An Instagram Valentine's Week

Lately all I have eaten for breakfast and dinner is cereal. I have gone through two boxes in two weeks...(that is super fast when you live alone)... I may have an addiction.

Another obsession: Cherry Coke Zero. I have even gone so far as to make a cooler for my backpack to carry around on days I have class from 8a.m. to 6 p.m.....ghetttto.

My sixty year old teacher wrote us out Elmo Valentine's. She is stinkin' cute, but why does she have to be such a boring teacher? Sheesh.... Can't. Wait. to Graduate.

The biggest surprise since I got engaged: Justen drove 2 hours to spend Valentines Day and all weekend with me. He hid in my apartment after I got off work and scared the heck out of me. I was SHOCKED. I was dying all week cause he kept telling me he wasn't going to be able to come, and that I would see him in a few weeks....coool....but instead, he was dressed all cute, filled my fridge with groceries, brought me candy and tulips too. This was our first Valentine's Day together, and I think he did pretty good!

I made these amazing Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies for heart week and they were stinkin delicious. Nuff said.

I tried herbal iced tea for the first time this week and it was surprisingly good. I think I have found my new summer drink. Yum :)

You need to get this game. We call it the train game, but its really called Ticket to Ride. It is addictive and serious business. It has caused arguments, smack downs, and it is also why there is a boxing ring at The Monnett House (our super awesome friends).

That has been my week just about. I hope your Valentines Day was a sweet as mine!

-Sara Jacqueline

Happy Valentine's Day!

In celebration of this love-ly holiday, I made some delicious Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies. They were amazingly simple and really different, so I would definitely suggest you whip up a dozen giant cookies. Here is a recipe adapted from Twos Peas & Their Pod! Enjoy your Valentine, your hot date, your little box of candy, whatever it is, soak it up!



Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Makes: About  10 giant cookies

Baking Time: 11-13 minutes

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

In a large bowl combine cake mix and flour and mix until clumps disappear. Mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract with a mixer until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 or 3 hours. The dough will be shiny, so don't worry.

To make the cheesecake filling, while you are waiting  combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth with a mixer. Scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate in heaps. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10 or 12. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least 2 or 3 hours.

Go take a nap, fold some laundry, run 6 miles, clean the kitchen...whatever makes you happy.

When you are ready,  preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

This is the tricky part....To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup, or a heaping spoonful of the cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball , or attempt to seal the filling inside and place on prepared baking sheet. You want to work quickly so that your dough and filling doesn't heat up in your hands, it will make it more difficult. I greased my hands with some pam spray before this step.Only bake 3 cookies at a time on each sheet because they will become huge. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle and look solid around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, ten place on a cooling rack to cool.

If you would like, you can stop here because the cookies are JUST as yummy, but if you want to step it up a notch, make them guest worthy, and a little sweeter, keep going with the drizzle!

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. 

Ta-da!! A Valentine treat to drown out your sobs while watching The Notebook. 

A quick shout out to my husband. We have never been in the same city, or even country on Valentine's Day in over 5 years of dating, and including today when we are actually married..haha. I am so happy ecstatic to be married to a wonderful man like him. He really completes me and I love having him as my best friend, knowing he is always there by my side. I love him, so if he happens to read this (fat chance) I want him to know how much I care for him, every day not just Valentine's Day. :)

Eat some chocolates people! Loves ya

-Sara Jacqueline

A (Fake) Snow Day

This past weekend, Justen and I went all out and headed up to Perfect North Slopes to try out snowboarding before it got too warm. First of all the weather is crazy here, so I figured we better go now, because it would be my luck that every weekend after this one it would be 65 degrees. No kidding, it is sunshine and shorts one day, and parkas and blizzards the next here in Kentucky. 

Also, I have never been snowboarding or skiing in my twenty year or so long life, so Justen was pressuring me to try it out. My parents were always the type to take us to the beach, or on a boat. They are definitely not cold winter sports people. This is not at all like surfing in Mexico, or tubing down the Kentucky river. I was not prepared for the pain hangover.

The easy part was tubing. The lines were fairly long, however we were there on a Saturday, so I would not suggest that unless you have a lot of talking to do..hah. It was actually really fun, but we could just as easily go sledding in Morehead with enough snow (which we happened to do last weekend). Very fun, and super fast, but next time we will bring like 10 other people to go down the hill with, cause it really is for little kids mostly, or large groups. 

As you can tell this is how I felt about tubing only 3 times in 2 hours (long wait time)....

...And this is how Justen felt... Poor guy, he really likes a little bit more adventure, so lets talk about the snowboarding.

Let me just tell you that if you have never been before, then the easy hill is not so easy. I think that fake snow is 18 times more slippery than real snow. Seriously, I was sitting down at some points and going just as fast as a sled ride. Ridiculous. 

I have to admit, I fell a lot A LOT.... And it hurt even more. During one voyage down the hill, I fell a total of 11 times. However, the next time I only fell 8 times. HAH. Yes, I was keeping track to see if I was improving. I know Justen was having a blast laughing his butt off at me busting mine. Snowboarding is a lot of hard work, and no amount of watching the winter olympics prepared me for this. People who are as tall as me are not meant to balance on a popsicle stick and go down hill at a super fast speed.

Not to mention....

Did you know they don't strap you in on those lift things? What?!! What if I was a baby child eight year old and decided to slip and slide off that thing? It was like 40 feet down...right? These are my teacher thoughts. Good thing I had somebody to hold me down.

Even though I was in pain a lot of the time, and for a whole day afterwards, it was a lot of fun, and I would consider going again. Maybe to a different place, and maybe with a pillow stuffed booty. Everyone who I have talked to since told me skiing is easier, so I have a feeling my sister Abby tricked me...hmmm..

-Sara Jacqueline

Recipe: Red Velvet Valentine Brownies

I have always had this weird love for red velvet cake, mostly only because it is so colorful and bright, but I do love some good chocolate cake too. I have been scoping around for some good Valentine's Ideas, and obviously red velvet it a perfect choice. My inspiration came from Steak and Shake's Red Velvet Cake Milkshake (SOO awesome and tastes just like it) and also the box of red velvet pancake mix I spotted in the aisle at Walmart. So I decided to do it my own way, with a brownie creation topped with a cream cheese frosting, because I know my Valentine would appreciate that.

This would be one of those recipes that I would definitely whip out over and over again, because it is very easy, as well as VERY tasty. It could also be doubled, but for the sake of our health, I decided to just make an 8x8 dish of brownies to share. It seems that all of my friends are on diets lately, so I can't think of anyone to give these things to. Darn. :)

Grab yourself some red food coloring, an apron (seriously, that food coloring goes everywhere) and get started! You won't be sorry...

Ingredients:

3 T unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz red food coloring

2 t vanilla extract

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and  Butter and flour an 8x8 baking pan.

Slowly stir together the cocoa powder, red food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla into a small bowl. Stir until it becomes a thick paste with no lumps of cocoa powder and set to the side.

Beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy with a mixer for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and mix well. Stir in the other 1 tsp of vanilla well and then the cocoa mixture. Make sure the mixer is turned off when you place the cocoa mixture in because you do not want that red dye flying all over your kitchen or your shirt. Mix together until the batter is one color, and then add in the flour on medium speed until just combined. 

With a rubber spatula stir the  batter around to make sure it is not sticking to the sides and the coloring and flour are fully incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 minutes give or take. 

If you put a toothpick in the center of the brownies to check them, and it should come out clean.
While you are letting the brownies cool in the pan, you can make the frosting!

Ingredients: 
6oz Reduced Fat Cream Cheese
1/2 stick butter (4T) at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 t vanilla extract


Mix the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until well combined and fluffy. Place the powdered sugar in gradually, stirring to combine after each small part, then adding more until you have reached all 3 cups. Add in vanilla, and beat until light and fluffy on medium speed.

You are going to want to lick the beaters.

Use the frosting to frost the brownies in the pan after they have cooled about 20-30 minutes and then serve, or let the brownies cool for over an hour, remove from the pan, and then frost them.

YUM. You will not be sorry for making these bad boys. They are a perfect Valentine's Day treat for anybody.



Tell me what you think about my recipe if you try it!



-Sara Jacqueline

A Crisco Disaster.

Welp this week was quite entertaining......
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Justen( f.y.i...my supa sweet huband) holding his favorite friend Kayden; it is very true that she likes him more than she likes me. Maybe it is because he offers the best snuggles?

It really did snow like 6 or so inches, and we had a blast! Although my car got a little stuck in the driveway, we enjoyed sledding, baby tubing, and rough housing in the snow. Did I mention it was beautiful??

UGH! Warning: DO NOT buy the Crisco butter flavored and expect it to work the same as Crisco. It will make your cookies flat, ugly, nasty and seem like Paula Deen tore up your kitchen. I was so disappointed with the outcome, so I am never buying that kind again.

About 3 days after the crazy snow storm, we have 60 degree weather, blue skies, sunshine.... Check out that landscape. Cool huh? There are a few perks to living in the middle of noooowhere.

That face. She is so cute, and lovable, and I cannot come up with an excuse to not stop by and see her every time I have a free 15 minutes. We play, we throw stuff, we scream a little, and her Mommy makes fun of me. Its a pretty good time all in all. haha..

Woah..... I think there is something going on in the Walmart. Too many bears, not enough shelf, too many chocolates, not enough bear....I think the Valentine Hurricane has hit us.

-Sara Jacqueline

A Super Simple Baby Gift

Holy Cow it is cold outside!!... and it has snowed all weekend long here. We really have enjoyed the snow and made sure to bust out our sleds. I also got out of school on Friday, so I really cannot complain at all. 18 degrees has it's perks sometimes...

Lately everyone I know has been having a baby ( including my sister-in-law which makes me an Aunt!), and my cousin is next up! She is having a baby boy in the next month, so I whipped up a cute blanket that I hope she will love. She has requested a sock monkey theme so I was so excited when I found this killer cute fleece at Hobby Lobby.

This is probably the simplest baby blanket you could ever make, and its really a boring project, so don't think this is what I do all day...seriously, I got more skills than this. But if you are in need of a fast gift or maybe a beginner project, go for it!

(Note: The picture quality is horrible and I know it.) 

1. Get some super adorable fleece, or other cozy baby fabric. 

Sock Monkeys = Classic.

The first step is to cut your fabric into the size you want. Typically with baby blankets, I make them about a 45 inch square, which is 1 1/4 yard of fabric, but this fleece was a little misshapen so I trimmed it up to the size I needed

2. After trimming I took a round plate and my rotary cutter to round out the corners. You don't have to do this step, but I felt like it, so I did...

3. I used some blanket binding that I also found at Hobby Lobby and pinned it around the entire edge of the fleece. I chose red because it just stood out the most and really made the monkeys pop.

4. Sew the binding on the fleece along the edge. Be careful not to stretch the fleece too much, or else it could cause the binding to pucker. But really, this blanket is very forgiving.

5. Get cozy with your blanket! Or give it to a friend expecting a baby.

Yes seriously, it is THAT easy. 

 I paired the blanket with a little sock monkey/toy/blankie that I found at Cracker Barrel. Of all places...weird, but very fitting to go with my sock monkey blanket.

Well I really hope my new Baby Cousin will love to snuggle up with this blanket! It really did take me like half an hour..... clearly I am a busy lady right now which is why I resorted to such a simple, but sweet project. More on my life later. Hah.

-Sara Jacqueline