can someone fix this

I'm getting feedback from multiple sources that our bylines are hard to see. Does anyone feel like doing something about it?

Sorry, Ben.

Looks like you got yours drank again by our friends at the New York Times.

dumplingoff

coming soon. ben's house. bc vanessa and i have this.

omg you guys. are you guys chocolate lovers? i really like chocolate - but mostly just dark chocolate (milk chocolate is wussy and should only be brought out at easter) (unless it's filled with something badass like salted caramel or bacon)

so, that's my segue to this: http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/8-Curious-Chocolate-Covered-Creations.html

read it. and want chocolate covered squid, bacon, carrots, and fritos - all on one plate - because that's what i'm doing right now. instead i'm prolly going to eat cereal for dinner. poop.

also, this: automatic mini cupcake maker 
i know what you're thinking. DUH VANESSA THE OVEN IS AN AUTOMATIC CUPCAKE MAKER! DUH! but hold on! here's whats awesome about this one: it cooks mini cupcakes in 5 MINUTES. THATS RIGHT FIVE.  i want this and i want to put it on my dresser in my room. i could fill it up at night and set it to turn on when my alarm goes off, and by the time i'm done brushing my teeth i could have a full complement of cupcake breakfast goin on in my mouth. BUHM.

and in other news, french onion soup is easy and addictive. when i make more, i'll document the perfected process!

how do I work this thing

Okay, so uh my cousin V invited me to join this after I posted a picture of my Thanksgiving dinner on my LiveJournal but I don't really know what I'm doing or whether this post is appropriate for this blog or anything. In short, oh god how did this get here I am not good with computers.

Here is a good meal, photographed shittily.

It's shallot-garlic sautéed asparagus and whole wheat spaghetti (we were out of fettuccine, which by the way oh my God it has two "c"s? no wonder Bookworm doesn't think it was a word, dammit I was so pissed about that) with pumpkin alfredo sauce. The recipe called for evaporated milk (?) but we were out so I cobbled together something from it and the alfredo recipe from Joy of Cooking and it turned out pretty good, if a little less rich than I might have wanted because I didn't want to use a cup of heavy cream and settled for a mix of milk and half and half instead. Certainly better than it looks in the picture, which turned all orange for some reason and that certainly doesn't help with the contrast when half of your dish is orange in the first place.

Did I do it right?

French Onion Soup

Any of you guys have recipes for French Onion Soup that you would swear by? I'm lookin to do some cookin!

Ben's going to say "put an egg in it"

So we tried to make some Soup. you know, The Soup. well, maybe.

Matt and I watched "Ramen Girl" (you know, that brittany murphy movie about how she's a rich little girl who doesnt know what to do with her life so she moves to japan with her boyfriend who really doesnt like her all that much so he moves to china somewhere and she gets really bored and finds a ramen house and decides she wants to make ramen so she endures the brusque japanese personality of the ramen house owner and she doesnt speak any japanese but in the end she moves to america and makes soup. you know, THAT movie) and we got inspired.

so we took some ramens and threw out the flavor packets and boiled em up in some water. also, we took some dried mushrooms and reconstituted them in about 4 cups water on the stove and while they were cooking threw in some frozen green beans and carrots and shrimpies to cook (pulled 'em out when they were done and put to the side), and microwaved some spinaches. to the broth i also added about a tbsp of soy sauce, at big tbsp of miso, a tsp of balsamic vinegar, a big shake of garlic powder, and just for kicks, some brown sugar.

we assembled the whole thing and started to chow down and guess what. guess frickin what. it was bland as all get out. omg so bland. i put in so many things! the broth tasted AMAZING until we put the noodles in. matt resorted to adding some of the flavor packet but it just didnt seem to help. now we know what brittany had to go through and why the old japanese man threw out her broth time and time again.

poop. at least it looked pretty. and the shrimps were DELICIOUS.

any suggestions? especially you Soup connoisseurs?