Thursday, January 19, 2012

Excuse me while I sheepishly raise my hand

Don't ya love it when someone tells you about something ridiculously over the top and then asks, "What kind of idiot would..." and you are able to sheepishly raise your hand? Well, that seems practically the story of my life.

If you all go back in your minds to a serious scare that happened back in October 2010. A terrorist attempted to hide bombs in printer cartridges and then check them onto a plane so he could blow it up. Not funny, I know, but when this story hit the public I heard people asking, "What kind of idiot would fly with a printer?"and "It must have been pretty obvious that it was a bomb because nobody flies with their printer. Stupid terrorist!". At this point, I would have to sheepishly raise my hand.

When we moved to Scotland back in September 2009, we took our printer as a carry on. It was a nice printer (still is) and Branden needed one for school (still does). Luckily this was about a year before the stupid terrorist and we managed to get through without being eyed oddly or having all of our orifices probed. When we had to leave Scotland and go back to the US in 2011 while we waited for the go ahead to move to Ireland, we luckily were able to leave the printer with friends in Scotland. This was a relief since we for sure would have been red flagged and had colonoscopies about 25 years earlier than needed.

Taking the printer from Scotland to Ireland was a cinch since we took a ferry across instead of flying, but we still get odd looks when we sheepishly admit to flying a printer internationally. I am really glad we brought it, as it has been a wonderful printer, prints fabulous photos, and has been essential for Branden's school work. It's a special day for the printer today as it became and official Irish/UK citizen! You may not know this but like DVD's and DVD players, printer cartridges and printers are regional so you can't put an Irish bought cartridge into an American printer or vise versa. Today we got our code to change our printer to Irish so it gets to be the first in our 'household' to become a citizen! Branden and I have to wait 7 more years....if we're lucky.

For those wanting my chocolate cake/brownie in a mug recipe, here is the link from where I got it from

Two Minute Microwave Brownie

I also have some other links to other microwave cakes! Thank you Pinterest!

Cup of Coffee Cake

Salted Caramel Mug Cake

Nutella Mug Cake

Now I haven't tried the 3 above but the 2 minute microwave brownie was a big hit with Branden and me! We had to microwave ours for 2 minutes instead of 1...but that's probably because we have a lame microwave. We also have thought of how adding vanilla, raspberry jam, chocolate chips, or other candy bits would be really nice! This is beyond dangerous now because it's easy, quick, and so tasty! I could be perfectly happy making this my breakfast every day!

44 comments:

  1. oh man. im not eating sugar or flour right now... but when i am... that mug brownie might be the first thing i make.

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    1. I'm pretty sure if I tried not eating sugar or flour, my body would throw me off the nearest bridge! I'm having to hold myself back from making one now!! I think my self control ran away...

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  2. I'm distracted by the fact that you now live in Ireland. I still had you in Scotland in my reader brain. I was wondering if I had any blogger friends in Ireland because I have a chance to go there in the fall...

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    1. Not to worry, some of our own family members haven't even caught on to the fact that we moved to yet another country. We are in Cork City so if you happen to get to come to our city, I'd be more than happy to show you the sites and show you the best pubs! We don't have any trips planned for the fall as of yet, so we should be here :)

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  3. Not even looking at your damn recipes. Love the cat with his head in the pinata. So what if you carried a printer around? I've taken all sorts of things all sorts of places. For heaven's sake, I've taken CHILDREN all over the place. I once dared to get on a plane with a toddler who had diarrhea. Top that.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. Blackberry pie, in a glass dish, covered in cardboard and duct tape. Thankfully it was before 9/11 but it still got put through bomb testing!

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  5. From humorous story about printers in Ireland, to microwave baking recipes... I can see that leap ;)

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    1. You've gotten used to my mind over the years! Congrats on the new puppy. It's so cute!!

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  6. Noting wrong with transporting a printer, it's the dickheads with the exploding ones that are the problem.

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    1. Oh so true! I should remember that for the next time someone thinks we're weird!

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  7. I can't believe it!! I, the notoriously NONCOOKING fishducky, actually printed out--& will probably try--the recipe for the Nutella mug cakes. (But no promises.) I LOVE Nutella!

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    1. Nutella is the most fabulous thing ever!!! I made my own recipe up for no-bake Nutella cookies:
      http://paddedcellconfessions.blogspot.com/2011/08/coach-loves-his-cookies.html
      it's even less ingredients!

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  8. Thanks, thanks a lot, no really. I've been waiting all week for this but hoping you wouldn't post it, I'm supposed to be on a diet but can you say addicting? I'm gonna have to come over there and kick you in the shins missy! Or maybe I'll just send you a printer! LOL

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    1. I'll be sure to have some muffins made for when you come by to kick me in the shins ;)

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  9. Oh my gosh, I love Nutella. My daughter's, uh, friend visited and made crepes with Nutella and fruit in them. I had strawberries. I want Nutella in Heaven. But I'm confused by your pie comment. Was that an attempt to top my toddler with diarrhea? Cuz if it was, baby, you are not even close. I declare myself the winner if that's the best you can do against an old lady.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Nutella is fantastic!!! I love just eating it out of the jar with a spoon (should I admit that??). I don't think my blackberry pie is easier to fly with than a toddler with diarrhea but I do think it's more odd. I plan on staying grounded as much as possible when we have kids! Especially when it takes 14hrs to fly back to Washington!

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  10. I LOVE brownies :)

    I once traveled with a sewing machine (long ago). I couldn't take all the parts, but it was still hilarious :0)

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    1. Hahahaha! A sewing machine!?! I could just see that alongside the chainsaw and machete in those plexiglass box displays of 'what not to pack' in the airport! lol

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  11. Itried to oull up the cookie recipe--couldn't!
    HELP MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Hmmm, don't know what the deal is so I'll email it to you ;)

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  12. I can't wait to try the brownies! Brownies mmmmmm.
    As for the printer thing... I grew up in France. My mom was always hauling weird stuff back an forth. I remember she tried to bring a big Gouda and a Salami stick back to America and it got confiscated. I was so mad. (two of my favorite foods went down someone else gut. Sigh) So bringing a printer doesn't sound so weird to me anyway.

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  13. Goodness, I bet your parents have flown all sorts of odd stuff over the years! Our last trip, we had a large metal cake stand (from our wedding) in our check-in bag. I'm sure it looked a bit odd in the middle of my clothes!

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  14. LOL! Congrats to your printer on becoming an Irish citizen!

    my crew will have to hit those brownies up our next movie night!

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    1. Thanks! I'm thinking we will have to take the printer out for a pint on St. Patrick's Day ;)

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  15. I must try these quick microwave cake things. I'm not a baker, so anytime i can microwave something amd it tast good, i will try it.

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    1. We didn't have microwave in Scotland so taking advantage of the one here has been great! (maybe not healthy but still great!!)

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  16. When the replacement parts come for our microwave (which I broke with my bare hands last week), I will have to try these! How can such a small part be so essential for getting the unit to run??

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    1. LOL! Lisa you are so BA, breaking your microwave with your bare hands!

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  17. Congrats on your printer becoming a citizen before you do! That's pretty amazing . . . how do these things come about? Who figures them out? Regardless, that sounds like a mighty fine, high quality piece of equipment. Hopefully, you plan to stay put for awhile so you don't run the risk of having it confiscated when you fly next time.

    I will try the brownie in a mug as it sounds perfect to me! Anything with lots of chocolate, warm and quick to fix sounds perfect!

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    1. We only figured out that the printer had regional settings when we tried installing new cartridges in it. It drives us nuts sometimes but it's worth it I suppose. We actually plan on living here permanently and have no plans to move back to America. Hope you enjoy the mug brownie!!

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  18. I probably shouldn't say this but also the words 'Irish printer' may scare the hell out of your average gullible passenger... as in Irish... IRA... bombs... I don't know, next time you're showing your printer the rest of the world (or should I say TO the rest of the world), it might be a good idea to not stress it's an Irish printer. Irish Whiskey... no problem. Irish printer... I'm not so sure. You may be given the Passenger Assessment.

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    1. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! GOOD POINT! Oh that's too funny! Luckily we are nicely down south and even though we are in the 'Rebel County' we don't seem to get any IRA action. Now if we lived in Belfast.... ;)

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  19. Haha. Great story! I messed up by buying a bunch of DVDs when I visited England about 10 years ago. When I got back home to the U.S... none of them would play in my DVD player!!! SUCH A JIP!!!! ARGH!

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    1. Oh that sucks! Sometimes you can get a code to take away the regional setting on your DVD player and it will play both types of DVD's. It's easy to do here but I don't know how easy it is for DVD's bought in America.

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  20. An interesting blog Maggie. I guess the world is paranoid now. The terrorists deserve total annihilation for causing this. Pardon my anger here - Dave

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    1. It is pretty ridiculous that someone should be afraid to travel with a harmless printer just because of pure hatred. Terrorist cause such paranoia so I'm for laughing at them instead ;)

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  21. Haha, you've quite made me chuckle with your blog! I'm one of the less weird people (possibly?!) as I wandered in from Tony Van Helsing's blog - and I've enjoyed my time here. Thanks :)

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    1. I'm glad you stopped into my Cell! Tony's blog is fabulous...but I do question your status of 'less weird' considering you came from there ;) I'm glad I could give you a laugh!

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  22. Just made the two minute mug brownie! Not bad, but it seemed a little dryish? I want to try it again and add some candy to it.

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    1. Gina, the original recipe only nuked it in the microwave for 1 minute but our microwave is a weenie so we had to extend the time. Try doing it for 30 seconds at a time, checking it every time and then you can find the point where it's still nice and moist :) Ooooh and adding candy sounds yummy!!!!

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  23. Hahaaa great pics! Now following!

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  24. Thanks for stopping in James and thanks for the follow! I'm glad I gave you a chuckle and I'll be stopping by your blog sometime ;)

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  25. When I was a kid they had this stuff called Koogle...it was made by Kraft. My mom would put it with marshmallow fluff on bread...so yummy

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    1. Koogle??? I have never heard of it! But anything with marshmallow fluff!!! mmmmmm

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Does this straitjacket make my butt look big?