new lens!

nikon 50mm f/1.8

Not quite used to the manual focus and fixed 50mm, so the crops are weird and not so crisp.

apologies..

except not, because I'm so excited (: (:

a little more creativity with the look

This is me getting a little creative with outfits. I know, the picture is a little lame. I'll go out as soon as I have the time (right now I leave pretty early in the morning for work and get back when it's dark) and I shall take some more creative photos with my outfits and where I got each piece for how much (:

Also - colored tights are my new favorite. You might be seeing a lot of these.

christmas time!

chocolate pumpkin pie

Crust

2 cups of graham-cracker crumbs (I used chocolate Teddy Grahams which was about 2 3/4 cup before I smashed them up)

6 tablespoons - butter, melted

1 tablespoon - granulated sugar

2 tablespoons - brown sugar

half teaspoon - salt

half teaspoon - cinnamon

3 ounces - bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semisweet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugars, salt, + cinnamon in bowl. Firmly press mixture into bottom & up the sides of a deep, 9 1/2 inch pie dish. Bake until firm (8-10 minutes) 

Remove from oven to spread chocolate over the crust. Return to the oven for another minute, then spread chocolate over the bottom & up the sides - let cool & reduce oven to 325 degrees.

Filling

4 tablespoons - unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 can (15 ounces) - pumpkin

1 can (12 ounces) - evaporated milk

3/4 cup - brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon - cornstarch

1 teaspoon - vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons - salt

3/4 teaspoon - ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon - ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon - nutmeg

ground cloves

1 ounce - semisweet chocolate (finely chopped)

Mix pumpkin, milk, brown sugar, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, a pinch of cloves + finely chopped semisweet chocolate bits in a medium bowl. Place pie dish on a rimmed baking sheet, pour pumpkin mixture into crust, bake until center is set but still a bit wobbly (which should only take 55 - 60 minutes, but sometimes people turn ovens off halfway through the baking process. Watch out for that.), refrigerate until well chilled (8 hours), then eat that tasty thing.

Fancy

I'm getting all fancy on you (:
Joshua added nice tabs (aw, sweet) for me awhile back, and now I've fixed them all up! Aren't they nice? I'm also on BlogLovin - which is the main reason for this post. I have to "claim" my blog so that you can follow it on there! Which would be super duper dandy of you all..

Here we go:
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4260231/?claim=cumvqkugsjt


Goals for getting out of my little comfort zone:

one photoshopped picture
one outfit
one recipe
one project

PER WEEK. But that may not happen for awhile. Until then, I want at least one post a week with any one of these. Hopefully more (:

If I don't, please yell at me.

à la prochaine fois,
Gabrielle

This way, my good fellow!

My very first attempt at this kind of photoshop.

Thank you Joshua for the help (: He's also helping me with the design of the blog - go ahead, clap for him.

This might become a weekly thing. Along with clothes! Now that I'm actually dressing more like a lady. I'll post some of my outfits - I'm a clearance rack fan, so some of you might like that.

Here's my little fellow. I boss him around.

Hello, Fall!

I have a job! & it is my very favorite. I love everyone I work with, I get to eat some tasty food whenever I'd like, and I get to see loads of pretty happy people. It is food service (which I am horribly afraid of), but instead of dealing with uptight people at a fancy restaurant, I get to deal with high college students who are oh so happy and only have the munchies (: well, maybe not all of them. But almost all of them, and the professors, seem to be in really good moods all the time. Plus, I really just work a tiny griddle and microwave, so it isn't the toughest job in the this whole wide world. But I have been working lots, so there's my next excuse. I worked about 70 hours in the last two weeks - but now I have this WHOLE week off to work on baking and photoshop, which I've already taken a bite out of. Oh! & make this blog quite lovely (more on this later). My next post will have the picture I am most proud of over the last few.. well, ever really.

 But for now, my little hand at baking:

Only a few days till Thanksgiving! This year is going to be a rather small bunch since half my siblings are super duper far away. Which means I get to take over my sister's delicious job of baking. I've commandeered pumpkin. So, Sunday night I spent the night baking some tasty pumpkin and butterscotch/white chocolate cookies. They turned out a lot better than expected, especially with all the wee problems we ran into. I had to bring just about every ingredient with my to my friend's house since I knew he wouldn't have any of it, but I forgot vanilla, butter, and eggs. So we skipped to the store and I bought vanilla, butter, and eggs - and we began! But then I realized I lost my butter and vanilla and he already had plenty of eggs and SALTED butter. So, I left the salt out of the recipe and used Kahlua instead of vanilla. The original recipe had twice the amount of baking soda and half the amount of spices (and I added "all spice" just for fun) and I believe they turned out really well.

They are very soft and almost cakey with how chewy they are. The recipe was for 60 cookies, but seeing as I make ginormous cookies, I probably got about 20.

+ + +

I cooked them at 350 for 12 minutes (:
1 cup (two sticks) - butter
1 cup - sugar
1 cup - brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon - vanilla (or kahlua;)
1 cup - pumpkin (I added a few tablespoons extra)
3 cups - flour
1 teaspoons - baking soda (original recipe asked for 2 teaspoons)
half teaspoon - salt (I left this out because of the salted butter)
2 teaspoons - cinnamon
1 teaspoon - ginger
half teaspoon - nutmeg
half teaspoon - cloves
1 teaspoon - allspice

12 ounce bag (two cups) of whatever flavor baking chips - butterscotch was my very favorite. I also used white chocolate for part of the batch, which wasn't as sweet. You could either grease the cookie sheet or use baking sheets(which I did), I only had to use one and there was no clean up at all after :)

Comment with anything you tried differently!
I'll be making these again, but this time with pictures. Promises, promises!

à la prochaine fois,
Gabrielle