Foodie Friday

I absolutely LOVE The Pioneer Woman. Her website, her show, her recipes, her life. She makes me want to move and live on a ranch. OK, almost. Her recipes are so beautifully presented and narrated, not to mention incredibly delicious. Enter... "Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingys!" I came across this particular concoction of deliciousness by reading about them on twitter. Several people I follow on twitter have sung their praises to the high heavens, so I decided to find out for myself. I originally made these back during football season, which, as it turns out, is a great time to try out new recipes. There are generally lots of hungry people around who may or may not have been "having a few" so chances are good that whatever you bring will be well received. Turns out that I did not have anything to worry about with this particular recipe. Jalapenos filled with cream cheese, wrapped with bacon and baked in the oven. Yes, please! The link back to the original recipe on her website is above, so I won't bore you with a repeat of the step-by-step instructions. But here are a few shots of my efforts.



Hollow out your jalapenos. You might consider wearing gloves for this.



Slice your bacon into thirds. I think I really could have done in half and had a little more bacon around them, but that's just the bacon whore in me talking.



Fill them with cream cheese and wrap with the bacon, and secure it with a toothpick. I guess I missed getting a shot of the process of filling them & wrapping them up, but I just used a spoon and glopped it in there. I also used pineapple cream cheese. I thought the sweet and salty would be a nice combination.



Bake, and there you go! Soooo delicious!

 These were so simple but so tasty, and there were complaints that there weren't more. Go check out the original recipe on The Pioneer Woman's website for all of the specifics. I promise you will get caught up in all of her recipes and stories.

"No Way" Wednesday

OK, admittedly slacker post today. This is my fur-child Sammy. Last year we had a good bit of snow/ice accumulation and apparently he just thought he wanted to go check it out.

I guess he didn't after all. :)

"Kitchen Jenga" and other household games

Yesterday I read a very amusing tweet about “Kitchen Trash Jenga”. You know, when you take turns piling trash on top of an already overflowing trash can until one person’s contribution causes everything above the rim to tumble out. Clearly I think whoever causes this should be considered the “loser” and therefore have to remove the bag from the can (‘cause you know it’s wedged in there tight as a vise), and take it out. Plus a penalty to be assessed next round if they don’t replace the bag. (Am I wrong to assume that replacing the bag is actually part of “taking out the trash?”?) We totally do this at our house. We could probably have Olympic qualifiers for this. This got me thinking of some of the other household “sporting” events we have at our house.

Such as, the “Dryer Tumble". This is similar to musical chairs. The object is to continually turn on the dryer and tumble whatever is in it, because if it’s tumbling, well of course you can’t take it out and fold it, it’s still tumbling! If you need something that’s in there, you can stop it and remove it, but if you forget to start the dryer back, you lose. And as the loser you should accept your punishment and fold the clothes that have been on an infinite tumble setting for the last week. There’s actually another way to lose at this. If in fact you find yourself in need of washing a load of clothes and there are already clothes in the dryer when you switch the load over, well, suck it up and take them out and fold them. Technically you could just throw them on top of the dryer and then put your wet clothes in, or even put the wet clothes in with the already dry clothes, but that would be cheating. Not that anyone at our house has ever done either. *cough* *cough*

Then there’s the “Keep Away” game. We play this a lot with the renegade dryer sheets that always seem to end up on the floor somewhere besides the laundry room. But it could be anything, really. A sock. A coin. Anything that has fallen on the floor. This one is simple, all you do is refrain from making eye contact with the object and pass it several times a day acting as if you don’t even see it. If you can hold out long enough, someone else will eventually crack and pick the object up. And you win.

Next up is “Empty The Basket". It’s contingent on the fact someone has lost the dryer tumble and actually folded the clothes in the dryer and put them in a laundry basket. The next logical step would be to put them away right? Ah contraire! If you just leave the laundry basket full of clean clothes sitting around, eventually you can wear all of the clothes in it, effectively negating the need to put them away. Granted this sometimes takes a while, and if one of you end up needing the occupied basket before it’s empty, that person is the loser and must put the remaining clothes away.

And finally, my personal favorite the “Light Bulb Shell Game”. You know how the shell game is about shuffling and relocation? The same principal applies when replacing a light bulb in the house. Why go get a fresh, new light bulb when you can simply find an existing bulb that you might not need as critically and just move it? Ceiling fan fixtures are a very good source for this as they always have several bulbs in the fixtures. Who needs all 4 of those bulbs to see anyway? Chandeliers styled light fixtures are a little tricky because you can’t always find a place for those “flame shaped” bulbs. Bathroom track lighting is a good place to look too. I mean do you really need the vanity in your bathroom lit up like a dressing room backstage on Broadway? Of course not, two or three bulbs will do ya’. Eventually you will be down to the very last functioning bulb in the house, and if you’re the lucky person who is trying to find one when it happens, you lose. And you have to actually purchase a box of light bulbs.

I’m sure if I really sat down and thought about it, there are so many more quirky little games we play in the general operation of our household. These are just a few that came to me off the top of my head. And if you saw even a little bit of your household in them, I hope it made you smile!

Miscellaneous Monday

Ugh, Monday again. I guess poor Monday gets a bad rap most of the time, but it kind of deserves it. It does after all indicate the absolute end of the weekend and the beginning of another week of work before we see it again. But, I suppose were it not for Monday we wouldn't appreciate Friday, Saturday and Sunday as much.

It was a pretty uneventful and low key weekend around out house. Friday we had a bit of a severe weather scare and were up half of the night waiting to see if we were going to get heavy thunderstorms, a tornado or both. This has been the craziest "winter" in quite some time. It's been very warm and we didn't have a single day of ice or snow accumulation. After it all played out we ended up with only heavy thunderstorms. Other areas of Georgia were not as lucky. I heard reports that an F3 tornado touched down in a county northwest of us. Sever weather is so scary anyway, and even more so I think when it happens at night. I am extremely thankful we weren't involved.



Said delicious tuna.

 I did manage to grill before the winds picked up too badly Friday night. I've been trying to get the husband to try a grilled tuna steak for quite a while. Turns out his primary aversion to it is the fact that it's generally prepared on the rare side. After I explained to him I could cook it as "well" as he wanted it, that the tuna police were not going to come arrest me for over cooking it, he agreed. I kept it simple, a little blackening seasoning and a brush of olive oil. Sauteed some green beans with garlic and made some wild rice. He loved it! I think we will having it pretty often.




Woot! 12 miles!

 I logged 12 miles this past week! 12 miles! It was hard getting back in the groove and I am defiantly feeling it, but I'm so happy I managed to get off my butt. I'm registered for a 5K on March 31st, so I hope I can get back some of stamina and a little bit of "speed". (Speed is in quotations because I am hella' slow even on my best day, so "speed" might not really be the appropriate word here.) I'm having a little trouble with my feet hurting so I think it might be time for some new shoes again soon. (Budget permitting...) It does feel good to be doing something active again and the husband has really helped me with keeping my head in it right now. I'm hoping in the coming weeks that I can work back up to some longer distances. I absolutely love a long run early on Saturday or Sunday morning when nobody else is out. There is no feeling quite like it.



There aren't adequate captions for some things...

 Aaaand, THIS happened to some friends of ours between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Our friend came out of his house to head to the airport for an early flight on Sunday morning, and this is what he found. It happened while they were home. Which is the scariest part I think. That, and that it's about a mile up the road from us. Turns out they got another vehicle across the street as well, AND apparently stole the bricks from someone else in the neighborhood to prop the cars on. Really? Some people just suck. I would have probably had an atomic meltdown.


And today, is Monday. Meh. But it is one day closer to Friday again so there's that.

Friday Funny

When I saw this on Pinterest, it made me laugh. Yes, out loud. And it still does. Sometimes you just need a little silly in your Friday. :)

Accountability Starts Here

In analyzing and reanalyzing the current state of my love/hate (mostly hate lately) relationship with running, healthy eating and fitness in general, I have come to the conclusion that I need something in the structure of things to keep me accountable. I can not simply rely on myself and the knowledge that good food choices and regular exercise are no-brainers for losing weight and staying healthy. Clearly. I mean, I knew all that 60 pounds ago. When I look back on my sucesses, they were prefaced by a particular goal or commitment, like when I started the Couch to 5K plan, registered for my first 5K, signed up for fitness boot camp and set my sights on completing a half marathon. After the half marathon in November I decided to "take a break" and well, it turned into an indefinite sabbatical from all of the hard work and good habits that I had implemented to help me reach my goals. I suppose we can just call a spade a spade here and say that I just got lazy. It was March of 2011 when I went completely out of my comfort zone and shelled out $85 for that half marathon, and here it is March of 2012, and while I DID complete the half marathon, I've gained 12 pounds of the weight I  lost back, and am slowly slipping back into the habits and choices that got me to my heaviest and most unhealthy in the first place. So. Not. Cool. With so many things in life that are out of my control, why do I have such a hard time with things that are totally within my control such as the foods I chose to eat and whether or not I get my lazy butt out of bed on a Saturday morning to run? The trainer at boot camp used to constantly tell me "If it were easy, everybody would do it.". And while that may sound trite and cliche, it is, ultimately, the truth. So today I am making the choice to get off the easy road, and get back on the more difficult and challenging road. A road that I hope will allow me to lose the 12 pounds I gained back and the 30 or so more that I still want to lose. I have registered for another 5K in March and have my eye on a couple in April and May. I plan on entering the lottery to get a space in the Peachtree Road Race in July. Doing another half marathon some time late this year is also on my radar. I am vowing to myself to either run or cross-train at the gym at least 5 days a week and log my miles. I am going to keep a food log, and limit things that I know trigger bad choices (um, beer, wine..) Sweets need to be reclassified because something that is considered a "treat" really isn't a "treat" if you call it that several times a week, then it's just part of your regular diet. (SO guilty.) And I'm going to put it out here more regularly. Because I need to. The good, the bad and the ugly.
  



Word. (From www.FinishLine.com)



Adventures in DIY: The Chalkboard

I realize that I am a little "Tardy to the Party" with the whole chalkboard paint thing. (And lawd help me did I just quote Kim Zoliciak?) I also realize that it has also probably been done to death by now and that there are no less than several thousand of them on Pinterest. But I've been intrigued with chalkboard paint for a while now, AND I have big empty space on a wall in my kitchen AND I really like chalkboards (or white boards, or sticky notes, or anything you can make a list on...) so I finally made the time and put forth the effort to try making my own.

I didn't already have a framed print or mirror that was what I was looking for, so I went to the Goodwill to scope out what they had to offer. I ended up with a 16x20 mirror ($4) rather than an old, cheesy framed print just because I liked the simplicity of the frame around the mirror. Especially for my first try at this. Plus, the mirror seemed pretty well put together. Then I purchased a can of chalkboard spray paint and some gloss white spray paint from Wal-mart.

I removed the mirror and cardboard backing from the frame, and wiped both down with rubbing alcohol. Of course the day I decided to undertake this, the wind was gusting about 20 mph, so I had to relocate the project inside the garage as using spray paint in a high wind is tricky at best.


I had aleady taken it apart here. Please disregard my dirty garage.



Instruments of DIY awesomeness? Or epic fail? We'll see.....

I decided to tackle the frame portion first. I was reasonably sure the frame of the mirror was wood, but I was on the fence about how the spray paint was going to stick to the glossy finish. I don't think it was a veneer, but maybe a glossy top coat. Either way I decided to go ahead and try it without sanding it. First couple of coats were not so impressive. It didn't seem to be covering as I had hoped. It actually LOOKED ok, kind of distressed really, but I wanted a more uniform white. So.. I put a total of 5 coats on, allowing a little drying time in between each.




Wasn't covering as well as I had hoped.


Then on to the mirror. Again.. sand, don't sand? Prime, don't prime? I decided not to sand simply because I didn't want to sand glass. I didn't prime because I figured if the primer would stick ok, then surely the paint it's self would too. The directions on the can are pretty straight forward. It calls for 2 coats. I did three. Wait 24 hours, cover the entire surface with chalk to "cure" it, erase, reassemble and you're good to go.




Freshly sprayed chalkboard paint directly to the mirror. No sanding or primer.

 

Once they were dry enough to move and the wind died down, I put them out in the sun.



Rub the entire surface with chalk.



And... ta-da!! Sorry about the flash, I am clearly not a photographer.


Seriously. Easy. I'll have to let you know how the writing surface holds up. But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. And by the way, I was searching for "liquid chalk" actually looking for chalk board pens, when I found this.... totally made me laugh out loud in the literal sense. Apparently a sweaty pole is a hazard. Who knew? Safety first I guess! :)

Yes. Seriously.