Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Outdoor Kitchen



Drew and I are planning to start our outdoor kitchen adventure within the next month. The grill has been ordered and we are hoping to order the pergola kit and stones by the end of next week. The picture below is similar to the layout that we are going to have. I am not a fan of the stone they used – I want to do much smaller stacked stones. Budget permitting, we are also going to have a fireplace and seating area to the left of the kitchen. 



I like the stonework in the picture below much better than the picture above. I would like more gray tones mixed in with the neutral stones though. 

Bacon in the Oven

I found directions on Pinterest for cooking bacon in the oven instead of cooking it in a pan on the stove top. As a lover of bacon I was very intrigued by this concept and decided to try it out. We had BLTs for dinner last night and I must say they were pretty darn fantastic with the ‘baked’ bacon. Here are the directions:

1.  
Set oven to 400 degrees.


      2. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and place bacon on the sheet. One pack of bacon was enough to fill 2 pans. It is important that the bacon is close to one another but not touching. 

         3. Place in the oven and bake for appx 13-15 minutes (I like crispy bacon so I baked them for 15 minutes).   
   4.
Once they are done baking I moved them from the baking sheet onto paper towels to absorb the extra grease.

       I let the grease in the pan cool for a few minutes then rolled up the tinfoil and tossed it out – a much easier clean-up method than the traditional cook-top method. I will say that the grease did pop a little in the oven and I saw it hitting the glass on a few occasions but all-in-all this was a much cleaner and convenient method to cook bacon. 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Birthday Excitement

In 2 days a certain someone will officially be closer to 30 than 20 years old! Yikes! Although I am not big on birthday celebrations I am big on birthday presents! ;)


Thanks to my oh-so-thoughtful husband (and by thoughtful I mean a good listener and direction follower) I am now the proud owner of a new MK gold watch and I love it! Except its too big – got to get a few links taken out next time I go to the mall!

...Now, how do I talk him into getting me the MK East West Satchel?? I’m thinking we are going to start a new tradition of St. Patrick Day gifts! 

Electrical Woes

I have finally located my motivation to start getting up early and getting on the treadmill before work. My sweet husband (with the assistance of my sweet father-in-law) installed a TV for me to watch while I run, and I must say it is much more fun to watch the Real Housewives I have recorded on the DVR versus running outside and looking at nature! The only problem with this setup is that the idiot electricians that wired our house in 2010 overloaded the outlets in the formal living/foyer/dining room area. We’ve known that there was an issue with some of the outlets in that area; only a few can handle the vacuum cleaner without throwing a circuit breaker. Usually about 15-30 seconds into my run the circuit with the lights on it (dining, hall or living room) will flip the circuit breaker. Unfortunately at 5am it’s still dark outside which leaves me in quite the predicament. Of course there is always a silver lining; the outlet that the treadmill and TV are plugged into works just fine! I’ll run in the dark before having to run without TV!


My goal is to run a 5k in April in under 35 minutes.. Fingers crossed I don’t lose motivation (again)!
Fortunately my uncle is an electrician and has agreed to come take a look and see if there is a solution to these issues.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Make Up Forever

After 8 years of being a loyal Bare Minerals user, I have decided to switch foundations, for the time being at least. It was just getting too hard to match my skin tone to the right shades of Bare Minerals and I was so tired of constantly having to wash brushes and wipe off the countertops that were always lightly dusted with the excess mineral foundation.

Right before my wedding I purchased a tube of Make Up Forever HD Concealer and I loved it. The lady at Sephora also matched my skin tone with same brand of foundation in a liquid. I must say, I am smitten with this new foundation even though I’ve avoided liquid foundations since they have a tendency to clog pores. She applied it with a synthetic mineral brush in a buffing motion, instead of a sponge and it made all the difference in the world. I purchased the foundation, brush and another tube of concealer and have not had any regrets, except for the price! I still use the bare minerals mineral veil to set the foundation and control shine. The only thing I dislike about this new foundation is that it is lacking sunscreen.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I TRY to follow a low-carb-lifestyle, when I saw this recipe on pinterest for cauliflower pizza crust I was excited to give it a try! I made this (very messy) recipe on Sunday. I’ll be the first to admit that my finished project looked horrible compared to the picture on pintrest. “Nailed it.”

Step 1: Head of cauliflower cut into pieces and placed in the food processor.



Step 2: “Rice” the cauliflower. Place into microwave and cook on high for 4 minutes  -no need to add water.



Step 3: Combine the ingredients and press it out onto a greased baking sheet. (Ingredients: 1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 egg (beaten),1 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp crushed garlic and 1/2 tsp garlic salt. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese.



Step 4: Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).  Or you can do it a little longer like I accidently did and completely burn the edges! Like I said, this looks horrible compared to the original picture on pinterest!



 This pizza was pretty tasty especially when you consider the nutritional value in the cauliflower crust versus a regular pizza. Next time I am going to press it out a little thinner so that the crust is a bit crispier. A fork and knife was required to eat this bad boy.

The reviews on the original blog that posted this recipe were overwhelmingly positive. Some commenters went as far to say that this was their favorite thing to make and that they preferred it over regular pizza. My response: You apparently have never had a pizza from Papa John’s!
Oh, here is the original picture - Yep, I'm embarrassed!

Miracle Soap Scum Remover

Like many others who decided to have glass installed in their showers I have come to regret that decision, mostly due to the fact that there is always soap scum or lime scale on the glass. I stumbled a cross a blog on pinterest claiming to have discovered an easy solution for combating soap scum and such on shower glass. So, following the advice off of the blog I mixed up 1 cup of blue dawn dish soap and 1 cup of hot white vinegar in an empty spray bottle.

   Here is the solution from the blog:



     Here is my extra-tall hubby coating our shower with the mixture:

Let it soak for 2 hours.. then I scrubbed it off with a sponge and hot water.

Results? Ehhhh. It worked better than Windex, but I'll stick with CLR bathroom cleaner. I think another issues why this might not have worked as well as the blogger posted in her site is becasue we have lime and calcium in our well water which builds up on the glass in addition to the soap scum.