April HOPES AND DREAMS

Or just goals, if you want me to be a bit less melodramatic.

APRIL is upon us! WHOA! It's strange - it feels like the year is flying by (April already, that ain't right!) but at the same time, just taking it's sweet time. That may be because I am feeling that mid-semester soul-crushing that comes around every year.

Even though my soul is being crushed, there are things I am looking forward to and hoping to accomplish in the coming weeks. I'm not completely apathetic. Not yet.

For instance, spring is basically here! This makes me happy! We have been having some mighty fine weather here, sun and everything. Two days ago, the trees were all still bare and uncomfortable-looking. But over the weekend, BAM. Blossoms. It's great.

With the sun comes that need to get things done, at least in my case! The sun bared it's glorious head and I'm feeling the energy. Time to do things and do them well.

I plan to do a lot more DIY this summer, and I'm thinking, hey, why not start now? I have tons of ideas I've snatched off the internet, and I'm going to go completely crafty and make things. The first thing I am planning on doing is fandangling one of my old, ratty t-shirts into a tank top; here's the tutorial if you're interested! I'm super excited to give it a try, and I'll make sure to update you all on my finished result, though it may look a bit less tanktoppy and slightly more potato sack-ish.

In the coming months, I also hope to start baking and cooking more. I can bake fairly well and cook decently, but I want to get a little more experience in before I leave the mothership. Ultimate goal: to successfully bake a souffle. Hey, shhhh - let me dream!

And lastly, because accomplishing goals are hard and I might as well add one that literally takes no energy to complete - I need to get caught up in all my television shows. Like, I am seriously so behind! But I have made progress! The Walking Dead, check. Firefly, almost, just need to steel myself for emotional trauma of the last episode. Supernatural, well, getting there.

It took me a very large portion of my life to figure it out, but I am actually a massively goal-oriented kind of person! Goals are what motivate me to get things done. Lists, too. Sometimes it's a painfully slow process, achieving a goal, but in the end, I find it is worth it!

Best of luck with your goals, simple or monumental, and I hope April is treating you well so far!

When life gives you walnuts...

...Make maple walnut loaf!

Just kidding, I used a pre-packaged recipe. But still. Good use of walnuts!

I spent my Wednesday loafing around (GET IT?! HA. I'm hilarious) and baked this loaf. And that is what you missed in my wildly exciting life.

And I made cream cheese glaze to go on top, which worked really nicely! They suggested a maple glaze but for SOME REASON, we don't have any maple extract or syrup in my house. A crime, I know.

If you happened to be curious, this is the box from which this loaf was born! It was a super good loaf, and the box had nice and easy baking instructions. And as you can see by the box, it has real English walnuts. Like, that's true quality, guys.













I'm serious, though, very yummy :) maybe I will actually make a loaf from scratch next time! Though we must remember that when I make things from scratch, they turn out looking horrifically ugly, see this post. Hey, though, guess I outta practice!

Hope your days are going swell!

Cookieessss!

So, I made COOKIES yesterday! Yay! What fun!

I made these cookies from Fine Cooking - Black and White Crescents. They're basically chocolate cookies with white chocolate stripes. Very delicious. Though I will admit that mine didn't look nearly as perfect as theirs do.

A really nice thing about this recipe is that none of the ingredients are exotic or anything like that; I tend to back away from recipes that call for really wild things like self-raising flour or castor sugar or dragon blood, etc. This is probably because I have never used them before and get a bit nervous at the idea. It's also probably because I'm too lazy to go hunt for them in the grocery store.

Basically, this recipe was really easy and simple to follow, and the cookies I made, though pretty ugly, didn't taste half-bad. I'd venture to say they tasted good.

 Here they are just after coming out of the oven. Like I said, not exactly the prettiest things you've ever seen. But yummy nonetheless.

 The white chocolate drizzled over top may have been, in my opinion, the best part. Just pure melted white chocolate. Yes.

The white chocolate helped make them look a little bit better.











Anyway, those are my cookies! I suppose next time I make them I can try and make them a bit easier on the eyes. But I DO recommend making them if you like chocolate and/or cookies, because they tasted FANTASTIC.

Byeeeeee!