You're Never Fully Dressed Without A...

As I wrote on Facebook regarding this awesome email from Mental Floss:

I think that's going to be one of my new mental exercises: When I'm in a bad or sad mood, I should just meditate and envision very serious scientists in lab coats stretching their subjects' faces into weird smiles using chopsticks. LOL

(Click on picture to make larger.)

Pizza Acorn Squash

Got another easy recipe for ya! Also happens to be vegetarian-friendly.
This one does take much longer to cook than things I normally make, but it's good if you just wanna throw something in the oven to have for later.

I cut a fresh acorn squash in half (really difficult with a disposable plastic knife as it turns out; I don't recommend), and scooped out the seeds.

I then took a single clove of garlic from a fresh garlic bulb, peeled it, and chopped it into little pieces.
I split the chopped garlic, sprinkling some on each half of the squash. Added a sprinkle of pepper, and placed both halves into a tin foil pan. I covered the pan with a sheet of tin foil, and put it into the oven.

I think I had my oven (a small roaster one) set to about 325 degrees, and I left the squash in there to bake for approximately 4-5 hours.

Later (when I was beginning to want some dinner), I added a little bit of fat-free marinara sauce (probably around 1/4 cup; but it really depends on your preference) to each half of the squash, filling the hollow that I'd made from scooping the seeds out.

Over the sauce, I sprinkled mozzarella cheese (how much depends on your preference, again).

I let it bake again, this time at 350 degrees, for probably about 15-20 minutes.

Voila, pizza acorn squash! Quite yummy, and a fun twist on regular pizza
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All A'glow

A few weeks ago, my husband came home from work and as soon as I opened the door, I could tell he was in an especially good mood. It was like he was exuding positive energy.

He had brought me home a delicious piece of baklava, and he had also stumbled upon a fantastic used-books sale, and gotten some great deals (he loves books maybe even as much as I do, which is truly incredible). So, in addition to the baklava, he'd picked out and bought a book for me. A book and baklava? Talk about knowing how to treat a girl!

He was so excited and happy about these nice things he had done for me, that I was immediately put into a enthusiastic positive mood, even before he gave them to me. His excitement and positivity just radiated into me. It was really incredible. I was amazed to see in action 1) just how true it is that our moods affect others, and 2) how doing something kind and thoughtful for someone else affects your own mood and energy level.

So, I guess I got three awesome presents that night: A book, baklava, and a happy husband who was oozing bright, shining positivity through out our home.


Photo source: ...I honestly don't remember. But it's not mine (as much as I wish I had come up with something so awesome and lovely). 

Mystery Smell Discovered

For a short while, our laundry room was smelling really weird and vinegar-y. It was really bothering me. I thought maybe my husband just had an inhumanly smelly pair of socks somewhere in there.
I finally found and disposed of the culprit, however: A dishtowel that had been saturated with hot sauce.
 (I knew I should have followed my gut instinct to ask my husband how he'd cleaned up the Great Hot Sauce Explosion of '13.) It was already dry when I found it (ew), so it was basically just like a smelly orange shell. It has found a new home in the dumpster. :)

Have a great weekend!

Handy Tip #2

Bought some kind of dishware, and you want to get the sticker off easily in one piece?
Set your blow dryer to high or mid heat and point it over the sticker for 1-2 minutes (if the dish is really cold for some reason, it might take longer). The heat will warm up the glue on the sticker, and make it easy to remove in one piece.
If there's any glue residue  left over, it should be fairly easy to rub off while it's still warm.

Schnapps Cupcakes "Recipe"

I'm actually really guilty to call this a recipe. It's super simple and basically totally cheating as far as baking goes.

For my schnapps cupcakes, I bought a Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix. At first, I was going to put the schnapps in the batter, but someone told me that would cook away the alcohol. So, I mixed and baked the cupcakes in the normal fashion. After they were baked and cooled, I used a butter knife to score the cupcakes, as shown below. (Be careful not to cut all the way through the bottom!)

After they were cut, I used the cap of the bottle of schnapps to drizzle schnapps onto the cupcakes. It was approximately 2-2 1/2 cap fulls per cup cake. (Due to the incisions, the schnapps soaked in easily.) Personally, I used Cherry Pucker schnapps (of course--it's me). I figured chocolate and cherry go well together.

After I'd drizzled the schnapps, I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate frosting. (Sorry, no pictures of the finished product! :( )
Frosting them not only adds to the yummy, unhealthy-ness, but also hides the ugly incisions. And I added little rainbow sprinkles, cuz they're fun.

Voila! That's all, folks. Shamefully simple, but a lot of fun for parties and a great conversation piece!
(Just make sure you tell anyone who eats them that they can't drive home! ;)  )

Just a Few Words...

I find it totally shocking to run into someone yesterday who mentioned that she reads my blog. I pretty much assume I'm having a conversation with myself on the internet when I post, so it's really cool to know that people actually read what I write! Thanks, guys. 

I was walking to work yesterday afternoon.
While listening to "I Want You Back" and walking with a spring in my step while mouthing the words of a young Michael Jackson, I passed a jogger. I try to make eye contact and smile with all the people I pass when I'm out walking, and when I did so with her, she said "I like your outfit!" as she passed me. Still walking, I said "Thanks!" and laughed. And I wore a smile on my face for the rest of my walk.

Why was such a simple phrase enough to make me feel so happy? Well, for one thing, I had dressed more nicely and cute than I usually do for work, so it was encouraging that even a stranger thought I looked nice. ;)

But it really got me thinking. We have so much power in our words. She gave me only four of hers, but they opened up a feeling of connection and joy--with a total stranger! Just by saying something positive, she made a ripple effect in the world (because--while I was already cheerful--that made me even more enthusiastic to open up connection with someone else in the same way, and I'm sure that affected at least one person I work with).
Her saying something so simple yet sweet was like an acknowledgment 'You are worthwhile.' Which is something I think a lot of people don't hear or feel enough.

If I knew that I could make someone's life a little brighter, make their day better, give them something to smile about--I would definitely be willing to spare even more than just a few words! Make a difference in someone's life with a simple sentence? Yes, please!

This woman--no idea who she is, and I'll probably never see her again--has inspired me to try to reach out and brighten other people's days--even strangers. I want to start making people feel connected and like they matter. It's definitely something I'm going to have to work on (especially to be able to come off in a non-creepy-stalker way), but it seems to me a worthwhile endeavor.

I have a fortune I saved from a fortune cookie. It says, "Your tongue is your ambassador."
My main focus has just been on not speaking so negatively so much. But why not go to the opposite end of the spectrum, and go out of my way to speak positively?
 If my tongue is my ambassador, my words should be a reflection of who I am inside, of my spirit and soul. I'm glad that (for the most part--cringe!) I don't have so much of a problem with saying negative things. But I think that I've developed into a more positive person on the inside, and if I show that through my words, I can only imagine this positivity will deepen and get stronger.

Our words do make an impact and a difference, regardless of if we want them to or not. Why not choose to make a difference for the good?

Husband Flowchart

I made this as a joke mostly (part of my self-made challenge to condense all of life into a flowchart), but I've been following it and it's actually working really well. I notice a difference in the atmosphere of our home, and in the way we interact. This is a flowchart for a gal to help her figure out her significant other. ;)

A Moment Like This

The promised d'awww! moment. ;)

I found a journal I'd been writing in right after my husband and I got married. I generally don't manage to keep journals for very long, and this one only has a few entries. I was flipping through it, and found one entry that I think is my favorite:

The other night, [my husband] fell asleep before I did, holding my hand. As I lay there next to him listening to him breathe, my hand in his, I realized: It's so wonderful to fall asleep with someone who chose ME over ALL other women. <3 



k"eh

What Wreck It Ralph Taught Me

Warning: Contains spoilers

I recently finally saw Wreck It Ralph, after borrowing it from my parents.
While I didn't find it as funny as I'd hoped, it's definitely cute and has some very touching moments. And I took away some lessons from it. (I like to watch movies in which I can learn some moral lesson, and this definitely had some good stuff to take away.)

No one is a mistake. 
If you're alive, you're meant to be alive and be a part of this world. While it may not be inherently obvious what your purpose is or even your value, you play an important and special role in life (or you wouldn't be here).
Just look at Venelope: she was told she was a "glitch" who was a mistake and never should have been--but in the end, she turned out to be the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush, and the greatest racer in the game! Just because others--or even you--don't see your worth, doesn't mean it's not there waiting under the surface.

Additionally, I like to take from this movie that you shouldn't take anyone in your life for granted. Even the "bad guy" has his place; life isn't just happenstance. You need everyone who is placed in your life--even the "bad guys" and those who seem to make life miserable.
One of my favorite analogies is that life is like a batch of cookies. It takes multiple ingredients to make cookies, and one of those ingredients is salt*. On it's own, the salt is overpoweringly unpleasant and you don't want it. But it's what helps make the cake good in the end.
The people in your life are the like the ingredients; you need them all--even the salty ones--to make your cookies the best they can be.

And then, of course, there's the whole message of the movie: making peace with the things you can't change about yourself, and accepting who you're supposed to be in life. 
While I'm a firm advocate that people can constantly improve and better themselves and change, there are some things we're dealt in life that are out of our control. And the best thing we can do, if we can't change something, is accept it. I've used this quote more than once, and I'll use it again: "If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. " (Mary Engelbreit)
And if you're too focused on what others think and in being like them and having what they have, you'll miss filling your own role--and that could be disastrous for everyone (like when Ralph left his game and they no longer had a bad guy, and thus where declared "Out of Order").

And, of course, the other underlying theme: Don't let labels define you. Ralph was always treated like the "bad guy," but he was willing to give up his life to save little Venelope. Even though Ralph's main role was the "bad guy," he still chose to do good, and managed to help save the day. 

All in all, it was worth the watch (though not my favorite Disney movie), and I found it to be a very wholesome family movie. 


*I don't actually use salt in recipes like cookies, generally, because I try to cut out sodium as much as possible.

Photo source: http://m4mystery.com/2012/06/29/wreck-it-ralph-trailer/

To Life!

Sorry it's been forever since my last post! You know how it is, stuff happens and we just get caught up with life in general. Anyway, now that I'm back, you get

• the promised Schnapps cupcake recipe!
• an awesome flowchart!
• a d'awwww moment!
• hot sauce explosion pictures!

And speaking of life happening, here's my facebook status from today:

That moment when you've been blowing drying your around-the-house-comfy pants in the bathroom for 20 minutes (because you washed them by hand yesterday since you don't have a washer), and your husband knocks, smelling spicy, to inform you that when he opened one of the kitchen cabinets, a bottle of hot sauce fell out and shattered--but that he cleaned most of it* up. And you just smile, because what's the point of life if it's boring? Life is hilariously awesome. 

*Note: MOST of a new bottle of hot sauce is a lot, but the remainder--while relatively less--is still a lot too. :P

(Didn't take pictures of the light hot sauce splatterings that were on the opposite side of the kitchen, on the counters, or all the hot sauce that had dripped down then outside of the trashcan.)

Keep an eye out for the rest of the awesome things listed above! ;)