Spring Lampshades

Around Christmas, I made these babies:



But now, I'm rooting for spring, wanted to add some yellow to my dining decor (to pull in my new DIY Hutch: Hutch) so I made these. Quite simple:

Cardstock from the scrapbooking section of any craft store. Even better when it's on sale :)

Make a template by wrapping one piece around your lampshade. Cut the rest to match the template. Use a little gorilla glue and a clip to keep them together. Voila, instant spring!

Sugarush Red Bank

This is a Guinness Cupcake from Sugarush. Apparently, it is only available St. Patrick's Day Weekend. If you have never had one of these, let me tell you, you are missing out on one of the most delicious, incredibly scrumptious desserts I have ever tasted. The cake actually tastes like a perfectly poured pint of Guinness. I have no idea how they do it. It almost tastes like you're actually taking a sip of the Irish liquid gold. And the triple chocolate frosting is so rich and smooth. Mind blown.

But, if you're not there on St. Patrick's Day...
In the quaint town of Red Bank, NJ, on Front Street, you'll find a little hole in the wall cupcake joint that channels Serendipity III in appearance. On one wall, random candies, games, and kits, and on the other side of the galley are the cupcakes. You pick the cake (usually vanilla, chocolate, "sugarush" (looks like funfetti), red velvet, and carrot. Also, the daily special which can range from German chocolate cake to Guinness depending on the day and the holiday. Icing has a slew of varieties, with my favorite actually being their vanilla buttercream (you can see the bits of vanilla bean in the icing--if you look closely in the picture, you, too, can see it! Picture is Red Velvet with vanilla Buttercream icing). I normally am a chocolate buttercream girl, but this is just fantastic. They also have peanut butter, triple chocolate, raspberry, etc. And they have stuffings and drizzles. So you can mix and match like an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. Two cupcakes will run you $5.08. Not too awful. In Manhattan, one cupcake would probably run you $5.08.

Similar to how a good cannoli place will fill the cream in front of you, so it doesn't get soggy in the shell, Sugarush puts the icing on top in front of you, which adds to the deliciousness. Plus, if you can keep away from it long enough, these cupcakes give off the most amazing aroma. Sweet whiffs of buttercream frosting.

They also do cakes, and have done Drita's birthday cake from Mob Wives. Everything from birthdays to weddings to pop-on-overs.

Check them out at their facebook page: Sugarush or their own website: Sugarush Experience or, just head on over to Front Street. Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce

So this recipe is inspired by Jackson on "The Biggest Loser." It's ridiculously easy and quite delicious, with a few additions and subtractions. Today was a great day. My students were good, the English Department threw me a surprise party for my impending wedding, which actually surprised me, and I am so grateful for their kindness and generosity. Just sayin'. So I was having a STELLAR day, even in light of this awful Saturn storm attempting to screw with my post-wedding (not quite Honeymoon) plans. So I invited my friend Ursula over for dinner and cooked up a storm.

Here goes:

Preheat oven to 400
Slice a spaghetti squash in half. Scoop out the seeds. Place on a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minute. I also roasted a red pepper that I sliced into 4 large pieces (de-seeded) for 20 minutes.

While that's roasting, I cooked 1 package of chicken ground meet with a little bit of garlic powder in a saucepan. No added oil or butter or pam or anything. After it was cooked through, I added one onion, half a package of sliced mushrooms, and the roasted pepper from the oven. I cooked until the onion was becoming translucent, and then added my favorite Jersey Tomato Sauce Fradiavolo. I love this sauce because it's low in sugar and made from all natural ingredients. If it's on sale, I stock up like crazy!

I let that simmer until the spaghetti squash was done. I also added a side salad of romaine lettuce, celery leaves, and freshly shaved parmigiano cheese.

Once the spaghetti squash was cooked, I took a fork, made it into strings, added it to a bowl, put the meat sauce in a bowl, put everything on the table, and it was DELISH! And if you only use a cup of spaghetti squash and sauce, it's only about 250 calories. For dinner, that's incredible. Enjoy!

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

So Brad is at a sales meeting in Pittsburgh. Right. So, today I did my lesson plans for the week after Easter (HOLLA!), ran 7 miles (in less than an hour, what what!), made brownies for our faculty meeting tomorrow, cleaned, made a salmon Caesar salad with freshly shaved parmigiano cheese, and played with Shea dog.

In other words, I ran out of things to do, so I decided to read my cookbook. And yes, I read cookbooks. Don't judge.



So, here is the Mexican Chocolate Cookie recipe. I chose this because:

1. No eggs
2. No butter
3. Sounded fun and delicious.

First, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure your shelves are at the very top and very bottom for this recipe.

Then, in a bowl mix:

1 cup whole wheat flour (that's what I always use regardless of what flour the recipe calls for)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Ghiradelli because I am a chocolate snob. Ok, no, it's what I had, but I <3 it!)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix it up all good until it is a light brown color.

Then, in a separate bowl, mix:
1/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/4 cup light olive oil

Mix it really well.

Then add

2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix it up.

Add this to the flour mixture and then add 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips.

Make it into a lovely dough. You have a choice now. Either scoop it up by 1/3 cup and flatten it into 4 inch rounds (Makes 8 cookies) Or make 1 tbsp sized cookies and don't flatten as much. I went somewhere in the middle, with 10 cookies total. I didn't have parchment paper, and I need new baking sheets, so I used the dreaded tinfoil. Oh well. Bake for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, rotate the sheets: top to bottom, bottom to top, and front to back.

Now my house smells like cinnamon and my belly is full of warm deliciousness. Happy!

DIY Mini Hutch: Saved from the Curb!

Ladies and gentlemen: the big reveal! I am soooo excited about this, and I've been itching to write this blog for weeks. But, I also wanted to do this project right. One of the reasons I am so stoked about this is because I did this entirely by myself. Ok, well, Brad grabbed it from off the curb because I'm a big wuss (you'd think a girl from the Bronx would be all over grabbing free stuff, but alas...), but other than that, I did the entire project solo. So here it goes.

This is what it looked like when we found it. A bit worn, scratches here and there, but overall in pretty good condition. A total find. From this...



To this!



Here's how:
So, I wanted it to match the dining room table that Brad and I had made a few months ago. Check it out, another project I'm super proud of: http://www.opsands.com/2012/11/dining-room-farmhouse-table-18th-price.html>Farmhouse Table



First, I had to sand this baby down. I put on my lovely hospital mask, and spent a few hours sanding it, first with 60-80 (that's what I had available) and then with 120 just to avoid splinters. Whew! Dusty fellow. I was actually uber impressed with how simple this really was. Time consuming, yes, but less complicated than I thought it would be. By far the most difficult part of the entire project. A little bit of wood glue here and there, some hammering, and I had a real beaut. Here's the bottom piece:





I used Rustoleum: Kona to stain. Love this stain. So much dimension. Need to remember to wear gloves, though. I always forget gloves and then go to work looking like I have some rare skin disease. Not cool. Here's the contrast:



And finally:

With a little polyurethane, this piece had some real sparkle:



Then, I added some lovely yellow and blue glass knobs, made in a little shop in Long Branch.



Also added a fabric from Joann's that I cut to fit and glued to the back to give it a pop of color and make it stand out a bit against my gray dining room walls.



And here is the whole thing, all put together:



Added some yellow glitter lampshades to my chandelier to tie in all of the colors:



And voila! I LOVE it! And so cheap! Total curbside appeal.

Half marathon PR

Today we ran a half in 1:55.29. That's 3 and a half min off our last time! Which may not seem like much, but it is.

That's an average pace of 8:49 per mile.

Very impressed with us! Plus, burned 1460 calories. Feeling good. 10 weeks to marathon! :)

Butternut Squash and Sage Angel Hair Pasta

Amazing dinner for a cold winter night! Especially after running 12 miles the day before :)

1 butternut squash cubed
1 small onion

Toss with olive oil and bake at 400 for about 40 min until soft. When you take it out, add 10 fresh sage leaves and let them soak up the oil a bit. Recipe wanted the sage fried in oil, but I thought this was a nice alternative.

Angel hair pasta, cooked for 4 minutes. Reserve 1/4 of the water. Place the pasta in a bowl.

Add butternut squash and onion and sage. Add bacon bits. Add freshly grated Parmesan. Add the reserved water.

Enjoy!!!