dontcha know..?

(via grandsoulgem)

nedhepburn:

This one time I painted a living room with a girl.

This was a handful of years back. It was about eight months before the huge, flame-out of a breakup. That day, though? That day we painted the living room? It was pretty uneventful. We painted my parents living room for $50 between us and a pizza. That was it. I think we watched Anchorman or something after that.

But it still holds as on of the most indelible memories I have. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not still in love, it happened, it was good, it ended, and we’ve both moved on. But I’ll never forget that day. Because it’s never, in the long run, about the grand gestures. You can fly across the world and show up on her doorstep with a rose in your teeth and a ring in a little velvet box but I can guarantee you that - more often than not - she’s going to remember the time you built the birdhouse in the back yard, or what have you, a whole lot more.

Life wasn’t meant to be taken in large movements. The next day will inevitably arrive, you’ll sleep, and the moment will have passed. But when you have a hundred thousand small moments, you can step back and appreciate the picture a lot more than metaphorically blowing your load on some grand moment that, in all honesty, look, you’re not Bruce Fucking Springsteen, you’re not going to be able to blow everyone’s mind every single night. You’re not Romeo and/or Juliet. There’s no reason to drink the poison together in some flame-out gesture. So that leaves us with the small stuff. It’s all about the detail.

That’s what love is. Attention to detail.

And the moment will end. And then things will get boring. And it might get a little quiet. And it might all end horribly. And you might hate eachother at the end. And you might walk away from eachother one day and never speak again. But that’s just how it goes.

But she’ll remember the time you held the door open for her on your first date.
She’ll remember the time you laughed at her impression of the landlady.
She’ll remember the time you stayed up all night that first time.
She’ll remember the small things a lot longer than the big ones.

But everything ends. And I’ll tell you why you have to make the small things, the small moments count so much more:

One day, probably a while longer from now, when old age takes ahold of someone, she might just only remember your smile. Everything you ever did together, every second, every moment, every beat, every morning spent in bed, every evening spent together on the sofa, all of that - gone. Everything you ever did will be reduced to the head of a pin. She won’t remember your name. She’ll just remember your smile, and she’ll smile. She won’t know why. It’s a base, gut reaction. But she’ll smile, uncontrollably, and it will come from somewhere so deep as to know that you touched her on a primal, honest, and true level that no scientist, scholar, or savant could ever begin to explain. There is no more. There is nothing else. There is just this: She’ll remember your smile, and she’ll smile.

And you know what? That’s all that really matters in the end.

(via grandsoulgem)

class of 2011 :)

nicolrene:

yes.

(via grandsoulgem)

(via excitable)

hellyeahrecipes:

Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Ganache & Salted Caramel

serves 8

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (10 or 11 whole crackers)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Ganache Layer

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

Pastry Cream

• 1 2/3 cups whole milk
• ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out and reserved
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salted Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel (or kosher salt)

For Assembly

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 3 medium bananas

Make the crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Combine the crumbs and sugar in a bowl. Add the butter and mix until the crumbs are moistened. Pour the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and use a flat-bottomed cup to press the crumbs evenly over the bottom; press it up the sides with your fingers. The edges of the shell will be crumbly.
2. Bake until lightly browned, 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.

Make the ganache:

1. Set the chocolate into a bowl. Heat the heavy cream to boiling point and pour over the chocolate. Let stand a couple of minutes and gently stir until fully incorporated and glossy. It should be the consistency of warmed chocolate syrup. Cool to room temperature. Pour over the cooled pie crust and refrigerate.

Make the pastry cream:

1. Combine the milk, ¼ cup of sugar, and the vanilla bean and seeds in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. (Tip: If the vanilla bean is hardened, throw the entire bean in the saucepan so that it softens as the milk warms up. Once it’s pliable again, fish it out, split it in half, and scrape the seeds out. Add it all back into the saucepan until the mixture simmers.)
2. In a small bowl, sift the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar together with the cornstarch. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and yolks.
3. When the milk comes to a simmer, strain out the vanilla bean pods. Add the cornstarch mixture to the eggs and whisk until well combined. While whisking, slowly pour in about one-quarter of the milk to temper the egg mixture. Transfer this mixture to the saucepan, set over low heat, and simmer, whisking constantly, until it reaches the consistency of thick pudding. (Be careful not to curdle the eggs.)
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until incorporated. If the mixture isn’t quite as smooth as you’d like, you can always run it through a sieve. Pour into a shallow bowl, place plastic wrap directly on the surface, and chill.

Make the caramel sauce:

1. In a heavy saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together sugar and water, and bring to a boil. Let boil until amber-colored. Once it starts taking on color, keep a close eye because it will turn quickly.
2. Immediately add butter and stir to incorporate. Remove from heat, add cream and salt (be careful, it will splatter), and mix well. It should be smooth and have a syrup-like consistency. Let cool to room temperature.

To assemble:

1. Using an electric mixer or a whisk, whip the heavy cream into peaks. Add powdered sugar and incorporate. Transfer the pastry cream to a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Fold in about half of the whipped cream.
2. Line the bottom of the pie crust with a layer of bananas (approximately two bananas sliced into rounds). With the remaining banana, slice half if it into rounds for garnish, and roughly chop the other half to fold into the pastry cream.
3. Drizzle a thin layer of caramel sauce over the bananas.
4. Spoon the pastry cream evenly into the crust. Mound the remaining whipped cream on top.
5. Drizzle some caramel sauce over the whipped cream, swirling it decoratively. Decorate with remaining banana slices.
6. Chill, and serve within 24 hours. Plate with remaining caramel sauce.

theartofbeingalive:

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hipsterseatheartattacks:

xoxoillest:

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH winning.

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