Help me identify this insect!

[KimT]

I laughed until I cried. It's SO GOOD to have some humor on this forum.

Fiona, You have quite an ecosystem going on.

If you guys are using phones to post, your fine motor skills are better than mine. I'm sitting on a cushy office chair looking at a 27 inch 4K screen and typing on a standard keyboard, yet I still make errors. And my a$$ is numb because the muscles turned to fat so it leaves my sciatic nerve easy to irritate. You'd think a memory foam chair that adjusted 10 ways would protect my derriere better.

 

[wishmobbing]

This thread is a treasure (like one you'd hide in plaid sight of a less stylish aquarium)!
And maybe a life aquatic could be the answer to Kim's derriere. How bout a well heated hot tub with a floating keyboard and that fancy 4k screen? I'll volunteer for beta testing, especially if Fiona will throw in fruit and chocolate (both signs of a healthy eco system).

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Any thread that starts off with “Help me identify this insect” is likely to be good.
The bar has been set....

 

[ShiftKicker]

Kim, I'm sorry you have a bottom with no dense muscle for comfy sitting. MND takes away some of the things that we don't realize our dignity depends upon till it's gone. You could be sitting on something so soft and fluffy it's next to air, but if you're sitting for long periods, it's going to hurt. Re: phones- my predictive text can't keep up with me any more. I just type gibberish and hit "send" before looking.

wishmobbing, I make an outstanding dark chocolate raspberry cheesecake. OK with you?

Karen, it's true. Mysteries and puzzles are a real treat.

 

[wishmobbing]

Hehe, I'm thankfully able to read autocorrect gibberish as well as drunkne typing. It's a profiler thing where you have to crawl in the mind of the sender to decypher.
Anything dark chocolate and raspberry is far from okay, It's basically my religion. Where do I sign up?
My boyfried has a scar on his ear from when he hit his head on a garage door on his way to order a birthday cake for me. They asked what I liked best and he very truthfully got a custom made raspberry buttercream extravaganza with chocolate dough and hard chocolate frosting.

 

[KimT]

Hey Fiona,

I also make a pretty mean dark chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Since we're no longer competitive in the field, maybe we can have a bakeoff........if I can stand that long.

 

[KarenNWendyn]

You gals can stage a bakeoff. I’ll sign up to be one of the judges.

 

[wishmobbing]

Very elegantly done how you introduced multiple judges, Karen!

By the way, bugs are the new bar.

 

[ShiftKicker]

Aside from the logistics of mailing everyone a piece of cake that requires refrigeration, there are the international laws that address perishables, packaging, undeclared "secret" ingredients, restricted foods (dairy) and the obvious customs fees and restrictions on importing/exporting foreign treasures (chocolate raspberry cheesecake is, by weight, more valuable than platinum, in my books). This could get complicated. But I'm willing to meet up somewhere and get this sorted out in person.

I feel as though the participants can also be judges. While I am competitive, I am 100% for admitting someone else's recipe is better than mine. But only if the winner promises me their recipe so I can use it going forward from that. If we include a few people on this judging panel without any horses in the race, I feel as though that would be a good balance.

Note: A cheesecake recipe can easily be adapted to a smoothie/shake version with no change in flavour. I make a breakfast one for my kid that is outstanding, if I do say so myself.

Kim- I use an office chair on its highest position in the kitchen. Bonus fun because I can whiz around on wheels and spin to get things easily. I also got an excellent mixer this Christmas- which means I don't really have to make much effort with things like whisking. I regret not being this lazy when I was healthy.

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Darn logistics always get in the way of good old fashioned fun. I just assumed we’d all apparate (in the style of Harry Potter) to some undisclosed location.

 

[ShiftKicker]

Karen, despite my wheedling letters, I have yet to receive the custom made Hawthorn wand I ordered from Ollivander's over 15 weeks ago. It'll have to be you in charge of transportation if you want this to happen any time soon.

 

[KimT]

I don't really have recipes so I guess mine is a little bit different with every cake. I can tell you I use roasted pecans for the crust. I buy raw and roast them with a little coconut sugar and butter. I use raspberry preserves, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, sour cream, vanilla, eggs, butter, sugar and cream cheese. I make the cheesecake part and put 3/4th of it in the pan. Then I mix the preserves with part of the chocolate (melted) and the rest of the cheesecake part and drop it on top so the raspberry/chocolate goes into the cake. After the cake is out I melt the rest of the chocolate, heavy cream, and butter on the stove and top the cake with it.

I'm off dairy, processed food, sugar, and grain to see if my joint pain goes away. I'm giving it a month. If it doesn't help, I'll be making this cake!

 

[KarenNWendyn]

Hawthorn is a good choice — very protective. My wand is made of Arundo donax (I hope this came out in italics :lol.

I also have crystal ball, but it doesn’t work very well.

 

[KimT]

The cake that goes over best with company is my dark chocolate/Kahlua cake. It's a chocolate bundt cake infused with dark chocolate and Kahlua. It's topped with a chocolate ganache.

The last time I ate it myself, I was in SVT for 2 hours and almost went to the ED to get it converted. I finally converted it myself. I had a house full of company and didn't tell them what was going on but I got my cardio workout while sitting in the living room chair. Of course I ate two huge pieces.

 

[KimT]

Fiona, I could have driven over to Universal and got that wand for you. Ya think it'd work on Trump?