20 things that everyone should do before they die.

Bucket Lists intimidate me. They are either absurdly long or totally irrelevant to my life and I feel as if I will never complete them. I was doing my daily (hourly?) tour of MSN.com at work and found an actually feasible bucket list that I enjoyed. I figured it would be a good thing to share for everyone to see and to see what I have done, would like to do, or probably never will.

1. Own your own business - Talk about intimidating! But yes, I would ideally love to own my own business. I think its something everyone strives to do. My ideal world would be to own and manage a horse stable that provides lessons and trail rides, but I honestly don't see that happening too soon as I sit on my trading desk on Madison Avenue. Great #1 for a bucket list though.

2. Live in a  foreign country - Check! I had mentioned previously that I studied abroad in Ireland, but I did way more than just study there. I became in love with the culture, the people, and their way of life. I would go back to Ireland in a heartbeat. I don't think Ireland is the only country to fall in love with. My college has a very high percentage of people that study abroad and every single person, from Italy to China, fall in love with their own country. I would encourage every person to do this. It truly helps you find yourself.

3. Buy a home - Hopefully in the very near future for me! Its a great investment opportunity and its something that can really save you money over renting....and I am allll about saving money. Its also something you can't help but fall in love with because it truly is yours. YOU are the one that has to fix that problem, but you also can't help but smile at every single compliment that comes your way. 

4. Drive coast to coast - Good God I wish. I hope I one day have the time to take a few weeks off of work and just drive. That sounds so peaceful to me. I also wouldn't hate a trip to California, but that is besides the point. 

5. Get your heart broken - Well, nothing like being a Debbie Downer, huh? I do think this is important though. Mind you, when I was 16 and my boyfriend broke up with me I literally thought the world was over...but I was also 16. I think finding love, or even just true affection for someone, and losing it will truly help you appreciate around you. I don't think this love or heart breaking should be limited to relationships either. Losing a friend is just as hard.

6. Be cheered on by a crowd: This has happened a few times in my life. Whether it was winning a big game, performing in my school play, or, most recently, setting a record for my college fundraising, these moments make you stop and think of all the support of the friends, family, and even strangers around you. Touche, MSN. 

7. Keep a journal -  You're reading it. Congrats.

8. Take a leap of faith - I honestly don't think I have completed this yet. I have always wanted to just pack up, move, and go to North Carolina. I hope that one day I will complete this.

9. Give something back- Check, again! My senior year of college, my roommates and I started a scholarship by raising money for a cause that is very dear to our hearts. I hope that the recipient will appreciate their time at Loyola as much as I did.  

The scholarship committee after we completed our goal

10. Design and build a house - One day...one day.

11. Make a meal with food you raised yourself - Well this would definitely have to be a vegetarian dish, but I think one day I can handle it!

12. Buy a piece of art because you love it - Now, this is all dependent on what type of art were talking about, BUT I found this amazingly large picture of old school Manhattan at IKEA last year and bought it. It doesn't fit basically anywhere and is now hanging in my parents basement, but I did make that purchase.

13.Go wilderness camping - Maybe while I'm coasting across country?

 14. Take a sabbatical - Now, this is the picture MSN used to describe the "sabbatical"...

I mean...if I HAVE to....

15. Make a piece of furniture: I'll put it in that house that I build and design as well...

16. Go scuba diving or snorkeling: I did do this in the Bahamas when I was 9, but would love to go back to an exotic place and do it again.

17. Adopt a pet: My dog is my baby. She lives in Maryland with my parents, but she is coming for a visit this weekend!

18. Do something that really scares you: I fell in love this year, and that is something that used to scare me beyond belief. 

19. Take a stand: I need to work on this. Majorly. I care way too much about other people's perceptions and opinions. 

20. Do work you really care about: Horse stable in North Carolina with my home made house and furniture, here I come!

Inside out carrot cake muffins

It has been very busy at work these past few weeks. It was quarter ends, year ends, audits, financials, and everything in between. I work for a very small company, and there is one other person in my department. He was about 100 times more stressed than I was and he was sick on top of it. He made a special request for a carrot cake flavored treat. I secretly did a celebratory jump inside because I had this recipe from King Arthur Flour that I was dying to try but didn't know anyone that enjoyed carrot cake.Both my roommate and boyfriend don't like vegetables in their muffins so these were a treat solely for the office. Its a simple muffin with frosting inside (hence, the inside out name). Approval from all around so far!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. First, microwave 8 oz cream cheese and stir in 1/4 cup sugar for the filling.

Next, combine all your dry ingredients 

 Whisk together your wet ingredients, and stir them together. Note, you do not need to beat this! Just stir the wet and dry ingredients together until it is combined. Fold in your carrots. I actually coarsely chopped mine rather than shred it and it gives it a nice crunch! 

Then, pour about 1.5 tbs of the carrot cake batter into a muffin cups. Then evenly distribute the filling mixture between the 12 muffins and pour another 1 tbs of the muffin batter on top. Bake for about 20 minutes or when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Filling

one 8oz package of cream cheese

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Muffins

2 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large-medium carrots (shredded or chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line standard 12 cup muffin pan with liners and grease

2. For the filling. Place the cream cheese in a microwavable safe bowl and heat on low for 40 seconds. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

3. For the muffins: Whisk together all the dry ingredients. 

4. Whisk together eggs water and oil in separate bowl.

5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients

6. Fold in the carrots.

7. Drop about 1-2 tbs of the muffin batter into the liners. Spread to make sure it covers the bottom. 

8. Dollop about 1/12 (1 tbsp) of the filling into the center of the liner on top of the muffin batter.

9. Drop about another tbs of the muffin batter on top.

10. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin (not filling) comes out clean.

Pizza Dip & Leprecon

Well March is a fairly big month for Irish people. Probably one of my favorites to be honest. I was in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day in 2010 and it was incredible. The city I live in, Hoboken NJ, has a yearly celebration called Leprecon for the glorious holiday for St. Patrick's Day.

I love hosting parties. If I could, I would be a party or wedding planner as a job. Now that being said, I love planning parties that I am expecting to have. That was not the case for Leprecon. I was given a few hours notice that people were coming over and had to do a quick run to the food store for everyone. The party was a success, don't worry.

I have a few go to dips. One is buffalo chicken that my boyfriend asks me to make for him weekly, which I usually oblige. Maybe I'll make a post about that later. Another is a pizza dip from Closet Cooking which I personally like because its a little less conventional. I made this for the first time a few years ago and have been making it ever since. It is ALWAYS a hit and I personally love it. I also couldn't eat anything this year do to the "no cheese" rule again, but everyone raved about it one again. Thanks for saving Leprecon, pizza dip!

 

 

 

 

  

Pizza Dip

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
• 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded
• 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
• 2 ounces pepperoni, sliced
• 2 tablespoons green pepper, sliced
• 2 tablespoons black olives, sliced

Directions

1. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream mayonnaise, mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano and spread it across the bottom of a pie plate.
2. Spread the pizza sauce on top and sprinkle on the cheese, pepperoni, green pepper and olives.
3. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until the sides are bubbling and the cheese cheese has melted and turned golden brown on top, about 20 minutes.

Celebrating the roommates birthday!

It was my roommates birthday this past Sunday. I had been planning what to make her for quite some time so I was very excited when I got out of work early on Friday and had some baking time.

I baked her these birthday cake cheesecake bars from My Prairie Window. They taste just like funfetti cake batter and are absolutely incredible! Did I mention they are ridiculously easy too? Ah-mazing.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that these are very very sweet. I have found that a lot of guys do not enjoy them as much as the females. My boyfriend hated them, for one. My coworker wasn't the biggest fan either. They should probably be eaten in more fudge sized pieces than bars.

First you just take a box of rainbow chip/funfetti cake mix and mix it with 1/2 cup of room temperature butter. Honestly, my mixture just looked like a somewhat more crumbly version of dry cake mix, so I probably should have waited a little bit longer for the butter to be room temperature-ish. Save about 1 cup of this mixture for later.

You're going to take this mixture and just press it into a greased 9x13 pan to form your crust.

Then, you are going to mix your cream cheese, rainbow chip icing, and one egg at a time together. Just pour that delicious mixture over your crust.

Pour that one cup of the dry mixture over top. Bake @ 325 for 45 minutes and let cool in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

YUMMM.

Ingredients:1 box Party Rainbow Chip cake
1/2 cup butter – at room temp
1 container Rainbow Confetti frosting
2-  8oz. blocks of cream cheese – softened
3 eggs
Preparation:*In a bowl place the dry cake mix and the butter, mix until butter is incorporated, I use my stand mixer it works great.  Reserve 1 cup of the crumb mixture, and set aside.
* In a 9×13 pan or cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed, place the remaining cake mix crumble in the pan and press into a crust.
* In same bowl place cream cheese and frosting and mix until smooth, then add eggs one at a time until combined.
* Pour mixture over crust, sprinkle with the reserved crumb topping.
* Bake at 325 degrees for 45 mins- the bars will be set, but still slightly jiggly, and slightly golden.  Remove from oven and let cool completely. Place in fridge for at least 2 hours then remove and cut to serve

The Lenten Chronicles

I think its time for a post that is not food related. Since this is supposed to be about hobbies, I am deciding to expand on a few.

Did I mention that I gave up cheese for Lent? Thats right, cheese. I am going strong, but lets just take a minute to think of all of the things that has cheese. Pizza, mozzarella sticks, deli sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, dips, cheese & crackers, cheeseburgers, salads. UGH IT IS SO HARD! This weekend on my way up to my lake house, my boyfriend and I stopped at his college roommates house to have some dinner and break up the trip. Guess what they ordered us? Pizza. Guess who couldn't eat? This girl. First time I'm meeting this people and I can't eat the dinner they buy me. It didn't help that my excuse was "Oh, I can't eat cheese for 40 days." Silly Lent.

Anyway, I have a verryyyy fancy gala I am going to this weekend and I am quite excited to get dressed up. I really wouldn't call it a hobby to get dressed up, but I absolutely adore nail polish (currently wearing: merino cool by essie...LOVE), taking pictures, etc. I also haven't worn a full length dress since prom so I jumped right on that opportunity. These are the two dresses I have ordered for the occasion.

Rent the Runway came in clutch thats for sure! The gala also has all proceeds going to cancer which is a cause very near and dear to my heart so the donation of $200 was worth it to me.

Lets just hope the dinner doesn't involve cheese...

Hiatus ended!

Woooo. I have taken quite a long break there. February has been very busy for me with the snow storm up here, work, valentines day this past weekend, etc.

Now, I baked these cheesecake cookies from Abby Sweets about two weeks ago. Reading the description they were supposed to be soft, pillowy, puffy, etc. I think I have mentioned my roommate doesn't like chocolate, so I decided to make these for both her and my office. They were fairly simple to make, but I immediately noticed they were not going to be the texture I had in my head. I didn't take any nice pictures of them, and they turned out hard, crumbly and totally disappointing for me.

On the other hand, my roommate ate all 20 of them. Not one cookie made it to the office. I come home the other day to one cookie in the cookie jar that she saved in case I wanted one. A direct quote was "all I want is those cookies and we don't have anymore!" So, maybe they just weren't for me!

Here is the recipe anyway:

Cheesecake Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
Graham Cracker Crumbs, for coating

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Mix in vanilla extract. Stir in the flour until well combined.

Scoop the dough and form into 1" balls. Roll in graham cracker crumbs so cookie is covered.

Place covered cookie balls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.

Cookies & Cream Rice Krispie Treats

Well I previously mentioned that going to the gym was a "hobby" of mine...mostly because I am going to Miami in March, but that is besides the point. Anyway, two days this week have been GORGEOUS as far as January in New York City goes. I have pumped myself up to go for a run as I look out the window and see a beautiful 50 degree day. Two days in a row, I step out of the office and it starts raining. Now I understand that real "runners" go out in the rain and I applaud them, but probably one of the only times I went running in high school was right after a rain storm and I fell on a pile of leaves and couldn't try out for basketball.

Anyway, yesterday I got to leave work early because I had a photo shoot for the company website. Photo shoot took about 8 minutes and I got to leave to go home at 4! My options were either go to the gym, go for  a run, or go bake something for the office. Guess which won?!

I found this recipe for cookies and cream rice krispie treats  from Mallo & Co. Great blog for rice krispie treats too! I was pretty sure my new office was going to fire me if I didn't bake something so I figured these were nice and easy. Oh and DELICIOUS.

First, you crush your oreos in a nice big bowl. I always just put them in a ziploc and smash them. Good anger management therapy too.

Then you mix it with the rice krispies until they are evenly distributed.

Then, you melt some butter and one or two of those extra large Hersey's Cookies & Cream bars.

Add in your marshmallows and wit for them to melt. 

Make sure you wait until it a smooth consistency! 

Add a teaspoon of vanilla, and mix with your krispie & oreo combination. Then spread in a pan, cool for 5 minutes and add a chocolate drizzle if you desire!

Cookies and Cream Rice Krispie Treats

4 Tbsp butter
6 cups marshmallows
1 1/2 - 2 large Hershey's Cookies N' Cream candy bars (you could substitute with white chocolate chips if you must...)
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups rice krispies
25-30 crushed Oreos
Chocolate Drizzle (recipe below)

In a large mixing bowl combine the rice krispies and Oreos. Set aside.

Melt the butter and Hershey's chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Once they're melted add in the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are mostly all melted (this will take a few minutes--low and slow is key for perfect texture) then stir in the vanilla.

Once fully melted, take them off heat and pour over the rice krispy mixture. Stir lightly to combine. Dump the mixture into a greased 9x9 pan. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then with greased hands go in and flatten the top. Allow them to cool for about 20 minutes, then top with the chocolate drizzle. 

Chocolate Drizzle
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp oil or butter

Melt chocolate and oil in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, Stirring between each one. Continue until fully melted.