Collage

Collage

Monday, April 29, 2013

Weekend Recap and Menu Monday

Hi Friends! This past weekend was jam packed with all kinds of stuff, and I actually remembered to take photos of some of it. Go me!

Friday night the hubs had signed us up for a fun night at the middle school he is student teaching at. We headed out early and decided we wanted to eat at a local restaurant, and after reviewing our choices we ended up at EBC in Fredonia, NY. Ellicottville Brewing Company is a micro brewery with their own line of beers and they also have two restaurants, one in Ellicottville and the one in Fredonia we went to Friday.


The food was great, and we got there pretty early so there was no wait! This restaurant is pretty neat- it has a rustic-yet-polished look. Here is a shot of the upstairs where we were seated:


The food really impressed me. We went a little out of our comfort zones and ordered the pork flautas for an appetizer. These babies were good! So good in fact that we ate most of them before I remembered to take a picture :)


The hubs wasn't a big fan of the salsa verde on top, but I loved it! I ended up ordering a salad with goat cheese, chicken, and dried cranberries:


Full disclosure- I ate about a third of the salad before remembering to take a photo, so I smoothed it back over the plate to look untouched ;) The hubs got a coffee rubbed steak and that was really good too!


I would highly recommend this place, so if you find yourself in Western NY look it up! After the school event we went to Point Gratiot and caught the sunset:


Saturday was a really random day. After taking care of some stuff in the morning we ended up running a few errands which included wandering into an antiques store and shopping around for a push mower. We didn't find a mower we liked, so our lawn still looks like a jungle. I'm going to have to borrow my parents lawn mower to mow it!

Sunday was mostly a work day on homework/lesson plans. We did go to a friends house to watch Django- the hubs has been waiting forever to see this! I do not recommend it if you don't like gory movies- it has some pretty unrealistic gun fights. However it was an interesting storyline. 

This week the menu is going to be pretty low key- its my last super busy week of school!

Monday- stuffed burritos
Tuesday- pack/eat out
Wednesday- not sure yet- wild card!
Thursday- polska kielbasa and potatoes
Friday- something quick! I might be going to a Stampin Up party

The hubs wont be around this weekend so I'm hoping to try one of my recipes I have saved that I know he wont like. I'll have to report back if I make one!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Friday Pinterest Finds

Surprisingly I don't have an overwhelming amount of pins for you this week even though I didn't post last week. Just goes to show how busy things have been I suppose!

First is a simple meal that I could see myself eating when the hubs isn't home: Rice and Bean Casserole with Guacamole


And this is a meal I would have to eat WITH the hubs, because he would not want to miss these! Cheeseburgers with sautéed mushrooms, arugula (maybe we would sub in spinach?) and dijon aioli. 

This is a recipe I've had sitting in my Kraft Recipes box that I moved on over to Pinterest- Cappuccino Chocolate-swirl Cheesecake bars.

I thought this was the cutest idea. In kindergarten  buy a large tee shirt and add their graduation year. Take a photo every year with the shirt!

I thought this would be a nice item for a baby nursery :)


This post had some great ideas for prepping ahead to make home cooked meals easier throughout the week. 

I'm a cookie lover, and this recipe for Inside Out Chocolate Chip cookies got my attention! I would probably do peanut butter or chocolate chips instead of white chocolate though.

This weekend is gearing up to be another busy one, but after next week things should start to slow down. My plan is to do lots of homework, knit a little, and enjoy the weather!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I actually have a lot of knitting to share with you this week. April was the month of showers for me- I had two bridal and two baby showers I attended! The second baby shower was Saturday and that's what most of my knitting was for.

Mom and baby got:


And another hat. I think this one if my favorite- the multi color stripes are adorable! It sort of reminds me of an Easter egg :)

The couple isn't finding out the gender before the baby is born, so I tried to keep everything neutral. The second hat might be a tad girly, but honestly most of the baby appropriate yarn I have is very one way or the other. The mom-to-be was delighted with the hand knits though so that's all that matters!

I only have two projects on the needles, and its going to stay that way until the end of the month. First is the pair of stripey socks I'm still plugging away on:
This is an old picture of the first sock, but its about how far I am on the second sock so it works :)

The other project is going to be a gift, and I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out:
At first I was worried because it takes a few inches before the ruffles really start to look normal, but I think the more I knit the better it will look. That's what I'm hoping for anyway!

I also finished two books this week, one school related and one not. The school one wasn't too bad a read- its a source for one of my research papers.



The other one was more enjoyable though :) I started this book a few months back and only read a few chapters before the ebook went back to the library. I checked it out again a few weeks ago and made sure I finished it this time!



I was a little disappointed at first- I was expecting more of a Sherlock Holmes-esque feel to it. Nevertheless, the story was good and kept you interested with multiple characters. If you like crime solving, this might be a good book for you!

This post is linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along

Monday, April 22, 2013

Blog Fail and Menu?

You may (or may not) have noticed that I only got one blog post out last week. There are a couple of reasons for that- it's nearing the end of my school semester so in addition to assignments for each class I now have final papers and projects sucking my time. Also last weekend I had two showers to attend, one of which I helped out with, so that kept me busy. With all the stuff going on in the news its hard to focus on my small world. Then there was a bunch of small stuff that came up and I caught a cold. When you put it all together you have a crazy week/weekend with a person who wants to fall asleep at 8pm.

My blog is important to me and I feel like it keeps me organized and accountable. However, the next 4 weeks might be sketchy. I may or may not keep to my Monday, Wednesday blog post schedule. I might not post again until mid May (I really hope that doesn't happen!) What I'm trying to say is that we are flying by the seat of our pants over here, and that includes meals, house chores, and social commitments. It's crunch time, and it's going to stink, and then it will be over!

 This was my view Saturday morning:
It continued to snow on and off until mid afternoon, but its hasn't come back since. The weather this week looks slightly warmer with most days in the 50s, so here's hoping real spring weather is on its way!

As far as a menu goes, I think instead of assigning meals to days I'm just going to write meal ideas here. That way I have something to refer to and you guys can see what kind of stuff we are chowing down on this week.

I bought a whole chicken over the weekend, and I plan to roast that and some veggies for a simple supper tonight. That will give us leftovers for another meal or two, maybe quesadillas? Also shrimp is on sale this week, so I might combine it with some veggies and polska kielbasa with some pasta for a quick meal. 

One of the things that contributed to a stressful week last week was the fact that we found all out food in our chest freezer downstairs thawed and rotten. The power had gotten turned off to the freezer :/ Thankfully it wasn't full, and we didn't have to throw out too much food, but we were still really disappointed. This does mean that our stash of meats to thaw and grill is depleted  but we still have some things in the upstairs freezer we might cook up.

Have you ever lost food from your fridge or freezer because something went wrong?

Monday, April 15, 2013

Menu Monday

Today is the nicest day we have had yet this year with promises of 70 degree weather... 70! I'm really excited even though I have to be inside most of the day. This weekend was lots of fun! We spent a lot of time with friends watching movies, doggie play dates, and target and clay pigeon shooting. Unfortunately I didn't take ANY photos. I have got to get better about that!

Last week's menu was a total fail. Last week was kind of rough- we ended up eating out Tuesday, Wednesday (which was planned) and Thursday, which is pretty unusual for us. Honestly, Tuesdays and Thursdays are such long days that by the time we are heading home at 8pm it sounds so great just to stop and get some food rather than waiting until we get home and trying to find something to eat. I'm over it, and striving to make this week a little better. 

Monday: The chicken and shrimp jambalaya that I had on for last week (only ours will have sausage rather than chicken)

Wednesday: Steak is in sale this week, so I'm thinking grilled steak and roasted veggies

Friday: Roasted whole chicken (also on sale this week) with pasta salad

Saturday: lettuce chicken wraps similar to these

You will notice that I didn't bother to plan for Tuesday and Thursday. I decided that since I almost never eat what I plan for those days that, until mid May when I graduate, I'm not going to bother. If there are leftovers great, otherwise we will eat something quick or (gasp) eat out. We just need to make it to graduation! Then we can eat like normal people again ;)

Friday, April 12, 2013

Weekly Pinterest FInds

This week's Pinterest finds are a little different than normal. I've mentioned a few times that I'm graduating in May, and this week I was looking for a dress for graduation. I don't wear dresses a lot, and while I probably have something in my closet that would work, this is a good opportunity to add to my dresses and feel pretty for graduation :) These first couple of pins are my ideas I have come up with so far:




What do you think? Any of these win your vote???

I also found this neat idea for mixer attachments:


I love the idea of matte nailpolish!


Sorry this is kind of a short post. This week has been a long one and I guess I didn't find too much to pin!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WIP Wednesday

Even more baby knitting this week! I feel like I am going to be knitting a lot of baby stuff for the foreseeable future. I know a few more people who are having babies this year and since the hubs and I plan on having kids sometime in the next few years I don't think it's crazy to knit a few things to put away. Plus everything is so small, quick, and mostly portable its hard not to want to keep knitting more!

This week I finished (and gifted) a baby hat to go along with the bibs I finished.
Isn't this adorable!? I LOVE this hat pattern and asked the hubs if it would be strange I made one in a bunch of colors to save for our kids. Good man that he is, he said it was practical :)

I like this pattern so much that I started another one for another baby shower later this month. The colors are off on this photo- the green is much more of a spring green than the pea green color it is turning out in this photo.
I'm brainstorming other small, gender neutral items I could knit up in the next week or so using stash yarn to go with this hat. What are your favorite baby knits?

I'm excited to be reading some non-school stuff this week! In an effort not to lose my mind before graduation, I decided I needed to take a little time for myself and read for fun every so often. I came back to a book I had started a few months ago, The Murder Room.


It's pretty interesting, though not what I was expecting when I first picked it up. I'm reading it on my Nook on a loaded eBook from the library. This is becoming a great way to get new books!

This post is linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along

Monday, April 8, 2013

Menu Monday

This weekend was unexpectedly fun! Saturday I worked and the hubs had drill, but he got out early and we met some friends at the local Greek Diner for dinner. Afterwards we went to another friend's house for a movie night with brownies and ice cream. No photos, but you can be sure it was a good time! Both get-togethers were totally impromptu, but sometimes those are the best kind.

Sunday I stopped over to my parents to use their iron (ours isn't working right) to steam block my gift for the baby shower later that day. Mom thought the cat would have a great time with my scraps:


I'm not sure he had as fun as we did, but he was a good sport about it!

I'm really happy with how my gift for the shower came out. I forgot to take a photo of it all packed up (duh) but I do have a photo of the bibs all nicely steamed:


There was also a little newborn hat I made, but I'll show that on Wednesday with the rest of my knitting :) The mom to be loved the bibs and she looked great for being less than 3 weeks away from her due date!


After I got home from the shower Diesel was being quite the ham. He climbed up behind me on the couch and was resting his head on my shoulder, but when I tried to take a photo he wouldn't cooperate. I did eventually get this shot:


But after this the photo session went down hill quickly ;)

This morning both Diesel and Elliot were waiting outside the bathroom door for me, and Elliot was amusing himself by playing with Diesel's tail. The two of them crack me up!


All in all the weekend was so good that it made starting a new week not so bad! Here's our menu plan:

Monday: My version of Caesar Chicken Chalupas
Tuesday: Homemade pizza using whatever toppings we can find in the fridge
Wednesday: Dinner out with the In-laws!
Thursday: Either fast food or mac and cheese 

I also want to make banana muffins sometime this week as I have three very ripe bananas on my counter. This weekend looks wide open right now, so I might actually make several more meals that what I have above. Guess we will see how it plays out!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Pinterest Finds

This week we are FINALLY starting to see some nice weather. I almost walked to work today, but it was only 30 something when it was time to leave which is still too cold for me!

Diesel (our dog) went into the vet yesterday. I was at school all day, so we planned for my husband to take him and his mom to come along as dog wrangler-helper/second pair of ears in the room. He has had two seizures in the past few months and never had them before, and I knew he was behind on his shots, so it was mostly a check up. They waited forever in the waiting room (an hour AFTER the scheduled appointment time!) and by the time they got done my husband was almost late for work so my mother-in-law brought Diesel back to her house for me to pick up later. He thought he was being pretty cool when I tried to load him up to go home:


Just to be clear, I wasn't driving when this was taken nor did Diesel actually ride on the seat like that! It took us a few minutes but we got him settled in for the car ride home where he whined and moaned the whole time :)

Anyway, I have a lot of recipes coming at you this week from Pinterest. Some are from my recipe box on Kraftrecipes.com. I thought it would make sense just to consolidate into Pinterest, and I started on that earlier this week.


French Toast Casserole- I would use a fruit the hubs would actually eat (aka not blueberries), but how good would this be on a weekend morning?


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes- not sure I will make these anytime soon, but the recipe was just too intriguing not to pin.


Cooking ribs has kind of intimidated me, but this recipe for Baby Back Barbecue ribs looks good.


This is one of my favorite things to make for a party. I think I could eat a pan by myself!


I haven't tried this recipe yet, but these Crispy Chicken Roll ups seem like a fun meal for a weeknight.


The next two pins are tried and true favorites- foil pack dinners! One has an asian flair and the other is chicken and mushroom. I love that you can sub things in and out depending on what you have on hand!


This Greek-style couscous salad screams spring to me- it just looks so fresh and healthy.


This pin is so that I can use up the buttermilk sitting in my fridge- overnight buttermilk cinnamon rolls.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I'm excited to show you guys my knitting progress for the past two weeks! Since I took last week off from blogging and I had a bit more time since I wasn't in school, there's a good amount to show you.

I'm currently working on the last bib out of five for a friends baby shower next weekend. 
This one will have a green tie, and will round out the rainbow bib set nicely. I may try to get out a small little something to add to the basket, but if not I think this little set in the basket will make a nice gift.

The other project I'm still working on is the blanket. I'm SO CLOSE to finishing this! Here's a shot of my last border row:
I hope to have it finished and washed this weekend so it can go to its recipient.

I finished a couple of things too! You guys last saw this yellow bib as a WIP.

And I finished up the green bib too.
For knitting so many of these guys, I don't hate the pattern. I may not want to knit one for a while, but I can see myself knitting more sometime in the future! I think it helped knowing I was going to make 5 from the get go and having them color coordinate.

Reading is mostly school stuff, and my currently reading list on Goodreads is getting ridiculous.  I can't wait until the semester finished, half of those books will be read, and I can go back to reading whatever I want!

This post is linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along