Vanilla Lemon Crescents

Yesterday evening, my sister, my brother-in-law’s two sisters, and I got together in my apartment for a cookie swap. I lit all my candle sticks and tea lights, dusted off a bottle of red wine, and welcomed the ladies into my humble home. It was very warm. We exchanged a wide range of cookies, a feat we were happy to reach because no communication transpired about who was baking what. There were gingerbread cookies, Christmas sugar cookies, peanut butter chocolate oat cookies, and vanilla lemon crescents.

I baked the vanilla lemon crescents. Now, this recipe is 1 part Magnolia Bakery’s recipe for almond crescents, 1 part Taste of Home’s recipe for vanilla crescents, and 1 part my alterations. I suppose if you want to make what you have in your mind, you’re going to have to make some executive decisions on the fly (and maybe call your mother when everything is mixed and tell her how you are holding the dough over the trash can because it doesn’t look right). 

For these delicious cookies, see the following:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 lemon (zest the entire lemon)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 370 degrees
2. Cream butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3. Beat in vanilla and 3/4 of the lemon zest you grated
4. In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt, then add gradually to the creamed mixture. 
5. Stir in walnuts
6. Shape spoonfuls into crescents on a baking sheet (add a bit of water to the dough to make it stickier*)
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned
8. While crescents are in the oven, mix in a bowl 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the rest of the lemon zest
9. When the crescents are out of the oven and still hot, place a crescent in the sugar bowl and roll it around until the cookie is covered (repeat for all cookies)
10. COOL AND ENJOY!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe. They are shortbread-y and HIGHLY addictive. 

*Special thanks to my mother for telling me to add water when the dough was crumbling every time I tried to shape it into a crescent.

O Tannenbaum

I bought my first Christmas tree a few days ago. It stands at approximately 7′ and is magnificent. Due to it’s size and the fact that it is my first solo-tree, I spent some hefty $$ on the big tree, lights, and tree stand. Since I have been feeling crafty and worrisome about my over-used card, I decided to decorate my tree with $0 (excluding some ornaments I have already had in my possession). 

First, I decided to make origami ornaments. Unfortunately, I have never been the crafty-sort so the only paper I have is in lined notebook. I decided to take a navy paper bag I’ve had from a local shop and cut it into 6″x6″ squares–the standard origami paper size (thank you, Google). 

I then found a great origami omega star ornament how-to and set off on a folding adventure. After an hour of following a video tutorial, I was on the brink of it coming together. Suddenly, my folded shape was different than the video. It was midnight and my fingers were so sore from creasing the paper-bag paper. I had failed and I couldn’t figure out why. I kept rewinding the video and going though the last few steps again, but there was this one point where the tutor lost me and I decided to give up on the shape. I went for a more attainable achievement and made three origami stars. I improvised and did one with 6″x6″ paper, one with 5″x5″, and one with 4″x4″. 

The next day, I finally got to Skype with my best friend who is currently teaching at a boarding school in Botswana. I showed her my tree and was telling her about my lack of decorations and lack of supplies. She suggested I make a popcorn chain, a suggestion I was quick to accept as I have had popcorn kernels in my cupboard for months! I ransacked my bathroom for the pocket sewing kit I have (one needle, six color options of thread). I popped a big pot of corn and began stringing. I dreadfully lacked a thimble and have the injuries to prove it. After creating a 4 foot chain, I decided it was long enough and strung it onto the tree. To my dimwitted surprise, it only wrapped around about a third of the tree. One needle lost and one needle borrowed from my sister later, I extended the chain so that it wraps around to the bottom of the tree. The chain would have benefitted from some cranberries but it is a lovely addition to the tree. 

Finally, I made some bursts out of white and red tissue paper that I had in my apartment and remembered my two ornaments from Denmark that I have had stowed away, eagerly awaiting their chance to be hung with care.

I’m very pleased with the yuletide result. Hope all are enjoying decking the halls!

Do not cook frozen chicken.

I would say I am good at cooking but really I am good at following recipes and seem to have a nice taste for choosing recipes. My mother is good at cooking in that she knows good recipes but also has the best recipes in her head. While living alone, I try my best to either mentally harness my mother’s cooking or flat-out ask her how she would make this or that. 

Commonly, when I am home at my parents’ house, I will get a call in the middle of the day from my mother telling me to take the chicken or burgers we are having for dinner out of the freezer.

I don’t have anyone to call when I am at work so today when I got home from work and decided to have chicken for dinner, I put the frozen chicken in the pan. The pan had a bit of water and oil in it. As soon as the frozen meat started sizzling, I knew I made a mistake (well, the first mistake in a slew of terrible decisions). So, I took it out of the pan and put it into my toaster oven to defrost. It sort of half-defrosted, half-cooked in the toaster oven (probably because of the setting I put the oven on). Anyway, I put it back in the pan. It started to cook pretty ok. I decided to put some Herbs de Provence on before I flipped the chicken, against my mother’s advice, “put the Herbs on after you flip.” I don’t know why I did this. I immediately knew I put too much on. The chicken was covered in the Herbs. Then I flipped the chicken. So the Herbs were cooking up nice (ok, maybe not so nice and maybe burning). About when I thought the chicken would be done, I cut it open to see if it was fully cooked (way to go, Ansley!). It wasn’t. I suddenly got flashes of me with salmonella poisoning. The only way to suppress this worry was to overcook the chicken until I was sure (80% sure) it was good to be eaten. When I decided it was well overdone, I put the chicken in a bowl (which was weird because I never eat dinner out of a bowl unless it is soup or acorn squash or something but I think I did it to just make the dinner even stranger). I ate it because I cannot continue to waste sustenance. 

Let me tell you, it turned out to be the best chicken I’ve had in a very long time*.

 

*This is a lie. It was terrible–like charred dirt chicken since the herbs were so burnt and the chicken was so well-done. Maybe one day I’ll plan dinner ahead of time and take the chicken out in the morning. This day will probably be when I have a child at home to call and tell them to take it out.

My pool is empty: don’t listen to me about saving.

In college, I was a research assistant for one of my psychology professors. She is a social psychologist–an area that is incredibly fascinating yet sort of out of my speciality. But, she was my Psychology 101 professor and we started to have a good relationship so when she was looking for an RA, she chose me.

Our first project was on self-control. It turns out, in the brain, self-control is maintained sort of like a pool. Say, at the beginning of the day, your pool is filled. Then, each time you employ self-control (you decide to force yourself up rather than sleep another 5 minutes, you decide to not have a cinnamon bun the size of your head, etc.) your pool filling decreases a bit. Plainly speaking, it is hard to do two self-controlling actions in a row because the first one empties your pool and so you are more likely to give into the second thing. 

Anyway, there is hope for us with brains as it has been found (by my professor with my help) that your self-control pool can be refilled when you are given thoughts of happiness (isn’t happiness just the best?). BUT your pool can also be refilled when you are given thoughts of money. So, say you get up right when your alarm goes off. Then when you’re getting dressed and you find $5 in your pocket and then it is easier for you to turn away the head-sized cinnamon bun because your pool is filled back up.

Well, my pool is running on empty in the money department so I am dependent on happiness to get me through (ugh!). The problem is, the happiness caused the money to deplete.

I am faulted with thinking I have more than I have. I’m excitable. And I always get up when my alarm goes off and I’ve been running a lot so my self-control pool is constantly empty. This all led to my empty wallet (which is sort of a metaphor since I mostly use my debit card but that is also one of the main reasons for my metaphorical empty wallet). I am faulted with thinking I deserve treats. New make up, new clothes, fancy food, drinks, travel, apartment goodies. Despite changing the world of the brain and whatever, research assistants do not rival a CEO’s salary.

But, I have tried a few new things to get back on track. 

1. I have started the $5 bill savings plan which requires that every time you have a $5 bill, you put it in a jar. I don’t have an end game for this plan, it has been going on for about a month. I don’t know when I get to take the money out or what to do when I can. But I already did a bad thing earlier this week by snagging one of the bills to go get a drink with friends. (Excuse: pool low).
2. October was a bad month. Since July, when I entered upgraded adulthood, I have been paying my cable bill at the end of each month before I get my new paycheck. In October, I could not pay my cable bill and had to wait for the November money to roll in. Past-Ansley has screwed me over a bit. To get back to it, I am forcing myself to pay my new cable bill also with my November check. This happens to decrease my grocery budget to $10. I can make it. Thank you, spaghetti.
3. Weekend bike errands. This has already gone flat (literally). To save gas on the weekends, I decided to do more errands with my bike than my car. Today was the first day of this goal. It didn’t go well. I got a flat tire and walked 2 miles home. 

Yes, I’m tapped out. Thankfully, I started Christmas shopping in September so the only one who is punished by these gross mistakes is me. On the other hand, carrying on with running and happiness isn’t so bad. 

Tree Climbing I: slimy lettuce

I should explan “Tree Climbing” first. With “Tree Climbing” posts, the mistakes are mostly resolved by another’s advice (a little different than product recommendations, I think). One line that I have always had in my head yet never written into a poem or story is:

And if we were to climb a tree, on your clasped hands is where my foot would be.

Now, onto the slime. Living alone, I unfortunately don’t get to consume all of my food before it expires. I have gotten sort of better at this. The first time I went grocery shopping after I moved into my apartment (and after the deep sadness of trying to remember what I like to eat amidst living-alone-for-the-first-time anxieties) I went WILD in the grocery store. Actually, I went to two grocery stores–one supermarket and one local organic market. I got home, unpacked my groceries and filled my cabinets and vegetable drawer. Then, after time had passed, I unfortunately filled my trash with food-gone-bad and money-not-well-spent.

But, one item that seemed to keep getting away from me before the expiration date is lettuce, mostly arugula and spring mixes. They would reach levels of slime that I could not seem to beat unless I ate it all in two, maybe three, days. Then, like many mistakes, it took a few gone-bad-bags before I asked my mother for advice. She gave me a simple fix: paper towels. Steps below!

“You look so rested!”

Concealer. By name, you can guess what its job is. Now, I have always had acne and my optimism falls short of my face because I think I will always have it. I have used concealer to cover spots since whenever the spots arrived. It would sort of work. 

It turns out I owned bad concealer and its color was decided in a poorly lit CVS a couple years ago.  I have used Super Stay Concealer by Maybelline in the shade Light for many years. It was fine in that it made me feel better but it was the wrong color and also not very good at its job for my skin.

Through the magic of Youtube and the wonderful internet mentors that I stumbled upon and surrounded myself with, I realized that many people have under-eye circles and, even better news, you can cover them up. 

So, one morning I decided to add to my concealer’s agenda and whip a few stripes under each eye and blend with my ring finger. Then, I continued with my foundation, etc. I was amazed. Not only was I amazed, but I looked amazed–even at 6:30AM. I realized it was doing a good job when my boss came into my office and stated, “You look so well rested!” when, in actuality, the previous night I got the least amount of sleep I had gotten all week.

I finally realized I had been wrong for 4+ years when I used the Maybelline concealer under my eyes and, though it worked enough to cause my boss to remark on the effectiveness of my beauty sleep, by the end of the day it caked and would make the creases under my eyes quite prominent.

Now, the good concealer: through many recommendations by London-based beauty blogger Essie Button, I realized we had similar taste in make up and life things. So, when she fervently recommended the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer to the internet void, I investigated. While down in DC over the weekend, I went into a beauty shop and had a very knowledgable clerk figure out the correct color for me by my skin tone and when I put concealer on (he went lighter for me since I put concealer on before foundation). He also told me it is a great overall concealer from under-eyes to acne. I purchased it in the shade Vanilla and, let me tell you, it lives up to its Radiant Creamy Concealer name.

Headband Headaches

I bought myself a new headband while in DC and I love it. I think it looks really nice nestled into my curls and I have already worn it (confidently!) a few times. But, I find it will give me a headache where the ends are placed behind my ears. I get momentary relief if I nudge them to a new spot a centimeter from the original location, but soon that area will be sore. Any advice? 

-Bejeweled Headacher (me) 

Wanderlusted down to sugary DC

 After college, the worst part about jobs and life is that all of one’s friends end up in different places. The best part about jobs and life is that you then only have to pay for travel to get to a friend’s new life-venue. My friend Hank, who also lives in Boston, and I flew down to DC to spend some time with our friend Steph. 

We ate a lot and drank and laughed and walked and ended up shopping quite a bit. I unfortunately tend to follow the “…and one for the chef!” mentality when Christmas shopping. I get excited and buy myself presents while buying others. At one point I got so amped up by a sale that I impulse-bought myself two things and one gift. About 30 minutes later I felt the familiar weight of buyer’s remorse and returned the items that were for me (and then bought myself a great headband). 

On Saturday morning, we had lunch at Ted’s Bulletin, which features milkshakes that include Kahlua and Bailey’s. I got a Kahlua Mocha Milkshake and it was amazing. Then, I made an error the size of my head–literally. I decided that for breakfast I would order the cinnamon bun, advertised as matching the average size of a human head. So, upon sipping up my Kahlua Mocha Milkshake, I had to take on an even sweeter brunch. Quickly, I was overcome with sugar and was slipping in and out of nausea and a sugar-coma. The biggest issue was stopping when both items were so good but were unfortunately affecting my consciousness. Word from the terribly un-wise, never double down on sugar breakfast. 

I bounced back quickly since we enjoyed some great cupcakes from Baked and Wired the next day–I got the strawberry cupcake, no regrets there. 

The Beginning, with pre-scuffed knees.

You know what’s strange–when you’re outside looking in there’s always a glow to someone else’s house but when it’s you inside you can’t imagine anyone looking through your window and seeing it that way.

– Masters of Sex, Showtime

 I have entered adulthood. I have created a home (rented apartment) and I have created an open field (I’m imagining one of poppies) to run through and figure myself out. Through this running, I keep falling. But, if you recall, a bed of poppies keeps catching me so it is quite a nice place to trip. I’m hoping I will begin to be warmed by the inside of my home just as I am warmed from the glow of others’ (also, the new show Masters of Sex on Showtime is great).

The trials and errors (ahem, Ansleys), or sometimes flat-out successes, that I come across through this newfound adulthood are cultivating something: maybe me or maybe the dust-bunnies I have yet to concur under my bed.

One itch that I have been meaning to scratch is sharing such Everests with all of you. Here’s to the future and the mistakes that lie ahead! Let’s get started.

 

Past international words

Once upon a time, I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. Upon that time, I authored my first blog. All of those posts can be read here.