Le Week-End

Playing: Better Than Better Could Ever Be-Stephen Jerzak and Cady Groves
Reading: Travel+Leisure May 2012

Now that I'm done with my AP World textbook, I'm supposed to use the weekends to study for the AP World test coming up, but I spent mine going out and doing all the things I've been deprived of for awhile. For example, going to the mall and finally getting another pair of oxfords, which I am so in love with right now. I love the traditional style done in funky colors. I was originally hunting for a brown pair, but then these got my attention.

For dinner, I tried Renata's Cafe Italiano for the first time, which turned out to be an excellent idea because the Farfalle Genovese was absolutely delicious. I loved the way they took dishes I thought I knew and put a twist on it. Smoky bacon in your carbonara? Dried tomatoes plus fresh tomatoes in your dish? Yes, please. Also, there was a group of German guys in suits sitting at the table next to me. I was listening into their conversation and sneaking peeks at them, so when they started to look at me, I was worried that I had made it too obvious that I was watching them.

Right across the street, there's an old mansion that is now the Chamber of Commerce, I think. I really liked the upper balcony on the site and the white columns. It's nice enough to look like the front of the house, right?

And tada, here's the front of the house with a narrow driveway, probably meant for carriages, and lovely windows. I wonder how all the older houses got clumped up in one area and how none of them ended up in my city. It's probably because my city is fairly new and it used to be all farmland.

After dinner and my outing to the mall, I went home to bake cookies for the senior citizens home. I baked something like eight dozen for them that night. It was making my mouth drool, so I ran out to get another dozen for myself. Baking cookies from the packet is so much easier than from scratch. If I had done it from scratch, I would've had to clean my mixer and measuring cups plus the baking sheet, while from the packet, I only need to clean the baking sheet. Yay for saving water and soap!

Do you bake cookies from the packet or from scratch?