Big News! (Plus a yummy popsicle recipe)

The last month or so has been Ron-Swanson-style-cRazy. I defended my thesis, started my last summer of internships, and bought a house.

In my opinion, all of these things are awesome and important, but the house part is definitely going to be the most influential change for this little blog.

I have so much to do! I’ve been pinning like crazy (Thank you, Pinterest, for existing) and have already started a few little projects. I can’t wait to share them, but none are done yet.

In order to make my new home as completely adorable as possible, I’ve been haunting all kinds of homegoods and craft stores lately (AKA I’m doing a lot of window shopping).  I happened across some popsicle molds a few days ago and couldn’t resist a nostalgic purchase.  I always loved having homemade popsicles during the summer as a kid! Las night I whipped up a batch of some peanut butter banana popsicles.  So easy, so delicious!

¾ c milk

1 banana

2 tbsp peanut butter

Blend, pour into the molds, freeze, and enjoy

Oh, did I mention the molds are rocket ship shaped? 

Holiday Sangria

Pinterest is my new favorite website. (The word “website” sounds so 1999. Also I feel like I’m on “Between Two Ferns”…. “Do you like….websites?”)

It’s a great way to categorize things you stumble upon on the internet.  Recipes, crafts, places you want to go, anything you like.  It’s like a visual filing cabinet full of fun things. 

I found a recipe for “Holiday Sangria” on Pinterest that looked delicious, so I decided to try it.  Our family always has an awesome New Year’s Eve party, and this year was no exception.  You may be thinking “A New Year’s Eve party with your family? Lame.  Don’t you want to go out on the town and get all crazy?”  Well, I’ll tell you two things:

A) My family is awesome, and it does get pretty crazy. (But not in a lampshades as hats kind of way)  Balderdash is no joke, people.  Also, who else can say they have seen their father, their uncle, their great aunts, and their grandparents doing improv in the living room, coached by their cousin and brother?) 

B) The last time I tried to go “out on the town”  I ended up eating chocolate cake in an Applebee’s at 10:30 pm with some of my best friends after fruitlessly searching for dessert for about an hour downtown. (One of our attempts was a swanky restaurant where they weren’t serving dessert “because it was a game day and the menu is different on game day”.  You think people don’t want baklava or raspberry torte on game day?! )

The recipe I found on Pinterest can be found HERE.  It looked really great, but I made a few alterations for the sake of convenience/economy/what was around.

Here’s my recipe:

Court’s Holiday Sangria:

1 (750 ml) bottle of red zinfandel

1 bottle cranberry-pomegranate juice

1 cup orange juice

1 cup simple syrup

1 apple, halved and thinly sliced

1 orange, halved and thinly sliced

1 lemon, halved and thinly

1 cup fresh cranberries

Sparkling water

Add everything together except the sparkling water, and let it chill out in the fridge overnight.  Add the sparkling water right before serving (I think I did about half of a 2 liter bottle- so about 1 liter!).

It was a hit at the party, so I think we’ll have to bring it back next year too!

P.S.- I also made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough dip, with a recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.

Ribbon Bookmarks

This a great quick, easy project! It would make a great little Christmas gift or hostess gift (for a hostess who likes to  read, at least.) if you bought a journal and made a ribbon bookmark to match. I spotted this on Pinterest in the  DIY/crafts section (and quickly repinned it J).  I won’t go into too much detail with the how-to because Percolating Projects has a reallynice tutorial, so click on the link for the step by step! 

All you need are buttons, ribbons, and hair elastics (which I usually just call "hair things" but let us be fancy for the blog).  The only thing I did differently was use my hot glue gun for everything except sewing on the button, which I did by hand.  I just didn’t feel like getting out my machine for a few bookmarks (Crafter’s Lethargy takes another victim!) I made one for my journal, my Bible, and my slightly smaller Bible.

So Easy

So Cute

Of course, now that I have my beloved Kindle I don’t have as much need for bookmarks…but I’m not completely electronic yet, and probably never will be.

Happy Crafting!

A Student Staple Revisited: Ramen Shrimp Pouches

I wish some of the pretty scallions had made it into this shot.

Last week I made Ramen Shrimp Pouches for dinner (That is a weird name. I don’t relish having the word “pouch” on my menu).  It’s Alton Brown’s recipe, and you know how I feel about Alton Brown. 

Oh? You don’t? 

I think Alton Brown is great.  Really great.  He is hilarious, snarky, and science-loving. When ridiculous stuff happens on Food Network, he calls it like it is.  He was the speaker at my college graduation (a darn good speaker, ask anyone).  He’s from Georgia.  He went to UGA…..and apparently he’s friends with a friend of my Dad, which means I am 3 degrees away from Alton Brown (I don’t know what my Kevin Bacon Number is, though, and I don’t really care. Unless Alton Brown knows Kevin Bacon, and then my Kevin Bacon Number is 4.)

Back to the important part! The food. 

The recipe tells you to make pouches with foil and then you stack up all the delish ingredients in there, add the broth and seasonings, and then cook them in the oven for a little while. 

I didn’t follow the good Mr. Brown’s recipe exactly, because I was shopping at Kroger and they just didn’t have all the ingredients.  It still tasted pretty good, though, so…high five!

I didn’t have mirin, which is a kind of rice wine, so…I just added a shake of rice vinegar.  I fully understand this is not the same thing.  But it was something I had, and it had the word rice in it, and you can make vinegar out of wine so….I know. Still not the same thing.  Also, there were no dried mushrooms at Kroger, so I used non-dried ones.  There. That’s all.  Not so bad, huh? Everything else was by the book.

Here’s a link to the recipe!

My roomies seemed to enjoy it, even though Jessica is not a shrimp fan. (Which is fine, because Sammy and I just ate her shrimp for her)

I give it an A plus, but not for folks on a low-salt diet. It’s quite salty.  Stay away, my hypertensive friends! Or at least use low sodium soy sauce and broth…and maybe less soy sauce.

PS- I just joined Pinterest and Twitter.  What?! I’m having a pretty good time on there.  Join me. Or follow me. Or pin with me. I haven’t quite figured out the proper verbs to use.