Kristen Bell

Before Zootopia. Before FROZEN. Before When In Rome. Before she was Gossip Girl. Before You Again. Before she narrated an erotic audiobook on iZombie (it wasn't the whole book, or anything, but it was pretty funny. Because iZombie is funny). Before Heroes AND before she was Sarah Marshall, Kristen Bell was...VERONICA MARS. One of my absolute favorite shows!

Okay, but let's go back. She is such a talented actress, and I have loved so many of her roles. She is so amazing. She was Anna in Frozen, so you've heard her sing. She's the voice of Gossip Girl if you've ever watched that show, or even watched the very beginning or end of any episode. She played a super sleuth on Veronica Mars which is what I first saw her in. She's been in so many movies. You Again is so funny. When In Rome is one of my absolute favorites of both her and Josh Duhamel. If you haven't watched it, you definitely need to see it! It's so funny! And her real life husband, Dax Shepherd is in it as well. He is also hilarious.

About a year ago, I took a class in college about the Rhetoric of Superheroes. I can't remember the exact title, but I took it because A. I love Superheroes and 2. It was being taught by my favorite teacher, Dr. Pepper (not a joke, that is his name.) For my final project for this class, I wrote a full length Superhero movie titled Iridium. You can read an excerpt of it HERE. But, the entire time I wrote it, I just thought how great Kristen Bell would be as the villian, called Killowat. She can control electricity and has a bad habit of killing people. There's a huge fight on a college campus at the end as our girl Iridium fights her. I really want Anna Kendrick to be Iridium. Who wouldn't want to see a superhero fight go down between Kristen Bell and Anna Kendrick?! I think it would be EPIC. Let's hope that this happens. Like, soon.

Speaking of her family, she is married to Dax Shepherd, as I just mentioned, and has two little girls. I think they are the most adorable family. For her 31st birthday, Dax had a sloth come to their house. She LOVES sloths. Like, LOVES them. Here's the video of her talking to Ellen DeGeneres about it:





I have seen that video a few times and I laugh so hard every single time. So great. You can see her entire filmography HERE on iMDB.

In honor of her birthday, I made homemade ice cream and chocolate chip cookie bowls!! I used the same recipe for the chocolate chip cookie bowls as I did for the cookies I made for Chris Evans' birthday that can be found HERE.

For the ice cream, I just made a simple Vanilla Custard that I found on Pinterest because I have an unhealthy addiction that I'm not ashamed of...maybe I should be. Haha. HERE is a link to the original recipe. She answers SO MANY questions and has a billion ideas of other ways to use this, so I HIGHLY recommend checking out the original blog post at the above link!!

I've tweaked it a bit because I do that, but that is where it originally came from!! Also, I did use an ice cream maker to make this. If you don't have one but still want homemade ice cream, search on Pinterest! They've got, like, a BILLION recipes for it!!

Vanilla Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk (I mean, you can use half and half or a lower fat content milk, BUT THIS IS ICE CREAM. Go big or go home, you know?)
1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set them aside. They will look like a delicious lemon treat, but it's not. Don't eat it. It will taste gross at this stage.

Simmer the milk in a saucepan. JUST the milk. DO NOT add the heavy cream yet. Take it off the heat just as it heats up and little bubbles form on the edges. DO NOT let it boil. (These are all mistakes I have made previously! haha.) Remove from heat and gradually add the milk to the egg yolks and sugar. It is important to take your time with this step. Otherwise you get scrambled egg yolks which would be gross in your ice cream.

Once the milk and yolk mixture is incorporated, add it back to the pan and cook it on a low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon with a thin film. You want this to reach 165-180 degrees Fahrenheit. This will take about 10ish minutes. Once it hits that temprature, you're going to remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. After it's cooled, throw it in the fridge for 4-24 hours. The longer you let it sit, the creamier your ice cream is.

After you've let it sit, you're ready to make the ice cream!!! YAY!!!! Now add the heavy cream and vanilla to the custard base, and then add it to your ice cream maker! Each ice cream maker is different, so follow the instructions for yours! After it gets all churned up, BOOM. You have AMAZING ice cream. It's the best. And soooo good. Enjoy!!

Lana Parilla

I am a HUGE Once Upon A Time fan. LOVE the show. I don't even know how m

any times I have watched the entire first season. I try and get as many friends hooked on it as possible. That's how much I love this show.

I wasn't always a huge Evil Queen fan, but somewhere along the way I decided that she's pretty great. And I also discovered how amazing Lana Parilla is. I honestly haven't seen her in anything else, but her on OUAT is enough to realize that she is an amazing actress and really awesome person.

So, obviously, there will be a OUAT binge watch at my house this weekend. And it's going to be awesome!! I am honestly so excited for this coming season when she will be both Regina Mills, hero, and the Evil Queen who are now two separate people!! Crazy, I know. But so exciting!! Sorry if that was spoilers for anyone. But you should have watched this last season by now!! At least I didn't say that (spoiler) died. Because then you would have been mad if you hadn't already watched season 6 because you're waiting for Netflix to get it. Is it on Netflix yet? I don't even know. So, if I just ruined the entire season for you, go watch it any ways, because Colin O'Donoghue is an AMAZING Capt. Hook as well and I feel like they really let him shine this season.

But back to Lana's birthday today. I made Carmelitas! Have you tried them before? I found a few recipes on Pinterest because I'm addicted to it and adapted them to the one I used below:

Carmelitas

32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.

Ruth B.

My friend Raquel made me listen to this song after we watched an episode of Once Upon A Time and I fell in love with it. The reason it came up with Once Upon A Time is because I only watch that show for Colin O'Donoghue. He is AMAZING. And I love the way he portrays Capt. Hook. If you don't watch that show, you should. Just for him. He's so awesome.

Not the point of this post, though. The song Raquel mentioned was Lost Boy by Ruth B. I'd never heard of the song or the singer before and quickly went to work seeing if I liked her other songs. And I did. SO MUCH. And I'm happy that today is her birthday so that we can eat treats and listen to good music!!

She sings a song called Superficial Love that is, like, my theme song. I have listened to her EP on repeat more times than I can count.




Isn't her voice magical? I HIGHLY recommend picking up her EP. It's so great. And I love that Lost Boy is a little bit somber, but 2 Broke Kids is incredibly upbeat and sweet. And her voice resonates into my writing. I was stuck on a scene for a book I'm writing called LIGHTS and turned on her EP and suddenly I had all these ideas. It's amazing.

So, in honor of her birthday today, I made a Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake!!! I don't even remember where I found this recipe, I just know that it has been a hit every time I've made it! And this time was no exception!! It's delicious and I know you'll love it too!

Philadelphia vanilla mousse cheesecake

40 Nilla wafers, crushed

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

4 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar, divided

1 Tablespoon plus 1 tsp. vanilla, divided

3 eggs

1 tub (8 oz) cool whip

**heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix wafer crumbs and butter. Press onto bottom of 9 inch spring form pan. Beat 3 pkgs of cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tablespoon vanilla. Mix till well blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each one till blended. DO NOT OVER MIX. Pour over crust. Bake 50 to 55 min or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake and cool in pan, completely.

 Beat remaining cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl till well blended. whisk in cool whip and spread over cheesecake. refrigerate for 4 hours. remove rim of pan before serving cheesecake.