Just One by Blind Pilot cover

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to share a cover that I sang.  The recording is a little fuzzy so please excuse that.  It's by one of my favorite bands Blind Pilot.  It's called Just One, I hope you enjoy it!

The recording is below! Just click the link below, and when the page comes up press the play button! :)

--->click this  Audio Recording on Monday evening

2010-2012 in photos

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while!  I hope everyones doing well and has had a good Thanksgiving!  It seems like Christmas is just around the corner!  Anyways, now that I'm in school, and don't really have the chance to travel, I started looking through some of the photos from the last couple years.  I was blessed with the opportunity to travel across the country and into South America over the last few years.  Sometimes it seems like such a blur, so I wanted to take the time to make a slideshow of a few of the photos that I took over that time.  These photos defintely do not include everything, and everywhere I went, but it was a nice chance to reminsice over some of the good memories.  I hope you enjoy!

Thanksgiving on my Mind

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite holiday is, I always reply "Thanksgiving."  They usually think it's cool, but they go on to tell me why Christmas is theirs.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and everything, but Thanksgiving is something that doesn't feel so materialistic.  It's a holiday when you get together with the people you love (even if sometimes you can't stand each other), spend quality time, and share a delicious feast together.  So pretty much the whole two months before Thanksgiving I begin to talk about how excited I am for the holiday.  My birthday is in September, and while many people consider the holiday season starting with Halloween, after my birthday is when it starts in my mind.  I begin making baked goods for my neighbors, getting my holiday cards in order, and decorating.  Everyday of November I like to have a different quote for gratitude so that I can remember what is important in my life.

Today's Quote is:

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”  William Arthur Ward

This quote just reminded me how important it is to make sure the people in my life know how much they mean to me, and to remember even in the hard times how much they positively impact my life.  When I begin to take people for granted, I start to view the world less optimistically.  When I take the time to remember what I have, and stop focusing on what could be improved, I am much happier and can be a better person for my family and friends. 

My mom has always been so supportive, understanding, loving, and sacrificial to my whole family.  So I want to recognize her here, and say to whoever is out there that I love her so much and am grateful for her every single day.

My mom harvesting some fresh blueberries from our garden this summer!

An Autumn Day

all photos are taken by me with my canon t2i 18-55mm lens.

The Best Ginger Carrot Cupcakes with Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting

So I was having a huge craving for carrot cupcakes, which is kind of odd because I didn't even realize I liked them so much.  I kind of based this off a few cupcakes that I've had at Cupcake Royale--my favorite cupcake place.  They turned out ridiculously delicious so I just had to share.

 

Ginger Carrot Cupcakes Recipe (Makes 24-30 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

      1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. allspice

1 pound of carrots, grated

3 eggs

1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups canola oil

1 Tbsp. ginger, grated

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Place them aside.

3. Heat a pan to medium heat and place the walnuts in to toast.  It will take about 4 minutes for them to toast, make sure they do not burn or become black.  You will begin to smell them when they are ready.  Place them aside.

4. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and allspice.

5. In a separate bowl, place grated carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, canola oil and grated ginger. Give it a good stir to make sure all the ingredients are combined. 

6. Pour the wet mixture with carrots into the flour mixture.  Stir until combined. 

7. Fold walnuts into batter until evenly combined.

8. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full with batter.

9. Bake pans for 20 minutes, rotating the pan once after 10 minutes of baking.  Make sure that when you stick a fork in the cupcake it comes out clean.

10. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients:

(Warning this makes double the amount you will need for these cupcakes but I like a lot of frosting on my cupcakes and it is so delicious and can be frozen to use at a later time).

3 sticks sweet cream butter, room temperature

3 (8 oz. packages) cream cheese, room temperature

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. cardamom

Directions:

1.  Mix all frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are all incorporated and the frosting is fluffy.  

enjoy!

Homemade Pizza!

Something about me is that pretty much everything I cook, I love to cook from scratch.  Most of the time it is just because I like the taste of homemade, but also because I can control what goes into it–especially salt content but also it can be a lot cheaper!  Pizza dough is something that I love the taste of homemade, and is a lot healthier for me when I control how greasy it is.  I love that thin crispy pizza dough that really lets the toppings shine through. So this week I was really craving some homemade pizza, and knew that I wanted to make a basic margherita pizza, but it took me a while to come up with the next pizza.  My roommate had been really craving spinach and artichoke dip, so I decided to compromise and make a creamed spinach pizza.  Oh my god, I have had creamy spinach pizza at pizza places, but this was just ridiculously delicious.  I cooked up some fresh creamed spinach–adding a few secret ingredients to it like nutmeg and turkey bacon to jazz it up. Something that I see is key to making pizza at home is to cook the pizza crust for a few minutes before you at the toppings so that you don’t end up with a doughy mess. Anyways my point for this post is that homemade pizza is fun, HEALTHY, easy, and has delicious flavor.  It is so much cheaper than just ordering out, and you’re going to feel a lot better when you’re through eating it.  So next time you want to grab for the phone to order out, maybe try something different and try making your own.  Below is a recipe for a nice and thin pizza crust–from there you can add virtually any toppings you enjoy on your pizza.

Thin Pizza Crust Recipe 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 (1/4 oz) package of active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil

1. Mix sugar and warm water together in a bowl.
2. Add in the yeast and give a quick stir.
3. Let sit for 10 minutes.
4. Mix in flour, olive oil, and salt until everything is combined.
5. Knead dough for 5 minutes.
6. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.
7. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.
8. Divide the dough in half and roll each dough out to fit each cookie sheet. Add some more flour on top in the dough starts to stick, and if you desire a crust then make the ends thicker.
9. Heat oven to 425 F. Pre bake crust for 7 minutes.
10. Take crust out of the oven and add desired sauces and toppings to the crust and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Here’s some photos of the pizzas I made:

Hello There!

Welcome to my beautiful blog, I look forward to being able to document my life and share it with others.  I thought for a while about what I want this blog to include, since I already have a food recipe blog.  I have been wanting a blog where I can talk about everything: food, fashion, family, weather, literature, school, tips, work, and pretty much everything.  A place that really documented different aspect of my life that I can share with others. Thanks for visiting!

Larissa