but I did it. I made the eggplant parmesanparmigiana with the baby watching on. I was feeling bold... and hungry. At first I thought I'd take the easy way out. What if I just used canned spaghetti sauce? Then I felt a little disappointed in myself. No. If I was going to make it, I was going to do it right. I didn't use canned sauce, but made her gravy. (Just an FYI for my fellow non-Italians, that's what it's called. Gravy.)
I'm so glad I did. I'm also glad I made the eggplant parmesanparmigiana.
It was good.
I used the video from the same lady on YouTube.
Two out of two. She hasn't let me down yet. I think I might've put a little more cheese on top than I was supposed to. Oh well, worse things have happened.
But now, I'm exhausted. I'm seriously tired. I need to do laundry. I need a shower. I need to feed the animals. I need to finish cleaning the kitchen. I need to relax. I need to clean out the refrigerator.
solid week between my last post and this one, but then I decided I'd go ahead and do it because I have time RIGHT NOW.
Here's what's been going on.
Something came over me this weekend and I baked. It's like I was going through withdrawals and had to bake everything.
I made Strawberry Shortcake Scones.
I did the glaze a little different this time. Instead of using only vanilla, I used half vanilla and half almond extract. I also added a couple of TBS of melted butter. I'm giving those two thumbs up.
I also made cookies. I found this recipe online for Chunky Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies. Peanut butter cookies are right up there alongside sugar cookies as far as my favorites go. While chocolate chip isn't my favorite cookie, I usually won't turn one down. Oh, and I do like chocolate and peanut butter candy. When I found this recipe, it sounded like it'd be the ultimate cookie.
I was not disappointed. Looks at those pieces of peanut right there with the chocolate chips.
Yum.
I also made Skillet Focaccia.
I've made it before but I also decided I'd make chicken with fettuccini alfredo so I thought that bread would be a good match. I've mentioned lots of times that as far as Italian food goes, I prefer marinara. I can eat the creamy sauces if I'm in the mood, but it can't be much. Marinara on the other hand, I could eat that every day. So I broke down and made alfredo sauce. I made the chicken like I'd do it for chicken parmesan. We had the pasta and sauce served over it. It was really good. So good, I didn't stop to get a picture until I was done.
I found the recipe on YouTube.
I subscribed after that. I sent the leftovers home with Eric and Paige because I don't think I'll have alfredo sauce for a while. I seriously OD'd. I spent the rest of the night with major indigestion, lots of nausea and a little vomiting. I did watch her video for eggplant parmesan and plan on making that this week.
I haven't only been baking. I also ordered a new pair of tennis shoes.
I tried them out this morning, going for a walk around the block.
I stopped to get this picture while I was out.
We had the house and driveway pressure washed the other day. This is our section of sidewalk at the property line.
Here's everything.
It looks SO much better.
I'm also really excited about Mulligan's, a Top Golf-like place they're opening close to the house. Yes, we used to live closer to an actual golf course and driving range but this is different, it's more chill. Wait, I guess golf is pretty chill. It's just different.
Anyway, I can't wait. I followed them on fb just so I can stay updated. They're opening pretty soon.
I also had Amazon suggest a few things to me:
For him. Because girls don't like Star Wars? Or is it because girls don't make waffles?
For her. Because guys don't like to relax in overgrown fields?
For teens. And grown men acting like teenagers?
For kids. Bath bombs? That's weird.
Speaking of Amazon, I need to go order new earbuds. They were recommended for the dogs. Just kidding. I think I'll do some laundry after that. I guess I should check the refrigerator for dinner options. There definitely won't be any baking.
busy. I've been working on pictures, babysitting, I've just been doing a lot. Last night I was helping Cosme out on the computer and I looked up to see the pink clouds.
Then I got back to work and went to bed late... again. I also overslept... again. I set the alarm to take advantage of this cool weather and go for a walk. I don't know what happened. I either turned the alarm off or never turned it on last night.
During my computer helping last night, my arm started getting sore. I put CBD oil on it and that seemed to help. It might've just been in my head but hey, whatever works. I'll have to remember that.
The baby's asleep right now so I should probably start working on my grocery order that has to be picked up four hours later OR I could get the clothes out of the dryer that finished on Monday. Monday? Yeah, I think it was Monday.
the photo challenge last week and didn't post it. I'm sharing it here now because it's what I'm doing again.
Just trying to create order and stay on top of things while trying to stay awake. That's really all that's been going on... except for yesterday. I didn't get out of bed until 1:30 yesterday. The only thing I was trying to create was a cozier spot in bed and I definitely wasn't trying to stay awake. It was kind of awesome. I need a sample of it right now. It's late and I'm tired. It's after 9:30 on a weeknight. I should be in bed because the baby will be here super early tomorrow and will also be spending the night. I guess I better start shutting things down.
I'll just leave this here for any Astros fans. This came up on a Walmart ad on fb, one of those things suggested for me.
Sure, it's a bargain and I love how subtle the neutral print is, but I think I'll pass. Note: that was NOT the one item in my cart. I promise it was only a bottle of shampoo.
his offer to tagalong and help yesterday and we went grocery shopping. I'd never been to Walmart or HEB with the baby. Something about Kroger having that up-front parking spot for people with small children just makes things seem easier. Anyway, we went to Walmart first and I think that might have been her first time in any Walmart ever. A couple of ladies were laughing because the baby was looking all around, trying to take it all in. We stopped by the toy department. I'd been wanting to see how she fit on something to scoot on. I checked out one I'd been eyeing and that might be a birthday present but then there was also this one.
Yes, she needs it but she's way too small for it right now... and will be for a while. When I do get around to getting her a white unicorn in a stable, I'll probably order it online so that it doesn't have what I'm hoping is chocolate smeared on its face.
We finished there and went on to Kroger and HEB. We came home and I fixed lunch after that.
I've been a little bold lately and have been changing diapers on my bed without a pad for protection.
Lesson learned. I'm washing the quilt and am drying it on the air cycle. That cycle only goes for 30 minutes so this is going to be a long process.
I was so tired after yesterday, I plopped. I had a grocery order at Kroger at 7:00 (yes, that was two trips in one day) but after that I crashed. I slept really well but I need more rest. I'm doing pictures today and should probably be resting while the baby does but I have too much other stuff I need to do. I'll probably crash hard again tonight.
The dryer stopped. Time to start the next air cycle.
cooking this weekend. Trying to be a little bit better with our meals, the theme for the weekend could've been vegetables. Saturday started off with mushrooms, onions, and spinach. Oh, there was egg, cheddar, and feta in there too.
Lunch was soup... because it's 100 degrees outside. In my defense, it was called Summer Soup. It was corn, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, and celery. I found the recipe HERE.
We had it yesterday with club sandwiches lettuce wraps and today with chicken lettuce wraps. After I started prepping it, it sounded familiar. I think I made Rachael Ray's version a few years ago. My brain doesn't know what to make of all these vegetables. I'm having popcorn now. I think I might have an Oreo next.
No. I had a spoonful of Duncan Hines frosting instead. Fluffy White Whipped. And actually, I had a little more than a spoonful. No worries though, I labeled it as having been double dipped... as if anyone else would want any.
I was looking at different things online yesterday. I found TVs on Walmart's app. I didn't know if this was a glitch or what.
A 2.5 star tv might be worth $25, but a 4 star for $89?
It doesn't matter because I didn't get anything. Well, I take that back. I did get cat food from Amazon, cat food that costs almost as much as a 32" television. Unfortunately, there was no glitch or sale on Science Diet and the cats need that because Lucille is high maintenance. And what would we have done with another TV? Catch up on dvr and Stranger Things that we still haven't done on the other TVs? I did start a movie last night. I dvr'd Crazy Rich Asians and decided to watch it since Cosme was already asleep. (The author of the book is from the Houston area.) I started falling asleep so I paused it to finish today. I'm going to have to wait for Cosme to be busy doing something else because so far, it doesn't seem like anything he'd like. Oh, it's already almost 9:00. I might be able to finish it pretty soon.
last night. I had the monitor going at one point and when I went in the room and set my end down in front of the camera, I got this.
A monitor within a monitor within a monitor within a monitor within a monitor within a monitor. It looked cool.
I can't remember how long I let the dogs chew on my hands as puppies, but I think it's time I quit letting Little E.
My hand was pretty tender later. She needs a chew toy... and maybe a leash.
I wanted dessert after lunch. We stopped and picked up a pizza earlier and Little Caesar's used to have a cinnamon thing but it's long gone. Cinnamon Crazy Bites? It was little bites of dough, covered with cinnamon, sugar, butter and icing. We would always get that with our pizza. A lot of times we'd have some left for the next morning. Anyway, they decided to bring back the pretzel crust and did away with the cinnamon dessert. That's a shame because it was SO good. When we got home I thought I'd make a strawberry cake but I couldn't because my strawberries were starting to get moldy. Back to the Pinterest board. I bought canned biscuits not too long ago so I could make monkey bread or fry them. I found a recipe for what was just like monkey bread but it was in an 8x8 pan and was called Cinnamon Roll Bites. This actually sounded a lot like what Little Caesar's had. We already had our pizza so Cinnamon Roll Bites were needed.
Wow. I'll rephrase that, they were just what we needed. It was the same concept as monkey bread, canned biscuits cut up and dipped in a cinnamon/sugar mix. The main difference from how I've made monkey bread, other than this being about half the size, was that this recipe calls for brown sugar. I added a little extra cinnamon and a little regular sugar as well. The recipe calls for a 12oz can of biscuits but I had two 7.5oz cans. That's what I used. The glaze calls for milk but I went ahead and used cream. Those things are definitely a good substitute for the Little Caesar's Cinnamon Whatevers, if not better.
Yum.
I feel like I ate so much. I should probably lie down and rest before I have more. I might start the new season of Stranger Things. It came out today on Netflix. It's already after 6:00 though. I might just binge it this weekend. My eyes are burning a little and my lids feel a heavy. Yeah, I think I'll wait until Saturday. I think I'll go tell my pillow how good the Cinnamon Roll Bites were.
green onions I stuck in that pot. Remember how I said they were thriving about a month ago? What's a step up from thriving? Booming? Yeah, we'll go with booming. Just take a look at these booming beauts.
And in case you can't remember what they looked like when I stuck them in the pot, here's this to make things easier.
I might have a partial green thumb after all. Anyone need any green onion?
We went to Shipley this morning. Shipley is across the street from O'Reilly. A certain song pops into my head sometimes when I'm waiting on donuts and today I realized why. I pulled into the O'Reilly parking lot to get a picture. Do you see it?
You won't be able to unsee it once you do. In case you don't see it...
And why is that the second reference to The Who that I've made in two days? Time to change the radio station.
I need to do my photo challenge. Today is favorite belonging. I don't have a favorite belonging. That's way too broad. It really depends on what I'm doing. I have a lot of "favorites" but then it's like I told Cosme, I'm too indecisive to have a favorite anything. I have a favorite knife for cutting strawberries but that's not my favorite knife for cutting onion. I have a favorite candle for the kitchen but that's not my favorite for the bathroom. I have a favorite pair of shoes for when I need brown shoes but it's not the same as my favorite black shoes. This is too difficult. I think I'll just take a picture of my camera. It's late and I have too much stuff to play favorites.
I'm going to go get my picture and try to get The Who out of my head. And speaking of having favorites, songs by The Who don't make any of those lists.
packs of hot dogs over the weekend so I could make corn dogs. I remembered a recipe I'd seen on Pinterest a few years ago for Corn Dog 7 corn dogs. You know, the place that was/is in the mall? I haven't seen one lately but I know they were around in the 80s. I don't remember eating a lot of their corn dogs but I remember their lemonade always looked good. So, today for lunch, I made corn dogs using THIS recipe. Let me rephrase that. I made corn puppies.
I cut them all in half so they'd fit in the Fry Daddy.
I messed up and instead of going with my original plan of halving the batter recipe, I accidentally added two eggs so a bunch of batter went into the garbage. I made a change though. Somewhere I read 6 cups of water and I only used 4. I thought the consistency was good.
And, in went the first batch.
Is two even a batch when you consider that it's technically only one dog? Note: if you ever want to set up a booth at the fair selling corn dogs, don't get a Fry Daddy. It won't cut it.
The first batch came out and I decided to push it a little further.
Three.
I left it at three and eventually, they were all done.
We had lunch and that was that. I'll use this recipe again. Everyone was happy.
One thing to remember though. If you're babysitting and the baby wakes up when you're almost done frying, make sure you empty that batter bowl and rinse off it and your whisk the first chance you get. If you forget and wait several hours, that stuff dries up and has to be soaked.
I started my 30-day yoga challenge yesterday. I also quit my 30-day yoga challenge yesterday. I turned it off at about 20 minutes in. I don't like yoga. I found another video with specific stretches for back pain and did a few of those.
It's getting late. I need to get stuff done and get to bed.
