homemade antidepressants.

some of us need more dopamine in their lives, in their synapses. i am definitely in that category so i'm always looking for things to make me happy. the most productive and consistently successful way, that i've discovered, is exercise.

but, really...how fun is exercise? not very. afterwards you feel like a rockstar. and you are!

but on those cold october evenings when you are NOT leaving your house, can't do drugs and need a dopa-rush...CAKE!

i made a new recipe of chocolate cake last night complete with rainbow sprinkles.
yeah, i'm 37...what of it?

and then this morning i made more smoothies to try and compensate for the *several* slices of cake i've had since i made this damn thing.

my husband and i had chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dinner last night. yup, that's what we had. and you know what? it worked. it brought smiles to both our faces.

take that, world!

the chocolate cake is super moist and a PERFECT birthday cake. the only things i wasn't super crazy about was the icing - it's too sweet for me. it's delicious. really. but as i get older i can't handle sugar like i used to as a kid. kids would LOVE this. but my friends recommend a Swiss Buttercream which i think may work better for me next time.
this cake is the Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake from epicurious.com. i know, mayo...gross. but if you've never had a mayo cake, don't judge! they are super moist. and tasty tasty. try it out.

the smoothies are a banana, some frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries (i prefer wyman's), flax seeds, a little skim milk and a few chocolate chips => a trick i learned from my older brother...thanks, b. enjoy!

Smoothie madness.

i've put off making smoothies for myself for years. i'm not sure why. do you ever have things you want to do but just never get around to doing? well, smoothies have been on that list for me.

i just made myself a berry, flax seed, greek yogurt, milk & choc chip smoothie for lunch and it was dee-lish-us. why have i waited so long have this healthy and satisfying food experience? i used frozen berries, a berry mix and whole, frozen strawberries. i quickly learned that for my cheap blender, that was too sticky so i added greek yogurt...still too sticky. so added about 1/2 cup of skim milk, that helped. chocolate chips (a trick i learned from my oldest brother...yum). and i had to add flax seed because uhhh...it's healthy.

bottom line is, the damn thing blended up with some coaxing from a spatula and it was soooo good.

next time i would like to use more frozen strawberries, fresh banana, more yogurt, milk, choc chips, flax seed and some chocolate protein powder.

love it!

tall clothes for women, and movies, movies, movies!

so i'm always on the lookout for tall clothing because... well, i'm tall. and as much as i'd like to fit into clothing from The Gap, Target, Anthropologie... it ain't gonna happen. i also happen to be plus-sized which makes my hunting that much trickier.

i just found this t-shirt which makes me giggle.

because oh. mah. gawd. do i get stared at a lot. and it's really irritating sometimes.

i'm searching out new sites for tall women's clothes and will report back here, stat.

i recently saw "Drive" with Ryan Gosling and thought it was pretty good.

the style was amazing, it was well-directed and made me laugh quite a bit given (SPOILER ALERT) how bloody it was! i didn't love the characters or the plot a ton, but it was worth watching. very miami vice, as my husband said. he knows a lot a lot a lot about film. more than me. and i know a fair amount. but i know more about acting. i tend to love movies that provide juicy roles for actors and actresses rather than clever directing tricks. he's kind of the opposite. i also love really clever, well-written films that have social commentary or philosophical ideologies that are well executed. "Dr Strangelove" may be the most clever comedy of all-time, in my opinion (have you seen any of "The Good Wife"?).

anyway. it's a beautiful fall day here in new york shitty and i'm babbling once again.

i also saw "The Debt" with Helen Mirren etc. it was good, not great.


i also saw "Contagion" and it was awful. just don't. i thought it would be, and it was.

i would LOVE to see "Love Crime" with Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier. i like both those actresses, love crime stories and it looks interesting and cool.

i would also very much like to see "Mozart's Sister". again, interesting and i love movies with 'strong female leads' as Netflix, soon-to-be Qwickster, keeps telling me.
whomever came up with the name 'Qwickster' should be shot. for many, many reasons.

ok! off to harlem to have homemade Indian food tonight. bet you're jealous.