Class is in session (literally)

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The glorious untouched nature of filled supply kits, August 2014.

For all of you who have been wondering where have I been? (Yes, all zero of you. Hush, a girl can dream.)

The short answer is? Busy.

The slightly longer answer is I've been working (and sleeping and eating and sometimes even dreaming) my job. I'm a teacher. More importantly, I'm substitute teacher who is the unofficial "Maternity Leave Sub" at my school. This means for the past four semesters in a row inclusively, I have been working as a long-term sub for a teacher that has left to have a baby or some other reason.

As a long-term sub, you have most (if not all) of the responsibilities that you have as a full-time teacher and less of the pay! without the security of a permanent position. Fun times.

Still, I hope to talk about some of the hilariously tiring--and tiringly hilarious?--things that make teaching the largest part of my life. And to start blogging again, because I miss it.

So watch this space for teaching stuff, baking stuff, and anything else that comes to mind.

Happy Easter!

Glad to know that the Easter Bunny gives all kids (big and little) a basket!

Of frosting and friendship: Owl Cucpakes

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You can no doubt see where
the owl came from...

The college where I spent my undergrad years, amusingly, did not have an official mascot when I first attended. Since I had just left a high school where we were a color rather than some alliterative animal (Big Green was only marginally better than calling us "the Doors"), I didn't find it that odd. Still, as a writer for the sports section of the college paper, calling us the "Bryn Mawr College Mawrtyrs" had always seemed overly literal.

The owl had long been the school's unofficial mascot, joining the ranks of other Beanie Baby-esque animals wearing minuscule college t-shirts in the campus bookstore. In my junior year (if this is false, someone with a better memory please correct me) the college officially voted that the owl would be our official athletic mascot. It still blows my mind that next year will be my 10th college reunion. Weird.

Whooo wouldn't want one?

At a picnic potluck for college friends one spring day, I was tasked with bringing dessert. Deciding to embody the saying GO BIG OR GO HOME, I decided to make some adorable and thematic cupcakes. And so the Owl cupcakes were born.

This recipe is best made with friends, for manual labor if nothing else. Like all artistic cupcake decorating endeavors, please leave yourself plenty of time, as things as simple sounding as 'separate several dozen Oreos without breaking them' takes more time than you'd think. 

  Or at least more time than I'd think.

Recipe and more photos behind the cut!

A Blustery (and Bloggery) Day: SF Food Blogger Bake Sale 2013

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Closeup on cookies by Irvin (Eat the Love) and me, among others!

Ironically, I've meant to update my blog several times in the past few weeks (or even months), but here is a reason that I can't pass up: this month was the annual Food Blogger Bake Sale. Once again, we were outside Omnivore Books--I totally meant to pick up a copy of Shauna Sever's newest book about vanilla, independent bookstores need supporting!--and it was a windy and hilarious day of delicious baked goods, amusing conversation and, most importantly, happy customers enjoying the food we and other awesome food bloggers had made.


I made Dr. Seuss inspired cookies, adapted from a recipe I found online. They came out pretty cute, but be warned--the dough is very damp so it's very hard (or rather easy to do it wrong) to make perfect spirals.

Seussical Sugar Cookies, taken with love from Swirled Sugar Cookies.

Worth 9,000+ Words: Fall 2012 in Words and Pictures

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If you are a frequenter of my blog (granted, that would usually be if I updated frequently, which I sort of don't) you might notice there are several new entries that seem to have magically shown up in the past. Basically, I am trying to get into more of a normal blogging schedule--we'll start with any kind of schedule, normal or not and work from there.

But also, I have recently started to exercise more. While I have been playing pick up ultimate frisbee once or twice a week with the same group of crazy engineers-and-those-who-love-them (I use the word "love" loosely here. My friends are hilarious, yes, but the kind of odd only another odd person could love. ;o) ) since 2009, I've never been what you would call an exerciser. Part of the reason I enjoy ultimate frisbee (besides the hilarious people, the fun parties we throw, and the potential for hot gossip on the sidelines) is that the exercise has a purpose, the game of throwing and catching the frisbee makes all the running and dashing and soreness bearable.

Post-Dirty Girl. Ew.

However, one of my friends from college sent out an email a couple months back about participating in the Dirty Girl Mud Run, a 5K with obstacles and mud (shocker) that is all-girl, all athletic abilities, all mud, all the time. And I did it. And it was awesome.

My newest challenge? I have started the Couch to 5K running program, which basically pieces out a training regime in nine weeks that starts at running for a minute at a time... to the whole time.

Because I think that cooking and exercise often can go hand in hand (not literally, please do not run while baking, chaos will ensue), I'm thinking I will integrate my stab at healthy habits into this blog. If nothing else, it will give me more material to write about.

So never fear! The same hilarious write-up of recipes and Foodie Penpals will continue. I just might share random healthy/exercise/life tips as well. Cool?

Now, on to the promised pictures after the jump!

Sugar and Spice: Snickerdoodles

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Everyone has their favorite dessert. My dad loves German Chocolate cake (coconut creeps me out, which is why it's HIS favorite dessert not mine). My mom always wants root beer floats on her birthday. Me? Give me a good chocolate chip cookie and I'm yours.

My younger sister's favorite? 

Snickerdoodles.

Now don't get me wrong, I like snickerdoodles fine, they just don't light me up. However, as recipes go, this one is excellent, not only because it's pretty easy, but because by rolling the snickerdoodles in cinnamon sugar, they retain all that lovely winter/fall taste and have an excellent texture and visual appeal.

 Details after the jump!

Harnessing the Power of Social Media: Link to Instructables!

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So I discovered the coolness that is Instructables. It's an amazing website that allows people to share their step-by-step instructions about basically anything.

Need to know how to make rainbow cupcakes? Check.
Super Mario question block that lights up? Done.
Anything else you'd ever want to know... yes.

While I'm pretty sure I have posted about my love of peanut butter and peanut butter cookies, I was inspired to turn it into an Instructable. The website is very user-friendly and easy to use. Of course, I had to rock a ridiculous name for the entry, but hey, who wouldn't. Don't these look delicious? Click the link to see what I did it!

Peanut Butter Cookie Perfection

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: August Foodie Penpal Reveal!

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Note: This entry is back-dated as real life has intervened. My apologies!

This is the shortest entry ever (in my attempt to catch up to the present day, I didn't want to totally short shrift the awesomeness of Foodie Penpals in August. Here, in brief, is the awesome box that Ione gave me!

*The most adorable strainer ever. It's so cheerful and now sits on top of my microwave.

*Somersaults are these cracker type things that are made from sesame seeds and awesome. Super addictive, I give them to everyone who gets assigned to me as a Penpal now, it's hiliarious.

*Delicious cupcake mix and scone mix.

*Raspberry explosion of fun! Otherwise known as dark chocolate with raspberries, raspberry licorice and the aforementioned scones.

Interested in signing up? Here's the details:

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

Click here to find out more from Lindsey herself!