Love List: Tasty things and funny baby

1. Hopdoddy's Nutella & Chocolate Pretzel Shake

A couple weeks ago I was telling my sister-in-law about this awesome burger place we have in Austin called Hopdoddy's. And ever since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about their Nutella & Chocolate Pretzel Shake. So we went and got one on Monday. Oh. My. Gosh. Best thing ever. My stomach can't handle dairy but this is sooooo worth it. You better believe I drank the whole thing.

2. Ridiculously silly faces
Every month I take a photo of Punkito. It's getting increasingly difficult - she just refuses to hold still. But it's hard to be upset with her. She has so much sass and attitude it cracks me up. The last one is my fav...

3. Elephants

Add elephants to the list of animal sounds in Punkito's repertoire. Today the hubs was wearing a polo with a elephant logo on it and Em started waving her arm (like a trunk) and ... bellowing? Honking? What do we call that noise elephants make? And then she'd lean over and give the elephant kisses. She continued making elephant noises all through bath time...

4. The Fault in Our Stars

I'm continuing my YA book trend because I wanted to read this before I saw the movie. At first it really bugged me because it sounds the way a 15-year-old girl would talk. Which I suppose means John Green is a brilliant writer. Once I adjusted to it, I really enjoyed the book. Sure, it was sad. How can you have a book about cancer patients without it being sad? But it wasn't "Nicholas-Sparks-sad-just-for-the-sake-of-being-sad" gratuitously sad. Sad was "a symptom" of the topic (see what I did there, John Green fans? eh, eh?) It's well-written, has strong characters, and full of beautiful, simple little nuggets of truth. Unlike other young adult fiction books I can think of (*cough cough twilight cough cough*) there's nothing silly or superficial about it. It's worth the read and now I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. (Side note: Hazel and Gus played by the Divergent brother/sister duo? Weird).

5. Buttermilk chicken cornbread sliders
One a week or every other week I try and attempt a recipe I pinned on Pinterest. Sometimes I blows up in my face, but sometimes we get a really, really good one. These buttermilk baked chicken and corn biscuits from How Sweet It Is aren't difficult to make, though it does have several steps. I've tried oven baked chicken before and it's always a mess. This recipe offered some tips that really helped and it turned out perfect - soak in buttermilk (overnight!), bake on a cooling rack on top of a foil-covered tray, spray breading with nonstick spray. It's the first time I didn't have my breading slide off the chicken in chunks! I was thrilled. I also made this with chicken from Trader Joe's because they have slim cut chicken breasts that made for better sliders. The only thing I did differently from the recipe was add green chiles to the cornmeal biscuits, a definite improvement! We've added this recipe to the keeper file aaaaannnnd I think you should try it. Now.