this is totally going on my blog!

 When one of your best friends tries comparing How I Met Your Mother to Two and a Half Men and says that the style is lazy and corny since it was filmed after the sitcom era.

SHACUSE!
 
This show is nothing but a deep, well thought out and intricate comical satire of other sitcoms. Bob Saget as the narrator? The pre-recorded laugh track? They only add another layer of funny, unwavering comfort. It's meant to be hokey. It's meant to be meaningful. And the characters are meant to come alive.

Is it a show that is best watched random and sporadically? Not really, but sure! You can watch but you will most likely miss out on most of the long running jokes/stabs/heart felt moments that I've come to love about these people. Basically you won't be able to grasp the utter wholesome goodness that is Ted Mosby, Robin Scherbatsky, Barney Stinson, Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen (and don't even get me started on the ancillary characters that don't appear once, but multiple times through the entire series).

Just. Be cool.. alright?
Leia

what alice forgot

While school is in session my level of reading hits rock bottom. Reading is one of my most favorite things so understandably, this makes me very sad. One of my reading spots happens to maayyyybe at work, maayyyybe at my desk, and maayyyybe it's where I do 95% of all my homework and studying. I would obviously only partake in this sort of extracurricular activity if there was nothing else to do. 

Well, the last two days I felt it necessary to put school work to the side and just dive into my new book and let me say, it's a good one. I've read both the other books mentioned on the cover and they are fabulous; if you're looking for a light mystery/thriller page turner I highly recommend either one. Big Little Lies is being turned into a mini series starring Shailene Woodley and I am trying to be patient waiting for it's premiere.

And thank you husband for my wonderful early Valentine's Day bracelets. I adore them.

Chapter 25.

Leia

mid-week meal share: "slow cooker" mongolian beef

As promised, here is the second recipe to put us back on track! And very funnily and matter of factly (as is my life) my cheesecake post last night wasn't posted until after midnight. So, it wasn't even 'early', but a full week late. I'm sure SOMEONE is upset about this, maybe it's my reader from Brazil! Which, thank you Anonymous Brazilian (maybe there are multiple) for taking the time to read the ramblings of some lady from Michigan, USA!

What I've got lined up for you is slow cooker Mongolian beef! For mine, I used the stove since I was only cooking about a third of the recipe to use up my leftover sirloin 'stir fry' strips (but the recipe called for flank stank!) but listed are the full proportions.

Cost effective: much more than usual since 2-2½ pounds of steak is around $15.. we're looking at a total of $30 or so. Still less than eating out but more than meals I've shared thus far.

Easy to concoct: yes, ESPECIALLY if you're doing the Crock-Pot.

Grab a pen and paper ladies and gents!

2-2½ pounds flank steak (I used pre-cut sirloin stir fry strips)

¼ cup cornstarch (which I couldn't find at our 'lovely' Kroger)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp grated ginger

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

¾ cup soy sauce

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup water

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup rice (or more based on your personal preference)

1. The first thing I did was cook up my rice; if you're using a Crock-Pot you'll want to do that near the end of the allotted cook time. *Note that the Crock-Pot is going to take 4 hours vs 15-20 minutes on the stove.

2. Place your cornstarch (or flour) in a bag and coat your steak to the best of your ability. When I was looking up the difference between coating in cornstarch vs coating in flour, the only thing I seemed to find was that cornstarch will not change the color of the sauce you're adding it to. Also, I did not coat my steak but added it as an after thought.. coat your steak, it makes all the difference!

3. In a pan or Crock-Pot combine your olive oil, garlic, ginger, crushed red pepper, soy sauce, brown sugar and water.

4. Add your steak and coat evenly.

5. I had second thoughts on my steak to sauce ratio and half assedly added more of every ingredient. Including my flour since I was displeased at how thin the mixture was. And even then, I took some of the mixture into a bowl to add even more flour.

6. Crock-Potter's you will have to wait 4 hours but in that time you will have ample time for activities (maybe). Like, you should read Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, I just finished and it was a wonderful treat of a book. If you're cooking on the stove it should take between 15 and 20 minutes, or less depending on how you like your steak cooked.

7. Crock-Potter's in the last 30 minutes add in your carrots. Stover's, I added the carrots maybe 10 minutes after I started cooking. They could probably be added right away without any harm being done.

8. Enjoy!

This was a delicious one. When it comes to chef expertise, I honestly can't tell you the true difference between flank steak and the sirloin strips I used. Regardless I would have gotten the pre-cut strips because cutting into raw meat is not something I would like to do when prepping a meal. The main difference I can see is that when cooking in the Crock-Pot the meat is going to be much more tender, but the sirloin strips cook up really nice on the stove so that really isn't a make or break for me either. I have confidence in saying that no matter which method you choose to take, your meal will come out quite delicious.

"Since 1992, bd's Mongolian Grill has been delivering unique, interactive dining experience that set us apart from the competition and has made us the world's number one Create Your Own Stir-Fry restaurant concept."

Leia

'so late it's a day early' mid-week meal share: mini cheesecakes

Y'all, I know. I've been slacking on the one routine thing I had hoped for this little blog. But hey, such as this train that is my life we get extremely busy with work, school, chores, kids, and other shit but in the spirit of FAT TUESDAY I'm giving you guys a fabulous treat yo'self recipe along with making preparations to share another recipe tomorrow. And the crowd goes wild.

PayPal update: UPS closed their second case saying that delivery of the package could not be confirmed. Where the hell was this verdict 3 weeks ago? I don't know, but they gave us forms to fill out to be reviewed at which point I'm hoping we'll get compensation. Do I feel a little bad about my anger towards Buyer? Only slightly, isn't it okay to just be angry sometimes?

And you know what will ease your negative emotions into bliss?

MINI NO BAKE CHEESECAKES! Simple, delicious and unforgiving to your thighs, hips and your children's psychotic sugar buzz state of mind.

Cost effective: decently; around $14/dozen factoring out things like sugar and butter that would normally be in your fridge or cupboard.

Easy to concoct: yaass, but you may get frustrated trying to get even layers of goodness.

Here's what you're gonna need:

1 package (8 oz) softened cream cheese

¼ cup softened butter

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup melted white chocolate chips (I splurged on Ghirardelli because.. duh)

8 oz whipped cream

1 cup crushed graham crackers *approximately 8 whole graham crackers

6 tsp seedless raspberry jam *or other if you don't like or are unfortunately allergic

cupcake liners

I BOUGHT A HAND MIXER!!! LSDKFJOIWEJFOISJDF!!! Be proud.

1. In a bowl combine cream cheese, SOFTENED butter, sugar and vanilla with a hand mixer. Blend on a plate if you're feeling adventurous.

2. Melt your chocolate chips and then fold them in.

3. Add in your whipped cream. The original recipe stated to fold it in, but mine was still somewhat frozen (which I didn't think would harm the recipe since the last step is to freeze them) so I used my handy dandy hand mixer to finish it up.

4. Crush up your graham crackers. I used a food processor even though it may have been overkill. 

5. Line a muffin tin with your cupcake liners. Riddle me that.

6. First add a layer of cream cheese mix; you may or may not use your finger to spread the mix around..

7. Add a layer of jelly; again the finger thing..

8. Add another layer of cream cheese mix; finger..

9. Finish it off with a layer of pulverized graham crackers. Which, pulverized is probably not the best route, or maybe I used too much butter. My grahams were sticky as shit and were not easy to spread.

10. Freeze for one hour. This is by far the hardest step.

11. ENJOY!

Did I add some chocolate sauce on top? Mmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm. I felt it was necessary since I didn't have anymore whipped cream or fruit garnishes. Other than not measuring out ½ tsp of jelly per cheesecake I made no alterations to the recipe.

And let me say these beauties have survived more than a day! I'm still not sure how.. probably because Piper can't open the freezer and Kennedy is usually well mannered enough to ask before indulging in sweets.

We will definitely be making these again. They may just become a staple in this household. I am eager to try other filling flavors and I don't think it would be that difficult to alter the cheesecake flavor, either. Add some cocoa mix? I think so.

And I lost my receipt so I looked up prices online, and if you were ever curious a 50 pound carton of cream cheese can be purchased on the internet.

Maybe I'll grab one now..

Leia

super bowl sunday

Gooooooooo..... SPORTS TEAM!

But honestly, I didn't realize that the super bowl was today until I saw the new filters on Snapchat. Other things I've done today:

• posted a discussion for my online sociology class
• composed a four page paper for my online nursing class that I didn't realize was due and that I didn't realize had to be 3-5 pages long - I will forever be grateful for double spacing
• gave the girls a bath whilst typing a paper on the toilet
• made a lovely stew for dinner that will probably hit the blog in three weeks
• neglected a food post again because that involves me getting the pictures onto my phone/computer
• texted Granny to let me know when the half time show was so I could be sure to record it and not have to fast forward through the game to see it
• earned points for being too lazy even for DVR
• study all the arteries and the veins of the human body
• not shower
• read a couple chapters from Wildflower while Pipeypoo napped on me - the best excuse for not being 'productive' while your kids are napping: "The kid was asleep on me."
• did some planning on turning our teeny tiny hall closet into an open 'mudroom'
• going to hopefully continue watching The Jinx

I hope the team you were rooting for won!

Leia

seventeen thirty-eight

Haha, sometimes I just can't help myself. Yes, I referenced Fetty Wap because I can barely keep my eyes open these days.

And literally, my computer autosaved this as 'noeyemoney.jpg'. I can't.

Between all the homework I've got to keep up on (whether online or from campus), the studying I have to prioritize and the girls I feel like a zombie. Maybe a MOMBIE is more accurate. And let me say approximately 50% of my homework is ridiculous. I have an online math class this semester and the work is by no means hard, but it's time consuming and the questions just make me laugh.

Why on Earth does anyone want to know how many miles per hour hair grows at?! And I can tell you that this number is either over exaggerated or I am the exception. 

Also Piper. If this kid would just sleep through the night, I think my exhaustion issues would be less apparent. Last night was my last shift before my six days off, so I got home around 12:30a which meant a tight turn around that would land me at school this morning at 8a. Not only did she wake up, but she woke up and stayed up. Around 1a her alarm sounded and it didn't stop until 3:30a. I initially just brought her in to lay with us so she would fall back asleep so I could plop her back into her crib. Jokes on me, right? She did in fact fall back to sleep quickly, but the moment I carried her back over the threshold into her room she was miraculously wide awake and crying again. So, back to my room we go because I've got roll out of here in approximately 6 hours at this point and I can assure you I am not going to budget the time to 'properly' soothe her back to sleep in her room. Needless to say she tossed and turned until 3:30-4a when she finally fell into a deep slumber which is when I was able to also. 

Trying to keep my chin up, but this week I did poorly on two tests. One being a chemistry quiz and the other my first exam for physiology. I can cut my losses in chemistry knowing that our lowest quiz grade will be dropped at the end of the semester but I am overly stressed about my physiology exam. The points I lost are gone forever. There are some extra points built in so I'm hoping to put myself into overdrive and get the job done.

2,3-dinitrobenzoic acid

Leia

the fat jew IRL

About two weeks ago The Fat Jew started advertising for parties to commemorate the launch of his new book and it was sponsored by Four Loco (still cracking up about this). One of my best friends Caytee pitched the idea of taking a group trip to the closest one to us. Columbus, OH.  Though neither of us are huge drinkers we are huge fans of Josh Ostrovsky, so I RSVP'd. It ended up just being the two of us and it didn't go as planned but we still had a blast.

Wahoo, road trip! 3 hours and 20 odd minutes ended up taking us almost 4 hours and 30 odd minutes; this meant we had less time to get ready for the show.

Less time to get ready meant we left our hotel via Uber at 8:10p instead of 7:45p which meant we didn't get to the venue until 8:20p.. 20 minutes after the line 'officially' started. Hundreds upon hundreds of people! We guessed maybe we were 1200th in line for this thing. The line began at the doors of the venue and wrapped around the block, placing us at BOOM.

It was cold and we were freezing. We were trying to remain positive but when 10pm rolled around it seemed less likely that we were going to make the cut. Once we crossed the actual threshold onto the property security started coming outside periodically to give updates.

Update 1: everyone behind this mark (which was behind us) can plan on leaving now, you're not getting in.
Update 2 (5 minutes later): we are letting people in for 5 more minutes.
Update 3 (30 seconds later): 20 more people and that's it; everyone surges forward and I fear I might be trampled.
Update 4 (maybe 5 minutes after): venue is full, don't bitch and moan because we'll call the cops. Just leave now.

We were so close, but still so far.

Understandably, I knew the odds of people leaving early after getting in was slim to none, but I thought it was ridiculous that we weren't allowed to keep a line even if we were being courteous.

So, now what to do? We were frozen to the bone and we were starving, so let's order another Uber because it's quick and convenient and get some grub! We ended up in the downtown portion of campus called 'Short North'. The first place we stopped had just closed the kitchen, the next place we stopped closed in 30 minutes. Finally, we found Bakersfield. TACOS. TEQUILA. WHISKEY. What could go wrong with this choice?

The food.. SO GOOD.

And then after filling out tummies it was back to the hotel where we snapped some dramatic selfie's with my selfie stick that I refused to be rendered useless.

Was the goal of putting these 'on the line' to garner attention from The Fat Jew and get some sort of recognition for traveling and subsequently freezing half way to death to not gain entrance to the party? Maybe. Did I get a like from him and Babe Walker? YES. Recognition enough? For the fan girl in me, yes.

Is White Girl Rose unpleasant to drink? Yes. It could be because I don't really like wine to begin with, but hey. Celebrity. Novelty. These are things I love. No shame.



#whitegirlfrozen
Leia