The Geekly with a Twist: September 9th-15th
Okay, so, I’m still working from a computer not at home (and am still having massive technology issues) but, without fail, it’s time again for your favorite article of the week (or at least I like to pretend it is)…the Geekly!
September 9th, 1994: The space shuttle Discovery launches for the STS-64 mission.
September 9th, 1999: Sega releases the Dreamcast system in North America. It was the first entry of the 6th generation consoles (preceding the Sony Playstation 2, the Microsoft Xbox, and the Nintendo Gamecube). Despite initial record sales, the Dreamcast would be discontinued just 16 months later.
September 9th, 2008: The iTunes Music Store reaches 100 million applications downloaded.
September 9th, 2009: The iTunes Music Store reaches 1.8 billion applications downloaded. (In case you were keeping score, that’s eighteen times the amount they had reached a year earlier).
September 11th, 1985: The International Cometary Explorer spacecraft passes through the tail of the Giacobini-Zinner comet. It was the first ever on-the-spot sampling of a comet.
September 11th, 2001: It may not be geeky, but I realize, as an American citizen, going without mentioning the tragedy of 9/11 is insensitive as well as inappropriate. Any opinions aside, the loss of human life on this day in 2001 is terrible (no other word for it). As the daughter of a firefighter, I simply must give thanks every day to the brave souls who are willing to give all in the name of civic duty.
September 12th, 1931: Sir Ian Holm, the man who would later become the Uncle all of us Ringers needed (that is, he played Bilbo Baggins), is born in Goodmayes (which, at the time, was a part of Essex but now is a part of London). In other geeky-ness, he also played the role of Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element.
September 12th, 1952: Neil Peart, the man who would later give beats to some of the best gaming soundtracks as the drummer of Rush, is born in Hamilton, Ontario. He officially replaced John Rutsey on July 29th, 1974.
September 12th, 1992: The space shuttle Endeavor launches. It is carrying the first African-American woman in space (Dr. Mae Carol Jemison), the first married couple to fly together in space (Mission Specialist N. Jan Davis and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mark C. Lee), and the first Japanese person in space (Mamoru Mohri).
September 13th, 1959: Luna 2, a Soviet space probe, becomes the first manmade object on the surface of the moon when it crash-lands into the moon. It had been launched the previous day.
September 13th, 1993: Late Night with Conan O’Brien premieres on NBC.
September 14th, 1938: The Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 single engine helicopter takes its first flight.
September 14th, 2001: Nintendo releases the Gamecube console in Japan. It would be another 2 months before North America got ahold of the system, Nintendo’s first forray into using optical discs for game storage.
September 15th, 1965: “Lost in Space” premieres on CBS.
And, with your Twist…in honor of everyone’s favorite Irish American talk show host, I’ve got a twist on the Twist with a baking recipe!
Lauri over at Redhead Recipes is amazing in her own right but these cupcakes I found because of her are ridiculous even beyond amazing because they’re made with…
For full details and an amazing photo journey from materials to cupcake, visit Redhead Recipes
Irish Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes–>
- 1/2 cup Guinness
- 1 stick (1/2 cup butter, room temp)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 2/3 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt
For the filling–>
- 4 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate chips
- 1/3 heavy cream (I used FF half&half b/c I forgot to pick up heavy cream from the store)
- 1 Tb butter, room temp
- 1-2 tsp Irish Whiskey (i.e. Jamison; I left this out b/c I didn’t want to buy a whole bottle for just a tsp, but if you have it on hand, use it!)
Bailey’s Frosting–>
- ~2 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 stick butter, room temp
- 4Tb Bailey’s Irish Cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the Guinness and butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat until butter melts, stir to combine. Stir in cocoa powder until smooth then set aside.
Next, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and greek yogurt.
Now mix together the chocolate + Guinness mixture with the egg+GY mixture.
Then Add chocolate mixture to flour+sugar mixture, stir to combine.
Use cupcake liners or spray your muffin pan with a little non-stick cooking spray.
Fill the pan with cupcake batter about 2/3 of the way.
Place muffins into preheated oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes (a few mins longer if using a large muffin pan), or until a toothpick comes out clean.
While the muffins bake, make the ganache filling: Heat heavy cream over medium-low heat until it simmers. Stir in chocolate chips and stir until smooth. Mix in butter and whiskey (if using). Set the mixture into the fridge for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 mins), until it thickens up a bit.
This is the tricky part… To scoop out the center of each cupcake, I used an apple corer. I thin knife might work if you don’t have an apple corer
Gently scoop out the center of each cupcake, but be careful not to poke through the bottom!
If you don’t have a fancy icing bag, simply fill a sandwich bag with the ganache and snip off the end
Now fill the cupcakes with the ganache.
To make the icing, whip room temp butter in your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) until smooth. Slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar until soft peaks form. Add in Bailey’s and whip a couple more minutes (Add a little more sugar until the icing is fluffy)
Using your ‘sandwich bag’ technique, spread icing over the top of the cupcakes.
And, in continuation of something I started a few weeks ago… Annaleigh’s Find of the Week.
Okay, so, since I’m still on backorder, so to speak, on all the geeky goodness I need to share, this one is another thing I’ve been sitting on a while…and I’ll warn that it is not strictly PG.
This hilarious webseries was created by Sandeep Parikh (of The Guild fame) and is 20 episodes long. Following Neil, a guy who (after being fired from the gas station he worked at by his own brother and after being dumped by his girlfriend for said brother) gets drunk and sucked into The Legend of Zelda console game, the series covers everything from Level 1 to 9…from the hideously ugly Gannon to a bit of health with the Fairy (played by The Guild creator Felicia Day!). It’s a hilarious trip into the realm of 8bit without leaving the beauty of live action.
Enjoy your week, geeks! 🙂
