HMS Bounty: A Ship Lost at Sea

For those of you who know me - this may just be the regular ole Jessica-babble. To those who don't already know me - I have no idea what you will think, but there's one thing you should know about me: 

I spent my high school years sailing on board the sail training vessel, St. Lawrence II, training fellow high-schoolers how to man a tall ship. There really is no other way to put this: this was the most profound, amazing, incredible experience I have ever had. Each and every day I think about what I learned as a sailor. I remain in close contact with several of my former crew mates, and when something happens in that world (good or bad), it hits home in a serious way. 


Enter Hurricane Sandy. 


Today was (and still is) a sad, horrible, emotional day amongst the tall ship sailors of the world. From what any reports have said (and against all of our faith), the HMS Bounty has succumbed to Hurricane Sandy. Even worse: two crew members were reported missing after they were swept overboard while abandoning ship. One was "rescued", but unfortunately didn't make it out of the ordeal with her life, and one other - the captain - is still missing at sea.

Many, many, many people are passing judgement right now. Stop. Just stop. Nothing else matters when there are missing crew at sea. Once (if) they are all accounted for, then it will be a far more appropriate time to start judging and launching investigations. No matter what you may think right now, there are so many (SO MANY!!!) deeply affected by the events of the last 24 hours. Please, remember your humanity.

I, along with so many others, am completely and utterly heartbroken by the fate of the HMS Bounty. To even try to imagine that happening to any of us is our worst fear. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers really are with the crew of the Bounty. You have not left our minds all day. Roll-calls have been made (always looking out for our crew, past & present) memories have been shared, tears have been shed. 

There is nothing more to say.

Bow of the Bounty, Canada Day Weekend, Toronto, 2010

What a beautiful ship!

HMS Bounty, as seen from the freeway while driving through Boston, Summer 2012.

To my beloved St. Lawrence II, may you never see the depths of Davey Jones' Locker. 

To Claudene Christian, may you rest in peace.


To everyone else, I hope you catch you all of the flip-side of this storm. 

Candy Corn Nails - So Simple!

Halloween is right around the corner and while I typically don't get too invested in it, I decided to dust off some decorations and get into the spirit this year. After raiding the Halloween aisle at the dollar store and covering the inside of the house in all things Halloween, I decided that I should do something festive with my nails. Read on for an easy tutorial for Candy Corn Nails! 

The stars of the show

Directions: 

1) Apply a base coat. As you can see, I use O.P.I. for both my base and top coats. 

2) Apply a white base to allow the yellow and orange to "pop". I applied two thin layers to allow for faster dry-time. 

Any white will do

3) Apply yellow polish to the whole nail, taking care to make the top of the nail smooth as that's the part that will be showing in the end. 

I LOVE this line of polish. It dries quickly with a smooth/shiny finish and the colours are brilliant!

4) Apply an even strip of orange in the center of the nail. I just used the normal width of the brush stroke. 

5) Apply a white tip, covering up the yellow. You will probably have to do several (thin) coats.

Look at those little Candy Corns :-)

7) Apply a top coat to seal it all in. 

8) Pat yourself on the back for being Awesome. But maybe wait until your nails are dry to do this step... 

And there you have it - Candy Corn Nails. Perfect for Halloween! If I were to do it again, I may not paint the yellow all the way to the tip because it was rather difficult to cover it with the white. Speaking of which, do you have any recommendations for a killer white polish? Every single one I have tried either bubbles or cracks, no matter what I do. I'd also love to see any awesome Halloween or Autumn-themed nails that you have tried. Leave your response in the comments.

Happy Monday, Everyone! 

-J

Easy Home Made Peanut Butter Cups!

Who doesn't love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?!? I mean, c'mon. They're so. good. Right? Unless you're allergic, of course. While the real deal is irresistible, wouldn't it be neat to discover that not only can you make your own, but that it is so simple too?

True story ladies and gents. And if I can do it, anyone can. 

I found a couple of different recipes on Pinterest and decided to make my own version of the two to see how it would turn out:

Recipe #1 - Homemade Peanut Butter Cups @ Fifteen Spatulas 

Recipe #2 - Reeses Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups @ Chocolate Covered Katie

Recipe #1 is what originally caught my eye, but with Thanksgiving being this past weekend, the addition of pumpkin in Recipe #2 inspired me to experiment a bit. I don't have any specific measurements as this is a recipe that I figured could afford some experimentation, but I will try my best to be as accurate and descriptive as possible. 


Regular Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:
- 1 heaping Tbsp room-temperature butter (I used salted, I'm sure it won't matter which you use though) 
- 3 Tbsp peanut butter (as you can see, I used Jif creamy)
- 1/4 cup icing sugar  
- 4 oz (4 squares) semi-sweet bakers chocolate (you could use any chocolate you want!)

Directions: 
1) Line mini-muffin tin with 8 mini-muffin papers of your choice

2) Warm a pan of water on the stove over med-low heat

3) Place 1/2 the chocolate in a small bowl, then place the bowl in the warm stove-water (a double-boiler would also work, I just do not own one). Stir chocolate as it melts, making sure that it's completely melted.

*Be careful not to burn the chocolate, you really only need the bowl to be just warm enough to melt the chocolate, so keep an eye on it! This is also why you don't put chocolate in a pot directly on the burner - it would burn the chocolate. Also be careful not to get water in the chocolate because it will seize and that's no fun! I know, I know, lots of rules - I promise, it's really not complicated!

4) Carefully spoon or pour chocolate into the bottom of 8 mini-muffin cups, dividing evenly amongst them all. Bang muffin tin on counter a few times in order to smooth/even out the melted chocolate. Place in freezer to harden while preparing filling.

5) While the chocolate is hardening in the freezer, you can begin mixing the peanut butter and butter together in a small bowl, being sure to mix it together very well. I used a cereal bowl and a regular spoon from my flatware set, and mixed until smooth and well-blended. 

6) You can now start mixing the icing sugar into the peanut butter/butter mixture, being sure to get out any clumps. It may be beneficial to sift the icing sugar first, but I didn't do so myself and it turned out fine. 
*The filling is the part that can really be experimented with. My measurements for the filling are not exact, I just guesstimated. Honestly, just use my measurements as a guideline and add more (or less) of any of the ingredients as you see fit. Want the filling sweeter? Add more icing sugar. Want it saltier? Add more PB. Go ahead and play with this one, I'm fairly certain that you can't mess it up too badly! 

7) Remove the now-hardened chocolate from the freezer and drop a spoonful of the filling onto the chocolate, dividing the mixture up between all 8 cups. I used a spoon to flatten my mixture out a bit, but in all honestly, anything goes here. Leaving it as a lump is just find if you don't care whether or not it's "perfect".

8) Place the muffin tin back into the freezer for another 10-15 minutes to allow the filling to harden before adding the top layer of chocolate. 

9) Repeat step 3. 

10) Spoon/pour remaining melted chocolate over filling, being sure to tap on the counter after each one in order to smooth and flatten the tops before the chocolate hardens from the cold filling.

11) Place muffin tin back in freezer for 10-15 minutes to allow top layer of chocolate to harden. 

12) Take out of the freezer, peel the wrapper off and enjoy!

Regular PB already filled, filling for pumpkin cups being mixed (quick pic of some ingredients)

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients: 
- 1 heaping Tbsp room-temperature butter (I used salted, I'm sure it won't matter which you use though)
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I used Jif Creamy)
- 2 Tbsp canned pumpkin (I used plain canned pumpkin, not the pie filler)
- 1/4 cup icing sugar 
- A pinch or two of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, etc. to flavour
- 4 oz (4 squares) semi-sweet bakers chocolate (you could use any chocolate you want!)

Directions: 
1) Line mini-muffin tin with 8 mini-muffin papers of your choice 

2) Warm a pan of water on the stove over med-low heat 

3) Place 1/2 the chocolate in a small bowl, then place the bowl in the warm stove-water (a double-boiler would also work, I just do not own one). Stir chocolate as it melts, making sure that it's completely melted
*Be careful not to burn the chocolate, you really only need the bowl to be just warm enough to melt the chocolate, so keep an eye on it! This is also why you don't put chocolate in a pot directly on the burner - it would burn the chocolate. Also be careful not to get water in the chocolate because it will seize and that's no fun! I know, I know, lots of rules - I promise, it's really not complicated!

4) Carefully spoon or pour chocolate into the bottom of 8 mini-muffin cups, dividing evenly amongst them all. Bang muffin tin on counter a few times in order to smooth/even out the melted chocolate. Place in freezer to harden while preparing filling.

5) While the chocolate is hardening in the freezer, you can begin mixing the peanut butter, butter and pumpkin together in a small bowl, being sure to mix it together very well. I used a cereal bowl and a regular spoon from my flatware set, and mixed until smooth and well-blended.

6) You can now start mixing the icing sugar into the peanut butter/butter/pumpkin mixture, being sure to get out any clumps. It may be beneficial to sift the icing sugar first, but I didn't do so myself and it turned out fine. This is also when you'll want to add your cinnamon/pumpkin pie spice, adding a little at a time until you reach your desired flavour.
*The filling is the part that can really be experimented with. My measurements for the filling are not exact, I just guesstimated. Honestly, just use my measurements as a guideline and add more (or less) of any of the ingredients as you see fit. Want the filling sweeter? Add more icing sugar. Want it saltier? Add more PB. Go ahead and play with this one, I'm fairly certain that you can't mess it up too badly!  


7) Remove the now-hardened chocolate from the freezer and drop a spoonful of the filling onto the chocolate, dividing the mixture up between all 8 cups. I used a spoon to flatten my mixture out a bit, but in all honestly, anything goes here. Leaving it as a lump is just find if you don't care whether or not it's "perfect".

8) Place the muffin tin back into the freezer for another 10-15 minutes to allow the filling to harden before adding the top layer of chocolate. 

9) Repeat step 3. 

10) Spoon/pour remaining melted chocolate over filling, being sure to tap on the counter after each one in order to smooth and flatten the tops before the chocolate hardens from the cold filling.
11) Place muffin tin back in freezer for 10-15 minutes to allow top layer of chocolate to harden. 

12) Take out of the freezer, peel the wrapper off and enjoy! 

Congratulations, you have just made (and hopefully sampled) your very first home made peanut butter cup! There are endless possibilities with this recipe. What's a variation that you have tried or want to try? Leave your answer in the comments :-) 


-J

Just Striving for More... No Big Deal!

Happy Tuesday to anyone out there in the universe that might actually be reading this. 

You may have noticed - my blog still looks the same as it did on my last post, even though I said my mission was to make it much prettier. I promise you, I really am working on it. But as you know, I am incredibly easily sidetracked and typically start no less than 5 things at a time before I move on with any of them. Or start something new altogether.  In my process to find a new blog template, I found so many great articles on everything I am trying to achieve right now. Including making my blog more sexy to anyone who happens to stumble across this little space. I will also have a delicious recipe posted sometime later in the day. See? I'm being productive!

Ir's going to take some time to sort through this mess!

I Don't Like You, Blog!

I need to remember to tell myself this when I start feeling overwhelmed.

I have been doing really great with trying out new recipes for delicious eats and tasty treats. I've been doing good with keeping productive while spending time with friends and family at the same time (holy sh*t, right?). I've even been picking up that evil DSLR more often than I would have before. Ladies and gentlemen, I have come quite a way from where I was when I first started this blog.

But I still have so much to improve on.

Honest. I should have at least a few blog entries full of getting-better-every-time photos that (*gasp!*) aren't from my iPhone. I should have at least a handful of (personally) well-documented recipes on here, whether they were winners or losers. I should be way more driven to take proper photos of and write about the things that I create. So what's my deal?

I don't like my blog. 

There. I said it. 
 
What I really mean is that I don't like the layout or the template of my blog. It's so boring. It doesn't inspire me to add to it or promote it. And that, in turn, sets the entire rest of my mission up for nothing but back-logged work and a sense of failure. You see, I get frustrated and overwhelmed easily. Far too easily. Over the years, I have formed the self-destructive ability to throw in the towel whenever most things get too scary or complicated or disorganized (I say most, because there have been some instances where I didn't give up so easily). I never used to be that way, and I don't like being that way now. And that's why I'm not going to give up.

No sir, not this girl. Not this time.

My first order of business is to find a template that works for me, something that makes me feel happy to know that I have an awesome, eye-catching blog. Second order of business is to read more of my camera guides. I really did learn a lot in just a few pages and have actually been applying what I learned. Now, I need to learn more. A lot more. Starting with lighting. There you have it, a plan. Right out there in the open, so no more excuses!

So start here and now!