College Dammit Doll

Good evening!

For father's day, my brother and I created a gator-themed school supply cake (which you'll have to read about at my other blog, teaching-365).

As part of that school supply cake, I included a college dammit doll, slightly differing (as in only the poem) from my dammit dolls I made for christmas.  This was for my dad who recently decided to go back to school and got accepted to UF.

On this one, the poem says, "When the schoolwork is confusing/ And you're pulling out your hair,/ Here's a college dammit doll/To make it easier to bear./ Just grab it firmly by the legs/ And find a place to slam it./ As you whack the stuffing out,/ Yell "Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!"

I just love the big eyes on these guys. I also used wrapping ribbon as the hair instead of yarn [too lazy to go upstairs].

Healthy Recipes [and one not-so healthy recipe]

Good morning!!!

So Logan and I have realized how unhealthy we have been eating and wanted to make a change, so I've really been keeping my eye out for healthy recipes.

We're even moving beads over for every pound we lose (they are different colors)! Thank you pinterest :)

Oh, I also made a dessert that's not so healthy, but we'll get to that later.

Alright, first I made some lettuce wraps inspired by Pei-Wei/ PF Changs.  I loosely followed this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats but used turkey instead of chicken, didn't really measure anything, replaced water chestnuts with chinese noodles, and didn't use half the things it called for, and they turned out AMAZING.  Absolutely amazing.  One of our new favorites.  It might be 10am but I'm thinking of going to have more now. Wow.

I've also tried playing around with Greek Yogurt but haven't gotten it quite right.

I replaced mayo with greek yogurt in egg salad and added it to make a creamy pasta, but both times it was just a little sour. I bought a big thing of yogurt so I'm going to keep trying!!

The other night I made a Strawberry Mango Salsa that I've been dying to try.  It's just diced strawberries and mangos with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. 

I also had to make something to eat it with, so I made cinnamon-sugar pita chips.  Take pita bread, cut it up, add a little butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, then bake in a toaster oven for 6-8 minutes.

The combination was to die for, so delicious!!!

Ok, now for the not-so-healthy recipe.

In fact, it's not healthy at all.

One of those heart attack recipes...

Ultimate Pretzel Crusted Peanut Butter Cookie Candy Brownie Bars

A pretzel crust under peanut butter cookie under reese's cups under brownie.

 A picture of me pouring the brownie batter on top of the reese's cups.

These were a huge hit. Don't worry, we didn't eat the whole pan ourselves.  They went to our respective works so we could get all our coworkers fat and we would be relatively skinny.

All part of the plan.

Muah ha ha.

Beer Bottle Beer Glass

Finally! I finally did it!!!

I have been trying for awhile to make a glass out of a beer bottle, as seen on pinterest and make-handmade.  Logan and I tried back in December and it worked on the first bottle we did, but then wouldn't work again after that.

It was driving me crazy about why it wouldn't work anymore!!!

While taking part in a challenge for my Teaching 365 blog, I was looking around my garage for inspiration to make something.  I saw my recycle bin with just a few things:



Seeing Logan's beer bottle in there made me want to try this project again, so I did...

and it worked this time!! I got my very first beer bottle beer glass!!!

I was so excited, that I found out how I can make a planter using the same technique, which I needed to do anyway for a class.

Guess what?

It didn't work.

I tried again.

It didn't work again.

I think it has something to do with re-using the nail polish remover.

It's driving me crazy, but I now have one beer bottle beer glass!!! Hopefully I'll be able to have a set soon.


Has anyone done this project before? How did it turn out? Does anyone know why it wouldn't work more than once or a few times? PLEASE let me know!

Amy.

Cookie-Dough Filled Reese's Cups

Today, I made Banoffee pie to bring to a friend's dinner... you can read about it at my other blog:

teaching-365.blogspot.com 

(Have you checked it out yet???)

Anyway, Logan HATES bananas and HATES caramel, and I was planning on making this delicious pie which combined the two.  I knew this wouldn't go over well with my picky eater, but I didn't want his lack of developed taste buds to impair my experimentation process, so instead I developed upon it.

In other words, I made something for him, too.

Cookie-Dough Filled Reese's Cups.

Wow.

I got the idea from How Sweet Eats but shuddered when I saw the length of the recipe and the amount of effort I had to exert to make them.

So I did my own little version.

Sorry I didn't do precise measurements, I didn't know how they would turn out so I wasn't too worried about it. 

Cookie-Dough Filled Reese's Cups

Ingredients:

YIELDS ABOUT 12 CUPS

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

cookie dough (I cheated and used pre-packaged)

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon milk

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat the chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, and milk until smooth and creamy

2. Spoon a small amount into the different cups of a mini muffin pan to cover only the bottom of the cup

3. Roll the cookie dough into small (1/2" balls) and place on top of chocolate in muffin pan

4. Top with more chocolate until each cup is completely full

5. Freeze for at least 1/2 hour.

Variations:

*Make twice as many by doubling recipe

*Use mini muffin pan liners to get the 'creased' look of the reese's cup

*Use regular muffin pans to make bigger versions

These were absolutely delicious, and unfortunately people went crazier over this 'alternate' dessert than my originally planned one, Banoffee Pie.

But, I mean, how could they not go crazy over Cookie dough stuffed reese's cups?

Knitting Needle Roll-Up Case

Hi everyone!

I've been needing something to organize my knitting needles in for awhile, and I've been meaning to make some sort of roll-up knitting needle case.  I never thought I would be the sort of person to knit, let alone own multiple pairs of needles AND actually vaguely know the difference between them!!

To make this, I just worked with some scrap fabric.  I sewed two pieces together to form a rectangle approximately the size of a placemat (and I realized afterwards that a placemat would be a great thing to make this out of).  Then I added another piece on top and sewed lines down to separate the compartments.

I don't have THAT many needles so I probably didn't need one this big, but I left a spot for some scissors, my crochet hook (if I ever find it...) and I can always add to my collection (I'm missing numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 10).

I sewed a ribbon on to finish it off!!!

That's it!

Don't forget to keep checking my blog, teaching-365.blogspot.com!

I'm updating every day and LOVING what I'm doing!

Inside-Out Chicken Wings and Mexican Street Corn

I have been wanting to make these Inside-Out Chicken Wings from Sweet and Savory, and I finally got the chance to last night.  While I was at the grocery store, I browsed through the ad and noticed that corn is at 'the peak of its season!'.  I remembered a recipe for Mexican Street Corn sitting on my pinterest, so I went ahead and grabbed some.

Let's start with the Mexican Street Corn, because that's where we started last night.  I used the foodnetwork recipe but I saw many variations out there.  Oh. My. God.  It was amazing. Like, one of my new favorite foods. Like, I am currently boiling water to make more. And it was so easy! I boiled the corn, which takes 10 minutes. Then you just slab the mixture on and enjoy. And let me tell you, you WILL enjoy.

So anyways, I was enjoying my corn so much last night that I started getting too full for my chicken. Logan cut up a little piece for me, and it was actually really really good! Good thing we have lots of leftovers!!! I don't know if I'm missing something, but it actually wasn't THAT easy to make. The baking part? Piece of cake! But the flattening chicken part? Yeah... maybe I should learn how to do that.
I started by pounding the chicken with my fist.  I decided that wasn't a good idea. I moved on to using the handle of a knife sharpener. It took FOREVER.  Eventually, I moved on to Logan taking care of this part because it was annoying me too much.
I used ranch to fill them because neither of us are a fan of mold, I mean, er, blue cheese.  I also seasoned the chicken with a ranch packet as well as the spices.  Yummy!!!

I did take a picture, but you can't see much.  Sorry, I was too excited to eat my corn to try again.

Ps. Don't forget to check out my new blog, teaching-365.blogspot.com! I did my project of the day first thing this morning, inspired by my puppy!

365 Days of Teaching

Let me tell you about Susie.

She's wonderful.

I'm pretty sure she's the only one who reads my blog, but it feels nice that somebody is.

Susie is an amazing crafter, and an inspiration to all.

Really, Susie has been crafting with me since I was 7 years old and she was my girl scout leader.

Anyways, I recently graduated, and she got me this wonderful book called 365: A Daily Creativity Journal.

Now, for the next 365 days, I will be creating something every day that has to do with teaching and my future classroom.

Interested? Please. Please, please, please check out my new blog all about it:

http://teaching-365.blogspot.com

I will still be using this blog to post about my other crafts, recipes, etc.

But now I have a project, a purpose, and a direction. Thank you Susie.