Old favorite/New favorite: Oreo cookies

Yum! I love oreo cookies! So when I saw this recipe for delicious, homemade oreos, I could not resist trying. These guys are super easy to make and turn out so delicous. It is a bit scary when you make them to realize how absolutely horrible oreo cookies are for you, but other than those few moments of panic when you read the recipe and go "more butter...really?", you'll love them.

Check out the Smitten Kitchen recipe!

Halloween Fun!!!

So last night Beau and I threw our first big bash at the new house. Here are a couple pictures from the event. I've also attached a link to the recipes that I used (some I embellished on a bit) for the food. These are all super easy dishes that I suggest you try sometime.

Beau and I went as Beetlejuice and Lydia from their "would be" wedding. I have to say, I was a little nervous because I didn't get to spend as much time on my costume as I would have liked, but I think our costumes turned out great.

Recipes to try....p>

Pizza Bread-yum yum...you can't see this one in the pictures of the goodies because it and the pigs in a blanket were still baking but it was delicious. Just slice this guy up and it is a delicious party treat. I used just pepperoni and mozzerella cheese but if you follow the recipe on this site you can see a recipe with a lot more ingredients.

Source

Artichoke/Spinach Dip

-For this one I just used the simple recipe on the back of the Hidden Valley packet but I added artichoke hearts to it and served it in a bread bowl to really give it some "class". Just kidding. Actually now that I go back and look at the recipe they suggest you serve it in a bread bowl too so I guess I'm not as classy as I thought :-)-Hidden Valley Ranch dip people: 1, Jolie: 0

South Georgia Caviar-Let's be honest Paula Deen, everyone knows this recipe as Redneck caviar but I realize that isn't so PC. In any case this caviar super yummy and really easy to throw together and make substitutions to if you don't like a specific item.

Pigs in a Blanket-I just used a simple Pillsbury recipe for these but bought the jalapeno/cheddar mini sausages to spice things up a bit and they were delish!

Cake pops-These are (and I'm not afraid to use this expression here because the cake pops warrant it) thebomb.com. Check out Bakerella.com for all sorts of deliciousness including these red velvet cake pops. These get easier to work with as you get used to the cake "medium" that you are dealing with. I also found that chocolate bark is easier to deal with than the Wilton candy melts.

Rice Crispie Treats-I made some of these and added orange food coloring to them to make them festive. I had every intention of cutting them into pumpkin shapes with my cookie cutters but ran out of time. Oh well. They are always super yummy!

I hope you enjoys these delicious treats as much as we did!

Quick craft: Toilet Paper pumpkins

If you do a quick google search of toilet paper pumpkins you will find tons of tutorials, but I got this idea from my friend and fellow blogger Elisa. This is a great, cheap way to decorate for fall without spending a lot of cash (oh any cash if you use stuff around the house like I did). I made two different versions of this craft, but more on that later.

Supplies:

1/4 yard of fabric

Newspaper

Toilet paper (full roll)

Empty pill bottle (if you opt to make smaller pumpkins too)

Twigs

1. Lay your fabric right side down and center your toilet paper on the fabric. Surround your toilet paper with crumpled news paper. More if you want a fat pumpkin, less for a slightly less obese pumpkin.

2. Take and squish the edges of the fabric down into the toilet paper roll adjusting both the fabric and the newspaper as you go. Repeat until all fabric is squished into the roll hole and arranged in a way that resembles a pumpkin. (this part is important as it is easy to do this craft haphazardly and end up with something not resembling a pumpkin).

3. Finish it off by putting a twig down in the toilet paper roll with enough of the twig sticking out to resemble a stem. The fabric will keep the twig mostly in place.

*** If you want smaller pumpkins you can find smaller items around your house with a toilet paper roll size opening. For example I had just finished a prescription so I used the empty pill bottle to make a little pumpkin. Less fabric is needed for this too though you will need to be more careful with how you arrange the newspaper.

You'll notice that I also took front-porch sitting to a whole new level by taking a TV tray out on the porch so I could craft while enjoying this beautiful, fall day!

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall!

Hello readers!

Sorry for my long absence. I've had lots of exciting stuff going on since my last post. No, no, I'm not prego (the typical reason for long absences of female bloggers ages 28-32 who are nervous they will accidentally spill the beans before hitting the 12 week "safety" mark). Nope, we've just had tons 'o' stuff going on.

1. I decided to work on some classes I need to get licensed to teach. This is something I've always wanted but has become harder and harder to do as I get older. When Beau and I eventually have kids I would like to be on their schedule. I could have waited to get these classes in, but when would I do them? When I'm a new mom? When they go off to school? No, more than likely I would be freaking out 10-12 years from now when our kids go off to middle school going. Oh my goodness why didn't I do this earlier. So I decided for once in my life to make things easier on myself and get them done sooner rather than later.

Turns out I only need 6 additional classes so I am kicking myself for not having completed my minor in education when I was in college but grateful that I didn't totally slack off because it has made things easier for later on down the road.

School has been great but has kept me busy. I want to do this right so I'm devoting the majority of my time to this goal until it is completed. I'm happy about this but after work activites like blogging, running and much of my social life have taken a hit.

2. We've moved!!! This is a super fun announcement because we are finally settled in a house that we love. The dogs are happier, we're happier...LIFE IS GOOD! GOD IS GOOD!!!

Our new back deck view!

3. We've traveled a bit. We always wanted to do a cruise but were nervous/forced into doing something else for our honeymoon so we put it on hold. Nervous because neither of us had been on one before and what if we got super sea sick and forced because of a weird situation with Beau's old job. No biggie. We had an awesome honeymoon and both Beau and I love a good story and we certainly have one for our honeymoon.

In any case last year we decided to stop putting it off and booked ourselves a cruise as our Christmas present and finally went on it earlier this month! It was awesome. We loved it and definitely plan to cruise again, though this time someplace we are more interested in visiting. The Bahamas seemed more about shopping than really experiencing anything truly Bahamian. We're thinking New England or Canada next time :-)

Beau in front of the ship!

Beau coming down the water slide...

A beautiful sun getting ready to set.

Beau and I maxing and relaxing :-)

So that's that. I hope to be back up and blogging again soon but can't make any promises other than a quick craft later today because this is my last day of fall break from classes.

Until next time...Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Lessons learned from reality television or Can anyone explain: Reality TV Stars who think they can sing

I had a bit of insomnia last night and after tossing and turning I finally decided to give in and watch some late night television. After considering Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives but being caught off guard by a curry dish that included apples, I finally settled on The Real Housewives of New York.

Why these Real Housewives shows are being made period could use some serious explaining in and of itself. Isn't a housewife technically someone who stays home from work? All the real housewives on these shows seem to have jobs. There is also the issue with half the women not being married and thus not even technically being a wife. I guess Bravo though prefers to go the route of "spirit" not "letter of the law". And since they are the ones that make the "big bucks" I'll assume they know what they are talking about and move on to my real issue.

I have a lot of legitimately talented friends that will never make it to anything close to mainstream because their musical ability goes unrecognized. That's fine. Contrary to the popular Roots song "Everybody is (not) a star". All my friends have learned to deal with that so I need to move on too. However, when I watch shows like "Real Housewives" I am stunned to see these less than talented women making music videos and getting legitimate, albeit mocking entertainment coverage.

I realized that there are some lessons to be learned from reality television. If you are on a reality television show: 1) It doesn't matter if you are far too old to be considered "pop star" age, if you have a reality television show, you get a music video. 2) You don't have to have an ounce of talent, you get a music video....It's really like a sick version of something I've seen a time or two on Oprah: "You get a car, you get a car!"

Oh well, I guess the true moral of the story here is that with enough money and a film crew following you around, you can be anything from a music video star (New York, Atlanta housewives) to a gallery owner (Miami housewife), to a runway model (Orange County housewives and the girls of Laguna Beach).

So that's the lesson kids. You can be anything you set your mind to as long as there are people following you around filming your every, pointless move.

Healthier, Happier Me: Getting started by counting calories

So since the first of January this year, I've lost over 10 pounds. I'm not normally the type that sticks to New Year's Resolutions but this year was different. I was sick and tired of looking in the mirror and not being 100% happy with what I saw. Now I'm not saying I'm completely out of shape, nor was I completely overweight but I'm not getting any younger. I know the rounding the corner on 30 doesn't just mean that I am now "flirty and thriving" (I love the movie 13 Going on 30), but it also means I get to look forward to things like slowing metabolism and being more susceptible to health problems.

So I made the decision to start counting my calories. I knew I had to crawl before I could walk. The first thing I set my mind on was figuring out how much I was putting into my body. Was I eating too much, too little, the wrong amounts of protein, veggies, etc? It's maybe not the right choice for everyone, but it made it was the decision that worked for me and to me it was a good place to get started.

Now there are a number of ways you can go about tracking what you are putting into your body:

Food Journal: You can keep a simple notebook where you track what you eat on a daily basis. This certainly keeps things easy to track during the day but you have to come home each day and figure out the amount of calories in each item which can becoming time-consuming and monontonous.

Online Tracking: There are number of online trackers you can use. Things like MyFitnessPal, MyCalorieCounter, and MyFoodDiary. Just a simple google search of the words "online calorie counter" will bring you over a dozen more. Some are free services and some require payment. It's up to you to decide if this is a method that will work for you. I chose to go about counting my calories in a different manner because I wanted to be able to count whether I was near a computer or not.

Calorie Counting Phone Applications: This is the method I chose. This was the best choice for me for several reasons. First it was free via the application Calorie Counter for my windows phone. Second it was portable, with this application I was able to instantly enter what I ate at which times of day. Third, it has a database filled with restaraunt calorie counts and popular grocery store items. Another perk is that you can enter caloric information yourself if you can't find your item in the the existing database.

So that's my first step to a healthier, happier body. Counting calories is a good litnus test for you to figure out where you really are in terms of health. Lots of people think they are not losing weight because they are eating too much when it turns out they are not eating enough. Or they may be eating the right amount but are missing out on getting enough fiber or protein. Weight loss, like life is a balancing act.

Calorie counting isn't something you have to do every day for the rest of your life so don't stress over the time it takes when you first start out. The amount of information you gain from taking the time to chart your eating will help you out tremendously, so don't skip this essential first step. Eventually you will only count calories sporadically, as a maintenance step.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or nutritionist. I am merely sharing my personal experience. Obviously you should consider going to see a professional before you get started with any weight loss or exercise regimen.

Just a Suggestion: Check out the Asheville Drum Circle

If you are every in Downtown Asheville on a Friday night you have got to do yourself a favor and head down to the Drum Circle. This is a tradition on Friday nights spanning back 9 years and is one of the coolest, free things you can do to really experience all that makes Asheville the amazing place that it is. Things start up pretty early, like maybe 6pm or so in Pritchard Park.

Here are things getting started...

Anyone with a percussion instrument is allowed to join in the fun. I have to tell you, one of the coolest things about the circle is seeing people of all ages and walks of life joining in the fun. If drummings not your thing, not to worry, there is plenty of room for a spectator, dancer or hula-hooper. It's also a great spot for a good game of hackey sack.

So check it out when you are here, you won't regret it!

Here's the drum circle once things really got going!