fRecipe fRiday!!!

For Caleb and me, this week was Valentine’s week.  Every day I got or did or made food for Caleb.  There were heart-shaped cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, red velvet-chocolate chip cookies, notes, the movie Drive, blah blah blah.  Today, I made his favorite once-every-blue-moon meal:

BEEF STEW IN A BREAD BOWL!!!

This is way too easy. Buy a loaf of Hawaiian bread.

Then, using a bread knife, cut a circle in the top.  Leaving about an inch of bread on the perimeters, cut a cavern into the loaf.

Cover the insides with olive oil (just to seal the bread so that when you pour in the stew it doesn’t automatically seep into the bread.)  Stick the loaf in the oven on a cookie sheet on about 375 degrees for 10-20 minutes.  It’s up to you when the outside of the loaf is too brown.

Finally, cook your choice of beef stew and pour into the bread bowl.

We just ate this, and Caleb thoroughly demolished over 3/4s of it.

Aunt-T (Because It Sounds Like Auntie!)

Oh my goodness, have I got news for you.

I’m going to be an aunt!!!  My brother and sister are going to be parents!!!  Which is slightly weird, but exciting nonetheless!

(You see, they’re very cute, so there should be a very cute baby coming along too!)

When my brother first told me, I’m pretty sure my face was like this:

I don’t think I gave the appropriate reaction for just finding out that they were having a baby.  But as we sat and ate lunch it finally hit me, and my face changed to look more like these:

     

You might think I’m kidding, and you’d be wrong.  I’ve already made a board on Pinterest for that future baby, whether it be niece or nephew.  Do-it-yourself burp cloths, pacifier holders, mustache pacifiers, salt dough recipes, and on and on.  I’ve already bought that kid a onesie that I intend to decorate Hog-style.  I am so ready.

In other news, the RFC group did a sort-of banquet thing where people got to dress up with a masquerade theme!  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to look all fancy.

  

fRecipe fRiday! (It’s been a while!)

As you may know, it’s been a loooong time since I’ve written a fRecipe fRiday.  My reason?  Blogging about food while being sick just doesn’t add up for my stomach.  But now I can eat, so I can share my recipes with the world again! 

Most recently, I made

CRESCENT ROLL APPLE DUMPLINGS!!

These were pretty good, especially since I’m a fan of crescent rolls and apples and cinnamon and butter and sugar.

First, after you preheat the oven to 350 degrees, you take your package of crescent rolls, and you stretch and flatten them out. 

The next step is to mix 4 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in a little bowl. 

Peel and cut two small Granny Smith (or any other TART apples) into slices.  You may not need to use all of the slices.  Roll the apple slices in the cinnamon/sugar and put 2-3-4 slices on each piece of dough (depending on the size of your slices.)

Fold the dough over the apple slices and pinch the edges together.  You may have to stretch the dough some kooky ways to get this to work.  Set them in a pan (I think mine was a mini-rectangular pan.)  Not to gross you out, but I was just thinking how they look like tiny chickens before you cook them…

Anyway!  Mix a little under 1/2 a cup of water, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and the rest of your cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Pour this over the dumplings, then put a tiny scoop of butter on top of each dumpling.  Or a regular size scoop.  It really doesn’t matter. 

Finally, bake the dumplings for 25-30 minutes.  They’ll get nice and brown and look like this:

Oh so delicious!

See my new purse?  Caleb got it for me!  It matches anything peacock feathered.  I’ve been spoiled!!

Memories I Thought I Made Up (Titanic Edition)

When I was a kid, Titanic came out.  1998 is when I believe I saw it the first time…so I was at the young, impressionable age of six.

I had already grown up watching Leonardo DiCaprio in Growing Pains, and when he wore those cute little poor boy clothes in Titanic, I fell in like.  

  

Now for the good part.

Many of you may remember the legendary ballad “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.  Oh, you don’t?  Go ahead, click play and listen as you read.

You’re welcome.  Anyway, as you may know, Leonardo’s character in Titanic was named Jack.  I liked Jack, so when I sang this song, I would sing it to him.  My brother cranked up his boom box, popped his Celine Dion tape in, and as I laid in bed at night, I sang along, whispering “JACK” after every line.  Just to make sure Jack knew that I was a much better choice of girl than dumb Rose, and I would have totally let him share my floating door in the ocean.  And that I could have rocked out a blue sapphire and diamond necklace with my stick on nails better than Rose ever could have.

No one heard me since I was talking to Jack, or so I thought.

The other day, I told this story to my brother, sister-in-law and boyfriend while we were out at yogurt, thinking everyone would get a giggle out of it.  They did.  The only problem was my brother saying, “I REMEMBER THAT!"  There I was, thinking that my memory was a lonely one, or one that maybe I had made up and thought was real.  Nope, I really did that as a child.

I guess having to share a room with my brother had its consequences.

It’s Hard To Sit Down For Sports

Recently, I’ve realized how bad I am.  I love sports.  I love watching them on TV, in person, and I love playing them (when I’m good at them…)  On the same token, I’ve known for two years now just how loyal I am to my Hogs. 

I’ve been sick for almost a week now.  I absolutely love laying around, doing nothing, and eating only crackers with a side of Gatorade.  Oh wait, no I don’t.  When I’m sick I always have to do things.  I can’t stand being sedentary.  I read, I move around, I clean, I whine about how I don’t feel good because I moved too much, I sit back down, I get restless, repeat.

There was a very important gymnastics meet and pep rally for UofA Friday night.  Loads of recruits were brought in to see what the atmosphere was like.  I always loved watching gymnastics on TV, and my brother was super excited about the recruits, so it was kind of a perfect storm.  Oh, and at gymnastics meets you get to sit down and watch.  For a sick kid, that was a jackpot.  As tired as I was that night, I stayed awake and watched the whole meet.

It was amazing.  I felt like I was at the Olympics.  And guess what…not only did our gymnastics team beat three school records in one night (including biggest crowd attendance-I was part of that!) but it is now the *DRUMROLL PLEASE*

NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NATION!!!

The next day was the big basketball game.  In the student section, everyone stands the whole two hours or so of the game.  Me?  I sat down at the farthest edge of the student section by the railing and watched my brother’s and sister-in-law’s drink.  I’ll tell you one secret perk to sitting by the railing…you get to see everyone that passes by.  So when our quarterback and our head of the athletic department and the Cotton Bowl trophy passed by, I knew first.

Incredible side story: When I saw the trophy come by me, I alerted my brother.  While he was acting like he was about to touch it, the man carrying it looked over at us.  Bro said, “Uh can I touch it?” And the man leaned that trophy over the railing so we could wipe our filthy paws all over it.

A perk to being sick and sitting at the games: Having a steadier hand for shooting pictures.  I won’t complain.