Set the sky on fire.

To say that I'm excited for the 4th is an understatement.

It is definitely my second favorite holiday (only second to Christmas) and my court always has a huge party. I did my nails just for the occasion. Hopefully they last because they could also come in handy for my uncle's change of command ceremony in a few days too.

I love the 4th because I'm a proud American but also I just love fireworks. :)

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Four years later....

So I'm officially a Cal Poly Alumni now. Well, I guess it's not official until I get my diploma in the mail but whatever.

What am I doing now?

Back home....That's what. Yes, I'm back until further notice and searching for that elusive thing called a J-O-B.

Anywho, there are several developments taking place so hopefully I'll be free to blog more too. This summer should be interesting.

Hellooooo real world! I'm not sure if I like you yet.

Name? Birthday?....Hobbies?

"What's your favorite hobby?"

I hate this question. Mostly because I have waaaaaay too many and choosing one is nearly impossible. However, teachers tend to love this question, especially on the first day of classes. People usually stick to the cookie cutter answers and frankly I don't blame them, I do it too. My real hobbies are a little strange...for example, I like to create things -- meaning I take whatever is lying around the house (aka trash, toilet paper rolls, bits of paper, boxes etc) and make things. Or, another hobby, cutting out words from a magazine and making a collage...or I collect coins...or my signature hobby you could say, is learning about wolves....but I could go on and on...and on and on and on.

Today in class I just said photography.

But this got me to thinking about those Myspace Surveys people used to do back in the day. I loved them! Most people hated them. But I thought it was a great way to get to know someone. Plus, I just like to fill out surveys. Or forms, or even those slips of paper that are in between magazine pages that you're supposed to mail in...I would fill those out and not mail them. I guess that's another one of my strange hobbies.

But anyways, I've decided that no matter how outdated Myspace is now, I'm going to do a survey right here for this blog post. :)
I got most of these questions from a collection of actual myspace surveys.
So enjoy! or ignore if you were one of those people who hated these things.

1. What is your full name?
Lauren Aimee Donovan

2. Birthday?
April 5th, 1989 -- In a week!!! :)

3. Do you have any scars?
Yes, two. One on my wrist from where I attempted to make homemade root beer and it exploded and sliced my wrist open and the second one is from a high heel accident...I stepped on the top of my own foot with my heel haha.

4. Have you ever cried during a move?
Yes, a few. The main one is The Notebook...

5. What is your favorite flower?
Pink tulips! or roses haha.

6. Favorite season?
Fall and winter...I hate spring and summer. Spring because of my allergies, summer because I don't like being hot.

7. Have you ever been in a car accident?
I think two...once when I was little and then the second one was coming back from Tahoe we were in a huuuuge fender bender that involved two semi's and like 20 cars...it was a domino effect type deal...

8. Favorite smell?
men's cologne and christmas trees

9. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Football!!!! Go steelers!!! Sundays are meant to sit around and watch football all day...

10. What are you afraid of?
Sharks and scary movies.

11. Perfect pizza?
Hawaiian with bacon. Or combo.

12. Favorite alcoholic drink?
Champagne

13. Have you ever broken a bone?
Yes, three times. Once I was tide pooling, I fell and broke my pinkie finger...I broke the same finger in a roller blading accident and then I've also broken my wrist.

14. Favorite book? and last book you read?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and I read like five books over Spring Break. One of them was Unbroken by the author who wrote Seabiscuit. I HIGHLY recommend it, one of the best books I've ever read. It's non-fiction and about this guy who was a soldier during WW2.

15. Favorite movie?
Pride and Prejudice, Band of Brothers....pretty much any war movies.

16. Are you religious?
Yup. I pray all the time and God shows his presence everywhere if you just take the time to look.

17. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Nope, sorry.

18. How many countries have you visited?
Canada, Mexico, Italy, France

19. How many states?
15...I might be forgetting one or two...

20. What is your favorite animal?
wolves :)

21. What is your dream car?
I looooove a hot car.....hmmm, A black Ferarri 599....but okay, if we're being serious, I'd settle for a Lexus IS250 or a BMW 335i...but regardless black is the way to go. Actually, I'd even settle for the the 2010 Subaru Legacy which is the car my mom has right now.

22. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
Ireland or Scotland!

23. Have you ever crawled through a window?
Oh yes, a bunch of times as a kid...if I was on timeout I'd crawl out my window and show up at the sliding glass door around the other side of the house.

24. Who was the last person you couldn't take your eyes off of?
This hot guy in one of my classes...too bad he didn't get added from the waitlist :( there goes my eye candy!

25. Would you burn the American Flag for a million dollars?
NO WAY. I'll stay poor, thanks.

26. Think of a random person and give them a message here -- no names:
Hmm, I wonder if you read my blog. ;)

27. Do you have a bad temper?
I've been known to have a temper occasionally. Not many people have seen it though, consider yourself lucky.

28. Are you a forgiving person?
Typically yes.

29. Childhood memory?
Telling my younger brother that in order to join the club my best friend and I had, he had to eat a "cookie", well the cookie we gave him was a dog treat. Yes, he ate it. haha.
Or flooding my backyard with a foot of water just so I could play in the mud.

30. Favorite type of cake?
fruit basket!!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Okay, so I have another one for your recipe books! I just made the best meatballs EVER. So yummy!





1 package of Ground turkey (or ground beef...I was going semi healthy this time)
1 can of tomato sauce (any brand)
1/2 onion --- 1/4 for the meatballs, 1/4 for the sauce (this depends on your preference, I love onions)
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Parmesan
Basil
Oregano
Garlic
Salt & Pepper


1. Finely chop up onion. Put into saute pan with garlic and saute until translucent. Don't brown them! You just want them to be soft.
2. Take the package of ground turkey and place on the cutting board. Crack the egg into the center, pour about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs over the top (this is a binder, so if they are too loose when you start to form them add more bread crumbs), as well as the parmesan and add in spices to taste (basil, oregano, salt and pepper).
3. With your hands, knead in all the ingredients until it's spread evenly throughout the meat. Don't over handle the meat.
4. Take half of the sauted onions and fold them in until evenly distributed.
5. Pour other half of the onions into another pot and set aside.
6. Create meatballs from the meat, make sure that whatever size you choose to make them, they are all the same size so that they cook evenly. I made five large meatballs, yes, they turned out to be around the size of a small baseball. :)
7. In the pan you sauted the onions in, place the formed meatballs in with a splash of olive oil so they don't stick and let them brown on the outside. Don't cook them all the way through, but let them seal in the juices and get a nice brown crust on the outside.
8. Now, take the pot you put the other half of the onions in, and pour the tomato sauce in. Bring to a boil.
9. Once it's boiling, put your meatballs in (make sure the sauce is deep enough to cover them, or at least only show a small bit on the top) and reduce heat to LOW/SIMMER. Cover with a lid.
10. Let cook for 10 to 15 mins. I'm not exact on the timing because I forgot to check, but after 15 mins, pull one out and cut into it and make sure all the pink is gone. I also waited until the meatballs were done until I cooked my spaghetti. I just put the meatballs on LOW so they stayed warm/continued to cook.

Plate them and ENJOY!! I sprinkled some more parmesan on top and it was amazing! I also used fettucini noodles instead of regular spaghetti noodles because I like the flat noodles the best but it's up to you!


(Image isn't my own, click on it for link to original)

Restrepo

I watched this movie last week and it was AMAZING!! It's a documentary about soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. One of the soldiers had a video camera and took it around with him and filmed their activities in one of the outposts.

I highly recommend it. I found it fascinating because it's real people, not actors. :)

If you have Netflix, it's on instant play right now. Go check it out!

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Okay, I just made another AMAZING dinner.

I took two chicken breasts (leftovers are your best friend) and stuffed them with garlic, parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and frozen spinach. I then topped them with more garlic (loooove the stuff), basil, salt and pepper. Before I put it in the oven I covered the entire thing with Cream of Chicken soup and baked it for 35 mins in an oven set to 350 F.

I took it out and sprinkled some more mozzarella on top and let that melt then ate it. SO GOOD!!!

Next time though I might add onions...I'm thinking of sauteing them first and then stuffing them in the chicken. Also experimenting with different cheeses, like feta cheese might be fun.

Also, different sauces can be put on top, spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce or even just crushed tomatoes with basil, salt and pepper would be amazing with this.

I'm definitely going to try different variations but tonight's dinner was out of this world!! I highly recommend trying it. :)

I'm sorry I don't have a picture...the lighting and my camera are NOT equipped to handle food pictures. I hate when food blogs don't have pictures though sooooo.....

I guess this is what they kind of looked like prepared, except imagine cream of chicken soup covering them.

xxoo

Check out Sealed With a Kiss! It's a blog I'm doing in collaboration with my Mom.

We post our opinions on relationships, dating and pretty much everything else!

There is also an opportunity for you as a reader to ask us questions that we will answer with a blog post.

So go see what Sealed With a Kiss is all about! :)

Sealed With a Kiss

Living Life Backwards

Now this would be a fun way to go through life lol. It would certainly be different!! :)
This definitely made me laugh.

"In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!"
— Woody Allen

Someday...

My dream backyard.
End of story.
♥

Single's Awareness Day

So I'm posting again, mostly because I just had to share with you what I made for my Single Valentine's Day dinner! They're not that fast but let me just tell you, they are soooo yummy. Homemade chicken enchiladas with sauted red peppers and onions.



So for the complete recipe and for where I got this picture go here. She also shows how to make it step by step which is really cool: A Sweet Pea Chef

What I did differently though, is after the chicken cooked, I set it aside and sliced up some red peppers and onions in thin slices then sauted them in a pan with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Once they were done, when I was assembling the enchiladas, I put them in with the meat and the cheese in the tortillas. SOOO GOOD!

These with a glass of wine, a movie and the funfetti cupcakes I'll be making later as well, make Valentine's Day a little more bearable.

Oh but just a little tip for all you singles out there, NEVER go to Albertsons or any shopping establishment on Valentine's Day unless you want to see all the men buying flowers for their ladies. Totally depressing...I made that mistake, thus the reason for the funfetti cupcakes to come later tonight.

Darn you Cupid...

For my Valentines Day post, I'm going to simply refer you to my dear friend Jesse's blog. He basically said it all way better than I could :)

Valentines Day Survival Tips

A New Kind of Baked Potato

I just made the most delicious potato today. It's a new spin on the baked potato. You put butter, garlic, some olive oil, salt and pepper and then put it in the oven until it's crispy and soft. It also looks really cool so if you're trying to impress people at a dinner party make these. They're fast and super easy to make annnd don't require too many ingredients.

Two tips that aren't in the recipe are to avoid the potato rolling around while you're cutting it or while cooking, cut a flat piece off the bottom to make it sit flat on the baking sheet.
Also, I'm thinking about putting bacon in it next time, and I bet cheese would be good with it too!

So enjoy! Because I certainly did. To see the site where I got the recipe and to see the whole recipe, click here: Hasselback Potatoes
Otherwise, I've copied it below the picture. :) (The picture is also from that site.)




Ingredients

Potato
Clove of Garlic, thinly sliced
Olive Oil
Butter
Salt
Black Pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Put the potato on a chopping board, flat side down. Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through, at about 3 to 4 mm intervals.

Arrange the potato on a baking tray and insert the garlic in between the slits. Scatter some butter on top of each potato. Then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh is soft.

Note to God

Check out this video! The singer is 7 year old Rhema Marvenne and she has such an amazing voice! This song will give you goosebumps :)

Just "Stumbling" along...

So I have recently become addicted to the site, Stumbleupon.com. It is genius! For those of you who don't know, you sign up and it will ask for you to check some boxes with your interests (things like, art, history, media, cooking, music, humor...etc. there are a TON of things to choose from). Then you hit "Stumble" and it sends you to a random website. It can be anything from a simple picture, to a blog, to a funny youtube video....it just depends on the interests you checked. When you're done with the site it took you too, there's a bar at the top and you hit "Stumble" again and it'll send you to another page and you repeat that process until before you know it you've will have just spent 4 hours (at least) "Stumbling" around the internet.

I have learned so many things I never thought I'd learn on my own by browsing the net. But anyways, I was taken to this site that was talking about Ancient Mysteries and there is this document that has unknown language and pictures on it and no one is able to figure out what they mean. This made me wonder what people thousands of years from now will think about us. What if that unknown parchment was just someone's random sketching and drawing or what if it was even a joke? That's totally something someone today would do; write some random gibberish and draw some random pictures and "preserve" it for people to find and ponder over and write in history books about. It made me laugh thinking about what that person would think to know that their random piece of paper was causing people now so much stress and speculation.

Just something to think about! And I highly recommend Stumbleupon.com. I spend more time doing that then Facebook now a days and it's WAY more educational. :)

B is for Banana

Well, the Superbowl is over and my beloved Steelers lost. :( I'm not gonna give a rant about the game, I'm going to be a good sport and just say good job Green Bay. It's just a game, there's always next season, and we didn't play that well so we didn't really deserve to win. Green Bay pretty much got a free pass to a SB ring. But that's all I'm sayin!

However, I will comment on the half time show and let me just say it was AWFUL. Seriously awful. Fergie just needs to go away in my opinion. Usher made it slightly better but for the most part it was an epic fail.

I went home for the Superbowl and had a party with my neighbors, The Court. It was awesome, they are like my extended family and I love hanging out with them. So much better than any party I would have gone to if I had stayed down at school.

But I thought I'd share a recipe I made while I was home. Banana Pancakes!! Soooo yummy.

What you need:
Pancake mix (the stuff where you just add water is perfect)
2 Bananas (preferably pretty ripe ones with a few brown speckles on them...it makes them easier to mash and when you cook them they get sweeter)
Skillet
Butter

Directions:
1. Heat up skillet
2. Mix pancake mix with water to desired consistency
-More water = thinner pancakes
-Less water = thicker pancakes
-I like thick pancakes so I only add water until it is gooey but yet it still will slide off the spoon easily when you put it in the skillet. I recommend making them thicker to hold the bananas.
3. Next, mash up 1 whole banana
4. Add to pancake batter and mix it together
5. Add butter to skillet so that pancakes don't stick
6. Add batter to skillet into desired size
7. Take the other banana and cut slices of banana and put them on top of the pancake in the skillet
8. Wait until bubbles form on the top of the pancakes and then flip.
9. Finish cooking and enjoy!!

The bananas will glaze up nicely and be really sugary and sweet. Top with your favorite syrup or powdered sugar or even more bananas!

Also, another yummy addition to this are pecans if you like nuts or chocolate chips would be amazing. I've also topped these with peanut butter too.

Sealed with a Kiss

So I recently started another blog called "Sealed with a Kiss" and it was a blog about my opinions on relationships, dating, love and men. My mom saw it and she wanted to respond to one of my posts so I got to thinking...we have always wanted to start a mother/daughter blog so why not turn "Sealed with a Kiss" into just that!

We might not always stick to relationship topics but I hope that everyone who follows me here will go check it out. I hope that it is an insightful blog filled with advice and two generations worth of interesting discussions on relationships, love, dating, men and more.

Also, we want input on what we should blog about so we've opened up an email address for people to email us questions. If you're not comfortable emailing us, you can comment anonymously on our topic posts.

Anyways, check it out!! I hope you enjoy it. :)

Mother/Daughter Blog: Sealed with a Kiss

Black and Yellow; Go STEELERS!!!

So anyone who knows me knows that I like watching NFL football and that my favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers. And all Steelers fans will agree with me that this years Superbowl is going to be awesome because the Steelers are in it!! They are the AFC Champs and on Feb 6th will play the NFC Champs, the Green Bay Packers, for the chance to win their 7th Superbowl victory!!!

I am more than excited and I can't wait to watch the black and yellow beat Green Bay.

GO STEELERS!!!!!!!

I am going to be so sad when football season is over :(

Let's get #7!!!

Angels on Earth

"Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted."

Let's change that. What a truly selfless man to say, "I was about to make vows, just two months from the accident, 'through thick and thin...death do us part...sickness and in health...for better or for worse'...what kind of guy would I be if I walked out when she needed me the most?"

WOW.

Please be thankful for what you have, and pray for those who struggle.

It is what it is.

Such an appropriate song.

"Shes standing in the heart of darkness
Saying I know you got a soul even though your heartless"

Twenty eleven.

"New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions." Mark Twain

So I really don't like New Year's. I always feel like there's too much pressure to welcome in a new year, like making resolution no one will keep and not to mention trying to find a New Year's kiss.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." Hal Borland

I'm the type of person who sometimes gets too nostalgic and too thoughtful so New Years is NOT the best holiday for me because that's basically what the holiday is all about; remembering the past year and thinking about the coming year.

"He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool." F.M. Knowles

I also never make resolution because I always manage to not keep them. I try to make goals some time after New Year's because I seem to keep those better if I don't title them resolutions. However, I decided to make a list this year, just to humor myself and whoever else cares so the following are my resolution for 2011, or at least the ones I can actually type out for public viewing ;)

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." Ellen Goodman

1. Write a little every day.

2. Hike more.

3. Do something "artsy" every day.

4. Cut down on complaining.

5. Be more positive.

6.

7.

8.

9. Find a job.

10. Don't stay cooped up in my apt.

11. Get another tattoo.

(6-8 are private resolutions lol)

So with that said, I hope that everyone has as amazing 2011 and that all the resolutions that you make are successful.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning." T.S. Eliot