Happy Halloween! Is your city the best at trick or treat?

Zillow did a quick and dirty to determine the best cities for trick or treating using only metrics they could easily attain (housing cost, walkability, population density and crime rates). I think the least they could have done was a poll by major US cities. In any case, it made a cute infographic:

Article

Skinny pumpkin bread (with dark choc chips, making it not so skinny)

This "Skinny Pumpkin Bread" (or at least that's what I called it since that's how I searched for it on pinterest), is a very popular pin. Even during the non-fall months, this pin has been going around. The original post is from Sunday Baker and her official name for this bread is Pumpkin and Cream bread (low calorie). And this is her delicious looking bread: 

Looks sooo good

 And here is how my bread turned out: 

Not as pretty....

Were there changes that I made? Yes. I added dark chocolate chips (sooo good) and added a bit more sugar since I could only find cinnamon sugar at target and I was too lazy to go to another store. But besides that, I followed the recipe. Shrug, it was still good and really filling! 

On to the comments:

• Sunday Baker made a pretty big error when she first wrote the post. She stated that the calorie count was under 600 for the whole loaf. Many many comments were on her error and stating the correct amount of calories (1120 calories). Since I added a half a bag of dark chocolate chips to my bread...I added about 800 more calories. But they were dark chocolate, so they're good for you, right??? 
• A few people noted that it took longer than 40 minutes to bake and it was still very dense and thick, like bread pudding vs bread. 
• One commenter suggested using more flour. 
• Also to whip the egg white separately and folding them into the wet mixture. 
• Wait a bit before eating and it sets a bit more
• A lot of people were confused if this recipe made two loaves or one. It's two loaves. 
• Someone made this with all Spenda (Spenda brown for the Stevia) and found it to be 1600 cals for both loaves (she made it into one large loaf). 
• A few people made these as muffins instead with success: link
• Someone made a gluten free/lower carb version: link I probably should have made this instead. 
• A couple of people made this into a roll instead. 
• People have used greek yogurt instead of cream cheese and it came out well
• People have used Stevia/Splenda in the cream cheese portion and it turned out well

MY TRIAL!

Ok, so I went to Target to get what I needed. Applesauce, pumpkin can, stevia, chocolate chips, etc. They did not have cinnamon so I had to use their cinnamon sugar spice (what?) and they only had 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Oh well, I figured it should be OK. I initially wanted to half this recipe since we barely eat one dessert a week but how do you half one egg? So I decided to make the full recipe but only cook one loaf. Wish me luck on what my second loaf looks like when I defrost the batters a month from now...

A bajillion ingredients...

First, the batter. So all the wet ingredients go in first. I'm against using a mixer unless I MUST use it. I have been splattered on enough times to learn my lesson. So I used a wooden spoon for the batter. 

This never looks pretty 

I'm also confused about baking the dry ingredients. I was taught to sift all the dry ingredients together, but it appears that most recipes don't call on that anymore. I added extra nutmeg and cinnamon sugar to it. 

Dry ingredients

All mixed up

I was taught to add dry ingredients in thirds. Is this correct? 

Batter done! 

Cream cheese filling. I tried my best to mix it with a spoon but ultimately failed. I used the mixer in the end and very carefully. I did not get splattered! 

Gross failure 

Finally busted out the mixer. So pretty. 

So, putting it into the baking pan. This should be the easiest part, right? Well, there really isn't much batter to put what you would think was enough for the "bread". But quartered it and put it on the bottom of the bread pan and it barely covered it. So I added a bit more. Then I put in the cream cheese filling and topped it with as much batter that I had left. 

See, half the batter gone 

and this is all that I could get into the pan

So, I baked it as it was. 40 minutes go by, I do the toothpick test. Tons of wet batter. Back in for five minutes, and another five minutes, and another five minutes. I added another 35 minutes to the baking time before I just took it out and let it rest. Since it seemed my bread would be a wet, bread pudding like one, I let it sit for a good ten minutes before even attempting to slice. 

Baked goodness

Resting for what seemed like forever

Bread...ish! 

I do not consider this a fail. The bread was delicious, though I think a lot had to do with the chocolate chips (I added it to the batter while in the bread pan so it would only affect half the batter and not the second loaf). Obviously there is no pretty cream cheese filling like in the original post. I honestly believe she used this recipe to make a full loaf and didn't want to admit it. There is no way that little amount of filling and batter could make a full loaf like her picture. Also, the only person that made a loaf that looked like the image was a person that used the full recipe for one loaf. 

Also, how the hell do you cut this dense bread into 14 slices? I did eight slices to get it even somewhat as thick as the image. I think it's about 300 calories a slice. Blah. 

But either way, our bread pudding bread is delicious! Try it and tell me how your experience goes! 

Recipe from Sunday Baker: 

{Pumpkin and Cream Bread}

Yield: 2 loaves (14 slices each)

Batter:

1-1/2 c. pureed pumpkin

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 whole egg

3 egg whites

1 c. all-purpose flour

2/3 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. Stevia Cup For Cup sweetener

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Cream filling

8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 T. all-purpose flour

2 egg whites

1 t. vanilla extract

METHOD:

1. For the Batter: With an electric mixer, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and egg whites on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, Stevia, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

2. For the cream cheese filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg whites and flour until creamy and smooth.

3. Grease 2 8x4x2" loaf pans. Divide half of the batter between the two pans. Pour half of the filling in one pan and the other half in the second pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Top with the remaining batter.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don't overbake or your bread will be dry on the edges. Cool and remove from pans. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Easy Crusty Bread with Dutch Oven

 I saw this pin going around and thought, I never really wanted to make bread but if it's really this easy, I'll do it!



Original Link: source - Simply so good

Reading through the comments:

• The author states that she does not know how to make a whole wheat version: commentor suggests 1/4 cup less flour, 1/2 cup more water and 5 minutes less cooking time. 
• Bread not rising (many of these comments)
• Make sure you allow it to rise for the full 12 hours
• Add more flour so it is manageable - 1/4 cup
• Do not knead the bread after the rise
• Make sure your yeast isn't old
• Bleached flour might not work the best
• Too much cheese results in too much water in the bread which will not rise as high
• Make sure if you're not using instant yeast to allow it to bloom
• Long rise time
• Make it the night before - it can rise for over 24 hours and be fine
• Put it in the fridge to slow rising once you do your 12 hours
• Additional ingredients, when to add
• At final mixing stage before setting it aside to rise - some people were worried about the cheese going bad because of this, but the author claims she's done it and it did not rot
• Not using a Le Creuset pot
• Yes, you can use anything that can be baked at this temp with a cover
• Do you need to oil the pot before putting in the dough
• No
• Discoloring of dough during rising phase
• Normal - it'll be fine
• A bunch of variations to the recipe to make flavors
• 1/4 of beer instead of water and 1 TBS of vinegar to make a sour flavor
• Caution - some dutch ovens do not like to be preheated (check your manufacture before trying)
• Bread flour is fine
• When making a smaller loaf, keep the temp the same and adjust the time: take lid off at 20 minutes and keep watching it
• You can put the bread on parchment paper and load it into the pot as an easier way to moving the dough. 
• You can preheat the pot and the oven at the same time by going to 450 degrees (do not do an extra 30 minutes with just the pot in the oven)
• Put slits in the top to allow it to rise higher
• For some whole wheat you can do half whole wheat and half white. 

My Experience

We only have whole wheat in our home so I went out to the store and got a small bag of white flour and the yeast I needed.

Made the whole wheat with the comment's suggestion of less flour, more water. But I also put cheese in it (I mean if it's going to be whole wheat, it might as well have added fat, right??)

I also made a batch with white flour as kind of a control.

I couldn't help but peek at the rising dough during it's night of rest. I noticed that the flour one was very very wet. By midnight, I decided to add more flour to it.

The next day I started the whole oven preheat and then the pot preheat. Then I took the whole wheat dough and placed it on the parchment paper, per the other comment's suggestion. Place the whole thing in the pot and waited. It did not rise. Also, it was stuck to the paper. But I didn't realize how stuck to the paper it was until after I put the flour dough into the oven on parchment!

So this was a fail. We couldn't get the bread off and it didn't taste very good since it didn't bake properly.

I did make this recipe again (hence the pretty bread in the picture). I followed every instruction to a tee. One step I also skipped the first time was allowing the bread to sit out during the preheating time. I have no idea if this make a difference or not but the bread came out GORGEOUS. It was a little bland and needed to be buttered but it was so good!

Tips:

Remember that if you add cheese it will add more water, so you might want to use more flour.

This is a very cheap recipe, the most expensive part is time. If you're going to experiment, make many batches the same night and let them rise at the same time. Don't be like me and be forced to wait another night in order to make a proper recipe.

Original Recipe (source simplysogood.com):

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. 

Apps I Love - Nike+ Running

 I have never been a runner but since I started C25K, I cannot stop running. It's like a little gnome constantly challenging you to run, run run. I'm horrible at it but this app makes me feel good about what I can achieve. It honestly feel great when you run faster than you ever have or a farther distance.

1. Nike app is free!
2. It records all your runs, so if you forgot if you ran two days ago, you can just check
3. It even give you a calorie counter! I know these are all rough estimates, but it seems fairly consistent with the other calculators. 
4. Let's you listen to your music
5. Has cues for time or distance
6. At the end of your run it'll read you all the stats so you don't have scroll through pages. 
7. Since it records all your runs, it will tell you if you've ran your fastest mile or farthest distance - very motivating
8. Records your path via gps
9. Did I mention, it's free???

Even if you just walk a lot, this app is great. It's surprising how many calories you really burn just by walking the dog. 

Itunes download

Container Veggies Week 1-ish

The plants are growing! I bought a new planter for the zucchini. I'm pretty sure it was not growing because it didn't have enough space/nutrients. We'll see if we get any fruit. The cucumbers seem to be very happy. I'll be adding more soil to their pots as well. Any advice? 

Tomato and Nina cameo shot.

Zucchini, rosemary and cilantro

Basil not doing so well. It kept getting eaten by other bugs. I moved it to higher ground. Thyme hasn't changed much...

Tomato - growing much slower than the other tomato. I'll be adding more soil to this pot as well. 

Cucumbers!

Happy Friday Flowers!

 It has been a nice "fall" here in Texas and our front yard tree is flowering! I have no clue what type of tree this is, we inherited it from the previous owners. Do you know what tree this is? I see it in many of my neighbor's yards, so it must be a popular plant. This is the first time we have seen it flower, beyond this point, it was just a shrub of a tree. I hope the flowers last or this might not be the ideal tree to come home to.

Pretty flowering tree

A new way to shop

 PSFK did an article on the new way to shop. I find this very interesting. Though I personally don't shop a lot on my ipad, I'm sure the generation behind me is doing so.

This article graphically showed how the future of online commerce being more interactive by communication with a live person and tailor.

Though I'm sure the store would require you to purchase before the altered one of their garments, this is a very interesting view into the future. Article

Stovetop Avocado Mac and Cheese

 Stovetop Avocado Mac and Cheese
Original Post Source twopeasandtheirpod.com

I love avocado. I love mac and cheese. I should love this. FAIL.




On to the comments....

• How long will this hold?
• Best to eat same day
• Needs spice - tastes too limey
• Needed more pasta than recipe stated
• Leftovers taste great cold as pasta salad
• Use a tasty cheese such as jack or fontina to add flavor
• Use less cilantro
• Needs more garlic
• Too much lime
• Needs more flavor - perhaps cayenne or cumin

My trial

• Since there was too much sauce and I didn't have more pasta, I added broccoli to my dish. 
• I found I had to continually add more salt to gain flavor
• I only had whole wheat pasta, whole wheat flour and skim milk - could be a reason why this wasn't as tasty and it didn't really thicken
• I didn't do the cute avocado garnish - probably would have made it better

It has a weird creamy consistency vs the gooey delicious mac and cheese taste I prefer. If you want a lighter pasta with cream sauce, I say this is a good option but if you wanted MAC AND CHEESE, this is a no go.

Recipe (source twopeasintheirpod.com):

Stovetop Avocado Mac and Cheese

Yield: Serves 4-6

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Creamy, cheesy, and easy Avocado Mac and Cheese!

ingredients:

10 ounces dry elbow macaroni
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 avocados, peeled and pitted
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded Pepper Jack cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh avocado chunks, for garnish, if desired

directions:

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Salt the water and add in macaroni. Stir and cook until Al Dente, about 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. While the pasta is cooking, make the avocado sauce by placing the garlic, avocados, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper into a food processor or blender. Process until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

3. To make the cheese sauce, place butter in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. When butter is melted, whisk in flour to create a paste. Whisk in milk until smooth. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sauce starts to thicken. Add in Pepper Jack cheese and stir until cheese is melted and sauce is creamy.

4. Place macaroni in a large bowl. Pour the avocado sauce over the macaroni and stir until well coated. Add the cheese sauce and stir until macaroni is coated and creamy. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve warm. Garnish with fresh avocado chunks, if desired.

Note-the lime juice keeps the avocado from browning. The mac and cheese is best eaten the first day, but it is still good the second day. The pasta may turn slightly brown, but not bad. If you want a milder flavor, you can use Monterey Jack or White Cheddar Cheese.

Grilled Eggplant with Tomato and Feta (the famous over 10,000 repins recipe)

 Another recipe I found over at pinterest.

Grilled Eggplant with Tomato and Feta (the famous over 10,000 repins recipe).

Original Post

 So this pin highly intrigued me. Over 10,000 repins? Really? I guess I'll try it.

 I read through all the Comments/Suggestions/Tips....

• No measurement of olive oil
• Explanation - use your eyes
• Can you use a different cheese?
• The snooty author seems to deem this wrong but those who tried had good results
• Comments on cooking in general, not much on actual recipe

My trial:

• Didn't realize the "large" eggplant at my local Whole Foods would not be large enough
• Three tomatoes yielded too many tomato slices for the amount of eggplant my "large" eggplant produced
• Really really really try to make the slices as even as possible. I am not talented enough to do this.
• I left out my salted eggplant for 15 minutes on one side and another 15 minutes on another side on top of paper towels to capture the "wetness" that would come out of them. This resulted in a really dry eggplant. 
• Even at 400 degrees and more than the instructed 15 minutes, the cheese does not look like the picture. It doesn't melt or crisp up like that. 

This turned out kind of gross. I like eggplant, tomatoes, feta cheese and pesto-ish sauces. But because of the salted removal of water and then the grilling and then the baking, the eggplant came out like bark. It was dry and tasteless. Also, this didn't stick together. Once I got it on a plate, it just fell apart and became a salad. 

I will not be making this again. :( 

If you would like to try this recipe, here's my tips:

• Screw the salting part, just grill them
• Get a big eggplant or at least image how big your tomato is and ensure that the eggplant's width is equal to or greater than the tomato
• If you cannot do this, get a smaller tomato
• Try a cheese that actually melts a bit. It makes more sense to be a binder for the middle layers to be a melty cheese
• Maybe put toothpicks in the middle of the stacks in order to hold them in places vs getting a salad like I did
• I think a chimichurri sauce would be better but I like spicier meals. 

Recipe (source mazamag.com)

4 Servings

1 large eggplant
3 large tomatoes, to match the diameter of the eggplant
0.4 lbs Bulgarian feta, crumbled
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
juice of half lemon
2 garlic cloves
½ extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cut of the eggplant crosswise into ½” thick rounds. Lightly season them with salt and leave them for 30 minutes on a side to let water to come out of the eggplant.

Once ready drizzle some olive oil on top of each slice and grill them on a lightly oiled grill rack for 2 -3 minutes each side.

Blend the basil leaves with 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt in an immersion blender until smooth.

Cut the tomatoes crosswise to 1/4” thick rounds.

Lightly oil the baking pan. Arrange 4 eggplant rounds side by side. Spread 1/2 tablespoon of the basil-garlic mixture on top of each one, then generously sprinkle feta crumbs. Top each with tomato rings. Add another layer of eggplant, basil spread, feta and tomato rounds and top with the rest of the crumbled feta.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Drizzle some olive oil on top of each stack and bake for 15 minutes.

Growing from Scraps

 I kept seeing on pinterst that you could regrow some veggies by simply putting them in water when you're done. I really wanted to try it but continually forgot to first, cut the veggies from the top and leave the core and second, of course don't toss the scraps!

One of many pinterest articles

I tried this with both red lettuce and green onions. It works! 

After only 24 hours! 

After about a week. Amazing, right! 

Now I'm wondering if I can plant these in the garden? Has anyone successfully transplanted these?

"Whole Foods Calculator"

I hate these make your own animations but this one is very true:

My husband and I had a very intense argument about this once at Whole Foods. He wanted to make the guacamole himself and I showed him the calculation of all the ingredients working out to more than the store bought. We even argued that we could go to a local grocery store but calculating the time and gas, it still wouldn't be worth it! It was silly but we still bought all the ingredients just so we could say we made it ourselves. Crazy world.

This video just validates that we aren't the only ones who danced this dance.

Have you ever did the "Whole Foods Calculator" and lost?

Cook's Illustrated's Chris Kimball on NYT

I used to watch "America's Test Kitchen" everyday (recorded on the Tivo). But stopped after they changed a few of the stars out and I started to think Chris was getting weird.

It was interesting to read the Sunday magazine article in the NYT on him, how he got to where he is and a short history of Cook's Illustrated. It was quite successful right off the bat and in large part to him.

I still enjoy the show once in awhile and have one of their cookbooks. I enjoy the science that they put into cooking but I just haven't fallen in love with the show that I once had.

Best quote: “We don’t make the ultimate anything,” he said. “Were they the world’s best burgers — no, probably not. But if you get food on the table and it works, we’ve done our jobs.”

Low Carb White Egg Muffins

I love eggs and the idea of egg muffins made so much sense to me, I was very excited to try it.

Recipe from snacking in the kitchen: 

Ingredients
1 pound Italian Sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference)
1 cup broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half depending on how you're feeling that day)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese as needed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian Sausage for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with oil.Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage and broccoli. 
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.  


My Trial! 

1. I made only six muffins (what would I do with 12?!?)
2. I wanted to use mostly egg whites (so I used 3 whites to 1 full egg)
3. I used grilled buffalo chicken vs sausage
4. I used onion vs broccoli
5. I used cheddar vs parmesan cheese
6. No oil
7. I forgot to half the milk and the baking soda (oops!)

So over night I marinated the chicken. I used this other pinterest posters suggestion on how to get juicy chicken off the grill (cut small slits in the chicken and marinade it for at least 6 hours). It worked but I would have to remember to marinade before hand that's rare.

Marinated over night in Frank's RedHot Wings sauce. 

Grilling. You can see the cuts I made to make it juicy

Chicken cut up after the grilling, so juicy!

I grated up some cheese to go on the tops of the muffins. Another pinterest suggestion was that I could freeze blocks of cheese. For cheddar it turns out that the flavor is OK but if you wanted to slice it up and put it on a cracker, my frozen cheddar crumbled. So I shred it instead! I also cut up some onion. 

Grated Cheese

Cut up red onion

Mixture of eggs, mild and baking soda

Right before going into the oven

Not as appetizing as the pinterest pic but it was good! 

I'm not sure if it's because I added too much milk, I used only egg whites or if there were too many ingredients in the muffin tin but they did come out a little wet. Still yummy like an egg omelet upright. 

I ate one the next day after microwaving for 30 seconds and it was delicious! 

I'm going to freeze that last two and see how they stand up against the frost. Experimental cooking! 

Garden Day One

So my husband and I bought a house and we finally had some outdoor space. Both of have been city dwellers our whole life, so this is a new world for us.

I decided to do container gardening because it seemed like less work to weed and maintain against bugs.

I've checked out a lot of container gardening blogs before starting my endevour but there aren't many that show the progress. I'll try to do that here. I can't promise a weekly update but hopefully every other week/month (plants don't grow that much, right?).

Here's day one.

Top Left: Cucumbers, Tomato, Tomato. Bottom Left: Thyme, Rosemary, Cilantro, Basil, Zucchini (I'm going to need a larger pot)

Close up of the little cucumbers

Zucchini! 

We also inherited a banana tree from the previous owners. So many bananas! 

Big banana tree

I'm using these bags for pots. I read that they're very good at drainage and  is easy for storage when you're done. We'll see...

Binder full of Women

Would anyone want to be classified this way?

I believe at this point, everyone is aware of who they're going to vote for. I found this evident last night as I was watching the debates with my friends, that each person's bias resulted in hearing comments from each candidate differently.

But not this one:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/17/romney-binders-full-of-women

site: http://freethoughtblogs.com

site: http://skydancingblog.com/

Denigrating women to this level will surely put a bad taste in most people's mouth, male or female. Affirmative action is alive and well in our country, but a candidate needs to know how to state this idea in a way that does not come off as condescending.

And the initial request to find female candidates didn't even happened:

Here's what actually happened, according to the Boston Phoenix's David Bernstein:

What actually happened was that in 2002 – prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration – a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct – and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.Here's what actually happened, according to the Boston Phoenix's David Bernstein:

He also came off as rude to the female moderator, Candy Crowley.

site: http://www.guardian.co.uk

It is hard to accept this man to be our leader and represent our great nation.

Romny being Romney
site:  http://www.guardian.co.uk

Another topic that came up in my group of friends is Top Down Economics. Most of my friends have graduate degrees and understands this concept, but how many average Americans understand this idea the candidates keep referring to? They might as well bust out Keynesian economics and see who nods.

There were a lot of topics of interest: the use of Planned Parenthood in about every other sentence from Obama, the economy that Obama was given vs the politics that he used, etc.

What did you think of the debates? Did you find it informative or did you also find that most people had their biases regardless of what the candidates said?