We’ve had a great week full of grilling, yard work, baking, wedding reminiscing, family/friend time, and lots of time spent soaking up the wonderful weather that made up most of the week. ☀️ Here are this week’s five!
1. The Bachelorette
I’m all in again, apparently, and I hope some of you are, too! If you’re new around here, you should know that the first time I ever really followed along week-by-week with the (admittedly horrible) Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise was last season. That was only three months ago-ish!? And yet, here we are with a new season Hannah B. wasn’t my favorite last season, but I thought she did really well on her first episode this week. Can’t wait to cringe at massive group dates next week. So far, all these men are overwhelming me, but Peter the Pilot and Garrett the Golfer are my favorites after one night. I miss the girls!
2. Fancy Baking on Weeknights
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I baked a big, delicious Mexican Hot Chocolate layer cake on Tuesday night! (If you don’t follow me on Insta, you should! I show up there pretty regularly in stories.) I bake out of stress and for cravings, typically. In this case, I had a big day ahead of me on Wednesday and was feeling anxious, so I spent the entire night before baking a new cake recipe for the first time! I can never get all my cake layers to turn out, so Tuesday was a miracle. I found the recipe in an old issue of Sift magazine and you can find it here online.
3. This Weather
I’m all about these balmy summer temperatures—especially since the warm weather puts the roomie in such a good mood! The hail and crazy thunderstorms of the past 20ish hours, though, have not been my favorite. Our little corgi pretty much slept on my head last night (she’s 39 lbs) in fear of the wild thunder. A couple strings of our patio lights came crashing down and we now have some fun shattered glass to clean up before Penny gets full roaming privileges in the backyard again. BUT, all the baby plants survived!!! Here’s to warmer temperatures without the hail and wind!
4. New White Kicks
It has been so long since I’ve gotten myself new shoes and these are so pretty! I’m just breaking them in so I’ve got some serious blisters right now, but I’m still obsessed with them. Since they are Dr. Scholl’s brand, they have an extremely comfortable sole and fit (overlooking the blisters). I also love the teensy bit of height they give me. Now I’m just praying I can keep them white!
5. Chopped: Date Night Edition
We’ve never seen Chopped, but our friends hosted a fun date night based around the cooking show! It was such a blast. We did three rounds of challenges—appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Each round was timed and had a secret ingredient that we were required to include. We scored each other on presentation, texture, flavor, use of the secret ingredient, and overall. It was such a fun night that we haven’t stopped talking about it since! If you have any specific questions about the night, feel free to DM me on Instagram or comment below. Thanks for hosting, Alison and Alex!
Have the best weekend! Don’t let the rain stop you from making moves this weekend. We sure won’t as we’ll be helping family move all day tomorrow. 😉
Hi, Anna,
Regarding your cakes, if the issue is the crowning of the layers, I have an easy fix for that. Let me know!
Jane,
It’s normally impatience on my part—not wanting to wait for them to cool before I flip them (oops). Bought a third pan to help out with that! But, I do struggle with crowning, too. Would love to hear your fix!!
Thanks for following along,
Anna