When in doubt, say something

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I'm 26 years old. To be honest, sometimes I feel like I'm 15 and other times I feel like I'm 35. But I do think that 26 is a significant year, because it means that you are officially closer to the age 30 than you are to age 20. Real life issues are starting to kick in ~ more so than they did when you were closer to 20 and making a transition from college life to the working world.

As we get older we are faced with situations that never crossed our minds when we were teenagers and twenty-somethings. We lose family pets. Grandparents pass away. We realize that our parents are only human, and that they cannot always be there to make everything better. We cross the line from being our parents' children to our parents caretakers. It's times like these that our busy carefree world comes to a screeching halt, and we ask ourselves how on EARTH are we going to get through these tough times??

I have been very lucky to have not been faced with tremendous losses yet in my life, but I've had my share of tough times in which I felt scared, alone, and immobilized ~ despite the incredible strength and support of my family. One lesson that I have learned through times such as these is that support from friends can lift you up in ways you never could have imagined.

Here's the thing ~ real life issues such as death, sickness, or otherwise new and uncomfortable realities of life are difficult for everyone. But they are particularly difficult for twenty-somethings, as we have had little experience with how to handle them ourselves, let alone when it comes to consoling someone we care about.

I think a real rule of thumb should be that when you are in doubt, say something. It doesn't have to be some grand gesture, if you don't want it to be. It can literally be a three-word text or email. Just to let the person know that you are thinking of them.

Thinking of you during this difficult time.
Just wanted to let you know that I love you.
Sending you hugs.

I wholeheartedly feel that the smallest amount of effort gives tremendous comfort and leaves a long-lasting impression upon those who need it most. So next time you hear about a friend or colleague who's going through a hard time, I say acknowledge them in whatever way you deem appropriate. Karma will undoubtedly pay you back one day.

banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

I recently baked these cupcakes for a girlfriend's birthday. We all met at a bar, so I brought them in a shoebox to surprise her (ensuring that the shoe box didn't have any strong smells, of course) - and she loved them! The bartender even took one for himself! I totally recommend this recipe to anyone who loves a good peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich. You can opt to not make the frosting, and serve them for brunch as well.



INGREDIENTS:

cupcakes
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 EXTREMELY ripe bananas (I swear the longer you can wait to use the bananas the better - mine were almost gushing out of the peels!)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) unsalted butter, room temp.




frosting
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground)



PREPARATION:

for cupcakes
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 12 standard (1/3 cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each). Do NOT overfill the cups - this recipe can make up to 24 cupcakes.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.

After baking sheet has cooled, re-line with cupcake paper liners. Fill cups with the rest of the batter, and bake as directed above.

for frosting
Sift powdered sugar into large bowl. Add cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter. Using electric mixer or whisk, beat mixture until smooth. Spread fromsting over top of cupcakes, dividing equally. Can be made 1 day ahead - store airtight at room temperature.



original recipe courtesy of epicurious.com

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

For the first official Game Night I decided to go with a Marie Antoinette inspired theme a la LET THEM EAT CAKE!




I went to Michael's a couple of days before to pillage the racks for inspiration and goodies. We all know that Marie Antionette followed a strict diet of petit fours cupcakes and other sweeties, so the baking utencils aisle was my first stop. Bright pink cupcake liners and frosting coloring was a fantastic find. I also found little white boxes that had a clear top, and fit four smaller boxes within it, so that I could send the ladies off with lots and lots of sugary sweets. I even found silly ice cream cone lipglosses to top off the boxes with a bit of twine.




I bought tons of pink and white candies to go along with the theme. I displayed them in little bowls, put the mini-brownies with vanilla drizzle on a plate, and displayed the bright pink cupcakes on a cake stand I borrowed from my mom. (Truth be told, I bought the brownies at safeway, and topped them off with homemade vanilla frosting and round sprinkles I bought at Williams Sonoma. I think it's OK to cut yourself a little slack and combine homemade treats with semi-homemade ones ~ just make sure you dress them up accordingly.)




I found silly foam crowns for each of us to wear (I had to have the gold one ~ duh!)




For drinks, I bought Sofia Coppola's Blanc de Blancs, Sparkling Lemonade, and Grapefruit Perrier. Other guests brought 'Bitch Bubble' (for which I had searched high and low, to no avail) and vodka with lime-aid. A motley crew of bevvies that kept us satiated throughout the game.








The game I chose is called Loaded Questions, which is a hilarious game that tests your knowledge of how well you really know your friends. If you haven't tried it, it's a great game to play with old friends and family.







The most challenging part of the night was attempting to get everyone to stay focused on the game and keep tangent conversations to a minimum, but hey, at least I knew that everyone was having a great time.








So go on with your bad self and start a Game Night group of your own! I'm so looking forward to all of the creativity and craziness that will come out of this group of gals. But I think it's safe to say that we won't be sitting down to a game of Scrabble any time soon :) CHEERS, EVERYONE!!

quit playin' games with my heart

I LOVE to entertain. Love love love it. If I had to, I would eat cabbage soup every night so that I could save a few dollars to properly entertain my guests. I love preparing for a party, I love the anticipation of the guests arriving, and I especially love having my house full of people and laughs and delicious little tid-bits.

I recently came up with the idea of putting together a girls-only Game Night a) because I love playing board games and b) because I thought it'd be a fun way for us girls to get together and do something besides simply eating or drinking. I have this terrific group of girls with whom I used to work, and we have made a habit of getting together from time to time to catch up over dinner. Well, I said, how about we turn these random nights out together into a once-a-month-sort-of-deal? And they most happily agreed!

I wont get into the nitty-gritty details ( I was recently informed that I am a Type A personality ~ who knew? ) but I'll tell you the basics just in case you feel inspired to put together your own game group. And by all means, invite boys to your group, I just happen to be boy-less, and thought I'd take the opportunity to keep it to us gals while most of us are still un-wed.

1. The perfect number of group members for Game Night is 6, because it's an even number, and it also means that each person gets to host 2 game nights per year (6x2=12 months in the year).

2. The group organizer serves as Hostess the 1st Game Night, and the rest of the girls follow alphabetically. Once everyone hosts once, the sequence starts again.

3. The Hostess is responsible for providing at least 1 food item and 1 beverage option, the game, as well as a theme if she chooses to do so. Themes are strongly encouraged.

4. Each girl other than the Hostess alternates bringing a food item or a beverage option each Game Night. The best way to keep track of this is to just assign 3 people FOOD for the first Game Night and 3 people BEVERAGE, and then make sure the hostess knows to provide BOTH when it's her Game Night. If a girl was responsible for bringing a food item to the 1st Game Night, then she is responsible for bringing a beverage option to the next Game Night, and so on and so forth. Also, group members should try their best to bring a food/beverage that goes along with their Hostess's chosen theme.

Seeing as I would be the first to serve as Hostess and therefore responsible for setting the bar for all Game Nights going forward, I just had to bring out all the stops. So what did I choose? Ah, the possibilities!!

LOL

I just caught myself FAKE laughing out loud. Do Y'all think I should be worried?

Amazon Order

I just laughed out loud to myself as I received my shipping confirmation for my latest Amazon.com purchases, which are:

* Book: Last One Down the Aisle Wins: 10 Keys to a Fabulous Single Life Now and an Even Better Marriage Later

* Book: How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley (Nine thoughtful, unfussy essays by the author of the collection I Was Told There'd Be Cake navigate around illusions of youth in the hope that by young adulthood they'll all add up to happiness)

* 1 Hamilton Beach 62695V Power Deluxe Hand Mixer

* 1 package Crest Whitestrips Pro Effects,10-Day Dental Whitening Formula System, 40 Strips

Is that the most post-breakup/now-I'm-going-to-reinvent-myself package you have ever seen?

And I wasn't even trying! Seriously!!

Hurt so good

I think it's safe to say that every girl has a go-to song that they turn to time and time again when they are experiencing some sort of sadness related to a boy. My song is absolutely and without a double Bonnie Rait's I Can't Make You Love Me. I can think of (pause to count) at least four boys about whom I've gone through some sort of post-realization-that-things-aren't-going-to-work-out-the-way-I-hoped-they-would situation. Whenever I listen to this song I just want to cozy up on a couch and light a candle and just wallow in the sadness over what will never be. Bonnie just really nails it - the boy is never going to feel the same way about her as she does for him. Straight up. I just identify with this song too, because it's really hard for a control freak like myself to admit that this is just something that, no matter how hard I try to make it work to my advantage, it just ain't gonna!

My brother used to always make fun of me in highschool for listening to "downer" music. I would spend hours listening to Ben Harper's album Welcome to the Cruel World. Walk Away... Another Lonely Day... ( I just had to help myself to a little audio supplementation right then - I am now playing I Can't Make You Love Me and Walk Away, on repeat, one after the other) these songs were the soundtrack to my teenage brooding years. I always defended my use of the downer music, and I will continue to defend it till kingdom come. I mean, yes, one could argue that you shouldn't try to make yourself feel more sad than you already are, but then why is it OK to listen to uppity music to make ourselves even happier? It just hurts so good!

I'm just saying that I think break-up/sad songs serve a really important purpose. They remind us that we are not the only ones who have ever experienced sadness brought on by someone we really cared about. If Bonnie and Ben were able to first wallow and then eventually find the strength to buck up when they were good and ready, so can I, gosh darn it. Therefore, tonight I will sing along with Bonnie as I dramatically turn down my empty lonesome bed, and then come tomorrow I will greet the day with three cups of coffee and my current feel good song of the moment - Phoenix's Lisztomania. If I feel like it.