outdoor bouldering.

A few weekends ago we had incredible weather, full sun and 60°F.

So I accepted Miles' invitation to go bouldering outside. For the first time ever. Scary, fun, tiring.



See the rest of the set.

The three most surprising things about climbing outside that I wasn't expecting:
1) how different the rock felt from the plastic holds in the gym
2) how the tiniest ridge on a rock could be an awesome hold
3) how scary it was

But still fun, and nice to be outside. In February.

chocolate melting cake.

I posted about my weekend trip to the Hood Canal, but I thought the CAKE deserved its own post.



Miles and I had signed up to make dessert for the cabin weekend, but by Friday night rolled around, we decided that the layer cake with chocolate frosting was too big of an investment and decided to make melting chocolate cake instead.

This cake is super easy to make and delicious. Besides not needing to go to a restaurant to enjoy it, one of the things I like best about it is that you can make just one serving if you're the only one around. I would like to thank "my favorite" friend Melissa for the original recipe, of which I've butchered, because I seem to have written it down in an out-of-order and slightly confusing fashion:


For your ease and sanity, I'm transcribing it here, and I've removed some of the confusing bits.

Ingredients (for one large serving)
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate (or whatever kind of chocolate you like)
2 tbsp butter
1 egg
3/4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl, on half power.
2) In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, mix in sugar. Blend flour in (to make it easier, sift) flour.
3) Mix egg mixture into the chocolate mixture, pour into ramekins.
4) Bake for ~15 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes crack. Insides will be a little soft, but that's on purpose!
5) Serve with ice cream or whipped cream and berries. Enjoy!

winter beach.

Last week a few friends of mine invited a small group of us over to their cabin on the Hood Canal. Even though it was cloudy out (and January), it was really fun to hang out with everyone playing Bananagrams and Set, reading books on their enormous couch, eating lots of delicious food, and taking walks on the beach.







See the rest of the set, and the recipe for the cake.