Weekly Darth

Well, here we are. The last Darth of the year. Hopefully you enjoy looking at this joker as much as I do.

 He had some fance Christmas pictures taken while they were here, he's looking good.

 He's just chilling.

Here he is wearing a shirt I gave him for Christmas that really matched his eyes, ooh la la. He looks like he's crying here, but he's actually singing the Star Wars theme song, so that's why.What a great guy.

Miscellaneous Monday

You guys, it's happened. Today is the day that school posted the final grades, and holy cow, I got a 4.0! Yes!! I can't believe how excited I am about this, this semester really kicked my butt, and I was really thinking I wasn't going to do well, but then BOOM! I finished all right! I hope next semester isn't as hard as this semester was, but of course, I'm sure school will just get harder as the years go on. But I'll try my best, and and maybe I'll keep doing well.

I took down all of my Christmas stuff in my house today. Usually I don't take it down this quickly, but I didn't have too much to do today, and I thought, what's the point of having it up any longer? Just to look at it? I've been seeing it for the last month, and I feel pretty good about taking it down. My sister, who's in town right now with Darth, came over and we hung out while I took it down. Baby helped me too. And by that I mean, if I handed him a part of the tree, he would throw it down. And then he took the ornaments I had already boxed up, and put those around the room, what a great helper. But I got it all down in just a few hours, excellent.

You know how you hear about "amazing organizational tip"s all the time? Ok I really have one for you. Have you ever been gifted a gift of Kneaders breads? It comes with three in the box, and then when you're done with the bread, you just have a random box with handles? Let me tell you what this box is good for: holding your tights. Yeah, just roll those suckers into little free-standing rolls,and you can fit between 9 and 12 in a box. This has revolutionized the way I store my tights, guys.

Nacho Soup

It's freezing outside. It's cold inside. Basically, everything is cold and I just want to snuggle in a blanket and watch movies. So for dinner, I made some warming soup, perfect for Sunday because it's crockpot. Let's dive in. 

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (1 oz) package taco seasoning 

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup

1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes and green chilis, undrained (Rotel, basically)

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed.

In a skillet, cook ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium-high heat until thoroughly cooked; drain. Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place cooked meat mixture in slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, cheddar cheese soup, tomatoes, milk, and shredded cheese. Stir together and cook on low for 3-4 hours. After it was done, I put it in a bowl, added some more cheese, and threw tortillas on top. 

I can't even begin to tell you how delicious this soup is. Legit, it was so good. I just kept eating chip after chip, basically using the soup as a dip and it was SO GOOD. Make it, you won't regret it. 

Happy Christmas!

 Cookie is ready for the holiday in her Christmas dress. Is she mad at this dress? Yes, she didn't move for 4 hours after I put it on. For breakfast, I made donuts! The recipe is stupid easy:
Donuts:
1 ¼ cups moist-style devil’s food cake mix
½ cup canned pure pumpkin
¼ cup egg whites or fat-free liquid egg substitute
¼ tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a 6-cavity standard donut pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine all donut ingredients. Add water, and mix until completely smooth and uniform. Evenly distribute batter into the rings of the donut pan, and smooth out the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out mostly clean, about 12 minutes. Place a cooling rack over a baking sheet or a sheet of wax paper. 

Let donuts cool completely, about 10 minutes in the pan and 15 minutes on the cooling rack. In a medium bowl, combine glaze ingredients except candy cane, and whisk until smooth and uniform. One at a time, dunk the tops of the donuts into the glaze, coating the top halves. Return to the cooling rack, and sprinkle evenly with crushed candy cane. (yes, again I don't have candy canes in the house, so I went without them) Allow glaze to set, about 10 minutes. (Glaze will run off; that’s why you’ve got the rack over something else)
Glaze:
½ cup powdered sugar (not packed)
1 ½ tbsp. unsweetened vanilla almond milk, light vanilla soymilk, or fat-free dairy milk
2 – 3 drops peppermint extract
Dash salt
1 full-sized candy cane (or 3 minis), crushed

These were SUPER delicious! They were chocolatey and pepperminty and oh so delicious. Have a merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve!

Well, I had a pretty chill Christmas Eve. I went to a delish breakfast at work, and ate way too much, of course. We all snapped a pic, to commemorate.

 I had Christmas Eve celebrations with Husband's family, and then we came home to have our own. As we were chilling, doing Christmasy things, we realized that Cookie smells a little gross. So, we gave her a bath. Was she mad? Absolutely.

But! She smelled better and was softer, and I don't regret the bath at all, though she might.

Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars

So, I'm making treats aplenty today for Christmas, since I'll have my whole family here. I decided on peppermint as my theme, so I made some peppermint sugar cookie bars. Here's the recipe:

½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons sour cream OR plain greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla

frosting
½ cup butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon peppermint extract (OR vanilla extract)
¼ cup finely crushed candy canes

All right, to make them, preheat oven to 375, grease a 9x13 pan. In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugars and mix until combined. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla and mix well. Gradually mix flour mixture into wet ingredients and continue to mix until the dough comes together and not crumbly. Gently press dough into bottom of prepared pan. But here's what I don't understand - my dough was still really dry. I had to really work on it to make it stick together to be a "dough", and I followed her recipe exactly, so I don't know what's going on there. Bake 18-22 minutes until golden. Allow to cool completely. Since I was pressed for time, I put the bars outside in the snow, and they cooled down super fast.
When the bars have cooled, prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl whip butter for 2-3 minutes  until very fluffy. Add cream cheese and mix well. Gradually mix in powdered sugar until completely combined. Mix in peppermint extract. Spread frosting over cooled bars. Sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Cut into squares or triangles and serve. Store in airtight container.Here's what I did. Turns out, I didn't have any candy canes in the house, so there was no sprinkling for me. But they turned out super delicious and very pepperminty.

And then I made a batch of peppermint brownies, but I forgot to take a picture! Basically, I just made regular brownies, and then threw in a cup of peppermint chips and frosted them with a delicious vanilla frosting, sprinkled with peppermint chips. Dig it, guys.

A Shopping Adventure

I went shopping today, with my sister, so baby came as well. He didn't care for the drive over,

Look how awkward that weirdo is in his seat.

 Then we had lunch, and he tried to eat my fettuccine Alfredo with me, but the noodles were too long for him to eat, he struggled.

 And of course, he fell asleep mid-trip, so we had to leave. Naturally, as soon as we were walking out, he woke up. But I got what I needed, and everything was all right. Merry Christmas in a couple of days, guys!