Small Town Doc and I have been burning up emails with Stereograms. Methinks we have an addict! :o)

Trying to find some new ones to send off to him has uncovered a slew of new amazing eye benders! I’m going to torture you all again with yet a new one … :o)

After clicking on the pic below and figuring out what it is, feel free to leave a comment. If you want to really challenge yourself, play this Stereogram Tetris Game online! Good luck!

Credit: B.P. Johnson, 2005

This is a post which I wrote back in March of 2006. I thought I’d share it with you again, because I’m going to be too busy to post anything creative in the next day or so, and also because this is one of the things I’m doing today: making Shoofly Pies!

These are easy, inexpensive, and really really yummy! Practice making one ahead of time, and then surprise your family with something completely new over the Holidays.

Here’s a cut and paste of the post:

Pastry for a Single-Crust Pie

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9″ pie plate. Trim and flute edges. If you prebake, do not prick the pastry - prebake for 5 minutes in a 450 degree oven, and cool thoroughly. I don’t prebake. The crust always comes out moist and flaky - never tough or rubbery.

Filling:

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

In a different bowl (I use a 4 cup measuring cup instead of a bowl, makes the pouring easier) combine the molasses, hot water, and baking soda.

Don’t panic … it will have a lively reaction when you put in the baking soda! :-)

Regular recipes usually call for pouring a liquid layer into the pie crust first, but I’ve noticed that this often leads to a leaky pie once it’s cooked. I usually put a small amount of the dry layer down first, then I gently pour some of the hot, “fuzzling” liquid over that, usually pouring it over the back of a spoon to keep it from splashing. Then another dry layer, thin, but enough to mostly cover the wet layer. Repeat layers, ending with a dry layer, and completely hiding the wet layer beneath. I can usually get about 4 wet/dry layers total per pie.

Cover the edges of the pie with tin foil, and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Remove the tin foil and finish baking until the center is firm. Cool on rack before serving.

Ovens are very different, so pay attention to the way the pie looks. It might take your pie less time than it takes mine … and as far as the tin foil goes, you just want to take it off early enough for the edges to be golden.

This is a lovely pie … nice served with vanilla or coffee ice cream … or fresh, sweetened whipped cream with a bit of vanilla extract. It’s the easiest and least expensive pie that I make out of everything in my regular repertoire. The flavor is not quite like anything else … and nor is the consistency. Addictive! :o)

FaceBook Question #1:

Do you think that as years pass and technology advances, that we’re heading inexorably toward a homogenized electronic social experience which blends reality with fantasy?

Enrico Cantu:

Peggikaye Eagler:

Rob Lamberts:

Pattie Iannitti:

Clay Jones:

Arunn Narasimhan:

Vijay Sadasivam:

My thoughts:

Your turn … :o)

This morning, I heard from a fellow in the NHS - Max E Nurse. It was a “friend” request in FaceBook, and since I’d never heard of him before, I had to do a bit of research. That’s when I found his blog:

It Shouldn’t Happen in Health Care, by Max E Nurse

I’m still laughing! :o)

It’s a smaller world that I’d realized … turns out that he and my old friend, John Crippen, don’t always see eye to eye! In fact, Dr. Crippen is why Max began blogging …

If you don’t take a look, you’re the one missing out. He’s got a great sense of humor, and he uses it well!

In the last few weeks, there have been a few other new bloggers. Vijay discovered them, and introduced them to us. I’m pretty sure that all of my readers also read Vijay’s blog, but just in case you missed it, make sure you check out Small Town Doc, by none other than SmallTownDoc, and A Twist of Word and Mind, by Rambodoc.

Small Town Doc is a family practitioner in a small town in Southern India, and we’ve turned him into a Stereogram addict! He’s a new blogger, and has an excellent start. I’m looking forward to getting to know him a lot better. (And to seeing a picture … ;o)

Rambodoc is based in Kolkata (I think that’s Calcutta, to us Anglos, my Indian friends can correct me if I’m wrong) … and describes himself as:

“Philosophically a votary for freedom and laissez-faire capitalism, he is philologically a Pun-jabi, physiologically a tranquolatile mix of testosterone, endorphins and encephalins, and pathologically is a potential case for solitary confinement, with intermittent electric shocks to obscure corners of the cerebral cortex.”

So - take a look! There are so many new medbloggers out there that it’s hard to get to all of them … but these are worth taking the time for!