Hooray for everyday!

I had the chance to spend a little time with the new IKEA catalogue and I am in love with their theme for 2011. Hooray for everyday!

Friday: I didn't take a single picture yesterday, but it was awesome nonetheless. Today was a great day with my students. They were attentive and are still on best behavior. Can we all say a prayer that this lasts for the WHOLE year? By the time I was home, Mr. R was done for the day as well. We had a couple of hours of downtime... Yay! for mellow afternoons. And then we celebrated the first week of school being over! I drank a ridiculous number of calories in my margarita and ate enough chips and salsa for a small village. I came home, tired, tipsy, happy and grateful. I have awesome friends!

Saturday: Today I dressed like in stripes and my favorite shorts to run errands and spend too much time in Target. I should have been doing laundry, cleaning, mailing packages, and doing wife stuff... but the siren call of Target is too strong. And I needed to check out the fall clothing finds and fun shoes. My Costco shopping extravaganza on Saturday yielded stuffed portobello mushrooms and couscous. Lunch was amazing! I also had a hair appointment today. I am now a brunette with bangs. Tonight is also date night. I declared it as such after I heard that Redbox is now located at our corner gas station. Can red vines, diet coke, and popcorn be counted as dinner?And if movie food is dinner than chocolate lava cake is my dessert! I made it in the crockpot using this recipe. The recipe is crazy simple you mix up chocolate cake batter and then layer it with mixed chocolate pudding. I topped mine with chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Hooray for friends!
Hooray for highlights!
Hooray for date night!
Hooray for every day!

We are having a dutch baby!

(Also known as a puffed pancake)

I was catching up on blogs earlier this week and stumbled across a recipe for a blueberry dutch baby. The making of it could not have been easier!

• Heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
• Place 4 Tbs. of butter in a glass pieplate and place in your oven to melt the butter (as it is heating).
• In your blender add: 4 eggs, 1/2 c. of flour, and 1/2 c. of milk
• Top with blueberries
• Bake in your 425 degree oven for 25 minutes.
• If you have a Mr. Republican in your house, you will also need to throw some bacon on your George Foreman.
• After your baby is done baking top with powdered sugar.

Then promptly go run 3 miles because you know all of that butter is going straight to your thighs!

Oh bread machine...

how I have missed you.

I used to use the bread machine almost weekly or twice a week last year. But as you know schedules change, eating habits change, and sometimes its just easier to buy my bread from the nice ladies at Publix.

When I cleaned the kitchen yesterday I discovered three OVERRIPE bananas. Normally, I would toss those mushy brown guys, but we are trying not to be wasteful so I knew I needed to use. Enter the bread machine! Allrecipes.com is my resource for all baking recipes. This is the one I used for the banana bread.

What I love about the bread machine is that you just dump in the ingredients and let it go!

One hour later the house smells like baked goods and we have breakfast in the morning.

I am totally a carb girl! There is nothing better than homemade bread.

The way to Mr. R's heart is paved in brown sugar and chocolate.

I am making blondies. Because I am an awesome wife and my husband loves them. And because I get to mix stuff in my kitchenaid. Don't you find it funny that every girl who has gotten married in the past 6 years has asked for a kitchen aid in her bridal registry? Are mixers the new status symbol of the domesticated? Does the color of your kitchenaid symbolize how cool you are? My friend Kim's is red, cause she is red hot! Mine is white...what does that say about me? Wow, am I off track!

Anyway, I am mixing stuff in my kitchenaid while watching the USA kick Canada's arse and baking my way into Mr. R's cold Republican heart...

Doesn't this look like an awesome bowl of brown-sugary goodness!

Do you lick the spoon? I totally do! Salmonella be damned!

And the pre-bake picture....

Best taken with a glass of ice cold skim milk.

LOVE & BUTTER make the world go round!
Recipe below courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (12 ounce) package NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 15x10-inch jelly-roll pan.
2. COMBINE flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Spread into prepared pan.
3. BAKE for 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.