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Swan Lake | Ep. 10 | city.ballet

There's this docudrama produced and narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker about the New York City Ballet that's absolutely fascinating, called city.ballet. Each episode's about six minutes long, and they get better as they go along. You can catch all the episodes online here.

Articles:
- gut bacteria might influence our brains

Food:
- peanut butter & marshmallow sandwich cookies
- hoosier mama's cranberry chess pie
- apple cinnamon beignets w/ apple caramel sauce

Cool Finds:
- toddler naps with his 2-month-old puppy every day
- ikea lets loose 100 cats into an empty store to see what happens
- cloud-shaped ice cream
- you don't know africa (until you play this game)

happy thanksgiving!

this gorgeous turkey from Food52

Just checking in real quick to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. It's just me and my mom this holiday, so we'll be keeping things kinda small, with a kabocha squash risotto, this baked mushrooms, broken bread, and a roasted brussel sprout and apple salad. I'm also starting a pretty big DIY that I'm jumping in to kinda blindly, so we'll see how it turns out.

Hope your long weekend is full of family, friends, good food, and relaxation. Maybe some shopping, too, if you want to brave the crowds =]

gingery caramels

There are a couple (food-related) things that usually do not work out for me: 1. dough-y stuff and 2. caramel-y stuff. I don't know if it's the recipes I follow, or my own lack of skill, but there have been so many batches of caramel that have burnt, or seized, or what have you. It's a bit ridiculous.

But I decided to face the challenge once more, because I saw a box of ginger caramels one day at TJ Maxx (the Home Goods store seriously has the most awesome collection of things?!) and just had to make them myself.

spiced oatmeal apple carrot cake

One of the hardest things for me about creating new(-ish) recipes is probably naming them. It's just like writing the subject line of a super important email to a stranger: it needs to adequately summarize your email, but be short and interesting enough that they don't just delete it without reading. It is an ordeal, let me tell you.

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Timelapse: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

My family and I were going to road trip to NM last month to see this, but ended up not finding the time. But I feel like it's something that has got to happen eventually. Maybe next year?

Anyways, I hope you have a not-too-stressful weekend in preparation for Thanksgiving next week!

Articles:
- surgeons discover quirky knee ligament all over again
- why your childhood is crucial to how you'll age
- the smarter you are, the stupider you are
- should brain scans count as evidence in court?
- i want to be a millenial when i retire (i want this now)
- the widow who created the champagne industry
- reinventing the condom

Food:
- persimmon, prosciutto, and brie grilled cheese
- applesauce carrot bread with pecan streusel
- cranberry pâte de fruits

DIY:
- cardboard rudolph
- typography cookies (custom gift tags for presents?)

Cool Finds:
- visit the Netherlands
- the man who invented the calendar by bj novak
- this floral workshop in the berkshires
- the invisible bike helmet (totally amazing!)
- 16 people on things they couldn't believe about america until they moved here
- famous photos reimagined as selfies
- punctuation tips
- this ridiculously awesome volvo commercial (you have to check this out)

nutty quinoa granola

Granola is great for cleaning out your pantry, and as the end of the year draws near, maybe it's time for some pantry organization... It's healthy, easy to make, customizable, and is pretty enough for gifts. So really, what else are you looking for?

sunrise muffins - orange pulp, dried cranberries, and nuts

It all started with Whole Foods. On the weekends, there's a dude squeezing oranges and selling fresh-squeezed OJ and it's just about the best tasting thing ever. But as most things are with Whole Foods, it's a little pricey, so my mom and I decided to make our own. Usually when I juice, I throw out the leftover pulp (I know, boo me), but this time there was so much orange pulp that it seemed a horrible waste to just get rid of it. Plus, it tastes pretty good by itself? Anyways, I decided to bake them into something, which gets us to these muffins.