Miscellaneous Monday

Good news, everyone! My car has, for another year, passed inspection. I took the car to my local Big-O Tires on Saturday, in the morning, and ran home from there. By the time I got home, I got the call from them saying my car was almost going to pass – it just needed new windshield wipers. Well, of course that’s do-able, so I just had them put on new ones, and I passed! Yippee! When I went back to pick it up, they told me that they can register your car for you at the place, so you don’t have to go to the building to register it, or get online. So huzzah, that saved me a step. So now, I’m registered for another year, and good to go.

Last night was the Oscars. Of course, I love them, mostly to watch the pre-show to see what everyone is wearing. Everyone was wearing mostly ok dresses, I think there was only a few people that I really didn’t like their dress. I wished I had someone to watch it with me, since as I was watching the pre-Oscar red carpet walk-down, I kept talking aloud to no one about the outfits, hair, asking why so-and-so was even there, that sort of thing. I must have seemed a crazy person, had anyone been there to see me. But the big winner of the night was the movie The Artist. Everyone should see this movie. Yes, it’s a silent movie, but it’s still amazing. I recommend it to everyone.

I have a new calling in my ward. That’s right, everyone, I, Vieve, have a calling. I’m now the Assistant Webelos Den Leader. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Why Vieve, you don’t know the first thing about cub scouts, nor boys ages 10-11”, and you’d be quite right. I don’t know anything about cub scouts. I know nothing about children, males mostly, at those ages. But I’m going to give this a go. I have my first activity with them this week, on Thursday, and I’m hoping it goes well. I’m sure I’ll keep everyone on here updated with all the happenings, so wish me luck!

Tickets, of a different nature

You guys, it’s almost here. We are just inches away from it happening. I’m referring, of course, to the season beginning of RSL. The first game is on March 10th, so we’re so close. Of course, it’s an away game (I hate when the first game is an away game!) but I’ll be watching nonetheless. This past weekend on Saturday, RSL had their annual ticket pick up, where you go to the stadium and get your ticket and your season ticket holder gift. Last year the gift was a panoramic picture of the stadium, but we only got one, regardless of having 2 season tickets, but whatevs. This year, the gift was a scarf – and one for each seat, yay! The line was pretty bad when we got there at 2:30, but we still hopped into the giant line. It was outside, which was unfortunate, because holy cow it was cold. Thankfully it wasn’t snowing or anything, but it was quite windy, and that was making me freezing. Of course I was in flip flops, but that’s because I didn’t expect us to be waiting a long time outside. After we’d been there about 10 minutes, they re-routed the line so that instead of waiting outside, we waited inside. We snaked through the press room, a stairwell, and a few hallways. When we got into the press room, where they have the RSL wallpaper, I took a picture there, to commemorate the occasion.

Finally, finally, (Ok, only an hour and fifteen minutes later) we got to the front. I picked up my tickets and scarves, and picked up PJ’s tickets as well (She’s out of town, and I’m a good friend.). And in case you wanted to see the scarves we got this year:

So huzzah for all! I have my tickets, I have my scarves, and now I’m ready for this season to start. On the way home, we were pulled over by the police, Husband’s car hadn’t been registered (since August!) and the kind policemen was just telling us of this fact, and also letting us know that Husband had a warrant for his arrest, over a speeding ticket that happened a year ago! So the officer let us have a choice, either he could take Husband right then, and let me come bail him out later, or he could follow us to an ATM where we could just post his bail right now. We picked the latter choice (surprise!) and got it all straightened out. I don’t even want to think of what would have happened, if he had just taken him. I can’t drive a stick shift! What would I have done, just sat on the side of the freeway, waiting for someone to come get me? And then leave the car? Oh man. Luckily it all turned out ok, and everyone is safe and sound for now. I’m thinking that in the future, we should all avoid having warrants, just in case.

Night o' Chinese

Yesterday, I really wanted Chinese food. During work, Chelle and I kept talking about how delish it would be to get some – specifically to get some sweet & sour chicken. We couldn’t think of a place we could go, so I figured I’d eat some for dinner. But I’m always displeased with the greasiness of take-out Chinese, so I decided to make homemade food. I was nervous to do this (I’ve never made it by myself, I’ve usually had someone make it as I sit in the kitchen and talk to them) but I felt up to the challenge. I got some recipes, and then to Target to get the ingredients. I swear, if I could live at Target, I would. I love that store. But that has nothing to do with this, so we’ll move on.

First off, I made lo mein. I had a recipe sent to me by my dad that I was going to use, but then at the last minute, I found a different recipe that I found that looked a little easier. Plus, I thought I had spaghetti noodles, but when we returned from the store, I discovered I didn’t actually have any. And since I wasn’t going to go back to the store, I had to make do with what I had. So I used 2 packages of Ramen noodles instead, and it actually worked a little better, I think. After adding various ingredients, this is what the lo mein ended up looking like:

It was actually pretty delicious! I was pleased with myself.

Husband made the ham fried rice whilst I made the lo mein. We used a pretty basic recipe for that one, and here’s what that one looks like: I really liked the rice, it was so delish. You’re supposed to use like, day-old rice when making it, but since I only had the craving this morning, it was fresh made rice, so it was probably not how it was “supposed” to be, but I still liked it.

And now, to the infamous sweet & sour chicken - the whole reason I wanted to eat the food. When we went to Target, they didn’t have my usual sweet & sour suce that I get. They did have another brand, so I assumed they’d probably taste the same, so I got it. I also used a different kind of chicken than I usually use – I used like a popcorn chicken kind, so it was pre-breaded. I cooked those in the oven for a bit, then let them baste in the sauce for a while, and cooked them a little longer on the stove. They looked ok..ish, but then when I took a bite, they were absolutely awful. I didn’t get a picture of those by themselves, just on my plate with the other food, so you can see it here.

I also had wonton strips that I made, that was easy, I just bought the wontons, cut them into strips, and fried them in a pan until brown, which was like, seconds.

So there it is, my Chinese food dinner. It was half good, since the dumb sweet & sour chicken didn’t really pan out for me. Unfortunately, I still really want that chicken. I guess I’ll have to go somewhere to get it, since I can’t seem to make it myself. But at least this was a learning experience, and now I know I don’t know how to make it.

How I Spent My Presidents Day or A Day of Sadness, Embarrassment, and Happiness

Happy Presidents day everyone! I got to about an hour ago, when I was laughing at some of the ridiculousness that’s happened today, and I thought I should share with everyone. Because if there’s something that I’ve learned, its that if you do something embarrassing, it’s just more fun to share with people.

This morning, I got up and went downstairs to eat my morning banana. While I was eating, I do the thing that everyone does. You straighten up a little here, clean a little there, and before you know it, you’ve suddenly wiped down all the counters and mopped the kitchen floor, and you’ve organized all the paperwork you’ve let pile up. I finished with that, started some laundry, and then ran. I was planning on doing some P90X (I never do that anymore!) but then I decided that eating a bowl of Krave cereal while watching The Secret Circle was a good enough workout after my run.

After this workout, I showered, then over to the RC Willey outlet, to see if they had any deals on coffee tables. (they did, but none in stock, so I was sad) On the way out, they were giving away free hot dogs! I forgot they did this on holidays, and I happily ate my free dog. Even though today is technically Meatless Monday, it was free and delicious, and I’ll not apologize for it. With the sadness over my fruitless shopping trip, on the way home, we  (Rory and I) stopped at Shirley’s bakery to get a sweet roll. Rory had never been there before, so I introduced her to the orange roll. Of course she loved, as that place is delish.

I came home, and decided that I would make a dent in my Tivo watchings. I have the entire second season of Downton Abbey on my DVR, and since I finally finished the first season, I was eager to catch up.

If you haven’t seen this show, please watch. I fired up the first episode on my DVR, and…it wasn’t the first of the season. My DVR had deleted the first 4 episodes of the season, so I didn’t have them anymore. I was so sad. Luckily for me, the season is already out on DVD, so maybe I can rent it from someplace. Worst case scenario, I have to buy it (I already do have the first season) and it’s only $20. So instead, I watched Nanny McPhee 2. I liked the first, so I decided to record the second, and I’ve been watching it in increments, and I finally was watching the end. And of course, as I’m watching the end, I’M CRYING at the movie. There’s a cute, happy ending of this CHILDREN’S movie and I’m crying. Luckily I was alone, so the embarrassment wasn’t that high.

After the movie, I thought that I should make some sweet Chex Mix. I bought like, 4 boxes of Chex cereals a month or so ago, on a sweet deal from Macey’s. So finally, I decided that I should make some Chex Mix, since that requires a bunch of cereal. I ran to Target, to pick up a few ingredients, and as I was walking out to my car, I accidentally hit my head on a tree branch. Of course, this is embarrassing by itself, but then to be in such a public place? So to save myself a little pride, I didn’t even miss a beat, I just kept walking. I got into my car, and saw that my hair, where I had hit my head, was all up and askew like a birds nest. I just laughed at myself, and went home. I did make my Chex Mix, and here’s how it turned out:

Pretty delish, I hope. I’m waiting for it to cool before I eat some.

So there it is. A fun day of alone time with many ups (Chex mix! Sweet roll!) and downs (Curse you, Downton Abbey!). Hopefully your days were all great – hope you had a great holiday!

Vieve's Videos

I stumbled across this video first in the newspaper today. They had mentioned it, and it sounded interesting, so I tried to find it online, and it was actually pretty hard for me to find – but finally, Google prevailed, and I finally found it. The piece, "Beethoven's 5 Secrets," is played by the Lyceum Philharmonic, a 60-member orchestra hosted by American Heritage School in American Fork. They are accompanied by The Piano Guys. The song is a medley of ‘Secrets’ by OneRepublic and Beethoven’s 5th symphony, and I just found it amazing. I hope you guys enjoy it as well.

Beethoven's 5 Secrets

Sorry that I couldn't get the video to post right on here, as I have in posts past, you'll have to click on the link to get there. :(

Valentine's Shenanigans

Happy Valentines everyone! I know that Valentines was yesterday, but I’m just here as a recap of sorts. This is only the second time in my (whole long) life that I’ve actually been dating someone at Valentine’s, so usually the holiday means nothing to me. But in all fairness, it still doesn’t mean that much to me, it’s just that this year, I had to buy someone (of the opposite gender) a present, and someone (of the opposite gender) had to buy me one.
Last night, I got home from work, got all my belongings out of my car, and started walking up the stairs to the door. I looked down, and there was a small cupcake on the top step. I picked it up, opened the door, and there was a tiny line of cupcakes leading from the door to the table in the living room. I laughed, and walked over, and saw this:

A cute box of chocolates, with a heart ring of cupcakes, how delish! There was also a vase full of white roses, next to the cupcake heart. Husband also made me dinner, chicken fried chicken, so yum. After we’d eaten dinner, and watched Cougar Town (it started up again last night, all!) we decided, pretty late, that a shake sounded pretty good. So Husband left (I was already in my PJ’s at 9:30, I’m a wild child) because I didn’t want to get dressed. So he leaves at a little after 9:30. While he’s gone, I put away dishes, cleaned up the cupcakes, cleaned the kitchen…and then it’s about 9:50. I was like, I swear this is too long for shakes, but whatever. So I wash my face, put away a few pieces of laundry, and then it’s about 10:05. So now I’m about freaking out, because, hello, it should not be taking this long to go a block or two and get some ice cream. So I just sit on the couch, imagining that he’s somehow gotten into a horrifying accident, and I’m not really doing anything, just sitting there waiting. Of course, he didn’t bring his cell phone with him, he’d only be a minute! And finally, at about 10:20, he comes home, all casual-like. Of course, being the girl that I am (a total sissy) I was all happy that no one had died, and ate some of my shake (it was huge!) and then went to bed.
So anyway, now I have a lot of cupcakes, which I have of course brought to work in the hopes that all my friends here can help me eat them. 24 cupcakes is a lot of cupcakes, especially when it’s just the two of us. So, happy valentines to all, and I hope you all had a good one as well.

Miscellaneous Monday

On Saturday, I was grocery shopping at Target. As I was walking down an aisle, trying to find where the scotch tape and hangers were, I ran across snow shovels for 50% off. 50%! That’s so cheap! I mean, it’s not like anyone has needed snow shovels this year, so I’m guessing Target is trying to get rid of them. So I walk over to the shovels, and I’m inspecting them, and they look pretty good, and they’re so cheap. I tell Husband I think we should get one, since we don’t even have a snow shovel yet. He…well, I guess the phrase is…made fun of me for thinking we should get a snow shovel. “We haven’t needed one, have you even seen any snow happening this year?” And of course, I reply, with practicality and reasonableness, that it’s better to be prepared, like the Boy Scouts are. Naturally, we walked away without getting the snow shovel. Cut to Sunday morning, when we woke up, and what’s that, Mother Nature? You decided to snow a few inches on us because of Husband? Oh that’s right. Because karma sucks. So everyone can thank him for all the wonderful snow we got this weekend.

I made another card box this weekend! I know, I’m obsessed with my scrapping and the like lately, and I’m sorry for all the blog posts on it. But I am really liking the work I do. I’m getting better at these things, so I’m proud of my work. It’s only taken…oh…several years now, for me to be at a level of decorating things that I feel pretty good with myself. I’ve included a picture of my box, so you can ooh and aah. The cards that will go in this box are my thinking of you/blank cards. I really liked how it turned out.

I sleep in all sorts of directions. I don’t always sleep on my side; I don’t always sleep on my back, or my stomach. I usually fall asleep on my side, facing the wall, and then I move about during the night – a lot. I am constantly moving. When I sleep on my stomach, I sleep with my arms crossed tightly underneath me. Sometimes after doing that, when I wake up, my left arm hurts, at the elbow. I’ve been trying not to sleep on my stomach lately, or if I do, I try to make sure my left arm is out from underneath me, but I can’t really sleep that way. I awoke on Sunday morning, early, because my arm hurt. Right at the elbow, it hurt to bend it, so I tried to sleep in literally any position with the arm straight, and I couldn’t. After about 10 minutes of trying to sleep, my arm went like, numb-ish, and my thumb, forefinger, and middle finger were super tingly and numb-adjacent, so I just gave up on sleeping. And last night, I had a hard time sleeping, with the arm being so dumb. I’m not really sure how to fix this, but I need to come up with something, because sleeping for like, an hour at a time is really driving me crazy. Stupid arm.

Foto Friday

I’ve spoken of Stamp & Chat on here before, many a time. With all the cards that I make there (3 a month for many months now) I rarely give them away. I find them too precious, and I feel like not many people would appreciate all the hard work that goes into them. So as you can imagine, I have many cards. I keep them in a drawer, not really any kind of organization to them. Recently, I decided that I should keep them in boxes, organized by genre. So I found these boxes from Close to My Heart that you can decorate any which way you want, so I chose to make many of them. I’m only ordering a few at a time, of course, because I don’t want to overwhelm myself with boxes. Last night, I started my project, and made 2 of my boxes. It wasn’t too hard, thank goodness, but I keep my decorating really simple, since I’m not very good at creative things. So here’s a look at my two boxes:

In case you couldn’t tell, my birthday cards will be in the one, and my thank you cards will be put in the other. I can’t wait to get my whole line of boxes done, and then I’ll proudly display them. And add more every few months, since I still don't like to give away my cards. Maybe someday...

Miscellaneous Monday

The first subject in my Misc. Monday will be a little risqué, so if you want to avoid it, you can skip on down to the next paragraph, and no one’s feelings will be hurt. The other night (Saturday, to e exact), I went to sleep in my regular pajamas of a t-shirt and shorts. I’m not the type to sleep in long pants, long sleeve shirts, I like to dress a little cooler, so I can snuggle right into my blankets. I woke up the next morning at like, 4 or so, a little chilly. As I was pulling my blanket up around me, I realized, in shock that I no longer had my shirt on. I sat up, and in my sleepiness state, tried to look around to find it, but no dice. What the heck could I have done with it, and also, why am I undressing in my sleep all of a sudden? I went back to sleep, and the next morning, found my shirt – it was on the floor at the foot of the bed. So as far as I can tell, sometime between midnight and 4 AM, I took off my shirt, THREW it across the bed onto the floor and just kept sleeping. What a weirdo.

Now that the weekends over, we can finally talk results! It was the Big Game this weekend – as everyone knows. I’d been getting ready all day, I made sure I was in front of the TV when it started, I didn’t want to miss a single moment. Puppy Bowl 2012 was a success. For those of you not familiar with the Puppy Bowl, I’ll break it down into real simple terms. What they do is take about 10 or so hyperactive puppies, plop them into a miniature football field with like, 5 chew toys. The object is to get one of the puppies to take one of the toys, and get it across the finish line. What the game actually is, is 10 puppies on a tiny field, fighting each other for chew toys, then some giving up, and lying down. There are water breaks, when they all stop and drink out of the water bowl that’s on the field. Of course, there are no real teams, its every man (pup) for themselves. My favorite puppy was Fumble. He actually won MVP of the match, good for him! He scored many touchdowns. There is no real score, I don’t even remember what it was anyway. But it was so awesome, and it made me really want a puppy. I’ve included a picture of Fumble, so you can see how cute he is.
Is that the face of a winner? It sure is.

Over the weekend, I saw a new movie, The Grey. It stars Liam Neeson as a fella who works at an oil rig-type place, and his occupation is to shoot the wolves that try to attack his fellow workers as they drill for oil. On a routine flight back to Alaska, their plane goes down, and the 7 remaining guys try to find their way back to civilization in the middle of an Alaskan winter whilst a pack of wolves are trying to eat them. This was a pretty good movie, very suspenseful, but there’s one thing it did for me. It pretty much GUARANTEED that I will never ever go camping. I get that it’s a movie, I see that. But the wolves in this freaked me out so badly, and now, even though I know it’s so unlikely, I think that when I go camping, wolves will come out and try to eat me. Irrational, I know, but now it’s all I can think about.

Vieve’s Videos

It’s possible that everyone here has seen this already, but I’m posting it anyway. On Tuesday, abouts, this video hit the internet. I’ll give a little background, for those who haven’t heard of it. Kristen Bell (actress: Veronica Mars, When in Rome) loves sloths. Like, to an unhealthy amount. So recently, she went on Ellen to discuss a recent birthday she had, in which sloths were there. I don’t want to give too much away. Enjoy this video:

Kristen Bell Sloth Meltdown

I am almost obsessed with this video. I think it’s hysterical, and I’ve seen it, oh…4 times or so by now. My emotional state is really similar to hers – if things are too happy or too sad, I’m crying.

Anyway, so last night, we were at the Olde Spaghetti Factory, and there was a balloon animal guy walking around. He stopped by our table, and asked if we wanted anything. An animal, a flower…anything. So I want something, because come on, how many times am I going to get this chance? So Husband tells the balloon guy that I love sloths. I of course, died laughing, and he made me a sloth!

And there he is! He’s holding onto a tree, in case you couldn’t tell. And there’s a tiny face drawn on him, so cute. The guy did a really good job. Here’s a picture of me holding him at the restaurant last night.

We will be lifelong friends (or until he deflates or is popped). I hope everyone enjoys this video!

Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes

Well, it happened again. Last night, it struck again.
I am, of course, talking about my baking bug, it bit me again after I found a delish recipe for cupcakes. I got this recipe about a week ago, and *finally* last night, I was able to make them. These are Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes.
A fancy name, right? But luckily for us all, they’re not that hard to make! I was setting out all of my ingredients, making sure I had everything, and I was really surprised to find that I didn’t actually have any baking soda in the house! It’s just one of those things that I never thought about buying. I mean, before I married, I lived with my parents, and since they took care of the groceries, we had simple things like that around all the time, but since I rarely use it, I guess it never occurred to me to get. When I discovered I didn’t have any, I didn’t really want to go to the store, so I called up (and by called, I mean, texted) my sister, and asked if she had some she could share. She said yes, and she was on the way. Huzzah! So I got to work on doing all the parts I could until I got to the part that required the baking soda. Finally she arrived, and I finished the batter. I poured the batter into the pans, and I was so careful about how much I put into each cup. After last times debacle regarding the overflowing, I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
I baked them, and when I took them out, they were small-ish. I guess with this recipe, I can afford to fill the cups up a little, but no matter, a small cupcake is still a delish cupcake. After I let them cool, I set to work on putting the cherries inside, the glaze on top, and finishing with the whipped cream frosting.

I really liked this recipe, it was really easy to make, and really good. Sadly, it doesn’t taste as much like coke as I’d like it too, but it’s still delish. And in case anyone was going to make it themselves (though I’m not really sure who does from my blog) I’d make probably a half a cup more of the frosting. The amount of whipped cream this recipe calls for barely managed to frost the cupcakes I had, and that was with me being really stingy on the frosting. So in the future, I’d make more of that. But anyway, here is my finished product:

And for those of you who would like it, here is the recipe:

Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes
For the Cupcakes:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 egg

½ cup buttermilk

¾ cup Coke (don’t use diet)

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling

For the Glaze:

¾ cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons Coke

For the Icing:

1 cup heavy whipped cream

4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Maraschino Cherries, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a standard muffin pan with paper liners; set aside. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar and butter and beat on medium-high until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for an additional minute. In a large mixing cup or small bowl, combine the buttermilk, Coke and vanilla extract. (Make sure you wait for the foam to go down when measuring the Coke and don’t worry if your mixture looks curdled when you add the buttermilk.) Beginning with the flour mixture, add in 4 parts to the butter mixture, alternating with the Coke mixture. Beat each addition just until incorporated. Give the final mixture a good mix with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly between the muffins tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, use a paring knife to cut out a cone shape in the middle of each cupcake. Add a spoonful of cherry mixture (2 to 3 cherries) to the well. In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and coke. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes to thicken. It should drip off of a soon very slowly. Using a small offset spatula, drizzle a little of the glaze onto the middle of each cupcake and then gently spread it over the top. Beat the heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl with whisk attachment (or hand mixer), beginning on low speed. Once the cream gets frothy begin adding the powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, increasing speed as the cream comes together until you reach medium-high speed. Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks (if you dip a spoon in it, the whipped cream should stay on the spoon when you turn it upside down). Pipe the whipped cream onto cupcakes as desired and top with maraschino cherries for garnish.