ABC's of Resolutions!

Hello, friends! Happy New Year 2012. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve this year and have a list of stories to tell over the coming weeks.  Feel free to share, I love a good story from time to time. 

New Years to me this year meant spending time with people I love and care about, plenty of good food from P.F. Chang's and a night out in my hometown.  Prior to the actual celebration I spent time writing down an A to Z list of goals and resolutions for the coming year.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a full A to Z but the time spent thinking on each letter really helped me to reflect on the most important aspects of my life!

This past year had brought so many changes, a new school, new friends, new passions and dreams for life.  It's hard to believe 2011 has come to an end but with 2012 just beginning I can hardly wait to see what is in store.

Wishing you all a happy and amazing New Year

Love,

Kylie @ OhsoMiscellanea

Goodbye 2011

What's better on New Years than recapping the past year and setting goals for the next? I have been keeping up with reading my list of blogs that I follow and realized that many of them have been posting a "year in photos" to sort of show their readers what has happened in the past year.  And I thought to myself, what a great idea!

Last New Years Eve Brendan and I went to dinner at Biaggi's and back to a friends house for a party.

I started OhsoMiscellanea on January 10, 2011 with this post. 

And then Brendan went to London and I returned to HWS for spring semester with the full intention of study abroad for Fall 2011.

 I spent spring break in London and Paris with Brendan

 Came home, finished my semester at HWS and decided in the last two weeks to apply to Rochester, got in, and celebrated with Carolyn & Amanda at a Backstreet Boys Concert!

 The next morning we finished our first official road trip with a drive to Niagara Falls

Brendan took me to his house in the Adirondack's for a weekend

 And my friends and I went to a concert at Darien Lake

 After a second trip to the adirondack's I finished the summer with a Kenny Chesney concert right at CMAC

 and headed to Rochester for my first semester where I met and joined the Ballet Performance Group.

 For fall break Brendan brought all of his Colgate friends and me to the adirondack's and we spent 5 days exploring the wilderness.

 In October I also visited my friends from Hobart

 and ran my second 5k!

 I threw a halloween party with friends from home and school

 and performed in my first dance show

 Then our dance group competed in Alpha Traz

 I ran my first 5 mile race and celebrated my 21st birthday with my best friend Amanda.

 Went to my first college formal, twice

 Ran the "Its a Wonderful Run 5k" with my cousin Rachel

 Saw an Amerk's Game and demanded a picture with the Mascot

 and had a holiday party to catch up with friends from high school (minus carolyn, zzzz).

 Emily and Alyssa came to visit for a Christmas Festival

 and on Christmas my Dad and I had a muscle contest

and I took my annual puppy picture with Greta

and Brendan.

Happy New Year's Eve Everyone :)

Persnickety Desserts

I never used to consider myself a type-A personality or someone who focused on the extremely little details in life but I have come to accept my Type-A-ness and persnickety personality.  That is why I decided to take up the art, the craft if you will, of macaronage.  What is macaronage you may ask? The art of perfecting the french macaron.  No, no please do not confuse french macarons with these:

American Macaroons often dipped in chocolate and are always accompanied with coconut.  These are not the dessert I am talking about at all. 

A distant relative of sorts, still using a meringue (egg whites, sugar, almond paste etc) recipe, is the french macaron, the macaron cookie.

Here we have the motherland of all Macarons, Laudree. Brendan and I stopped here while in Paris last spring break and picked up some Chocolate, Raspberry, Orange and Hazelnut treats.  Needless to say, I instantly fell in love.  Over the last few weeks of this semester I began reading more on the background of macaronage artistry and was scared to death of making them.  Labeled in the baking world as nearly the most "persnickety" dessert and nearly impossible to perfect, I decided to take on the task.  

Who cares if the professional baking industry chefs have difficulty perfecting them? I'm sure they taste the same even if they aren't necessarily "perfect". So I did what I promised myself I would do over this break and got out my new apron (gifted from my mother) and got to work.   And yes, I can agree that they were difficult and unruly but oh so tasty in the end.

After a few hours of macaronage artistry at work with my Kitchenaid (I am a fraud, most people whip the meringue by hand!) I have this to show for a final product:

Chocolate Macaron with Orange Spiced Chocolate Ganche Filling all atop the beautiful parisian plates Brendan got me for Christmas!

I must admit, not bad for my first time!  I may or may not share this recipe right away, part of my persnickety, type-A, secretive personality is telling me that you should hunt it out on your own, another part of me is saying that it takes quite a lot of effort to fully explain (if you're really interested check out Bon Appetit Magazine's recipe, the one I used and it's great!).  My next Adventure will be with Orange jellie filled Macarons, to die for.

Gifting Running Gear: CW-X & MicroTherm Down

Happy first snow of December (and the year) for Rochester!  I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up to a few snow drifts in my front yard and blustering 27 degree weather. After deciding late last night to sleep in I forced myself out of bed around 11 am.  First on the agenda, winter running!  

TIP: I learned that making an appointment or a date to exercise works best (for me at least).  If you make time for it in your day, even a week or so in advance, you know that you have time and that it has to get done.

I bundled up with my usual headband, gloves, neck gator and base layer tops.  However, this year I was able to start winter running with a new jacket AND running tights.  I decided to try out some new running tights after I realized my Under Armor pants are from junior year in high school!  Katie, author of Peace, Love & Oats had purchased a pair of CW-X Insulator Performx Tights!  I remembered her mentioning that they made her feel like a SUPERHERO once they actually were put on and just had to test them out.

These are NOT your ordinary tights and I would agree with Katie that they do in fact make you feel like a superhero.  I will recommend that you go up a size, I thought I would be a small but the Medium fit just right.  These specific CW-X tights provide support through their fabric for the IT band, knees and hip flexors.  Great for longer runs.

My dad also helped my running gear wardrobe and gifted me an Eddie Bauer "First Ascent" jacket.  The First Ascent line was completely new to me until shopping this year and I instantly fell in love.

MicroTherm Down Shirt

Super light, reflective and wind resistant. It features an athletic cut and feel for outdoor activities such as running, snow shoeing and hiking.  I can't wait to go for a nice hike in this! If you're a huge fan of Patagonia but don't want to put out the plus $200 for one of these down shirts, go for Eddie Bauer.  I am completely satisfied.  While I will say you should wear this when it is FREEZING outside, I was still comfortable in 35 degree weather also.  What a great present from Dad!  

Did you receive any running gear for Christmas or Hanukah? What were your favorite gifts?

Santa pt. 2

This year I realized that I didn't actually ask for anything this Christmas.  It really is hard to believe that I couldn't think of anything that I really wanted or needed.  I often find myself going through the mall saying I want I want I want but then not actually putting forth the bill for all those I wants...Christmas usually consists of opening multiple Jcrew classics and this year the only articles of clothing I received were pajamas and a bathrobe, and I was perfectly happy with that!

I did manage to get quite a few comfy camp socks, kitchen wears (Le Creuset anyone?) along with a book of pictures of me an my dog and a new pocket camera!  Santa did a great job.

Amazing Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing

 Santa made his trip to the back door and delivered gifts, even to my dog!

 My cousin Rachel and Grandma.

Annual puppy picture

After a nice recap of Christmas and a late night 3am phone call with Brendan I managed to get up and make my way to the YMCA today.  As busy as it was it was actually really nice to see old friends from High School.  I stayed for a while doing some abs and free weights and ended the morning with a nice stretch.

Later on I went and hunted through the clearance aisles at TJ Maxx and Michaels to be sadly disappointed with the lack of sale selection.  I did find a nice royal blue dolman sweater though and then ended my evening with a hot cup of tea and some online shopping at Jcrew.com, old faithful!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

It's that time of year again. Christmas time.  It is crazy to think that just about this time last year I didn't even have a blog.  I was thinking about the whole blogging world last night as I waited for Santa to make his way to my back door (I don't have a fireplace so he comes to the back)...For a while I was thinking that maybe I would stop since not that many people were reading my blog on a day to day basis but then I realized that I don't only write for my readers, but for myself.  It is a sort of journal and ritualistic release of thoughts and a way to reflect on all the exciting achievements and events in my life.

The exciting event today would of course be Christmas!

Last night we went to Christmas Eve Mass with my grandparents.  They handed out these photocopied "programs" this year with the entire service highlighted and bolded the words that the parishioners were supposed to recite, so modernized for us that only frequent it twice a year.  

We returned home for Surf & Turf accompanied with twice baked potatoes, green beans, a cheese platter and some red wine to sip.  The lobster was Nicaraguan lobster and I demanded my mother make some filet mignon since I am absolutely positively prime ribs biggest opposition.

The evening ended with a viewing of a Nat Geo's special on the Holocaust, family videos and then I made myself stay up all alone for Home Alone 2.  What a Christmas!  My grandma made her famous Cream Puffs, my favorite dessert from her recipe book.  I will try to get the recipe/ try them myself at some point.

This morning I was awoken by my beautiful dog and a mimosa with Challah French Toast, oh and of course some amazing candied bacon.  It is a bit ironic that we paired jewish Challah bread with bacon so I apologize to all my jewish friends.

Of course Santa came while I was fast asleep and brought wonderful gifts for all.  He brought us a U of R blanket, chocolates and movies.  He brought me a new compact camera (since my big one can be TOO BIG at times) and socks along with other things for running and not.  My dad of course got his workout gift from me! Have to keep the family fit!

Nobody can mess with this beast.

We are now off to my Grandma's house and I will be sure to post the rest of the family photos later.

Merry Christmas to all from Kylie @ OhsoMiscellanea

BPG Holiday & Studying

A few weeks ago I hosted BPG at my house for a "cookie and hot coco" party.  What a great way to start off the holiday season.  Wegmans catered with 30 delicious cutout cookies and I provided my homemade frosting

Great homemade frosting recipe:

(without measuring sorry!)

Confectioners Sugar

Non-fat Milk

** do this in a 3/1 ratio or however runny you like it! Definitely MORE sugar and LESS milk works best!

1 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tbsp vanilla (or to taste)

The best way for this frosting to get its TRUE effect is to actually refrigerate the cookies after frosting.  This allows the frosting to cool, harden and shine!

Here's Pam's amazing cookie creation.  So jealous.

As for today, I am busy studying away at Barnes and Noble.  It really is a great place to study though I often find myself getting distracted.   Thank god I started the day off right with a workout at 7am, and on 5 hours of sleep no less!  I definitely want to start upping the weights that I'm lifting, it makes me feel so jacked!

The agenda for today (I really should start paying attention to these agenda's that I make for myself, it would really really help keep me on track!)

1. Finish study guide for U.S. Health System

2. Begin to make some connections between the hundred or so years we covered

3. STUDY STUDY STUDY for epidemiology!!

4. Learn the equations for epidemiology...

5. fix leftovers from biaggi's for lunch

6. Bring healthy snacks to the library tonight

7. leave the library and 12 again tonight, watch greys and bed!

Weekly Recap & Welcome Home

Weekly recap:

This past week has been different, to say the least.  My first semester at UR is finally coming to a close and finals are beginning to pile up. I've definitely been trying to keep my cool when it comes to studying, which means not frequenting the library as often as most other students.  However, I have been busy working at other locations, see my post on Panera.  I decided that it is starting to get a bit disgusting, the amount of times I have eaten there in the past week at least.

I have also made sure to keep up with my workouts, thank god!  In spite of all the craziness and hints of snow, these are a MUST.  They keep me sane, in shape and motivated to push further into the night with all my work.  So yes, an hour here and an hour there has definitely made this finals week less stressful than the last.

I completed my first week of half marathon training, yay!  While I had to shift around the days a little bit, I did manage to get it done.

Today I went on a 4m run around the city, through Park Ave, East Ave and Monroe.  The training plan I am using, Jeff Galloway mixed with Hal Hidgon suggests some "run-walking" methods to get you through.  I am not a huge fan of walking just because it makes me feel inadequate compared to those Marathon Runners but it has actually really helped!

Tonight's agenda includes:

1. Study Session from 6:30-8

2. Working late into the night, say 2:30am and finishing my study guide!

also, Carolyn comes home today!!!!!!

What a B.A.M.F