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Monday, June 29, 2009

Splash Park!

The Y we go to built a splash park either last summer or the one before. I've never been there, but the boys go to daycare right next door so they see it all the time. I decided since Joshua would be in his motorcycle class all weekend I'd take my family out for some fun. At first, the boys hated it, but then they really got into it and had a great time. It was fun for all of us!

This is when they really started having fun.

They're in there somewhere.



You'd never guess this was taken in the Midwest. Doesn't it look awesome?

Maria's Wedding

My friend Maria got married on Saturday, and she had a beautiful wedding. Here are some of the photos I took.

This is one of the large centerpieces on some of the tables. They had candles, but they weren't lit when I took this picture.

The cake.

Fresh roses. They had fresh flower centerpieces on every table. They were beautiful.

The kiss.

Vows.
I loved the bridesmaids dresses. I love green.

Mr. & Mrs.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fiesta Dishes

I have these awesome dishes, and for some reason, Joshua can seem to keep them off the floor. We've lived together six or so months, and already broken two plates. Both times I've been able to find replacements on eBay for decent prices. I'm thinking of going on there and ordering some extras. If we keep up at this pace, we'll be completely out of plates in three years.

This is the replacement. It is a brighter yellow, but I think I like it more than the one that got broken.

Someone, Please, Clean Me.

One of my goals is to clean my dress and store it. I called dry cleaners in the area to see how much this would cost. They will clean a pair of pants for you for $3.00, but if you call it a wedding dress, it's $75. I mean, really!? It's even more than that to preserve it. I called five different dry cleaners in town and everyone has their price set at $75. I'm open to suggestions.

This is my dress as it has been since May 17, 2009, 12:45AM. Same spot. Same dirt.



The life of the wedding dress is so sad after the one day it gets worn. It seems like such a waste.

Kitchen Diva

It's one thing to be crafty in the kitchen because you want to, and a completely different thing if you have to. Since we bought our house in November, we've been really really good about keeping the house stocked, I mean stocked. We would always have something on hand to eat. A week or two before the wedding we stopped grocery shopping because we didn't want our food to go to waste, so we ran out, and it would seem that we never restocked. At least, we didn't restock very well. I posted the recipe the other night about the pasta I made, from what I had on hand. For lunch the other day I was starving to death, and had to whip up something from what I had. I decided I wanted to make tuna patties like we used to eat when we first started dating. Joshua was training for a competition once, and I decided to diet with him. That was when I wasn't serious about losing weight, or sticking to any kind of diet. I was serious about losing weight, but not for the right reasons. I wanted to lose it fast. So anyway, I went to make the tuna patties. I have no idea what the recipe was that we used, but I knew it had pancake mix, tuna, and maybe an egg. Not positive about the egg. I didn't want to use the pancake mix, but then realized we had this Fiber One mix and went ahead and used a small amount. Here are my ingredients, minus the egg.

The Fiber One Pancake Mix is awesome. I use it to make waffles. It tastes like normal pancake mix, and it's good for you. The other ingredients are tuna, black peppercorns, garlic powder, and Fines Herbs. I've never heard of fines herbs before, and really only bought them because World Market was going out of business. They are good on eggs and fish though, so I figured I didn't have anything to lose. (Not pictured: two whole eggs)
I have a problem. There is something wrong with me where I suck at cracking eggs. I meant to use one whole egg and one white in this recipe, but dropped the second yolk and went ahead and used it. Oh well. I just poured in a little pancake mix. Probably a tablespoon or two. This looks disgusting.
My patties on the griddle. These look disgusting too. They remind me of presents my childhood pet would leave in the hallway. He had health problems.
Flipped. They look much better, and much like pancakes.
I had two for lunch since I didn't have any sides. I didn't use buns, just melted some cheese on top.
Add some low fat mayo, and call it a party. I love these things, and they're so easy you can make them with what you have on hand.

Really? I'm a Mrs.?

It feels so weird to be a Mrs. I went to a wedding this afternoon and on my menu it said "Mrs. Angela T". First of all, it's weird enough to see my new last name, but to see Mrs. in front of it? That makes me feel old. Super old. I certainly don't feel old enough to be a Mrs.

I even took a picture of my menu and sent it to my friends because I thought it looked so weird.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wall Words

On June 3, I posted this. Sarah saw it and told me she could make what I wanted to go up there. I got a package from her in the mail today, and this is what I have so far. :) Talk about a fast response.

This is the space I want the words for.

These are the words, once I got them out of the package and played a game on figuring out what went where, and how to tell a "p" from a "d"...it was fun. :)

Spread out on the floor. I decided I couldn't get a good idea with it on the table.

I taped them to the wall. They need to be centered more, but I really like it. I'm waiting to stick them until Josh comes home to see what he thinks. I think it's pretty awesome.

PSA: MixingBowl.com


I've already emailed Megan and Sarah to sign up with me, but I just found out about this awesome website. I got a free subscription to Better Homes & Gardens from a different cookbook that I got for one of my showers. My friend Maria got me the Breast Cancer Edition of the New Cook Book, and a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer research. When I opened it, there was a post card inside because with the purchase of the cookbook, you got a free year subscription. I completely forgot about it until yesterday when I got my first issue. I sent it in before our wedding obviously because it came in my maiden name. Anyway, I called my mom to see if she subscribed me to it, and then remembered the whole cookbook thing. I was looking through it last night and they did a special section on their new food site mixingbowl.com . It is also a new magazine that just hit shelves yesterday. I did see though that the magazine is $4.99, so if you're interested, just hit up the website. Really. I haven't spent a lot of time on the site, but what I did see was pretty cool. You should check it out.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Laughs

I did not mean for this to turn into such a food blog. Geez. Sorry, I just really love food...and eating.

I was just sitting here watching Bob Ross for the first time. Do you know who he is? I'm sure you do, because I'm typically the last person on earth to hear things. Anyway, since we got rid of cable, channel 39 has literally become my favorite. I hated it when I was younger, but now it pretty much rocks. They have a creative channel and this Bob Ross guy was on it. He was a painter and taught people how to paint. I'll stop now because I'm assuming you all know who he is.


While I was watching Bob Ross paint our new neighbor started doing some weird stuff. We don't have any curtains on our massive front window, so I see everything that happens out front. Anyway, I see the neighbor on his mower, and my first thought was "this guy just mowed on Sunday". Our neighbors don't have lives and honestly mow all the time. The guy two houses the other direction mows every. single. day. I'm not kidding you. Every day. I don't know why, but he does. I didn't believe it at first, so I made a point of being a psycho neighbor and watching him, he really does it every day. So I didn't think it was too weird that I knew the last time our neighbor mowed until I just said it here. Anyway I couldn't figure out what he was doing because he just mowed and it's a little atypical for him to do it so close together. He's a weeker, as in usually every weekend or so. So I was trying to figure out what the guy is doing, when he comes over into our yard. So then my thought is "What is the deal, did Josh miss a spot or something?" then "awesome, this guy is going to mow our yard", then "dang, where's he going?".

The guy drove his mower to the gas station.

I swear. I can't make this stuff up.

This is our neighbor through our massive window. This is when he was on his trip back.

Like I said, I have too much time on my hands.

I Have Too Much Time On My Hands

I was thinking about dinner on my way home from work, (not to mislead you, I think about dinner all day long, not just on my way home, but that's when the real planning happens). We decided to have leftovers because we still have lots of food from the cookout. I can't eat any more potato salad though, and have been wanting to try to make fresh tomato sauce. I didn't get to tonight, but it gave me an idea. When I do get to make fresh tomato sauce though, I'll use this recipe from Big City Cooking. We had friends over a few weeks ago for dinner and I made baked macaroni and cheese. I had mixed a couple kinds of noodles so that it wasn't just boring elbows. Elbows aren't my favorite, and I like different shapes. Growing up I never had shaped pasta because my mom hates it. Ever since I moved out I make shaped pasta all the time. Anyway, I had some mixed boxes left from that time I made macaroni. I can't remember why I didn't blog about the macaroni, but it was good too. I'm not sure what I did with that recipe. I think it was Paula Deen's. ANYWAY, I decided to use my left over noodles from the macaroni that doesn't have anything to do with this post. So I had a mix of elbows and penne pasta. I decided to cook it, add diced tomatoes and have a balsamic vinegar and olive oil sauce. I didn't want it to be the main dish, just a light side. I added basil, thyme, and oregano. I would post the recipe, but I don't measure. I just put in what looks good, and go with it. If it doesn't taste right, I add a little more. I get soooo boooorrredd waiting for pasta to cook. I don't want to leave the kitchen in case something would happen, but I don't want to stand in the kitchen for ten minutes. Here, you can see what I did to pass the time. I'm aware that I'm a loser, no need to tell me.

Ingredients:



Plain pasta in the strainer.
Pasta mixed with the sauce, back in the pan.

My yummy dinner.


The steam fogged my camera. I thought it was artsy.
Steam again.

Party Mix

I got a Better Homes & Gardens Wedding Edition Cookbook as a shower gift, and in it there are so many awesome recipes.

Party Mix:
4 cups bite size corn square cereal
4 cups bite size rice square cereal
2 cups pretzel knots
1 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 taespoons butter
3 tablespoons light-colored corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries, blueberries, or cherries.

In a large roasting pan combine corn cereal, rice cereal, pretzels, and almonds, set aside.

In a medium saucepan combine brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Continue boiling at a moderate steady rate, without stirring, for five minutes more. Remover saucepan from heat; stir in baking soda. Pour over cereal mixture; stir gently to coat.

Bake in a 300° oven for 15 minutes; stir cereal mixture and bake 5 minutes more. Remove from oven; stir in dried fruit. Spread on a large piece of buttered foil to cool. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.


My way: Buy Chex Mix at the store. Empty into bowl. Set on table. This is the cheesy kind.

Goal #68

Go through my old magazine piles. Cut out which recipes/articles I want to keep and recycle the rest. In progress.

This is my starting stack. It's gonna take a while.


Sarah helped me find this cutter for making my handmade cards, but its working wonderfully at evening up my magazine pages that I tear out. I love it. I've been using it on everything. This is me last night, working on getting rid of this crap.

Yummy Potato Salad

I had the recipe for this potato salad laying out on Sunday because I was making it, and it has somehow disappeared. Luckily I found it on the website I got it from.


Ranch Red Skin Potato Salad
Serves 8-12

Ingredients

* 11 medium red potatoes
* 1 (15 1/2 ounce) container t marzettis ranch dip
* 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
* 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
* 3 stalks green onions, sliced,using all white and most of the green (scallions)

Directions
Cook the potatoes and let cool, then cut into quarters or smaller if pieces are to big.
Then add cooled potatoes and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix.
Let sit overnight in the fridge to soak up the flavor.
Serve cool.

My way: I couldn't find the ranch dip at Wal-Mart, so I bought a container of fat free sour cream and a ranch packet (in the salad dressing aisle) and mixed up my own ranch dip. I had no idea how to cook the potatoes, and the recipe doesn't give any detail. I called my expert chef (Nanny) and she said cover the potatoes in water, bring to a boil, cover and boil about twenty minutes, or until you can easily stick a fork into the center of the potato.

This really turned out great. I was going to try to make my own original recipe for my goal list of this, but decided not to because I had so much else going on on Sunday. It was good, but I'll try a different recipe next time.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Holy Cornmuffins!

If you think you like cornbread, you're wrong. You have no idea until you try this. It is Megan's secret family recipe. This is the first time I made in it muffin form. I typically bake it in a pie pan, but since we were having so many people over I decided to go the muffin route so the kitchen didn't get backed up with slow cornbread cutters. I made regular size muffins and mini. I think more people ate the mini, because almost all of the regular sized were left.


This is actually a very easy recipe to make. You've heard of Jiffy right? If you've eaten cornbread I know you have. All you do is take a box of Jiffy corn bread/muffin mix and prepare it like the box tells you. Then, in a separate bowl, you make a box of Jiffy White Cake just like the box tells you. Then, mix them together and bake. When I made a cornbread pie type thing it usually takes longer than the box says, but making the muffins they took 20 minutes. The oven temperatures are different for the cornbread and the cake, I think they're 450° and 400°, so I set the oven at 425° and they came out great. You should try it, everyone will love it.

Cake!

As a wedding gift we got this awesome covered cake pan from Sarah, Ben and Becky. Yesterday was the first time I got to use it, and it's awesome. I don't have to mess with foil or anything to cover it and keep it fresh! I made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing because it's my dad's favorite. I was going to make the pretty two layer cake, but we had a lot going on, and really it tastes the same, and is much easier to cut pieces on a rectangle cake than a round one.


If you're in the market for a covered cake pan, check out Kohls. This is a Food Network Air Insulated Covered Cake Pan. It rocks.

Football

While waiting for dinner to finish up, dad and the boys went out to throw around their little football. They have a long way to go. :)


Father's Day Cookout

We'll use pretty much any excuse to eat good food, so we had a Father's Day cookout, and it was awesome. Here is some of the food we had. I will post the recipes to most of the stuff. Josh makes the ribs, and I don't know his secret rub recipe, but I know they are on the grill for a long time.

Party mix:

Chocolate cake:

Corn Muffins:

Red potato salad:

Joshua's Famous Ribs:

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