Meet my new Big Brother, Benjamin

Yesterday was a food shopping day with my mom. I always call an event, if it's with only me and my mom, mother~duaghter bonding time ^ ^ and the added bonus was the food :D &&&! My mom got me a big stuffed teddy (i think they call him "Costco Bear", oh yeah, we went to Costco and Wegmans) that I've been wanting since last year! Here's our little excursion:

free samples :) nacho chips w/ salsa. pretty yummy

sharpies!!!! YES

Wegmans has these new things called baby cakes? $6, they look pretty cute :)

i like this baby cake

wegmans fruit P: I want watermelon~~ my favorite fruit<3

bread we were going to get...but alas...it look so yummy

BENJAMIN! my new big brother :) He's helping us carry kettle corn, yum <3

Isn't he huge!! I put on his seatbelt for him, but he can hardly fit in the car!

home sweet home <3 I didn't think he was that big... and so heavy!
yup that's me, literally still in my bed clothes and everything :P ignore my face

big brother Benjamin sitting in the chair...he's going to have to lose some pounds!
I'll put him on my exercising regime :)

"hello! my name is benjamin! i think you'll be seeing more of me!"

bye everyone! Have a g'day! ^o^

Late Night Indulgences

Hi everyone! It's late, 1:02 am, but I can't go to sleep. My teeth kill because I put my retainer in for the first time in about two months, and I really should be tired because I was exhausted the entire day :P But I digress. Let's see...why have I decided to post something this late, or this early in the morning? Well, I've started to use stumbleupon.com which is a really great internet tool if you are extremely bored, or if you are like me, who just wastes time on the computer..It's like the gps of the internet: it takes you where you want to go and what you want to see :) I've found so many awesome websites through it! You simply mark your interests (I marked a lot of food, recipe, crafts, diy, etc so I'm getting a lot of amazing diys and recipes :) and the "stumbleupon" button takes you to websites that involve your interests! 

Well tonight, or I suppose this early early morning, I've found a really nice food/craft website tonight using stumbleupon and I thought I'd share. The pictures are almost food porn: the gooey chocolate-ness, yummy bread, cinnamon, sigh..I really want some chocolate right now. They're all delicious looking recipes, so if you got the time, go let your inner chef take over and get baking :)

2-min Chocolate Chip Cookie for One

original recipe here!

Literally a cookie in a bowl, late night snack if you will. It looks so good ^o^ As the website explains it, this recipe is perfect for those "I-need-a-cookie-right-now-or-I-die" moments. And all the "baking" pretty much takes place in a bowl!

Double Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe: click!

yumyum, they look so soft and chewy~ This recipe combines the double fudge cookie and the original chocolate chip cookie :) The best of the best all in one delicious cookie~ {original, original recipe here from howsweeteats}

Bowtie Cookies: Holiday Cookies!

clickclick

I'm getting a little ahead of myself thinking of Christmas, but these would probably be perfect for the holidays! Just look how sweet and delicious they look. I'm pretty sure that's some jam inside there with powdered sugar sprinkled over it, it just looks so sweet. Definitely going down in my holiday recipe book. 

it IS jam!

Chocolate Pancake Cake

o-r-i-g-i-n-a-l

As the website claims, "this is a very healthy dessert with nearly no calories at all." ....true or not true? Oh, I read on and they say "okay, that's not true...but wouldn't it be awesome if it was?" Yes my friends, yes. That would be extremely awesome. 

Would you eat this for breakfast or desert though? It would be a sweet start to your day!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

I'm guessing you know what to do by now..

SO DELICIOUS LOOKING. BREAD <3 The website calls it "a gift from heaven". It LOOKS like a gift from heaven, I bet it tastes even better. I like how it's not in perfect slices; perfect for just tearing at. Plus I think the unevenness adds texture when you eat it. When something is just crumbly and not perfect, it just tastes more delicious, you know? Maybe not. This is probably just confusing. If you make this though, tell me how it tastes! {and mail me some! :D}

5-min Chocolate Mug Cake

sparkles {click!}

Last recipe and last picture of deliciousness. This is probably the best idea ever. A cake in a mug. How innovative could it get? It's like the first recipe: all the baking takes place in a cup. How simple :) A lot of thought was put into this recipe by the maker so I think this is definitely a must do mug-cake. 

Well now that I've given you all the goodies, why not make some of them or just get a snack and watch a movie? It's not the weekend anymore and school may have already started for a lot of you, but maybe on the weekend for just one last time of fun before you get really into the books you can eat merrily and watch a good movie. What movie? This one:

First words you see, "A Great Movie.." and that is so true. I actually just watched this tonight with my brother and dad. It's old, 1999, but it was just so good! Sometimes I think some old movies are somehow better than the ones that come out today. These days producers and writers mainly come up with plot lines full of action in order to draw in a lot of audience, but back then, even the inspirational, "based-on-a-true-story" movies could be successful. October Sky is just really inspiring, especially for someone that has expectations placed upon them yet they want to do what makes them happy, and it's not what is expected. I'll give a brief summary: Homer Hickens (hopefully I spelled it write) lives in town where coal mining is pretty much everyone's occupation. It's a generally small town and everyone becomes a coal miner, except for the few that get out into the world with football scholarships to college. Homer's father is the town boss of the coal mining business and since his older brother received a scholarship, Homer is expected by his father to take to the mining business. Yet Homer wants something more out of his life. This movie takes place during the time when Russia launched Sputnik and the great outer space was beginning to be explored. Homer sees Sputnik race across the sky one night, and his life is changed forever. He now chases after the dream of making rockets to fly and ultimately go to college to perhaps go into space. But what hinders his dream are his father's expectations which expect Homer to stay in the small town and take over the business after his father. This is a truly inspiring story of a young boy chasing after his dream. The main message I got was to follow what you are passionate about and that will lead you to a career with something you love. I still have to find that passion and I hope I do someday soon. I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. This is definitely a good movie to watch though! I highly recommend it :)

Okay everyone, good night! Time for me to finally go to sleep x) I leave you with the one message below & have a good rest of the week!

bye :)

Trip to Sol Levante

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a great Saturday!! So far the day has been good for me~ I've rearranged the furniture in my room and it looks a lot bigger, watched a lot of Olympics of course, and Korea has been doing well!! LOL, my family and I get more worked up about Korea winning than the US x) Right now we're watching handball: Korea v. Spain, and it is INTENSE. They're in OT right now...xP I'll probably know the results at the end of this post.
Anyways, yesterday I went to the best place after my SAT class. My mom treated me out to korean shaved ice at a korean cafe called Sol Levante!! You might have heard of the k-cafe Paris Baguette. I still like that one better but Sol Lev was still nice. And they're patbingsu (shaved ice) is AMAZING ^^
What's patbingsu? THE BEST ICE CREAM IN THE WORLD. Here's some pictures I took of ours:

yumyum, so delicious. Patbingsu is pretty much korean "ice cream" but really it's shaved ice with sweet condensed milk and sweet red bean sauce. That's the basic part. Then most people nowadays add lots of different fruits (above its mangoes, kiwis, pineapple, and strawberries), mochi (the sweet chewy things that Japan has, so good), and any type of ice cream on top. All that white sauce you see is the condensed milk, really sweet milk. And the reddish-brown sauce you see are the red beans. They're REALLY good, sweet too! Basically, this dish is just a sweet, yummy, delicious...

mess.

This is after we mixed it all up, still yummy but not as pretty looking :) Oh god...I want some right now♥

here's a spoonful! mango, kiwi, red bean, ice, mochi ♥ 

Patbingsu isn't the only thing at the cafe though! Mainly there's bread, but also there's pretty cakes and cookies!

breadbreadbread...so much bread.

See those little metal things in the front?  Those are..what do you call them..clampers? Anyways you take a tray or bag and use the "clampers" to grab the bread. The bread is pretty much on display on the tables, freshly baked :)

cakes!

bear cookies

this is the bread we bought: some apple pie bread on the top,
mocha roll cake in the middle, and some nutty crumble bread
on the bottom

This is some of the seating: my favorite spot, the couches. They're comfy :)

Well, we finished our patbingsu! All of that deliciousness gone in a minute~ If you ever come by a korean cafe, definitely go in and eat some patbingsu or buy some bread. Patbingsu is seasonal though, only summer :(
Hope you liked all the pictures and the food!! Have a g'day peeps!

ps. the handball game is still going on, the score is so close! 

Rice Krispie Kisses

These are the cutest treats ever! And really simple to make for gifts, lunch, and even just a snack for you right now.

All You Need is:
Funnel
Rice Krispie Treats (homemade recipe below)
Tin Foil (opt.)
Slip of Paper with message (opt.)


RKT recipe:
Ingredients
 - 4 cups (1lb bag) of rice krispie cereal
 - 5 cups (16 oz bag) of mini marshmallows
 - 1/4 cup butter or vegatable oil

Instructions
 1. Melt the butter thoroughlyin a medium sized pot, then dump in marshmallows
 2. Keep mixing until the marshmallows melt and no longer have shape.
 3. Add rice krispie cereal
 4. Stir quickly to make sure all the cereal gets covered in marshmallow. And...you're done!


Instructions for RK Kisses
1. If you're using Rice Krispie Treats from the store, break them up and pack them into your funnel until its full. Or for the homemade Rice Krispie, just pack it in tightly until the funnel is full.
2. Put in fridge for about 5-10 min for it to harden slightly. This makes it easier to get it out of the funnel without breaking. 
3. Gently with a fork (or chopstick, what I used) separate the edge of the funnel and rice krispie and gradually take out the entire Rice Krispie. It's okay if it breaks a little, you can fix it once it's all out.
[You can eat it now if you like]
4. If your Rice Krispie Kiss needs some touch-ups, add some rice krispie mix or pack it more tightly. If you want, you can also round the bottom to make it look more like a Hershey kiss. 
[or eat it now :]
5. For gifts and packaging, put the Rice Krispie Kiss onto a square piece of tin foil (size depending on size of RK Kiss) and place a bit of the end of the slip of paper with your message underneath your treat and raise it as you fold the tin foil up and around the RK Kiss. 
Now you're done! You're Rice Krispie Kiss is ready for being given to a friend or family member or ready to be munched on by the maker :) Enjoy!

This recipe is not mine. Sadly. Adapted from a pin on Pinterest. Creds to the original maker!

Watermelon Waffles

I absolutely love waffles. When we bought a waffle maker last year, i was ECSTATIC. It was so easy to make and so fast..I think we had a month's worth of waffles in a week~ they were so good! 

Well now, I'm looking for waffle recipes I can use the waffle maker for, and this site, the wilson world, gives an excellent recipe. It combines probably my two most favorite foods: watermelon and waffles ^^

creds to supermom on the wilson world !

You separate your pancake batter and dye one red and the other green with food coloring. Next you want to add in chocolate chips to the red batter. These will be the "seeds" :) Then spread the red batter over only the middle of the waffle maker then around the edge, pour some green batter. Follow whatever process your waffle maker requires to cook the waffle and wah-lah! Once its finished you'll have watermelon-looking waffles that you can eat like watermelon!

I want to try this with pancakes too~ Try this recipe out and check out supermom on  the wilson world (:


toodles~

Monkey Bread!

To start things off, I've decided to share a recipe of monkey bread! I love bread and this is probably one of the best kinds of them all. If you haven't heard of this before then you've probably heard of it as sticky bread. I honestly like both names: monkey, sticky... monkey is so random though! I want to know why monkey..why not elephant??

Click here for the site recipe from Pillsbury! Once I try to make this on my own, I'll post pictures of what I end up with and the whole process and maybe I'll even change the recipe a bit. But try out this recipe! Monkey bread is really good especially when you make it with someone and then tear it apart!! Enjoy~

perfection <3