chocolate peanut butter cake pops AND heath bar cake pops!

Dan's birthday was this week, so I figured it was a perfect excuse to make more cake pops!  Dan is a big fan of chocolate and peanut butter, so I really wanted to make him some cake pops that tasted kind of like Reese's Pieces, but since I am not a peanut butter fan, I made some for myself which were chocolate with crumbled heath bar bits!  As if cake pops weren't amazing enough, these were just mindblowing.  Obviously I didn't care much for the peanut butter chocolate ones, but everyone who was a PB fan loved them!  And, for me, the heath bar ones were so great.  I loved the little crunch that the toffee had.  Regular cake pops are fun, but I liked making ones with a little twist.  I think these would be perfect for a kid's birthday, or even easter!
I love cake pops because it's like the perfect amount of cake and sweetness, all wrapped up into one little delicious bite sized treat.  I'm not a huge fan of eating a big slice of cake, but these are so much more dense and rich than a regular old cake.  Plus, it's kind of like portion control!  They can also be fun party favors or easy to transport treats to bring to a party or potluck.  

What you'll need: Chocolate Cake (appx 9x13 in baked cake. I used Pillsbury's dark chocolate cake mix) Peanut butter, creamy 2 Heath bars, crumbled Cream cheese frosting (I just used a store-bought 16 oz cream cheese frosting) Candy melts (I got mine from Michaels, 4 bags) Lollipop sticks (also from Michaels) Styrofoam blog, for drying
If you want to make both recipes, like I did, from one cake, just split the cake in half when you go to add the extras (PB/Heath bar) and put half the frosting in each bowl.  The rest of the recipe will be the same!
1. Bake a 9 x 13 cake.  If you want fewer cake pops you could bake a 9x9 cake instead.  My 9 x 13 cake made about 35 cake pops.
2.  Once the cake is done, let it cool for a bit and then put it into a bowl.  Dump 1.5 cups of frosting into the bowl with the cake.  If you're making Peanut Butter cake pops, put a cup of peanut butter in with the frosting at this point.  If you're making Heath Bar cake pops, take your crumbled up heath bars and mix them in to the cake with 2 cups of frosting.  Mush everything together so the frosting and peanut butter/heath bar is mixed with the cake evenly.
3.  Form the cake into little balls.  This gets messy, as you really have to do it with your hands.  Place the balls on a tray/plate and let them cool in the fridge for 1-2 hours or in the freezer for about a half hour. 
4. While the cake balls are cooling down, get your candy melts ready!  Melt the candy melts like you would chocolate chips, either in the microwave, over the stove, etc.  I don't have a microwave so I just do it over low heat on the stovetop.  This only takes a couple minutes, so don't do it too early, wait until your cake balls are ready to go.

5. Take your cake balls out of the fridge/freezer.  If your melted chocolate is too shallow in the container you used to melt it, pour some into a smaller container in order to dip the cake pops.  I usually use a small glass.
6. Dip your lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and then insert it into a cake ball, about 2/3 of the way into it.  You can do this with multiple cake balls at a time.  Then, submerge the whole cake ball into the chocolate and then knock off the excess chocolate by tapping the stick on the side of the glass, before inserting in the styrofoam to let it dry.  Since the cake balls are cold and the chocolate is warm it usually doesn't take long for the cake pop to harden, so if you run out of room in your styrofoam, you can move the ones that are done to a jar or something as they harden.  If you want to put sprinkles on the top, make sure to do that before the chocolate hardens, so the sprinkles have something to stick to.  I like to take a contrasting color of chocolate and drizzle it over them.  You can do this later, once all your cake pops are done hardening.  
Voila!  Now take these somewhere to be consumed so you don't have them sitting in your fridge to tempt you.  

remix archives // high waisted jeans

These high waisted jeans have been a serious godsend.  As someone with a smaller waist and some junk in the trunk, finding jeans to fit my body has always been a huge hassle.  Almost every pair of jeans I've ever tried on has had that gap in the back, or will fit my waist but is so tight across the butt and thighs that there's just no way.  I'd been trying desperately to find some high waisted jeans for months, and tried some from ModCloth last spring that just didn't fit at all and were immediately returned.  So I was a little skeptical when I ordered these Blank NYC jeans from ModCloth this last fall, but I figured since their return policy is so nice it wouldn't be a huge hassle if they didn't fit.  But lo and behold I slipped these babies on and it was like they were tailor made for me.   Even if I'm not styling them high waisted these are still the most comfortable pair of jeans I've ever owned.  I still have some of my old lower-rise jeans and now I realize how crazy obnoxious it is to have to yank them up every five minutes, and now I notice that every girl has to do that when she wears regular lower-rise jeans.  Because high waisted jeans sit at my natural waist, they never fall down and have to be yanked up over my hips.  It's wonderful.  I have two pairs of these jeans and I'm seriously thinking about getting a third because I'm afraid I'll never find a pair of jeans this awesome ever again!  My mom even got a pair and loves them!  




 

wind tunnel

Yesterday Dan & I and some friends drove up to Seattle to attend a friend's final portfolio show for his culinary school, which meant eating our way through a whole room full of culinary final projects.  It was really fun.  I've thought about going to culinary school, but I think I'd rather just take some cooking classes, as I don't necessarily want to become a restaurant chef or anything, just get better at cooking and learn new techniques and methods.  Some of the amazing cuisine included chocolate jalapeño cupcakes (sounds crazy, but super amazing!), crème brûlée french toast, argentinian bruschetta, pulled pork, ceviche verde, fireball whiskey truffles, and a ton more things whose fancy names I can't recall.  I thought I had a fun senior show, being an art major, but I think culinary students' final project beats it.

Seattle was a crazy tornado and I swear I would've been swept away had I been wearing a maxi skirt or something.  I don't know what is up with the wind in the PNW lately, but it's pretty crazy.  We ducked into this alley to take photos, thinking the buildings would block the wind, but it turns out it just was a huge wind tunnel and even windier!

top + jeans/courtesy of modcloth :: cardigan/gap (similar)
jacket/courtesy of asianicandy :: shoes/courtesy of blowfish :: bag/courtesy of myremedy

necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: photos by Dan

Despite my smile in these photos, I was actually pretty grumpy for most of the trip.  It's hard when you start feeling frustrated and a bad mood starts to take over your mind.  Sometimes I feel like it just takes over me and I don't know how to combat it.  And at the end of the day, I've allowed it to not only ruin my day, but hurt those around me and keep them from having as good of a time as well.  I feel like it's a lie to believe that I had no control over it, even if that's how it felt.  I made a conscious decision each moment to keep being grumpy, rather than choosing to get over myself and enjoy the day.  I'm getting better at apologizing and asking for forgiveness, though.  Back in high school I remember stubbornly hanging on and getting an apology out of me was like pulling teeth.  Ultimately, the health of my relationships, especially my relationship with Dan, is far more important than pridefully hanging onto whatever it is that made me angry or grumpy.  Hopefully I'll get better at catching myself as time goes on and maybe someday I'll stop those stupid angry feelings before I let them infect my psyche and put a funk into my whole day.

Q + A // staying positive through hard times

Going through hard times is one of those things we all deal with.  Whether it's just having a bad week, or grieving the loss of a loved one, it's hard to go through.  I think it's important to focus on the positive things in life during those times, otherwise you get caught in a downward spiral that can be hard to get out of.  If you've been down for a while, definitely consider professional help from a counselor or psychologist.  Emotional pain can be just as real and painful, if not more so, than physical pain.  It's just as real and just as worthy of being treated by a medical professional as a physical disorder.  Here are some of my suggestions for keeping your spirits up while you're going through a hard time:

  Focus on your blessings, and be actively thankful.  Take the time to notice those blessings.  It might be something as small as noticing a little, beautiful butterfly that briefly landed next to you.  If you don't take the time to notice it, though, that little blessing can slip by without having the chance to encourage you. Write these things down so that you don't forget that even when things seem to be going all wrong, there are always blessings around you, sometimes it just takes you making the effort to focus and notice them.

 Do something for someone else.  Help a stranger with the door, make a care package for a friend living far away, volunteer, put some change in someone's expired meter.  Helping someone else will take the focus off yourself and your own pain.  And you're spreading positivity and happiness around!

  Exercise!  Get your blood pumping and endorphins flowing.  Even if you feel like staying in bed forever, get up and get moving.  Don't allow the negative feedback loop of laziness and feeling bummed keep you stuck in sadness.  Your body can help you to feel more positive, you just have to let it do it's thing!  Go for a bike ride, take a yoga class, find a workout video on hulu, go for a hike, take a walk on the beach... just get your body moving.

  Be a tourist for a day and take a little road trip to a nearby town.  See the world with different eyes to get out of your own head.  Just getting away from your usual haunts can help you to reset your mind and see things differently.  It can be really refreshing to be in a new place where you know you won't run into anyone you know and just explore freely.

  Surround yourself with people who are positive and encouraging. Don't let people into your life who are going to bring you down.  When you're going through hard times, you need people who will come around you and support you.  This might mean hanging out with some people less for the time being, but ultimately at this point in your life you probably need quality over quantity.  Make sure the people you choose to surround yourself with are ones that will be there for you.

  Listen to encouraging music.  It can be easy to wallow, and listen to music that reflects what your feeling, but try to counteract that by listening to music that lifts you up rather than drags you further down.  You might feel cynical about it, but at least you're surrounding yourself with positivity.
  Rely on other people for strength.  This can be hard, especially for those of us who are more prideful and independent. We feel like we have to be the ones to make it through and if we accept help from someone else, then it means we're weak.  That's just silliness though, everyone needs help and it's not weak to admit you need to rely on someone else for strength, it's smart.  If you had a broken leg, people wouldn't think you were strong for trying to walk on it without crutches, they'd probably think you were a little stupid.  The same goes for going through hard times emotionally.  It's not a sign of weakness to lean on someone else for strength.
  Go to your sanctuary.  When I was in college and was going through hard times, my sanctuary was my car.  I would drive for hours, just listening to music and thinking.  I felt comforted by the sound of my engine and the vibration of the road.  I felt closer to God and in some ways I was actually physically leaving my problems behind while I was driving.  I also would go to my art studio and sit in the dark, painting or drawing or working on whatever project I was currently doing.  Find your sanctuary.  I know that Dan likes to go on walks, to get fresh air and think and be alone.  I think that's probably one of his sanctuaries.  
  Realize that sometimes releasing your pain can be a way to overcome some of it.  Cry it out.  Scream.  Weep.  After one of my hard breakups I told myself I wouldn't cry over it.  I didn't, for a few months, but eventually I broke down and cried almost nightly for a long long time.  In some ways, not crying is a way of not dealing with the pain.  You're avoiding feeling the pain, instead of feeling it and understanding it, which will allow you to move forward.  

  Write in a journal.  Sometimes our brains are just a jumble of thoughts and emotions.  Journaling can be a great way of focusing and getting all of those thoughts out on paper.  You can work through what's going on by putting it on paper.  And sometimes what your going through becomes less scary or painful when it's removed from the whirling craziness of your brain and made concrete in writing.  Things can often feel more crazy and scary than they really are when we allow our imaginations to take control.  Writing can bring your thoughts back to reality.
  Do something for you.  Take a bubble bath, cook your favorite meal, grab your favorite coffee and sit at a coffee shop all day reading a great book.  Sometimes you need to just relax and give yourself some time to recuperate   
  This won't apply to everyone, but for those of you out there with a personal faith, trust in God's plan and realize that there is a greater purpose.  We might not even see it in this lifetime, we might not understand it.  One of the great questions that people with faith in God wrestle with is how a good God can allow bad things to happen.  I think it's important to wrestle with that question.  

spring forward

Spring is that you?  The other day I spied little blooms starting to appear on a few trees around town, so perhaps spring is indeed on its way.  This maxi dress has be really wanting warmer weather to arrive, as it's the perfect simple summer dress, but for now I'm adding a bit of warmth by layering, and luckily the sun provided enough heat that I didn't even need a coat on top.  My little basil seeds have started to sprout in my windowsill, so maybe spring really is on its way.  I have big plans to renovate our yard to create a side-yard with a patio and garden and I want to garden a ton this summer!  I've got like three issues of Sunset magazine all about gardening and a bunch of starters all ready to go on our kitchen table.  I'm a super-newb when it comes to gardening, so hopefully this first summer isn't a total bust, but even if I totally fail it'll at least be a learning experience and next summer will be better.  Do you guys have any favorite online gardening resources?  It's still a bit chilly, I think, to start outdoor beds (which is good because I haven't built them yet...), but I'm excited to be able to start getting my hands and knees dirty!

dress/courtesy of modcloth :: necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis turquoise bracelet/courtesy of musana jewelry :: multicolor bracelet/courtesy of jewelmint top/thrifted (similar) :: shoes/courtesy of blowfish shoes :: photos by Dan