Chelsea Morgan

I've been thinking about doing some playlist creations for the blog. At my day job, there is a pretty good selection of music, and I've been compiling my favorites into one lengthy list. So every Friday (as time permits) I'm going to try and list at  least one song from my list to brighten your weekends. Today? The First Song? A classic for your listening pleasure. I give you the insanely-talented Ray Charles. 

If there is anything that's sure to please a room full of actors, it's free food. Anything will do, but you get extra points for baked goods. I've found that baking for my fellow actors is a great way to make friends in a new show, and a great way to put on lots of unnecessary weight. Golden Boy is now officially over (and was an amazing experience - thanks to all involved!) but I thought I'd share these treats with you anyway. Make some and bring them to all your starving actor friends. 

I'm a bit of a bakeaholic, and chocolate chip cookies are my ABSOLUTE favorite. Over cake, over cupcakes, over any other cookie, over brownies, over anything.  And I've been experimenting with various recipes for a long time. My favorite for a while was the Betty Crocker packages that you add egg and butter to, but I'd been longing for my own from-scratch recipe. These are a bit unusual for a cookie in that the butter is melted, not soft when you mix the dough. That coupled with a few tasty substitutions make this one of my favorite sweet-yet-salty snacks. Or meals, depending on how starving your actor is. 

You'll need:

3 mixing bowls

Measuring cups/Spoons

Cookie sheets

Parchment paper

Electric mixer

Pyrex container to melt butter

Spatula

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. SALTED butter, melted (Use salted. I promise you will not be disappointed.)

1 c. brown sugar, packed

1/2 c. white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 Tbl. vanilla extract

AS MANY CHOCOLATE CHIPS AS YOU WANT

 My Original Hand-Written Recipe

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. 

To begin your cookie dough, melt the butter either over the stove in a small saucepan or in the microwave with a paper towel on top. Let it cool slightly once it has been fully melted. Next, whisk together your dry ingredients in one of the bowls (the flour, baking soda, and salt). Separate one egg and one egg yolk into another another bowl, set aside. 

Combine the brown and white sugar together in your largest bowl. I'm lazy, so I'll add the vanilla during this step as well. VERY GENTLY, add the melted butter you just left lying around to the sugar, and mix on low with your electric mixer. Pour as you mix. 

Now in an alternating fashion, add the dry ingredients mixture and the eggs. Once all the dry and wet ingredients are combined, remove the electric mixer from the equation. Using your spatula, mix in the chocolate chips until they are fully immersed in the buttery goodness that is your cookie dough. 

Eat several clumps of cookie dough. 

Place parchment paper on the cookie sheets. Force it down. It is in a rolled up mess and you will have to spend several minutes making sure it stays flat. Oh, wait, you're not me? Ok, then simply turn it upside down so it flattens naturally. Whatever. Show off.

Now you're ready to spoon the dough onto your cookie sheets, but here's the kicker: for extra big jumbo cookies, I use a little less than a quarter cup per cookie, and I fit about 6 to a sheet. Pop those suckers in the over for (I kid you not) 16-20 minutes, remove, and eat!

If you like your cookies a little cakey, try adding more flour. If you want a little more chewiness, try letting the butter cool to an almost-solid state before you mix it in. I personally love both dark and milk chocolate chips, but you can do anything! These cookies are my favorite, hands-down, and I hope you enjoy gobbling them up as much as I do. 

Now if you'll excuse me, there is one hungry actor that I need to feed... 

Valentine's Day is not usually a holiday I delight in celebrating. Can't we love one another all the time? Do we need a specific day? Not to mention that pink and red are not exactly my favorite colors. And non-anatomically-correct hearts, as a shape, are of little interest to me. 

However. 

HOWEVER.

There is something I do love besides my real-life boyfriend. And it is pizza. Delicious, gooey pizza. Know what's better than pizza? HOMEMADE PIZZA. 

When I was in Italy a few years ago, I couldn't help but fall in love again. With scrumptious, thin, and oozy pizza. Those guys really know how to make a pie. And ever since, I've been obsessed with real pizza made with the freshest ingredients that resembles as much as it can the true Italian pizza way. Most grocery stores now carry handmade dough that you can purchase, cover with toppings, and pop into the oven at your own discretion. It's easy, cheap, and tastes way better than that cardboard pizza you thought you wanted from Domino's a few minutes ago. 

For this Valentine's Day, Mike and I decided to build our own personal pizzas. And yes, they are shaped like non-anatomically-correct hearts. 

Supplies you'll need: 

Pizza dough

Sauce base (we use Mid's and love it)

1 clove garlic

Red onion

Grape tomatoes

Smidgen of red wine

1 Tbl. olive oil

Brown sugar

Fresh mozzarella

Fresh parmesan

Prosciutto crudo

Pinch of flour

Pizza pan/cookie sheet

Cheese grater

Small saucepan/spatula

First, heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Then start kneading the dough out into little balls, coating them and your surface area in flour. Press the dough our into your desired shape until it's about 1/2" thick. Place on cookie sheets. 

Caramelized Onions

Prep all your toppings. Slice onions, garlic, tomatoes, and cheese. 

Next, you'll want to doctor your sauce. I start with 1/2 jar of Mid's pizza sauce, add a little red wine, a clove of garlic, and my secret weapon: brown sugar. I prefer a sweeter pizza sauce, so the brown sugar really adds a lot without losing depth. 

Spread the sauce on your dough, add your toppings, and pop in the oven for about 8-12 minutes, depending on the desired crispiness. That's it! 

 Before cooking

The final product!

This is such a fun project to do, and it's definitely easy to pull off. Maybe you can even try it next Valentine's Day. 

Hey guys, I'm gonna dive into one of my more fun-yet-necessary-for-life hobbies, MAKEUP! Today, it's my new favorite eyeshadow that's the topic of discussion. The culprit? Mary Kay's Creme Eye Color in Metallic Taupe.

Now, a few things to clarify before I gush over this product:

You'll notice that this is a Mary Kay product. I'm not an affiliate with Mary Kay in any way, and I purchased this eyeshadow from a friend who is a Mary Kay representative. I'm not going to endorse any one company exclusively on this blog, because I simply don't believe in that! There are companies I love with lots of great product, and companies I don't love with great product as well. Ultimately, I really don't like the idea of getting all your beauty products (or any products) from one location, and I fully encourage everyone to find what works best for their skin, budget, and preferences. When you limit yourself to only one product line, you don't get to see all the other cool stuff that's available! Point is, I refuse to buy or use a product unless it's really going to deliver excellent results. Whether it comes from one of my friends or a drugstore or a beauty spa, anything that you see on this blog will be because I truly like the product and how it makes me feel. 

Ok, disclaimer finished. Now let's talk about MAKEUUUUUUUP.

Usually I wear powder eyeshadow because I have the oily skin of all the Greeks who have gone before me. But cream shadow has lots of benefits, too. You can use it like primer, as I choose to do, or use it on its own. This shadow has a lot of really nice pigment, so you don't have to use too much to make an impact. 

When I apply it to my eyelids, I use a small foundation brush because it gives me a little more surface area. Of course, you can use whatever brush you like, or even your fingertips, but just remember that every time you touch your face with your hands, oily residue tranfers and you DIE. Just kidding. But you will transfer all the bacteria and oil from your hands onto your face. (When was the last time you cleaned your cell phone?) 

I brush the shadow all the way from the inner crease of my eye to the outer brow bone. Now, because I use this as a primer for other eye shadow colors, I apply it all over my eye, including the brow bone. Just keep in mind that it's best and most effective to fully pigment the eyelid. I love the way this shadow is shimmery and smooth and keeps its color vivid! It's also fantastic to mix other colors and comes off with relative ease. The metallic taupe is my favorite shade, but I'm eyeing some others as well. 

And that's it! I'll go into more detail with my full beauty routines, but for now, enjoy! Do you guys have any eye products that you're in love with? Post them in the comments below! As for me, I'm eyeing this awesome Galaxy Chic palette by BH Cosmetics. I don't have a birthday for a while, but if you REALLY like this blog...

you can always buy me some eyeshadow. 

Hey everyone, so rehearsals for Golden Boy are officially underway, and it's been a great experience so far! Can't wait for our one-night-only show!