Friday Confessions

Sitting here watching House Hunters International (love that by admitting that you have no idea if I'm writing this in the morning, afternoon or night since this show is ALWAYS on), I feel the need to get a few things out in the open...

1.  I may have freaked out just a bit (frantic phone call as soon as I saw the post) when I read that The Pioneer Woman is coming to Indianapolis in March. My friend Cris - over at Goodeness Gracious - checked it out and shared the Goode news with me. I am just glad that my bladder was empty, just sayin!

2.  I went to dinner with my oldest sister and all four of my nephews...dinner out with 4 boys ages 10 and under is the best birth control a girl can have...sorry sis.

3.  I bought these because I saw a girl carrying around a package while in Target earlier today...

Hot Chocolate mini cupcakes! I had to leave half the package with my sister so I wouldn't eat them all at once. They are soooo good.

4.  Yes, I still have my snowman decorations up. It's still winter and I like them. So there.

5.  I just bought the Someecards iPhone App even though I can probably see most of them on Pinterest, like this one...

Source: blam-o.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

6. I'm going to Blissdom next week and I am soooo nervous. What should I wear? Will anyone talk to me? It's like summer camp all over again!!!

Linking up to Friday Confessional over at A Blonde Ambition.

Cookies, Clematis and Combines

Cookies

I was craving homemade cookies this weekend and I just watched the second episode of The Pioneer Woman's show on Food Network.

Because of the above, I made these...

I remembered reading about Monster Cookies on one of the blogs I frequent but it was before I started Pinning in and every recipe I may ever want to try. This meant I had to do some searching and I finally came upon PW's recipe on the Tasty Kitchen site.

If you have never used Tasty Kitchen to look up a recipe, I highly recommend it. Lots of great bloggers and others post their favorite recipes there.

Clematis
My sweet autumn clematis has started to bloom!

Can't wait to see it in full bloom!

Combines
As I was driving by the farm (also known as Grandma's house...even though my baby sister and her family live there now) and noticed this...

as sure of a sign that harvest is right around the corner as the turning corn and soybeans in the field around us! We were thinking that harvest was going to be late this year because all the rain this spring caused Dad and other farmers in Indiana to plant late. However, we didn't get much any rain in July and August so the crops have already started to turn. 

Looks as if they either plan to start with soybeans (the bean head is on the combine...the corn head looks more like fingers) OR they are just cleaning it up while they have some time.

Harvest was early last year and it went VERY fast so I only got to ride with Dad once the whole harvest...I'm definitely going to be in the cab more often this year...if I can persuade my nephews to give me a turn in the jump seat!

Daylilies Make Me Smile

I took a walk in my mom's garden this weekend.

Her flowers were beautiful...especially the daylilies. I heart daylilies! While I was writing for a farm newspaper, I visited a daylily farm...yes, a daylily farm! It was actually in a very lovely couple's backyard, but it was definitely a labor of love for them AND a great example of value-added agriculture.

Back to mom's garden, I got some great shots.

Like the dark red ones...

The pink ones...

The orange ones...

I'm pretty sure my mom got these orange lilies alongside the road almost 40 years ago...thus the nickname "ditch lilies."

These dark red spider daylilies...

My mom has also incorporated lots of wildflowers in her landscaping...

Out of all of the flowers, my mom and I agreed that this flower is our favorite...

I played with the PW's action sets too!

Dramatic color...

Soft color...

What's your favorite flower?

Checking a Box off the Bucket List

Last October I created my Bucket List...as well as a short term "to do" list.

Last weekend, one of my gal pals helped me mark one item off this List...

• Bake The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. (This should be a to do but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a once in a lifetime event for me.)

We went one (really two) better than the PW's cinnamon rolls. We divided the dough in thirds and also made her Chocolate Chip Rolls and Parker House Rolls! Woo Hoo!

For full disclosure, I have to admit that my friend did most of the heavy lifting. I took a few photos, spread a bit of butter and nursed a Mike's Hard Lemonade during most of the process.

But I did help clean up the ooey gooey butter/cinnamon mixture that was left on the counter...

Even though I did less than my fair share, I'm going to mark it off the List. I also got to take home a pan of the cinnamon rolls, which are waiting in the freezer for a lazy Saturday morning.

Now, the mini pans of frozen unbaked Parker House Rolls didn't make it into my freezer. After the four hour drive home from our girls weekend, the rolls were pretty much thawed so I turned on the oven and baked BOTH pans up. In my defense, there were only 7 rolls total in the mini bread pans.

When I reached in the fridge for the grape jelly, I came up empty-handed.

The horror...warm Parker House rolls with only butter...what was I to do.

Then I remembered a recent purchase at Jungle Jim's thanks to a certain Dutch dairy woman...

Only one word for this combination...YUM!

I wonder which item my friend I will check off next.

We Just Wanted to Make PW a T-Shirt

In anticipation of this...

a group of my blogging and IRL pals decided we needed matching T-shirts to show how much we heart the Pioneer Woman and her book, her cookbook, her recipes, her photography, her confessions, her writing style...well, you get my point.

Cris over at Goodeness Gracious handled the design...

and Liz from Two Maids a Milking, Leah from Beyer Beware, and I decided we needed a "craft night" so we tackled the T-shirts. Well, Liz decided we needed a craft night and Leah and I went along for the ride!

Remember my previous post...the one where I listed all the type of bloggers I'm NOT? Remember that "Crafty Blogger" was on that list? There was a good reason for that.

Here's my first attempt to print out the iron-decal. Notice anything?

Yep, I printed it on the wrong side. Once I corrected that mistake, I turned Liz's kitchen into a print shop and made nine decals (minus the first one).

And I cut them out according to the package directions. I'm a total stickler for following the directions when it comes to doing things that I have NO idea how to do!

Then I took a break from being crafty because as I was printing and cutting, Liz we fixing us a delicious meal...

It was a delicious meal that included scrumptious roasted red potatoes, creamed spinach (from scratch), glazed carrots (brown sugar + honey = yummy) and lamb chops! Look for the lamb chop recipe on Liz's blog soon.

Unfortunately, Leah had to bow out of the evening because she is a wonderful volunteer in her community and other duties called. She missed out on lots of fun but we totally understood!

Back to the craft project...we lined up the decal on the shirt.

Then I pressed the iron down for 15-20 seconds per section. Well, for the first shirt I ran the iron over the decal and didn't count...then we tried to peel the backing off...then we put the iron back on it...then we tried to peel the backing off...and then we put the iron back on...I think you get the picuture.

We eventually got the backing off but it was hard work. So, for the second shirt I held the iron firmly down on one section at a time.

I even counted out loud to 20...told you that I'm a stickler for following directions!

It helped but we still had lots of issues with the edges not sticking, so we got creative with the tools we were using to help fuse the decal to the shirt...our fingers were getting singed so we had to get creative.

Yes, that's Liz using a kitchen spoon...it was the tool that we found worked the best. See the plate stand in the background below...used that too!

Once we had the decal firmly on the shirt, we started to peel the backing away from the shirt. It wasn't a pretty process but we got it done.

The first couple of shirts were rough and the background turned out a bit dark but we pretended it was supposed to look like that and forged ahead. I think we peaked at about shirt number 4. It came out ALMOST perfect.

Then it happened...we got a bit big for our britches and started to improvise. The decal on shirt number 5 wasn't sticking as good as it should so Liz decided to just set the iron back on it for just a second. This was NOT on the instruction sheet...and now we know why.

Notice anything? Maybe that "heart" is missing. Wonder where it went? I'll tell you where it went...it melted onto the iron!

So, now we were down to 8 shirts!

Oops...we got our act back together and finished strong. The iron might have gotten a bit too hot...notice the new embellishments below.

You say they are marks made by the iron...I say they are just part of the design!

We finished with 8 shirts ready to be worn the next morning when we headed to Cincinnati to meet the Pioneer Woman...Liz and I were pretty proud of ourselves!

The next morning I pulled my nifty custom T-shirt over my head and heard an awful sound...a sound that didn't bode well for the future of my custom T-shirt.

Yes, all of our hard work ruined with one stretching of the shirt! I didn't want to walk into the bookstore and have people not be able to read about my love of The Pioneer Woman...just not acceptable.

You see, I bought the cute stretchy T-shirts from Old Navy with the thought that they would look much nicer than the 2 for $5 ones at the craft store. I didn't think about the compatibility between a stretchy T-shirt and an iron-on decal. The two do NOT mix!

So instead of meeting the Pioneer Woman in cute matching T-shirts, we improvised. We picked out the best looking T-shirt of the bunch and presented it to Ree when it was our turn to meet her and have our books signed.

See it there on the table in front of her? I told her that she may just want to look at it...not try to wear it!

Thank goodness she isn't a Crafty Blogger either!

What Kind of Blogger Am I?

On Friday I not only spent the day with a wonderful group of women who make me laugh (and laugh at me), but I also met a woman who's entertained me, inspired me and made me into a bit of a stalker... The Pioneer Woman. More details on that adventure later.

via Goodeness Gracious

Ree, aka The Pioneer Woman, was in Cincinnati promoting her new book and as part of the book signing event, she answered a few questions from the 400-plus women (a few men and babies too) gathered to meet her.

One stalker fan asked for advice on how to decide what to write about on her blog. Ree simply said (and I'm paraphrasing) write about things you know...things you enjoy.

This struck a chord with me.

You see, I've been struggling of late on how I fit into this vast space I often refer to (as do many others) as the Blogosphere.

I haven't been able to define what type of blogger I am.

I have had better luck defining what type of blogger I am NOT...

I am NOT a Mommy Blogger...I don't have children so I can't talk about the joys and struggles of raising children. I think it would be frowned upon if I went out and got me a baby just so I could bond with the vast numbers of Mommy Bloggers out there. Though I've talked for years that I would be interested in a time-share child. Anyone interested?

All joking aside, I do have 4 kooky nephews and 2 adorable baby nieces so I do have my share of cute kids on my blog.

I am NOT a Crafty Blogger...I've tried. I've really, really tried to be crafty. I started to learn to knit but messed up on my first scarf and never went back to it. I scrapbook but am about 2 years behind.

I even tried drunken pottery painting. I'll let you be the judge on whether I should go back...

Need more evidence? Check out the shirts that Liz over at Two Maids a Milking and I made for our PW adventure...

More on how these turned out in a future blog post...let's just say I won't be starting my own Etsy store anytime soon!

I am NOT a Foodie Blogger...I do love to bake and don't mind cooking but when your signature muffin looks 10 times better on someone else's blog...you are NOT a Foodie Blogger.

via Goodeness Gracious

Cris, I'm not bitter that you are a better baker...really I'm not!

I am NOT a Deal-Seeking Blogger...I love a good bargain. (My mantra: Free or Better than Free.) However, I have no idea how some of my favorite bloggers/Facebook pages/Twitter pages find all of the great deals/coupons/codes they post. I just don't have the time or the discipline. This leads me to...

I am NOT an Organizational Blogger...hence being stuck on Day 2 of the 21 Days of Organizing Challenge that I started weeks ago.

And finally I am NOT an Advocacy Blogger...while I'm passionate about some issues, I just don't feel I have the expertise/knowledge (or probably more realistically the personality) to try and be an outspoken advocate for anything. That being said, I do realize that since I consider myself a farm girl and I associate with many farmwives (who are NOT advocacy bloggers either), I do have a responsibility to answer questions regarding how we raise food to the best of my knowledge when I'm asked (and I have been)...more on this in a future blog post as well.

So, now that I've determined what kind of blogger I am NOT, what's next?

Who am I?

Hello, anyone still there?

Sorry, feeling a bit sorry for myself for a minute.

I think I'll stick with what I've been doing for almost a year...writing about what I enjoy...what I know...writing about my life.

Because, honestly, some of my favorite blogs don't fall into any of the categories above (and some are a mix of all of the above). They are about LIFE and the randomness that makes life funny, sad, frustrating and worth living!

I can only hope that something in my rambling connects with someone else out there. And if it doesn't...oh well, as long as I enjoy writing on here, then it'll be worth it.

Venturing into the Tasty Kitchen

I've been reading lots of posts about setting New Year's resolutions or choosing NOT to set any. Now, I'm not a big believer in NYRs. I'm not saying that others shouldn't set them. I just know myself...I won't keep them.

However, I have decided to make some changes in my life and they just so happen to coincide with the New Year, so maybe I am a believer. I won't go into detail on why I've set these as my 2011 goals, but here they are:

1.  Go to Mass regularly (maybe not weekly, but more than just Easter and Christmas).

2.  Go to the gym at least twice a week. (It annoys me to see my gym membership payment on the credit card statement and know that I NEVER go.)

3.  Eat at home regularly (unless Mom calls...so it should read: Eat at home or Mom's regularly). Try to cut out the drive-thru runs on the way home from work.

So, I did go to Mass this morning. The band was playing and it reminded me of my days at Purdue and the band that played at St. Tom's...of course the band members this morning were about 20-30 years older, but they were still great. Sorry, I digress.

I really wanted to talk about the third "goal" on my list. I've gotten lazy over the last year (I guess "lazy" is the reason behind all 3 goals, huh?) and not really cooked much at all. I've relied on Steak 'n Shake way too much for my evening meal...but they have Coke Zero so I felt justified!

I'm determined to keep more "easy meal" options on hand, like bread for sandwiches and carrots and grapes for quick and healthy side options. Sometimes I don't get home from the office until after 7 p.m. and that's way too late (at least for me) to be doing a lot of cookin' in the kitchen!

I also want to start using my crockpot more regularly and fixing meals on the weekend so I can have leftovers throughout the week. I did the latter this weekend.

I had a craving for macaroni and cheese but I never really make it myself. I'm not a confident enough cook (usually) to just throw some ingredients in a pot and hope for the best. My mom makes macaroni and cheese this way and it comes out just fine, but I wanted a recipe!

So, I headed over to a website that I stalk read regularly, The Pioneer Woman. If you haven't visited, I dare you to go to her blog and spend just 5 minutes. Trust me. You will go over and start to poke around and the next thing you know, it's been an hour and you just want to read more!

Well, the Pioneer Woman also has a cooking blog - really a community - where cooks come together and share recipes. I have to admit that The Tasty Kitchen has been the section on her site that I've spent the least amount of time exploring. I've gone there a time or two looking for recipe ideas but I never "joined" until this weekend.

I went there for a simple macaroni and cheese recipe and came away with an amazing one!

Doesn't this look awesome?

It's called Chicken Bacon Ranch Macaroni and Cheese.
Now, I admit I made some substitutions and I'll let you know what they were as we go through the recipe.

8 ounces, weight Uncooked Elbow Macaroni (I used a penne pasta and probably used 10 oz.)
4 slices Applewood Smoked Bacon (I cooked my bacon in the microwave - less mess, so I skipped the second paragraph below and the onion & garlic powders too.)
8 ounces, weight Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, Cut Into 1/2-inch Pieces (I had some breaded chicken breasts in the freezer so I just heated those up instead...reminded me of Noodles & Co.'s mac 'n cheese with Parmesan-crusted chicken breast.)
½ teaspoons Onion Powder
½ teaspoons Garlic Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Flour
1-½ cup Fat Free Milk
½ cans Condensed Cream Of Chicken Soup, 10 Ounce Can
¼ cups BOTTLED RANCH DRESSING (I might have added just a bit more dressing - definitely a great addition.)
¾ cups Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese, Shredded (I used regular Colby Jack instead.)
½ cups French Fried Onions (I didn't have these, probably would have been good though.)
½ cups Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.

[Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Finely chop bacon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Season chicken with onion powder, garlic powder and salt. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.] I didn't do this step as noted above...I just cooked my bacon in the microwave (such an easy way to do it) and heated up some pre-cooked breaded chicken breasts.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup, stirring with a whisk; then gradually add milk mixture to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Add ranch dressing and 3/4 cups of cheese, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta and chicken.

Preheat broiler.

Spoon pasta mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bacon, fried onions and 1/2 cup of cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Take another look...

...notice the brownies in the background? Another super-easy "recipe" but this one was from Hoosier Homemade - a great blog from right here in my home state (be sure to check out her awesome cupcakes). Just whip up a box of brownies, sprinkle some peanut butter chips on top once they are in the pan, bake for 5 minutes and then swirl the melted chips into the brownies with a knife, and finish baking. YUMMY...I used a box of Ghiradelli Double Chocolate brownies and that made them THAT much better!

I have to admit this wasn't my ONLY bowl of mac 'n cheese last night...or today!

I heated up a bowl under the broiler for lunch today and I think it was even better than it was last night. Notice the bottle of wine in the background? The mac 'n cheese with great with a glass of Pinot Grigio from Easley Wineries in Indianapolis...check out http://www.indianawines.org/ for more info on Indiana wines and wineries.

I'll definitely be returning the Tasty Kitchen to hunt up some other recipes and maybe someday I'll add one of my own!

Since, I've already tackled 2 of my 3 goals maybe I should head to the gym...maybe tomorrow! Who wants another brownie?

Playing Catch Up with a Catch-All Post

I can't believe it is December 1st.

I can't believe there are only 24 days until Christmas.

I can't believe that I have not slept more than five hours a night for the last several nights.

And I can't believe that I haven't blogged for almost a week.

It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about (that's happened before) but I swear I haven't sat down for days! I haven't even had time to read any of my favorite blogs. I try to at least glance through my blog roll first thing in the morning and visit at least one or two but that's even been difficult.

(Note to my pals in the blogging world: I miss you and I will be by soon!)

So to make up for lost time, I've decided to play a bit of catch up and post about all of my half-baked post ideas from the last several weeks. So here we go...

P.B. & Fluff Sandwich
From my recent trip to the East Coast, I brought home a wonderful treat...a tub of Marshmallow Fluff!

They may sell this wonderous treat in Indiana but I have never found it in a grocery store near me so I try to grab a tub (a small one) when I'm out visiting friends. Now, out East they also have wonderful rolls & bread (I think it's the Portugese influence) and I love eating this sandwich on a fresh roll. Yummy! So when I came home after my recent trip, I picked up some wheat rolls from the "marked down" bakery rack (Do you have a rack like this? It's a great thing.) and put one under the broiler before adding the PB and fluff...next time I may spread the fluff before it goes under the heat and see what happens. I've also been know to grab a spoonful of fluff and a handful of NutterButters and go to town.

Marshmallow Fluff...a man-made perfect food!

An addiction...I'm calling them on it

Something I also realized when I was out East is that those folks have a serious addiction...to Dunkin Donuts coffee! You can't go anywhere and NOT see more than one person holding a DD cup. The YMCA to watch a bunch of three-year-olds "play" basketball. The Pop Warner championship game to watch a bunch of nine-year-olds play football. Wal-Mart. The mall. This white stryfoam cup is EVERYWHERE!

Wareham, Mass. certainly runs on Dunkin's. I miss having four Dunkin' Donuts within 10 minutes of me!

My nephews & niece
They are hilarious. They are adorable. They are rotten. They are growing up way too fast. Enough said.

15 minutes of cleaning...
I'm not the neatest person in the world. (OK, mom...quit laughing, you'll hurt yourself.) My house is messy. My car is messy. My office at work is messy. I'm messy! Add a real aversion to cleaning (and the love of a great deal) and you can imagine what my house looks like after a couple of busy weeks.

Once my house gets to be too messy even for me, I try to clean in spurts. Usually I set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and pick up until time expires. The other day I did a quick calculation of the total square footage of my 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo and determined that if I cleaned for 15 minutes a day, it would take me...OK I didn't really do the math. I hate math almost as much as I hate cleaning. Let's just say that it would take a long time. I did do a series of 15-minute sessions last weekend and didn't let myself get distracted by the TV or computer so my place isn't a disaster but I won't be hosting a party any time soon!

Trying out Bobby's Thanksgiving dessert
After cheering the Pioneer Woman to victory again Bobby Flay on Throwdown, I decided to try my hand at the losing dessert...Bobby's pumpkin bread pudding. It looked delicious during the show. PW's own daughter endorsed it and then made it herself, so I thought "why not?" I wanted to make it for dessert on Thanksgiving. We were having sausage gravy and biscuits (well...we had hamburger gravy because there's beef  - not pork - in the freezer...gotta love a farm family's freezer) for lunch. What...were we supposed to have something else on Thanksgiving? Sorry, I digress.

Well...I didn't pull up the recipe until the morning I wanted to make it. I did bake a loaf of pumpkin bread (from a box) but I didn't realize all of the ingredients involved (11 egg yolks, brandy, half 'n half, heavy whipping cream). After a run to the grocery store, I was ready to start. Three hours and a water bath later, the dessert was done and half of the water bath was at the bottom of my mom's oven!

I took ZERO photos of the process or the final product. It was a great tasting dessert but I'm not sure it was worth the effort...two runs through a strainer, just sayin'!

Turkey Day Shopping
Since my family didn't celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, I had some time on my hands. Walgreens and CVS were having some great sales and both were open on Thursday. So...I hit three different Walgreens and two CVS stores! I was going to post about all of my free and "better than free" deals, but...well you know. Now, did I need the eight tubes of toothpaste? Probably not, but I now have a bag of toiletries to donate to a local charity, a bag for my sisters and a bag to take in for my coworkers! I also got some great toy deals for the nephews and for an indian school that my office buys for each year.

To decorate or not
I love Christmas. I love Christmas music, movies and TV specials. I love Christmas shopping and gift giving. I love Christmas decorations...especially nativity scenes and snowmen. However, I don't do a lot of holiday entertaining and it seems like a lot of effort to decorate my house just for me. I didn't decorate last year and the only snowman decoration that I put out last year is STILL on my mantle (he's very small).

I think decorating would cheer me up but I just don't know...

Giveaways
There are some great giveaways out there on some of my favorite blogs. I'm not going to mention them all here, but Little Miss Can't Be Wrong is hosting a fun one over at how i met your father. She's giving away a beautiful "Key to your Heart" necklace. Go over there and check it out. If you decide to comment, please let her know that I sent you!

WHEW! I feel better now. Hopefully, I won't go so long without a post again. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed my "blogging time" both writing my own and reading others.

I think I'll go to bed now. Maybe I'll get six hours of sleep tonight!



I Heart PW's Action Sets

I love to take photos. I don't like to edit them.

It's not that I don't like to edit, it's that there are so many options in Photoshop that I just don't know where to start. Then I found Pioneer Woman's Action Sets for Photoshop. These are too cool. You just download them and go. You can even use more than one action at a time...so cool.

I'm not going to go into full tutorial mode, but I will do a bit of a show and tell...

Original photo

Sepia

PW Black & White and Quick Edge Burn

Colorized

Old West

Seventies and Quick Edge Burn

Soft and Faded

Aren't those cool? Totally going to be playing with these. If you have Photoshop, I suggest you go grab them!

Do you have other photo editing tips or favorite blogs with tutorials? Send them my way!