A New Planner for a New Year

The last planner I bought was for a two year time period. At the time I thought that was a pretty sweet deal, but after a year I wanted something different to look at. However, I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one when that one was still in good shape. So I knew for 2013 I would get myself a shiny new planner and when I saw a groupon for Maybooks I was sold! All the designs were really cute and this is the one I decided on!! It has all the months in the front and then it's spread out with one week on each page...oh and I got to customize it with my name :)

My (very belated) Christmas Wrap Up

As I was scrolling through the pictures on my phone, I realized I had Christmas pictures I never posted. So here you go...better late than never :)





1. I got the idea to hang ornaments in the windows off of pinterest, but of course I can't link to it from work...boo 2. I made stockings with our names on them to put up at Barrett's house last year and this year I decided to put them up at my place :) 3. My Christmas wrapping...brown paper, tulle and stamps or bakers twine and homemade tags. 4. My burlap wreath made its 3rd consecutive season appearance...this time with a poinsettia :)





I actually did make a Christmas craft! After searching forever, I finally found the perfect size jingle bell for my 'o' at Target...all hail Target






My Christmas nails that I did in 10 mins. before going to church...I loved them, but probably won't do them again since everyone kept asking me if there was a "special" reason why my ring finger was gold...Nooooooo



And of course my "tree" my absolute favorite decoration!!

 

Hello 13 in 2013!

Last year I set 12 goals for myself and even though I didn't complete everything (I was 9 for 12) I still had fun trying! If you want to check out what I did and didn't do, click here or the page link off to the right :)

In the spirit of the new year, I'm setting 13 goals for 2013!! Let's see how many I can accomplish this year...

1. Make 12 new dinner recipes (0/12)
2. Read at least 5 new books (0/5)
3. Watch at least 5 movies off my Oscar list (0/5)
4. Travel to at least 1 new state
5. Finish my friend's wedding gift (hopefully by her second wedding anniversary on March 5)
6. Finsih cork frame
7. Run an entire 5k (I've always done the run/walk thing for 5ks)
8. Do/Make at least 5 pins from my Pinterest boards (@katyleigh28) (0/5)
9. Make my "Whatever, I'm late anyways" clock
10. Make at least 1 dessert out of each of my 4 dessert cookbooks
11. Make an appointment with the "Witch" doctor to figure out my tummy issues
12. Make a Shutterfly book of my trip to SF last fall
13. Pay off my car aka Carrie or at least get closer to paying it off ;) 

Chex On Crack

Doesn't that look like a good snack to start off the new year with?!?! I thought so too! My brother's girlfriend brought it over Thanksgiving eve night and I absolutely loved it. I begged asked for the recipe and sure enough it was in my inbox the next day! I really didn't have a reason to make it right away so I had to wait a few weeks for my friend's birthday. Unfortunately, I got in a fight with the white chocolate that night and the white chocolate won :( So my friends got a batch with no white chocolate, but still plenty of other ooey gooey deliciousness. The batch pictured above I decided to use vanilla candy coating instead of white chocolate and it worked much better.

This is a little more time consuming than my chocolate covered popcorn, but still easy and all done in the microwave.

Per the wonderful Haley, here is how you make it! (I believe her mom found the recipe on pinterest)

Ingredients:

8 cups Chocolate Chex cereal (I couldn't find chocolate so I used honey nut)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup  MINI Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

1 cup Miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup caramel bits (found by the chocolate chips in the baking aisle - or chop up regular caramels)

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/2 cup milk chocolate baking chips

1/2 cup white chocolate baking chips

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Into large microwavable bowl, measure cereal; set aside. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper or foil.

2. In 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter and corn syrup uncovered on high 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth. Stir in baking soda until dissolved. Pour brown sugar mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Microwave on High 3 minutes, stirring every minute. (This is what makes the Chex so crunchy). Spread on cookie sheet. Cool 10 minutes. Break into bite-sized pieces.

3. Make sure Chex mixture is cool to the touch (so candy doesn't melt). Evenly sprinkle mini peanut butter cups candy and miniature marshmallows over Chex mixture.

4. In small microwavable bowl, microwave caramel baking bits and cream uncovered on High about 1 minute or until chips can be stirred smooth. Use a spoon or fork to drizzle over snack. Repeat with milk chocolate baking chips. Repeat again with white baking chips. Quickly sprinkle coarse salt over while candy drizzles are still wet. 

5. Refrigerate until set. Break apart and store in tightly covered container.

Enjoy!!

Fantasy Fudge

I successfully made fudge!! Woo hoo. I decided to try my hand at regular fudge after my disaster this time last year. I followed the instructions to the T on the back of the jiffy puff marshmallow cream jar. I also used my candy thermometer. Let me tell ya, having one of those helps a lot...ha ha.

December Meal: Garlic Lemon Broccoli Pasta

I did it! I made 12 different meals this year!! I wanted to use my new bowl and plate set so bad that I decided to make pasta as my last new meal of the year. It seems like over the holidays I don't get very many veggies into my diet (I mean who chooses veggies when there are cookies to be eaten?!?!) so I decided to pump up the veggies for this meal. This is also my first meatless meal! I was surprised I actually stayed full without any chicken.

Garlic Lemon Broccoli Pasta (with a side salad of spinach topped with ranch)

1 serving spaghetti noodles
1 head of broccoli
2 cloves of garlic
zest of 1 large lemon
juice of half of the large lemon
1 - 2 T of olive oil





Start by boiling your noodles. Halfway through add your chopped broccoli. While that is cooking zest your lemon and grate your garlic. When the noodles and broccoli are to your liking drain the pot. Put your noodles and broccoli back into your pot and add the olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir everything together and enjoy!

BA, Argentina Part 3

For our last real day of touring, my mom and I took a tour of the river delta. The tour bus picked us up and took us to Tigre city (Tiger City) to catch the boat. The tour started on the Tigre river and took us out into the delta. This is the 3rd largest delta in the world.

Tigre city

When you live on the river you have no running water and this is your grocery store...

Some of the river houses were really colorful

Along with a floating grocery store you also have floating garbage "trucks"

Men collecting the reeds to make baskets and what not

There is one point on the delta where you can see BA in the distance

There was also an amusement park right on the water...how cool is that?!?!

After our tour on the delta we stopped at a fruit and craft market...

The fruit stands were so pretty to look at, but I got the feeling they didn't really want you to take pictures if you weren't going to purchase anything so I quickly snapped this one...ha ha

Scenic view point overlooking the delta on our way to lunch

That night we went to another tango show...this time at La Ventana

This place put on a smaller production, but was still amazing! The entire place felt like it was right out of the 1920s

This was by far the best dessert I had the entire trip. It's a dulce de leche panqueque or a caramel crepe ha ha

The last day we were there we did a bit of shopping and went to the Evita museum to check out all her clothes, shoes and hats. The museum was really cool, but unfortunately I didn't take any photos. Overall it was a great trip and 4 days was a perfect amount of time. I would love to go back to the country one day, but not to the city...I want to go further south and play with the penguins!!!