Happy Friday :)

I'm heading home to Ohio for a week over Easter and I couldn't be much more excited!! I've made a list of all the foods I want while I'm there, have appointments made, tickets bought, list of things I need to take there and bring back with me, lists of what I've just gotta do while I'm there..

Today I stocked up on some travel-snack-junk food (buy one, get one free mini boxes of Cheez-It and Oreos, say what?!) I also went to the library and stocked up on new books for the trip as well as my time at home since I'll probably be getting my wisdom teeth taken out and have plenty of down time. All I need is one of those travel neck pillows (something I've been wanting for the last couple years and need to just hurry up and buy!) and I'll be all set!

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy New York and all it offers :) Tonight I'm going out for a late supper with a friend. I said I was craving mac n cheese and she suggested a couple places that specialize in and only serve mac n cheese, because stuff like that happens in the city! (Hehe, it still kindof amazes and ahhs me). And later meeting up with some friends at a ping pong lounge place.. Should be a fun night :)

My Confession of Love for Dessert

I love sweets, just in case frequent readers haven't realized that yet ;) My largest board on Pinterest is the one I have devoted to dessert recipes (with over 200 pins to date) and I am especially obsessed with chocolate and cupcakes.

My version of a "Super Sweet 16" party meant that all my guests had to eat was colorful candy in pretty dishes and a few desserts. Seriously. They begged for veggies. Fortunately we had a platter of those made up just in case. My graduation party was also all desserts. Cookies, cupcakes, mini cheesecakes, some scones...

One of my favorite desserts though, is cheesecake. I have weirdly vivid memories of eating All to Myself Cheesecakes at various rainy Easter celebrations and in high school I once tried to woo my crush by bringing a chocolate cheesecake I'd made into class on my birthday. I love eating at the Cheesecake Factory and I fondly remember the days when our family friend Patty got on a cheesecake experimentation kick, my favorites from those being Turtle-Brownie-White Chocolate and White Chocolate-Strawberry.

The point of all that being, well, I really love cheesecake! So, naturally when I saw a recipe for Cheesecake in a Mug, I had to try it! When I'm trying something new, I like to make things according to the recipe the first time, then make some changes the next time.

Since I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake that's totally plain, I decided to mix it up with some peanut butter (another of my favorite things) and Nutter Butter cookies I've had in my cupboard. The results weren't aesthetically beautiful... I'll still have to work on that for the pictures, but it was delicious:

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons sour cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

2 Nutter Butter cookies

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

In a mug, combine the cream cheese and sugar until smooth with a fork. Add the egg, vanilla, and sour cream and mix thoroughly. Break the cookies into smaller pieces or crumbs and add them. Drop the peanut butter into the mixture, about a teaspoon at a time. Stir or swirl the peanut butter and cookies into the batter then microwave about 1 1/2 -- 2 minutes or until the edges are set but the middle isn't quite (cheesecakes continue to bake a little after they're removed from the oven, or microwave). Let cool and keep in the fridge until you're ready to enjoy you're super quick and easy cheesecake.

There's so many alterations that you could make to this cheesecake! I can't wait to try it with Oreos, chocolate chips, cookie dough, try adding a crust... Endless possibilities! I'd love to see some comments with what you try! Happy nuking! 

Oh, Is This What A Weekend Feels Like?

I'll be the first to admit that I don't always take advantage of the fabulous opportunities that come with living in New York City. Honestly, my free time usually consists of hanging around my apartment. Isn't this the city with something for everyone? Don't I love adventures? So what am I doing?? (Well saving money mostly.) 

Yesterday though, I had the day off and decided I was going to go out, take a "me" day, and do something new and fun! I still didn't want to spend a lot of money so I gave myself a limit of $30 to spend and came up with some fun ideas that would be cheap. 

I thought about going to a museum with my sketchbook and sketching some of the sculptures and whatnot, something I've seen others doing and love the idea of (I really want to get back into drawing, I haven't done much since college but I loved it when I was doing it everyday). I also thought about going to a coffee shop and being one of those people on their laptops who just sit and take up a table for hours (I figured I could get more done in terms of job searching and getting important stuff done in a different environment). 

I had some other ideas too and ended up meeting a friend for lunch at Qdoba before she went in for work. Then I went thrifting! Which is something I absolutely love to do and hadn't done yet in New York. There's two places on the same street as HC and I always walk by and want to go in, so yesterday I did! And I found some really awesome stuff! If only I wasn't on a budget... But I did find some stuff I've really been needing, a pair of skinny jeans for just $8.50 then I went to a mall and grabbed some basic stud earrings I've been eyeing. Both exciting purchases :)

Still in an adventuresome mood, I paid my first visit to Trader Joe's and oh my word! I fell in love! Haha, everything was cheap and organic and awesome! I really love that it's all store brand products. The line discouraged me from buying anything, however, I will most definitely be returning :)

I had the day off again today (this is feeling like an actual productive weekend!) and am writing this from Argo Tea, a great little tea place with stores throughout the city. Where I plan to chill for a couple hours, maybe meet a friend, and overall get some work done so that I can start to have a better answer to the question, "What are you doing with your life?" 

xo ash

Failed Projects and A Star Studded Life

Hi All!

Sometimes, I really want to blog but just don't know what to write about. Which is why my posts are kindof sporadic.

Today is one of those days. I knew I wanted to blog from the moment I woke up, so I thought "I'll do something from a Pinterest board then share it with everyone!"

So I did. I did this hair mask which was egg whites, olive oil and water. You massage into your scalp and let sit for 20 minutes then rinse out and wash your hair as usual. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me... Even after rinsing and repeating. Then letting my hair dry and washing it again. The mask was supposed to leave my hair shiny and healthy but it just looks oily. Good thing I had the day off work! And got to try a new hairstyle... Looking back at the 'recipe' I realize I was actually supposed to use egg yolks instead of whites... Haha oops! Maybe that was my problem?

Anyways... Next I tried a new mug recipe for a s'more mug cake. And because I couldn't imagine putting almost FOUR TABLESPOONS of butter into a single mug cake, I cut that down. Then the cake was a little dry sooo there will be a little tweaking of the recipe before I share that one.

I did do my nails pretty but I don't feel that's worth sharing haha and in the meantime watched some movies: Peter Pan because I don't want to grow up, Legally Blonde because it's just a great movie, and now When In Rome because it has Angelica Huston in it and one of my friends here teaches her Pilates. Which is really cool :)

In other celeb news, one of my girlfriends and I went out for coffee with a movie director/screen writer and his marketing guy over the weekend! We'd both met these guys on different days while at work and they promised to get us into a screening of the movie they're working on (starring Alexis Bledel!!) at one of the colleges here in NYC. And I know all of that sounds crazy and sketchy BUT it's actually legit. First, I have a pretty good sense of people when meeting them, second, we were very careful about the whole meeting and we ended up grabbing coffee at Birch Coffee and having a great time!

The movie, Violet & Daisy, doesn't have a trailer yet (they're working on it now) so I can't really vouch for it but I'll let ya know how that screening goes ;) if it goes.

Love from New York!
Ashley

Guide to Letting Go

I'm sad about my time at WeSell ending, but not bitter or hurt. I understand the reasoning and am still hopeful for a position there in the future. I'm very thankful for the opportunity, the friends I made and all of the skills and knowledge I acquired there.

That being said, after I left my internship for the last time yesterday, I headed to Hill Country where I was surrounded with comforting, supportive friends. I decided to let myself be sad last night but really my night was pretty great.

Here is how I let go last night:

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Home, sweet home :)

After working 60 hours each of the last 2 weeks, I am finally home and ready for a break! In typical fashion, I took a Greyhound last night at 11 out of New York, expecting to arrive in Columbus at 11 this morning. Well the bus that I was transferring to in Pittsburgh was running late, it was also coming from New York but was supposed to leave an hour before us and hadn't left when we did... After a 2 1/2 hour delay in Pittsburgh we were on our way again!

I was able to sleep on and off during the trip and was amazed that every time I opened my eyes, the scenery was more an more white! It was in the low 40's in New York and the more east I got the worse the weather became! I got in around 1:45, two hours and 40 minutes later than anticipated, and was happily reunited with my family :)

On the way home the roads were bad and the snow continued to fall and blow. Right in front of us, a man in a 4-wheel Dodge slide into a deep ditch. We pulled over and helped him get a tow and were reminded to drive slow and be wary. We passed another car being pulled out of a ditch on our own road later.

Once we were home, we were ready to settle in for the evening and enjoy being together again. I'm very excited to have this break from work and stress (hopefully) while taking care of a few things I need to do here. But most of all, I'm thrilled to be back with my family and ready to pick up on all our Christmas traditions and make new ones. It finally feels like Christmas to me :)

A Good English Cuppa

It's been a crazy last few weeks, first travelling home for the weekend which turned into a week then returning to New York for 5 days before heading out to Kansas for Thanksgiving and to be reunited with my college friends in what is a big visitation weekend at Hesston. My days and body are very confused on the ever changing schedules but I'm pretty sure that today is Monday which can only mean one thing: it's recipe time!

I'm not going to get all fancy this week, this isn't even going to be a recipe for food (although I do have some great dessert recipes I've discovered... stay posted!). This may be cheating since it's a drink and drinks are commonly made in mugs... but my recipe for the week is simple English tea in a mug.

Yes it's simple and maybe this version of tea is cheating on another level because it doesn't involve a kettle and stove and whistle but tea means a lot to me. You see, my granny was born in England and although she moved to America at just 6 months of age, she was very English, her mother having grown up and living in England until that point. And what is more English than tea?

Grannie passed on the tea-loving gene to my mom who also raised my sister and I on it. Our coffee maker was even turned into a hot tea maker as my dad slowly gave up on anyone else in the house liking coffee.

Growing up, I might be greeted in the morning with a hot cup of tea to 'help me wake up slowly'. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, a cup of hot tea was always the answer and would be quickly delivered by my mom or my grannie. Before school started each fall, my grannie would host a tea party for the girls in the family, my sister and I, Mom, my youngest aunt, and my younger cousins. Whenever we would stop by Grannie's house after school, have a sleepover, or after a big family meal, a nice cup of hot tea was offered. At our tea parties, Grannie would educate us on the etiquitte of tea and always have a few different choices of tea. Sugar cubes were always on hand because that was the best way to sweeten tea.

Back-to-school tea party - many years ago

My wonderful Grannie passed away almost a month ago. It's hard to believe it's been that much time already.  It's been a crazy, surreal, emotional few weeks. I don't want to dwell on all that though. The important thing is her life, I know she's in a far better place now and all we can do is remember the good times and happy memories. It is also important to keep her memory alive through the little things and, for me, one thing that will always remind me of my grannie is hot, English tea.

I don't use a kettle and stovetop. And I don't have sugar cubes on hand or beautiful china teacups. But the taste is the same and that is one of comfort and warmth and love.

Hot English Tea

Fill a mug almost full with water. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes. Place 1 teaspoon loose-leaf basic black tea (I like English Breakfast) in a tea ball, tea bag, or tea infuser of some sort (or use a pre-made, storebought tea bag, of a basic black tea such as English Breakfast. But PLEASE don't use Lipton :P ) 

Place the tea bag into the hot water and steep 3-4 minutes, depending how strong you like it. Remove the tea bag and squeeze out the bag with a spoon. Add sugar to taste (1 Tablespoon if you're a lady in my family ;) ) Add a splash of milk (about 1/2 Tablespoon) and stir. 

*Tea etiquette: Only add milk to basic, black, English tea.

Curl up with a good book, sit and look out the window, use it in the morning to "wake up slowly," or invite a friend over to join you, set out some cookies and sweet bread and enjoy your tea.

<3 Ashley