Best Hairspray Ever

I'm a girl who knows her hairspray.  I have likely used gallons of hairspray in my lifetime.  Not even a little bit embarrassed by that.  So naturally, I've experimented with mmaannnyyy a hairspray.  And in general, I tend to believe that products from the drugstore get the job done just fine (or even better in some circumstances) then most of the pricey stuff.

So good news and bad news.  My fave hairspray IS available at the drugstore BUT it's a bit pricier than what I'd usually spend.  However, hairspray is my thing and there's just no going back.  Besides, I never buy fancy face creams or expensive makeup brushes or whatever other stuff people spend money on so this is where I splurge.

And let's be clear.  By "splurge," I mean $14.  Admittedly, it's not breaking the bank but $14 ain't nothing to ignore either.  That could buy, like, two Subway Italian BMT 6-inch sandwich meals.  I do all my calculations in terms of Subway meals.

However, if you keep your eyes peeled for sales (like Buy One Get One Half Off) and you happen to be an Ulta Club Card member (and why wouldn't you be?!), you can use $3 off coupons practically all the time.  Which is obviously what I do.

So if you're willing to throw down about $14 smackaroos, get yourself to a drugstore and buy: Nexxus Maxximum Superior Hold Finishing Mist.  Don't be intimidated by that very aggressive name!   

 This hairspray was sent by angels from heaven and is made from unicorn tears and children's laughter.  I'm just guessing on that.

It's got a super fine mist and holds my style all day.  I'd like to say it leaves hair "touchable" but I don't think that's entirely true.  Although, I use more than the average person so that may just be caused by my misuse.  

All in all, it smells nice, it sprays well, it's got great hold and it's reasonably priced for the quality.  

Nexxus 4 lyfe.  

Chocolate Cloud Cake (Gluten free!)

Ok, no more messin' around.  Let's get serious about decadent holiday food.  Bring on the holiday lights and spiked cocoa and spiced rum and mulled wine!  Do I have a drinking problem?  

This little beauty is a Nigella Lawson recipe.  And she is the best ever.  I want to be her.  She's gorgeous, she lives in London, she has a beautiful kitchen and she does everything effortlessly.  I find her show (which doesn't air much in the US because I don't even know why) to be so comforting.  It's like a slice of life that is totally not my life at all.

So, in lieu of moving to London and living Nigella's life, I've made this cake.  It's super rich and intensely chocolately.  The top will puff up and then sink down and that's tooottally ok.  Just cover it in dollops of freshly whipped cream.  

I've found that dollops of freshly whipped cream tend to be the solution to many a thing.  Or a bag of Doritos.  That's a solution too.  

Here's the recipe!  

Ingredients

9 oz bittersweet chocolate, minimum 70%
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
6 eggs, 2 whole, 4 separated
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the whipped cream: 

2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, for garnish

Instructions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with baking parchment.
2.  Melt the chocolate either in a double boiler or a microwave (in 30 second intervals), then add the butter and let it melt in the warm chocolate.
3.  Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 1/3 cup of the sugar, then gently add the chocolate mixture.  Add vanilla extract.
4.  In another bowl (or using a stand mixer), whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk until the whites hold their shape but are not too stiff. 

5.  Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites and stir to combine.  Then fold in the rest of the whites gently so they don't deflate.  

6.  Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is risen and cracked and the center is no long wobbly. Cool the cake in its pan on a wire rack.  The middle will sink as it cools.
Prepare the whipped cream:
Whip the cream in a stand mixer in high speed until it's soft and then add the vanilla extract.  Whip until the cream is firm but not stiff.  Fill the center of the cake with the whipped cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake, and dust the top lightly with cocoa powder pushed through a tea-strainer.

Enjoy!

Recipe barely adapted from Nigella Lawson

Let's be thankful

Let's be thankful for sisters!

And for bikinis, am I right?  I still look like that in a bikini, by the way.  Blue is really my color.  Sisters are the best though.  Even when they're little stinkerpies who plug their nose at the zoo (ahem, Grace).  Fun fact about Grace,  I'm pretty sure we pushed her in a stroller until she was about 6.  Totally normal.

And let's be thankful for moms and dads!

Let's just talk about those sunglasses my mom is rocking.  I would wear them right now.  And knowing my mom, she probably still has them somewhere.  And good news guys, my dad has had a beard since the day I was born and if he ever so much as thinks of shaving it, I am running away from home.

Let's be thankful for Grandma Anna!

She's the best little Polish grandma around.  My childhood was full of summers spent at gramma's house cleaning her pantry, learning to make corn fritters, feeding the birds, and sitting on the porch during thunderstorms.  And even now, my Grandma Anna cracks me up whenever I visit her.  I know everyone says their grandma is the best but when I say it, it's true.  I mean it.  Don't argue with me.

Let's be thankful for Disney World!

Obviously this is not the most recent picture.  But it is the cutest.  And if I could go to Disney World every year (or month or week), I would.  There are few other things that warm my heart as much as Disney World.  And I surely am grateful for it.

Let's be thankful for kitties!

These aren't my kitties.  Oh goodness no.  Just looking at a picture of kittens will make me sneeze.  These are my sister's kitties, Wembley and Walter.  Wembley is a snugglebug and Walter is sorta a jerk who jumps on the stove and sleeps in cake pans but he's pretty so he gets away with it.  The pretty ones always get away with it.  I should know (hahaha just kidding, yeah right).

Let's be thankful for KitchenAid Mixers!

I. can't. even.  There are no words for my love of my KitchenAid.  The world tried to keep us apart but we were meant to be together.  If there were a fire in my apartment, I would grab my photo albums and my KitchenAid.  Obviously, I would likely succumb to smoke inhalation because between the books and mixer, I'd be lugging around 40lbs of stuff.  Let's hope it never comes to that.

Let's be thankful for this hottie!

No, it's not some super handsome movie star.  And no, it's not Mad Men star Jon Hamm as Don Draper.  It's my boyfriend!  And I hope that I'm thoroughly embarrassing him.  But I sure am grateful that this guy has put up with me for almost 8 years.  Cuz I am not pleasant, guys.  He's a saint.  

So what are you thankful for?  My Grandma Anna?  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!        

November Photo-a-Day Recap, Week 2

Working clockwise from top left corner

11/11 Night:  Sunday night is all about facials.  Cheap facials, to be specific.  Those bottles cost about $4 at Ulta.  Part of me is concerned that I'm poisoning my skin with cheap chemicals but another part of me really likes Sunday night facials.  In fact, I have one on right now.  It burns a little.  But in a good way?  Ok, it's borderline painful.  But in a good way?  

11/12 Drink: Look how sassy and cosmopolitan I am!  Just sippin' on some Pinot on a Monday night.  In the interest of being totally truthful, this could have possibly been the ONLY Monday night in the last year that I wasn't in pajamas and watching Dancing With The Stars by 7pm.  However, this week I was invited to a food trivia contest and not only did our team win, but I was the person to correctly supply the answer "Officer Big Mac" in response to a McDonalds questions.  It perfectly summarizes my knowledge of food.   

11/13 Where You Slept:  Well this is quite intimate.  Now you know what my throw pillows look like.  And if I wear a millionaire, every surface of my home would be covered in throw pillows.  I say millionaire because throw pillows are generally expensive for no reason.  It's fabric and stuffing, what's the big deal?  But I love them.  So my mansion would be full of them.  Also, I would make a trampoline room.  

11/14 Man Made:  Duh!  What did you expect?  It's a galette because I'm obsessed with them lately.  Quick and easy and deceivingly fancy.  

11/15 In My Bag:  Game of Thrones (obvi and omgitsgettingsogood), oatmeal that I didn't eat because it was bagel day at work and I can never eat enough bagels in life, and a disgusting brown banana that made my whole bag smell like banana and I hated it so much.  

11/16 View From My Window:  Scenic, no?  A brown building.  This view is slightly angled up because if I'd snapped a photo directly ahead, I'd get arrested for invasion of privacy since I'm roughly 20 ft from my neighbor's window.  He watches a lot of South Park.  

11/17 Last Thing You Bought: Dollar Store shopping spree!!  I've recently rediscovered the Dollar Store.  Growing up, we went to the Dollar Store with my Grandma like it was our job.  And last week, I decided to check one out again and then walked out $16 poorer.  There's just SO MUCH stuff for Pinterest crafts.  You just wait and see because I'll be posting soon.    

Week 2 down!  By the end of the month, you'll know my deepest darkest secrets.    

Just Sayin'

I own this kitchen scale:

And I bought it here.  Annndddd it's on sale again for the next 6 days.  

Listen, I know I may not be an "influential thinker" in the blogging community (YET.  You just wait) but if anyone is interested in my review, here ya' go:  

This is the first food scale I've owned.  I bought it because 1.)  It was on sale and 2.) I knew any decent baker should have one, apparently?  After a mediocre attempt at homemade bagels, I was convinced that measuring, not weighing, the flour is what did me in.  And someday, when I get the guts to attempt some French Macarons, I know that a scale is totally essential.  

I still haven't attempted bagels again (I'm seeking therapy for the traumatic experience), but I have used this scale to weigh cookie dough for chocolate chip cookies (recipe coming soon).  The scale itself is lightweight, small, and easy to store.  I found that the Power button is a bit sensitive and it can turn on and off with the slightest touch.  However, it weighs reliably and for basic, somewhat infrequent use, it gets the job done.   

Being that this was my first scale purchase and I was unsure about how often I'd really make use of it, I'm pleased with the price and quality.  If you're an aggressive macaron maker (I'd really love to see someone making macarons aggressively), or you see yourself using the scale daily, you may want to consider other models.  While this scale has never broken or malfunctioned for me, I'm still unsure about it's longterm durability.  

However, if you're like me and you occasionally weigh some cookie dough and make mediocre bagels, I'd recommend this as an inexpensive option.  

This is not a paid advertisement because why in the heck would someone pay me to advertise?  

Cookie Butter Pie

At this very moment I'm watching the best episode of Law & Order SVU ever.  I mean, I can watch hours long marathons of SVU and I'll admit that every so often there's sort of an oddball episode that I just caann'ttt quite get on board with.  Like the one where Benson and Stabler go undercover at a swinger's club to uncover a scheming couple who happen to actually be brother and sister.  Um what?

But man, this episode is a gem.  All you need to know is that it's got John Stamos.  Who has somehow managed to not age a day since the days of Uncle Jesse Katsopolis aside from a little salt and pepper hair.  And obviously, guys can pull off salt and pepper while I spend a fortune on dying my hair because of some dang grays that appeared at the old age of twenty three.  

Ok, no joke, as I type, this episode just got infinitely better.  {Spoiler Alert} John Stamos is a serial abusive reproducer who fathered 47 children and all of his girlfriends confronted him at once in the precinct.  Omg, wait, it's somehow getting better.  The domestic abuse psychologist murdered him?!

Guys, this is why I watch SVU.  It doesn't have to make sense.  It's got great guest stars, Ice T is a terrible actor, and Christopher Meloni has a kick ass tatto on his arm.  That's a recipe for show.  Oh wait, speaking of recipes.....

I forgot this was a baking blog for a moment.  But really this pie needs little description.  A crust made of oreos.  A filling made of cookie butter, cream cheese and Cool Whip.  Serve cold.  Eat seconds.  

Here's the recipe!  


Ingredients
Crust:
25 whole Oreos
4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 cup "Cookie Butter" (or Biscoff spread)
1 package (8 Ounce) cream cheese, room temp
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 package (8 Ounce) Cool Whip, thawed

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Crush the Oreos until they’re fine crumbs (I used a small food processor and worked in batches).  Put crumbs in a medium bowl and pour the melted butter over the top and stir to combine.  Press into pie pan (I used a 9" pan) and bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, or until set.  Let cool.

2.  Beat the cookie butter with the cream cheese until smooth using a stand mixer or handheld mixer. Add the powdered sugar slowly and beat until smooth.  Add in the thawed Cool Whip and beat mixture again until smooth, making sure it's well incorporated.

3.  Pour filling into crust, evening out the top with a knife or spatula.  If desired, pipe additional filling on top.   Chill in the freezer for at least an hour before serving.  **see note

**A few notes.  Perhaps my pie pan was too small but I had quite a bit of filling that did not fit in the pan.  Thus, I was able to pipe some on top to make use of it.  You can either use a slightly larger pie pan or just what I did and eat the leftovers from the bowl.  

**I served this directly from the freezer (using a warmed knife to get clean slices) and it almost resembled ice cream cake.  A very very good thing.  

Enjoy!

Recipe barely adapted from The Pioneer Woman.  

November Photo a Day Recap

Staring top right and working clockwise

11/5: 5 o'clock:  This is exactly what 5 o'clock looks like.  Well sometimes it still looks like my work desk.  But on this Monday, I was already on my way to the bus with a view of the Hancock.  

11/6 A Favorite Thing:  Book three of Game of Thrones.  Duh.  It's a major favorite thing.  So.many.things have happened in this book.  I can't even, guys.  I encourage you to join me in my obsession.  

11/7 Reflection:  This is what I call Jammie Time.  It's when I get home from work and immediately put pajamas on.  And I do mean immediately.  Am I the only one who does this?  Because in my opinion, nothing is as comforting as being completely swallowed in XXL pajama pants and a T shirt.  Except maybe a "bedtime bun."  That's a story for another time though.     

11/8 Something I do every day: Was this one a bit too obvious?  Aside from sleeping and eating, this is one of the only things I do literally every day.  Sadly, it seems to make no difference because according to my dentist, I need some extensive work done.  This is why I don't make regular dental appointments people! Only bad news results.  While we're on the topic, anyone wanna donate to my dental fund?  

11/9 Small:  No big deal, it's just MY UKELELE.  So full disclosure, I just got it, I don't know how to tune it and I certainly don't know how to play it.  But it's probably my ticket to stardom?  

 11/10: Can't Live Without: So this is a snapshot of mascara, chapstick and BB cream.  And the moment I took this picture for my "can't live without" category I realized what a terrible human being I am.  Any other person with a heart may have taken a picture of family, friends, pets, kids.  What was my reaction?  Makeup.  What does this say about my priorities?  I need to examine my life!  Thank goodness I didn't take a picture of butter though.  What would that have said about me?     

I'm excited to see what next week's challenge holds because if I had to guess, I'd say pajamas and Game of Thrones and makeup is about as exciting as my life gets right now.  This is what glamour looks like everyone!       

Easy Apple Galette

So when I call this thing an "easy" Apple Galette, that's major code for "cheating on the pie crust."  I'm just not even a little bit sorry that I used store-bought crust here.  It was a busy day, I needed a quick dessert to serve 5 people and the crust got smothered in apples and butter and sugar.  If you can't get on board with that then what can you get on board with?

Obviously, you can make your own crust here if you had a few extra minutes and some patience.  In fact, I've made several other galettes using Martha Stewart's recipe (though it makes two rounds of dough) with great success.  But I had no extra minutes and zero patience and guess what?  No one was the wiser and everyone loved it.  

So being an impostor is worth it. Cuz I'll just never be one of those women (why do I feel weird calling myself a woman?  I'm still just a girl right?) who can go for a 3 mile run and look pleasantly dewey and refreshed or the type of woman who can just wear shorts in public, or the type of woman has regularly scheduled dental check ups.

I just don't have my act together enough to whip up some pie dough amidst a busy afternoon and lots of Law and Order to be watched.  So this is a free pass to cheat occasionally.  And use your free time to go for a run or have a dental check up or wear shorts in public.  Actually, don't wear shorts.  You're ruining it for the rest of us.  

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients: 
1 prepared 9 inch pie round
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4 Tbsp granulated sugar

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.  Set aside.  
2. Place pie round in the center of the baking sheet.  Begin arranging the apples in overlapping concentric circles, beginning on the outside, leaving about an inch of dough along the edge.  There's really no right or wrong way to do this.  You're just looking to get apples in the dough and leave dough overhang to create a neat package.
3.  Once your apples are arranged, beginning folding the dough up and over the apples, overlapping dough and slighting pinching seams to form a tight package for the apples (see pictures).
4.  Brush or drizzle the melted butter over the apples and crust.  Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of sugar over the crust and 2 tablespoons over the apples. 
5.  Bake for about 45 minutes, rotating the pan every 15 minutes until apples are baked and crust is golden brown.  Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.  

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Photo-a-Day November Challenge

So the kids these days are doing this thing called "Photo a day challenges" that look a little something like this:

This challenge was created by Fat Mum Slim (which sounds like a pretty legit rapper) though her site appears to be down at the moment.  However, I got the idea for the photo a day challenge from a blog I follow regularly, Brown Eyed Baker.  The challenge is a simple concept but I love the commitment to inject something creative into my life every day.  

Since I stumbled upon this challenge on Friday, I missed Day 1 and 2 so obviously I'm a failure and I should just quit.  But I'm holding my head high and carrying on!  I'll be recapping the week's photos each weekend here on the blog but I'll be posting daily on Instagram at @AnnCLindsay and on Twitter at @AnniesCtyKtchn if you care to follow.   

#3  Breakfast       

What is there to say about my beloved Saturday morning breakfast routine that hasn't already been said?  Saturday mornings encompass everything that is wonderful and good in the world.  The work week is behind you and the weekend is ahead of you.  Calories don't matter and money is of no consequence.  Which is why I eat a calorie-laden pastry or bread every Saturday and buy a $4 dollar latte.  No regrets!  My sister and I make ourselves barely presentable for public, we get ourselves breakfast and then we watch an episode of America's Test Kitchen followed by an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras or Dance Moms.  Provocative and thoughtful entertainment.  

If only I could capture the hope and optimism of Saturday and bottle it for the work week.  But alas, by 8pm on Saturday evening I already feel twinges of anxiety because tomorrow is Sunday and if it's Sunday it might as well be Monday and Monday means working and five full days until Saturday again and INEEDSATURDAYMORNINGRIGHTNOW.  I need mental help.  

#4 TV

I've waxed poetic about Cupcake Wars in the past and it was shear coincidence that when I decided to check today's challenge, it said "TV" just as I was watching Cupcake Wars.  Ok, I suppose "coincidence" isn't the right word because I'm sorta always watching Cupcake Wars.  Aside from the reasons I've already mentioned, I love watching the show if only to hear people pronounce the word "cupcake."  Everyone on the show makes such a pronounced hard "K" sound and I have this weird fascination with hearing people pronounce certain words or sounds.  That paired with Florian's (the French guy) pronunciation of nearly every word, it's 45 minutes of total delight for me.  Oh, also the cupcakes.  I enjoy the Kupcakes.   

So I think I'm off to a good start!  I'm trying to make a commitment to regular blog posts and more content so get ready for some thought-provoking stuff guys!  I've got a lot of thoughts about hairspray and lipgloss.