Getting to Know You.
1. If you could host a Reality TV show, which one would it be?
I am actually not a huge reality TV junkie. Just never got into it very much. So I honestly don't really have an answer.
2. Do you put your seatbelt on before or after you start the car?
Usually before I think. It's hard for me to tell because putting it on has become something so familiar I do it without thinking about it. I ALWAYS wear it, feels weird if I don't.
3. Shave or hair removal cream?
Definately shave or wax (even though waxing hurts like a b**tch!!!) But anyone who has suffered those horrible little red bumps knows what I'm talking about.
4. What's your favorite feature in a house?
This is a really cool question, but that I find hard to answer. I think just the layout in general- I love a house that is decorated and layed out very well. I like pretty furniture, and good decorations. A room that's pulled together is the answer I think I'm trying to get out :)
5. What is your favorite "Fall" scent?
Hmmmm, does the smell of cookies baking count?
6. What tv show are you looking forward to seeing the most this Fall??
LOST!!!
7. Personal Shopper or Personal Chef?
Neither, I really like to do both those things! It takes all the fun out of it if someone else does it.
8. What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of "Fall"?
Football season and the start of Fall semester- but this year I won't be going to Fall semester, and I don't miss it one bit!!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
These are a few of my favorite things...
These are a few of my favorite things...
Doncha love the Sound of Music? I mean, who doesn't love the sound of music?
Anyway, no idea why, but I wanted to post some of my favorite things as of late. As I said, I don't know what prompted this post. Completely random.
Everyone has favorite things, whether they are things they enjoy doing, products, food, whatever. And when you share your favs you give the opportunity to give someone else something totally awesome, too. Plus I love reading other people's posts about favorite crap, so I am stealing the idea :)
1. Pockets- First name, Polly :)
I'm smitten. She's a handful, but I love my new dog. Our latest adventure? I took her to the dogpark yesterday, in hopes that I might wear her out (ha, what a joke). We literally went for 2 hours, played fetch, she splashed in the lake and got completely filthy. We walked, she played with other dogs... We came home and I pretty much tricked her into taking a bath (bc I mean, she was COVERED in mud). Yeeeaaahh. She went a little nuts. She was ok during the actual bath, she didn't want it, but she let me hold her in the tub and wash her. After, though, she ran up and down the stairs like a demon-possessed banshee. Like she was trying to get the bath off her! It was nuts. I might buy a hose just to avoid the bath experience in the future, not kidding. The bathroom after she got out was covered in mud and hair. But seeing her splash around the lake and chase the birds- priceless :).
Wish I had a photo of how dirty she got when we went to the park, now THAT would be a good photo!
2. LOST
So yeeeaaahh. This show has been on for a while now. Like 6 seasons... I JUST started watching. It's great. Super great. I never knew what it was about (what is it with commercials that make no sense?) but it is about a group of people traveling (from?) Sydney back to America who crash on a very strange island.... The characters are awesome and weird and freaky stuff happens every episode. There is definately something strange about this island :)
3. The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book
The first time I saw this cookbook, I knew I must have it. And it is AWESOME. I love cookies, so a cookie recipe book chopped full with 745 recipes obviously makes me happy. But a cookbook with SHORTCUT recipes that ALL sound delicious? Now that I am excited about. So what makes them shortcut recipes you ask? Well they use brownie mixes, premade cookie dough (yup the Pillsbury kind (or WalMart/Kroger brands for those of us that are a bit poorer), or cake mixes that you buy at the store) as the bases of all the cookies, brownies, and bars. Now I haven't gotten through the whole book, but here is one recipe I thought I might post, just to give an idea of what the book is like. I mean this recipe has FOUR ingredients, people. If that's not easy, I don't know what is. That is almost easier than just buying the plain old mix, and much more delicious.
Chubby Rocky Road Bars
1 (16.5 ounce) roll refrigerated chocolate-chip cookie dough
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels, divided
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray 8-in square pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with foil.
Break up dough into the prepared pan; with floured fingers, press dough into pan to for an even layer. Bake for 27-30 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Removed from oven and immediately sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips; keep oven on. Let stand 5 min until chips are shiny; spread chocolate chips with a knife to cover cookie layer.
Top with marshmallows, remaining morsels, and walnuts. Press down slightly. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until marshmallows begin to puff.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack 15-20 min. Cut warm bars to pieces with wet knife.
(credit: pg 216 The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book by Camilla v. Saulsbury)
The recipes I'm most looking forward to trying next? Baby Ruth Brownies and Granola cookies!
4. Lipton Diet Green Tea
I love this stuff, especially love the berry flavor.
5. Song: Like Boom by Vita Chambers
Apparently opening for Justin Beiber, I happened to hear her stuff on the radio. (I never hear new, good stuff lol.) Instantly thought this song was fun, and made me want to sing along like a kid.
6. My kickboxing class!!!
My teacher is probably- oh I would say 50 or over- no joke. And she just about kicks my butt every class. It's a high-intensity cardio workout, and I L-O-V-E it. I have always been a cardio junkie though, so anything that's a change from my daily jog is fun. I think my favorite part about the workout is the arm workout. I hate to workout my arms, and kickboxing provides the perfect cardio workout to mask the arm workout. he he.
7. Charming Charlie
Ok, the first time I went in here, for some reason I didn't see much I liked. Crazy, I know! I don't know, maybe I just didn't take a good look. Don't know what happened, because my second trip here I wanted to buy the whole store... If you haven't been to one of these, ladies, you are missing out. They are basically the largest jewelry store.. EVER. Jewelry, bags, shoes, clothes... But mostly jewelry. All colors, all kinds. Whatever jewelry accessory you are looking for you can find it here. And for pretty decent prices. Can't really shop online though, so here's a link to store locations:
http://www.charmingcharlie.com/locations
Just a taste ....
Doncha love the Sound of Music? I mean, who doesn't love the sound of music?
Anyway, no idea why, but I wanted to post some of my favorite things as of late. As I said, I don't know what prompted this post. Completely random.
Everyone has favorite things, whether they are things they enjoy doing, products, food, whatever. And when you share your favs you give the opportunity to give someone else something totally awesome, too. Plus I love reading other people's posts about favorite crap, so I am stealing the idea :)
1. Pockets- First name, Polly :)
I'm smitten. She's a handful, but I love my new dog. Our latest adventure? I took her to the dogpark yesterday, in hopes that I might wear her out (ha, what a joke). We literally went for 2 hours, played fetch, she splashed in the lake and got completely filthy. We walked, she played with other dogs... We came home and I pretty much tricked her into taking a bath (bc I mean, she was COVERED in mud). Yeeeaaahh. She went a little nuts. She was ok during the actual bath, she didn't want it, but she let me hold her in the tub and wash her. After, though, she ran up and down the stairs like a demon-possessed banshee. Like she was trying to get the bath off her! It was nuts. I might buy a hose just to avoid the bath experience in the future, not kidding. The bathroom after she got out was covered in mud and hair. But seeing her splash around the lake and chase the birds- priceless :).
Wish I had a photo of how dirty she got when we went to the park, now THAT would be a good photo!
2. LOST
So yeeeaaahh. This show has been on for a while now. Like 6 seasons... I JUST started watching. It's great. Super great. I never knew what it was about (what is it with commercials that make no sense?) but it is about a group of people traveling (from?) Sydney back to America who crash on a very strange island.... The characters are awesome and weird and freaky stuff happens every episode. There is definately something strange about this island :)
3. The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book
The first time I saw this cookbook, I knew I must have it. And it is AWESOME. I love cookies, so a cookie recipe book chopped full with 745 recipes obviously makes me happy. But a cookbook with SHORTCUT recipes that ALL sound delicious? Now that I am excited about. So what makes them shortcut recipes you ask? Well they use brownie mixes, premade cookie dough (yup the Pillsbury kind (or WalMart/Kroger brands for those of us that are a bit poorer), or cake mixes that you buy at the store) as the bases of all the cookies, brownies, and bars. Now I haven't gotten through the whole book, but here is one recipe I thought I might post, just to give an idea of what the book is like. I mean this recipe has FOUR ingredients, people. If that's not easy, I don't know what is. That is almost easier than just buying the plain old mix, and much more delicious.
Chubby Rocky Road Bars
1 (16.5 ounce) roll refrigerated chocolate-chip cookie dough
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels, divided
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray 8-in square pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with foil.
Break up dough into the prepared pan; with floured fingers, press dough into pan to for an even layer. Bake for 27-30 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Removed from oven and immediately sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips; keep oven on. Let stand 5 min until chips are shiny; spread chocolate chips with a knife to cover cookie layer.
Top with marshmallows, remaining morsels, and walnuts. Press down slightly. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until marshmallows begin to puff.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack 15-20 min. Cut warm bars to pieces with wet knife.
(credit: pg 216 The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book by Camilla v. Saulsbury)
The recipes I'm most looking forward to trying next? Baby Ruth Brownies and Granola cookies!
4. Lipton Diet Green Tea
I love this stuff, especially love the berry flavor.
5. Song: Like Boom by Vita Chambers
Apparently opening for Justin Beiber, I happened to hear her stuff on the radio. (I never hear new, good stuff lol.) Instantly thought this song was fun, and made me want to sing along like a kid.
6. My kickboxing class!!!
My teacher is probably- oh I would say 50 or over- no joke. And she just about kicks my butt every class. It's a high-intensity cardio workout, and I L-O-V-E it. I have always been a cardio junkie though, so anything that's a change from my daily jog is fun. I think my favorite part about the workout is the arm workout. I hate to workout my arms, and kickboxing provides the perfect cardio workout to mask the arm workout. he he.
7. Charming Charlie
Ok, the first time I went in here, for some reason I didn't see much I liked. Crazy, I know! I don't know, maybe I just didn't take a good look. Don't know what happened, because my second trip here I wanted to buy the whole store... If you haven't been to one of these, ladies, you are missing out. They are basically the largest jewelry store.. EVER. Jewelry, bags, shoes, clothes... But mostly jewelry. All colors, all kinds. Whatever jewelry accessory you are looking for you can find it here. And for pretty decent prices. Can't really shop online though, so here's a link to store locations:
http://www.charmingcharlie.com/locations
Just a taste ....
Starting up again!
Ok, so it's only been a couple months since my last post.... That's pretty good right???? I am going to start back up again, and really, this time I will keep it up. No, really. I'm serious this time.
So many things have changed since my last post: graduated, GOT A JOB, moved to Memphis, GOT A JOB....
And I am happy, for one, I LOVE the working 8:30-5 (yup that's a full-time day for me) instead of the kill-myself, don't sleep for an entire semester, study 24-7 school. It is SUCH a nice change, it really is. And the company I work for is great. Sedgwick CMS is a claims management company, which takes is (mostly) workers comp and disability claims for other large companies and manages those claims in their system (JURIS). I am a conversion programmer/analyst. My job is to look at the data coming in and determine where it should go in our system and how to convert it there. Sounds pretty easy, huh? Not always the case. I am really enjoying it, there have been a LOT of new things to learn, and I am still learning new things everyday, but hopefully with time I will become more experience and more of an asset (sometimes I feel much more like a burdon with the billion questions I ask per day)!
So, enough about that- there are several things I would love to blog about, one of them being what I am recently reading, "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Now I was not familar with Ken Follett, even though now I see he has written about a hundred books. I am by no means the expert, but as far as I can tell he writes mostly historical fiction (which I have come to discover I love, if you haven't read "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory, I highly recommend it- or the movie if you're more into that (however, NEVER judge a book by it's movie!!!). I think I enjoy historical fiction so much because you actually get a dose of history but a much more exciting tale blended in. Because let's face it, I think I speak for a majority of people when I say that history from a textbook can be, well, boring. I think I am putting this as nicely as possible.
Anyway, this book has some amazing characters, and is really the reason it's such a hit. The story takes place in England (and I have been planning a family vacation to England, and every place they go I think- I WANT TO SEE THIS WHEN I GO, lol). You begin with strange circumstances- a hanging of a young mantaking place, ending with his pregnant lover (Ellen) cursing his executioners. Then you meet Tom, a mason who aspires to work on a cathedral one day, and his family. Then there is Phillip, a righteous, yet ambitious monk who discovers a plot to overthrow Stephen, the heir to the thrown after Henry the I dies. Character after character you meet only deepens the plot. Each character has their own tale and as the story progresses you find their stories intertwine and connect in the most subtle ways. I can't help wondering how this book will turn out, every page something new and exciting happens.
"The Pillars of the Earth" is being turned into a Ridley Scott-produced miniseries starring Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane and Rufus Sewell; shot in Hungary and Austria, it is to air by June 2010. I can totally see why they made it into a mini-series, it reads just like one. Which I usually don't enjoy, but the writing is excellent in this case, and I think that's why it's the exception.
The book rose to fame when Oprah put it on her booklist, which is why I am reading it of course. And the only reason I would recommend you don't read it is if a) you aren't a fan of historical fiction and b) you don't like long books (this one is a 600 page whopper) otherwise, I recommend ya read it, because so far, it's awesome!
I have decided to start reading most of her list :) which can be found here:
So many things have changed since my last post: graduated, GOT A JOB, moved to Memphis, GOT A JOB....
And I am happy, for one, I LOVE the working 8:30-5 (yup that's a full-time day for me) instead of the kill-myself, don't sleep for an entire semester, study 24-7 school. It is SUCH a nice change, it really is. And the company I work for is great. Sedgwick CMS is a claims management company, which takes is (mostly) workers comp and disability claims for other large companies and manages those claims in their system (JURIS). I am a conversion programmer/analyst. My job is to look at the data coming in and determine where it should go in our system and how to convert it there. Sounds pretty easy, huh? Not always the case. I am really enjoying it, there have been a LOT of new things to learn, and I am still learning new things everyday, but hopefully with time I will become more experience and more of an asset (sometimes I feel much more like a burdon with the billion questions I ask per day)!
Daily Read
So, enough about that- there are several things I would love to blog about, one of them being what I am recently reading, "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Now I was not familar with Ken Follett, even though now I see he has written about a hundred books. I am by no means the expert, but as far as I can tell he writes mostly historical fiction (which I have come to discover I love, if you haven't read "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory, I highly recommend it- or the movie if you're more into that (however, NEVER judge a book by it's movie!!!). I think I enjoy historical fiction so much because you actually get a dose of history but a much more exciting tale blended in. Because let's face it, I think I speak for a majority of people when I say that history from a textbook can be, well, boring. I think I am putting this as nicely as possible.
Anyway, this book has some amazing characters, and is really the reason it's such a hit. The story takes place in England (and I have been planning a family vacation to England, and every place they go I think- I WANT TO SEE THIS WHEN I GO, lol). You begin with strange circumstances- a hanging of a young mantaking place, ending with his pregnant lover (Ellen) cursing his executioners. Then you meet Tom, a mason who aspires to work on a cathedral one day, and his family. Then there is Phillip, a righteous, yet ambitious monk who discovers a plot to overthrow Stephen, the heir to the thrown after Henry the I dies. Character after character you meet only deepens the plot. Each character has their own tale and as the story progresses you find their stories intertwine and connect in the most subtle ways. I can't help wondering how this book will turn out, every page something new and exciting happens.
"The Pillars of the Earth" is being turned into a Ridley Scott-produced miniseries starring Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane and Rufus Sewell; shot in Hungary and Austria, it is to air by June 2010. I can totally see why they made it into a mini-series, it reads just like one. Which I usually don't enjoy, but the writing is excellent in this case, and I think that's why it's the exception.
The book rose to fame when Oprah put it on her booklist, which is why I am reading it of course. And the only reason I would recommend you don't read it is if a) you aren't a fan of historical fiction and b) you don't like long books (this one is a 600 page whopper) otherwise, I recommend ya read it, because so far, it's awesome!
I have decided to start reading most of her list :) which can be found here:
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Cookies!
Ok, so I have decided that I am going to have a weekly blog "thing," bc everybody else does. Only it took me a bit to decide what I wanted to do. I couldn't pick a weekly thing I might not be able to do every week, and I didn't want to pick something that would be hard either (lazy, I know). So... I thought, what about cookies? I am always finding recipesthat I would like to try (but never make bc I tell myself I don't need the extra calories), and so they just sit there. What's the good in that? Why not bake a few and share some experiences at the same time?
So here's my first cookie post. I have not currently thought up a witty name for my blog thing so for now it's just cookies.
So here's the story behind my first recipe:
My Dad and I grabbed breakfast not too long ago at a new bakery that recently opened up in Oxford, Honey Bee. I do have to say I thought it was very good. They serve a variety of bakery items: sweets and homemade bread, and they have a wonderful breakfast and lunch menu. It's small though and can get crowded pretty quickly. Also, probably my favorite thing about the bakery is their selection of teas and coffee, you can get some very interesting brews and a french press also, which I have always loved. Anyway, back to story, after my Dad and I grabbed breakfast and were paying I saw this bakery had some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies. I LOVE oatmeal cookies, always have. And thought these sounded like an interesting twist. So I looked up a recipe and tried em out. They were just as good as they sounded and super easy. :)
I would have taken pics of the cookies I cooked (as proof) but... I ate them all before I thought of that...
Here's the recipe and I have a few tips to give with it. I didn't add the 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter because I just refused to add that much butter, it's ridiculous. But I soon realized that was not the best thing to do- these cookies are actually made with a cake mix. Just the plain-jane yellow cake mix. It actually gives them a great flavor, but because it's a cake mix you need the extra butter to make the cookies form a more dough-y material. They are pretty hard to form into cookies because they are a bit flakier due to so much cake mix and oats. Also, next time I make them I will definately omit the 1/4 cup of sugar. I originally added it just because it wasn't much, but these cookies are sweet enough as it is, almost too sweet in my opinion. And I can have a sweet tooth at times.
Anyway, hope someone enjoys these as much as I did!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 box yellow cake mix with pudding
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Stir in cake mix and oats until blended. Stir in butterscotch chips and walnuts.
2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.
So here's my first cookie post. I have not currently thought up a witty name for my blog thing so for now it's just cookies.
So here's the story behind my first recipe:
My Dad and I grabbed breakfast not too long ago at a new bakery that recently opened up in Oxford, Honey Bee. I do have to say I thought it was very good. They serve a variety of bakery items: sweets and homemade bread, and they have a wonderful breakfast and lunch menu. It's small though and can get crowded pretty quickly. Also, probably my favorite thing about the bakery is their selection of teas and coffee, you can get some very interesting brews and a french press also, which I have always loved. Anyway, back to story, after my Dad and I grabbed breakfast and were paying I saw this bakery had some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies. I LOVE oatmeal cookies, always have. And thought these sounded like an interesting twist. So I looked up a recipe and tried em out. They were just as good as they sounded and super easy. :)
I would have taken pics of the cookies I cooked (as proof) but... I ate them all before I thought of that...
Here's the recipe and I have a few tips to give with it. I didn't add the 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter because I just refused to add that much butter, it's ridiculous. But I soon realized that was not the best thing to do- these cookies are actually made with a cake mix. Just the plain-jane yellow cake mix. It actually gives them a great flavor, but because it's a cake mix you need the extra butter to make the cookies form a more dough-y material. They are pretty hard to form into cookies because they are a bit flakier due to so much cake mix and oats. Also, next time I make them I will definately omit the 1/4 cup of sugar. I originally added it just because it wasn't much, but these cookies are sweet enough as it is, almost too sweet in my opinion. And I can have a sweet tooth at times.
Anyway, hope someone enjoys these as much as I did!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 box yellow cake mix with pudding
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Stir in cake mix and oats until blended. Stir in butterscotch chips and walnuts.
2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Ok, this was just too weird so I had to share. I watched Up in the Air last night (Which, I thought was a different, pretty funny movie, if anyone is interested. It was also kind of depressing though, which is an odd combo lol.) That's not the point of this post though, the weird thing that happened was the opening song to the movie I immediately liked. It was a jazzy lady, whose voice I thought was just beautiful. I have always had a weak spot for jazzy, soulful ladies. I really have no idea where I get it from. Anyway, I thought, I'm gunna google (Which, on another completely random tangent, did you know that "google" is officially in the dictionary now? . Google has apparently tried to keep it from becoming a mainstream term, because if it loses its trademark status, then other companies may be free to use the term. I say "googling" ALL the time...)
Ok, I will get back to the original point of this post- weird happening, heard song on Up in the Air, knew I wanted to look it up and get it. Well, another source I use for new music is artists that Oprah features in her magazine. One of the artists she featured this month, and the first one I "googled" was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Well, waddaya know that was also the artist of the song I heard last night on Up in the Air. Strange coincidence and great song = blog post :)
This is the song. And Sharon Jones also seems like a rather special lady. She apparently tried to begin her career at a younger age, and no one wanted her (which I find unbelievable).
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