Cutest thing ever can be found HERE. This makes me laugh so hard. And I am actually very tempted to get one.

And a song from her new album:

I can’t wait to buy this ablbum.

This pretty much sums up finals week:

Sometimes I like to click the “next blog” button on the tool bar on blogger and do browsing. Normally I find absolutely nothing, and a lot in Portuguese. Today was different though. By my second click, I had found THIS. I don’t get it. I don’t want to. It just made me laugh really hard. Maybe that’s because I’m sleep deprived?

I’m sure it doesn’t matter.

You’re probably familiar with the website “F my life“. If you’re not, you should be. It is really amusing. Read one today that made me wince though.

How NOT to ask someone to marry you:

Today, my boyfriend of two years asked me to marry him so that we can consolidate our student loans. FML

Anyone who cooks homemade bread is always in search of it. It is elusive. Nearly a platonic ideal, not really existing. What is it? The perfect recipe. And you know what? I found it. Because I love you all so much, I’ll share it with you here.

I present to you: Amish White Bread Recipe
Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
3 cups flour* (can do 1/3 wheat, 2/3 white)
1 tablespoon dry yeast
Instructions:

1. Dissolve sugar in water, then stir in yeast. Allow to stand until yeast forms a creamy foam (about 15 minutes). Put into bread machine pan and add oil. Swish around to mix them together.

2. Add flour on top, and salt on top of the flour. Set machine to dough setting and start.**(If you don’t have a bread machine, just combine the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl and stir. Add flour and yeast all at once, and stir until thick. Knead with hands for 6-8 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary, to make a smooth elastic dough.
Cover, place dough in a warm location, and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Continue with step 3 from the directions!) Note: I do it by hand. Knead it well, on the 8 minute side of things. Trust me.

3. When dough is made and has risen the first time (the bread machine should beep to tell you when the dough setting is complete), take it out of the bread machine pan and work it lightly in your hands to get the air bubbles out (I don’t put it on a floured board for this but you can if you like).

4. Form into a loaf and put in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 30-45 minutes, until almost doubled in size.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until done. If loaf is browning too quickly, cover top loosely with foil. When bread is finished, take it out of the oven and allow it to set for 5 minutes. Remove from pan, place on wire rack, and cover until loaf is cool.

I love this bread. I made it for the second time yesterday and it was great. I was worried since I had made it the first time in Florida. Climate affects bread recipes hugely. It worked perfectly though! I love it. I’m already down to about 1/3 of my loaf, even though I only pulled it from the oven about 14 or 15 hours ago. Nick and I have been enjoying it. =)

Have a great day everyone! On the blogging menu? Why I’ve been so damn busy! Stay tuned.

My definition of blogging success: when I start to receive creative hatemail.

You may have noticed I have not posted in a couple days. This is because my life EXPLODED. Did you feel the ground shaking? That’s what that was. If I wasn’t so lazy I would post a picture of my apartment as evidence. It was hit by the main blast. (Although I did clean the kitchen last night. Woo go me).

Now, I know what you are all thinking. “What on earth happened to make you not blog for two days? After all, you’re the best part of my day!” (or something like that..) Well I will tell you what happened. Baking. Chickens. Illness. Homework.

Let’s start with the homework. I had a lot to do. I could not do it because of the aforementioned illness. I wasn’t sick. My dear boyfriend was. You know how some people are so sweet and cute when they’re sick? They cooperate with you, feel bad about the whole thing and willingly take their aspirin? Yeah, that wasn’t him. Even with a temperature of 101.7, he wouldn’t take any medicine. With a deep cough he refused cough drops. While sweating through my sheets and mattress cover, he was uncooperative and sullen when I tried to use a damp cloth to cool off his neck. It’s all, dude? I’m not kicking your hiney back to your apartment right now and I’m making you whatever food you want. GIVE A LITTLE HERE. But I digress. He’s healthy now, and back to being a big kid. So we’re good.

Next excuse. CHICKENS. Oh lordy I love chickens. You all should know this by now. My aunt Ronda has a ton of chickens. She has all sorts of amazing award winners. Phoenixes, Cochins, Old English, and so on. Well, she recently got news that she had to move. As such, she needs somewhere for her city of chickens to live for a while. Now who on earth does she know that loves chickens and has more acrage than they know what to do with? Oh, that’s right! My parent’s house. =)

Wednesday afternoon, right after work, I hopped in my car and drove the hour to their house. My mom and I got the truck and trailer ready then made the hour and a half drive down to my aunt’s. With the help of my cousin, uncle, and a family friend, we caught the 30-odd chickens and dismantled chicken town. We packed it all up and drove back home. (a dog and a dove were also added to the menagerie. Woo!) Some of the chickens are going to my aunt daphne, but most are settled in around my parent’s house. I didn’t get back into town until 9 that night, and ended up being in a computer lab until 2am (remember that homework?). Needless to say, the past few days have been a tad hectic. I would have taken pictures of the chicken exodus, but after all that work I just could not convince myself to haul my butt back out into the cold. I’m sure you understand. If not, then neener-neener-boo-boo.

Oh yeah! I forgot all about the baking. I mentioned it briefly in a post earlier, but didn’t explain everything. I was cooking because I had a sick-as-a-dog boyfriend and couldn’t go anywhere. (and if I cleaned, he moaned about how he should be helping. Riiiiight.) After those beans and apples, I also made some oatmeal muffins, and a millet wheat bread, and some onion flat bread. Now enter last night. Approximately 4,786 billion pizza commercials played in a row. Okay, it was more like 3, but they went through my head 4,786 billion times. Being a good little financial steward (or trying to be) I decided I’d stick it to the man and make my own pizza. Go me! You know what? It actually turned out really well. I love it! Nick and his roommate were also fans. Sure, I should probably be more modest about it, but I was expecting disaster. This was an awesome surprise. The crust was amazing. You can find the recipe here. I made half peperoni and olive, half cheese and olive. Aren’t you proud of me?

That’s been my story the past couple days. The coming ones will hold preparation for finals. Woopee. (That was sarcasm). What have you been up to?

I feel like a diva. Of the domestic variety. This is because this evening I cooked up refried beans (never made them before!), tacos from said beans, sweet tea (never made that before either!), and chunky apple sauce. My definition of “applesauce” being steamed, cinnamon-y apples. I did up nearly 5 lbs of fujis. Yum!

Only thing I would change is putting more salt in the refried beans and playing around with hot sauces mixed in. I made them using THIS recipe.

Proceed over to the True Code of the West to read an excellent post. Also available to see is one of the least flattering pictures of me on earth. Enjoy. (I know you will. Know also I am judging you for being amused.)

PS- the post is about chickens. Which means it is AMAZING.

PPS- I just noticed the book I was reading in the picture. If you can also recognize it based on the 4 square inch area pictured, you’re a nerd. Just like me.