Cookies and Buttons and Hot Dogs, oh my!

I had a very productive food – related weekend. I’m having a fiesta type thing on Wednesday evening. I’ll be having several peoples over to my house for a jewelry party. If anyone that’s reading this wants to come, please do so, I don’t discriminate! This week is going to be a busy one for me, and don’t worry folks, I’ll be blogging the whole thing for your excitement. So because I don’t have that much time this week to be making the treats for the night, I decided to get a jump on things and make them today. Also, I’m telling you about the food we made for Sunday dinner – a great accomplishment! Here we go.

On my beloved Pinterest, I found a recipe recently to make the JDawgs secret sauce. So, finally on Sunday, I decided to make it. I had all the ingredients, and it was so simple to make! Here’s the recipe:

¾ Cup ketchup
¾ Cup brown sugar
¼ Cup honey
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp onion powder
Combine ingredients in a saucepan

Heat to just boiling on medium heat.

Drizzle over your favorite grilled hot dogs.

Enjoy!

Yum! It’s actually really good! It’s not quite exactly the recipe, it’s a little thicker, but it tastes just like it and its super good and sticky, like the sauce is. So good.

I made cookies for my Wednesday shindig. I tried one and it was hard, though, so I don’t know if I’ll be using them.

I made Kiss buttons. When I found the recipe for this, they said to use Hugs instead of Kisses, but I don’t like Hugs, so I just used what I liked.
Recipe:
You’ll need: Square pretzels, Hershey’s Hugs or Kisses (depending on your preference) plain M&M’s. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the pretzels on there, top them with the Kisses.

Bake for 4-6 minutes until the chocolate is shiny and soft but not melting – they need to still hold their shape. Carefully place the M&M in the center of each hug and press down to spread the chocolate. Allow to cool completely. Enjoy!

So I had a pretty busy day, food-wise. But thank goodness, I only have about 1 more thing to bake, and then I’ll be totally ready. I’ll blog about those later!

I've been working on IKEA...all the live long day...

I am making all sorts of changes to my house right now. I have a shindig on Wednesday (details to come!) so this is the perfect excuse for me to get things finished. Husband spent all day painting the last tiny bit of hallway/ceiling, and I decided to put together all the IKEA furniture I bought. I started the day bright and early with making myself this bookshelf:

Nice, eh? When we first moved in, I brought a billion books, games, DVD’s, etc, and Husband brought…well, himself. And some clothes. Finally a couple of weeks ago, out came all his stuff. Apparently, it was all hiding at a friend’s house, and he finally brought it. It required us to get a new bookshelf for all his books, but at least now I don’t just think he’s a drifter, going to kill me after we’ve been together for a while. So after putting together the bookshelf, I populated it with our books. You can tell the difference between mine and his books: my books are awesome and fun, great to read and his are all…educational? That’s ok, I’ll stick with my own stuff.
After the shelf cleaning and putting away of things, we got to work on the new chairs I bought. My house has only 6 places to sit in the front room, and (fingers crossed!) more people than that will show up. So I bought some cheapie chairs from IKEA, a little assembly required. They didn’t take that long to put up. Here’s some in the process:

And here it is, all done.

I chose red and black chairs, to match the colors of the kitchen. Like that matters in a chair. But with these chairs, the couches, and some barstools from the kitchen, I feel confident that I can provide seating for those that come to party.

At the end of the day, I was exhausted. And for some reason, my knees got all tore up during the day of putting things together.

Look how sad they look, all red and sore. They’re still a little sore today. Luckily, I rarely have to get on my knees during working hours, so I think they’re healing.

And there it is. My day of assembling, cleaning, and organizing. I feel pretty good about all that I accomplished, but boy am I glad it's over!

Foto Friday

COME ON!

How cute is that?

Mini Corndog Muffins

I have again, found a recipe on Pinterest to make. Mini Corndog Muffins. Yum! I should have included a picture of how they were supposed to look on here, but I didn’t. But I’ll show you my pictures, and they will suffice. The recipe for this is impossibly easy, so I’ll just explain. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Use a cooking spray and coat a mini muffin pan. I used the box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin mix, which is so easy. Cut a hot dog into 6 1-in pieces. Follow the instructions on the box to make the mix, and put a tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Insert a hot dog piece into the middle of the batter. Cook for 18 minutes. Let sit in muffin pan for 5 minutes, then remove and enjoy as you would a regular corndog!


Ok, there’s the recipe, and now, here are my pictures. This is what they looked like going into the oven:

And here they are after I cooked them:

 

And now, the issues. I don’t know what I did wrong, but getting these little suckers out of the pan was freaking ridiculous. I don’t know if I didn’t spray enough or what, but holy heck. This is what they looked like after my attempts to get them out of the pan:

So yes, they were tricky to eat, but still delicious. I enjoyed, and totally recommend them for everyone!

My Dinner with Zeke

Last night, I went to dinner at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. We had a little BBQ, they, us, and their son, Zeke, who you guys were introduced to a little bit ago. This post is basically a recap of Zeke’s antics – he is the craziest little kid ever. As soon as we sat down, he asked if I wanted to see his sunglasses. Well, of course I did. And naturally, snapped a picture.

Pretty snazzy. Of course, then, I wanted to get a picture of the 2 of us, since I had my glasses as well. After the previous picture was taken, he ate the chip in his hand. It was a jalapeno chip, which he didn't know, and his mouth was burning. It was sad and funny at the same time.

These are our serious faces, because we’re too cool for school. His is better than mine. Then dinner started, and he was just such a card during it. As he was talking, I kept thinking that I should write this all down, because I’d forget it, but then I was like, there’s no way I’ll forget this stuff! And of course, come this morning, I can’t even remember the funny things he said. Dang it! It was funny, that’s all I can remember. He kept drinking his soda, and then spitting it back into the cup. I don’t know why, he just kept doing it. I caught a picture at some point.

Of course, he’s laughing, because he thinks its hysterical. He kept trying to talk over everyone, of course, and his stories didn’t make a lot of sense, but he thought they were hysterical, and would laugh for like, 10 minutes. He gave me a tour of the house, making sure to show me the bathroom, in case I needed to use it at some point. I thought that was a nice touch. When he showed me to his toy room, he opened the door and said “Toy Room!” with a little fanfare, which was very nice. We went inside at some point, after dinner, and Husband put on a Spongebob Snuggie he found in the house. Of course I had to take a picture of it.

Fancy! During the conversations inside, Zeke went from person to person, brushing our hair. I don’t even know why, he just did it. Finally, he (and his parents) walked us back to our home, and Zeke rode his scooter. He was very speedy. We ran into some neighborhood hubbub, an elderly man in our neighborhood had some sort of accident, so the ambulance and fire trucks were there, and a neighborhood gathering of sorts happened near the outside of the cul-de-sac. Zeke found a little girl about his age, and she had a scooter as well. They had scooter races all around the cul-de-sac, and did for a few minutes, until an accident occurred. She, somehow, fell off the scooter, and scrapped up her forehead, knees, and hands. She was only wearing a tiny swimsuit, so more skin to be exposed to the concrete, frowny face. But that quickly put an end to all shenanigans, and the group dispersed.



So there it was, my dinner with Zeke. I’m sure that with him living so close to me, there’ll be more of these, so look forward to the whole series!

A Carnival, a Carnival

I've never been one to go to ward events. Of course, I've only been in a singles ward for things, but still. I never went to any ward activities, and while I did go to FHE's, it was only when the activity was a fun one that I went, never for the service projects or boring-sounding ones. I know that's not what you're supposed to do, but I'm just not that into doing the boring stuff. But with the move into this house a half a year ago, Husband and I decided that we'd be going to ward activities, and trying to be as active as we could. Now, this was a valiant effort. We went to the ward Christmas party, but we only stayed long enough to bring our assigned food and eat dinner. And then there have been a few party-type events since then that we've had plans during, and couldn't make it. Today, there was such an event, and finally, we made it!
Husband was originally supposed to go out of town this weekend. But then he woke up not feeling well, so he didn't actually go. So I dragged him to go to our wards event - the YW Camp Fundraiser Carnival. I know, that's just what you should do when someone isn't feeling well, right, drag them to such an event? But he wasn't like, sick, he just had some odd pains. (not his appendix, I asked. That's the only pain I know of in a specific area) So we go to the carnival, and I feel a little out of place, because we don't have any kids, which is mostly what the carnival was aimed at - bringing your kids to have a good time. Husband was mad, he really didn't want to be there, but I didn't want to go alone, because that just seemed crazy. So we just kinda...hung out for a bit...walking around...looking at stuff. We shared a slice of pie, bought tickets, and surveyed the land. As we walked by a game, a fellow ward member started chatting with us, and asked if we wanted to play the game. Originally we resisted, but then we got a little change of heart, and we played. The game was Ping Pong Relay (I think, I don't remember a name) and it went as such: You and a challenger (so, me and Husband) each get a ping pong ball. Starting at a line, you use your breath to blow the ball across the finish line, and hopefully stay in your lane. Of course, the game is meant for little breaths and little people. We finished the game quickly, with bruised knees, and a lot of laughs. My ball went out of bounds once, but I was told I could quickly guide it back in. So when I tried to gently put it back into play, it accidentally crossed double lines of play and knocked out Husband's ball. So I win! And not by cheating, despite what you might hear.
After the Relay, we made our way through the other games. We did ring toss, beanbag toss, Bingo, horseshoe toss, a water shooting game, and the balloon animals. Husband got a sword, and I got a purple elephant, since that's what color elephants are. That's what I tried to convince the kid standing in line behind me, but I don't think he believed it. Here is the elephant:

Snazzy, eh? I appreciated the work put into him. Then we hit up other booths, the photo booth (which, the pictures of that will be to die for, I can just feel it. I'll put them on here once we get them from the photographer) and we also watched a Candy Cannon, which is exactly what it sounds like. Its kind of like an exploding pinata that shoots a far distance. Glorious. I just realized I should have got a picture of that, but oh well. In case you're wondering, yes, we were the only adults playing these games. Oh well.
After the Candy Cannon, there was about 20 minutes left of the carnival. Originally, we had intended to stay 30 minutes, but I think we were there for about 90...whoops!
As things were winding down, we started a children-wide balloon-sword fight in the middle of the gym/carnival. And yes, we were the only adults in this fight. As I didn't have a balloon sword, I was mostly just standing there, clutching my elephant while eating my ice cream cone. My nephew, Zeke, came up and asked for my elephant. I was suspicious, and I said I didn't want him to hurt him. He assured me he wouldn't, so I handed it over. HE DISMANTLED IT! What a tiny jerk! So I thanked the carnival gods that there was still 10 minutes left, bought another ticket, and hopped in line at the balloon stand. I got another elephant balloon, but this time, orange.

Looking good, eh? We then took our leave, and came home. We emptied our pockets of all of our stuff we won, which was mostly Frooties and rings that didn't even go halfway down our pinkies. I should have taken a picture, I'm just realizing, but oh well again. So, there it is. Our ward carnival experience, which was a lot of fun. Husband even had a good time, despite his reluctance to come along. I don't really mind that we were the only adults playing and having a great time, but I wonder what the other adults thought, if it made them want to join in the fun. Maybe next time, they will!

A Hatless Bird

Well, friends, this is a sad day. After 2 days of the hat being on our new stuffed pheasant friend, the hat is off. I suppose today is the day the owner noticed that the hat was on. And instead of finding it funny and leaving it on, the hat is off. It's next to the bird, on a little statue-type thing that's on the desk, but sadly, our friend is hatless. But lets not be too sad about this, and don't worry, friends. I have other plans for this. This is far from over.