cookie dough

So, I wasn't originally planning on sharing this because, well, at first I wasn't entirely sold on it.

But then I let it sit in the fridge for a day.. and then another...(testing it everyday of course)

And then came the third day. And oh my goodness.. delicious. It was FANTASTIC.

On carrots, graham crackers, zucchini. You name it, I tried it. A spoonful works too.

“Blondie Batter” Dip

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained)
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup nut butter (or even a combination of applesauce and oil, and then use less milk)
• 1/4 cup plus 3T nondairy milk (or more or less, as needed) (I used skim milk...)
• Sweetener (used agave)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

recipe link

I would have taken more photos, but uhm.. it's gone.

I also need to find a photo alternative to this 3 megapixel nonsense that leaves my carrots looking horribly orange. On that note, Jon informed me yesterday that I eat so many carrots I might turn orange.. I disagreed but after seeing this camera's coloring of them, I might change my mind.

Also in love with the Rochester Public Market - well all of Rochester in general but that's another story. Went yesterday morning with Kara and picked up all sorts of delicious fruits & veggies. As much as I'm looking forward to fall coming, I'm not ready to give up all of the things Rochester has in the summer (like sun! and blueberries!).

Another week of working, splitting my time between the internship & admissions still. This upcoming Friday & Saturday are College & Careers part 2 so looking forward to another weekend of exhaustion ;) Park Ave Fest is also next weekend so I'll definitely be checking that out.

More recipes coming soon.. as soon as I can get non-orange pictures of them.

Predictable Commute

Dad might be amused by my morning "commute" as it's only about 20 minutes long (what seems to be his warm up lap around the neighborhood). But I'm actually finding that I'm enjoying it!

That is.. after I found the safe way.

You see, Rochester is a great city. But it's a city. Which means there are tough parts.

Those tough parts unfortunately fall in the shortest path between here and work. After two days of double (and triple) checking that my doors were in fact locked, I found an alternate route. One in which, if I were to say.. forget to lock my doors, I might still make it in one piece.

What I like best about it is the predictability of it.

There is always a woman walking to work on the side of the road with her ipod on. There's always the large dump truck ahead as I pass over the train tracks (the train which thankfully does not delay my route). I always turn the corner onto Genesee St. around 8:46.

And there is the bus... the lovely bus that happens to ALWAYS be in my way. Apparently we have the same schedule.

Plus I've figured out that if I leave at 8:33 on the dot, I pull in the parking lot with 4 minutes to spare. That, of course, is displayed nicely on the fancy black clock by the parking lot as I turn the corner.

10 minutes later, an Amtrak train passes through on the tracks by the office.

Predictability, I like it.

Erie Canal

Weeks here seem to be flying by. Between working at WMNW & the admissions office, I've been super busy. It seems like I come home and it's time to do a little more work & all of a sudden, it's bed time!

If you want to hear about what I did this past weekend [here]. I take the easy way out and only blog about things once :) Saves time.

Anyway, amidst all of this working I've managed to fit in a fair amount of outside time. So much so that I actually have TAN lines. Shocker. This has happened.. uhm, never.

By far my favorite place to explore is the Erie Canal. Especially if I go by myself, I'd much rather drive the 15 minutes east to pick it up in Pittsford. Smart thinking.

This past weekend I made it all the way to Bushnell's Basin. Which isn't particularly far for a bike ride but I was walking it so I'd like a little more credit!

I got to get up close & personal with some ducks too. Unlike the annoying geese on campus, these ones you can actually walk up to.

Already planning my visit back here for the weekend. Between that, a visit to the public market & some more design work it should be good :)

I'm blogging, you just can't tell.

I started interning at We Make Nice Websites, a web design/development company in Rochester at the beginning of the month. I was brought on as a design intern but I'm slightly obsessed with social media. That might be an understatement.

Needless to say, I'm now in charge of 4 Twitter accounts and 4 Facebook accounts. Tweetdeck has become my best friend. And when I'm not tweeting or facebook insight stalking... I'm blogging. For them, admissions or my personal blogs (which have kind of taken the back burner).

You can read the posts for WMNW here: http://blog.wemakenicewebsites.com/ The ones tagged with my name are clearly written by me. Or just note the sarcasm ;) Can't run away from it.

I'm also getting to work on some sweet design projects. All web work which was frustrating at first until I discovered Google Web Fonts. Partyy. We're in the middle of designing & launching a new site for them. Pretty neat. And I recently designed a website for a preschool. In less than 24 hours. It involves lambs. Lambs are awkward animals, I have discovered. Also, I lack inspiration for preschool websites but I think I managed alright. Working on a super secret project too. Which will hopefully be launched soon? More details later.

Basically all fun things. I switch between the two jobs. When I'm not working on one, I go to the other. And when I'm not doing that I'm working on some wedding invites for a friend. Or brainstorming my personal website.

Or tweeting. Oh, social media.

I think I picked the right major. I realized that as I was working 9 hour days in between 2 jobs only to come home and think more about them. So. Much. Fun.

And I also might have a shot at not having to live in a cardboard box in a year. All good things.

It Be Hot.

Just needed a reminder of the cold.



Today was the hottest it's been in Rochester since 1993.

For real.

I'm all for breaking records. Heat is not one of those I wish to break.

My car showed temperatures I wish to never see again.

I was not pleased.



Especially considering my internship has no AC. And work required carrying heavy boxes outside.



So I came home and looked at pictures of snow.

Working all day tomorrow and Saturday for College & Careers. Outside, giving tours. Luckily it's supposed to be a "cool" 92 degrees. Melting might occur.

week with mom

Since last Wednesday Mom has been in upstate NY hanging out with me! Sarah had a volleyball camp over at Cornell so it made sense for her to just come hang out with me for a few days until that was over.

It was nice having my own personal coffee barista :)

And dinner preparer! (note: that beer isn't mine.. it is however a Rochester one with a label done at a local design place around here that won a big design award for it. very cool.)

We tested out some new Rochester restaurants.. like John's Tex Mex in South Wedge that had delicious tofu burrito bowls. Yum. And a funky restaurant.. too bad we had to wait for what seemed like forever to get our food.. I think our level of hunger led to us being even more impatient.

Checked out a free concert up at Park Point. An ACDC cover band.. totally not our scene. We decided that getting a few tattoos and a motorcycle might help us fit in a bit more. Still nice to sit outside for a while.

Ate dinner outside at Global Village in our own personal outdoor living room (there are sweet outdoor couches & no one else was around!)

(that's my roommate Kristin, she came along for some company)

And mom took lots of pictures, although I have yet to get those from her so all I have are these grainy ipod pics! Ooops.

Definitely nice to come home from work everyday and hang out. Mom might argue that going home will buy her a wee bit more room in bed because apparently I choose to only sleep directly in the middle of my bed here :) Whoops.

On to week number 3 at work... more updates on that later. And more pictures once I get those.

canal ride

Today we decided to one up our 7 mile bike ride around campus from yesterday. In all honesty, that ride was done as a let's just get out for a while and circle campus but it ended up being tons of fun!

So today we went back at it with a longer ride in mind (yeah jon, you can quit laughing now ;)). Our only faulty planning in this was we decided to go right around noon when it was blazing hot (90 degrees) and super sunny. Regardless we packed up Kristin's car and headed off.

It did require some strategic packing..

We ended up driving to Pittsford which is about 15 minutes away from campus. There is technically a path that goes to the canal that we could pick up right from RIT except I feel more comfortable around Pittsford and I really wanted to see some new parts of the canal without getting super exhausted first (just getting from RIT to Pittsford and back would have added about 15 miles to the ride).

Got our bikes all unloaded and ready to go (Kristin only questioned our sanity once during this...)

It ended up being really nice along the water with a breeze and everything. Made it a good 45 minutes before our first water break.

Kristin was less than pleased.

Our bikes also got a lovely coating of white all over them from the dust. The part we biked along was not paved so the gravel kicked up a lot. In short, we got a wee bit dirty.

And became somewhat discouraged when we saw that others were enjoying the view from the comfort of their large boat.. That was until we passed them with ease :)

Finally made it to Fairport which is about 7 miles from Pittsford. We got there just in time to watch the bridge go down after the boats passed.

And took a quick apple/water break.

And then apparently forgot to take more pictures... Oops! We were so hot by the time we made it back to Pittsford, it didn't help that the wind was working against us on the way back. Did run into Destler & his wife (he's the President of RIT) except they were on their electric bikes which kind of left us in the dust.

At this rate we're going to have to do a 28 mile ride tomorrow ;) Just judging from our energy levels after work last week that's not going to happen.

loaf of bread

Okay, I confess. We may or may not have consumed a loaf of bread.

But in our defense, it was two people and it's technically a 1/3rd of a loaf and it's lunch time. Except, really, I don't feel that bad because man that is tasty. And homemade!

I tested out the Stecca no-knead bread recipe from Jim Lahey's book. It's one that we've made somewhat frequently at home so I thought I'd try it myself.

Let's just say, this might become a frequent occurrence around here. So frequent, in fact, that I have a designated "flour rising" towel. Priorities.

Ingredients
3 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups cool (55 to 65°F) water
Additional flour for dusting
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, table salt, sugar, and yeast. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.

2. When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Fold the dough over itself two or three times and gently shape it into a somewhat flattened ball. Brush the surface of the dough with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the coarse salt (which will gradually dissolve on the surface).

3. Place a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust it with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.

4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C), with a rack in the center. Oil a 13-by-18-by-1-inch baking sheet.

5. Cut the dough into quarters. Gently stretch each piece evenly into a stick shape approximately the length of the pan. Place on the pan, leaving at least 1 inch between the loaves. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt.

6. Bake the baguettes for 15 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the stecca to a rack to cool thoroughly.

Note: The baguettes may become a bit soggy in just a few hours because of the salt on the surface. If that happens, reheat the loaves in a hot oven until crisp.

Variation
Stecca Pomodori, all’Olive, o al’Aglio (Stecca with Tomatoes, Olives, or Garlic)
Push 10 cherry tomato halves, cut side up, 10 large pitted olives, or 10 lightly crushed garlic cloves into each formed stecca, taking care to space the additions evenly down the length of the dough. Brush each stecca with enough olive oil to create a thin coat of oil on the surface. For the tomato stecca, top each tomato half with a very thin slice of garlic and a couple of fresh thyme leaves, and sprinkle with salt. Sprinkle the garlic stecca with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Do not salt the olive stecca—it’s already salty from the olives.

Summer in Rochester

Summertime in Rochester is arguably one of the greatest things ever. We spend so much time here during the awfully cold months that it makes you look twice when Wegmans is seen selling things like sunflowers, they just look out of place.

Adventuring is a mandatory task that sometimes leads to bouncy ball searching (we refrained from releasing them all).



And nerf gun (sword?) fighting in the aisles.

But best of all there is the Rochester Public Market. Which is open year round but Oct-March offers little outside of the usual onion/potato/apple/insert your root veggie name here. In spring & summer (which feel quite similar up north) there are flowers! And fruits! And lots of tasty things.

Of course, there is the obligatory coffee stop. How else do you expect me to wander around for 3 hours?

Free samples help too. Especially when the apple seller handed us an entire apple to try... Along with the bread samples, vegan mango pudding, farro with tomato pesto and honey. So pretty much you can consume lunch for free if you wander for long enough.

Not to mention bringing home bucket loads of food all for under $25, who needs Wegmans anymore ;) (See the rhubarb mom?)

Three hours at the market spent wandering does leave one rather exhausted which calls for a little outside relaxation and book reading. And potentially more apple samples.

every pretty smile

(via jwitwer)