Busy Bees

Sorry for being blogger MIA this past week, but as the title says... we've been busy! Before I get into everything you've missed out on I have to start with AVATAR.

If you have not seen this movie, or do not plan to see... change your mind and go buy a ticket! It was amazing. I had no desire to see it, in fact the first preview I saw for it I said "wow that looks stupid". The more previews I saw the more it looked interesting, but still not something I wanted to see. Then the other day while watching the 4th hour of the Today Show Kathy Lee and Hoda were talking about how they had seen the movie the night before. Neither of them thought they would like it.. however, they said it was unbelievable! You couldn't take your eyes off the screen the whole time in fear you'd miss something. There was a love story along with the script that isn't shown on previews. One of the big turn offs is the 2 hours and 45 minutes of sitting... you never even realize it's been that long by the time the movie is done. After hearing all that I knew I had to see the movie! ha If they liked it then I knew I would. The movie is showing in regualar 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. I highly recommand you see it in IMAX 3D.. but not in the front row {we tried getting there early, we even preordered our tickets but we still got there just before it started and had to sit in the front row. Big bummer.} Frank and I enjoyed it just a tad..we plan to see it again around next pay day :]!!

Okay now to everything else... Last week I started volunteering at the food bank distrubution center. I've been wanting to work there, the animal shelter {still waiting to hear from them} and the USO. The food bank was the easiest to volunteer with since I just pick a date online and sign up for it. I worked 3 hours sorting foods to make sure they were good to be given out, and I learned some things about the things you can and can not donate. If a can or pop is dented they don't except it, any pills or vitamins are a no... and they take cleaning products. Did not know about that one. I signed up to volunteer again Monday i'm hoping to make it a weekly thing until I can find a job. I also went downtown and found the USO to fill out a volunteer application with them. They aren't filling any positions till after the new year.. so it's another wait and see.

All last week was beautiful and warm and I was dieing to take the dogs outside for a walk. Specificly Mission trails and Cowles Mt, but I bruised my leg up pretty bad and walking for long periods of time was out of the question :[ boo. The next few days are suppose to cool down a little and be cloudy, but I believe Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are going to be sunny and warm so i'm hoping we can take the dogs somewhere those days.

Speaking of dogs.. for Christmas I decided to make our friends dogs {and ours} some homemade dog treats. It really wasn't hard at all, but i've learned my lesson and will never make dog treats with peanut butter again! It was a horrible horrible mess. I thought it would be a good idea since Molly and Ellie love peanut butter so much...

this was the highlight of there day ha. I found the recipes at DOGTREATKITCHEN.COM, they are all easy recipes with few ingredients which is super nice. I made peanut butter with oatmeal...

and peanut butter with pumkin...

 

the dogs loved them, so i'm hoping all the rest of them like them as well.

BREAKFAST SKILLET from allrecipes.com.. who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? It's one of our favorites that's for sure. I did leave out the peppers and mushrooms.. and the bacon was just for Frank. I could go for some more of this right about now!

THAI SHRIMP LINGUINE from tasteofhome.com, the recipe called for thai peanut sauce but since I wasn't able to find any I used a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and housin sauce. It was very yummy :] and was just as good cold the next day.

Last night before rushing out to the movies we made GRILLED BLACKENED SALMON WITH PINEAPPLE MANGO SALSA from Fortheloveofcooking.net. There is no picture since we were in such a hurry, so make sure to check out Pam's picture and recipe. We really liked this salmon! I didn't however make a salsa since my mango had gone bad, so I just paired it with some canned pineapple (I was too lazy to buy a pineapple and cut it up) and a salad. If you make just the salmon with no salsa it's super easy, all your doing is mixing up some dry ingredients and sprinkling it over the salmon.

While cutting out coupons I found this Ginger Cookie recipe. I'm sure it's just like any random ginger cookie recipe, but since I got it with a coupon they use the product they are selling... I just used what I had :]

 

 You can easily gain about 5 pounds eating these things.. they are too good.

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 salt

2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar in the raw

1 egg

1/4 cup dark corn syrup

1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar in the raw

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat butter and 1 cup of sugar in the raw (I ended up only having 1/2 cup of sugar in the raw, so I used cane sugar for the rest) until well mixed. Beat in egg and corn syrup until smooth. Stir in flour mixture. Chill dough 1-2 hours, or until easy to handle. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar in the raw. Place balls 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9 to 11 minutes or just until golden around edges. Cool on wire racks.

Last thing since this post is full of random fun stuff. I FINALLY made my own all purpose cleaning product! I am so happy I finally got around to doing this, i'm in love :] hehe. I just used a recipe from Gorgeously Green...

32-ounce plastic spray bottle

2 cups water

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon pure castile soap{I used citrus.. I was going for a certain smell}

3/4 cups hydrogen peroxide

20 drops tea tree oil

20 drops of your choice essential oil. I went with lemon, in the book she recommands lemongrass but they were all out.

If you lasted until the end of this post... THANK YOU! Sorry that it's all over the place, I wasted about 2 hours with this now it's time to tackle the mess of dishes and finish up the ginger cookies.