Music Monday on a Tuesday

So I've decided that I want to start blogging again. Figured I'd have a bit of free time coming up since I'll be jobless (again) here soon. My first change is to start having a little segment I'd like to call Music Mondays. Yeah, yeah...it's Tuesday. Get over it. I'll do better next week.

My first choice is a little gem that popped up on my ipod's shuffle the other day:

New Found Glory's cover of the song "King of Wishful Thinking". Remember that song from the movie Pretty Woman? My friend/next door neighbor in college Megan gave me the album From the Screen to Your Stereo, which was basically a compilation of a bunch of pop-punk covers from movies. Being the closet pop-punk lover that I am, I love New Found Glory and even saw them live once by accident (but that's a story for another day).

The song is a little more meaningful than that I suppose - before my husband and I started dating in college (I guess we were in that "talking" stage), I went to go see his band play a show at a local bar. They did mostly pop-punk covers and just happen to play New Found Glory's cover for "King of Wishful Thinking" which was funny, because Megan had just given me that album a week earlier.

Hope you enjoy today's (yesterday's?) Music Monday pop-punk moment!

Oh hello there blog.

I started this little blogy thingy a little while ago with the intent of keeping up with it. Alas - life happens. Let's take a look at what's gone on since the last time we spoke (typed? read?):

Lilly and I at the Auburn/UGA game

Went to Auburn University home football games! That was an  advantage of the 4.5 year college plan.

My friend/sorority sister Erin and I

Attended my bachelorette party!

 Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and a minor in Business

Celebrated Christmas with my family

Married my best friend in the whole wide world! I guess you could say that this event was a highlight.

...The highlight of my life! I might have a whole blog post devoted to the best day of my life. That is, if my readers (hah, all none of them) can take the sap and lovey dovey stuff.

Moved into our apartment in Madison, Alabama.

Went on our honeymoon in beautiful Hawaii. I want to go back. Like, right now.

Got to see two friends get married!

Other than that, Scott and I have just been living busy, happy, newlywed lives. Keep on keepin' on, right? 

What's that you say? What passes my days by? Do I have a job? While I don't have a job in the field that I got a degree in, I do have a job. While we're young and can afford to do so, I'm following my life long dreams of baking all day every day. I'm working through a website where people can request to have cookies, brownies, or any other kind of baked goods and I make those requests come true via magic in the kitchen and the power of USPS. I'm also baking cupcakes and cookies for a friend's wedding next month (my second time catering a wedding - super exciting!). Cooking and baking are necessary in my life in order for me to positively function, so while this is a 'job', I don't really consider it a job.

Seriously, how could you resist these snickerdoodle cookies? I know you can't. Go ahead and try.

That's all I've got for right now. Maybe I'll do a better job at keeping up with this blog stuff and letting people know what's up in the Winfree household every once in awhile.

Low fat Pumpkin Pound Cake

It's not a secret that I have a massive love for all things pumpkin. When the Libby's went back on the shelf this fall season, I bought not just one or two cans - try a whopping ten. I put it in my yogurt in the mornings, made various waffles and pancake concoctions, and even made pasta and curry dishes with this lovely orange vegetable. It probably won't come to anyone's surprise when I say that my absolute favorite method of consuming pumpkin is in baked goods.

I discovered this recipe for low-fat pumpkin pound cake when I was a sophomore in college and I have made it numerous times every fall and winter since. You might read the "low-fat" part of the title and be turned off by this recipe but don't be! Low-fat baked goods have a reputation of being dry, hard rocks but let me tell you this recipe is anything but.

Low-Fat Pumpkin Pound Cake (adapted from slashfood.com)

1.5 cups flour (all purpose, whole wheat, or even white whole wheat would work fantastically)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp allspice, .25 tsp cloves, .25 tsp nutmeg)
.5 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
.5 cup brown sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar, but it's up to you)
1 egg + 1 egg white
.5 cup nonfat plain yogurt (I use nonfat vanilla yogurt)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
.5 tsp butter extract or flavoring*
*The recipe says this is optional but to me, it's not - the butter flavoring gives the final product that extra umph of pound cake flavor that you're looking for in this healthier recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray an 8x4 loaf pan.
2. Small bowl mixin's - combine together flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. Large bowl mixin's - Beat together sugar, brown sugar, egg, and egg white. Beat in yogurt, pumpkin, and extracts.
4. Slowly whisk the small bowl mixin's into the large bowl mixin's. Only stir until no white streaks of flour remain! You don't want a tough end product.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan, bake for 50-55 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
6. Cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes, then turn out pound cake onto the wire rack and let completely cool before slicing and consuming (or just ripping big hunks off and stuffing it into your mouth, whichever works).



 

New name?

I haven't even had this blog for a day and I'm already contemplating a name change. I know people don't always want to know the boring details of our lives, so maybe a 'us centered' blog isn't right.
So I was thinking. Cooking and baking are massive passions of mine - I still tinker with the idea of attending culinary school one day. Maybe this will be a cooking center blog about two young newlyweds? We'll see...

Introduction

Well, here we are. Just another blog in a world of a million blogs. My name is Ashley (formerly of applesauburnandashley.blogspot.com) and my fiance's name is Scott and I'd like to document the later part of our engagement, the wedding, and the newlywed phases. 

Scott and I have been dating since spring 2008 when we met in karate class in college. We became engaged on October 18th, 2009 and will be married January 8th, 2011. I absolutely cannot wait to officially begin the rest of our lives together! :)

I am currently completing my last semester here at Auburn University and will be graduating December 13th with a degree in health promotions with a minor in business. My last semester is an internship which I am completing here at Auburn. I really like the work I'm doing and I have fun getting to talk and hang out with nice people all day. :)

Scott graduated from Auburn University August 13th and has a degree in software engineering. He currently lives in Huntsville, AL working doing computer type things with a contract for the government (aka I can't know anything about what he's doing!). I sure do miss him but this time apart is only leading up to the excitement of getting to live together after the wedding.

So there it is! Maybe I'll keep up with this thing (unlike my last blog). Perhaps a post about wedding planning thus far will be next?