Classy Bitches Night

So, I may only have a job for a week, but I believe that if you give you will receive in kind.

So I decided to treat Andrew and I to a "Classy Bitches Night". That means Red Barron personal pizzas, sherry, and Perrier.

So as the night goes on, I'm going to report pictures and quotes.

Our supplies and yes, that's the scene where Baby gives the whore money for an abortion. Classy Bitches!

Andrew: "Woah! We need to let that breathe." Me: "It's sherry, I don't think it breathes."
Me: "It tastes like prunes."

Andrew: "We're going to need to do shots of this."

Me: "My boobs are really perky for how big they are. I mean, if they were any higher :: tries to lift them from the top:: they'd be like fake boobage."

Me: "If you want the hot sexy Red Baron to come and fuck you, you have to eat it with your hands! Now do you want to be a Classy Bitch or not?"

Opening game!

So, I am a HUGE buckeye fan. And when I say "buckeye" I mean football. I LOVE buckeye football. The pregame makes me cry. I watch stats and interviews. I think of the ways we can win the season.

This is the first game of my "new life". September 1st.  New coach. I'm beyond ecstatic.

Before the game, we buy chicken nibblers, brown sugar, baking soda, brown sugar, eggs, and Reese's miniatures. I didn't take any pictures but quarter the cups make the classic chocolate chip dough and add them in. Buckeye Chip Cookies!!

They are delicious, and I'm stuffed. :D

Happy first game!

We won!! 56-10!

Temp Job!

I got a job! For a week! Woo!! It's for tomorrow and then next Tuesday through Friday because of Labor Day. I'm very excited because the entire paycheck is going to go towards next month's rent and will cover most of my rent save $25.

Everything adds up. I've been frugal with my spending and though it's only been a week, this will definitely help. I also have a paycheck coming tomorrow from Safelite and then I have my bonus check that will be coming next week or the week after.

I just have to keep my fingers crossed.

An Apple a Day... part 1

I apologize for the lack of personal updates going on in my life. When you are unemployed there isn't much to do. Granted I can gloat about Alex having a shotgun wedding (which did make me very happy), but I blasted that all over Facebook. I could go over the rundown of what happened between us, but I'm just not ready to go through it again. So, with the unemployment I have to find things that occupy my time. The biggest thing that I enjoy is cooking. My roommate, Jon, thinks I'm awesome at this and I kind of am lol but it does bring me joy.

Do I do any other kinds of crafts? Sure! I sew and I crochet (which I haven't done in a long time), but I don't want to just sit around and give myself carpel tunnel and I don't have the money to sew. I do have a dress that I have all of the fabric for already. It's a Renascence costume. When my room gets organized and clean I'll pull that out and work on it.

I do have a dress that I need to make for the end of September and if I can find some extra money or good fabric at the thrift store (bed sheets totally rock) then I'll post that up. But generally, it'll be food.

Like today!

So I got my Co-Op produce. More tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, and lettuce. But this time I also got strawberries (they are very tiny - like baby strawberries) and chilis! I don't know what I'm going to do with those, but I'm pretty excited because I guess they are pretty hot.

Last week, I got a whole bunch of apples. ...and I keep forgetting to eat them. I have some standard recipes that I like to make with apples, like applesauce. It's so much easier, healthier, and cheaper to make applesauce than buy it. If they give me more then I may make it. But since I have so many apples, I decided to an apple series. I don't know how long it will go. Three maybe four depending on how many apples I have.

I had gotten the idea of an apple turnover from a woman in the grocery store and I thought that I would try it. This recipe is all over the internet, so if you just search crescent apple turnover you will find a version. This is MY version. Now some people may say "there is an easier way to do this" (Shut up Justin this is MY blog), but to me, this is the BEST way. ...or this is the first time I am doing this and I'm just going with it. XD

I am doing a twist on my apple pie recipe with this and I did find this glaze from another website that I thought if I put them together would go well.

Recipe:
2 Cans Crescent Rolls (May take 3 depending on how much filling you make)

Filling:
2C apples chopped
1/3C sugar (the sauce is really sweet)
2 Tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Sauce:
1/2 C Butter, softened (1 stick)
1 C Sugar
1 Can of Mountain Dew (I used the real sugar kind because HFCS? EWWWWW)

Core and chop the apples and add all ingredients together in a bowl. I know when you go looking at apple recipes it tells you to peel them. But really? That's where all the fiber and good stuff is. Go ahead and leave it on. What is it going to do? If you use a red/pink apple just turn the filling a little pink. That adds character!

Roll out the crescent rolls. Now, you can cut these in half to make small ones if you want or you can leave them big. It's up to you. For my recipe I cut them in half and then stretch them out slightly.

Fill the crescent rolls. You have to be careful because you can overfill these and that's not good. Make sure there is at least a half an inch on either side. If you're not sure, start with a small amount of filling and just fold over without pressing to gauge how much is enough.

How I fold them is quite simple. Once you fill them, you fold one corner to the middle of the opposite side. Repeat and then fold the top down like an envelope. You may have a hole on the bottom, you can pinch that closed.

Place in a greased 9x13 in pan (I used a turkey pan because I made a lot of little ones)


For the sauce you heat the stick of butter in a pan and add the sugar. Don't make it smooth.

Spoon into the pan with the turnovers, pour in the Mountain Dew, and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake in the oven at 350* for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy! I know I did. :D

Tomato Tomahto

So before I lost my job, I took the plunge and bought into a CSA. You know, co-ops (for some reason Justin calls them 'Farm Fresh'. That name makes me cringe) where you help fund a farm and they give you produce for it. Well I got quite a few nice pieces of produce: corn, tomatoes, yellow and purple cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, lettuce. Well, I thought that since I have this produce I'm going to find some easy recipes to make with them. I've got two recipes and both are not mine. I like to give credit where credit is due. The first one, is my corn on the cob recipe. I got it from the food network, though I can't remember which chef...

You'll never want to make corn on the cob another way again.
Step 1.) Preheat oven to 350*
Step 2.) Take off the very outer husk leaving some on
Step 3.) Place in oven
Step 4.) Bake for 30-45 minutes. I have a gas stove so the cooking time depends on the temperature outside.
Step 5.) Enjoy! Simple right?



You will know they are done when the husks open like you see in the picture to your left. So if you forget to set the timer that's the easiest way to tell.






Okay so the second recipe that I'm going to show you is quite simple as well. You can find the original recipe here. I am not a fan of tomatoes, but after the roasted bruschetta that I made with the fresh cherry tomatoes that I got? I think I'm starting to like tomatoes more.

Tomato and Sweet Onion Bake
Your ingredients are:
Olive Oil
2lbs of Tomatoes
1lbs of Onion
3 cloves Garlic* (ProTip at the bottom)
1/3 C Fresh Basil
3 Tbsp Fresh Oregano
Salt and Pepper
Dried artisan bread

1/4C Butter

1/2C Parmesan cheese

Since I am unemployed, I needed to work with what I had so this was my recipe:
Olive Oil
5 Tomatoes
2 Onions
3 cloves Garlic* (ProTip at the bottom)
5 tsp Basil
3 tsp Oregano
Salt and Pepper
Remember the top of my french bread? Yep used that!
1/4 C Butter
1/2 C Parmesan cheese

Your steps are:
1.) Heat oil in a skillet and preheat oven to 350*
2.) Slice onion so they are rings and chop garlic
3.) Saute garlic and onion
4.) While sauteing slice tomatoes




5.) Put tomatoes, herbs, and salt and pepper in a bowl and mix around
6.) In a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish put in sauteed onions and garlic evenly
7.) Place tomatoes over onions




8.) Put bread, cheese, and butter in a food processor and pulse until crumbly

9.) Put over tomatoes
10.) Bake for 20-25 minutes.
11.) Let stand for five and serve warm!








Omg, this was SO GOOD! I would TOTALLY eat tomatoes like this all the time. I don't know what it was. It was just...amazing. So simple. Fresh foods, ingredients that everyone has (unlike what Rachel Ray says people have in their kitchen) and you just bake it.

Let me know if you try this and how it came out for you! Because this is something I could seriously eat everyday.





ProTip: You don't need some garlic masher to mash or chop garlic. It's really quite simple.

Shell the garlic











Place the flat end of the knife over the garlic and with your fist slam down onto the knife. Since it's flat, it won't cut you. (But I am not responsible for your clumsiness)

And then, just go over it like you would chop anything else!

This is Matthew Vines. He has a sermon you need to watch. It's long. And 250,000 other people have already watched it (that's how good it is.) But I can't begin to tell you how important his ideas are.

At 9:05, he pulls at the heartstrings of anyone who has them. At 24:12, he demolishes all arguments based on Leviticus, and he explains something you'll never forget about Old Testament "abominations" at 29:12. At 35:37, he unpacks the thorniest New Testament passage, burying the "unnatural" argument once and for all at 47:06. 

At 58:48, he makes one of the most effective Bible-based arguments for gay marriage you'll ever hear. And at 1:03:32, he closes with a plea for acceptance that's been melting the hearts even of dyed-in-the-wool Southern Baptists. 

Bread!

Normally, I go up to Cleveland every other weekend. I go up to game. There are two games in Cleveland but due to my work schedule, unless I called off, requested off, or got someone to take my shift, I couldn't go to the Saturday game. Normally I would go up Saturday night and stay with Justin and hang out with a bunch of my friends at his place and we named the party "Afterdrank". Why "Afterdrank"? Because it's after the Saturday game and we drink. Why don't we call it "Afterdrink"? Because that sounds stupid of course!

Anyway. I don't normally bake on this weekend because I would have to think of something, like cookies, to make Saturday night that I would remember to bring up on Sunday morning. I've done that. Bring baked goods before. But because I generally travel after work to get up to Afterdrank, there just isn't any time.

Well, my character is in "time stop" that's where no one is allowed to interact with anyone else in the org until the scene is resolved. It was a mass combat (think a raid in WoW) and so now we have to deal with it.

Well, Justin hasn't been hosting Afterdrank because it's been "too hot" (pussies) and well I don't have a character to play up there - due to the time stop. So, I decided to what I do best to pass the time and that's make bread! Woo! I went shopping on Saturday for some basic stuff, that will last me a while and be pretty filling. My days are going to be filled with drinking water and carbs. My sister will hate it, but carbs are WAY cheaper than protein is - animal protein at least. Looks like I'll be looking at tofu recipes!

So anyway. One of the things that I don't normally buy, but can be handy for things, like casseroles, is bread.  I can also make sandwiches out of them. I also have a lot of ingredients to make bread as it is, and it's incredibly cheap.

I have a bread maker. It's awesome. I haven't used it since I moved into my place three years ago. So I decided to crack it out. And since I have nothing to do during the day, I thought I might do some blog posts about bread and all the different flavors that I will make.

All the recipes will be for a bread machine and so please, read your owner manual before following mine to make sure that the measurements are correct.

Here is the recipe:
3C Flour (they say bread flour I use all-purpose)
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Shortening
1 1/5 C Water
2 tsp Yeast*




I'm making a French bread. I don't like just plain white bread, and I'm an "artisinal" person myself. This is also a really simple recipe to just begin with. Most recipes will have this as the backbone.

Now, you add all the dry ingredients together. and you slowly pour in the water.

Make sure you press the right setting. There might also be a "Darkness" setting for your bread. I always choose the "darkest" on mine because it gets the crispier crust. You'll need to experiment when it comes to this.

Now, press start! And just leave it. Don't open your bread maker because that will just ruin things. Some recipes will call you to take out the bread after a certain time. If that is the case then please press "stop" or "off" or "clear". It's amazing what people just assume technology does.


So, lets discuss yeast! The yeast that I used was a "Fast Acting" yeast which means it's already been set up. My original recipe called for two more tablespoons of water, but this can be omitted when using this type of yeast. Also, if you are going to use this type of yeast instead of a "Dry yeast" then you'll need to subtract 25% of the yeast amount. The original called for 2 1/2 which would have left me with 1 7/8 tsp. Uh? What? No. I rounded up.


ProTip: Did you know that there are three teaspoons in a tablespoon? I know! So instead of using two measuring spoons, if you've got one of those 1/2 tablespoons laying around use that. It's awesome!

***Four Hours Later***

When your bread is done, it should look something like this:

However, remember when I said that I rounded up? Yeah... I should have rounded down. Like way down. To like 1 1/2 tsp. Because THIS is what happened.

It's okay! It's fixable. I simply cut off the top, turned the oven to 350 and popped it in for a few minutes. Get the top all nice and crunchy and we're ready to go! Bread really is one of the easiest things to make.

Does anyone remember the old Sesame Street or Square One bit where the chef makes a popover but instead of a teaspoon he uses a tablespoon and the thing comes out giant? Yeah. that's what this reminds me of.

Have any questions or tips you want to give me? Just reply and I'll do the best I can to answer!