Life is good...

Too much goodness going on...the pictures will say it all :)

Last affogato of the season...sad day

Marin turned 2! I got to hang with her and the other littles at her party at the park...

...and I got to help her swing in the big-kid swing for the first time!

All the kiddos swinging away

Time for presents!

Love me some babies :) Photo cred on this and the next 2 to Ashley Bennett

Melanie and I got a photo opp with the birthday girl

Happy Birthday Marin!!!

The whole packing and moving process was soooooooooooo arduous...I hadn't moved in 3 years and accumulated quite a lot. I randomly posted a lament to Facebook about how I wanted a caramel coffee and they don't deliver, but Christie found a way to get one to me! It made me SO. FREAKIN. HAPPY.

Moving...note the crucial 'hold onto the mattress with my arm out the window' move by Tom. #classic

Immediately set up my reading nook...I love it!

Rainbow in Boston after a brief, but massive, downpour

Last community group at Hope's called for colorful dinnerware and yummy options

On my walk to work :)

At the Aletheia leader's meeting - good stuff!

So. Many. Babies.

Gloria just had her 9th birthday - so crazy! She chose to go roller skating for her activity (her favorite thing to do) and we celebrated together

One year matched!

My breakfast for the past few weeks - I've been *loving* this crockpot oatmeal recipe

Another thing I get to see on my walk to work - my 2nd favorite flowers, morning glories :)

A couple weeks ago I caught the bug going around the office...and even though I had only lived there a week, my roommates were already taking care of me! Abigail barged into my room and demanded I drink this 'magic potion' of ginger, lemon, cinnamon, honey, and hot water...sooooooo good...

J-Ho brought home chicken soup for me and put it on my shelf in the fridge...how sweet are my roomies???

Another reading nook shot :)

Found a new bakery the other day - Quebrada Baking Co. is delicious!

The reason I had my last community group at Hope's...is because I'm co-leading my own with Ashley!!! We've had a couple of groups already and it's going really well - a little nerve-wracking but so exciting as well to be starting this next chapter!

Vanessa is getting married!!!! And I'm a bridesmaid!!!! Had a lovely time at her engagement party

She even had an artist come in to do a sketch of the full bridal party!

<3 her

(finished product)

On my walk to the T...I know I've lived here for over 3 years, but I still can't get over how gorgeous this city is and how much I enjoy living here!

Side dish for lunch last week - green bean salad with a light dressing

Finally back to a morning routine - I definitely missed it

New desk at the office! Super awesome window seat with lots of natural light

Amsterdam Falafel is one of my favorite spots in Davis Square - I can have dinner for under $5!

New art installation going up in Dewey Square...

We have a gym! At the office!

They just finished it a few weeks ago and pretty much immediately I started using it - I go over lunch for a quick workout.

Oh. My goodness. Had some awesome churros at Zocalo in Back Bay for Jenn's bday

Happy Birthday Jenn!

Friday morning treat last week...Davis Square is awesome

Got to babysit these awesome kiddos last week - aren't they adorable???

We hosted a housewarming BBQ last Saturday and it was a *wild* success! I think we had over 50 people come!

Fun times with friends :)

<3 these ladies

J-Ho and I manned the grills - I was rockin' a pretty mean burger if I do say so myself

Beautiful housewarming gift from Sher

Gloria and I had our 1-Year Match party at the Big Sister office this past Sunday! We got to decorate cupcakes...

...and make friendship bracelets...

...and make cards for each other...

...and get our picture taken! She's grown up so much over this past year!

Nasry just celebrated his birthday (so many birthdays!) and we surprised him with a cake after our house meeting last Sunday (tee-hee!) 

On my walk to work...

How cool is this plating??? You can see more on bekarevi's Instagram

I got hamburger to make spaghetti for lunch this week...and then couldn't find my jar of spaghetti sauce from home due to the move (I'm sure it's in a box in the basement somewhere). I ~refuse~ to get store-bought sauce when I know I have some home-goodness somewhere in the house, so I made myself a hamburger...and boy was it good! I poured stout in the meat with mince garlic to make patties, added caramelized onions on top, gorgonzola, and fig jam. It was probably one of the best burgers I've ever had.

And to cap it all off - an awesome way to start my Monday morning!!! A letter from Benjamin was waiting on my desk when I got into the office. Love him so much!!!

It's been an awesome month of September and fall is in the air...I really can't wait for next month though! It's my birthday month, I have a hiking trip in New Hampshire planned, and...Mom and Benjamin are coming to visit!!!!!! I seriously can't wait!!!

Pâte à Choux, Pâte à Whaaaaa?

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending my very first cooking class at Helen's Kitchen in Natick. I had originally stumbled upon a class for pâte à choux offered at Flour Bakery, but when I learned that it was demonstration only, I started looking for other options (I wanted to get my hands dirty, not just watch someone cook!). Lucky for me, my friend Hope referred me to Helen and she happened to be teaching the exact same course in a week, so I signed up for it and showed up bright and early Saturday morning to learn!

First up - learning how to *properly* measure ingredients - weighing not dry cups. Here, Helen is demonstrating how you can get vastly different measurements using dry cups even if it is the same person, same ingredient, same altitude/humidity, etc.

Showing us how to cook the choux - you want to get as much moisture out of the dough as possible (but you don't want to 'cook' it or turn it brown)

Demonstrating how to properly fill a pastry bag

Piping out the puffs - it's actually way harder than you would think!

I'm in pastry heaven :)

Finished puffs! Fresh out of the oven - you have to poke holes in them so the steam can escape

Small puffs should be about 14 grams, so we practiced piping out that amount on the scale to get a feel for how much it was.

Finished product - nice and hollow so we can put in yummy fillings!

Piping out eclairs - again, it's way harder than you would think...

After we all tried out making the choux, Helen showed us how to make pastry cream and gave helpful tips and tricks for getting this tricky filling to come out right

YUM - you can see the flecks of vanilla in it (cause she used real vanilla beans)

Components for eclairs all lined up

Making Diplomat Cream (folding whipped cream into pastry cream)

We're all filling our puffs...

...and I'm piping an eclair! I can now check this off of my bucket list!

The full kitchen

Finished eclairs - they might not look restaurant-quality, but they sure did taste like it

Puffs with different fillings

This was a vanilla poached pear and diplomat cream

Fig Jam and Blue Cheese Mascarpone in these

The line up - pear, fig, and then salmon pate. One of my favorites (not pictured) was a red bean paste and diplomat cream-filled puff - soooooo good...

To finish the class, Helen sent us off with printouts of all the recipes (for dough and fillings!) and troubleshooting tips in case we ran into problems while baking at home. 

Sort-of related - I got to Natick (where Helen's Kitchen is located) early and stumbled upon an estate sale...got this gem for my room - it was a steal!

I wrote out a more comprehensive review of my experience on Yelp that you can read, but in summary, this was definitely a 5-star experience! I had so much fun, learned a lot, and I'm not nearly as intimidated by baking as I was before I took this course. Now to the real test - baking these at home without the watchful eye of the expert....

To be continued...(eventually - probably my Christmas baking haha)...