Spring I am So Happy To See You

I am so so so sorry for my extended absence on here. Life just catches up with you sometimes you know? Well all can say if life is currently pretty darn good. Baking is up, exercising is up, sleep is not up, but that is sincerely nothing new, and I scored a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes recipe book from the Easter Bunny. Besides my chocolate being left in the sun by my dad, which I don't mind I would've eaten too much anyway! I will most likely just go home and eat the deformed re-frozen chocolate when I get home the next time anyway. I'm not sure if I'm going to update by the 15th again, so I might as well say it now. April 15th is me and nick's one year. It's been a crazy year and it really went faster than any year of my life. I guess I'm used to measuring years in school years so this whole april-april deal really snuck up on me. He's just as much of a sweetheart as when we first dating and though not every day is easy, some are even exceptionally hard, that's what makes it worth it to me. That even though we may fight, at the end of the day I still can't wait to tell him something stupid, or look up dogs on petfinder. And he deals with me, which is an accomplishment in itself so thank you nick, for everything. You're the best :)! Now that you had to sit through that mushy rant I will handsomely reward you with pictures of baked goods I will happily make for you if ever you ask. Happy spring temple, I am glad to finally be spending some more time in your good graces of warm weather again. <3 ps. one of the picture of me and nick was from last april and its funny to me just how much older in one year. in a few years I don't think I'll love that fact anymore!

I am sorry for my respite

from the blogging world, but i'm busy enjoying spring! i'll try to return to you with love stories and flowers sometime soon :)

An Ode To My Kitchen Aid Mixer

Dear Kitchen-Aid Mixer,

I'm so glad you're in my life. You make everything so much easier and allow me to make things such as homemade bread and soft pretzels from scratch with ease. I'm so glad my parents decided to leave you on the counter always so I don't always have to lug you from the laundry room to the kitchen whenever I want to use you, because truth be told, you're a little heavy. But I don't want you to change I think you're perfect just how you were. It was so silly I pined for you and asked for you for Christmas when you were really hiding on my back shelf covered up still in mint condition from when you were placed there over 13 years ago. I really wish when mom-mom would've bought you we could have used you together, but as a 7 year old I don't think I'd love you the way I do now. (no offense). Regardless you were waiting for me there all those years I proclaimed proudly in the next room how I hated any form of baking and cooking and that anyone I married would have to do all the cooking. Eventually I came and found you and even though I wish mom-mom had been alive and still living with us all these years it almost feels as if she put you out there to wait for me. And I was most certainly the next one to lift you from your peaceful sleep. And maybe it's silly but I most feel her when I'm in the kitchen working with you. I know pop said she would have been proud of us and now looking back I'm glad I'm using you my grandmother's kitchen aid mixer, alongside my great great grandmother's baking pans from when she cooked in a boarding house where her daughter, my great grandmother, met her husband. I feel more connected to the people I was lucky enough to have and love in my life who are gone along with the ones I never got to know through little things like you kitchen aid mixer, the things that help make the ones who leave us just a little more real, if only for that moment. So thank you kitchen aid mixer, I'm sure I'll see you soon.

Love Always,

Mary

To All Those Who Love Me So Much, I'd Like To Return The Favor

I am aware I haven't updated in entirely too long and I have to sincerely apologize but here I am once again. I'm not sure how clear I've made this point before but I really love baking, I'm starting to really expand what I am doing with it and love trying new things. This weekend was an all-time high for deliciousness. I had to pack for Florida and spring break (which I leave for on FRIDAY!) and knew since I wasn't going to be able to bake that weekend I would whip up a few extra special things this weekend to celebrate. On the menu were cheesecake swirl blondies, spinach pesto mozzarella muffins, and caramel corn. I also bought an intense tart pan at Williams & Sonoma which I intend on making insane things with, a candy thermometer, and a little book called "The Field Guide to Candy" which I had been debating over every time I stepped in a Barnes and Noble for months. Nick and the fact I had a gift card finally convinced me! It housed the caramel corn recipe. I really want one of those little blow torches for creme brulee. Next up? Cheesecake milkshakes? I know its technically not baking but as I said the kitchen is where I have felt most at home lately! Me and Nick also ventured to the Flower Show on Sunday where I introduced him to the love that is bonsai. It was a whirlwind but great nonetheless and maybe next time I update it will be about sunny (hopefully) Florida. :)

xoxox

I also threw in some pictures of Nick with my dog Ted taken from the weekend just because I find them so damn cute.

Busy Busy Days

This post will be short but majorly sweet since I am have mass amounts of work building up but all I will say is "peanut butter whoopie pies." Think cakesters on steroids. I probably made them larger than recommended but what can I say, if I want something like this, it's go big or go home. I will update in detail soon about all the shenanigans on Temple/home life and leave you with this image.

Happy Valentines Day To The Ones I Love

Ok, so maybe valentine's day was yesterday but I was far too busy yesterday to post. Why was I so busy you ask? I was being creative this year and for once making my gift for my boyfriend as opposed to going out and buying something and I decided to go with homemade fortune cookies. Great idea right? Kind of. These were ridiculously hard to make and although some turned out great they were quite the process to get there. Each one had a different "reason why I love you" inside of them and I was happy with the final result. I felt bad when Nick had a stomach ache after eating them all though. This alongside of homemade pink heart pancakes, cheesy eggs, sausage made us both full to the point of exploding (not very romantic). Most of all I got to spend the day with him so it was all in all a fantastic day. More picture to come eventually :)

Slighty Delicious

I really wish I would've been able to post this entry last night. I was literally in such a good mood. Not that I'm in a terrible one now it's just after a terrible night's sleep and one geology test later, the fuzzy feeling endorphins of a great mood just seem a tad harder to muster. But for once... i actually tried baking in my apartment in school! I borrowed the scary electric mixer of the lovely Caitlin Weigel, and I won't lie, I was pining for my kitchen aid walk away come back later magical cookie dough mixer at home. But we made it through and twenty flour filled hair and more mess on the counter than in the bowl later, we had ourselves some snickerdoodle cookies. Now don't be fooled society by the appearance of what may seem to be enormous irish potatoes. These cookies were amazing. The were rich soft melt in your mouth goodness. I must admit though they were not for the faint of heart. I had the world's worst stomach ache after finishing off two of these. All fair in love and cookies though because the pros definitely out-weighed the cons and I will surely be making these again. Now it's valentines day weekend and I think I'm probably going to out-bake myself. We'll see how it goes. :)

Snow Snow Go Away

I've decided that I find it so ironic that my blog revolves around my love of baking wonderful ooey-gooey highly caloric/highly addictive treats when my boyfriend has a blog about eating healthy and working out. I've told him that no matter how in fit he may strive to be, he will always be the primary tester of all of my goods, and true to his word he has tried all of my creations good and bad, yummy and even more yummy, so Nick this one is for you. For running out when halfway through my recipe I realize I have no maple syrup and start thinking all is ruined. For adding more vanilla when I'm not looking and teaching me that not going by the book can sometimes be a good thing. I would like nothing more than to bake for you every day. I miss you while I'm at Temple but thinking about what I get to make you whenever I'm home is one of my favorite things to do. You're the best. Ok, now that all the mush and gush is behind me I can share one of my favorite recipes. After making these for my godparents me and my mom found ourselves sneaking downstairs later that night to have some more. They are smores cookies which are basically cookies that have a graham cracker base so they are much more dense than a traditional cookie but are also smaller so it works well. After baking these puppys up popping them in the microwave with a marshmallow in between two is the final step to marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker bliss without all of the mess. Ok maybe there is still some mess, but that's half the fun right? :)

Baby You Make The Sun Shine Down

Ok. So I didn't hold true blue to my blog post every day for a year but I hope you can forgive. It's not that I didn't want it dear blog, life just got busy and I promise to pay more attention to you from now on. Especially since I found out one or two people actually read it! I'm currently under the annoyance of my printer going on the fritz, that and the fact I feel like some of my classes are not clear at all. Not the content but more the way everything is laid out. Maybe I'm just not a technology person after all. That and my sudden insatiable urge to travel. Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Hawaii, sign me up. Anywhere and everywhere. Anyone who wants to sweep me up and take me on a much needed trip is more than welcomed to sign up. With that said, less than a month to florida <3 glorious glorious break. I hope I can make it!! The blessing of today was my brand new "Martha Stewart Cookie" cookbook. Besides the woman at the store sniping at me that I knew nothing about baking because I was young it made me happier than a kid on Christmas, and in that I think my inner age shows. :)

Where oh where have the good cooks gone?

So much about my blog about warmer weather. Today had to be one of the bitterest coldest take you breath away when you walk out the door days I've felt in a long while. And of course it's the day that I decided to dress up and wear a skirt. I literally had one guy on the street tell me I was a champ. In better news I finally got registered for the course I had been trying to get into since I dropped chem II and that was quite the relief. Tonight I spent some quality time with my godparents for dinner who I hadn't seen in like years so it was nice to go with my parents and catch up. So much German food. The smores cookies I made for dessert literally put me over the edge and now im content to just sit around and try to get warm now that I'm finally home and not move much at all. :)

Tomorrow I'm hoping to head over to barnes and noble before having to go to yet again another family get together tomorrow night. That I have decided is one of my year goals. To read numerous books. I've already got dear john off the list so Im going to try and see how many I can punch out and actually enjoy it and learn something.

This is also 100% random but I had a dream about the end of the world last night. And it was absolutely beautiful. But I survived? No idea where in the world that came from but I warned you it was random! Now for some dull education reading. Life is such a peach sometimes now isn't it.

One Down... Many To Go

Sorry I'm terrible at blog post naming. One of my resolutions was to read more for pleasure this year. I decided that if I was going to avoid productiveness I might as well do it by reading as opposed to the other mindless activities I might be drawn to (facebook?/greys anatomy?). So yesterday I picked up "Dear John" and decided to just try it. Well needless to say less than 24 hours later I am done that puppy. Not because I thought it was particularly great, it was just an easy read and a page turner. It was actually extremely depressing if I let the truth slip out and I had an extremely entertaining re-enactment of the plot for Christine, Corrie, and Liz. Besides that more school class scheduling drama abounded and I'm started to just wish I was graduating so I could be just out there living my life. That's all for now. Tomorrow is the weekend where I will hopefully begin my journey into making homemade toasted marshmallow milkshakes apricot chicken salad and fondant. Hopefully not all together though. Let's see how it all turns out. xoxo

Warm Weather oh Warm Weather, How I Miss You So.

It has become quite apparent to me that I cannot wait for it to be February. Not that I particularly love the month, but because it just doesn't scream winter like January does. More so for that matter as soon as we cross the threshold into February I can regularly state to anyone who dare comes close enough "One month to spring break!" Not because I'm itching to be away from school, but more so because I am so excited to go down to Sarasota Florida during that time. This will be the second spring break where I have done so and last year it was literally the best time of my life. The picture until my title was snapped on that vacation before me and my cousin went out on a boat ride and ended up encountering dolphins up close and personal. That alongside some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life at a little amish restaurant called Yoders (literally its so good i plan my entire year calendar around it) plenty of beach/shopping time and of course a Phillies spring training game made up some of the greatest four days I could wish to encounter. This time both my dad and my boyfriend Nick will be joining me and my mom and of course all of the Penxa's who live down there.

But besides this trip that lay ahead of me there is one more reason why I am just itching for February and some warmer weather and that is the all around joy of being able to hang outside with my friends here at Temple. Now when someone who knows anything about Temple pictures it "outdoor beauty" is probably the last thing that comes to mind since Temple is located in North Philly. However, I personally think many parts of the campus are beautiful both all lit up at night and on the sunny warm days where everyone can sit and do homework and chat around the grassy area that is the belltower. On these colder days it's just harder to remember all that, when walking from class to class seems to be a chore and its much easier ro just cram up inside instead of meandering outside for extended periods of time. But its bonus points that I know each day brings me closer. Spring here I come!

Tangled Up in Today

Ok so on the scheme of how my past two years at Temple have been, the past two days sucked. It seemed like I'm the happiest here when I'm just freefloating and taking classes for a fun career than when I'm taking my other side of science classes for a career I actually see myself in. I know what you're thinking, just drop the science and do something fun. But therein lies my biggest problem. Im just can't drop the science idea as well. You're looking at someone who was a 4 year old nerd telling the world without any form of doubt, that she was going to be a pharmacist. Now as most of my friends know I was completely (and I mean completely) unhappy when I was pursuing pharmacy. So after a year of philandering around I'm not sure why I was convinced approaching science in another light would be so much more fun. Well let me tell you Chem II is still Chem II whether you're going into pharmacy or going into teaching little school science. And for the past two days I've felt like I was back at the beginning of freshman year of college. Except this time I'm not so naive to think I could just make it through and not have it be terrible. I know now I'd have to kill myself for a good grade, and I began to wonder, why the hell am I killing myself making myself miserable for something I never need for what I want. That's why I in effect dropped chem II as of today. I'm in the process of trying to add another education course and also trying to decide if just changing to an elementary ed degree might suit me better. In turn I'd be doing the same job, just with a lot of undo stress killing me in my life missing in between. For the past few days I wanted to just sit complacent and not do anything about it but through the coaxing of others and my own uncertainty driving me I took a step to making myself happier, which for me is quite a big deal. I promise to try and make a happier post next time, wish me luck on that one. I think I'm going to go look over all of the equations I don't have to know to make myself cheerier. xoxo

Go on, go on, the stars are watching.

Day number 2 of blogging. Surprisingly I thought about how I wanted to make it and what I wanted to do with it a lot last night. It's amazing that while I had such a hard time starting it it now seems much easier than anticipated. My aspiration is that I'm going to try (key word try) to post every day for one year. I know this is it a somewhat crazy ambition for someone who doesn't have the most free time in the world and seems to go on long rants when she starts writing but it's something I sure as hell want to try. I also promised myself I would talk about baking on here at least a little bit so I'm going to start with one of my favorite recipes.

I think they're called "mini hamburger cookies"? I found the recipe on one of the application of my iphone and they couldn't be easier and earn more praise. They are simple and gained much praise from those whose noses I shoved them under. I even caught my grandfather sneaking into the party tray and it made me so happy he liked them I didn't have the heart to tell him no. Baking has turned into almost a therapeutic hobby for me. I do it to wind down. I do it when I'm excited. I lack alot of the resources I rely on at my dorm at Temple (my kitchen aid mixer). But I don't mind. For now though it's Calculus and dreams. And that will have to do.

Easy as Pie.

I have always been one for indecisiveness. Even as a child I've heard many a time about how I would stand in the candy aisle of the grocery store with the snickers bar in one hand and the milky way in the other just staring and having no idea which to choose. Like it was the most important decision of my life. While I suppose it speaks well that I didnt just throw a tantrum until I got both, this tendency of uncertainty seems to follow me like a hawk even today. There is such an underlying fear of making the wrong decision and being unhappy that at times I admit having a hard time making any decision to start. This blog was no exception. I signed up and left the name title empty for days not being being able to just start it. So here I stand on January 25th making my new years resolution to stop holding back and just going after more things. Overanalyzing can be almost disabling and I know I for the most part can come off as pulled together but believe me it is quite wearing after awhile. Resolution number 2 is to take more pictures and resolution number 3 is to sleep more. I just have so much I'm thinking about its hard to figure out when to stop my posts. I suppose alot of what I'm thinking about will come out in time but for now I'm content to be happy with myself for even starting. Whether or not anything productive comes from this. Whether or not I actually keep going with it, at least I just went for it and started. For me that's enough tonight. And the fact I made almond ciabatta french toast for breakfast and it was fantastic. That helped a little too. Time to start another week.