À l'aventure

What with the start of the school year (!!!!!) but unfortunately I am now finding myself with some fake free time due to that slut Irene (I say “fake” free time because really I have 100+ pages of reading my profs are expecting me to keep on top of). Anyway, at least we made it through the storm, and enjoyed a nice sunny, breezy day today. I found myself back on tumblr just to post this picture:

AOT Conan!

So it’s kind of hard to have a good time for the rest of the summer after you’ve been abroad, since nothing really seems as fun. But I found some pretty good ways to fill my time since I’ve been back. The main one was working, but I didn’t get as many hours as I did last summer, so I found myself with a lot of free time. Some ways to I filled my free time:

• watch entire series of tv shows. I’ve watched Weeds, True Blood (ERIC. NORTHMAN.), Parks & Recreation (definitely underrated), Say Yes to the Dress, Californication, Skins (but only the UK one duh), and a few others
• read. i read 3 john grisham novels that were really good (the pelican brief, the firm, and a time to kill). i also rediscovered this magical place where you can get books for free…the library! another good place to kill time fo free!
• crocheting. i mentioned this in a few posts, but seriously, i know it sounds really lame but come on you get to make cool things really easily
• baking. again, im sure my other posts make this obvious, but i started perfecting lots of my cooking skills with some really good results yummm
• most recent: discovered reddit. i didnt want to become a big giant internet dork but seriously some of that stuff is so entertaining

So i did find some ways to occupy myself this summer and hopefully i dont sound like a complete loser/70 year old woman (i promise i had social interactions too). The summer went by really quick, and I actually can’t believe that I’ll be here in just 4 days:

and I found a microwave cake recipe that is both. I’ve found microwave cake recipes a couple times before and tried them, but they were just ok: usually the cake was too dry or got a weird rubbery texture. But I had come across this recipe a while ago, and found it a couple days ago under my bookmarks, and decided to try it today when i was craving something sweet. It was surprisingly delicious, although with a couple of my own alterations: I added about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to give it a little more moisture before baking, and I drizzled it with chocolate syrup instead of icing. I definitely recommend trying it, especially when you’re in the mood for a baked good but don’t want to have to bake a whole cake or buy one or whatever. Here’s the recipe: http://backtoherroots.com/2011/07/09/sweet-saturday-one-minute-peanut-butter-cake/

I had so much fun kayaking today on the potomac around the georgetown & foggy bottom area of DC yesterday. I love how kayaking can be good excercise but really leisurely at the same time. And I got to go with dc-for-the-summer transplant/fellow hottie/soon-to-be-roommate mmmmburns! Awesome way to spend one of the last weekends of summer

boyfriendreplacement:

Blueberry Preserves & Blueberry Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream

Recipe

yummmmm

(via foodfuckery)

18 granny squares of my big granny square blanket complete!

So a couple nights ago I was really craving some sort of baked good. I found a recipe for “the perfect chocolate chip cookie”, and i mean if it’s called perfect it has to be am i right? anyway they actually were AMAZING and delicious! the photo of them is not that appealing, but trust me, they were so good: they have a very bold flavor, and the texture is perfect with a slight crunchy exterior but soft interior. here’s the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies-americas-test-kitchen-387119

just a couple of side notes about the recipe: if you make them, make sure you follow all of the steps, as silly and time-consuming as they may sound (i.e. browning the butter and the weird stir-rest-stir-rest part). im sure you could make a normal, decent cookie without those extra steps, but if you want to use the recipe to it’s fullest make sure you include those steps!

Source: thebeautydepartment.com via Laura on Pinterest

And this website has be inspired to make jewelry

i’m honestly not a big jewelry person, but the awesome stuff on this website makes me want to be a jewelry person

i want to make these really bad

so simple and cute

i was ambitious enough to actually make desert tonight (even though it was just all-purpose baking mix that took less than 5 minutes to put together). nothing says summer like strawberry shortcake!

homemade nutella. now where do i buy hazelnuts?:

Source: theeccentriccook.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

(somewhat healthier) baked mozzarella sticks:

Source: recipe-diaries.com via Laura on Pinterest

guinness brownies:

Source: laformuladelbiscotto.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

boyfriendreplacement:

jackieonawhim submitted

Tiramisu<3

This looks soooo good

Ever since my hat project I have been on a major crochet kick. I picked up a few books from the library on saturday and bought some more yarn, and since then that’s about all i’ve been doing when I’m not at work (i know, im soooo cool). Here is my progress on my current project, a cute little bolero. I’m almost done with the body, and soon i’ll just have the sleeves & border left. Also my apologies for the crappy photo booth picture.