RECIPE: Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Count my family among the obsessed when it comes to shortbread cookies- (and desserts altogether). I have to admit, that the holiday season with its plethora of articles dedicated to holiday cookies kind of inspired me to bake! I've always enjoyed cooking new recipes, but as far as desserts went- I only had my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe to rely on! During the past month, I tried making a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips (not as successfully as I had hoped!) and a shortbread cookie (which was delicious!). I scoured websites searching for a recipe that would best mimic the Walkers brand of Shortbread, and I may have come close!

Some recipes suggested using confectioners sugar (beneficial for its corn starch proportion), while others suggested granulated white sugar. I read that the latter would heed a better cookie texture, so I went with the white sugar!

Some recipes also suggested adding vanilla. I think you could easily skip this and still end up with a delicious cookie.

Here is the recipe I followed.

2 ½ cup all purpose flour

¼ tspn salt

1 ¼ cup of butter

½ tspn vanilla

½ cup and 1 tbspn of white sugar

Yields about 60-70 small cookies

SWATCHED: My new Revlon lippies

This past week, Rexall had another great sale going on. This time, they were offering a BOGO on most of their lip products from a number of major brands, including Revlon, L'Oreal, Maybelline, etc.

I am normally too lazy to head out for these sales...but this time, I had extra motivation: to add some red lippies to the collection! I have never publicly worn red or reddish lipsticks in my adult life, that I can remember. When I was young, I quite enjoyed wearing red lipstick for fun! I used to carry around those mini Avon lip samplers in my frog purse :-)

Last week, for a night out, I wore a daring red lipstick and it felt great, if not a bit bold!

Long story short, I picked up two Revlon lipsticks, one a more classic red, the other an intense coral-red- unlike anything I've ever worn before. I picked up Revlon Colourburst Lipstick in 'True Red' and Super Lustrous Lipstick in 'Fire & Ice'.

I took a few pictures and quickly swatched them here. Overall, I really like both lipsticks. They don't have any funky/fruity smells, I got them at great prices and the colour payoff is insane. I can't speak to their longevity of wear, but a mini-review might be appended to this blogpost at some point.

Wisdom of a quarter century.

In early December, I celebrated my birthday with some week-long festivities with family and friends. I made some wonderful experiences, for which I am very grateful. I am quite blessed.

I wanted to keep this post short. I find the more I think about the past and my future, the more I realize a few 'truths', if you will, about life- gained from my personal experiences.

1- Life won't turn out exactly the way you imagine. But you can certainly try to plan for the best/worst!

2- The older you get, the harder it will be to fight the cynic in you, despite your best efforts!

There are a great deal of other realizations I've come to, but these are probably to two most significant.

"Verily the soul becomes accustomed to what you accustom it to. That is to say: what you at first burden the soul with becomes nature to it in the end" -Al-Ghazali

Come to any realizations of your own after hitting any milestones?

The Small Things...

It occurred to me recently that we live during times of great negativity, misunderstanding, strife and injustice and that sometimes our focus and attention to these issues can be quite depressing. I can't be the only one who feels this way.

For myself at least, hearing about one world crisis after another such as the repression and murder of protesters in Syria, our failings in the First Nations community of Attawapiskat, the horrendous treatment of women all across the world, our deleterious consumption habits, excessive materialism, the 27 million people currently enslaved across the world....etc, has caused me to have a negative perspective on our nature as human beings. They say you get more cynical over time. So lets just say, I'm keeping my eyes wide open to ensure that is not my fate :-)

And so even while I am keenly aware of many of the failings we have as a human race, there is still so much around us that that represents the positive and the beautiful and this recurring blogpost will make a humble attempt to capture that. Hopefully this will be an enlightening venture.

I came across this extraordinary photo, of a Weta- a cricket like creature/insect. It is the largest photographed insect in the world , which means there could be larger undiscovered insects out there! A scary thought indeed.

My sister thinks this is ugly, but when I look at it I can't help but marvel at its creation. We live in a world inhabited by so many creatures. sA. We all have an important role to play as humans, creatures and plant life rely on each other for survival. When we lose sight of this fact, we open ourselves to a whole host of problems...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/giant-weta-worlds-largest-insect_n_1126475.html?ref=canada&ir=Canada

New Trailer: The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra

The opening title of the second installment of The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra turned up online recently! Thanks to my savvy younger sister, I am happily sharing the video below. To see the trailer, click here. This opening sequence really reminds me of how unique and GREAT this series is. There just hasn't been anything like it. Ever.

The expected premiere date is around mid-2012. It seems like the date has been getting pushed back frequently, however :-( So hopefully it will just be 6 more months.