Saturday, December 31, 2011

Disc Dog 2011

Every year the Disc Dog international championship is held in our town (no idea why!) and we love to go watch the dogs flipping through the air after Frisbees. These pictures are actually from about mid October, but holiday pics kept taking priority!

It runs for two days but we are never able to stay long ~ the first year it was freezing rain, the 2nd year it was a newborn out in the unbearably hot sun, and this year the weather was mild but the toddler was restless.

Disc Dog, 1

Disc Dog, 2

Disc Dog, 3

Disc Dog, 4

Orson did find the jumping dogs hilarious, but could not take the (short) down time between competitors. Justin went on a few walks with him to let him run around & happened to miss all of the really good leaping dogs. We had to leave sooner that we wanted to, but at least I got to see the below duo from the Japanese team.

Disc Dog, 5

Disc Dog, 6

Disc Dog, 7

Disc Dog, 8

Disc Dog, 9

Disc Dog, 10

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Sweets

Making marshmallows has been on my To-do list for a *long* time. I've seen so many girls rave about them, saying how they are so far superior to the store bought type. I couldn't wait to try them!

I finally gave myself a deadline & said they had to be made before Christmas as a trial run in case I wanted to make them again for a holiday snack. And so a couple of weeks ago I whipped up a batch from this recipe ~ half regular & half chocolate peppermint!

Homemade Marshmallows

The verdict? The recipe was a little more difficult than I had expected (mainly I think I had the heat too low so it took twice as long to reach the right temperature), and the regular ones really didn't taste much different than a store bought marshmallow. The chocolate peppermint ones were very fun & tasty though, so I could see it being worth the effort for flavored marshmallows but not so much for the plain ones.

I did see some other versions that used egg white and I would be curious to try those as well, just in case I am still missing the super-awesome marshmallows I heard tale of.


While I was in an experimental mood I also had to try these Chocolate Covered Cheetos!

Chocolate Covered Cheetos

The actually tasted a lot like chocolate covered pretzels, barely any cheese flavor & not weird at all. We have more chocolate & are going to making these again for Justin's family for Christmas Eve snacks.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Seeing Spots

After sassi214 posted about her new nail dotters I wanted a set myself! While they are meant for decorating fingernails they are really just tools with a metal ball on each end that you can use for lots of different crafts. I already had one for clay and was excited to get a set with different sizes.

The first thing I wanted to use them for was polka dot nails. They were easy & so adorable! (This is after about a week and many minor touchups along the way)

Polka dot nails, 1

Polka dot nails, 2

You an find dotters on eBay for super cheap. The set I got look just like this, although I wish I had a set that gets even larger like these. After the dots I tried to do fish scales but the largest ball was much too small.

Or, instead of buying dotters, you can use anything with a round end for similar results. I saw lots of girls online using a sewing pin stuck into a pencil eraser! Bobby pins or the end of a paintbrush were also suggested. I'll have to hunt around here for something a little larger.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Chicken Pot Pie

Putting all of the photos on My Recipe Book quickly showed me which recipes badly needed an updated picture. Here is the new shot for the Chicken Pot Pie ~

Flaky Chicken Pot Pie

The old pic looked like a mugshot!

Currently I am shopping around for some large ramekins so I can make single servings of our favorite casseroles. Who wouldn't want to be served their own tiny casserole dish? I'm eying a gorgeous set on Amazon but waiting for more to be in stock.