Welcome to my Blog, a.k.a. Jazz 'N Things! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do, and for those of you who don't, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And if anything I post in this blog is a bit too uninteresting or exaggerating, let me know so I can improve it for you all.
Ring ring! The Diary has another new recipe! Hello everyone, Junne here with a new recipe. The reason why I wanted to make this recipe is because the last one I made was Apple Pie....and...well...let's just say at least I tried. If you made the recipe, I am so very sorry. Lol so since that happened, I decided to upgrade the recipe a bit and remove the milk. But this time, I am going to make Apple Pie but with caramel...basically Caramel Apple Pie! And after I tried it, I knew it had to be posted and was a huge step above from my last creation. Heck, another reason why it was better because of the Apple Peeler I purchased! Therefore, in today's recipe, we are going to make Caramel Apple Pie! Let's get started!
Serving Size: Like the last time, it should be about 4-8 people. As always, if you want to cook for more people, double the recipe and use more than one Pie Pan.
BY THE WAY, as I mentioned last time use caution when cutting the Apples or else you will cut yourself. I highly recommend you use the Apple Peeler I bought in the link below or find someone who is a professional at peeling Apples. Also when I use the Apple Peeler, I noticed that a small amount of the skin was still on the Apples and decided to use a regular one to cut it off. If you don't have a regular one, then just use a fork or a knife and remember...BE VERY CAREFUL! Here's the Apple Peeler I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EYV7PPI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A14HNAUEYEQ3HP&psc=1
Cooking Time: Maybe about 30-40 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 Box of 2 Pillsbury Pie Crusts
6 Apples (I used 2 Red Delicious, 2 Gaia, and 2 Granny Smith Apples because I wanted a mix of sweetest. to neutral, to tardness)
1/2 Cup of Flour
2/3 Cup of Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup of Regular Sugar
1 Bag of Kraft Caramel Candy
4 Cups of Water
Optional: Melted Butter
Seasonings:
2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Flavor
Apple Pie Spice
Ground Nutmeg
Ground Cinnamon
Vanilla Cinnamon
Cinnamon Sugar
Salt
Cookware:
Microwave
1 9 Inch Pie Pan (I used a Stainless Steel one again)
1 8 Quart Stock Pot
1 Apple Peeler (Again, use caution)
1 Large Bowl
1 Rubber Spatula
1 Regular-sized Spoon
1 Measuring Cup
Optional 1 Rubber Basting Brush
Instructions:
1) Peel your Apples and then cut them into slices.
2) Boil 4 Cups of Water into the Pot and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt in it. Once it starts boiling, place the sliced Apples into the Pot and let it boil for 5-8 minutes.
3) Take the Apples out and place them into the Large Bowl.
4) Pour the Flour, Brown Sugar, and Regular Sugar into the Bowl and mix them together with the Spices.
5) Pour the Caramel Candies into the Measuring Cup and put them in the Microwave for 1:20 minutes or until they start melting. Also, preheat the oven to 450 F.
6) Follow the instructions on the Pie Crust box on how to put in your first Pie Crust on the Pie Pan; If it's kinda hard for you, you can follow the instructions here: https://www.pillsbury.com/everyday-eats/desserts/pies-tarts/how-to-make-pie. Pour half of your Caramel into the Pie Pan and place your Apple Batter on top of it. Then place the other half of your Caramel Batter on top of it.
7) Wrap the other Pie Crust on top and if you want, you can brush some melted butter on top of it.
8) Place the Pie into the oven for 30 minutes. If you want, you can sprinkle some Vanilla Cinnamon and Cinnamon Sugar on top.
9) If you want to get fancy, cut some Apple Slices and place them on top of the Pie.
Ring, ring! The Diary has another new recipe! Hello everyone, Junne here with a new recipe. The reason why I decided to make this recipe is because there was a Verzus battle yesterday with Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle and I decided the best food to eat while watching this would be soul food. So not only did I order some Popeyes, but I also decided to make Apple Pie. Not only was this my first time making Apple Pie, but this is also my first time making pie. I kinda wanted it to taste similar to the ones from Popeyes but it didn't turn out to be like that. I was also working so hard on making sure I did not mess up and went by the schedule, that I cut myself and chipped 2 nails while making this....mhm. Therefore in today's recipe, we are going to be making Apple Pie! Let's get started.
Serving Size: Since I used an 9 inch Pie Pan and an average pie serves about 8 slices, I wanna say maybe 4-8 people. As always, if you want to cook for more people, double the recipe and use more than one Pie Pan.
5 Apples (I used 3 Fuji Apples because they're apparently they're the sweetest Apples and I also used 2 Red Delicious because they're my fav with some Caramel Dip lol)
2 Cans of Carnation Milk
1 Cup of Regular Milk
1/2 Flour
2/3 Brown Sugar
1/2 Regular Sugar
4 Cups of Water
Optional: Melted Butter or Ghee
Seasonings:
2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Flavor
Apple Pie Spice
Ground Nutmeg
Ground Cinnamon
Vanilla Cinnamon
Cinnamon Sugar
Salt
Cookware:
1 9 Inch Pie Pan (I used a Stainless Steel)
2 8 Quart Stock Pot
1 Large Pot
1 Knife
1 Apple Peeler (As I said above, use caution or buy a Professional one online)
1 Large Spoon
1 Small Bowl
1 Measuring Cup
Optional: 1 Rubber Basting Brush
Instructions:
1) Peel your Apples and then cut them into slices.
2) Boil 4 Cups of Water into the Pot and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt in it. Once it starts boling, place the Sliced Apples into the Pot and let it boil for 5 minutes.
3) Take the Apples out and place them into the Large Bowl and let them dry for 5 minutes.
4) While they are drying, use the second 8 Quart Stock Pot and pour the 2 Cans of Carnation Milk and 1 Cup of Regular Milk into the Pot and let it boil. Stir it occasionally.
5) After the Apples finish cooling, pour the Flour, Brown Sugar, and Regular Sugar on them as well as the Spices and stir it all together. Place your Apple Batter into the pot with the boiling Milk. Let it boil for 10 minutes and stir occasionally.
6) Optional: You can pour another 2/3 Cup of Brown Sugar into the pot.
7) Sprinkle some Apple Pie Spice and Vanilla Cinnamon into the pot.
8) After the 10 minutes is up, take the Apple Batter off the pot and follow the instructions on the Pillsbury Pie Crust box. Pour the Apple Batter into the Pie Crust Pan and place the Pie Crust over the Batter and Pie Crust wrapping the crust as according to the box. If it's kinda hard for you, you can follow the instructions on this website: https://www.pillsbury.com/everyday-eats/desserts/pies-tarts/how-to-make-pie. Optional: Use the Melted Butter or Ghee with the Rubber Bashing Brush and rub it around the top of the Pie before you put it into the oven.
9) Let it bake for 27-30 minutes. Optional: After you take it out the oven, sprinkle some Vanilla Cinnamon and Cinnamon Sugar on top.
Come one, come all! Big and small! Short and tall! Welcome, welcome, welcome all! To the Diary's 6th Tea Time of all! Hellooooo readers, Junne here with a new post! If you read the Tea Time from before, here's some good news for you: this is part 2! And here's some even more good news: this part is waaay super-duper better than the first part! Why? Well, you'll get a chance to see as you scurvy through this post. After you read this post, you might think of it as an example of a "Fall and Rise" type of thing. But enough rambling for now, let's continue with the Tea Time from the other day! And again, if you want bring out a teacup or coffee cup since it is running like the roadrunner from Looney Tunes!
Still depressed about what Lucy did, I decided to just slowly go back on Instagram and continue doing my favorite activities like play Nintendo, go online, listen to music, etc. So one day when I went on IG, I noticed a post by someone that kinda blew me away and I had to "heart" the post. I saw a woman with a large blue dress on and what appears to be a red carpet. I didn't really know who it was until I saw the @ of the user on top of the photo and....it said it was Ella Mai! Omg, she looked like Cinderella or a typical princess that you imagine or dream about from a fairy tale.
This isn't the exact post but this was the dress she wore and I can't find it on her page because she archived everything except one post (I'll explain why I think why later though).
Anyways, I made a post about some Black History Month videos to watch on here and reposted it on IG. Then later that day, Calina (before she created that facade) posted on her IG story if anyone would want to hang out with her and in my mind, I was like "Maybe I should respond since Lucy is giving me the cold shoulder and she (Calina) seems like she could use a friend or two." So I decided to reply to the post and we made plans to hang out at Water Tower and go grab a bite at Mcdonalds. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned because when I finished my appointment at Sephora, she said she was on her way and AT Water Tower but I couldn't find her and tried to video chat her but no avail. Now I don't know if actually made an attempt to go or pretend like she would but all I know is I wasted about $8-10 or more on Lyft that day.
Fast forward to about a week or two later, I wanted to find some places that I could go to since my other friends were busy and I didn't really have anything else to do. I had looked on the Facebook Events page and it said Ella Mai was on tour and coming to Chicago. I had put down I was interested in going but also was still indecisive about going because I didn't know if I would want to spend that much money.....until I realized later on tickets were only $25 and VIP was $65....and then didn't realize that her show and basically her whole tour in general sold out. So then I posted on my IG story wishing I could go and then Calina said she had tickets. I recommend you read this post in the link below on what happened afterward: https://www.junnesdiary.com/2019/03/tea-time-6-day-facade-ofella-mai.html
After....umm....that happened, it really frustrated me but at least Calina admitted fault and apologized. And I know some of you all are thinking "Oh you think Junne would've known that she didn't know Ella Mai and she wasn't Ella Mai" but before that happened, I only knew a few things about Ella Mai:
-She sung Boo'd Up
-She sung Trip
-She was from the UK
That's literally it. In fact, hadn't I not download Boo'd Up I wouldn't have known that she was from the UK because on certain stations, they would play the full version of Boo'd Up including the skit that she had at the end but mine wasn't one of them. In other words, to this day I wouldn't have known she was from the UK if I hadn't done that. Anywho, my Mom told me she was gonna see how I acted for the next few months and went downstairs to finish the laundry. Then I decided to study Ella Mai and the rest of her music more, starting with this video on her IGTV: https://www.instagram.com/tv/Bo49MZKgQg_/ 😊😊😊
A year and a few months later...
Omg guys, after I started listening to Ella Mai, I became a huge fangirl, saw the similar interests we have, and there have been so many things that has happened to me!! I had such a good year last year .. Especially during the summer and fall! There have been soo many changes and experiences that happened to my life that I can't even remember the last time I had this much fun in my life. 😭😭
Connected with old friends:
I had reconnected with 2 of my friends I knew since I was 13 and in my freshman year of High School. One of them lives in Italy and we lost contact a couple of years ago and I decided to reconnect with her after what Lucy did. She gave me advice and warned me about trying to reconcile with her and told me about a similar story she had of this dude who used to be her friend becoming jealous of her because she was richer than him. But after that, we clicked from where we left off and I got her interested in Ella; I haven't heard from her in awhile but she's probably busy with college or something. The other one I met is the one I met in my freshman year of High School. I still had her number in my phone and decided to text her. We tried to hang out but she was busy but on my birthday last year, she told me that we could have lunch the week afterward and I explained to her the situation and here's what I can say about her: she is literally one of the epitomes of what it means to be a positive African-American woman. 🙌🏽🙌🏽
My Health Improved:
When I first saw Ella Mai (I'm talking about literally the first time I saw a picture of her), I was like "Oh okay she looks pretty cool, she looks like she's not too much older or younger than me" - I thought the woman was like maybe a year or two older than me or a year younger than me. Then I looked online to see how old she was and first I thought Wikipedia was lying again but then I checked Google and saw her interviews and I was like "JESUS! Please give this woman a skincare line so I can get rid of these blackheads off my face!" Well I don't know if he heard me or not but I found this video of her skincare routine and decided to follow suit.
It worked pretty well and had my face looking smooth like a silk shirt from Macy's or Avon and why I almost cried coming home on the L Train from this Women's Convention in Rosemont, IL after this lady told me that I look like I could be a model. Heck, one of my neighbors told me that too. 😭🤧Since she's a pescetarian, I decided to also use this opportunity to eat more seafood and I'm sure glad I did because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have made that Fried Shrimp and Lobster Tails I posted on here. 🤤
Started Going to Concerts & Met/Interact with Celebrities:
Y'all when I mean that I had a good year, I meant that I had VERY...VERRRY....VERRRRRRRRRRY GOOOOD YEAR!! Sorry for exagerrating but I had to because of what I'm going to tell you in the next part: I started going to concerts!! In fact, one of the first concerts I saw was Juice Wrld's (may he rest in peace) and Ella's!! For those of you who don't know, Ella came back to the Chi for Complex Con and I decided to go because I really wanted to see her. Here's the link of what transpired if you haven't read the post: https://www.junnesdiary.com/2019/07/complex-con-weekend-complex-ella-mai.html
A week later I saw Khalid, I didn't like how the footage turned out but here's a picture of the nails I did in honor of him:
A month later, I went to this Summer Jam my station was hosting and saw Queen Naija perform!! I also saw Gucci Mane, Polo G, I think Dababy was there (I could be wrong), and Chance the Rapper made a surprise appearance!!
A month later, I met Victoria Monet!! She toured with Ella and I forgot how but either I decided to listen to her or she popped up on my Spotify recommendations and once I heard her song "New Love", I became a fan!
Then a couple of days later, I went to see Mahalia on tour and met her too!! Like Victoria, I became a fan of her after discovering her through Ella and Love & Compromise is one of my favorite r&b albums from last year!!
I also recorded some video from her concert. If you want to see the rest of them, you can look it up on my youtube:
Also a couple of weeks later, I told her that she made the big leagues because...well just keep looking you'll see. 😉🥴
😂😂 She reposted it on her IG story!!
Speaking of that day, I also saw Chris Brown when he came to Chicago!! Again, did not like the footage and how bad my singing was soo yeah. Maybe eventually I'll post it on youtube but who knows? Lol
Also a week later, I saw Ciara perform!! My stomach might have been hurting and I was a little thirsty and hungry but...at least I saw Cici!!
A couple of weeks later, I saw Ralph Tresvant at The Promontory in Hyde Park!
A month later, I saw BJ The Chicago Kid at the House of Blues and met him as well!!
There is a picture of us facing the camera but I didn't like how it turned out and used these instead.
I almost forgot I met the Mario Bros. back in June last year!!
Also, here are some interactions with some celebrities I had on Twitter:
Alissa Ashley is one of Ella's closest friends 😍
Cree Summer basically made a majority of my childhood 🙌🏽
Interacting with the Queens who share the same name as my Diary!! 😍😍
Some of my interactions with Mahalia🥰:
Omg I interacted with Ella's Hairstylist and friend Kahh!! I love his Fragrance and Candle, I recommend that you all try some - It smells super duper good!! 😭😭🥰
And Ella's bestie Nick followed me omg I was soooo siked!!
And that's pretty much it....oh wait a minute there's one more thing that happened: I started interacting with Ella! She did some lives near the end of last year and the beginning of this year, and I asked her questions:
"Favorite tv show?"
A: Fresh Prince of Bel Air
"Favorite movie?"
A: Mrs. Doubtfire
-Sometimes we play Nintendo together along with her friends and some of her fans 😭😭
-When she sent live with Usher, I asked Usher how did he come up with the concept of the music video they did for their collab and Ella read it and she answered it!! 🥰🥰
And this also happened:
She did another Q&A back in June I think and I asked her if she listened to the Pop Smoke album:
We'll get back to the Enchantress later but I wanted to give y'all an update on Lucy. So last year back in July, one of her sisters invited me to a birthday party for her (her sister) and one of her brothers. So I decided to go and she said hi to me. She asked me what's been going on and I didn't really tell her the concerts and stuff I went to, and then I asked her what's been going on with her. I asked her twice but she didn't say anything. So then when her siblings were opening presents, she sat adjacent to me and when I was leaving I didn't even bother to tell her bye. Then a couple of months later in October, one of her siblings invited me to some sort of "Class Reunion" for the high schoolers.....and it was mainly the current freshman and Lucy's family there. I was mad as heck because I thought all my old friends and classmates would be there. I didn't really say anything to Lucy but she knew I was there and I just bounced to go to walk around Macy's to calm down and ramble on the phone to my Mom on how frustrated I was.
Fast-forwarding again to May of this year, I received a notification on Facebook saying that she wanted me to add her. See, I had unfriended her because of the situation and this really surprised me. She tried to follow me on IG but I rejected it. Then a month ago, I decided to dm her on Messenger to see what exactly the heck it is that she wanted. She basically told me that she became a better person and I think she wanted to know how I was doing. Then she said she went through some stuff (not even surprised 'bout that) - So then I asked her why isn't she with her other friends who obviously had a friendship with her that sustained the invulnerability of a tornado unlike ours? She said she still talks to them (I think that includes the girl she told me doesn't like me) and then she apologized to me. Then she said she didn't care if we were friends again and I gave her a speech just telling her how I improved my life and how I moved on and she needs to do the same. Then she thanked me for the friendship we had and wished me the best of luck.
A week ago while I was getting my hair done, I received a notification on IG saying that she followed me. This time, I left my IG on public instead of private and I was like "What the....what is this?" She basically contradicted her statement: she said she didn't care if we were friends again but followed me on IG. Huh? I told my Mom what happened and she said she misses the friendship we had and she probably never had anyone treat her as nice as I did. Let's not forget the next day was her birthday and she probably thought about how I bought her a purse, a wallet, gave her a poem, a card with $10, 2 eye shadow palettes, another one from this Beauty Supply store we went to, and a box of Russell Stovers for her 18th birthday 2 years ago. So I guess she noticed that I noticed by me posting on my IG stories and not saying a darn thing to her and she unfollowed me last Friday. Good riddance!
The best way to move on from someone or something in my opinion....is to find something or someone else. I'm not saying this person or thing has to fulfill your entire happiness or be better than what you had in the past, but find qualities in them that you couldn't find with the person or thing you used to be around and that you could use to improve yourself so you wouldn't always have to depend on them; in other words, your own happiness. Yes, moving on is going to be hard and can be scary for people before and during when it happens. But after it happens, you're going to feel way better than you did before. And that's what happened with me, the whole Ella Mai situation, and just Ella Mai as a person. I was wondering what would happen since Lucy didn't want to be bothered with me and if I was ever going to recover from what she did. Well...I did...and I'm glad I did it because I can't remember the last time I enjoyed my life to the fullest. I started to improve my health, drink more water, listen to better music, upgrade my mentality and focus my psychology better, and vice versa.
Ella Mai, if you happen to come across this post....I know hundreds, thousands, hundred thousand, millions probably told you this every time you look on social media, out in public, and just in general but you really....you truly helped me overcome the shallow depression I went through early of last year. You looked so beautiful when I saw you on stage that I felt like I was going to cry and thank you for being not only an inspiration to me and others, but becoming several examples of epitomes of what it means to be a Singer, having a Legacy, and an African-American woman like one of my friends. I wish I could meet you like on Zoom or some form of video chat since things aren't going on too well for the world right now. Me and my Mom love you soo....sooo much!! ✨✨💖💖
Well everyone, this has been part 2 of the Tea Time. I hope you enjoy reading it and...oh! Remember earlier I said Ella archived her posts on IG? Well, I don't know exactly why she did it but there's a strong hint that she's "on the way." Could it be another album? A single to correspond with the album? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z! Just kidding lol....but anyways this has been Tea Time and have a blessed day! Take care!
