requies

I have a little niece named Delaney who is 3 months old. Enough talking, let's get to the pictures! Behold the extreme cuteness!

Finally! The long awaited Mini Cheesecake post! This dessert concludes our summer dessert series. Unlike the Strawberry Mousse, it involves baking, but it is still perfect for the hottest season because it is served chilled. Also unlike the Strawberry Mousse which is as light as air, these cheesecakes are creamy, decadent and quite the indulgence!

This was my first time baking cheesecake, so if you have never baked cheesecake before, this recipe is perfect for your first foray into the art. 

Sorry guys, I'm going to get political on you. It was bound to happen eventually, right? If this makes you nervous, feel free to skip this entry. I understand : ) 

Here are a gazillion pictures from our family trip to Alaska last month. These are the highlights from my camera. Soon I'll post pictures from Jared's camera, which takes higher quality photos. So check back to see even bigger, better and more awe inspiring pictures! Facebook friends, for some reason I have trouble uploading pictures to facebook. The pictures are always tiny! So, these images are more appropriately sized. Enjoy!

Cathy, over at Noble Pig (link in the right margin), has lots of great cupcake recipes. They are particularly great because many of them do not require icing! I've never been a big fan of icing, sad I know. One such example is a dessert she calls Cherry Tassies. I have never heard of a "tassie," so I decided to give these treats a more descriptive name. They are super buttery, like shortbread, and this is my favorite thing about them. Even better than the cherry! They are also quite minty, more minty than I expected. And because I did not expect it, the flavor was at first a bit off putting.

Jared showed me this amazing youtube video a few years ago, in which there are a series of machines that accomplish a simple task via the guided movement of a marble. But the best part about this video, is that after each marble reached its destination you hear a simple melody of Japanese mystery words, something like itakura zuichi. This melody is very catchy, and honestly gets stuck in my head even now, years later. I've always wanted to be able to sing that little song after I witness or accomplish something that works out just right, against all odds. Like maybe, going through a light right before it turns red, catching a fragile falling object before it hits the ground, or getting to the train right before it leaves.

So, this video and the accompanying song represent enjoying little unlikely successes. Even though I think about it a lot, I have never been able to find it again. How would I even search for it? I tried typing in what the Japanese song sounds like to me, itakura zuichi, but since that is surely just gibberish it yielded no results. 

But today, after much internet detective work, all that has changed! I finally found the video! *sings* Pitagora Suitichi!