Hey all! So I told you I would be doing sporadic book recommendations/ reviews and the time has come for another Book of the Foreseeable Future: On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
I decided to read this book knowing full-well I was at the risk of being labeled "hipster". But honestly, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. A few friends said it was a great adventure book and really inspiring, so I went into it with high expectations.
And I gotta say...not that great. First, I'm going to preface this by saying I'm sure it was revolutionary for its time (it was written in the 50's and I'm sure was terribly scandalous) and perhaps it describes a particular segment of the population at that time blah blah blegh idontcare. Here's how I look at it: if I have to force myself to read 250 out of the 310 pages, it's not a good book. I need not rant, but the writing style coupled with unlikable characters and no plot, made for some rough reading. If you want to read about the "beat generation", then by all means, pick this book up, but honestly, I'd save myself the trouble if I were you.
Lauren's Book Rating: 1.6 hangnails out of 10 rotten tomatoes
I should probably work on my recipe naming skills. Bear with me. I'm new at this.
I originally made this recipe about 10 years ago (I started young), but it fell out of favor because my ma got creeped by the raw eggs in it. But I say, nay! It's really good, and if a little egg scares you off, it's your loss, because this stuff is crazy good. A little food knowledge--I'm Alton Brown--that I stole from the USDA: "Freezing to 0 °F inactivates any microbes — bacteria, yeasts and molds — present in food." Boom. So just freeze for the whole two hours, and you're good to go.
Ingredients for Crust:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup flour
Ingredients for Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup Cool Whip* (We didn't have Cool Whip, but we had whipping cream, so I beat 1/2 cup whipping cream with 2 1/2 tbsp sugar in a cooled bowl for approximately 5 minutes or until thick and fluffy.)
1 cup melted chocolate chips
Directions for Crust:
Heat oven to 350 F. Cream brown sugar (or suga if you fancy), butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy.
Add flour and blend until crumbly.
Press into bottom of 9x13 pan and bake for 10 minutes. Stick in the fridge to cool until filling is ready. Easy.
Directions for Filling:
Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs. Beat well. Maybe too well.
Fold in Cool Whip *see directions above if you don't have Cool Whip but you do have whipping cream...probably unlikely unless your mom is Foodie Kim. I'm lucky that way.
Spread whipped cream/peanut buttery filling over cooled crust.
Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over a pot with water in it. We have a double boiler but it was really high on the shelf, so I McGyvered a lil' contraption.
Drizzle the chocolate over the peanut butter filling. You can make swirls or boxes. Lines. Let your world awaken in creative expression. Doesn't really matter, so long as chocolate ends up on top. You can cut through gently with a knife if you feel like marbling it. Whatevs.
Freeze for at least two hours. Take out of freezer 10 minutes before serving.
What's that? You said something? I couldn't hear you, my mouth was full of a frozen PB snack.
I was impressed. It was one of those movies that I've been meaning to see for years and years and just never had the chance/motivation/opportunity. My mum said it was boring and slow (as it is from a different time), so I went in prepared for that, and I totally disagreed! It made me laugh and the characters were interesting. The only criticism I could give is that there were a few long-winded chase scenes, but that was no big deal. Besides, when you get to look at Paul Newman (see below)
True blue...well, greenish-blue. Here's an idea for pretty nails that I stole from Cupcakes and Cashmere (excellent blog, btw). Note the glitter on the tip of one nail. I probably should've double-applied the glitter to get a bigger effect, but I was feeling lazy. Hopefully you have more patience than me. Here's to getting in the spirit of 4th of July!
First things first. I started to write "Leopard Shoes" as the title for this post, and then I realized they could be "Cheetah Shoes". "What is the difference between leopard print and cheetah print?", I wondered to myself. And a quick google search revealed the answer. So I shall share that answer with you fine people.
Okay the top animal is a leopard. The bottom is a cheetah. This makes sense because cheetahs are the fastest land animals (I'm teaching so much), so it follows that they would be bigger and have longer legs than the little old leopard. Besides size, we can see that the spots are a bit different. Leopard spots have a circle in the middle. Leopard spots are a bit broken up, whereas the cheetah spots are, for the most part, solid. So anyways, enough of the tutorial. Here are my new "Cheetah Print" shoes!
