blueberry corn muffins

Blueberry Corn Muffins
1 C yellow (or white) cornmeal
1 C flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 C milk
1/4 C vegetable oil
 1 C blueberries

1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
2. In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, and oil. Add to the well in the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
3. Fold in blueberries (rinsed and drained, or you can use frozen), being careful not to mash the berries.
4. Lightly grease a muffin pan and fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Brush tops with melted butter if desired.

tye dye competition shirts

 

My cheer girls had a competition on St Patrick's Day, and our head coach made them all green bows to wear for the occasion. Since our team colors are red and black, we as coaches didn't have anything green to wear! So another one of the coaches and I decided to make our own green shirts to wear!

I decided to tye-dye them, because I love to tye-dye things, then we used glittery gold iron-on letters to put our team initials and names on them.

All four shirts, wrapped up in spirals, ready to dye.

After putting the dye on them.

trouser jean dress pants

 As part of my effort to look a little nicer at work, I bought this pair of trouser jean type dress pants. The material is more like denim and looks less dressy than a true pair of dress pants. (Although, I was told that they look exactly the same as navy blue dress pants, which isn't what I was going for. But, I figure what matters the most is how I feel wearing them, and I feel that they are less dressy.) They are definitely more dressy looking than jeans, which I like about them.

They were $50 at NY&CO, and pants were buy one get one free, so I also got a pair of regular jeans as well.

The shoes are new as well. They are silver with a very small heel and a decorative buckle on the toe. They were $33 at DSW, and go well with these pants as well as jeans and black dress pants.

The pink sweater is one I've had for awhile, I think I got it at Forever 21 at least 4 years ago, but I get a good amount of wear out of it. (I wore it last Easter, in fact.)

march madness bracket

At work, we are doing a March Madness Bracket Challenge. A friend and I created this poster to keep track of the teams and wins. It is displayed in the lobby of our building, and since I know nothing about basketball, someone else is filling it in.

This massive board was actually made using a cardboard packing box and poster board. The box was about $1, and each piece (we used four) of poster board was $.30. The basketballs are made out of a couple sheets of orange felt, also $.30 per sheet. 

The rest is just drawn on with sharpie and printed from the computer! Oh, except for the 2013, which is glitter. :)

And, did I fill out a March Madness Bracket? Yep! I used what I like to call 'Mascotology', which means that I picked who would win based on how their mascots would do against each other, or just which one I liked better!!

I've got the Syracuse Oranges for the win! (Because an orange would totally fly under the radar!!)

the alamo

While we were in Dallas visiting my dad, we drove down to San Antonio, TX to walk on the river walk and visit the Alamo. The river walk was really pretty, and there were restaurants and stores all along it. I could see how it's something people like to visit!

The Alamo was cool to see, but as we'd been told, pretty unimpressive. It's a lot smaller in real life than you would think it would be, but I guess when Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were there it was a big deal!

first time at the gun range

Also while we were in Texas, we went to the gun range with my dad. We shot my uncle's Beretta, 9mm. (A small hand gun, nothing too impressive.)

I do have to say though - a trip to the gun range is pretty expensive. We went on ladies night, so it was only $5 for me to shoot, but it was $20 for the first shooter and $15 for additional shooters. Total for me, my dad, and Alex, it was $40 to shoot, before paying for ammunition or renting a gun.

Here we are with our shot up targets! Neither Alex nor I had shot handguns before, so I thought we did pretty well!

gift of caramels

I post a lot about making caramels and my experiments with caramels. I've been looking for ways to package them a little nicer, so when I took some down to my dad as  gift, this is what I came up with.

There is a mix of chocolate covered caramels and shortbread caramels (topped in chocolate) in the box. I've been told that I should try selling them, so there will probably be more experimentation in packaging!

boot shine in TX

We went to visit my dad in Texas for a week and went out to a bar called the Electric Cowboy, where they were offering free boot shines for ladies! Here I am with my newly shined boots! (The boot shiner was in the picture as well, but since I do not have his permission to post his picture, I cropped him out.)

picture collage artwork

I created this wall art for my dad for Christmas, inspired by this blog post. In the original post, she used 6x6 pictures. Since I wanted to use pictures I'd taken around Colorado, print them 8x10 to be able to cut them down to 6x6 would have been really expensive. So, my pictures are 4x4, cut down from 6x4's that are cheaply printed at Wal-Mart. :)

Also, instead of using foil tape like the post, I used very thin ribbon. I did this partly because I thought it would be cheaper, and partly because I wanted it to be black, not copper foil.

The canvases are 16x20, on sale for $10 for all three of them.

I think it turned out really well - completely worth doing!

french dip sandwiches

I found this recipe for French Dip Sandwiches here, and decided to give it a try. They turned out really good, although I thought they were a lot of work and kind of expensive for not too much meat. Next time, I will make this recipe will a big piece of pork, because I think this will allow the meat to soak up the flavors of the spices better and give us more meat and less fat.

French Dip Sandwiches

4 pounds beef chuck roast

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

3 bay leaves

1 cup soy sauce

6 cups water

Place roast in slow cooker. Season with garlic, rosemary, and bay leaves. Pour in soy sauce and water. Cook on low setting for 6 to 10 hours. Unlike most roasts, the longer the better. 

To serve, place in hamburger buns or split french bread and top with your preferred cheese if desired. Feel free to dip your sandwich in the au jus left in the slow cooker too! To make ahead/freezer meal - Place all the ingredients except the water into a gallon sized freezer storage bag; seal and freeze. When ready to prepare, defrost completely. Place contents into your slow cooker and add 6 cups of water. Cook on low setting for 6 to 10 hours. Unlike most roasts, the longer the better.

shortbread caramels

I was browsing Pinterest and came across a recipe for shortbread caramels. Since I already make pretty good caramels, I figured trying them with the shortbread would be a fun experiment!

I found the shortbread recipe here, and used my own caramel recipe instead of the one that she used.

Shortbread recipe:
10 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1-2/3 cups flour

Line an 8×8″ pan with parchment paper, leaving some hanging over the sides to make removal easier.
In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and salt with a pastry cutter or fork. Add the egg yolk and continue mixing.
Add the flour and use your hands to combine the dough until coarse crumbs form. Transfer the dough into the prepared pan and press it down into one even layer.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 25 minutes, until slightly golden brown. Set aside to cool. 

Then I made my own caramel and poured over the top.

As you can see, the caramel ran over the side of the shortbread quite a bit - the picture is all edge pieces! In the comments of the original blog, this seemed to be a common problem. However, I don't mind a bit of drooping, because I like the consistency of my caramels. They look like little caramel sushi rolls!

new recliner chair

My mom got us this chair for Christmas, and it's super comfy! As you can see, Grizzly likes to sit on it and look out the window! It looks black/brown in the picture but it is actually a dark grayish color. It reclines as well as rocks a little...great for napping in! It's an awesome addition to our living room. :)

baking day - bread

The last couple days have been baking days! I had a lot of bread to make, and Alex wanted some more honey oatmeal rolls to take with him on a trip he's taking.  

Here is the bread all rising, there are a couple pans of honey oatmeal rolls, a couple small loaves of white sourdough bread, and a loaf of wheat sourdough bread.

Here is the finished loaf of wheat sourdough bread. This loaf is a little denser and made with wheat flour. It was an experiment, but turned out really well!!

These are the two small loaves of white sourdough bread - my favorite! They're a little smaller than the wheat loaf, since they used less dough each.

All in all, a productive baking day!

teriyaki beef

This one is a fast and easy make ahead meal. Especially when I can find them on sale, I buy the thin cut beef rounds. I marinate them in teriyaki sauce, a little bit of soy sauce, and garlic powder. I either marinate them in the fridge the morning or night before cooking, or put the whole bag in the freezer to get out later when I don't feel like making something. Then just cook it on the stove top (it's fast, since they're so thin) and serve with broccoli and rice, or broccoli and pasta, and extra teriyaki sauce. Way easy!

tomato tortellini soup

When I have some free time, I like to make recipes that reheat well to take to lunch for work. This soup is one of my favorites because it is filling and satisfying, and really easy to pack in my lunch. It makes a lot of soup, so it should last me all week, if my husband doesn't gobble it up too!

Tomato Tortellini Soup
adapted from http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/soups/creamy-tomato-tortellini-soup/
2 whole Large Cloves Of Garlic Minced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cans 10 3/4 Oz Cans Of Condensed Tomato Soup
1 15oz can italian diced tomatoes
1-½ cup Milk
2 cups Half-and-half
2 cups Chicken Stock
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Pepper
1  teaspoon Oregano
½ teaspoons Basil
½ teaspoons Thyme
1 9 Oz Package Of Cheese Filled Tortellini

1. Saute garlic with the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get too brown or burnt.
2. When the garlic is done, add tomato soup, tomatoes, milk, half and half, chicken stock and spices. Bring to a simmer. 
3. Once simmering, drop noodles into the soup. Cook according to the package directions, about 8 minutes.
4. After noodles are cooked, ladle soup into bowls and top with parmesan cheese and serve with crusty bread.