Splice of Life

During this time of the year, goodies galore tempt my sweet tooth.  Should I really be thinking about adding to the fray with my own batch of tantalizing tempters?  Yet, I am.  Not because I love holiday baking . . . on no!  Rather, because I have come across too many bottles of McCormick's Cinnamon Sugar blend in my pantry. 

I queried a few friends on Facebook as to good ideas or recipes using cinnamon sugar.  Briefly, here are their responses.  Mind you, I have already made (and eaten) several slices of cinnamon sugar toast and was looking for something slightly less ordinary.  My friends did not disappoint!

• Baked cinnamon tortilla crisps (simple recipe here)
• Snickerdoodles (super easy recipe here, sans cream of tartar for extra tang)
• Sweet potato chips dusted in cinnamon (easy recipe here)
• substituting cinnamon sugar for regular sugar in quickbreads, coffee/cocoa, etc.

Of course, I also did a general web search of my own and turned up a few yummy ideas that pique my interest (and palate):

• Monkey bread (fast/easy recipe here)
• Cinnamon croutons, for fruit salads (recipe here)
• Amish cinnamon bread (recipe here, with link to starter recipe)
• Cinnamon chicken nuggets (traditional recipe here)

Now, the question at hand is . . . which shall I try first?  What are your favorite cinnamon sugar treats?  I'd especially like to hear ideas from across cultures!

A good friend recommended that I keep a blog about the many (and diverse) interests I have. On any given day -- actually, at any given moment -- this can span the range of technology, criminal justice, health care, theatre, etc. Having just seen the incomparable Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland, my interest of the hour is the movie world. Following the rabbit trail takes me to . . . the world of animation, then and now, where it gets "curioser and curioser" (in the words of Alice) as technology evolves.

I remember a high school assembly when an animator who had worked with Disney explained what was involved in bringing the characters from A Little Mermaid to life. The speaker showed us images of animation cels but I still didn't full grasp the process of transformation from one-dimensional paper drawings to embodied characters on screen. Several years later when I taught enrichment science classes to K-6th graders, one of the activity series I did with the children was to help them create thaumatropes, phenakistoscopes, zoetropes, and flip books -- all of which are the precursors of modern animation (but none of which turned out too well in our experiments!). Next to today's CGI graphics and digitized animation, these rudimentary examples of animation pale in comparison. Yet understanding the fundamentals makes classic Disney movies all the more memorable!

Stay tuned for further exploration 0n this and many other topics . . .