G TOLLEY.COM

Between me and my three best friends, we have a little inside joke which revolves around a bacon shake. The story is that one time at Color Guard camp I ordered a bacon shake from Sonic. Everyone was weirded out by it, but it was delicious. They don’t have bacon shakes anymore, but I wanted to recreate at home.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. Bacon
• 1 cup Brown sugar
• 1-pint Heavy cream
• 1 14 oz. can Sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
• 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
• 2 cups Milk

Directions

1. To start this shake, we need to make some candied bacon. Preheat the oven to 400 F. On a tin foil lined baking sheet, lay out your bacon. Sprinkle on the brown sugar onto the bacon. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until the bacon is caramelized. Let the bacon cool for an hour.
2. In a mixer or large bowl, whip the cream until strong peaks form. Whisk in the condensed milk, vanilla, and maple syrup. Then fold in the sea salt and bacon.
3. Pour this into a baking dish, and allow to freeze for at least 6 hours.
4. After this, measure out about 4 cups of ice cream. Put this into a blender with milk, and pulse until it’s combined.

I know I say this almost every month but this month was really fast. Maybe because I’ve spent my whole month studying or traveling out of state basically every weekend. Really now that July is over, I’m counting down the days until the big move next month. If you haven’t already, after this go ahead and read last week’s post. There will be a few changes in my posting schedule for the rest of the year.

Montalbano Shampoo Bar

http://www.lushusa.com/hair/shampoo-bars/montalbano/05595.html

It’s a true fact that I have a lot of hair. As stated in my hair post, I have very thick, dry, wavy, and dark hair. I’m always trying out new hair products for extra moisture but ones that aren’t going to leave build up. There is nothing more than I hate than after rinsing my hair and being left with a noticeable buildup. When I was at the Lush store earlier in the month, I decided to try out one of their shampoo bars. It’s really weird the first time you use it because you’re just rubbing a bar on your head. It has a citrus and rosemary base that’s wonderful for clarifying hair. Plus, your hair will smell amazing afterwards.

Black & White Letter Board

http://www.joann.com/dcwv-home-10×20-black-white-letter-board-with-1-black-letters/15546484.html#q=message%Board Started=9

Like I said in the introduction, I’m moving out next month into a dorm. Slowly I’ve been picking up some decor items. Originally I was going to buy a felt letter board, but they are really expensive. This brand has three different sizes and comes in a couple different colors.

NYX Slim Eye Pencil in Seafoam Green

All over Instagram, I’ve been seeing super vibrant and colorful eyeliner looks. I’m not as daring as most girls when it comes to makeup, so I’m only going to use this to line my under eye. Originally I bought this for Halloween but kind of forgot I even had it afterwards. Because I have smaller hooded eyes, I’m always trying to find little ways to brighten them up.

Ikea Pillows- Hylle

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40282738/

This is another purchase I made for my dorm room. It’s just a basic pillow. Ikea has an amazing wide collection of pillows that fit all price points and firmness levels. This one is on the higher end of pillows at Ikea. I do spend at least 8 hours a night sleeping on it, so I think pillows are worth the investment. This style has a firm core with a cotton pillow outside.

Apple – 21.5″ iMac® – Intel Core i5 (2.3GHz) – 8GB Memory – 1TB Hard Drive – Silver

I’ve always dreamed about getting a Mac. Yeah, it’s not cheap, but it’s going to last me for my whole college career. Originally I was going to get a MacBook Pro, but I ultimately decided to go with the iMac. For classes, I’m going to use my Samsung Chromebook, but this will sit at my desk at home. I find myself doing better in classes when I have a designated workplace to do homework. I think if I had a laptop, I’d just do my homework in bed and get distracted more. Overall I love it. This is the newest model and the keyboard and mouse have fantastic battery life.

Special K Protein Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and the most important. If I had my way I’d eat french toast, bacon, and hashbrowns for breakfast every day. Truth is, that just isn’t healthy. A lot of people eat protein bars before a workout, but they are just an easy breakfast for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to eat the 20g of protein Thinkthin bars, but these are less dense and have a fewer chemicals.

July Mix

I might have lied to you a couple weeks ago when I said that hamburgers are the most American food out there. Ask anyone, but nothing is more American than a homemade apple pie.
Ingredients 

Dough

• 2 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Unsalted Butter, diced and chilled
• ½ Ice Water

Pie Filling

• 3 Granny Smith Apples
• 3 Gala Apples
• 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
• 3 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
• ½ cup + 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• ½ cup Unsalted Butter
• 2 tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
• ½ cup Water
• ½ cup Granulated Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1. In a standing mixer or in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Then using the mixing pallet or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until it starts to form coarse crumbs. Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time to form the crust.
2. Divide the crust in half, and wrap them in plastic wrap. Put this into the freezer for 30 minutes.
3. Clean off and dice your two kinds of apples. (Feel free to peel off the skin if you want.) Add them to a large bowl, and combine with the cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
4. Take one of your crusts out of the freezer, and roll it out to fit into the pie tin. Spray down the pie tin with cooking spray, then carefully put the crust into the pan. After this, pour in the apples and put this into the fridge.
5. Either in a saucepan or a small skillet, melt down the butter on a medium-high heat. When melted, add in the flour and mix together to make a paste.
6. Stir in the water, ½ cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Let this simmer on a medium heat for three minutes. While the sugar dissolves, keep stirring during this step. Remove from heat and set to the side. Stir every minute or so to make sure it stays smooth and doesn’t burn.
7. Now take the other pie crust out from the freezer. Roll it out into 12-inch rectangles using a rolling pin. Then cut out 12 even strips.
8. Take the pie out of the fridge, and on top of the apples lay on six of the strips. Fold back every other strip on itself, and lay down one of the other strips. Then fold the strips back up. Repeat this, but now use the other strips that weren’t folded back the first time, and add in another strip. You basically just weave the strips of crust together, but here’s a video reference.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK bLX AHbc
9. Once the top crust is woven, slowly pour on the cooled down sauce on top of the pie. Make sure you get it around the edges and tap the pie onto the counter so that the sauce seeps down a little into the apple filling.
10. Bake in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes, followed by turning down the heat to 250 for 30 minutes.