I was never a scout, and that was probably for the best. But I do enjoy the cookies Girl Scouts produce. Yes. In my world I imagine Scouts being kids working in cookie factories. Anyway.
Thin Mints
Kind of the classic Girl Scout cookie, and sure… I can see the allure. They’re all refreshing and all, but honestly, aren’t they getting a bit boring? Dull? Haven’t we tasted this cookie just a bit too many times before? Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to live a little and elect not to go with the classic and try some more exciting choices. Should you choose to pick these up, though, be advised that they taste better frozen.
Tagalongs
I, for one, am just OK with tagalongs. The combination of crispy cookie crust and creamy peanut butter—the “CCC&CPB” if you’d like—is nigh perfect. Tagalongs is the Thin Mints for a new and more cynical millennium.
Lemon Chalet Cremes
The disappointment in the test. I can only assume the Girl Scouts wanted to go French and fancy with their Chalets, but the result is less than satisfying. The cookie to creme is just off, with way too much cookie and too little creme. And to add insult to injury, the creme tastes super-artificial. If anything, this cookie would work better for a pie crust.
Samoas
My personal favorite. Coconut? Chocolate? Caramel? How can you go wrong with that combination? Put on some Floyd, eat a couple of Samoas, and go on a taste-trip. Note: Samoas is one of the few cookies that taste better fresh than frozen.
Dulce de Leche
Again with the fancy stuff. I don’t get it. This cookie was recommended by the six year old who sold it to us, and I almost decided to go back and demand my money back. Why should I have to pay for her underdeveloped taste"?
COSTCO has a beer. In fact, it has four beers. They’re not particularly good beers, but they’re beers none the less.
I can’t say I’m too familiar with “Hopfen Und Malz Brewing Company,” the brewers credited with developing the beers, though a quick Google search will reveal that the name is a pseudonym for Gordon Biersch Brewing Company. One can only suspect that Gordon Biersch is a bit embarrassed to be associated with COSTCO.
And I can see why.
The 24 pack—on sale for mere $18!—comes with four different types of beers; hefeweizen, pale, amber, and a German lager. (Pronounce the last one with a bad Hollywood-German accent for full effect.) I would have reviewed each of them separately, but, really, they taste pretty much the same. Neither are offensively bad, but they all pretty much come with a baseline beer flavor (hey, better than Bud, I suppose) and just a hint of… something… to differentiate them.
I don’t want to be all negative though. Kirkland beer—or COSTCO beer as I like to call it—has its uses. This is a cheap way to get bottles if you’re a homebrewer, for example. The only downside is that you have to actually drink the beer first.
No, it’s not quite that bad. If you have a summer BBQ, then the beer will be just fine, and will serve as a less costly alternative to Kokanee. In fact, why not have a COSTCO party? Put on a COSTCO shirt, and enjoy a COSTCO beer, while watching your COSTCO TV, and talk about the great new COSTCO coupons you just received. It’ll be a blast.
Happy Spring! Here are a few places you may still need to try, forgot about, or already love…
Olive It Cafe: This is one of those places you just need to try. Don’t wait until you are in the area, make it a destination. It is laid back, with an energetic, cheerful vibe and fun staff. Supports local artists, crafts, and musicians looking for venues to display or play. I love the flat bread grilled sandwiches and they are vegetarian friendly too. Located near Spokane Community College on Crestline just north of Empire, parking in back.
Rockwood Bakery: An oldie but a goodie and great destination for spring. This location is not to be confused with a Rocket Bakery. Take a walk in Manito Park and head across the street to warm up with a hot chocolate. Located on the South Hill near Manito Park.
The Scoop: Awesome ice cream! Walk around back and buy ingredients for dinner from Fresh Abundance. Located just off Monroe across from Roosevelt Elementary and near Cannon Hill Park (One of my favorite Spokane parks).
A Taste of Thai: Good food and great prices. This restaurant is very family friendly, even for the toddlers. Located on the North Side in the Hastings Road strip-mall near Mead High School.
& one for the road….
Fish Brewing Company Restaurant: Next time you are in Olympia, WA, stop by the Fish Tale Brewery and try the sampler rack of beer. The food is great with choices for all diets; vegan, vegetarian, meat of all types, and probably some gluten free stuff there too. If you want to try the beer locally go to Rocket Market, located off High Drive on the South Hill.
Fish Brewing Company and a Washington State Department of Transportation Employee not to be mistaken for a certain SFB blogger.
It’s time for spring cleaning even if the snow keeps falling. I found a stack of fliers in my office from the 2008 AG Sustainability Fair. For all of you do-it-your-self-ers out there, here is one “recipe for disaster” you could consider trying: Make your own biodiesel from your waste vegetable oil. If you do not get around to that, check out the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service website. I bet you will click that link before you cook some biodiesel.
Recipe provided by ATTRA, National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Website.
Making a Small Batch (of Biodiesel) Using Waste Vegetable Oil
Materials
One bottle of isopropyl alcohol. (In the U.S., Iso-HEET ? Premium Fuel System Dryer & Antifreeze, 12 fl. oz., in the red bottle, is available at auto parts stores and is about 100% isopropyl alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is also available at pharmacies.
One bottle of phenol red from the hot tub store.
One liter of 0.1% sodium hydroxide in distilled water"?which is another way of saying 1 gram sodium hydroxide (lye) dissolved in 1 liter of distilled water.
Since you might not have particularly accurate scales, one way of achieving this is to measure out 10 grams of lye and dissolve it into 1 liter of distilled water. Now take 100 milliliters of this water and mix it with 900 milliliters distilled water. You now have pretty close to the 1 gram of lye in 1 liter of distilled water. You can also go to your local pharmacist or high school science department and ask them to do the measuring for you.
Equipment
One one-cup jelly jar.
Two glass 1 milliliter eyedroppers with graduations marked on the side. Note that you will use one for oil, one for the lye-water mixture. Always use the same eyedropper for the same chemical; do not mix them up.
The procedure
Pour 10 milliliters of room-temperature isopropyl alcohol into the one-cup jelly jar.
Add 2 or 3 drops of phenol red to the alcohol.
Using one of the eyedroppers, slowly, drop by drop, add the 0.1% lye solution until the alcohol just starts to turn red. Stir the alcohol while dropping in the 0.1% lye solution.
Using the other eyedropper, add exactly 1 milliliter of the oil to be titrated.
Now, filling the eyedropper with exactly 1 milliliter of 0.1% lye solution, start dripping this solution into the medicine measure while stirring.
Keep track of how many milliliters of 0.1% lye solution are needed for the liquid to turn and stay red.
The number of milliliters of 0.1% lye solution needed is equal to the number of extra grams of pure sodium hydroxide catalyst needed to produce the proper reactions to make biodiesel. For example, if it takes 3 milliliters of 0.1% lye solution to turn the oil and isopropyl alcohol solution to a base, you will need to add 3 grams of sodium hydroxide to the 3.5 grams for new oil, or 6.5 grams total per liter of waste oil.
