Friday Round-Up: May 17, 2013

Have a great weekend, folks! I’ll be doing some apartment rehabbin’ on Saturday and then it’s my dad’s birthday on Sunday. Cheers to the weekend. What are you doing?

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- Have you heard of the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield? He’s been at the International Space Station for a while, and he seems like one cool dude. Here’s how he made us care about astronauts again.

- Can Jay-Z time travel? This photo from Harlem in the ’30s seems to suggest that he can. Hova can do no wrong (Thanks, Jon)

10 hotel secrets from behind the front desk. Wash that minibar glass, apparently.

The most controversial places on Google Maps. An interesting read. (Thanks, Amy)

- In other cartography news: a map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries. (Thanks, Zac)

Carrie Bradshaw’s boyfriends on “Sex and the City,” power-ranked. Still Team Aidan.

- Totally common occurrences in Australia. The nightmare koala forever and ever. (Thanks, Michelle)

- The bakery kicked off Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” takes to Facebook to vent their frustrations, in the most epic brand meltdown ever.

- Why, yes, this video of pandas romping on a slide is as cute as it sounds. (Thanks, Zach)

- HGTV is giving away a dream home in Jacksonville, FL, plus $100k in cash and a new car. Enter daily until the 31st to win.

- And lastly, a photo of monkeys lounging in hot springs in Japan. Thank you, Internet! (And you, Anna)

Angel Food Pudding Cake

I made this light and semi-healthy dessert for Mother’s Day yesterday and I thought it turned out yummy enough to share with you.

The base is angel food cake, covered with a vanilla pudding/cool whip concoction and topped with fresh strawberries and sliced bananas. As far as summery desserts go, it’s the trifecta: easy to make, chilled, and light. NOM NOM NOM.

Confession: I had no idea what to call this. Angel fruit dessert? The recipe I loosely followed called it that—but zoinks, too many nouns. Angel cake fruit pudding? Sounds like something from Google Translate. I decided on Angel Food Pudding Cake. Eh. Not a homerun with the name. Just remember: a rose by any other name, yadda yadda.

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Click here to download the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 baked angel food cake
  • 1 large package of instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 12-oz container of Cool Whip
  • Fresh fruit for toppings (I did strawberries and bananas but you could also do kiwi, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, etc)

Directions:

1. Tear angel food cake into bite-size pieces and cover the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan.

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2. Prepare instant pudding according to package directions. Allow it to set. Add in the Cool Whip, mixing until blended. Pour the pudding mixture over the cake.

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3. Top with fresh fruit. Refrigerate and serve.

4. After noshing on said dessert, attempt a mother-daughter photo. Get photobombed by large German Shepherd.

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Do you have a go-to summer dessert recipe? Oooh, please share if so! 

Friday Round-Up: May 10, 2013

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What are you up to this weekend? Tomorrow, I’m going with my boyfriend’s family to see the musical Oklahoma! at Chicago’s Lyric Opera house. One of my favorite musicals, so I’m pretty pumped. On Sunday, we’re grilling at my boyfriend’s parents’ house and then having dessert at my folks’ in honor of the madres. Happy […]

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Six Lessons I’ve Learned From My Mom

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In honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, I’m dedicating this post to the wonderful woman who brought me into this world (here on out also referred to as Lynn, Lynnie, Mama Larsen, et al). Folks, she’s wise, she’s beautiful, she’s kind, and now she’s blushing as she reads this—Hi, mom! Here are just a handful […]

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Book Chat: “The Defining Decade,” “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” and More

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We haven’t chatted about books in a long while, and let me tell you, folks, I’ve been a-readin’. Here are my recommendations. What are you in the mood for? A historical (but fictitious) look at Jim Crow-era America: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis 39-year-old Ayana Mathis began working on The Twelve Tribes […]

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Friday Round-Up: May 3, 2013

Paris, 2010

Another week down the tubes. Time is flying. Have a great weekend. – Have you heard about the new trend of the “PromProposal”? Apparently, kids are pulling out all the stops to ask one another to the Big Dance these days. – My favorite link this week: 17 animals that don’t even know what happened to […]

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Summer Vacation Suggestions

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Happy May Day! Summer is nearly here. Warmer weather always gets me excited to travel, even though, as a working adult, I s’pose I can go on vacation at any point in the year. That always seems so luxurious, a vacation in say, November. I don’t have much on tap this upcoming summer, travel-wise: a trip […]

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Hiking in Starved Rock State Park

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On Saturday, Mike and I traveled 80 miles southwest of Chicago to Starved Rock State Park, a little slice of wilderness along the Illinois River. It’s been raining a lot lately here in IL, so I was anticipating that the park’s picturesque canyons would be flowing with waterfalls. But I neglected to factor in the […]

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Friday Round-Up: April 26, 2013

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Friday is here! What are you up to this weekend? I’m hiking Starved Rock State Park on Saturday and today, my favorite little lunkhead turns one year old! Happy birthday to the Bod-man. I just love these pooches to the moon and back. – 30 beautiful, abandoned places. Haunting, but gorgeous. (Thanks, Maura!) – 10 hilarious […]

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Wilderness Survival Kit: Do You Have One?

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Every so often, the company I work for hosts a lecture series called “Lunch n’ Learn” in which you spend your lunch hour listening to an expert share his or her wisdom about a wide range of non-work-related topics like nutrition, photography, or investing in the stock market. I love it. Just trying to be […]

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