A long week, which really isn't an excuse

This week at work was extremely hectic. We had a huge event yesterday, and the whole week revolved our final preparations. I worked over every night and put in 14 hours on Friday and another 12 yesterday. Everything went well, but it made my blogging less frequent.

This was the most recent Pampered Chef recipe I tried. It was Jalapeno Popper Pizzas. They are a fun finger food for your next tailgating party, and they were a huge hit at my last Pampered Chef Party!

As you can see in the picture to the right, they have bacon, cream cheese, and jalapenos (all the basics for a popper), and then a few more ingredients to add to the fun. Below, you can see the finished mini pizza.

Today has been a pretty lazy day. I was so worn out from the last week that I mainly took it easy. I did start a quilt I'm working on for a Christmas gift. It's going pretty quickly. I cut the squares out one night last week and I put them in order today. I've got two of the longest rows pieced together already and I love the fabric I chose! I will post some pictures soon!

Kittens, Parties, and Birthdays!

A few days ago I was working in our office, which doubles as my craft room, and one of my kittens found the smallest shoe box he could find to cuddle up in. He was so cute all curled up in the box that I carried him down the hall and set him, box and all, on the couch in the living room.

He stayed there long enough for me to take 7 or 8 pictures. Here he is looking at me like a crazy women for snapping my little green camera at him from every angle.

This weekend, we had two parties on Saturday. One was my Pampered Chef grand opening, and the other was an old-fashioned beer fest. We drank beer out of the can, played beer pong and drinking card games and had a good time. It was a small party, which is sometimes better when
alcohol is involved.

I didn't take any pictures that day. I was just too busy to think about it. It's sad, because the spread I made, especially for the day-time party was quite impressive: roast-beef roll ups, antipasto platter, garden veggie pizza, elegant fondue dip, and cran-rasp fizz. We also had iced tea, candy and nuts.

Yesterday night I ran to the grocery and picked up a few peaches. Alex thought he could fit an entire one in his mouth. Luckily I had cut them into slices, which did fit into his mouth. So he snapped this picture to show off his eating abilities.

Tomorrow is his birthday, and today was really stressful for me, so I got to work baking some brownies out of my Nestle Cook Book. They are triple chocolate lovers brownies with caramel and nuts. I can't wait to dig in!

A weekend of cooking and crafting

Over my long weekend I spent time cooking and crafting. I should have spent more time cleaning, but sometimes that doesn't work out.

I finished the quilt for my friend Ashley's baby shower. It is supposed to be a shadow quilt, but I struggles and instead it's just a stripey triangle quilt.

You can't see it in the picture, but the very edge is green. I was going to finish it with the backing, but I'm so happy I added the green. It really makes it look complete.

I did some cooking in preparation for my first Pampered Chef Party this weekend. The first thing I made was a three-cheese garden pizza. It was so good. I ate like half of it for lunch on Saturday. The best part was the three cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, and Parmesan) mixed with a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. It gave it the perfect pizza flavor.

The crust was a refrigerated roll and would have been better if it were homemade, but the rolls are fast and work in a pinch.

The second recipe I tried was mint-chocolate triangles, which turned into mint-chocolate rectangles because the triangles would not cut right.

The looked pretty anyway, and are now stored in the freezer for my party on Saturday. I don't like the combination of mint and chocolate, but I'm assuming that they were pretty good because Alex and Dave finished off all the mess-ups and scraps in a matter of days.

I've got a ton more cleaning to do tomorrow, but my craft room/office is actually put together now and looks like a nice room. After work I'm just going to start in the back of the house and work my way forward or the other way.

I accidentally-on purpose tore the wall paper off the walls in the dining room. It looks better than it did, but there is still a ton of glue on the walls making the paneling look worse than normal. So tomorrow I must clean those walls, and hang a few pictures. Both bathrooms need cleaned. The entire house needs swept and the kitchen needs cleaned after I do some major food prep. Hopefully I can get it all done in 6 or 7 hours. Then I won't have to worry about those silly details Saturday morning.

I'm one Pampered Chef, or at least I feel like one today

Yesterday I decided to get a little adventurous with my new mini-muffin pan and tart press. I tried sugar cookie dough to make mini dessert cups, but learned quickly that sugar cookie dough rises much too fast. Next time I'll try pie crust or the tart shell recipe included with the tart tool.

The cookie shells were pretty good, for store bought cookies anyway. And the experiment wasn't a total loss. I learned that to make good tart shells, you should roll the dough into small balls. The directions said one inch balls. Since I don't have a ruler in the kitchen, I guesstimated. I realized the smaller balls actually did much better than the larger ones. I also discovered that if you flip these cookies over you have a cute little hat shape for Cinco de Mayo, or maybe Thanksgiving. Now I just need icing!

Today I tried a Moroccan Chicken something or other. It was basically a chicken salad with Moroccan seasoning rub, dried fruit and cheese slightly toasted on french bread. They were a pretty appetizer topped with chopped red pepper and green onion.

Dave and I ate them for dinner (Alex was at class). They were a little rich for dinner, but they were mighty filling and something I might make again if I were entertaining a big crowd.

I also had a massage today. I've been really, really tense lately. I haven't been sleeping well because of it, so I decided to let a professional work our of those knots. It was a rare splurge with money we don't really have, but I do feel much better tonight and hopefully will sleep better than I have over the past week.

A long week for a Tuesday.

This week has been incredibly long already. Yesterday I was able to go in to work late, but I also had to work late, so I got up early and hit the gym. I swam. I am not a good swimmer, but it is a good work out, especially when your muscles are a little tight.

Yesterday was very stressful at work. We had a deadline we had to meet and trying to get everyone else to work on your deadline is definitely a challenge. We also had an event at LA Fitness in the evening. It was over about 7:30. By the time I got home, I wasn't motivated to do much. I did work a little on my Pampered Chef stuff, but there is so much information to go over.

Today was just an all around hard day. I was trying to play catch up from all the things I had to put off yesterday, and then we had an event and meeting right in the middle of the day, and then my computer crashed, which luckily my files are backed up, but I may have lost my e-mails which are incredibly important.

After work I went to the gym. I thought it might help me calm down, and it did, at least a little bit. When I got home, Alex had started dinner. He grilled a steak, which we shared. I made farmer's market green beans, and a microwave package of Uncle Ben's Brown and Wild Rice. Overall, it was a yummy and healthy dinner.

After dinner, we played a game of Set. If you've never heard of it, you can check it out here. It's a really fun card game that works your brain. It takes a while to get the hang of it and learn the rules, but it's fun anyway.

So, I'm looking forward to the rest of my week. I hope that it gets a little less stressful. Tomorrow I have my second meeting with my Wellness Coach at the YMCA. I've already planned on making homemade chicken and noodles tomorrow night for dinner, so I will have the chicken in the Crock Pot all day.

Thursday I have an appointment with a masseuse. I'm not sure if it's the stress, or if I actually strained a muscle, but my back has been killing me lately. I figure I better try to work out before it gets too much worse. It's a lot of money, but hopefully it will be worth it.

For now, I'm going to put a heating pad on it and get a good night's sleep.