Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Baking In My Undies!

Last night I decided I wanted to bake something yummy. I had picked up some canned pumpkin dirt cheap the other night, and wanted to use some, because, well, who doesn't love pumpkin? I wanted to do something new--not the pumpkin cupcakes again (although they were amazing!), and not a pumpkin pie (because we already had one in the fridge). I did some research and found a great idea, and made my own recipe from it. Here we go...My recipe for Pumpkin Brownies!

I guess these might technically be considered "Blondies", but they have chocolate in them, so I call them brownies.


Ingredients
2 cups of All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of butter/margarine
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of canned pumpkin
chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a pan with aluminum foil & spray with nonstick spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients in bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.
4. Add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin and mix until smooth.
5. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time, and mix until it's all combined.
6. Add chocolate chips to the batter. Chocolate chips are at your discretion, if you like a lot of chocolate, more chips, less chocolate, less chips.
7. Pour batter into pan and top with chocolate chips.
8. Bake for 35 minutes or until light brown around edges.
9. As hard as it may be, let cool before removing from pan and devouring. 

AMAZING stuff. Daniel even calls them "Deliciousness". 

If you make it, be sure to let me know how they turned out!! 

Now, back to my trigonometry homework I've been neglecting.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Layla's First Bath!

Layla had her very first real bath the other day. She was SUCH a good baby!! I was surprised she took it so well. Here's photos:





Such a perfect baby. I love her. <3 

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Black Friday Insanity!

I cannot believe how intense this Black Friday was. I've always gone out with my family on Black Friday, but this year was just plain CRAZY! First of all, whoever decided to start the sales at midnight apparently doesn't enjoy sleep. Toys R Us even opened at 9pm. So here's how my Thanksgiving night/Black Friday morning was spent:

3pm: Daniel left the apartment to begin waiting in line at Best Buy. We were hoping for the 42" TV for $200.
4pm: My parents arrived at my apartment. Mom helped me clean the kitchen, which was a pain because my sink decided to spring a leak on the biggest cooking day of the year. I had a nice flooded floor. 
6pm: My parents, Layla, and I left the apartment to start our shopping spree. Took Daniel some things to keep him warm and occupied in line, then went to Michael's. 

Things I bought at Michaels: 
-bells for the Christmas tree
-ribbon for the Christmas tree

8pm: Went to the Toys R Us side of town. Waited in a longer line than was at Best Buy. If you know anything about Gainesville and Toys R Us, you can understand this: The line went past Jason's Deli when I got there. We moved up significantly, and the line was still past the Chinese Buffet. Toys R Us was SO stupid. The store is already set up weird. To make it even worse, they decided that the checkout line would go through literally EVERY SINGLE AISLE. So you have people shopping down the middle of the store as best they can, and people waiting in line in every aisle. Waiting to check out must have taken over an hour. I wouldn't know. We gave up. I couldn't find anything in Layla's age group on sale anyway. It was just too crazy to wait in line to not save anything.
Things I bought at Toys R Us:
-NOTHING.
On the way out of Toys R Us, someone from The Lingerie Company said they had free smoothies and food inside. So of course, I had to visit. Can I just mention how awkward it is to eat and drink with your mom in a pole dancing studio? And then proceed to shop in the lingerie/toy part of the store? It's odd. But my mom and I are close enough for me to handle it. 
Things I bought at Lingerie Company:
-mystery bag with $40 worth of product for $10. 
10:30pm: I got a call from Daniel. He didn't get the ticket for the TV we wanted, but did get a ticket for a larger, more expensive one. I went to Best Buy to discuss this with him. I ended up waiting in line with him until Midnight to go see what the TV was like & decide if we wanted it. Cox gave out free Krispy Kremes, which was a nice touch. 

12:17am: We finally get into Best Buy, only to wait in more lines to get our items. Checkout lines through the aisles again, but not all of them. Kill me. 
Things I bought at Best Buy:
-46' Plasma Smart TV


2am: Finally out of Best Buy. Went to Kohls with the parentals and Layla.
Things I bought at Kohls:
-memory foam bath mat. $9.99


3am: Time for food. Went to the mall, ate a cinnabon, shopped at Sears.
Things I bought at Sears:
-3 outfits for Layla
-1 outfit for my good friend Jess' baby 
-Reindeer doormat. 
-FREE COUPON BOOK
-FREE ORNAMENT
Finally decided to go home around 6am. I was exhausted, and slept all day. 


Layla was a great shopper. She was quiet, sleepy, and perfect. Here's a picture:

Oh Black Friday, until next year....

Giving Thanks!

It was our first Thanksgiving as a little family of our own, and the first time I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner. I've never touched a raw turkey, made stuffing, or cooked fresh green beans. This was a big deal. 

Since it was just me, Dmac (Daniel), and the Mcnugget (Layla), I didn't need to buy a whole turkey. We aren't dark-meat eaters. So I bought half a turkey breast. Rubbed some butter, salt, and pepper on it and put some chicken broth on top. Then shoved it in the oven for what seemed like forever. What was supposed to take 1.5-2 hours took 2.5. Dmac must have asked me a hundred times when it was time to eat. 
I made a new stuffing that included apples, dried cranberries, and sausage. It was quite a risk, but it was DELISH! Also made some green bean casserole--and I do nothing semi-homemade. So my green bean casserole was fresh picked organic green beans, onions, & mushrooms, half & half, and nutmeg. Amazing. And I'm not even a big green bean casserole person. I'm not a gravy person either, but I figured I'd try something new, so I made a brandy gravy. I wasn't crazy about it, though. Maybe no gravy next time. 

Here's how my table turned out:
Okay, so my presentation isn't the best...It never is...
but it was certainly a great Thanksgiving dinner. 

Layla is too famous for me to not post a Thanksgiving photo.