"The answer is that you never, ever, rely on another person for your peace of mind... You have to -- I don't know -- you have to learn to live with yourself. You have to learn to turn back your own sheets and set a table for one without feeling pathetic. You have to be strong and confident and pleased with yourself and never give the slightest impression that you can't hack it without a certain someone. You have to fake the hell out of it."
Ahh, the tart. The Chocolate Glazed Dark Chocolate Tart.
This past weekend I decided I'd like to try baking something new. Kira had sent me this recipe, via Paul Grimes at Gourmet.com, quite a while ago, but I dug it up in my grand collection of must-try recipes mostly because I didn't want to make a cake again, but I still wanted chocolate chocolate chocolate! Needless to say, it did not disappoint. Just look at that thing! The eloquent author of the original post put it this way: "A triple layer of crumbly crust, a truffle-like interior, and an almost patent-leather-shiny glaze make this tart the chicest take on chocolate we’ve come across in a long time." How true, how true. I went off to Smith's to pick up some Godiva sixty-five-percenters and a tart pan (PreeEEetty excited that I now own one!) and then headed back home to get baking! I was actually surprised at how super easy the recipe turned out to be for such an intimidating looking dessert. So much so that when I went to pull my crust out of the freezer where it had been cooling and dropped it to crumbly bits all over the floor I just put my hands on my hips, let out a little sigh, and then swept it up and promptly made another one. The rest of the process went much more smoothly, and by Sunday afternoon (after a chill in the refrigerator), I had some hungry boys over helping me devour the whole thing. I will definitely be making this tart again! So easy, so delicious, and oh so chocolatey. I think I've also been inspired to keep branching out and teach myself how to make some more new and interesting things. Next stop, soufflé??
CHOCOLATE-GLAZED CHOCOLATE TART
(You'll need a 9" round, 1" deep fluted tart pan with removable bottom.)
Crust:
9 (5 by 2 1/4-inch) chocolate graham crackers, finely ground (1 cup)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 350°F with the rack in the middle. Stir together all ingredients and press down evenly into bottom, and 3/4 up the sides of the tart pan. Bake until firm, about 10 minutes, and cool on a rack (or as I did in the freezer) for 10-20 minutes.
Filling:
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
9 oz bittersweet chocolate (not more than 65% cacao if marked), chopped
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bring cream to a boil, then pour over chopped chocolate in a bowl and let stand five minutes, then gently stir until smooth and incorporated. Whisk together eggs, vanilla, and salt in another bowl and stir into melted chocolate. Pour filling into cooled crust and bake until the filling is set about 3 inches from edge, but the center is still wobbly, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely in the pan for about 1 hour.
Glaze:
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 3/4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 tablespoon warm water
Bring cream to a boil (Because it's such a small amount, I measured it out in my small liquid measuring cup and put it in the microwave. If you do it this way, you have to watch closely with your hand on the microwave door for the few seconds it will take before that cream explodes into foam and you have to hurry and take it out. I'm probably a little too experimental for a lot of foodies out there and I'd get slapped on the wrist for suggesting this, but it worked for me, so if your'e feeling brave go for it!), now where was I? Okay, bring cream to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in chocolate until smooth, then add the corn syrup and warm water, incorporating fully. Pour the glaze onto the tart and tilt and rotate it gently to spread it evenly over the surface to the edges without spilling over. Let stand until glaze is set, about one hour.
(The tart is best the day it is made, but if done in advance, it can be chilled for one day and then brought to room temperature and glazed before it is served.)
Sick. Sick. Sick.
And it's not sick like throwing up
And it's not sick like a tummy ache
And it's not sick like on a plane
And it's not sick like sneezes
And it's not sick like coughing
And it's not sick like woozy
And it's not sick like headaches
And it's not sick like spending all day in bed
And it's not sick like sick
It's just, sick.
Sick.
Sick like lonely
Sick like aching
Sick like dreams I wish I never had
Sick like seeing him accidentally
Sick like the same kitchen we once loved in
Sick like how beautiful she is
Sick like time passing
Sick like melancholy
Sick like moving around and around and around in circles
And not going anywhere
Love because you're ready
Not because you're lonely
Not because you're bored
Not because you're angry
Not because you can't stand to be in the same house as that other man
Not because you just don't want to be left behind
Not because you feel too old to still be at home
Not because you just want something new
Love because you can't help it
Love because it's right
Love because it snuck up on you
Love because you waited patiently
Not because you want to
Not because you're impatient
Not because everyone else you know has it
Not because you can't sleep and night and you don't know why
Not to fill the holes
Not to feel wanted
Love because it happens to you
For you
Not because you were looking for it
Love because you feel it
Love because you know it's love
Sitting here at my desk drinking some ginseng lemon iced tea, listening to Bon Iver and catching my breath as I stumble upon design after gorgeous design. Inspired by so many things. In awe of the beauty of our world and all the beauty created in it. I've been itching to write lately too, but haven't really had the words. I am feeling content. Happy. Certainly busy out of my mind, and currently living in a disaster zone of a room as I attempt to finish painting these walls and get everything back in order between work shifts and classes and bouts of homework. But today it is windy and stormy and perfect and I'm just enjoying the slowness before the new week starts.
Here are some gems for your Sunday:
I am not an explorer. I am not a last minute adventurer. I am a planner and a get-things-doner and a stick-to-the-schedule and don't-waste-timer. This is a natural behavior that I came pre-wired with. It's in my personality. It's in my brain. It is practiced, and relished. It's how I live.
But lately, I find myself longing to be a little less rigid. No, a little less afraid. Because I am afraid. Of what? Of being late? Of not being able to predict what my day will be like? Of not crossing something off my never-ending list? Of disappointing someone? Of disappointing myself?
Today I am deciding that I will be less afraid. At least to start. I am promising myself that I won't put time limits on myself (unless they are necessary for work/assignments of course), especially when I am out and about and going and doing and exploring. Because it is important for me to breathe every once in a while and break my own rules.
I am going to do something I didn't plan on doing. And see something I didn't plan on seeing. And go somewhere I didn't plan on going. And I am not going to feel bad about it one bit. I'm going to stop, and smile, and take a picture, and be inspired to break some more rules.
The other day my good friend Seth asked me what my favorite things to do were. I thought for a second, and then answered confidently, cooking. And then singing, and walking, and a few other things too. But it struck me then how true that statement was. I'm not a magnificent cook. I have ideas or recipes that turn out spectacularly well, and others that I wouldn't want to take credit for at all. But cooking, baking, is one of those things that no matter how the finished product turns out, I take great pleasure in the preparing. It's a big stress reliever for me, and although it may be a slightly more pricey habit than say singing or walking, it's certainly much more realistic than a shoe-buying habit or other such things. I love that I can take a recipe, and a few ingredients, and in a short little span of time I can have created something truly delicious and satisfying. I love that food is the great unifier. People gather where there is food. And they gather for the food. Eating somehow makes the company sweeter, and the conversation better.
As a human being, I seem to have a love/hate relationship with food. I need food for nourishment, but too much food means a heap of problems. That's long term and short term. Too much food in the long term means too much weight and health issues. (Likewise, too little also has its problems.) Too much food in the short term means an upset stomach and a good dose of guilt. But to find that perfect balance of flavor and volume, to be satisfied but not stuffed, to have, as my Dad used to say, your "sufficiency suffonsified" is so fulfilling. To have created something that has that effect even more so. To share it with others, the most satisfying.
Tonight I needed chocolate. And so I whipped up a batch of these mint chocolate cookies from a recipe I found on the Foodess blog. And boy oh boy was I satisfied. I didn't have any chocolate chips, but these babies are ohso rich even without them. Three little inch-and-a-half cookies and a tall glass of milk later my craving was completely satiated and here I am sitting at my desk with a smile still on my face. The recipe is easy peasy, and they only take about seven minutes to cook (Yes, I've adjusted this time slightly from the original recipe because I don't like crunchy cookies!) and you probably already have ninety percent of the ingredients sitting in your pantry and fridge. Enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy. ;)
MINT CHOCOLATE COOKIES
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp peppermint extract
2 cups flour
1 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Up to 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks as desired
Preheat oven to 350° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (I just used my magical baking Silpat things. Magical magic.)
Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and peppermint. Gradually add the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt and beat until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1-2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten balls slightly. (They will expand very slightly when baked, but for the most part will keep their shape.)
Bake for about 7 and a half to 9 minutes, depending on how soft you want the cookies. Cool on the baking sheets for five minutes, and then transfer to paper towels or wire rack to cool completely.
This is the blog of a photographer/graphic design student, Julian Bialowas, who is taking and editing original photos, one every day, for a year. I love the gorgeous nature and travel based photos, and also the great sayings and quotes he incorporates. Great, simple design. It's definitely a huge inspiration not only to get out there and do something, but also to create beautiful things myself. Awesome. Awesome awesome. (That's his work up there, incidentally.)
Working out two days a week (easing my way back in to summer full-on workout mode) and still losing pounds and feeling great for the rest of them.
Giving a shout out to the great, Denise Austin: Shrink Your Female Fat Zones workout. Forty minutes of the perfect blend of arms, abs, and legs, and feeling the burn, without it being so intense it's discouraging. And it works baby.
Spring in the valley.
Breezy and sunny one day, and then gorgeously gray and rainy the next. Oh, how I love spring rain. So beautiful. Also, so happy for hiking season to be upon us once again! (Another moose escapade perhaps?)
Art school.
Yeah, it's hard. Challenging is a better word actually. But it's just the right amount of push to keep me excited about it. I am without even the slightest doubt that it was the right decision. It's a lot of money, and sure, a legit degree isn't the most important thing in the art world, but for me, this was an absolute must and I don't regret it one bit.
My octopus art and little bird.
Somehow it just fits so well and reminds me of dear close friends, and far off adventures. I love that it will always be 'the first one' and will help me remember that even when something is scary and new, or unpredictable, I will know that I have the gumption to do it anyway. I can conquer. I will triumph.
New books.
Recently I've been making my way through the novels of John Green, inspired by a few choice quotes I was introduced to. They're certainly written for a specific audience, but the mastery of his distinct literary voice, and the unexpected depth of the stories leaves a wash of satisfaction in finishing them.
Workout Wednesday.
It seems I'm the kind of person who tends to let a single project or goal take up a very large amount of brainspace while I'm working on it. Thus the great deal of information about my working out and weight loss/health goals.. That said, Wednesdays have heretofore been dubbed: Workout Wednesday. I wake up at five in the am, pop in my video, grab my weights and balance ball, and shred it until a little before six when I shower and get ready to work all day. It seems like I should be really tired and dread waking up that early, but it really just pumps me up and keeps me in a good mood all day.
My car.
It was pretty much a Heaven sent miracle that got me my new Grand Prix right in the nick of time when I had no other options. I am grateful every single day for a sturdy and reliable car to take me wherever I need to go, and that looks good doing it too. I love that it doesn't break down on me every four hundred miles. I love that the stereo system works and lets me rock out to my music on a regular basis. I love that it's mine.
Being the Ward Choir Director.
For the third time in a row, I have been called to be the choir director in my singles ward. (Three different wards, that is.) I love love love being challenged to find just the right arrangements for us to sing, making schedules and running practices. I love that I get to share my love and my passion for music with others, and I love that people listen. What a thrill to push the boundaries of your comfort zone and be forced to be in charge of something that for the most part you've only followed. Round three, here we go.
I want to go away for a while. I want to get lost. I want to go into the wilderness. I want to go where there are no people, and no mothers, and no coworkers trying too hard to cheer me up. I want to go somewhere there are trees and birds and streams. I want to go high in the mountains and look back on the city lights and know that no one knows where I am. I want to be forced to be with myself and only myself. I want to have a real reason for feeling so alone. I want to sit in nature and be swept away by it. I want nothing but the sun and the dirt and the clouds and the flowers. I want to draw pictures of it. I want to sleep for the rest of my life. I want to take a long drink. A long swim. I want to hover below the surface and feel the density of the water pressing in on my body. I want to see everything through the bending brightness of the waves between me and the sky. I want to forget which way I came from and not care where I go next. I want to remember myself. And forget about everything else. I want to be free.
No thanks, no more, no love
I'm done, I've had enough
You're going off with her
And I wish I was
But there's another can be
Just because
Alright, be on your way
The kindest thing to say
Is not that you have fallen for me
Say you'll come back to my arms
Again someday
Baby write some words about
How you can't shut me out
How you must find a way
To see me one more time
One more time
Please, call up all your friends
And tell them it can't end
You don't know what you'd do
If you lost her
And lost me too
That's fine, that's good that's nice
I understand the price
The cost of craving dark in stead of light
I flip a coin to see if you still care tonight
My blood, my hand, my soul
I've thrown them onto you without control
The things I'd freely give, you stole
And now I'm left in pieces
Baby tell the world about me
The way you won me over
In a city you can't remember
You think it was September
Sweet September
Oh baby, oh it's alright
I know she needs you more than I do
And I wouldn't win this fight
But there's one thing that you've got to do
You've got to tell the world about the girl you once knew
Oh she wasn't meant to be
But you fell so very deeply in love
With me
To all the girls he's loved
To all the girls he's loved
Came home from work today to discover that my iPod had somehow been impaled. I now have a lovely radiating shatter design coming from the home button at the bottom. Not happy about this.
After seven long weeks of absence, a particular Aunt came to visit today. Needless to say the built up hormones are superbly overwhelming. Grateful for the innate comfort of the fetal position.
Mom is out with the hub. Jessica is out with the man. Lucas is out with the drama department (rehearsing their play). Sara is out babysitting. And I am home with a bag of shrimp and four garlic/grilled/Greek/scampi recipes to mix and match. (Thumbs up, yo.)
Not in a bad mood at all, just off today. Going to cook up my prawns and watch that musical episode of Grey's Anatomy. I'm chuckling in my head already just thinking about it. Who's idea?? Really? Love it.
--> On a side note, apparently my grammar suffers when I'm all lady-indisposed like this. Been speaking and writing in incomplete sentences all day. Meh. *shrugs*
---> On another totally unrelated side note, those pups up there? Yeah. That's totally my expression right now. I'm so funny. Heh. Heh heh.
That's right. Another grainy picture of a bunch of deer in the forest. What IS it about these guys that makes me so giddy? I seriously just think these images are so magical and surreal. Camping trip anyone? Let's take my camera for a ride. Nothing but chapstick and high hopes. <3
If anyone is curious what I meant about following all The Rules in my "Twenty-One" post, here's a little intro for you. I highly recommend that all you ladies out there pick yourself up a copy of Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneiders' book. Boys, put that curiosity back in your pocket. You don't have to know why, you just have to appreciate. And ask the girls out! (We like that.)
"Being a creature unlike any other is a state of mind. You don't have to be rich, beautiful, or exceptionally smart to feel this way about yourself. And you don't have to be born with this feeling either, It can be learned, practiced, and mastered, like all the other rules in this book.
Being a creature unlike any other is really an attitude, a sense of confidence and radiance that permeates your being from head to toe. It's the way you smile (you light up the room), pause in between sentences (you don't babble on and on out of nervousness), listen (attentively), look (demurely, never stare), breathe (slowly), stand (straight), and walk (briskly with your shoulders back).
It doesn't matter if you're not a beauty queen, that you never finished college, or that you don't keep up with current events. You still think you're enough! You have more confidence than women with MBAs or money in the bank, You don't grovel. You're not desperate or anxious. You don't date men who don't want you. You trust in the abundance and goodness of the universe: if not him, someone better, you say. You don't settle. You don't chase anyone. You don't use sex to make men love you. You believe in love and marriage. You're not cynical. You don't go to pieces when a relationship doesn't work out. In stead, you get a manicure and you go out on another date or to a singles dance. You're an optimist. You brush away a tear so that it doesn't smudge your makeup and you move on! Of course, that is not be how you really feel. This is how you pretend you feel until it feels real."
When I made my list of twenty-one goals for this year I added the "do things alone" line almost just because I wanted to be done already, and it seemed like an easy enough thing to accomplish. I am a very independent person. I like taking care of my own life and don't often, if ever, ask for assistance in doing it. I enjoy being able to call the shots and make the schedule. I do things for myself because I can, and should, and right now the life I'm building is about me. Where I work, go to school, spend my free time, it's all about what's best for me right now. Isn't that nice? :) However, I also very much enjoy my social life and spend a great deal of time with other people. I like to make plans for the weekends and like so many others consider it a let down if I end up just sitting at home on a Friday night. But I have been known to decline invitations to events if I don't have someone to come with me I know I can stick with, even if we go around socializing with other people the whole night anyway. I've decided that this is silly. Why do I need to have someone else with me to go out and have a good time? Thus, my resolution. No more saying no to solo. I've practiced a couple of times already and find that while I've been uncomfortable at first, it's actually a really great feeling. I know I'm capable of doing things on my own, now I just need to embrace it.
I came across this video incidentally that talks about this very thing. It is beautiful, and really moving in a make-you-think kind of way, because a lot of people are afraid of being alone. So here's to being brave and breaking out of the norm. Enjoy.
"If you are at first lonely, be patient.
If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.
We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books; you’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.
There is also the gym, if you’re shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in.
Then there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.
And there’s prayer and mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.
Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid being alone principles.
The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by “chow downers”, employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town, and they, like you, will be alone.
Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.
When you are comfortable with “eat lunch and run”, take yourself out for dinner; a restaurant with linen and silverware. You’re no less an intriguing person when you are eating solo desert and cleaning the whip cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.
Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching because they’re probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats, is after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things. Down your back, like a book of blessings.
Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches might have never happened had you not been there by yourself. Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after awhile nobody is dating them.
But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it.
You can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company.
But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them maybe lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those “sappy slogans” from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay.
Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.
It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be relived, keeps things interesting, life’s magic things in reach, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.
Take silence and respect it.
If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.
You could be in an instant surrounded if you need it.
If your heart is bleeding, make the best of it.
There is heat in freezing, be a testament."
Today I am playing hooky and skipping a class that I really don't feel the need to be in. I know that's really not something to brag about, and certainly not the most responsible thing to do, but there you have it. Today is work from home day. I'm sitting here in my comfy workout pants at this beautiful giant desk wearing about eighty-nine-percent less makeup than I usually do, the windows are open, and it is a gorgeous day! I'm not feeling particularly lazy; I still want to be up and doing things, and there are certainly things to be done, but they're going to be take care of my life type things in stead of being in class for four hours working on a final that I can do just as well at home, things.
In other news! I LOVE TO COOK. On Saturday I hosted "Chinese Night" here and had a great time cooking up some yummy kung pow shrimp with rice noodles, crab and cilantro won tons, pork won tons, and this to die for dark chocolate cake, the recipe for which I found at the delightful Love & Olive Oil blog. I really wish I had taken a picture of the finished cake before the many, many hungry mouths devoured it. I'll be sure to snap one next time. In the original recipe the batter is intended to be made into cupcakes, but I am really just not a cupcake girl. I feel like there is so much more creative liberty when presenting a full cake. For this one I baked the batter in a square nine by nine inch pan, then cut it in half and arranged the two pieces lengthwise on a long rectangular ceramic dish. I then piped on the (amazingly delicious fudge-like) icing with a basketweave tip width-wise so there was a line-textured layer of it over the whole top of the cake. (Also because I left the icing pretty thick and it would have destroyed the cake had I attempted to just spread it on.) Finally, just because I felt like it, I drizzled pretty little criss-crossing lines of caramel sauce over the whole thing so it would feel finished, and to go with the hint of caramel flavor in the icing. I served the cake with vanilla fudge swirl ice cream to balance out the rich density of the chocolate as well, but it can definitely stand on its own. This is one decadent chocolate cake.
Also, just a hint, I already had cocoa powder stocked in the pantry and didn't want to go out and buy the special dark cocoa powder the recipe calls for, so I simply doubled the amounts of cocoa in the recipe, both for the cake and the icing. This is a general substitution you can use when you want to up the intensity of your chocolate in any recipe, but I'll admit I've never used the special dark cocoa, so I really couldn't say if it is a true equivalent in flavor. I can tell you that my version probably makes the batter a little thicker simply because there's a higher volume of dry ingredients to the wet ones, but I'll probably keep making this cake just how I did. It really turned out very well. Here's the recipe exactly as it appears on the Olive Oil blog. Enjoy! I sure did. :)
Black & Gold Dark Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup special dark cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature
1/3 cup special dark cocoa powder
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk or soymilk
2 tablespoons caramel topping
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet ingredients and beat until no lumps remain (or very few remain).
Pour into liners, filling each with 1/4 cup of batter. Optionally add a dollop of caramel sauce to each cup. Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
For frosting, cream butter until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add cocoa powder and beat until incorporated. Add 1 tablespoon soymilk and mix to combine. Add confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes total. Add caramel topping and mix well. If frosting is too thick, add more soymilk and beat until fluffy. If frosting is too soft, add more sugar and again, beat until fluffy. You want the frosting to keep it's shape when piped on to the cupcake, but still fluffy enough that it stays light and soft when eaten. Top with a drizzle of caramel sauce if desired.
Tonight I've been working on a project for my Color Theory class in which I have to find and classify several images based on their various color concepts, and then present to the class my thoughts on why certain colors were selected and how they influence the overall idea of the piece. I am already in love with this class, but I am especially in love with this assignment. I love that not only am I really starting to recognize these classifications right off the bat, but I am also, out of necessity, discovering some really great work by very talented artists and designers out there on the big bad web. I have an album attached to my Facebook page with many of the pictures I really like and find inspiration in, but I wanted to also share a few of them here just because I'm on a serious visual-design-stimulation kick at the moment and needed a quick little five minute break before I finish this sucker up. Mazel tov!
Ps. Did you know that mazel tov actually means good luck? Doesn't make any sense whatsoever the way I used it. But I don't care. Mazel tov!
I want to go away for a while. I want to get lost. I want to go into the wilderness. I want to go where there are no people, and no mothers, and no coworkers trying too hard to cheer me up. I want to go somewhere there are trees and birds and streams. I want to go high in the mountains and look back on the city lights and know that no one knows where I am. I want to be forced to be with myself and only myself. I want to have a real reason for feeling so alone. I want to sit in nature and be swept away by it. I want nothing but the sun and the dirt and the clouds and the flowers. I want to draw pictures of it. I want to sleep for the rest of my life. I want to take a long drink. A long swim. I want to hover below the surface and feel the density of the water pressing in on my body. I want to see everything through the bending brightness of the waves between me and the sky. I want to forget which way I came from and not care where I go next. I want to remember myself. And forget about everything else. I want to be free.
