saturday night peep show

Behold, the candy coated marshmallow splendor that is the second annual Peep diorama contest. I guess there were over 800 entries (woah.), these are my top eight Peepscapes, in order from cute to cutest.

things i miss about high school: #7

The #7 thing I miss most about high school is...

Skipping French class. Admittedly, this was not the most honorable thing I did in high school, but hey, when you're 17 you don't really care about "honor". Most of what I cared about in high school revolved around sleeping (just wait for #1 on this list). I took French all four years, and even though it was always my least favorite class (because it was boring) I didn't actively start missing it until senior year, because by that point I had a major case of Senioritis.

Skipping French was fantastique pour beaucoup de raisons. First, it was 6th period so by not going I was able to go home and nap. Second, I somehow managed to have less "official absenses" than my twin sister even though she went WAY more than me (I skipped at least once a week...at least). Third, I got an A. Fourth, and most ironically, I now can speak French better than twin or K, who both cared (or at least pretended to care) about French class far more than I ever did.


toothpastefordinner.com

things i miss about high school: #8

The #8 thing I miss most about high school is...

Golf. I'm not sure how I even got interested in the sport, but joining the women's golf team was one of the best (and most fun!) decisions I made during high school. Luckily, our team was blessed with a laid-back fun-loving coach ("You can call me anything you want, just don't call me late for dinner") who truly valued the joy of the game over winning. That's not to say that he didn't push us to succeed--my skills surely improved over the course of the season--but he made sure that we didn't get so wrapped up in being the best that we didn't have fun.

Three of my best friends in high school were on the team and I have so many great memories of us goofing off during practice, teasing each other about guys, and eating victory French fries covered with salt and ketchup in the club house (even if we lost).

On one particularly memorable golf trip, we traveled to a difficult course probably about an hour or so away from school. Time is kind of fuzzy at this point, but I remember it being a semi-substantial car ride, no matter the specific length. Well, before any golf tournament a team needs its nourishment, right? Right. So we stopped by the supermarket and bought the biggest. package. of. cookie. dough. EVER. And the six of us proceeded to eat it during the car ride to the course. It was a sunny almost-summer day, and six hours later when the tournament was over, we crowded back into the van and were thrilled to see our giant cookie dough waiting for us. After six hours. In a blazing hot vehicle. Needless to say, the whole team had food poisoning the next day, but let me tell you, cookie dough never tasted so good.

things i miss about high school: #9

The #9 thing I miss most about high school is...

Art class. How could this even be considered a "class"? We never had a single graded assignment, and I have no recollection of role ever being called. Despite this, I went to class almost every day (shocking) and managed to produce some pretty legit pieces...that never counted for anything. The most difficult thing about first period art was deciding what kind of music we would listen to, it was usually a battle between DMB and Tupac. If only college art courses were like that.

things i miss about high school: #10

Since I'm graduating college in a few weeks, I started thinking about all the things I am going to miss about the past five years (yeah, I took my time, so what, I was a friggin' biology major until my junior year), which led me to memories of high school, which led me to a wonderful idea. I'm going to post the top ten things I miss most about high school, followed by a top ten list of things I will miss most about college. What about junior high and elementary school, you ask? 1. They don't matter 2. I don't remember anything about them.

The #10 thing I miss most about high school is...

driving to Quizno's at least 3 times a week after school to get a mesquite chicken with bacon sub sandwich with extra cheese. And who doesn't have fond memories of their crazy hamster-ish singing creature ads?





"We love the subs! 'Cuz they are good to us. The Quiznos subs. They are tasty, they are crunchy, they are warm because they toast them. They got a pepper bar!"

cookies & cream (aka oreo) cupcakes

There are few things in this world better than an Oreo cookie...except, maybe, making it into a CUPCAKE! This recipe combines the best of both worlds into a delicious, slightly crunchy, cupcake version of the original. They're probably not good for dunking, but they are surely best served with a giant glass of cold milk.

Oreo Cupcakes



Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream (this is not in the recipe I used, but the cupcakes were a little on the dry side and if I make them again I will be adding sour cream)
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 crushed Oreos (you can use a Cuisinart for this)

For the frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup butter, softened
pinch of salt
10 roughly chopped Oreos



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 18 baking cups in muffin pans (or use one regular muffin pan and one mini muffin pan).

2. Combine all the cupcake ingredients, except for the cookies, in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and pale, about 3 minutes.





3. Stir in the crushed cookies.





4. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove pans from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.



5. To make the frosting, beat the powdered sugar, butter, and salt using an electric mixer. Spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle the coarsely chopped cookies on top.







Store unfrosted in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen regular cupcakes OR one dozen regular cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes.

i drink your milkshake part 2 and TPR's weekly cupcake

A few weeks ago I posted a hilarious video parody of There Will Be Blood from Saturday Night Live. The basic premise is that Daniel Plainview is the host of a Food Network show called "I Drink Your Milkshake" where he goes around drinking other people's milkshakes. I'm not sure which one came first, the parody or the website advertisement, but this is a screen shot taken from the Food Network's website shortly after I saw the SNL skit:



Oh, man, do I love it! Also, I made some tasty oreo cupcakes for Easter today (we celebrated a day late), the recipe and pictures will be posted tomorrow. I've decided that since 1. I love to bake and 2. I got three cupcake recipe books for Easter, I'm going to have a "The Pink Review's Weekly Cupcake" post so I can test out as many recipes as possible!

We'll see how long the idea lasts. Cupcaking can be time consuming.

happy easter!

How can anyone be expected to eat healthy food when eating bad looks so effing adorable? Once again, Bakerella continues to create the cutest, most creative cupcakes I've ever seen! (and I own a LOT of cupcake cookbooks). Happy Easter, everyone! Hope you had lots of chocolate bunnies and hard-boiled eggs!