#20 December Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

I made a fun popcorn mix for friends and decided that it should be counted as my "new dish" for this month.

*Warning: I have been spending waaaay too much time looking at recipes from The Pioneer Woman's blog, so I've decided to put this time to good use. I'm trying to take more pictures, like she does, as I cook. Once you are viewing the tenth picture on this post and rolling your eyes, it might be a good time to click on over to TPW blog and see that I have only taken about 1/16 of the amount of pictures that she does for each recipe. ;)

Ingredients: pretzels, popcorn, almond bark, and pecans

Popcorn mixture ready to meet the almond bark.

And now it's ready to meet the semi-sweet chocolate drizzle.

Yummy-ness ready to be bagged and tagged...cute right?!
Yay for Christmas goodies!!! :)

Update for my "Creative Corner"

I recently had a "craft day" and these are the clipboards that I made:

#20 November Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

I wanted to choose a healthy and wheat-free meal this month. I must say, this recipe was easy and quite tasty! Thank you SparkRecipes App!
Bell peppers stuffed with ground turkey, onion, garlic, brown rice, tomato sauce, and topped with Parmesan cheese.

Stuffed and ready to cook...Cooked, cheesed, and ready to eat

Now, here is a new dessert that I made this month for my Bible study group. Sopapilla Cheesecake...simply delicious!

First layer of crescent rolls with cream cheese filling ready to be spread out...completed with top layer of crescent rolls and butter/brown sugar mixture, ready to be cooked...the finished, tasty product!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 brought lots of crafting time, tasty food, family laughs, football games, time with an awesome roomie, and madness. Let me tell you what madness is to me.

My first Black Friday shopping experience.
The completely packed mall parking lot at midnight.
Waiting in line at Old Navy for an hour.
Staying up for 24 hours; yes, we shopped from midnight-6:00 AM.
Poor children, who clearly want nothing more than to be in their warm beds sleeping, being pulled along by their parents as they fight the madness that is Black Friday.
The electronic section at Target and Walmart.
The number of televisions purchased by the masses (Really people, where are you putting all of these TVs?).
Allowing people to have carts in the isles...this is the cause of panic attacks, I am sure.
Checking Kirkland's about 5 times to see if they were open.
Women wearing black t-shirts with the words "Friday 2010" on them. Ummm, since when does this early morning tradition deserve its own t-shirt? I have never seen people wearing "Thanksgiving 2010" or "Mother's Day 2010" shirts...come one people, priorities.
Standing in line at Walmart for 30 minutes only to spend $6.34.
People who completely ignoring the manners their momma's taught them, or should have taught them. Excuse me, means MOVE. :)
Sleeping from 6:30 AM- 1:30 PM and then again from 6:00 PM- 9:30 PM. Boy, my hours/days are totally messed up!

Overall, this experience was fun and I am SO thankful that Deanna trekked all over creation, searching for deals with me!!! Yes, to answer the question that everyone asks me, I am planning to do this again next year (provided someone will go with me)...I'm just crazy like that!


My trunk with all of our shopping goodies! In retrospect, I wish that we would have taken pictures of our expedition, but when you are "in the zone" (which you must be to survive), the last thing you want to do is stop to document.

Me and Marmee...Me, Gram, brother Josh, Gramp...Me and Daddy

Circle Green Bean Boy

I subbed for an amazingly sweet and hilarious 1st grade class yesterday; here are some of the things they said/did that made my day.

~ Boy: I don't like circle green beans. I like stick ones.
Me: Really, I don't think I have ever seen circle green beans. What are you talking about?
Boy: They were with my lunch. (Walks over to his lunch tray and picks up a "circle green bean")
Me: (laughing) Oh, you mean peas! I don't like them either.

~ Me: We are going to learn how to write the letter "s" in cursive today. Can anyone tell me a word that begins with the letter "s"?
Boy: 'sup
Me: Hmmm, well, "sup" isn't really a word...it is slang for "what's up", but slang starts with an "s".
Boy: Yeah, 'sup.

~ Boy: Ms. Hennings, "circle green bean boy" (ok, the kid didn't really call him that but this is my nickname for him ;) won't stop making farting noises and I'm eating.
Me: Send him over here so that I can talk to him.
Me: Are you making inappropriate noises that I have asked you to stop making?
CGBB: Yes, I'm sorry Ms. Hennings, I can't help it!
Yeah, I tried to tell him not to do that anymore as I held in the laughter...he is just so darn cute and hilarious!

~ I am looking over the lesson plans when all of a sudden a pair of little arms are wrapped around me...
Girl: I love hugs, Ms. Hennings.
Me: I love hugs too.
Girl: I love you, Ms. Hennings
Now, if that doesn't melt your heart and make you want to teach 1st grade, I don't know what will!!!

#20 October Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

This month I decided to go with a Halloween dessert for our party and I have mixed feelings about the results.

This is what the magazine claims the recipe will produce. Now hear me when I say that I do not professes that my cake-decorating skills are that of a pastry chef employed by a magazine, but really how hard could it be to replicate this? Well, I will show you my friends...

Ok, I admit, it is not an atrocious cake but it definitely does not look like the magazine picture. Oh well, I had fun making it (Well, except for the fact that I was icing it like 30 minutes before people arrived. NOT good for this OCD, Type A personality!!!)
Make this recipe and let me know how it turns out. :)

Update for my "Creative Corner"

I recently made a door hanger for Deanna's "rock star" themed classroom...I love how it turned out! I can't wait to make one for my very own classroom next year!!! :)

#20: September Dish

#20 Cook/bake a new dish every month

Once again, I must admit that I am not being very diligent with this because I tend to stick to my "old faithful" dishes and do not branch out much in my cooking. (Hello, Megan, this is the EXACT reason why you put this one on your list: branch out!) Daniella was cooking homemade (and I mean everything was homemade) spaghetti and meatballs and my thought was "Ohhh, I will jump on this new recipe bandwagon and achieve my blog recipe for the month!". So, I became Daniella's sous-chef and we made an amazingly tasty meal that only took 2 hours ;)!!!


I was put on chopping/dicing/mincing/chiffanonading duty.


AWESOMENESS!!!

P.S. You should always ask an avid wine-opener for a lesson before you attempt to open a bottle. Lets just say, I think that the cork is supposed to be outside of the bottle not inside...oh well, fun times!
Interested in cooking this wonderful meal for yourself? Click here and you can!

Fear the Deer

RANGERS, WELCOME TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!

Although I feel as though I was born into the Ranger family (because I have called this great state "my home" for 22 years), I did not become truly dedicated to the team until last season. You see, in my mind I have not really had a reason to be a crazy, over-the-top fan because post season action is not prevalent in Arlington. That is of course, until now as my Rangers (You like how they are now MY Rangers ;) have made it to the big league...I could not be more ecstatic. So, join me as I support my team by becoming one of those over-the-top, Ranger-gear-wearin', tv-yellin', antler/claw-representin', Ranger fools...oops, I mean fans!!!!

I must also give a little shout-out for the amazingly godly example that is Josh Hamilton. I believe that the Lord will bring victory to Texas so that men like Hamilton can be bold witnesses for Him and unbelievers will come to know our great and mighty God!!!


One more shout-out (because I could send shout-outs to my Rangers all day long): GO JULIO BORBON!!!!! I must confess that I am a BIG Borbon fan simply because I love saying his last name with my "Spanish accent"...okay I lie, it's pretty lame but I still love it!

Dear Diary

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

*
i loved the smell of
my morning coffee in my new coffee pot
*
i loved the sound of
LCS children chatting as they worked on art project

*
i loved the taste of
my momma's brisket...I picked the right night to visit!!!

*

i loved the sight of
my newly painted nails and toes

*

i loved the feel of

relief that I got a 93 on my Earth Science exam (10 hours of studying paid off!)

A Weekend of Worship, Laughter, and Girlfriends

This weekend two of my sweet friends and I went to a Christian Conference for young women. God was clearly speaking through many of the women who shared and it was a blessed time of encouragement, conviction, and praise.
We had lots of fun and laughed a TON...unfortunately, most of the laughing was a direct result of things that occurred. The weekend was a bit (okay, a lot) more charismatic than I am accustomed to, and frankly, am comfortable experiencing. I am all for raising my hands when the spirit moves but not so much for crazy babble when "something" or "someone" comes over a person. As one of the speakers was really getting into her prayer of forgiveness, she said "...we forgive ourselves, and we forgive you God." What??? We all looked at each other and said "Surely, that did not come out the way she meant for it to, right?!?!" God does not need our forgiveness; we are honored to be forgiven by Him!
So, we decided to take everything with a grain of salt and then continuously laughed about the craziness of it all! Overall, it was an AWESOME time with some precious girlfriends!

Anjelah Johnson: Comedian, Actress, Jesus follower, and the BEST speaker of the weekend!!!

Saturday morning we had a tea party in the church's beautiful park. The weather didn't call for hot tea so we enjoyed Chicken Express sweet tea...oh happy day!!!