Toni's Mac and Cheese

Ingredients 1 pound macaroni pasta such as shells or cavatappi 4 cups water 4 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon ground mustard (optional) 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 1 5- ounce can evaporated milk 4 cups shredded medium or sharp cheddar cheese 2 cups soft white cheese such as gouda Swiss, fontina, or provolone (or whatever you have - I usually do a combo of cheddar and parmesan) Instructions In the insert of an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, add the macaroni, water, butter, kosher salt, ground mustard and garlic salt. Cook in the pressure cooker for 1 minute on high, then quick release. Add the evaporated milk and half of the cheeses and use a wooden spoon to vigorously stir until the cheeses have melted then repeat with the rest of the cheese, stirring until the sauce is creamy. Add any additional toppings or mix-ins below at this time. Serve warm.

Ranch Chicken and Rice

This was literally one of the easiest things I've ever made.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can of water
Dry ranch mix

Add these all to instant pot and cook for 15 minutes. Natural pressure release for 10.

Pull the chicken out and shred. Switch instant pot to saute and melt 1 block cream cheese in sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix in shredded chicken.

Serve over rice.

Lamp

Our first apartment as a couple was a dark little one bedroom basement apartment. Our windows were so little that I'm sure it was a fire hazard because the only thing that was getting through there was maybe a cat. It was rather dark and gloomy so I ended up acquiring a few free lamps to brighten the place up. One was an intricate brown one, and while I wasn't particularly attached to the shade, the base of it was quite pretty.
Allen hated it. He thought it was an ugly lamp and has wanted me to get rid of it since we got it. I haven't caved, so it sits on top of our dresser with our bluray.

One day, as he almost knocked it over, he exclaimed 

"that's it! I'm getting rid of this dumb lamp!"

I looked at him in horror and said 

"I love lamp."

Canned Pumpkin and Other Fun Facts

I have just finished my time at SLCC and I feel so free! 

I had plans to clean out my closet and do all of the tasks that I had been neglecting with my few weeks of free time between finishing up at SLCC and starting at Weber. What I failed to account for was the fact that I had the rest of my life to live. While I do have a lot less to stress about, I am also still working full time and I have a whole slew of family events to catch up on. Weddings and baby blessings and mission farewells fill all of my weekends from here until I start back at school, so the next time I will see a free Saturday will be in December. Ha! As if anyone ever has free time on a Saturday in December. 

I did do the dishes! All of the dishes in our house are done. Also, thanks to my husband, the last load of laundry is in the washer. I am not entirely sure that we have EVER had all the dishes done AND all the laundry done at the same time ever in our lives, so this is an excellent accomplishment for us. Gold Stars. 

Some fun facts for you. 

- I just finished all of my courses for my associate's degree, and I have to use spell check every single time because I strongly believe that associate's degree should be spelled differently than it is. I am waiting for a grade from my Marketing teacher and then everything will be DONE! Even though I didn't actually have to take a marketing class.. I just took it because I wanted to see if I'd like it. Who takes courses for fun in college? 

- I am now scuba certified. As long as I remember to send in my certification paperwork!

- I just wrote part of a blog post. As long as we're following the trend, this will stay in my drafts for years to come and never actually be published. 

- canned 100% pumpkin settles upset puppy tummies. 

And that's it! Hope you weren't hoping for a funny story today! 

that's not my trailer

We've been looking at houses. After we finished with our realtor the other day, he left and we stood next to our car discussing options for a few minutes. A man across the street waved at us and smiled before crossing the street to talk to us. 

"Was that your trailer parked here?" he asked.

"No," we responded. We were a bit concerned at this point. We've had our fair share of cranky neighbors when it concerns parking, so we were hoping that we weren't about to get blamed for something that we didn't do, yet again. 

"Oh, well do you know who it belongs to?"

Long story short, the man didn't live in the neighborhood, but his Dad did. The man's poor elderly father had mistaken the trailer for his son's trailer and had filled it up with tree branches and other yard clippings. When the son arrived and asked him whose trailer he was filling up his father said, "Yours!"

The poor man had filled up some random person's trailer with trash. 

jay-fizzle

This is Jazmyn Koko Beans. She has somewhere near a million names.

Jazzy
Beans
Jazz-beans
Jay-Fizzle
Tato (like Puh-tato, but without the Puh)

She's amazing and I adore her.

She's one of those pocket size dogs that has no purpose in life except to warm your heart. I love her. 

The Dog Park

Today we took our little Leia Bear to the dog park. Tymbur Wolf stayed behind because he tends to get grumpy about meeting other dogs, but Leia was pretty excited about the whole thing. 

As soon as we got there she practically jumped out the window. She'd never been there before, but I guess she could smell the excitement or something. We quickly got out and let her into the play area. 

She was immediately befriended by an adorable horse of a dog. He was a great dane and he was at least twice her size. When he approached her you could tell that she was a bit scared by his size. She took off running as fast as she could and he easily galloped behind her. She quickly tried to make friends with a tiny little corgi. Much less scary. 

We laughed as the great dane followed her around as she made sure to smile and greet every human in the dog park. Apparently we need to take her to a regular park since it was the people that she enjoyed the most! It's probably best that we teach her to be a little less free with her kisses though. There was a little girl whose face happened to be Leia's height who was pretty surprised at the quick run-by kiss that she recieved. 

We didn't stay long but she had a lovely time. It was nice to get out and enjoy the pretty weather. 

Grandma's Potatoes

I don't actually remember writing this, but hey! It looks useful! 

We went to Allen's Grandma's house the other day and she made some delicious potatoes that I really enjoyed. I asked for the recipe so I could recreate it and here it is! Enjoy!

Roasted Ranch Potatoes

2 pounds potatoes (unpeeled, washed and cut into chunks)
1/2 cup ranch dressing (bottled, not packet)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup more for topping
1/4 cup crumbled, cooked bacon or real bacon pieces from jar
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
3 scallions, washed and chopped
Salt
Pepper
Sour Cream (optional)
Non-stick cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add (in a large bowl) the ranch dressing, dill, cheese and bacon. Add in the potatoes. Sprinkle in a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Toss to coat potatoes.

Spoon into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with foil.

Bake for 60 minutes. Stir gently halfway through to get the bottom potatoes rotated so they don't become burnt and to ensure that the middle and top potatoes get a chance to brown.

Remove foil. Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees. Gently stir again, as necessary.

Bake for an additional 15 minutes, then sprinkle with additional cheese. Bake a few more minutes or until everything is gooey, browned and bubbly on top.

Serve with scallions sprinkled on top for garnish.

Great with a dollop of sour cream.

for being the dog that doesn't settle down, she sure knows how to strike an intense pose.

 

I got a camera and now someone thinks she's a model.

 

falling in love... with fall

if you would have asked me last week if I was ready for fall I would've told you to shut it, but according to the runny nose I've had since Tuesday, and the fact that the leaves are already changing colors, it's fast approaching.

I'm excited.

Music speaks for me.

 

I can't be artistic on command, but if an idea sits in my head long enough, it tends to leak out.

 

Sometimes I'm happy with the results, and sometimes I'm not.

 

What I can tell you is that I'm enjoying playing the ukulele, even though I only know how to play one song.

 

If you ever want to have a sing along to you are my sunshine, just ask. You just might have to pause while I switch between chords in the middle of the song. 

 

 

And because I've yet to create any music that's "magical", enjoy a video of someone who has.

Molly Kate Kestner:

 

p.s. painting tropical pictures onto a ukulele will not decrease your desire to pack up and move to Hawaii.

I'm a big kid with a big kid job now

I love my job, I truly do. Working the same schedule every day has added some sanity to my life and it's been great. Need to make a doctor's appointment? sweet. I know exactly what hours I work. It's a magical thing, a white collar job, I think it's something everyone should get to experience.

No uniform, paid holidays, paid vacation... Let's face it, as fun as fast food was, it made me miserable. My heart aches for my former managers and co-workers that are still dealing with that mess every day.

The one unfortunate thing about my job is that I don't get to use my paid vacation for the first 6 months that I work there. As far as I knew, that was fine. I had Saturdays and Sundays all to myself to plan my events on. And I only work mornings, so I could even start my weekend adventures after 2 on Fridays. 

Fine and dandy.

I just wish that people would stop planning things on weekdays. If it's more than a two hour drive, I probably won't be making it to your event if it's on a weekday. I really am truly sorry, but I have bills to pay. I hope you understand.

I wish I could be there for everything, but I can't and it breaks my heart.

The most beautiful thing I've ever written.

Earlier today, I walked into Allen's parents house and found his Mom sitting on the couch squirting a small mountain of chocolate syrup on a half peeled banana with the utmost concentration. As the chocolate squeeze bottle made noises any first grader would be proud of, she simply looked at me with her exhausted eyes and said "it's been that kind of day.", and shoved the banana in her mouth. 

Yeah, it's been that kind of day. 

Daffodils & Church Music

It's such a treat when I forget to change my Pandora station back after Sundays.

Call me weird, but I love hearing Church Hymns outside of Church.

Also, MoTab puts Leia and Tymbur straight to sleep, so that's a plus.

Also, the daffodils are blooming!

Puppy Treats

When we first got married, the hunt for an apartment began. We knew two things. 1 - We were moving to a college town, and 2 - We wanted a dog.

We found an apartment that accepted pets and put a deposit on it so nobody else could swipe it from us. It was a bad move on our part, but that's a completely different story.

Allen was adamant that we were getting a Husky, and I just wanted a puppy.

One day while I was at school, my sweet husband suddenly had the idea to go to the animal shelter without me. I was mad, and an hour away, so I skipped my last class and went to a different animal shelter on the hunt for our new furry child. I walked straight past the little black puppy surrounded by a swarm of people in the lobby, and straight to the rows of dogs in the back. There were several that looked at me with their big eyes and stole my heart, and I even snapped a picture of one to send to my husband.

I walked back out to the lobby to try to get signal on my phone to send it to him and noticed the swarm of people was gone, and so was the little black puppy.

As I wandered around trying to catch the signal, I caught a glimpse of her. A family had taken the little puppy into the bonding room (or whatever it's called) to play with her and she was chowing down on a treat. A boy escaped from the room and I said, "That puppy is so cute! Are you guys taking it home?" he told me no. I watched through the glass as the family played with her and they beckoned me in. I snapped a picture of her cute little baby face, and the family left. She fell asleep on my shoe, and I sat there for a good twenty minutes waiting for her to wake up. I sent this picture to Allen, and somehow it went right through. He fell in love instantly.

 

.

 

 

Next thing I knew, I was swiping my card and loading this little girl into the car. She really wanted to be close to me, so she tried climbing on my head as I was driving on the freeway.

 

By the time we were home, she already had a name.

 

Princess Leia.

 

She slept for the first month and has been awake and crazy ever since.

 

 

Baby Leia

Last week, as I was perusing KSL's ad's, I found this handsome guy. He's a husky mix, and his owner just didn't have time for him anymore.

I, of couse, called immediately. The owner didn't pick up. So I called like 7 more times. He called back finally, and next thing I knew, we were on our way to meet a cute little guy named Timber. He snuggled right up to us, and then got slightly distracted when he spotted a golf ball. We loved him immediately, and brought him home with us.

Being a couple years old already, we didn't want to confuse him by giving him a new name, so we just changed it a little bit. Instead of Timber, he's now

Darth Tymbur

So now we're in love with both of our furry friends and we seem to be going through treats really fast around here. I stumbled across a really simple recipe on pinterest for doggie treats, and decided to change the recipe around a little bit. (Original Recipe found HERE)

 

Behold, the easiest recipe you will ever make.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

Baby Food (I used the Gerber Carrot 3.5 oz one)

1 cup Stone ground rice flour (the rice flour is easier on puppy tummies)

water

 

And that's it. I mixed the baby food and the flour and added water bit by bit until it was the consistency of a good rollable cookie dough.

 

I would recommend rolling it out, but I don't have a rolling pin (My birthday is in September, cough cough) so I just pounded it out on the floured counter til it was about 1/4" thick.

 

I cut the shapes and arranged them on a pan and baked them in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

These dogs are the closest thing my mom has to grandchildren at this moment, so she spoils them. That's the reason the only cookie cutter I own is shaped like a dog treat. You can use other shapes and it will work just fine.

 

Let them cool before feeding them to your pup.

Store in a paper bag. They're crunchy.

 

If you use a different kind of baby food, make sure that there aren't any extras in there. The carrot one has carrots and water listed on the ingredients.

Onions and Garlic are poisonous to dogs along with grapes and raisins and chocolate. Don't mix any of those in!

 

 

The great thing about this is that it didn't smell bad! Allen was watching Psych during the whole process and commented that whatever I was making smelled good. I offered him one, but he declined.

Leia, on the other hand eats hers and then tries to steal Tymbur's from him.

 

Let me know if you have any other yummy puppy treats for me to spoil my babies with!

because i'm behind on the times.

We took these almost a year ago, so I figured it was time to share them on the neglected blog.

 

Hope you love them as much as I do.

 

 

 

 

 

The Plan

I have a plan.

It's a top secret plan. Don't tell my husband.

Our current bookshelf is tiny. It reaches my hips, and my hips are wider than it. I could seriously take a fork to this thing and swallow it in one bite. Almost.

Now, I know it's pretty much a sin, but when we moved to Cedar City I didn't take my whole collection of books with. Don't tell Meggie from Inkheart. She would be heartbroken. (Great book, by the way. Read it. It's magical.) I lived for a miserable 4 months without any of my beloved books. (I worked at a bookstore... Don't feel too bad for me.)

So now my husband thinks that it's acceptable to only have this little bite sized bookshelf in our house and it's just not. These books are essential. I need them in my life. On a beautiful shelf. In my tiny apartment.

So here's the plan.

I'm going to pull my books out one by one and put them on my snack-sized shelf. It will happen slowly. He wont even see it coming. And then one day the tiny shelf will just not be enough. I wont be able to part with a single book on the shelf, so we'll have to get a bigger shelf, and then a bigger one. And then one day I'll have a Belle sized library and life will be wonderful.

 

 

I imagine my shelf looking something like this, besides the fact that my house has far less brick than this one.

p.s. my sweet husband is not a book-hating jerk. He just prefers his books to be on a screen.

I can't write with people reading over my shoulder.

Prepare yourself for an unorganized blog post.

-It's a new year, so I feel like that should mean that I need to rededicate myself to blogging, but I'm not going to do that because I don't want to let you or me down.

-I really do love writing, but I feel awkward when my husband peeks at what I'm saying while I'm saying it. Or anybody, for that matter. Nobody gets to watch me blog. Ever.
.

-We have lived in this apartment for a week and so far we have the TV unpacked and that's about it. I really hate unpacking.

-Now that I'm not working 60 hours a week, I need friends of the female variety. My mom and my husband's mom are lovely ladies to hang out with, but I need someone my own age to do craft projects with on occasion too. Any takers?

-I'm very excited for a Monday through Friday job. I've never had one of those before. I'll even be home in time to cook dinner and be a housewife. I love cooking dinner (If I ever get the kitchen unpacked...)

-Lindt milk chocolate truffles are amazing. I ate my last one today

-If you try a new hobby, you might find that you enjoy it. I never thought I'd read any Star Wars books, but long drives can turn into learning all about the ways of the Sith and it's actually kind of cool. I'm a little afraid to admit this on the internet.

-Having a husband is buckets of fun, especially if it's my husband. Be jealous.

Coconut Curry Hawaiian Haystacks

I really enjoy finding recipes on pinterest and then not following them. I can't be the only one that does this. Usually it turns out good, sometimes not.

The hubby came back from snowboarding with his face looking very sun-kissed (or sun-slapped) So I decided to make something tropical to feed the poor sore man.

So here's a recipe for you.

Coconut Curry Hawaiian Haystacks

This is my Mom's recipe, with a Toni Spin.

I always seem to end up on the phone with her when I'm cooking. The conversations usually go: So I'm making (insert food) for dinner. What do I do?


Haystack Sauce:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Olive Oil
Lemon Pepper
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 can milk
1 packet chicken gravy mix (mixed according to directions)
1 tsp Curry


Cut up your chicken breast into small chunks.

Cook your chicken chunks in a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled with lemon pepper in a skillet on your stove. (Do I measure things, Nahh.)

When the chicken is cooked through, add your can of cream of chicken soup, Rinse out the rest of the soup by filling that can up about halfway with milk. Add that to the mixture.

Mix your packet of chicken gravy with the water (mine called for a cup) and add to the mixture on the stove.

Add 1 tsp of Curry and Lemon Pepper to taste.

Cook on low for a few minutes.



Coconut Rice

This isn't my mom's recipe. She uses regular rice, which is delicious. I wanted to be adventurous, so I decided to make coconut rice. If you don't like coconut, use regular rice!

I believe that the ratio for white rice is 1 cup rice to 2 cups water, so I switched things around and just substituted coconut milk for water. Simple as that!

2 cups rice
1 can coconut milk (it was almost 2 cups)
2 cups water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Simmer for 18-20 minutes or until the water is soaked into the rice.

If you're cooking in a rice cooker, you'll have to look elsewhere for how to make coconut rice in a rice cooker, because I don't know. On a slightly related tangent, I could use a rice cooker for Christmas.

Serve the Sauce over the coconut rice and top with shredded cheese and whatever you want

We usually do some of these:

Pineapple tidbits
Mandarin Oranges
Chinese Noodles
Toasted Almonds
Tomatoes
Shredded Coconut


It's delightful. I'm glad we have leftovers. :)
 

Cinnamon Apple Scented Puppy Fluffs

I've always loved fall. The leaves changing colors, the days getting colder, and the smell of cinnamon in the air.

My husband forgot to inform me that he doesn't like the smell of cinnamon in the air, so my dreams of cinnamon pinecones have been dashed into a million pieces.

Unfortunately, after much debate and sniffing of the glade scents in Walmart I talked him into a lovely smelling apple cinnamon spray. (I meant to say unfortunately, just so you know.) We keep it handy for when our furry little puppy unknowingly uses her skunk-like scent against us. The poor thing doesn't realize she does it, so when we go running from the room (and I mean RUNNING), she just gives us a confused look and runs with us. She doesn't eat any human food, and we switched her puppy food to hopefully remedy the problem to no avail. So now our house frequently smells like cinnamon apple scented puppy fluffs. Delightful. I really hope that I can still enjoy cinnamon scents later in life, but for now it always seems to be paired with the smell of butt. What can you do?

Even though I frequently have to run from the room in my house thanks to my dog, I had a lot of fun decorating for Halloween. Too bad for you, I'm lame and I didn't do tutorials. I'm always too excited to get the project done to take pictures during the process. I'll try to work on that, don't worry.

Here's a sample of October's fun for you to enjoy:  
 
 
 

 



My sweet husband tried to make his own Halloween costume. I took pictures afterwards, but I can't post them on the internet because modest is hottest and he made it short enough that people would have made fun of him for years to come. I made round two, and it seemed to go over much better.

 

 

Amazon is a great place if you're searching for strange nerdy items like the ocarina that Allen has tucked into his belt. Unfortunately, my cute yellow belt is no more thanks to our smelly little monster.

 

Sancta Mortis is Latin for "Deathly Hallows" according to my source. If not, I have some strange words written in Latin on one of my cute Halloween Books.

Nerds for the win.

 

 

The process for my cute jars was quite simple.

 

Materials:

 

Hot Glue Gun

Jars of Various Sizes

Black Matte Spray Paint

Silver Paint

Paper Towel

 

I just drew my designs on the jar with my hot glue gun *not as easy as you think it is* I only peeled it off 10 times before I gave up.

 

Then I spray painted the whole thing and waited for it to dry.

 

I then dipped my paper towel in a little bit of silver paint and rubbed it all over til I was satisfied.

I think they're cute :)

I'm not even going to pretend like this wreath deserves a tutorial. It turned out cute, but trial and error is the way to go. I couldn't remake it if I tried.

 

Not being artistic in any way, I was pretty proud of my haunted house. I sat it on my front porch to display in my apartment complex. Our apartments are pretty spaced out, so we pretty much never get anyone walking past that isn't on their way to our apartment, so I peeked out the window when I saw a shadow passing by  a few days ago. A cute little boy walked up to my pumpkin and I watched him sound out the letters to figure out what exactly it said. It was really cute. Then he stole our newspaper and ran away, and I haven't seen him since.

And some adorable floating witches hats for you.

 

 

Also, I made some great little cinnamon apple chips too. They smelled and tasted delightful. It was just sliced apples, cinnamon, and sugar on a baking sheet and then you baked them at the lowest temperature until they're dry. I made a pretty small batch.

 

 

Just don't attempt to cut off your finger halfway through slicing apples and you'll be able to make a batch big enough to share.