Might I remind you that it’s APRIL!? In NEW ENGLAND? What is going on here kids?

Anyway, the obvious solution to the heat problem is to bake. And boil. Cuz that’ll cool ya right off. Which is what I chose to do on Sunday. On waking up and checking the blogs, Pioneer Woman‘s adventures with Smitten Kitchen led to… Pretzels! I’d never made them before and they seemed like a fun project (minus, ya know, the HEAT). So I zipped over to the grocery store for some yeast and spent the next few hours proofing yeast and dough, boiling pretzels, and baking on salt and sugar. Then I spent another hour stuffing my face (although luckily there were some hungry boys milling around the house that helped)! Now THAT’S a Sunday!

For the full recipe, click here!

I present… the Guilt-Free Brownie Trifle Mush of Wonder:

Ohhh. Emmm. Geee.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to make, and yes, it’s really (mostly) guilt-free. You’ll see how.

Gather the supplies:

1 Large Tub Fat Free Cool Whip (in the teal container)
1 Quart Skim Milk
2 Pkgs Instant Sugar-Free Fat-Free Chocolate Jell-O Pudding
1 Pkg Family-Size Brownies (whatever variety is on sale )
Eggs and Oil as needed for Brownies

Then, make the brownies and the pudding as directed on the packaging. Let the brownies cool, then use a fork to crumble them all up. Now you’re ready to assemble! (I told you this was EASY).

 Start with a layer of cool whip, then add layer of crumbled brownies. Then pudding–and so on, until you run out. Really, people, I don’t mess around with my potluck recipes.

When you’re done, refrig until you’re ready to go! (Bring some bowls and spoons. This can get messy… in a good way!)

Enjoy!

I’ve had curly red(ish) hair all my life, and have hated it for just as long. Most people’s reaction is “Really? I’d love to trade my hair for that!” When in reality, if they experienced what I do every time I get out of the shower, they’d take that right back. Because naturally, my hair is sometimes straight, sometimes curly, always frizzy, and never smooth. About four years ago I started getting the Japanese straightening done and things have been happier ever since (that’s a story for another time…). But it definitely does a number on my ends.

The good stuff.

Enter, Dove Intense Therapy shampoo and conditioner! I’ve been seeing the commercials on TV for a while now with the girls saying they punish their hair by doing things like twirling and straightening (check and check!), so I thought I’d try this stuff. And it actually works! Which is nuts because I haven’t spent less than $25 on a bottle of shampoo in the last four years and here comes this $7 bottle that’s just as good if not much better than the fancy stuff. And you know I love deals like that.

So if you’re like me and you pull and twist and twirl and fry and dry and otherwise take out your anger and frustration on your poor, poor locks, definitely check this stuff out.

For some reason, in my head, this post sounded a lot less like an ad for Dove. But anyway, just sharing my unsolicited advice cuz I’m feeling nice and it’s FRIDAY, and it’s supposed to be 80 DEGREES in BOSTON this weekend.

80 DEGREES. In BOSTON. Might I remind you that it’s APRIL.

In other news, we leave for Vegas a week from tomorrow and I need vacation books! And shoes! And teeny tiny make-up and shampoo containers! And! And! And!

See what a week of work does to me? Brain: officially fried.

I used the sticks to dunk the balls, but then removed them afterward so they could sit nice and pretty on the counter to decorate and plate.

Please notice my other addictions in the background... This American Life streaming from NPR and Coke Zero. Really this was a perfect afternoon!

With my newly-acquired squeezie bottle I drizzled the peanut butter flavor over the coated cake bites, and beautified them as much as possible. Then I mixed it up a little and drizzled chocolate over peanut butter. Either way, they came out looking great and tasting even better.

And let me just say that eating these was a lot easier than eating all the little lambs and bunnies and chicks from the previous cake pop adventure. The boy agreed, and everyone at work also seemed to love these little guys. It made working on Patriots Day/Marathon Monday a little bit easier. (Still not easy, but ya know, take what you can get and all…).

Nom nom nom nom nom...

Thanks again, Bakerella, for bringing these tasty little treats into my life. And onto my thighs Until next time…

The boy and I like to eat well and usually shop with recipes in mind. We end up with ingredients for 6-8 recipes each time. Which means lots of fresh fruits, veggies and herbs–often the most expensive part of our list. With that in mind, I always mean to make two separate lists and go to Haymarket for the fresh stuff. If you’ve never heard of it or been, Haymarket is a market in Bostons which runs on Fridays and Saturdays with various vendors selling grocery store seconds. It’s like the “B Team” of fruits and veggies. Stop and Shop will buy up strawberries and sell them for $2.50 or $3 in season (if you’re lucky). Then the vendors pack up the leftovers and head down to haymarket, where they’ll sell you a box for $.75 or $1. Avocados? Same price. Leeks? $4 for 3 at the grocery store, $1 for 3 at Haymarket. See the trend? It’s easy to get all the items on our list for $15 at Haymarket, where as getting them at SnS could run us $30-$35.

Aside from the savings, Haymarket is usually hustlin’ and bustlin’ early on Saturday morning and it’s a great way to start the day. They have everything from herbs and fruits and veggies to fish-seconds from the pier, pizza in one of the permanent shops, a cheese shop, and a Halal shop selling everything from spices to goat heads!

Anyway, Haymarket runs year round, but this weekend was my first trip since the winter. Everything was in full swing for spring, and I’ve renewed my dedication to a second shopping trip there whenever possible.

Check out the goods:

Apples, Oranges, Lemons, Brie Cheese, Fresh Bread, Cilantro, Leeks, Scallions, Strawberries and Grape Tomatoes - $15.

Pile O' Leeks. I'll show you what I plan on doing with these in a future post...

Our fruit pile. Jealous?

More on this adventure tomorrow...

To come:
I think I have an addiction…

Are you kidding me?? Are these girls going to the club or the street corner? Do girls really dress like this in Vegas? Help me out, people, because I am starting to feel that we might be looking seriously out of place. Collectively the 5 of us have probably purchased 30 new dresses in the last month (and returned about 20…). We’ve tried the baggy look, the super short look, the tight look, and the boobs-in-your-face look. The only thing this experience has left me with (besides a shiny purple sack that looks kind of like a shrunken 80s prom dress) is the question – why are girls like us dressing up in clothes like that?

We’re not aiming to attract men, or get male attention as I’m guessing most of the girls wearing those clothes are. We all have boyfriends awaiting our safe return and who we love very much. Is the prospect of a free drink worth whoring oneself out for? No, I don’t think so, anyway. And yet, I have enjoyed the hunt for the perfect cute/sexy-but-not-overly-so/comfortable/shiny/beer-belly-hiding Vegas-appropriate dress! Why might this be?

I really think that half the reason girls dress like they do is because it’s still fun to play dress-up. Even when we were little and put on mom’s heels and old dresses and smeared lipstick on our faces, we loved the idea of using clothes and props to feel fancy for a day. Proms and balls and homecoming dances in grade school were another opportunity to do more of the same. To show ourselves and our peers that we are capable of some serious fancy. And sorority events and formals? Yes, please! Any excuse to get hair and nails done. Freshman year a bunch of us organized a whole dance just so we could dress up for a couple hours (no lie!).

I think another big part of the reason we like fancy-ing ourselves up is competition. Other girls. Not to get the guys’ attention, but to get the girls attention–we want other girls to think “hey she’s a competitor/threat”. I don’t know if this is a built-in behavior or not, although it certainly seems like it could be.

Now, dressing for the clubs is quite different from proms and formals. But I think the idea is the same–to put yourself in a new light for a few hours, to feel glammed-up, and to compete (for what? I am still not sure. instincts.). Whatever it is that drives us, we are prepared to be one good-looking bunch of ladies. And although I might rather wine and dine amongst ourselves and go to bed at bedtime, I have a feeling I’m in for some long nights of high heels and hairspray. Gotta do it while we’re young, eh?

I really, really want a few old frames. Anyone want to donate??

After dropping off the goods, I stuck another quarter in the meter (half an hour! for a quarter! unheard of) and snooped around a bit. I skipped the pricey boutiques and headed for the home goods store. So! Cute! Also expensive, but I did actually buy a little grow-yourself-some-herbs kit so I could add Mint to my little windowsill collection (speaking of which, I’ll have to do a post. My Basil is finally sprouting and I’ve been spending too much time going blind trying to find sprouts in my other containers). Anyway, I moved on to the antique stores and looked through their collections. Someday, when I have lots of money, I will buy up some antiques and redecorate. Why does old stuff cost so much? I’ll never really get that. Like, who decides something is worth more because it’s a collector‘s item? Antiques Roadshow? I love you, but c’mon.

Caution: Google search for "Olive oil spout" may result in serious longings for another trip to Italy.

Then! (Can you tell I’m excited?) The kitchen store!! Ohmigosh. Every non-electric item you could ever, EVER need for your kitchen. Glass jars, and plastic stoppers and carrot peelers and lemon zesters and cutting boards and snack trays and muffin tins and and and… just. everything. I believe it was called “The Concord Shop” or something like that. It’s a good thing I am already stretching my budget this month, or I would have made several uncalled for purchases. As it was, I bought just an olive oil bottle stopper spout thinger.

Nom nom nom nom.

Last but not least I bopped into a tiny innocent looking cheese shop. Wow. I got in line and the girl gave me 5 or 6 cheeses to taste and holy crap. Cheese! So delicious!! So of course I bought some cheese and a couple rolls and some chocolate (obvi.) and had myself a nice little snack on the way home. I left and drove around a bit and found at least ten houses I could happily grow old in. Life was good. I was officially in love.

Then I got home and went online out of curiosity and checked the average price for a 3-bed house. Half a million. FML.

The author, Isabel Gillies, used to be (or still is?) an actress on Law and Order SVU, so I googled her yesterday, out of curiousity. I’m an avid googler and and pretty good at tracking people down online, and the links I followed led me straight to her and her ex-husband and his new wife, the husband stealer. In the book, Gillies talks about “Sylvia” and how they were friends until “Sylvia” stole her husband, “Josiah”. Anyway, a quick google will lead you straight to their real names and their faculty web pages at Oberlin College. Not to mention students (or readers of the book?) bashing them on ratemyprofessors.com

Crazy how the internet works, huh? Nothing is private any more. I myself have had second thoughts about starting this blog–along with posting anything to Facebook, or the whole Twitter phenomenon. There are tons of articles out there about how people have gotten screwed by putting things online. Like the people who have gotten fired over things they’ve ‘Tweeted’, or been embarassed at work over their Facebook photos.

I should mention that I’m addicted to Facebook (along with much of my generation) and I admit that in the past I could have been more selective of what went on there. But live and learn, I guess.

Since nothing you post is really anonymous online, how can you keep yourself safe? With Facebook’s TOS scare in February, the abundance of blogs and journals and diaries, and now Twitter, which can be a forum for telling the world exactly what you ate for lunch, or giving a blow-by-blow of your affair, anything you put into words is immortalized online forever. Which means it can pop up again in a job search, when a first date goes home and googles you, when you run for a public office, or when your mom, or even your kids, learns how to google. Do you really want your boss/boyfriend/mom/kids/general public to know your every thought/activity/interest from when you were in college?

Scary stuff.

Over the last few days we gathered all of the supplies we needed–cake, frosting, chocolate to melt, all kinds of candy and sprinkles–$60 worth of supplies!!! (I’m seeing more decorating projects in our near future…) We laid everything out:

We had a little bit of everything it seemed. After rolling up the little balls of cake and sticking the lollipop sticks in them, it was time to dunk in the melted chocolate and decorate.
We used vanilla cake/frosting, and chocolate cake/frosting. Then we made some marbled when we got bored…

All in all, these turned out 100 times better than any of us expected. The bunnies, sheep, and chicks look almost just like (or better then!) Bakerella’s. We can’t wait to try some more of her creations. We have PLENTY of leftover sprinkles. Here are some more choice examples:

My menagerie!

Ridiculously cute chicks.

The boyfriend's Easter basket.

K2's creation that's possibly the cutest thing I've seen.

K1 digging into a 'mess-up'.

This is what I needed after staring at sprinkles for 4 hours.

Happy Easter, everyone! Hope yours is as fun and creative as ours

um, you can't actually click this to see inside...

I tried books on tape at first, but couldn’t really get into it. I suppose I should’ve tried more than one, as reading Divisadero was nearly as painful as listening to it… K1 and K2 both seem to dig the books on tape–it cracks me up that K2 listens to romance novels as she bikes to work. But for whatever reason I never tried again, and resigned myself to radio in the morning. Now, I love me some NPR as much as the next person but if I don’t make it to work before the BBC comes on at 9, I end up riding in silence. Granted, I think I’ve become more aware of current events from the 1.5 hours+ of NPR every day recently, but I really miss escaping into a good book.

Of course, I’ve kept reading. Problem is, I’ve been reading the same book–The Secret History–for 44 days now (thanks, Goodreads.com! awesome site, BTW, you should join). Part of the reason is that I only read a few days a week, before bed, now–which basically means 5-10 minutes before crashing. The other part of the reason, of course, is that I’m not reading anything I’m addicted to. If I’m addicted to a good book, I make the time to read it. (A third part of the reason, I’m realizing, is all the damn blogs I’ve been reading lately…)

So I took the time to browse the current NYT bestsellers, and I think I’ve convinced myself to give my current book a rest and pick up a new memoir. The past year or two I’ve been more into memoirs and seem to go through them faster. On my list is Happens Every Day. I’m headed to Border’s tonight to pick it up–I’ll let you know how it goes!