memorial day?

what i wish i'd done yesterday:
have a bbq bash with friends. anyone we know would've been welcome. i love big parties with tons of great food. blame my upbringing. grin.
of course, i'd have to make dogs, burgers, and the best [baked!] sweet potato fries ever. i don't know a single person i've made them for who doesn't love 'em. and they're SO easy to make!
and if i had an ice cream maker (not that my flabs of steel need one), i'd definitely make this. or this.
or maybe we'd go crazy and move everything about 15 miles west, to the beach. grin. be jealous.
or if it could've been david and i together, i might've gone really nuts and made some coffee-crusted steaks like i've long wanted to try. mmmm.
--
except i didn't do any of that. i DID, however, put together a patio furniture set (thanks mom!!). all day long i worked on this project. 2 target stores, 20 minutes of pulling and yelling at a box that got stuck in my car (i ended up just opening the box and removing everything, and STILL had a tough time getting the box out), and hours and hours of bolts and screws later... i ended up with these pretties:

they don't have their cushies in this pic, but that's because the sun was going down and the couch in front of the tv was calling out to my tired self. come sit on meeeeeeee! mmhmm. indeed.
all in all, a productive day, but definitely not the best memorial day i've ever had. and now it's time to call it-quits on this day, and maybe even fall asleep on the couch. after i turn the a/c back on. it's still hot in this house!

boozin' blondies.

okay, okay. so they aren't so boozin'. but they do have a bit of whiskey in them (which is added before they bake, so the alcohol mostly bakes out)... mostly, it's fun to say "boozin'" every time i think of these.
i bake when i'm lonely. so a while ago, after a day alone with jade and nobody else, i got antsy and went straight to my go-to dessert site: smitten kitchen. and found a recipe for simple blondies with a genius add-in options list.

as such, these blondies need no further introduction.

boozin' blondies
adapted slightly from smitten kitchen

1 stick (8T / 4 oz) butter, melted (i used salted, because it's all i had on hand)
2/3 c. lightly packed brown sugar
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 t. vanilla
1/4 c. whiskey
1/4 to 1/2 c. chocolate chips (more or less to your own taste!)
pinch salt
1 c. all-purpose flour, plus 1 T. flour (set aside)

butter an 8x8 baking pan (if you're feeling fancy, use the aluminum-foil trick - turn the pan upside down, cover with foil and mold to pan's shape, being sure to leave excess on at least two opposite sides. then, invert and put the foil on the inside of the pan. when you take the blondies out of the oven, they won't stick to the pan, and you can lift them right out with minimal clean-up of the pan itself!)
preheat oven to 350°f.
in ONE BOWL, mix the sugars together and add the melted butter. stir until well blended and smooth. add egg, then vanilla and whiskey, and beat until combined.
add in flour, 1/2 c. at a time (just to make mixing easier) and incorporate.
in a small dish, combine chocolate chips with the extra 1 T. flour set aside earlier (this is so they stay in place during cooking! try it - it works even better with nuts and raisins!) and toss those into the mix.

bake for 20-25 minutes, or until middle is set. cool, then cut and enjoy immensely, maybe with a glass of milk or a bowl of ice cream. or, if you're feeling a bit wild, both. i'm not judging. and, as deb mentions in her post, you can easily double the recipe and use a 9x13 pan if you plan to share any of these. mmmm.

mis-communicating.

last night yesterday was a bit rough. as the day progressed, i felt progressively misunderstood. not by any particular person, and about nothing monumental, but the misunderstandings seemed to pile up as in one of mayhem's little tricks. while many people would shrug it off, i've always had issues with feeling misunderstood - i have a possibly unhealthy deep desire to be understood correctly, and i push to make that happen.
scattered, stilted or short conversations (via email, text or hurried phone calls) have a lot to do with misunderstanding. in this world of quick communication, texting, facebook chats and instant messaging, is it any wonder that i, along with so many other people, feel misunderstood? is it because the art of listening has been suppressed somehow? i can't believe that it has been lost altogether, but i feel the results of some suppression of communication.
and, in all of this wondering...
i'm not at all surprised that i chose the word "listen" as my oneword for 2011. it's clearly something at which i need to work harder. especially when it comes to listening to God's voice. it's why i got my first and only tattoo. the greek words epi de to remati sou, which are translated "but at your word" and come from luke 5:5.

when [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to simon, "put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch." simon answered, "master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing! but at your word i will lower the nets." when they had done this, they caught so many fish that their net started to tear... when simon peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying "go away from me, Lord, for i am a sinful man." -luke 5:4-6, 8

fashion!?

i've never considered myself stylish. my go-to wardrobe in high school was about one pair of stretchy jeans and an assortment of school-related t-shirts or (two-sizes-too-big) hoodies. in my many changes over the last few years, i'm starting to find some sense of style. what!? style!? you betcha! though, on sad or grumpy days, i still default to the NAVY hoodie my hugsband got me when we started dating. my most recent obsessions have been:

slub shirts

purple

hair feathers (new yesterday!!!!!)

and hats, HATS, HATS, HATS. tehnically, i've loved hats for a while, but i don't have any of the pretty summer hats that i'm really obsessing over. so, here's a picture of one of my favorite hats from a couple years ago, to tide you over until i go shopping and get a few summery things this weekend!

favorite recent recipes.

i wanted to share a few recipes that i've been loving (and so have the wonderful people in my life - in san diego AND on the ship!), so that maybe you could love them, too!

first is a cake recipe that i turned into cupcakes (with green dye) for our small group's st. patrick's day potluck!  here's the link.  the only notes i'd add would be: • i halved the recipe, and had much more than enough batter for 12 cupcakes!  i only made 12, so they overflowed and looked like green muffins, which is something i'd definitely change. •if you're curious, i used this frosting recipe, also halved, which was just right for lots of frosting on my 12 huge cupcakes. so, it would probably be okay for a normal amount of frosting on regularly sized cupcakes. ha!

so pretty! they'd be less brown and more green if i hadn't overfilled them!

second, i tried making my own granola bars for the first time, modifying a recipe by ina garten. the lady is a genius in the kitchen. i love how she makes gourmet cooking feel accessible! these were loved by myself (i ate the crumbs that resulted from using a rectangular pan with vey rounded edges) and by all the men in david's division on the ship, apparently! i made two batches. one with pecans, craisins and chocolate chips. the other with craisins, dried apricots (chopped up to the same size as the craisins), and almond slices. for both recipes, i left out the dates and crushed the nuts inside a baggie with a rolling pin so they wouldn't hinder the granola bar slicing process at the end, as per one of the recipe reviews! worked like a charm! (note: i found the wheat germ in a local health-food store, but you might be able to find it in a bigger supermarket!)

here are my ingredients:
2 c. rolled oats (old fashioned... not "quick")
1 c. pecan bits
1 c. shredded coconut (i used unsweetened, and the bars were still plenty sweet!)
1/2 c. toasted wheat germ
3 T. unsalted butter
2/3 c. honey
1/4 c. light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. kosher salt
+
batch 1:
3/4 c. craisins
3/4 c. chocolate chips (i pressed a few more into the tops of the bars at the end, since the others melted in the hot mixture!)
batch 2:
3/4 c. craisins
3/4 c. dried apricots, chopped

and that's all for now, folks! go! shoo! try the recipes! i really think you'll like them!

long days and rambling thoughts.

in my drawn-out weekend, i forgot last night was sunday, so i forgot to post for today! oops! it also means no quippy quotation at the end. too bad.
my weekends are the loneliest and emptiest days - aside from church, i usually don't even get in the car. i certainly could go somewhere, but between trying to keep fuel use to a minimum and feeling lonelier when i venture out alone, the motivation is pretty much nil.
i love living in a new place. and i wish i could have brought along at least one of my friendships from college. i ache for unexpected visits, late-evening chats over hot mugs of homemade chai, outings to nearby cities, and carpooling to church. just to name a few. of course i remember lonely or boring weekends in college. the difference is... i often had someone to share them with. and cute as she is, jade isn't much comfort when i haven't seen a human face since thursday night. though she is cute. see?