Sweet Treats

I tried a treat from Everyday. Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes sound absolutely decadent, right? They weren't nearly as wonderful as they sounded. They were easy to put together, but awfully time consuming for cupcakes. All in all, after all of the time I put into them, I was disappointed with the end result.

Better luck next time, I suppose.

Enjoy your kitchens!

Cold Weather Goals Update

My original goals can be found here.


1) Personal

• I've made it down to 150. Halloween candy was almost my downfall. But I'm half way there!
• I've lost all my images to my old computer. I haven't heard from the shop about it yet so I'm just working on some small projects and holding off a little longer on Etsy.
• I bought a small blotter to track bill due dates on. I've been updating my checkbook register once a week to track my balance. My house doesn't look like a tornado has just come through. I can live with that for now.
• My blog obviously suffered from the computer crash. The new computer is now completely set up and running (minus Quickbooks which I need to upgrade. Poo!). You should be seeing me regularly again.

2) Family

• We took Monkey to a hockey game at UMO last weekend (Little Man stayed with my GFT because it would have been too much with both kids). We've also been out to eat a couple of times. We need to find some family activities.



• Children's Creative Corner only has one update since the crash fiasco. All of my links and ideas were on the old machine so I have to do some digging. We may not have been crafty, but we have been doing all sorts of food crafts (ie, cooking).

3) Kitchen

• Still only the recipes of the week going on in the kitchen.

4) Projects

• Hanging mirror has been painted



• I have 2 of 5 wine crates stained
• I need 6 more pockets for Little Man's quilt. I found some rustic looking quilter's squares I've had for years. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use them for the front.

5) Turning house into home

• Bedroom: My dresser area has been prettified. T's dresser has been simplified. I painted his nightstand this week (with his blessing, of course). It needs baskets to organize his junk... er... stuff. I need fabric for a bed skirt. I need curtains. I currently have plant clippings rooting to add at least 1 plant to our room (I believe I'll be putting it on top of my dresser where I currently have a candle). I have a painting to hang and 2 wall sconces to paint and hang. I'm making progress.




• Bathroom: T picked up a piece of trim for me on his last trip to Home Depot. I put up a curtain hanger (it's not a rod - it's an idea I came up with and will show you as soon as I figure out curtains). I also need a new shower curtain because T got paint on my nice white one. I put in an "order" with my dad to build a shelf unit for above the toilet. Slow progress but progress nonetheless.
• Monkey's curtains have been put up.
  


• I've also put in an "order" for a bookshelf with my dad for Little Man's room. Otherwise, I haven't done anything in there yet.
• The wine crates are for the stairwell. Unfortunately, I'll be waiting on T and the drywall before I can finish.

Slow and steady. I have no intention of leaving anything unfinished on this list this year!

How are your lists coming?

Edited for an update: I heard from the computer shop after I typed this out. The old laptop is fried but they were able to pull all of my data off of it. Phew!

More new recipes

Here are a few more of the many recipes we've tried since my old computer crashed.

These are all from Everyday, as are the images.

First up is BLT Creamy Mac 'n' Cheese. I went a little overboard with the leeks so Monkey didn't like it because she had to pick out too much green stuff. T & I enjoyed it. I may have a small collection of homemade mac n cheese recipes before long!

Double-Stuffed Chicken Breasts were pretty good. Unfortunately, it's a "skin-on" recipe, which compels me to eat the chicken skin. Not healthy. The fact it's baked and not fried helps a little, I guess. I also forgot to top them with marinara. It must have been a rough evening (Little Man freaks out every night when I'm trying to cook. I'm just going to say I'm lucky I haven't burned the house down.). This is a keeper.

Speaking of healthy, here's some fried pork for you! Breaded Pork-and-Mozzarella Stacks with Garlic Broccoli were so extremely good. Monkey isn't a fan of green leafy veggies or broccoli. She liked this broccoli. Enough so, I'm writing the broccoli recipe on it's own card so I remember to make little trees as a side dish more often. My pork was bone-in so I cut pockets into them instead of stacking cutlets. It was more difficult than stacking would have been, but it was the same concept and worked just fine. We topped leftover pork with marinara sauce for a nice change up the next day. I suggest using marinara. Yum!

Enjoy your kitchens!

New recipes

Wow. I have a lot of recipes to catch up on. I'll post a few at a time and hopefully be caught up soon.

We'll start with Cheesy Rice Fritters from Everyday. While it was a bit labor intensive for such a simple meal, it was easy. Next time, I need to drain off a little of the bacon fat and decrease the olive oil before sauteing the spinach as it ended up a little greasy. We all enjoyed it, though.

I also made Balsamic-Glazed Mushrooms from Everyday. They have them listed as an appetizer. I made them as a side dish. And I've made them a few times. They're ridiculously easy and very very tasty.

Also from Everyday is Philly Cheese Steak-Stuffed Garlic Bread. It's so fancy looking and extremely yummy. It was really easy to throw together, too.

This last one is from AmericanProfile.Com. Tortellini, Greens and Bean Soup was another winner. I took their suggestion of adding browned kielbasa for extra Monkey pleasing powers. It did the trick to make the soup extra appealing to her.

I have more to come when I get another few minutes to sit down.

Enjoy your kitchens!

First two images from Everyday.

Third image from AmericanProfile.com.

Bad luck update

My bad luck got worse after our computer crashed.

I lost my wallet on Halloween. Luckily, I had my debit card in my back pocket for some unknown reason so only lost a credit card and my drivers license. Let me tell you, I searched for that bad boy. I called every friend we went to with the kids for Trick or Treats, I drove back to the office to check there, I called every store I had gone to on Friday (I couldn't remember for sure if I'd seen it on Saturday!) and I went to check the streets we'd parked on for Trick or Treats, getting on my hands and knees to dig through leaves and even a mud puddle.

After all of this, I notified my credit card company who canceled my card and has put a new one in the mail and pulled out my passport to go get a new license on Monday.

During a cleaning spree on Wednesday, I discovered my Dear Little Monkey had decided to play Madame with my wallet and breast pump. My wallet had been zipped in a secret compartment in the pump carrier the entire time. Alrighty then! Please enjoy a chuckle at my expense.

After much research, we've purchased a new laptop. The old one is in the shop where they can hopefully pull off all of my old files (cross your fingers because I had nothing backed up). I haven't finished getting the new one completely set up yet. I have an anti-virus program on it, but that is pretty much it. I need to create recovery disks and have programs to upload still to get me back to my preferred productivity level.

I also need to add that I've come to realize the clarity and coloring on my old machine was horrible! I thought my blog colors didn't necessarily match but at least went together. I see now that they don't really. I'll need to work on fixing this.

In the meantime, I'll try to share a few things but we've been slacking around the house.

I hope you all had a wonderful week.