trends

via the sartorialist, of course.

I think it’s a sign of (old) age when you finally see trends starting to recycle. I’ve heard from my mother forEVER that fashion repeats itself, but haven’t seen it too prominently. As we’ve had super skinny jeans/jeggings for a while now, the next big denim trend is its antithesis, flares. I remember when these were so popular when I was in middle school, nearly a decade ago. Although I can’t really say that as a middle schooler (or now, for that matter) I was/am up on fashion trends, I have noticed the return of flares in the stores. It is a strange juxtaposition next to the jegging display, however.

Can’t say if I’m loving flares–I’m still kind of set on the slim silhouette of skinny jeans. But it makes me wonder if I should ever really empty my closet, since all clothes inevitably come back into style.

nutella cake in a cup

I always have a craving for sweets after dinner (I think I was conditioned by always eating ben&jerrys after dinner in college). I heard about amazingness that is microwavable cake in a cup rather late in the game, but the first/last time I made it, the texture was powdery, heavy, and dissatisfying. I was a little skeptical when I saw the recipe for nutella cake in a cup (pretty much nutella + chocolate or peanut butter = win), thinking it’d be similar. But I just tried this and this satisfied my chocolate craving in a second. Also, this is pretty much 2 servings, since I just split it with my dad.

Nutella Cake-in-a-Cup

Recipe from this page, my notes in parentheses.

4 tablespoons self-rising flour
4 tablespoons white granulated sugar (I reduced to 3.5tbsp and still thought it was too sweet. I think it could be 3 or less)
1 egg
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons Nutella (I only used 1 tbsp since we didn’t have much left, but it was still hazelnut goodness!)
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (I used 1 tbsp vegetable, but I’d recommend at least 1.5 since it was still a little dry)

Mix all of the ingredients in a large coffee mug and microwave 1.5-3 minutes. (I watched mine carefully for about 2 minutes and it volcanoed out of my mug.) Best served a la mode or with a tall glass of milk. (:

{No pictures of my own to show since it came out really ugly, but it was delicious anyway)

Also, out of the kinds of flour I had, I did not have self-rising flour, so I made my own.

1 cup of All-Purpose flour

1.5 teaspoons of baking powder

.5 teaspoon of salt

Mix thoroughly in a bowl. I saved the rest of it in a ziplock bag to use the next time I have a craving.

the smell of coffee

…makes me think it’s morning, but it’s not. Well, technically it is the early early morning, the kind where I should be asleep.

I found this recipe for “Magical Coffee,” which involves cold-brewing. Hence the grinding of beans at 3am, which also makes me feel like a maniac for creating aromas designated only for early (not early early) mornings.

Either way, the past two weeks have been interesting. The big thing on my to-do list for the past year is now gone. I expected there to be huge lulls in my days now that I didn’t have to pore over and torture words to death. It was a prayer request to be diligent and disciplined with my time now, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I haven’t had much downtime despite not having a set schedule. I got my Vibrams last week and I’ve only gotten the chance to run in them once.  I’m sometimes surprised at how much needs to be done in a day, yet how little is crossed off my post-it to-do lists written the night before.

But I guess someone who didn’t have a lot of free time wouldn’t be baking (failed) birthday cakes.

yet another example of "looks better than it tastes"

…or have time to figure out that her favorite Wednesday farmers’ market closed down. Or eating at food trucks on a random Thursday night.

So then again, I am very thankful for this little lull of time. The waiting period isn’t all terrible, I suppose.

—

As a side note, can I also mention how heartbroken I am every time I watch the news? It is crazy to visibly see how we humans can spend years into building communities and it can be wiped out by nature in mere minutes. Not only that, but my dearest EAP friend JK is actually teaching English in the Miyagi prefecture in northeast Japan which was hit the hardest by both the earthquake and tsunami. I was worried sick the first night since there was no news that any of his family or friends had heard from him yet. Luckily, some friends and his mom wrote on his Facebook page saying that they’d contacted him and he’s fine, albeit without running water, electricity, or phone reception. Weird how social media is such a time-sucker, but redeems itself in ways like this. But keep praying for Japan and its people.