Frozen Banana Ice Cream (for breakfast!)

On Thursday, I wanted ice cream for breakfast.
So did my roomie, Cedar, and her girlfriend, Krista.
I got to work.
I had frozen some bananas earlier because I like to eat frozen bananas, but they were going to be sacrificed for the sake of ice cream!
Here's what I had gathered:

3 frozen bananas
a bowl of cherries
some strawberries
chocolate chips
2 not frozen bananas

In case you have never made frozen banana ice cream, you are supposed to take the frozen bananas and place them in a food processor and process them until they become chopped up into little balls and then into this delectable, super fluffy and ice cream delicious-looking concoction.
But, I am in college and do not have a food processor, I have a blender. So I used that.

Cedar and Krista

It did NOT work that well. I had to continually stop the blender and stab at things as well as you can stab with a wooden spoon and take bananas out and crush them with forks a little and stab more and it was a lot of work and mess.
In the end the blender did work, but I could not fully achieve the same tasty consistency that makes frozen banana ice cream so delicious, which was disappointing, but I was going to be ok with it, because, I wasn't about to let three frozen, tasty bananas simply get eaten by the compost.
I am determined to try this again with a food processor when school gets out and I have access to one.
After I kinda got the right consistency, I threw in the strawberries and some chocolate chips. Which was a wonderful idea.
Then I poured/scooped (stabbed?) out the ice cream into three mugs for Krista, Cedar and I.
We garnished it with cherries and not frozen bananas because well..frankly..we all really enjoy bananas.
Not gonna lie, felt pretty good to eat ice cream for breakfast.

Reasons Why I Struggle In Chemistry.

All of the reasons I struggle in chemistry:

Responsible for knowing that: Atomic covalent radius determines bond length, Some other things about bonds, Making a pretty whiteboard for my apartment next year.

Art. I'm not artsy. But I like to pretend. And..I am good at knitting...so sometimes I combine my fake artsy-ness with knitting.

I once saw some flower twinkle lights for sale...then, while learning about delocalized bonding, I decided I could probs do a DIY version of that. No time like the present to draw out a quick sketch. Don't forget to highlight it for later.  

And lastly, my growing obsession with Adventure Time lead me to design a Fin the Human hat. It's so special, it gets it own page. Complete with Frank Turner lyrics.

And that, right there, is why I struggle in Chemistry.

Wishlist

Instead of doing math and chem homework. Here's a tiny wishlist:

A Graphic Tablet. For drawing on photos and such.
$30 at amazon.com

Pixelmator. Basically a cheaper version of Adobe Photoshop.
$30 on apple's app store.

Then, I could edit photos like a boss. But, I'm ok without them, of course. Just sayin'...pretty cool (:

Panther Beach, Santa Cruz

I like taking pictures.
Here are some from the well kept secret beach, Panther Beach that's somewhere around Santa Cruz.
Went there a few weekends ago with Jackson.
I take photos manually because normally a camera messes up the white balance, too bad I forgot to change the white balance. I tried fixing it, but not all the pictures took to that well. So, I ended up just editing some to cover it up. And, I think in the end, they all turned out alright.

Late Night Bread Baking

Two posts in one night might be an abomination, but I don't care too much and besides, I'm going to share a ridiculously easy bread recipe with you, so, be happy.

When I got back from Santa Barbara (left SC to visit boyfriend is SB this weekend, oh my)
I wanted to make bread so I could eat something tomorrow.
Justin had invited me over for some creamy mushroom sauced noodles, and before I trekked up the stairs to his house, I made a little ball of bread dough to let rise for a few hours while I ate pasta, pretended to do math homework, and watched the food network.
Then I came back, finished math homework, got ready for bed and...
remembered about the dough.
So, I went into the kitchen and baked up a baby loaf of bread for myself, while thinking "I will be regretting this when getting up for bio at 8 am tomorrow.."
Here's the recipe. The loaf in the picture is half of this recipe. I obtained this recipe at the summer camp I worked at last summer and every once in a while, make a tiny loaf for myself when I don't have bread or don't have money to get bread, but have flour and yeast. I made my baby loaf with thyme, sea salt, and cracked pepper mixed in the dough. After I rolled out the loaf, I covered it in olive oil and sprinkled the top with more sea salt, cracked pepper and thyme. This recipe is extremely versatile, so feel free to experiment. Sometimes, I'll make it with whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half all-purpose and I've even made it sweet by adding more sugar into it, or I'll make a "breakfast bread" by adding raisins and cinnamon to it. Be creative and adventurous!


Camp Bread:

Basic Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour 

1 cup water

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar or honey

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

Mix yeast and warm water in a bowl. Let it sit for about 2 minutes.

Add flour, salt, sugar/honey and whatever else you want.

Let it rise for about an hour in a covered bowl. (I normally just stick a pie pan on top of my mixing bowl)

Roll out dough and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Eat.

Long Day and Zimriding

Guess I should make another post since my last one is just a link thingy to bloglovin'.com that I had to do or else..I don't know.
Bad things would happen.
Like...
this blog would not end up on bloglovin.com
Anyways...here is a tip for life:
When being a driver for other people, be nice and courteous. Otherwise, your passengers may feel like giving you bad reviews on zimride.
The end.

Bloglovin'?

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Woohoo!

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Weird...but must be done.

Key Lime Pie!

Yesterday was Monday. Or for those of you who love Adventure Time as much as I do, it was Adventure Time Monday.
Adventure Time Monday involves me going to the apartment above and left of mine to watch 3 old and 1 new Adventure Time episodes with my buddy, Justin, and his housemates and such.
Normally I just make some popcorn, but yesterday, I went all out and made a key lime pie!
Technically, it was just a lime pie, as I could not find key limes or key lime juice anywhere, so yeah. It was still tasty and you can make this pie with good ol' lime, but I do like it best with Key Limes.
Super easy, tasty and straight out of Village Baker's Wife cookbook. One of the best books known to man kind. I highly recommend visiting Gale's Bakery if you're ever around the Santa Cruz area, that is where this recipe comes from.
Anyways...Here's how to make it!

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients:

1.5 cups crushed graham crackers
.5 stick butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Crush up graham crackers. You can use a food processor, a blender, your own strength, doesn't matter. Just crush up dem crackers!

Then, melt the butter.

Mix butter and crumbs with your hands or a spoon in a bowl.

Place "dough" in pie pan and spread evenly around the pie pan with your fingers.

Make sure to get the edges!

Bake crust for 5 minutes and then let cool for about 1/2 hour before putting pie in it.

Key Lime Pie

Ingredients:

8 ounces of cream cheese
1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*about 4 limes will do the trick. If you're buying limes and not juice, make sure to juice them before making your pie!

Put cream cheese in mixing bowl and mix until smooth and creamy.

While still mixing, get your sweetened condensed milk and pour in a steady stream into cream cheese. Mix until well incorporated.

Steady Stream...

Add lime juice and vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated.

Lime juice and vanilla extract!

Grab your prebaked graham cracker crust and pour filling into it.

Pour it in there!

Smooth it out and freeze for approx. 2 hours pre serving or fridge for 5.

PIE!

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

Heavy whipping cream

Some sugar

Pour some cream and sugar into a bowl.

Whip it until it looks like whipped cream.

Serve with pie!

I got a little fancy with mine and placed limes around the edge.

Lime edge..eh?

 Then I made the whipped cream and being a college student, I thought to myself "I don't want to carry whipped cream and the pie to Justin's..." So I whipped the cream, chilled it for awhile, then spread it on top of the pie. It looked a little messy, so I made another scalloped edge with limes going in the opposite direction and, I have to say, it looked pretty awesome.

Lookin' pretty mathematical right now.

It was just Zora, Justin and I yesterday. But we all enjoyed pie. Some a little more than others...

Zora likes pie.

Justin...likes it too much.

Point is, Key Lime Pie makes just about anything, and especially Adventure Time, more algebraic.

Painting Pots

Sometime last week, Courtney and I got creative and painted some pots to put some of my plants in.

Typical. Texting and not painting. Who do you think you are, girl?!

We used some basic acrylics that we had picked up at Palace Art Supplies in Santa Cruz along with a UV protective spray paint gloss to keep the painted pictures in tip top shape! 

Look how cute Courtney is! We've been friends since I first figured out she could talk. She's also an art major. I am not. Let's just say my paintings weren't as awesome...