"I'm so excited I could bite you."

Brittany (who has now secured herself a spot in the BFFL circle and earned her painted heart) invited me to NYC last week.

We had so much fun. Except when she made us walk a circle in the freezing rain...

I do not have the ability to focus enough to form actuall sentences and paragraphs, so this is going to be a primarily bulleted post (as you can obviously see below. duh.).

• Mason singing Empire State of Mind as we left the air port.
• "This rice krispy treat is efffing awesome!" because it really was.
• "I bet she has plans for you."
• The Statue of Liberty was smaller than I thought.
• seeing the empire state building where B was supposed to meet Chuck so he could propose, but she didn't make it because Dorota went into labor because it's crazy huge
• Ground Zero and the memorial they are building was incredible and overwhelming.
• Romantic night at Ayzo with Brit
• Harry Potter exhibit and being sorted into Gryffindor
• Seeing the building that was used as the establishing shot for Mugatu
• Times Square at night does look as awesome as on TV
• Being so close and yet so far from Ian Somerhalder who was on Regis & Kelly Thursday.

And really, so much more. 

This turned out to be a successful trial run for mine and B's 12 months to forever plan!

How to Make a Bowl of Cereal

To all my avid readers (er... Grandma),

I apologize for not having any updates. I am currently kitchenless. Without a kitchen. So the most that I have made lately is a bowl of Cap 'n Crunch, and I don't think you need directions on how to make that. Just in case you do, see below:

• buy Cap 'n Crunch and milk
• pour both in bowl
• eat with spoon

It's def the easiest thing I have ever made!

I am dying to start cooking and baking again so keep checking back for updates...hopefully sooner than later. But not too soon. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Quick and Easy Desserts

I don't know about you, but sometimes I don't have a lot of time and energy to put into making something. Other times? I am just lazy. When this happens I have two default desserts: Peanut Butter Blossoms and Mini Cheesecakes.

My mom would always make peanut butter blossoms around the holidays, but I think that this delicious goodness should be enjoyed year round! When running short on time use shortcuts such as pre-made cookie dough.

Peanut Butter Blossoms 

package of pre-made peanut butter cookie dough

bag of Hershey Kisses

sugar

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Divide cookie dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.
• Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes (can vary depending on your oven).
• While cookies are baking, unwrap Hershey kisses.
• As soon as cookies are removed from the oven, place kisses in the middle. (The heat from the cookie will melt them a bit. yum!)
• Move cookies to cooling rack.
• Enjoy!

This next desert comes from my grandma. They are a crowd pleaser and are super cute! 

Mini Cheesecakes

2 eggs

3/4 c. Sugar

16 oz. cream cheese

2 tsp. vanilla

16 vanilla wafer cookies

1 can pie filling (I usually go with cherry)

Vanilla Wafers

cupcake liners

• Preheat oven to 375 and place liners in cupcake tin. Drop 1 vanilla wafer into bottom of each.
• Beat eggs with sugar.
• Break cream cheese into pieces, add to eggs and sugar and beat until smooth (10 min) then mix in vanilla.
• Fill liners 3/4 full with cream cheese mixtures and bake 10-12 minutes.
• They will look pale and sink in the middle after cooking.
• Top with Tbsp of pie filling and refrigerate.
• Remove paper before serving.

 It took me about 1.5 hours to make both of these. 

Let me know what you top your cheesecake with!

pshhhhhh. pshhhhh. Hairspray

Did you like my hairspray sound? Oh, you didn't know what that was supposed to be...awkward.

I ran out of my Big Sexy hairspray. In an attempt to be budget conscious I opted to go with Garnier Fructis. It was less than $4, claimed to be volumizing (emphasis on claimed), and is supposed to be Humidity resistant. Living in Houston with summer just around the corner, I figured the Humidity resistant feature would be great to have. Sounds good right? Here’s the deal, it doesn’t volumize to save its life!  Back when I still had my beloved Big Sexy, if my hair was every looking a little flat I could spray it under the top layers and it would provide instant lift. Oh how I miss those days! 

It also “Spring Hold.” I think that that translates to “you just spent $4 on something that doesn’t do anything except make your hair soft and smell good." I will be making a trip to the store to pledge my allegiance to Big Sexy Hair once again. How dare I ever leave it again! 

What’s your favorite hair spray?

Strawberry Cake Balls

his wasn't the original plan for this weekend. I had planned on stepping up my game by making cake from scratch instead of a box. It was a fun adventure...until the cake stuck to the pan because I used the "butter and flour" method as recommended on the recipe. I was uber frustrated when a chunk came out of the second layer. So mad that I karate chopped it. It was quite a site to see.

I decided to salvage this cake and turn it into cake balls. The grocery store was low on the icing selection, so I decided to use strawberry and complete the look with a pink vanilla coating. Daniel gave it a bite and approved. So my flop turned into a success!

**please excuse my picture quality. All I own is a Kodak; so easy a mom can use it...or so the best buy guy told me when i got it. haha.

I used Bakerella's recipe and just switched out the flavors.

**Tip: My hands were too hot when rolling the balls, so every few I would rub ice on my palms, blot dry with a clean paper towel, and continue rolling. 

Let me know what flavor combos you like best.