twitter talking about making their preparations and last night, two hours before it kicked off, I decided to register and make a go of it.  I figured that if I was ever going to do something like this, now would be the time.  I'm absurdly underemployed and almost completely lack what most twenty-somethings would describe as a social life.  Now, I know that you're thinking, "But Kris, shouldn't you be writing your novel instead of writing about writing your novel?"  And the answer to that question would be a resounding yes.  However, anyone who would ask me that clearly lacks appreciation for my extraordinary powers of procrastination.  It's all a part of the creative process.

I started writing at midnight and made it through 858 words before I decided to call it quits for the night at 1:30 am.  I can always tell when I'm too tired to continue writing because my phonics start to get wonky as I type.  It's not pretty; as a grammar elitist, it's a point of pride that I get some sleep and come back to the computer when I'm rested enough to continue properly.

I'll be honest: I kind of hate what I have written so far.  I've always been a good writer, but I've almost exclusively written academic papers.  Creative storytelling is something that's more or less new to me.  I think it'll get better after I power through this opening chapter and move on to the characters that I really like.  I have a feeling that it's just a matter of finding my own writing voice and figuring how to put the images in my head down onto paper.  It's definitely a different process than pounding out a thesis statement and some analytic paragraphs.  I need to convince myself to write the novel my own way, not try to make it perfect or fit into some preconceived notion of what it should look like.

In Defense of AP Classes...

A friend of mine recently posted a link to an article titled "AP Classes Are a Scam" from The Atlantic.  The article details several reasons why its author John Tierney dislikes the AP system.  I disagreed with every single one of them.  I went to a very good public high school.  As a teacher, I'm aware that my school was not the norm; I did my student teaching in a vastly different district.  However, choosing to take as many AP classes as possible was one of the best decisions I've made in my life.  I ended up taking American History, World History, American Government, English Language, English Literature, Macro Econ, and Spanish tests.  I also took a semester of Calc AB, but I ended up transferring into a different class mid-year because I didn't need any more math credits and I didn't think I'd do well enough on the AP test.  I was well-prepared for the AP tests at the end of the year and I did well.  I picked up a couple of 5s, some 4s, and one 3, which has always been a source of annoyance for me.

Those scores earned me an entire year's worth of college credit.  Credit-wise, I was a sophomore the first day I set foot on campus.  I finished my undergrad degree in six semesters.  My AP tests had cost around $500 total, but had saved me an entire year of tuition, room and board, and books.  An entire year.  It's not like I went to a community college or a little liberal arts school.  I went to the University of Michigan, which happens to be one of the best public universities in the country (Go Blue!).  If my AP credits were good enough for U of M, they're good enough anywhere.  Later in my college career, I transferred schools to Michigan State University (another pretty large and highly-respected institution).  They gave me even more credits for my AP scores.  To say I'm a believer in the AP system is an understatement.  Transitioning to the college curriculum at Michigan wasn't a challenge at all after the way high school (thanks in large part to my APs) prepared me.  I'd even go so far as to say that my MSU classes were a cakewalk when I transferred there.  On top of that, as I sit here wondering how I'm going to pay off my student loans, I'm beyond thankful that I have several fewer thousands of dollars to worry about thanks to my high school AP classes.

On top of that, my AP classes were where I learned how to write at a high level.  That, more than any skill I picked up in high school, played a major role in my college success.  While other freshmen were struggling with the high page counts and rigorous grading scales that accompanied college-level writing, I felt right at home.  An eight page paper comparing writing styles for my Great Books class?  Please, I wrote a ten page novel comparison in AP English last year.  Blue book exams that required three or four essays on a time limit?  I'd been doing that on AP tests for years.  I'd always been a strong writer (you can thank my English teacher mother for that), but it wasn't until my first AP class that I was really pushed.  That was where I learned how to formulate arguments and really write academic prose.  I'm sure I would've figured it out eventually, but having that skill before I ever set foot on a college campus ensured that I could hit the ground running.

Here are some of Tierney's arguments against the AP system:

AP courses are not, in fact, remotely equivalent to the college-level courses they are said to approximate. Before teaching in a high school, I taught for almost 25 years at the college level, and almost every one of those years my responsibilities included some equivalent of an introductory American government course. The high-school AP course didn't begin to hold a candle to any of my college courses. My colleagues said the same was true in their subjects.

The way material is taught is at the discretion of the teacher.  If Tierney didn't feel that the AP classes he was teaching were at the appropriate level, it was his responsibility to correct that.  In my experience, my AP courses were very challenging and on par with many college classes that I took.  In fact, there were several college classes that I took, particularly at MSU that were easier than classes I had taken in high school.

The traditional monetary argument for AP courses -- that they can enable an ambitious and hardworking student to avoid a semester or even a year of college tuition through the early accumulation of credits -- often no longer holds. Increasingly, students don't receive college credit for high scores on AP courses; they simply are allowed to opt out of the introductory sequence in a major. And more and more students say that's a bad idea, and that they're better off taking their department's courses. 

As I've already noted above, the monetary argument absolutely did hold true for me.  I can't guarantee that admissions standards haven't changed somewhat in the few years since I applied, but being able to escape undergrad with three years' worth of student loans instead of four is a huge deal.  I managed just fine skipping some of the introductory courses at college.  In fact, some of the intro courses that I did take were major wastes of my time and tuition.  I was more than happy to skip as many of them as I could.

The scourge of AP courses has spread into more and more high schools across the country, and the number of students taking these courses is growing by leaps and bounds. Studies show that increasing numbers of the students who take them are marginal at best, resulting in growing failure rates on the exams. The school where I taught essentially had an open-admissions policy for almost all its AP courses. I would say that two thirds of the students taking my class each year did not belong there. And they dragged down the course for the students who did.

I do agree that this is a problem.  When I was student teaching, I sat in on a couple of AP classes and it was very evident that most of the students in there weren't at the level needed to succeed on the AP test.  However, the blame for that doesn't necessarily lie with the College Board or the AP system.  Our high school had certain requirements for entering AP classes.  For any of the English or social studies classes that relied heavily on writing, you had to be in the Honors English track and get a signature from both your English teacher and your last Social Studies Teacher.  For AP Calc, you had to have been in the Honors math track.  I had to have my Spanish teacher's permission to enroll in AP Spanish as well.  There's no reason that this system can't be applied to all schools that offer AP classes.  If schools have open enrollment policies that cause their students to fail AP tests, the blame lies with them.

Despite the rapidly growing enrollments in AP courses, large percentages of minority students are essentially left out of the AP game. And so, in this as in so many other ways, they are at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to college admissions.

This is also an issue.  However, the bigger problem lies with the fact that schools in inner city areas that tend to be dominated by minority students perform more poorly in general.  These students, to their great misfortune, are going to be at a competitive disadvantage for college admissions with or without AP tests.  It's a terrible situation, and it's one that doesn't seem likely to change in the near future, but it's not because of AP classes.  If anything, offering AP classes in those types of schools can give top performing students an extra leg up that may just help them get into a university.  Education makes all the difference in the world.  Any extra boost a low-income student can get has the potential to make a major difference.

The AP program imposes "substantial opportunity costs" on non-AP students in the form of what a school gives up in order to offer AP courses, which often enjoy smaller class sizes and some of the better teachers. Schools have to increase the sizes of their non-AP classes, shift strong teachers away from non-AP classes, and do away with non-AP course offerings, such as "honors" courses. These opportunity costs are real in every school, but they're of special concern in low-income school districts.

Again, I attended a fairly unique public high school, so my experiences may not be representative of all schools, but my AP classes were every bit as full as my regular classes.  There was also a substantial Honors program in math and English that were used to feed into the AP program.  My sister still attends the school, and since my graduation, they've added an additional advanced math track to the curriculum.  Don't forget that teachers generally have a great deal of input in the classes that they are assigned to teach.  This is especially true for tenured teachers with a lot of experience.  They're the ones most likely to handle AP classes.  Most of the teachers who teach APs choose to do so.  When I decided to go back to school for a teaching degree, I knew all along that I wanted to teach AP History and Government classes.  I want the ability to cover the material more deeply than the regular history classes do.  I wanted a chance to engage the students on a deeper level.

To me, the most serious count against Advanced Placement courses is that the AP curriculum leads to rigid stultification -- a kind of mindless genuflection to a prescribed plan of study that squelches creativity and free inquiry. The courses cover too much material and do so too quickly and superficially. In short, AP courses are a forced march through a preordained subject, leaving no time for a high-school teacher to take her or his students down some path of mutual interest. The AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.

This could not be further from the truth in my experience.  My first AP class was American History and I fell in love with it.  I'd always had an affinity for history, but that class taught me that it was so much more than learning names and dates and events.  I learned how to piece together cause and effect and look at the long-term impacts of events and decisions, which is an essential skill that applies to almost every facet of real life.  The point about teachers being forced to teach specific items is absolutely true, but it applies to every single classroom in a modern high school.  States and districts have content standards for each subject.  They're massive lists of numbered and bulleted subjects that teachers are required to cover during the course of the school year.  They dictate almost every facet of instruction.  When I did my student teaching in a World History class, we even had a district-wide final exam that we had to tailor our instruction around.  The events and facts that we stressed to our students were the ones found on that exam, not necessarily the ones that we found most engaging.  While we're on the subject of our World History class, we covered all of world history from the 1300s to the present day in just one school year.  The number of important events we simply glossed over was almost heart-breaking.  There was no time for detail or more than lists of names and dates in most cases.  That's not a problem unique to AP classes.  I know for certain that I had a much deeper knowledge of subjects I covered in my AP classes than the type of classroom that I student taught in could ever hope to.

The Angels Take the Ponds...

It takes a lot to get me to cry for a tv show or a movie, but Doctor Who managed to do just that last night.  And I never even loved Amy all that much.  I didn't dislike her, but I just never really connected with her terribly closely.  Whatever your feelings for the Ponds, though, I think it'd be hard not to admit that Moffat created the perfect farewell for them.

There were a few things that were a bit predictable in the episode.  I could see some of the plot points coming beforehand, which is fairly unusual for the show, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable.  In fact, I loved pretty much everything about it.  Except River's fedora.  I wasn't a fan of that.  I also did take mild offense when Rory told the Doctor that he's the only person who could be attracted to characters in a book because pretty much all of my major crushes have been on fictional characters.

The set-up as a detective noir story was fantastic.  I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.  I love the dark atmosphere it gave to the story we already knew was going to be heartbreaking.  As if the angels weren't scary enough on their own, it added another level of creepiness.

I loved the fact that the Angels were back to their time zapping hunting ways again.  I somehow find that even more scary than the way that they killed people in the "The Time of the Angels."  There were so many throwbacks to "Blink" (one of my favorite episodes of all time) in the show last night that I was enjoying myself so much that I almost forgot that there was major sadness on the horizon.  Plus, now I get to be terrified of the Statue of Liberty too, so I'm super excited about that.

My only real question with the episode is the part about the TARDIS not being able to go back to 1930s New York.  In series three, the Doctor and Martha visited New York during the Great Depression in "Daleks in Manhattan."  I'm not sure exactly which year that was, but it would've had to be sometime during the '30s.  So now I'm trying to figure out whether the time problem applies only to 1938 and beyond.  If so, why was he able to land the TARDIS perfectly fine in 2012.  Maybe I'm over-thinking it.

At any rate, I thought it was the perfect goodbye to the Ponds in a sad, but sort of happy way.  I'm super excited for the Christmas special and finding out more about Oswin/Clara and how she meets the Doctor.  There are so many great things to come and I can't wait to see how the dynamics change with the Doctor starting a relationship with a new companion.

Happy! Punctuation, Day...

I'm a full-fledged grammar nazi.  I get a little nervous tic when I see things written poorly.  My current crusade: it's "should have" or "should've," not "should of."  I expend a lot of self-control not correcting grammar on the internet and in text messages.  I even had to restrain myself from correcting the previously mentioned "should of" error in a hashtag my brother posted on Twitter.  A hashtag.  Obviously I have some issues.

However, those issues can be addressed on another day because today is National Punctuation Day.  It's a perfect excuse to finally let loose and send that text message containing a (properly used) semicolon that you've been bottling up inside for ages.  Do it.  It'll feel good.  I promise.  Now, if only we could get everyone on the internet to join in the celebration...

Waiting for The Doctor...

Every Saturday, I eagerly anticipate the new episode of Doctor Who.  I triple check my DVR to make sure that the recording is set properly and that nobody has cancelled it to record a football game instead.  And then I wait.  And wait.  And wait some more.  The day seems to drag along while I wait for the episode to start.

There's just one problem: I live in the United States.  Normally, I'm more than happy with that.  But not on Saturdays.  On Saturdays, I'm stuck waiting an extra six hours or so for the new episode.  I hide from Twitter and my RSS feeds in an attempt to avoid spoilers and also to protect myself from copious amounts of jealousy directed at those people who are lucky enough to be able to watch the new show sooner than I can.

I'm sure I could find some sort of live streaming site to watch the show sooner, but I've never been a fan of watching pixelated, jumpy feeds where the audio never quite syncs up with the video.  Especially for shows that I love.  So I'll just wait.  I've still got five and a half hours left until the show starts here in the Eastern Time Zone.  In the meantime, I guess I'll watch some college football and read a book or two and hope that nobody kicks me off of the tv when the time comes.  And yes, I'll try to fight down my jealousy.  See you on the other side, Twitterverse.

Hobbit Day...

Happy Hobbit Day, fellow Tolkien fans!  Today is said to be the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, so pass around the cake and have an extra helping of Second Breakfast to celebrate.  If you're really ambitious, you could have a fireworks display in honor of the holiday, but that could be awkward to try to explain to your neighbors.  Maybe it's best to just go barefoot as a tribute.

We're only a few months away from the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as well, so we've also got that to celebrate.  It's a great time to lend your copy of The Hobbit to a friend who's never read it so they can get up to speed for the movie release (if you're one of those people who's comfortable parting with their books).  At any rate, it's a great excuse to pay another visit to Middle Earth and revel in the glory of the stories that have come out of it.

Downton Abbey Addiction...

I have a particular "type" when it comes to entertainment, whether it's books, tv, or movies.  I like excitement.  If it involves gunfire, explosions, or fight scenes, I'm usually pretty happy.  I've never had any interest in the typical girly type of stories.  I don't like dramas or "deep" movies and I'll take a Tom Clancy book over Jane Austen any day.  In light of that, you'll understand my confusion over my incredible addiction to Downton Abbey.

It makes no sense at all.  For all intents and purposes, I should hate this show.  Or at least have a very strong dislike of it.  It's loaded up with romantic intrigue, rich people being waited on hand and foot, and not even a hint of a car chase.  On the surface, there's nothing there for me.

But I love it.  I absolutely love it.  Like most of the BBC programming I watch, I was a bit of a late-comer to the fandom.  Also, in the interest of full disclosure, the first time I heard of the show was on Twitter last fall.  It took me a solid five months to realize that it wasn't called DowntoWn Abbey.  It didn't really seem like my cup of tea (see what I did there?), but I read too many rave reviews from people whose taste I trust and I finally decided to give it a shot.  I was hooked from the start of the very first episode.  I love the people.  I love the historical setting.  I even love the occasional American joke they make.

Somehow, the writers and actors have managed to make me truly care about these characters' lives, which is quite a feat considering how dispassionate I am about almost everyone (real people included).  There have been moments that have made me actually squeal out loud and clap my hands.  Likewise, there have been moments that have made me cry (again, a feat of epic proportions).  I can't describe what it is.  This show has found some magical formula that has me hooked for reasons I'm not sure I'll ever be able to explain.  Whatever it is, I'm totally happy with it.  I'm just enjoying the ride.  (And oh, was the latest episode ever amazing?)

Die Trying...

Last month (most likely in an attempt to transfer some of her book collection out of her room and into mine), my mom introduced me to an author named Lee Child.  Actually, the real reason was because I mentioned seeing a trailer for a movie called Jack Reacher that looked good even though it had Tom Cruise in it and she informed me that Reacher was one of her favorite literary characters.  But I think that getting rid of some books was also part of her motivation.  We've always had similar taste in reading material, so it was only natural that I would quickly come to love the series.

The first thing I want to note, since I've already brought up the upcoming movie, is that putting Tom Cruise in this role is possibly the worst casting I've ever seen.  And I'm a girl who's grown up being disappointed at big screen adaptations of books that I love.  I used to watch the Nancy Drew tv series, so this is really saying something.  In the books, Jack Reacher, the character Cruise will be playing, is described as an extremely tall (6'5", I believe), powerful, intimidating blond man who sticks out in a crowd just because you plain old can't miss him.  Does that sound even remotely like Tom Cruse to anyone?  No?  I didn't think so.  Re-watching the trailer after having read a few of the Reacher books only made this more clear.  Everything is wrong.  But that's beside the point.

I just finished Die Trying, which is the second Reacher novel.  In this one, he accidentally gets kidnapped because he happens to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It turns out that it's a pretty good thing he did because he plays a major role in saving the day at the end of the book.  I hope that's not too spoilery; I figured it was more or less obvious.  The kidnapping sets off a cross-country journey of events that leaves Reacher out in the middle of the woods.  It's out there that he seems to be more in his element than in any other situation his character has been in (at least as far as I've read).  The ending is quite a page-turner and I ended up staying up half the night to finish it.  I'm not kidding: it was 4 am before I finally went to bed.  It's funny how "I'll just read one more chapter" never seems to work out that way.

What makes Reacher a great character is that he's a thinker.  He's smart.  Sure, he's supremely capable when it comes to physical violence--he excels at fighting and was a decorated sniper, but when it comes down to it, he succeeds where others fail because he can out-think his opponents.  He manages to stay a step ahead of them and in the end, that's what gets him through the troubles he finds himself in.  Plus, once he comes across an injustice or someone who's doing bad things to innocent people, he won't rest until he eliminates the aggressor.  He's got the kind of black and white view of justice that's supremely entertaining in literature, even if it's a lot less practical in real life.

I definitely recommend checking out the Reacher books, especially if you plan to see the movie.  I'm an avid book-before-the-movie believer.  It might only serve to rile you up as you watch Tom Cruise try to play Reacher, but the books are well worth it.

Forays into Baking...

You know, for an educated, modern, extraordinarily independent woman, I'd make an excellent housewife.  As long as I could hire a maid to do the cleaning.  Ok, so basically I'd just be a really good stay at home cook who read a lot of books and took long bike rides to restaurants for lunch before coming home and whipping up a fabulous dessert/dinner.  But I would be good at it.

Since I didn't have a subbing job today, I was left with a lot of free time.  Plus, it was Friday, so the library was closed.  This is usually not something that ends well.  We've had a couple of graham cracker pie crusts in our pantry for ages, and this afternoon, I felt them calling out to me to be made into a pie.  I was going to make one of my delicious s'more pies, but we didn't have any chocolate pudding.  I had some vanilla, but vanilla-marshmallow pie just didn't sound that good.  That's when I got the brilliant idea to make a fruit pie.  I've never made a real pie before, so this was going to be just the adventure I needed to spice up my Friday afternoon.

I had bought a package of golden raspberries earlier in the week that I wasn't hugely fond of, so I knew right away that those were going to be a part of the pie.  However, that was the only fruit in our entire house, and I knew I needed some more.  I hopped on my bike (this has recently become a huge component of my fitness plan) and headed off to the local Meijer.  I had intended to get some blueberries and apples, but blueberries were way expensive, so I just settled for two large apples.  And store brand Oreos.  Those weren't for the pie, but they were on sale and I've got something great planned for them in the future.

When I got home, I got right to work on my pie.  I cobbled the recipe together (as usual) from a few hastily googled recipes and got to work.  First, I cored and sliced the apples I had bought (one gala and one golden delicious).  In all my life, I've never actually used the apple corer/slicer thingy.  I'm a firm believer in just biting into apples.  It appeals to the animal part of my brain.  Then I sliced each of the large apple slices into three thinner slices and then cut those into thirds lengthwise.

I don't know what kind of knife that is, but it makes me feel like Aladdin, so I like it.

Once the apple slicing (by far the hardest part of the process) was completed, I mixed the flour, sugar, and cinnamon together in a bowl.  Then I stirred the apples in until they were evenly coated.  Since I was using a graham cracker crust that didn't really need to be baked, I was afraid that if I put the fruit filling in cold, the crust would burn before the pie was fully baked.  I also decided that I wanted my pie to be a little less dry inside, so I tossed the whole mixture into a saucepan and added a 1/2 cup of water.  I simmered it for a bit and then added another 1/2 cup of water.

Once I was satisfied that the apples were warmed up enough, I spooned half of the mixture into the bottom of the pie pan.  Then I spread the golden raspberries over it and poured the rest of the apples on top.  Then I got to work on the crumble topping.  This was by far the tastiest part of the pie.  In fact, I'm having a hard time preventing myself from standing at the counter and eating the topping off of the remaining third of the pie.

The crumble topping has flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  I used a potato masher to mix in 1/4 cup of unmelted butter.  This requires a surprising amount of effort.  Once I'd gotten it evenly mixed so that it formed the perfect crumbles, I sprinkled it over the top of the fruit filling.  I had more than enough to make a nice, even coating.  After that, it was into the oven for 35 agonizing minutes as I sat at my computer in the kitchen and reveled in the aroma of baking cinnamon and apples.

Smells like heaven.  Tastes even better.

The pie turned out amazing, if I do say so myself.  Apple-golden raspberry pie isn't as glorified as plain old apple pie, but it should be.  It was not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be.  It turns out that the saying "easy as pie" is true after all.  I managed to let it cool for a whole ten minutes before I cut myself a slice.  I'm finally starting to get a hang of this not-burning-my-tongue thing.  Almost.  It was delicious.  The golden raspberries were delightful mixed in with the apples and the crumble topping was heavenly.  I want to eat all of the pie.  All of it.  And I'm not usually a huge pie fan.  I must make another one soon.  We've got another pie crust left, and there are so many different kinds of fruits to try in it.

Here's my recipe:

3/4 cup flour, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, divided
1 large gala apple
1 large golden delicious apple
1 cup water
5 oz golden raspberries
1 graham cracker pie crust
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, slightly softened

1.  In a medium bowl, mix 1/4 cup of the flour, the sugar, and 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon.  Set aside.
2.  Slice the apples into small, bite-sized pieces.
3.  Mix the apples into the dry mixture until evenly coated.
4.  Transfer mixture to medium sauce pan.  Add water 1/2 cup at a time.  Simmer on low for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
5.  Spoon half of the apple mixture into the bottom of the pre-made pie crust.  Spread raspberries evenly over the mixture.  Pour the rest of the apple mixture on top of the raspberries.  The fruit filling should be mounded over the top of the pie crust depending on the size of the apples you used.
6.  Mix the remaining 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg in a small mixing bowl.  Cut in the softened butter (I used a potato masher) until it is evenly mixed and forms loose chunks.
7.  Sprinkle this evenly over the top of the pie, making sure that you cover as much of it as possible.
8.  Place pie onto a baking sheet in case the fruit filling bubbles over.  Bake at 375 F (or 350 F convection) for 35 minutes.  Remove, cool, and enjoy.

Two Hours -- Two Libraries...

I was the weird kid who got excited about going to the library.  It was an exciting trip for me and was often granted as a reward for chores or just generally being awesome.  During the summers, I would load up a basket with almost two dozen Nancy Drew books at a time and finish them all within a week.  We spent loads of time there, checking out educational videos (you know, back when VHS tapes seemed cool) and browsing the bookshelves.  I used to think the adult section (not that kind of adult) was this mysterious other world where grown-ups gathered and the air smelled like old books.  I was also--and still am--a book sniffer.  I can't help myself; I just like the way they smell.  But I digress.  My point is that I've had a life-long love affair with my local public library.

A couple of years ago, citing budget cuts, our city council threatened to close the library.  I was heart-broken.  I was also defiant.  I come from a highly-educated suburb where the schools are fantastic.  I've seen (and joined) people lining up outside of the library waiting for it to open.  There are some afternoons on which it's hard to find parking.  And we have a large parking lot.  Good luck getting a study table on a Saturday afternoon.  We are a city that loves its library.  There was no way the council could shut it down and get away with it.  I was fully prepared to stage a sit-in if need be.  But part of me also panicked.  What if they actually did it?  Hundreds of childhood memories were tied up in that slightly-shabby, very 1970s-esque building.  Plus, it contained an almost limitless supply of my favorite passtime: books.  Sure enough, the city council ended up keeping the library going.  I visit almost every day now that I'm living back home.

The library is close enough to my house that it's become a vital part of my exercise regimen.  I hate walking or running in circles around my block.  I like to go somewhere.  The library, a 1.57 trip from my front door is a great solution.  As long as it's not raining (or, soon, snowing), it's the perfect destination for a walk, jog, or bike ride.  Sometimes I have an errand to run there: picking up something on hold, dropping off something that's due, stocking up on audio books so I don't lose my mind on an 1100-mile solo roadtrip.  Sometimes I just take a book with me and chill out in the lounge for a bit or browse the shelves, mentally adding to my "to-read" list before I head back home.

I've attended two major universities during my academic career, so my exposure to libraries only got grander after leaving home.  You know what I mean: enormous old buildings stuffed to the brim with what seems like every book ever published.  Buildings you could get lost in and not find your way out until you've spent a week sustaining yourself by gnawing on old leather bindings.  What I'm trying to say is that I'm used to great, big libraries that are teeming with people.

This afternoon, I had to have a test proctored at a library in the city next to mine.  Before leaving to take the test, I swung by my library to drop off a book that was due.  Then I set out to this other library.  I walked in and stopped at the entrance.  Looked around.  Blinked.  It was tiny.  I never visited the youth section, but I knew instinctively that the whole collection wouldn't have had enough Nancy Drew books to sustain one week of my childhood summer reading habits.  The computer lab was tiny and filled with monitors old enough to not be flat-screens.  It was...sad.  Two communities, right next door to each other, and their entire library could fit into the youth section at ours.

I can't imagine growing up without a library like mine.  I think about all of the stories I would've missed out on, all the ideas I might not have had, the journeys my imagination wouldn't have taken if I hadn't had immediate and almost unfettered access to all of those books.  Something like 98 or 99% of our city's public high school graduates go on to college.  I don't know this other town's exact stats, but I know that their numbers are a lot lower.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

Disney Cooking...

One of my great loves in life has always been Disney.  The movies, the songs, the parks, you name it and I probably love it.  Except for Sleeping Beauty.  I don't like her.  Don't get me started on that.  Between three different Disney internships, I lived right next to Disney World for almost two years.  One of my favorite perks of living at the greatest collection of theme parks and resorts in the entire world?  The food.  Oh, yes, the delicious, decadent food.  Food so good that I would visit the parks or hotels alone just to eat it if I couldn't find anyone to accompany me.

Ooh la la!

My favorite restaurant by far is Pioneer Hall.  It's the home to the Hoop Dee Doo Revue.  I've been pretty much obsessed with this dinner show since I was a child.  My family used to vacation there almost every year and we'd always have dinner at the Hoop once.  The show's not for everyone--you have to have an appreciation of cheesy humor, slapstick comedy, and bear jokes to really love it (or just indulge in the bottomless sangria that comes with your meal).  As luck would have it, I happen to particularly enjoy that type of humor.  The show has recently undergone some changes and it's not quite what it used to be, but it's still worth checking out.  At the end of every show (this part remains unchanged), they select a few audience volunteers.  One of them is always a young woman.  For as long as I can remember, I've been dying to be that volunteer.  She gets to dress up as a can can dancer and tell a bear joke.  What else could a girl want?  I finally after years of silent hoping got a chance to do just that last fall, thus making one of my great life dreams come true.  Don't I look great?  Side note: it was really awkward because I was wearing a short dress and I'm pretty sure that the people in the front row could see straight up it.  But I digress.  This was about food.

One of my favorite items on the Hoop's menu is the cornbread that is served when you're seated.  I love cornbread.  It's delicious.  Theirs is no exception.  A few weeks ago, I was trolling Pinterest and I found a link to a site that lists tons and tons of Disney World recipes.  One of them was for Hoop Dee Doo Cornbread.  I jumped out of my chair and almost forgot to repin it in my excitement.  Luckily, I got a hold of myself.  I just needed to buy corn meal.  Is corn meal used for anything else?  I ask because I have a large container of it now and the only thing I've ever used corn meal for in my life was making this batch of cornbread.  Not that making several more pans of it would be an issue or anything...  I'm just curious.

Anyway, despite my love of cornbread, I've never made it before.  I bake a lot of desserts and am developing quite a talent for casseroles, but cornbread has never crossed my mind as something to bake.  I have no idea why.  After reading the recipe over, I determined that cornbread is basically cake with some corn meal in it.  I guess that explains why I like it so much.  My sister and I quickly whipped up a batch and tossed it in the oven.  It's super easy; if you can measure and stir, it'd be pretty hard to mess this up.  This was our result:

It tastes like Disney World!

The cornbread was delicious, as expected.  It's been almost a year since I ate at the Hoop, so I honestly can't vouch for the fact that it tastes just like it's supposed to, but if I closed my eyes and imagined myself in a big, rustic dining hall with some banjo music, I could picture it being right at home.  Despite my earlier musings, I fully expect to use the rest of my corn meal making repeated batches of this.  Eat it right out of the oven.  It's heavenly.  The recipe can be found here.  I definitely recommend checking out the other recipes listed on that site.  This is the only one I've tried so far, but I've got a whole list of things I want to cook off of it.