baby hat

 

 

Earlier this week, I brought a meal over to some friends that just had a baby.

I included this hat, too.

Hats are a quick and easy gift to make. This hat is a newborn size and the flower is a free download from ravelry.com. The flower is called Flower (14 petals) #3 by Sharon Cox. [Side note: if you crochet and/or knit and are not signed up on ravelry.com, you need stop reading this and do it right now. It's amazing.] The hat and flower take me less than an hour to make.

 

{I also love this font called, "Lovefern" from angiemakes.com, which then makes me think of How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. I always love a good font.}

 

Have a good weekend & stay warm!

<3

days of frivolity

Wednesdays are best.
Well, one of the best days.

Wednesdays are my day off.

What do I do on my days off? I'm glad you asked because I do a lot.  As in, devote several hours to preparing dinner. [Let me preface, I don't have any children, so I have A LOT of time to do such things. Maybe someday-- if we are blessed with children-- I will look back and reminisce on these days of frivolity.]

Yesterday, on my off, I finished painting the ceiling in our living room. I hope to go to the hardware store and get some paint samples to see what color we'd like to paint the walls.

Last Wednesday, I was a little crazy... allow me to elaborate...

First I baked some delicious peanut butter cookies via rachelschultz.com

 

They are so chewy and soft. The typical peanut butter cookies I've made in the past would get flat and get hard in just a couple days. Surprisingly, we have some cookies from last week and they are still soft and chewy. Check out the recipe; it's a keeper. Also, my batch made 40 cookies... I didn't use my cookie scoop, so I must've made my cookies a titch smaller.

On the dinner menu, I planned for spaghetti and meatballs.
I used up the herb bread crumbs from the crispy crab stuffed mushrooms in the venison meatballs.

 

I carefully mixed and shaped the venison meatballs. They looked perfect in my 9 x 13" pan. As I was putting them in the 'frige to cook up just before dinner, I looked back at the counter. I had forgotten to put in the 2 eggs that my recipe called for. I used my hands, scooped up the meatballs, threw them back in my mixing bowl and added the missing ingredient. Because of my frustration, I didn't take as much care in shaping them, and made them slightly bigger than before to hurry up the matter.

 

 

Next up: fresh spaghetti.

 

 

Really, this is all it takes: flour and eggs. If you have the time, you should make homemade pasta.

 

 

Don't you love my Wonder Woman apron?

I thought it was fitting.

 

A pasta machine isn't necessary, but it does make things easier and your pasta more uniform. (We registered for it when we were getting married and my friend's Mom, Anne, bought it for us. I always think of her when I use it.)

 



 

Half of the pasta dough was made into fettuccini,



 

and half of the dough for the night's dinner.

 

 



 

My book recommendation for this meal is Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. I used her marinara sauce and fresh pasta recipes. 

I'm not going to give you all my recipes. Go buy her book or request it from your local library. She is hysterical!

 

Do you know what's in your food?

Take some time to make meals from scratch.

<3

 



candies & a card

 

My husband's favorite candies & a homemade card.

[Oh, and a Burt's so he doesn't steal mine.]

Nothing beets that.

Happy Valentine's Day.

<3

Big game = Pinterest win!

On Sunday, my husband and I went to his parents' house to watch the big game. His parents were rooting for the Broncos and we wanted the Panthers to win. Our little rivalry made the evening pretty fun, and of course there was also a lot of delicious food!
My mother-in-law, Renee, made sloppy joes, four bean salad and had chips, veggies and cheese.
We brought "Crispy Crab Stuffed Mushrooms" (a request by my husband) and "Pepperoni Pizza Rolls." I found both recipes on pinterest.

The stuffed mushrooms came out REALLY well! The recipe is from mantitlement.com. I only had half the number of mushrooms, but I made the whole recipe for the filling, so we will use it on crackers or for a dip. For the 8 oz. of crab meat, I used a can of premium crab meat- fancy, I know! The bread crumb topping made A LOT, so I probably should've halved that. (The extra bread crumbs are going in the venison meatballs I'm making for dinner.)

The Pepperoni Pizza Rolls, like the website describes are a marriage of garlic knots and pizza rolls. I mixed up my standard pizza dough recipe, which is a half white half whole wheat dough. The garlic-herb butter with the parmesan cheese on top? ::drool:: We heated up a jar of the pizza sauce we canned and had it on the side to dip with. This recipe is from twopeasandtheirpod. I am definitely making these again!

 

What tasty food did you have at the big game? I'm always open for recommendations.

 

On my agenda for today: baking cookies. Because:

 

a.) My husband packed the last of them in his lunch

and

b.) I need an excuse to turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen.

 

Stay warm. <3 

faraway places, like Connecticut

People say that your college years are some of the best. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that until after college. All of your friends that you love and have been with for four years all of the sudden move away to faraway places, like Connecticut.

Keeping up with friends after college has, at times, been a struggle. With your life going one way and friends going another, making the effort to cross paths is hard.

One such friend lives nine hours away.
The last time I saw her was about two years ago, which involved her going to another friend's wedding that just happened to be near my hometown.

For the 30th commemoration of her birth, I sent her some love.

Over the Summer, I taught myself how to crochet Solomon's knot, also known as the Love knot. It is very delicate and lacy. I used a variegated sock yarn. I have made other gifts with this yarn because it is so soft and beautiful. The cowl I crocheted, isn't so functional, as it is very thin, but it is pretty. Sometimes pretty is all you need.

Jocelyn, I hope you feel loved today
and I hope that our paths cross again soon.

Happy Birthday!

<3