A small storm and a truly gigantic bag

Katherine and I went to the park before the hurricane hit.  Hummm I expected the hurricane to be a little more intense.  Some rain...a few gusts of wind....and a fridge full of water.  Hurricanes are a breeze. 

First day on the subway since I moved to New York.  We wandered around Grand Central Station, then walked over to Bryant Park and The New York City Public Library, then a quick shopping trip, and walking and walking and walking...famished from all the walking we stopped by a gourmet doughnut shop.  A peachy doughnut for me and a banana pecan doughnut for Katherine.  Energized from all the sugar we hopped on the subway and when we got off we were conveniently right next to a movie theater and the next showing for the movie One Day was at 4:30 and it was 4:32.  Oh YEAH! Perfect timing.  So we spontaneously watched a movie and ended our day in Manhattan with a quick trip to the Container Store.  A short subway ride later with a giant Container Store bag in tow we returned home.  Such a good day in the city with my sister.

New York City!!!!

I have just moved all the way across the country...all the way from Redding to New York City.  So what did I do my first day in the city???

Yep, that's right, I ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes.
Then, watched some Gilmore Girls.
Then I ventured out on the streets of Astoria.
And walked. and walked. for a while.

Living in New York is so great.

Baby Shower

A pretty little baby shower cake.  Decorated with butterflies and flowers.  French Vanilla cake with cheesecake filling and cream cheese frosting.  Happy Baby Shower Andrea!

I love my friends and homemade S'mores...but mostly my friends.

Two of my very best friends came to visit me last week, it was so wonderful.  We went camping (well kinda... but we did sleep in a tent and there was a really big bug on my pillow) and went to the lake and we made homemade s'mores and it was stupendous.

There a 3 delicious components of a homemade s'more:

1. Homemade marshmallows. Totally worth the giant mess of sticky white goo that covers your entire kitchen while making these little treats.
2. Chocolate. Dark chocolate preferably, but milk chocolate is good too.
3. The cookie.  A crispy and soft chocolate and caramel cookie.  Yum. 

These s'mores are best when shared with friends.

After our s'mores night we woke up to have a pancake breakfast.  Nothing says Good Morning like fresh raspberries, strawberries and mango  paired with a giant pancake tower.

I love my friends.  

They are the best.

I have so much fun with them. 

Happy summertime!

Katherine's Care Package

Homemade goldfish crackers...minus the goldfish shape (I'm still working on getting a tiny fishie cookie cutter).



Vegan chocolate cookies. Marshmallows. Chocolate caramel cookies.

Okay, so the are essentially vegan cookies, I added white chocolate and peanut butter chips to the batter and topped them with chocolate covered sunflower seeds which by the way, I am addicted to! They taste so good! Oh yeah, the cookies taste good too! They are dense and fudgey and you would never know that there is absolutely no egg or butter in them. It's stupendous.

Homemade mallows, the happiest treat on earth. They are like the Disneyland of treats. They are so light and spongy and soft and white (bright bright white) and sweet and fluffy and so so wonderful good! If I could build a house in dreamworld made of one substance, these mallows would be it. Oooo that would be a good dream!

Introducing the Chocolate caramel cookie (in my head when I say "chocolate caramel cookie" there are horns playing, like the horns that are in movies that play when announcing an important person. Hehe if only you could be inside my head). The chocolate caramel cookie (bum bu bu bum) is pretty much the opposite of the vegan cookie. Yep, that means it is loaded with butter and there is an egg in there too, but that's not even close to the best part...the cookies a chalk full of chocolate caramel ice cream topping! These crisp yet chewy cookies are delicious to eat by themselves, but when you use them as the graham cracker in a homemade mallow s'more they are magical.

Strawberry Banana. An endlessly great combination destined to be bff's. That being said, strawberry meet banana bread.

All the goodness of the banana bread you know and love, plus strawberries too! I think you could almost consider a slice of this bread to be one of your daily servings of fruit/veggies...almost...

Homemade brownies

Chocolate. Peanut butter. Pretzel. Yummmm.

Best 19th Birthday Ever!

Happy 19th birthday to the very best little sister in the whole wide world. I mean it.  It's true.  She is the best. And of course the best little sister deserves 19 layers of rainbow sprinkle cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. And a most magical pegacorn (unicorn + Pegasus) on top.  Happy Birthday Jane!