almond joy

I made my own almond joys. No I'm not a weirdo--why do you ask? For a while now I've been thinking about making an almond joy cake, but today I figured it would be fun to try the actual thing. They came out wonderfully but I'm not quite happy with the chocolate coating on these, though nothing a little modifying wouldn't fix! Here's the whole recipe:

Chocolate coating:

6 ounces semi-sweet baking squares (4 squares)
1 -11/2 teaspoons of paraffin wax, (it's really important that it's wax.)

Over a double broiler begin to melt the chocolate, add vegetable oil and stir to combine. Continue to melt until only a few lumps of chocolate remain. Remove from heat and stir until the heat from chocolate melts the last few lumps.

Coconut filling:

¼ cup butter
¼ cup coconut oil
½ teaspoon coconut extract
2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons half and half, milk, or heavy cream
1 ½ cups shredded coconut

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine butter and coconut oil until smooth. Add extract, sugar and milk. Beat on high until fluffy. With the mixer on low add the shredded coconut. Reserve for later.

Almonds:
Toast 1/4 cups of almonds in oven at 350f for about 7 minutes. Pull out of oven and let cool.


Assembling:

With a spoon pour about a teaspoon chocolate coating onto wax paper and spread in an oblong shape. Continue for 15 bars. Place in freezer for 5 minutes or until hard. Using a teaspoon, spread the coconut filling evenly on the chocolate base of the joy bar. Place two almonds on the filling and freeze for 3-5 minutes. Either drizzle the rest of the chocolate on the spread it thickly on each bar. Freeze for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

h&m

Today while I was at the mall I stopped into H&M--boy do they have great stuff! I love all the colors, the patterns, and styles there. I tried on a few things and ended up buying a few as well.









All in all I ended up getting the blue scoop-neck shirt and the blue skirt, love them both! I wish the dark grey shirt-dress had worked but the pockets kept bulging out at the exact the wrong place. The more I look at the white shirt and button down the more I like them though. What do you think?

fall

My absolute, hands down, favorite season is autumn. Love it. Dream about it.

Not really on the last part.

But anyhow, Wikstenmade (as always!) is really my go-to for fall clothing inspiration. Just look at these photos! Today I actually got so excited about fall I tried on my fall coat. Never mind the 90 degree weather.

this season

(Rubbish Roll Sleeve Plaid Blouse discovered at Nordstrom Bp)

(Women's Weekend Jeans discovered at Old Navy)

(Love Squared Pintuck Roll Sleeve Blouse discovered at Nordstrom BP)

(Madison Plaid shirt discovered at Delia's)

See? I actually do update my blog! Anyways, this summer has been one of the best fashion wise I think, the trend of effortless weekend clothing is just the greatest! Button down shirts and loose straight-leg jeans are the highlight in this post, all what the trend is about and it also happens to be what tends to be flattering on shapes like me.

What is or has been your favorite trend this season? Vote in the poll on the sidebar, I want to hear back from you!

checking in

Hi all!

I'm really sorry for my lack of blogging recently--okay, the last two months. Everything around here happened at once and I never really found time to keep this place current! I will be back tomorrow though with my adventure in Ikea, and my room redecorating news. I promise!
But while I'm here, I might as well tell you what I've been doing this past week. My friend's church just had their VBS for this year and several of my friends and I helped with the four year olds in preschool. It actually was pretty fun, it's always a blast seeing everybody shouting, "One way, Jesus!" It's always been the highlight of my summer. This was the first year I helped and was not actually in it, but I do hope I'll be there helping next year!