Music Monday: Brand New

This week's Music Monday is about a band called Brand New. Brand New is an alternative rock band from Long Island, NY. I found out about them two summers ago while I was dating this guy. He used to sing the song Jesus Christ to me all the time. I found more of their music and obsessed over them for quite some time. I have yet to see them live, hopefully soon though!

My all time favorite songs by them are Jesus Christ & Sowing Season. Hope you enjoy. Happy Monday! xoxo

Weekend Summary

I suppose I'll start with Thursday night since I haven't blogged since then. Thursday I had to cater after school with the girls from my vocational class. We catered at this fancy hall called The Avalon in Merrillville for some kind of charity event. There were restaurants from all over the county that came and set up their own booth to serve food. Every booth had a different international cuisine. Everyone goes to the booths that interest them and eat a small plate of whatever that booth decided to make, and at the end of the night you put your ticket into the hat of the booth that you liked the most. Whichever restaurant has the most tickets gets an award. My partner Jenn and I worked with Bryer Ridge Country Club. I had worked with them before and decided to go with them again. They made Greek Beef Stifado, which is a braised beef with pearl onions, slow cooked in red wine and cinnamon (Which I must say was the best out of every dish in the place!). They accompanied it with sliced potatoes seasoned with thyme and pepper slivers roasted with herbed balsamic reduction.

This was the set up they had at their table.

Our booth was the one that won the award! (Don't mind me looking like poo) 

Totally irrelevant to my booth, but another table had carved vegetables into flowers and I thought it was simply beautiful. 

Friday was a boring day, nothing special happened. I napped from the time I got home from school to 7pm. Then I made my way over to my Aunt Tami's house for some family bonding :) Out of everyone in the family I'm closest with her and my two cousins, Brittani and Joey. I'm 27 days older than Brittani, so we've been close all our lives. I ended up staying the night there. We went to the movie store and rented Mario Party 8 and played til almost 3am before falling asleep. The next morning I slept in until 11am while Brittani went to her bowling tournament and Tami went to work. Joey and I played Mario Party until Brittani got home then I played Mario Kart by myself while they were playing computer games. I headed on home at 5 so I could meet up with my mom and spend time with her. We tried out a new cupcake recipe that I've been eyeing for a while. 

Graham Cupcakes with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cupcakes:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 stick butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Beat in butter gradually. Beat in sugar and mix thoroughly. Beat in eggs, then vanilla and milk until just mixed. Pour into lined cupcake pan. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out almost clean.

Frosting:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 stick butter, room temp.

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tbsp. key lime juice

Mix together ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Frost cupcakes. Top with sprinkled graham cracker crumbs.

They turned out very nice actually. The key lime juice in the frosting tastes amazing. They taste even better a day later.

And of course, here's baby cuddles laying in his favorite chair, watching me make cupcakes.

 Anyways, after cleaning up the kitchen I went back over to my Aunt Tami's house and played Mario Kart and Mario Party all night again with my cousins. Same thing happened in the morning, more Mario. Tami was off from work today so we went to Merrillville after she woke up. We went to a store called 5 Below. It's a store that sells things for $5 and below. They have the coolest things there, for cheap prices! With only $20 to spend I got myself a new auxiliary cord for my car, a new phone cover, an incense burner, some very lovely smelling incense, and a pet snuggie for the babies to share!  & you might ask how much I spent on all this stuff? Only $13! I was definitely a happy camper. If any of you live in the area, I highly recommend going there. Here are a couple more pictures from today.

Playing Mario Party 8 as soon as we woke up. (Boo's Haunted Mansion is my favorite!)

In my Aunt's bathroom right before leaving for Merrillville. I look so thrilled, can't ya'll tell? 

 And now I'm sitting in bed, sipping on a warm mug of green tea and watching the babies play.

How was your weekend?

The Future Ahead.

As some of you may know, I'm only a junior in high school right now. We've finally gotten to the second semester and the school year is almost over. I'll be a senior before I know it, and shortly after I'll starting my first year of college next fall. Not sure if I'm going to Atlanta for college or to a Chicago school, or maybe somewhere inbetween. All I know is that I definitely want to go to a big city. I've decided that I want to attend a culinary college for my Bachelors in Baking and Pastry. I've looked into Le Cordon Bleu, Johnson & Wales (which won my heart, but is too far from family), Bakers College, The Art Institute of Chicago & Atlanta, and the Culinary Institute of America.

The cheapest college on the list is Bakers College, with only $16,000 a year plus if I keep up my 3.0 GPA they half it to $8,000. The only problem I have is that it's in Michigan and I really wanted to go to either Chicago or Atlanta for school. Johnson & Wales had definitely won my heart with their presentation. I love how it's just a Culinary college with everything a normal college has. Sports teams, sororities, all kinds of different clubs, and even celebrity graduates! I just don't like how the closest one is in North Carolina. I'd like to be around atleast some of my family. I've still got a little time left, so I guess I shouldn't worry that much right now.

I just get so excited when I think about my future. I always picture myself living in cute, tiny apartment in the city somewhere with a great view outside my window. With floral decorations everywhere and Cuddles and Charlotte still living with me. Being able to walk to the store instead of wasting gas, and having to go to the laundromat to do laundry. I wouldn't mind any of it to be honest. I'll go through those wild college years that everyone always talks about. Then after I graduate with my Bachelors in Baking and Pastry Management I'll hopefully open up my own cupcake shop :) Then later down the road I'll meet a guy and maybe get married and eventually have a little girl named Sophia. We'll be living in a big yellow house with an even bigger yard, and big porch with a swing, and beautiful garden to tend to.

Sometimes I just wish high school was done with so I could move on to college and be one step closer to opening my cupcake shop. Oh, where is my mind?

What are your dreams? 

Music Monday: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Today's Music Monday is going to be about an American Indie Band called the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. An old friend had shown me their music back in 7th grade and I fell in love. I just love love love Karen's voice. I had listened to them nonstop over the summer going into high school. That's probably why I have flashbacks of freshman year when I listen to them. I would've loved to have gone and seen them at Lollapalooza last summer, but unfortunately we didn't have the money for it. Hopefully this summer they'll be there again and I'll be able to go. Enjoy! xo

Here's a playlist of my favorites, but Gold Lion is definitely my all time favorite :) 

Weekend Summary.

Well, I pretty much already told y'all about my Friday in my last post. It was a lazy night, nothing special. We watched Family Guy until like one in the morning then headed up to my room. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed, but I think David stayed up for bit after me. The next morning, we woke up around noonish and were forced to shovel my drive way with my grandma. Wish I could've gotten some pictures! Cuddles was outside with us in his adorable red sweater pouncing around in the snow.

Later on that night, we headed out to Downtown Chicago with David's boyfriend who resides there. He has a small apartment a couple blocks down from the Water Tower. We pretty much just hungout around the apartment all night watching cartoons and eating Mac&Cheese. David and I went for a midnight stroll around the buildings singing The One That Got Away by Katy Perry. There were so many people walking their dogs around at midnight, I found it strange.  I took a picture of the view outside Matt's apartment window,

This was taken this morning when I woke up. I really wish I would've taken a picture last night when you could Trump Building and the pretty lights. It was foggy out so you couldn't see any of the buildings :( We walked around downtown all afternoon. We went to the H&M store, which I have been DYING to go to for a long time. It wasn't as nice as I thought it would be, maybe because the winter clothes are still out. It broke my heart that I didn't have any money to spend! After H&M we went to a store called TopShop. I had never heard of it but it's similar to the H&M style. I fell in love with every single dress I laid my eyes on! Everything was so over priced and expensive though.

Anywho, after that we made our way to Water Tower Place. We walked around for a while and gawked over the stuff we couldn't have. After a while we had, had enough and decided to leave. On the walk back to Matt's apartment I took a couple pictures, only a two of them were decent looking though. 

This beautiful church that was next to H&M.

The pretty buildings and million taxi's beeping through the streets.

& here is David and I Saturday night when we got in from our walk. Sorry about the dirty mirror, lol.

Wish I could've taken more pictures. I'm sure I'll be there again soon and I'll take better pictures. Hopefully next time I remember to bring money so I won't have to be so upset when I realize I can't buy anything, haha.  After I got home my grandparents surprised me with a very late Christmas present from Momma. 

I'm usually not a big animal print lover, but this ring won my heart back in December while I was looking for shoes to wear to winter formal. Momma remembered! 

Also, while my grandpa was in Arizona all week he got me REAL gold :o I wonder if this is worth anything, if it is I'll probably end up selling it, haha. 

And of course I just had to show you guys this adorable picture of Baby Chubz :) 

That was my lazy and fun weekend. What did you guys do?! 

TGIF!

Yes, it's finally Friday! This has been a weird week. I had Wednesday off from school this week for records day, so my days have been all jumbled. This morning I was being lazy and decided I didn't want to go to vocational so I stayed in bed and cuddled with the babies for a bit. Since I didn't go to vocational, I didn't have to be at school until 10am. So in that extra time, I actually did my hair and made myself presentable. Only to find out that we were going home early today for bad weather conditions. A wasted good hair day! I guess it's not so bad, I was only at school for 2 hours, lucky me!

There's a horrendous snow storm outside right now :( So with there being nothing to do but stay home, my best friend and I are staying at my house and enjoying the warmth of my bedroom, haha. I plan on venturing downstairs to make a hot cup of black tea and watch Family Guy, but until then my beautiful floral quilt and big comfy bed are all I need ♥  

Stop and Think.

I know I already posted today, but there's something else I'd like to share. I'm apart of a club at my school called the Diversity Club. What we do is try influence our school and community to be more diverse and to try to keep bullying/racism down to a minimum. Every year on MLK Day we go to a different high school for the day, all the other high schools around our area attend also. We all get split into groups and we go into different class rooms and discuss whatever topic they have for us. This year they did it differently. We were put into groups and  sat in small circles around the gym. We did a couple fun activities to get everyone comfortable with each other and to have a little fun before we had to get into the serious stuff.

When it was time for the serious stuff they had us sit our circles and do this activity called "If You Really Knew Me". Some of you might have seen it on MTV when it aired. For those of you that don't know, it's when you sit in a circle with a small group of people and you go around circle and say "If you really knew me, you'd know..." then you share something deep. Something that you don't normally tell other people in conversations. Something personal. Something people wouldn't know just by looking at you.

Some stories weren't as intense as others. The girl next to me shared a story similar to mine. Of course, being the big baby I am, I cried. It's sad to hear what this girl has gone through and still has to go through with her mother beating her. Before I had met this girl, said one word to her, I automatically assumed that she'd be super annoying and I thought I wouldn't like her just because of how peppy and energetic she was. After hearing her story, I completely regret having every negative thought I had of her. It made me realize that I really shouldn't judge before hearing someones story.

This girl really opened my eyes today. She's made me realize that not everyone is what they appear to be. On the outside she's an ecstatic, peppy girl, but on the inside she's depressed and hurt. I made a promise to myself to not be so judgmental towards people I know nothing about. I hope some of you take this post into consideration and think before you judge.

Music Monday: The Bunny The Bear.

I can finally make another music post! There's a band that I've been wanting to share really bad for a few days now. I've been looking forward to Monday all weekend just for this, haha. Last Friday I went to a local concert with my friend, Melissa. Almost every weekend there are shows for local bands at a bowling alley a few minutes away from my house. Sometimes there's big bands that play there too. Friday there was a band called The Bunny The Bear that was playing. I had never heard of them until Melissa had shown me one of their songs. She posted a song of theirs on my Facebook wall a couple weeks ago and I never took the time to listen to it cause I didn't think I'd like it. Well, I was wrong. I heard them live and I fell in love. They remind me of the band Asking Alexandria, but not as heavy.

I don't know what it is that makes me happy when I listen to them, maybe it's the poppy sound? By far one of the best bands I've seen live. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do! Happy MLK Day everyone! 

Delayed Start

Well, in my previous post I told you guys that I'd post a picture of my beautiful crepe cake I was supposed to make. Unfortunately, my school had a two hour delay yesterday morning so I didn't get to go to vocational. BUT! I did make cinnamon roll pancakes for my grandparents before they left for work. I didn't have any cream cheese to make the glaze so my grandparents had to settle for syrup. I personally am not a big fan of maple syrup, but my grandparents seemed to like it.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Recipe

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want this to remain super-liquidy. It's best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake.

This recipe is perfect for Sunday morning breakfasts with the family or maybe just whenever you a bit of a sweet tooth. I promise whenever I make this crepe cake, I'll definitely post pictures for you and maybe the recipe :) 

My Love for Cooking.

Everyone has that one hobby that soothes them. Something to do that keeps their mind off of certain things and just makes them a teensy bit happier. My favorite hobby is cooking. Well, more baking than anything else. Right now I'm taking a Culinary Sciences vocational class. I go to a different school for two hours of the morning and learn about the basics of cooking and everything that goes along with it. Right now I'm only a Level 1 student so we're not as hands on as I'd like to be. But we do have labs where we cook something that goes along with what we're learning. For example, right now we're learning about vegetarians/vegans and their lifestyles and what they eat. On Friday we're doing a vegetarian lab and my group is doing a vegetarian dessert. Well, it's not very vegetarian like, but we're making a strawberry crepe cake with cheese cake filling and possibly some cheese cake stuffed strawberries on top.

From what I've been told, desserts are my specialty. The pictures below are some of the things I've made. 

Monster Cupcakes.

Mini Twix Cheesecakes.

Pumpkin cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.

&

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries with Graham Cracker Crumbs.

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds.

Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes.

Melted Snowmen Sugar Cookies.

Flower Cupcakes.

I'll make sure to post the recipes later on so y'all can try them out too. I'll also make sure to post pictures of my crepe cake on Friday! Do any of you have a special hobby that makes you happy? If so, leave a comment telling me :) You'd be surprised on how many different things people like doing.  

Music Monday!

Music is such a sweet thing. I feel like music brings people together more than anything, now I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion. When I meet someone new one of the first things I ask is what music they like. My music library is all over the place. I can go from quiet, acoustic music to hard, heavy screamo. Now of course I listen to more than that. Sometimes I go on streaks where I'll listen to just rap for a week or two, and sometimes metal to maybe even a little country. Lately I've been listening to a cute little acoustic band called Horse Feathers.

I found them way back in the Myspace days and kind of forgot about them until the other night. I've been listening ever since. I hope you all like them! Happy Monday! xoxo

Meet the Babies!

Almost everyone has or has had that special pet that means a lot to them. The one that makes you happy whenever you see them or always seems to know how to comfort you on those bad days. Well, here are mine :)

I've got two beautiful cats that I call my babies. A grey and white male named Cuddles and black female named Charlotte. I treat them as if they were my children, they never cease to put a big ol' smile on my face!

Cuddles.

Charlotte. 

You'll probably see me talking about them frequently, haha. Do you have any pets that are dear to your heart? Or any that you've had before? If so, leave a comment telling me all about them. I love stories! :) 

Introduction

Chances are, if you're reading this, you have a fairly good indication of who I am. If you don't and you're just lurkin', I'm Alex. I'll make this short and sweet. I'm 16 years old (very mature for my age, I promise), born and raised in Northwest Indiana. So far, I've got a good majority of my life planned out. I'm currently going through my Junior year in High school. I love cooking/baking, tea, tattoos, and shopping. I'm using this blog to just share my ups and downs in life. The good, bad, exciting, and even boring moments. I'll even throw in some fun recipes and crafts here and there, so check back frequently :) Enjoy!