Graduate school. Don’t do it. Learn from my experience dear friends, and save yourselves. My life has been consumed by pathophysiology, family theories, and the role of the advance practice nurse. And this is going to take me two years to finish. Kill me now.

I have been subsisting almost entirely on junk food and, most importantly, iced coffee. I’ve been looking at recipes online, and have tweaked mine to be exactly the way I like it – cloyingly sweet and tasting nothing like coffee. Hah!

I dump a bag of ground coffee (my favorite is Caribou Lakeshore) into a container with a gallon water. I let it sit for six hours until I cracked and had to try some, but admittedly the stuff I let steep overnight is the best. Strain it through a paper towel or some coffee filters, and then pour half a glass over some ice cubes. Extra credit if you used the extra coffee you have left from making Black Magic cake (below) and make coffee ice cubes. Fill the glass to 3/4 with a mix of evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk, and then top it off with some 2% milk. In a word? A-ma-zing. And as the coffee ice cubes melt, the drink actually gets stronger instead of watery.

I have also become addicted to what is easily the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had in my life- Black Magic chocolate cake. And I’m a chunky girl, you know I’ve tried them all. I don’t really know what to say about this cake, other than get into the kitchen and bake it. Immediately. Its moist and dense without sticking to the roof of your mouth, the frosting is to die for, and- it has coffee in it!!

So how has your Labor Day weekend been?