Friday, September 30, 2011

Poor Little Lil

What a stressful couple of days. Last night my little Lily love got her thumbnail (?) caught in her collar- at least I think that's what happened. We were playing, and then all of a sudden she came walking over to me and crawled on my lap. Then she started licking my hand and when I looked down there was blood everywhere! I didn't know if it was from her or me at first. Then I noticed that it was her nail. I couldn't see much because of all of her fur and blood. From what I could see it looked like the nail was split and almost snapped off at the top. My wonderful husband helped me detain her and wrap her limb with gauze and tape, which luckily she left on overnight.

There is much more to this story, but to make it short, we ended up taking her to the vet this afternoon where they cut/ripped off the remaining nail and wrapped her paw. Below is the result:



My poor little love :( She's limping around the house... in a cute but sad way. They didn't give any pain meds or anitbiotics. I wish they would have, she is favoring it more now than she did when it first happened. Oh well, I suppose dogs have lived in the wild centuries ago and survived such injuries!

Also, last night the development directly behind my in-laws had four houses catch on fire. From what I heard and saw on the news the houses were mostly destroyed. Luckily there were no casualties, except possibly a dog and one person was sent to the local hospital for burns. Please keep these families in your thoughts. The cause is thought to have been a propane tank that blew up in one of the homes.

On a happier note, K(my hubs) and I are finally going back to Happy Valley! He graduated in '07 from Penn State and I followed him, after completing three years there, and then went on to nursing school. We have been wanting to go back and even made reservations once, but we never followed through. So, PSU HERE WE COME!

Until Monday!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A Little Taste of Fall


Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread

Old Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Pie French Toast

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

Pumpkin Cupcake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiches

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Granola





Monday, September 26, 2011

Brownie Pops- filled with Peanut Butter


I know cake pops have become quite popular, but I don't know that I've ever seen any with filling... 



I was in the mood for brownies, and when I decided to make brownie pops dipped in chocolate for a dinner party I shared the thought with my husband. My brother-in-law was nearby and added "filled with peanut butter!". He loves chocolate and peanut butter. After his comment.... I thought... hmmm.... why not fill them with peanut butter? So that's what I did! However I didn't dip them in chocolate (I thought that would be chocolate overload. Wait, what?). Actually, I just didn't have time for the last decadent step!

Peanut Butter Filling:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Mix together until able to form a ball without sticking to hands. You may need to add more powdered sugar or peanut butter.

Assembly:
1) Make brownies- any kind will do. 
2) Make peanut butter filling using recipe above and roll into 1" balls. You may have to rinse off your hands every once in awhile. After balls are formed place in freezer until step 3 is complete.
2) Cut brownies into 2" squares, after cutting all of the hard edges off. 
3) Use a large cookie sheet for assembly. Roll brownie dough in hands to form a ball- break brownie ball in half and push thumb in the middle to make space for the peanut butter ball. Repeat this until squares are gone.
4) Take half of a brownie ball- place peanut butter ball in space made with thumb. Top with other brownie ball half.
5) Pinch and smooth edges where joined. Roll to smooth.
6) Add a stick if you'd like.... and dip them in chocolate!



Monday, September 19, 2011

Chocolate Decadence Bars

Please, come and indulge yourself in a little decadence...

These bars include every classic staple for delicious baked items (at least according to me!): chocolate, peanut butter and oreos!

I have spent the last hour looking for the recipe I used for these.... I can't find it. Smart of me not to save it, right?

I can at least explain to you how to make them....

1) Use your favorite brownie recipe and half way through the cooking time, press oreos down into the batter.

2) In the last 5 minutes of cooking time, take the brownies out of the oven and top with chocolate chips and crumbled up nutter butters. Bake for the remaining time.

3) Mix chocolate chips (about 1 cup) and peanut butter (3/4-1 cup) in a microwave safe bowl until smooth. You can add a little butter or oil (not OVOO) if you think the mixture isn't  thin enough.

4) Pour the mixture over the baked brownies. Cool until ready to serve.

TA DA. Perfection! And ohhhhh so delish!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Living Room Makeover- In Progress

It's a lovely fall (almost) Saturday night and I'm blogging while enjoying the aromas of my new Caramel Ginger Strudel candle from Gold Canyon. Anyone that loves candles-----> you HAVE to try these. They make the house smell delish in no time!

Now, on to my post... 

                                                                                  #1

This is our living room before. I was not a fan. We basically just took everything from our living room in the apartment and made it work in our living room, for the time being. 

                             #2                                                                                 #3





However, NOW I get to do the living room the way I want. YAY! My husband came up with the great idea of making this more of a "den" and entertaining space than a living room. Right now we have the basement set up with a nice big TV and comfy couch. All of the entertainment is in the basement so that's where we spend most of our time- thus the basement equals our living room.

It has been a month long project so far and all we've done is get rid of most of the furniture (we're keeping the couch). As you can see the theme previously was deep, warm colors. This was the theme of our apartment. The theme of our house has taken on a much more sleek, clean look. Not quite modern, but has cooler tones (like the walls in the pictures above).

We were able to get an awesome piece for under the TV- which will now be hanging on the wall in the first pictures (where our wedding picture is hanging in picture #2). You'll learn all about that in another post :)

I think my biggest challenge for this space is going to be wall coverings. The couch is now along the wall where the ottoman is (in picture #1). The space is taken care of. I used the picture rail from above the TV in the picture above and plan on filling the space with framed pictures and other random pieces. Kind of like in the picture below.


I love the picture of framed photos with the different frames, the plaques with numbers and words and the letter. I'll probably add some little mirrors to my wall for a little reflection of light. The problem is the the other three large wall spaces I need to fill. Any ideas are welcome!!

We still have a couple of chairs to buy as well as table lamps, and a laptop table. Then comes the really fun part- decorating!

That's all for now, I'll keep posting pictures as the project progresses!