Hiking Old Rag in Shenandoah

I went hiking with my brother on the Old Rag trail in Shenandoah National Park. The trail is roughly 9 miles, including about a mile of rock scrambling. It's pretty challenging, and requires hand over hand climbing over rocks and through narrow passages. I love this trail, and the rock scramble is...

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Chocolate Coconut Almond Cookies

I've been baking like a manic. Been making a lot of cookies and breads. I am a rather lazy baker, and cookies are so easy to just throw a bunch of ingredients together. Quick breads also don't require much effort. If you know the ratios of flour, sugar, fat, and liquids, you can adapt a recipe to many...

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Sweet Potato Bread

I love sweet potato fries. I have been making oven fries quite frequently, and the last time I made them, I tossed a whole sweet potato in the oven, as well. I wanted to make something with the baked sweet potato, so I decided to make bread. Although this is a yeast bread, it is very easy to mix together...

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A little bird visited me this morning. It chirped a "hellogoodmorning". In a flurry of yellow , it flitted from tree to tree. And just as quickly as it came, it flew off to bring a bit of sunshine to someone else on this cloudy day...

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Sunday Dumpling Making

Dumpling making is a labor of love. It takes a lot of work to make dumplings from scratch, but the results are so worth it. Every ingredient has to be chopped finely, each wrapper rolled out, and each dumpling formed by hand. There are shortcuts, such as buying dumpling skins or frozen dumpling ready...

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Healthy Green Tea Ice Cream

Remember that peculiar photo of ice cream ingredients from my ice cream sandwich post? Well, the green tea ice cream I made was vegan, adapted from a recipe in Veganomicon. I have a bunch of cookbooks that I haven't used much, so I am going to try some recipes from them this summer. This recipe...

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Honey Vanilla Oat Bread

Baked goods get eaten up so quickly in my house. The ginger cookies I made yesterday were gone in less than a day. Today, I threw a quick bread together, and it is almost gone, too (half of the fault is mine). Heck, I'm not complaining, though. It just means that I get to bake more! And experiment...

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Spring Refreshments

Just got back from a morning run and now I'm sipping a delicious, massive green smoothie. So refreshing :) I only ran for 30 minutes today. It's pretty humid after a night of thunderstorms, and my blood sugar was crashing since I only drank black coffee before heading out. When I got back, I needed...

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Green Tea Ice Cream Sandwiches

I am treating my cooking deficiency. For therapy today, I made green tea ice cream and ginger cookies, and then made them into ice cream sandwiches. I first made the base for the green tea ice cream so it could cool in the fridge while I baked the cookies. I'll be posting the recipe in the next few...

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I still have a ton of pictures to share from my Hawai'i trip. Of scenery, friends, sea turtles, candids. Today, however, I'll just focus on the food. I'll get to the other stuff later, I promise. Kind of. Eventually. I just like to talk about food, okay? The first night we were in Kona, we wanted...

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A Sweet Ending to Sophomore Year

The boxes are stored, the suitcases are packed, and finals are over and done with. Sophomore year, and half my undergraduate college career is over. This feels like it should be something significant, but I don't really know how to react. Is it really something to get worked over about? I don't want...

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I miss my Vita-mix :(

Tonight, I decided to make a green tea smoothie. I bought some vanilla frozen yogurt, got some ice, and threw it in a blender with some matcha powder. I was hoping for a creamy, smooth smoothie, but I got icy slush instead. Granted, I did add too much ice, but the damn blender just wouldn't get...

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Hawaii: The Foodie's Destination

Hawai'i: it's the perfect destination. White sand beaches, tropical climate, beautiful sunsets, etc.etc. A few of the many reasons why Hawai'i is one of the top vacation spots. I have to add one more reason to visit: the food! In fact, it was the topic I chose to do my presentation on for "Hawai'i...

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A Farmer's Market in Hawai'i

On the second day in Hawai'i, we rode a bus that took us from Hilo to Kona. As we were waiting at the bus terminal, we found a small farmer's market across the street! Of course, we had to go check it out. There were a few stands, mostly selling fruits and vegetables. Some had flowers, and one sold...

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Procrastination

One more week until I go home. I feel like I am just waiting for the end. I only have two exams during exam week, and they are a week apart. My first exam, German, is tomorrow, and I should be studying. But I want to procrastinate a bit more (the night is still young!), so I will share some pictures...

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