Apple Crisp!

05/12/201630/11/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

In general, I really like baking. I’m not great at cooking (love crock pot meals and anything involving a tortilla), but I do like to bake. The main problem is that baking makes a lot of food. A lot more than I should eat on my own.

Thankfully, I was staying local for Thanksgiving! I was going home with my man friend and asked his mom what I should bring. She suggested a dessert and I went perfect! I have this dope apple crisp recipe that I have! I have combined a few different recipes and tweaked it to make it my own. Here it is!

It’s super basic and most ingredients you probably already have (I’ll list the recipe straightforward at the end).

Start with your apples. I like to mix red and green for baking. I suggest you try it too! Just make sure you peel them and slice them up.

They need to be heated to make them more malleable for mixing later. As they are getting warmed, you can start your crust. I ended up having a little extra crust material and just added some more butter and made a small crisp with the leftover materials.

Now the apples are warm and have a place to go once the sugars are mixed in. So let’s do it! I like to mix the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl to then pour over the apple slices.

Mix it all up as evenly as possible and put it on top of the crust. Then we can do the topping. It’s my favorite part since I love oatmeal.

Mix it and crumble it over the apples. And let it bake! The scent is mouthwatering. And then when it pops out, it looks like this:

So here’s the recipe straight up for my apple crisp crumble mess of love:

Crust

Filling

Topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. This recipe is good for 8×8 or 9×9 pans. I recommend glass pans but it’s your call. Use a small/medium bowl to mix together the crust. Press it into the pan and up the sides as far as you’d like. Slice the apples and warm them in the microwave in a LARGE bowl, large enough to mix around the apple slices. Pour the apple filling into the crust on top of the pan. Use a medium bowl to mix together the ingredients for the topping. Make sure to mix it well. And crumble it over the filling. Make sure all the filling is covered and go crazy at the corners! Bake for 45-60 minutes (dependent on ovens and if you’re making it the night before). Enjoy!

Go Cubs Go!

30/11/201630/11/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

Guys. Something amazing happened. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series! I was out at the bar watching in D.C. I wore as much Cubs gear as possible (hat, tshirt, blue nails) and brought my jersey for my friend to wear. I didn’t tell anyone at the time but I also brought my W flag.

Clearly, I was moved by the win. I grew up a Cubs fan. One of my grandpa’s worked for the Cubs and even had a baseball card of him in Cubs gear. My other grandpa was always sitting in front of the TV watching the game. Unfortunately, neither of them are alive anymore. Knowing how much this win means to the older generation who have waited their whole lives to see the Cubs win the Series brought me to tears.

Fortunately for me, I was able to make it home to the Cubs celebration (mind you, the win was on a Wednesday and the parade that Friday morning). One early morning flight and train ride into the city, I was ready.

We started out at an apartment that was only blocks from Wrigley so we made our way to the stadium. It was packed!

Pssst! That’s not coffee in our cups! After a late start, the parade got going! Again, it was packed so it wasn’t super easy to see. And I was even on a friends shoulders!

After we went to a bar for snacks and to watch the rest of the parade and the rally on the TV.

After a snack, a nap, and some dinner, we wandered back over to Wrigley. Now that the crowds had thinned a bit, I wanted to get up close and personal with one of the greatest ballparks in America.

Since the building is brick, people started writing names of loved ones who were unable to be present for the win; this could be due to distance or if they had passed away. It was really amazing.

One of the big goals I had for the quick trip back to Chicago was to write my grandparents’ names on Wrigley. I was grateful to find some chalk and limited space to write (just their) first names on the wall.

This trip was honestly one of the best few days in my life and I am so grateful to have been able to be 1 in the 5 million who attended. It was an experience I will never forget.

Halloween 2016

09/11/201630/11/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

If you know anything about me (or have read previous posts), you know that I’m a bit of a nerd. When the boyfriend suggested a nerdy costume for us for Halloween, I was all about it! He’s a big Game of Thrones fan, both books and TV show. I’m fully committed to the show and have read the first 2 books. I’ll eventually get to the rest of the books. We decided to go as Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon. For those who don’t know the show, here are some reference pictures:

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As you know, I am not a natural red head. Nor do I have hair down to my waist. So I basically was starting from scratch with this costume. I went out and found 2 potential dresses: 1 was just a long wine red tank maxi and the other was a long sleeve low cut wine red dress that went to my knees. I bought both and have worn them multiple times already so don’t worry, both good purchases.

I found an inexpensive wig online and (big surprise) the wig “got lost” in the mail and I was refunded. Thankfully, my brothers have Amazon Prime and I ordered a different one to arrive in a few days.

The other main identifier of Melisandre is her necklace. In the book there is less detail than the show, just that there is a large red gem on it that seems to glow sometimes. Obviously where I get my power! Luckily, this was decided early on and when I went to Purdue with some family, I swung by Von’s Bead Shop. I found a red gem bead and this fabulous string of metal circles that the bead fit into. Bought it. Just had to assemble it.

The thing is, Melisandre isn’t a most loved character. She’s kind of a witch. She seduces Stannis and then a few days later, she gives birth to a shadow demon which does some dark things. Like murder. In the book moreso than the show, it is described as looking like Stannis. So I made myself a little shadow demon baby and put on some string and wore it as a backpack all night. So here I am:

For the Stannis costume, the stud went and bought a black cape. I picked up some spray paint and foam craft sheets to make armor. We went and got a black shirt to put the armor on and find a sword. We went with a dagger. I originally wanted to try to spray paint chain mail by stretching fishnets over a shirt, but it didn’t work out great so we moved on without the chain mail.

The characters are not very gleeful. They almost never smile. So we tried to not smile (okay maybe I just smirked) the rest of the night. Here are a few of us.

The wig was heavy and kept falling back so I had to readjust it a bunch. But it was fun!

Be careful. For the night is dark and full of terrors.

A Fort?

02/11/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

Wickett and I decided that we needed to get out of the area and city feel for a bit so we hopped into the car a drove just a ways up. There’s a spot called Fort Marcy that we thought we’d explore.

Despite not finding any ruins of the fort itself, like walls or building remains, we did find 2 cannons.

We decided to see what we could find just past the trench surround the fort’s prior location.

What we did find was a fenced off area with a run down house. Maybe it was a shed. I couldn’t tell so we high tailed into a different direction with a more clearly marked path.

We came to a small creek. It was quite enjoyable to just sit and listen to the water running. No one was around so it was lovely. As you can tell, there is a bridge over the area so there were cars going over the whole time. But being from a city area (and having younger brothers) I could zone out and just listen to the nature.

Wickett get super excited about the creek. He never likes playing in lakes and water in general (I suppose it reminds him of bath time) and I was thrilled that he was taking the lead to cross the creek!

There was no path at all to cross, it was just a bunch of scattered rocks. So to make it to the other side to the path, we had to find our own steady rocks to hop across on. Wickett started out and we made it halfway before he fell! I had my phone in my pocket to not drop it into the water (like Wickett) so I didn’t get a picture of that.

We made it across, walked a bit further until we saw some deer and turned back. I tried to join the herd, but they thought I just looked funny!

Arlington Cemetery

12/09/201612/09/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

It was recently Labor Day weekend. Famously, it is known for BBQs and pools and soaking up the last days of summer. Well, I didn’t really do any of that. The boyfriend and I have a list of things to do and we decided to check off an item: walking around Arlington Cemetery. I hadn’t been since I was probably 13 so I was glad to get to exploring again.

I know that it is a place of respect and mourning and can be a bit morbid, but I still think that the cemetery is a beautiful place. I don’t know if that’s because at young ages my mom would take us to cemeteries or what. But there are some great views of the city from here too.

Naturally we went to the Kennedy graves with the eternal flame.

There were some really cool graves and headstones that we passed as we walked around.

Isn’t nature so cool?? I couldn’t pass up this picture showing that nature doesn’t care about humans and what we put on this earth. It will just pass us by and take over again like we were never here.

Anyways….

We went by the tomb of the unknown soldier and the changing of the guard was happening.

I got a little teary eyed at this point because there was a group of Honor Flight individuals there. My grandfather was able to go on an Honor Flight to DC in the years preceding his death. There was video of him going to the airport and arriving in DC and going to different monuments. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there for him at any of the stopping points and it is something I regret to this day.

After this, we walked around several different performance or auditory arenas.

We even saw the memorial to the Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.

All in all, it was really a beautiful day to be wandering outside and getting a piece of history. And even if paying respects and seeing history isn’t on your agenda the sights and exercise alone should be enough to get you out here.

Inserting classic picture of shoes now.

My First Dog Park!

17/08/201614/08/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!!!!! I’m so excited that mom finally is letting me share about the things I do out here too! I miss some of my friends that live in the Midwest like Riley and Sparty and Milou. I get so happy to see them!!! But I wish I had more friends out here too.

Here I am with Riley. Miss playing tug of war with her so much!

So mom and I went to one of the dog parks here! I was a little skeptical at first… I’ve heard big dogs sometimes pick on the smaller dogs. Not that *I’m* a small dog, I just don’t want to run with those kind of dogs, you know? So I stayed near mom at first.

It was soooooo much fun! I got to meet some new dogs and almost all of them were very very friendly. At least they were friendly to me.

I explored a little before officially joining up with some of the groups. And hanging out one on one with some of the other pups.

I even met some humans that I liked! The humans tend to hang out on the sidelines so it is super easy to come up to them to say hi and ask for some petting.

Mom says that she has a friend with a dog and they go to this dog park a lot. So we’re going to try to go together sometime. It’s going to be a ball!

New Type of Posts

13/08/2016 / khargs / 1 Comment

So I’ve realized that I have been leaving out the perspective of one very important individual this whole time… Wickett! So starting next week and continuing every other week there will be a post from the four-legged love of my life. Let’s just call it Wickett Wednesdays. This way he can share about his adventures or mishaps just as easily as I can. So expect some new types of posts coming up from the goober who know how to get down!

Big Hart Brewery

10/08/201602/08/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

My family has a lake house up in Michigan. After the last wedding my man friend and I decided to head up there for a bit after the third wedding of the summer. We would be able to relax for a bit.

There was a new brewery that opened up in one of the towns nearby and we checked it out for dinner. One of the best things about Michigan is that everything is so much cheaper there than DC. It makes me yearn for the Midwest.

The beers were so delicious. Everyone liked the glasses that we ordered.

After a few brews at the bar, our table was ready and we got to get some nom.

The food was delicious. We had whitefish, a black and bleu burger, and a reuben. They are listed from top to bottom there. I could’ve used a little more whitefish but hey, it was cooked perfectly. It’s definitely going to be a new local favorite for sure!

Wedding Fever 2016

04/08/201602/08/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

I know that being in my mid 20s means that I will have lots of friends and potential family members getting married. I’ve slowly started going to more and more weddings and this year I went to 3. 2 of them I was the main invitee and 1 of them I was the plus 1. It was a blast this year and I can’t wait for the few I already know about next year!

First up was one of my old roommate’s wedding. In college there were 3 of us girls living together and 1 of us was already married. So now there are 2 married roomies… and me. Don’t worry, no ring on this finger. Just a bottle of wine in my hand!

ANYWAYS… Here are some of the pictures of us from that night! Roomie love galore!

IMG_8007 (1) IMG_8061 (1)

There were some delicious cupcakes. And cute little customized napkins for them. And then we also found that our old college bar was being used at the photo booth to hold props and what not!

Wedding numero dos I was a plus one. It was the wedding of my man friend’s friend. It was a small wedding but it was still a fun one! Unfortunately, there were less pictures taken at this one so I don’t really have a lot to share.

There was a joke that when I got cold and borrowed his jacket that I looked like some sort of manager. So a picture was taken.

The last wedding was the largest and I knew both the groom and bride pretty well. The bride briefly lived with me for a summer and before she the groom hung out with me before and after the summer. We had a great summer trivia team also. So I was thrilled to see them at their joyous wedding.

I even caught the bouquet despite my attempts to never catch one. Dang it she basically threw it straight to me! And I got a great picture with the bride and groom too. I love and miss them terribly.

The rest of the night was filled with dancing and singing and drinking. It was such a blast!

Catholic University and the Basilica

30/07/2016 / khargs / Leave a comment

I had the fortunate experience of getting a tour of the library at Catholic University and the basilica there. I had no idea there was such an impressive church in DC! And it is rarely advertised, which should be a crime.

But we started off walking the grounds at Catholic University.

We really wanted to spend some time reading so I got a bit of quality time in with George R. R. Martin!

I still got a good view of the basilica and got to see some interesting books. I do love the stacks in libraries!

After a successful library trip (where both reading and napping occurred), we walked across the yard to see the basilica.

The inside was gorgeous. I don’t know how this doesn’t get put on lists of places to see when visiting DC. I mean, I know it isn’t exactly near a lot of other locations that are hot spots, but it shouldn’t be forgotten just because of that!