Trial Tuesdays

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I'm a Bacon lover! I'm convinced I could be a vegetarian if it weren't for delicious Bacon. I don't enjoy frying it though - It's messy, can be dangerous, and it smells up the house. So imagine my excitement when Chris discovered the age old secret of oven cooking Bacon. Apparently everyone knew this trick but us and it changed our lives.

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For Oven Bacon: Simply line a cookie sheet with foil, lay out your bacon, and cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes. No need to slave over a hot stove to enjoy delicious, crispy Bacon! I've found that if you put the Bacon in a cold oven, then heat to 350...it takes about 15 minutes and cooks to crispy perfection.

If you didn't know you could cook Bacon in the oven...go try it! It will change your world.

Happy Tuesday!

Gameday Queso

College Football is upon us and in our circle of friends that means OU watch parties!

My current go to for pot luck watch parties is queso (& cupcakes). A coworker shared this recipe with me last year and it's been a big hit! I've adapted it just a little bit and in honor of the return of our old friend college football, I'm sharing it with you today.

Gameday Queso

1 (32 oz) box Velveeta Queso Blaco

1 Can Fat Free Evaporated Milk

3-5 Jalapeños

1-2 habaneros

1 medium sized White Onion

Chop peppers and onion. The amount of peppers you use depends on your tolerance for spicy things. Ours is medium to hot spicy with 5 jalapeños and 2 habaneros. 

Add peppers and onions to sauce pan and cover with water. Simmer until peppers and onions are soft. 

Drain excess water and blend until smooth.

Melt Velveeta and Evaporated Milk in microwave. Add pepper and onion mixture, stir, and enjoy! 

For the Crockpot: prepare peppers and onions, blend, and add to Velveeta and Evaporated milk. Heat on low until melted. 

Yum!

Happy Labor Day!

Friday Favorites

1. Coffee

Coffee gave me the energy to make it through this busy first week and it tastes even better in my favorite mug. 

2. New Dry Erase Markers

The markers left in my room were terrible.  These new markers guarantee an excellent start to next week - It's the little things! :)

3. Graded/Not Graded Binder Clips

Best teacher purchase yet! Love these.

4. College Football is back!!!

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No comment necessary.

5. Kitchen Lighting

I'm still loving our new kitchen lighting! Such a drastic difference - it really updates the entire room. The actual lighting is so much nicer than the fluorescent too. See the transformation here!

Happy Friday! Have a fabulous 3 day weekend! :) 

Linking up with some of my favs. Check them out!

Kitchen Lighting

I mentioned in my fake "Friday Favorites" post that Chris would be taking down our ugly boxed light this weekend and that I would post if it went well. Guess what? It went well!

I'd say we've been researching this for a year, since we moved in. About 6 months ago, we removed one of the plastic covers to see what we were working with under there. Good news, the popcorn ceiling was finished before they put the boxes up. YAY! Bad news, no junction box, small weird hole in the ceiling for the wiring AND the plastic cover broke. So we've been living just like this for 6 months...

...until Saturday when Chris felt confident to tackle those beasts! We bought the lighting, the junction box kit and a small sheet-rock saw.

Chris researched the junction box steps carefully and found this how-to video from Home Depot's website helpful.

We then carefully dismantled the boxed lighting. Very terrifying. If you are going to attempt this, please make sure you feel comfortable with electrical wiring and definitely do not take my advice. I'm not an electrician nor do I know anything about electricity, other than how to follow the directions on a box and that it scares me. 

Here is how it went - in pictures:

This was by far the biggest undertaking yet and it turned out perfectly! Our ceiling was near perfect after taking down the boxes but we did have to spackle and it may need a little paint. All in all we were pretty lucky!

We love our pretty new lights!

Trial Tuesdays - Cookie Cake Edition

Chris LOVES cookie cake. He had a cookie cake as his groom's cake at our wedding - with a penguin and OU logo, of course.

J Hodges Photography

I love baking and I'm pretty good at it but cookie cake is not one that I'm familiar with, nor do I really know how to make one from scratch. Last year I made a so, so version for his birthday, but this year, for his 30th, I gave it my best effort and boy was it delicious! I had several guinea pigs from Chris' party tell me it was good so I'm going to confidently share my recipe with you.

This was truly an accident that it turned out well as I really just combined a bunch of recipes to try and make it work for my needs.

 

The number one thing you need to know and believe in is your chocolate - use good quality chocolate in your baking and its bound to come out tasting great. Anyways, on with the good stuff.

Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Serves: 12 people

Ingredients:

2 sticks - Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

Lots of Sprinkles

1.5 - 10 oz bags of dark chocolate chips (the really good dark chocolate)

1/2 Can of Icing

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy and light.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, to sugar mixture. Mix well.
4. Add vanilla to sugar mixture. Mix well.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Mix well until dough is formed.
6. Toss in a ton of sprinkles (because it makes the cake festive) and your chocolate chips. Stir until evenly distributed in dough.
7. Spread dough evenly into a parchment paper lined 12" round pizza pan (like this one) and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 15-20 minutes, then remove from pan and allow to cool completely before icing.

How does the cookie get done in the middle? It finishes cooking while its cooling in the pan - so don't panic if the middle of your cookie is still a bit gooey on the inside after taking it out of the oven.

Ice your cookie and Enjoy!

**I have not mastered the art of making my cookies perfectly round nor am I an icing artist...and that's okay. I'm all about my food looking edible and tasting delicious.

Back to School!

Today is the beginning of a new school year! I've been lesson planning and working on my classroom management stuff all weekend so I haven't had time to do a lot of blogging. Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow with a new Trial Tuesdays post! 

Until then, enjoy!

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Gotta love David Tennant "Hey Girl, Teachers"!

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Friday Favorites

I can't believe I missed my favorite post of the week, Friday Favorites, but it's been one wild week! Better late than never...here are my favorites from the week!

1. Inspirational Quote

A quote that has been keeping me going this week as I transition into a new position at school. I can do this and it will be great! I also think it needs to be in my classroom for the kiddos.

2. Classroom

Finally put together and ready for Monday! Now hopefully the teacher will be ready for Monday too.

3. Hey girl, teacher

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I love hey girl, teacher! Hey girl, teacher with David Tennant...just made my week.

4. Poker Party

I threw Chris a Poker Party for his 30th birthday! He's actually still 29 but we celebrated early since his birthday always gets glossed over by the holiday weekend and football. I'm told his birthday cookie cake was really good so I'll share my recipe next week. :) It was so nice to have good friends around to celebrate.

5. Sneak Peek

This is our current kitchen lighting situation. That's all about to change into something modern and fabulous because my husband is brave enough to tackle the electrical work this weekend! Be gone, ugly box lighting! **Update to come next week, pending the degree of success.