Kitchen Adventures (2): Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies

Hey all! I know I skipped a couple weeks of baking, but yesterday I got together with friends Lisa and Amanda, and we baked away! I made Triple-Chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie Cookies from Chelsea's Messy Apron, while Amanda & Lisa made bread from Alexandra Cooks' recipe (the bread won't be featured in this post, though it was delicious). My cousin, Kendra, also hung around most of the time, so it was a fun girl's morning with chatting and nail polish-painting included.

Prepare yourselves for picture overload, because mine didn't turn out blurry this time, and Lisa took some. :)

Left: Me, about to add pudding mix to the bowl. Please ignore my scary face.
Right: Adding the hot fudge to the other ingredients.
(Photos courtesy of Lisa)

These cookies were super easy to make—you just mix all the ingredients together, form little cookie balls, then bake.

Left: Our workstation, with me mixing everything together in the back. (Photo courtesy of Lisa)
Right: Chocolate chip time!

Left: The cookies right before they went into the oven.

Right: FRESH COOKIES.

The recipe says to add chocolate chips to the top before you bake, if you want them looking extra pretty, and next time I make these I think I'm going to do that; the chips will make them look that much better!

And now for the cookie "glamour" shots!

All in all, a pretty lovely morning.

L to R: Me, Lisa, Amanda

Until next time!

Weekend Read-a-thon [May 19-20]

So as I said in this post I'm going to have a read-a-thon this weekend. It will be from 10:30am on Saturday till 10:30pm on Sunday. As like last time updates will be on my goodreads & twitter accounts. The books I plan to read are . . .

1. Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
2. Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
3. Mistwood by Leah Cypess

I'm shooting for 3 books, though I don't think I'll get through them all. This list is all based on if I am able to finish City of Lost Souls and Black Dawn by the weekend. So hopefully by Monday I'll have finished at least 4 books. *crosses fingers and toes*

Reading Slumps & Read-a-thons

I've found myself in a bit of a reading slump lately. I have to keep reminding myself whenever I have downtime to read, otherwise I would be on my computer all the time. The good thing is that it's not as bad as one of my previous ones. I was barely reading at all, taking 2-3 weeks to finish a book instead of 2-3 days.

To try and get out of this slump I think I'm going to have another Weekend Read-a-thon. This weekend I might be visiting my aunt for Mother's Day, so the read-a-thon will be next weekend, May 19-20. Early next week I'll make an official post about it.

I don't really know what else to say, but this post feels unfinished. Hmmm . . . now I've forgotten what I was going to type, so have a good weekend!

My Week in Review [4/2]

So this past week I have been in the Great Smoky Mtns. for spring break. And it's been so much fun! Although it did storm in the afternoon the last few days. I did a little hiking, a bit a shopping, and a lot of lounging around. I also took lots of pictures, which I'm gonna share here!

This is the view from our cabin.

This is the side of our cabin that I took as we were leaving, so it's a bit cut off.

This is part of the view from the Apple House, a restaurant we went to on Tuesday.

My Week in Review [2/27]

So, lots of things happened this week. First, my cousin had her baby, a girl named Toren Madyson. Isn't she adorable?!

Second, a semi-truck tipped over on its side coming off the bridge on the southbound side of the highway, but they had to close all but one lane of traffic on the northbound side.

 That happened at 10 in the morning and they didn't get the truck righted again until around 2 pm. I had exams that day, and got out at noon, so had lunch then hung out at Barnes & Noble until the bridge was clear as I had to go southbound to get home. 

Third, a big car accident happened at the intersection right outside my house. Me, my mum, and our tenant were in the living room when we heard the crash.

 The SUV ran the stop sign and hit the Lincoln, which was crossing the intersection. The Fire Dept. had to take the roof off of the Lincoln to get the driver out.

 The really lucky thing was that the Fire Station and Hospital were only about 2 blocks away. As we were looking out the window, I saw a cop running down the sidewalk to the accident, then about a minute later cop cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance came to the scene. I never really found out how bad the guy that got hit was, but I do know that he was transferred to a bigger hospital in a much bigger city about an hour away.

And, last but not least, my aunt stayed over two nights after getting back from Tennessee to visit my cousin (the one who had the baby), because her home-county issued a State of Emergency alert because of the major storm blowing through.

On top of all that I had exams Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Hope you all had an interesting week, too.

My Current Obsessions

The reason I am up after midnight the day of exams is because of Tiny Tower. I started the game yesterday, and already I have 10 floors, and 20 residents, 1 of which is in his dream job. I have 4 apartment floors, a sushi bar, a bookstore, a planetarium, a soda brewery, and a laundromat in my tower. I really, really like this game.

I'm also really into Scramble With Friends, so much so that I got my mom, cousin, and aunt kinda addicted to it as well. I'm kinda good at it too, which makes me happy because I'm never really good at any type of word games.

The Statistical Probability of Me Getting Better Before Exams

Well, I'm still sick, and it really sucks. I'm soooooo bored. I went for a half day yesterday, and found out I don't have much make-up work to do, but I am exactly 3 weeks away from exams. I missed a few grammar lessons in Spanish, and I can't do the work because I have no idea what is supposed to happens to certain words when put with certain other words. And I'm soo confused.

I'm considering getting the book The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, hence the title of this post. I was on Goodreads and saw a positive review for it from one of my friends, but at the moment I'm entered in a couple giveaways for it, so I'll wait till those end before I go get it. 

I have this feeling like I'm not reading as much as I should be, like with the Debut Author Challenge I'm in, I feel like I should have read at least two books by now, when I haven't read any. Same thing with the TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I have 25 book set to read, and I've only read 3 of them, but I feel like I should have more done.

Weekend Read-a-thon

While I was browsing through my blogroll today, I came across a couple of read-a-thons going on this weekend, and about an hour ago I decided I was going to have my own read-a-thon this weekend. Starting at 10:30am until 10:30pm today and tomorrow, I am going to try a read as much as I can. My goal is to read 3 books this weekend, and the ones I plan to read are:

1. Frostbite by Richelle Mead

2. The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

3. My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

I'm thinking that every so often I'll have one of these, and I'll put the cute little button I just made on all related posts. I'll post progress updates over on my goodreads & twitter accounts, and then do a wrap-up post here.

Books Everywhere!!

I just spent 2 hours in Starbucks writing down all of the books that I have on my bookshelves. Then I counted them all up, and my total was 287. 287!!! I knew it was over 200, but I didn't expect it to be that high. I also have about 25 books sitting next to one of my book shelves as well.

*Blue bookcase is not up to date.