And I created another one. An intervention may be coming soon.

Warrrrrrr Eagle! Hey!

My newest creation.

"One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other One"

This past weekend my dear friend DJ came to visit.

We went to a kind of antique place on Saturday....amongst the creepy parts I did find a cool picture for our AU room. J thinks its terrifying, and I explained that the eagle is not nearly as frightening as the dolls displayed below.....

Can you find the live human?

Brittany's Beans



Are beans even that pretty to look at?

 1 Lb. Ground Beef - browned
1 Large Can Bush's Vegetarian Style Baked Beans
16 oz. Crushed Pineapple
1 Bell Pepper - Chopped
1C Brown Sugar

Cook the ground beef and dispose of excess fat. Mix the beef with remaining ingrediants.Warm the dish throughout on medium/high heat and serve hot.

Since Independance Day is one of the biggest days people grill on I wanted to share a perfect side dish for you. For the record I am not a huge baked (or any form really) bean fan. I like a few bites here and there and that's about it. However, the pineapple gives it a fantastic flavor. Try this instead of serving beans straight out of the can. Disclaimer: by adding meat to the vegetarian style bean makes the dish no longer vegetarian friendly. :)

Pepper Jelly Appetizer

                                                                                    

1 Block of Cream Cheese (8 oz)

1/2 C Pepper Jelly

Set the cream cheese on a serving tray and spread jelly over the block. Serve with crackers such as Wheat Thins or Triscuits.

I feel like this appetizer is a typical Southern appetizer, but I really have no basis for that theory. This may be one of my favorite things to eat. No, it does not look pretty, but who doesn't love cream cheese with a hint of spice? The pepper jelly adds a mild hotness and did I mention how tasty it was? Plus, this is very easy to make so you can throw it together as people are pulling up to your house. It's that quick and easy. You may not want to have jelly oozing all over the plate as displayed in the picture as it can terrify those who are new to the pepper jelly appetizer concept.

Cherry Coke Cupcakes


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Horrible Picure.

Cherry Coke Cupcakes:

For the cupcakes:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp. cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup Coca-Cola

¼ tsp. maraschino cherry juice

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Maraschino cherries, stemless

For topping:
2/3 cup heavy cream
3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar
Maraschino cherries

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners as my batch was extrememly messy and stickey! Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside. In a mixer, combine the sugar and butter. Mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg. Combine the buttermilk, Coke, maraschino cherry juice, and vanilla extract. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture  alternating with the liquid and dry ingredients. Pour the batter evenly into the liners and place 3 stemless maraschino cherries into each cupcake. You will need to push them down into the batter. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until done.

To make the whipped topping, add the heavy cream and whip with a mixer. Start adding the confectioners' sugar and continue to whip until well blended.

I also added some coke and cherry juice, which totally turned it into a sticky glaze instead of a nice fluffy topping. It was so very delicious, but as usual the overall look was not so pretty. I also made the cupcakes the night before and whipped up the topping the day of presentation. These cupcakes were SO yummy. They held the perfect mix of cherry, chocolate and coke. I had zero complaints from the cupcake eaters aside from the fact that I made them very sticky. :) This recipe came from Annie's Eats and her cupcakes are much prettier and actually have whipped frosting on top. I would absolutely make them again.

Oprah Who? My Favorite Things....For Now

 

 I adore mascara and at the same time I loathe it. If I could afford it I would pay for eyelash extensions. I hate my eyelashes and envy those who have long, curled lashes. Sigh. However, Falsies Mascara is the CLOSEST thing I have found to make me happy. Just the black kind - NOT waterproof. 

 

 I love the light for my Kindle. I can read at bedtime without keeping J up. Plus it reminds me of a coal miner for some reason, which puts me in a Hunger Games mode. "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

The Run Keeper App. I adore it. You can plug in your workout or use the GPS to track your workout. It will talk to you throughout the work out every 5 minutes with your distance, speed, MPH, and how far you are from your goal speed (only in GPS mode). It's kind of awesome. 

 

Sweaty Bands. A work out headband that does NOT budge. I swear, it does not move at all during a workout. Plus, they have ADORABLE styles. Very fun girly ones, team ones, sorority ones, etc. I am adding this one to my wishlist for very obvious WDE reasons. Check out Sweaty Bands. Better yet, buy me one.  

If my life depended on ironing then I would perish. Instead of ironing I use this fabulous wrinkle releaser spray on my clothes. Each night I pick out my work outfit and spray it down with this.The clothing can then be thrown in the dryer, but I usually just straighten it myself. It's amazing and works wonders. No wrinkly clothes and no ironing for me!

"I'm Going Off The Rails Of A Crazy Train"

Wow. I thought I couldn't keep up with my blog during football season, but Spring has proved to be even more difficult! Our life has been busy. We are still trying to get the house together while keeping our fabulous social appearances - ha! Seriously though April involves A LOT of traveling.

It began with a baby shower for one of my best friends Double L. We threw a shower for her in Scottsboro, AL Easter weekend. We are flying to Newport News, Virginia to visit with my sister, brother in law and a few of our friends we were stationed with in Abilene, TX. Getting ready for this trip, I lost the only valid ID I owned which may have ensued a mild panic attack. Luckily we found it so chances are I can get on the plane. J & I will be making a trip to ATL at the end of the month for another 5K race and to see Les Miserables at the Fox Theater. . In May I will be headed back to Alabama for a sorority sister's wedding and then back to ATL for another wedding. Absolute craziness. Can gas prices PLEASE go down?! Throw in an April HHBC meeting and Disney on Ice with M and you have my life. Oh wait, during that I will be starting a new job. Cheers!

Yes. Nothing adds to the stress and chaos of a busy month than turning in a two week notice and accepting a new position. However, this position is also a former position as I am heading back into the cookie world known as the girl scouts. They had the same position open up for the council in Columbus, which was the same position I held in Texas. Shhhh. I can hear you laughing at this news. After a particularly hard day I sat in my car crying and heavily praying about the future of my career. Literally 15 minutes later I saw the girl scouts finally had a position open up. Could it really be that God has had me wait over a year to go back to work in non profit? I mean every door that slightly opened for a new opportunity in this past year had closed; sometimes even slammed in my face. The morning before I received the offer from the girl scouts, I had received another rejection email from another company I had interviewed with . This time I took the lovely email as a message that God was closing another door to show me that I needed to accept this offer. And so I did. While I have been appreciative of my employment for the past year I am very excited to see what this door holds. Even though it's the same position, I will strictly be working in membership and fund development. Since this office is fully staffed I will not be wearing as many hats as I did in Texas. Thus, less traveling, less weekend events, less slumber parties in damp warehouses with cookies - what will I do? Of course I am happy to do all that, but I have a feeling this experience will be MUCH different. Prayers are appreciated. If I get nervous before spin class imagine how much fun I am before switching companies!

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies
1 C Unsalted Butter
1 C Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 C Sugar
1 C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2.5 C Flour
1 t Baking Powder
.5 t Salt
1.5 t Baking Soda

Mix together butter, peanut butter and the sugars. Add the eggs and beat. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Stir this mixture into the batter. Refrigerate the mix for an hour. After an hour, make 1 inch dough balls and place on a cookie sheet. Mash down with a fork. Cook for roughly 10 minutes at 375.

I had a sweet craving and decided to make cookies. This recipe was chosen because it is what I had on hand. Very simple ingredients. It was super easy to make and delicious to eat. J is not a peanut butter fan and he loved them.A quick and easy thing to make for guests unless they are allergic to peanuts. 

No Excuse

It literally has been a lifetime since I have updated. People were blowing up my phone just begging me to update my blog, ha! I play on catching up, but until then...

I felt like this captures us well. On the way to high school friend T's wedding in ATL.

Getting mad at the neighbors because the kids leave these bike ramps in the middle of the street at nighttime. Documentation for HOA.

Completed my first 5K of 2012 in the chilly rain.

Had a random stranger smash my kindle with her treadmill and proceed to rock back and forth on it. Completely accidental.

My Fendi Foo is just too cute not to photograph.

And this is Miss Friski literallly sleeping on her back propped up against my knee. Kitten mittens are so strange, yet so flipping awesome.