Separating egg yolks from egg whites is one of those cooking skills that is a delicate but necessary process if you ever want to make a cake from scratch. I had been avoiding this experience until my desire for chocolate pie overrode my unwillingness to separate what God had put together. Unimpressed by my cookbook’s suggestions of how to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of separating that perfect yellow sphere from the clear goop, I improvised my own method.

1. Crack open the egg very carefully. Instead of opening the egg so the contents fall out, hold the egg upright and use the crack as a hinge to take off the top. This will leave the yolk and most of the whites intact in the bottom half of the shell.

2. Use a small spoon to “scoop” the yolk out, while tilting the shell over the bowl so all the whites drain into the bowl. You can also think of the “scoop” as “catching” the yolk before it falls into the bowl. This must be done gently to keep the yolk intact and from falling into the bowl.

Ta DA! You have successfully separated egg whites and egg yolks. Now go bake a cake!

This Friday, my mind is very much on the Southern California fires. Driving home last night gave me a crazy sight: a towering plume of smoke backing the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign. As I rounded Griffith park, I was shocked to see visible flames from the freeway…especially in view of my beloved (and still very new) house. I immediately jumped online when I got home, to figure out just how close the fire was—do you know how frustrating it is to try to find emergency information that is up-to-date and to-the-point? Online news sources have the tendency to ramble, and provide very little information that I was interested in: namely, what was the perimeter of the fire, was it spreading quickly, and should I be concerned?

Three things make my favorites list this Friday (and, yes, it’s a little out of character with the FTF posts, but this is where I am this week):

1. The La Canada city website, which provides relevant, concise updates every hour on the Station fire (the one I was trying to find info on).

2. The LAist fire tags: Palos Verdes, Station, Morris, and Cottonwood

3. And lastly and most importantly, my favorite thing this Friday are the firefighters who are currently working in triple digit heat to keep so many residences and structures safe. As a native Southern Californian, this certainly isn’t the first fire season I’ve been through—and I’ve had a decent number of friends and families whose livelihood has been saved by the courageous work of firefighters. Please join me in praying for their safety and effectiveness, and for thanking God we have people like them in the world. In the words of Quaker Oats…Go humans, go.

Four weeks ago Ash and I decided to partake in a blogosphere workout challenge at These Little Moments. We each made goals and plans of how to reach those goals in four weeks. Every Wednesday we were to comment on These Little Moments with our progress as a way to be accountable and find support and encouragement among others trying to get healthy. Well, four weeks are up, and what we announced here, we now finish.

there’s more to this article. keep reading…

I think I’ve confessed here before that wedding blogs are my guilty pleasure. Gorgeous flowers, handcrafted diy, and some personal stories are my medicine of choice, thank you very much.

And for a variety of reaasons, I just HAD to share Hollin and Eric’s wedding. It’s been making the blog rounds as of late (hello weddingbee, once wed, 100 layer cake, and vintage glam!), and it caught my eye thanks to the uniqueness, beauty, and the quirkiness of its aesthetics.

I swooned over the morning-wedding details of doughnuts, coffee, and a toast bar.

I grinned over the invites of the couple dancing in the woods.

And I absolutely died over the location.

So SO much lovely green. AND IN A TREEHOUSE. Guh. Lovelovelove.

And then, in one weird moment as I read through the talents behind this wedding, I realized that these people weren’t just nameless faces. I actually had connections to them from college! Wha-wha-what?

Malachi, the brother-in-law of the bride (and husband of the maid of honor), and I worked together in our university’s marketing office.
Anna, the invitation designer, was in my major (a few years older), and was a big inspiration to me and other wee graphic designers.
And Paul, the videographer wearing the kicking hat, was a friend from the art community…an incredibly skilled, multi-disciplinary guy.

Okay, so those relations might be a bit of a stretch…but STILL! It was so incredible to realize that out of the thousands of weddings highlighted daily on the web, I had very small threads of real world connections to this one. It’s a recognition that our roots are buried in a similar place: I went to college with these guys, and they’re out there making their worlds more creative, more amazing, more beautiful.*

And that, my friends, I think that’s pretty sweet.

photos, and more info on the bts folks

Hello all, I hope you guys had a wonderful weekend. Mine was full of moving…and I am so high on excitement and exhaustion. And I absolutely can’t wait to show you around my little bungalow. Hopefully soon!

Anywho, I’m just quickly popping in to say:

A typeface made completely from CSS?? I am….beyond astounded.

Each letter is made up of unique combos of spans…nice styling, brilliant idea, and possibly super useful? Thanks to Matthew’s Tumblr for the link.

My favorite thing this week is a local one. Sorry everyone who does not live in the Jefferson City/Columbia area, but I just couldn’t resist giving this brand new local bakery some free publicity.With my growing interest in all things baked and delicious, I was ecstatic when I saw the sign go up on Missouri Blvd: BK Bakery Coming Soon.

Jefferson City is sorely lacking in coffeehouse/gathering places. We have a grand total of three (none of which are close to my house). BK Bakery isn’t the best for late night gathering since they close at 6:30, but for lazy afternoons and morning coffee-to-go this is the place. Opened for three days, I finally found time in my schedule to visit and pick up some breakfast to go before my morning errands today, and I was not disappointed. I got a chocolate croissant and a drip coffee (Kaldi’s organic). I did have a terrible time deciding between the croissant, the chocolate espresso muffin, or these strawberry twist pastry thingies (sorry BK Bakery, don’t remember what they were called). Also, they have all the basic drinks you would find at a coffeehouse: flavored lattes, drip coffee, chai, and even sweet tea! I was not disappointed by my choice though. A croissant filled with chocolate and dusted with powder sugar, mmmmm tasty.

Other things I love about this bakery: they sell yesterday’ muffins in boxes of 24 instead of dumping them out. It’s not misleading. It says they are a day old on the box, but I think it’s a great way to not waste perfectly good muffins. All they need is a microwave, and they’re good as new. There’s frequent customer punch cards! Love those! Free brownie samples! Cupcakes that look like works of art! Cinammon rolls that are half off because they don’t quite fill the wrapper!

If you’re in the area and you haven’t checked it out, visit BK Bakery at 901A Missouri Blvd in Jefferson City, Missouri. They’re on Facebook, Blogspot, Twitter, and a website where you can look at pictures, get updates, and find info about ordering cakes and stuff.

There’s a man who stands on the Vermont bridge over the 101 freeway: just him and his bike leaning up against the railing. And he holds signs for all the rush-hour drivers to see. Sometimes they’re specific (today’s was Jesus Our Savior), and sometimes they’re general (Never Give Up). Regardless of the message, I feel something inspiring on the mornings he’s up there. As if he’s some kind of a reminder that we’re not alone. That we needn’t lose hope. That we should carry on in love, and keep the faith.

I’m going to be moving this weekend. Those of you who read here consistently or know me in person are aware that I’ve been living in a million places since graduation. In a lot of ways, it’s been a rough time, when coupled with all the anxiety and off-balance feelings of graduating college and entering the real world. It’s a weird time in anyone’s life, I think. I’ve done a lot of growing up—not always gracefully, and not always without a fight, but I do think it’s been happening.

So this move, and the subsequent idea of having my own little space in the world, has been so highly anticipated. I’m very blessed–in a few days, a 1920′s bungalow is going to belong to me and a few wonderful roomies.

And with this move will come a change in my commute. And I will miss seeing that man, and I will probably always wonder what motivates him to stand on the Vermont bridge.

Blogs are a similar thing: many people speed past, not even recognizing their existence. There are so many blogs after all. And we’re always going somewhere at higher and higher speeds. If you, however, happened to make it this far and happened to spare a glance: today, this post is for him, and for you.

I have wanted to read this book since last semester when it was up for grabs at Vox Magazine (the magazine I wrote for as a part of a grad class) for reviewing. Unfortunately, I had no time to devote to reading an entire book in two days, but I promised myself it would make the summer reading list.

I was inclined to read this book for multiple reasons. I went to a small Christian university. Granted, SBU is much more moderate than Liberty University (we’re allowed to kiss our significant others and there are visitation hours when members of the opposite sex are allowed to visit the dorms of the opposite sex, and there is no real dress code), but I’m a firm believer that the culture is predominately the same. I am also extremely intrigued with how non-Evangelicals perceive Evangelicals. I am obsessed with this idea that people from different backgrounds, faiths, cultures, whatever can get along if we just listen to each other and try to see each other for what we are…human. It’s one of my idealistic pillars, I suppose. Anyway, I love reading about people who do try that, and that’s what this book is, an experiment in understanding people who are different from you. It just so happens that this writer, Kevin Roose, is trying to understand me, or at least a culture I belong to. there’s more to this article. keep reading…

This may seem very trivial, but this method of folding shirts helps keep minimal fold lines from settling in the middle of your shirt, saves drawer space (I think), and allows you to easily identify every t-shirt with just a glance. If you’re like Rebbecca Bloomwood in Confessions of a Shopaholic, you’ll appreciate this technique and having your drawers looking as fine as a well-kept graphic tee table at Buckle. there’s more to this article. keep reading…

Since Favorite Thing Friday was neglected yesterday, here’s to one of my new favorite things, dark chocolate. I’ve never liked dark chocolate. I think it was too strong or bitter for my juvenile sweet tooth, but when I first made the Baked brownies, which call for dark baking chocolate (which is ridiculously hard to find in Jefferson City), my palate warmed to the idea that first impressions aren’t always right.

Even though I’m willing to melt it down to make bigger chocolate desserts, it wasn’t until this week that I finally fell head over heels in love. Because my own grocery store stopped selling baking bars, and I needed only an ounce of dark chocolate to round out my supply for the root beer cake, I bought a 12 oz. bag of dark chocolate chips to divide and conquer. I took my one ounce and tied off the left over 11 oz. Fast-forward to this week, wanting to bake something for our boating day at the Lake of the Ozarks with John’s family and use up some materials lying around, I decided to use the remaining 11 oz. of dark chocolate chips to make chocolate chip cookies. I wasn’t even going to post them on the blog because it’s the exact same recipe I used for World Peace Cookies just with dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet, which according to Wikipedia (I know, great sourcing, Char), are the same except dark chocolate has more sugar. After testing the first batch, that extra sugar makes a difference, a BIG difference. Like I cursed when I took my first bite, difference. They are incredibly rich, like something from the Baked cookbook rich. Usually, I can munch on three chocolate chip cookies in one sitting and not be affected, but these…oh man, these were too much, in a good way. I highly recommend you try this incredible substitution. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to semi-sweet chips again.