photo dump (aka I made the mistake of letting the photos pile up)

This post could also be known as 'how Lu can spend a week baking and cooking and eating and still act like she's getting thinner'. Oh well.

a ton of pictures after the cut!

I baked several things this week. Starting with brownies! They were so yummy! I hadn't done them in a couple of years, but I felt like I needed something to get me through election night (Yay Obama!). I was up until 6.30am, waiting with America to see who's leading them. And I was so, so happy. I'm really sorry I wasn't able to stay awake for the speech, but my eyes were falling closed and I just couldn't. I woke up at 1pm and Wednesday was basically a lost day. Whatever. I had brownies. 

On the same day of the brownies, I decided to roast some meat I had in the freezer and seasoned it with fresh thyme from my herb garden. It was really pretty, so I had to take a picture. Bear with me.

Cut to yesterday! My sister was with me for the weekend, so what's better than baking cookies to entertain her? Last week I bought some ready-made gingerbread cookie dough from IKEA and I thought that it would be the right time to use it. It didn't disappoint. It was easy to work with and Gabs absolutely loved it. Of course, her batch couldn't even go in the oven, due to the ridiculous amounts of flour she put on it. But I made enough for the two of us. 

(winkwink at my love. I made us cookies!)

Okay. I'm a camera whore. ... sorry?

 

Of course, I have a stupid rule about photographing food: natural light, natural light, natural light. So the cookies only looked decent enough to photograph this morning. That's cream cheese frosting. I had so much of it left from the cookies that I made something else you'll see in a second. 

Also, I have absolutely no talent for decorating cookies. 

Today is November 11th, which means it's Saint Martin's day! It's a tradition here (and I imagine in other countries of the same heritage) to eat roast or boiled chestnuts with the family. We didn't have the traditional bonfire, but Grandma and I boiled some chestnuts and had them after lunch. They were so yummy. And so pretty!

And to end my bake-it-all weekend, I decided to put the leftover cream cheese frosting to good use and make some carrot cake. It's amazing. Modesty aside, one of my best, and ridiculously fast! I loved it! 

I hope you guys had a wonderful weekend, and an even better week ahead of you! Smile! And talk to me! I love hearing from you guys!