TRAVEL - KANSAS CITY, MO

Kansas City, MO wasn't a place I was dying to visit, but we were invited to a wedding out there and it was awesome!  All we did for 3 days was eat BBQ.  Kansas City is known for their delicious BBQ and every time we met new people we talked about our favorite BBQ spot.  While there we tried three main BBQ joints, they are were all really really good, but here is my ranking of them.

1. Oklahoma Joe's 

2. Arthur Bryant's

3. Gates 

TRAVEL - MONTREAL

Over Labor Day weekend my boyfriend and I drove up to Montreal for about about a day and a half, I wish we were there longer!  It was a very low budget trip, so we spent hours exploring and doodling/watercoloring in parks.  We also ate POUTINE which was amazing!!!  I haven't been eating as many fries or fried foods lately (idk if you have noticed, no fry reviews in a long time), but I had to have poutine, and now I want it all the time.

(I was also pretty terrible at taking pictures on this trip.  Sometimes when I'm having a really great time I forgot to stop and take pictures to remember the awesome moments.)

WISH LIST - BACK TO SCHOOL

This Wednesday is my first day of school for my second year of grad school!  Unless I really mess something up this year, this will be my last first day of school ever!  Here are some things that would really make this year amazing.

Herschel Backpack

BKR Water Bottle

Madewell Dress (Perfect for the first day)

Poppin Pens

Baggu Laptop Case

Rifle Paper Co. Notebooks

ART - STORM KING ART CENTER

Storm King Art Center is a huge, amazing, outdoors sculpture park about an hour upstate from NYC.  I have been thinking about making the trip up there since I first heard about it more than a few years ago at an NYU Art History class.  Finally, my boyfriend and I decided to make the drive, and it was totally worth it!  Experiencing art at Storm King is such a different experience than viewing paintings 5 feet apart from each other with 100 other museum goers.  It's peaceful, quiet, and extremely enjoyable!  I would recommend bringing a picnic and some snacks, we brought a bunch of spam musubis (don't judge, I grew up in Hawaii) and fruit snacks!

Here's a few snaps from our trip.

FOOD - BUTTER MOCHI

Have you ever had mochi before? Pinkberry and froyo places serve bite sized pieces, this one is better and buttery!  I have found that people either love or hate the texture, its kind of gooey and chewy.

What you will need: 
2 cups mochiko (you can find this at any Asian market)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 block melted butter
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

How to make Butter Mochi:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the wet ingredients together.  Add in the dry ingredients.  Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake for an hour or until a golden brown.

Enjoy!