My First Time

You may have clicked on this post thinking I was about to spill the deets about a certain sweaty and awkward experience of mine. However, for your own good that won't be happening today or really ever. Instead, I'm going to talk about some of my first times today. I'm a youtube junkie and there's been a tag going around called "My First Time." I liked some of the questions and thought it would be fun to reminisce is the good ol' days.

My first word? 
I have no idea. I asked my mom and she doesn't even remember, so I'm going to say it was "cat." That definitely sounds right.

friends who have rabbits together, stay together.

My first best friend?
Her name is Nikki and we still happen to be best friends. We met sometime in elementary school and through all the happiness and sadness, we stuck together. She may be a million miles away right now on a gorgeous island while I'm stuck in Wisconsin, but that's okay, because I know in 50 years she'll be sitting on my porch laughing at stupid looking people with me.

My first pet?
My first pet was of course a cat. My mom let my brother and I take home two cats that my Aunt had at her pet shelter and I named the fella Twix. Twix had a very short life, he developed a kidney disease that was going to be end up costing a lot of money, that my mom didn't have at the time, to fix so we had to say goodbye. Then along came Patches and we all know about that handsome guy.

My first grade teacher?
I think it's weird that almost everyone will remember their first grade teacher. Why is that? Mine was Mrs. Hanns and she was a short little woman and all I can remember of her is that she was pregnant...

The first person who texted you today?
It was Chris of course, really the only person who ever texts me. He texted me "you da best."

My first car?
My first car was a hand-me-down P.O.S. from my brother, that I quickly fell in love with. It was a sad day when the brakes suddenly went out on me while driving and couldn't ever be fixed. It was an even sadder day when my father bought me an old grandma mobile. Yeah, I know, I'm a drama queen sometimes. But years have past and me and that grandma mobile have fallen for each other, blue velvet interior and everything.

this was the only picture I had left...

My first Boyfriend? First kiss?
My first boyfriend was a guy named Collin who I stole from my best friend of the time, back in 7th grade. I was a hooligan I tell ya. It took us a good 3-4 months before we even kissed each other. Just remembering the awkwardness gives me the chills. However, my first kiss was with my brother's friend while I was in 6th grade. That kiss was even more awkward. Having your brother and your best friend standing right next to you while this boy is waiting for you to kiss him? Yeah, it's weird. It was the quickest and shortest peck on the lips I've ever had. And now that guy is a pot head with a bald spot. Dodge a bullet there!

Canon T3i with lens 50mm f 1.8

First big purchase?
It was probably my laptop that I bough for college, but I'm also considering my Canon that I bought earlier in the year. That baby was a pretty hefty investment. However I do not regret a single penny.

First Job?
My first job was the summer leading up to my sophomore year of high school.  I moved in with my dad for the summer and worked at a quaint little sub and ice cream shop called The Chocolate Factory. The shop was located right across from the beach, which I never complained about. It was a good first job, but after my several jobs in food service, I will never go back to it. No matter how broke I am.

Dead Woman's Pass- the highest point on the Inca Trail (about 15,000 ft)

First time out of country?
The first time I left the good ol' US of A was when I graduated high school and for my graduation/birthday present, my step mother brought me to the wonderful country of Peru. We spent two weeks in Peru, one week in the capital and the last week in Cusco where we backpacked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was a gorgeous trip and one I will always remember. I will also remember being the only white, blonde woman within a 50 mile radius of Cusco. Let me tell ya, it was like I was Kim K for a day.

I tag all of you to share your first time! But keep it to these questions, I think I speak for everyone when I say we don't want to know about your actual first time.

<3

Recipe // Cinnamon Toast Crunch Popsicles

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Popsicles

Ingredients needed:
2 cups milk
1 can condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
some lemon pulp
dash of cinnamon

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and set in freezer for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, stick in popsicle sticks and let popsicles freeze thoroughly. When ready to serve, sprinkle with some more cinnamon and enjoy!

Chris came up with the name for these popsicles, because even though he didn't like them 100% he said they tasted like cinnamon toast crunch. I saw that the mixture separated while freezing (which you can kind of see in the pictures). I'm not sure why that happened, but I didn't taste any flavor differences so I wouldn't worry about it if it happens to you.

I hope you guys have been enjoying these popsicle recipes this month. I have 2 more coming soon!!

<3

Recipe // Summer Peach Cobbler with Molasses Cookie Crumble

Summer Peach Cobbler

Ingredients needed:

peach filling
6-8 sliced peaches
3/4 cups sugar
1 Tbl cinnamon

topping
15 Molasses cookies
1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup melted butter

1. Peel and slice your peaches and fill the bottom of a 8x8in glass baking dish. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over top the peaches. Feel free to mix everything together or just leave it sit there, no biggy.

2. Put the molasses cookies in a ziplock bag and smash the cookies with a rolling pin until you have a nice crumble with some good chunks still in there. Sprinkle the cookies over the peaches and make sure to cover the peaches layer.

3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, ginger, and butter. Begin mixing the ingredients until a crumble begins to form. Take this mixture and sprinkle it over the cookies creating the last layer.

4. Thrown in the oven at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. At the last 10 minutes, cover the dish with tin foil to prevent the crumble from burning.

<3

Recipe // Tropical Island Pops

Tropical Island Pops

Ingredients needed:
1/2 pinapple
2 mangos
2 cups raspberries
5 kiwis
3 Tbl honey

1. Chop up all your fruit into small chunks to make it easier for the blender to puree.
2. You can layer these however you like. I started with kiwi, so I pureed those in the blender first with 1 Tbl honey. Pour into popsicle molds or little paper cups like I did with these ones. Set in freezer for about 10 minutes.
3. Repeat the same process with the second layer, by combining the mango, pineapple and 1 Tbl honey.
4. Repeat again with raspberries and 1 Tbl honey. If you're using paper cups, let the molds sit for about 20 minutes before sticking the popsicle sticks in.

<3

Recipe // Raspberry Lemonade Yogurt Pops

Raspberry Lemonade Yogurt Pops

Ingredients needed:

1/4 c sugar and extra

1 TBL lemon zest

1/2 c fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 c plain yogurt

6 oz raspberries

1. In blender, combine raspberries and a pinch of sugar. Blend until smooth. Pour into molds and set in freezer. 

2. In blender, add lemon zest and sugar. Give a quick mix and then add lemon juice and yogurt and stir until smooth. Pour into molds, on top of raspberry mixture and set in freezer. All done! 

See? I told you I would have more popsicle recipes coming this month. This is only the beginning. This recipe wasn't didn't turn out to be my favorite out of all the others but it is still delicious. I think next time I would swirl the two layers together to have a mixture of flavors. Always looking for improvement! Enjoy it! 

<3

over the hill and through the woods.

Yesterday I decided to walk through one of our state parks because I had nothing to do. I brought my camera along to snap some pictures and wanted to show you guys. It also ended up being a mini workout because this park is at the top of a hill that pretty much inclines straight up. My legs definitely felt it afterwards. The view from the top was gorgeous and it was neat to see how small my little city looked from all the way up there.

Have a fabulous Friday everyone!

p.s there's more popsicle recipes coming next week!! Aren't you excited!!??

p.p.s for those photography junkies out there, I was using my 50 mm f 1.8 fixed lens for these photos.

<3

Recipe // Raspberry Banana Popsicles

Happy August everyone! First off, I have been pathetic with blogging this summer. Besides my vacation in Florida, I haven't really done anything to blog about and really I just haven't felt like blogging at all. But this month I am redeeming myself and I am quite excited about it. I may have not blog really at all in July, but I have been planning for blogging in August.

This whole month I'll be posting homemade popsicle recipes! I've been mixing and combining new flavors and tweaking some found recipes to make the ones I bring you this month. And let me tell ya, they have turned out to be quite delicious. 

Wisconsin has had one miserable summer lately. It's just about to be August and I'm pretty sure the temperature hasn't gotten passed 70 degrees where I am. It's also down in the 40's some night. I think the state is just a little ahead of it's fall schedule. But anywho, I've decided to ignore and try and enjoy my summer and what's left of it. 

Alright, let's get into the recipe...

Raspberry Banana Popsicles

Ingredients needed:

3 TBL sugar
2 TBL lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup plain yogurt
Raspberries
Bananas
Popsicle molds (found mine at TJMaxx for $6)

1. Combine raspberries, 2 TBL of sugar and lemon juice in blender. Fill molds 1/3 full with mixture. Set in freezer. Set aside remaining mixture. Wash out Blender.

2. Combine bananas, yogurt, 1 TBL sugar and vanilla in blender. Remove molds from freezer and fill with banana mixture another 1/3. Set in freezer and fill to the top with remaining strawberry mixture.

3. Eat.

These popsicles turned out so good (I'll probably say that about all the recipes, just an fyi). If your not a fan of the solid flavors, fill the molds without freezing the individual layers and then take a toothpick or popsicle stick to help swirl the flavors together. I wish I had done that to taste the difference, but they were ahhmazing either way.

<3