Day 227 (12/31) New Years Eve goodies

Well I went crazy on trying new recipes on New Years Eve and yes most of them came from pinterest.  I think my brother was wondering what they were all going to taste like because of the tone in his voice when he said, "You've never made any of these before?".  My response:  "I always try new things at parties because if they are gross then I don't have to eat them all by myself.".  So yes if you are coming to one of my parties, you never know what you are going to get.  I didn't stop and take pictures of all the recipes when I was making them because it was a little crazy in the kitchen that day.  So I'll just link you to the pages where I got the recipes from and give you my 2 cents on the dish.

Crash Hot Potatoes  These were good but I'm more of a butter person so I would have put the olive oil in the bottom of the pan to make sure they don't stick to the bottom and then drizzle with butter.  I had to add a dollop of sour cream to get the flavor that I was looking for without the butter but super easy to make.

Grilled Jalapeno Chicken Fajita Bites   I tried one of these at our KSU tailgating neighbors and it was super yummy.  Now what I didn't plan for was that some jalapenos are hotter than others.  I thought I had washed my hands after getting out all the seeds of the jalapenos and licked something off my finger a little later and for the next 2 hours felt like my lips were on fire because there was still some seed or juices on them.  I kept on putting them (yes both lips) in my glass to try to cool them off.  I'm happy there were no cameras around.  I was too afraid to try one later that night but I have a couple left over that I am going to eat later.  I did not use Schwans stuff - just made my own chicken with some fajita seasoning and had some bacon bits leftover from the crack bread coming up next.

Crack Bread  Many on pinterest called this treat which can be made a variety of ways - crack bread because it made you go back for more like crack.  I wouldn't go that far.  It was good but I didn't find myself going back for more probably because of all the other food we had.

Snowman Dip   I wanted the kids to participate in the food making. Madeline and Colton helped make this little snowman to dip our veggies in.  We had to have something healthy right for the new year!  This picture is actually my own because I remembered to take a picture of it.  I did add mayonaisse and sour cream to mask the strong cream cheese taste but that made the snowman a little bit more "meltable".  By the end of the night, he had squished down and leaned back a bit which is probably what we did as adults eating all that food!

Wonton Appetizers  Mom had some of these from a friend or neighbor last time we were home.  Although the ones mom had were made with sausage, cheese, ranch dip, pimento bits.  We made ours with beef flavored with taco seasoning and some picante sauce and cheese.  You could add lettuce and black olives and whatever else you wanted.  I did make mine in a regular muffin tin and prebake the shells so they were a little bit more crispy.

Day 225 (12/27): Some of my favorite gifts

Not only was I crafty this year for Christmas but my friends and family members were too!  I got some amazing homemade gifts this year. 

My neice made Mark and I some KSU canvas pictures using duck tape and spray paint.  She drew them out with the duck tape by hand and then had Matt spray paint them and then peeled off the duck tape.  She has so much talent as I can't even trace a wildcat this well!

Mark made me a piggy bank out of an old post office door that is super cool. I saw one made for my friends child from their grandpa and I loved the code aspect of it.  He made it out of mahogany and it has a slot on top to slip money into.  You have to twist the knob with the secret code to get the money out.  This is a horrible picture of it off of my phone because it is still packed in the boxes we used to get everything home and I'm avoiding unpacking at the moment.

I have been begging Kristi for a wreath that she made off of an idea on pinterest.   She flat out refused to do another one because of all the work they are. She made it out of old book pages.  Ignore Kristi's old curtains used to hang it. I'm going to get a wide maroon ribbon to create a hanger for it when I get some free time.

Check out the roses that make up this masterpiece! 

 Matt and Madeline helped her create some of these roses.

Destiny made me this awesome purse made out of KSU fabric.  I absolutely love it!  I think the kids thought I was a little crazy when I opened it because I was so excited!  It has a row of pockets on the inside too and I'm always looking for places to put things so I can find them easily the next time.

It was a great Christmas and I'm happy to have shared it with so many friends and family members.  Hope the new year brings many more joyous times!

Day 221 (12/21): Crafty Christmas or Devil Worshipping

Well my cousin David calls Pinterest the devil's website.  If that is the case then I'm addicted to the devil and a devil worshipper.  I cannot get enough and usually find myself checking it about as frequently as I check facebook and my email.  It is so addictive to see what others "pin" to their virtual bulletin boards.  I can find crafty things to make for teacher gifts, yummy treats or see funny quotes.  You can search for anything to see what others have pinned. 

So this Christmas I saw some ideas for gifts for my friends and relatives.  My first gift came from this website but I modified it a bit.  Here are a couple of my versions. 

Mark, the Devil's handyman, did a fantastic job of routering the corners and creating a more professional looking finish on the back board.  I tried to use many of the pictures that I have taken over the years but I did need to get a little bit of help from flickr. 

For my friend Adrian I did one with her first name instead of last and since she went on the Europe trip, they were all pictures from Europe.  The Eiffle tower base looks like an A, church windows that look like a D, road stripes for the R, Big Ben for the I, side of a bench for an A and then a bridge guard for the N.

These were fun to make and really made me think about looking for letters when I'm out taking pictures.  Once you know what you are looking for, they seem to pop out of nowhere.  Would be a fun idea for kindergartners field trip.  Look for and make an ABC book out on the school grounds or on walks.

Another crafty idea I learned from pinterest was personalized soap bottles.  I downloaded pictures off of my friend's facebook pages and printed them off on clear transperencies.  You can slide them in a clear soap bottle that you take the labels off of and their kiddos shine through!

These were $2 gifts at the max.  I found many websites that had premade labels that you could create for teacher gifts. Cheap and very unique.  The people that I gave it to loved them!