Laura in the Kitchen: Cherry-Cheesecake Pops

It has been a HOT summer, eh? (I threw an "eh" into conversation with an American friend today...gosh. You know you're back in Canada when...)

I was browsing my mom's Chatelaine magazine and came across this recipe for Cherry-Cheesecake Pops. Cheesecake + Frozen = Perfection on a warm summer day. 

So here's Cherry-Cheesecake Pops: The Musical! Sorry I got carried away...it's just a recipe. But you can sing while you're making them.

1. Start out with 2 cups of cherries.

  

2. (This part stinks a bit, unless you're Martha Stewart and have people do this for you.) You have to pit and chop up the cherries so that they look something like this. You can actually buy a cherry pitter if you like to pit cherries on a regular basis, such as this one: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/oxo-olive-and-cherry-pitter/.

Baby, you're a firework.

From savvysmilinginlove on flickr

i'm usually not into pop music and when my friend asked me if i knew katy perry's Firework (on 4th of july, actually), i gave a "yeaaaah." but she insisted i listened to the lyrics, and i'm glad i gave miss perry another shot. they are absolutely inspiring. it seems like it's a day when i need an extra dose of inspiration so i thought i'd share it with you too. hope it makes you feel like anything is possible!

 

oh yeah, there's a spark in you.

 

FIREWORK - Katy Perry

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting throught the wind

Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards

One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep

Six feet under screams

But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there's still a chance for you

Cause there's a spark in you

You just gotta ignite the light

And let it shine

Just own the night

Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you're a firework

Come on show 'em what your worth

Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"

As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Appreciating the Little Things

I had a hard time getting up this morning.

I was feeling all emo and thinking about how my life is not really as I'd like it to be right now.

Naturally I wanted to stay in bed and pity myself.

But with my head echoing the wise words of my friends, and through my own experience, I knew I needed to get up, go outside and burn off some steam.

I went biking through all the little bits of nature in my town. 

Three things that make me happy. 1. Biking. 2. Nature. 3. High Serotonin levels.

I get to this one little marshy, swampy pond area that I frequent, and often as I'm riding around I like to perch on this wooden bridge for a while and watch the ducks and other birds. I like how light and carefree birds are.

Today a special treasure was waiting for me...a beaver.

You might be thinking, okay whatever, you live in Canada, beavers flock around like squirrels. But they do NOT. Funnily enough though, this is the second beaver that I've seen in the course of a couple weeks (which have been the first I've EVER seen in the wild!).

I was completely enamored with this beaver. I couldn't stop watching it. He would go swim into the middle the pond, dive down grab some sticks or mud and then come back towards me to build on to his dam. Somehow he managed to bring up handfuls of mud and pack it on to his house. Beavers are so funny. They're like living cartoons.