Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Pumpkin Cookies.


these are absolutely delish. light, fluffy, and pumpkiny. a perfect way to celebrate Halloween/fall/pumpkin patches. you need:

2.666 sticks butter. (2 sticks, and then 2/3 of a stick. mixing it up today by using decimals)

2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

4 eggs

1 normal sized can of pumpkin (if you are unsure what that is, go into the can isle and look at all the cans. you want a can of pumpkin that size)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup golden raisins


cream room temp butter and the brown sugars. add the eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and mix. in a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. then stir in the walnuts and raisins. bake at 375' for 15 mins. enjoy!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Green tea, calm in a cup.

I'm currently over my head in college apps, AP classes, tests, quizzes, memorizing lines for the play, reading novels, debating, solving world hunger and saving the world. all these activities can lead to late night stress. however, i have found a way to calm that stress away that is not sticking my face into a gallon of ice cream. green tea, even the name brings calmness. it is filled with antioxidants and other big words that are good for you. i once read somewhere it can help you loose weight, and that five cups daily seems to be the magic number for weight loss. so next time you re up late studying, a cup of green tea with caffeine will awaken you and your soul. or if your winding down from a long and stressful day, a cup of decaf will bring peace to your mind and heart. my favorite brand of green tea is The Republic of Tea, but any type will do. find a brand that you particularly like, and start drinking it daily. simply heat water till it is almost boiling. then pour over the teabag into the mug. in minutes you will feel much better. i promise.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Pumpkin Spice


its fall. the leaves are changing. the air is cooler. the pumpkins are growing. and because the pumpkins are growing we all get to enjoy something magical, the pumpkin spice latte. i have been to many coffee shops and tried many varieties of pumpkin spice, and i have discovered Starbucks hands down does the best job applying the spice of a pumpkin to the greatness of a latte. this warm latte tantalizes the taste buds with feelings of fall. it smells like a freshly baked pumpkin pie and warms up your soul. even if you are still stuck in iced coffee mode and refuse to have a hot drink just yet, an iced pumpkin spice latte gives all the benefits of fall, with all the weather of summer. either way its delicious and pumpkin spice latte season is one to be celebrated and enjoyed.

A Broken Heart


my heart was recently broken. by one of my favorite things. i never thought peanut butter or cookie dough could let me down, but today they did. it started off as a routine trip to the supermarket. there i discovered a brand of peanut butter i have never tried, PB Loco. i had read about their peanut creations in Everyday with Rachael Ray and decided to give them a try. i selected peanut butter with chocolate chip cookie dough because that sounds amazing. i imagined it like cookie dough ice cream, but instead of vanilla there would be peanut butter sprinkled with big globs of chocolate chip cookie dough. my soul was crushed when i opened up that jar. i discovered something more like the people in the peanutubutter factory dumped peanuts and cookie dough into a blender. the chocolate had taken over every inch of the butter, and i could find no globs of cookie dough to pick out. it was a sad day. and now i have this jar i do not want to eat. sad sad.