Archive | February, 2012

Pinteresting Recipes and Valentine’s Meltdowns.

21 Feb

 It’s official. I’m obsessed with Pinterest, Yes, it is neat to share and repin but I love using it as a recipe bookmarking tool! Since last week when I started to regularly stalk pins use Pinterest I have made several recipes! Somehow having the luxury of seeing a snap shot of the recipe instead of looking at a title in a bookmarks menu pushes me to try new recipes and I’m not going to complain about that! However, that doesn’t mean that they all turned out well…in fact some turned out wonderful but unfortunately some also turned out horribly. Let’s start at the beginning…Valentine’s Day seemed like as good a day as any to try out a few recipes and let’s just say at least I got breakfast right.

 

Rob wasn’t exactly blown out of the water by this girly gesture but I thought it was adorable. You’ll notice my pin only shows the bread and egg but that won’t cut it for Rob. He is a two egg and roast beef sandwich kind of man so I made it work for my Valentine!

    My next big Valentine’s gesture, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (right?), was to make ice cream for the first time in my Kitchenaid attachment I got for Christmas. The day before I had pinned a recipe for Nutella Banana Ice Cream, which I cannot relocate for some reason. I delete pins that don’t produce great results because I don’t want to endorse something I didn’t even like. However, I will add that it might have has nothing to do with the recipe itself and everything to do with the fact that I don’t love banana.

The scene of the crime.

     I’m really proud of myself for using my ice cream maker and I think the consistency of the ice cream was great! It was the flavor that was bad. Here was my thought process as I tried the first bite, “hmm Nutella…here comes the banana flavor, not bad…oh god the banana flavor is getting worse…gross, gross, gross….someone please get me something to get this taste out of my mouth!” Rob insisted it wasn’t that bad and he would eat it and not to throw it away. He didn’t eat any and I threw it away yesterday to make room in the freezer and I say good riddance. I found and pinned a recipe for frozen yogurt that I’m hoping will turn out  better   when I try my hand with the ice cream maker again next week.

     My next recipe disaster also took place on Valentine’s Day, this time I royally ruined dinner. I had class that night so we decided not to do the whole out to dinner thing and instead just relax, mak dinner and watch The River, Rob’s new obsession. Well turns out watching the River was the only thing in the cards for our night because I was less than relaxed after ruining a batch of Lightened Up Fettuccine Alfredo, I also can’t find the recipe I used because there are a million others on Pinterest. This is the point at which I had a complete break down and turned into a crying mess and picked a fight with Rob by saying something along the lines of, “it’s not a special night anyway.” It wasn’t one of my best moments. And yes. I’m a bitch.

     I worked myself up so badly that I actually felt sick to my stomach and then insisted that I “wasn’t hungry.” Jimmy John’s to the rescue. I order Jimmy John’s as I sat in my room sulking and luckily by the time it arrived I had cooled down and decided I might eat just a bite ( or the whole darn sandwich). I felt much better after eating and decided not to subject myself to choking down any of the gross banana ice cream. So naturally we went and got Jeremiah’s instead. We are the picture of romance.

Pure Valentine’s Romance. Jimmy John’s in bed.

Here’s the beautiful flower Rob got my for my desk!

     The next day I was feeling down but certainly not out and decided to try another recipe, Boyfriend Friendly Black Bean Burger from Eat, Live, Run. Rob didn’t think they tasted as fresh as Mama Pea’s Thai Veggie Burgers  but I liked them a lot more. I’m still on the search for my go to recipe though!

I snacked…and drank a bit while making up the burgers. Those chips are amazing by the way!

Rob likes his burgers very plain with cheese and a little BBQ sauce.

I skipped the burger route and crumbled mine on top of romaine with a dollop of salsa and sour cream to make an amazing taco salad!

     On a high from making my second successful recipe I want on a baking bend the next day! I made Chubby Hubby Bars from The Country Cook and Averie’s Baked Vanilla Donuts. They were both great! The only changes I made was white chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips and M&Ms instead of chocolate chip in the bars because it’s what I had around.

B.T. Before toppings.

And after..that’s better!

Consider yourself warned that these are salty, sweet and completely addictive.

I used my doughnut pan for the first time!

Hmm…icing.

So pretty…and delicious! The sprinkle ones were for Rob.

Although the donuts were great I’m excited to try Averie’s Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Cream Cheese Glaze because I thought the powdered sugar was a bit too sweet for me, plus I’m a huge cream cheese fan! And also…do not put these in a tupperware container! I ruined about three of mine by doing so. Just cover them lightly with plastic wrap or foil once the glaze is all set!

Well that’s all for my recipes for now but I will keep them coming thanks to Pinterest! Time to actually accomplish some school work today!

Questions!

Do you use Pinterest?

If so what’s your favorite part? 

Any recipe suggestions?

Snapshots of Magic at Walt Disney World.

10 Feb

Seeing as a just woke up and it’s noon, I think it’s safe to say this is going to be a lazy Friday. It’s the first weekend in a while I haven’t had anything on my calendar so I’m going to take advantage of it and not make any plans. Unfortunately for YourDailyGrace that means I really don’t have much to talk about unless  school work, getting my booty kicked in spin class yesterday, and eating too much Little Caesar’s Pizza counts. And that gave me all of a sentence worth of material anyway. Luckily, a few weekends ago I spent a couple of days at “The Most Magical Place on Earth” and forgot all about sharing all the pictures Rob and I took!

Upon arrival, we headed straight to Epcot to meet up with my parents and started off the trip right with a shared ice cream cone in Paris!

The Canada Pavilion is so beautiful! Especially at twilight!

I could literally live in that little cottage! 

On our way to catch the fireworks in Magic Kingdom we found some Disney cast members making magic with only water and brooms!

Instead of watching Wishes, the fireworks show, in front of the castle I love to stand behind it because you’re closer to the fireworks!

Also, the smaller fireworks and pyrotechnics shoot right off the roofs of Fantasyland so you’re literally surrounded by fireworks!

Something new and very magical is the projection show onto Cinderella Castle! They did everything from fire to coloring and it was hard to tear myself away as we tried to make our way back to the resort!

When we finally go back to the All Star Sports Resort we were starving and grabbed some dinner. All I have to say is don’t underestimate Clam Chowder served in a paper cup!

We also got a pizza, so predictable! But look how cute the box is!

Plus, the pizza was very good! And soo filling! 

The next morning we were at Magic Kingdom again bright and early! Can you tell how excited by Step Dad is to be  in that little Astro Orbiter rocket with my Mom. 

I love this garden next to the Mad Tea Party!

Mom and I met Chip and Dale while the boys rode Buzz Lightyear. Like my Mom’s shirt?

We took a boat over to The Wilderness Lodge and had one of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had at Disney World at The Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Our waiter was hysterical! He brought Rob this extra-large cherry coke since he noticed how Rob was “slurping it down.” Look at the size comparison of the glasses!

I ordered a salad and the guy who brought it out said “typical girl.” And when my mom ordered her hamburger out waiter shouted, “Chef! We need a cheese burger with no cheese please!” It was so funny and we laughed the whole meal!

Both boys order the never-ending skillet that came with amazing cornbread, chicken, ribs, sausage, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, beans and cole slow! It was so much food plus they ordering ribs 2 more times! 

The Wilderness Lodge is so pretty! There are tons of photo ops!

Speaking of photo ops…I caught a rare moment!


While exploring the resort we found tether ball!  Dad beat Rob…

Mom and I joined in on the fun and she beat me! Probably because I was laughing hysterically at her!

That night we headed back to Epcot to listen to the two bands my Step Dad is obsessed in Canada and the UK. But that was alright with me because I ate some of my favorite Disney food from the Boulangerie Patisserie! This is a yummy Cheese Tartine.

And my all time favorite, Creme Brulee! The great end to a Disney trip!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend! My weekend might not be as great as the one at Disney but I’m sure I’ll find something to do!