Every once in a while, I get to do something out of the ordinary for Latina. Something totally unrelated with what I was originally hired to do, which makes working there not suck at all.

Several weeks ago, shortly before Justice Sotomayor’s confirmation, the idea of creating and marketing “Wise Latina” shirts was passed around the office. When the e-commerce component of the idea came my way, it was clear that we had to outsource. Immediately, 2 companies came to mind; MerchDirect and Merchline.

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I tried making marshmallows with a peanut butter swirl on top for this first time on Saturday. All in all, they came out pretty good. They were a bit denser than I wanted them to be, and I think that’s a problem with the type of mixer I’m using. It may be time to take things up a notch.

I’m going to look in to getting a 10qt 1/3HP mixer this week. A mixer like this will whip tons of air in to the marshmallow and not struggle while doing so. It’ll be a fucking marshmallow whipping monster.

Never being satisfied with anything, I also worked on a new base marshmallow recipe.  It passed the s’mores test.

My 10-year high school reunion took place last weekend. I was hesitant to go at first, but eventually decided that it would be silly if I didn’t. I’m really happy that I did. It was great to catch up with some folks that I haven’t seen in well over a decade (having spent the last year and half of high school in home or at the hospital), and just being in the same room with so many people that I grew up with.

Tanya and Dee did a great job planning everything, and I was more than happy to be able to help out where I could. I ended up designing the graphic that was used on several items, including etched glasses that were given to everyone. I also made a package of 10 marshmallows for each table setting, plus a few extra – a total of 48 packages! Everyone loved them! There were a couple of close calls during the night, but everything ended just fine.

A bunch of us got together immediately after the reunion ended, and continued the festivities.  Things didn’t end until around 3am Saturday night, at which point most of us admitted that was the latest we’ve been up in a while. If nothing else during the night made me feel old, it was that one comment. It really was hard to believe it had been over a decade since I had seen most of these people, and am not going to loose touch this time around.

I made a ton of marshmallow as favors for my recent 10-year high school reunion, and decided to take a few pictures before getting everything packed up and ready to go. I made 5 different flavors, but only took photos of the coconut and black raspberry ones. The photos, especially the one up top, came out great – especially since I just used my Canon point and shoot. Now that I have some great display platters and a light box, I’m thinking that it might be time to get a decent macro lens for my DSLR. I recently helped a coworker pick out a great Sigma macro lens for her Nikon, and may see if I can get the same for my Olympus. Any other suggestions for appropriate macro lenses out there?

One of my catfish, Frost, died the other day. He was about 11 years old, which is pretty good for his species.

Frost was the definition of catfish badass. He slept all day, partied all night, and cared about nothing but his boats and hoes. He became a bit withdrawn after being busted and convicted on possession of a controlled substance, but he didn’t let that keep him down. Unfortunately, all of the hard living eventually caught up to him. His body was laid to rest in the front yard next to “White Mike” and “Big Toe” and his best friend, Catfish Gunther prepared a short speech:

“Frost had lived an amazing life even though it was rather short. Frost was a great friend; he was the kind of friend that stands by you when you need somebody to be there. He once saved my life. We were both young kids then and we weren’t very close. I was hastily walking across the street when Frost saw a speeding car. If it wasn’t for Frost, I would have died right there. That’s how I became close to Frost. Yes, that was 10 years ago and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”

Pretty crazy, considering fish cant talk, or have legs. Something told me not to kick it with those spider monkeys.

Have the Sham Wow and Vince become contemporary cultural icons?

As usual, I’m up early on a Sunday morning working on ideas related to personal projects that build up in my head during the week. I like to keep the TV on for background noise since there’s nothing worse than absolute silence. Anyway, I’m clicking away on the keyboard and begin to hear a Sham Wow commercial, complete with a song.

Seriously? There’s something that’s just a bit fucked up about all of this. The Sham Wow is made in Germany though, and you know they make good stuff, so I guess that sort of makes up for some of the absurdity of it all.

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One of the most enjoyable things about all of the work I’ve been putting in to the marshmallows is the chance to take some time and work on new ideas. A couple of friends from the city came out on Saturday to give me a hand with some “marshmallow prototypes” and we had a great time. Now, before you read any further in to this post, keep in mind that nothing created in my kitchen was meant for the public. This means that absolutely no time was taken on presentation and most procedures that I have put in to place for the sake of efficiency and cleanliness weren’t exactly followed. This was about fun and trying out some new things, not business.

In other words, there was a lot of beer involved.

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I like wings. I really like wings. Some people have told me that I’m a bit of a wings snob. If I’m having them outside of my home, I’ll only have them if they’re from a few different places. Theres BonChon and Kyochon, and just a few places in the city that really know what they’re doing.

When it comes to wings, I follow a few basic rules:

1. Wings  must not be fatty.
2. Wings must be crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. A soggy wing is a big no-no.
3. Wings must be flavorful, not fiery.

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