Brunch

Brunch seems to be the thing to do in D.C. The perfect opportunity to eat breakfast at a more reasonable time. I'd recently discovered a couple of recipes but they aren't the kind of thing you make for yourself. I mean, do I really want 24 muffins or 8 scones just lying around? No, I don't. Because I would eat them. All of them. And that's probably not so great. So making them for other people is the PERFECT solution.

What did I make, you ask? Well, thanks to pinterest I discovered two recipes that looked beyond amazing. Honeyed Grapefruit Oat Scones and Earl Grey Poppy Seed Muffins.

The Earl Grey Poppy Seed Muffins were super easy and perfectly delicious. 

First, I heated up some milk, it was almost boiling, but not quite. You don't want it to curdle.  

For the tea, I used double bergamot earl grey. It has a stronger flavor, so I think it made the earl grey more pronounced. And since I like tea, that's a good thing. It's supposed to be better if you can use fancy loose leaf stuff, but this is what I had. 

So I just steeped the tea bags while the milk cooled.  

Then I mixed all my dry ingredients together. 

The result is now a large supply of poppy seeds on hand. So I have a feeling these muffins might be making another appearance rather soon. 

I cut up all the butter and put it in my cute little dish to heat it up. 

Got the eggs all ready. I love owning little clear dishes to put my ingredients in. It makes me feel like I'm on a cooking show. 

You can see the milk really changed color. I think I left the tea bags in about 10 minutes. Shorter would mean less of a earl grey flavor, but as we've discovered, I love tea. So 10 minutes it is. 

There is something disgusting about melted butter. And yet, it makes things taste SO GOOD. 

Then I poured the milk into the dry ingredients. Well, I also poured the butter and eggs in too. and mixed it all together. 

The result: DELICIOUS BATTER. Seriously, so good. I could have eaten just the batter. But I tried not to, raw eggs and all. 

I bought cute little blue cupcake wrappers. It matched the poppy seeds soo....

It only made 12 muffins. There was some batter left, so I think I could have made a couple mini ones too. I also used self rising flour, so I think If i had let it sit a little longer, I could have turned it into 18 cupcakes that were a little more airy. 

Then I put them in the oven. 

For 25 minutes. 

And waited. 

Then I took them out and let them cool for a bit on a wire rack. These babies really rose. I think I could have put less batter in each one. Next time that's probably what I'll do. I didn't realize how much they would rise. 

But seriously, how cute are they?

Then I melted down a little bit of orange marmalade and glazed the top. 

It added the perfect amount of sweetness. 

I couldn't help myself. 

So good!

Then I made the scones. I personally don't like warm fruit, so if I were making an entire batch just for me, I would probably leave the grapefruit out, maybe add some of the juice, but I'd rather eat a scone and a grapefruit separately.

Here's the dough pre-oven. 

And I totally forgot to take pictures of the scones after they came out. But they were tasty. So tasty that there is now nothing left of them. But I do have 2 new brunch staples. That I can confidently bring over to someone's house!

Mice!

So, after 5 and a half years of living in a city, it was bound to happen. I don't know how I got out of it for so long (especially since I lived on the second floor the majority of my college career). I finally saw a mouse in my apartment. It was terrible.

I was standing in the kitchen, cooking and talking to a friend, when there he was. In between the wall and the dryer, squeaking and looking for a way to get back through the kitchen to the window and his hole to the outside world. It was TERRIFYING.

So I did what any apartment tenant would do and put in a fix-it request with my rental company. They provided a lovely glue trap.

The only problem with setting traps for mice, you actually catch them.

So I came home from work on a Tuesday night and noticed that the glue trap had been moved from under the cupboard to the middle of the floor. And I highly doubted L had moved to. Then I heard it, a small squeak. And I realized, not only had I caught the mouse, but he was still alive. Sure enough, I got as close as I dared (I was still about 5 feet away in the living room) and saw him, lying on his side on that glue trap, still breathing slowly.

So I did what anyone else would do, I got changed and went for a run, hoping my roommate would come home and take care of it. But I came back, and he was still there. So I headed out and went to Bible Study, thinking, "SURELY, L will have to be back by the time I get home." Two hours later, I got home and he was STILL there, STILL alive, and STILL a mouse. By this point, I was hungry, but too afraid to go into the kitchen/anywhere near the rodent. So I gave in to my inner girl and texted one of my friends that lives down the street, asking him to help a poor girl dispose of a mouse (in exchange for baked goods of course).

Twenty minutes later two boys showed up and removed the mouse and I was finally able to eat dinner (after a thorough Cloroxing of all floors and counters in the kitchen).

So I thought I was safe. But while emptying the dishwasher (that same night, I might add) I saw ANOTHER mouse scurry across the floor to the SAME place between the wall and the dryer. This can't be happening, I thought. I'm OUTNUMBERED. By MICE. So I tried to scare him out. But instead of getting him to leave, he moved to the small closet/nook area we have that holds our coats and my crafting supplies - including my sewing machine and FABRIC. That's right, fabric. AKA the perfect nesting place for MICE. He (I'm not sure why I think all mice are males, but they are) needed to leave RIGHT THEN. So I grabbed a stool, a swiffer and a hanger and removed all of the bags/games/fabric/things from the nook until there was no where left for that little guy to go. Until he ran back behind the dryer....again. But at least he wasn't in my fabric.

A few days later the rental company sent an exterminator in to close up any holes and they set out another glue trap. But I'm happy to say we've been mice free for 2 weeks now. So whatever they did must have worked.
And this weekend I even managed to make cookies for the house of boys that rid my apartment of vermin. Did I mention they were mice cookies? Yes, they were. And they were by far my favorite thing that I have ever made.

I found a Homemade Oreo Recipe that I used, but instead of cutting them into boring old circles, I traced a mouselike shape on a file folder and used that as a template for my cookies. And they were SO CUTE.

Instead of using the plain old vanilla frosting, I made a peanut butter filling and piped that in between the 2 cookies.

Then I thinned it a bit more to draw a tail and face on one side of the cookies as well.

Not only did they look cute, they tasted great too. I managed to save some for my small group too (who probably appreciated the work that went into the adorability of the mice a lot more than a house full of guys).

Let me tell you, these mice are welcome in my kitchen any time. All other mice, keep out. 

I just discovered Nutella - somebody help me

I don't know why, but I seem to be the last person in the world to discover the deliciousness of Nutella. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've heard of it, but for some strange reason, I shied away from it, thinking it wouldn't be something I would like. 

Boy. Was. I. WRONG. 

Now, I can only handle a little bit of it at a time (I'm the same way with chocolate, I do not consume it in copious amounts. In fact, I just finished a bag of Hershey's Dark Chocolate kisses I got last year, for Valentine's day. That I often shared with my coworkers, multiple kisses at a time...)but still, the combo of the hazelnut and chocolate, wow. So good. One spoonful is all it takes to make this girl happy. 

Well, I had an unopened bottle of Nutella from Costo, leftover from a college lunch earlier this year. So I decided to find create ways to get rid of it. After a friend made no-bake cookies, I thought, the only thing that would make no-bake cookies even better...NUTELLA. So I found a recipe online and went to work. 

How could you go wrong with these ingredients?

Melt the butter with the sugar and cocoa powder. 

Scoop out a heaping scoop of Nutella (I might try half Nutella, half PB next time...)

Mix it all together.  

Until it starts to boil. 

 Right after it its boiling, add the rolled oats. 

Spoon globs onto wax paper. 

And wait for them to cool (the hard part). 

If you don't wait for them to cool, they fall apart. But they still taste great. I like to store them in the fridge so they don't fall apart. And am TOTALLY okay with eating them for breakfast, I mean, it's got oats, so its BASICALLY the same thing as oatmeal...I could probably eat these all day every day. But I won't. Instead I'll bring them into work and let GK and my other coworkers destroy them for me. 

Another great thing to do with Nutella? And something that has also been a huge hit with the coworkers? Nutella and Sea Salt Stuffed Sugar Cookies. And yes, they are as good as they sound. 

Icing on the Cake

I have decided that I want to learn how to ice/decorate cakes.

I attempted a couple of different cupcake things this past weekend (for the Super Bowl of course) and while they looked ok, I was not really impressed at all. I mean they were cute in a,  "Oh that's supposed to be a football, isn't it?" sort of way. Not in a, "oh wow, I can't believe you actually made those, you should think about entering some sort of cupcake decorating contest" way.

So I will learn all the different techniques. Well, at least one solid technique. Sort of like a party trick.

And people WILL be impressed.

Superbowl Sunday

I recently discovered Oreo truffles. Someone at my office had made them and they were so good! And hard to believe only a few ingredients! Oreos, Cream Cheese, and Chocolate! I decided that they would be the PERFECT Super Bowl treat! So I bought some Oreos and Cream Cheese and Almond Bark from Harris Teeter and made my first batch of truffles.

I formed the Oreo and Cream Cheese mixture into the shape of footballs. 

The dipping did not go as planned. This is the best looking one. 

The chocolate was definitely lumpy on the bottom, but they could still sort of pass for footballs...right? Until I tried icing them that is...

Some of them didn't turn out half bad. And you could still tell that they were footballs. So not a complete failure.

I also decided to make cupcakes. Because I was in the baking mood obviously.

And put them together in the shape of a football and frosted them all together. Sort of a pull apart football cake I saw on Betty Crocker. It closely resembled a football.

I had a couple leftover cupcakes so I decided to add green frosting and sprinkles to make it look like the field.

And of course added some truffles to the field!

The platter of footballs, cupcake and truffle style.

There she is! So cute!! I love themed parties :)

A look ahead...or back

Whoa, it's been over a month since my last post. Does that mean I've given up being domestic? No way, not that easily.

I've got quite a few things to share. But first, I'll tell you about my new to do list system.

So, I love all things to do lists. I don't know if it's because I love the satisfaction of being able to cross things off and feel accomplished or if I get overwhelmed with too many things unless I spell it out or if I just really enjoy making to do lists. Either way, I LOVE them.

But there gets to be a point when you spend so much time making to do lists that you don't actually get anything done. Which is rather counterproductive. So I've simplified my life by creating 2 types of lists. The long to do list and the short list. The long list is a bunch of things I want to/need to do. Whether it is an arts and crafts project from pinterest or a blog or hemming pants or planning meals or grocery shopping or cooking or running or laundry or emptying the dishwasher (yep, that made the list...) I just put them all on one long list. I'm not interested in checking things off that list just yet, it is just to help me remember things that I want to do.

But every morning (sometimes the night before, sometimes not until my metro ride to work) I create a daily to do list. 3 things. That's it. Just 3 things I want to complete (usually after work, sometimes at lunch) that day. I start with things that need to get done or that are already in my calendar (Running, dinner with friends, Bible Study) and then add smaller projects (baking cookies for work, one craft project, hemming pants).

So far (This system has been in place for about 4 days) it's worked great. Don't believe me? Here's a list of what I did this week.

Monday

1. Dinner with Taylor (I brought leftover Curried Chicken and Brown Rice)
2. Bible Study
3. Pick Laura up from the Airport

Tuesday

1. Run 2-4 miles (Part of the new training program I just started for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. I went 3.5)
2. Intern Bible Study
3. Empty dishwasher (I usually don't have to add things like this, but it had been 3 days!)
4. Add songs to iPhone and iPod nano (so I can finally use it on my runs)
5. I  also tried a BUNCH of new hairstyles and found some I really like...

Wednesday

1. Run 3-5 miles - Intervals (I went 4.5 and nearly DIED)
2. Grocery Shopping (which then led to a complete overhall and reorganization of everything in my cupboard when I discovered MULTIPLES of different things, like 3 bottles of BBQ sauce...who needs 3 bottles?!? Not me. And never again with  my new system I'll explain in a later post.)
3. Make Nutella No Bake Cookies (oh my goodness, if you haven't tried these, then you NEED TO)
4. Cut up fruit and veggies for snacks (Strawberries, Pineapple, Celery)

Thursday

1. Run 2-4 miles (3.5 and it was easier than day 1. But I'm glad tomorrow is a rest day)
2. Cook dinner (Pan Girlled Ginger-Honey Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan - which makes my subscription to Cooking Light SO worth it)
3.  Bake Chai Tea Gingerbread Bars (Ok, so this wasn't on my list, but I ended up doing it anyways)
4. Hem Pants (well, I got one of 2 pairs hemmed)
5. Cut up Jicama (I LOVE IT)
6. Paint nails (this wasn't on my daily list, but I was in such a productive move I decided to do it anyways)

Friday

1. Dinner with Friends
2. Arcadia (my favorite play!)
3. Update Blogs

So, as evidenced by this past week, I have CLEARLY been productive (including sewing, cooking, baking, and planning). And I have felt more energized at work. It might just be better planning meals and snacks, working out, and sleeping. But I also think its not having the stress of thinking about everything I have to do, because there are only 3 things. And that is TOTALLY manageable.

So for now I leave you with a few images of what you have to look forward to in the posts ahead...