Dooms Week

So this past week was one of the roughest weeks I've had in college so far. I had a quiz, 2 exams, a lab report, and a banquet, and on top of all that I had cookies to make and send out to my dear friends back in Connecticut!

It was a crazy week, filled with late nights at the library, a failed blood donation (my veins were too small, how sad!) shopping, attempting to go to the gym, and lots and lots of frosting. 

I somehow made it through the week, had an epic time at the banquet, and have 2 dozen successful cookies on their way to Connecticut!

Here's a preview, CT friends!

And Susie Q, there's some here for you too! Made some extras to say:

For having me over for Thanksgiving Dinner!

To all of the people who actually read this, wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm so thankful to have wonderful friends and family :)

Also, side note, it's TSIO (That School in Ohio) week here in Ann Arbor, and I'm desperate to have my last Michigan Football game be a big W to cap off an interesting 4 seasons in the Big House.

Keist, I love you dearly but I'll be calling you with some taunting phone calls after we kick some OSU butt!

Go Blue!

 Go Blue! 

I hope Autumn never leaves!

I'm not feeling particularly descriptive, but I will tell you that I had a great time making these cookies. After following some advice from one of the most talented chefs I know (shoutout Mr. C!) I made a fall set of cookies to add to my collection of pictures.

The school year started off super rainy here in Michigan, but has turned into one of the most beautiful and warm autumns I have ever seen! I hope that we get this weather for a while yet; it's absolutely perfect for Michigan football (6-0!!)

I really wish I had time to carve pumpkins, go to the cider mill, go on a hayride, rake and jump in some leaves, and all of the other fall staples that I'm missing. Hopefully when I'm home this weekend I can make time for at least a couple of those.

As you may know, I play on the Michigan Club Softball team. My team is the greatest group of girls I could have possibly met at my time at Michigan, and I love each one of them dearly. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my teammates in my life. 

We celebrated the beginning of this school year with "Friday Funday" where we tie-dyed, grilled, went bowling, and bonded on a Friday afternoon/evening. 

I was asked to bring a dessert to the event, naturally, so I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. I've made these in the past, but have always cooked the cookie dough on top of the brownies. This time, I decided to make the cookie dough on top raw (no eggs!) because everyone loves raw cookie dough. 

Turned out pretty darn well!

:)

Football Saturday

I go to the best school in the world.


Unrelated to how awesome Michigan is, I made these self-frosting Nutella cupcakes. If I make them again, I'll probably change the recipe. The cake part tasted too much like a muffin and not enough like a cupcake.

They looked pretty though!

First Day of School

I can almost remember (with the help of my mom) my first day of kindergarten. My curly blonde hair was in a bow, I was wearing every color of the rainbow, and my backpack was at my feet. I smiled cheesily at the camera that my dad was holding, gave my mom a kiss goodbye, got on the bus and never looked back. I learned today that my mom then hopped in her car and followed the bus all the way to Pine Grove Elementary School, willing me to look back and give her a smile saying I was alright. Of course I was way to into the new friends I was making, and never even knew that she was following me until today, 16 first day of school-s later.

 Having survived my last first day of school ever, I decided to live up to a promise that I made a friend of mine and make a birthday treat for him. He gave me two requests. Chocolate and coconut. It's unfortunate that I don't even like coconut, because I knew that my taste-testing ability for this dessert would be limited. So the Scarlet Goddess (my mixer - thanks Mom!) is beating away at this batter, and I suddenly have this extreme urge to taste it. Ignoring the fact that there was coconut milk and coconut flakes in the batter, I took a taste. And then 8 more tastes. My goodness this batter is delicious!!! It's chocolate-y without being overbearing, the coconut is subtle, and it comes together in a way that makes it look almost like chocolate mousse. It's almost too bad I had to put them in the oven. Almost. Because I ended up with these:

...which totally makes up for the fact that I had to put that delicious batter in the oven.

They're pretty enough on their own, right? No? I didn't think so.

Everything is better with buttercream. Happy Birthday Tom!

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes from Baking Obsession and Vanilla Buttercream from Savory Sweet Life, then topped with toasted coconut. 

Stars and Stripes Forever

How great is it to be an American? Seriously, we live in a great country.

I hope that everyone has some amazing 4th of July plans. I cleaned my whole house today, woooo. Maybe grilling later?

Yesterday I went to the Detroit Zoo! It was about a million degrees and all of the animals were smart and were hiding from us. Oh well. The best part of the day was the ice wall that keeps the seal tank cool. Part of it is exposed and we stayed at that wall as long as we possibly could.

Anyway, this morning I made cookies! The best way I know to celebrate the good ol' red white and blue is a delicious cookie. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July all!!

Pasta Fresca

I usually come home at around 8:20 on Monday evenings, and the last thing I want to do is cook dinner. Most likely, my dinner will come out of a box or the freezer and will be cooked and consumed in approximately 4 minutes.

Not yesterday, however. I'd been dreaming about Noodles & Co's Pasta Fresca all day. I had all but made up my mind to stop and get some on the way home...until I took a look at my bank account.

Being a poor college student means making sacrifices, and my Pasta Fresca was going to have to be one of them.

After some sadness and mourning, it finally hit me. I have ALL of the ingredients for Pasta Fresca right at home!

...so I made it. YUM.

Pasta Fresca
Inspired by Noodles & Co and adapted from gimme some oven

Saute Ingredients
6 oz pasta, pre-cooked (farfalle, or whatever you have available)
2 roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/3 red onion, large dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
handful of baby spinach leaves
Parmesean Cheese

Fresca Sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine
2 tbsp chopped basil (or parsley, I just had basil on hand)
salt and pepper

Cook pasta until al dente, then drain and set aside. In large skillet, heat 2 tsp olive oil and saute garlic for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, onions, and pasta and saute for 4-5 minutes. As soon as the pasta begins to brown, add the spinach and fresca sauce and saute for 1-2 more minutes. Remove from heat, and serve hot with parmesean cheese on top.

*Note, if you'd like to add any type of protein, pre cook it and then add it to the skillet when you add the tomatoes and onions.

make it. it may change your life.

this is what i had for lunch today.

...it was spectacularly refreshing for this dull, rainy day.

Raspberry Mango Smoothie

1 frozen mango half
1 handful frozen raspberries
1 6 oz container dannon light and fit yogurt
1/4 cup OJ

Blend until awesome.

i've got to get better at posting things on time...

Sometimes I am punctual. When it's things like arriving to class and meetings and lunches, I'm right on time. When it's little chores (read: running errands or paying bills) or posting pictures or doing laundry, I'm the queen of procrastination. I'm not quite sure what it is, but anyway, here's some food that I've made recently.

Best intro to a blog post ever?

brownies with cookie dough topping. baked together into a gooey mess of decadent delicious-ness.

attempted creme brulee cupcakes for my friend John's birthday. Need some modifying, but were a yummy first attempt!

cookies I made for my friends who were moving. they lived at the 5-0-8 for the past year and have now taken their talents to the 1-4-0. hooray for moving!

just a close up because I love the design on the 0 :)



Today I'm going for a run! and it's raining. but I'm looking forward to a fun weekend!!

switching it up

It's summer now. Which means that I'm spending more time reading, sitting outside, taking the dreaded GRE, and hanging out with my friends than baking. It's unfortunate, I know, but sometimes I really don't want to be in the kitchen with a 400 degree oven. I made a frozen treat the other day, frozen chocolate covered banana bites. Partly inspired by something I saw on pinterest, and partly from Arrested Development. There's always money in the banana stand, right?

Mainly I wanted to post today to share another adventure with the few people that actually read my blog. I've wanted to be a runner forever, but always found it unenjoyable and boring. However, that all changed when I saw my good friend Allie back in May. She's a dedicated runner who just started her own blog and just ran her second half marathon! She is my new inspiration and with Skype chats and text messages, she's motivating me to run my first 5k when I'm home in July.

It's the perfect race, because it's for the Petit Family Foundation, an organization that is near and dear to my heart, as well as Allie's and the entire Porter's community. Hayley Petit, who graduated with the Porter's class of 2007, was senselessly murdered in her home along with her sister and mother in July 2007. Her father, a wonderful man, has dedicated his life to continuing the girl's legacy through raising money for MS, etc. The 5k is run every year, but this is the first year I'll be able to participate. I can't think of a better first race. If you want more information about the Petit Family Foundation or want to sponsor me in the race, email me at ashleyrose.mclaury@gmail.com!

So I'm totally still going to bake things. Don't worry. I'm planning a nectarine angel food cake for this weekend. I'm just also going to be running. And talking about that. Because I think this may be the only way to actually hold myself accountable.

Check out my friend Allie's blog! arunnersheart.wordpress.com!

End of the Semester Baking

While finals got in my way most of the time, I did have a little time for some end of the semester baking.

My friend Lyndsay is amazing. She brings me home every Easter to her wonderful family. It's so nice to have a family around Easter when I'm far away from home. To thank her mom, I made these festive Easter cookies:

I had a great time decorating these! It involved Mean Girls (fantastic movies), lots of uncooked cookie dough, and two great friends. Hooray!

In addition to the cookies, I also found some time to make an apple pie for my friend Jackie (and Eric, although I don't know if he actually got any!).

The duo won a Root Beer Pong Tournament at my house to raise money for the American Red Cross!

:)

I'm Sorry :(

I apologize for my lack of blogging. Finals got in the way, and then I was home in CT visiting, and now I'm finally back!

My trip home was great. I flew home to surprise my mom for Mother's Day, and she loved it! It was so nice to be back in CT. I got to see my old neighbors, my high school softball team, some old teachers, some camp friends, some work friends.. phew! it was exhausting, but amazing.

This isn't food haha. This is a gorgeous tree outside my church.

Speaking of church, my mom is usually in charge of the coffee hour/fellowship time after the service, and so since I was home I decided to help! I made chocolate chip cookie bars, and a yellow, fruit filled cake.

and ALSO while I was home, I got to play with my new present from the best mom in the world!!

THAT'S RIGHT! my dream has come true. RED KITCHENAID ARTISAN MIXER. the best of the best.

It made making this:

and this:

so much easier and efficient! I LOVE YOU MOM!!

Project Healthy Food

I'm in a sociology class this semester where I volunteer in a school twice a week to teach nutrition and physical activity lessons to the kids. It's been so eye-opening to the problems with school lunches and the kid's mentality surrounding food.

The girls in my class and I have a final project to do all together before the end of the year, and tonight we're having a potluck to eat some good healthy food and to get some work done on the project.

Naturally I volunteered for dessert, and made Angel Food Cake cupcakes for the occasion.

They're frosted with Cool Whip, and topped with sliced strawberries. The cupcakes that I'm bringing are drizzled in chocolate, because I was craving chocolate covered strawberries.

Hooray for healthy baking and potlucks! AND for the super warm weather we're finally getting! YAY SPRING!

Team Dinner

This Saturday night I had my softball team over for dinner.

We start playing this weekend in Ohio, and were looking for a chance to bond a little off the field so we can play better together on the field.

Playing with my team is the best. They're all smart, wonderful ladies who are also super talented softball players. They're all SO AWESOME.

Anyway, on the menu we have:

Stuffed Shells

Garlic Bread

Cookies (Toffee and Chocolate Chip)

...and the finished plate:

After a couple trips to Ohio, we're off to the Club Softball World Series in Georgia!
Wish us luck, and GO BLUE!

Cooking with Tim

To go along with Baking with Friends, when I got break I made dinner with my friend Tim!

I had been craving risotto for a long time, but was afraid to try making it, because my best friend's dad makes the absolute BEST risotto and nothing can compare ever. I finally gave in and tried it with Tim.

We made lemon, asparagus, and shrimp risotto. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself :)

The asparagus was cooked slightly and then blanched so it was still a little crunchy, just the way I like it!

Risotto mid "mix-for-20-minutes". so long but so worth it!

Best dinner ever.