Coasters

I wrote this a long time ago, and know I have more pictures. But, they must be on my camera still which would take oh-so-long to get onto this post.

I’ve been making a bunch of coasters for an upcoming church craft fair. Initially I made a couple 2-pc sets with “Mr. and “Mrs.” on the front to encourage purchases for all the weddings happening at church. But then, without a cricut, I got really tired of cutting out the letters and skipped to 4-pc sets of cropped scrapbooking paper. Then I thought I could use up some of my cool old scrapbooking paper, but it turns out I only have old scrapbooking paper. Cool, notsomuch. Just a few sheets of “cool.”

Regardless, with a few trips to Michael’s and Home Depot I have created nearly 2 dozen coasters. After the first 4, I got a LOT better, and you can benefit from my lessons!

1) Buy the tiles at Home Depot, white bathroom tiles, 4.25x4.25 inches. They are $.16 ea. (I initially paid a quarter each from a haggler at a garage sale because I didn’t know the sale price!)
2) Plan on using more Mod Podge then you’ve ever used in your life.
3) Splurge for acrylic sealing gloss. ($8? For a can. "Acrylic Gloss" use a 40% off coupon)
4) Splurge again ($2.49) for 16 vinyl “bumpers” that will be applied to the bottom of each tile. (I ended up getting a bunch on ebay)

1) Choose an appropriate Mod Podge brush. I am in love with a white one that has since been crowned “ONLY FOR MOD PODGE.” The black spongy brushes left black spongy glue residue, and black paintbrushes left black brush hairs on my shiny colored tiles. So far this brush has been the BESTEST!
2) Trim your paper of choice down to 4x4 squares. If you want to print something onto the paper before trimming (I did this once, with my “Mr./Mrs” and it was cute but I’m not good at spacing it all out perfectly.
3) Apply a light layer of Mod Podge to the top of each 4x4 paper square and also the top of your tiles. (don’t attach yet). Once dry, apply a light layer to the other side of your paper square. You’ve just plasticized your paper, which will make it a lot easier to adhere to the tile if you need to reposition or squeeze out air bubbles.
4) Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the tile and a little to the back of your coaster cover paper. Stick together. Take care to push out air bubbles and make sure your paper is fully adhered on all sides to the tile completely. If you need to apply a bit more Mod Podge to the edges to make sure this happens, do it.
5) Apply 3-4 more layers of mod podge to the coaster, making SURE SURE SURE each time to really seal those edges. If you are Mod Podging 8 or more tiles at a time, the first ones are dry by the time you finish the last. Don’t make the layers TOO thick or messy, though, because your glue WILL dry bumpy and foggy if you are messy. (this rule is hard for me to follow.)
6) Take the tiles to the garage and apply two LIGHT layers of acrylic gloss, leaving lots of time to dry in between applications. This makes your coaster shiny and smooth. You won’t even see the brush texture from your Mod Podging at this point.
7) Apply the vinyl bumpers (or, if you are really cheap, the felt circle pads that are not as pretty…cough [voice of experience])
8) Wrap and sell! Or gift! These would be super cute monogrammed or themed for a family or with key phrases. If I had a cricut cutter I might have tried that a little harder.

Best ever breaded chicken!!!!!

Monday nights are chicken strip and tator tot nights here around our parts. Lately also supplemented with a salad or hot veggie. Last night we were *gasp* out of frozen chicken strips so instead of going to the store, I decided we would make our own.
We have these 2-breast packs of chicken from Costco which makes the perfect amount of breaded chicken bites for us in our skillet meals, so I figured that would work. In the past year or so of attempting homemade breaded chicken with various recipes (including remembering the ease and delicious-ness of Shake-N-Bake, then buying the generic and being disappointed) (also including getting upset over egg/flour/crumb/mess/making chicken by myself), I finally noticed an easy breading recipe on...wait for it...the back of the Safeway bread crumb container!!!

The first time I used this recipe, I was amazed! Easy to bread, then bake...Yum! The second time I thought it was a tad bland. Both times I sort of modified the recipe as I went along.

Then came last night! I modified again and this time these chicken bites were AMAZING. I mean, I wish I had a picture but we devoured every last bite.

Here you go:

3/4 c Safeway bread crumbs
1 tsp kosher salt (if you are eating the chicken by itself. half this if you are putting the chicken in flavorful food)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried minced onion flakes
3 shakes chili powder
one handful frozen parmesean cheese (maybe 2 TBSP)
1/4 c EVOO

I like to dip in egg and then this mixture, then bake. MMMMM. Try it and let me know how it goes!

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been seeing some posts here and there about the gigantic chocolate chip cookies baked around a Double Stuff Oreo. I seriously want to try that recipe out.

But in college I had a chocolate chip Oreo recipe of my own, it involved roughly chopping a bunch of oreos and throwing them into regular chocolate chip cookie dough.

I was making cookies for a photo shoot and wanted them to be small (so we could each eat a lot) so I opted for this recipe instead of the giant one.

I had no complaints! The cookies were delish.

What to eat?

I thought I would post some of our go-to recipes and February meal plan on here, in case anyone needs ideas. I planned for a whopping 8 meals in February, yep that's right - 8. I aim for 2 a week, which leaves room for leftovers, a couple dates, and other various cravings.

This week we had Pesto Salmon. This has to be closely coordinated with a Costco trip, but now we have an extra fillet in the freezer. With mashed potatoes. We made 3x the mashed potatoes (that was Tuesday) so that last night we could put them on top of our Shepherds Pie. Worked out perfectly. I actually cooked the rest of the filling (meat, tons of mushrooms, plus olives, roasted peppers, garlic, corn, other veggies, and about a 1/2c of chicken stock) earlier that day and then we just warmed up the meal when we were ready.

We also have the fixings for Steak Quesadillas coming up soon, and we already had Eggs and Noodles [West Coast Style], lasagna (although frozen at a party, not the recipe I wanted to use)...

I didn't quite get to my 8 planned meals this month (so far). Also remaining is: burgers and sweet potato fries, asian chicken salad, and slow cooker pot roast.

But not tonight, because we are going out to dinner for a late Valentine's day date!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blueberry Oat Bars

Zach loves blueberries.

Blueberries were on super sale this week.

It was my turn to bring treats to bible study.

Starbucks blueberry oat bars are amazing.INSPIRING.

Some google searching.

delicious-ness

Note: I subbed 1/2 cup of the flour for whole wheat. And also I left the walnuts sitting in the bag (crushed with a ladle, of course) until after the step of baking the bottom. So I sprinkled half on the top of the baked bottom and half with the top. You can't even tell!

ENGAGED!!!

Ok, so, confession! One reason for limited blogging time is that I have been busy PLANNING MY WEDDING TO ZACHARY DAVENPORT!!!

Zach proposed on August 7th (and 14th!). Long story. :) We are getting married on 12/18/2010 - with a 4 month engagement we have our planning work cut out for us!!

Here are some pictures and highlight moments...I am likely to post a little more on fb.

1) Picture at Myrtle Beach, SC - site of the first proposal (and a temporary ring!)!!! We were at his family reunion and it was really neat to be able to celebrate with his family there - since they live in Rhode Island (mostly) it would have otherwise been very tough (or expensive) to have that experience with them. Anyone who is willing to propose to someone who has seaweed in her hair and is sweating from the humidity is DEFINITELY in love.


2) Zach, on the morning of 8/14: He brought over my favorite breakfast! MMM - a starbucks and a whole wheat sesame bagel, toasted, with butter. With my breakfast, I got a note - with a piece of a a blown up photo of us - with clues about the next step in our adventure - a nearby park where we sometimes walk and hang out

3) On the way to the park we realized it was city wide garage sale day and I BEGGED Zach to let me (go back to the house for money) to get these lanterns, for $1 each. So excited about their potential.

(walking to the park, thank you tripod)

4) From the park I got another note with a clue to figure out - we went bowling!

5) Then the beach!

6) Then a walk in Santana Row, then Sushi for dinner! We had what our friends have nicknamed "The Marriage Roll" (yellowtail on a california roll) and a new roll, the Tommy Roll (fish on a spider roll). Both were deemed excellent.

7) With all 6 of my photo pieces now gathered from various notes, I had to assemble them to create the picture and then decode a secret message telling me where the last stop of the day would be...turns out, it was Las Palmas Park, right near Zach's house, where we used to play Ultimate Frisbee and often go for walks. There, he led me to one of the spots we first picnic'ed at, said a bunch of super nice things about loving me and protecting me and promising to take care of me and that I am perfect for him and then I got THIS (which is impossible to photograph, but I'll work on it):

I am super stoked!!! I love this man!!! Dating, in general, has been very scary for me (committment issues) but he has been a ROCK of patience and love through the entire journey. We truly believe God has designed us to complete each other, we desire to reflect God's character to each other, and are willing to further God's kingdom together! (Those were the 3 purposes of marriage we discussed in some recent pre-engagement counseling, which was cool to do.) I am daily blown away by how deeply and honestly Zach loves me and strives to serve me. Such a great example to me of commitment. I am so grateful!

At the end of all of this, my birthday party (which was that night - 30 minutes after the proposal!) was upgraded (to the surprise of our friends) to an engagement party as well!!! It was great seeing a bunch of our friends (including several sets of 2010 newlyweds who have promised to share lots of planning information), our church 20's group pastor, the couple we have had counseling with, a surprise visit from my bff Sarah who shocked me by flying up from a family party in San Diego to come to my party instead!! It was a long but great day!

Laughter

So last night, before writing that extremely depressed post, I bunched up some test data and sent it to one of my coworkers for some last minute work on a project we have. I think my email (and the quality of the data/scenarios) is a really good example of why one person should not work 7-6 (or 6-6) multiple days in a row and then still try to get back online at 11pm). TOTALLY INCOHERENT. Luckily, she speaks "tired" and was able to translate.

Today I am totally laughing about it. A weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I really doubt anyone actually read my previous post and prayed for me in the time that has passed, but I really feel relief. PTL! So I'm going to share a few more UK photots I forgot about yesterday.

Cambridge - An Ostrich burger!!!

More Jousting (This one is for the nephews)

Watching the England/USA World Cup game

Great title for a pathway on the Royal Gunpowder Mills campus

Here is what the "Long Walk" looked like: (it got curvier later)