Massive Update: The End

I definitely made up for lost time. Do I have anything else to add? Maybe. I turned two dozen in March. That was anticlimactic! I also got into grad school! That was definitely NOT anticlimactic. I got pretty sweet funding, so I won't have to sell my poems on the street. Hooray! It does mean that I'll be staying in the city, so if anyone needs a roommate in Brooklyn, let me know please. I'm not excited to be moving twice in four months--my lease in Hoboken expires at the end of May, so I'm going to move home for a little while to save money, then get an apartment in time for the school year--but I'm much happier about staying in the city than I was this time last year.

In case you didn't know, today is Good Friday, which is the day Jesus died. It means that Catholics go to church. In Hoboken, it means that churchgoers have a procession down my street and then stage a crucifixion, complete with roman soldiers and Jesus, right outside my window. Yay? Why can't he just meet up with the Easter bunny and eat some peeps?

Tomorrow, I'm going to a city-wide pillow fight. I expect it to be awesome.

- FIN -

Massive Update: Macarons, the Redux

But back to baking. Once the power was back and all was right with the world, I decided to try my hand at macarons once again. I thought I'd make pink ones with two fillings; lemon curd and caramel. Sounds simple enough, right?

False.

I ended up having to do every step twice. Macarons, caramel, lemon curd, all twice. It took all day, but I had nothing better to do, so by then end I was kind of in the zone. Look at my fluffy pink pretties!

I also learned a lot. For example, the secret of making caramel. What's the secret? YOU DO NOT FUCK WITH CARAMEL. You dissolve sugar in water and then you don't stir it. Ever. Until it is light brown. Then you whip it off the stove at the speed of sound and frantically whisk in some warm cream as it bubbles and hisses. Then you let it cool, and you get this delicious, burny, sophisticated caramel:

It's amazing how much better it tastes when you make it yourself. I actually lied when I said it took me two attempts to do it, because in reality it took four. I got it right the first time, only to discover that I had used a really unfortunate spatula that had shed melty plastic bits everywhere. I figured it would be better to redo the caramel than to eat cancer, right? The next two times I stirred it constantly and it turned into sugar crystals. You know what they say though: 4th time's the charm. Oh. That's not what they say? SHHHHHHH!

Massive Update: Pandemonium!

My life is not all glamorous travels and baking. No sir! I went home for what I thought would be a relaxing week at my parents house, only to be confronted by the biggest storm in 10 years. Not having checked the weather when the worst of it hit, I was in the car, on my way to Sasha's house. When I encountered a tree down across the road, I thought "oh . . . ok, I'll go a different way." But no! I re-routed, only to come upon a downed power line that was about to light a house on fire. There was already a man calling the police, so I turned around once again, figuring I'd cut my losses and go home, but lo and behold, there was a tree blocking off my entire cul-de-sac. I finally made it to Sasha's house, where I had to spend the night. It was pretty fun, because even though the power was out she has a gas stove and we could still cook. We made some food, drank some scotch with her parents, and sat in front of the fireplace. The next day I was able to get home, only to find this in my driveway:

Crazy, right? You can just hear the little branches reaching out for the house screaming "I'll get youuuuu!" Thankfully, the tree missed by about 3 feet, only managing to take a little piece of the gutter down. My dad did many heroic things to get the other car out of the garage. Later, on a grocery run, I decided to take some pictures. Now I understand why our power was out for three days:



Down by the canal, part of the path was completely obliterated. There must be about 4 feet of water here:


Thankfully, though there were hundreds of trees down, nobody in my area was hurt, and it seems like the property damage was minimal. Then, afterward, the sun came out and we were rewarded with these:

Massive Update: Providence

And then there was Providence, which is where loveliest Dana lives. Her boyfriend was away, so we did ALL KINDS of girly things. We went shopping at all of the little vintage shops, watched bad TV, were crafty, and went to a high tea at this place called the Duck and Bunny. It's a snuggery! I don't know what that means. I think it means 'a really cozy place to have tea and cupcakes.' They definitely make the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life.

Aside from wandering, we tried our hand at a few baking projects. Firstly, we made macarons. For those of you that don't know, macarons are a super-fancy French (slash Italian) cookie made of almond flour and filled with buttercream, ganache, or anything magical. It's pretty much the haute-est of Oreos. Our first batch was a total wash because of an accidental overdose of egg whites. Our second batch was a lot more successful, but our buttercream was a little intense. I made them a third time when I went home for spring break, but more on that later.

Our second baking project came from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, which, if you want to try the fancier recipes, involves making nests of spun sugar. We, however, opted for Tres Leches Cupcakes with cinnamon whipped cream. They were pretty great:

Massive Update: Seattle

I realize it's been about two months since I last posted. I wish I could say I have good reasons, but really, I'm just lazy. So, without further ado, a series of mostly-photo posts about my life over the last 8 weeks:

Firstly, I went to Seattle to visit my friends Paul and Laura! Paul is the Master of Lattes. Behold his creation!

Laura is the master of biostatistics, but that's a little intangible. She's still awesome, though. Also, those Seattleites like conserving energy. They even get to be cheeky about it:

You know what else I liked about this city? Hipsters eat food there! I know, I know. Cat, you say, how do you reconcile skinny man-jeans with a love of all things delicious? The answer is: I have no idea. But they did it! Seattle hipsters are a lovely blend of style and hugability. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to back up my claim, so you'll just have to trust me.