A Pinterestastic weekend!!!!!

Pinterest is my friend(most of the time), this weekend was a Pinterest success as far as recipes, even though mine weren't as pretty. That's probably why I have no original pics. Read on! 

This past week was apparently taco week. We had tacos on Monday night, I had taco salad for lunch one day, not to mention 2 nights out for Mexican food. So keeping in theme we had R over for Tacos Friday night except this time I switched it up and made Korean tacos. I have used this recipe twice and it's a favorite of everyone's. 

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2011/11/slow-cooker-shredded-korean-beef-tacos.html?m=1

I made rice and the hubs picked up some banchan(side dishes) up for us all to share. After all, what is a Korean dinner without some spicy cabbage Kimchi? 

Sidebar** watched Last Vegas. It was pretty funny! 

Part of the reason the BIL came over was to discuss the upcoming BBQ fest. We had decided last minute(Fri morn) to have people over for ribs on Sat. In my opinion, one of the best things about BBQ fest is the time leading up to it. The 'practices' where we gather and talk about all the good times ahead. Almost better than the competition itself. 

So, as the years have passed, I've really worked at becoming a more efficient hostess since many of these parties are at our place. Mainly this involves placing limitations on the things I make(cook, make or mix). I narrowed it down to 2 items, a dessert and an appetizer. After watching Diners Drive-ins and Dives Fri eve, I got the idea of Mac and cheese muffins(see clip below)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/ringside-mac-n-cheese-muffins-0208289.html 

So I got on Pinterest looking for one of the many m&c recipes I knew I stored. I found the below buffalo mac and cheese and was sold. I thought I could modify it to make 'muffin bites' but it ended up being too time consuming and only 80% successful the first batch(meaning some fell apart). I don't think there was enough glue when I baked them to stay together, so plan B became a casserole that was gone within 15 minutes. A definite make again! 

http://lentzedlife.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/freezer-for-matt-buffalo-chicken-pasta-bake/

For dessert, I went with a classic combo of peanut butter and chocolate. And they ended up tasting exactly like my FAVE treat-Buckeyes(you Ohioans know what I'm talking about). I lined the pan with foil and cut them into slices and it was seriously one of the easiest desserts I've made. And those of you who have gone thru the process of making Buckeye candy, will know how difficult that can be.  Another make again!

http://www.heatovento350.com/2011/01/reeses-peanut-butter-cups-only-better.html?m=1

I don't count this as an item I made, but wanted to mention it bc apparently Snickerdoodles are M's favorite? Or at least he couldn't stop eating them. I keep a pkg in my fridge if I know kids are coming over so we have something to do if they get restless. I promised little Ms.B we'd 'bake' the next time she was over so I got these-and will definitely be purchasing again.

My baking buddy! 

Sunday night was our first hosting of a HS Bible study. I didn't have any girls show up, but we had a few guys who raved about this buffalo garbage bread I made. I figured it was the perfect thing to make since it was easy, inexpensive, but mostly bc I had many of the ingredients already from the buffalo mac. 

http://emmalinaviolet.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/buffalo-chicken-garbage-bread/

This recipe provides so many options! Pizza bread and other flavors will definitely be in the future. A crowd pleaser and perfect for hungry High schoolers. 

In other news, I'm slowly working on my closet re-org. This involves getting new(matching) non-slip hangers, doesn't it look so nice already? 

Just need to either get rid of some(and by some I mean a LOT) clothes and/or get more hangers....more hangers it is! :)

Super Bowl(s full of cookies) weekend

Aren't these cookies pretty cute? I googled super bowl cookies and football cookies and came up with these 2 ideas. Football field sugar cookies & gluten free chocolate cookie sandwiches. 

Disclaimer* I used store bought sugar cookie dough since I was baking another kind of cookie from scratch. I would probably do scratch made dough next time but look for a recipe that doesn't expand quite so much. Needless to say, after baking, I had to recut these into the right shape since they spread in the oven. 

Royal icing recipe used. I used orange extract and green food coloring was added for the field. 

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/230296/glossy-royal-icing

Using Wilton decorating bags, I piped lines where the 'crowd' would meet the field.

I tried two methods, dipping the cookies in thinned out frosting and dipping into sprinkles AND spooning the icing onto the edges and shaking the sprinkles onto the cookie. I recommend the second. 

I made a fresh batch of frosting bc I had sprinkles everywhere, and dyed this batch 'grass' green. I piped a rectangle for the field, squeezed out some extra, and spread it out(using the back of a spoon) to create the field. 

After allowing the field to completely dry, I piped on white field lines and yard numbers. 

This icing set really well, so after it dried there wasn't a lot of breakage which is great. I'll definitely use that royal icing recipe again. Good if you need to transport cookies to a different location. 

Nobody at the party was gluten free but this recipe looked so simple, I thought I'd give it a try.

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/10/sandwich-cookies-gluten-grain-and-sugar-free.html

 A few notes, almond flour is expensive. Like I could only find one kind at FM and it was 13 bucks a bag. 

I have been told that gluten free cookie flour works pretty a well, so if I do something else gluten free, I may go that route. 

The dough came together so easy. It was working with it that was a nightmare. This dough gets soft really fast, like in a minute or two kind of fast. So rolling it out, using a cookie cutter and trying to get them onto trays without a misshapen football didn't work. I did find that cutting it and placing it back in the freezer before trying to place the shapes on the cookie sheet was the trick. Once I did this, it was smooth sailing. 

I used leftover royal frosting to pipe on the football lines. (Every other one since they were sandwiches)

Then I made the filling which was very sweet. 

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/10/simple-meringue-frosting-refined-sugar-free.html

(Recipe link for filling is included in post)

Using a Wilton decorating bag, I piped the meringue onto the underside of the cookies and put them together.

Easy Peezy once I figured out how to work with the dough. These actually tasted pretty good as well. The cookie has a very salty/sweet flavor so it paired well with the very sweet filling. 

Both cookies seemed to be a hit. And a good time was had by all at the party. Except the Denver fans, what a bummer game for them. 

We got chairs for our desk, been looking for lamps now. Can't decide if we should get one or two. 

Hope everyone had a great time this weekend. Counting down the days until football season begins again!!!

Farmhouse Desk DIY

Finally got the hubby to help me build the farmhouse desk I pinned on Pinterest awhile back. (http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2012/08/diy-desk-for-bedroom-farmhouse-style.html)

Total cost was around $100 give or take. This included wood, a pre-made pine surface for the top, sand paper, a (still unused) Kreg jig, new saw rings, stain, poly urethane, and a new paint brush. So you could probably get away with spending around $60 if you only had to by lumber. 

Here's the inspiration...

Here are a few progress pics(we didn't do a great job of getting many pics).

We are planning to get aluminum chairs from Restoration Hardware and I'm looking at architect swing lamps. The desk will hold my laptop and a few pictures. Can't wait to get it completely done. Here's what it looks like in the house! We ended up completely re-arranging the furniture but are pretty happy with the look as of right now. 

What diy projects are you working on? 

Better late than never Christmas bread, cake fail and crochet scarflette

Its a little late but here are some of the goodies I made around Christmas time. 

We purchased mini loaf tins from Kroger and gave these to the G side of the family. Who doesn't love homemade bread? The recipe I found is linked below. It was  so easy and soooooo good. I will definitely make this again! 

http://www.chow.com/recipes/18658-gingerbread-loaf

It was also requested that I bring a repeat item. Apparently, the 3-layer lemon cake with black raspberry frosting from Easter was a hit. I said yes, grateful that I didnt have to find something else to bring. I didn't however, think to check the expiration date on the extra jar of topping I had bought this summer resulting in the following: 

Made a batch of frosting with sealed jar of topping. Proceeded to worry myself(physically) sick that I was going to poison everyone else. This resulted in me throwing out the entire bowl of frosting and having to re-think my dessert. By the  way, it's Christmas Eve at 1 am at this point. So I start googling ideas and cross referencing whether my local Walgreens will have the ingredients. Mac to the rescue Christmas morning, when he reminds me I can make powdered sugar so I go with (frozen)strawberry frosting. This did involve cooking down frozen strawberries with sugar on the stove but it didn't require a trip to the store. 

It turned out just as good, if not better than the other cake. It only required a failed batch of frosting and a broken cake stand(thankfully I have more than one) 

Also wanted to show off the little 'scarflette' I made for big sister SG. It was a quick work up(pattern below) and she really liked that she could put it on and 'tie it' herself. 

http://www.craftideas.us/crochet-lotus-scarf-tutorial.html

She put that on all by herself!! 

It's 2014, when did that happen?

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year! Man 2014, where did 2013 go? 

First things first this year and that means getting my health back on track. I've been lazy in the fitness realm since I haven't felt well so I'm hoping to get that going. After that,we're pretty much waiting on God's plan for our family this year. 

Here are a few happy photos of NYE...

This is what happens when you send your husband out to get a bottle of riesling...yeah, he got sold. 

And, My new favorite tissues....

Hope you had a great new year!!!! 

Christmas at the McDaniel residence

After a late and slow start, Christmas has arrived at the McDaniel house! Since I have a tendency to overwhelm myself in DIY projects, I've picked a few this year to focus on(christmas apothecary letters, the mantle, a Christmas card holder and table settings). 

Word to the wise, shop early if you want wooden letters for Christmas projects. I had to go several places, several times to find the letters I needed. 

How cute did these turn out? Definitely thinking about combos that would work for year round(Easter, 4th of July)

After seeing a plethora of beautiful and stunning Christmas mantles on Pinterest, I decided I wanted something fabulous too! It's still a work in progress but I combined a bunch of designs I liked and tried to incorporate some of the things we already had. 

I grabbed a bunch of old window panes from the MIL's antique booth a few months back and knew that one would be the perfect centerpiece for this Christmas display. I attempted to buy snow spray but ended up with frost spray(which doesn't show in this photo but is really neat). Bought various letters to spell out hope and also found a wintertime bough and tree for half off at Hobby Lobby to complete the look. The snowman nutcracker, star, cross, holiday scent warmer and pinecone Santa's were already ours. 

The stockings have been hung with care and we have a plate designated for Santa's cookies(tho it looks like some presents have already appeared). 

I knew I wanted a better and easier way to display all our Merry Mail we receive. I love getting mail and I save all photo cards I receive. I knew there had to be a cute way to display all the holiday cards we get other than playing Tetris with them on the fridge. So I got on Pinterest and this is what I found. 

DIY Christmas card holder inspiration:

This is what we ended up with. 

I think this turned out really cute! It's probably my favorite DIY project of the season(prolly cause Mac got really into helping me with it). The picture doesn't do the sign justice, the letters are a beautiful green glitter and it just makes me happy to be able to look at all the people we consider blessings in our lives. 

All the dishes I have so far were bought at the dollar store. I wanted to go elegant for the dining room but colorful and bright for the kitchen. Things I would like to add in the future (maybe ill stumble into some great after Christmas sales): table cloths for both tables, cute cups, serving dishes and silverware for the kitchen, elegant bowls/salad plates and monogrammed napkins for the dining room. 

Of course when I went to Hobby lobby the other day they had an adorable candy cane dish set that I want! Just gotta be patient...

Some additional Christmas decor....

Looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. I'm sad I will be missing my OH family, but how lucky to have wonderful family in TN(Memphis & Nashville) who make me feel so welcome! The hubs and I are just doing stockings this year(though if you've seen the size of our stockings, that's still a lot!!) because we bought ourselves a GIANORMOUS king sized bed for Christmas(pics to come when we actually get our bedding). 

 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Upcoming projects: replacing the mantle and decorating the TV wall in the living room.

Thankful

Ten things I'm thankful for this year

1. God's unconditional love and grace

2. A husband who isn't afraid to get in the 'trenches'

3. Wonderful family, in-laws and friends

4. 2 awesome fur-babies

5. My health and the health of those around me

6. A great boss and steady job

7. The opportunity to work with a youth group

8. A beautiful roof over my head and the yeep

9. My iPhone.(what did I do before google?)

10. Hope 

I'm so grateful for the time I got to spend with my family in Ohio. I got to spend time with each one of my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews and that is EXTREMELY rare. It was a true blessing. 

"In everything give thanks: for this is  God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Go Buckeyes!!!!!!