Buttercream frosting.

This weekend I discovered the beauty of buttercream frosting. You can guess from the name at least two of the ingredients, but if we're all being honest with ourselves, it should be called buttersugar(splashofcream) frosting. Either way it was glorious and a lifesaver at the last minute and made me feel like a real baker as I decorated box mix white cake with it. 

This weekend was full of birthday celebrations for Mike and Jenna, long periods of time spent outside on the porch, stuffed in our kitchen and our living room with so many of the people we love, playing driveway tennis with the jukebox playing loud in the background, and saying phrases that all started with "Happy!" It's back to the rainy weather, but this weekend was a welcome reprieve from the wind and the rain and the gray. But who can complain when your lovey takes a sick day the day after his official birthday and it's raining outside while you work from home to the scent of fresh banana bread, strawberries, pineapple, and coffee. I'm already brainstorming what to bring to DC with me tomorrow, and I can't believe it came so soon! It's already Wednesday? Where did the week go? (Wherever it is, good riddance!)

Things I have learned since last Friday:

1. Mike and I are very similar in ways I did not expect. Last Friday he pouted after the pizza we made would not release from the wax paper on which we had baked it. On Saturday, he mmm'd and yum'd at my overcooked croissants while I rested my bottom lip on the kitchen floor. (Trust me, that is not a place you want your bottom lip to be.)
2. Wax paper, while cheaper, is not the same as parchment paper.
3. Wax paper peels off cold pizza much more nicely than it does from hot pizza (and you have less chance of losing your toppings!).
4. I will eat anything.
5. Saying things like, "How do I expect to ever be a real baker?!" doesn't unoverbake croissants.
6. Planning other people's birthdays is a major source of self-induced stress for me. It is also a major source of great joy and anticipation.
7. Part of my love for other people's birthdays stems from my uncontrollable addiction to baked goods. I currently have cookie dough in my fridge, cupcakes on my kitchen table, and still plans for Twinkie ice cream (Mike's favorite) and red velvet cake for Mike's mom (her birthday's right after Mother's Day).
8. It is impossible to find Twinkies within a one mile radius of my apartment. Tomorrow I will venture out of that one mile radius and get the prize!
9. I know almost every word to every song in Dirty Dancing.
10. While I don't plan to get a dog anytime soon, I am shocked that I have lasted this long without friends with dogs.

Wednesday was Jenna's birthday, so Mike and I dogsat while she and Ron went to dinner. We lounged on their couch, ate their pickles, and cuddled with Piper. I've finished the last details of Mike's scavenger hunt for today, and the majority of the prep for tonight is done. Last night I took a much needed reprieve and got drinks with Meg and Tom at The Thirsty Scholar. There were wings and basketball and summer beers! There was also Ray Allen and that smooshed up adorable mean face he makes when he's doing free throws.

It's almost the weekend (the weekend!). Insert big sigh.

Be here now.

I am so incredibly in love -- with Mike, with friends, with the crisp of Fall, with long and short and familiar walks, with surprises and that leftover drunk that comes after four days well spent. Mike surprised me with tickets to the Ray LaMontagne concert in Philly on Friday night. He'd been planning it since mid-June, and I've been walking around blissfully unaware until we were halfway through the parking lot at the Mann. I paused and said, No way. The rest of the night was surreal, even sitting on the toilet in the bathroom with my rain-soaked Toms and my tangled hair, I felt a rising that led to an almost-bursting. Sometimes, like this weekend, this birthday, life is so easy. And there are several moments, all bunched together, where the heart and the mind and all of the muscles relax. I kept joking with Mike, saying that each new day of the weekend was my birthday, but the truth is that I felt like it was.

Today I'm listening to Ray Ray on Pandora, and making multiple cups of pumpkin spice coffee more for the smell than the taste.

He opened with this song, one of my most favorites:

26 before 26.

Today I turn 25 years old. It's funny, when I was in high school, it always felt as though 2004 (my grad year) would never come. It was as though life would stretch on without ever reaching what I saw as the end point. The year came and went. I graduated from high school, transferred colleges twice before finding the perfect fit (call me Goldilocks), moved 1,100 miles away, and I haven't felt it stop since. I fell in love (!!), found a real job, had my first story (now stories) published. I'm doing things I never thought I would do. I finally made it to New Orleans; I've visited so many new cities this year, a goal realized before I even recognized that it was happening. I trust that this year will bring so many things I can hardly expect or anticipate right now, on the cusp of a brand new year, but I thought I'd make some tangible goals for myself in the upcoming year for the inevitable stalls. It's a pretty small number, so let's make them count.

Thanks to the love Amy Morby for these free banners!

I'm back.

From a lovely weekend of feeling like all was well in the world. From a city that reminds me of an era I've only dreamt of and read about in books. From experiences I can add to reasons that I smile without warning on the train. From several delayed flights and missed layovers. From a planless, weightless, stressless weekend of morning cuddles and chats, late night wanderings covered in powdered sugar from Cafe du Monde, laughing until my only complaint was the pain in my cheeks, watching so much newness with eyes gone dry from lack of blinking. As twenty-five approaches, I feel as though I should be saying good bye to something, and I anticipate the echoes of hellos in the days, months, and year to come.

Today is my Friday.

Tonight I'm flying off to New Orleans to spend a weekend with the old 20 Lopez crew. It's been a long time coming (my visits are always so anticipated, so belated), and I'm excited to experience a brand new city. I'm loading up my Pentax, my film, and my summer dresses for one final stint in 80 degree weather.

Some things before I go...

• Mike came over last night since we won't be seeing each other this weekend. I went for a walk to the library and grocery store last night, and when I returned, he had set up a whole scavenger hunt for me. The final index card described my birthday weekend: A trip to Philly, a special Friday night (still a surprise), Saturday with Philly friends (and bowling!!), and a relaxed Sunday before heading back that night. I'm usually the one baking a cake for others' birthdays, and I must admit it felt so nice to be thought of 100% for my birthday. 
• I also made these ridiculous things last night. SO. GOOD. I'm wrapping them in tin foil and bringing them below the Mason-Dixon line tonight. I hope they go well with white wine!
• Meg took me out for breakfast early this morning for some much-needed roommie time. The bacon was crisp and the syrup was real and from Vermont. On the way home...
• I stopped at Blick art supplies and oh man. I had to cut my wandering short because of, you know, work and stuff, but I could've spent days in there convincing and unconvincing and reconvincing myself to buy watercolors and postcards and colored pencils! A return trip is definitely in order. I left with free pencils (I won them!), a brand-spanking new journal, two pens (maroon and black), some green yarn (crochet season is upon us), and a frame for a gift for Crysty. They had a sale going, so I got 20% off my purchase, which diminished the dent a bit. No regrets on my first purchase in a while. 
• Love this blog with all my little heart. 
• I can't wait for New Orleans. 

That's all. 

xo, Mel.

Gifts in many shapes.

Yep, that's my man. I used to have the biggest crush on Joaquin Phoenix because of his complete vulnerability and family-man tendencies in Signs (oh please, I'm not the only one), so when I saw the resemblance at the library last week, I was thrilled. Too bad school just started and he had to shave it.

I've decided what I'm getting myself for my birthday! I just decided it, actually. I came pretty close to ordering it, but I've decided to wait for my next paycheck to make sure it's in the budge*. I can't wait to spend fall evenings sipping cocoa and listening to Bon Iver on vinyl. Or, as it will more likely turn out, making dinner and shivering in sweats because winter elbowed fall out of the way too early and listening to Bon Iver on vinyl. Either way, I'll be twenty-five. FACK.

I'm currently working on my 25 before 25 list, listening to this song on repeat, and impatiently waiting for the end of the day so I can see Mike. I just had a conference call on the development editing I'm doing, and it went really well. I finally feel caught up and firm in my footing to take a look at the manuscript. I also love using words like "manuscript"!

So remember Tuesday when I was a big, fat baby and I whined and whined and then slipped in that bit about TNGG? Well, I'm here to elaborate.

First of all, I'm stoked. TNGG is The Next Great Generation. It's us. (I'm assuming you're my age for this exercise.) We are 18-30 (for this exercise's sake); we are of a different world than our parents, but still with hints of a past largely missing from our children's (yeesh, or neices' and nephews') world. TNGG is a start-up, for all intents and purposes, building from the ground up something that we can be proud of. It's starting small-ish, but I can tell that it's going to grow because that's what our generation does: It grows things out of, seemingly, nothing at all. We are the generation of entrepreneurs in a failing economy. We don't know when to quit. And so TNGG is creating something our generation wants to read on Boston.com. That's right, my name's going to be smack dab in the middle (or, okay, over on the side-ish) of Boston.com.

And today is the official launch of TNGG Boston! (Well, it's supposed to be, but the page is empty as for now. But you can see our cool header!) So head over, check out some of the articles, and I'll be sure to keep you updated of when my articles are published.

This opportunity has popped up at such a great time in my life and career. I've been working out what I want to do with my life and all of that fun time stuff, but this is a great reminder that I don't necessarily need a plan. Often plans derail the greatest surprises. So here's to my final month as an "early 20s"-er and to many more surprises in the second half of this decade.

*That means "budget," but it's a play on words because it won't, you know, budge.**
**Imagine my income if I were a comedienne.

A new tune for Tuesday.

Mmm, root beer & leftovers!

Had a wonderful weekend celebrating Mike's birthday with hibachi, Twinkie cake, tag-saling, and bowling! Back in the 'bridge now (actually in Newton, at work). Last night we had some friends over for dinner and board (well, iPhone app board) games. It was a blast, and the perfect start to the week.

Our soda cooler at work had root beer today, my favorite! I hardly ever drink soda, so it was a treat to see it in there. I can't usually resist it, and it was a nice pick me up in this dreary weather and return to the office after three days working remote.

I bought a Pentax K1000 with lenses and a tripod at a tag sale on Saturday, and I'm stoked to go for a walk tonight and take pictures. I checked out a book to read up on SLRs and film photography, since all I've ever used are my phone and a point and shoot. I'm excited to get going on a new hobby and get creative. My test roll of film is almost finished, and I can't wait to get it developed and see how I did!

What'd you do this weekend?

In which I bake a cake.

Wow, what a beautiful day. I woke up at 6:30 when Mike left for work, threw on some clothes, and walked down to the Radical Roaster, their local coffeeshop. I had an English muffin with jam and a latte. I did a little reading, some conversation eavesdropping (a writer's job!), and a bit of writing. It felt so nice to wake up early and have a bit of my own day before work began. I came back around 8, took a shower, and now I'm working from Mike's home for the second day in a row. I must admit, I get a little antsy working from home so much. It's been such a blessing, having this option to come visit and work from here without worrying about missing work or not seeing each other very much. But when I work from home so much and am hardly in the office, I get this weird paranoia that I'm going to get fired. Old habits die hard, I suppose. I just need to trust that I am doing all of my work well, and that my boss would let me know if I was slipping or not performing up to par.

Today is Twinkie cake day! It's in the oven right now, and I'm excited to continue the process. First step? Beat four egg whites, and since Mike doesn't have a beater, I had to use the good old by-hand method. I thought I was going to go insane, beating egg whites until they were firm by hand. Do not try this at home. Oh well, that boy knows I love him and now, so does my right forearm. Phew!

I tweaked a recipe I found online, so if you ever need to make a larger-than-life Twinkie ice cream cake, here you go!

What You'll Need

• A hand or stand mixer, or a really strong arm
• 4 egg whites
• 16 oz pound cake mix
• 2/3 cup water
• Whipped vanilla/white frosting
• Vanilla ice cream, softened
• Bread pan (roughly in the shape of a real Twinkie)

First is the hard part (silver lining: It's all easy from there!): Beat four egg whites until firm. They will roughly resemble whipped cream. This is what mine looked like halfway through:

Then beat the egg whites, cake mix, and water for about 2 minutes on medium speed (or until your arm falls off). Pour into greased Twinkie-shaped pan. Then stare at it while it bakes (for about 25 - 30 minutes). [This post was getting a little photo-heavy, so scroll down for a slideshow of the process.]

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut the cake longways in half, like you're going to make a sandwich out of it. Hollow the cake out, leaving a good inch of cake on each side of the hollow area to make sure the ice cream mixture does not leak through.

In another bowl, mix together several scoops of ice cream, two tablespoons of frosting, and a few good chunks of the cake bits you just hollowed out. This part is mixed according to taste. Get creative and add candy pieces, sprinkles, or chocolate! Since I'm going for a Twinkie-esque experience, I kept it simple. Once the mixture is combined, pour it into the hollow areas of your cake. I then lined the outer edge of the cake with frosting to work as glue when I placed the top back on. Cover the cake in plastic wrap and put in the freezer to set!

Tonight, I plan to add a little more frosting to the top, pop in a few candles and put some strawberries around the edge of plate. I cannot wait.

What weird birthday cakes have you seen/made lately?

(Pictures after the jump.)

Twinkies + Ice Cream = My Weekend

This weekend is my boyfriend's birthday. For some reason, whenever it's someone I love's birthday, I feel it's my responsibility to make a cake. And since this is the first time I've ever had a significant someone on the day commemorating their birth, I gotta make this one good.

My first major undertaking for a kick-ass birthday cake was my good friend Crunchy's (short for Crunch Granola, a loving nickname) 21st birthday. She loves chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches with all of her tree-hugging heart, and so I made her one. A huge one, which we hacked away at for a good week or so after her party.

And so, for Mike's birthday, I plan to make another overly-large ice cream cake except in imitation of his favorite ice cream: Herrell's Twinkie ice cream.

Please, enjoy my paint skills.

So, my major undertaking for this week (hopefully Friday while he's at work), is to make a larger-than-life Twinkie stuffed with vanilla ice cream that has frosting and cake bits mixed in.

Wish me luck, and keep an eye out for pictures of the process/finished product on Friday! I'll take tips or suggestions in the comments section or on Twitter, please!

What are your most memorable birthday cakes or celebrations?