There was a cookie recipe I discovered a couple of years ago and thought was the best I'd ever had.
Sean made a batch on Friday to take to dinner at a friend's house. Then he made two more batches last night to take to work. I will not admit how many I have eaten. The brown butter and sprinkling of salt is just way, way too good.
Sean, Mac and I wandered over to the Patchwork Craft Show for a little while this afternoon. A big cone of french fries was devoured and a bag filled with all kinds of crafty goodness came home with us. If only we could spend every afternoon like that.
Some favorite shops were... Urban Octopus//Two Hand Design//Bazaar Latino//Dino Perez Graphic Design//Oh Hello Friend//Junk Art Gypsyz//Courtney O Quist//Be Studio 182//Morgan Noelle Designs//Love Nail Tree//Luna Reece
I decided awhile ago that to celebrate my birthday I just wanted to have ice cream sundaes and play some games out in the backyard. Sean was really awesome about putting everything together and set up a sundae bar with all my favorite toppings...homemade whipped cream, heath bars, caramel sauce, oreos (that have been crushed, combined with melted butter and frozen so they are like a cookie crust) and my mom's fudge sauce. It was really nice to have family and friends stop by and just hang out for a little bit. Too bad every Sunday can't be a sundae afternoon.
Oh and here is my mom's fudge sauce recipe. It comes together easily, reheats really well, and is the most wonderfully rich chocolate sauce you'll ever taste.
Mud Pie Fudge Sauce
2 squares Bakers unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk (whole carnation, not fat free)
Use a double boiler to start melting chocolate squares. Add butter and sugar. Slowly add evaporated milk. Cook over hot water until it is thickened. Stir occasionally…it takes awhile to thicken. This recipe makes a small amount, so you might want to make somewhere between two and four batches at once.
It's administrative professional's day and I just had to do a little something for the two women in the Sociology department office. So Sean baked a batch of cookies for me and I wrapped them up in fabric bags and layered together a little tag for each.
I wanted to say thanks for helping me get everything ready to teach my first class, taking the time to kindly answer any question, ordering me a pile of textbooks to choose from, running to put a note on my classroom door the day I got stuck in awful traffic, telling me about the secret routes to get around traffic and many, many more helpful things.
Sean was asked to bring fruit salad to the baby shower he attended at school on Monday. I had a recipe for "Secret Fruit Salad" (which I happened to mention last week) from Rachel Schultz's blog saved on my breakfast board on Pinterest. The secret is two tablespoons of vanilla pudding mix which adds the perfect little extra amazing deliciousness to the fruit salad.
Something so simple made me marvel once again about the magic sharing collective that is the internet. I will never, ever tire of being inspiringly inundated with ideas whenever I want them.
A friend from grad school got married this past weekend and we gave them a couple baking sheets off their registry. Of course I couldn't quite leave it at that, so I gathered a few of our very favorite cookie recipes and printed up a little stack of cards.
I also did this a few years ago when we gave loaf pans as a wedding gift. And just like last time, I made a PDF in case you'd like a copy of the cards... Download Cookie Recipe Cards
Fonts: Hello//The Only Exception
Recipes: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies//Sugar Cookies//Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies//Cookies and Cream Cookies
The binder is out for turkey referencing, the flowers are waiting to be arranged into little vases, and the cooking supplies are all ready. I am very thankful that my mom has taught me simple recipes for Thanksgiving that can all be made in advance so all we have to worry about on the big day is the turkey and gravy. Oh and fresh whipped cream for all the homemade pies my sister brings.
Hope all your preparations are going well too.
I first mentioned these Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies a couple summers ago and they have been made at least 100 times since. We follow this recipe exactly. Granted when I say "we" I mean Sean since he is the baker around here. I credit these cookies for getting me through graduate level statistics because Sean would bake up fresh batches for me to have at study sessions with my fellow students. I joked that I was never able to bring much statistical expertise, but at least I could bring cookies.
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Without fail when using our kitchen aid mixer to make frosting I create a cloud of powdered sugar. This was tonight as we prepped for Mac's cheer squad's last team dinner of football season...
We are having penne with braised short ribs, salad, and garlic bread. Dessert will be called "Golden Velvet" cupcakes...basically we just took this recipe from Picky Palate and didn't dye it green. The school colors are cardinal and gold so I thought calling them golden might make them more fun. Speaking of fun, keep an eye on Instagram tomorrow because at some point there will be school colored cupcake toppers shared...I just have to make them first. I can no longer have them plain ever since my sister my taught me a life-changing way to decorate cupcakes.
Oh and while we're on the topic of kitchen aid mixers...did you know you could shred chicken with them? Check this idea out from Lisa Russo...talk about life changing.
Today I finally cleaned up and updated my old recipe blog. I decided five years ago to create a seperate place to store the various things I love to cook, but it's slowly become an abandoned space. Despite this, I have been been trying new recipes as much now as I ever have (thanks to Pinterest) and am eager to share more of what I've found.
Speaking of Pinterest, I recently realized that recipes were being shared that had super lousy photos. There were even a few cases where I had just scanned in the recipe from a magazine in order to share them. Granted, I am never going to be an amazing food photographer, but I certainly could try a little harder.
For now I have cleaned out a lot and made myself a cooking to-do list so I can try to get more appealing images of some of our favorite things to eat. Eventually I would like to move these recipe posts back here to my main blog, but that's going to take a little more work.
One of those favorites recipes that I recently took new photos of is a Creamy Caramel Apple Dip...
You can see more of my recipe sharing work in progress here.
We celebrated Sean at a concert in the park on his birthday eve. As always, it was filled with his favorite green and yellow, chicken curry sandwiches on croissants, and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.
After hosting bridal and baby showers earlier in the year, I figured out that this little scallop circle punch and this star punch make cute little cupcake toppers. Tape a toothpick to the back of one and then sandwich the toothpick in between two circles with a little piece of foam tape holding them together.
Last night was our third concert in the park this summer.
I have had a little too much fun packing up picnic dinners. Yesterday included panzanella salad and jars of a chocolate banana cream pie concoction.
This time next week will be the start of school year so we are definitely trying to enjoy the summertime we have left.
I had intended to write on here as the trip was happening, but it turned out that having the time of our life did not leave much time in the day. Instead I'll share over the next couple of days...
On our way there I was pretty much a broken record singing the only line from "Empire State of Mind" that I know...
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothin' you can't do
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let's hear it for New York, New York,
New York
I may or may not have danced around while singing it.
As we boarded the plane tears streamed down my cheeks. People must have thought I was leaving behind the love of my life, but it was excitement that could not be contained.
The subway got us into the city for us to drop off our bags at the hotel and walk the two blocks to Times Square so we could start our trip around 10:30pm. When I took out our camera for the first time I didn't understand why the lens was all foggy...it took me a minute to realize it was the severe humidity.
I tried my darndest not to complain about the oppressive heat and profuse sweating. Instead I kept joking about how beautiful out it was.
And what the heck did I have to complain about anyway?
Tonight was almost an exact repeat of two weeks ago when we went to the local concert in the park with my mom and brother...
Tonight's sandwich was my favorite turkey, cranberry and white cheddar. I brought along the current crochet project to work on while we listened to music and, most importantly, Sean tried out an addicting new dessert recipe...Peanut Butter Crunch Eclair Bars.
Tonight we went to our first concert in the park of the season with my mom and brother. Sitting outside with music and food is one of my very favorite parts of the summer. I concocted a chopped cobb salad sandwich for dinner and was super happy when it received votes of approval. For dessert, Sean baked the cookies we tried for the first time last summer. I am pretty sure he has cranked out the recipe 27 times in the past year. What's frightening is I don't think that's actually too much of an exaggeration.
Mac's cheer leading squad is hosting a fundraiser at a local fireworks show tomorrow evening and they asked for baked goods to sell...minus chocolate so it doesn't melt in the late afternoon sun.
We're sending many, many bags of cake batter rice crispy treats and frito snack mix...
Now we start cooking for our own celebration including my mom's potato salad recipe. We're also trying a few new recipes...Apple Bacon Salad, Rolo Cake Bars, little salami mozzarella sticks, a berry bruschetta on pound cake, and a little Sangria.
The tomato plants are starting to pick up in production. I have been diligent in my attempts to be an adult and try the tomatoes even though I have always insisted that I don't like them. Yesterday I started catching on to this whole caprese salad concept...fresh mozzarella and tomatoes do seem like a good match. Except I haven't had basil...I don't like it.
So along with the increase in tomato production around here in July, I need to make a much higher level of productivity happen. Summer is my chance to crank out the crafting and it's wasting away. I also should be reading heaps of articles on pedagogical techniques. And, most importantly, I need to get to a bunch of Sociology departments and try to sell my wares. I am realizing a job search is a little extra tough for someone who really struggles with rejection.
July can go one of two ways. It can be whittled away in a haze of assuming these days will last forever. It could also could be focused with a crystal clear plan of attack. I know which one I need to make happen.
I also know I should probably try basil.
Sean's Dad is an avid reader so he has an ongoing request for gift cards for every birthday and holiday. So I wrapped yet another gift card...
We are having a relaxing Father's Day...biscuits and gravy for breakfast and sausage pizza on the barbecue for dinner. Mac picked out some sweat bands for Sean to wear when he's running. You really won't be able to miss him in Electric Pink and Neon Green. Meanwhile Mac chose this t-shirt for his Dad which he seemed to really love. It's fun to see that Mac's quirkiness in clothing choices is both nature and nurture.
It's Monday morning...Sean is back at work, Mac spring break is just starting so he's home with me and we're heading to my community college class soon. Later this week we're going to squeeze in a little spring break-ing with a road trip out to Palm Springs, but we also took a couple hours last Friday...
I had purchased a Groupon for a ninety minute Duffy Boat rental back in January with Spring Break in mind. We had a great time puttering around the bay in Newport...peeking into the amazing houses and guessing how much money it takes to own some of the yachts. When we came back to land we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.
So glad we've been able to stuff some spring fun into our schedule...can't wait for more.
Artichoke season.
Sean wearing one of the t-shirts I gave him for Christmas.
Egg in a hole grilled cheese (and being able to take screen shots of digital magazines).
Pencil eraser polka dots.
...I finally realized breakfast burritos are actually a good idea. I assembled 16 of them.
...We went for a walk during a break in the rain.
...I finally used this yarn for something. I just bundled up some photos for a friend.
...I put my nose dangerously close to our barbecue to fully take in the scent of the first hamburgers of the season.
...I started rearranging my closet at 11:15pm.
...I got into an argument with Sean about going to bed too late.
...I purchased a presentation pointer. It's all lecture preparation all the time around here.
The party Friday night was actually a sleepover for fifteen girls. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I host it every semester for the new members of the sorority I joined way back when I attended the University of Redlands. Other alumni come by to meet them, tell lots of stories, I always make the same snacks, and they end the night happily crafting up some picture frames.
Then Saturday night was "Happy St. Peggy's Day". My sister's birthday party on the Irish eve of her birthday. The dining room was decked out in shamrocks...
We made beef stew, buttermilk dill bread, and mint chocolate sundaes with my mom's homemade fudge sauce.
We also crafted up some Irish bead bracelets, made shamrock wands with pipe-cleaners and felt shamrock stickers, and had a leprechaun scavenger hunt that I discovered here.
Then we tore into my sister's gifts. I'll share what I made her tomorrow...
Just a few more little bits of shower fun today...
Thank goodness for crafty punches and toothpicks to make up little cupcake toppers.
Ever since my brother made me vanilla sugar for Christmas I have been obsessed with mixing it into hot tea. I decided to attempt my own 10 pounds of vanilla sugar making. I got a dozen vanilla beans, scrapped them into the sugar and let it sit for a couple of weeks. It went into little jars with a tag.
For both showers I served iced tea with flavored syrups. I couldn't resist striped straws for the baby shower.
The menu for the baby shower included heaps of tea sandwiches. Some of the recipes can be found here.
For the bridal shower I used my mom's recipes for a chicken strawberry salad that I need to share soon.
And napkin bundles have to be cute too.
Tomorrow's the last day of shower overload...I'll be sharing the gifts I gave to the bride and mom-to-be.
I discovered two new favorite blogs. My Life as a Sugar Lander and Dandee. Blog reading led me to this bunting and, in a burst of have-to-make-it, I dug into my stash of felt to quickly cut some wonky triangles. Then decided to instead sew through them sideways. Granted it is random, but it's a happy bit of color above my desk...
This apple pie recipe (although we bought prepared pie dough) with this astounding caramel sauce...and that's all I have to say about that.
I ended up in the dentist's chair this morning to repair ruts in my teeth. Basically I've been brushing too hard. As someone who needed her first (of three) root canals at age ten, and is losing count on how many crowns I have, it would figure now my teeth aren't even happy if I brush them well.
The upside to the dentist office trip was it's right across the street from Trader Joe's and we needed a couple of items for the dinner I wanted to try tonight. Although we get most of our groceries from there each week, I am not really allowed in Trader Joe's. When Sean took over all the grocery shopping a couple of years ago our monthly tally went down about 30%, which is a good reason to stay away. However, every once in awhile I get to wander the aisles and make sure that grocery total spikes again.
Today I was in search of pizza dough and frozen artichoke hearts and asparagus. I only left the store with six (or seven) other items.
I had the idea to try to make an artichoke & asparagus pesto to use on pizza. I tossed a bunch of stuff together in our food processor and it actually worked. Since my last two experiences with pizza dough were less than memorable, this time I tried pre-baking the crust for a few minutes with a mixture of melted better and crushed garlic. Then I added the pesto sauce, some roasted chicken breast, caramelized onions and an obscene amount of cheese. I don't want to brag but, it was pretty darn remarkable. And, since I finally am feeling some pizza dough mastery, my mind is filled with possibilities.
Now I wish I could crack the code on writing recipes...my measurements are always half-hazard and then don't you have to test it multiple times to check accuracy or something? Not really something I have patience for. Maybe one day I will learn to...and while I'm learning this I'll add learning how to gently caress my teeth ever so lovingly with a light, but efficient tooth brushing.
1. The internet helped me discover Martha Stewart's new office supply line this morning. It took me all of an hour to see heaven with my own eyes...
2. Look at the scroll shaped note tabs...I could even add patterned paper to them like I did with the old, boring ones.
3. There were even inserts for binders the size of my homemade organizer.
4. Did I mention how ridiculously excited I was about this discovery?
5. Last month I raided Cost Plus for stocking stuffers and, because of my on-going love of deer, came home with this little guy for myself...
6. This photo also includes a peek at one of the house projects I mentioned yesterday.
7. I have done some craft room cleaning out over the last week and was cut-throat about rubber stamps. Which means it's time for another...
There are a bunch of boxes stuffed with stamps, a few remaining card kit grab bags, and one ginormous box of stamps.
8. The recent cleanout meant I also stuffed a little box full of crafty supplies to share...feel free to leave a "pick me" if you'd like it sent off to your house. I'll do a random drawing for it on Wednesday evening.
If you know me, you know I can get inordinately excited about food. So I am very excited to share that after years of searching I have found my perfect hot chocolate recipe.
I found mixes at Target and use half milk chocolate and half salted caramel. I microwave some regular milk with a splash of half and half.
This pitcher turned out to be the perfect size to make a cup or two and not make splatter-y mess with the milk frother my mom gave Mac awhile ago. Spinning the chocolate into the hot milk makes it taste better for some reason.
But the best part of all is the incredibly necessary obscene amount of whipped cream.
We celebrated my brother's birthday tonight with a dinner full of family favorites. It included jello mixed with coolwhip that we have always called, "Mormon Jello". I'm fairly certain it's because my mom learned about mixing the two together from a Mormon couple my parents were friends with waaaay back in the 70's, before my brother was born. Please tell me your family has favorite recipes with ridiculous names too. And then maybe I'll tell you about our "Vomit Dip"...
We're hosting a party tomorrow and are making our traditional little menu of appetizers, so I thought I'd re-share the recipes. There's Spinach Artichoke Dip, Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs, Cheesy Corn Bites, and you have to have Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Dip too.
And, as you can see, all of these recipes combined require a vat of cream cheese.
I have a random, but important poll to take tonight.
Caramel popcorn covered in cheddar cheese...
Sean thinks few things could be more disgusting. I'm a big fan of most sweet/salty combos and this is an especially fantastic one.
What side are you on?
If you're on my side I wish I could share some of this stuff with you.
I went along with my mom's best friend, Connie, and her daughter, Amee, on a field trip to Pasadena today. As we were leaving my house I made sure to ask permission to take along the big, annoying camera so I could blog about our day...and thank goodness I did. None of us knew when we headed out that it would end up with us squealing with happiness. Okay, maybe I was the only one that actually squealed, but we were all pretty excited.
First we had a late morning snack at Euro Pane Bakery. This blueberry strudel cake was warm out of the oven...
Then there was the actual purpose of the trip. Going to Silverlake Architectual Salvage in search of a door for a project we have dreamed up for Amee's new house. Today I managed to refrain from purchasing anything, but oh the possibilities...
Then we had lunch nearby in San Marino at the most wonderful restaurant, Julienne. If you are reading this and live anywhere in Southern California or are visiting anytime soon I would highly recommend this place.
My attempts at being a food blogger failed miserably. That coffee cake photo earlier and this photo of my beef filet sandwich were the only ones that turned out remotely decent. I guess I am too excited to start eating to be bothered with taking the extra minute to ensure a good photo of food.
Okay, this where the real excitement begins.
Have you watched Father of the Bride two hundred and thirty four times like I have? Granted, that's a rough estimate. I do have admit that I have a shameful amount of details from that movie ingrained in my psyche. As we drove to lunch gawking at the beautiful homes in the area, Amee mentioned that she thought the Father of the Bride house was in Pasadena.
Then as we arrived at the restaurant she was again perceptive enough to realize that San Marino, the little town we were in, was mentioned as the place they live in the movie. A little cell phone Googling gave us the address for the house just over a mile away. On the drive over the aforementioned squealing began.
And I might have shared with them that I was more excited to see this house than I would be to see the White House...
You have to admit this is pretty magical.
The best part of the whole thing though was getting to share this magic (although fairly stalker-ish) with two people that adore every moment of that movie as much as I have. Now I just need to see the official White House one day.
The Halloween banner goes to...
Comment #9 Sarah said... Love Halloween! Pick me! September 13, 2011 at 08:21 AM
Comment #16 Maureen said...aren't you nice, I would love a chance to win. September 14, 2011 at 04:33 AM
Comment #52 Nathalie said...Those layouts are a real treat!!! I can even pick a favorite but I am glad to see pages on your blog!!! And I would love some embellishments of course!!! Thank you for generosity! September 14, 2011 at 04:07 PM
Congratulations Sarah, Maureen and Nathalie please e-mail me with your addresses.
This past Friday I was lucky enough to attend the Holly Becker's book signing and mood board presentation at Anthropologie up at The Grove. My mom gave me Holly's book Decorate for my birthday last May and I was so excited to meet her and get it signed. I also was over the moon to get to meet Leslie Shewring who does the Color Me Pretty column on Decor8. As I told Leslie, her column is my very favorite thing on the entire internet.
Holly asked for people to bring business cards. I have mini contact cards I had made at Moo last February when I changed my blog name. I crafted up a few little envelopes to package each one in...
Here's just a couple of other photos from the evening...
Mac and Sean went up to LA with me so we stopped to share a quick snack at Umami Burger on the way to the book signing. We also had an amazing late dinner at Luna Park...the three of us shared goat cheese foundue, macaroni and cheese, fried apple pies with caramel ice cream and make-your-own s'mores...you've got to love a dinner full of cheese and sugar.
This is my kitchen and I've barely been in it. I cooked for last Thursday's dinner party and that's pretty much it. We've been scrounging around on leftovers and a little take out this week. But we're about to run out of milk and extra-sourdough english muffins so some grocery lists and meal planning need to happen sooner than later.
Today I did take a slight bit of initiative and made some vinaigrette to use with lettuce that needs to be devoured quickly before it goes bad. It's a Dill Vinaigrette from All Recipes (really love the iPad app).
I thought I'd share our spice storage. There was this beat-up bread box that I couldn't resist in Texas three years ago...
And it turns out that with it's shelf it is just about the perfect size to keep everything tucked away neatly...
But maybe I should admit that I totally straightened everything up a little bit for that photo.
How did I ever find new recipes before Pinterest? I mentioned trying several new recipes back on the 4th of July and they were all fantastic. Pinterest also gave us Garlic Noodles which is now an all-time favorite family recipe. I just love that now I can see beautiful photos of food continually popping up with new ideas to try.
That's how I found Lemon Chicken...which led me to Garlic Lemon Chicken Kabobs (because I prefer to always use boneless skinless chicken breasts). And then I found Garlic Rice Pilaf too.
I needed one more thing for dinner on Sunday night and there were these baked zucchini sticks just waiting for us and oh my goodness gracious were they delicious.
I know there's a million ways to find new recipes, but I am officially addicted to this one. I think next up on the list to try is Mongolian Beef.
So I need to know what's you favorite recipe find from Pinterest? Or do you need an invite? Feel free to e-mail me and I'll get one to you.
Okay where do I start? Mac's party was an adventure. The neon/80's-ish theme was embraced by Mac's friends and our family. The house was full of energy...dance music and lots of sugar certainly helped.
Instead of decorating around the house we concentrated on the dessert table and one other surprise for Mac. Sean and I took a couple of days to make hundreds of mini desserts. He kept track and I think the final counted ended up around 641. Granted it's a lot easier to get to that number when everything is tiny. A regular cookie or cupcake recipe will crank out a hundred items.
Apparently I have been reading way too much of Amy Atlas's blog since I was on a mission to have the table look perfect. We didn't have all the platters everyone seems to use so some cardboard, 1/2 a yard of fluorescent fabric and a staple gun helped create "trays" for the desserts to be placed on. I would actually love to do this again, but with cute little patterns.
Little bites of rice crispy treats were dressed up with a swipe of white chocolate and sprinkles...
The mini cupcakes were pretty much glow in the dark thanks to gel paste food color. I also used this cupcake recipe again and cannot recommend it enough.
We made little pudding parfaits and strawberry shortcakes in dixie cups and Sean made a brownie cup recipe we've been using for years...
We also had a bowls of mini chocolate chip and sugar cookies. And we made sure to have boxes for everyone to take home leftovers...
Okay moving on to the police. Of course I thought everyone was kidding, but there they were on our front porch responding to a noise complaint. I had talked to all of our immediate neighbors personally before the party and left notes at several houses right around us, but I guess I didn't reach out far enough. I also made a point of telling the DJ we didn't want the music too loud in the first place...we wanted to avoid everyone having to yell and leave with their ears ringing. We had the DJ turn the music down more and the officers offered to take our phone number to call us (instead of coming back out to end the party) in case we got another complaint...which we did right as the party was over at 10:30. So much for thinking we were proactive ahead of time.
The surprise for Mac was setting up a homemade "photo booth" (after seeing this). We hung fabric on the curtain rod in our living room and purchased a bunch of props. Now I have a couple hundred photos to go through and get a bunch printed to send with Mac's thank you notes...thankfully there's a 4x6 print coupon for Costco this week.
So music + sugar - police + photo booth = A super fun 15th birthday party.
Because he was totally game for going out to the middle of nowhere (Irvine Lake) with me for a food truck festival while Sean was golfing.
Because he is also obsessed with the Lime Truck's ultimate taco...and shares my deep love for garlic aioli.
Because he immediately ran up to the cheese ball sign and wanted me to take a picture.
Because he acted like I'd poisoned him when I gave him a minuscule bite of my lobster roll to try.
Because he loved seeing that there's a Filipino food truck even though he's 50% more Filipino than I am, yet refuses to realize the true magic of lumpia.
Because he really wanted to go to Renegade.
Because he makes an awesome secretary making phone calls for me while I'm driving.
Because he was super excited when he found a fluorescent robot necklace with nerd glasses.
Because he loved meeting Danni from Oh Hello Friend and asked questions about her for the rest of the afternoon.
And because on the way back to our car he ran into the middle of the abandoned street and threw up his arms with downtown Los Angeles in the background.
Can you tell I had a really fun weekend with him?
Last night we planned a last minute picnic and went to a local concert in the park. I made one of our favorite sandwiches and tried a new pasta salad combination. However the most important aspect of this meal was the cookies...which I do not have a photo of yet. I dug through my pile of recipes waiting to be tried and found Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies. At the time I printed it out it had been reviewed over six hundred times and was a five star recipe.
Sean whipped them up for us since he is the resident baker. One bite of these things has changed both of our lives for the better. As I said to him, I know now if I ever find a recipe that is that high rated again I now know I need to stop whatever I'm doing and make it right that moment.
I'm sure as you're reading this you've got plenty of other stuff to do today, but if you do stop everything and try them I'd love to know what you think.
(Have I ever mentioned I have an incurable Anthropologie Latte Bowl obsession?)
We spent most of Sunday in the kitchen getting ready for the big celebration. We help host our neighborhood block party and simultaneously have our friends and family over at our house so it's the best reason to make lots of food.
We have our traditional dishes...potato salad, baked beans and a berry trifle.
But, now that there's Pinterest in the world three more recipes just had to be tried...
There's Loaded Baked Potato Dip, Cake Batter Truffles and Creamsicle Fruit Dip. All three have been heavily sampled during our cooking marathon and are all ridiculously tasty.
Hope you have good stuff on your menu too...Happy 4th of July!
In May...
{G3 is a end of the month wrap-up for our little family}
1. The outdoor dinners have begun...
2. I've started sharing recipes like I said I would. Here's the Snack Mix and a fantastic recipe for Garlic Noodles.
3. I randomly scanned Craiglist on Sunday afternoon. An hour later this came home with me...
4. I mentioned on Sunday night that I'm excited about my independent study. Now seeing this video from yesterday's Today Show makes me fired about about my grad project. I'll be working to develop materials to help bridge the gap between teachers and parents.
5. I managed to not only double book myself once on Thursday, but twice. All good stuff though...
6. I am kind of really coveting these sandals for summer...
7. I have been a little Yelp obsessed as of late...you never knew reading restaurant reviews could be so fun.
8. True confession: When I semester ends I check at least twice a day to see if my grades have posted yet.
9. I have read Something Borrowed and Something Blue in the last couple of weeks and really loved them. Now I really need to see the movie.
10. I would love more book suggestions for the summer...what's one of your absolute favorites?
You'll quickly find out it's not much, but I love being at a baseball game regardless.
That's what Sean and I will be doing tomorrow night. We're heading down to San Diego because we reserved this deal about a month ago (after spending a solid hour in front of the computer just trying to find a night that worked for us to get away). It includes everything from valet parking to apple pie...and we get to walk right across a sky bridge from the hotel to Petco Park.
We also have a little food-fest planned...before the game there's happy hour and then we'll be trying a bacon cheeseburger on the way home...both ideas are straight from The Best Thing I Ever Ate and a clear indicator that we might watch the Food Network a little too much.
1. We may have gone a little overboard for the royal wedding...
2. My 5K got moved up a couple of days from my birthday since I had to take the group photos of Mac's entire school on Monday. However it is completed...
3. Due to heat and Santa Ana Winds, it was run on the treadmill. Which meant I had water, air conditioning and the Real Housewives of Orange County at my disposal.
4. Please don't ask Sean about it, or he will tell you what a grumpy beast I am during the last half of the third mile.
5. My 5K reward was buying half a pound of scallops so I could try to make them for the first time...
6. I (roughly) used this scallop gratin recipe.
7. Remember when Mac and I were proud of my sister's ridiculous birthday cake?
8. Turn around is fair play...
9. We have decided that it's an official family tradition...and that we must begin plotting for next year.
10. So basically I've now discussed a gluttonous amount of food with a dash of exercise.
Since I mentioned a couple of the details we were finishing up on Saturday night, I thought it'd be fun to share some of the little bits of Easter...
We had a big egg hunt, carrot napkin bundles, my sister's homemade lamb cake, my mom's belgian waffles and my brother's amazing made-to-order omelettes. There was also a decorated dining room, bunny tags on the hula hoop gifts, Mac emptying out his bucket of gifts, and my niece clutching a Belgian waffle the entire time she looked for eggs. Easter was really, really good.
1. I missed you. Thanks for not forgetting about my blog while I was held captive by schoolwork.
2. So twelve days ago I signed off from here, went to class that night, and had the most embarrassing moment of my college career thus far. My professor seems to like class going late which can get tough when it's ten at night. As we were finishing up our discussion there was a long silence where I completely zoned out. Next thing I know I was making eye-contact with my professor and thought she had asked me something so I perked up from my daze and said, "Pardon me?" Yeah she wasn't talking to me...but the whole class was laughing at how startled I was. Before I could stop myself I said, "I think you just caught me asleep with my eyes open".
3. It'll be a miracle if I don't get myself kicked out of grad school. Who announces in class they were asleep?
4. Okay just so we're caught up...here's the dessert I mentioned getting spoons for a couple of weeks ago...
5. It was a for an Italian themed dinner with friends. I got the jar/spoon idea from here and here. It contained strawberries, mascarpone cheese whipped cream (inspired by Portillo's strawberry shortcake), and chocolate cream cheese pound cake (from the Cake Mix Doctor
6. Ever since I used jars for some Christmas gifts...the discovery that this circle punch
7. The other item I hinted about a couple of week's ago was my sister-in-law's birthday gift. We sent a little contribution towards her tattoo plans. She mentioned it would be lilies so we had to make them...
8. I said "we" made them because this totally took Sean's help...it was actually a kids craft, but it was not easy to pull off. However when something looks pretty cute in the end, what does it matter that we totally got into a grumpy argument over floral tape?
9. Last Wednesday I was super stressed and behind on my research proposal. Last Wednesday I also had to pick Mac up from school. While rushing home I saw a dresser being given away on the side of the road in our neighborhood. I drove past it...turned around...checked it out...and took 15 minutes to load it into the car with help from Mac...
10. The molding on the drawers got me...as did the price. I figured this is the kind of find that design blog "before & after" fairytails are made of. Maybe I read a little too much Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy, but this is going to be extra cute one day...mark my words.
Thank you for giving me time to...
Here's a newly organized shelf with my random collection of little things I put on our fireplace mantle throughout the year (every house needs a gnome right?) and shipping supplies corralled into a box from a very happy closet a long time ago.
We food truck-ed tonight for dinner. Sean met us after his school's open house so Mac and I got an early start with the Bacon Mania truck...then he did not agree that a Dogzilla dog is the best thing ever (I'd been eagerly waiting over two months to have one again)...but he loved the Lime Truck's amazing pork tacos just as much as Sean and I do.
So yesterday a little scrapbooking, today was good food, and tomorrow we'll be at the beach for a couple of hours....feeling super grateful that I have gotten some good break time during this spring break.
There they were...on the end-cap at Target. I've walked past them before because I know better. I am powerless to them and will eat the entire bag in a day.
But this week I lost the battle and they jumped into the cart.
On the bright side the bag lasted two days...two really good days. I was down to just a few this afternoon...took a photo...and ate them.
Darn you Cadbury Mini Eggs.
I decorated our mantle yesterday just in time for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow...
I printed an 8x10 version of this (and changed the greens slightly)...
The wreath is from when I decorated the mantle last spring...
And I made shamrocks just like these...
I also made Mac a special snack for school and will be baking green cupcakes tonight...
Looking forward to celebrating a wee bit with tomorrow's dinner before I have to head off to class for the night.
1. I made a "centerpiece" for St Patrick's Day...
2. It was because the 5lb bag of potatoes from this weekend's grocery trip had to go somewhere.
3. In related news, Mac will get the Irish baked potato dinner he requested.
4. I'm also going to attempt making these green cupcakes for dessert...and bring them to share with my research methods class that night.
5. I would like to show you the way I'm wrapping my sister's birthday gift, but she reads this thing. I'll have to share next week after she opens it.
6. The bracket is officially on my desk and I need to fill it out in a way that will kick Sean's basketball-loving rear...any suggestions?
7. There were a few years in a row that I beat him handedly an this bracket business (even though I know all of three things about college basketball) and I would really like that luck skill to return since it's been awhile since I gloated over anything.
8. Tomorrow's Well Wishes has been made with the leftovers from this weekend's scrapbooking.
9. On a serious note I had a blog reader, whose daughter lives in Japan, e-mail me this afternoon asking to have me remind everyone to be thinking, praying for and hopefully donating to the recovery efforts in Japan.
10. I have been purposely avoiding the news since eathquakes are a major source of anxiety for me, but her e-mail was a good reminder to make a donation and I hope, if you can, you will too.
