Big Bucks and Biggest Loser

This weekend was a mix of cooking, relaxing, helping put on an event at our church and playing a lot of Big Buck Hunter. It was a fun.

my cooking buddy

I pre-gamed the weekend by trying to make some pumpkin bread. I even took pictures of the recipe step-by-step so I could blog about it. I then ate said pumpkin bread and deleted all the pictures. It was the worst. You live and learn.

(my) Hero Hunter (That's what the game called him when he kept getting perfect rounds)

On Saturday evening, we had a Big Buck Hunter (video game) tournament with our friends. The idea was that you had your hunting party of four and there were five bars, each having the game, that you had to go to play and see who scored the highest at the end of it all. The first bar was slow because everybody was waiting for each other to play but once the first team played, they went to the next bar and continued to play through. They were supposed to keep on playing until they finished their last round at the final bar but they might have had a few too many beverages and got a little distracted at McDonalds, other bars, or just plain hanging out… this delayed our night by a couple of hours but it was still really fun.

(I was a hillbilly princess… You can't tell but my hair was huge…)

Our hunting party. We came in second place.

I don't know why but subconsciously I wanted to be as close to the screen as possible. This was the only bar that had a separated between the player and the screen hence why I'm leaning over it so far…. The other bars, I would end my round so much closer to the screen than when I started.

This weekend, our church hosted Marci Crozier, a contestant on the Biggest loser season 11, for a brunch where she spoke about her experience and how God has used her since. (She goes to our Pastors wife's brother's church --confused,yet?) Adam and I helped  A LOT with set up, cooking, and clean up. it was fun though.

I got to decorate so I basically just brought all my apartment decorations and bought a couple pumpkins/gourds and some flowers. There were only 7 tables but each one was different. I wish I would have taken pictures of them all because they each so cute! (I am of course biased because it's all my current decor)

What was really cool was that I had a couple different owls used throughout the room because  I love them but what I didn't know was that an owl had been really important to Marci during her time on the Biggest Loser. Everyday when she walked around the ranch, she would see an owl up in a tree which would hoot at her. It was just impactful to see that owls showed up again when she was speaking at our church.

Tasha and Katie helping out at the brunch

 My friend Nancy looking awesome at 80-- can you believe she is that old? I can't. She's spunky haha

I got to use this awesome box/crate that my in laws picked up for me a couple weeks ago. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of it because it is sooo cute. 

The yolk separators and scrambled egg Masters

 The kitchen boys ;)

We finished up the day by trying to make these apple chips (after waiting 2 hours of cooking on low heat- I cranked up the oven and forgot about them until they started smoking…oops), made this awesome lasagna (my new favorite GF meal), GF chocolate chip cookies, and GF Peanut Butter cookies. We were quite ambitious but now we have so much yummy food!

Happy Monday!!!

Sunday School and Lunches

This past week, Adam asked me if I wanted to go to the new sunday school class starting up at church. I was thrilled. I think Sunday School classes are a way to meet people and learn more about God and in our case the history/beliefs of our church. We went this past Sunday and it was good. 

Our pastor handed out this Family Tree of Religious Groups

It was really fun to look at. I learned a lot. I have grown up in the church all my life but I actually didn't know which denominations were more closely related than others. I also had no idea that my home church's denomination was actually it's own. I grew up in an Independent Bible Church and had always been told that we were close to Baptists but didn't line up with everything they believe in so we were independent of them. Also very interesting to see that both Independent Bible Churches and Mennonite churches came from the Anabaptists. This was super interesting to me because I went to a Mennonite middle school and high school but never thought we had that much in common (oh how I was wrong). Also Brethren in Christ was another denomination that I heard a lot about in high school but didn't realize that a) they came from Anabaptists as well and b) that they were sort of like cousins to the Nazerene (Adam's Church), Wesleyan (IWU's affiliation), Free Methodist, and Salvation Army Churches (I didn't even know this was church till college)  which are all under the Wesleyan-Holiness Churches (Asbury's affiliation). It was really cool to see where all the churches I have been exposed to relate to each other.

I met this girl in sunday school that I hope to be friends with. She moved here from San Diego to get her Ph. D in something smart and so is fairly new to the area. I am also new to the area and would love to have a Christian friend.

After church, we were invited over for lunch (or dinner as everyone seems to call it) at a cute older couples house. It was really more of a feast and was really amazing. Tacos, enchiladas, guacamole, and dessert. Yummy! There were several people there (couples and singles alike) and it was really fun to get to know people more than the meet n greet part of the service each week.

7 things ( but really four)

1.  Foodies

 Adam and I want to try all kinds of different restaurants around here. More hole in the walls vs chains but really we just want to explore our new city.

 First on our list was Ian's. They sell pizza by the slice but their choices are not normal (seems to be a theme in Milwaukee, different menus). Adam got Philly Cheesesteak Pizza and I just got Feta, Tomato, and Spinach but are some of our choices were Cordon Bleu, Mac and Cheese, Lasagna, andBBQ. It was fun. We ate our pizza which was pretty good and then played some cards. We really like the card book we got near Christmas from Pottery Barn. We played Bezique and I surprisingly won. I just happened to get the rare double Bezique (Jack of diamonds, Queen of Spades times two) that gave me 500 points and allowed me to win hehe


2. The Mugs

My sister, Amy, had the idea to have my family get me mugs or items from the city where they are from since Adam and I are now living away from them. These small tokens remind me of my family members when I see them. I think it was a fantastic idea. Most of my family gave me mugs (some got broken on the flights out here ;( ) but some gave ornaments for our Christmas tree. It was so thoughtful.
I got this one in the mail this weekend. I love it.

Since I have moved from Maryland, I really miss how good the crab is. This cup brings back so many good memories from Family vacations. I'm so excited to use it for hot cocoa ;)


3. The Weather
The weather is getting more Wisconsin-ish which I'm not exactly opposed too. I want to see what makes Milwaukee winter so awful. Everywhere I have moved as of late is always warmer than what everyone else says is the normal. I moved to Kentucky. Record high heat and it was hot the whole time I lived there. I moved to Indiana. Mild winter. Hardly any snow at all and then a weird warm streak in March. Now I'm on to Milwaukee where there is so much complaint about the winter and everyone talks about how good the summer is. We'll see. So far the winter is just as mild as last year.

 Freezing rain is on my tires.

4. For King and Country

I am a huge fan of this band. Good design. Great message. I heard them on the local Christian radio station but have since been listening to them and like a number of their songs such as The Proof of Your Love, Light it up, Middle of your Heart, and Fine, Fine Life.  I read briefly about the story behind the Light it up song. The brothers, who make up the band, had a friend who was depressed and would just stay in his house in the dark. He was hopeless. They wrote the song because they wanted to let their friend know he was worth it and that there was hope. I thought it was a really sweet story.

My four things are so long and I can't really think of three more, so I'm just going to call it a day.

Anyone been eating at new places or listening to new music?

Santa Hat Brownies

Okay note to self:
Don't take pictures at night in your messy kitchen and
These are real cute.

I didn't have circle cookie cutter but next time I make these, I will make sure I do. I think they are way cuter how this lady made them. They were a real hit. So if you have any excuse to make them, do it. I don't know if I didn't use enough of the topping but I had a lot extra so I am going to try and freeze mine for the next time I make them, so just keep that in mind if you make them.

Strawberry Jam

I got strawberries when I was in the Pittsburgh area with Leighann and decided to be a little housewifish and make strawberry Jam for Adam and I. My friend, Jenna, and I decided to split a batch since we hadn't really done it before.

My friend and helper, Jenna, hulling the strawberries.

The mashed up berry mixture.

The finished product.

The whole process was way easier than I thought. I remembered my mom making jam when I was younger but I had never done it. We just followed the recipe on the Sure-Jell box. I haven't tasted it yet but Jenna said it was divine ;)

So excited to keep making jams and different recipes this summer.

EMeals

Okay so Marie-Claire just told me about this site the other day but it seriously looks ingenious. It's called EMeals and helps you budget and come up with weekly meal plans. You sign up for $5 a month and get an email each week of your dinner plans, complete with recipes and a grocery list. You can even set up your favorite grocery store (if they have it) and they'll try to pick recipes based on what's on sale. What?!? Yes. Crazy. Also you can have grocery lists based on your family size (even if it's just yourself), certain allergies, budget friendly items, diets, and other various things. It looks sweet. Anyways, I think I'm going to try and it and let you know how it goes. Seems pretty awesome to me since I have been struggling with what to make for myself and soon one other person. Might be helpful to some of you budget-friendly or busy people out there. Or really anyone who has ever struggled with what to buy in order to make so you can finally eat. Can I get an amen?

Cooking for One

via

In my mind, food is meant to be a social event, one to be enjoyed and shared. I love to have food parties where everyone brings a dish or we have full-course meal shared among everyone. Cooking for one is a different story. Instead I have to ask myself, what do I want to eat for the next 7 days? When you share food, you don't necessarily think about all the calories or health of the meal because you know that you aren't going to eat the entire thing. This is different when you are cooking for one. Does anyone have any ideas for cooking for one? It's hard to split recipes if they call for whole cans of things because even if I split the recipe, I am still going to half of the can of whatever (beans, corn, soup, etc) to use. I don't want to waste but I don't necessarily want to have monotony in my diet. Anyways, just asking you guys if you know of any recipes, websites, or ideas out there for me?

P.S. for those of you that have gmail accounts or blogger accounts, if you add your email to your account I can email you back when you comment on my blog. Here's how you do it:

click on 'customize' (at the top of a blogger blog when you are signed in) then 'dashboard' then 'edit profile' . Under Privacy click 'show my email' and make sure under identity that your correct email is showing. Then save your changes.

Thanks. Hope you guys have a fabulous Wednesday.

Bajillion Pounds

That is how many pounds I will weigh if I don't stop baking. The cold/rainy weather has got me in the mood to bake fall-ish things and I noticed that I have pinned a lot of desserts on Pintrest but haven't made ANY of them as of late. So on Monday I made Apple Crumb Bars and Adam would not stop going on about them. He called me, and I quote, a "goddess of food". (Thanks sweetie, I will always accept goddess compliments). Oh and Adam randomly and spontaneously made the almost 8 hr drive to see his friends and I this weekend (He's such a trooper). I loved those stolen moments with him. I kept touching his arm or head or whatever just to make sure he was real. It just felt so surreal to actually see him in person.

Anyways, back to food. Yesterday, I made Caramel Pumpkin Cookies without the pecans because I just wasn't feeling them. These were good but I might do the caramel differently next time. I was told to put in those caramel squares that are wrapped in little cellophane packages and to cut them in bite size pieces. Which in theory sound good but when the cookie isn't warm, the caramel chunks are so chewy, I just don't like it.

Then tonight for the start of our small group/book club thing, I made Cinnamon Pumpkin baked donuts with the leftover pumpkin. (My only option for the canned pumpkin was one store that had only the double can-- so I had sooo much pumpkin--Also canned pumpkin has a season? I was the last to know apparently). I couldn't find the cinnamon chips I was supposed to use but there is so much cinnamon already in them that they are so good. Definitely hit the spot tonight and I had never made donuts so that was fun too.

Kindra and I really like the donuts :)

Look at all of them! So good.

What will I make tomorrow? Oh the options.

Real Housewives of Wilmore

I saw these on my sister's blog and decided to make them with some of our leftover cream cheese and strawberries. Such a good choice! They were so easy, delicious, and cute.