Tips for a good life

1. Memorize something everyday.
Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.
2. Constantly try to reduce your attachment to possessions.
Those who are heavy-set with material desires will have a lot of trouble when their things are taken away from them or lost. Possessions do end up owning you, not the other way around. Become a person of minimal needs and you will be much more content.
3. Develop an endless curiosity about this world.
Become an explorer and view the world as your jungle. Stop and observe all of the little things as completely unique events. Try new things. Get out of your comfort zone and try to experience as many different environments and sensations as possible. This world has so much to offer, so why not take advantage of it?

Sayonara Starbucks!

I am one of a million Starbucks lovers who waits around 9 months for the heavenly Pumpkin Spice Latte. While Stumbling the other night, I came across the holy grail of homemade coffee drinks:

The only changes I made were, I added the ingredients to my regularly brewed cup of coffee & whisked them together, and I used easy pumpkin pie purée (pumpkin pie purée & spices in a can) Deliciousness!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip cookies

No eggs? No problem - Josh & I eat eggs for breakfast & dinner so much that we tend to run out before we have a chance to make dessert. Here's a great recipe for chocolate chip cookies, sans eggs.

Lasagna Soup

Josh & I love us some lasagna! But I don't dare get into the ricotta-ing or the noodle-ing...etc. This recipe is so delicious and you can make it as soupy or not as soupy as you like. :)

Tale of the sad layer cake

So I just bought my shiny new Kitchen-Aid mixer & I had this great plan to surprise Josh with a delicious cake for a belated I Love You Day present (I'll explain in a later post...). So I went to Martha Stewart.com thinkin' "Martha is like, the CAKE MASTER(!) & I'm gonna make a cake just like Martha". Unfortunately, the model cake in the picture is made of plastic or something, 'cause mine didn't come out lookin' like Martha's...

Sadly, this was my end result:

So, at this point, I was pretty optimistic. I thought, "hey! It probably tastes good! I've eaten lots of other people's deformed cookies & they were pretty delicious." So I just put it in the fridge & hoped that when it got cold, it would solidify a bit & not self-implode. How wrong I was. Oh, how wrong I was.

This is 15 minutes later:

First of all, I must put a disclaimer here. In no way, shape, or form do Josh or I drink Beringer Rose wine. One of Josh's weird friends left it here. But we do not. I repeat, do NOT drink Beringer Rose wine. Now that that's settled, back to the disaster of a layer cake. So, now I'm a little peeved. After 10 minutes of trying to doctor up this cake, I'm giving up. But we will STILL EAT THE CAKE!

Why? Because I spent a buttload of money on stupid "Special" Mascarpone Cheese for the dumb frosting.

Word to the wise: don't make homemade Mascarpone Cheese frosting. Did you know, Mascarpone Cheese is like, $5 a carton!?!?!

New Toy

So, after having to hand-whisk everything from here to kingdom-come for the past 6 years, Josh & I used some of our wedding gift money to purchase a brand new beautiful Kitchen-Aid Mixer. If you would have asked me 2 years ago, would I ever own one of these, I would have said it was too expensive, unnecessary...etc. But today, I am a proud parent of a brand new Kitchen-Aid mixer & to all of you who gave us cash for a wedding gift, my arms (and Josh's stomach) thank you :)