Food Tuesday

Today, I don’t really have much to talk about in terms of story, but I have a couple of pictures to share (and preserve for future generations) so I’ve decided to make it a picture/food Tuesday.

This first one is a picture of the cupcakes I made last night. We recently got Boo’d in my neighborhood, and this is what I made to give to others. I like them – plus I think they are delicious.

There’s no real recipe to share here, as they’re just plain white cake cupcakes, with black, orange, and white sprinkles baked into them (like Funfetti!) and then decorated with plain vanilla frosting, dyed orange. And on top, sprinkled with more white, black and orange sprinkles with some bats and pumpkin sprinkles tossed in for good measure. So easy. I should have included a picture of the cupcake wrappers – they were Halloween-y, with pumpkins and bats on there too.

This second one is what I did today at work. We (Chelle and I) were taking a tiny break for a little snackage. We pulled out some Mini Triscuits (so good – and totally tiny and fun) and some EZCheese (you know, the kind that sprays out of the bottle!) and had some deliciousness. After a few minutes, I decided to spell my name onto the crackers.

It’s harder to do than you think, because these crackers are dang small. I should have included something next to them, so you could see how small they are, scale wise. They were as good to eat as it was fun to make them.

Anyway, enjoy today’s pointless blog, and I encourage you to seek out the Mini Triscuits.

There are Better Ways to Spend the Game...

I used to never get headaches. Up until a few months ago, when I got a headache, it was super rare, and they only lasted for a few minutes, before they’d either go away by themselves, or I’d take some pills and they’d go away after a bit, no problem. But for the past few months, I usually get a headache on Monday, in the afternoon. I assume it’s because I don’t really look at a computer all weekend, then I come back on Monday, and look at one all day, so my head needs to get used to it. (Which is weird, because this never happened before) So now, every Monday, I just take a little extra precaution to see if I can prevent it. Make sure my eyes don’t get dry, drink lots of water, just in case, that sort of thing.

This past Saturday, I had a good 7-mile run. It was awesome – and my last long run before my half marathon this Saturday. So I came home, drank a little water, and got ready for the day. Throughout the day, I didn’t really pay attention to drinking anything else. During the week, at work, I have my water bottle right next to me, so I drink from it continuously because I can see it. On the weekends, when I’m pretty busy, I just never realize that I’m not drinking. Such was it this day. So onto the game I go, and when we’re leaving Joanna’s, where we ate dinner, I was getting a little bit of a dehydration headache, and that’s when I realized I hadn’t been drinking to compensate for all the running. We get to the stadium, I get myself some water, and settled in for some cheering.

There was a lot of screaming going on, of course, like every game. About halfway through the first half, my head started to hurt more with every scream/cheer that I did. By about the 40th minute, my little headache had grown into a full-blown migraine – complete with a little nausea, and an aversion to the sounds of the stadium. But this was the last game of the season! I wasn’t going to give up! So right at halftime, RSL scored, and we all went crazy. Husband picked me up, and hoisted me above everyone (like he usually does) but this time, the headache, combined with the movement and the screaming of 20,000 people, this was a goal celebration that I wished I hadn’t done.

The rest of the game was pretty boring, for me. I no longer screamed, nor cheered, I just clapped when anything happened. When things got too noisy, either Husband or PJ would cover my ears with their hands so that I could clap, and they could cheer. It was a sad arrangement, but I stayed the whole game. Afterwards, as soon as I got to the car, I took a bunch of Tylenols and ibuprofens – a doctor recommended dosage, don’t worry – and drank almost another whole bottle of water. At the usual post-game ice cream (from Baskin Robbins) I also got a Mtn Dew – to see if caffeine helped. By the time we got home, the migraine had calmed down a little to just be a headache. My lesson here is that I really need to drink more during the weekends, especially if I had a long run that morning. But at least I got to see my team play their last regular season game – and good news, playoffs start this upcoming Saturday!

This picture is of the Portland fans – who were sitting across from us. At some point of the game, they all set off a billion smoke bombs, and a lot of flares, so all we could see of their section was smoke and fire. It looked a little like they had just set themselves on fire. Why would they do this? I’m not really sure.

Foto Friday: Favorite Sign Edition

Ok, I don’t really have any photos to share right now, I haven’t taken any, but I was breezing through my photos the other day, and came across these signs. They are both taken on different trips, and they both made me laugh.

This is the library in Boise. The reason I love this sign is because the library is finished by an exclamation point. How excited is Boise to have this library? This excited!

We took this in Boston. I know what the sign is saying, I get that its warning you of children in the area, but I still feel like there’s a better sign of saying than just announcing “Children”. Maybe I’m the weirdo here, but this sign is odd.

I hope these made you laugh as much as they did me.

Melted Witch Puddles

I felt like doing some baking yesterday, so I pulled out a recipe I have gotten recently (from a relief society event, can you believe?) and made Melted Witch Puddles. They are pretty easy, but being my first time making them, I definitely had some hurdles to jump over, and I have some things I would do differently next time. Sometimes I hate as I’m making something for the first time, and as soon as I get done with a step, I can think of a better way of doing it, and curse myself for not thinking of it sooner. Anyway, the puddles:

 

And in case you wanted a recipe:

Melted Witch Puddles

1 tsp water

4 drops yellow food coloring

1 ½ cups flaked coconut

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

6 Tabs shortening, divided

36 Oreos

36 bugles

4 cups vanilla or white chips

36 pretzel sticks

In a large resealable bag, combine water and food coloring, add coconut. Seal bag and shake to tint coconut, set aside. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and 2 Tb shortening, stir until smooth. Dip bugles into chocolate, set aside to cool. For witches hats, place about 1/3 cup chocolate mixture in a resealable plastic bag, cut a small hole in the corner of the bag. Pip a small amount of chocolate onto a cookie. Dip a Bugle in some of the remaining chocolate, allow the excess to drip off. Position over Oreo, forming a witch hat. Set on waxed paper to dry. Repeat with remaining Bugles and cookies. For puddles, melt vanilla chips and remaining shortening, stir until smooth. Spoon mixture into shape of a puddle on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Immediately place a witches hat on the puddle. For broomstick, dip the end of a pretzel into white chocolate, then drip that into the coconut. Place in the chocolate next to the hat. Chill for 15 minutes or until set. Store in an airtight container.

These are pretty delicious, and totally perfect for Halloween!

Next time, I’ll just get it myself

Last night, neither Husband nor I felt like cooking. The tenants that we have with us right now weren’t there, so we decided to be lazy, and just order in. So as I was driving home from work, Husband was placing an online order to Pizza Hut, for some delivery. (I love that people deliver food to you – I think it’s such a great invention!) The online thing said that it would take 30 minutes, so we sat down and watched a little TV while we waited. After about a half an hour, I kept wondering where our food was. After 5 more minutes, I was getting hungrier and hungrier, and wondering if the food guy got lost, and then as we were chatting about it, Husband realized he had put the wrong address down for our house address – he put the address of his work – in Lindon.

So we hurry and call the Pizza Hut we thought we had ordered it from, but after a few minutes on the phone, they told us they didn’t have our order, we didn’t order it through them. So we call another Pizza Hut, with the same result – we didn’t order it through them. Well by now I’m like, something’s hinky here. I checked my bank account balance, and sure enough, they had taken the money out already, so I knew we had ordered it from somewhere. So we remembered that they send out an email after you order a pizza. We check the email, and ta-da! There’s the number of the right pizza hut! I quickly call them, give them my name and number and… they can’t find my order. At this point, I’m like, what the junk, I know someone has to have my order, because they took my money. After many minutes, Husband figures out why they can’t find the order – he had put the wrong area code for my telephone number, so they couldn’t locate it.

Finally, finally, we got it all sorted out, and about 5 minutes later, our pizza was finally delivered. Luckily, it was still hot, and very delicious. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this, it’s that maybe its better to not be so lazy, and get up and get our own food. Or…any time there needs to be any info filled out online…maybe I should just do it.

Miscellaneous Monday

Colorado Edition

I went to Colorado over the weekend. Well, not really over the weekend, but I was there, in Denver, for about 36 hours. We (PJ and I) flew out of Provo – which was pretty cool. Here are a few highlights.

I watch a Food Network show called “Challenge” in which 4 bakers across the nation come together to compete on who makes the best cake, and they’re judged by a few people. One of the judges, Keegan Gerhard, is a chef who owns a little cafe/bakery in Denver, called D Bar Desserts. I have long wished to go there, and finally, this trip, I did. I even saw Keegan – he was standing right in front of me! I was so excited. I wanted to take a picture, or speak to him or something, but he was speaking on the phone, and I didn’t want to interrupt. Incidentally, the treats I tried at his bakery were crazy delicious.

We went to a favorite breakfast spot there, called Hot Cakes. I love this place so much. I get the chocolate chip pancakes, and they are sooo good. I took a picture of them, but I don’t know if you can appreciate the size of the pancakes from it. 

The plate there is a regular dinner plate size. These things are HUGE, and you can only get 2 – not one. So I ate half of both of those pancakes, and called it good, and felt like I had eaten too much.

Now, the reason for the trip was to see RSL play Colorado. Sadly, we tied, but because we had beat them earlier in the season, the Rocky Mountain Cup was ours. We have held onto the Cup for 5 years now – we are champions. (Well, in that regard, anyway) The game was pretty fun, but because all of the traveling fans around us are drinkers of alcohol, a lot of them were drunk. And spilling on us. And using cheers that had shady language in it. But, we still had fun, we just kind of ignored them, and screamed and cheered our faces off.

That was the trip – short, sweet, but loads and loads of fun.

Foto Friday

I’d like to think that I’m an awesome runner. That when people see me running down the street, they look at my form, my speed, my everything, and just go, “Dang. Now that’s a runner”.

Unfortunately, this photo is what I believe is an accurate description of my life.

At least I’m probably having fun.