Playing on Repeat

Birdy's Skinny Love (courtesy of Ms. Emily Meyers)

Ron Pope's 65 More Years

Yikes

Not my best day ever...

Here's hoping for a better one tomorrow...

I'm Fine...

It's not surprising that I haven't posted anything in over two months considering what my summer has been like, but i'm embarassed none the less. In my new job I actually write pretty much everyday - mat releases, pitches and that PR entails - so I find the last thing I want to do when I get home is write MORE. It also can be discouraging for me to blog because a lot of my job consists of finding quality blogs to reach out to on behalf of my clients and there are so many wonderful blogs/bloggers out there (that post way more frequently than I do I may add).

However, I realized that I miss blogging not so much because I need people read my posts and this my blog is cool, although I do love when you do, but because it serves a way for me to look back at different points to see what I was feeling/interested in. So for anyone that's still be checking in, I am alive, fine and hopefully blogging more soon.

Rainbow Cake

I love this picture...and the cake looks delicious. Come to think of it, the image is quite fitting for Chicago's PRIDE festival this weekend. :)

I've actually been reading quite a bit about bakeries dying cake batters more and more these days. Fun Fact: It's become a particularly popular way for expectant couples to announce the sex of their babies to friends and families at baby showers...how cute!

Intrigued by this food trend, I looked up how exactly to color cake batter and found a very helpful article that breaks it down step-by-step. You can see the instructions below or click here for the full article. 

Instructions:

1. Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions.

2. Add three to five drops of food coloring to the cake mix and stir it in.

3. Check the coloring for the desired shade and add more food coloring if desired. The cake will bake to a lighter color than the batter. For instance, if you want a light pink cake, add red coloring to a white cake batter until it turns dark pink. 

4. Use a color mixing chart to create different colors from primary colors. For instance, the chart on Baking 911 recommends using one part each of blue and black to create gray.

5. Bake cake as directed

#88 Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before or not but I've made it my life goal to visit every bar on The Growler List: 125 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die. I consider it to be my bucket list of sorts since I don't have a real bucket list. I LOVE a good beer and so many of these bars are in places that I'd like to visit so it's a no-brainer. I've only visited a few of the bars on the daunting this so far so this past weekend I decided to take a trip off the beaten path and visit #88 on the list, Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern, located in Monroe, Wisconsin. 

For anyone that doesn't know where Monroe, Wisconsin is located don't feel embarrassed. I had know idea where it was and I've lived in Wisconsin but after a quick Google Maps search I found Monroe to be about an hour from the IL-WI border and was on my way...
 

 

This is what most of the drive to Monroe looked like...lots and lots of farms and open space.

 Made it! The store in located on Monroe's town square.

Baumgartner’s has two maps that dominate one of its main walls - one of the US and one of the world. They will give you a pin to stick in the map to mark where you are from.

 I was amazed to see how far people had come to visit Baumgartner’s! It's a small world!

 Baumgartner’s is covered in signs filled with funny quotes. This one in particular "unattended children will be given a shot and a free puppy" was my personal favorite. 

 I have no idea why the ceiling was covered in dollar bills...

 The tavern is of Swiss origin so it has a big map of Switzerland with all of its cantons listed. 

 That's me with my beer! I chose a New Glarus Spotted Cow, a Wisconsin favorite.

 

Since it's a tavern AND cheese shop I thought it was only fitting that I purchased a cheese plate to go along with my beer.

I liked Baumgartner’s so much that I bought one of their t-shirts and posed with one of the animal statues on the town square. :)