Musical musings for August

In less than 36 hours I will be enroute to a much deserved Hawaiian adventure and I cannot wait. It has been over a year since I have had a whole week off work and I am definitely regretting waiting this long to do so. Whether I am working or chilling at home, music plays a part in my day and as such I need to keep my playlist fresh by mixing old with new. I am yet to figure out how to get rid of some of my song choices from the cloud, but thank goodness for the ability to skip songs as I hone in on country and more country. Before I mention the new additions to my music collection, I have to very quickly write about seeing Jake Owen at Sunfest earlier in the month. He was definitely the only highlight of the festival for us as we sang the night away with him then left the next morning to salvage the rest of a long week.

Prior to the festival, I had bought a couple more of his songs and have added three other artists before the month was done:

1. Pass a Beer - Jake Owen
2. The One That Got Away - Jake Owen
3. God Made Girls - RaeLynn
4. Leave The Night On - Sam Hunt
5. That Don't Sound Like You - Lee Brice

Clearly country music isn't getting old any time soon and that's okay with me.

August's musical musings can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Cookies times two

Last Sunday night I really wanted fresh baked cookies, but I decided this too late in the evening to do anything about it. A good night's sleep didn't weaken this desire so on Monday evening I made some chewy lemon white chocolate chip cookies courtesy of this recipe. Unfortunately, I only had lemon juice, but no actual lemons so these cookies were sans zest. After eating at least half a dozen of the cookies across the week I definitely think the lemon zest is a key ingredient and one I will make sure I have on hand next time.

Round two of cookie baking happened yesterday as part of my fantasy football draft preparation. This is the first year I have been a part of a fantasy football league and I figured you shouldn't turn up empty handed to the draft bbq. With this in mind, I found a recipe for twix bar chocolate chip cookies. For the recipe I used three of the fifty-gram size twix bars. I enjoyed making these cookies and hope they taste as good as they smelt baking them. I know that the unbaked cookie dough tasted delicious. 

I think baking twice in one week has renewed my passion for baking and I already have a few ideas for my next creation.

Choc-banana or coffee-banana smoothies

One of the best things my housemate ever bought for communal use was a magic bullet. This thing has been a lifesaver for every meal of the day more times than I can count. For me, it mainly gets a workout for weekend breakfast or weeknight dinner when I just want something small or have had a particularly gluttonous eating day. I generally drink two variations of the same smoothie with the staple ingredients consisting of milk, vanilla frozen yoghurt, ice and a banana. In the morning I will usually include some instant coffee dissolved in hot water. Right now I am using an instant coffee picked up from Trader Joe's on my last trek across the border. If the smoothie is my dinnertime option then I use Smucker's chocolate syrup instead. I find that the amount of ice you use will determine your consistency. I like mine with a thicker consistency so I use around 6 cubes of ice each time. I am honestly not sure how healthy these smoothies are for me, but they taste delicious and make me feel good for having them as a meal choice over what I know clearly would be a bad choice. I think this definitely has to count for something.

Perfectly pretty pedicures

Summer is the time of year when your toes get to taste freedom as they hang out in flip flops or with sand between them on the beach. I like to use the glorious summer weather as an excuse to get a pedicure, usually every three to four weeks, because freshly scrubbed feet and newly polished toes make me happy. Plus, I figure since my feet get quite a beating during the rest of the year squeezing them into closed toe shoes and boots that this is the least I can do to try to make up for it. I usually go to the Pure Nail Bar in my neighbourhood for my pedicure. They are reasonably priced, do a good job and I like the set-up in there. I just had one last Friday and seem to be all about neon or bright colours at the moment. I am sure this will change as summer gets ready to leave for another year. It makes me sad to think that probably in a month's time I will have to hide away my toes more often than not, but until then I think there is still some time for a few more pedicures.