it's good to be back

I'm not going to lie, when I first wrote that I typed out bake.

I think because that's been on my mind since I've been back stateside. Well that and work, running lots, and avoiding political ads. Which, are officially now over.

Thank. You. Cheesus.

I know I'm not really accomplishing all of my seventeen before seventeen but I am plugging away at them and checking some off my list.

Top priority right now is trying new recipes. And Ryan and I are plugging away. We've made:

 ▪ trader joe's pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting (delish!),

 ▪ these peanut butter cookies (which a little light on peanut butter),

 ▪ added hershey kisses to these peanut butter cookies for some blossoms (almost there),

 ▪ the best peanut butter cookies ever to have been made (although it might be the filling),

 ▪ harvest loaves from a back-of-the-pan recipe (which needed so much more spice), and

 ▪ a hearty pot roast that was more like a stew than soup (worth making again).

Of course there's so many more things to try. Just look at my pinterest boards. They hold quite a few. And then there's my other list. You know the list of recipes from the cookbooks sitting on your kitchen shelf that you're dying to try? THAT list.

And then there's ones that pop up like triple layer dulce de leche brownie cookie bars. How can you go by a week without trying these?

You can't. I'll tell you about them soon.

Until then. Peace out, cub scouts.

- Allison Rae

Thursday Catch Up

Have you ever driven near the Canadian border and searched for music on the radio? You inevitably find a good song and then they switch to the DJ and it turns out the station's in French. Welcome to Germany. Except, it's in German. But you figured that out right? Right.

Every morning I get in the car and listen to my local "pop" channel on the twenty minute drive to work. From what I gather, they tell you the big news stories, about the stop-and-go traffic, and they make prank calls. The best part of my mornings? The random assortment of music. They've played "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "Sometimes" by Britney Spears. Those brought me riiiggghhhttt back to high school. Thanks, but no thanks.

Anyway. One of the songs on the radio is John Newman's latest single with Charlie Wilson. Have you heard it? I've only heard it about a dozen times and today is the first day I know what he's saying. Tyrant? Tiring?

IT'S TIRING.

You know, in case you were confused too. I cannot be the only one who wasn't sure if it was tyrant or tiring. I know "tyrant game" doesn't really make much sense, but music these days can be very questionable.

In other news, Ryan joined instagram (@rclabarge). He posts daily pictures of the beer he's trying and screenshots of his runs. He's a quick learner, adding about half a dozen #hashtags to every post. His new obsession, besides ogling all the food and craft beer pages, has become seeing how many likes he gets. He's like a needy teenage girl. It's kind of funny. Endearing almost?

When we're not running together or going to the store, our weeknights are pretty relaxed. I finally have time to catch up on my horrendously large inbox and all the unread posts in my RSS feed. The downside? I'm pinning everything. I just looked and I have almost five thousand pins.

FIVE. THOUSAND.

How does that even happen?! Clearly, I've had too much down time. But now I'm thinking about organizing and weeding through them all. Does that make me crazy? I don't even know how I would start attacking a monster like that. Would you do it? Have you done it? Please tell me your secrets. Pretty please?

"Our love is just a tiring game. I'll never give it up, I'll never give it up."