Stress Relievers

What do you do when you need to relieve stress?  My sister goes to the batting cages or goes to a pottery painting place. My mom quilts.  A few friends of mine go to the shooting range.  I've heard some people who swim or run to clear their minds and relieve stress.  Me? What do I do to relieve stress, you may ask. Well, I like to bake.  A lot of people say "The secret ingredient to excellent baking is L-O-V-E."  Well ***NEWS FLASH*** The real secret ingredient to baking is rage.  I do the best baking when I'm stressed and take my stress out in creamy, custardy, creme brulee and chocolate chip cookies.  My desserts come out well when I'm not stressed, but stress elevates it to the next level.  Whenever I get stressed I head to the kitchen and whip something up.  This weekend, I was a tad (read INCREDIBLY) stressed so my great friend Amy brought me to the bakery that she works at.  There, the bakery owner gave us a short tutorial on how to do a basket weave with icing on a cake.  In order to not waste cake, she gave us cake pans to practice on!  Here is my results:

Happy Fourth!

The Fourth of July is one of my most favorite childhood memories.  When I used to be a Yankee (in geography only NOT to be confused with a fan of that damn baseball team from New York), our town used to celebrate the Fourth of July for the holiday it truly is!  We're talking a parade with the LOUD fire trucks, flying candy, burgers, hot dogs, fireflies, flags, friends, families, and MOST importantly FIREWORKS.  I'm not talking the crappy ones you set off in your backyard here, we're talking about a fell fireworks display put on by the city.  Our house was situated in the PERFECT place so all we had to do was grab a picnic blanket or a lawn chair and throw it in the front lawn and we had the best seats in town.  We used to have my Aunt, Uncle and cousins from my Dad's side of the family, the neighbors as well as some family friends.  The kids used to light up sparklers and those popper things that explode when you throw them while the parents did whatever.  We would stay up late to see the full show and we never fought on the Fourth of July.  Since moving to Texas, I don't remember seeing fireworks besides the crappy ones that our annoying neighbors do.  This year, we had burgers and corn on the cob, no fireworks and let the evening pass as if it were just any other Monday night.  Drought restrictions suck :(

Summer Bummer

Ever hit that point in the summer where you get bored?  It's not because there isn't anything to do or because you have too much to do.  It's because you miss hanging out with your friends, or being on your own at college, or are tired of your parents nagging you about your summer reading assignment, or you've seen all the repeats of your favorite shows so much that you're tired of the shows and you're tired of the same food and activities.  I call this phenomena Summer Bummer.  In order to combat the "Summer Bummer," I have died my hair a nice solid brunette color that has a slight red undertone.  I've got plans to take a 'field trip' to the Houston Museum of Art before a wedding in a couple of weekends which I'm pretty excited about!! 

My July is FULL of things to do to kick my Summer Bummer in the bum!  I'm going to be a camp counselor for pretty much the whole month of July!  When that's finished, I'll hopefully be back at work, that is if the cubicles ever show up and our internet calling system starts working.  Oh, the stresses of work!  I will be sure to post all about my July Fourth celebration!!!

Busy as a Bee!

I'm so sorry that it's been a while since I last posted!  I've been busy with a trip to San Antonio, a wedding shower, a new skirt, a really long work week, and tutoring a friend.

I know this is a little late but I'd yet to share it... 2 weekends ago I went home to San Antonio for a really great friend's bridal shower.  Before I went to the bridal shower, I got to go to the sweetest little bakery in Alamo Heights.  The bakery is Called Alamo Sweets (Click here) and PLEASE be sure to check out their blog!  The bakery's owner, Linda, is one of the nicest ladies I've ever meant and my great friend Amy is interning for her this summer.  I was tempted to drop out of college for a minute to intern there myself!! They make such beautiful and TASTY desserts!!  If you're ever in the area, stop by!

I made a fabulous new wrap skirt (pictures to be added later) out of adorable Amy Butler fabric from an adorable little quilt shop in Dripping Springs!

I'm tutoring a friend from work in an online math class and let me just tell you, Calculous is HARD!  I still have all my notes so that's really helpful but it's really just been great to have someone to hang out with at my apartment.  With my sister being gone for the summer, I don't get many nights where I get to hang out with someone and have girl talk at the apartment.

Finally, I am OBSESSED with a new (to me) tv show.  In the late 90s early 2000s there was a tv show called Roswell, it's honestly a ridiculous concept, Aliens living amongst us who look and act just as teen agers do.  It was coming off the cusp of Dawson's Creek so it has plenty of the teen love drama.  If you ever watched Buffy, a lot of the same actors are in Roswell.  The show went on for three seasons and I'm currently still in Season one.  I can't find enough time to watch this show!  And luckily for me I can watch it on netflix!!

Well I think thats enough for one post! Sorry to ramble on!  On the plus side, I believe we're all caught up now!

The Big C

I recently got The Big C from netflix in the mail!  I am LOVING it.  I'm disappointed that I only got to watch the first 5 episodes, but I definitely have enjoyed it so far.  I've enjoyed it so much, that I have taken inspiration from it.  In case you haven't seen the show, it's on Showtime, Laura Linney's character Kathy has cancer: stage 4 melanoma.  She won't tell her husband, brother, son, etc because she doesn't want to be cared for.  She likes to be the one doing the taking care not being taken care of.  I can completely identify with that!  I was born to be a hostess/mother.  I'm nurturing to the point of self neglect and I HATE it when people take care of me.  Well ANYWAY, because of her diagnosis, she wants to start living her life.  She cashed in her rainy day fund did all sorts of lovely things!  Now, I don't have a rainy day fund to cash in on and I definitely am healthy (Thank God) but I have many ways to spice up my life!
I'm always one to stay in at night and curl up with a good book or with a good movie and go to bed early.  Everyday this week (so far), I've done something social!  Monday, I watched the good ol' Fightin Texas Aggie baseball team kick Florida States's ass at the baseball super regionals with some coworkers!  Off to the College World Series in Omaha!!! :) Tuesday I had dinner with my coworkers again which was great because we went to Texas Roadhouse.  And today, I cooked dinner and dessert for my good friend Ashley and also helped her with some math homework for her summer class!!
All in all, I've had a great week so far!! How has your week been???

You Have the Winning Dish...

This morning I woke up and went to work.  It was a real easy day as far as work goes, no running any errands in the company car.... but quiet nonetheless!  I came back to the apartment to have a little lunch and then finish up a quilt I'm working on!  I ended up with my left overs from Ghengis Grill and then taking a nap.  For about 2 hours.... So when I woke up, I popped in a DVD and started sewing!  I got the quilt top finished (pictures to come when it's completed) and then realized that as it's 8:30, I should probably eat.  I do this a lot.  The whole forgetting to eat thing happens quite frequently to me so I decided to use some of the stuff  Igot when I went to the grocery store over the weekend.  

I'm all about delicious food, but I'm also all about easy and quick.  I mean, it's 8:30pm. So I needed to eat soon so I can go to bed at a decent hour since I have to wake up early tomorrow!  So I put a pot of pasta on to boil and started slicing up some mushrooms.  I use an egg slicer to slice mushrooms and strawberries because it's just so much easier - and quicker - than using a knife.  

With all the prep work done, I put a sautee pan on the stove with enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan.  Put pasta (I used ravioli, but tortalini or spaghetti or whatever pasta you want) When the oil gets hot, sautee the mushrooms up until they just change color.  Then open a can of pasta sauce and put in enough sauce for your pasta into the pan with the mushrooms.  Heat till its hot all through.  Then drain your pasta and put the pasta in the sauce pan or plate the pasta and then top with sauce!  You could also add turkey meatballs to make it more hearty!!  

Sauteed mushrooms and
Hunts Four Cheese Sauce (I added some fresh Mozzarella and some parmesan to make it cheesier!)

Mini raviolis that I used as my pasta

Finished dish!  (I really like mushrooms so that's why there is a TON of sauce!)

If you try this dish, let me know!! If I had had parsley I would have topped it with parsley but I didn't and it was still DELICIOUS!! :)

Old Friends :)

I'm the queen of getting too consumed with school and work to keep up with some of my friends.  So this semester, I decided to make a better effort to make more time for my friends and communicate better.  One way that I've chosen to do this is by writing letters.  I think it's almost a lost art form.  I think that it's important to keep friends close because as they say, "Friends are the family you choose."

I've also been skyping a lot lately :)  Skype is a lovely invention and it's really allowed me to see my good family friends in Ohio.  This week I skyped with them and talked to Lauren (8) and Andrew (12) about their summer plans and the end of school.  Andrew showed me a pillowcase that my mom and I made for him at least 8 years ago if not more.  So I've decided to send them a nice little care package for their summer.  Have any ideas of what to include??

This is what 8+ years of continuous use will do to a pillow case.  

Another thing that I've been trying to do is meet up with friends and spend quality time with them.  Tonight, I got to spend hours with my friend Natalie.  Natalie and I met within my first month of being a freshman when I looked like this:  

Right after I broke my nose: Sept 2009

We are both INSANELY busy during the past 2 semesters so we haven't gotten to keep up as much as we'd like.  But tonight we got to talk and catch up on all the drama and found out yet again that we are almost the exact same person!  Every time we hang out, we remember how alike we are and how much we miss each other.  I think we'll be hanging out a lot this summer :)  And I'm cooking for her this week!! (I'll post pictures or something when I actually get to making dinner!

My other really great friend Barb is planning a pilgrimage to come visit me!  It probably won't happen until she comes back from her study abroad trip to SPAINNNN but I'm excited nonetheless!  I'm going to help teach her to cook and we'll have a GREATT time watching chick flicks and gossiping :)  Maybe even a pillow fight and french braiding each others' hair!!  

How do you keep in touch with your friends?