Red Velvet Cake Pops

Ok, so these aren't necessarily pops, but I don't fricken care! They were delicious!

I have a cake pop book. It's my best friend. Let me share some things I learned from it.

1) Don't use almond bark to cover your cake pops.
2) Use a spoon to scoop the covered cake ball out of the coating, tap it on the side of the bowl to get ride of excess coating, use a toothpick to pick the ball up from the spoon (WARNING: do not put the toothpick in the center of the ball or it'll twirl around and fall apart, I found it best to insert it closer to the top). Best method I have found.
3) Don't use too much frosting
4) Put the balls in the refrigerator for an hour or two before coating.
5) Don't make them for the 4th of July and leave them in the trunk of your car.

I got a box of Betty Crocker's Red Velvet Cake, and a can of regular white frosting (don't worry it doesn't make it pink).

Make the cake as instructed and allow to cool COMPLETELY (it'll melt the frosting if you don't and it turns into a mush).

Crumble the cake into a large bowl
Add 3/4 (yes, only 3/4) of the container of frosting
Use a spoon to combine completely (don't try to smoosh it together, just mix nice and gentle-like) It will still be a little on the dry side but that's what you want.

Use a melon baller to scoop cake mixture into balls and place in the refrigerator until firm enough to work with.

Melt your candy wafers continually on medium power for 30 sec, stirring each time until it is completely smooth (I cannot seem to melt almond bark for the life of me without burning it, but candy wafers work amazingly and taste better)
WARNING: do not get ANY moisture in the coating, and you cannot add food coloring to them either. If you want different colors, they are available. Hobby Lobby is where I get mine.

Plop a cake ball into the coating and spoon more coating over the top (don't stir it around or turn it or you'll have cake crumbs all over in your coating). 

Proceed with instructions from above, using a spoon to pick it up and a toothpick to transfer it from spoon to wax paper.

If you want to decorate them, do it while they're still wet so your sprinkle or whatever will stick. I used white stars on mine.

If you're not going to be serving them right away, put them back in the refrigerator until you're ready.

Decisions Decisions Part 2

So in my first part of this post, I said I was going to try out a few things from my pinterest boards, including:

"Lazy Girl Fitness"

Painted Keys

Sparkly toe nails

Removing sparkle fingernail polish

and fixing dry skin on heels

I have to be honest, i haven't even tried the Lazy Girl Fitness. Although I'm sure it works, I haven't been able to remember to do it, and since I do yoga every other morning, I thought I'd try it later and work on the others.

Painted Keys.....

They look pretty! the only thing I'd suggest is painting one side and then the other, otherwise you can start your own blog about how to get fingernail polish out of your carpet. It also seems to take longer to dry, so leave a full hour or so for each side to dry.

Sparkly Toe Nails...

I don't like feet. I hate feet. They disgust me. But I like painting my toe nails *shrugs*

The nail polish I wanted to use is called "Chunky Copper" by KleanColor. Not impressed. You get one sparkle per swipe. So instead...

I used this one by Sally Girl. And loved it. 

Painting your toe nails almost makes you feel like you have a secret weapon no one knows about...unless you're wearing sandals.

Speaking of nail polish- here are my two new favorites. "Dreamer" from Revlon and  "Spring Street" From NYC

Glitter nail polish removal....

It's magic. It works. I had a couple little sparkles still left on but that's no biggie at all. Now I don't have to sit around scrubbing each nail for 5 minutes! I can't even remember how long she says to leave it on for, but a couple of mine I only left on for a minute and it worked almost as well!

Marco!

Polo!

Howdy all! Sorry I haven't been posting lately. We've been oober busy with vacation, Matt leaving for a business trip, getting a new cat, and the usual running amuk.
I am on my own for dinners this week so I want to give y'all a little something for 1 person dinners.
My menu this week is:
Baked potatoes
soup and rice
quesadillas
chicken parmesan
and spaghetti

Spaghetti has already been made, and of course it's nothing like Matt's, but it'll do. It hasn't actually been too long since we started making the sauce with a can of tomato paste added. We'll never go back! Not only does it make it thicker, but it gives a great boost of tomato taste. Matt normally puts in mushrooms and onions as well (I like my mushrooms chopped, he likes his slices *sigh*). For cooking the spaghetti he actually adds a couple Tbsp of olive oil to the water, which keeps the noodles from sticking together after they're drained.

For baked potatoes, I just bought green onions, bacon, sour cream and cheese. Now, I just need to go back to the store and get the potatoes!

Soup and Rice is exactly what it sounds like. I only like this with beef soups, you can try it with your own homemade pot roast etc, but since it's just me I just bought a can of soup. Cook your rice, heat up your soup (make sure it's not very liquid-y). I normally just keep them in their separate cooking pots and combine them on my plate, but if you want to make it look pretty, put the rice on a platter and then the soup over the top. Either way it's delicious. (Have I ever mentioned I used to have a phobia of rice? More on that later...)

Quesadillas. I like mine with chicken, cheese and onions. Very simple, but very filling. Cut up your ingredients, put them on a tortilla and put another tortilla over the top. Put the whole thing in a pan, and once you see the cheese melting, flip it.

Chicken Parmesan has to be one of my favorite recipes because it's so easy. On a cookie sheet place each of your prepared chicken breasts, spoon 2-3 Tbsp of spaghetti or pizza sauce over the top of each breast, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (or just put a whole glob on top if you have an affinity for cheese, like me). Bake at 350F until chicken is cooked through (usually about 20 min for me) serve! These make excellent left overs too.

So that's my plan for this week, not to mention chocolate chip cookies and hummus.

Musings 7/6

As I'm replacing the lightbulb (yes, ironic isn't it) in one of our lamps today, I'm thinking to myself about how many times we've had to change the lightbulb in that particular lamp.
We started out with a nice value pack of a dozen lightbulbs and are down to six. We got them in January.
I have this idea that we can't do anything especially nice with our duplex since we're not going to be living here for forever, so why not get the value-pack of lightbulbs that only lasts 6 months?
Wrong.
I'm starting to learn that if I don't take care of things the right way, from the get-go, I start getting complacent and apathetic towards things. My standards even start slipping.
Now you tell me: how many things in your life can you apply this little "lightbulb" of mine to?

Decisions Decisions

I have decided to make this not only about the goings-on in my kitchen, but also to give some feedback about the things that I try based on my Pinterest boards.

Tomorrow, I will be starting the following:
http://violetsage.wordpress.com/tag/lazy-girl-fitness/ (for the duration of one week)
http://adayinthelifeofmisskranz.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-year-what-2012.html (keep scrolling, keep scrolling, keep scrolling, see the pic of the prettied up keys? that's it)
http://saracmills.tumblr.com/post/4268249871
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObRTb7NgAw&feature=player_embedded (thanks to the above link)
aaaand
http://www.ehow.com/how_2224294_skin-off-bottom-of-feet.html

I will also be adding another post about a couple recipes etc that I've done already. Feel free to follow me on Pinterest so you know exactly what I'm talking about. Everything that I've done already will have my personal notes underneath.

Slop

This is a recipe that Matthew made literally from random stuff he pulled out of our cupboards. We call it slop, because that's pretty much what it is.

Guts:
1 lb ground beef, browned
2 potatoes, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles
Worcestershire to taste
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprika
2 cups elbow noodles, cooked

Gravy (mix together before adding to Guts)
4 tbsp beef bouline
2 cups water
1/3 cup flour
3 Tbsp butter

Mix all together in a pan and cook on medium for 10 minutes or until heated.
(I added some "taco" shredded cheese to mine and mixed it all in, AMAZING)

Chicken Fried Steak

This recipe is from Pioneer Woman's cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks, put in my own words because no one can replicate her
3 lbs cube stead
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk, plus 2 cups for gravy
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus about 1/3 cup for the gravy
2 tsp seasoned salt
3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup canola or veggie oil for frying

1) Mix eggs and 1 cup milk, put in plate or bowl and set aside
2) Mix seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne, black pepper and flour, put in a plate or bowl and set aside
3)Take a piece of meat (seasoned with salt and pepper) and dip it in the egg mixture to coat both sides.
4) Place meat in flour mixture and coat thoroughly
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 once more
6) Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry 3 pieces of meat at a time, cook until edges start to look golden brown and then flip and cook on other side.
7) Remove from skillet, set aside and keep warm
8)After frying all the meat, heat grease on medium-low and add 1/4 cup grease back to the pan. Allow grease to heat up.
9) Sprinkle 1/3 cup flour evenly over the grease and whisk into grease until it makes a golden brown paste.
10)Whisking constantly, pour in 2 cups milk, whisk together and let gravy come to a boil. If it seems too think, add splashes of milk as needed. Season with salt and pepper.
11) Place warm meat on plate and pour gravy over.
12) EAT!!!

Chicken Nuggets

Red Velvet Cake

Beef Broccoli and Cauliflower Stir-Fry