Reasons I am a grownup…

• There is currently a chicken roasting in my oven. A WHOLE. CHICKEN. Roasting.
• I recently purchased a food processor.
• I can’t leave for work unless my bed is made.
• I “go to work”.
• I “commute”.
• When someone is tailgating me, I drive slower.

Reasons I am not a grownup:

• I sometimes eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.
• I still call my mom when I get a stuffy nose.
• Today I giggled LOLed when one of my kids said my “pavorite fart of the day” instead of “favorite part of the day”.
• Disney. Music.
• When someone is tailgating me, I drive slower.

Where I’ve Been

Knock, knock! Is anybody home??

Oh my goodness! I just looked through the past month of blog posts and I’ve been surviving on Wildlife Wednesdays, Frenchie Fridays, and almost NO baking! What is up with me???

I could sit here and list off the annoying things that have been taking up my time the past few weeks (including a nasty cold), but I won’t bore you with all that complaining. Instead, let me show you some fun things I’ve been up to.

Hangin’ with celebs.

Yup, that’s Wayne Gretzky. THE legend. And right next to him is Mike, autograph in hand. Though Wayne (we are on a first name basis) looks not-so-happy to be there, I assure you he is. It’s just bad lighting and a serious amount of zoom.

We Mike met Wayne at my very first Bruins game a few weeks ago. So exciting!

Reliving high school. At the prom.

LAW prom, that is. You’ll be happy to know that my high school prom date was a Gingy too!

Cultivating my green thumb.

LOOK at my baby plants! I am so proud of them, even if I can’t remember what they are. Mom, Katy, a little help here? Zinnias or tomatoes?

Excessive chocolate chip cookie making.

You KNOW I couldn’t make it a few weeks without baking. I was inspired to make NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe, and figured I would save the dough in the freezer until I had more free time to bake and blog. And then I accidentally made and ate…all of it.

Wildlife Wednesday: Evergreen Edition

Happy December!! The countdown to Christmas has *officially* begun

PS: Here is a video (with another quite catchy little diddy)  sent in by not one, but TWO readers, and it’s hilarious. HOW did this happen, WHO allowed this to happen and WHY did they write a song about it?

Thanks Palmer and Tracey!

Black Friday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of food, family, friends, and happiness I just helped myself to leftovers of stuffing (fave!) and pie and am feeling quite content. Though I should maybe go for a walk.

So, I usually don’t get into the Black Friday shenanigans because:

A.) I don’t handle large crowds well (I have been known to throw a ‘bow or two…*cough* HP7 premiere)

and B.) I’m really impatient.

BUT, I had two reasons to participate in Black Friday 2010:

1. Holiday sale at emme purses!

From now until December 31, 2010, enjoy 20% off your purchase when you enter coupon code “holiday2010″ at checkout!

Do it, do it, do it, do it, DO IT! Great gifts for daughters, sisters, moms, aunts, friends – and yourself!

Happy shopping!

2. It’s finally time I gave in and bought a digital SLR camera.

I mean, let’s face it: I take pictures all.the.time. I have been lusting after my sister’s Nikon D3000 for an entire year. And Best Buy was having a really great Black Friday package deal on Nikons.

So, Christmas came a little early this year. I can’t WAIT to take pictures of everything.

Happy Black Friday!

Cinnamon Pumpkin Macarons

If at first you don’t succeed,

{Sad, stumpy, lumpy macaron attempt #1}

Try, try again!

{Happy, smooth, perfect macaron attempt #2}

I’m going to blame the residual effects of Pete the Cat on my choice to not have a minor breakdown when my macarons came out of the oven looking like (for lack of a better word) poo, and instead chose to dust myself off, separate some more egg whites, and try again.

And it’s a good thing I did! Macarons are so darn temperamental. Some still ended up looking like volcanos:

But for the most part, batch number two was pretty adorable. I followed this recipe from Eat, Live, Run (new fave blog!), but swapped the raspberry and rose for 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice in the macaron batter and pumpkin for the filling.

Some were filled with a mixture of chocolate and pumpkin puree (uh, YUM).

And others, Trader Joe’s pumpkin cream cheese (which should definitely become a staple in your household – thanks Miss Tracey!).

Macaroon, french macaroon, macaron – whatever you want to call it, these little guys are SO cute and SOO tasty.

And if at first your macarons don’t succeed – try, try again! It will be worth it – bon appetit!

This week

This week has been NUTS-o. Happy, sad, up, down…but mostly up. In the past seven days…

I went to New York City and saw my LONG-lost old roomie and biffle from Cornell, Alix.

I toasted marshmallows in the toaster and made them into a milkshake.

Our TV broke.

Liz and Dave GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!!

So, so, happy for them.

We celebrated with cookie cakes, champagne toasts, and the Biggest Loser.

Love is real, my friends. Aren’t my decorating skills superb?

I decided to apply for grad school.

Fina got a job!

Far far away. Happy, sad.

What a week it’s been.

PS -

I saw the tree!

 

Wildlife Wednesday: Digi-Pet Edition

If you are anything like me, you might really, really wish you could play with a kitten and/or puppy all day, every day, BUT realize you could probably not yet handle keeping one in your apartment and being responsible for its whole…life. Enter Idaho Humane Society. The people at this wonderful animal shelter have created a program that allows you to play with kittens, puppies, dogs and cats over the internet. All you have to do is install a quick Microsoft app on your computer and you can be well on your way to playing with adorable kitties minus the responsibility and litterbox changes. And, it makes the animals happy too!! Win, win. Just visit:

http://www.aprioricontrol.com/ihs/

Thanks, MOM*, for this awesome idea!

*The rest of you really need to step up your Wildlife Wednesday submissions…my mom is totally outshining you.

Baked by Melissa

I have found a NEW favorite cupcake shop in NYC. Get ready for this….

Teeny tiny, eensy weensy, itty bitty cupcakes.

Even teeny tinier than mini cupcakes! Barely bigger than a quarter! Behold…

Cupcakes by Melissa. This woman is a genius. She makes bite-sized cupcakes, which means, in my case, that for only $10 I was able to purchase and try eleven different kinds of cupcakes. ELEVEN!

I loooove trying cupcakes. WHY didn’t I think of this idea first??

Here’s what I got…

(from the top, left to right)

Peanut butter and jelly, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate chip pancake,

s’mores, cookie dough, red velvet,

cinnamon, s’mores (had to try this little guy twice), tie dye,

mint chocolate chip, cookies ‘n cream, coffee caramel.

Oh BABY. Yum yum yum. Cute cute cute.

Just a little bite of happiness.

Next time you are in New York, stop by one of Baked by Melissa’s two locations! I promise it’ll make your day.

Wildlife Wednesday: Sunset Addendum

Walked outside *just* in the nick of time to catch this additional Wildlife Wednesday sunset. Nice timing, sun!

Four Flour Recipes, One Weekend: Part One

I’m officially obsessed with my new cookbook.

This one:

The one that gives me ALL the secrets behind Flour‘s amazing baked goods. Including their famous sticky buns.

Who could ask for anything more???

Last week I made the sticky buns BUT they were gobbled up before I could get a picture. I’m not mad.

Anywho, I am apparently on some sort of spiritual journey through Flour’s cookbook, as I just baked my way through not one, two, or even three recipes…

I made four. In a 48-hour period. Nah, I didn’t go out this weekend.

Hi, my name is Melanie and I’m a 23-year-old bakeaholic. Hiiiiii Melanie.

Don’t WORRY! In that 48-hour period I also did the Jillian Michael’s *LAST CHANCE WORKOUT* one..time. It sucked. Especially the mountain climbers.

…. where was I???

Oh yes…a weekend of FlOuR…part one. Banana bread with cow sprinkles because I teach preschool and we are learning about the farm and I have 38 different kinds of sprinkles.

Meep! Say iiiiiitttt…saaayyyy it…. I’m cute. Cows! Mooooooo.

This recipe was not only DELISH but it also received an A+ for easiness to make with kids. Go Joanne Chang!

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

3 1/2 overripe bananas, mashed

2 tbsp sour cream (I used plain yogurt)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Beat sugar and eggs on medium for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.

On low speed, drizzle in oil. Add bananas, sour cream or yogurt, and vanilla, then mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 1 to 1.25 hours, or until golden brown on top and center springs back when you press it. Allow to cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack, then pop it out of the pan to finish cooling.

 

I also mixed up a little glaze to put on top:

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tbsp water

pinch cinnamon

 

MOOOOOOOO.