World RECORD... Well, Maybe Not

So, GUESS what I did yesterday?!?!?!  I made FOUR brand new (to me) Pinterest recipes!!!  That's gotta be some type of record, right?!  But seriously, it was pretty awesome!  So I had to tell you all because I was so excited!

So here's the story.  We had a church picnic to go to tonight, and of course, it was pot luck.  And it just so happened that they split up what people were supposed to bring by last names.  So by the last name rule, I was supposed to bring a side dish (not a dessert).  If you know me at all, then you would very well know that if you ask me to bring a dessert, I will be on Pinterest and in the kitchen for hours just narrowing down the list of recipes to make.  However, when you put me on side dish duty... I get on Pinterest for about 4 hours and still can't find anything I want to make and bring.  Boo.  So, in looking at pin after pin of delicious food on Pinterest Friday night and Saturday morning, I just could not help myself.  So...

For lunch, we had Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps!  Yum yum!  So, click on the picture for the original recipe.  Of course, we changed some things around because we're kind of picky eaters.  So we took out the peppers, changed up some of the spices and added salsa.  They were pretty darn delicious!  (Note: the picture is from Pinterest.)

 Next up, those wonderful sounding Bread Machine English Muffins I mentioned yesterday.  #1: One of the easiest pieces of baking I have ever done.  Seriously, throw it all in the bread maker, let it sit, smoosh it out, fry it up.  Done.  I am sold.  #2: They are bigger than regular English muffins (the batch made 10 large ones) and just as delicious!  LOVE them!  #3: And since they're so easy, I can make them whenever I want.  They don't even use a ton of ingredients.  Seriously, SOOOOOO easy!!!!  Once again, click on the pic for the recipe; pic is from Pinterest.

Then, on to the baked ziti that is sitting in the freezer right now.  With such crazy weeks, I've been in the habit of making one big meal on Saturday that we can fix during the week and have a lot of left overs for lunches.  So, this week, the baked ziti got picked.  I can't yet tell you how it turned out because we haven't eaten it.  But, I'll let you know.  Same deal as before, click pic for recipe, pic is from Pinterest.

Lastly, for dessert, I served up some Apple Fritters!  They were pretty good, however, this is actually the first time that I have deep fried something, so they weren't perfect.  The only thing that ruined them for me was how the house reeked of oil after I was finished making them.  I don't know if that was a chef error or just something that happened.  But they were really good.  Thomas came up wth the great idea too, to just bake them as muffins.  That would be easy, and I am like obsessed with muffins, so AWESOME!!!!  Can you guess what I'm going to say next?!  Click the pic for the yummy recipe, this photo is also from Pinterest.

So, I had a fabulous Pinterest Party for one yesterday!  And, I get to enjoy the spoils all week!  Ha ha ha!!!  (Triumphant laugh)  Now time for some Doctor Who!!!!!!!  Allons-y!!!

What is this place???

Well, hello! I believe this all may look familiar from a different life.  I feel like its been a lifetime since I last blogged.  (And it probably has.  I honestly don't even remember when I blogged last or what the post would have been about.)  But, here I am with a pretty brief update on my busy boring life.

July - FLEW by between vacation in Atlanta with my family and two weeks of band camp.

August - School started, so yeah, I don't even remember if I had ANY free time in August.

September - And now, September is at a close and I can't even believe I've survived the last two months!  I was doing the budget today, and I just couldn't believe some of the things I was entering into the checkbook happened only 20 days ago!  September has felt like a lifetime.  And October will be just as busy!  (If not more)

Being a teacher is more work than I EVER could have imagined.  The amount of things we are expected to do is absolutely insane!  I am constantly playing a never ending game of catch-up.  And unfortunately, if there's one thing I absolutely hate, its an unfinished to-do list.  And since mine grows every day, it is NEVER done!  Mer.

Anyway, through all of the craziness, I have managed to squeeze in the tiniest bit of weaving.  One project that took me hours and hours and hours over weeks and weeks is still not finished, so I'm going to skip over that one.  But, I do have some (horrible) pics of two scarves I just sent off this morning to their new owners!  (Yay!  A completed project!)

 This one is for my aunt, and its very similar to one of my last projects, but it has the knot tied into it.  Its made out of a green silk/bamboo yarn and a varigated nylon.  Love it!  It's so soft and shiny.

And this one is for her friend.  Its all silk/bamboo yarn.  Brown with coral stripes and a couple of twists put in it.  These are actually the two first pieces that I have made to order, so I was (am) a little nervous about them, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Well, the one thing I have NOT stopped doing in all of the craziness is BAKING!!!  I just cannot get enough baking!  In fact, right now, the kitchen is calling my name.  I found a recipe on Pinterest this morning for homemade bread machine English muffins.  Now, tell me what part of that title does not sound amazing?!  Because seriously, how do you get better than homemade (aka: more delicious and cheaper than store bought), bread machine (minimal effort for me) and English muffins (breakfast made for a week)!!!!!!!!  Hopefully, I won't fall off the face of the Earth again, and I'll be able to blog and let you know how they turn out!

Happy weekend!

Lazy Sunday

So... this post is a few days over due, and now I have another waiting in line!  But, I'm going to do this in order.

I just love lazy Sunday afternoons and evenings in the summer.  Even with evening church, its lovely to come home, have a snack, and just hang around for the rest of the night.  Here's what Thomas and I did with our lazy Sunday night:

 Slushies and Yahtzee!

We've been playing a LOT of Yahtzee lately, just one of those crazy summer habits!  So usually, slushies in my family mean fresh strawberries and such.  But, being on a budget and sometimes lay shoppers, we did not have any strawberries in the house.  What did we have though?  Strawberry Kool-aid!  Lol.  The reason I'm telling you this whole story is because the strawberry Kool-aid slushies were actually really delicious!  AND, how much cheaper can you really get than one package of Kool-aid, a can of frozen lemonade, ice and sugar?!  Basically, I just had some Kool-aid ice cubes in the freezer, threw those, some regular ice, and a couple spoonfuls of frozen lemonade in the blender, et voila!  However, it was really tart, so I ended up adding a little extra sugar.  They were super cheap, easy, and delicious.  I'm thinking we should have them again, but with another flavor of Kool-aid.

Anyway, that was my wonderful Sunday night!  Tonight I've got a batch of home-made granola in the oven.  Yummy!  And I'm weaving on the latest scarf... but that's an update for tomorrow!!!

Nom Noms

Soooo....  I have been in a horrible quandary the past couple of days.  It's been terrible.  I just don't know what to do.  You see, I have this constant decision to make, and its just so difficult to make the right choice.  You know, the kind of decision where you pro and con it, and then you STILL can't decide.  So, I guess I will share my options on here, and maybe you can help me solve this awful dilemma.  Should I...

Bake or Weave?

He he!  What a terrible life I have right now, right?!  That is my constant, ten times a day decision. So, I can tell you for sure that both win out!  In fact, I think the contest is probably pretty even right now.  Here are some of the finer factors:

Pros for Weaving / Cons for Baking -

• I have an abundance of yarn, so I can weave about 84 projects before I have to spend any money!
• I can always choose when to take a break.
• Its extremely FUN!
• I have a ton of projects on the brain.
• Baking is making my beach body not so beach-y.
• Baking usually takes a large chunk of time all at once.
• I hate cleaning the kitchen every five minutes.
• I need more ingredients for all the different pinterest recipes I want to try.

Pros for Baking / Cons for Weaving - 

• Baking makes DELICIOUS goodies!
• There are sooooo many recipes I want to try.
• I'm gonna want dessert anyway, and its cheaper to make it than to go buy it somewhere.
• Thomas benefits from my yummy treats.
• For weaving, well, I can't really think of any cons.  :)

Anyway... its probably going to be a few days before you see a finished picture of the green/purple/copper scarf because it needs to be finished with the sewing machine.  And, I'm a little mad at my sewing machine right now, so its been banished to the closet!  However, I do have a new project warped on the loom.  (After a warping process that should have taken half an hour but instead took ONE and a half because I messed it all up.)   So, you'll see sneak peek pics of that soon.

And, on to the baking!  As I mentioned the other day, I made a whipped chocolate fondue dip and cinnamon chips for our bible study dessert party on Monday.  And it was delicious if I do say so myself!  The fondue was one of the easiest recipes I've ever made.  And the cinnamon chips, though more time consuming, were totally worth it!  Here's a pic of the finished dish.  Yum!

 And this morning, I whipped up a batch of cinnamon sugar bagels!  I haven't made these since we moved to Florida, and I've been missing them!  As you can tell from the picture, I still haven't mastered the shaping yet.  They always puff up into big balls rather than ending up looking like bagels!  Yummy!  I can't wait til breakfast.

So, now on to start that new weaving project!!!