thankgivins eve

Tomorrow is the big turkey day, so in true McCary fashion, we will be shopping at the very last minute. We love the thrill of time running out and coming down to the wire.....not. We just are too busy to get ready any earlier. Sue us.

This break has been a bit stressful so far, with work almost every morning and then working on a psychology paper (thank you psychology professor who has taken pity on the fact that I didn't do so hot during the quarter and is letting me make up for it with a very long research paper). I complain that it is 6 pages single spaced, but in all honesty, it's my fault for not doing better throughout the quarter. Shame on me.

So with two pages left to go on that, today will mostly be spent typing. But I am hoping to jam it out quick and be able to decorate a little bit for tomorrow. We hardly ever have Thanksgiving at our house and although it isn't going to be super formal, I am thinkin some fireplace decor might be precious.  Pinterest, as usual, makes me feel like I can magically turn into Martha Stewart herself. So as of right now, I am inspired to try and do a little spin off of these little beauties:

stay tuned to see if 

a. I actually make one. 

b. they look ridiculous or not. 

c. Fact: It will look ridiculous because I am the least crafty individual on the planet. 

x o x o

rainy days call for oreo cheesecake truffles

 For those of us in San Diego, it looked like this yesterday.

Wet and somewhat dreary. And when it's cold out, I get the desire to bake. 

Now, I am fully aware that I pretty much suck at cooking. Nothing is explosive or on fire or vomit-worthy, things just never seem to turn out right. But there are two things I can make without fail every time. One of them is one pot pasta, and the other is Oreo cheesecake truffles. 

Mainly because there are only three ingredients. If you screw these up, you literally are the worst chef on earth. 

So, if you want to stop drooling over your computer and actually have these babies in your tummy, I decided to post a little tutorial so that you can try em out! Honestly, this is the most useless tutorial. You could make these with your eyes closed. 

Before you begin, turn your iPhone, iPad, or other musical playing device to Kenny G Christmas on Pandora.

This is a requirement. His sweet sound will make the truffles taste better. 

Step One: 

Purchase a pack of oreos, an 8 oz block of cream cheese, and a bag of chocolate chips. 

No seriously, that's it. 

Step Two:

Put the Oreos into a blender or food processor, about 10 or 15 at a time (the pack should have 40 in it). I only do 10 or 15 oreos per blending session so that they all can get touched by the blades and can puree beautifully. I have found with too many Oreos in the blender that some turn to powder and some are still chunky. 

Step Three:

Using the "pulse" setting on your blender, pulse until the oreos have turned into a soft powder. You want the dust as fine as possible without any big chunks (no one wants their cheesecake to have a big crunchy piece in it).

Apologies for my picture quality, clearly the camera thought my sleeve should be in focus, rather than the crumbs. Silly Canon. 

Step Four: 

After each blending session of Oreos, transfer the completed "dust" into a big bowl.

Step Five: 

Blend all the Oreo dust together with the cream cheese in a big bowl. I find it is easiest to use a power mixer of some sort, but a big spoon also works. Make sure to blend it a ton and super evenly. You want it to look like tar basically.

Step Six: 

You now want to start forming the truffles. I used to use my hands to just roll little cherry-sized balls, but yesterday I had the genius revelation to use this:

Ice cream scoop! It makes this step a BREEZE and your hands don't get oily and gross. 

Place the truffles onto wax paper. I put mine into tupperware containers so that they are easy to store when they are finished (these must remain refridgerated at all times). 

Step Seven:

When your truffles are formed and in their containers, place them in the freezer for ten minutes so that they will hold their shape when being decorated. 

Step Eight: 

Open a bag of chocolate chips into a bowl and add a teaspoon or two of cooking oil to thin it out. 

 

Microwave for about a minute or until melted, stirring occasionally.

Step Nine:

Once your truffles are done freezing (they do not need to be rock solid, just cold enough to hold their form) you can either roll them in the chocolate, or do my new little nifty technique. I find that when I try and cover them in chocolate, they look a lot less appetizing and it is extremely difficult to get them out of the bowl without covering your hands in chocolate. I spoon most of the chocolate into a zip-loc bag and cut the slightest little bit off of the corner. This way, I can drizzle the chocolate all over them without having to cover them completely. 

Exhibit A: Which would you rather? Yeah, I know the answer. 

Final Step: 

Place them back in the freezer to set the chocolate for a few minutes. 

And there you go! I know it was ten steps, but I could have written those instructions in one tiny paragraph. 

They are the most simple dessert in the whole world, yet taste JUST like an Oreo cheesecake! Do yo'self a favor and treat yo'self to these babies. You won't be sorry.

x o x o, 

Betty Crocker

11 whole days off.

As soon as the clock strikes 4:50 tomorrow afternoon, I am gettin the heck out of Riverside and am going home for 11 days. Thank goodness for the wonderful time of year that is Thanksgiving break. 

Unfortunately, I will have to return on December 2nd to "deadweek" (the final week of the quarter) and then finals. So this break will definitely consist of some work. But seriously, doing homework from home is so much better than doing it from a dorm room. At home I can snuggle a puppy with an underbite whilst I study. She keeps an eye on me to make sure I am focusing. 

Does school have that? uhhh, nope. School is just a concrete prison holding room until I can go home again.

*our actual dorm room. there's me laying down.

 Anyways, a week from Thursday, as most of you know (or are counting down to like me), is the most delicious day on the calendar. Mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, and flaky Pillsbury rolls, smothered in butter, plate after plate. I am drooling just thinking about it.  

*me, again. 

If you know my family, you know our Thanksgiving will look a little less like this:

and a little more like this:

*there is me, confused with my lollipop, because I do not understand the rules of football at all. 

Because half of the people in attendance will be managing their fantasy football scores (myself included...4th place baybay!). 

We will be thankful and happy, nonetheless, because we will be together. Eating off of tv trays and screaming at the screen because fat men are running from eachother. What a splendid day it shall be.

x o x o

as of late

I saw this on an adorable blog and just had to steal it.

as of late I am:

making: progress on finishing fall quarter! two more weeks and then finals halleluuuu

cooking: girl shoot, I don't cook. and when I do, it sucks. 

drinking: peach pizazz jamba-ju

reading: ...blogs?

wanting: Hunter Rain Boots

looking: forward to Thanksgiving

playing: ciara, body party (excuse me while I release my inner exotic dancer).

wasting: time. lots of time.

wishing: that it was June 16, 2014 and I was done with school FOREVER. 

enjoying: Kenny G Christmas music every night.

waiting: for it to be 5 so I can go home! I LOVE wednesdays.

liking: the fact that my birthday is four months from friday and graduation is eight months from friday. holla!

wondering: what I will be doing a year from now

loving:  renovating jonathan's house and planning the renovation of my room

hoping: to see snow once this winter

needing: a shower. haha.

smelling: roomies pumpkin cupcake candle

wearing: yoga leggings, as usual. gotta make people think I work out. it's all about deception, people. 

noticing: how much I have a burning desire for travel and adventure currently.

thinking: how much I could get done if I put half the time I spend on pinterest into actual schoolwork.

feeling: anxious to see my little Lolita tonight.

xo

Time for a grown up bedroom.

I've been dreaming/working towards making my room a little more Z Gallerie and a little less Pottery Barn teen. 

Someday soon I will post pictures of my room...it's in an awkward middle phase right now. We will call those the "before" pictures, in the hopes that "after" pictures will soon follow.  

The walls are a weird creamy-almost greenish color from when I had a sort of moroccan-floral thing goin on (courtesy of Pottery Barn Teen). It then remained on the walls for my beach theme...which looked terrible. That's gotta go. I would love either a light creamy white or a light gray.

My bookcases are just a hodge podge mess of knick knacks and yearbooks and stuff I really don't need.  Plus a lot of beachy things which just isn't really my thing anymore. It all seems very "themed" and young...and I am still young, but want a room thats 21 years old, not 16. 

My dresser is the only thing that is going in the direction that I want to see my whole room end up. I recently got an amazing 3-drawyer white dresser and a big framed mirror. Plus I have been collecting jewelry stands and I found a silver mermaid statue. She's topless, so sometimes I think she seduces Jonathan. Nevertheless, she's fabulous so she gets to stay...I just keep an eye on her.

Here are a couple bits of inspiration that I am envisioning for my bedroom:

As you can tell, my main focuses are white, black, and metallics. I want everything very clean, basic,  and modern with little hints of vintage quirkiness.

*and if someone wants to get me one of those amazing faux taxidermied animal heads from here I would absolutely pee my pants in utter joy.

stay tuned, xo.

ten things I love about you.

Lola, although you are a pup and can't use a computer, I thought there should be a post dedicated to you and the things I love about you.

I love...

1. the way you greet us when we come home. whether we have been gone a week or an hour, you jump around frantically and claw the crap out of our shins. we love it. 

2. your underbite and the fact that it is always visible.

3. the fact that you cry every time we get in the car, even if we're taking you to the puppy park or to get pupcakes. you're a wreck without fail whenever we ride in the car. you poor little girl.

4. how you love to dress up.

5. how ferocious you think you are. you fight gophers, cats, mailmen, you name it. you think you're the biggest baddest thing to hit the neighborhood, and you're only 12 lbs.

6. what a little boy you are. you smell whenever you run around outside, like to wrestle with your dad, and are constantly making messes. i love you, you dirty little tomboy.

7. the way you have loved your daddy-o since day one. you were afraid of all men except for him...it's like you knew he was your number one man from the start.

8. the crazy way you wake us up by pouncing on us, licking our faces like they're covered in steak sauce, and then hunkering down and sleeping for another hour. it's horrible and wonderful.

9. the way I can call you lola, lolie, puppylou, rooney, rooneybear, roonapin, lolarama, lolita, bubbles, bobo, dodos, or whatever comes to my mind and you respond to them all. 

10. i love you because you are the sweetest little thing I have ever met in my entire life and can't imagine my life without your precious soul. the best $90 our family has ever spent on craigslist was spent on your little self. 

kisses babysan, love mommysan.

Silver Linings

There are few people in the world that I would give up my days off to do mundane errands for. Very, very, very few. Like maybe four people in the entire world.

Does that make me selfish? Yes.  I think it is a flaw from being the youngest child. I'm workin on it.

One of my current personal goals is to find the silver lining in not so pleasant situations in my life. Mainly because I have a tendency to be a total pessimist. 

On Friday morning, this hunk of burning love woke me from my wonderous i-have-absolutely-no-responsibilities-today slumber at 8:30 a.m.

*this also is most likely how I looked when I awoke.

His reason for waking me? He needed an oil change but had work from 9-6. Reluctantly, I emerged from my marshmallow bed (i'll post a picture of it sometime, its' comfiness is unreal) and decided I would be helpful even though the thought of spending my day at an auto shop sounded dreadful. 

This oil change was sent from above to test me and my goal of finding the silver lining in life. It took over TWO HOURS.  I was told it wouldn't be more than 30 minutes. 

The silver lining was actually quite simple to find, though...two hours with no internet and no car forced me to write a five page book report and get ahead on all my weekend homework! I actually felt thankful that the oil change took so long. 

silver lining, check. 

Look at me being all optimistic...who the heck am I? I am the most pessimistic individual on the planet. Again, I'm workin on it, guys, workin on it. 

Other silver lining? I got the opportunity to help out this wonderful person. He does so much for me and sometimes I feel undeserving. Even though taking his car to get an oil change is a small little thing, he was extremely grateful and thanked me multiple times over the weekend for helping him out. 

I came back from this weekend feeling prepared for monday without a drop of homework to do, all because of a ridiculously long oil change.  It was a fantastic feeling to be able to lay in bed and watch How I Met Your Mother til midnight, rather than powering out homework that I procrastinated all weekend long. 

And putting a smile on that face is seriously worth any task in the entire world, no matter how boring.

xo, 

sarah

Long time, no blog.

I've only had this blog for like a month, yet I've abandoned it for half of the month. So sorry, I am sure you have missed me terribly (sarcasm!). So let's see, what haven't I told you about recently?

We were invited to a halloween party last weekend, so Jonjon and I were excited to have a reason to dress up. Earlier in the month we had been brainstorming ideas and Robin Thicke/Miley Cyrus was something both agreed on. It was one of those ideas where when we mentioned it, we suddenly looked at each other with huge eyes and a lightbulb of excitement bubbled over both our heads. 

 But we decided if we were going to do it, we had to do things a little differently...

Not Pictured: Jonathan's Leggings. 

The couple that shares lipstick together, stays together. That's our new motto. 

The party was a ton of fun, complete with the Cupid Shuffle and the Wobble. With this group, we always break out those two dances. It's fantastic. Jonathan Miley also twerked quite a bit. I will not be showing those pictures.

Lucky for me, this horrible Beetlejuice/Prison print is sold in EVERY store. 

Then this weekend, this happened.

Note to the citizens of the world: never leave a backdrop unattended near us, because this will happen. 

The backdrop was up because our church was having a photoshoot for the church directory. But they were going slowly, so we took some glamour shots to pass the time. 

On Saturday night, we went to Temecula to see boyfriend's parents and went to one of our newest favorite places, The Lazy Dog Cafe.

And next door to the Lazy Dog is my favorite dessert place on planet Earth, Truly Madly Sweetly. 

I could eat their chocolate cheesecake at every meal for the rest of my life. If they weren't $4 a pop, I would have them at my wedding. Words can't express their divinity. 

The weekend has now ended, and I am back up at school. But I didn't leave without saying goodbye to this little beauty.

My favorite little Christmas elf is ready for the holiday season! 

Until next time, 

x o x o