I have a pumpkin problem

I have a pumpkin problem.  And as October is officially over, the love is not waning.  Here are a few gems of the past month:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Squares

Take any recipe for oatmeal squares and substitute whatever they're telling you to use (bananas, peanut butter, etc) for pumpkin puree.  Obviously.  Not a huge pumpkin-y sweet flavor but if you're 80 years old like myself and love oatmeal, it's great.  

Behold, the breakfast of autumn champions.

Eggless Pumpkin Cake Drop Cookies

Take cake mix (spice cake is especially great) and mix with one can of pumpkin puree.  Add chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, whatever you wish and drop them onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  Don't expect them to look pretty but if you had the patience and stuff I imagine a simple caramel drizzle or puff of powdered sugar would make them look presentable.  It tastes like what cake and pumpkin pie would taste if they were combined.  Makes about 2 dozen.

I Get Grossed Out When My Roommate is Sick—Am I A Bad Person?

I wrote this a long time ago upon one of the many times my roommate has been sick.  She is sick again now and found it appropriate.  Proud to report that I bought crackers and soup today...

It is a well-known fact that I am the person to ask if you need hand sanitizer. It has just as important of a spot in my purse belongings as a tube of Burt's Bees or a tampon does. Disinfectant spray, clean counters, organizational shelves—I'm your average neat-freak. People know this about me. My roommates, especially, know this.

One of my roommates has recently come down with a small cold. Rather than offer soup, go buy medicine, or insist she gets good rest, I have been telling her how to properly cover her mouth when she sneezes and that she should throw away her pile of used tissues. While it's true I'm somewhat of a germaphobe, I also like to think of myself as a nice and caring person. (It is also true that I went back and added the words “somewhat of” in front of “germaphobe” a second ago). I can just see the germs floating about her like the dirt that perpetually follows PigPen around in “Peanuts”.  I'll offer to get water and keep saying “feel better” but don't expect me to be holding your barf bucket as you heave into it. So. Does this make me a bad person? Does anyone else feel this way?

A lot of people tell me that by making myself so sterile all the time, I am actually making my immune system more vulnerable. I have been trying to take this advice. I also know how nice it is when you're the one that's sick and someone takes care of you, no questions asked. When you're sick and someone asks if you want something, you politely refuse help unless you are throwing up blood or slowly choking to death. This is the standard. My roommate has not asked for assistance, but I have not really made any offers...

The truth is, PigPen is lovable—and I should love my roommate enough to try and disguise my grimace as she hacks her lungs out. I am not going anywhere near her growing mound of Kleenex, but maybe I'll bring the trash can closer to her bed so she can throw them away as she goes.  A lot of my frustration could be stemming from the fact that I've just chewed a Vitamin C that was definitely meant to be swallowed.

Whatever it is, I think I've adequately overthought about half-heartedly taking care of my roommate (also my best friend) as she is sick. If you are going through something similar, I think we can conclude that we are not, in fact, bad people, but have just worked this issue out in true germaphobe fashion—by protecting ourselves from it. I'm off to buy some rubber gloves, Emergen-C, and I'll try to make more of an effort.

Things that happen to me

I posted "have a great day!!" on a friend-of-a-friend's Facebook wall for her birthday.  A later comment would point out the fact that I had forgotten the most important part of the message: "Happy Birthday"...

PUNKIN

The time is here! Ever since October 1st this year, I think everyone has been a little more obsessed than usual...myself included.  I'm talking about it, you're talking about it, and Shit Girls Say is tweeting it. the Pun-King has arrived and its cozy spicy homey goodness has permeated even the places you'd least expect it to be...

lattes

cupcakes

cheesecake

spice

oatmeal squares

donuts

muffins

beer/ale

Pudding (alliteration!!)

bread

dog costumes

pies

pasta

trash....

found this poor little guy on our front porch the other day.

Smashed dreams of becoming a jack-o-lantern, the pumpkin is literally dying to get into my life. And who am I to deny it??

Pringles too, as my aunt put it, has "jumped the shark". 

So I'm just gonna leave this here..................

35 Pumpkin Recipes

oh and this:

Autumn-Themed Tumblrs

friday...the 13th

The day after I arrive home.
The day I wake up early from the hot sun shining in my room.
The day I forget where we keep our plates in the kitchen.
The day I fall asleep while watching Say Yes to the Dress.
The day I have no place to be.
The day I nap twice to recover from being up for 20 hours.
The day I put together a fountain.
The day I help ruin a cake.
The day I have wine with dinner out of a glass that isn't plastic.
The day I remember how much I love Target. And a lack of humidity.
The day I sit on a Starbucks patio.
The day that was so lovely I forget it was friday the 13th.

stuffed green peppers

We made these a while ago, but they were simple enough that I could actually help make them (I'm not the best cook) and take pictures simultaneously.  Not to be confused with Chile rellenos which is a similar, but altogether different dish.  Maybe I'm was the only one with that confusion...?  I guess I couldn't rid myself of the association of green peppers and Mexican good.  This is an Italian style dish, but you could definitely tweak the recipe if you wanted it a lil hot n spicy.

Stuffed Green Peppers:

(full recipe can be found here)

-4 large bell peppers

-1 lb ground beef

-2 tbs. chopped onion

-1 cup cooked rice

-1 tsp. salt

-1 clove garlic, finely chopped

-1 can tomato sauce

1. Remove top of each bell pepper and its' innards.

2. Cook em for a bit to crisp them up. 350 degrees.

3. Brown beef, drain, and stir in garlic, rice, and 1 cup of the tomato sauce. Cook until hot.

4. Stuff peppers with beef and rice, stand them upright in an ungreased glass baking dish.

5. Bake for 10 minutes covered, then 15 minutes uncovered.  Add cheese as desired.

Okay okay, I am going to update this so much more regularly!! So much so, we'll all get annoyed on this Blogger format and I'll have to transition to tumblr.  I've just been SO busy looking at beautiful views of Chicago in the summer.  

And i found this blog....the mojito smoothie?? Stop it.

ho hey—tuesday

Apparently, I have over-thought and spent way too much money on all my past birthday parties and get-togethers—this is clearly all you need for a good time: suspenders, flickering lights, a couple of banjos, and confetti.

summer of 01...?

One of the not so wonderful things about going to DePaul is being on the quarter system.  This means that instead of semesters, I have three ten week periods of classes during the year and then a summer break.  This also means that summer break comes around the second week of June—almost more than a month later than some of normal scheduled schools get out.

My friend Jackie is therefore at home, with nothing better to do than rifle through old pictures and sent this to me the other night:

Precious I know. Right now, I want nothing more than to have carefree, Girl Scout-activity-filled, goggle-wearing, rainbow-suit clad, running-through-all-sprinklers-in-sight, bucket-hat summers.  Let's hurry up and get this over with, finals.

up on the rooftop

It's finally above 50 degrees in Chicago! Which—besides breaking out the skirts, sunglasses, and summer shandies—means picnics of epic proportions.  Last night, we had a brief one on our rooftop deck. Cut short by the incoming rain, we enjoyed paninis, Coronas, and root beer floats.

Maybe we'll get a grill and some rope lights this summer to have a proper 500 Days of Summer rooftop bash. 

And maybe Joseph Gordon-Levitt will show up.

an ode to my mother

Happy Mother's Day!
[Okay, I legitimately thought this published on Sunday. So we're just having this be a little belated.]

A quick tribute to Karen, the woman that gave me life. Here are some of my favorite moments/memories with her:

1) The time I was sick and missed the premiere of Cheaper By the Dozen (the remake) with all of my friends.  Mom made me stay home but popped popcorn and rented the Lucille Ball version of the movie. (I would later discover this is the far superior version anyway).

2) The year she wore this for Halloween. To her work.

3) The year I had my birthday party on April Fool's Day and she made an Angel Food cake with cotton balls.  She laughed and videoed me as I unknowingly consumed several bites, trying to understand why everyone was laughing.

4) Every year after my birthday, we'd go on a shopping spree together with all my acquired birthday cash. I'm terribly indecisive—there's no way a full day of tween wardrobe shopping could have been fun for her.  But she always pretended to be excited—our tradition of California Pizza Kitchen probably played a large part in that...

5) The other day when I was texting her in Starbucks about a cute guy sitting at the table next to me:

She always knows what to say (or not say).

Thank you, mom. Love you.

cubs vs. cards

Earlier this week, I went to the Cardinals vs. Cubs baseball game.  And I found myself in a strange dilemma.  We all know I am not a very sporty person, but my family does love baseball.  (Hate on its' excruciatingly slow pace all you want, there is no stopping the "buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks" type of carefree attitude!)  I was born in St. Louis and know baseball well enough to realized the rivalry I was witnessing.  

So, who to root for?  Which team did I belong with?  It's typically a very obvious answer in accordance to where I am or who I'm with, but I had some sort of affiliation to both these teams.  It was not a strange sensation in not knowing who I wanted to cheer for more—I've been more than indifferent when it comes to sports situations before.  It was strange because I had a choice.  I was born in St. Louis.  I can take as much of that with me throughout my life.  Chicago is where I live now, but I tend to get very proud of the places I'm not in whenever I'm elsewhere, so something kept pulling me towards St. Louis.

I ended up wearing a green jacket and a purple scarf to the game—colors totally ambiguous to any fan associations.  

Forever indecisive,

--molly

I'm beginning my list of summer shopping must-haves! The maxi skirt (if I can find one long enough) will definitely be included.

I'm campaigning for a copy of this Denver print (by January Jones on Etsy) to go up somewhere in the apartment.

A list of the top ten DIY blogs—how I've been procrastinating this week.

BRUNCH

I'm sure it's clear to anyone that has passed by a restaurant serving brunch between the peak hours of 10am-2pm...aka the hungover rush or just-coming-back-from-church crowd...that people love brunch.  Perhaps the most blogged about meal, it seems that many—myself included—believe brunch to be THE best meal of any day.

The only problem I have with it is choosing to either go the sweet or salty route—do i pick apple cinnamon french toast or a breakfast burrito?  Red velvet pancakes (oh yes, that's a thing at Brunch) or the Denver omelette?

So when I went to Ann Sather Cafe off of Belmont with my high school theater teacher and her two lovely daughters (and friends of mine), my problems were solved.  I was able to order my go-to breakfast burrito AND get cinnamon rolls and fruit as sides.  (They had heard of the place based off only their reputation for great cinnamon rolls—a good sign, to begin with.)  A brunch dream, turned reality.

The only problem was, I was so enthralled to satisfy both my salty and sweet palettes, I didn't take any pictures.  I guess I'll have to go again...

The picture above is the aforementioned red velvet pancakes from Brunch.

I'm two decades old.

Hello!

It has been far too long since my last entry unto this website I call my blog.

Let's see...

We've had Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Passover, whatever else you might have celebrated in the past two months, aaaaand my birthday! I am two decades old.  I can do nothing more than I could have at nineteen years of age, besides officially not be a teenager.

It's been truly a life-changing experience, being this old.  And to catch you up with all the monumental events that have happened since my last dinner I posted about, I'll quickly just synopsize the highlights:

1.  This year, I had more Valentines than ever—ALL of my roommates said yes to being my valentine!  That's right, while you couples were stuck with just one date, I had four willing candidates to watch Glee and eat chocolate we had bought for ourselves that night.



2.  I met the pianist of folk-esque band The Head and the Heart.  On my birthday weekend. Fate?  You betcha.  He may have closed his eyes in this picture that should have had a flash on, but I was too embarrassed to make him wait and take the picture again.  So that's how the picture looks.  It doesn't matter though because in my mind, he agreed to be my valentine for next year's V-Day when he agreed to take a picture with us.

3.  St. Patrick's Day was the warmest day of the year thus far making the multiple piles of throw up that I jumped over on the sidewalks that much more disgusting.  Like I said, life-changing.

4.  My ability to tan decreased if that's possible.  I went to Florida for Spring Break and got sun poisoning.  No, I didn't have the Panama City/MTV style Spring Break rager.  I went to Naples, Florida (aka retirement country) and got sun poisoning because my skin repels light.  Cute.

5.  I got a tumblr account which is a large part of the reason I have not posted in so long.  Who knew there were so many great outfits, beach scenes, and GIFs of Ryan Gosling I needed to reblog!  I am going to try and continue to keep both of them updated in order to spend way more time than necessary on the internet.  If you're interested in discovering just how much I love Ryan Gosling or Hunger Games memes, you can check out said tumblr here.

So now we're all caught up!  I hope to more consistently update this so everyone can know about my new life as a twenty year old.  Because I'm that much cooler.

veggie tales

Excuse the overtly geometrical presentation, but this colorful platter was my dinner the other night.  Baked zucchini, tomatoes, and breaded eggplant with mozzarella over orzo pasta...

This is a big deal for several reasons. One of them being that when I was little—among a multitude of other embarrassing occurrences throughout my childhood—I literally only ate chicken fingers with ranch dressing.  At every meal I possibly could I would order fried chicken strips with a side of ranch—I even included a small blob of ranch on a plate when our elementary art project was to sculpt our favorite food.  Hidden Valley's ranch and I have had a love affair that has lasted through the ages.  

While chicken fingers and I have since grown apart and my palette has expanded immensely.  So the amount of vegetables I consumed just the other night was probably more than I had my entire life up until about age thirteen.

Other reasons for this being a big deal are just that it was so unexpectedly delish—I underestimated the scrumptious-ness of a meal without meat—and not to mention pretty!  One of my roommates is a vegetarian and this came from her cookbook, 

Zucchini Casserole:

1. Slice zucchini lengthwise into four strips and brush with oil.

2. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and layer mozzarella, diced tomatoes, basil and/or oregano over it.

4. Bake for 5 more minutes.

Delightful, delicious, de-lovely—see what I did there!?

scars and stories

The Fray is my first love.  I will always love them.  They were my first concert ever. "All At Once" is my "first-day-of-school" song for inexplicable reasons. And they met me at the beginning of my DIY career—see above picture of this appropriately 'frayed' shirt I so cleverly paired with matching pink bracelets my freshman year...cute...

Anyhoo, their new album entitled "Scars and Stories" is out now and it's as good as ever.  I'm probably (definitely) just biased because they're from Colorado.  Didn't really mean to make a plug for a band but I just thought I'd share this cute attempt at making my own concert tee my friend dug up in honor of the album release.

It's finally snowing in Chicago! Time to break out the sweaters. Starting with this one.

Also, I'd like to live here, if someone wants to setup a little garden getaway with me.

january

I have been doing my best to take pictures of the things I have seen, places I have been, and food I've eaten rather than all the people I do it with.  But it's difficult to take your camera with you somewhere you're going with others and not take any photos of actual people.  However, I do not want to turn this into my Facebook so I've decided I'll share of monthly compilation of the goons I hang out with.

This is also a good opportunity to share my newest form of procrastination—Pixlr.  I swear it is the easiest and best way to make your photos look heavily hip without the Instagram help on a smart phone.  All you do is upload any picture and sort through different effects, borders, overlays, etc.

Go check Pixlr out if you, too wish to live your life through the rose-colored lens that is a nostalgic looking photograph. And it makes you and your friends' lives look infinitely cooler.

Optimist

Optimist from Brian Thomson on Vimeo.

This Tuesday has been little weird. Maybe it's because I spent the first half of my day in class imagining life if Darren Criss and I were in love...and the latter part at Starbucks pretending to study while trying to connect to the irritably sketchy wifi. It might also be that I'm missing my Rocky Mountain snow...

Whatever the reason my productivity for the day has presented itself in the form of this video and consequently adding something to my Bucket List.  This is Sri Sri Radha Temple's Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork, Utah and it's a celebration I more or less want to live in. I must take part before I die. The cello is probably the perfect instrument in any setting but the cello set to slow-mo footage of color explosions is epic—music by Zoë Keating.

I will also be accomplishing another 2012 New Year's resolution (in addition to blogging semi-consistently) by running the Color Run this June!

Training has begun....yes I am training for a three mile run.  But that color stuff looks like you could easily choke! Getting too winded could be dangerous and I must be prepared.

Uh-Oh Oreos

The two most popular dessert items to be classically paired with milk.  Combined.  I don't know what more there is to say than that.

"Uh-Oh" Oreos:

1. Make any old recipe for chocolate chip cookies

2. Put some flour on your hands to avoid super sticky fingers and mold dough around oreos.  Try not to put too much on them—only enough to cover the oreo because they turn out very large.  

3. Place on greased pan and bake 12-13 minutes.

Similar to what The Londoner writes about the 'slutty brownie', "They're oh so easy, and more than a little bit filthy".  So if you're ready to dip your Oreos in more than just milk, I would definitely give it a go.

The other day I had a major breakthrough—I know what I want to do for my retirement! That's right—I have little to no idea of what I might be doing after graduation but I am confident I will spend the latter half of my days as a local librarian and or piano teacher.  Cannot.  Wait.

I don't really know what to title this post but I wanted to share these great patterns that I feel would each make for splendid wallpaper.  When I have a house I am convinced I will need a different wallpaper for every room.

On another random note, I will start accepting donations for THIS beauty of a couch for previously mentioned house any time...

And if you're an old soul like myself and have not yet seen The Happy Huffmans on YouTube, they will no doubt bring a smile to your face.