Homemade Funnel Cake and Frappucinos

Hey everyone!

So because this is one of my only weeks back this summer (for reasons mentioned in my last post), I really wanted to hang out with my friends and go on adventures. I've always wanted to go on adventures with my friends, even more so since I've read Paper Towns by John Green (a book review shall be up soon- and if you haven't read it, read it because it's fabulous). Originally, my friends Leah, Melody, and I were planning on hiking to the Stone Living Room (a really cool archaeological site on top of a mountain near our town), but plans fell through when we lost our one and only ride and both Leah and Mel couldn't come over. So I decided to call up two more of my friends Morgan and Melinda. As it turns out, we did have an adventure... only ours was in the kitchen.

This really weird burst of inspiration came to me after reading Emma and Elise's blog www.abeautifulmess.com (they both actually inspired me to make my own blog!). They had this outrageous recipe for funnel cakes which we decided to test that actually turned out to be pretty good!! The recipe is below.

Funnel Cake Batter:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup corn starch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

oil for frying (do NOT use olive oil- that was my biggest mistake. try vegetable or canola)

Whisk together all dry ingredients. Next stir in water, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix together until there are NO bubbles and/or bumps in the batter. Pour into a squeeze bottle. We decided to use an icing bag, but overall it was INCREDIBLY messy (we literally had to wash the floor for thirty minutes afterwards- go for the squeeze bottle).

Start to heat up your oil in a heavy duty pot. We decided to use a dutch oven, and it worked surprisingly well. Until we nearly set my house on fire. More on that later. 

We heated our oil up to around 220 degrees. Emma and Elise's recipe called for around 375, but we were too impatient. It still worked incredibly well. Once the oil itself is hot enough, squeeze your batter into the hot oil in circular motions, making sure the batter touches itself so it will stick together. Keep it in the oil until it browns. If the oil is at the correct temperature, it should happen rather quickly. 

Once it's fried, take out the funnel cake and place it on some paper towels to remove the excess oil. Then throw on some powdered sugar and you're good to go!!

We (I) was stupid and decided to use olive oil instead of vegetable or canola oil. Don't try it. It made the overall thing taste a little bit funky. We also thought that we should have added more sugar. It would have made the whole cake taste a little better. But we still enjoyed it. Hence Morgan and Melinda below. 

As good as they were and as fun as they were to make, after we finished frying the oil basically evaporated and smoked up my entire house. It was terrifying. I was legitimately concerned that my house was going to catch on fire-it was that bad. 

We decided to make up for it by making our own Starbucks Frappucinos. We looked up a recipe for a Java Chip Frappucino, and the result was fabulous. It tasted really, really good. 

So of course we took a lot of selfies with it. 

Homemade Java Chip Frappucino Recipe

1 1/2 cup ice

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup Starbucks Coffee (we used the blonde blend)

2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips (we used semi-sweet morsels)

Blend in a blender on the ice crush setting, but blend for NO LONGER than 2 minutes max. I blended our frappucinos for a bit too long, and as a result the chocolate chips and ice separated from the coffee and milk. It was still fantastic though. 

To add even more to our frappucino adventure, we ran up on my roof and drank our drinks and talked. All in all it was an awesome day. I've missed hanging out with my friends. :)

Jesus Christ they scare me sometimes. And here's one last picture of me attempting to be artsy and nearly killing myself in the process. 

Until next time guys!! I can't wait to post more of my last-minute summer adventures. :)

~Meg

P.S. Morgan says hi 

Current Whereabouts and Future Plans

Hey everyone!
     I want to apologize for disappearing once again. Honestly, I really suck at this whole commitment thing, probably because I'm so new to blogging and to add to the fact that I truly have not been home for this entire summer. I'm not even kidding- I haven't been home for a solid week since June. Between my vacation to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico (which will be a future post for sure), multiple trips down the shore with both sides of my family, and Drum Major Academy at West Chester University (did I mention I'm a drum major now?), I haven't been home. It rocks but it stinks. As fun as adventures are, there's nothing like coming home and spending some good quality time with my friends.
     I'm really not sure what my future plans are with my blog. I really want to continue to do it and expand so that I'll be able to cover all of the topics I want to. I want to take more photos and expand my photography section of my blog, I want to begin to make DIY posts and my experiences with them, I want to add a cooking/baking section (which would kill two birds with one stone- I'd learn how to cook AND incorporate a new section that would attract more readers), I want to retry the 50 book challenge and write more book reviews and character analyses (because I really ought to read more, and reading is my all time favorite hobby), I want to create an adventure page and post all of the fun things I do throughout the year (also so it will force me to go on more adventures), I want to incorporate and poetry section or storytelling section so I can share what I've written and what my friends have written, and of course I want to use this blog for what I originally intended it to be; a space where I can relax and share what's going on with me and connect with others out there on the internet.
     Before any of that happens, however, I want to give my blog a makeover. I'm aiming for a simple format, but I also want it to be elegant. I'm inspired by many woodland-like blogs, but at the same time I'm digging blogs like Zoella's that are incredibly feminine and pastel-colored. It's a miracle I got this far with my blog now, and I kind of like my watercolor theme, but I think the heading of my blog is a bit too big. I haven't a clue how to shrink it, and I'd like to redo it, but I think I'm going to wait until school starts up again. I'm never home, so I'll never really manage to find the time to experiment with different themes and widgits. (By the way, if any of you reading this know how to work blogs and can help me, please do! I would be incredibly grateful, because quite frankly, I don't know crap about blogger.) I think I'll look on Pinterest tonight for some good blog formats.
     There are also so many more plans I have not only for this blog, but for myself and my friends on the internet. My good friend Morgan and I are trying to start a podcast (once again-clueless on the internet, so if you know anything about podcasts PLEASE tell me below!!), and my friend Matt and I are trying to create a separate scary story blog, similar to CreepyPasta. It would get our creative sides flowing, and help us stay in touch with one another considering Matt is taking very different courses than I am in school next year. The worst feeling in the world, in my own opinion, is losing a close friend slowly over time, and not doing anything about it. It's the worst. Especially if you have shared secrets with that friend.
     My remaining plans for the summer are fencing camp during the second week in August and band camp with my marching band the following week. I'm so excited for both, a little nervous about fencing camp considering I don't know who I will be rooming with and I won't know many people there at all. But hopefully I'll make friends. Fencers are the best. :) If not, what the heck. I probably won't see those people again anyways. In other news I have barely started my summer assignments. It's really depressing, knowing that July has just finished and school is just around the corner. I honestly feel as though I just got out of school! This is probably going to make a lot of people get angry, but I'm actually excited to go back to school shopping. This year, I have all these plans to decorate my notebooks with washi tape and patterned paper. I love designing my notebooks! I can't even wait to print out pictures for my locker and start to look online for cool DIY ways to decorate your locker. AGH I'm such a nerd.

I hope you all are having a great summer!!

Until next time

                 ~Meg