The paperweight I made.

So a few weeks ago, right before Halloween, I went with a friend to a glassblowing class. My friend got a LivingSocial deal for a class for 2 and she took me along with her! It was SO fun.

Ok, so I say that it was fun (and it was), but it started off terrifying. We got to the cute little studio--a garage next to the artist's house--and met the other ladies who were taking the class that night. Then the artist explained some concepts and demonstrated what we would be doing that night: making a paperweight. No, a paperweight might not sound glamorous and it doesn't actually involve glassblowing (only turning and shaping) but it was the fastest, easiest way for the artist to teach beginners some of the techniques of glassblowing while still allowing them to take something home at the end of the 2 hour session.

Oh, the scary part you ask? That would be the demonstration of what we were going to do that night. We stood close to the fire, turned the glass on the stick (I'm not using technical terms because who would know anyway, right?), and I even shaped molten hot glass with nothing but a wad of wet newspapers between my skin and the glass. All through the demonstration, the artist warned us to keep our hands here, don't touch that, make sure to do this. And it was so scary! One slip up and you have third degree burns! Needless to say, the other ladies in the group were too afraid to go first so I had to step up. It was actually a lot of fun and I felt really proud of myself afterward. I felt even prouder when I saw my finished product!

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend giving glassblowing a try--it's a really unique activity and makes a great story.

I will just start by saying that this recipe is amazing. It's the Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce and I love it. Whenever I make this pasta, I always consider doubling the recipe because I just CANNOT get enough. I could just eat and eat and eat this pasta all day long (and I have tested this, much to my waistline's regret). I have even, through sheer desperation, hand pureed (with the sub-par help of a potato masher) the red peppers because I didn't have a food processor or blender available. Now that's love!

I would classify the recipe as a weekend recipe mostly because roasting the red peppers takes quite a while (45 minutes-1 hour) but if you can, by some miracle, manage to find this ever-elusive roasted red pepper puree that Ree refers to in her recipe, you could save a bunch of time! Ree roasts her peppers on the gas burner in her walk-thru but I usually broil them in the oven because it's easier to do with large amounts of peppers and it keeps the mess constrained to the cookie sheet.

I will also note that the orichette pasta is almost mandatory because it makes this recipe so much better. This is now my favorite pasta "shape" as it "cups" the sauce and just really enhances the eating experience. I also like that it has a thicker/tougher texture than many pastas. The heavy cream in the recipe is not necessary as any milk or milk/cream combination will work. I've even used skim milk and didn't miss the extra fat of cream. The recipe is that good!

So, in summary, try this recipe, make it today, and EAT IT ALL.

No, sun tea is not the same as plain old iced tea. The tea bag is slowly heated up by the sun warming the water rather than the quick process normally used to make iced tea where boiling water heats up the tea bag. For some reason, there's a difference and it's a delicious one. Maybe it's in the expectation--you have to let the tea sit all day before it's ready to drink but then it's a refreshing escape into the coolness of ice, water, and a little something extra.

For me, sun tea has always been an important part of the warmer parts of the year. My mom has always made sun tea in the Spring and Summer for my brother and I. We live in Maryland which is technically a Southern state but really identifies with the North. In the South, the iced tea is always sweet and in the North it's usually unsweetened. We like it right in the middle. Because of this, my Mom always sweetened her tea but only the tiniest bit. It's terrific!

My Mom uses Rose brand tea in her sun tea but there are a lot of things you could do to make sun tea different from regular iced tea. Add mint or used a fruit-flavored tea and the possibilities are endless!

As I mentioned in this post, I have gathered quite a collection of artwork--a combination of modern stuff, thrift store finds, and even stuff I've done myself. I have a little bit of an art obsession, you might say. So it's always exciting to find and purchase a new piece! I have been following this artist's blog and etsy shop for a while and she is having a May Day sale this week so I decided to make a move and purchase the print shown above.

I love thinking about the colors and how they will fit into my current color scheme--or as I'm moving, how they will direct my future color scheme--and where they would look best. It's a great way to change up a space without any intensive redecorating. Plus, there's the excitement of knowing you've supported an artist and now own a piece of creativity and inspiration. I just think that's pretty cool.

Bread pudding is one of those wonderful things in life. It's like french toast, pudding, and cake made a delicious baby and you get to eat it. What more could you possibly want in a dessert than bread, cream, butter, and cinnamon? Except maybe fruit but there are plenty of ways you can use fruit in or with bread pudding. Because it rocks like that!

Recently my boyfriend and I have been on a bread pudding mission. There's a bakery near my apartment and since I'm moving next month, we knew we needed to try the bakery's bread pudding before I moved. A series of unfortunate events occurred and we tried for weeks to get a hold of a piece of the bakery's bread pudding to no avail. Yesterday, though, we FINALLY completed our mission. Chef Lou's bread pudding is a little different than normal with a bit of lemon and rum mixed in with all the typical goodies but it was delicious and we each got two pieces so we could save one to savor the next day. I just finished my piece and I am already sad that it's gone.

So here's to bread pudding! May you continue to be bready, sweet, and delicious!

I'm sure many of you just looked at this picture and sneezed. Despite my own allergies, I love flowering trees. They are a very visual signal that Spring has come and they are also just gorgeous! Trees are many colors: green, yellow, red, etc; but flowering trees are the rare and delicate pinks and whites that our minds really crave when Spring is in the air.

Flowering trees are rare and only last for a few weeks. Dogwoods may bloom for a little longer than a few weeks but the cherry blossoms and Bartlett pears are only around for a little while. So get out there, appreciate them while they are out, and love that Spring!

Despite their reputation, I think road trips are awesome. My dad's side of the family lives in Ohio so we always had long road trips to visit family for Easter, Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving. It's an 8-hour drive so we would get up really, really early (3am!) and get a head start before all of the traffic. Being a kid, I would just sleep through most of those awful early hours. My brother never liked sitting still so road trips were a little harder for him but I enjoyed looking out the windows and seeing familiar landmarks along the way. We have our own stories of making pit stops at certain areas and those are memories I'll always have.

Now that I'm not 8 years old, I still really enjoy road trips. In high school, my mom, brother, and I went on a two-week long road trip to Colorado and back. That was a blast--we saw so much! A few years later we drove up to Nova Scotia which was also a great trip. Now I have a friend who is planning a cross-country trip to California and I am so jealous. I wish I was going along, seeing new places, staying in bizarre motels on the side of the road, and just seeing more of this weird-yet-beautiful country we live in. I may not always love the people, but I think I will always love the land.

In any case, it's perfect weather out there so hop in the car, fasten your seat-belts, get out the map, and let's go!

This past weekend, the heat wasn't working so I was forced to spend the whole two days under the warm covers in my bed. But don't feel sorry for me: I had a GREAT weekend and didn't miss out on anything! there is nothing quite like feeling cool air on your face and having your body be warm and cozy. It was truly relaxing and made me appreciate winter and the time it gives us to slow down and relax from the constant activity of the rest of the year. You should try it sometime!

There's no better reason to celebrate with your friends and family!

Wunderlist is an awesome to-do list application that I have recently discovered. Things were getting sort of ridiculous at work because I was juggling 12 different projects and needed to know where they each were. On top of that, I routinely work with a programmer to develop tools and need to make lists of things for him to do (so I can come up with a long list of really nit-picky things and then give it to him). Wunderlist is perfect for this because IT'S FREE and it allows for sharing of lists with others. FOR FREE. When you a share a list, it's completely dynamic--when the person you share with wants to mark something off as done, they can. If they want to add a task, they can! It also has a really sleek, clean, and simple interface which I really like.

I don't know that other people need something like this for work but it would also be great for shopping lists or gift lists for people. There's an iPhone/Android app in addition to the web browser and desktop version. Can't ask for more than that!

A lot of people contend that red velvet cake (or anything else) is really just chocolate with red food coloring. They are VERY misguided, however--the red velvet flavor is very a very complex blend of cocoa, vanilla, and the very essence of "red." I love everything about the red velvet flavor profile and cannot seem to get enough of it in any form I possibly can. There are the more conventional uses of it in cake and cupcakes, but there are also new, unexpected ways of using it like brownies, ice cream, cookies, pancakes, cheesecake, fudge, whoopie pies and even souffles. Any way you make it, I'll love it (especially the ice cream!).

I know a lot of people and a lot of blogs are very busy talking about the new year and resolutions to lose weight, keep your house clean or generally simplify your life. That's not really why I like new years, though--I just generally enjoy a transition to something new and clean and fresh. My love of "clean slates" has prompted a lot of my random summer adventures (which you can follow here, here, and here). I look for a new place, new friends, and a new identity. New years are kind of like that. I like the feeling of something being not quite the same as it was, a new frontier full of who-knows-what. No one has been here before and we're making progress, if only because this year is older than the last. How thrilling!