Baileys and Shortbread Milkshake

And the booziest day of the year has arrived! I've never been much of a St. Paddy's gal, and since I've been commuting to work or from school over the past few years, I've come to associate the holiday with nothing more than a mass transit and commuter nightmare. Penn Station is awful on its own, but it transforms into this hellish, rowdy black hole, the kind of place where all you want to do is head in and head back out, as fast as you possibly can. I think based on those facts alone, it's clear that I'm no St. Patrick's Day partier, but it doesn't mean I'm a party pooper either.  I just celebrate with food instead of booze! Marrying the two and incorporating my one true love, ice cream, is the best of both worlds. 

Frozen Hot Chocolate with Baileys

I'm officially on spring break!  Woo!  Finally!  Time to relax and take it easy right?  NOPE.  I wish that were the case.  I have so much planned for this break, it's kinda crazy.  I didn't go away anywhere, but I am home for a few days, meaning that I have lots of baking projects planned out (they are perfectly organized on a sticky note and a massive last minute ingredient shopping list has been made) and I'm really excited to tackle that list. Aside from my ambitious baking plans, I also need to get a decent amount of work done for my independent research project and my portfolio, the deadline for which, is rapidly approaching. Oh boy...

Regardless of how much I am somehow supposed to get accomplished for school during spring break, I'm definitely most excited for the baking part of my days off.  I have such great things planned, and the three other recipes I've managed to prepare and photograph in the day I've been home...let's just say I'm very excited to get to share them with you in the coming days!  But first things first.  This frozen hot chocolate with Baileys is something you should definitely make soon, especially since St. Patrick's day is coming up this weekend!  The recipe was inspired by David Lebovitz's recreation of Serendipity's Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, which is seriously one of the best frozen drink creations I've ever had.  If you haven't had a chance to stop by Serendipity 3 yet, you should definitely put it as a destination point on your list of things to do in NYC!  It might be a little cliche and overdone, but I love it, almost as much as I loved this version of their frozen hot chocolate. 

Snickers and Pretzel Milkshake

I hope everyone on the East Coast that's been affected by Sandy is alright!  This isn't my favorite way to start off a blog post, but it must be said.  It definitely seems like Sandy caused a lot more damage than I had anticipated; I hadn't given it much thought, thinking it would only be around the status of Irene last year.  That was clearly not the case though.  I was at Columbia during the entire duration of the storm, so I didn't even notice any of the effects very much.  Being this far uptown, all we noticed were heavy winds and some rain, and we didn't lose power or anything.  I wish I could say that everyone else got off this easy though.  I managed to get off the phone with my sister a little while ago, and she told me that they're not likely to get power back for another week!  Sigh.  Hopefully public transit and power are restored soon!  In any case, I hope everyone is alright from the storm, and that no one suffered from too much damage.  But anyway, let's lighten up the mood. It's practically Halloween, and candy and milkshakes are in order.  

Wait.  Candy + milkshakes?!  Yes.  It's time. 

Trick or treating brings back so many memories from when I was little, as I'm sure it does for most people.  My sister and I were very serious about trick or treating, and we would always try to stay out as long as possible in order to maximize our trick or treating results and get the most amount of candy possible.  Before we moved out to Long Island, we used to live in Queens, and one year, we got together with a close friend of mine, and went trick or treating in our old neighborhood.  Needless to say, that was the BEST trick or treating experience ever. We weren't trying to play cool and go off trick or treating without our moms, as we figured that having more candy >>> looking cool, so we were able to enlist the help of our moms to help carry candy once our bags got too full.  It a matter of about an hour, my sister, my friend, and I got about 11 pounds of candy...each.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  My mom made us weigh the bags of candy once we got home, because we just couldn't believe that we had gotten that much candy in such a short period of time.  It was without a doubt, the best Halloween ever.  I don't remember my costume from that year, but the excess in candy certainly made up for it!

Piña Colada Milkshake

The weather is finally starting to cool down, and it feels like fall is just around the corner (it technically already is, but now it actually feels like it).  With only a week left until the change of season becomes completely official, I've gotta say that I'm super excited.  Fall is without a doubt my favorite season, and fall in New York is just amazing.  Gotta love the changing colors of all the leaves!  

That's not to say that I don't love summer too, or any of the other seasons.  Fall just happens to be the best one I think.  However, with only a week of summer left, I figured it was necessary to make one last summer-related post, and a milkshake was definitely the way to go.  Now that my schedule is a little busier since classes are picking up, milkshakes are the perfect way to enjoy something special without having to invest a lot of time into making it.  Not to mention that I just love milkshakes in general, so really, I think any time is perfect for a milkshake!

Spumoni Milkshake

If you've ever been to New York, or had an encounter with a New Yorker, you know that there is a serious distinction between New York (as in "the City") and everywhere else, as in Long Island, or upstate New York. There's also a distinction to be made between the different boroughs of New York City, with some people going as far as claiming that only Manhattan is actually "the City," because heaven forbid you refer to Queens or the Bronx as "the City."  That's just blasphemy.  I don't buy into all that though.  I've had the privilege of living in Queens (although this doesn't really count; I was only 8 years old when we moved, so I didn't really do much living back then, as the extent of my solo adventures consisted of traveling to the corner store to buy a newspaper for my dad), Long Island, and most recently, Manhattan.  I've gotten to know both Long Island and Manhattan pretty well, and I actually think that each has their good components.

Cupcake Milkshake

Hello again!  It feels like it's been forever since I've posted something here, even though it's only been slightly over a week since I last brought you all a recipe.  In any case, this past week my life was completely consumed by studio, where I spent way too many hours to count making digital models, and working on Illustrator and Photoshop to create my final presentation boards.  My final review was yesterday, and after legitimately not sleeping for nearly a week, let's just say I attempted to make up for it yesterday, by passing out on my bed at 2:30 pm and sleeping without interruption until 9 am this morning...is it bad that I'm still a little tired?  To say the least, I got a bit flustered when I had to open up Photoshop today to look over my photos for this post (ughhh Photoshop AGAIN?! NO!!!), but then my mood changed completely after seeing the photos I had opened up. 

Cupcake milkshakes!!! What a relief it was to see something not-architecture related, and instead see something pretty and colorful, and full of sprinkles!  I could feel myself getting all happy and in just a better mood overall.  I made these milkshakes a couple weeks ago in advance, because I knew that right about now I'd be swimming in the amount work that I'd have to do and such, so looking back at the photos I took for this post made me really want a cupcake milkshake!