Amish bread recipe - ALL NATURAL.

So friends, I think this may be the recipe {evie} uses but I'm not sure.  But anyway, I told mom to ditch the recipe we have been using due to some unfortunate ingredients (i.e. canola oil and instant pudding which is chalked full of mono/di-glycerides and BHA/preservatives).

Plus, we didn't even have one posted yet!  

I got it from kitchenlore.com, with some minor tweaks by me.  Thank you so, so much kitchenlore.

http://www.kitchenlore.com/2013/02/recipe-all-natural-amish-friendship.html

• 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 3/4 cup cornstarch

For dusting loaf pans:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease two loaf pans.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Dust the greased pans with half of the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Mix all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Divide the batter into the loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

yayayayayayayayayayaya.

I am kind of tempted to start a healthy eating/organic food blog (as in, a more organized and grammatically correct blog that actually tries to have regular followers.)  However, I think I'll hold off until I'm done with school, which is anywhere from 2-5 years from now (probz).  I probably will lose interest before that time, but if not keep your eyes peeled for a future award-winning blog.

In other news, I am going off to college now so blog updates will be few and far between and/or nonexistent (leaning towards the nonexistent category).  It's funny because I'm pretty sure {evie} has literally abandoned the blog.  LIT-RALLY.  but gred will never abandon you ;)

or coyle.  coyle works hard on his blog tab.  he is a slow typer, so the amount of work that went into his post is quite remarkable... not to mention the fact that gabbe keeps pelting him with feathers, thus impeding his progress.  keep up the good work coyle!

finally, i will leave you with a fun video about gred's girlfriend bred.  (flora was her name before she became so depressed and needed a new "identity" ... because let's be real, what kind of parent would name their child bred?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MIgvcCZTCs

i hope you've enjoyed following us!  i know i've had a grand ol' time writing this blog.  it's possible {evie} will post again but... well, hard to rely on this one.

If you're sad that you can no longer expect in depth blog posts here, I encourage you to check out this blog: http://gerbball.blogspot.com .  Yes, it is rather dull in comparison to "Textbooks and Coffee Beans," but I suspect it will be updated slightly more regularly than T&CB.  Also who knows, after goon's sports lit class this year I'm sure his writing skillz will be through the roof and his blog will improve astronomically.

Thank you loyal followers!  It's been swell!

¡Hasta la vista!

~S

{evie}

GUESS WHO HASNT POSTED IN A WHILE?!?!

i'll give you a hint.

his/her name "starts" with an e.

other words that start with an e:
east
eeyore
eyesore
eek
emancipation
egg
eggy
embolism
eulogy
evening
earth
edgy
edge
echo
eh?

chchchchia!

guys guys guys
I have a new favorite granola
Inspired by the chchchhchchia commercial and pictured below in this #selfie

buy this at your nearest target.  still expensive but cheaper than cub.  :)

More excitingness: I have the same personality type as St. John Paul II

Read more about it here: http://www.typefinder.com/enfj :D

"Most likely of all types to cope with stress by exercising"
"Most likely of all types to believe in a higher spiritual power"
"Believe that cooperation is the best way to get things done" (can't we all just get along?!)*
"Acutely aware of human suffering"
"Impatient"
WHAT the WHAT this is so accurate.

*at the red house , we can

at the reeeeeed houuuuuuuuse

In the food industry, we can't :'(

So to give you a small amount of background info, this was originally a substantially longer compilation of facts/opinions (can you even imagine?), but I realized as I was relaying some of this info to hip-hop mom that perhaps no one really cares that much except me.  Have you ever talked to someone about something you found super interesting, but then halfway through you see their eyes glazing over, they start fidgeting, maybe they even start reading a book as you continue to talk to them?!  Well, that's what happened.  So I decided that in the interest of retaining a follower or 2 (HINT Y'ALL) that I would condense this vast array of information and just give you the brief lowdown on my recent struggles.

We have a huge container of canola oil in the pantry.  What exactly is canola oil? I asked myself one day, and went on a quest to find out.  So, there is no such thing as a canola seed.  It actually comes from rapeseeds, but of course the marketing people wanted to change the name so they called it "Canola" a shortened form of, "Canada Oil" (rapeseed was originally a Canadian specialty crop until Americans started growing it).  To make the oil, the seeds are heated and crushed, then refined with hexane.  Then the substance is "refined using water precipitation and organic acid, 'bleaching' with clay, and deodorizing using steam distillation" (Wikipedia, Canola).  So basically, it's pretty heavily processed with heat/chemicals/clay-bleaching, whatever that means.

How is it health-wise?  Unfortunately, there are some very conflicting opinions.  Harvard Medical School says it's a good source of mono- and poly-unsaturated fat, decreases LDL, and has high omega-3 and omega-6 levels.  They also put it in their "healthy fats" category.  Mark's Daily Apple blog (where all the organic and paleo enthusiasts congregate) says that marketing teams prey on conventional wisdom and in reality the omega-3 & 6 levels are decreased during processing.  Also that there is trans fat that results from heating the omega-3s to super high temps (~.4% trans fat in some so they can "claim" 0g trans fat under current FDA rules which I personally find annoying.  But in the worst kinds can be as high as 4.2%!!!)  To complicate matters, some studies show that canola oil results in lower LDL levels than olive oil!  Also, this from PubMed.  BUT... the dreaded trans fat?!!  crisis people.  Methinks coconut oil is the way to go.  Unfortunately I doubt that will come to fruition in our household due to it a) being more expensive and b) the misconception that saturated fat is bad for you (natural kinds, ie from coconut, are good).

Speaking of olive oil, there are some pretty disturbing facts out there.  So... get ready to become very sad very fast.  First of all, the average restaurant that serves olive oil dilutes it with cheaper refined oils to save money.  Most commonly, restaurants use either 10% olive oil or 35% olive oil.  (Source).  Perhaps even more disturbing is this study conducted by UC-Davis on 186 different olive oils (peruse if you have time to burn).  Since you are probably not going to, I will give you a representative quote:

Of the five top-selling imported "extra virgin" olive oil brands in the United States, 73 percent of the samples failed the IOC sensory standards for extra virgin olive oils analyzed by two IOC-accredited sensory panels. The failure rate ranged from a high of 94 percent to a low of 56 percent depending on the brand and the panel. None of the Australian and California samples failed both sensory panels, while 11 percent of the top-selling premium Italian brand samples failed the two panels. Sensory defects are indicators that these samples are oxidized, of poor quality, and/or adulterated with cheaper refined oils.

(IOC stands for International Olive Council.... had to lol at that one).

In conclusion, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Maybe I should switch majors, double major in soil science and agronomy, become a farmer, grow my own organic cro---oh wait that's right, Monsanto is taking over everything.  Never mind.  Dreams foyled;) in an instant.

Well if it's any consolation, I suppose as long as you subsist on Nature's Path Coconut Chia Granola and Gred's cakes, life will be alright, right?  Gred's cakes use only GWOs, which stands for Gred's Wonderful Organisms.  (The M is flipped around into a W, just like Gred flips the status quo ;) ).  So if you are ordering one of his cakes, you are guaranteed to receive a flawless item.  Same with his chips (see ps gredforge post for a refresher).

In case you're worried, yes Coyle is a microorganism.  But since he's not wonderful, he won't be in the cake :D

......................unlike a certain pond.....................

Another job opportunity...?

bonjour.

Just got off work for the day and will be going to job interview this afternoon. Am I crazy?

If I get this job I will be working three jobs this summer.

Man oh man.

But hey--it's this awesome bakery (name hidden, obviously) to which I just randomly decided to apply. And I have an interview now scheduled. Obviously it is definitely not for certain that I will get the job, but I just keep thinking about just how much more psycho my schedule will get. Oh goodness.

Okay...not that you folks really care about my work schedule (any "folks" out there???).

What on earth should I post about?? My life is literally just work right now...and sometimes reading.
I am now reading War and Peace by Tolstoy. You should read it! The characters are incredibly intricate. Those of you who have read any of Tolstoy probably understand. Those of you who don't understand--READ TOLSTOY.

Other news: my house is currently infested with mice. How did this happen? Well, we have always had mice in our walls, but it wasn't until my mom decided to redo the kitchen (which involved tearing out big chunks of the ceiling and walls) that our house was infiltrated--and mice were unleashed.

Anyway--hope your day is just dandy.

{evie}

bout to get all serious on y'all

Hey friends.
{evie} is MIA so I guess all the pressure is on me to continue producing quality posts.  Uhoh.  Especially because lets be honest, {evie} makes a heck of a lot more sense than me, generally speaking.  But the show must go on!  Also as a side note, you may have noticed that the blog is much more active in the summer (aka, no posts not in the summer months).  I'll have to check with {evie}, but maybe we could officially make it a summer blog.  It's just, when college starts there is really no time to be doing extra writing... I spend enough time staring at a comp screen reviewing powerpoints and writing papers.  And {evie} is an english/french double major sooo I bet she writes 3 times as much as me (nursing).  As anyone who is in/has been through college, I'm sure the phrase "the struggle is real" is near and dear to your heart.

I suppose this kind of defeats the original "staying in touch" premise we started this blog with.  We  stay in touch don't fear.  Just not really via the blog.  I actually forgot the blog existed until {evie} reminded me one day when we were hanging out: "I had this dream about 'don't forget to draw in a hat' and your mom" and I was all like "OMG THE BLOG!!!!!!!!" so we started it up again as I'm sure you all noticed and promptly threw a fiesta.

My AP Comp teacher once told me never to use emoticons.  I'm sorry Ms. P (name shortened to preserve identity), but I have come to realize I use them multiple times in each post.  I hope that you followers don't mind.  The trend will continue, btw.

Now that we've taken care of some housekeeping details, time to get into the "fun" part of this post ;)  Hooray.

We are going to discuss some awesome places in the world, pictures and all.  DISCLAIMER: I'm bout to go back and cite all the URLs of pics/vids I've borrowed from other sources (in my other posts).  Not to fear, I want to give credit where credit is due :)  Esp. because I don't even have a camera or smartphone, I pretty much have to borrow pics.

My motivation for this topic came yesterday when my family visited The Basilica of Saint Mary.  Astonishing church... GORGEOUS.  If you ever visit the tundra that is Minnesota, this church should be #1 on your destination list (MOA can be demoted to #2).  I would also like to point out, how baller is it that their URL is mary.org?!  I have been to this basilica 4 times that I can remember and I forgot how incredible it was until yesterday I was sitting there wishing I could spend an hour just walking around and exploring.  A couple pictures:

Outside view

pic 1 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Interior_shot_of_the_Basilica_of_St._Mary.jpg
pic 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Minneapolis-Basilica_of_Saint_Mary-windows.jpg
pic 3 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/2008-0705-BasilicaStMary.jpg/250px-2008-0705-BasilicaStMary.jpg

This also reminded me of one of my goals in life: visit St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  It's right up there with my other life goals: take a selfie with Pope Francis, go skydiving, be at the Rose Bowl when the Badgers win, win a $1,000,000 giftcard to the Dane County Farmer's Market, and get over 23 followers on this blog.  St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world folks located at the traditional burial site of St. Peter.  Peter was a martyr for the faith and crucified upside down because he considered himself unworthy to die in the same way as Jesus.  Here it is:

pic 1 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/St._Peter%27s_Basilica_at_the_Vatican_in_Rome.jpg
pic 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/St._Peter%27s_Basilica_2013-09-16.jpg

The other place I would love to visit someday is Punaluu Black Sand Beach, Hawaii.  And just Hawaii in general, let's be real.  The sand is made black because of the lava flowing into the ocean, which explodes when it reaches the ocean and cools.  Can you imagine walking barefoot on a beach with black sand?!  Some pics below:

This last one is Kailua Kona, Hawaii - another spot in Hawaii i'd defs hit up.  and maybe they sell kona coffee for super cheap (kinda like you can get olives for cheap in greece).

pic 1 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Punaluu_Black_Sand_Beach%2C_Hawaii%2C_USA7.jpg
pic 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Punaluu_Black_Sand_Beach,_Hawaii,_USA5.jpg
pic 3 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Hawaii-Kona-Sonnenuntergang.jpg

These are some places I'd like to travel to.  How about you guys?  COMMENT BELOW!

steady rainin

*under construction.* HAVE A PLEASANT DAY. =)

in the works

I have begun to write again:)

Any writers out there?

Anyone?

Okay...how about this:

Any of you who would love to write or feel the impulse to write or desire greatly to write but may not have the motivation, time, or support to do so?

See, this is with whom I have always identified. I used to try to write as a little kid, but my older sisters more or less squashed this creative side out of me with their criticisms and I became too ashamed to write at all. Don't get me wrong--I love my sisters and I love criticism and I love their criticism, but as I little kid it was slightly depressing to have your older sisters make fun of everything you tried to write. So I stopped, yet always felt that writer's pulse within me. But now...

AT LAST! I AM WRITING AGAIN:)

I cannot tell you just how overjoyed I am right now. Of course, it is difficult, what with always having to interrupt myself with work and reading and everything else, but all the same...the words are a-coming. And there is nothing quite so satisfying as seeing your creative juices flowing into those neat little letters.

However...writing is wildly frightening. When writing, you watch your ideas take form and you lay them there in front of yourself, willing them to be criticized by present others, past works, and, that harshest of critics, yourself. It is incredibly daunting. I cannot help but disparage myself for even trying to write something--I keep comparing my stuff to the great works of literature. It is impossibly stupid for me to do so, but, as an incorrigible competitor, I can't help it.

Apart from this difficulty, there is also the massive struggle of just writing. Ever tried to write? If yes, you understand just how difficult it is to make sense of your mind and perform the osmosis of what you want to say into that scene or that story or whatever it is you are attacking at that present moment. George Orwell once described novel-writing as "a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand" (Orwell). I cannot agree more, Mr. Orwell.

So there you have it folks. I have a new work finally actually in the process, a work more than two or three paragraphs long, and I have made the commitment to actually finish it. Let's see what happens.

In the meantime, enjoy this scene--one of my favorites from all of cinematic history. There is so much meaning in this one scene...everyone should see it. Breakfast at Tiffany's is not my favorite movie, but this scene is absolutely fantastic. I just love the ending of this movie. And Audrey Hepburn is absolutely amazing--one of my heroes:)

{evie}