Fun Fact Friday-Weddings, Anniversaries, Chelsea Clinton and the Return of Kehn

OK, my biggest fun fact of the week is that Chelsea Clinton and I are going to have almost the same wedding anniversary if her wedding really does happen this weekend.  Because guess what Sunday is?  It's my 1st wedding anniversary!!  Does this mean I'm not a newlywed anymore?   Here's a pic of us exactly one year ago, 2 days before we got married, drinking some beer to ease the nerves.

Second Fun Fact-Apparently my husband and Chelsea Clinton go way back as he recalls attending the Model United Nations with her when he was a freshman in high school.  And by attended with her, I mean he saw her there from afar.  Also I have always really liked Chelsea Clinton. I'm not sure why. I mean I know she had some awkward phases back in the day but so did I.  She seems smart and stuff.  I mean I don't really know her or anything but yeah.

This weekend my brother is coming back to America after having been in Mexico since January.  Very exciting.  Should I have a welcome back party for him featuring Mexican Lemonade like they did on The Office?

Last fun fact from an email I just got-The sentence 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.' has all the letters of the alphabet in it.  Yay.

OK, any fun facts for me?
Do you like Chelsea Clinton?
Did you even see that episode of The Office with the Mexican Lemonade?
Are you excited that next week is going to be wedding themed week on Making Stuff is Fun....?
Happy Weekend!

MuckLuck-Another Dish Made with Vegetables (and some Meat too)

Apparently it's Vegetable Week here at Making Stuff is Fun.....  While perusing an issue of Southern Living (thanks mom) I found this recipe for Maque Choux.  According to wikipedia that is pronounced Mock Shoe or MuckLuck as B calls it.  Either way.  I thought it would be great to make since Farmer Gene gave me a bunch of okra and I have never really cooked fresh okra before.

I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version.

Maque Choux with Shrimp (aka Muckluck)
2 links of Spicy Andouille Sausage (about 1/3 lb)-diced
1/2 medium sized onion-chopped

2 cloves garlic-minced
a little green bell pepper (it was all I had)-chopped
1 cup fresh tomatoes-seeded and diced
1 cup cut fresh okra-sliced in to small pieces
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined (I always buy easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
lime juice
salt and pepper

1-Brown the sausage a little and then add the onion, garlic and pepper and saute until the veggies are tender
2-Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook until everything is hot (I think okra might take the longest) about 10-15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
3-While the veggies are cooking put cumin, chili powder and lime juice on shrimp and saute in a pan until they are cooked
4-Top the vegetable mixture with a few shrimp and enjoy!

I thought this was a really good dish especially with fresh vegetables in the summer.  Next time I'll make it with fresh corn too!  OK I think I'm veged out for a bit. 

Happy Thursday!  It's almost the weekend.  We can do this.

Farmer Gene's Garden

As I mentioned yesterday, I got some fresh vegetables from Mrs. Acorn's husband, Gene.

So I did a little email Q and A with him to find out more about his garden...
JM-What stuff do you grow in your garden?
G-This is the third year for my private vegetable garden, We currently grow: Squash, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, okra, peppers (jalapeno, red and green pepper), watermelon, green bean, and lima bean.

JM-How much work goes in to your garden? What do you have to do on a daily basis?
G-I have a huge garden (30X40ft) which requires about 20 minutes per day. If you miss a day, add it on to the next day. A 150 sq. ft. garden would be sufficient for most families and requires about 5 minutes per day. This is just for time after seeding has been done. Time is spent: Weeding, watering, harvesting, fertilizing, and pruning larger plants. I use all organic fertilizers and no pesticides after flowering began. Initial setup, before seeding can take several hours depending on size/tools. I have a large tiller.

JM-What's your favorite thing you have grown?
G-This year, I would say tomatoes simply because I enjoy cooking with them.

JM-What is your favorite meal/item you have made with the stuff you have grown?
G-We have probably enjoyed nachos the most this year. Simple tortilla chips, fresh jalapenos and shredded cheese. Then homemade salsa and sour cream on the side. Very simple and cheap, then you can spice it up with grilled chicken or ground beef.

Here is a picture of a caprese salad he made with some tomatoes. Aren't they pretty?

And here are some broiled tomatoes used to make tomato sauce or tomato soup. I love this. I really want to make fresh tomato sauce.

The Acorns gave me some squash, tomatoes, okra and jalapenos this weekend and tonight I'm going to work on making some stuff with okra. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I would love to have my own garden. I don't know if I'm quite ready for one as my AeroGarden last year didn't really make it that long. Plus I can't even keep a low-light indoor plant alive for more than a week.

Oh and just for fun, a photo of Farmer Gene with some bridesmaids gone wild....(he was a really good sport)

So what do you think of the garden? Pretty impressive right?

Who wants some nachos or a caprese salad really bad right now?

And do other people like fried okra or is that just people in the south?

And a special shout out to Jenni for keeping the garden thriving while the Acorns were on their honeymoon!

***Photos by Farmer Gene (and the last one by $hanzie)

Happy Birthday Wunka and More Vegetarian Dishes

My first college roomie, Wunka is turning the big 3-0 today.  We met for the first time 11 years ago at the mall (ideal meeting spot for college girls) after we had been randomly assigned as freshman year roommates at NC State.  So in honor of her birthday and her vegetarianism I will be sharing two veggie recipes.  Farmer Acorn gave me a bunch of vegetables from his garden last night so I decided to put them to use to make some vegetarian fare in honor of Wunka's big birthday.

First off, I had the biggest zucchini I have ever seen so I found this recipe for Zucchini Gratin on the Food Network web page by the Neely's.  I really like the Neely's.  They are a married couple who own restaurants and cook together on tv and they also really seem to like each other which is always nice.

I pretty much followed the recipe.  I added a yellow squash in there too though and some Italian Seasoning since I didn't have any thyme.  It was pretty good.  I might like it a little cheesier next time.

I also made some salsa with the tomatoes they gave me.  I have been buying tomatoes at the grocery store and they just aren't good.  These tomatoes were much better.

Simple Salsa

2 big tomatoes
1/4 of an onion
2 jalapeno peppers
1 lime
cumin
chili powder

I just chopped up the tomatoes and onions and jalapenos.  Then I added the juice of 1 lime and some cumin and chili powder.  Good stuff and pretty easy to make.  It tastes better after you have let the flavors mix together for awhile.

No meat in these recipes Wunka (and L-Fab for that matter).  Hope you have a great birthday.  And now for your enjoyment... a photo of me and Wunka from college...

And more recently at the Acorn wedding...

Happy Birthday!

Do you like zucchini?

Do you have any friends with gardens?

What's your favorite vegetable?

PS-Her name is not really Wunka but I started calling her that the first week of college.  Good times.

Un-Fun Fact Friday

So my un-fun fact of the week is that I find it un-fun to work in a small room around a tiny table with three other people.  My work from home time is over and my cubicle was supposed to be ready yesterday.  However all the desks were installed too low and had to be fixed and the electrical outlets had not been put in.  So instead of moving my stuff into my new cubicle I got to work in the small conference with 3 other people.  It was not my favorite thing ever.  I had to put paperwork in my lap and make a side table out of a cardboard box.  Also it is super hot in that room.  Good times.

My Fun Fact of the week is that I just watched a rerun of the Jim and Pam Wedding on the Office.  It's still awesome.

And because I'm having a hard time coming up with things to say....I have 5 things I'm looking forward to this weekend.....
1-My husband coming home from Charlotte after being super busy all week
2-My new Frasier Season 2 DVD coming in the mail (I'm kind of a dork)
3-Celebrating Wunka's Birthday at the Melting Pot tomorrow
4-The Chicken Taco soup I'm planning on making tonight
5-Mrs. Acorn fulfilling her promise to bring me good tasting tomatoes from her husband's garden tomorrow

So have you ever had to work in a small space with a lot of people?
What do you have going on this weekend?

Have a Great Weekend Everybody!

L Cookies

My husband is having a big week at work.  His company is launching a new machine in stores throughout the country starting this week in NC.  So he has had to get up about 3 hours earlier than normal everyday and do tons of stuff he doesn't normally do for work.  Each day he has to take a cake to the store that's being launched (along with a bunch of other stuff) and I was not super impressed with the grocery store cakes he's been taking.  So I decided I should make him some cookies to go with it.

I had seen this Betty Crocker Cookie Icing in the store that is supposed to harden fast and works great with sugar cookies.  I thought this would be something I could handle on my work from home day (yeah they are still putting my cubicle back together).  So I bought some sugar cookie mix and some of the blue and white icing.  I planned to make some super awesome designs and words.  But when it got down to it, it was a lot easier to do an 'L' which stands for his company as well as the stores where they are launching.  I don't think they look that amazing but he seemed pretty impressed when I showed them to him when he got home last night.  So he will be taking them in today.  People like cookies right?  No matter how much blue icing they have on them.

Have you ever used this Betty Crocker Cookie Icing stuff?  I think Mo used them on some special Bachelorette party cookies one time.  It was pretty easy to use as long as I was doing something simple.

Do you like sugar cookies?

I swear I did not use any smurf's to make these cookies.

Dinner Last Night-Chicken Sausage Cajun Tortellini

OK I have decided to do a new series of blogs entitled Dinner Last Night where I talk about easy dinners I put together with things I normally have around the house.  Here's the first one.

I had really been wanting some pasta for a few days.  I had a bag of frozen tortellini in the freezer as well as a few other things I normally have, frozen peppers, canned tomatoes, chicken broth.  So I decided to make a pasta dish out of this.  I went to the store and bought some chicken sausage and invented this Cajun Sausage and Pepper Tortellini.  I served it with a Cesar Salad (aka lettuce, croutons and cesar salad dressing).

Cajun Chicken Sausage and Pepper Tortellini (3-4 servings)

2 Chicken Sausages-Sweet Pepper Flavored

Package Frozen Tortellini

1 cup Frozen Pepper Blend (red, yellow, green)

1/2 small white onion

Cajun Seasoning

Garlic Salt

Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 Can Petite Diced Tomatoes

1/2 cup chicken broth

I cooked all the veggies (except the tomatoes) together with some garlic salt and cajun seasoning.  Then I added in the Sausage.  These are precooked so they don't take too long to heat up.  I added in the tomatoes and simmered that for a bit.  Then I added in some chicken broth in small increments to make it more saucy and less just chunky.  I threw in some red pepper flakes for good measure.  While you are making the sauce cook the tortellini or whatever pasat you want or have.  Once the sauce was thickened I mixed it all together with the Tortellini.  And there you have it, a pretty easy week night meal.

What's you favorite pasta recipe?

Making Stuff is Fun....Old School Edition

And by Old School, I mean the tenth grade.  The other day when I went to visit L-Fab after her toe surgery at my parent's house, something dreadful happened.  My mom forced me to take a bunch of stuff from my old bedroom to my house.  I have been avoiding this for years.  But she wouldn't let me leave without taking several boxes of stuff and my two guitars.  (That's right, I have 2 guitars and know approximately 2 chords on the guitar.  I really tried to learn multiple times in college, it just didn't take.)  However, I found some wonderful stuff in these boxes...photo collages, books and of course the best find....my tenth grade art work.

So here we have two wonderful pieces from Art 2, aka tenth grade art circa 1996...

Ok so this is a picture of my parent's house.  Why is it blue and purple?  My parent's house is not blue and purple.  I guess we were supposed to use some weird color scheme and I picked the one that involved blue, green and purple (cool colors??? IDK).  I mean I do love purple but this is just a little strange looking.  But look up there above the garage...that's my old bedroom. 

This next picture is a real winner.  It is my version of a butterfly........

...featuring an actual stick of butter with butterfly wings.  Deep right?  Yeah I'm not so sure.  But I do remember thinking this picture was super cool.  I like the wings and the amazing background that gets darker and darker as you go up.

So those were pretty much  my two masterpieces of the year.  I didn't take any formal art classes after that in school.  There was no time with yearbook, typing and calculus and stuff.

So what do you think of my wonderful tenth grade art work?

Should I have gone on to Art 3 instead of being on the yearbook staff?

Does anyone think my mom should want to keep these precious gems at her house?

Is it really that hard to learn the guitar?

Fun Foto Friday...

So my husband emailed me this photo this week.  Apparently he was hanging out with a baby tiger at a random Target in Charlotte, NC this week while he was working out of town.  Do you think we need to get this back to Mike Tyson stat?  (Hangover anyone?)

Well in other news it has been a lovely week working from home.  However one day I think I did way too much multitasking.  I baked.  I crafted.  I did some payroll work.  I watched some Tivo.  I took Hobie on a walk.  I visited my sister.  I made dinner.  It was just way too much stuff for one day.  By 9 pm I was ready for bed.

I guess working at home has tired me out because that's really all I got today.
Do you think baby tigers are cute?
Or do you think baby tigers are scary because they will totally eat you?

Have a great weekend.  I'm finally going to see Eclipse.  Oh and I totally recommend Despicable Me.  It was very cute.

Giant Foot Card and Cupcakes for L-Fab...

 

As I mentioned the other day, I stubbed my toe. It still hurts. However, my sister has suffered worse toe troubles this week. I'm still not exactly sure what they did to her but she had toe surgery this week on both her feet. (It had something to do with her toes being slanted or crooked or something. I can't pay attention when people start talking about blood and IVs and incisions.) She has to wear two walking casts for a couple weeks. So I guess I can't really complain about my stubbed toe anymore.

Since I was working from home today, I decided to multi-task and bake her some cupcakes. I also made her this giant foot card. B came up with the slogan. I can't take credit for that. He is a genius. PS-The foot says 'love' because L-Fab actually has that tattooed on her foot.So we went to visit her to lift her spirits and take her the cupcakes. I made two kinds...s'more cupcakes and Reese's cup cupcakes. I used a box chocolate cake mix for the base. For the s'mores ones I swirled some marshmallow fluff stuff in to the batter and then stuck a clump of it in the cupcake once I poured the batter in to the cupcake tin. I put graham crackers in the batter for some of them. I made a marshmallow frosting out of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and marshmallow fluff. I just was not a big fan of it. Next time I think I'd just go for a vanilla frosting with graham crackers in it and maybe a melted marshmallow somewhere on the cupcake. I did however, think they looked cute. Look at the little Hershey bar.

I liked the Reese's cup ones better. For that I just put pieces of Reese's cups in to the batter. Then I made a peanut butter frosting with peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar and a little milk.  Not as cute but pretty tasty.

So I hope L-Fab likes my cupcakes and foot card.
Have you ever had toe surgery?
Do you like my Foot Card?

What kind of cupcakes would you make if you were on Cupcake Wars? 

Working From Home-Making Myself a Lovely Work From Home Space

So this week I get to work from home for 3 days while they are doing office renovations on my cubicle.  Woohoo.  The other days I get to go work in a conference room with 3 other people.  Not woohoo.  My husband works from home so it has pretty much always been my dream to work from home as well.

I had a meeting with Hobie first thing to discuss the work for the day (please excuse my appearance as I had not showered and was wearing my pj's)...

Then I had the IT guy (aka B) set up my computer to print from his printer....

I finally had an excuse to use all my $1 bin Office themed office supplies I bought at Target a few years back...

Plus I learned how uncrowded both the gym and grocery store are during my normal work hours (on my lunch break of course.)

So far my favorite things about working from home are....

-the dress code, pj's and jeans are both acceptable

-proximity to the tv

-fitness hour at the gym

-bonding with B and Hobie

-getting up an hour later

-the shortened commute

My least favorite thing...

-stubbing my little toe on the table when letting Hobie outside.  I'm not going to lie, I might lose this toe

So I'm off to work in the conference room on Tuesday but I'll be back at home after that.

Does anyone else work from home?

Have you ever had the chance to work from home?

If so do you even bother putting on normal clothes?

Do you like my Office office supplies?

PS-If you ever work from home and have a laptop be sure to steal a keyboard, mouse and some various office supplies to make your at home office more hospitable.

Amish Friendship Bread-Look Shanzie, I did it.

So this girl I know, we will call her Shanzie, is always making this stuff called Amish Friendship Bread.  It is supposed to be a secret bread started by the Amish.  You get a starter bag of liquid mix from someone (probably Shanzie) and then you have to do all these steps for the next ten days and then finally you bake it on the tenth day.  It seems super hard.  But Shanzie is always offering me one of her starter bags.  Last time I accepted one I totally failed at actually making it.  So did Beezus5.  Apparently the guilt from not making it was too hard on Beezus5 and she's decided to never accept  a starter bag again.  I have decided to go for it since Shanzie offered me some more this week.  Although I did make her hold it and do all the steps up until 2 days before I was supposed to bake it.  I forget stuff.  So she did the first few steps for me.

I can't really give you the recipe as I do not know what was in the starter bag since it's an ancient Amish secret.  But I did have to add a bunch of sugar, flour, pudding, cinnamon, and milk to it.  And it's pretty good.  Although I'm pretty sure it's actually cake as opposed to bread.  I added some chocolate chips to a few of them.  Each time you bake a starter bag it creates four new starter bags.

I wish I could send my starter bags through the Internet to everyone who reads this blog but I think that might get messy.   I will have to force them on my mom and maybe try to make Beezus5 give it another shot.  Also please note that if you are giving this bread to someone that you have recently started dating, you are allowed to call it Amish more-than-friendship bread.  (I mean if you want to)

So has anyone ever heard of Amish Friendship bread?

Have you ever made it?

Would you consider something with 3 cups of sugar in it a bread or a cake?

Shanzie are you proud of me?

PS-Breaking news...you can actually look up how to make a starter bag on the Internet.  Don't tell anyone I told you that though. 

Fill in the Blank Friday

I was really having a hard time coming up with fun facts for Fun Fact Friday (other than that Drew Barrymore is the woman to have hosted the most SNL's) so I decided to participate in Fill in the Blank Friday's for the first time.  Lauren at The Little Things We Do hosts this every week.  So here we go....

1. My favorite thing about this week has been the peach ice cream, the 4th of July cookout, only having to work 4 days, trivia, and getting the email about downtime.

2. The weather this week has been really hot and muggy.  It finally cooled down last week and this week we were back to the 95 degree an up heat.

3. The last (interesting) item I received in the mail my new computer a few days ago.  Now I won't have to steal B's all the time!

4. The last movie I saw was Sex and The City 2.  I need to go see Eclipse still and I want to see Despicable Me.

5. If I could be doing anything I felt like today I would stay at home instead of going to work and bake some cupcakes, watch Tivoed Gilmore Girls and make some crafts.

6. As a teenager I was a little too dramatic.  I also thought I was deeper than I actually was.

7. I wish I could trade lives for the day with one of the writers on the Office so I could hang out with Mindy Kaling and hear them come up with all the jokes and then probably become best friends with all the actors.  Stuff like that.

Alright, have a great weekend! Next week I get to work from home for a few days.  Very excited!

Do you have any fun facts for me or just something to get me through this Friday????

Ice Cream Cake....Yes, you too can make your very own ice cream cake from the comfort of your own home.

One time I made up this easy ice cream cake.  People were impressed.  And by people, I mean my parents.  So I decided that this would be my contribution to the 4th of July cookout.  And I know you love my photo enhanced recipes, so here you go......

Ice Cream Cake Ingredients-

bowl

foil

a pound cake

a bunch of ice cream

chocolate syrup

Cool Whip

Step 1-Line a bowl (of whatever size you want your cake to be) with foil or wax paper.  Something.  If not you will not be able to get your cake out of the bowl and it will be stuck in there forever and you won't be able to eat it.  Do you want to deal with that kind of sadness?

Step 2-Take a pre-made pound cake from the bakery or frozen section of the grocery store (you can make your own if you really want to) and cut it into thinnish slices. Layer this on the bottom and sides of your foil lined bowl. Mash it down.  (How much pound cake do you need?  Enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and then enough to layer it on the top after the ice cream is inside.)

Step 3-Swirl some chocolate syrup on your pound cake then scoop in your ice cream.  I like to use 3 different flavors but you can do whatever you like.  This time I used Strawberry Cheesecake, Carmel Praline, and Mint Chocolate Chip.  I added layers of chocolate syrup swirls between the different ice creams.

Step 4-Cover the Ice cream with the remaining pound cake slices.

Step 5-Freeze this.  I did mine overnight this time which is probably a good idea.  Then flip the bowl over and remove the cake.  You should have a dome like thing as pictured below.

Step 6-Add on the whip cream icing.  I usually just use some Cool Whip.  Then you can make a lovely pattern with chocolate syrup or candy or fruit or whatever you have for decor.

And there you have it, your very own homemade ice cream cake.  Looks good with the flag.

People enjoyed this.  They enjoyed it a lot.  They ate multiple pieces and then went jogging the next day to make up for it while the other people just ate more for breakfast and did not attempt to jog.   

****And for a lower calorie/fat version of this cake you can use Angel Food cake (which I have done before) and fro yo and fat free Cool Whip.  I still think it would be good.*****

Who doesn't love a nice ice cream cake?

What's your favorite Ice Cream flavor?