Baking Stuff Is Hard

Baking is a science and according to those tests you take in middle school I was supposed to be good at science and math. And while I did excel in Calculus, I made a 45 on my first College Chemistry test. That's an F, guys. I managed to pull it up to a C by then end of the semester but science has never been my best friend. Maybe that's why I have a hard time with baking. I mean, when I cook something for dinner, I hardly ever follow a recipe. When I do use a recipe, I just kind of use it as guide and add, subtract or estimate stuff as I go. You can't do that in baking. If say you forget an egg, your food is probably not going to turn out right. You have to measure things. You have to be precise. So normally I do not bake and usually when I do I go the semi-homemade route that usually involves a box of cake mix and a pre-made can of icing. But this weekend I decided to go all and bake from scratch. It took me most of the day on Saturday but you will see my amazing final product later on in the week. (I know you are on pins and needles now.)


So anyways, baking is hard and I applaud those of you who do it.


I also just wanted to give a shout-out to this pretty cool device I bought this weekend, (along with a sifter, which is apparently important in baking). I'm not sure what it's called but it's great for icing and filling a cupcake. Beezus5 and I once took cake decorating at Michael's and I was not so good with filling all those pastry bags, and cleaning them and figuring out which tips work for stuff. B5 was pretty good at it. I never quite mastered the rose. I found this thing to be a little easier. You just fill up the bottom and screw on the top. And it's relatively easy to clean. I just bought the one but apparently you can buy a whole kit.
It was also really good for filling this cupcake with jam.

Hobie really enjoyed it, as well.


Are you more into baking, cooking, or eating out?
Does your dog enjoy baking with you?
Do you like my cool apron?

Fun Fact Friday and Blog Awards

My fun fact for the day is that I received this awesome bloggy award from Brittany at Little Miss Scatterbrained . I recently discovered her blog and am really enjoying it, so check it out. She has some amazing crafts on there. These are the rules for this award.

1.) Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog, 2.) Copy the award and paste it onto your blog, 3.) Let us know 7 interesting things about you, 4.) Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers.





Now, here's more fun facts about me. I'm not sure they are actually interesting, but oh well.

1-I love getting obsessed with things. In that past that has included....women's gymnastics (I used to make my brother film me doing tricks in the living room when we were kids), My So-Called Life (I tried to start a letter writing campaign to keep it from being cancelled and I still have all the eps on VHS), and Ani Difranco (I've been to like 9 of her concerts). Currently I think it includes The Office and Lost and for about the last 4.5 year, my husband, B.

2-I have a hyphenated double first name and that does not mean I'm a redneck-per what my freshman year college roommate thought.

3-I watch reruns of Gilmore Girl weekly and I still love it.

4-I think Purple is the best color ever

5-I think Pineapples are awesome.

6-The first time I ever met my husband I gave him a hug, right on the spot. I also asked him if he was a ghost but that's another story.

7-I love taking naps but I hate sleeping in really late.

Ok I'm going to semi-break this rule and only pass it on to 4 people. I'm passing this award on to a few people that have inspired me to keep my blog going by reading my blog and commenting in the beginning (even though I'm pretty sure you guys have all already received this award)....Also I read and enjoy their blogs every day.

Lauren at Salt Says (ps-congrats on getting married tomorrow!!)
Amanda at It's Blogworth
Shana at Fumbling Towards Normalcy

And I'm also passing this on to my friend Curly J, who is new to blogging but is off to a great start.

Jenni at Less is More

So, there you have it. Any one got any fun facts for this lovely Friday? I'm so happy it's Friday.

Birthday Thursday

Office Thursday is once again cancelled this week. 1-Because the Olympics are still on so there is not an Office Episode (but don't worry, next week is going to be Huge). And 2-Because it's my friend $hanzie's Birthday. (And no, that is not technically her real name and no, she does not actually have a dollar sign in her name. I mean she's not Ke$ha after all.) I have known $hanzie since elementary school. We were in Girl Scouts together. So I decided to make her this bobble head.

(***Shanzie-If you don't want to see your birthday present before tonight, do not scroll down past this bobble head pic too far***)

So one time she might have mentioned that she likes Jacob in the Twilight movies better than Edward, so I like to mock her about it repeatedly with this long haired picture of him. But really, I made her something else...this lovely double stranded blue themed bracelet. I don't know if she will like it, but oh well, I wanted to experiment with some new beading techniques.

Mainly...Crimp Beads and Tigertail. Which according to this glossary over at beadage.net are defined as....

Crimp Beads Crimp beads are small metal beads that you squish onto the tigertail to make the beads stay where you want them. Can be corrugated or smooth.

Tigertail Tigertail is strong, flexible, nylon-covered wire which is used for stringing necklaces. It is stiff so it does not require a needle and it holds its shape. Use with heavier beads and finish with crimp beads. Tigertail has a tendency to kink, which the new, more expensive Soft-flex wire has solved somewhat. Soft-flex incorporates more strands into it's construction, and is therefore more flexible and less prone to kinking.

So I bought these special crimping pliers and have attempted to make this bracelet using crimp beads and tigertail as well as an assortment of blue beads. I won't explain the how to's but you can look it up online if you want to make something similar. I think it turned out pretty well.

Anywho, Happy Birthday Shanzie! I'm still working on those earring for you, as that is probably what you would have actually liked for your birthday.

Happy Non-Office Thursday Everyone!
Are you enjoying the Olympics?
Do you even miss the Office?
Do you like this bracelet?
And of course the age old question, do you prefer Jacob or Edward?

Soap Operas and Pizza

Ok, this is somewhat embarrassing and it was something that I was secretive about for a long time, but I'm just going to let it out... I watch the Bold and the Beautiful everyday (almost) on my lunch break. I work approximately 10 minutes from my house so I drive home everyday at approximately 1:20 (yeah I take late lunches and it makes the afternoon go by super fast) and lay on the couch and watch the B&B and chillax for about 40 minutes. The B&B is perfect for this as it is a 30 minute soap opera. It's also good because if I have a meeting or work social event and I miss an episode, it doesn't really matter. They are pretty much doing the same stuff they were the day before. And there's always the Internet to catch me up. For those of you who are not caught up on the happenings of Ridge, Brooke, Taylor, Thorne, Whip, Stephanie, Eric, Jackie M, Nick Marone (Jack Wagoner of Melrose Place 1 fame), Owen, Dollar Bill, etc; it is a wonderful show which recently won the Daytime Emmy. So there. Plus the characters have cool names.

Another great reason for taking my lunch break at home is English Muffin Pizzas or EMP's as my friend Curly J and I have nicknamed them. In my on again off again quest for a hot body, I attempt to make myself approximately 400 calorie lunches (also easier to do at home) so I designed these EMPs to fit in to that. Each EMP (one full English Muffin split in half so technically two pizzas) contains approximately 200 calories (if you use the proper serving size ingredient amounts and get 100 calorie English Muffins) and takes about 7 minutes to make.

My instructions must be followed to ensure the perfect level of crispness. (There is nothing worse than a soggy EMP).

1-Cut English Muffin in half so there are two sides and pretoast for one toast cycle.
2-Top each half with some pizza sauce (I use this kind because it's easy)
3-Top that with some shredded mozzarella
4-Toast in the toaster oven or regular oven if you don't have toaster oven (or as a last resort microwave but only if you were able to pre-toast the english muffin, if not it will just be soggy)
5-Enjoy, while you are watching the Bold and the Beautiful.

Ok so does anyone else watch a daytime soap?

Any good ideas for quick semi healthy lunches?

*B&B photo from wikipedia.

Chicken Taco Salad and Curly J Starts Her Own Blog

I have only been blogging for about two months. But obviously* my blogs have been having a huge impact on society as a whole as displayed by my friend Curly J, who I inspired** to start her own blog.

So I would like to introduce my friend Curly J who is known in real life as Jenni and her new blog Less Is More . This is where she is going to chronicle her weight loss and healthy living plan. So far I find her blog inviting and honest which I sometimes have a hard time doing on my own blog. So check her out. And I'm hoping we can share recipes and excercise tips on both of our blogs in the future. I mean we pretty much do this all day on google chat anyways. We might as well share it with the public.

And in keeping with the themes of both of our blogs I would like to share my easy weeknight, low calorie dinner of Chicken Taco Salads. Since I first met him, my husband has lost 50 pounds***. So for awhile (especially before our wedding last year) I got really into making low cal easy dinners (under 600 calories) that I could prepare easily after coming home from work and the gym. Here is one of the easiest ones.

Chicken Taco Salad
Chicken Breast - 240 calories per 8 oz breast

2% milk Mexican Cheese Blend - 80 calories per 1/4 cup

Salsa -10 calories per 2 tablespoons
Fat Free Catalina Dressing - 50 calories per 2 tablespoons

Reduced Sodium Taco Seasoning for chicken - 15 calories per serving
Iceberg Lettuce - 15 calories per 1.5 cups
Jalapeno Peppers

Tortilla Chips - 140 calories per 13 chips

Directions-

1-Cut up the chicken into small pieces and then cook and add taco seasoning per directions. If you don't have taco seasoning you can cook the chicken in salsa or whatever seasonings you have (cumin, chili powder, etc)

2-Crush up tortilla chips and mix everything else together. If you don't like Catalina dressing you can use any other kind or just salsa to save on calories. You can also add some low fat sour cream or guacamole if you are in to that.

So if you make it with 8 oz chicken breast, 6 chips, 2 tablespoons salsa and dressing each, and 3 cups of lettuce it would only be less than 500 calories. That makes a pretty large salad.

*Sarcasm

**Well it was more like she said, hey I'm going to start a blog. And I said, hey that sounds cool.

***When I asked my husband B if he cared if I mentioned his weight loss on my blog he said that he did not . But he also requested that I add that he was a college basketball player (until he got sidetracked with an injury, if not he totally would have gone pro) and that he is in super amazing shape currently.

Button Candle Holders/Vases for a Sunny Day

Something amazing happened yesterday. I went outside and it was sunny and warm (well warmish). It wasn't freezing. Most of the snow had melted. There were kids playing, birds singing. It was crazy. I mean I live in North Carolina, it's not like it's a freezing cold place normally but for the past month or so it has seemed that way. But not yesterday. Yesterday it was amazing outside. I even took my dog for a walk. I think he's missed those walks but I'm not so much into freezing cold snow walks most days.

So anyways, since it was so lovely out I thought I would show you something I made that I feel is sunny, happy and cheerful as well. So as you may know, I like making stuff. A few months ago I really decided that I wanted to make a lot of stuff out of buttons. So I bought/stole/found a bunch of buttons. One of my ideas was to glue them to candle holders. I thought it would be pretty with light shining through multi-colored buttons.

So here is what I made........



So how did I make these......?
Essentially I just glued (I used tacky glue but it would probably work better with a stronger crafting glue) a bunch of brightly colored buttons (some that I found at my mom's house, others that I bought at Wal-Mart) to these clear candle holders I bought at the Dollar Store.

Now my question for you is..............Are they stupid? Dumb looking? Horrific? Cool? Neat? Bright? Sunny? Amazing?

I hope you all are having a nice weather where you live!

UPDATE***I like to use these to put flowers in.  They make a nice short flower vase and look good with bright yellow flowers in them.  I think they are good for centerpieces at showers and I'm thinking of making a blue and  yellow themed one for my centerpieces at my friend's bridal shower.

Recipe for Making Your Next Concert the Funnest Concert Ever...

1-Make sure the concert is at least 2 hours away so you have time to listen to cd's of both of the opening acts so that you can convince yourself that they are also your favorite bands.

2-Decide to come up with your new favorite drink and have a couple* before/during the concert.

3-Try to make this a concert where you really love the band and therefore know all their songs so you can sing along to each one and even add in a couple signature dance moves.

4-If it's a concert where a lot of teen girls might also attend, wear a high-ponytail to look younger and try to dress more "teen".

5-Make your husband/boyfriend, special friend, brother, really anyone come along. Preferably someone who does not like the band as much as you do, if at all. Tell them fun facts about each song. Like, "this is the song I listened to before our first date. This is the song I played on repeat for 4 hours that one night when we lived in Baltimore" (funny, oddly enough your husband/boyfriend/brother actually knows all the words to this song). "This is the CD I listened to all the time when we were newlyweds." They will think you are really smart and find all this info highly enlightning. You should also make them decide who their favorite member of the band is.**

6-During the concert come to the conclusion that although you still only know 2 chords on the guitar, you can still totally be in a band one day.

7-Tell people at the bar after the concert how you knew the band was playing this one song especially for you because you "totally have it on your computer".

8-Eat cheese fries at the bar. They will most likely be the best you've ever had.

9-Leave your best friend at least 2 messages about how you just went to the best concert ever, also how you miss her and wish she had come.

*In this instance a couple can mean anywhere from 2-9 drinks based on your age and tolerance to alcohol.

**If this happens to be a Tegan and Sara concert, be really proud of your husband when you ask him who his favorite twin is and he responds with "I would really like to party with Tegan but I think Sara would be a great addition to a bookclub".

My Shoutout to Canada-also I'm Going on a Roadtrip!

I have to admit I got a little teary this morning watching the Today show when they showed Lindsey Vonn hugging her husband and crying after she won the Gold Medal. So that led me to think about the Olympics, which led me to think of Canada. And today I'm doing something awesome and totally Canada related......
I'm going to a Tegan and Sara concert!!!!
So I'm guessing many of you have not heard of Tegan and Sara (I'm looking at you Sock) but they are an awesome Canadian Twin Sister Band that I really like. My husband bought me tickets to this concert as my Christmas Present and today is the day. So I'm heading out of work early and we are road tripping it up to Richmond, VA. My husband is actually working there tomorrow so we are staying for a couple days and hopefully going to some cool restaurants while we are there and doing some other cool Richmond stuff, once I figure out what that is.

In other Canada related news I would just like to send a shout out to my favorite Faux Canadian Teen Singing Sensation, Robin Sparkles (How I Met Your Mother is an awesome show). I think the opening ceremonies would have been much more entertaining, had they included her.


Ok, so I didn't actually make anything for this blog but whatever. I'm still tired from both Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day .
Any other notable Canadians you missed in the opening ceremonies?
Do you like Tegan and Sara (L-Fab, it's not my fault B didn't get you a ticket)?
What is awesome about Richmond, VA?

Galentine's Day Cards

Hello!
If you read my blog last week , I mentioned a wonderful thing that I discovered from an Episode of Parks and Recreation; Galentine's Day. It's a day, usually near Valentine's Day, where Leslie Knope and all her gal friends head out to brunch to eat frittatas and then exchange gifts. She gave out the most awesome mosaics. I'm not that good. But I did decide to make a lovely Galentine's day card for my gal, Beezus5.

How to Make a Galentine's Day Card....
1-Cut up photos from magazines or the Internet of famous dudes that your gal friend is obsessed with.
2-Paste photos onto some construction paper or card stock or better yet a pre-made blank card made of card stock.
3-Write something semi-witty or inspirational on the card.
4-Hand deliver.


B5 also gave me a Galentine's Day card which I thought was pretty awesome. Although she didn't make it herself, this girl on etsy did. I'm loving it. I think the Golden Girls would love a good Galentine's Day celebration.

Also Special Shout out to Mrs. Mo Jung, who from what I can discern sent Beezus5 a lovely Galentine's Day Care package (maybe she didn't know that was what it was when she was sending it but still) straight from Las Vegas featuring such wonderful commodities as Red Bull, Airplane Sized Vodka, a Bayside High T-shirt and Twilight Candies.

So seriously who wants to celebrate Galentine's Day with me next year.... or maybe like this summer?

Valentine's Day Dinner Part 2....Where's the Beef? and of course Dessert

When I initially told my husband that I was going to attempt a gourmet Valentine's Dinner I asked him for some suggestions. He basically just responded by saying, "Steak." I guess that's what all the fellows like. But there are lots of steak options out there so my search began. My Dad (who is also a fellow) claims that Costco has the best NY strips steaks out there. So I requested that he pick up some for me on his next trip (as I do not have a Costco membership). So he did. And these steaks were huge. And quite nice looking. I have learned that my husband likes a pretty simple steak. Something where the flavor of the steak shines through. Not too much marinating or sauces or what not. So I decided to grill them and then make a compound butter to top them with. I found this awesome butter recipe by Emeril.

How I Grilled My Gigantor Valentine's Steaks
1-I sat the steaks out to get to room temperature. The cooking shows always say to do that.
2-I put a bunch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on each side and pressed the salt and pepper into the meat.

3-I preheated my grill pan to the highest heat.
4-Then I grilled them. For about 9 minutes. I seared both sides for a few seconds and then kept cooking it on one side at high heat for about 4 minutes. Then I flipped it and lowered the heat to about medium for the rest of the time. They actually turned out pretty well. I usually over or under cook steaks but these were medium to medium rare. Pink in the middle. Crispy on the outside. (They may look a little black but I think that's just the crust b/c they tasted good and not burned) Add some compound butter to the top and you are good to go.

These were the best steaks I have ever made. Normally I leave steak grilling to someone else. But I really pulled through this time.

I always like to have something green on my plate to make it look pretty so I stole 8 asparaguses (probably not how you pluralize that) from my mom and roasted them with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And then my mom told me that a lovely roasted tomato always makes a nice looking plate. So I stole two of those and put some Italian Seasoning and Parmesan cheese on them and roasted them for like 10 minutes. All in all a lovely looking plate.

Now on to Dessert......

My husband is not super interested in chocolate. I mean he likes it and all but it's not his fave. But you know what is one of his favorite foods? Bread. All kinds. Any kinds. So then all the sudden it hit me. I have to make him BREAD PUDDING for dessert. It's perfect. It's not chocolate and it's made of his favorite food and it's a dessert. I found a million recipes and wanted to do something crazy and complex with a nice sauce but instead I went for the easiest, yet highest rated one I could find on All Recipes.com. I added a mix of dried berries instead of just raisons but I followed the rest of the recipe. My Husband ate 4 of the six servings. So I guess he liked that too. So, Overall.....Worth it.

And seriously, I'm still pretty tired from making all this. Last night for dinner we had frozen pizza.

Valentine's Day Dinner-Part One....Potatoes and Tarts

Since this was my first Valentine's Day ever as a Wife I decided to up my housewifeyness and try to make a gourmet meal for my husband. I spent like 2 weeks looking up recipes for this and I have to say in the end, it really paid off. This might be one of the best meals I have ever made.

Since this meal was super extensive I'm just going to discuss the appetizer and first side dish today. I sort of made up the appetizer. It was based on something that I saw on http://www.foodgawker.com/ (an awesome website if you like looking at delicious foods). I call it mushroom tarts.

Mushroom Tarts (makes 6 tarts)
6-7 cremini mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped shallots or onions
1 tablespoon butter
garlic salt
2 tablespoons blue cheese
1 sheet of puff pastry

Basically I just thawed the puff pastry and then used the top of a wine glass to cut it into 6 circles. Then I cooked the mushrooms and shallots in butter and added some garlic salt and then melted the blue cheese in at the end. I put a spoonful of this mixture on top of each puff pastry ring and baked it for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I thought these were a little bit rich but my husband ate 4 of them. So you can maybe cut the cheese or butter down a little bit.


It took me forever to decide on a side dish. I went back and forth several times but ultimately decided it should be potato related since I was making a beef main course. I found this Rachael Ray recipe but decided to alter it a bit because I didn't want to have to buy all these fresh herbs.
So instead of calling them Rachael Ray's Autumn Potato Gratin , I will call them J-M's Winter Love Potatoes.

J-M's Winter Love Potatoes (makes about 4 servings)
2 pounds of baby white potatoes and a couple small red potatoes (or probably any potatoes)
1 cup of heavy cream plus another 1/2 cup of cream
1/4 stick of butter
1 clove of garlic minced
A few shakes of Italian Seasoning (the kind that has like oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, etc in it)
Salt and Pepper
Grated Parmesan Cheese (about a 1/2 cup)

1-Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and cut the potatoes. Make them into bite sized to a couple bite sized pieces (see pics). Boil some water and partially cook the potatoes for about 5 minutes.
2-Heat 1 cup of cream and the butter in a pan. Add a couple of sprinkles of Italian Seasoning and the garlic and a little salt and pepper. I then added a palm full of grated Parmesan cheese to this. Heat this for about 5 minutes.
3-Place potatoes in the bottom of a small baking pan and put a little salt and pepper on them.
4-Pour cream mixture over potatoes. If the cream mixture doesn't cover about up to 75% of the potatoes then add a little more cream until it reaches up higher. Then sprinkle the top with more Parmesan cheese.
5-Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until potatoes start to brown and bubble. This is going to be super hott, so let it rest a little before eating. Also as it rests the cream sauce gets thicker.

Warning-This dish is not healthy. Hello. You are cooking butter in to cream. But it tastes very delicious.

I loved how the potatoes turned out. They were bubbly and brown and awesome looking. There were only a few minor mishaps during this part of cooking like when the strings on my apron fell in the toilet and when I accidentally left the stove on after cooking the mushroom mixture and only realized it after I picked up a dish that was sitting on the stove and realized it was super hot. Major burn crisis averted though.

Did anyone else make Valentine's Dinner or do something super awesome?

Random Friday Stuff: The Princess Bride, The Office, Good Advice from Leslie Knope

OK BREAKING NEWS TO MY CLOSE AND PERSONAL REAL LIFE FRIENDS-I SAW THE PRINCESS BRIDE LAST NIGHT. I did it. I finally saw it. You can stop telling me how lame I am. And I saw it in a real movie theater. It was pretty awesome. I do think it lived up to all the hype. They apparently show older movies on Thursdays at a local movie theater. It was really cool. They had 2 guys introduce the movies. Then they showed a bunch of old movie previews and then the Princess Bride. And they sold beer and wine inside the actual theater. And it was only $4. What a steal. I'm pretty sure that I was the only one in the theater who did not know what was going to happen in the movie. It was awesome.

OK and by going to the movie I did something crazy. I did not watch the Office live. But I did watch it at 9:37 when I got home from the movie. And it also delivered hard core. I did not love last weeks episode so much but this one really brought it. I'm liking Kathy Bates too. And I'm glad to see Jim getting back to normal. And my favorite line....
Ryan-"Did you see Saw?"
Dwight-"Of course I see-saw. Mose and I see-saw all the time."
Awesome.
Honorable mention goes to Kelly Kapoor who said "Do you realize how HARD that makes me like you, Andy?" after receiving a mass email from him stating that he does not "like-like" her or anyone else in the Office (cept you Erin). Kelly Kapoor actually wrote this episode. Ok well Mindy Kaling (who plays Kelly Kapoor) but still. I love the episodes she writes. We would totally be BFFs if I worked in that Office. And she probably would have had me be in her music video.

Ok onward. Over at Parks and Recreation we had Galentine's day. A day when Leslie gets all her girlfriends together for breakfast and gifts (hello, I would love a mosaic of my face made out of old cans of my favorite soda). "It’s like Lilith Fair minus the angst and plus frittatas." But my favorite line came later in the episode. Here is some background for you. Did you read this article on People.com about John Mayer? Eh? I will give you a few seconds to read. Any who I'm so NOT in to John Mayer. And neither is Leslie Knope. And it's really her delivery of this line that counts so if you don't watch Parks and Rec, you really should.

"How often do you get to reunite soul mates? What if I told you that you could reunite Romeo and Juliet? Or Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston? Oh, Jen, I really want you to be happy. Stay away from John Mayer.”

Good Advice.

Ok did you watch any of these shows?
Do you like the Princess Bride?
Do you like John Mayer?
Have you seen Saw?
Do you like to see-saw?
Are there any other 20 or 30 somethings who did not see the Princes Bride until they were 29?

Office Thursday-Valentine's Day Edition

Are you looking for the perfect gift for your special Valentine? Are you anti-Valentine's Day this year? Well either way we can look to The Office for some Valentine's themed ideas.


Now I did not paint this myself. But Michael Scott did paint this for Jim and Pam as a wedding gift. I thought it was a super gift and maybe my friend Mandy will get something similar for her upcoming nuptials. Who wants a toaster when you can have something so personal? I'm not going to lie. I actually did paint something similar like 4 years ago (as a joke but my husband kept it).....isn't it amazing?

Does your girlfriend like to look really popular at work or school? Should you go ahead and "Bob Vance" her and buy her every Valentine Gift possible. Giant stuffed Animals, Flowers, Candy... Looking popular at work is very important.

Do you have a unique secret boyfriend? Is he really in to bobbleheads? Well maybe you get him a nice custom designed bobblehead of himself (like Angela did for Dwight back in season 2)

See check out this hott bobblehead.....
Are you single this year? Do you want to kick all those couples out and throw your very own Lonely Hearts Club mixer? Well hang up some construction paper broken hearts and go for it!

And I'm pretty sure all the ladies (regardless of relationship status) would love one of these t-shirts? I heart Dwight's Guns. (you so thought I was going to put the I heart Jim t-shirt up here didn't you? I heart Jim )

So watch a new episode of The Office tonight and come up with something that is just as Amazing as these ideas for Valentine's Day. Maybe I will try to make a better painting.



***Update*** Check out theses e-cards too, one featuring the scene of Dwight actually getting his bobblehead. I hope, I too can make someone that happy with a gift one day..
Office E-Cards

Shoutout to the Meat and Cheese Log and My Pineapple Corer

I'm gonna keep this brief. But tonight for dinner I'm using a product that I discovered a few months ago that I think is just awesome. And therefore I want to share it with the world. I present to you the meat and cheese log. Now this is not a bologna and American cheese thing. This is high quality. Prosciutto and Mozzarella. And it is awesome. To snack on, to make sandwiches with, to add to a salad. But they are like $8. Fortunately last night I found them on sale at the Harris Teeter (in the cheese case, I think this one was Boar's Head). So I whipped up a little salad and put it on top.

And in honor of Lost (I'm assuming they ate pineapple at some point on the island) and my love of pineapples, I used my fancy pineapple corer (and one of my favorite wedding gifts) to prepare this Pineapple as a side dish. It really is an awesome tool if you like pineapples.

Don't forget to watch Lost tonight and see what Kate DOES.

Super Bowl Sunday.....aka Time to Binge Eat a Bunch of Delicious (and mostly unhealthy) Foods!

So, I don't really like football. I went to like 2 games when I was in college (go Wolfpack-I like watching you play basketball slightly better). I recently went to a Carolina Panthers game where I got to sit in a box on a leather couch and eat free meatballs, chicken wings, and popcorn and drink free beer. That was pretty cool. But other than that I do not really enjoy football so much. Still, Super Bowl Sunday can be fun. It's a great day to try out some awesome cheese filled recipes and not feel bad about it later. So a few of my friends came over tonight and we all brought different stuff. I was in charge of making nachos........My husband seemed to doubt my abilities to make quality nachos (apparently he thought I was just going to microwave some shredded cheese onto chips) so I decided to go all out. I purchased three different types of salsa, some guacamole, two types of cheese, ground beef, taco seasoning, sour cream, and two types of chips. I mean how can all that stuff with melted cheese on it not be good?

My nachos (above) included many additional toppings than what are pictured.


My friend $hanzie has brought Sloppy Joes Sliders (made with Ground Turkey)......Ok well she said they were going to be sliders but they look like full size sandwiches to me. Still good.




My friend Beezus5 made Mama Dips Famous Banana Pudding....Delish and probably not so healthy....



But I think my favorite thing was Curly T's themed platters. We had a New Orleans Saints themed platter with Golden Raspberries (awesome), Black Berries, Black Grapes and Dried Apricots (hey fruit is healthy right?). And a Indianapolis Colts themed platter with blue m&m's, chocolate covered blueberries, yogurt covered pretzels and almonds and blue jelly beans.






So overall my favorite part of the Superbowl was the Dove Men's Line of Shampoos commercial
and the Tim Loves Doritos Commercial. I also liked that Shannon Sharpe dude's tie. I actually might have eaten a bit too much during the first half as I had to change in to pajama pants for the second half. Good thing we were at my house. See ya again next year Superbowl!

*****Update-Also an infinite number of wings were provided by my loving husband B. Infinite, as in if you want some wings, come over to my house tonight where I will be trying to figure out how to reheat them while still making them taste delicious**********************

What did you eat during the Superbowl?