Trimming Down

I'm feeling the need to take a break from my regularly scheduled series of recipe after recipe. So bear with me as I ramble a little :)

Now, "Trimming Down" might seem like an appropriate conversation topic around the holidays and the plethora of food that always seems to be available (see above comment about the backlog of recipes that I need to post); however, I'm not quite daring enough to cross into the weight-loss discussion. Rather, I'm realizing that I need to trim down on some of the superficial "things" in my life: clothing (ironic since I have two packages of online purchases coming to my house this week...baby steps), keepsakes (we won't talk about the number of boxes I have in our basement compared to Darrell)....and even slightly less tangible things like lists. Yes, lists. I am queen of making lists, and usually awful at following through on them. Last year I was addicted to quite a few "foodie" blogs, and was bookmarking so many recipes to try that I finally just made a GoogleDocs document where I could list their hyperlinks and organize them by type (and make them searchable by main ingredients and whatnot--yes, nerd alert right here). Well--the list grew and grew. I think it maxed out at nearly eleven pages. We have actually utilized the document a handful of times, and some of the recipes have even made it off the GoogleDocs document and into our permanent collection... But. Eleven pages is A LOT.

So, I've started going back through the recipes. I'm realizing that there are a lot of recipes that I initially bookmarked because I liked the idea of them (like eggplant parmesan), even though they are realistically not dishes that Darrell and I would ever decide that we were in the mood to cook. And really, if we were ever in the mood for them, I'd probably just do a Google Search for a recipe. I began the thinning out process earlier this week, and I've already cut out a page and a half of recipes. As well as stumble across quite a few that I want to put on our menu for next week. Of course, the largest majority of those recipes that I have bookmarked are dessert recipes, and I haven't even begun to sift through those. All in due time though...all in due time.

Maybe I'll start trimming down my "to read" list next.... I won't even mention how many hundreds of books are on that list.

Aunt Rose's Sticky Rolls

Guys, this might seriously be the best recipe on this blog. I know I've posted some other great ones, and I know I've really talked up a few others, but I don't know if any of them compare to this one. Maybe I'm just partial to it because it's a family recipe, but everyone I've ever served these for has loved them. And the best part? They are insanely easy. So easy that when my family decided at 10:30 on Wednesday night that they wanted to have a Thanksgiving brunch on Thursday morning and I didn't even break a sweat thinking about having to put these together (I also know that my family is prone to wanting these on a moment's notice so I always keep all the ingredients on hand). If you really want to wow your family and friends with this one, keep the recipe a secret because they'll swear you spent hours laboring in the kitchen to produce such a delicious breakfast roll. My mouth is watering just thinking about them...

Aunt Rose's Sticky Rolls
(serves six to eight)


18-24 Rhodes frozen dinner rolls (they come in bags of 36, but I've found that most Bundt pans won't hold the whole bag)
1 pkg cook and serve butterscotch pudding (not instant)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
cinnamon to taste

Spray the bottom and sides of a bundt pan. Place the frozen rolls in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle the dry pudding mix over the top of them. Melt the butter in the microwave and stir in the brown sugar. Pour the brown sugar/butter mixture over the rolls and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover with a towel and let rise overnight. In the morning, preheat the oven to 350*. Bake the sticky rolls for 30 minutes or until the ends start to brown. Remove from oven; let stand for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and enjoy!

Two "Duds"

You win some, you lose some. I'd been on a roll lately with new recipes (the chocolate muffins and puppy chow bars), so it's no surprised that I stumbled on a few that less-than wowed. Granted, neither of them are bad recipes, but they were both a little tedious and just not worth it for the end product.

First up was my attempt at Homemade Peanut Butter Cups.

Recipe found here

The idea sounded great; I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, and subsequently love Reese's. The recipe wasn't too awful; however, at one point I was supposed to use a spoon or pastry brush to coax the chocolate up the side of the mini-muffin tin. Well, I was feeling lazy, so I decided that I'd skip that step and just make my peanut butter cups layered instead of having the peanut butter contained within the chocolate. Turns out that was a bad idea. The peanut butter mixture never "set", so biting into one of these caused the peanut butter to squeeze out the sides, and they ended up being a royal mess. They were still tasty (although as Darrell put it--there really isn't much to them besides peanut butter and chocolate), but probably not something I'll make again, even though I know user error is a big culprit for why these didn't turn out right.

I also attempted a knock-off recipe for Applebee's Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter Sauce for dessert on Thanksgiving.

Recipe found here

Again, there wasn't anything inherently awful about this recipe; the taste was pretty good, the prep time wasn't terrible, but it just didn't wow me (or most of my family). There's certainly some user error in this one as well; the recipe calls for an 8x8 pan, and all I have is 9x9, so the bars definitely baked thinner than they were supposed to. I suspect that in a smaller pan the bars would be thicker and gooier and not quite as tough. Plus, if the timing had worked out to serve them fresh, I'm sure that both the sauce and bars would have been a little better. However, there are a million dessert recipes out there that I want to try, and certainly other blondie recipes, so I don't feel too obligated to spend time trying to "fix" this recipe and do it better next time.

Feel free to give either or both of these recipes a try yourself though; just because they didn't work out for me doesn't mean they won't be the right recipe for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a day late, but whatever. Did Thanksgiving totally sneak up on anyone else this year? Maybe it's because we're having crazy nice weather--I went running the other day and would have actually been okay in shorts had I not wanted to blind my neighbors with my ridiculously white legs.

I've got plenty of recipes and other goodies to share, but I'd be remiss if I didn't give thanks for some of the many blessings in my life (brought to you photo-style).

--My Amazing Husband

--My Crazy Lovely Family

--My Wonderful Second Family

--Having a wonderful place to call home

Closing Day! October 29th, 2009

--Our Health

Sometimes our health is better than it is at other times...

--The security of knowing that there will always be (delicious) food on the table

Aunt Rose's Sticky Rolls--recipe coming soon!

--And of course my dear friends, of whom there are too many to share pictures (not necessarily because I have that many friends, but because I don't have many photos of groups of them together and I don't really feel like dragging up ten or more photos to cover all my friends)

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and cheers to a blessed holiday season!

Chocolate Muffins

I warned you that it was going to be recipe overload for the next few weeks. But if you've decided to stick around and read through all these recipes that I'm posting then you're in luck, because this is probably the greatest chocolate muffin recipe ever. I've never tried a chocolate muffin recipe before because I've always been worried that they'd turn out to cupcake-y, but that was far from the case with these muffins. They were certainly filling and a little rich, but not so sweet that you feel like you're breaking the calorie-bank by having dessert first thing in the morning. I will definitely make this recipe again (and again and again....)

Chocolate Muffins
(one of the top-rated chocolate muffin recipes on allrecipes.com--and for good reason!)

2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 to 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Grease 24-muffin cups (or line with paper). Beat eggs, sour cream, water, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake in a 325* preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for five minutes before removing a wire rack and enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

I've been making these muffins for awhile now, and the problem with not blogging about them right away is now I don't remember where I originally got the recipe from. Which is particularly unfortunate in this case because the story behind where they came from was really cute. Apparently this recipe is from some kids book (maybe a version of Little Red Riding Hood?) where the character has to safely deliver these muffins and keep the "secret" recipe safe. Well, at the end the book gives the recipe for the muffins, and in my opinion there are two secret ingredients: sunflower seeds and almond extract! The sunflower seeds offer a nice nutty flavor to balance the fruit, and the almond extract further enhances this (I secretly think almond extract is amazing and I love finding recipes that use it). Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins
(yields 12 muffins)

2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups blueberries
1/4 to 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Grease a muffin pan and preheat oven to 350*. Mix eggs, butter, sugar, and almond extract in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture. Stir until just combined (the dough will be thick). Gently stir in the blueberries and sunflower seeds and scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

I used frozen blueberries this last time, and although the taste and everything was still fine, the blueberries were quite large and therefore difficult to mix into the thick dough. So a few got squished along the way, which is why the muffins have a decidedly purple tint to them. But definitely not anything that will take away from the taste!

And not to make a totally random jump, but I have to share this picture of our first "snow" that fell over the weekend.

Darrell and I think we should figure out a way to permanently fill the cracks in our patio with something white because it looks pretty awesome. For now though, little dustings of snow will have to do (it's only a matter of time before the entire patio will be covered in mounds of snow!)

Baking Extravaganza One: Complete!

Well, it's over. I survived it. Things started to get a little rough toward the end and I had to call in for reinforcements (aka Darrell), but we made it through.

At 7:00 on Friday night, our kitchen looked like this:

Feeling surprisingly chipper at this point

Mid-way through the chaos:

Not pictured: Sink full of dishes

Finished! (approximately 10:30 PM):

Enjoying a well-deserved glass of wine

All boxed up and ready to go!

Thank goodness for wedding registries so we didn't have  to buy all these containers ourselves!

All-in-all, it was a success. Of the four recipes, I'd made two before and knew that they would turn out well (doughnut muffins and blueberry muffins, which I'll hopefully get on the blog this week), and the chocolate muffins were sooo ahh-mazing that I can't wait to make them again (recipe coming soon!). But the cookies? They were only okay. I consider them to be a "fancy" snickerdoodle, made with almond butter and cream cheese and lemon rind, and while those ingredients certainly altered the taste from that of a traditional snickerdoodle (especially the lemon!), they weren't fantastic enough that I'm dying to make them again. Granted, I'm sure there was plenty of user error (this was the last recipe I made and I was a glass or two of wine deep), but they were still pretty tedious for (in my mind) mediocre cookies. Not something I'm willing to try again to "iron out" the kinks. In retrospect, I should have just stuck with the snickerdoodle recipe that I already have, but it's always fun to try new things!

On the docket for later this week:
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Applebee's Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter Sauce
Broccoli Salad
Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Fudgy Crinkles
Pecan Tassies
Buffalo Chicken Dip

If you don't enjoy the recipes and food updates on this blog, then I'd come back in about a month. Spending all this time in my kitchen means I'm not doing anything else worth blogging about, and it also means that there will be lots of recipes to post!

If You Need Me I'll be in the Kitchen

Seriously. For the next week and a half, if I'm not at work or sleeping, I'll probably be in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, and I love me some baking... But we'll see how this next week goes. I've done some preliminary calculations, and I'm anticipating needing something like sixteen cups of flour and ten cups of sugar between now and November 27th. And that doesn't even take into consideration the baking I've got coming up in December. Phew.

Here's the rundown:

Tomorrow my mom has a jewelry party and I'm going to be making a few snacks for her guests. So for her "morning" session I'm going to be making a double batch of my doughnut muffins and for the afternoon I'm going to try out an "fancy" snickerdoodle recipe. It's got cream cheese and almond (although I'll probably use peanut) butter in it--got my fingers crossed that it'll be tasty! (Probably should have pulled some cream cheese out of the freezer this morning... Guess I won't be making these right away after work!)

Sunday our church has it's yearly meeting or something. All I really know is that church is thirty minutes earlier than normal and there is a brunch afterwards. And my dad is on the committee that is providing muffins--which means I've been asked to provide the muffins (twist my arm). So, I've decided on a blueberry muffin recipe (which I can't believe I haven't posted, it's delicious!) and I'm going to try out a chocolate muffin recipe (because lets be honest, these are really my favorite kind of muffin).

Naturally I have a few items on my plate for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be making homemade dinner rolls (also a shame that I haven't posted these!), broccoli salad, and trying a dessert recipe that supposedly imitates Applebees Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter sauce. So we'll see how that goes (don't worry--my sister is in charge of providing a more "traditional" pumpkin dessert. We're not total Thanksgiving rebels!).

Then, I decided that since I have a few days off over Thanksgiving I should use that time to provide treats during coffee hour at church. I'm requested to bring eight to twelve dozen items, and I go back and forth on if I should hit the high or the low end of that range. On one hand, attendance might be low because it's right after Thanksgiving and people will be out of town, but on the other hand, lots of "extra" people might be in church because they are home for the holiday. Sigh. I do know that I am going to make a couple batches of my doughnut muffins (Darrell is really excited to have some with his coffee that morning), and probably some peanut butter blossoms since it'll technically be the first Sunday of the "Christmas" season (you best believe I bust my Christmas music out the day after Thanksgiving). I'm not sure what else though--maybe some fudgy crinkles? Those are super easy. And maybe a spice cookie/gingersnap? So many decisions.

We have another Thanksgiving celebration that Sunday afternoon with my mom's family in Mitchell, so for that I'm going to be making a buffalo chicken dip and my puppy chow bars. (Yes, the bars are that good that I'm going to make them a second time in the same month. Make them NOW.)

Already on the plate for December (no pun intended) are cookies for a women's luncheon at my church (which my mom was asked to make, who in turn asked me to make them) and bars for a "treat day" that Darrell's office does every year. And he's already requested that I make my cherry bing bars because apparently last year someone brought bars that looked like mine so he excitedly tried one and was sorely disappointed. So he's insisted that I make my recipe so he can take them and show his office how the bars are "supposed" to taste. I think it's super cute. And naturally it just wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't make some peanut butter balls and sugar cookies, plus I'll probably do more baking than usual this year because my dad's whole family is coming to Sioux Falls to celebrate Christmas. Looks like I'm going to be super grateful for my fancy-schmancy mixer (and apron!) over the course of the next month!

Wish me luck friends! My blog will probably be overrun with recipes in the coming weeks because I know I have some good ones planned that I haven't blogged yet, and I'm hoping some of my new finds turn out equally delicious!

Weekend Recap

Well, it only took me three days, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our weekend. And it although it was full--it was great. I'm totally okay with weekends where we have a lot to do and get a lot done; what I dislike are the weekends where all of those events are on a set time frame. We only had one thing this weekend that was at a specific time; the rest we could amble around and squeeze in wherever we wanted. And because pictures are more fun than my blabbing on, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We decided to take a little getaway to Sioux City this weekend. It's only an hour south of us, but it was nice just to get away and not have to worry about anything

We ventured to a sushi bar for dinner. I was a pretty picky eater growing up, and although I've gotten significantly better, I'm still not the most adventurous eater. So dinner...

...was a little dicy. I've had the California rolls and other maki rolls (not pictured) before, but all that fish stuff? A little out of my comfort zone. But, I was a good sport and tried it all, and even ended up liking a few pieces (including, surprisingly, the eel--the darkest piece to the far right)

Part of the reason for going was that we had tickets for the symphony. It was the first time Darrell or I had been to a real symphony performance, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. And the building was beautiful--if you ever get the chance to go to something in the Orpheum in Sioux City, you should go just for the decor

One of my favorite parts about the trip was that our hotel was connected to the Orpheum through a series of skywalks! Skywalks are awesome. And even though the weather has been pretty mild lately, it was still nice to enjoy the exercise of walking there and back without dealing with any of the elements. Plus....

...there were some wicked cool things to walk through in the skywalks. Like these really cool mirrors. Or part of a museum. Totally awesome.

I would like to do the trip again sometime when I'm not feeling under the weather (or when we remember our suits so we can enjoy the hot tub...), but it was still a great trip. And because Sioux City is so close, we were able to get home on Sunday in time to do this:

Movie marathon baby! Darrell's been dying to get me to watch these movies forever, but I kept refusing because I wanted to watch them all at once, and we rarely have time for that. But since the Vikings played (poorly) on Monday night, plus the fact that my parents were out of town, we were left with no plans on Sunday. Normally I would have been anxious to get some work done around the house--but feeling sick was the perfect reason to curl up on the couch and enjoy these movies. I will say that I felt like there were some unnecessarily long fight/chase scenes, so even though the "plot" was only about 60 minutes in length the movies were still closer to 90 minutes overall.... But they were all still pretty good. Especially for "guy" movies. And now we can cross it off our 101 in 1001 list! 

Only Tuesday

It's funny how being sick makes the week seem to draaaag on forever. Is it seriously only Tuesday today? Ugh.

This is what my night looked like last night.

I feel remarkably better; I'm actually starting to enjoy tea quite a bit. And rubbing Vaseline on my nose after spending all day yesterday blowing it was fantastic. Totally worth the stop at the drug store. I think I'm going to head back there today to get some vapor rub for this darn cough that developed this morning. Oh well. I'll take a little cold over the flu any day.

Weekend recap coming tomorrow--I'm going to try to squeeze it all into one post, so it might be a doozy!

Sick Day

Since I'm too stubborn to take a sick day from work, I'm going to take a sick day from blogging instead. Darrell and I had a great weekend and I want to be able to give it the recap it deserves, which will be difficult when all I can think of right now is cough drops, tylenol, and a nap. Thankful to only have to work an hour at my part-time job tonight!

A Quick Note

Dear Georgia Tech Defense:

Thank you for making my dear husband very upset last night. It is important to remember that in the game of football, your aim is to support the offense wearing the same jersey as you, not the offense on the field at the same time as you. Also, don't throw punches. Ever. And especially not when you have the quarterback wrapped up behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd down. Stupidest play ever. Congratulations on giving all the momentum to the other team. As a former athlete myself, I hope you are all running some serious sprints today.

Love, Jess

Update: 101 in 1001

We're getting close to the halfway point of our 101 in 1001 list, so I thought I'd post a detailed update. The "completed" list might look a little bleak--we've only managed to check 27 items off the list--but we have some in progress that are getting pretty close!

Get a dog (yeah... This one has kind of been pushed the back burner. It may get trumped by a different "addition")

Landscape the house (trees planted 9/26/10--hopefully we'll get the rock trim down this spring!)

Skydive (another possibly doubtful one, although I want to go parasailing next time we are at the beach, so that might take the place of this one)

Go skiing in the Rocky Mountains (still holding out for this one to happen; we've got two more winters to get there!)

*Personal* (and 75% completed!)

Build a lower deck in our backyard (done! 9/24/11)

Go to a professional dinner theater (maybe sometime this winter when we're getting cabin fever from the cold)

Go horseback riding (been having a hard time finding in good horseback riding opportunities around here; any suggestions?)

Get passports and use them (we've got them....and we've got a plan to use them)

Reach $20,000 in savings (we're getting close--and pending no major surprises, we should be there by Valentine's Day!)

Go to an amusement park (not so sure when we'll get this one in... I guess we could always hit Valley Fair in MN, although Darrell doesn't think that counts as a "real" amusement park)

Go on a date once a month (so far so good!)

Take a wine tasting course (still looking for some good possibilities for this!)

Go white-water rafting (still have my fingers crossed that we can get this one in, but not sure when or where!)

Go to a real zoo (aka not the one in Sioux Falls--but maybe Omaha next summer?)

Camp in five State Parks (Custer 7/28/10; Farm Island 9/4/10, Newton Hills 5/21/11, Roy Lake 9/3/11--only one more to go!)

Take old-timey photos (done! 7/26/10--although I so want to do it again!)

Play all of our classic board games (I survived playing Risk! We've only got Clue left now, and we need more than two people for that--any takers?)

Put a puzzle together (done! 1/23/11)

Bike around the Sioux Falls bike trails (we were going to this summer, but they have been massively under construction. Hopefully next summer!)

Go to a DI football game (done! Nebraska vs SDSU 9/25/10)

Organize the basement (I kind of got started this summer... But never got all the way there so now it's a mess again)

Have a movie marathon (we have the "Bourne" movies...now just to find time to watch all three!)

Watch five classic movies (I'm considering getting a one-month free trial membership to Netflix so we can get this one off our list--and then promptly closing our membership so it doesn't cost us anything!)

Go cross-country skiing (hopefully this winter!)

Spend a night on the Appalachian Trail (another one that is looking more and more unlikely--mostly because of the logistics (and cost!) of getting out East)

Go snowshoeing (another one I hope to get done this winter!)

Go sledding (see above!)

Take ballroom dance lessons (maybe in the winter/spring to keep us from getting cabin fever?)

Help someone pulled over on the interstate (there's always lots of opportunity for this in the winter...)

Go to a shooting range (I think there is one in Sioux Falls? Haven't looked into this one too much)

Shop at a Farmer's Market (done--albeit anti-climatically. 10/22/11)

Order a restaurant meal that we can't pronounce (I'm pretty sure we've done this, we just need to remember to write it down some time)

Eat at Touch of Europe (done! 8/13/10 and a few more times after that--if you've never been you should go, it's great!)

Have a romantic picnic (I might be getting this one taken care of this weekend if I can get the hubby on board...)

Go stargazing (not too worried about this one; we can pretty well take care of it whenever)

Go skinny dipping (guess we'll have to do this next summer if we don't want to freeze our tushies off in the winter!)

Eat a lobster (our grocery store flew them in from the East Coast last Valentine's Day--maybe we'll partake this year?)

Be greeters at church (done! 2/13/11, and now again in two weeks!)

Play bocce ball (done! 9/4/10)

Ride a trolley (we have one in downtown; it seems like it'd be such an easy one to cross off!)

Go on a carriage ride (done! 8/13/10)

Start a garden (done! 5/22/11. Here's to hoping next summer is more successful!)

Host a holiday party (we don't have any plans in the works for this holiday season, so maybe next year!) 

Buy new kitchen chairs (done! 10/8/10--although we just finished assembling them last week!)

Go to a homecoming at Wartburg (done! 10/23/10)

Visit the State Capitol (done! 9/4/10)

Go ice skating outdoors (done! 1/22/11)

Give $3000 in offerings to church (honestly not sure where we are on this one; probably pretty close I imagine)

Take a canoe trip (hopefully next summer!)

Fly a kite (we've got plenty of wind in these parts, now all we need is a kite!)

Go to a Pow-wow (done! 9/2/11)

Go to a State Fair (we're going to have to get this one in next fall!)

Throw a dart at the map and go where it lands (maybe another good one to escape cabin fever this winter)

Spend a weekend at my parent's lake cabin (another one that seems so simple--all we need is a free weekend!)

Read "The 5 Love Languages" (Almost. Done!)

Go to a Pheasants game (it's on the agenda for summer 2012!)

*Personal*

Tour a battleship (done! Beach Week 2011)

Make one of the drinks on our drink mixer (done! 3/5/11)

Go to a driving range together (done! 8/14/10)

Carve pumpkins (done! 10/30/11)

Make a decision by flipping a coin (hmm... I'm thinking it might be fun to combine this one with "throwing a dart at the map". Sounds like it could make for an adventurous weekend)

Clean and organize the garage (done! May 2011)

Insulate the garage (probably won't happen; our realtor informed us that we probably wouldn't get our money back out of this project when it came time to sell, and we don't need it insulated for ourselves, so probably not worth it)

Celebrate Christmas morning at our house (Christmas 2012 is looking like the best candidate!)

Go to a museum (done! 9/4/10--SD Cultural and Heritage Museum)

Go to an art gallery

Stay at a Bed and Breakfast

*Personal*

Complete the wine passport for downtown Sioux Falls (the actual program doesn't exist anymore, but we're still going to try to do it on our own....hopefully...)

--Darrell's items--

Get an eagle (while golfing, not the animal)

Golf eighteen holes in under 85 strokes (he's going to need to do a lot of golfing next summer to take care of this one and the previous one!)

Visit Mount Rushmore (done! 7/26/10)

Learn a song on the guitar (we'll see about this... If I were a betting person I'd say doubtful)

Get a new computer (this has gotten back-burnered since I got my new work computer)

Randomly send Jess flowers (I keep trying to drop hints on this one...)

Be hoakey and agree to see the project through to completion (he's doing pretty well so far... Minus the fact that he hasn't made much progress on his portion of the list)

Hang hammocks in the basement (our tent is hanging up down there right now--close enough?)

Build a wine rack for the kitchen (we almost impulsively bought one a few weeks ago--guess he would have been off the hook!)

Surprise Jess with a romantic dinner (dropping hints on this one too...)

Take a photography class (he's taken a pseudo-photo editing class, so that's pretty close)

Learn how to drive a boat/pontoon (hopefully next summer!)

Pay off car (done! We celebrated this milestone in July 2011!)

Start swimming laps again (I bought him goggles over the summer; not sure if he's used them yet or not!)

Donate one gallon of blood (he's maybe half-way? Better start reminding him on this one too!)

--My goals--

Donate hair to Locks of Love (done! Finally! 5/23/11)

Run a 10K (I almost signed up for one this summer but then chickened out. Guess it'd better get my butt in gear for next summer!)

Read 25 books (I currently have 15 reviews on my blog, and have read a few more than that. I'll make this goal no problem!)

Not buy clothes or shoes for two months (my goal is to start this December 1st... We'll see if that happens)

Enter a writing contest (eek. That means I need to do more writing...)

Have a "Pirates" marathon (any takers? Darrell refuses)

Mow the yard (I managed to go all summer without doing this. Not sure if that is good or bad)

Finish our wedding scrapbook (done! 12/14/10)

Score a goal (success! August 2011)

Get comfortable driving Darrell's car (I've been working on talking a big game from the passenger seat, but haven't actually gotten behind the wheel yet)

Bake a cheesecake with no cracks (not yet--maybe this will be my Thanksgiving dessert!)

Sing karaoke  (the opportunity just hasn't come up! bummer)

Subscribe to a cooking magazine and make a recipe out of every issue (I've been getting a magazine for eight months now and have made one recipe... I've got a ways to go!)

Get and use a gym membership (got it on 8/1/10....need to get better at using it)

Get all my stuff cleaned out of my parent's house (done! Summer 2011)

Oofta! Maybe we aren't doing as well as I had thought, even with the ones that are close! I try to look at the list every once in awhile just to make sure we are at least making some progress, but I guess I'll have to step it up for the next 500-ish days!

Puppy Chow Bars

Peanut butter? Good. Chocolate? Good. Crunchy Chex? Good. Powdered sugar? Good.

What's not to love about puppy chow? I'm pretty sure I used to make it on a monthly basis back when I was in high school, because it was pretty easy and super delicious. The only drawback? Just a little messy. But as a high school kid, I totally didn't care.

It's been years now since I've made puppy chow, and although I've thought about it a few times, I've always been deterred. Carefully mixing the Chex into the peanut butter/chocolate goodness really is a little bit tedious. And that powdered sugar? It gets everywhere. And then I feel like I even have to be careful while I'm eating it, because one stray piece (or a wandering hand) can leave a streak of white on whatever I'm wearing. So I've just never gotten around to making it--until I found this recipe. As soon as I saw it I was hooked. It's got all the to-die-for elements of puppy chow, but in a bar. With a sugar cookie crust. Can we say delicious?

Puppy Chow Bars
(found on the Betty Crocker website by a different name)

1 pouch sugar cookie mix
1 egg
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups peanut butter
6 cups Chex or Crispix, broken into small pieces
Powdered sugar

Grease and flour the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Combine cookie mix, egg, and 1/2 cup of the butter and mix until well combined. Spread into prepared pan. Bake in a preheated 375* oven for about 12 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Cool. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and remaining 1/2 cup butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Start with one minute, and then stir after every 30 second interval until smooth. Mix in the peanut butter until fully incorporated. Stir in the cereal pieces and mix to coat. Pour on top of the sugar cookie base; press lightly to stick. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (the amount is up to you; I prefer to go a little light) and refrigerate until set (about one hour). Cut into pieces and enjoy!

Darrell and I definitely agree that this is going to be our go-to recipe whenever we're craving something like puppy chow. The peanut butter and chocolate is way more prominent because the cereal is in smaller pieces and the powdered sugar isn't totally coating each piece--and, in my opinion, the peanut butter and the chocolate are the elements that matter most! Plus the reduced amount of powdered sugar means way less mess. Win win in my book!

Babysitters of the Year

Why Darrell and I should be awarded Babysitters of the Year:

1) We believe there is no such thing as "too young" to start learning the importance of maintaining a clean house

Good work Kinley. Make sure you shift to the right and get the whole floor swept

2) We believe children of any age can get involved with the preparation of food for the household

We need those Chex crushed but not ground. And please don't rip a hole in the bag

3) We believe that a fitness regime is important at every age

Chew. And drop. And chew. And drop. Make sure you are really working those arms--bring the weight to your mouth, not your mouth to the weight!

4) We believe that literacy is the key to life-long success

It's never too early to start them on the classics!

5) We believe that it's never too early to get started with extra-curriculuar activities

Why yes, that is a bottle opener she is playing with. Now if only she could just figure out how to open that fridge she'd be set!

Decades Party

Well, we survived the weekend. It was just as crazy-busy as I was expecting it to be, but it was quite a bit of fun along the way. Saturday and Sunday were busy with "boring" things; they inducted a new class of Shriners (which is a full-day ordeal), Bama lost to LSU, and we had a turkey dinner at my grandpa's church on Sunday. But Friday night--well, that was really the highlight of the weekend, and the only thing that is worthy of a full post.

My dad turns 60 next month, and it just happened to turn out that in his vast network of friends and business associates, he knew people who were celebrating 30th, 40th, 50th, and 70th birthdays right around the same time frame. So, the group of them decided to get together and have a joint party--a Party for the Decades, if you will. It was a hoot.

The birthday crew. And yes, feel free to make fun of my dad's leisure suit

Guests were invited to dress in their favorite decade, and there were some great looking outfits.

How cute are these guys? He'll be turning 88 in two weeks, and they were up dancing with the best of them in their (probably authentic) 1920s garb

My brother and his girlfriend Macy supporting the 80s

Darrell and I decided to be a little out of the box, and instead of dressing in our favorite decade, we took the theme a little loosely and dressed in our "favorite" era.

Robin Hood and Maid Marian anyone?

They also had a really fun DJ who did a few "competitions" to get the crowd into things, which was especially great since with 5 different "Guests of Honor", people only knew a handful of the other guests.

A "Charleston" competition. If I look totally clueless it's because I am. That's my sister in the blue dress by the way--she was sporting a blond wig for the night which was hard to get used to

A modified version of musical chairs. Instead of sitting down with the music stopped, the DJ gave the participants an item to retrieve from the audience (such as a cell phone or belt), and the last person back was out

There were even a few guest appearances.

The Lennon Sisters. Don't worry if you don't know who they are; I was totally clueless too. Which made lip-syncing their song a little difficult. From left to right it's me, my mom, my sister, and Macy.

The Village People. Enough said. My brother is the Indian Chief, Darrell is the Military guy, and my sister's boyfriend Nick is the motorcycle cop

Don't worry, Darrell is super glad he married into my family :)

And of course, there was plenty of dancing to be had (mostly just by me, my sister, and Macy).

I'm not entirely sure why, but I love this pic. I'm pretty sure we're jammin' to Usher at this point

It was a great--albeit long--night, and we were very grateful that my dad had bought us all rooms at the hotel where the party was held. We were not so grateful that the Shrine Ceremonial the next day required us to be up by 8:30, but we managed.

Parting shot of the whole crew. I think this picture has Christmas card written all over it :)