Hellos and Brownies

Hey, guys! :D So, it's been a while since I did my last blog post...well, I guess a few months really IS a while, and it's been too long. I've missed you guys. :(

But I'm back now! :) I really don't have much to say in this post, honestly. I never know what to say. :)

High school has been insane, but I like being busy, and I like using my mind. It keeps me going, and I'm glad I can think. Thinking is an incredible thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did an entire post once about thinking...I did, right? :)

So, today, I'm just going to be sharing a little recipe for brownies! :) I love cooking, but brownies are one of my favorite things to cook, simply because they're so easy and oh so delicious. :) So, without further adieu, let's get started! :D

GATHER:

1/2 cup of vegetable oil.
1 cup of sugar.
1 teaspoon of vanilla.
2 large eggs (honestly though, they don't have to be large. I didn't use large eggs and they turned out fine. :D)
1/4 teaspoon of baking power (to not be confused with baking SODA. I learned that the hard way. Lol. :D)
1/3 cup of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of flour

TO DO THE THING:

Preheat oven to 350o.

Mix oil and sugar until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla, and stir until just blended (I would not advise over stirring). Mix all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.* Pour into a greased 9x9 square pan.* Cook for twenty minutes or until sides start to pull away from the pan. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

NOTES:

*1 = I didn't mix the dry ingredients into a separate bowl when I made it. I added them all straight into the bowl with the sugar/egg/oil/vanilla mixture and then mixed it all together. I really don't think it matters either way. That, or I'm just lazy and didn't want to wash the extra bowl. XD

*2 = If you want, you can double the recipe and bake it in a 9x13 greased baking pan. That's what I did when I made it. However, if you do so choose to double it, you have to cook it for a bit of extra time - I added five minutes at first and then tested it with a fork. If the fork doesn't come out clean, cook it for another five minutes and see. DO NOT OVERCOOK. Brownies tend to harden quite a bit after they cool, so even if it seems mushy when you test it with a fork, as long as the fork comes out clean, you should be fine. :)

Have fun, and I hope you enjoy making (and better yet, EATING) these brownies! :D

-BeyondTheClouds777

RECIPE TAKEN FROM: FOOD.COM

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Lemon Bars

Hello, amazing people! It is Friday, June 26th, around ten o'clock here in California, and today, I'm going to show you one of my favorite all-time recipes: LEMON BARS!!

These bars are brilliant, INCREDIBLY tasty, and SUPER awesome. I'm making three-to-four batches of them today to take to some friends of mine who live nearby, and I wanted to share it with you guys, too! So, without further adieu, let's begin! :)

GATHER:

For the crust: 
2 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (1 1/12 sticks) of cold butter, cut into cubes (or pats)
1/2 cup of confectioners' (powdered) sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

For the filling: 
1 1/3 cups of granulated sugar
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice (you can juice it yourself, or buy lemon juice at the store - it really doesn't matter either way)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind (it's optional, and I never use it in my lemon bars, but you can if you like)
Extra powdered sugar for dusting

TO DO THE THING:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish with foil and let the foil overhang just a little bit (this will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after cooking). Coat lightly with non-stick cooking spray.

Next, prepare the crust: Combine flour, butter, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor, or you can use your fingers to mash the butter and other ingredients together in a bowl. I for one do not use a food processor, but I'm sure it makes it a lot easier. You can do whichever way, and I'm sure it'll be fine. If you do use a food processor, whirl with one-and-off pulses until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Scrape crust into prepared pan and pat down to level it evenly. Bake the crust in your preheated oven for twenty minutes or until lightly browned. Leave the oven on.

Meanwhile, to make the filling, combine sugar, flour, baking powder, lemon juice, eggs, and lemon rind if you are using it, into a food processor (or a large bowl if you do not want to use a food processor. Like I said, I never use it). Whirl (or whisk in a bowl) until well blended. Pour filling over your crust while the crust is still hot.

Bake in the 350 oven for 20 minutes or until set in the center. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Afterwards, you can carefully lift the foil to remove the Lemon Bars. Cut into squares and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. You can refrigerate them in an air-tight container for up to a week.

And there you have it! Just make sure you don't eat too many at one time. Stomach aches insure. So, I hope you enjoy this, and I'll see you all in my next post! :D

(Recipe taken from "FamilyCircle All-Time Favorite Recipes")

-BeyondTheClouds777

Movie Logic

Hello, everybody! Today is Monday, June 8th, but I felt like sharing something with you all that has been bothering me. So, today, I am going to rant about the logic in movies. Let us begin! :) 

First of all, I was wondering...why is it that whenever there is a super skinny, super unstable piece of wood positioned conveniently (or moved from a very convenient place) over something super dangerous (e.g. lava, the side of a building), the first thing the guy does it walk across it!? I understand the purpose of a chase scene, but plllleeeaaassseeee do the smart thing! And that way, you spare us of the thirty seconds of suspense. 

DO WE REALLY NEED THE EXTRA SUSPENSE!? 

Oh, and hello, heroic protagonist, I understand that you want to make yourself look all cool and dramatic by darting away from people shooting at you at full speed, but looking COOL is not important here! The important thing is NOT GETTING SHOT! Run in a zig-zag! Turn to the left! Don't run in a straight line! 

If there's a helicopter in a movie, it'll blow up. It just will. 

"What do we do?" "We break in!" I'm sorry, but "breaking in" will not always be your best option, guys. Think of something original. 

This one goes out to super heroes everywhere: Do you have to smash a hole in the wall every time you make a dramatic entrance? I mean, seriously. The door's right there... 

If you are shot somewhere (the shoulder, the leg, the ankle, etc.), you can keep fighting with no pain as long as you wrap a piece of cloth around it. I AM SORRY, BUT NO. Just NO. Where do people get this stuff!? 

Speaking of wounds...people in movies can get beat up without complaint (sometimes they practically get thrown across the street), but they wince and groan while people are fixing them up. 

Whenever you switch a light switch, it will make a rather loud noise, no matter what. 

If you're sneaking in somewhere, the door will creak. It just will.  

You're trying to be quiet and not wake someone up. So, you crash into the bookshelf, shatter glass, and fire a gun maybe, and the guy doesn't wake up. And then, as the floorboards creak, the guy will wake up. 

Seriously? 

*person dies in movie* Aww, too bad. *dog dies in movie* NO!!! SO SAD! NO! NOT THE DOG! 

They never look at the explosions they cause. They just don't. 

If a window breaks in a plane, you will instantly be sucked out of it. 

The moral of this post: Well, I hope they make more realistic movies sometime. :D Although, even though movies aren't always one hundred percent accurate, there's only so much they can do while sticking to reality and making the movie interesting. 

Well, anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this post, and I'll see you next post! :D 

-BeyondTheClouds777

 

Preacher Cookies!

Hello, everyone! So, it's been a while since my last pose *cough cough* last month *cough* and I decided that I want to get back to doing it! :) *streamers*

Now, I've been thinking about this post for a while, and then the minute I sit down to write it, my mind goes *BLINK* and all my thoughts just seem gone. So, I'm going to give you guys the recipe for my favorite type of cookies:

PREACHER COOKIES!! :D

GATHER: 

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of milk
3 spoonfuls of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 cup of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 cups of instant dry oats

TO DO THE THING: 

Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted. Add the milk and sugar and stir. Bring it to a boil and boil for three minutes, stirring continually (you HAVE TO stir it continually...I learned that the HARD way). Remove from heat.

Now, the order in which you add the other ingredients is important, and here it is: Add the peanut butter and stir until dissolved.  Then, add the vanilla. Then, add the cocoa, and stir. Then, add the oats last. You have to add everything quickly, or else you won't have time to add everything before the mixture becomes hard. If it's crumbly, add a tablespoon of milk and stir. If it is still crumbly, add another tablespoon of milk and stir, and so on. DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH MILK. I learned that the hard way, too.

Spread a long piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper (I use foil, but you can use either one. Parchment paper works best) and spoon the dough onto it. It really doesn't matter how big or small they are; it's entirely up to you.

Let them sit for five-ten minutes, and they will harden on their own! No oven necessary! :) I know, right? Awesome! :) And then you eat ALL the cookies! Actually, no, don't eat all the cookies. I ate five one time and felt sick, so, yeah, don't eat all of them.

Enjoy! And just so everyone knows, this is an easy recipe, but it's also easy to mess up on. I messed up gazillions of times, and I still do nearly every time I make these cookies. A few tips I can give you:

DO NOT add the cocoa last. It'll make the cookies REALLY dry.

If you don't add the peanut butter first, you will most likely end up with chunks of peanut butter in your cookies because it won't melt. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.

I don't always add an exact two cups of oats; sometimes I add one and a half cups (1 1/2) instead simply because sometimes too many oats just seems rather ridiculous. :)

If you don't stir the butter, milk and sugar mixture, it will BURN, and then it will taste BAD. And make sure you do it for three whole minutes, or else your cookies won't harden. And make sure it's at a full boil before you start your timer. It'll look really bubbly when it's fully boiled. WARNING: sometimes it does splatter, so I put an oven mitt over my hand as I stir it.

Alright, guys! I hope you all enjoy this recipe, and I'll see you soon! :D

-BeyondTheClouds777

Let's Rant

There are some things in the world that really, really bother me. And today, if you don't mind, I am going to rant.

FIRST OF ALL, I just DO NOT understand why some boys I know refuse to read my books because they were written by a "girl" and so my books are going to be "girly." I honestly don't get that. Of course, naturally, since I am a girl, I am going to write about girls because I know more about girls then I know about boys...

BUT THAT DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT MEAN THAT WHAT I WRITE IS GIRLY. There are hundreds of female authors in the world that are not criticized for being a "girl" and thereby writing "girly" stuff.

The writer of "Hunger Games" is a girl. Do they call her writing "girly"? Of course not! The writer of "Divergent" is a girl, and her work isn't girly. The writer of the "How To Train Your Dragon" books is a girl, and her writing isn't girly.

See what I mean? Yes, I am a girl, and yes, there are girls in my books, but that doesn't mean that my writing is girly.

And even if my writing was girly, what's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with writing girly stuff.

Another thing I have realized that really bothers me is that some of my friends use "girl" as an insult. Like, "You scream like a girl!" or "Don't act like a girl!" or "You play ball like a girl!" as if being a girl is a bad thing. You never hear people say "You scream like a boy!" or "You play ball like a boy!"

Why is being a girl so different then being a boy? Of course, I understand COMPLETELY that there are MANY, MANY differences, but being a girl doesn't mean that you fail at everything.

I think it's sad that some people are really put down with the insults like that. I know it bothers me to extreme levels. I don't understand why society thinks it's bad to do things, quote unquote, "Like a girl." I have a lot of girl friends, and they are BRILLIANT. They are smart, kind, incredibly amazing, intelligent, and funny. Some of them play piano, and they play it GREAT. Some of them have incredible drawing capabilities. ALL of them have some sort of incredible gift that always blows my mind one way or another.

I don't understand why people make the "Like a girl" thing insulting. I don't think that boys are better then girls, and I also don't think that girls are better than boys. All of us have our capabilities. All of us have the things we can do, and the things we can't do. Some girls can't do some things some boys can do, and some boys can't do the things some girls can do.

We're - boys and girls alike - all created in the image of God. God didn't make boys better than girls, and he didn't make girls better than boys. We're equal in that sense.

So why is "like a girl" an insult?

If there is a conclusion to this post, it's that you shouldn't let other people look down on you because of your gender. We're all created in the image of God. No one person is better than the other. And remember that "For God so loved the world" (John 3:16). He died for all of us; boys and girls alike. He loves us all; boys and girls alike.

We should love others, too, both the girls and the boys.

-BeyondTheClouds777
 

I Am Me

...it is not Friday. 

BUT I was really in the mood to do some sort of post. There was a reason for it, but I kind of forget. Well, hopefully going a post on Monday won't ruin my usual jig... 

Jig. I love that word. Don't know what it means, really, but I'm pretty sure it means something that has to do with the way I roll. What does that term mean? The way I roll...down a hill? That's not good if you do it on accident. It hurts when you do it on accident. But when you roll down a hill on purpose it's supposed to be "fun." 

So, saying "This is the way I roll!" could either be good, or it could be bad. Painful, fun...either way, I have no idea what the term means, or how it even came to be. Many things roll. I rolled my ankle a while back. That wasn't good. Cars roll, but that's also how you can crash them. I suppose rolling can be good, and I also suppose rolling could be bad. 

And once again, I completely got off the original subject. 

So, yes, this is me, I suppose...doing little BeyondTheClouds777 things...no comments on this blog yet. I got a few 1+ on two or three of my posts, and 250 pageviews... 

Oh, YES. That's what this post was for! Honoring my 250 pageviews on this blog! *streamers* I don't know who you are, but someone's reading my blog, and for that, I say, THANK YOU. :) That's what I dedicate this post to: all the awesome people who read my blog! Thanks you guys! Awesomeness! :)

-BeyondTheClouds777 

It is FRIDAY AGAIN, PEOPLE!!

HELLO ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO ARE MORE AWESOME THEN ME! IT'S FRIDAY! BLOG POST DAY! DAT DAT DAT DAT DAT *theme music in the background* Daaaaaaaaa!!! *cymbal crashes*

So, lately, well, I haven't been doing much. Not much interesting, anyways. I was just wondering...do any of you remember the era of Silly Bracelets? Like, you were only cool if you had them going all the way up to your elbows, and the people who did have them like that were considered "awesome"?

I remember that time. Very strange, very awesome...nowadays, the biggest thing is a Rainbow Loom, which I do not own so I am considered "not cool." 

But you know what? It takes more than bracelets and little tiny rubber bands to be awesome. Because, you know, like I said at the beginning, you are all awesome, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, because it's just simply not true.

I should be doing more interesting posts in the time to come, so, yes, look forward to those. I've been doing short ones, just simply because there isn't much for me to really say...

So...

...yeah. That sounds just about right. Well, I will see all of you awesome people (don't forget that, by the way!) when I do my next post, next Friday! See you all then!

-BeyondTheClouds777