Ok so its been like 7 months since the last time I posted but that's ok. I finally finished grad school, yay!!!! Can't believe it. Now I am doing things that I haven't been able to do since all my time was taken up by school. Besides watching loads of TV :) I have been doing a lot of fun cooking projects. The most recent being homemade pasta, ice cream and now brownie and cake balls. Between birthday gifts and graduation gifts I now have an ice cream maker attachment and pasta roller attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. They have been really easy to use and I'm having a ton of fun. We are now on our second batch of "ice cream" that was made last night. We did a gelato first but the hubby added double the amount of coffee making it a bit too coffee flavored. Last night we made frozen chocolate yogurt using Greek yogurt. That is all ready now and in my freezer!
I also am going to bring a dessert next weekend to my cousin's 30th birthday party so I am testing two different recipes for that; cake balls and brownie balls. The brownie balls were so easy to make and are ridiculously delicious. While I wouldn't say these are the healthiest of treats they are still manageable. The frozen yogurt is 180 calories with 3 grams of fat for a 1/2 cup serving (pretty good); the brownie balls are 115 calories, albeit a bit higher fat concentration at around 7 grams per ball; and the cake balls are about 170 calories and 7 grams of fat per ball. While it might not seem very satisfying to have just one of the brownie or cake balls I can attest the the brownie balls are pretty rich and satisfying. So even with if two brownie balls are eaten it's not the worst dessert.
I'm a bit back logged on the knitting projects right now. Still working on or at least still have to finish my hubby's scarf. But that's been on hold while I work on a baby blanket for my friend's newborn. However, I'm not very far on that either. Might just work on some bibs and burp cloths now and then go back to the blanket.
Have to go roll out the cake balls now, freeze them and then dip in white chocolate. Yummy!
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Finally
Ahh its springtime in Chicago and its finally nice out! The windows are open and there is actually sun. Such a great feeling. I am off of work starting today through next week Wednesday, ahh vacation!!!!! But I need to get a good chunk of my results chapter done for my thesis so at least I'll have more time to devote to that. I am also hoping to get some spring cleaning done too!
As for my dreams of the summer, I have also started my summer garden indoors of course. So far so good my seeds are sprouting. I am trying to not buy any plants this summer and only use the ones I am starting from seed. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can do it. It seems silly to me that you spend so much money on plants when you can plant a few seeds and have 10 plants for the price of 1. Of course I do not grow difficult plants so I can see the value in getting plants not easily grown at home. But I think planting your own seeds is fun and gets you excited about your garden. Not to mention how great it feels to watch them grow knowing that you did that! So I'll see what happens. I am starting marigolds, nasturtium, gerbera daisies, cosmos, geraniums, petunias, and tomatoes. I also have lettuce, strawberries and herbs to grow but I am waiting until I can just plant outside. I also have some cascading vinca coming in the mail now so I may just plant that outside too since its getting a little late to be starting seeds. I have used the peat pods in he past to start my seeds but this is the second year in the row I am just using some seed mix and planting in the seed kit. It seemed to work fine last year. I know that with the peat pods you can plant the pod and all but even with making a little hole in the bottom of the lining and planting the plant with the pod I am not sure the plant grows as well as not planting in the pod. It may just be my error in not cutting a hole bigger enough in the lining but I am fine with this current method.
Working on a scarf for my husband supposed to have been done by his birthday last week but I've been busy working and finishing up my thesis so maybe by Christmas he can get it :). Have been itching to get a little better at crochet so I may start learning that but don't have a lot of time to devote to it right now.
Have a pretty full travel schedule this year. Flying to NJ to defend my thesis in the coming months, going to San Diego for a wedding in the summer, and got a great deal on plane tickets to St. Martin in November. Very excited for my upcoming travels! Haven't figured out where we are staying in St. Martin yet or how many days. We are planning on splitting our week between St. Martin and Anguilla. But I have some books to read that might help us decide.
Thinking I may buy myself a new camera as a graduation gift and have been interested in the newer micro four thirds cameras. Could be a fun gift especially to take on my future travels!
As for my dreams of the summer, I have also started my summer garden indoors of course. So far so good my seeds are sprouting. I am trying to not buy any plants this summer and only use the ones I am starting from seed. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can do it. It seems silly to me that you spend so much money on plants when you can plant a few seeds and have 10 plants for the price of 1. Of course I do not grow difficult plants so I can see the value in getting plants not easily grown at home. But I think planting your own seeds is fun and gets you excited about your garden. Not to mention how great it feels to watch them grow knowing that you did that! So I'll see what happens. I am starting marigolds, nasturtium, gerbera daisies, cosmos, geraniums, petunias, and tomatoes. I also have lettuce, strawberries and herbs to grow but I am waiting until I can just plant outside. I also have some cascading vinca coming in the mail now so I may just plant that outside too since its getting a little late to be starting seeds. I have used the peat pods in he past to start my seeds but this is the second year in the row I am just using some seed mix and planting in the seed kit. It seemed to work fine last year. I know that with the peat pods you can plant the pod and all but even with making a little hole in the bottom of the lining and planting the plant with the pod I am not sure the plant grows as well as not planting in the pod. It may just be my error in not cutting a hole bigger enough in the lining but I am fine with this current method.
Working on a scarf for my husband supposed to have been done by his birthday last week but I've been busy working and finishing up my thesis so maybe by Christmas he can get it :). Have been itching to get a little better at crochet so I may start learning that but don't have a lot of time to devote to it right now.
Have a pretty full travel schedule this year. Flying to NJ to defend my thesis in the coming months, going to San Diego for a wedding in the summer, and got a great deal on plane tickets to St. Martin in November. Very excited for my upcoming travels! Haven't figured out where we are staying in St. Martin yet or how many days. We are planning on splitting our week between St. Martin and Anguilla. But I have some books to read that might help us decide.
Thinking I may buy myself a new camera as a graduation gift and have been interested in the newer micro four thirds cameras. Could be a fun gift especially to take on my future travels!
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