"and that's why we always leave a note!"

Philadelphia taught me a lesson yesterday: always, always carry cash with you because you never know when you're accidentally going to get on the freeway to New Jersey, have to turn around in New Jersey, and then pay a toll to re-enter Philly.

(and not have cash and have to dart across 5 lanes of morning commute traffic to park on the side of the road and talk to the supervisor. and then be told (as you're nearly sobbing), that it's okay, you can just go. whhhhheeewwww)

Also, our builders painted our entire house in flat paint, which I discovered yesterday will come off with not only Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but also plain water. When you are painting your house, never, never ever use flat paint. It is almost impossible to clean, especially if your builders didn't prime it correctly.

Lessons learned? Awesome.

[insert witty title here]

Today was full of more adventures. Drove Aaron to school without a hitch (early! he had to be there at 7 this morning for a day full of team building exercises). Walked all the way to Reading Terminal Market, and stopped along the way at H&M, Urban Outfitters, Gap (their body clearance is not nearly as good as Provo's!), and the Paper Source. It was lovely! I didn't even buy anything except $6 worth of fruits and vegetables at the market. Sometimes I have really awesome self-control.

(or maybe I felt guilty that I spent $10 on rainy cupcakes yesterday.)

Road the bus home, which is always an adventure. I would've rather walked, but I was carrying too much stuff, and it was too hot outside. Played Dance Central on the Kinect. Did laundry. Read The Emperor of All Maladies. Glued a puzzle. Got a package from my mom!

Probably this was the best part of my day. I opened it up and there were two books on the New Testament, a note from my mom, a note from my sister Jenny, and some candy! I read Jenny's note and started to cry. (surprise, surprise) It was nice to feel remembered and have a little piece of home in my hands.

garlic knot rolls

I made these rolls yesterday afternoon, while waiting in terror to extricate myself from a parallel parking spot and drive back to University City to pick up Aaron. I was almost out of flour, so I halved the recipe, and it worked just fine.

Oops, size uniformity is not my forte. And, the one on the right had a much more successful knot.

Dough:
3 cups bread flour (or I just used all purpose, and it was fine)
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast (I used dry active yeast and just proofed it before by putting the sugar into the warm water and then adding the yeast to it and letting it sit for 5ish minutes)
1¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup milk
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. lukewarm water (I used warmer than lukewarm water to help activate the yeast)

glaze:
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp. melted butter
½ tsp. Italian seasoning

For the dough, combine the dry ingredient in a stand mixer. Add the olive oil, milk and water.  Mix until ingredients have formed a dough.  Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.  Move the dough to an oiled bowl, flip the dough to oil both sides, and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Once the dough has risen, divide it into 10-12 equally-sized pieces. Roll each piece out to about 10" long and then tie in a knot. I sort of just tucked the ends on the side of the roll. Put the rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover, and let rise for another 45 minutes. To make the glaze, finely mince the garlic, or press with a garlic press. Add to the melted butter, along with the Italian seasoning. Brush over rolls when ready to bake. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes.

These turned out quite good! They had a nice crust to them but were really soft on the inside. Next time, I think I'd try using garlic powder instead of minced garlic because I don't think my basting brush picked up very much garlic when I was brushing the glaze over the rolls. I'd definitely make these again.

Recipe taken from Annie's Eats (she got it from Amber’s Delectable Delights originally from King Arthur Flour). Her explanation has great photos to show how to tie the rolls into cute knots.

coconut frosting, all over the box

I think you're going to see an increase in blogging from me in the next couple weeks, since Aaron is at orientation/class all day, and I am being really productive watching Masterchef on Hulu! Also, I am practicing baking. (see last cookie post, and soon to come garlic knot roll post.)

So far, today has been fairly exciting. This morning I dropped Aaron off at school by way of a different bridge than yesterday. Then, I drove over to Target to buy some much needed hangers (we broke some in the move/never had enough?) and an alarm clock. I then went to ShopRite for groceries and found ground turkey for $2.65 for 1.25 lbs!!!! Wow!!! Excitement!!! We keep finding it for no cheaper than $3.50, so this was a big deal. Next up, laying in bed trying to fall back asleep (it was only 10:00 AM, and I had nothing else to do). When that didn't pan out (too excited over ground turkey!!!), I watched last night's episode of Masterchef, which was more like an episode of Hell's Kitchen.

But wait, this day gets even better! Aaron and I had seen a little dry cleaner place and a cupcake place not too far from where we live, and I thought to myself, I have owned that Express cheetah-lined pencil skirt for two years now and have never cleaned it. This is maybe gross. So what did I do? Grabbed my skirt and went to the dry cleaners! It was raining a little bit, but it was a good thing because it meant it wasn't 90 degrees outside. After the cleaners I went to the cupcake place which had a $10 minimum credit card purchase, and all I had was a dollar cash, so 4 cupcakes it was! I was really excited about these cupcakes because I hadn't bought a cupcake since I dragged Aaron to the Sweet Tooth Fairy back in Provo months ago. But right as I walked out of the store, it started pouring. I started running. But I was too slow, and my house was too far, and my cupcake box got all rainy, and my cupcakes got all smooshed.

really attractive me and a smashed carrot cake cupcake (carrot cupcake?)

It was okay though, because I felt like I really live here (if dry cleaning doesn't say permanence, I don't know what does). It was also nice to get out of the house again, and it was actually sort of pleasant being rained on.

Aaron won't get home until around 7:00 tonight, so who knows what other adventures I'll have!
Have you had any adventures lately?

maybe you should make these

Yesterday, I made these delicious shortbread/almond cookies. I love them because a) they are impossible to screw up, even for me and my tendency to overcook everything, and b) they aren't overly sugary, so you feel like you can eat 12 of them guilt-free (you can't, there's a ton of butter in them).

Back in the day, my old roomie Kellie, who gave me this recipe, and I would make these until we ran out of almond extract. It was the best.

1 c butter
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1 small egg
1 Tbsp almond extract
2 1/2 to 3 c white flour

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and flavoring. Add and stir in the flour and knead by hand a little. Dough should be firm enough to form into a ball and hold a shape. Bake for 10 min or so in 400 degree oven.

(note: I actually never knead by hand because I'm too lazy, and they turn out just fine. Also, they don't spread very much in the oven, so whatever shape you stick them in as is what they're coming out as.)

Bon appetit!

my gps took a long time to find a satellite signal

We did not end up getting to hang out in DC. Some people in our branch needed a ride to the temple, and we were the only ones with extra seats. So to the temple we went! But not into the actual city (where I was going to meet up with my old roomie Kristen).

Maybe I cried a little bit behind my sunglasses, sitting in the front seat. I like planning things, and I'm not too happy when things don't work out.

But I did not cry during our first sunday school lesson yesterday, so that was good!

But then I cried after I got home from driving Aaron to orientation this morning, so I'm back to square one. Parallel parking is not so easy, especially when you have an angry cabbie behind you annoyed that you're blocking the road.

On days like this, I like to listen to this song:

I dream of driveways and garages and lawns. The end.

mint

France, France, France, when can I go back to you?

How about in two years when my brother gets done with his mission to Paris? 

Yes. (okay, Mom?)

(side note: I want to paint my nails the color of that scooter. annnd photo from last summer's toulouse adventure.)

we unpacked in one day. we were very tired the next.

Welcome to our home! Sorry about the crappy photography, I don't know anything about it and my Nikon's been freaking out lately, so we have a double problem.

Clockwise from top left: kitchen, study, master bath (yeah...that tub has jets in it. how did we get so lucky?), the view from our roof deck, one of three staircases in the house, living/dining area, master bedroom, roof deck (thanks for the patio furniture Mom!). middle: laundry room! possibly my favorite room in the whole house, and my washer sings a song when it's done, so what could be happier than that? (thanks for the washer and dryer Wendy!)

I sort of feel a little guilty, because we are supposed to be poor students (and we are, we're $25,000 in debt plus $12 of interest we accrued this week) but we have some realllllyyyyy nice stuff. Like the entire house (all the floors are wood! ah, it's beautiful!). And our furniture. And the washer and dryer. And our tv and sound system (good job Aaron on being spendy with the electronics while you were still single).

Anyway. The house is actually a lot prettier and brighter than the photos make it look. But why take my word for it? Come visit and see for yourself. :)