Sunday, February 16, 2014

In my last post I mentioned trying origami for the first time, and it has officially become one of my many wacky obsessions. Yesterday I basically spent the entire day doing origami, and so far I have made ten cranes, a cat, a pig, two swans, a water lily, an owl, a peacock, a teeny-tiny tulip, and a very dilapidated dolphin.

Just for fun, (and also because I'm dreadfully bored) I'm going to give you a list of some of my obsessions.

Obsession #1: Tea

I have mentioned in past posts that I'm a tea nut, and it's true. In fact I'm drinking tea as I type. Here's a list of my top five favorite teas:

1: Matcha, a Japanese powdered green tea that is super-duper healthy.

2: Pomegranate Raspberry with Matcha, by Stash (fruity and delicious)

3: Zen, by Tazo (herbal and calming)

4: Spiced Chai, by Stash (rich and flavorful)

5: Earl Grey, by Bigelow (What can I say? It's a classic!)

I definitely recommend trying these teas ASAP!!

Obsession #2: Making Lists

I'm pretty sure that the first obsession with a list inside this list explains this. 

Obsession #3: My Cat, Jewels

Everyone thinks that their pet is the best in the universe, but I know for a fact that mine is. Jewels is my best friend, and she goes by many names. My Dad calls her Stupidcat, Mom calls her Nuisance
when she barfs on the rug, and Sister and I just call her Kitty, which strangely, she responds to better than her actual name, Jewels. 

Obsession #4: Pasta 

When I was little, I ate nothing but noodles, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I still have not outgrown this, but I do eat other foods now, haha! My favorite type of pasta is mac and cheese, and the best mac and cheese on the face of the earth is a tie between three places: Panera Bread's, Noodles and Company's, and our homemade family recipe. 

Obsession #5: Minions from Universal Studio's Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2

Who can resist a chubby, yellow, overall-wearing, blabber-talking little thing? They are so funny and full of mischief! I literally crack up at every single minion scene in these two movies and have a picture of them as the background for my phone.

Obsession #6: Nail Polish

This one is the kind of embarrassing one, that people would be surprised to know about me. I may be a bit rough and tough, hey, every girl has a flair for fashion deep down, right?

Obsession #7: Dancing!

This one is a biggie. I've always LOVED dancing, every since I was three. Actually, I didn't start dancing because I was interested, but because I had HORRIBLE pigeon toes and had leg braces until I was three. Once I got out of the braces, my therapists recommended ballet because it would help me keep me toes pointed outward. I now dance a little ballet and Irish Step, and not to brag, but my Irish Step dance team has won a competition.  Just sayin'. 

Obsession #8: Reading

I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading!!!!! My favorite book is The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer. Some of my recipes that I've posted on here are from this book.

Obsession #9: Disney's Frozen

Sister and I went to see this on Christmas Eve, and it was SPECTACULAR!!!! It was by far the best movie my eyeballs have ever witnessed.

Obsession #10: Julia Child/cooking/baking/anything that has to do with those subjects

While most kids dream about getting video games or bracelets or whatever for Christmas, I dream about a KitchenAid stand mixer and Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle.

Obsession #11: Violin Music
I play the violin, and I really enjoy it! I like classical music a lot, but I really like when violin is put with modern music, such as dubstep. The two couldn't be more different, and I think that's what makes it sound so awesome!!

I told you I had a lot of obsessions. 

Valentine's Day 2014

Happy Valentine's Day! As you can see, I made some updates on here
for this holiday. Snazzy, huh?

Some people celebrate Valentine's Day by giving their loved ones boxes of candy and flowers and adorable fluffy teddy bears holding squishy hearts and say "I love you!" when you squeeze it's paw, and those things are great, (who doesn't love a big ol' thing of chocolate and a teddy?) but I did something pretty wacky, and I have to say, awesome! 

ORIGAMI!!

For those of you who don't know what origami is, it's a Japanese "sculpture" made by folding paper. It's really complex and several times throughout the making of my very first origami that I did this afternoon I found myself saying, "How the heck is this mangled wad of paper supposed to turn into a bird?!"

But it did, and it turned out ADORABLE!! I made a little bird out of light pink paper and drew hearts on the wings with a red pen.

Totally cute, right?

Another winter storm has come. I swear if we get ANY MORE SNOW I will punch something. Maybe I could go outside and punch the snow. Maybe not, it would go POOF  and I get a face full of snow. 

Anyway, with all of the snow days that our local school system has been having, I've been getting creative.  I was outside the other day, trying to make a snowman like every other kid that's outside in the snow. It really wasn't working, so I sat down. I noticed how pretty our neighborhood is in the snow and I was tired from my unsuccessful snowman effort, so just sitting and enjoying the scenery seemed like it would be nice.  I couldn't reach the lawn chairs and everyone else was doing something, so I brainstormed! 

I decided to make a snow couch.

I worked and worked on it, and finally it was to the point where I could sit on it, but it was more of a snow chair than a snow couch. I went outside and finished it a couple days later. Not to brag, but it's pretty darn awesome.

The Marvelous Snow Couch, complete with footstool

Stay warm, everyone!

February 4, 2014

Aaah! I haven't been on here in forever! Between being sick and my overly demanding school schedule, I haven't had much spare time. (And the time that I have, I'm pretty much brain-dead from aforesaid demanding school schedule.)

Well, all of Indiana is holding their breath. A huge snowstorm is about to hit us, and everyone has been going a little COOKOO over this. People have been talking for the past two weeks, "I heard that we are getting thirty inches of snow!" "I heard that we were going to have forty..." My mother went to the grocery store this morning and came back bearing news of people rushing around in frenzies to get their milk and eggs, but other people count Krispy Kreme doughnuts and beer as their snow-in essentials. School has been let out early, and I find it hard to believe that Sister would be skipping off to school without at least a delay. We obviously aren't going to have thirty inches of snow, (we're not in Minnesota, for Pete's sake) but it sounds that whenever this hits, it's going to be fast and furious. We could be getting two inches of snow an hour!

More later. Stay warm, everybody! ;)

January 13, 2014

Ugh. Monday. Even though I'm usually glad to get back to the books, (I know, I'm a total a geek) Monday is still a drag. It's gray, windy and kinda chilly. My longer leg is cramping.  So far, it hasn't been the best of days.

So I'm going to do something crazy! Post pictures! And recipes! Everybody needs something to get them through the Monday Morning Blues, so here goes! (Also, I can't think of anything to write...)

Winter Neighborhood

Sunset over Clouds (yes, this is real! I didn't photoshop it a bit!)

We need some spring color up in here!

And we can't let summer feel left out...

Hello Horsey!

You have no clue how much I love this cute little lily picture!

I could post  pictures all day, but then I'd run out of pictures and have no more to post! And we can't let that happen! So on to the recipe part of this whole shabang!

I'm a tea nut, so I love a good cup of tea on a cold, windy day! But like I said, I'm a tea nut, so I love a good cup of tea any day! Here's my recipe for a perfect cup of tea.

Hannah's Perfect Cup of Tea

1: Fill your favorite microwaveable mug with water.

2: Microwave for 45 seconds to a minute.

3: Select your favorite tea, (bagged or otherwise) and let steep for 30 seconds to a minute. If you're drinking green tea, don't let it steep more than two minutes or it will become bitter!

4: Add your preferable amount of your favorite sweetener and stir.

5: Enjoy!

 What's better than a scone with tea? Pretty much nothing! Here are two of my favorite scone recipes from one of my favorite books, The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer.

Chocolate Chip Scones

 2/3 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces 

1 egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tbsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. tea (I use a chocolate hazelnut tea)

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt in a big bowl. Cut in butter. In a different bowl, whisk the egg, vanilla, and buttermilk together. Slowly add the wet mix to the dry mix. Stir until even. Add the tea. Knead the dough until it's one big ball. Roll out the dough until it's 1 inch thick or less. Use a cookie cutter to make small circles. Put circles on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with milk. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Serve warm.

Makes about 12 scones.

Parmesan Berry Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup strawberries, sliced to desired size 

1/2 tsp. tea leaves ( I use green tea)

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix dry ingredients together first, then cut in the butter. Stir in beaten egg and add cheese and berries. Add tea leaves. Slowly add the buttermilk to form a thick doughYou might need more than the given measurement. Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick. Cut into 2 inch triangles or circles. Place scones on a greased cookie sheet and brush tops with milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool, serve warm.

Makes about 12 scones.

Bon Appétit!

January 10, 2014

Finally! The winter weather curse has been lifted! Sister is back to school, Dad is back to work, and Mom and I are peacefully doing school once more. It feels good to be back. A two week break seems like a great deal, but it gets long. Especially when you have three snow days and two two-hour-delays tacked on to it.

Last year, we didn't get my books finished, so we were going to finish them over the summer. Mom/Teacher had it planned out pretty well, but guess how long that lasted? About a week. With Sister off school and plenty of time to kill, she took a babysitting job where the six-year-old girl came here at 6:30 am and left at 4:30 pm. She's a sweet kid, very pleasant, pretty easy to please... but there's always a catch. She had an attention span of a fly that has consumed four Pixi Stiks. Let's just put it this way: she went through sixteen years worth of toys in two weeks. So needless to say, I didn't complete my books. So we spent August-December 2013 finishing the previous grade.  When school resumed this week, I finally began my new new books!!

I always like starting new books, but these are very different than last year. Even though Mom only has me to teach, it's taking us longer to get through a full day of school. Some days it doesn't even happen. I have more homework, and chores, and schoolwork to make up.

To put it simply: This grade is kicking my butt. I'm maintaining my grades, but I definitely don't just float through them. More later. I have homework to do!

January 6, 2014

Well. This stinks.

Indiana has been "pounded" by this dumb winter storm. Yesterday I was super excited because we were supposed to get TONS of snow, but today I wake up to find barely any more snow than we already had and subzero temperatures.

Great. Just great.

So, of course, today was called as a snow day. As is tomorrow. Prolonging our two week break two more days. Two more days of nothing. We are snowed in, but it's too cold to go outside and enjoy the snow.  Mom's busy planning for school, The Sister has already hung out with me a little and needs go hibernate back in her room. There's only so much a gal can do on her own.

Basically, I'm going nuts.

I really hate winter. Can  you tell?

January 1, 2014

Wow! I can't believe it's New Year's Day! Where has the time gone? Is it just me, or did 2013 go really fast? Anyway, I may not have attended the Ball Drop in NYC, but I did have a pretty great New Year's Eve! Basically, all I did was watch the IU/Illinois game at my family's friends' house and play video games with their son.

Oh, and I made a rockin' cake.

It is a chocolate almond cake with chocolate buttercream icing that is decorated with almonds pressed gently into the icing from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. One by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and Julia Child. Is it weird that I obsess over anything that has to with Julia Child/cooking/food in general?

Wait, don't answer that.

Anyway, I put a ring of almonds on the sides and then made a big "I U" on top. It looked and tasted absolutely divine.

We got home from our friends' house at about 11:45pm, so we crashed on the couch and flipped on the TV just in time to watch the ball drop. Then I went to bed quicker than you can say "Happy New Year!"

Today was very peaceful. I slept in, watched The Andy  Griffith Show and the Brady Bunch (gotta love the oldies!)

Then I took a bath.

I usually don't take baths, but for some obscure reason I decided to today. I waited and waited for the tub to get full, then I flopped around trying to wash myself. After I was finally clean, dry, and dressed, I stomped outside huffing, "On what planet is that relaxing?" Long story short, I ended up with water in my ears and a vow in my brain never to take a bath again. Only showers.

But all Bath Frustration was quickly buried with two hours of Wii with Mom and Dad and two helpings of Stroganoff Hamburger Helper for dinner!

Happy 2014, everybody!