Make your own Girl Scout cookies!

It’s been a loooong time!  Obviously I’m not going to be a regular blogger.  With work and school, it’s just hard to find the time.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’ve been spending all my free time getting sucked into Pinterest.  It’s a really dumb addiction, but I’ve found some awesome recipes.  Including this one.  Only I made this one even better by making it even cheaper and MUCH easier!  I KNOW.  You’re welcome.

Girl Scouts call these Tag Alongs.  This recipe was modified from the one on Chow.com. They want you to buy some fancy ass chocolate coating called couverture that requires some very meticulous heating.  If it requires a candy thermometer, it’s probably too much work.  Especially if you’re just feeding these to your friends who are just going to shovel them into their faces whole.  We’re not talking about people who are going to savor each bite.  This is the same reason I decided to skip the whole “bake the base cookie from scratch” step.  Who has time to do all this?

I mean, I’m sure they’re delicious, but I spent maybe half the time on mine and everyone LOVED them.  So here’s how I did it.

1 box plain shortbread cookies  (these are the only ones I could find at my grocery store)

Peanut Butter Topping:

natural smooth peanut butter  (I prefer the Mara Natha brand, but this is what I had at the time)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 package of Almond Bark or similar chocolate coating – you won’t use this whole package

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix together peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.

Spread peanut butter topping on cookies and set out on parchment paper.

Melt a couple bricks of almond bark in a small bowl or ramekin in the microwave.  Drop each cookie into chocolate making sure it is covered completely.  Using a fork, scoop the cookie out, and scrape the excess chocolate off of fork onto rim of the bowl.  Place on parchment to harden.  You’ll need to melt more bricks as you use it up, but I’m sure you could’ve figured that out on your own.  I don’t remember how many I used because I made these back in April for Brendon’s birthday, but I think it was less than half that package. Or more.  Less than the whole package for sure.  That wasn’t helpful at all.

If they’re getting a lot of bubbles or lumps in the surface, I figured out that if I tapped the fork on the edge of the bowl a few times that it smoothed everything out quite nicely.  But again, that took extra time, and I don’t really care if they’re pretty.  So as you can see some of them are smooth and some of them are not, but all of them are delicious!

The birthday boy was quite pleased.  And so was his family.  We all just about made ourselves sick eating them!

I definitely want to try the other Girl Scout cookie rip off recipes I’ve seen on Pinterest.  Although, being able to make samoas and thin mints might be very dangerous….

Music Monday!!

I’ve noticed that a lot of bloggers like to have theme days.  (Probably because alliteration is fun.)  I thought I’d jump in on this action.  But only this once.  I have a job and school and pets, I don’t have time to find music for you people.

I just wanted to share 2 stations I’ve really been enjoying lately.  I know a lot of you have sworn off radio and only listen to itunes, Pandora, last.fm, etc.  Because for the most part, radio sucks.  Especially here in Houston.  It’s common knowledge we have some of the worst stations in the country.  Aside from the heat and humidity, our sucky radio stations are a top complaint from people who move here.  I have to be honest; I’ve lived here my whole life and was not really aware of how bad they were until a few years ago.  An on-again-off-again boyfriend who had lived all over the U.S. would complain incessantly about it.  But then again, he was a music snob, and generally annoying.  Wait. What was I talking about?  Riiiight, music!

Like I said, I know many of you don’t bother with the radio anymore.  But if I’m just going on a short trip to the grocery store or something I don’t really feel like digging my iphone out of my purse and picking out music and then disconnecting it when I get to the store and then reconnecting it when I head back home.  So I’m happy that I found a new station to listen to!

You see, on Thanksgiving when my car battery died and I had to replace it, I had to redo all my presets on my stereo and I discovered a new (to me) station.  I don’t know how long 103.7 has been “adult alternative” but I swear it used to be a classic rock station.  I dunno.  Doesn’t matter.   The point is, it consistently plays a good mix of music AND I haven’t yet noticed that they overplay a certain set of songs.  Unlike all our other stations that pick 20 songs and just put them on a loop.  (Playing Cee-Lo’s Fuck You every twenty minutes!  No Mix 96.5, Fuck YOU.)

They play a lot of stuff from the 90’s that I love like Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day and Cake.  And they throw in stuff from the 70’s like The Who and The Rolling Stones, but they also play recent music.  I even heard something that sounded a bit country the other day.

Then there’s the British station I listen to online.  I can’t remember how I came across it, but I lovelovelove it!  NME radio rocks my socks.  You’ve probably heard of NME magazine, and once again I’m probably late to the party and you probably already know about NME radio.  And if that’s the case:  Why didn’t you tell me?!

They play a lot of bands I’ve never heard of, but they also throw some American stuff in there, too.  As I’m typing this they’re playing Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side.  Almost all the songs they play are pretty upbeat so I like listening when I’m cleaning or cooking.  Every couple of minutes I hear something new I like and run over to my computer to see the name of the band and try to remember it so I can look it up later. But then I usually forget.  Here’s some I actually remembered.  Notice that these aren’t new, but they were new to me.

And here’s some I found from browsing their new music tab on the website.

I love it when the members of the band just look so happy to be performing!

What are you listening to?

WTFredericksburg?!

Ok, this is my last post about my trip.  I promise.  I just absolutely could not leave out this hot tranny mess of pics from the Trade Days thing we went to.  During the tiny bit of planning I actually did for this trip I got super excited about this whole Trade Days thing because it’s basically the biggest flea market you’ve ever seen.

I LOVE yard sales, estate sales, and flea markets.  Sure, most of the stuff is junk, but sometimes you’ll find something really neat.  Or so bizarre you simply must have it.  OR you’ll at least get to see some amazing vintage or antique stuff that is waaaaaay too expensive but still nice to look at.

Trade Days was disappointing in that I didn’t find one single thing that I was willing to part with money for.  But it made up for that with its WTF factor.

I actually had a couple vendors get annoyed with me for taking pictures of their stuff.  One older woman was quite passive aggressive about it:

her:  What are you taking pictures for?  Are you an artist?

me:  Huh? Nope, just on vacation.

her:  Well, you know, some artists don’t really like people taking pictures of their work.

me: Oh well.

her: blahblahblah (I dunno, I was clearly trying to leave her booth and she kept following me and talking to me.)

For the record, no one had a sign up saying “no pictures” anywhere.  Also, I was taking pictures of earrings she made from some kind of cans.  I think calling herself an “artist” is a bit of a stretch.  Besides, you know she got that idea from Pinterest.   mmm hmmmm  

I’m not even going to try to describe or explain what is in these pictures.  I hope you enjoy the WTF montage!  Happy Friday!

The food and booze are the best part of any vacation. Am I right?

I have finally experienced Buc-ee’s.  If you’re not from Texas, or have never taken a road trip though Southeast Texas, then you probably have no idea what I’m talking about.  Although, you might have seen this stupid beaver sticker on someone’s car and thought “what the hell….?”  For those who don’t know, Buc-ee’s is a glorified gas station/rest stop.  BUT, they became ‘famous’ for having the best and cleanest bathrooms of any gas station around.  And I have to say, they definitely lived up to their rep.  Also, some of them have a deli counter where you can get a sandwich and a variety of fresh jerky.  AND in addition to the regular assortment of chips, candy and soda, they also carry their own line of food.  Behold:

Those Beaver Nuggets are like crack, I tell ya!  Think like a slightly crunchier version of a puffy cheeto that tastes like caramel popcorn.  That bag has mysteriously disappeared.  ;)  I haven’t tried the candied jalapenos or the pumpkin butter yet, but come on.  You know they’re gonna be good.

The first thing we did when we got into Fredericksburg was go straight to the German food.  We were in a German town after all.  Altdorf Biergarten has such a cute outdoor patio where the tables are made out of barrels which means we got to enjoy the nice weather while we stuffed our faces!  My dinner:  cheddarwurst with sauerkraut (duh), sweet and sour potatoes, spiced noodles and I believe that is a Paulaner of some kind in the picture.  I think we had 2 or 3 beers there.  The spiced noodles are not, in fact, spicy.  They’re actually pretty bland, which was just as our waiter explained to us.  They’re basically just cooked in butter and some herbs.  The sweet and sour potatoes were delicious, and definitely sour.  Brendon had the red cabbage, and I have to say it was probably the best side.  So yummy!

 After that enormous dinner, we decided to walk around and try to “walk it off”.  However, we soon discovered that life in a small town meant pretty much everything shut down at 5pm.  Everything was already closed!  :( Except for the restaurants and bars!  We couldn’t eat anymore, but dammit we could drink!  And walking to the bar we passed by a tiny Italian place that smelled….heavenly.  Garlic was just wafting out of the place.  We made a mental note.

The next day after hiking at Pedernales Falls, we had lunch at Catfish Haven, because my baby looooves catfish.  Now, when you walk into this place it doesn’t look like much.  Example: They’ve taken out adspace on their dining tables.  It’s a real mom and pop kinda place.  But all the fried everything we had was fresh and delicious and not greasy.  We were so hungry I didn’t even take pictures.  I had the fried jumbo shrimp and stuffed crab dinner and he of course had fried catfish and french fries.  And they have one helluva salad bar with everything from regular salad stuff to potato salad and baked beans and tapioca pudding.  For our 2 dinners plus our appetizer of fried pickles (we HAD to!)  it was still only about $40.

Then we went shopping and I bought CANDY.  Many of the stores sell specialty foods: spreads, salsas, quesos made with unique ingredients.  They have jars upon jars open all around the store and you can walk through and sample everything!  Like going to Sam’s Club on the weekend!  Only much, much better.  My booty:

Fredericksburg General Store

Toffee pecan honey butter and Amaretto pecan honey butter

Fredericksburg General Store also had all these old-timey candy and toys.  The place is pretty much stuffed to the gills with a lot of…..crap.  I didn’t really want any of that but I couldn’t resist the Black Cow.  And I can not wait to put that honey butter on some waffles!

Next we went to Rustlin’ Robs Gourmet Food Store and Lone Star Candy Bar and bought fudge.  The red velvet cake on the top, and the reese’s cup on the bottom left, and the praline on the bottom right were the very best!  And those all came from the Lone Star Candy Bar.  Their fudge tasted better and also had a better texture.  We also bought some chocolate covered bacon there which was divine and gobbled all up before pictures were taken!

Remember that Italian place I mentioned?  We totally went back and we were not sorry!  If you’re ever in Fredericksburg you MUST eat at Pasta Bella.  Hands down, the best meal we had the whole week.  Again, no pics because it all went straight to my face.  Pass on the garlic bread and have the pesto bread instead.  You won’t regret it!

Our last night we decided to try out another German restaurant The Auslander.  Their fried mushrooms came with this amazing dipping sauce with dill in it.  nomnomnom.  And they were having a concert that night.  Some guy named Cory Morrow.  We had no clue who he was and we didn’t care.  We were too busy moaning over our reuben (me) and brats (him).

We actually ended up going there after we found out that the other other German restaurant only took AmEx and Discover.  The nerve!  But we’re glad it ended up that way.

And of course, don’t forget about all the vineyards!  At some point in all this we went to Becker Vineyards and did a tasting.  For $10 a person you get 6 tastings and you get to keep your Becker Vineyard etched wineglass.  Unfortunately it was too early in the year for the lavender to be in bloom.  :(  But we did go home with a bottle of wine we both liked!  (And some lavender honey – don’t bother, it’s just expensive honey.  It doesn’t smell or taste special.)

Oh!  And I almost forgot, don’t bother stopping at Fredericksburg Brewing Company.  You’ll be tempted to, but don’t.  Neither of us are beer snobs by any means, but we were pretty disappointed with all their beers.  They all tasted a little watered down and generic to us.

But DO stop by the Lincoln St Wine and Cigar Bar.  They have a great selection and a fireplace on the patio.  LOVED it.

Well I think that pretty much covers it!  I hope you get to check it out, it’s a really great little town.

Pedernales Falls, the smallest waterfall you ever did see

Not to say that it wasn’t awesome and fun.  And LOUD.  It’s impressive how much noise even a little bit of moving water makes!  Also, the river was pretty low.  I think if there had been a good rain right before we went, these pictures might have been a little more impressive.  This was actually the very first thing we did on our trip.  It was so gray that day and so all my pics are gray, but you get the idea.   If you google Pedernales Falls you can see some pretty gorgeous pictures.  But look at mine first!  (Oh, and it’s pronounced Per-nal-es.)

Going to Pedernales and Enchanted Rock really really made us want to go camping.  But I was pretty happy to be staying at the La Quinta.  Oh!  Which btw reminds me there was a 3rd thing I learned on vacation!

Always book a hotel that offers a HOT continental breakfast.  Not just teeny boxes of cereal and a fruit bowl.  No.  No, sir.  We had a make your own waffle station, biscuits with sausage gravy, bagels and cream cheese, cinnamon rolls, hot cocoa.  I mean, damn!  I absolutely HAVE to eat breakfast because I’m hungry as all hell when I get up.  But also, breakfast food is my all time favorite food.  I LURV it.  So yeah, each day started out pretty awesomely.

2 Things I learned on Spring Break

Traveling together is a great test of any relationship.  Whether it’s with your significant other, a sibling, or a friend.  Even just a 3 day weekend of non-stop time with that person will tell you a lot.  Like, whether or not you will ever speak to them again.  If you can spend all that time with them and not once get into even the smallest of arguments – that’s pretty damn good.  Especially with someone like me who:

A) Admittedly likes to argue.  Sometimes.  Because I like winning.

B) Really enjoys making fun of you.  All the time.  Sometimes this goes too far and I hurt peoples feelings.  Because they’re ninnies.

C) LOVES to window shop.  A LOT.  I just love going into stores and touching everything I like.  And everything I hate.  And not buying any of it.  And remarking on how disgustingly expensive that ugly pillow over there is.  Shop owners hate me.  I’m pretty sure my friends hate shopping with me, too.  Amazingly, Brendon didn’t complain once.  When I asked him about my dragging him through all the shops in this manner, he just said that his mom and sister did this to him all the time so he was used to it.  I’m sure it was also that we were in Fredericksburg.  What else was there to do?

Which brings me to #1

Brendon is probably the most patient person I have ever met.  And not just because he puts up with A,B, and C.  If it hadn’t been for him I might not have climbed to the top of Enchanted Rock.  The line of cars to get into the park stretched so far we couldn’t even tell where the park entrance was.  I had to pee sooooo bad and I was sleepy.  Mostly because it had been overcast and gray the whole time, but sleepy nonetheless.  We kept seeing people just say “Fuck it!” and turn their cars around and I wanted to join them.  I am really good at saying “Fuck it!”  I’ll say it emphatically and with gusto!

But he wouldn’t let me.

He actually said something along the lines of “I feel sorry for their kids.  10 years from now, they’re not going to remember the wait, they’ll only remember the climb and the view and the fun.  Now they get nothing.”

Awwwwwww

So I did the pee-pee dance as best I could in the passenger seat and I waited.  And I got this:

#2

I now understand the whole hiking/rock climbing thing.  I’ve never really been an outdoorsy person.  Mostly due to all the 2nd degree sunburns I had as a child.  Yep.  2nd degree sunburns.  I’m not talking like a few little blisters on my shoulder.  I’m talking like huge blisters all over my shoulders and arms to the point I couldn’t lift my arms to change my shirt.  Plus blisters on my ears and scalp.  Yeah.  After the last really bad one, I went through a bit of a goth phase.  Then I got older and decided to become a massage therapist.  One of the perks included working in a dark room all day.  Perfecto!

But after climbing all over Pedernales Falls and Enchanted Rock, I totally get it.  You put in a little effort (At these places anyway.  I’m sure other places require much, much more effort.)  and you get to see this amazing view.  *lightbulb*

I’ve lived in the Houston area my whole life and didn’t even know these place existed, a mere 4 hour drive away, until a month ago.

I’ve really been missing out.

And this is only the first of my vacation posts.  I can’t figure out how to do a separate gallery in the same post.  It keeps adding the pictures to the first gallery and pissing me off!

So one more for Pedernales Falls.  And then one more for all the fooooood!  :D

And then a WTFredericksburg post for the Trade Days event.

Make your man into a meme!

I’m sure you’ve all seen the ridiculously awesome Ryan Gosling Hey, girl memes.  But what about showing your real life awesome dude some appreciation?  Here’s mine:

HAHAHA! This was so much fun and I can see it getting really out of hand.  Make memes of ALL my friends!

I wish I could take credit for this.  Shoooot, I wish I could take credit for the Ryan Gosling ones, too.  But, my place in this world does not seem to be coming up with the awesome ideas, but simply loving and sharing them.  I saw this on Come Kale or High Water.  Her friend actually has a tumblr dedicated to this called Who Needs Ryan Gosling, but apparently I’m dumb because I couldn’t figure out how to do it.  So I just went to mememaker.net.  Now, go!  Spread the love!