| Hint of Vanilla

Papers are done, only one week of school left, and exams are far away enough that I can ignore them for now. Since I've finished my papers, I've kind of gone into vacation mode... My birthday, which was wonderful, didn't help matters, either, because I spent half a week eating at nice restaurants and getting gifts, one of which was an ice cream maker. Just so everyone knows, ice cream is going to start appearing on this blog soon.

But, before I bust out the frozen treats, we've got these brownies. These brownies are the definition of decadence. Dark chocolate and salted caramel all wrapped up in one delicious, rich, amazing square. I've made these brownies about ten times now and I almost don't need to look at the recipe book any more.

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Apple Cinnamon Buns with Maple Glaze

Bread | Fruit

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I often find myself thinking about all the things I would do if I didn't have to sleep.

Is that weird? Am I the only one who does that? I can't be, I bet everyone thinks about it but no one says anything. And if you honestly don't, now you will.

As much as I love sleep, I'd really like to not have to sleep. So much more time to do things! I would definitely bake more. But I'd probably do things that I don't normally have lots of time for, like practicing guitar. My boyfriend gave me a super nice guitar for Christmas last year and I've learned a total of one song... I know bits of other songs, like the cute song from the Fellowship of the Ring and a basic version of the beginning of Stay or Leave by Dave Matthews. I've tried to learn a lot of songs, but it takes lots of time to completely get a song down. With school, work, and baking taking up most of my time, I don't always want to play guitar on my down-time. Sometimes I just want to sit on my couch and cuddle with my cat.

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Mint Chocolate Thumbprints

Chocolate | Cookies

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"Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."- Winnie the Pooh

Are you stressed today? I sure was.

Everyone gets stressed once in a while. Work is a big stress causer for most people. University and school, too. Trying to achieve a goal but you're not quite getting it right. Feeling like you have too many things to do in one day. Being hungry but not having the time to go get groceries so you eat porridge for the 3rd meal in a row. Not being able to operate a camping can opener (or maybe that's was just me).

You feel the anger storm growing in your mind. Everything seems to be against you and you just want the world to give you a few minutes to breathe! Nothing is going the way you want it. The anger storm is going full blast now. Eventually, you give up, wallow in your self-pity, and act the victim. At least, that tends to be my cycle of rage. It doesn't always get to the last bit, sometimes I can intercept it before it gets to be too much. The one thing that I do to de-stress that will almost always work?

Baking.

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Lemon and Vanilla Bean Creme Brûlée

Custards | Fruit

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I like reading. I mean, I really like reading.

But only specific books. I don't like reading textbooks, even though the overall content might be interesting. Books for english classes, not fun. If you're told to read it, it ruins the fun of reading something, well, for fun.

I used to go to the local library and choose out 2 or 3 books. Not little 200 page books, either, I'm talking big 500 page whoppers. The cover would spark my interest, or the title. If it was a small one, I just passed it by. I probably missed a lot of good books that way, but I wanted a book that would last me a week or two. Small ones would last me one night. I'd go through a huge process of elimination with my books. I'd pick out 7 or so, then slowly whittle it down to a couple. I would get home and sort the books according to which one I wanted to read first. I would then go about reading said book. But carrying those back home was a workout, let me tell you.

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Hazelnut Biscotti

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Ah, the weekend. Everyone’s beloved pair of days. I finished my midterms as of Friday, but I didn’t get to take the whole weekend off, as much as I would’ve liked to. Research paper due dates are looming and I don’t want to be busily writing them last-minute, like I do every semester. Procrastination is a temptatious friend.

I started on a paper on Saturday and managed to get 250 words. In 3 hours. Not the best start, but a start nonetheless. And, as I tend to do when writing papers, I rewarded myself for all my hard work. I told myself that I would bake biscotti tomorrow. Once I made up my mind that the reward was already going to happen, there was no way I could write any more, even if I wanted to. This is a reoccurring problem for me. I do a tiny bit of work and reward myself with an hour break or a cookie or an episode of Family Guy. Needless to say, I don’t get a lot of work done unless it’s due the next day.

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