Dark Chocolate S'mores Bar!

 

If you're like me and want to have s'mores all the time but cant start a fire for her life then this the recipe for youuuu!!!

 

What a intro that was. haha. In my mind that sounds super similar to something on an infomercial. Which by the way, I happen to love. Lame, I know. But these bars are really simple. You'll need everything that a regular campfire s'mores will need. Graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate. I mean what else does one need in life.

 

 

I melted all the chocolate in the microwave and then let it cool. I would like to say that I then prepped all my other ingredient but no, I just stirred it and drizzled it for 5 minutes.

 

 

But once I was done playing with the chocolate, I got my marshmallows, crackers, and my little cutting board ready. 



 



 

I cut my big marshmallows into eight little ones to make them bite size. You can get the little ones but I love the big ones.

 

 

 

Next, crush up the graham crackers. I broke some into little chunks and some into cracker dust.

 

 

Then all you gotta do is throw everything into a bowl and stir it all together.

 

Then put the mixture on a plate or paper to set and throw what you didn't put in the chocolate on top cause it looks super pretty.

 

I even added some extra milk chocolate on the top. I put the melted milk chocolate into some plastic wrap and poked a hole into it. Can we just look how rachet that is. LMAO! Omg, I cant.  

 

It worked though!!



What I do when Im bored...

 

 

Since its summer and I luckily can do whatever it is that I want, I do get bored some days. So one day I went looking for this 'watercolor for kids' thing that my mom had gotten for my cousin which I had stole awhile ago. *insert cheeky grin here* But in all fairness my cousin would have hated it. So anywayyyy, I popped it open and went at it.

 

 

So to begin I had this wonton divider in my house and I cut it just to have six sections, squirted some paint, and poured some water into the containers.

 

The long black and gold stick is the black ink. For some reason that I do not know, they have made that one way cooler than the other colors. I mean its got a golden dragon on it, like c'mon.

What I did with it was poured some water into the little black shallow dish and rubbed the stick in a circular motion and tadaaa, you have black ink! Its a lot more fun than it sounds. haha

 

That brown color just looks like straight up poop. haha

 

 

The pack did come with paper, but I thought it would be cool to do some watercolor art on this notebook that I purchased for Muji. Which totally worked but it looked like really bad. No really, it was pretty bad. So when all else fails, I took a previous painting I had done and taped it to the book. Loopholes!

 

What do you like to do when you're bored?

 

 

 

Blueberry Muffins & Almond Crumb!

 

 

I went to Barnes & Nobles the other day and of course, I plopped my butt down right in the middle of the cookbook section. I was particularly looking for a blueberry muffin recipe cause I had blueberries and the shelf right next to me was holding, the ever so American classic Magnolias Bakery Cookbook!

I know, what a coo-winkie-dink.

 

Anyway, are you one of those people who secretly takes pictures of a recipe to try out before you actually buy the book? Cause I totally do and I can say that I will be purchasing the cookbook.

 

So that means that the recipe is straight from the Magnolias Bakery Cookbook. It's the blueberry muffin recipe and the almond crumb is from the strawberry oat bars. I did change that recipe a bit because I didn't have oatmeal but I did have left over ground almonds from making macarons. So, I thought why the heck not?

 

So to start off preheat your oven to 350 degrees and start preparing all da ingredientz!

 

For the Almond Crumb:

( I took the original recipe and divided into four and it was the perfect amount.)

 

about a 1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup of ground almonds

1/8th of a cup of brown sugar

a little less than a 1/3 of a cup of confectioners sugar 

pinch of cinnamon

1/2 stick of butter

 

My beautiful mathematic calculations for your viewing pleasure.

 

Clockwise:

flour, brown sugar, ground almonds, confectioners sugar, and in the center, the buttah! 

 

 

 Literally all you do is dump everything into a bowl and mix it until you get...

 

THIS!!!

 



Now onto the Blueberry Muffins! You will need:

 

3 cups Flour

¾ cups Sugar, Plus 1 Tablespoon For Sprinkling On Top

1-½ Tablespoon Baking Powder

¾ teaspoons Salt

1-½ cup Buttermilk (whole milk and a squeeze of lemon) ;) I got you.

2 whole Large Eggs, Beaten

6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted, and slightly cooled

1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1-½ cup Blueberries, Dried And Lightly Coated With Flour

 

 

 

Separate the some flour to coat the blueberries.

I froze the blueberries because that will prevent the blueberries from bleeding to much into the muffin and you will be less prone to breaking them when folding them in.

Then get all the wet ingredients and mix together. 

 

 

Make a well and dump in all the wet except for the blueberries.

 

 

 

Mix briefly, then fold in the blueberries covered in flour.

 

 

Scoop into prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-22 mins.

 

Ta-daaaa! They look pale but thats the camera. I swear. They taste exactly like blueberry muffins but the almond crumb makes it taste a little bit more fancy. Like fancy enough for your pinky to be up. :D Not kidding though.

 

It makes 12 muffins or 16 cupcake sized muffins.

 



See, I told you. Not that pale.

 



 

I added a nice sugary drizzle because I wanted them a touch more sweeter plus it looks so freaking good with it.

 



 

L.I.C Food and Flea!

 

** All but one of the pictures in this post are not mine. The hunger that day was so real, I could not for the life of me wait to take pictures. I was totally in the moment and I can only blame myself... and the fork that was already in my hand before I even got the food.**

ANYWAYYYY...

 

Last weekend I got the chance to finally see my cousin, since I hadn't seen her in quite some time, and we decided to head to the LIC Food and Flea Market which was only a 30 minute walk away from her place. I might be exaggerating there because we did stop for doughnuts on the way there. I mean would it really be okay to not stop for doughnuts? I don't think so.

 

We ate such a copious amount of food that day and I still want to go back to try some more stuff. We skipped out on the fries and bubble tea cause we were too full and it was a tragedy. So to keep this post sorta short I only named my top three.

 

 So once we did make it there with our doughnut remnants which were merely crumbs, the first thing we had was a Okonomiyaki topped with original sauce

at the Oconomi booth. It's a Japanese cabbage pancake which is fried like a... uh.. well... pancake. Haha. Its crispy on both sides and it wasn't filled with filler and it wasn't soggy which was awesome. I also just found out that I should have had it with both original and white sauce. Shame on me. (You can't see but I'm shaking my head.)



http://myoconomi.blogspot.com/

 

Next up was a glorious personal pizza baked on a mini wood pizza oven. That's totally not what its called but Im gunna go with it. We had the classic that was topped with mozzarella and basil. It was so gooddddd! Like always the mozzarella burned the top of my mouth because I can never wait for pizza to cool down. Ever. Now in my mind whenever I think about pizza,  I think about Joey Tribbioni from Friends and the exact thoughts I was having was

"Cheese. Good.

Basil. Good.

Sauce. GOOD!"

Seriously that sauce though.



Last up and by far my absolute favorite... drum roll please... BUTCHER BAR!
Oh man. Let me tell you. This beef brisket sandwich was the bomb diggity. It was on a brioche bun, which was shiny as hell, with brisket, slaw, cucumbers, some sauce, some fiery smokiness, some tender lovin', and who knows what else. All I know was that this sandwich was perfection. It was creamy from the slaw, smokey from the crust of the brisket, and a teensy bit vinegary from the cucumbers, which were soaked in some magical elixir, but it wasn't at all heavy. Try eating that and overlooking the Hudson river and tell me that isn't the best day ever.


http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/116957-the-secret-of-the-lic-flea-food-market/

 

Mario Badescu Facial Spray Review!

I recently popped into the Urban Outfitters on 34th Street to do some Spring/Summer shopping. It's one of my favorite stores to go to in the city and I always spend hours upon hours in there. Is it weird that one of my favorite parts about all Urban Outfitters is that they use a lot of wood fixtures rather than metal ones? That's such a weird thing to like about a store...haha.

Anyway, I ended up picking up some goodies for my summer wardrobe but one of the things I got on a whim was the Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater. I first fell in love with the cute homemade packaging and then the rose smell after I spritzed it on my hand.

Its main purpose is to hydrate your skin or to set your makeup. I use it for both and I absolutely love it! Its hydrating and calming to the skin and BONUS it smells like roses! Can you tell I really like the smell of roses yet? But don't worry, if you're not a fan of the smell, it doesn't very last long. Actually, more like the first 5-10 seconds. Haha. It also doesn't leave any sticky residue either.

What are some of your face products?

 

 Red Velvet Cupcakes for Easter!
 



 

 

These are definitely my all time favorite red velvet cupcakes. Funny fact, I bought the decoration at a Home Goods around February and I couldn't wait to use them so I made these cupcakes for Chinese New Year. What can I say I'm impatient and the decoration looked too cute for me to wait. Haha.

I really do love these cupacakes, though. I've worked on this recipe over the years and adapted them the way I felt necessary. They're super moist, fluffy, and not too sweet.

 

Ingredients :

2 1/2 cups All Purpose or Cake Flour (I prefer Cake*)

1 1/2 cup Sugar

1tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

1 1/4 cup Buttermilk

2 Eggs (room temperature)

1 Tsp Vanilla

3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 Tsp Distilled Vinegar

1 Tbsp red dye

 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounce of Cream Cheese (1 block)

6 Tbsp Butter

Confectioners Sugar (to taste*)

1 Tsp Vanilla

2-4 tsp of milk  

Whipped Cream*  

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line your cupcake tin and set aside.

Measure and combine all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

In a even smaller bowl combine the red dye, vinegar, and cocoa powder to make a brownish reddish paste.

Then measure out and combine the rest of the wet ingredients in a larger bowl. Finally mix your dry mixture into your wet one and add the paste you made earlier.

Scoop the batter evenly into your prepared cupcake liners. I usually go about 2/3 of the way, since these cupcakes do rise.

Bake for 22 minutes.

 

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

 Add the Cream Cheese and mix until smooth. Then throw in the butter and mix into the cream cheese. I do this just to make sure there is no lumps in the cream cheese. Then throw in the sugar and vanilla. Only add the milk to get the right consistency but if you think it's nice and creamy, then don't add any milk in. Whip until fluffy or 5-7 minutes. Then fold in the whipped cream. I usually set it in the fridge for a bit but you can use it right away.

 

 

*I only prefer cake flour for cupcakes or cakes is because it gives a softer and tender crumb.  

* I start with 1 cup and gradually go up by about 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar. I usually use about 2 1/4 cups total but sometime I use less. Just keep tasting it to your preferred sweetness.

* Whipped cream is optional but I really like soft cupcakes with beyond fluffy almost cloud like frosting. I also add it because I don't like a strong cream cheese taste and the whipped cream helps to soften that strong flavor. So I add about 1/2 cup of whipped cream and it does the trick. Once the whipped cream is in, don't over whip. You'll start to make butter and buttermilk. (The whipped cream doesn't have to be exactly 1/2, its just to add more air into the frosting.)

 

White on white

 

As a New Yorker I completely in love with wearing black everything. I'm seriously not kidding. Literally for every article of clothing that I own there is always one in black.  I think that all black outfits are just a classic combo for every day and night. However, I been loving all white outfits recently. 

Even though it doesn't sound that big of a difference its really a complete 360. Where as with all black outfits everything kind of just works with everything but white outfits can tend to wash you out if its not properly pieced together. Its all about the combination of all the textures and accents of accessories that really put it together. The roll ups, the lace, the cuts and rips...

 

http://www.freepeople.com/march-2015-catalog/ride-on-the-tide-kimono/

 

http://www.freepeople.com/customer-favorites/mi-amore-lace-dress/_/PRODUCTOPTIONIDS/12B8C951-1A20-4EE1-BF90-10C3E51E5A64/

 

 

 

http://www.freepeople.com/customer-favorites/fitted-with-daisies-dress/_/PRODUCTOPTIONIDS/12B8C951-1A20-4EE1-BF90-10C3E51E5A64/

https://www.pinterest.com/Prenkolnikaj/fashion/

 

 

 

http://www.zara.com/us/en/woman/tops/flounce-sleeve-top-c358004p2497026.html

Which outfit is your favorite?