Sister Golden Hair Surprise

I made the peach cake today! It looks delicious. I just need to get some vanilla ice cream to pair with it. It seems like a necessity. Let's see if I can post step by step pics... Okay. Posting from my phone makes that process strange, so I will just settle for a finished cake picture. I'm so excited to eat it!!

That's The Way I Like It

Have we discussed nail polish recently?

I really, really like to paint my nails. After not being able to wear polish for 2+ years because of the whole working-in-food-service thing, I am certainly making up for it. I usually change color once a week. I'm wearing a lovely coral polish right now (Sally Hansen brand) that A was wearing the last time I saw her and she was kind enough to tell me what it was. I'm a fan. I need to change my polish in the next day or two because this stuff has been on for like two weeks and it is looking pretty bad. Ugh. In case you care, another brand of nail polish I enjoy is Wet N Wild because, hello, it's like a dollar. Anyway, I think that my drawer in the bathroom is getting a little bit full of polish. I need to not buy more for a while, I think. Oh dear. 

Okay, the following is not related to nail polish (aren't you glad?):

Do you know what a dump cake is? I had never heard the term until Wifers told me she was making a peach one earlier this week. She sent me the recipe, which is from Bakerella.com. I fully intend to make this cake this weekend. I was also thinking of making vanilla cupcakes, from my Joy the Baker cookbook, but that was only because we were going to have a birthday/father's day/woohoo June cookout with CLRG's family this weekend and I was in charge of desserts. Maybe I will still make them. Maybe. Or probably I will make more strawberry shortcake because I really can't live without it.

Sweet Silver Angels

This weekend I:

-sold my car
-went antiquing
-acquired a recipe box from 1940
-baked raspberry almond bread from a Joy the Baker recipe

Plus other standard house things. It was a pretty darn good weekend, I would say. What did you do?

P.S. I baked these oatmeal blueberry applesauce muffins last week (recipe also from Joy the Baker) and they were so good, I baked them a second time with strawberries instead. Ha! I win!

Perfect Jumping Off Point

Things I want to begin doing more of:

-baking
-cooking
-gardening
-writing
-organizing
-photography

I sort of want to start a new blog to record these new ventures. What do you think? Worth it?

Dance Floors and Magazines

Just a little while ago, I was cooking some hamburger (for future tacos... maybe tomorrow?) and Roommate C (I think I probably named him something else once, before I lived here, but I can't remember) came down and informed me that, since I moved in, the kitchen has seen more use than ever before. That's probably true, because all he ever eats is chicken patties and hamburgers. I am impressive, it seems, because I used the crock pot yesterday (swiss steak- turned out nicely), and I've made jambalaya and homemade mac & cheese here and tuna noodle casserole, among other things, since CLRG moved in here. Yes, indeed. I can't really remember where I was going with this, but whatever. I cook things sometimes. I got stuff to make a mac & cheese pasta bake thinger later this week (to eat with salads), and little shrimp to eat with pasta and pesto. Mmmm.

Fact is, I like doing these homey things. I have been doing my laundry with CLRG's and I enjoy doing it this way. I like going grocery shopping for us as a pair, but I don't like figuring out meals by myself. He never really has suggestions so I have to think really hard about meals. I really like living here. I will like it even more when the new room is finished.

Our set up plan for the new room and this other room is such: bed, love seats (couch won't make it up here, oh well), TV in the new room. Desks, dressers, storage containers in the older room. I am hopeful that my bookshelf will make it into the new side. I don't know why. We will soon each have a closet, rather than having to share one, and I will think about getting some drawers of some kind to make up for the shelves I won't have in my closet. We'll see, we'll see.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Well, looky here. It is almost Christmas! I can't believe it! I was pretty concerned that Pittsburgh wouldn't have any snow for the holidays but, on Friday, it started snowing and now we have a respectable amount of snow. It's snowing right now, too! Yay!!! Anyway, so Christmas is fast approaching and it is weird because I don't really feel super Christmasy. Sure, the snow helps; yes, getting gifts mailed out to my family helped; maybe the cookies I will bake today will help also. Buuuuuut.... my family is all kinds of scattered right now and it seems mostly wrong to be apart on the holidays. Pookie and Marms will be together with the dog, but Dadders will be alone and I feel really bad. I'll be here, but thankfully I have CLRG and we are going to his parents' house for dinner on Christmas Eve. I found out that I have the 24th-26th off from work and the thought crossed my mind to go see Dadders, but it really is too far for such a short visit, especially when he has so much work he is doing and so little free time. :o( It just sucks. Rawr. I don't even know what more to say about it.

So, back to happier things. Cookies. I am definitely planning to make chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies. I thought I had sugar cookie mix here, but I do not so I will probably go to the store to get some to make those. I am pretty excited. I bought a handheld mixer yesterday that was on sale and I think I know where the apron Marms gave me for Christmas last year is hiding. Huzzah!

CLRG insisted on giving me my Christmas gift a week ago when it arrived in the mail. I am very pleased that he did. He got me a Kindle and it is glorious. I finished reading Pride and Prejudice and then read Anne of Green Gables. I'm now reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, which has been pretty good so far. :o) He's so thoughtful. What an excellent gift. What an excellent boyfriend!

Okay... I think it's time to prep for the Cookie Baking Extravaganza of 2009.

Some Things Are Just Meant to Be

Ummm... I love sour Skittles. I just wanted you to know. They are delicious because they are awesomely sour for a few seconds and then they become regular Skittles again and it is really delightful. I am attempting to power-write a midterm right now and it is very difficult. I think I'm almost done, though. Yep.

I recently bought a frame and put a picture from... the late 60s... of my mom, Uncle S, Uncle R and Geegs hanging out at someone's house. I got it printed last year around Christmas time or something but just never framed it. It is super cute and I love that I can see my face in my mom's. I love it. Oooohh... you know, I bet I have it on my computer somewhere. Okay, well... I found it. But it won't let me upload it. Too bad. :o(

Paul Said to Peter, You Gotta Rock Yourself a Little Harder

I made shortcakes this evening. I also purchased strawberries (grown in California, even though I prefer those grown in Michigan) and will be putting them together at some point this evening to make one of my favorite desserts. I am very excited. Sometimes I can't get over how delicious strawberries are, you know? I have been known to clean a quart and have them gone (into my stomach, obviously) in a matter of hours. It's true. I'm hoping some will at least make it to the tops of my shortcakes. Haha.

I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird right now. I haven't read it since high school and so far, so good. It's nice to go back to the things that you started from. Know what I mean?

Sweet Silver Angels Over the Sea

CLRG and I are really indecisive as a couple. Oh man. He never wants to decide what we do for dinner, so I always have to and I never can think of anything. Tonight, however, I know exactly what I want. I am going to go to the store and get the things I need to make it and that will be that. I told him he couldn't complain. Haha. Maybe, since it is summer time now, I can do more cooking and feel more inspired. I should probably eat something other than ramen and pizza and perogies. It might be a good plan.