P&PS

ON REPEAT The Newsroom Macro lenses Criminal Minds Online shopping Cooking while listening to audiobooks Sewing Christmas presents FAVORITES FOOD: Crustless pumpkin pie BOOKS: Soulless by Gail Carriger, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabladon, and Rise and Shine by Anna Quidlen TV SHOW: The Newsroom MEMORIES: Making lotion all afternoon, Sewing presents with mom, Christmas at grandma’s

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's inevitable when you cook three meals a day from scratch, but over the last couple of years I've gotten better at finding shortcuts and making use of my time.  While my system is far from perfect, having sources for good recipes and inspiration *cough*pinterest*cough* has helped a lot. So while I’m not sure how much interest there is in this sort of thing, I thought it might be helpful to some people if I shared some of what I've found. I'm also kind of curious to see how my (newish) menu planning tracks over time as I don't have any sort of record outside of the occasional tweet. In the past I’ve mainly cooked the same couple of dishes, with seasonal variation, but since I’ve been trying to find less labor intensive ways of cooking, I’ve been experimenting more with other things. I’m intending this series to cover what I cooked (generally in one day) for the week as well as any menu considerations outside of my insisten...

I really love these brownies so I thought I would post my modified recipe here for anyone who’s interested. To start, the recipes I based my brownies off of is this recipe for fudgy pumpkin brownies , using this paleo coconut flour brownie recipe in place of the recommend gluten free brownie mix. The Brownies 3/8 cup coconut flour 1/2 cup carob powder 1/3 cup coconut oil 3 eggs 3/4 cup coconut milk, canned 1/2 tsp stevia (see notes below) 1/4 tsp baking soda pinch salt The Pumpkin Mixture 1/2 cup coconut cream (I used the cream off of a can of coconut milk) 1/2 cup pumpkin puree 1 egg 1 1/2 TBSP pumpkin pie spice 2 tsp lemon juice (apple cider vinegar also works) 1 tsp stevia (see notes below) A quick note on stevia. I use nunaturals stevia which doesn’t have any filler in it. Depending on the brand you use, you’re going to want to use more stevia, in my experience generally about twice as much, but you’re going to have to play around particularly with the brow...

Since The Newsroom has started up again, I thought it was about time I share my MacKenzie inspired necklace. Since I know there's a far chance some of you share my love for her necklace I figured I would put together a quick DIY; the basics are covered in the video below, in depth instructions, tips, and suggestions for alterations are covered in the rest of the post. Supplies:  Pliers (2 pairs of needle nose pliers, and a pair with wire cutters) A ruler A 20” (50 cm) length of gold chain A clasp 7-15 jump rings 5 flat circular gold charms Specfically, your chain needs to be cut into three segments, one 18” (46cm) in length and two 1” (2cm) pieces. With the charms anything goes. The original charms are embossed 1/2” (1 cm) diameter discs in yellow and rose gold. Here’s a link to Dominique Cohen’s post on their necklace if you’re interested in the original.Since I was upcycling a bunch of old necklaces, I used gold charms with Greek emblems. Plain gold discs woul...

ON REPEAT Thanksgiving leftovers Meal planning The Newsroom NaNoWriMo (Birthday) balloons Video editing Photoshop Reading FAVORITES BOOKS: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde; A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki TV SHOW: T he Newsroom MUSIC: Hiding Place (Miranda Frigon); Hate to See Your Heart Break (Paramore ft. Joy Williams) GAME: Double Freecell MEMORIES: Trying to find parking to go vote, Skype chats with friends, Walking to the library in the snow, 3D puzzle making on Thanksgiving