Oh Frabjous Day! Calooh! Callay!

My very own, super-spectacular, home-made Oreo recipe:

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. To make the wafers: With an electric mixer, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. On low speed, add butter and egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. To bake the wafers: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place balls of dough roughly 2 inches apart, and lightly flatten before placing in oven. Bake for 9 minutes, then set aside on a rack to cool thoroughly.
4. To make the cream: Mix together butter and shortening with electric mixer, gradually beating in sugar and vanilla. On high setting, beat for 2-3 minutes, or until the filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies: I don't care how you do it, just make it look like an Oreo. 

note: Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies.

Enjoy!

which one is that again?

"It's Oscar season once again. Do the Oscars mean anything to [me]?" 


Evidently the Emmys, the Grammys, the Academy Awards, the Teen and People's Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, MVAs, and some other 'thinger-ma-jigger' called the SAG Awards have all come and gone sometime in the past 365 days and not one of these "momentous" events has made so much as a blip on my radar.

Whoops.

Believe me, I would love to be on top of 'pop' culture and be 'on the in' with all the latest styles, gossip and trending topics...if it weren't so gosh darn uninteresting. Apologies to Elvis (wait, he is dead...) Ellen (she hosted one of these things, right?)... but I just really don't care who wore what, and who's dating who, and which famous face is up for what prestigious award.

Sure, I love clothes and fashion and it is true I spend the better part of most days people watching and absorbing new ideas for my own personal style, but I am also perpetually 6-9 months behind any goings-on concerning my fellow- admittedly more acclaimed- Homo sapiens.

The clothes I wear, the music I listen to, the movies I go see, and the people I admire are influenced by the people around me. I respect that the world we live in is a global village, but my life is most impacted by the people directly in it, not by the day-to-day behaviours and inclinations of celebrities.

So in answer to the question stated above:

Um, no.

it's days like this that make me wonder...huh

 "People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."

 -Emerson

In a World of Steel-Toed Boots

I am average. 
As far as people go I am particularly unremarkable. 
I have brown hair. I have brown eyes. I am a white female. 
(Ok, so far I match the description of about half the population of North America. Sweet.)  
I am a mesomorph- average height, average weight. 
I speak English. 
(Great, so I could be any one of a billion or more people.) 
I have no special talents or abilities. 
I play piano, but not fabulously well. 
I am athletic, but I don't excel at any sport. 
I go to university and I do alright.
I am superbly, flawlessly, typical.

But being average is not a bad thing! Don't misinterpret this statement as being a negative reflection of my self image. By saying I am average I simply mean that at surface level I am perfectly ordinary; the norm; utterly on par with the next Joe-Shmoe; I am like the standard-edition model of human beings. 
And being average is awesome.
Being average is challenging.
It forces me to seek and develop the qualities that do set me apart from all the other average people. 
And being average also means I have a choice.
I always have the choice to step back and blend in. 
Or I can choose to be amazing, and interesting, and vibrant. 
As I said: awesome.     

apple pie and counting butterflies

I love music.

I love the freedom that music gives us. I love how music allows us to capture and share thoughts and feelings that are otherwise near impossible to express. I love becoming lost in a song- intoxicated by the rhythm, enraptured by the melody, the fundamental connection felt when the words feel like they were plucked directly from my soul. I love the communities built around music: the hazy summer days of folk festivals, the collective breath of a crowd as the performer takes the stage.

 I do not listen to music all the time. When I listen to music that is all I am doing. (This is not only because I am notoriously pathetic at multi-tasking for someone from my generation, but also because music has the power to usurp my brain-waves and redirect all energy towards the song.) I prefer to appreciate music wholly and without distraction and so when I do listen to music I allow myself to be fully immersed.  

I buy CDs. I feel that buying the actual album is a compliment to an artist because it allows me to view their work in its entirety. The cover art, the order of the songs, the lists of thank-yous and credits create the journey that is an album. Taking the time to admire a musician's masterpiece  brings an extra dimension to the connection I feel to many songs. I have never downloaded a song; it feels so wrong to me. It is like eavesdropping- hearing something out of context and not in the form in which the artist intended it to be presented. I feel like it is rude, as if it somehow degrades the value of a musician's work.

That is why it is so disappointing for me to see music stores closing. Sure I can go down to HMV whenever I want, but it doesn't offer the same environment and eclectic vibe that an independent retailer does. Just this past summer my favourite pit-stop on Whyte Avenue, Megatunes, closed down. It was a tragedy in my life because I have found that some of the magic has been lost as the music store middle-man disappears. I crave the meditative act of trolling the isles, waiting for some remarkable, new album to catch my attention. And sure I can hop on the old world wide web...but I don't want to. So rah.

people always think they know what they are getting...and they are always wrong.

I started following other blogs over the past year and although I really wanted to try keeping one of my own, I never knew what to write about. So when 'Witty Professor' instructed us to keep one I was incredibly excited. I thought it would be a fun creative outlet and that maintaining a blog would be easy for me.

I have been proven sorely wrong.

Keeping a blog is difficult. It is not hard to think of things to post, and it is not that I lack things to say, but it is terrifying for me to put my ideas down and allow other people to read them. I am not a shy person. Yet I  have found myself lacking confidence when approaching this assignment.

WHY?!

I have journaled for years and can spend hours lost in my own world of reflection and imagination. And that's just it- it is MY world. When I journal I don't have to worry about other people's opinions, about offending anyone or having my own opinion judged. I don't have to worry about my spelling (which is notoriously atrocious) or grammar (which is stereotypically 'Albertan'). But this uncharacteristic shortage of conviction is driving me a bit crazy.

BUT...this disillusionment is also bringing about positive attitude changes. As I discover the amount of courage it takes to open up to people in this medium, I have developed a great appreciation for people who do blog religiously. And my own open-mindedness to other blogs encourages me to believe that people will be accepting of mine too...

...right?