Pieces of a day-garden shopping

Spring is finally in full bloom!  Last weekend Shaun and I went to Meadows Farms and Merrifield garden center to pick up some flowers for the front of the house. We ended up with some simple boxwoods and colorful perennials. But I the places I always seem to gravitate towards is the succelents, the flowering trees and the little area they have goats, chickens and a fierce turkey.

Much to Shauns chagrin, I brought my camera and snapped some quick shots of some of my favorite things.  I regret not picking up more succulents. I will definitely have to go back this weekend and pick up some for upstairs.

Lots of fresh air and sunshine, pretty flowers and a forest of topiaries.  Can you see me becoming the world hide-and-seek champion any time soon? no?

What's on the bunnies head this week?

Meatwad doesn't have many talents. I love him oh so very much, trust me, but he's not the most awe-inspiring fluffy thing in the animal kingdom.

For example, about 10 minutes ago I grabbed a juice-box from the fridge and 10 minutes later, he's still standing 2 feet in front of it staring patiently, waiting for the carrots to fall out of the magic silver box.

No, Meatwad doesn't have many talents, aside from love dances and kisses. He doesn't roll over unless he just ate too many greens and even then it's more of a plop than a roll.

He doesn't play dead unless I accidentally sneak up on him mid-nap and then get set into a quick panic wondering why he is laying on his side with his feet up in the air.

The one talent that Meatwad does have, is a useless yet thoroughly entertaining talent. When you put something on Meatwads head, it's like pressing the pause button. Meatwad will hold still long enough to grab everyone within earshot to come over and stare at the fluffy statue.  So what I have been doing lately, is just taking advantage of this by seeing what silly things I can put on his head.

Why? Because I have a bunny that lets me put things on his head. This week, I had a chocolate bar appropriately left over from Easter that seemed to be a close doppelgänger for Meatwad.

And so the story goes...

Today

Today was blissfully sunny and absolutely beautiful. After going to Kim's stand up comedy show in Centreville yesterday, (in which she was absolutely spectacular) she spent the night and helped me organize my craft room a bit (it was far far overdue).
     We woke up a bit late today and missed the flea market so we decided to make a trek to Buckland Farm Market. On the way there was a little church yard sale with some of the most amazing little vintage finds. I can't wait to get some of them staged, photographed and listed in the etsy shop. Others, well I can't see parting with the others.
     We went to Buckland and stocked up on some picnic essentials, then swung on the big wooden swing-set out back.  We came back and packed up a cooler and some blankets and headed down to the lake.
     We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.  The ambience of the water, bright green trees and chirping birds was exactly what I needed after a seemingly drawn out, dreary week.

My entire life has been a buildup for this one moment.

Some days I wake up and I feel I have all but lost my hope in humanity.

Some weeks are rougher than others and I really have to bite my tongue at situations and prevent myself from shaking people and yelling at them to act like adults.

Some times I just need to come home, decompress and veg out on the sofa reading blogs and listening to Meatwad hop around and oink like a little pig.

I feel like I have a lot of those days lately, those "mental health" days when the stresses of the world seem to boil up and over the edge of what I can handle being a simple human being.

Some days I feel like I will absolutely go crazy if I don't find an outlet to vent my frustrations. On those particular days it's either a lot of Rage Against the Machine and fast driving or sending some climbs I didn't have the courage to do beforehand. Occasionally it's something much more simple albeit much more out of the ordinary.

The days when I come home, I grab my camera and follow Meatwad around on his daily household adventures are some of my favorite moments. I love my family and friends immensely. But there is a part of my heart that can only be filled by a fluffy little creature. There is a part of me that is nothing but a void until I interact with a creature of another species. Animals are so simple and happy. The basic survival instincts are primarily what drives an animal. But they can also be so complex and intelligent, they can fulfill so many different positions in a humans life that cannot be achieved by our bipedal brethren.

With that being said, Meatwad has his own way of filling that void in my life. No one else can put that warm and fuzzy feeling inside of my heart as quickly as he sometimes can. It's his mannerisms and goofy personality that drive me into fits of giggling sometimes as he hops around me in circles when I'm trying to workout, or the way he tries to help me fold laundry by digging and pushing and pulling at  my freshly cleaned clothes.

Sunday was one of my favorite moments with Meatwad, simply because he is so happy to just sit there and let me make him look ridiculous and take photos of him.  It's like he knows when I've been having a bad day or rough week and knows that certain things will bring me joy.

So Sunday morning after cooking breakfast...I put a pancake on his head and...it...was...glorious.  I hope that somehow it brings you as much joy and laughter and giddiness as it did me.

Blog Swap-Cookes and beer!

One of the coolest people I know, Ben from Ben Likes Beer came up with a brilliant idea the other day (or should I say month since I'm a procrastinator and waited forever to start on this). That idea was to do a sort of hybrid blog post swap where we each give each other an inspirational piece of work. Since Ben is the resident beer connoisseur and I am the resident baker, we are swapping concepts and creative direction.

I have provided Ben with a recipe for "Spiced Bourbon Apple Pie" I was convinced that the warm, spicy deliciousness of this pie would allow Ben to have a fun time finding a beer to compliment. Also, remember how I said Ben was a genius? Well, I'm sure I could've provided him a recipe consisting of celery stalks, cinnamon and cumin and he would've found a beer to pair it with.

Whether you drink beer, sip on wine, or prefer your adult beverages in the form of a flaming neon shot, I urge you to visit Ben's blog where you can see his hilarious, sharp wit and understand clearly why everyone just adores him so much.

The fantastic post he did with the Spiced Bourbon Apple Pie is here.

Is it just me or is he too good at stuff?

For my part of this fantastical swap, Ben has given me Dogfish Head's-Theobroma.

and mmm mmm mm is it delicious. I of course could not give an appropriate review of this beer since I would certainly do it an injustice, but I can tell you that Ben described it to me as a "spicy chipotle coffee/chocolate beer."  Boy do I love nothing more than chocolate. Except for bunnies maybe, and sunny days of course. But I'm sure you already knew that.

So this spicy, chocolaty concoction was a beautiful beer to sip after dinner and enjoy. Also, I don't know if perhaps I drank a bit too much of the Theobroma but for some reason I took terrible pictures that did not do it justice. I was going for that whole Beer commercial slow poured ice goodness but it turned out like one of those grainy pictures from a child's Fisher Price plastic digital camera.

So because I did not do the beer any justice just trust me that it was delicious.

So now came time to figure out a baked good to pair with this spectacular beer.  I knew immediately that I needed something chocolate because...well it doesn't take much for me to decide I need chocolate. But since this had notes of chipotle and spicyness I wanted to do something a bit different.  Several months ago I had stumbled upon a recipe for "Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies" and that seemed almost too perfect.  

Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Melt the butter and the chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave.

In a stand mixer beat the brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Slowly pour in the melted chocolate until mixed thoroughly.

In a seperate bowl mix and sift the dry ingredients. 

Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate batter slowly until it is thoroughly mixed and then fold in the chocolate chips.

Take an ice cream scoop and place balls of dough on a non stick baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes and rotate halfway through.

The cookies were definitely different. Just like the name indicates, it's similar to chewing on a mexican hot chocolate. To keep up with tradition, I didn't take any good pictures of the cookies themselves until they I had already eaten some of them and then bagged them up to take to work.

I had such a fun time with this challenge and swapping creative ideas with Ben. Hopefully we can do it again soon in the future if he isn't too disappointed in my procrastination!