Iiiit's time. Time for the ubiquitous Halloween post. And only a week late.

I struggled for 2 weeks to decide what to wear.
I had many good ideas, and multiple trips to various thrift/consignment stores.
I googled Audrey, Edie, Cleopatra, gypsies, Powerpuff girls, Jackie O, Carrie Bradshaw, Rachel Zoe, Annie Hall, Daisy from the Great Gatsby, Marie Antionnette, Juliet, Penny Lane, hippies...all in all, nothing very creative.

I didn't want to be...um, how do I put this delicately...provocative, but I did want to look cute. It's not everyday you get to dress up.
(Side note: sometimes I wish that people dressed up all the time like they used to back in the day. They were so much fancier. They dressed up to go to the movies, church, everywhere. Even lounging at home they looked cute, or so the movies tell me. Now I feel like we only even barely dress up for weddings.)
Also, I didn't want to spend a lot of money. That complicated things.

Finally, come Saturday night, it's party time and I have not decided. I look through my closet.

I end up being a hippie. (and sort of Penny Lane too)
I just had everything for it. Not only did I have everything for it, I had so many hippie-esque options I had a really hard time deciding which to choose. The lesson we learn here is that hippie is basically an extension of who I am and how I dress anyway (most of the time) so it was pretty easy and totally fun.

I told myself right away that I wouldn't use the totally expected and slightly cheesy peace sign in my pictures though.

And then...

What the hecks? Before I knew what was happening, I was looking at a peace sign photo. Twice.

Here we have the oddest little group you ever did see: A bumblebee, Edward Cullen, and a hippie.

This is how ridiculous Taco Bell was in the wee hours of the morning. We waited in line forever to order our food.

And then we waited in line again to GET our food.

This was all the paraphernalia I took off at the end of the night. Holy wow.

So...what were YOU?

more bakings

Just some baking endeavors from the past couple weeks. I'm still thinking about that lemon loaf and how it would be perfect if I had some right now. darnlemonloaf.

1. The gingersnaps with lemon-cream filling





These cookies were incredible. And they come out perfect, so much so that I couldn't contain a squeal every time I pulled a sheet of the perfectly round, golden brown beauties from the oven. I could hardly believe I made them. And the filling, let me tell you, that filling is dangerous. I made these with a friend, and every time we sampled the filling (what else do you do when you're impatiently waiting for some cookies to bake) we had to roll our eyes and comment on how unbelievably good it was. Here is the recipe.

(I should confess that I've been kind of obsessed with that blog lately. Valerie is innovative, talented, funny, and capable of making me want to try almost every single thing she bakes. I can almost guarantee that you'll see more recipes I try from there in the future, even before you get to the end of this post.)


2. The banana cupcakes with nutella-cream-cheese frosting.



These are really good. A little more dense than banana bread, and definitely sweeter and, well, just better. I don't exactly know why I'm comparing these to banana bread. I adapted the recipe from here (well, hardly adapted it at all actually. I just added my own frosting). I think it's safe to say that I'll be trying some other cupcake recipes from that site as well. You'll see why if you check it out.



Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 C. A/P flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C. mashed ripe bananas
1 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice
3/4 stick unsalted butter (6 T.), softened to room temperature
1 C. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 C. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 275.
Prepare a muffin pan with muffin cups.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
Mash bananas and combine with lemon juice in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk while mixing, until combined.
Add bananas and mix until well blended.
Bake at 275 for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
After removing from the oven, place cupcakes in freezer for 1/2 hour.

Frosting:
1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup nutella
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 C. powdered sugar

Cream together butter, cream cheese, nutella, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add powdered sugar. Add more sugar if desired texture is not achieved.

Frost cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired.


3. The lemon loaf





Ah, the lemon loaf. No one really knows what exactly it is, but it is delicious. Every time I mentioned lemon loaf, I got something like, "So what is that? Is it like meatloaf, or pound cake?" (seriously, I got two questions referring to meatloaf) or, "Why not just call it lemon bread?" I don't know exactly. The word "bread" doesn't do it justice, and it can't really be called cake either. One thing is for sure though: it does NOT, in any way, have anything to do with meatloaf. And it is so perfect with a steaming soy chai latte from Starbucks.
Here is the recipe.

cm

I have a giant, giant girl crush on Carey Mulligan, of which I was reminded today at Borders when I saw her on the cover of Vogue October.


Isn't she fabulous?


I have been looking for the perfect TMNT t-shirt for the longest.
It only makes sense that she would have one.

saturday morning cartoons

It's that time, kids! Grab your bowl of lucky charms and cozy up on the couch for some good light-hearted fun on a beautiful Saturday morning.* I have five 'toons for you today:




This one is coming to you from The Sharing Machine. If you like it, it comes on a t-shirt. They have other awesome t-shirts too. (No, they did not pay me to advertise. I just like their work a lot)

And I thought I was the only one.

I actually heard a rumor that Subway has indeed started tessellating their cheese slices for maximum coverage. Is this true? I don't want to just believe anything I hear.

This is by Marc Johns. His stuff is really awesome and I would highly recommend a little visit to his website to make your day just a bit better.

Love this student.
And then the response....

Love this teacher.


*I know it's not technically Saturday morning. I missed out on the morning part but I had the idea for this last night when I was going to bed at 3am (which is why I didn't make it out of bed before noon) and I really wanted to do it anyway.
Happy Saturday!

hello sweet thing

Guys I made cookies.
But this isn't really news. I make cookies at least bi-weekly. And I usually bake something about once a week. (Lately it's been more like 2-3 times a week. Out of control.) It's one of my favorite things to do. The news is that I actually documented them this time, something I'm going to try to start doing regularly so that when I tell people, "hey I bake stuff, and I can bake something for you too", I can have something to show for myself.
Ta-da!



These cookies are insane. They are gargantuan. They are rich. I can barely muscle through one of them. That's why the recipe only makes 12 cookies, yep, you read that right, 12 cookies. You don't need more than that. They're delicious and extremely filling. Soft, chewy, dense, and even better the second day as stated in the recipe.

(I used this lovely recipe)




Note: I know my food photography skills are less than stellar. Also my camera is less than stellar, which could be part of the reason. Someday maybe I will have a nice camera and nice food-documenting skills. For now, please enjoy these moderate quality pictures as best you can.

using etsy to define fall

Check out the full treasury here.

Peace, love, and a hot cup of cider.

I stumbled across these images on my computer that were saved quite some time ago, but suddenly I find myself in alarming lack of a quilted dress and chunky arm-warmers.


Photo cred: Karl Rothenberger