by Jensen
This post is going to be completely different than the usual Doing it with Jensen posts. I’ve got this friend, Ocell, who co-writes Food We Chew. He always posts all of this amazing looking food but I’ve never seen any real evidence that he can cook. So I proposed that we do a blog together. Basically, I wanted an excuse for a cute dude to make me food, and I saw pictures of these amazing looking bagels he had made and decided I needed them in my stomach. My life is tough! Anyways, I’m behind the camera this time, not in front! Sorry gentlemen, this one is for the ladies. Or something.
If you don’t have a bread machine, you’re pretty much fucked. And not in a good way. No bagels for you, sorry :[. I’m sure there are plenty of awesome non-bread machine bagel recipes, but this is not one of those.
If you want the full recipe and directions, check out AllRecipes.com.
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by Jensen
Ahhh, I haven’t done a post for so long! I finally feel like I’m catching the blog bug again though, so look forward to some new Doing it with Jensen posts :].
Anyways, I saw this amazing ‘Red Velvet Brownie Recipe‘ and decided I 100% needed to make it immediately. They were very easy to make and turned out delicious! I followed the directions pretty closely, though I made my own cream cheese white chocolate frosting instead of the buttercream frosting. The frosting recipe is listed below! I don’t really feel right just copying and pasting the brownie recipe, or putting it into my own words when their version is just fine, so go over there for the step by step directions.
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by Laurelin
Now that summer is in full swing, I can’t help but shake my head thinking of how quickly things change, how we shape our lives and how easy it really is to choose our own paths. I like the idea of fate and destiny — the little girl in me still believes in fairy tales and hopeless romance, but in truth, I like the idea that it’s not in the hands of something greater. We are that something greater.
Last summer I was someone else. I was working at a different bar, sadly spending my days working a job I hated, gazing out the windows at everyone walking by with beach gear and wishing I was one of those laughing girls in sundresses. I would go home faithfully every night, crawl in bed and wait for my boyfriend to come home. I ordered dinner for two, drank dirty martinis and let him pay for dinner because his bar was always busy and mine wasn’t. We went to parties, stayed up late laughing and drinking, we slept in every morning we could, and I swear, there were some days where I didn’t care to even get out of bed; I could spend forever like that, hiding from daylight and waiting for our night to fall again.
He was my life, and after we broke up this past September, I dreaded the coming summer because it had always been ours, and now I would be alone. I didn’t think I could face it without him. As time went on and I started healing that feeling got a little easier. Soon it wasn’t sadness that I wouldn’t be with him, but almost…fear of spending the summer flying solo. I had spent the past year learning to be on my own and all of a sudden it occurred to me that I had truly learned to love it. I flirted, went after what I wanted with no fear of rejection, I dated, and I dated people that weren’t right for me ON PURPOSE. Soon I was so excited for my “Boys of Summer.” The warm weather was here, the sun shone just for me, and where as last summer was ours, it never occurred to me that this summer, for the first time in a long time was mine.
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by Laurelin
I have always loved a challenge. Who doesn’t love to be tested to the limits, and pushed beyond their comfort zone to see if they can rise to the occasion and be successful? The human mind and body can be pushed, and the reward is sometimes nothing more than the personal satisfaction of knowing you did it. Take rock climbing for example. I started a while ago after reading John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. I thought that the climber’s concept of ‘mind over matter’ when it comes to physical activity was fascinating. To be able to push on and keep going when every muscle in your body is screaming for rest, to be halfway up a mountain (or in my case, a rock wall in a gym) and know that if you stop, you fall, and you might die.
When I’m climbing everything in the world goes silent; all you can think about it putting one leg in front of the other and pushing up to find the next finger hold. You must go on. Failure is not an option. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I find myself searching out similar challenges when it comes to men and dating. I crave a chase and hopefully big payoff. The guys I fall for usually have something wrong with them that I think I can fix, some undesirable quality that I convince myself I find endearing, something that makes things absolutely more difficult than it needs to be.
During my freshman year of college over a decade ago, I fell for one of the biggest “players” I had ever come across. This guy was a disaster, pledging a fraternity and totally dedicated to his brothers, but not at all to his school work, running though women like his life depended on it. And all the while, I was chasing after him, spending too much time with him, then watching him with other girls and feeling terrible. There had to be a real person under there somewhere. I was going to find him, and he was going to fall in love with me and stop all that crazy behavior. I could do this, I knew it.
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by Laurelin
Dating. I think we all know by now that I suck at it. I’m a tough girl to win over, and the odds of me scaring someone off by date three are pretty damn good despite the initial attraction. I’m going to be honest, I have been sampling what Boston has to offer lately and am having a damn good time with it — it’s summertime, what do you want from me? I’ve realized that keeping an open mind when it comes to guys has meant I have met a lot of cool people who I normally wouldn’t have gone for… I have also met a lot of idiots.
Guys, good lord, I know sometimes girls turn out to be a bit bonkers; especially girls like me who habitually come home a little drunk around 4 AM with a rip in their jeans and a half eaten cheeseburger in their purse. But I figure I may as well tell it like it is; it doesn’t matter how hot you are, it is totally possible to lose even the most captivated girl in ten minutes. Listen up guys. Help me help you, take heed of these simple rules, and then maybe we can all go get a margarita.
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by Laurelin
Remember that dream from when you were younger? The one where you’re walking the halls of your high school and everyone is looking at you funny and you can’t figure out why, and then you look down and find that you’re naked, and everyone sees you at your most vulnerable. That dream came true for me this past Saturday night. Instead of being involuntarily naked in a dream, it was real life, and I had actually consciously chosen to go nude on a stage in front of a theatre full of strangers.
Naked Girls Reading is exactly what it sounds like. I heard about it randomly one night out in Boston and thought that it would be a perfect wacky event to cover for my Boston nightlife blog. I sat in the darkened theatre at midnight and watched with bated breath as four women came out in beautiful silk robes and sparkling jewelry and fantastic heels, and one by one, they approached the microphone, dropped their robes, and read to the audience from a book. Was anyone listening to them? I kept losing track of what they were saying because I was just so amazed, they were there… naked, for everyone to see.
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by Laurelin
What defines a healthy relationship? People are always judging relationships, their own and other peoples, comparing them to those we see in real life, on TV, in romantic comedy movies. Is there really such a thing as a healthy relationship? I know that as a bartender I am surrounded by unhealthy lifestyles, so by default I think any relationship I find is most likely going to be unhealthy. I have this image in my head of the 9-5 types that gather at a few bars I’ve been to downtown, young professionals with their loosened ties and top button unbuttoned, holding a beer (only one, they have work tomorrow) and living their perfect lives. These are the kind of bars I run from, but some reason I feel like “downtown” is a lifestyle, a perfection in healthy relationships that I will never have.
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