Mid-week Crisis: Cool story, Skandar.

1. Remember Skandar Keynes? I used to talk about him…ummm…all the time. Luckily I switched over to talking about Joseph Gordon-Levitt and have succeeded in making you all insane because of it. Sorry? Anyway, he turned 21 today. Happy birthday, my dear slightly-unattractive-but-totally-amazing-future-husband. I’m so glad that you’re an awful actor and no one knows about you. That means I can have you all to myself. MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHA. I think I have issues.

2. Last week I went out to lunch with my friend Katie. She makes me laugh and we share a mutual love of food. Win. Also, I didn’t eat any of my pizza crusts, and I’m sure the waitress thought I was crazy when she took away my plate with 6 of them.

3. This post made me a little sniffily…

4. Fringe season 2, disk 2. Coming to a mailbox near you. Also known as my mailbox today. I love Netflix.

5. This pin sums up my general you’re-really-annoying-me attitude as of late. I think I need an attitude adjustment. Also, I own this pin, so don’t bother me or it may end up pinned to your face. Fair warning.

6. I’m not sure about you, but the song Call Me Maybe gets stuck in my head all the time. I think that song is actually brainwashing us. That being said, I found a Batman parody of it that is, um, amazing.

7. Whatever you do, do NOT look at How Sweet It Is’ food board on Pinterest. It makes me sad every time I look at it because none of the food is in my belly. I think someone needs to invent a machine that can convert pictures of food into actual food. Yeah, best idea ever. You’re welcome.

Don’t create what you think the people will like, create what you know you will like. Like cookie dough brownies.

I made up a recipe today. I’m pretty much Martha Stewart…minus the whole convicted felon part.

One of the many blogs I am subscribed to is Bakerella and yesterday she posted a recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. Once I was done crying tears of utter joy, I decided I had to make them. So this morning I was going about my cooking ways, dum dee dum dum dum, I made the cookie dough, formed them into balls, and was about to go find some popsicle sticks, since they are truffles-on-a-stick, when I realized, duh. I don’t have any almond bark to coat them with. After I finished up crying over that (today has been an emotional roller coaster for me), I searched the other blogs I follow and thought, hey, I can just make chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter cups from How Sweet It Is. Things were looking up for me until I looked in our cabinets for more chocolate chips to coat the cookie dough with when I discovered WE HAVE NO CHOCOLATE CHIPS. What household doesn’t have chocolate chips?! Exactly. And then I got really sad.

So I improvised (this is where it gets really impressive). Luckily, we had brownie mix so I made the batter, poured it into liners in a cupcake tin, and basically made brownie cupcakes. After they were done, I made them into bowls, then flattened the cookie dough globs and smushed them into the brownie. Very descriptive, I know. I’d say that these are beyond wonderful but 1) I don’t want to brag about how great of a cook I am, 2) ok, I lied, I totally want to brag how how great of a cook I am. They’re wonderful, and 3) there are certain things in this world that can’t be explained. Like Skandar Keynes, for example.

The other day I went to the gym at 6am…ok, I haven’t been to the gym in forever, so actually it probably was a few weeks ago. But I know it was six in the morning because this dumb story will be forever etched in my head. Anyway, I made the mistake of wearing a shirt I made that says “It’s a Skandar thing, you wouldn’t understand.” Some old weird guy, as he was weirdly eating his banana (who eats a banana at six in the morning? Actually, who eats a banana at all?), told me he didn’t understand what a “Skandar thing” was. So, I told him Skandar Keynes was an actor. When he told me he had never heard of him, I wanted to say GO BACK TO YOUR BANANA, OLD MAN, but I didn’t. I then attempted to explain, while I was still half asleep, how he is a British actor who isn’t really in a bunch of movies and blah blah blah. I can’t really remember what I said because it was kind of early. Worst day of my life. More or less.

If you’re looking for an excuse to make these, you could always hypothetically make them on the off chance you told me a while back that today is your birthday or something. Or I could make them for you in spirit, since you’re a broke graduate student and stuff. You know, hypothetically.

Cookie Dough Brownies

Cookie dough recipe is from Bakerella. The rest is from my imagination. Whacha.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (leave out if you are using salted butter)

1 box of brownie mix
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

For the brownies, preheat oven to 350 ºF. Place paper cupcake liners cups in muffin pans. If possible, get the really fun looking ones that have tiger print or Disney princesses or something on them. Ok maybe not the princesses, but those cupcake things kick the excitement factor up to 11. If that makes sense.

Combine brownie mix, eggs, water and oil in a large bowl. Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each paper liner.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until edges are done and brownie tops crack. Take out of oven and set aside.

For the cookie dough, beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Mix in milk and vanilla. Add flour and salt and mix on low until combined. Then stir in chocolate chips, if you are fortunate enough to have chocolate chips in your house. If so, I envy you.

Chill dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes until firm enough to roll into 1-inch balls. Wrap a shot glass (make sure to use the random one that says Florida on it) in plastic wrap and use it to make a dent in the brownies. Flatten the cookie dough balls and press into brownie cups. Try not to eat all of them at once.

Guess who’s turning 16 today?! And no, it’s not Skandar Keynes

It’s me!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!
Although I do talk about Skandar a lot, for once this post is about little ol’ me.

And now for a video featuring one of my favorite singers in the world, Damian Joseph McGinty Jr., and plenty of creepy girls to ruin the general awesomeness that surrounds each and every one of his amazing performances. I should know, I’ve seen him twice. Booyah.

And before any of you asks, no, I’m not having a Sweet Sixteen party. Why Picco, you’re thinking, you’re an American girl turning 16! What stupid person doesn’t have a massive party?!?! An awesome one, that’s who. I usually try to go against the flow of life. Which is why my favorite actors are usually people no one else has heard of, I dye my hair awkward shades of red (I’m back to my natural brunette now, no worries) and wear Converses with dresses. Because that’s just how I roll. Oh, and I’m incredibly anti-social and accidentally slip into hiding very easily, so I’ll get emails from people saying “hey, are you still alive…??”. Gah, I’m rambling. Blargidy-blarg-blarg. Let’s move along, shall we???

So far, I’ve gotten some pretty awesome presents. I got earrings from my great grandparents, a ring from my great aunt, and money from everyone else. Not too shabby, eh? Money and jewels. I love growing up.  And since I know you all are thinking “Wow, that Picco chick is so amazingly fantastic. Since she’s my role model in life, I should get her something pretty wicked sweet to commerate her being alive for sixteen years and having hardly caused any physical/emotional damage to anyone (except for that time when she was 4 and she bit a boy and made him cry)”, you can get me one or more of the following: Converses, a visit from Christian Bale, a time machine so I can go back in time and meet Audrey Hepburn and/or Alfred Hitchcock, a giant bouncy house (because how cool would that be?!), Converses, food, Final Cut Pro, Converses, more food, Converses, Converses and uhhh….Converses. I only have 6 pairs. And 2 of them are fake. Therefore, I could always use more. Duh.

And so, to wrap up this post, I just wanted to thank all of you lovely people who continue to keep reading my blog and commenting. You guys are the bomb. Seriously. You have no idea how much you mean to me and my sanity. Hopefully, as I get older, my writing won’t be as spastic and sarcastic…but I don’t see that happening. And on that note, AHHH!!! I’M 16!!!! It’s pretty crazy, right? :)