Friday, March 25, 2011

Random Updates

I haven't written in awhile because I've been busy with random things going on. So I just thought I would update you guys on the not so significant activities that have kept me busy lately.


This picture is one of the many reasons why I got my hair cut a few weeks ago.

Yes, this is hair, MY HAIR, cut from our vacuum cleaner. I occasionally have to cut mass amounts of hair from the belt of our vacuum cleaner because it gets clogged up and makes a horrible high pitched squealing sound. At first I thought the squealing sound was because of the quality of our carpet. NOPE! Its my hair. So, I said enough is enough, I'm chopping it off, my hair that is. Well, I didn't actually say that and it wasn't actually because of the vacuum that I got my hair cut, but I think cutting my hair has helped. I hadn't cut my hair in a YEAR and have been wanting to get it cut since the fall. I wisely decided to wait till winter was over before exposing my neck to the elements again. So, yes my hair is chopped, twice actually which makes me feel SO HIGH MAINTENANCE, but if you don't like something you got to try and fix it right? Anyway its much better now.


I made these cinnamon/sweet rolls for a Bible/book study I'm in with a few other young wives.













We had the study at my house and we meet in the morning so I decided to make some breakfast food for us to munch on during our time together. This was my first time to EVER make any kind of pastry from scratch. I'm use to the canned cinnamon rolls that you pop out, bake, and put on the pre-made icing. But I decided to be bold and daring and try it from scratch. It actually wasn't that difficult, but yes it was time consuming. They were kind of a bust at first. Neil tried one and said they didn't actually taste very sweet!!!!!!!!! Well since that was the whole point of them I didn't serve them and quickly made some muffins. But I have served them to others and eaten plenty of them myself since and I made a 'sweet glaze' to put on them which is delicious! So they have been redeemed and there have been many compliments! One guy declared himself a 'sweet roll connoisseur' and said they were the BEST he had ever eaten! So that was VERY encouraging!

Also in the kitchen I had another first. I cooked a WHOLE chicken and made broth!


I had a coupon from EarthFare for a 'free' dinner. If you spent $10.00, which is not hard to do because its a pricey store, since its an organic store, you got a 'free' dinner of a whole chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots. So I used my coupon and got those items. Well, what you may not know about me is that I'm SUPER grossed out by chicken which is weird since its the only meat I'll really eat. But I'm SUPER paranoid of getting salmonella so I wear gloves when handling any raw chicken. Don't even get me started on dealing with a whole chicken and its bones and insides... My gagging reflexes start flaring up just writing about it. Well anyway I broke down and thought it was time for me to be a 'big girl and wife' and cook the chicken and make chicken broth. I even had to rinse the chicken out myself! I asked Neil but he said he thought it was something I should do... So I held my breath and tried to calm down my gagging reflexes and away I went. It wasn't too bad, still not my favorite thing to ever do, but there wasn't much to clean out and I just put the chicken in my crock pot with some spices and onions and carrots and let it do its thing. We had quite a bit of chicken meat!! Out of a two or two and a half pound chicken I was able to make two HUGE meals that we ate off of for two weeks! Not to mention the chicken broth/stock which was super easy and made quite a bit. I still have a 32oz left to use whenever I need it! So it was SUPER cost effective to do this and not real time consuming since I used my crock pot and I boiled the broth while I made dinner one day. However, I'm still not sold on doing this because I'm not sure my stomach can handle this method!

And lastly, my friend Rebecca asked me to make her some more burp cloths! I was happy to oblige! Here are my four latest creations:













The first two are my favorites because I love making the little rosettes! I love having something pop off the fabric and I can't stop loving the first fabric. I do actually feel greed rising up in me saying I HAVE TO HAVE THAT FABRIC! Which is weird and wrong in SO many ways! I feel like I didn't get to be as creative as I wanted with these because I couldn't think of anything fun to do with the last two, I was running out of time because I gave myself a deadline, and I'm trying to teach myself that 'less is more' sometimes. Anyway, I still love making them and have been thinking of branching into other baby related items so we will see!!!!!
For the two of you that read the blog, Lacy and Lauren, if you had made it to the end, thanks for hanging in there!

2 comments:

  1. Hah! Thanks for the shout-out, it made me laugh. I had been eagerly scanning my google reader for a peas'n'carrots post to pop up, so I'm glad you wrote!

    Okay, list o' comments:
    1) Where is the picture of said new haircut?!?! Seriously.
    2) The cinnamon rolls look yummy.
    3) Brave, brave girl! I haven't tried to cook a whole chicken, does that mean I'm not a big girl? Ha! :) I am semi-interested, but... whew, that's a lot of mention of gagging.
    4) Those burp cloths are beautiful!!! The first 2 our my favorite, too--love the purple + brown!! (And I'm not even huge on purple, but it IS growing on me!)

    Lover you! So glad you blog. :)

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  2. Yeah... sorry about not having a picture of the cut... I'll try to get one soon... the cinnamon rolls are yummy, it's been almost a month since i made them and we still have some left over they are still nice and soft and with the glaze they are AH-mazing. You are totally a big girl without cooking the chicken and there wasn't AS MUCH gagging as I thought there would be... thanks for liking the burp cloths- you got me started! i think i will ALWAYS love purple and brown- which is good since its my kitchen colors. thanks for commenting!

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