Chocolate Cupcakes For Two

2 T flour

2 T brown sugar

1 1/2 T cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 T milk

1 1/2 T whipped egg

Bake at 350 for 15 min. If you have silicone cupcake liners you could probably even microwave them for 90 or so seconds, which would make this even easier.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 T butter

4+ T powdered sugar

3 tsp cocoa powder

1 T milk

Mix ingredients adding more powdered sugar or milk as needed for desired consistency.

(serves 6)

1 can Pillsbury Country Italian Bread Dough (13.2 Oz)

6+ slices Genoa Salami

Garlic Powder

Dried Oregano, Crushed Between Your Fingers

Red Pepper Flakes

Freshly Grated Parmesan

6+ pieces Provolone Cheese or grated Mozzarella

Pepperoni

Pizza Sauce For Dipping

Preheat oven to 350F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed sheet pan.

On a lightly floured surface, unroll the bread dough. The dough should form a rectangle. Lay the dough so that the long edge is closest to you. Make sure the dough is not overstretched in some spots, or the filling will burst out in those areas.

Place 6 to 8 slices of Genoa Salami on the dough, leaving a 1/2″ border around the edges. Sprinkle on some garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Add the parmesan and provolone cheeses. It's easier to roll the dough when you break the provolone in half (or even smaller). Finally, add as much (or as little) pepperoni as you want on the top of the provolone, making sure to leave a 1/2″ border around the rectangle of dough.

Starting from the edge closest to you, roll the dough like a jelly-roll style. As you roll the dough, make sure to keep all of the ingredients tucked inside and pinch the ends as you roll to keep the filling from slipping out as you roll. Carefully pinch the seam shut (and the ends) and place on the sheet pan seam-side down.

Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with kosher salt, dried oregano, and grated Parmesan.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is a deep brown. Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into 1″ slices. Serve with some warm pizza sauce for dipping.

Can you tell who in the bottom two have been edited? And there was a big ugly sign in the background that I took out of all the pictures.

And Kaden and Kairi ready for July.

The first day at E3 was just us and Morgan, and then we met up with Jared's cousin Scott and his friend Dave but we just did our own thing most of the time. Here is a picture of the main entrance and there were a couple of tanks outside for the game World of Tanks.  Once they opened the doors we rushed over to Nintendo to get in line for the new Wii...the line was SO LONG and we sat and waited for 10 min and then they ended up cutting off the line fairly short and said they were full to capacity for the day.

Here we are waiting in line for the Wii 2, we were somewhere in the middle. Sadly, we never got a chance to play it because the line just filled up too quickly. They had a display with the new Wii and the new controller. One of the games you could play on the new Wii; if you made it in line, was the remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I could watch other people play and it looked amazing. I did get to play Zelda: Skyward Sword, I played a level where you fly on the back of a huge bird, I can't wait for that to come out.

We went over to the Playstation area and Jared played a game with this controller attachment, I don't remember what it was, lol...I think Resistance. It looked fun.

On our way to the other hall we passed by Hulk Hogan. There were a couple other celebrities there too, but we didn't get pictures.

We watched a bunch of demos in the south hall, Fable: The Journey (which is played using just the Kinect, I'm so excited for that), Gears of War 3, The Darkness 2, Duke Nukem Forever, and UFC. I think that's all we watched, but we also got to play a lot demos too.

Jared and Morgan playing the Gears of War 3 demo.

Nexon had a couple of games to demo; Vindictus and Dragon Nest, and after you played you got a raffle ticket. They were giving away dragon plushies, turtle beach gaming headsets, and polar bear Spirit Hoods. They did 2 raffles a day and we went back each time to try and win. Jared won a dragon plushie and I won a spirit hood. If you want to see what Spirit Hoods are you can check out their website SpiritHoods.com. Here is a picture of me with one the the Vindictus girls from the game, and then I got a picture of the other girls who modeled the spirit hoods after I won mine.

We also got tickets for another raffle and won a pink bear plushie at that one. Other than the raffles there were a ton of other free things, mostly shirts and posters. I think we left with 17 T-shirts.

In this pic we played a game that gave out free red wigs, so we had to get a picture, and I'm also holding the dragon plushie Jared won.

Here are some other various pictures we took.

And Scott and his friend when we were getting breakfast.

We were pretty worn out by the end of the 3rd day, a lot of standing in lines and waiting. And I don't think we got to really see everything, Scott unknowingly went into a VIP section for the 3DS when the gaurd wasn't paying attention, I really want to upgrade our DS's to the 3DS. And we didn't get around to seeing the new PSP but Scott said it was really cool.

The second night of E3 Scott treated all of us to an awesome show where we saw Video Games Live. "Video Games Live is an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time.  Top orchestras & choirs perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience!" It really was fantastic, everyone who loves video games should try and see it.

This E3 may have been better than last time we went in 2004, Jared may try going again next year, but I think i'll stay home with the kids.