The Scone from Heaven

So, I've been inspired to restart my blog by a scone. That's right! You heard me! A scone.

I was driving along on a crazy Wednesday, behind schedule and starving when a Stone Creek Coffee popped up on my right.  I quickly signaled and pulled into a parking spot, slid a quarter into the meter (you're welcome to whoever got the rest of my parking time), and ran in for a coffee and snack.  After watching me stare cluelessly at the pastry case for a few minutes, the friendly barista recommended that I try the brand new ham, cheddar and chive scone.  I accepted her suggestion, ordered a small Boston latte and went on my way.

When I bit into that scone, I knew I'd found my new favorite snack.  And I knew that I would need to find my own recipe soon.  It was soft, warm, savory and the bits of ham were surprisingly not weird.  I highly encourage all of you to head out and eat a ham, cheddar and chive scone as soon as you can.  This is one new thing I am definitely glad I went for!

I'm so hungry...and looking at this photo is not helping!

The Butcher, the Baker and the Ice Cream Maker -- Well...mostly the Ice Cream Maker

For Christmas I asked for an ice cream maker--to be specific, I asked for the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer.  I did not believe I would actually receive this gift, mostly because of cost, and I did not.  However, I received an adequate amount of Christmas/birthday money to purchase it from Amazon on my own.  I came in the mail and, 3 days later, I had my first batch of ice cream!

My family has always loved and enjoyed eating ice cream, but it wasn't until my friend Claudia started sharing some of her ice cream making adventures that I realized I wanted to pursue this utterly delicious and cool (hee-hee) hobby.


Fortunately, my dear brother-in-law, Jason, sent me The Perfect Scoop: Ice Cream, Sorbets, Granitas and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz.  There are enough recipes in this book to last me a lifetime. And frankly, it is a beautiful book.

The first ice cream I tried was a basic, plain--but amazing--Philadelphia Style Vanilla ice cream.  It was so easy and was literally the best ice cream I have ever tasted.  I decided, however, that I wanted something more. So I next tackled the Salted Butter Caramel Sauce recipe from the "sauces" section of Lebovitz's book.  Though it came out more runny than I expected, I could not stop eating it...by the spoonful. I'm surprised there was any left to share with my ice cream friends (mostly Ben, my brother-in-law and my father).

I finished my second batch of ice cream moments ago: MALTED MILK ICE CREAM!!!! Once again, we are lucky that there were enough malted milk balls left when the time came to add the coarsely chopped bits to the ice cream. This ice cream was my first custard based attempt and I was 100% successful! The book warned me to "make sure to keep custard moving. If you don't, you'll end up with bits of scrambled eggs in your custard."  I must admit I was a bit nervous about getting bits of egg in my ice cream.  Never fear, future ice cream eaters at my house! You will not find eggs in your ice cream!

Up next: Orange Popsicle Ice Cream -- I'll keep you posted!

Perfect custard on an ice bath

The Ice Cream Maker in action!

Chocolate Malt Balls..I love these things!

The Muscles I Knew I Had But Didn't Use Much Anyway

On Tuesday I met with a personal trainer for my very first personal, one-on-one, 30-minutes-of-me-time training session at the gym.  I almost cancelled the session due to the really cold weather and my near-refusal to poke even one more toe into the bitter night.  My husband, however, successfully encouraged me to stick to the plan and carry out my end of the bargain. (Never mind that his first response was "It's up to you, Angela." When I asked him to reconsider, he remembered his role and told me to go).

All in all the evening was a success. I did make a poor decision and ate a pork chop and some mashed potatoes shortly before working out--the eating was a good decision as it was delicious, but the timing caused me to get a bit nauseous on my 3rd rep of across-the-floor lunges.

As I was staring at the black, wilting exercise mat while doing the plank (see image below), I came to an understanding about why trainers are awesome.  If I was here by myself, I would've put my knees down about 20 seconds into this exercise.  However, being of a somewhat competitive nature, I don't want to appear weak or defeated in front of someone...especially someone I'm paying to make sure I don't suck. I push myself way harder with an audience...which I believe is a typical human tendency.  The constant volley "good job, nice work" didn't hurt anything either.

The rest of the workout went well and after I regain the use of my knees, abs and elbows, I'll be ready to get back at it!

The Plank: Someday I could look like her...except with brown curly hair and bigger...well, never mind.

The Beasts of the Southern Wild

Since the Oscars were announced last week, I have been preparing a mental prioritized list of all the movies my husband and I need to see before the Academy Awards on February 24.  Though I'm more than eager to see Life of Pi, Lincoln, Les Mis, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty and even Django Unchained, our first accomplishment was what some might consider the underdog film of the 2013 Oscars: Beasts of the Southern Wild.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this film, yet I was very surprised (albeit a bit confused at times) with where the story went. The story follows a young girl, Hushpuppy, who lives with a dying, often angry father in a very rundown bayou community. It's pretty difficult to watch the poverty this group of people live in and the scene where Hushpuppy is cooking some sort of lard and cat food for her dinner made my recently consumed spaghetti and meatballs threaten a reappearance.  However, I found myself absorbed into Hushpuppy's world, as we saw everything unfold from her point of view.

Apparently in this fictional version of our world ice caps are melting which means Hushpuppy's town will soon be underwater.  The movie follows her adventures as her father and friends deal with their near-extinction while doing all they can to cling to their lives and their "beautiful place" on this earth.

The appearance of ancient Aurochs which have thawed from hibernation along with the ice caps and a random visit to a floating night club both caused me to snap out of my belief in this world and the story.  They seemed slightly out of place and caused me to wonder how much longer the movie was going to last.  I don't hold this against the film, however, as I'm sure a second viewing will allow me a glimpse into what the director was going for. I couldn't figure out if these giant pig-like, tusked creatures were symbolic or actually running through villages and swimming through rivers.

All in all, I enjoyed watching Beasts of the Southern Wild.  I think a second viewing is in order as it seemed to be full of symbolism and foreshadowign that I just wasn't catching. Quvenzhane Wallis, the young actress who plays Hushpuppy is adorable and a lovely little actress. She's earned a Best Actress Oscar Nomination for her work and has amazing hair!  If you're looking for a movie to make you think and feel in ways the rest of this year's best film nominees can't, check out Beasts of the Southern Wild.  If you're up for some action-packed Tarantino fight scenes, head to Django Unchained...and take Ben and I with you!

The 13 Movies I Can't Wait to See in 2013

In honor of the new year and my renewed energy to write my blog, here is the list of the 13 movies I cannot wait to see in 2013! In order of when they will be released:

1. Sound City (Feb. 1, but likely a very limited release) -- a documentary I'd love to take my husband to. It's all about the epic recording studio in California.
2. Warm Bodies (Feb. 1) -- What can I say, I have a soft spot in my heart for zombies...
3. Admission (March 8) -- What can I say, I have a soft spot in my heart for Tina Fey...
4. Iron Man 3 (May 3) -- Tony Stark...why do I have a superhero crush on you??
5. The Great Gatsby (May 10) -- Oh, Leo...and Baz Luhrmann? This is gonna be good.
6. Star Trek: Into Darkness (May 17) -- The first film is probably the most watched movie in my house, even though it came out just a couple years ago. Benedict Cumberbatch is joining the cast? What?! "You think you are safe.  You are not." (Watch the trailer here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/436407?playlist_id=1379)
7. After Earth (June 7) -- I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic type stories, and this tale of a father and son exploring a deserted planet earth seems right up my alley.
8. This Is The End (June 10) -- Probably wildly inappropriate and hilarious...actors playing themselves. I'm certainly glad the world didn't end on Dec. 21 so we can laugh ourselves silly during this film.
9. Man of Steel (June 14) -- I'm intrigued...but Russell Crowe tends to have that effect on me.
10. Pacific Rim (July 12) -- Though I'm sure the critics will have a lot to rip on with this film, I know it's going to be an awesome theater experience. The trailer I saw in the theater a few weeks ago was super well done.  Plus, as everyone's saying, robots versus monsters?? You can't beat that!
11. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (Aug. 16) -- No, the first PJ movie wasn't that good. But I love the books (and Sean Bean is playing Zeus...that's enough of a reason right there).
12. Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Nov. 22) -- Probably my favorite book of the series, I'm eager to see the "clock-like" arena come to life on the silver screen.
13. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Dec. 13) -- I really enjoyed the first Hobbit installment and am eager to see the dragon in action. Too bad I have to wait the entire year.

So cool....the destruction makes the Star Trek symbol

The Mythology of Ikea

There once was a mythical land called IKEA. Until recently, I couldn't be sure it really existed. I had heard tales of this land of tables, chairs, shoe storage, pillows, lampshades, bedsheets, dishes, and meatballs.  Friends and family insisted I travel to this land and experience its wonders myself; but I resisted.  Ben, too, was hesitant, for there was always something else to do.

Last month, however, something changed. We had a desire to see this Swedish paradise. (Mostly we found and purchased an awesome 5x5 cube IKEA shelf through Craig's List and needed some baskets to organize things).  We made our plans and set out on our journey last Saturday.  We arrived at IKEA at 11:30 a.m. and followed the other pilgrims who seemed to know where they were going.  Our shopping list was pretty focused so we spent the next 3 hours wandering from section to section, picking out various storage items, taking note of ideas for the future, and eating lunch at the famed IKEA cafeteria.  Ben had the meatballs, I had a mozzarella/red pepper panini and we both had yummy apple pie. 

The whole process of actually finding our items was a bit confusing for me. I tried to pull a couple pillows off the wall and baskets of the shelves in the display section until Ben told me we had to pick up our items somewhere else.  I then noticed that others were caring around pencils and paper, writing down item numbers, colors, and other helpful information.  I managed to mess up at some point, though, because when we got the self-serve furniture warehouse, an item wasn't where I had marked it to be.  We wandered a few aisles hoping to randomly come across it to no avail.  We then spotted a helpful computer kiosk that quickly solved our problem.

In short, IKEA was as magical as I had imagined. It smelled of cinnamon rolls and new plastic. Ben and I had a wonderful day and are on the road to organizing our lives...or at least the music room.  Thank you to whoever gave us those IKEA gift cards for our wedding four years ago. We finally used them!

Our full cart...it doesn't look like much, but it's all awesome!

The Fourth Attempt

Yesterday was the first day of my fourth attempt as a participant of NANOWRIMO. Now, as a review for those of us new to this blog, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Basically we--me and thousands of people all over the world--attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  Four years ago was my first attempt, and I succeeded. The last two years have been failures: 5,000 words (massive fail) and 12,000 (slightly less massive, but still a fail).

This year I enter NaNoWriMo with even more than the usual amazing support from my husband, a fresh approach to the idea of writing a novel, and the decision to try a young adult novel this time.  So far I've achieved my daily writing quota for both Nov. 1 and 2. (I'm on a roll!)  I'm liking that I feel less pressured because I am writing a young adult novel. Is it strange that I feel I can give them what they would want to read? Not really, I spend the majority of my time around young adults and I thoroughly enjoy reading young adult novels.  This makes perfect sense.


I recently put a shout-out on Facebook for ideas on what characters in my novel could inherit from a deceased relative. The response was overwhelming (thanks to everyone who responded). Here is a sampling of the comments:
- a stapler 
- a pocket watch that has a secret compartment that you stumble across and it has some folded up secret in the compartment 
- a complete collection of orchestral instruments 
- a mysterious map 
- rolls of film that the relative never had developed
- Some clue to that ancestor's secret past life. Like, before grandma took up knitting, she was the first female secret service agent and she protected Abe Lincoln from the vampires. Her exploding cufflinks, complete with civil war era insignia, are all that's left to tell the tale...
- Super old stock certificates. 
- Ben's response to the above suggestion: "Holy crap! We got a bunch of money!" That's only 8 words, she needs 50,000 
- it would be fun if it was something completely unconventional and useless. It could be the Holy Grail. It could be an empty cigar box. It could be a key to his supervillain lair. It could be a phone number, and when she dials it, the payphone beside her rings and she declares it worthless, until... 
- a clarinet, and inside the case is a secret compartment... 
- a shrunken head, duh. 
- an abnormally large head...wait, that's my novel!
 - a vineyard 
- a leprechaun in a Tupperware
- Excalibur 
- webbed toes

After two days of writing, I still don't know exactly what they're going to inherit. But as you can see, I've got a few ideas to play with.

NANOWRIMUPDA: Word count: 3631  Emotional Status: Positive and happy  News: I may post some excerpts on the blog in the next week