Fig and Goat Cheese Breakfast Biscuits

“Are you learning anything new at the bakery?” my grandmother asked as I was elbow deep in biscuit dough. I tried to scrape the sticky mess off my fingers and think of a decent response, both efforts were futile.

“Oh, I don’t know. Not really. Maybe?” came my reply as I sprinkled flour onto the table and over my rolling pin. After forming the lump into a somewhat recognizable shape, I began to roll. My grandma watched and waited, nipping off a bit of dough with her fingers and tasting it, giving me her approval.

“You know, I always use a pizza or pie cutter to even out the edges when I’ve got a dough like that,” my grandma said after her sample. I took a knife and evened out the edges, giving myself a neat rectangle. Hmm, that’s better, I thought.

I spread not-so-softened goat cheese over the dough, taking care not to tear it and using my fingers when necessary; her eyes watched me the entire time. She mentioned something about whipping it with honey, for added sweetness. I contemplated and then disregarded it, staring at the lumpy goat cheese before me.

Thursday Things

1)     Let’s get this over with…PUMPKIN SPICE IS BACK!!!!!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE. CANNOT STOP DRINKING. I LUUUUUUUUUUV PUMPKIN SPICE! *faints with a face covered in ground cinnamon, clutching a coffee cup*

2)     Yes, I am that clichéd. Yes, I am that one-track minded and unoriginal. I want fall just like every other person out there. I am professing my love for the upcoming season much like the rest of the internet. Oh well.

3)     I can’t stop the Fall Train anyways, I’m making my first trip down to school in two days. And because of that I was gone for 12 hours (yes, TWELVE) running errands and buying last minute things for my apartment. It has been a long day.

4)     While I was packing this week I found a bunch of old issues of Food Network Magazine. Like, two years’ worth. Before I could consider if I had a hoarding problem, I began flipping through them and rediscovered some recipes and ideas that I had flagged as interesting and promptly forgot when the next issue came. Seeing all these recipes kept me from packing made me want to focus more on cooking from the books, magazines, and recipe collections I already have. I don’t do that enough.  

5)     Don’t think a short workout can make an impact? Think again. What I did this morning took me only about 20 minutes, including warm up and cool down, and the actual workout portion took me just over 7 minutes. Try this the next time you’re short on time: after a quick warm up that includes some light cardio and stretching, do 25 reps of weighted squats into an overhead press (I used 10 pound hand weights and was sufficiently challenged, but go higher or lower in weight depending on where you are physically) immediately followed by 50 jumps with a jump rope. Repeat this cycle 4 times as fast as possible. Yes, that’s it. Just that one pair of exercises four times. Cool down and stretch afterwards.  Trust me, you’ll feel the work.

6)     Finding Nemo in 3D. Oh yes.

7)     Apple Pie Bread. Yes, apple.pie.bread. It’s totally a thing.

8)     Damn you, Ulta and your 21 Days of Beauty. Damn you (but not really)!

9)     Now that my return to campus is imminent, something that has been bugging me all summer really can’t be ignored any longer. See, when I first went away to school, I kept thinking that people I saw on campus were people from my hometown. I kept finding my friends’ doppelgangers at the student union or spying my old biology teacher in line at the grocery store. Everywhere I looked I spied a stranger who at first glance was an old friend. It’s like my brain was trying to acclimate itself to a new surrounding by putting familiar faces in it. That was bothersome three years ago, but even more annoying now is that the roles have reversed. I’m not seeing people from back home at school anymore, no, I’m seeing people from school in my hometown! It’s totally thrown me for a loop.

10)     Wow, that’s a lot of writing up there. I apologize. 

Peanut Butter S'mores Cups

This is it.

These s’mores cups are my last attempt to grasp hold of summer. To enjoy the fleeting heat and streaks of sun. To ignore the fact that it’s already September (woa) and already Labor Day (double woa).

I love fall. It is my favorite season. But I’m not quite ready for it. I want the boots and the sweaters and  the caramel spice and the falling leaves just as must as anyone else, but not right.this.minute.

I am done with work for the summer. I am putting off packing for school. I am looking at reading lists and scavenging for used books. I am dragging my feet.