One thing I love most about coming home is that I can make sweets. This week, in addition to trying a new gumdrop recipe, I made some marshmallows. Coffee and Raspberry. 

After spending a relaxing weekend, I worked at child care Monday and yesterday. I spent the days in the P3 room, the class before the one I had all summer. I miss my kids but I'll be back at Christmas to work a few weeks. 

Now it's Thanksgiving eve and I'm all cozy in my own home with my family, geeking out watching the series From the Earth to the Moon, directed by Tom Hanks. It's especially interesting since I've been in Astronomy this semester. 

Anyway, while not working or watching documentaries, I've managed to spend a little time testing recipes with high sugar content, lots of boiling required, and vast amounts of gelatin. I have been wanting to try coffee marshmallows for a while now, so I adapted my old recipe I've used before and used strong coffee instead of water. I think they turned out pretty well. The other half of the batch I made raspberry. 

Apparently last night we had an earthquake back home. It started in Oklahoma, where my grandparents felt it first and much more than my family. So of course I had to find my favorite educational video about quakes.

This past weekend I finally got a chance to go home! It was fall break and I had Friday off, so Thursday around noon I packed up and headed out. My cousin and her husband were in town visiting the family while he takes a three-week class at our community college, so it was fun to get to see them as well. On Sabbath we went to the park for lunch and ended up staying for several hours. It was a beautiful fall day and we ate lunch while the dogs enjoyed some fresh air. My dad brought along some WhiteWings and a frisbee, which the men quickly utilized. 

My dad first got the WhiteWings out when I was about four years old. They are these little kits with card-stock cutouts that you glue together into all kinds of different little airplanes. They are actually rather sturdy, and you glue several layers together with a little hook in-between to use to launch it. There's a little stick you hold, which you tie a huge rubber band to, then you hook it on the plane, stretch it out, and slingshot the aircraft into the breeze. Different kinds do different tricks, some flip, some glide, some fly straight up, and some just crash into the ground. Anyway, I remember playing with these are parks on Sabbath afternoons, I would hold the plane and my dad would hold the launcher and we'd watch our little planes soar away. At the end of the day we'd come home and do a little mechanical work, bending wings back into place, re-gluing propellers, and sometimes putting nail polish on the nose to prevent splitting. I loved reminiscing this weekend with my dad. College is fun and I know I have to be here, but sometimes I just want to be four again, watching my planes soar away.

I would like to say a few words about my cat. He was found last year when he was three weeks old by a friend of mine who lived in the dorm, and after he got too big the deans said he needed to move out. My mom is a sucker for cats, so I lured her into convincing the rest of the family to adopt a kitten. Long story short, we now have an adorable, overweight feline known as "Kitty" but formally named Rees.

First of all, he loves people food. One time we brought the groceries home and within minutes he had shredded a bag of bagels because he wanted those carbs SO BAD. 

He really, really likes to sleep on his back. It's extremely odd. 

If he smells something he hates (orange peel, nail polish remover, minty gum) he squints his eyes shut and scrunches his face back. Get that away from me! He thinks we are crazy.

If you throw a sock onto a ceiling fan, he will sit and stare up at it endlessly, waiting for it to fall.

But, if the sock ever does fall, he probably won't give it back. He has a major things for socks and hats and gloves. Especially gloves. Even if your gloves are in your coat pockets that are buttoned shut, he will claw them out, take them to a secret hiding place, and growl and hiss at anyone who comes near.

Oh, also, he's on a diet.

Today was a really, really, really nice day. This morning it was 65º, sunny, and crisp. My mother and I started off the day with a disappointing shopping spree, but came home and worked on taking photos of some of her stuff for her website. The family enjoyed a lunch of french fries, corn on the cob, and peaches, a natural go-together. Well, really it was a conglomeration of random grocery items we wanted to eat before they were forgotten. I also enjoyed some delicious baby pickles that are highly superior to the soggy pickle chips served at Union Market. 

Anyway, I decided that it was cake time, and I did the unthinkable. I caved. I fell into the inescapable trap of a box cake. I haven't always been like this. Actually, I only became a cake snob several months ago when I decided to whip up a cake from scratch. It turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to my baking life, which previously consisted of cutting up chunks of frozen pillsbury cookie dough and occasionally baking a boxed fun-fetti cake for my brother. So for the last few months I've experimented with various cake recipes (ok... two. one coconut and one chocolate. But sometimes I make the frosting minty!) and sworn I'd never go back to boxed cake again. 

But last night I was meandering around at Target. Look! A box of white cake! I could disguise the fake-white-cake-taste by giving it coconut frosting! Well, um, no, you can't. I found that out today. From the moment I opened the Betty Crocker bag of magic cake powder, I knew something was wrong. A all-too-sweet odor hit me that smelled like those lotions and candles at Bath and Body Works that are named "cupcake" or "sprinkles." However, I went on to make the cake, whip up some frosting (with coconut flavor!) and make a semi-presentable pink coconut cake that, in my opinion, is slightly too sweet. 

But I've never been a white-cake fan anyway.
Maybe you would like it. 
Isn't it pretty though?

Do you know how many flavors of LifeSavers they make? A lot. Let me tell you how many. In one bag of hard fruit life savers, there are thirteen flavors. This does not include gummy flavors, sour flavors, or any variation of mint. This includes but is not limited to Mango-Melon, Papaya, Piña Colada AND Pineapple, Watermelon, and Banana. Do any other papaya candies even exist? We are very impressed and will be going back for more.

Just a few photos that I'm behind on posting from where we went out to eat before I came up to UC. Then check out my UNION tab to see what I've been up to!

Ok I just think this is a cute commercial! 

I felt flowery today. So I made felt flowers. You can find tutorials here and here, although I'm not sure why they both suggest fabric glue. Hot glue gun is the clear choice. Anyway, I think I'm going to put them on the walls near my bed, or the blank sides of the cubes I built. I think the first photo does the most justice to them and the colors. That blue is more aqua than it is letting on, I promise. 
These little guys are so cute, although they are indeed time consuming (although I'm sure much easier with hot glue than fabric glue!). I would just love to make more more more of them and put them all over the room (although I'd like to keep my roomie for the whole year. Wouldn't want her to think I'm flower-crazy).

Also, if you are interested to know, I made my first lasagna last night. Lasagna is not a food I grew up eating at home, only at other people's houses, and last night I just decided to give it a try. It was kinda fun to make and was pretty good. Nothing outstanding, but good. Oh, and for the record, the little apple pies were not really that great. Just in case anyone was wondering.