Saturday

 

I went down to the Farmer's Market and got some of the last rhubarb of the season along with some of the first strawberries of the season so I could make a strawberry rhubarb pie. It turned out so delicious! And my crust was perfect! I'm so excited about it! I had a little leftover crust so I decided to make a mini peach pie. I just threw it together without a recipe which is something I don't usually do but it turned out wonderfully too. 

Back to the Routine

I returned to Portland on Sunday and have since been looking through one of my favorite Christmas presents... a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I know... it's a little weird. I always loved going through my mom's and now I have my own and can try as many recepies as I want. Tonight I made a loaf of lemon bread. I think I'm starting to figure out my oven... it likes to bake things too quickly. Also this week school started up again, I'm already putting off my reading, taking naps after class (and almost during a couple of them), and finding ways to do as little work as possible. I am such a horrible student sometimes.

Goodbye

I think I might take a break from here. I'll be back eventually, when I have some things figured out. I just wish I had a better oven for baking these cookies, and that I didn't have a class so early tomorrow. Darn my late night baking!

Baking, Knitting, and other "Domestic" Activities

When I was a much younger person my step-mom used to jokingly call me "her domestic diva" or "her little housewife." I think she may still be convinced that of her five children, I'm going to be the first to have kids. That isn't all that likely since her two oldest sons are five or six years older than I am. I also have been thinking about what I want in my life and having a family has really moved down the list in the past few years. I want to enjoy my life before I "settle down." Not that doing that means you can't enjoy life... for some reason I feel like I'm digging myself into a hole... Anyway the entire point of that little story was... well, ok, there wasn't really a point, it just has to do with me spending the past week knitting and cleaning, and then having a riveting Friday night of baking banana bread. Needless to say, I don't have much of a life right now.

Oh and unfortunately, I had a small casualty due to flour inhalation while baking tonight. Ok, I'm probably the only person that finds that funny.

Macarons

This is my version of what I was talking about yesterday... they are amazingly delicious, and some don't look all that bad... perhaps, with some training, I could become a French pastry chef after all.... Not that I have any desire to do that right now, but it is good to know I have that option.

I don't think anything else I say is going to have anything to do with macarons, do I ever really stay on subject on here? This is sad, I'm asking myself questions and answering them. I think I need to sleep... there are lots of signs right now that I need to, like that my eyes can't completely focus on my computer screen or that anything I try to read does not remain in my mind.

There are a few things that I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember them right now... Can you tell I'm tired? I'm afraid this is going to be a very stupid sounding post... oh well. Earlier tonight, probably because it was 80 out still when I was riding my bike home from work at 10:30, I had a strange desire to go swimming (or really, skinny dipping, oh so scandalous, I know). Unfortunately this isn't really an option right now. I also really want to go camping, darn it! I am also really glad that I am currently spending my time in what is technically a desert (so there is no humidity to make the heat even worse) and also missing the horrible heat wave hitting Portland right now.

I think the final thing I have to say is: Who calls someone Moose? That is so random. I am so horribly random when I'm tired. I'm going to sleep.

Planning

I have always enjoyed having a summer birthday, it allows you, at least while you are in school, to have more freedom when trying to plan a party. Although, I haven't actually had a party with my friends in quite a few years. Part of the reason is that as we've gotten older we've started working over the summers, which makes planning more difficult, and another part of the reason is that my mom and I share a birthday. This means that most years we do something with our family to celebrate both of our birthdays and sometimes my brother's too, since it's just three weeks later. However, this year, I am planning already (my birthday isn't until August) to have a garden party in my mother's lovely back garden. It's really the perfect place to have one. And I am thinking about making these delicious looking strawberry shortcake cupcakes as part of the celebration.
In all honesty, though, I'm looking for any excuse to plan a party back there.