Weekend in Review: Family Friendly

Let's see... how did my weekend start out?

Oh... that's right... I took off a couple of hours early (had some comp time) to go pick up Bella's meds from the vet.  The thing about medications for dogs I learned is not every vet has all their medication.  We want to get their care transferred to a place that's closer, but it was tricky to find the right balance for Bella's meds (she has a thyroid issue) so we need to keep that in mind.

Either way, she needed stuff now, so I went to pick up the meds in West County knowing that we'll figure out a different solution (Petmeds.com or closer vet) soon... but hey, I got to leave work early, that was nice!

When I got home I came home to a not pretty sight... or smell for that matter.  The dogs (wasn't sure at that point which one... but spoiler alert - it was both) had gotten sick... diarrhea sick... about 5 times in different areas of the house.  Of course that was the day I forgot to close the bedroom doors (that have carpets) and one of the messes was in the bedroom... ugh... so I got to cleaning that up...

We went to Home Depot a little later to get a few things... that was exciting, haha.

Friday I was supposed to meet up with Susan, but she hurt her ankle, poor thing.  But it ended up being good, because the dogs were sick and this was I was able to watch them and take them outside a bunch.  They were mostly over whatever made them sick though, so that's good!

That night we went over to my cousin's house to watch the hockey game.  It was fine... nothing too exciting.

Saturday morning I planted some bulbs I had bought and then I met up with my sister and mom.  We didn't really have a plan, but we ended up driving around to a bunch of different places... first we were going to get breakfast at the good crepe place in Clayton, but it was super packed, so we ended up at Crushed Red instead (they love that place now haha).

Then we stopped at a bunch of stores

• The food place that is like Costco, without the membership... forget the name, but pretty neat place
• Value Village (on Watson) to look for chairs (no luck)
• The antique mall next to Value Village to just look
• The thrift store that used to be the Barnes and Noble on Watson to look for chairs (no luck)
• Goodwill on Watson for chairs (no luck)
• Home Depot for pumpkins
• Sappington Garden Market (to look at Christmas decorations but not out yet)
• Value Village in Fenton for chairs (found one yes!)
• Garden Ridge for Halloween and Christmas decorations (we get things for the grave sites and Garden Ridge has good stuff, but you have to look early otherwise it's picked over)
• Sonic for drinks
• and finally thrift store at Lemay and Lindbergh for chairs (no luck)

I came back home and had a couple of hours to kill... so I put up my Halloween decorations I bought.

I then headed up to my dad's house to watch the Cardinals game.  I love spending time with him, and watching him watch a Cardinals game is pretty entertaining if I do say so myself.  We've done it a lot in years past.  He's an emotional roller coaster I can tell you that much!  Luckily they won that game, so ended well (although the Cards have lost the two following that... yeesh)

Dad's "game face" (his words)

Sunday was a pretty low key day... did exciting things like grocery shop and laundry... I did make chili different than I normally do... so that was fun... and we rented Now You See Me from Redbox, it was pretty good (different than I thought, but good).

Overall it was a nice weekend filled with relaxing and stuff.

Fantasy Project Runway All Stars

Project Runway All Stars is starting tonight (October 24th) and of course we are  picking teams again... it's just too much fun NOT to do it.

This season posed a bit of a problem as there are eleven designers... so we decided to do our picks and whoever lost a person first would get the odd man out.

Michelle has been watching PR for a lot longer than me.  I have seen all the seasons on repeat, but binge watching is different than being a dedicated fan from the start, so I do feel like she might have a leg up here... we shall see!

Michelle won rock, paper, scissors again! (geez I've only won one of those...)  She ended up picking Melissa, Jeffrey, Ari, Seth Aaron and Elena. (some of those people were ones I was going to pick next... blasted!)

I ended up with:

Mychael

I liked his urban style on his season... probably not the greatest first pick ever

Korto

I honestly don't remember her from her season, but she did well, and I'm going with a gut feeling haha

Viktor

Also gut feeling here

Irina

She won her season, and honestly did really well (never in the bottom), but she wasn't the most likable person.  I saved her until near the end b/c I knew that Michelle wouldn't pick her right away.

Finally, Christopher

Michelle super doesn't like him, so I knew she wouldn't be picking him.  He did well in his season, so I kinda waited around and picked him last... had to employ some kind of strategy right??


That leaves Daniel left over... so whoever loses a person first will inherit him... seemed like a good way to handle the extra person instead of just leaving him as a wild card out there... and who knows, maybe he will get eliminated first?  Who do you think will win?

Fantasy Project Runway: Winner

We reached the end of a wonderful season of Project Runway.  I really enjoyed this season and the added component of competition made it even better!!

It was a strange season b/c I lost nearly all my people at the beginning of the season and then Michelle lost all of hers.  I guess it goes to show not to get too worried up front.  When we got to the finale we each had two people remaining (it's nice when it works out like that!)

We also tracked wins on our two teams... and since I'm so number-oriented I'm going to tell you...

My "team" had 8 wins while Michelle's "team" had only five wins.  Of course all of my wins were from only two people.

This is the first season I can remember that I liked all of the collections and really any person could have won.

In fourth place we had Bradon (who really was one of the top designers all season)

He was on my "team"

Third place was Justin (who might just be the nicest person ever)

Also on my "team"

Second place was Alexandria while she didn't impress me most of the season her final collection was pretty good

Michelle's first pick!!

First place went to Dom, who really did nail her final collection and did really well all season.  Although she only had one win, she was close to winning (or should have won) a few more.

Michelle's "team"

Michelle has been watching the show longer - so maybe that's why get got this one right, haha.  I guess we'll see how All-Stars goes soon (starts tomorrow night)... I'll have those picks up tomorrow.

As our fantasy reality television has gone I've won 2 and she's won 1 - she's catching up!!

Fantasy RR/RW Challenge: Winner

Ok, I'm super behind in posting this... or if I did already post this then I can't for the life me figure out when I did... I guess it just totally slipped my mind since I don't even really remember when it ended... BUT when I went to post about the winner of Project Runway I realized that I hadn't posted about this... whoops!

Going into the final episode there were two teams of boys and two teams of girls left.

We had Frank and Johnny and CT and Wes left... (one Michelle team and one my team)

The winner for the boys ended up being:

CT and WES

My weird non-hatred of Wes really paid off... and I feel like they deserved to win.  This was the very first team I picked... so kudos there (to be fair I actually got to pick first and Michelle's first picked team got second)

Girl wise we had Paula and Emily and Cooke and Cara Maria going into the final episode... both of which were my teams which made it a bit anti-climatic...

The winner for the girls ended up being:

PAULA and EMILY

 They dominated all season long and certainly deserved to win.  My second place team did pretty well too since they were up for elimination so many times...

It was a great season and I can't wait for another one to start... whenever that may be!

Weekend in Review: Melissa's Visit

This past weekend my college friend Melissa came into town... but before she got here I did a couple of things.

On Friday during the day Lindsey and I got lunch at our favorite Thai place - The King and I.  Then we went down and made an appointment to get tattoos in a couple of weeks.  I'll talk more about the whats and whys at a later time... but know this - I'm already nervous!

After that we went by Target because I needed to grab a couple of pillows for Melissa.  I have like one extra pillow in the house... so figured it was probably time to get something.  After that I went home and cleaned and baked my bread.

Melissa got to my house around 4 - she came in from Des Moines.  I actually went and visited her last year.  We mostly hung around Friday night and chatted and reconnected.  I forced her to watch the Cardinals win the NLCS to go onto the World Series (um, craziness!)

Saturday was our packed full STL day.  First we started off with breakfast at Benton Park Cafe.  Then we headed to the zoo.  It was a wonderful day to be there.  My amazing sister let me borrow her Zoo Friends ID so I could get free parking.  She also gave us some free tickets to the Sea Lion show.  It was nice to not have to worry about where to park!

The animals were all out and the weather was crispy, but not too cold.  We got to see a bunch of animals up close which was really fun!  A lot of the apes were out so I took and sent Lindsey a bunch of photos.

Mel took this pic - I remember his name is Robbie

Ok, not an ape picture - but I took it for Dan

We also went to see the sea lion show.  It was a lot of fun - wasn't too long but really neat seeing them up close doing fun things!

After the show we hit the gift shop and made Melissa a smashed penny we met my mom over at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  We wanted to go there since the rare Corpse Flower had bloomed.  This plant produces a flower rarely and without much warning.  Their flower also smells like a dead corpse rotting (which attracts bugs to pollinate them) They are very unpredictable... we've had a couple of them bloom here in St. Louis but for one reason or another we weren't able to get to see them (the blooming period doesn't last long).  Even with this one we saw, it was no longer smelly... which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing.  Either way we were happy to see this crazy plant - the size of the flower reminds me of something out of Jumangi!

Good pic to show size

The holes were cut on the light green part for pollination purposes

The yellow part collapsed earlier than "normal" however these plants really don't do anything "normal"

We hung around there for awhile to hear the botanist (I think) talk about the plant and then we checked out the rest of the Gardens.  I hadn't been in awhile so it was nice to see all the different things.  Although I will say I was starting to get tired of being on my feet :).

Climatron

Red water for the Cardinals

Japanese Garden

When we were done walking around the Garden we decided to get some lunch.  We tried 3 Monkey, but much like Mother's Day they had something going on so we ended up at City Diner.  Which tasted wonderful!

When we were done with food we said goodbye to my mom.  I drove Melissa around downtown to see things like the Arch, Busch Stadium and Union Station. 

Then we ended up going to the City Museum.  (side note: just realized their slogan is 'always building' how appropriate!)  I hadn't been here in quite a long time - so a lot had changed.  That place is so neat - it takes a really creative mind to come up with that stuff.  There's nooks and crannies of places to crawl, climb and explore.  Really though, I'm not sure how people don't get more hurt, but whatever... It's just so artsy.  You could go there every day and still find something new.  I'm not sure how to express just how amazing this place is!  Although I will say I don't want to crawl in some places b/c I don't like to feel like I'm going to get stuck, but it's still so much fun... and makes me wish I was younger, more nimble and more fearless.

Outdoor area

Mel in the ball pit - I got smacked in the face while in there... stupid teenagers

I thought this was funny - they have a whole museum of archetectual pieces that were salvaged

Mel on the iguana in the caves

We also went down a few slides including their 10 Story slide!  It was a lot of fun (except the walk up to that 10 story slide, that wasn't as fun haha)

We ended the night by coming back to my house and watching Something Borrowed on TV.

Sunday morning we got breakfast at Steak n Shake (she doesn't have them in Des Moines).  Then she headed back up... it was really great having her and hanging out... reminiscing about the old times.

The rest of Sunday I mostly cleaned and did laundry and relaxed my achy muscles.  I think next year I'll head up and visit her... maybe around fair time again :).

Baking: Martha Stewart Peanut Butter Cookies

Sunday night of the weekend came and I had another urge to bake something... now that I have most ingredients in the house house now I figure why not bake!!

I'm not sure why I choose Peanut Butter cookies, but I did... haha.  So I went looking for a recipe.  A lot of the recipes I saw you needed baking powder... which I didn't end up having in the house.

I found this recipe that is Martha Stewart's recipe.  I had all the ingredients - which made it the winner winner chicken dinner!

Recipe Notes:  They are pretty good, I maybe would like them a bit more chewy than crispy... not sure if I cooked them too long or something, but they were good.  Next time I should put some sugar on top of them.

I also couldn't find my beater attachments for my hand-held mixer... it was driving me crazy.  I looked in every cabinet in my kitchen multiple times, but finally found them hiding behind some plates... thank goodness since all the wet ingredients were already in the bowl ready to get mixed together.

I ate a couple last night and still have a bunch left over.  I'm even bringing some to my mom's house for dessert tonight.

Baking: Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Side Note:  I am trying to figure out the best way to blog about these recipes.  Last week I combined the two into one post.  And while I don't really have that much to talk about a given recipe, I do tend to look back through my blog posts to find recipes to use again... it's my own little recipe repository.  So while these entries might not be long or particularly interesting... this is more for me type of posting.  I think separating them out will do me more good in the future... especially if I continue this baking every weekend thing, not to mention cooking more often... oh the woes of being domestic!

We had some bananas that were going brown and seemed like the perfect time to make some Banana Bread... but since I love Peanut Butter and Bananas together I wanted to try a slightly different recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread... and hey, while we're at it why not throw in some Chocolate Chips!

I did what I normally do when I decide what I want to make before I actually make it - Google Recipes until I find one I like.  How do I find one I like?  Well, whatever one I already have most of the ingredients for - duh!!

I decided to use this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker.

Her pictures are a lot prettier too...

For my notes on the recipe:  Somehow my edges got really done... so maybe I should have tried the foil tent they talk about in the recipe.  I also felt like my bread had a ton of chocolate chips in it... not saying that's a bad thing - just a comment!

Overall this recipe was good, easy, and I would totally try it again.

Still warm - yum!

When it was nearly all gone... shortly after this picture was taken Daddy got up on the counter and ate the rest of it... silly dog!!

Weekend in Review: Columbus Day

I normally have three day weekends... so even though I know most people excited/happy to have three day weekends when a four day weekend rolls around for me it's truly amazing.

I'll admit Columbus Day is one of the goofier Federal Holidays... but whatever, if you had it off you'd be happy it was a holiday too.

My long weekend started out Thursday night.  My mom, sister and I had tickets to the Rocky Horror show at UMSL.  We first ate some dinner at Crushed Red... since I went to eat there with Susan I really thought my mom and sister would like it.  It was also fast so that helped with getting to the show on time.  They did like it (and so did I - yum!).  They were so fast with our food that we had time to get frozen yogurt beforehand too.  I love those places where you can get different varieties (I got peanut butter, chocolate brownie and strawberry) and add all the toppings you want (so easy to go overboard).

Then we headed up the Touhill and stood in line to get seats.  The show was in their smaller, Lee Theater which is nice for that show.  We ended up with great seats, up close and dead center.  I actually thought some of the actor were looking right at me haha.

The show was pretty great... I mean it's a lot of fun watching guys prance around in corsets, heels and thigh highs.  We saw a stage production of Rocky Horror a couple years ago at Meramac Community College.  That production definitely had better actors... I'm not an actor so I feel bad really judging things but UMSL just didn't have the umph that Meramac actors had at times.  However, UMSL did have great actors in the roles of Riff Raff (the best of the show), Rocky and Dr. Frank-N-Furter.  Overall it was a really fun show.  I love seeing Rocky Horror stage production.  UMSL did also use projected screens really well and also the areas around the the stage.  It was really enjoyable - plus kudos to all the actors for the demands that show has (i.e. being scantily clad in front of an audience of people).

Friday day ended up being me not doing a whole lot.  I did some chores and other random things around the house, but mostly I just relaxed and watched TV... oh and finished my wreath.

That night we met with some friends (Kyle and his friend Shelby).  First we ate some dinner at Cusenilli's and then headed to Plush for the Kentucky Knife Fight show.  There were two bands beforehand.  It went kind of late, but KKF is an amazing band.  We've seen them several times.  They are rock-a-billy and really entertaining (lots of different instruments) and the lead singer does some crazy stuff with his voice.  I really enjoyed Plush too - we were able to sit which at shows isn't always a given.

Plush!

The problem I have is with this medication I'm on when I drink, especially at night, I get super tired... so that sucks.  I'm still trying to balance when it works and when it doesn't... not always easy my friend!

Saturday was a pretty laid back day for me.  I did have to wake up pretty early to take my mom to the airport to go visit my brother, but that wasn't terrible.  I honestly didn't do too much and really I was happy about that.  I watched the Cardinal game and then took Dan and his friend John to the Blues game (so they didn't have to park).  I also did that crazy big grocery shopping trip you have to do ever so often.  I was going to make the bread that night, but the timing just didn't work out.

Sunday I went to Six Flags with Lindsey.  It was such a perfect day weather-wise.  The lines weren't too bad either.  We got to ride everything we wanted... although their newest roller coaster was closed for some reason.  Poor Lindsey gets motion sickness, so we probably shouldn't have rode some rides we did, but she's a trooper and made it through.  I really enjoyed spending time with her, as always!

Monday I did a lot of stuff around the house, including cleaning up the spare room in anticipation of an out of town guest next weekend.  I  also cooked the aforementioned food.  It was really nice having that extra day!

The best part about long weekends is short work weeks - holla!!

Halloween Wreath

I don't have any Halloween decorations.  And I don't really have any door decorations in general (I have a Christmas wreath which I LOVE... but despite what Garden Ridge may tell you it's too early for Christmas.)

My plan is  to hopefully hit up some after Halloween sales for some decorations to save for next year, but I really wanted to do something to show the Halloween spirit!

So I searched the interwebs and found a few that I liked.  I sen them to my mom because I needed someone else's opinion on it... and then I decided to do this one.

I was a little intimidated about getting it right, but I just took it one step at a time.

First I hit up Joann's for all my supplies.  I got one yard of orange (nicer quality/thicker felt like she recommends on the blog) and a half a yard of black glitter felt.  The amount for the orange turned out just right for me, while I had pretty much left over of the black.  Luckily on their website I found a 20% off my entire purchase coupon.  So always look for that stuff, especially at craft stores!

Next I traced a bunch of circles onto my orange felt.

Then I began cutting - at first I just cut up small sections and then cut the circles.  I realized it would be much faster to cut all the circles into rough squares first

Just the beginning

All the squares cut out

I cut these circles while watching TV.  It was nice that I didn't have to be exact with anything - I really like that.  I liked how easy the task was, sometimes I like doing these repetitive tasks like cutting circles... it's easy, mindless and keeps my hand busy while watching TV.

All the circles cut out... you'll notice there's extra orange felt in the background... well I ended up using that so it's not technically all the circles I used

Then I got to making the actual wreath.  You simply take the circles, fold them in half, and half again and pin them onto the wreath.  I was pretty nervous about this part... but once I got going it was pretty easy.  I first worked on the inside of the ring and then moved onto the outside edge and then worked my way up and around.  I will say if I do this kind of wreath again I'll get pins with bigger heads on them.  I also totally stuck myself once by trying to push in the wrong side of a pin - OUCH!!

Don't you like how the orange comes off different in every pic?  I'm not good with my iPhone pics haha

Here's a close up

All done with the orange!

Then I added in some black so it said more 'Halloween' than 'orange wreath'.  I just kinda put a circle where it felt right.

Hanging up (I took this pic like 5:50 am on my way to take my mom to the airport)

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It makes me want to make MORE wreaths.  I'm very excited about doing more crafts around the house.  I'm thinking I might even make another Halloween related craft soon - we shall see!!

I ate too much for dinner - NEW RECIPES

I feel like I have so much to share!  But food is what's on my brain right now so I'm going to start with that. 

Dan has said he wanted some White Chicken Chili.  So this past weekend seemed like as good a time as any to try it out.  I scoped out Pinterest and decided to try this recipe.

Here's the ingredient list with my notes in red
1 can black beans (I used black beans with jalapenos)
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained (I got the hot can)
1 package ranch dressing mix (forgot to put this in until towards the end... whoops)
1 tsp cumin (probably put more in than this, but since I just guesstimated I'm not sure how much I actually used)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder (didn't have onion powder.  I wasn't going to add anything, but then I remember I had some onion soup packets so I added that way later in the cooking day)
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts
I also used a can of White beans, drained

Directions:
Drain and rinse black beans. (I did not do this, just b/c the sauce it was in tasted good and figured it would be good, I did drain and rinse the white beans I added though.) Place chicken at bottom of pot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken (barely needed to do this as the chicken shredded on its own). Stir together and serve.

It really was that easy!! A lot of the other recipes I looked at you had to cook the chicken first.  This one you just put it at the bottom and cooks for you.  It was super duper easy and really really yummy.  Mine was pretty spicy, but we like spice which is why I used things like the black beans with jalapenos and the hot can of Rotel.  We are having it for dinner again tonight and I'll definitely make it again!!

In the crock pot - mine was thicker than the pictures of that blog looked... I will probably add some water or chicken stock when I reheat

In the bowl ready to eat.

On Saturday night, since Dan was going to the hockey game leaving me with no plans, I decided I wanted to bake something.  After going to the grocery store for one of those mondo big trips, there just wasn't enough time on Saturday night, so my baking got pushed to Monday.

I scanned all my pinned dessert recipes and was leaning towards making a bread... specifically this Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.  It is a lot like Monkey Bread, however I made this from scratch so it feels more special than just Monkey Bread.  It had yeast in it and everything.  I just took my time and followed the directions.  I'm not going to copy and paste like I did last time - go to her blog she tells you what to do like I would never be able to :)

Just wanted to take a picture of the ensuing chaos that was my kitchen during this process... not pictured the sink full of dishes b/c I couldn't wash them b/c the sink was broken... more on that in a different post.

It was fun to roll out dough - here it is with the cinnamon sugar mixture on top - a lot of this ended up falling off... but oh well it still tasted delicious!  (I added some of the excess to the top of the bread when it was in the pan, but not all of it b/c that would have been nuts)

Out of the oven - how pretty

Top view

It was delicious!! Dan and I ate about half of it last night... I love that it pulls apart in slices... and honestly I'm pretty proud of myself for baking bread from scratch.  There's some bananas browning in our kitchen and I'm thinking I'll make banana bread... or peanut butter banana bread.  I'm excited!