Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Show and Tell

To say that the past 16 weeks have been rough for me would be an understatement.  I've lost a lot.  I've confronted a lot.  I've faced a lot.  I've cried a whole lot.

The past 16 weeks have really sucked major #$%&#@$!!

Fortunately, and finally, I'm hearing rumor of the light at the end of the tunnel's existence.  I'm getting involved in theater again.  I'm actually kind of happy with my body for the first time in, well, ever.  I'm regaining my confidence in my classes. I feel like the old Emily might be coming back.

So I deserve a treat, right?

How's that for a treat?

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture, so you can see my fingerprints on it, but you get the idea.  Meet my new ring!

The stone is a pink tourmaline (which is my birthstone) and was given to me by a very good friend/coworker.  My mom helped me pick out the setting.  

I have definitely needed a pick-me-up lately.  But this ring is more to me than just a pick-me-up or something pretty to wear.  It's a reminder that I carry with me (literally) every day that I am loved, that things will (eventually) get better and that I do have something to smile about.  And those are things that I, now more than ever, need to remember. 

It is pretty, though, isn't it? :)


Sunday, February 5, 2012

Super Cheese Sunday

Another  Pinterest recipe success!

At this very moment, I am sitting next to my father and we are making a pretty big dent in some warm bean dip! It's just so....cheesy. Here's the original pin:



This was one of the very first things I pinned when I started using Pinterest.  But it's definitely a recipe that calls for an occasion and a group of people to share it with.  And, frankly, it screams "Super Bowl Snack!"  I mean, what's more "Super Bowl" than a dip that calls for FOUR CUPS OF CHEESE?!

Sidenote: I just relocated myself across the room because that is the only way I am going to stop shoveling this dip in my mouth.

I didn't go to any sort of Super Bowl party this year, but my parents and I went to my grandfathers house to "watch it" (I say that like I'll have any clue what is happening in the game...) and eat junk food—perfect time to try this recipe!  

Another Sidenote: Relocation did me no good.  I just walked across the room and stuffed my face some more.


It's a really simple recipe.  Mix some stuff up, cover it with cheese, pop it in the over, bada bing!  If you can open a can and open a bag, you can make this recipe. Unfortunately for me....

Apparently I've been using the can opener BACKWARDS for 20 years!  Add this to the list of things I can't do properly because I'm a lefty...

And...

Whoever is responsible for putting that little "Tear Here" notch in bags of cheese has it out for me.

But, I prevailed and ended up with this:

You gotta love a recipe that looks like this!

Mix everything up, pop it in a pan, and cook for 20-25 minutes.  Take it out, cover it with even more cheese, and cook about 5 minutes longer.  

Perfection.


AND if that wasn't enough cheese to get your arteries sweating, then take a gander at this:


Basically, my mother is a genius.  She took my favorite cheese (Brie) and wrapped it in crescent rolls.  And it's the definition of amazing.  The saltiness from the brie and the slight sweetness from the crescent rolls are perfect together.   To make these, just wrap a small wheel or a wedge of brie cheese (we used La Bonne Vie brand) with crescent rolls and bake according to the directions on the can of rolls.  Easy.  Breezy.  Delicious.

In general, I don't enjoy eating that much.  There are very few foods that are worth the calories or the resulting stomach ache to me.  But this dip and the brie and crescent rolls?  Totally worth it. There's just something about cheese...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take a tums, run a marathon, do 1,000 sit ups, and make friends with the veggie tray.  

Happy snacking!

Warm Bean Dip
*Recipe found on "The Country Cook"
  • 2 cans (16-oz.) refried beans (I used fat free)
  • 1 can (10.5-oz) diced tomatoes (I couldn't find a 10-oz can, so I just used 14-oz.  It worked just fine)
  • 1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
  • 4 cups colby jack cheese
  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Drain excess juice from the tomatoes using a strainer.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine refried beans, tomatoes, taco seasoning, and 2 cups of cheese.
  4. Spray an 8x8 dish with cooking spray.  Pour combined ingredients into a dish a spread around evenly.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until thoroughly heated through.
  6. Add remaining 2 cups of cheese and bake for another 5 minutes until cheese is melted.
  7. Serve warm with your favorite tortilla chips.
*You can have fun with this recipe!  Try it with Rotel tomatoes or use mexican style or pepperjack  cheese.  Tweak it to your taste.


Hello broccoli.  You are so....not covered in cheese...










Friday, February 3, 2012

Fill-In-the-Blank Friday

THANK. GOD. IT'S FRIDAY.

This week hasn't been "rough," per se.  It's just been long.  This morning was kind of rough, though.  So I'm definitely ready for a break! So, to kick off this break, let's have a little fill-in-the-blank fun!

If you have a blog and want to play, fill in the blanks on your blog and link up here!


1.  If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross off my life list is taking my mom, dad and brother to England.  I know my mom and dad have always wanted to take a family vacation there, but we haven't gotten to yet.  If I could afford it, I would take my family there in a heartbeat.

2.  Pickled okra is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be "Diary of a crazy, obsessive, broke white college student"

4.  Three things I'm looking forward to this month are A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum rehearsals, school, and getting in better shape.
I'm lame.

5. My favorite song to sing in the shower is whatever I'm working on in my voice lessons.

6.  If I found out that the production of Swedish Fish was ending tomorrow, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is theater.  I love me some theater.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

That Pinterests Me!

It's Wednesday!  You know what that means!




google


If you want to join Pinterest, just leave your e-mail in a comment!  It's invite only, so I can hook you up!
Once you're on, this will be you:
Source: google.co.nz via Emily on Pinterest



Let's take a peek at my "For the Home" board today!

Source: designmom.com via Emily on Pinterest

I want this bathtub!  Someone make me this bathtub!

Source: bhg.com via Emily on Pinterest

I love this color scheme.


This is brilliant!


I've already partially done this one.  Right now all my bags are just stuffed in the tissue box.  One day soon I'll roll them up.


It's so.  Freaking. Organized. 

Source: bhg.com via Emily on Pinterest

I really love this!  It would also stop my cat from eating my dogs food or standing in my dogs food bowl to get to the water bowl (Harley can be very spiteful...)  We could just push the drawer back in every time Harley feels like being a poop head.

Source: weheartit.com via Emily on Pinterest

Part of me would really like to do this in my kid's room one day.  The other part of me thinks it might be a little creepy.


Fiestaware.
You see these in mexican restaurant a lot.  You also see them in the Wright household.  My dad started collecting them a few years back, and for good reason!  These plates are super strong and I love the way they look–they're so colorful!  We have broken a few pieces over the years and they always break cleanly in two, so you don't have to worry about sharp pieces flying everywhere.  My dad gave me a few pieces when I moved into my apartment this year and then I got more for Christmas, so I've got a nice little collection started. :)

What have you been pinning this week?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Asian Salad

Friends are fun.  Good food is fun.  The SAG awards are fun.  Put all three together, and you've got a lot of fun.

Last night, I got together with some friends at my friend Charlynn's house for soup, salad and SAGs!  It was a lot of fun.  We all brought a soup, salad, bread or sweet to share.  There was so much good food!  I brought asian salad and deep dark chocolate cookies!  

Asian salad is a recipe that my mom's made for a long time.  It's super yummy and my mom said I could share the recipe with all of you! 

What I love about this salad is that you can make it ahead of time!  Well, actually, you really need to make  it ahead of time.  Everything needs time to marinade.

First you need to crunch up a couple bags of ramen noodles and dump them in the bottom of a big bowl.  I think the ramen noodles might be my favorite part of the salad :)

Cover the noodle with a couple of bags of broccoli slaw, some sunflower seeds and some slivered almonds....

And then add some green onions...

I have a bit of a problem with onions.  I guess I'm just super sensitive.  They don't just make me cry.  They really make my eyes burn!  Even if the onions are in the next room.  So while chopping the green onions, my eyes started to burn really bad.  My mom remembered that at one point in the movie The Help, they mentioned that putting an unlit match between your teeth will help appease the onion burn.  I'm not sure if it worked, though, because we didn't really think to try this until after I chopped the onions.  I guess it took away the residual sting...


Now time for the dressing.  Take the two beef seasoning packets from your ramen noodles and mix it with sugar, oil and white vinegar.

Next, pour it all over the salad. 

Now, this next part is really important: DO NOT STIR IT!  Put a lid on it, put it in the fridge, and ignore it for 4-24 hours.  Don't stir it until just before you serve it.

If I were smart, I would have remembered to take a picture once I stirred it.  But I'm not smart, so I didn't.  But trust me...It's a pretty salad! And it's pretty tasty too :)

Keep an eye out for a post about the deep dark chocolate cookies and pictures from SAGgy Girls night! :)

Asian Salad
  • 2 packages broccoli slaw
  • 2 packages beef flavored ramen noodles
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • 1 cup sunflower seed kernels
  • 1 bunch green onions, chopped
  • 1/3 cup white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup oil
  1. Break up your ramen noodle and dump them in the bottom of a large bowl.  Set the seasoning packets aside.
  2.  Add the broccoli slaw, almonds, sunflower kernels and green onions. 
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the seasoning packets from the ramen, vinegar, sugar and oil.  Whisk until thoroughly combined.  
  4. Pour the dressing over the salad.  DO NOT STIR!  Cover the salad and put it in the refrigerator for 4 – 24 hours. 
  5. Stir right before serving and enjoy!  

Brain Dump

1.  This past week has to have been one of the most frustrating, stressful, emotional weeks of my life.  I have yelled, screamed, cried and cursed so much.  I'm so glad it's over and I'm optimistic that this coming week will be better.

2.  Five years after I started doing theatre at Baton Rouge Little Theater, I have FINALLY gotten all of my show posters framed and hung up on my wall.  The only poster missing is the poster from Evita, which I did in September 2009 (but I should be getting that one soon :D ).  It's nice to have all of these on the wall as a reminder of how far I've come and how much I really do have to be thankful for. (And lots of thanks to my mom and dad for helping me hang them!)




3.  Speaking of theatre, I'm going to be playing Tintinabula, one of the Courtesans, in Baton Rouge Little Theater's  upcoming production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  I haven't done any theatre in over a year (and haven't done a musical in over 2 years!) so I'm excited to be involved again.  I'm sure you'll be hearing all about it in the coming weeks.  It opens on March 9. 

4.  I had a lot of fun watching the SAG awards and eating soup and salad tonight with some friends.  I got to try a Pinterest recipe, which is always exciting!  Keep an eye out for a blog post with pictures and recipes. :)

5.  I need a new manicure.  

6.  I'm getting a new ring this week.  I'm super excited :) The stone was given to me by a coworker of mine who is very special to me and my mom helped me pick out the setting.  Expect pictures.

7.  I'm starting to knit to decompress.  I found an old project that I started on a while back and am adding a few rows to it every night before I go to sleep.  It's going to be a hot pink scarf.  But it's not very good and I would never wear it, so I'm going to give it to my dog when it's done.  He needs a scarf on those Baton Rouge winter walks. :) 


8.  I felt really sick on Friday, so I came home and watched The Office on Netflix in bed all day. Now, I can't stop watching until I've seen them all.  I personally think John Krasinski married the wrong Emily.  He totally meant to marry me, not Emily Blunt.  

9.  I am really jealous of Emily Blunt.

10. I have almost completely cut caffeine out of my diet, which is a huge accomplishment for me.  I've been having some anxiety issues lately and all the doctors I've been to have recommended keeping caffeine to a minimum to help with those issues.  I was surprised at how little trouble I've had with it.  Every now and then I'll get a really bad caffeine headache and have to have a Diet Coke, but for the most part, I just switched to Caffeine Free Diet Coke with no problem.  And, surprise surprise, I've been sleeping a little better too.  It's been a nice transition.  

11.  I had lunch with my mom and dad at Jimmy John's today.  Because I knew I'd be eating a lot tonight, I decided to try my regular Turkey Tom as an Unwich to cut back calories, meaning that, instead of using bread, the sandwich is wrapped in lettuce.  I was surprised at how good it was!  I mean, it's hard to beat the amazing bread that Jimmy John's has, but the Unwich was very satisfying and I can definitely see myself ordering it a lot more in the future!  AND it was only 273 calories.  The regular sandwich is 515 calories.  Not bad!


Yum!

12.   Albertson's makes the best donuts.  I think Krispy Kremes are too sweet.  I was somehow able to convince my parents to get a dozen last night and we split them.  So now there are 5 Albertson's Donuts in my kitchen and I have successfully avoided them all day.  I should reward my self control with a donut tomorrow morning :)


Night y'all!



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

How Pinteresting!

Hey guys! Remember when I said I was going to do one of these every Wednesday?  And then I just didn't...

Yeah, sorry about that...

I pinky promise that I will write a non-meme blog post very soon (these are just so much fun!), but in the mean time...


google

From my Style pinboard...


Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

I die for these shoes!


My friend Rome made these earrings! I think they're so pretty!


I can haz this dress please?

Source: modcloth.com via Emily on Pinterest




I really love the cutout trend right now.

Source: polyvore.com via Emily on Pinterest


Source: poshposh.com via Emily on Pinterest




Source: scarves.net via Emily on Pinterest

I love my scarves, so this is really useful!





Source: etsy.com via Emily on Pinterest

My plastic checkbook cover is so far gone.  I would love to have something like this.

Later tater tots!  Keep an eye out for a "real" blog post soon!