Brownies and Vodka Watermelon

For starters, I apologize for not posting the recipe links in the last blog. I wasn't even thinking about that! Hah. So, I'll post those with the link to the recipe for the red velvet cheese cake brownies Cait and I just made. I know, I know, my last two posts have been food. I'm on a kick, what can I say? I blame the fact school is about to start, and I'm afraid I won't have time to bake then.

The red velvet cheesecake brownie!

I know it looks a little bit gross because Cait and I had a slight malfunction going on with the cake pan, but it tastes wonderful, and that's what counts, right? Basically, I grabbed what I thought was a 9x13 pan, but it was in fact an 8.5x12.5 pan. What the heck. I knew when I was filling the pan it was too thick, but I kept going any way, and bam! It flooded in the oven. Not to fear, Cait and I are quick thinkers. We basically took it out of the oven, scooped out batter into a smaller pan, and put the two back in the oven. Viola! It was fixed. The only downside was the brownies aren't as pretty, but who cares? Not me.



I also wanted to tell you guys about the frozen watermelon vodka watermelon chunks. Yes. Those were as wonderful as they sound. Katie and I made these one night before we went to a friends' house. She bought a seedless watermelon, cut it up into chunks, and then we dipped them in watermelon flavored vodka and put them in the freezer. So. Good. We soaked them in quite a bit of vodka, but you really couldn't taste it. I mean, the watermelon flavored vodka itself is heavenly, but that's just me. We also found that if take shots of watermelon vodka and bit into a chunk of vodka watermelon after, it's absolutely wonderful. Try it. You'll love it. If you like watermelon and vodka that is...although the persons house we were at doesn't like clear liquor or fruity things, and even he loved it. Therefore, you should try it.

LINKS:

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Can you tell I love cheesecake?

Oreos and Strawberries.

I've been on a serious yummy foods kick this week. First, I went to my lovely friend Cait's house when she finally returned from Florida to make these oreo cream cheese cupcakes. They were every bit as delicious as they sound. Then, today, I was stumbling and I found a recipe for cheesecake stuffed strawberries which Cait had mentioned when we baked the cupcakes. I took one look and had to have them. Look at all this deliciousness!

Putting the oreos in the bottom of the cake pan. (We made 12 cup cakes and a heart shaped cake!)

Cait getting supplies ready.

Me with the bowl of cream cheese. 

The finished cupcakes and our mugs of milk.

The cupcake. It was like a mini oreo cheese cake. Real.

Yum.

The cheesecake stuffed strawberries. So. Good.

Check out Cait's blog here: Let Loose

Becoming an adequate woman.

My mother and I are getting dressed to go to Wal-Mart, and, as usual, I'm standing in her bathroom chatting about this and that. She and my father recently returned from Texas where they visited my grandmother (my mother's mother). We were talking about how my grandma says things sometimes that are just absolutely crazy, partly because of her age and partly because she's got some medical issues, besides, going a little crazy runs in my family. Well, apparently, she asked my mom why I wasn't settled, and the conversation went like this:

Grandma- "Why isn't Tiffani settled yet?"

Real women focus on their man, and not school.

Mom- "We are encouraging her to focus on her studies for now. She doesn't need to date." 

This is only partially true. Mom pushes me to date people that I don't want to just because she likes them. I think this is typical mother behavior. Dad doesn't want me to date. He'd probably like for me to live at home with him forever. Typical dad type things.

Grandma - "But she dated all through high school. You really should encourage her to date and get settled."

Apparently I need to be popping out babies and doting on a husband or I'm not adequate.

Mom- "Yes, she did date all through high school, and that's why she didn't get the better scholarship for school. She's got a hard major, it require lots of study time. She doesn't have time for boys."

Bless her heart for thinking I study.

Grandma - "She's old enough to do both now. Although you're right. She got the brains. She must've gotten it from her father's side of the family."

...really?

What is all this "settled" business?! I have the old men at my father's church ask me all the time when I'm going to get married. I actually had one come up to me and say, "When are you going to get married and become a respectable woman?"

Should I repeat that?

"When are you going to get married and become a respectable woman?"

WHO SAYS THAT?! I think my mouth literally fell open, I was so shocked. I was twenty at the time. I just said, "Well, probably never. I'll be rich and I don't need a man nor do I want children." I mean really, isn't that rude? Maybe it's an old person thing. It's like women shouldn't be in school and working to be successful.

 I don't know if I could be a stay at home mom. And let's be real, I'm not the kind of girl who does a whole lot of doting. I like to wear the pants in the relationship. It's probably due to the fact I am stubborn, opinionated, sarcastic, and blunt. I'm an awful woman!

My blah mood.

I've been in a blah mood for the past few days. Normally, it'd last for a day or two then move right along back to happy. Not this time, unfortunately. I feel so unhappy, but I really have nothing to be unhappy about. I would equate it to those moments you cry just because you need to, but you have no real reason to cry. It's like that, except I'm not crying. Mostly because I can't seem to physically produce tears at the moment, and partly because I refuse to cry if I can, in any way, help it. I guess this means something is not working out, and I need to fix it. The hard part is figuring out what I need to change. I don't even have the energy to work on thinking about what it is. Really, it makes me a little angry. As if I'm being selfish or ungrateful for being unhappy with no real reason to be unhappy. Is that weird? Sometimes I think I'm having a quarter-life crisis. If those even exist. I'm still having second thoughts about my degree, too. However, the thought of changing my major when I'm three years in makes me nauseated. I'm just going to go slam my head into a wall or something now, haha.


I apologize that this post isn't humorous or anything. I really just needed to get it off my chest.

Hi, I'm Tiffani and I'm a cynic.

On Friday night, I was hanging out with some friends when one of them said their significant other had cheated. Well, this came as a shock to me and my girl friend who was there with me because this person would never, ever cross my mind as that kind of a person. Later that night, my girl friend told me she was thinking of rejoining the Marriage is for Chumps Club. To which I laughed and I said that it was a good club to be in.

Then yesterday, the same girl and I went to a wedding (which was really more like a church service than a wedding ceremony, but I digress). Then entire time I just kept thinking about how the idea of a wedding is lovely, I would like a wedding, but the idea of a marriage just escapes me. Marriage is a sacred thing and it's hard, but people these days throw around marriage and divorce like it's no biggie. I understand this because we are just people, but why get your hopes up having a wedding/marriage to a person who says they'll love you and only you forever when you know people change. I'm not saying it never works, but it's hard, hard work full of compromise and forgiveness. A lot of people like to think everything is black and white with no gray areas, but the truth is, there are a lot of gray areas. People make mistakes. Things happen, and you've got to decide if you've got what it takes to work through the hard times. In a wedding, the vows usually say "for better, or for worse" but people don't think about the "for worse" part. Not to mention, people are so fickle. It happens.

And then, people are having relationship problems left and right, and these girls are killing me. I just want to bitch slap them. If a guy cheats once, forgiveness is understandable, mistakes happen, but more than once? No. He's not worth it. If he's lying to your face about it, it's not worth it. So, please, don't sit there and tell people he's really a good guy when everyone knows what a cheating, lying jerk he really is. If you are living with a boyfriend/girlfriend and they tell you mean, hateful things about yourself all the time, they are begging for you to break up with them. Constantly being a jerk to you and talking to another person for quite a while is a pretty big red flag that they aren't worth it.  If you are wanting to get back with an ex, don't sleep with other people while telling her/him you're only seeing her/him. They will find out. They will hate you. I know I seem like I have a complete lack of sympathy for these people, but you can only keep finding the good in them for so long before you realize you are wasting your time. Some of them have passed the I-feel-sad-for-you level and upgraded to the You-are-pathetic level. I know things are much more complicated when emotions are involved, but you've got to know when enough is enough.

Ode to Gingers

As I've said before, it took me a long time to be okay with my red hair, pale skin, and freckles. I hated my hair so  much through out high school. I dyed it brown, put high lights in it, once I even bleached my entire head! That was seriously awful. I always wanted to be blonde and tan, not redheaded and pale. However, as I grew up, I grew into my hair. Now, I relish in it. I love the fact that I have red hair and pale skin[not saying, however, that I still don't try incessantly to sunless tan in the summer!]. It's beautiful, my hair is firey and different. Besides, lots of people have things for gingers, myself included. With that being said, here is my Ode to Gingers:

Smokin' hot ginger crushes:

Kevin McKidd - Grey's Anatomy

Conan O'Brien <3

Rupert Grint - Harry Potter

Beautiful Ginger Ladies:

Julianne Moore

Isla Fisher

Reba McEntire

Favorite Faux Gingers:

Emma Stone - Easy A/Superbad/Zombieland

James and Oliver Phelps - Harry Potter

Deborah Ann Woll - True Blood

Becoming Golden [girls]

It's official. My dear friend Katie and I are becoming old women. We are well on our way to becoming The Golden Girls and these are the reasons why:

Teenagers are now "teenyboppers."

We are walking in the mall yesterday when we decide to check out The Gap. I mistakenly walk into Baby Gap, and forgetting the stores are connected, I turn around to walk into The Gap's entrance. In doing so, I moved Katie back  into the aisle where she semi-collided with some Justin Bieber wannabe. I loudly say something about how they need to learn to walk away from the entrance doors, and they turn around to give me their best glares. That's when Katie says, "Oh, screw off, teenyboppers!" (I cleaned that up for the blog). We walk inside, and burst into laughter. "Did I really just say that?! Oh, my God, we are getting old!"

Graphic T's make us feel juvenile.

And entire table full of the cutest graphic T's, and we decide against any of them because we feel like we're too old to wear them now. Not that I don't still wear them sometimes, it's just on my skanky days that I do. 

Social interaction requires a pep talk.

As I've mentioned before, I would rather stay curled up in my chair with a book than go out with friends. I have to talk myself into going to the pub and pretty much all social settings. I refuse to go to the club here, though. It is so skanky, all the germ-x in the world couldn't save me. Katie is the same way. We just don't like people.

Staying out really late doesn't really appeal to me.

Generally, the only reason I stay up really late is because

1. I'm watching a TV show.
2. I'm reading a book.
3. I'm doing homework.
4. I'm doing internet shenanigans. 

Even in high school Katie and I didn't go out late or stay up late. I recall joking with her mother that she didn't need to worry about us partying in college because our bed time is 9:00pm. We were so lame.

We aspire to be just like Betty White.

I've been awarded!

So, I woke up this morning to a comment on one of my blogs that I was given an award! I was so excited. So, in light of the award, from what I understand, I say who awarded me, give seven facts about myself, and give the award to other bloggers! Let's begin!

I was given this award by Cherie @ Refractions. I absolutely love her blog. She blogs about her cat, Bitch Cat, who is so adorable. One of the things I really adore about her blog is that the amount of love she has for Bitch Cat really comes through in her posts. It means a lot because I'm a die hard animal lover. She's also been posting about her roommate search, which is very entertaining (and frustrating, I'm sure). She is incredibly relateable and you should go check out her blog!




Seven Facts About Moi:

1] I don't know how to take compliments well. I generally stand there and awkwardly smile while mumbling something about "thanks."

2] I have serious control issues which is why I don't like rollercoasters, crazy drivers, and the idea of marriage(yet).

3] I met Max Bemis from Say Anything, and it was awesome.

Me cheesin'.

4] I like the idea of bows, but they look silly on me 98% of the time.

5] I am currently obsessed with Grey's Anatomy.

6] It took me a long time to be okay with my hair color.

7] I'm a complete nerd, but I really like it.

Award goes to...


Emma from I am the Chaser. She is so funny and sweet, I really enjoy reading her blog updates and checking out her posted photos.

Kate from Kate as of Late. This girl is adorable and so cheerful. She's going through a hard time right now, but she's still so optimistic, and it's inspiring.