Life in Pictures - FFF

I've been terrible at blogging but I've been good about taking pictures.  Sort of.  I kinda joined the Instagram bandwagon.  AND I LIKE IT.  :]  So here are some life adventures.  In five foto fun installments.  :]

Random dinner (date night?  How do you distinguish eating out from date nights now?  :oP) at Russell House Tavern.  Loooove the garlic alioli for the fries.

Our Costco sells ALCOHOL NOW.  Whoo hoo!!  It's in a caged area and I think it's like... a third party seller or something.  (Different from how it's done in California!)  A bunch of wines and a handful of beers by the case!

We got to babysit this munchkin!  She was educated in piano playing and programming while at our house.  :D

She's so cute.  :D  CHUBBY LEGS.

Boston Mayor Menino -- on Tenants Rights.  This is what I do for work sometimes.

Stay tuned for the next installment of five foto fun!  :oP

                    

Happy two years!

I've been a very, very bad blogger.  >_<  But you should SEE the backlog of posts I have... in my head.  :)


Today's worth posting about, I suppose.  :)  Can you guess?  :oP

Can you believe it's been TWO years?  :)  Sometimes it feels longer, sometimes it feels shorter.

Happy Anniversary, Tim!  :)

                     

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Yesterday we hosted a "Pride & Prejudice: Tea & Crumpets" tea party with our community group (aka Bible study). On a Friday night. :oP It was actually all Tim's idea. No kidding. :)

It was fabulous! People brought the yummiest desserts! I learned what crumpets are... English muffins! Or as wiki puts it, "a savory griddle cake." And that didn't seem very fun at 7:30pm on a Friday night, so we went with cookies and cakes and scones and other lovelies. :)

The spread! Tartlets, chocolate cake balls, cheesy scones, rice krispy treats, digestives!, coffee cake, and cookies. And tea of course!

Earl Grey Tea cookies

I made Trader Joe's Cinnamon Crumb Cake (so easy, so good!) and Earl Grey Tea Cookies! The tea cookies were a big hit and I was quite happy by how they turned out. Except they were a bit salty. And I just realized I had used salted butter instead of unsalted. Which explains everything. Which is great because that means when I make them correctly they will taste even better!!!

 

(Taken with Instagram)

Earl Grey Tea Cookies (by theKitchn)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375°F. Pulse together all the dry ingredients in a food processor until the tea leaves are pulverized.

Add vanilla, water, and butter. Pulse together until a dough is formed. Form the dough into a log onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and roll the log smooth. Freeze now, or chill for at least 30 minutes.

When chilled, slice the log into 1/3 inch thick pieces. Place on baking sheets and bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Makes two dozen.

*Note: theKitchn said they got better flavor from ripping open teabags for the tea leaves than from buying more expensive loose leaf. I've only made this once, with Twinings Earl Grey Tea bags, so I don't have a comparison but I thought it turned out great with the tea bags.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I am quite excited to try this with other teas... green tea... chai tea... oh the possibli-teas! heh heh heh. :D

What kind of tea cookies are your favorite? Or if you haven't tried any, what flavor do you think you'd like?

                

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

I was all ready to post this but then I was too busy to pull pictures off my camera so this is a bit late! But here goes the first time I try making muffins.

Up in these New England parts, there is a state-wide/civic holiday called Patriots' Day (this year it fell on April 16), which commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. However, because *I think* my org gets Lunar New Year day off... we don't get Patriots' Day. :(

So I decided some chocolate chocolate-chip muffins were in order to start the week off while everyone else will be enjoying their day off (and/or running the Boston Marathon!)

In blog-speak: the cast of characters!

Mix the dry ingredients together, the wet together, then mix them both together!

Then pour into your lined muffin pan

(This one taken with Instagram)

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins (from the Food Network, Nigella Lawson)
(Never heard of her or seen her show!)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons best quality cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar*
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* I didn't know what superfine sugar was (it's exactly what it sounds like), so I put in regular granulated sugar. Though some further research/googling AFTER I stuck the muffins into the oven... you can make supefine sugar by putting regular graduated sugar in a food processor.


Directions

Line muffin pan with baking/paper cups.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring cup. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. (Nigella says a lumpy batter makes the best muffins.) Spoon into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top and then bake for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy. (Make sure to check them between 15 and 20 minutes.)
--------------------------------------------

I thought they turned out okay.  I don't know why but I always get slightly coned shaped muffins!  I think it's because I tend to fill them more than I should.  :oT  (There are only 12 muffin slots so it's not like I can squeeze an extra one like I can on a cookie sheet for cookies!)  It was also unfortunate the first chocolate in "Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins" didn't really live up to its chocolatey-ness.  The cocoa powder made them brown but it didn't really taste like a chocolate muffin.  They were also kind of... not sweet enough but it's most likely totally because I didn't use "superfine sugar."  They weren't hard at all and I think I'll have to try making muffins again sometime!

What are your favorite kinds of muffins?
                    

Hunger Games movie

(Source)

So Tim and I read the book a couple weeks ago. I ordered the box set at the beginning of April but Amazon ran out of 'em and they just shipped (20+ days later!) I requested the second book from the library but the line is L.O.N.G.

Excitedly, we went to see the Hunger Games movie last Saturday. Not to deter anyone from seeing it --- but we thought it was "okay." Don't get us wrong, it was an exciting movie, but we had some beef with the character development! And the shaky camera work made me dizzy at some parts. I suppose some people might not have seen it yet, so I don't want to spoil it but Tim and I both thought the book was way better.  Of course we know that movies don't usually cover books in their entirety, but we felt what was missing was kind of important!

I'm excited our box set is coming in next week (though I did just pick up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Monday Mornings by Sanjay Gupta [the CNN doctor!] from the library today). I've also been going through Harry Potter since I never actually read the whole series when it was cool to be reading it. I had somehow managed to only read books 2 and 3 (sooo out of character of me to not read book one first?!) and then I believe... book 4 was too beastly of a book for me during a time in high school when I had a lot of work to do! I got it from the library, renewed it like 3 times and then gave up. But with all these exciting books this week, Harry book 4 will have to wait!

Have you seen the Hunger Games movie? Did you read the book first? Which one did you like better?

          

Easter Brunch

As I mentioned before, we co-hosted an Easter brunch for our community group (aka small group, Bible study, cell group, etc.) on Easter Sunday.  I decided it was the perfect time to do some useless crafts that I will probably give me greater joy than anyone who sees them.  :)

The Easter banner!  I found an egg shape online, plunked it down in Photoshop, put in letters and printed them out!  I actually wanted them to print in color but forgot to change it from the default B&W setting, so I did have to color the letters in hand, so the lines weren't as clean.  But I don't think anyone noticed.  I used some cute clothesline clips with little floral egg shapes on them I got some Ikea to clip them to some baker's twine.

The flowers (daisies?  sunflowers?) were made from coffee filters and some construction paper.

Brunch was preeeeetty awesome and reeeeeally delicious.  :)

Tim concocted what he calls "strawberry cheesecake" waffles.  :)  The "spread" is sweetened cream cheese and we bought strawberry syrup!  (Who knew they made such a thing as strawberry syrup!)  You drizzle the strawberry syrup onto the cream cheese and it's supposed to taste just like strawberry cheesecake!

I made a menu!  Just because!  haha.  :)

See my tri-fold menu!  The cute little icons are from Kevin & Amanda, "best bite doodles"  That was probably my favorite part of the menu.  Except Jesus and Easter and Matthew 28:19-20.  ;)

A couple people did comment on the decorations so not all was lost.  :oP  And I made Tim look at them of course.  :)

Do you do crafts even if you feel like you're the only one who sees or appreciates them?
                           

Amazing "Tron Dance"

Amazing "Tron Dance" performed by Wrecking Orchestra.

Amazing, amazing, amazing!!  Remember, it's a LIVE performance on a stage.  Crazy lights to music sync.