Someone Has a Case of the Mondays

Okay, so I don't have a case of the Mondays as this is technically my Wednesday but I know everyone else returning to the grind of work probably has some form of it.  Well, I'm here to save you or at least give you something to look at.  I'm going to call this series Pinterest Monday.  This is where I share some of my fabulous finds from Pinterest to hopefully inspire the creative juices to flow.  Or to at least satisfy your foodie needs.

Here are some of my awesome finds from the past week from Pinterest.

 
Homemade Samoas (Caramel Delights)

Girl Scout cookie season may be over but that doesn't mean that the deliciousness has to end!  I plan to make these very, very, very soon.  Especially since my husband doesn't like coconut so I can have these all to myself.  Which might not actually need to be a good idea...





Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ok, now this is not your average chocolate chip cookie.  It's a bit more complicated than the normal recipe but comes from chocolate master Jacques Torres so it HAS to be amazing.  It has chocolate chunks instead of chips and pastry and bread flour instead of AP flour so these are definitely more for special occasions.  But if the results are anything like the picture, I just gained 10 pounds.

 
DIY Neon Shirt

Here's a little easy DIY project for you.  These shirts are super popular right now and with a plain white (or I like the idea of a black tee), some tape, and neon spray paint, you too can have your own trendy shirt!

 
DIY Animal Bookends

These bookends are super cute and super easy!  My late grandmother loved elephants and I really want to make some of these for baby Jude's room so that he can have a little piece of her with him.





Braid Secret

First of all, I have to admit just how much I love Lauren Conrad.  I think she's super fabulous.  This braid is super easy and adds interest.  My hair isn't long enough to do a single side braid so I usually do this with two pigtail braids.  Basically, you braid one of your sections of hair before braiding all the sections together.  It helps to keep the front of my hair from falling out and getting in my face and it literally takes less than minutes.

There you are.  There are some things to hopefully keep you entertained on the last Monday of April.  I hope you enjoy the images and that you think of those cookies all day.  I know I will.

You Can't Be Mad Making Friendship Bread

My weekend is here (woot woot!).  I don't get real Saturday/Sunday weekends because I work retail and real weekends are a distant memory from a time when I still had a curfew and mom paid all the bills.  Thursday is the new Saturday anyway, didn't you get the memo?  I'll send you another.  Anyway, weekend means cleaning, laundry, and time to actually cook and bake.  I made a variation of Amish Friendship Bread and am here to share!

If you don't know what Friendship bread is then you, my friend, are missing out on some easy and delicious bread!  The easiest way to understand friendship bread is to think of it like a chain letter with delicious bread as a result instead of doom and gloom.  You're given a sourdough bread type of starter that you squish and mash around for 10 days before you bake a super tasty bread.

I have only encountered two problems in this adventure.  The biggest problem being that you divide up your dough into portions to give to family and friends and so if you choose to keep a starter for yourself, you are baking every ten days and piling up more and more starter bags for people that will start to run in the opposite direction (or lose their sense of seeing and hearing) when they see that Ziploc bag in your hand.  I'm serious.  I've seen it happen.

Well, I knew I would run into this problem from the start so after a few minutes on Google I found that you can freeze your starter so that A) you always have one on hand without having to go through the ten day process and B) you don't have to keep finding people to hand starter bags to.  I have only been through two rounds and I doubled up a couple of my starters the last time so that I could make double batches of stuff when I have a party to go to or if I feel the need to feed my co-workers.  So far, my freezer has not been over-run with starters.

The other problem I ran into is that I knew that I would get tired of the regular recipe of bread.  As wonderful and tasty as it is, I (and more importantly my husband who has to suffer indulge my cooking ventures and who doesn't eat leftovers easily) like variety.  I found this awesome website, the Friendship Bread Kitchen, that has tons and tons of variations of what to do with your dough.  I made chocolate chip muffins that were awesome.  Today, I decided to make Banana Nut Friendship Bread.

You can find the full recipe here.  I only made a few minor adjustments:  I added 3 bananas instead of 2 because I had three and on hand and didn't want to be wasteful.  I had to add a stick of butter to make up for the fact that I only had 1/2 a cup of oil on hand and no applesauce (grocery time!).  I added about a tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 tablespoon of nutmeg just because I love the combo. 

I sprinkled the tops with cinnamon and sugar.  You do this in the regular Friendship bread recipe and I really liked the outcome.  I only made 1 loaf of bread and the rest was turned into a dozen muffins.  I baked the muffins for 30 minutes.  The loaf baked for about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Not only did the house smell amazing but the end results were moist and delicious!  These will make a great breakfast or late night snack!  I think these would be even more fabulous with chocolate chips in them because let's be honest, what isn't better with chocolate chips?

Got a Friendship bread story or recipe?  Share in the comments below!  I'd love to hear what people are doing with their starters.  Word on the street (aka the recipe collection from Friendship Bread Kitchen) is that waffles, cookies, and cinnamon rolls can be made from the starter.  Who's in?

Somewhere to Begin

Greetings lovely readers.

I suppose this is the part of the blog where I introduce myself and inform you of what to expect from this blog.  Well, my name is Lindsey but most people call me Mexi.  I am married to a wonderful man named Jason for nearly a year now, although we have been together for almost 5 years.  At least I think it's five, it feel like forever.  I am 8 1/2 months pregnant with my first child to be a boy named Jude Harrison.  I love the Beatles in case you can't tell.  I love making things simple and easy.  In another life I'm sure I was a teacher, or perhaps I should be one in this life because I love teaching and have been told that I am great at explaining things.  I think it's the idea of going to school for the rest of my life that keeps me from being one because I have never been a big fan of school.  I graduated college in 2009 and work at a used bookstore that I absolutely love.  I have no idea what I want to do in life and at 25 I'm not sure if I should be concerned about that or continue to just roll with the punches.  We're going to roll for now. 

Now, to be honest, I'm not really sure where this blog is going.  I will say that I am an avid lover of food and cooking so I can safely say that the majority of the blog will end up being about my adventures in food.  I also love Pinterest.  If you aren't in the Pinterest loop, don't worry, I plan to share all my fabulous finds so you can expect posts about those adventures.  I will admit that I can't sew, draw, paint, or build worth a darn but I like DIY crafts so perhaps my misadventures in that will be frequent features.  I can also say that everything in this blog shall be simple and easy.  I don't have the time or patience for anything complicated.

Now that all the boring stuff is out of the way we can get to the important things like food.  I  am proud to say that I have some projects in mind for the upcoming week, including dressing up Amish Friendship Bread and tackling the recent trend of freezer foods. 

Stay tuned for more!