the most exquisite baked oatmeal

hey guys,
yeah I know my blog is still not "remodeled" and I haven't posted in ages buuuut I have a recipe to share so that counts for something right? don't get too excited thinking I made this one up although it is pretty self explanatory. this is yet again another one of my pinterest finds. I am making it a goal to cook 2 pinterest recipes a week A. to try all this yummy stuff I am merely drooling all over my keyboard for and B. to get myself back into a more "domesticated state". I am really lacking in the good housewife department lately so this lovely breakfast is part of that effort!

I got a couple requests on instagram for a recipe so the link is here. It's super easy to throw together and makes your house smell so freaking vanilla-y wondrous. Hope you enjoy!

mad dash magnolia

i love big cities. i love the architecture, people watching, shopping (duh), and amazing food EVERYWHERE. i love eating the local fare at cool trendy places and little bakeries. magnolia bakery has been a place i have wanted to go to for a long time and now there is one in chi town! my dad and i wanted to get back up to wisconsin at a decent hour so we didn't leave much time to check out magnolia.

we were on state street (the one with the famous chicago sign) which is really busy approaching magnolia bakery. of course there is no street parking on this street so my dad pulls over fumbles through his wallet, throws me a $100 bill, i jump out of the car with my camera and dash in to absorb the whole experience of this famous bakery while my dad  drives around the block...yeah it was probably a funny site to see.

while waiting in line i am wildly snapping pictures while deciding what i am getting. i picked out a few cupcakes, cookies, some bar thing, snagged a cook book and a jar their famously cute sprinkles...in my favorite color, mint :)

I paid while snapping more pictures, dashed out the door with a bag full of goodies. snapping pictures. this place was adorable all decorated for halloween and i wish i could have spent more time there. i walked outside snapped some pictures while i waited for my dad to pull around the corner, jumped in the car and we booked it out of chi town!

next stop? the lds temple!

fancy feast

My dadio is in town for a visit! He flew in last night from Salt Lake City and we kicked off his tour of the Midwest in pure luxury. We were planning on having upscale bar food at Graze so I could introduce my dad to true Wisconsin fare. The wait was a bit long and their fancy sister restaurant L'Etoile had no wait...so we thought why not? A swanky dinner never hurt anyone.

Every bite was best thing I ever ate. Ask my dad and he'll tell you it was his favorite meal. It was a really neat dining experience. We didn't just get food, eat it and have a nice conversation. We experienced the most thought provoking dishes that the state of Wisconsin has to offer. The chef takes pride in sourcing all the food for his restaurant locally in Wisconsin, and it seriously made all the difference. If you want to splurge and you're a foodie like we are...GO HERE. You won't regret it.

Today our agenda is to head to Chi town after I'm done with class. We are staying on the Magnificent Mile! Shopping what? This weekend is going to be fun! I love being with my dad.

Pseudo Single

Big catch up update:
I can almost mark one month on the Calendar since Joey left for school. Which surprisingly has flown by! He is pretty busy in his classes, but he is liking them pretty well I think. He worked in a team for the first couple weeks and now he will be in more regular classes. While he has been grinding out case studies and other business schooly things I have been busy. busy. busy. My life has basically consisted of house sitting, packing and deep cleaning my old apartment, moving into my new apartment, girls nights, my cat, working at j.crew, and volunteering at the museum.The house that I am "sitting" is AMAZING. It requires its own post. Here are some pics of my life lately...

Move out: Joey's "man cave" after I spent a WHOLE DAY cleaning this thing out. He is really good at accumulating things. Our apartment is so bare. It's so sad I have loved this place, and our landlords are super sad too. We are their favorite tennants...I'm their favorite tennant ;)

 Move in: I am slowly but surely getting things moved into my new apartment. It is kinda hard moving much with a mini, but I just take a car load a day and call it good. It is actually nice not having it be one crazy moving day like most students in Madison. Since my landlords are just the most amazing people ever they are letting me have my apartment until the end of the month. Unlike the rest of campus where August 15th (also known as hippie christmas) is the day where everyone moves. The city is filled with U-hauls, foreigners who don't know how to navigate through downtown Madison, scared freshman, and lots and lots of junk on the curb. -hence hippie christmas. I'll show you my little apartment when it is all settled into. By little I am not exaggerating...not sure how I am going to fit a bed in there...I'll worry about that later. My mom and lil bro Johnny come to town tomorrow (sooooo excited!) and we are going to get me a little futon or something to squeeze into my closet. I mean bedroom.

Girls night: Full Moon 5k with the j.crew girls. I did surprisingly well considering I have not been running much lately. Made me so excited that I registered for a 10k this October. Running is good!

Cat: Ethel and I snuggle a lot. I feel bad because I am not living at my apartment for a couple weeks so she gets lonely. I try to make up for it by rubbing her belly extra and give her all sorts of lovins.

Work: j.crew is a really hard place to be at right now. They have their new fall collection in and it is pure torture to control myself to not just max out my credit card five times over buying everything in the store. Need to find more monies...I considered selling my eggs because you can get paid really if you go to a good school, but its a little too invasive for just wanting to buy some clothes. Guess that's why it is good mommy is coming to town tomorrow huh mom???

Volunteer: I Volunteer at the Chazen's (UW's art musuem) print and drawing studies room a couple of hours a week. It is great getting the experience of working in a museum, handling art, and working with some of the most fun people ever. If  I can get a job just like this place when I graduate I will be set for life. 

Cat: I took Ethel to the vet for some vaccination updates, and she was classified level 4 (out of 5) in the overweight category. I have a chubby kitty! She doesn't like to exercise and she hates toys. Oh boy does she love to eat though! I have a cat that mooches more than a dog. Not even exaggerating. Sometimes she has moments of wanting to attack things so I let her have it so she can get that cardio  going. Work it Ethel!

House Sitting: Preview of the house I am house sitting. Just wait til you see the inside.

House Sitting: This is Roxy. She's a big hound dog that barks loud, and has a heart of gold.

Girls Night: Bronte and I went out on the town...

...60's style.

Volunteer: I love the prints in the print room. We have thousands! I need to get an exact number because it is pretty amazing how many we have. Lots of cool Japanese prints that I LOVE. My mom is going to get a tour of the print room tomorrow. I'm going to show her some of my favorite German expressionism stuff and maybe sneak in a little Shunga print just to add a shock factor to the tour ;)... Google it if you dare.

Girls Night:Bronte introduced me to one of the best movies ever. I am recommending to all you ladies out there to watch A Room with a View. It is also a book so read it too. The movie stays true to the book according to Bronte. The story is adorable, and they cast the most beautiful men...British men... Your welcome.

Cat: We are basically two best friends that anyone could ever have.

Girls Night: well technically boys were here too, but it was mostly the gigi girls. Cherie the owner of the Madison Gigi's turned 50 last week! We all went out for pizza to celebrate. She hates cake (but loves cupcakes?...) so we had cherry pie from Hubbard Ave Diner (best pies eva) for dessert. I love Cherie so much! She is so sweet, and is really funny after a couple martinis and whatever was in that shot was the waiter gave her for her birthday.

Girls Night: Went out to eat with my friend Julie to the Irish pub called Brocach. It was super duper delish. I tried bangers and mash for the first time which surprisingly I loved! I normally wouldn't order something like this because I don't like processed meats, especially sausage. However I decided to be a true midwesterner and enjoy some pre heart disease for dinner lol. I am glad I did, one of the best things I have ever tasted.

Keeping myself super busy is making time away from Joey fly. It still sucks majorly not having someone...a human (thanks roxy) to sleep next to. Or when little funny things happen or other random things pop up that I can't just share with him right away. I miss cooking him dinner (even if its a frozen pizza most of the time lol) and watching our favorite shows together. I want to go to the movies so bad, but don't want to go with out him. As much fun as I have at girls nights with my favorite ladies, I miss my Joey, my best friend. I will keep living it up being Pseudo Single though and have the best final semester of college ever.

Birthday Recap

My birthday was a good day yesterday. As simple as it was, I think it was my favorite birthday in a long time. I started the day waking up at 5 so I could finish my mountain of reading for my rhetoric of religion class. Treated myself to driving to school instead of sweating in 90 degree heat (before 9:00!) on my bike. After class I headed home, had some lunch, and headed off to work. After work was over it felt more like a birthday. I cam home to some lovely flowers from my sweetheart!

I was feeling creative and hyper so I made a headband out of my bouquet and posed Lana del Rey style. The flowers were just going to wilt and die anyways so why not make a sweet crown out of them?

See? Just need longer hair and serious eyeliner and you won't know who is who.

After I played with my roses, I opened my present from my sister in law jojo (Jonessa). She got me an amazing cookbook that I can't wait to try! It is super natural every day. Jojo says all the recipes she has tried are amazing so I can't wait to get cookin! My pinterest recipes will have to be put on hold for a bit :) Speaking of which I made my birthday cake from a pinterest recipe. I made triple lemon blueberry cake with lemon curd filling and lemon buttercream frosting. LEMON. It was super tasty and fresh. perfect cake for summer. Gotta give props to joey for letting me make a cake that definitely wouldn't be his first pick. I baked it the night before my birthday since I was going to be so busy yesterday. I was baking a cake a midnight, and anyone who knows me knows my brain stops functioning properly after a certain hour. Well I was making the cake just fine. Took a pic.

I thought it was funny how thick the batter was, but I had made cakes with thick batters and didn't think much of it. So I popped in in the oven and felt so proud of myself for making a tasty cake. Then I noticed 4 oval shaped brown things sitting in a cardboard carton. sweating...(it's really hot here) Yeah. forgot the eggs. Soo after the cake had been in the oven for 10 minutes I frantically snatched it out, slopped the semi cooked mess back into the bowl and folded in the eggs that I whipped together like I was folding chocolate chips into cookie dough. I was sure that this cake was screwed, but lo and behold it turned out great still! I wrapped it up and saved it for my birthday so I could frost it.

Joey and I went to dinner at the old fashioned which is THE restaurant to go to if you want traditional wisconsin food. it was delicious. I have always wanted to eat here since we moved, but it has always been so busy that we just end up going somewhere else. Last night though the wait wasn't too bad and we got our sconnie eats on.

Joey got the no.30 which was high cholesterol in a bun. grass fed beef burger, all natural bacon, local cheddar cheese, and a fried egg (which I'm sure was also cage free/natural feed/no corn standard stuff). it would have had fried onions too but we know how joey feels about onions.

burgers make joey happy

rar!! get in muh face!

the inside of the restaurant is cool too. it's filled with old vintage wisconsin stuff...and lots of loud people who think yelling is proper restaurant vernacular.

I had the macaroni and cheese which was bubbly and oozy creaminess, with little puddles of melted butter when it was placed in front of me...by the end of our dinner it was solid...yeah there's no fat in here.

what is a traditional wisconsin meal though with out cheese curds and ranch? this restaurant has the best curds in madison. hands down...now where is my lipitor and sweat pants?

we had a lovely dinner and I love this picture. despite joey's deformed hand haha.

after dinner we went back home and just hung out together. which might sound boring, but it was perfect to me. I just wanted to relax with my family and watch a movie on netflix while stuffing my face with cake. This is the inside of my cake after I sliced it in half. soo tasty.

before I sliced my (mini) cake I dressed it with pink sprinkles, 23 candles, and made joey and the cat sing happy birthday to me...gertie was hiding under the couch. she gets a little moody when the attention isn't all on her.

kitty wasn't too sure about the candles so she was squirmy

It was a perfect birthday! I loved just being with my joey and keeping it simple. It is funny the older you get the less hyped up you want to be about your birthday. Last night while I was falling asleep I was thinking of things I wanted to do in this next year:
1. graduate college
2. get a job/internship at an art gallery or auction house
3. fit into a pair of jeans that I had in high school.
4. get back into yoga
5. be more spontaneous
6. be more organized
7. be a better homemaker (cleaning, decorating, wifey things)
8. be a better wife to joey
9. read more books (good books. ie the classics)
10. learn a language (german or french)
11. become a better writer
12.apply to graduate school???