Sunday Surprise: April Fool's Day Prep

Hi gang,

I hope you are all doing well this week. I survived my migraine last week, thank goodness. I think that I may be coming down with something else (knock on wood), but since I'm well enough to type, I'm not going to waste precious time telling you about it. Heeheehee.

I can only imagine that Emilee and Marquette have some fun posts/ideas up their sleeves about April Fool's Day. But the good news is, I do too! I couldn't help myself! I'm a terrible prankster, always have been, for two main reasons. 1.  When I come up with something clever, I always end up ruining it by laughing before the perfect moment. 2.  I don't like mean-spirited, gross, hazardous, expensive, or all around cruel kinds of pranks. They aren't fun to me and aren't fun to the person that I'm pranking. End of story. I'm a promoter of fun.

But, perhaps, this year I can find something that I can pull off and enjoy. Here are some projects that I am considering for April Fool's Day (two days from now, I'm staring this plan a little late, I know).

1. Greetings from Strangers in Traffic
This would be totally hilarious. And hopefully, not too dangerous...

http://themetapicture.com/category/funny-2/page/4/

2. Xerox Pranks at the Office
Because, really, Xerox machines are such a pain, that this wouldn't be surprising at all. Why, oh why, don't I work in a larger office, where I wouldn't get caught?

http://themetapicture.com/im-hitting-every-copier-in-the-office-with-this/

3. "Is Your Fridge Running?"
Yes, yes it is.

v]http://themetapicture.com/is-your-fridge-running/

4.  Impromptu Confetti
Surprise! You're home!

5.  Lava!

This one is genius! Why isn't my color printer working right now?

6.  Mouse Prank
Someone got me with this last year.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/e4/0a/18/e40a18a8e33bcc4f38848ec8a1401e69.jpg

And..... drumroll please.... the winner!!!!!

7. The Faux Nail Polish Spill

I'm totally doing this one! I have over 200 bottles of polish, there's bound to be one that I don't care about. Poor Rob... Hopefully, I'll be able to catch it in action.

Are you participating in April Fool's Day this year? What are you up to? Make us proud! We'd love to hear about your pranks!

Happy Foolin',
Rachel

PS: Thanks to everyone who commented on my migraine post last week. You were all so nice. E-hugs for every one of you!

Show-and-Tell Saturday- New Recipe Week!

I get in food ruts FAST.
I will love a food, cook it a million times in a month and then be done with it for 3 years. Its a serious problem. Poor Chip.

Then along comes Pinterest! This week I thought I would shake it up a bit with a few new recipes! Here's what I ended up using.

 

Recipe #1
Monday-Spinach, Mushroom & Feta Crustless Quiche
 

Monday we had Quiche that I got from this website called Budget Bytes. This website is cool because they break down the cost of each ingredient and how much each serving costs you, if you are on a budget and looking for good recipes, this gal has got it figured out!
I forgot to take a picture of ours, but it really just looked like a quiche, the ONLY change I made to the recipe was that I added Canadian bacon to the whole thing at the end before I sprinkled it with cheese. It was super easy to make, fast to put together, and delightful :)

http://www.budgetbytes.com/2011/11/spinach-mushroom-feta-crustless-quiche/


Recipe #2
Tuesday-Big Italian Hug
This one is officially called Creamy Spinach & Sausage Pasta, but someone on Pinterest pinned it as Big Italian Hug and I liked it, so it stuck.
This one is also by Budget Bytes, and it was awesome! Seriously, so good!
I didn't make any changes to this one and it turned out great and didn't take too long!

http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/01/creamy-spinach-sausage-pasta/

 

Here is my poorly lit version. There's cheese, it's just all mixed together here.

 

 

Wednesday we had my sisters recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken, an oldie but a goodie!

 

Recipe #3

Thursday-Chicken Curry In A Hurry

I haven't gotten too much into Rachel Ray, but she is great, this was quick and it was awesome! We love Indian food, and there is no Indian restaurant here so we have to make our own, I think we did alright :)

This can also be adapted for vegetarian curry, which I did for some friends a few weeks ago, for that change use vegetable broth and tofu instead of chicken. Everything else is the same and it was just as delicious as the non-veggie version.

P.S. This was my first venture at using fresh ginger, I was a bit apprehensive at first because well ginger looks weird, but it wasn't so bad and the taste wasn't as abrasive as I thought it would be.

Yay for trying new things!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chicken-curry-in-a-hurry-recipe.html

 

Recipe #4

Pizza Hut Delivers, It's Friday Ya'll

That's right, I had something planned for Friday, which I will probably use next week since I already have all of the ingredients, but we got pizza instead.

My compliments to the chef!

 

There you have it! My week in new recipes from Pinterest! I would call it a great success!

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday!

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Improvised Taco

Why does it seem that when we are trying to plan a surprise, the world works against us? It can be hard, and there's a lot of improvising that goes on, but it's so worth the trouble. I LOVE planning surprises. Even if it's "just" a surprise dinner. 

Jessica decided to try out a Pinterest pin as a surprise, and ended up with this fantastic story:

My name is Jessica and I am 18 years old from Topeka, Kansas. I’ve always wanted to submit a Pinstrosity to this lovely blog, but I’ve never had the guts to try anything (And I’m also known for being incredibly lazy.) This morning my dad told me he wouldn’t be home from work until 7 or 8 so he told me just order pizza or whatever for dinner. He usually cooks, because when I try to cook bad things always happen. I was at school today perusing Pinterest and I saw this recipe for an easy crescent taco bake that was made by Pillsbury.

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/easy-crescent-taco-bake/9c2bd5f7-63f7-4a6c-afa3-56baeedbc35a

I looked it over and I’m like hey I can do that! It also was a good idea because taco pizza is my dad’s favorite. I headed to my local grocery store after school feeling super confident. Until I pulled out my phone to check what’s in the recipe, and I realized my lovely iPhone was dead. I decided just to risk it and get taco toppings that I would usually get, and then get a can of crescent rolls. I walked through the store all confident like yeah, I know what I’m doing. I picked up some avocados, Rotel, chicken, taco seasoning, sour cream, and all other sorts of taco toppings. I even picked up a tub of rocky road ice cream, another one of my dad’s favorites. Once I hit the checkout lane, I realized my debit card was on my bed at home, and I only had a $10 bill in my purse. So as you can imagine, I panicked. I started to walk back around the store, and try to figure out what I had at home to still make this freaking taco bake. The local pizza joint was just not going to get my money tonight. I knew I had steak from last night, so I put the chicken back. I also dropped my queso, sour cream, and Rotel because I knew I remembered I still had some from making nachos over the weekend. Finally, I got home and started to make this crescent bake which I knew would be a pain. Even before my $10 nightmare, I had picked up the generic crescent rolls instead of Pillsbury because I’m a rebel and I’m also pretty cheap. Opening those crescent rolls was honestly the most challenging thing I ever did in my life. I finally popped open that can but I had mangled my crescent rolls pretty bad. I tried spreading them out on my pie tin, but it was just failing time after time. It was like the universe was laughing at me saying ha-ha you will never make this taco bake. Either that or the stinking local pizza joint. Eventually I gave up and was just going to make burritos, until I decided to attempt homemade “bagel” bites. I rolled my crescent dough into little balls and flattened them, then topped them with Rotel and steak and a little shredded Cheddar cheese. I baked them for a solid 13 minutes, and they came out delicious. I topped them with queso, some lettuce, and sour cream. My near complete Pinstrosity disaster quickly turned into a delicious Pin Spin. The best part was, my dad walked in right as I pulled them out of the oven, so he got a night off from cooking as well. All turned out to be a-ok…. Except I’m still craving that Rocky Road ice cream. 

These sound delicious! Her story made me think of this:

Does anyone open those without at least holding their breath? It's the adult version of a jack in the box. Bah. 

Scarf Vest!!!

I've been pinning all over the place this week and actually using them throughout the week!

 

I will show you all the fun pins I have tried on Show-and-Tell Saturday, but for today I will show you a twenty second outfit update that I found on Pinterest!

 

Over Spring Break Chip and I went to Urban Outfitters, which I previously thought was only an online store...and I found an AMAZING unicorn scarf :)

 

Tuesday night I remembered that I had seen this pin:

 

www.couponing101.com

 

When I remembered this pin I figured I would try it with my new GIANT scarf, seriously this thing is like 5 ft. by 3 ft. !

Wedenesday was also Epilepsy Awareness Day, something one of my best friends suffers from, and so I wore the Epilepsy Awareness color purple with my new scarf/vest!

 

 

Here is the scarf/vest!

 

 

Just something fun to try with your larger scarfs!!

 

Happy Thursday all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Nail Polish Flowers

I love perusing Pinterest for projects that look too good to be true. Those ones are so much fun to test out and research! This past week I decided to test out one of these pins which looked way too simple on Pinterest. Figured that'd be the perfect H.U.M.P. Day kind of post. 

There's no way this could be as easy as it looks, right?

The Original Pin

http://www.duitang.com/people/mblog/93489682/detail/

They look like gorgeous glass flowers! No way that's real...right? So I decided to test it. 

As it is Use it Up month, I wanted to see what I could find around the house to try this out. I pulled out my most expensive nail polish (for me it was expensive...I usually stick to the $1-2 range...$5 for a bottle of polish was really pushing it for me!), a mid-level, and my cheapest polish. I wanted to see if the quality of polish made a difference.  I also found some floral wire to use. I was set to go!

 I wrapped the wire around the pencil and twisted and warped and finally ended up with my flower shape. The wire didn't want to cooperate and it took some work to get it where it didn't look all weird, but I finally ended up with this:

Now time for the polish. Started with the cheapest polish first. It was a no go. I couldn't get it to form the film!

Surely the more expensive ones would work...right? Nope! Same results.

I was disappointed. But then I thought that maybe it was a problem with the size of the petals. So I rummaged through the house and found a lollipop stick in my baking stuff and figured that would work.

The lollipop stick produced petals that were more the size of the original picture. Now I figured we were good. 

Success! The polish finally was able to form a film between the wire.

So now that I knew a smaller petal would work, I got busy making a full flower.  Again...the wire did not want to cooperate, especially now that we were working with smaller proportions. 

Once again, I tested all three polishes and all three worked, but the blue one covered up the green of the wire better than the others.

Here's the finished teal flower:

Meh. The thick wire really just made it look sloppy I thought. I wanted the dainty look of the flowers in the original picture. So while I was up in Albuquerque for Darrow's MRI (he's good! Everything came back with good reports!), I stopped in at Hobby Lobby, broke the Use it Up rules, and bought a $2 spool of thin wire. Now I was set to try it again.

After putting together the first flower, I knew this one was going to work way better.

I decided to just stick with teal and cream. The cream worked really really well, but I had some trouble getting the teal (the more expensive polish) to make the film. But, they both worked in the end.

My original idea was to make a ton of these and put together a fun spring centerpiece for may table. 6 flowers in and I was done. I didn't want to have to make enough for a centerpiece. So I improvised and made a pin.

So, the original pin actually works! And it works well as long as you don't make your petals to big, and don't use thicker wire. This really would be gorgeous in a wedding bouquet, or in a crown (as in the original pin) for a flower girl, and it would be super cheap! 

For once, I am quite happy to say I was wrong.

Palatable Pumkin Paleo Pancakes

Paleo seems to be everywhere these days. In theory it sounds great, but for some reason I haven't gotten on the train, not a good or bad thing, it just hasn't tickled my fancy.

Yet.

I love trying new things like that, so maybe my interest will be piqued by Janny's submission today!

 

Check it out!

 

The Original

 

http://www.muffin-topless-mom.com/2013/10/foodie-fridaypumpkin-pancakes-paleo.html?m=1

 

 

Janny thought these paleo pumpkin pancakes looked TO DIE for, so she tried them out.

 

 

The Pinstrosity

 

Oh no!!

These Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes went kerPlunk (someone take the keyboard away, this is getting out of hand).

Here is what Janny had to say about her pancake concoction:

 

 

"I used almond milk instead of coconut milk, I thought it would be an OK substitution since I'd seen it on other pancake recipes. I'm not sure if that's what caused the burned pile of half cooked batter or not. 

The batter did not stick together at all- so flipping the pancakes was impossible! 

It actually tasted ok once I got past the texture and burned spots! I opted for eggs and avocado instead. "

 

I would suggest sticking to the recipe, as we know it is tried and true.

One thing that might have had an affect on the burn-ed-ness is how hot your stove was. As for the batter not sticking together like it should have, it's hard to suggest something that can be used as a substitute for the whole paleo thing (the original recipe used coconut flour which I have never used so I'm not sure as to its "stickiness").

The other thing I caught in the original was that you need to "fold" at one point as opposed to stirring. I'm not saying Janny didn't do this (she didn't mention either way) but in past Pinstrosities that was a big problem if you skipped that, so there is a thought on all that.

 

I'm no paleo, or pancake, or pumpkin for that matter expert. Like I said, I haven't tried paleo, I'm a waffle kind of girl (I know the batter is pretty much the same it's just a texture thing) and I am probable THE only person on the planet earth who doesn't eat copious amounts of pumpkin in the fall, or all year round really.

Whew!

What I am saying is, "Pumpkin, Paleo, and Pancake experts of the interwebs!!! Unite!!" What can we do to help the texture on these bad boys??

 

 

Happy Tuesday all!

 



 

Mix It Up Funnies

I would like to congratulate you all for surviving this past week! 1,000 points to Gryffindor for each of you. If you make it through today, I'll double your points. Here are 9 pins to help you get through your day!

http://memeshuffle.tumblr.com/post/56378060374/random-awesome-guy-more-meme-pics-at-meme

http://www.vitamin-ha.com/funny-taxidermy/funny-taxidermy-08/

http://cheezburger.com/8110377216

http://stupidfunnypics.com/2012/05/busting-myths/

http://themetapicture.com/remember-them/

http://themetapicture.com/a-time-traveler-was-here/

http://loldamn.com/how-to-scare-your-wife-by-ellen-degeneres.html

http://themetapicture.com/no-amount-of-money-can-make-me-do-this/

http://funsubstance.com/fun/106392/expert-camouflage/