Happy (Belated) Birthday!

So I meant to post this on April 4th in honor of my roomie's birthday. Better late than never.

Because she chocolate chip cookies are her favorite, I decided to maker her a chocolate chip cookie birthday cake! I initially was going to make it a two layer cake with a layer of icing in between the layers but after I pulled the cakes out of the oven, I knew that I had to abort my original plan lest I wanted everyone who ate the double-decker goodness to go into diabetic coma.

The cookie recipe called for two sticks of butter. I usually don't make recipes that take more than a stick of butter, but I trudged through. It was well worth it. Plus the dough ended up making two relatively thick cookie cakes, so it wasn't that unhealthy. I think.

The dough was delicious. It had a fair amount of oatmeal in it which always makes for an interesting texture. I ended up baking a few lone cookies because I had dough left over from the cakes and they were similar to these lovely cookies I made a few months ago.

I split the dough and baked the cakes in two 9-inch pans. Definitely make sure to grease them adequately so they come out clean!

The cakes ended up being about an inch thick, which was definitely too thick (in my opinion) to make a two layered cookie cake. You can see how the oatmeal really stands out here and the brown sugar caramelizes really well.

While I was letting the cakes cool, I made some cream cheese icing to decorate them with. 

Hello, lovely.

Of course I didn't take a picture of the icing making process, so just pretend. Thanks. 

At first I was afraid the cream cheese icing would be too heavy, but since the cake wasn't too sweet, the icing added just the right amount of richness. I really loved this icing! I don't know that I would use it to decorate a cake like this again but I think it would be perfect for whoopie pies or a homemade strawberry cake. Delicious. 

Here's the recipe for the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!

I couldn't find the exact recipe I used for the icing, but this one looks amazing.

#23, 42, 45 - Finished!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should probably check this out. Please continue.

This past weekend, Taylor & I started completing some of the things on our 101(ish) things to do in 1001 days list. We grabbed some dessert at Mad Hatter's Bakeshop & Cafe (#45), went to Duke Gardens (#45), and had a picnic (#42)!

We got a slice of cookies & cream cake (as well as chocolate cheesecake, which I forgot to take a picture of. Curses.) at Mad Hatter's to go and ate it for dessert on our picnic. I will most definitely be frequenting this establishment again. Soon. Aside from baked goods, they have some delicious sounding "real" foods. The cakes, cupcakes, danishes, and cookies were beautiful. Also, if you're a coffee person like myself, they have quite the extensive list of coffee (and non-coffee) based beverages which looks promising. Plus, I've heard they roast their own beans there! 

The cookies & cream cake we got was... interesting. I wasn't a huge fan of the icing. The icing, however, must not have been too bad because I ate it anyways. Next time I'll probably try the black & white signature cake with an americano, not that I've thought about it or anything.

We set up a picnic under a pavilion at Duke Gardens, ate lunch (and the cake!), and started exploring the gardens.

The gardens were huge, not to mention gorgeous. There were lots of trails for running/walking, but we didn't have too much time to spend there so we mainly focused on seeing the more decorative flora. There was even a cute cafe in a cottage-like house within the gardens. I want to go back soon, take a book and blanket, and settle down on the expansive lawn for a few hours.

Hopefully this will be the first of many accomplished things on the list!

P.S. to all you Carolina students/fans that think I'm a traitor for even setting foot on Duke property - I sported my UNC bag the entire time. Go heels.

Another City Project Update

Every week I get email updates for The City Project that include all the people who have donated to TCP along with how much they've donated. At first, I really hated this. I had to wait a whole entire week to see who (if anyone) had recently sent donations to the Summit on my behalf. With my previous missions trips, I've been able to directly see who gave what because they sent the checks directly to me. I got to mark their names off of a support list. I got to write them thank you cards and mark their names off the thank you card list. It was marvelous. 

However, this whole get-an-email-once-a-week, out of my hands system has been somewhat of a challenge for me. I like being in control, making lists and marking them off (obviously). But God has used this new way of fundraising in a great way. Every week, I'm forced to rely on him and trust him blindly, not knowing if even one person has donated to my work with TCP. I'm forced to pray about support coming in - something I'm not sure I would do if I were personally and directly watching support flow in.

Not surprisingly, God has been so good. I'm able to see all the people who are sacrificially and generously supporting me every Friday afternoon with the somewhat ominous email. Upon seeing this, I can't help but worship. Its such a natural response to the generosity and grace I've been shown and am currently being shown. 

So far, I've got about $1,000 left to raise - which means $3,500 has already come in. Praise the Lord!

101 Things to do in 1001 Days

I was recently procrastinating by checking out some random cooking blogs instead of studying genetics. This is my life. I happened to stumble upon a blog that discussed a "101 things in 1001 days" challenge. I googled it. I read more blog posts about said challenge. I immediately decided to embark on this challenge (mainly because its a huge list of fun things that I get to mark off!). I perpetually make lists (they usually consist of things I've already accomplished, but I add them to the list anyways just so I can mark them off). Type A, I know.

I also managed to wrangle my sweet boyfriend into this and we came up with a combination list. I'm really excited about getting to do these things together (or at least most of them together). It was surprisingly difficult to come up with 101 things to do so we only have 91 things on our list, but I think it will still be challenging to accomplish all of them. 

I categorized the list into sub-sections for the sake of simplicity. Our list consists of the following categories (with a few examples from each category):

101(ish) Things to do in 1001 Days

Start date: April 8, 2011

End date: January 3, 2014

• Food & cooking
• #1: Make homemade lasagna
• #6: Compile family recipes in a binder
• #10: Bake cupcakes with a filling
• Spiritual
• #12: Go through Starting Point at church
• #13: Find/join a church after graduation
• Things to do together
• #19: Get "Ticket to Ride" & play it
• #25: Go geocaching 
• #31: Go indoor skydiving
• #32: Go to the Varsity Theater on Franklin Street
• #39: Go to Maple View Farm & get ice cream!
• Dates
• #42: Have a picnic 
• #43: Get just dessert at the Melting Pot
• #45: Go to the Mad Hatter in Durham
• Personal
• #55: Graduate! 
• #59: Get eyes checked (Liz)
• #72: Be consistent about Meatless Mondays for 1 month (Liz) 
• #80: Put the majority of CDs onto iPod (Taylor)
• Service
• #86: Clean out my closet & give away 101 items (Liz) 
• #89: Babysit for a couple for free (Liz)
• #90: Volunteer at a free clinic (Taylor)
• #91: Put together an Operation  Christmas Child box 

 I'll hopefully update our progress as we complete different things!

*To calculate 1001 days from today, go to this website.

The Reynolda House

In the eighth grade, my class went to the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina. It was incredibly beautiful and regal, plus is was near Christmas so every room boasted an elaborate tree. Little did I know that there was a mini-Biltmore minutes from my house. The Reynolda House is, in my opinion, one of the best kept secrets in Winston-Salem. 

Over the summer I was required to do a project for my art class about an art museum. I googled "art museums in Winston-Salem" and found that the Reynolda House actually had an art museum, went to the museum/house and was flabbergasted. The house has world-renowned art because the Reynolds family valued and promoted the arts. Plus, you can get guided audio tours for free which have some really interesting information about the house & Winston-Salem. If you go, be sure to check out the attic, which includes pieces from the Reynolds' family wardrobe and the basement which has a bowling alley! 

You can't take pictures of the house itself, but I included some pictures from the Reynolda Gardens. If you go to the Reynolda House, be sure to check out the gardens which are right down the street from the house.

 

Taylor & I actually went to Reynolda Gardens last summer after dinner to hang out, walk, and take pictures.

 

There were some really beautiful flowers and plants. And some strange ones. This plant looks like it should be in a Dr. Seuss book. For real.