The (should-be) Future of Sexiest Man Alive

How many of you are frequenters of People magazine? My mom and I definitely are. But even for those of you that aren't, I'm sure you are all familiar with the annual selection of "Sexiest Man Alive". Here are a few fun facts:

• Only 4 men have won the prestigious award twice (gasp!): Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Richard Gere and Johnny Depp.
• In 1993, People didn't do "Sexiest Man Alive". They did "Sexiest Couple":  Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford.
• The first-ever "Sexiest Man Alive" was Mel Gibson in 1985.

In case you hadn't heard, Channing Tatum was this year's lucky recipient. You could definitely say he's deserving... However, People could learn a thing or two from me. I have already chosen the worthy winners for the next five years (and trust me, I could keep going). So,  LISTEN UP PEOPLE!

2013 Sexiest Man Alive - Leonardo DiCaprio

Not that this requires any explanation, but Leonardo DiCaprio has never won "Sexiest Man Alive". Is this some kind of sick joke? COME ON PEOPLE. GIVE IT TO THE MAN! Don't worry Leo, your time is coming. You can rest easy tonight knowing that I'd give it to you if I could!

2014 Sexiest Man Alive - Vince Vaughn

Vince Vaughn may not be your stereotypical "Sexiest Man Alive" material, but he's tall, he's funny, he's perfect. Enough said.

2015 Sexiest Man Alive - Ryan Gosling

 

Look into those gorgeous eyes and tell me he doesn't deserve it. Hey boy, I'd vote for you any day.

2016 Sexiest Man Alive - Gerard Butler 

They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so there you go. Boom.

Andddd... drum roll, please!

2017 Sexiest Man Alive - Chris Hemsworth

This up-and-coming hunk was in several major blockbusters this year, including "Thor", "The Avengers", and "Snow White and the Huntsman". Luckily, I think we'll be seeing much more of him in the future...wink, wink. I sure hope so!

DING DING DING! BONUS SEXY!

Orlando Bloom

This hunk of burnin' love is completely underestimated. People have swept him under the rug a little bit because he has been inactive due to his new marriage and adorable baby boy, Flynn. But don't worry, he's coming back. He's sexy as a pirate. He's sexy as an elf. Let's face it, he's just plain sexy. I got your back, Bloom.

So there you have it, ladies and gents (mostly ladies at this point, I'm guessing). You may disagree with me, but I'm pretty confident in this list of stone-cold foxes.

Love Always, 

T

Mrs. Billett's Wintry White Cake

It has become known around my family's household that I'm the baker. With the exception of my sister-in-law, Leslie, it's pretty much my ball-field. Between Leslie and I, we take care of all the desserts around the holidays (and all the other times during the year when my family wants sweets, which is pretty often).

This year, my mom decided that she wanted me to bake Mrs. Billett's Wintry White Cake out of Southern Living magazine for our family get-together.  Well, with only a few bumps and bruises, it turned out wonderfully (and tasted even better than it looked!)

It's a three-layer, all-white hunk of vanilla yumminess. I'm usually a chocolate kind of girl, but this one took the cake (pun intended).

Mrs. Billett's Wintry White Cake

Makes: 10-12 servings
Total time: 2 hours (or so the recipe says...)

1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I used clear imitation vanilla to keep the cake really white)
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
5 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 3 (8-inch) round cake pans.
2. Stir together milk and vanilla.
3. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder; add to butter mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (this may seem ridiculous, but it really does matter... don't leave that step out!). Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.
4. Beat egg whites at medium speed until stiff peaks form; gently fold into batter. Pour into prepared pans. (Okay, I had no clue what "stiff peaks" meant. This just means that when you pull the mixer out of the mixture, it's thick enough that it pulls up and sticks.)
5. Bake at 350° for 20-23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.  

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

Makes: 4 1/2 cups

1 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp. salt
2 (16 oz.) packages powdered sugar
6 to 7 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (also used the clear imitation vanilla)

Beat butter and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer 1-2 minutes or until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 6 Tbsp. milk, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Stir in vanilla. If desired, beat in final Tbsp. of milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.

If I were to do this cake again, I would probably double the frosting recipe. Call me crazy, but I like plenty of frosting in between every layer and on the sides. I'd rather have too much than too little!

Another thing that I typically do is bake the actual cake the night before and, once completely cooled, I put each layer in the freezer overnight. The next day, I pull each layer out one by one to frost. This makes the cake so much easier to frost and adds a little extra moisture once it unfreezes!

Snowflakes:

For these beauties, I cheated. I bought ready-made fondant on Amazon. They're just for looks mainly so I didn't really take the time to make them from scratch.

I cut them out the night before and let them set up overnight. The next morning, I brushed them with milk and sprinkled on Shimmering Sugar from Williams-Sonoma. Beautiful!

















BLOOPERS:

Like I said, I always bake the layers the night before. So around 6 o'clock I started baking. Everything was going well... Until I pulled the layers out of the oven. One was perfectly golden brown and moist. The other two were completely sloped and black on one side. So, guess who got to rebake two layers at 10 o'clock at night? This girl.

I also have a huge issue with softening butter. I never think to take the butter out of the refrigerator in time to soften naturally, so I always have to resort to putting them in a Ziploc bag and beating them with a meat tenderizer. If you do this, the butter will flatten out and after about 5 minutes will be ready to use. Well, as "easy" as this sounds, I really struggle with it. I ended up getting butter all over me and all over my kitchen. Classic butter mix up.


Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Love always,
T

National Newcomb's Christmas Vacation

Every year, my family takes a trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO to see the musical Christmas Tree, drink gallons of hot chocolate and eat a funnel cake or two. We typically go the first weekend of Winter Break, but due to a few scheduling issues, this year we left on Monday and arrived home today.

Yesterday, we awoke with smiles on our faces. Today was Silver Dollar City day! We went shopping, grabbed lunch, and then got all bundled up to make the trek through SDC. We drive all the way out there, and there isn’t a car in the parking lot.

“Looks like it’s closed,” my dad said.
“Oh, Jim. It’s not closed. It’s open all through December for Christmas.” My mom rolled her eyes. Duh, of course it’s open.

Well, sure enough, it was closed. The Newcomb clan was not pleased. It was very similar to National Lampoon’s vacation to Walley World. Indeed, I think my dad felt something like this:




Turns out, Silver Dollar City is only open Thursday-Sunday during December. Lesson learned.

Love always,
T

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

Man, don’t you just hate those people that go to the midnight premieres of movies? Can you really not wait until the next day and go at a reasonable hour?

Well then, hate me if you must, because I was first in line for this premiere at 12:17 a.m. Thursday night. It was worth staying up until 4 a.m. the week of final exams. Now that is saying something.
If you are a fan of the Lord of The Rings trilogy (books or movies), this is a must-see. However, this film is much more lighthearted than the LOTR, and at times even comedic. And yes… there may even be… singing dwarves. (gasp!)

Rather than the story of Frodo and friends on the quest to destroy the ring, this movie tells the tale of how Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins had his first adventure, finding the ring along the way. Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, was an absolutely enchanting character. When Gandalf (Ian McKellan) comes knocking at Bilbo’s quiet, peaceful, hobbit hole, Bilbo doesn’t seem too interested in having any kind of adventure. Not that Gandalf gives him much of a choice.

Bilbo, Gandalf and thirteen dwarves eventually set off on a quest to reclaim The Lonely Mountain, the true home of the dwarves that was long ago overtaken by a fiery dragon, Smaug. On the way they encounter everything from Gollum (fabulous, as always) and the Pale Orc, the begrudged enemy of Thorin (Richard Armitage), son of Thrain and leader of the dwarves.

Because the film was shot in 48 fps, I was worried at first. I had heard rumors that the extreme high definition caused sets and costumes to look fake. I personally disagreed with this. The costumes were phenomenal and the sets were as wonderful as ever. There were times when the panning shots through the mountains made my head spin a little bit. Those parts of the movie were definitely made for the IMAX rather than the standard theater.

Overall, the first installment of the trilogy was a success. I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next two!

Also, if you have never been to a midnight premiere, you’re missing out. My friend Christian and I just happened to run into Gandalf right there in the theater!

He was overjoyed to see us, too.

Love always,
T

Ciao!

This is maybe the tenth blog I’ve started in my life. I’m not the most consistent blogger. But hey, you can’t say I’m not trying. I think my biggest problem has been that I’ve tried to limit myself too much. All my past blogs have had solid themes: sports, fashion, food, etc. I want to write about whatever I want and not worry about it.

For those of you that know me, the title of this blog shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. My name’s Taylor and I’m tall. 6’2″ to be exact.

I played basketball in high school and I still thoroughly enjoy reliving my glory days with anyone who will listen. But I love all sports! My next favorite after basketball (a close second) is football. I’m a proud Sooner fan! And yes, I think the BCS royally screwed us this year in the bowl picks. After basketball and football, I could literally watch anything. I’m the person that could flip on a curling tournament and be on my feet screaming at the TV by the end of it.

I have an amazing family and wonderful friends that I couldn’t live without.  I have two supportive parents, two ridiculous brothers, one sweet sister-in-law and one perfect, adorable, happy, precious nephew.

I’m a broadcast journalism student at the University of Oklahoma. I love my major and couldn’t imagine doing anything else! It allows me to be creative, have fun, and do something that I’m really passionate about. Not everyone can say that, so I’m pretty lucky.
There is much more to be said, but if I said it all now then what would be the point of having a blog?

Love always,
T