I've got sunshine!!!!

So I realize (and appologize) that I have not made a post for a bit of time... well... more like a month. Or two. Kind of funny that my last post talked about the snow and now it's sunny and the flowers are blooming! Yay!!! Welll here's the news of the month...

My brother Ryan just got engaged!!! Mallory is wonderful and the best sister in the world. I'm so excited for them both =)
Dad and I went to San Diego. Mom couldn't go because my brother Aaron had back surgery! Aaron's doing pretty well, in fact he went to school this week he was feeling so good.

I really enjoyed just having freedom to walk around San Diego... as a country girl I wasn't used to the city scene, but I really liked it!!! One day we went to the zoo and saw this adorable girraffe:



Another day we went sea kayaking. Just before we went into the water this guy catches a HUGE SHARK!!! needless to say I almost chickened out, but it ended up being really fun.

I have officially started the torturous last month of high school, and my finals are CRAZY!!! I think my teachers have all plotted together about how to make this last month as difficult as possible for us. I have two classes that each have a 3 day final, and I'll be taking 3 AP tests. Lots of studying to do! (of course, instead of studying I'm making a blog entry... hm...)

I also started working at Panera. Last night I trained how to make crispani, which is their pizza. It's really fun! I work 3:30-close again tonight.

Well thats all the news as of right now.
I love dandilions. They're dandy. Dandy dandylions... hehe!

another snow day! woot woot!

Horray for snow days!!! I've had 2 days off this week, not to mention an early release yesterday! Huzzah!

Well by popular demand, here is a picture of my beautiful felted bag Marmie made me!And of course, Nikko offered to model it. Isn't she cute? (Sumo gets too many photo shoots on Marmie's blog, don't ya think? =)
Today I made some wonderful oat bran muffins!

Oat Bran Muffins

1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1-1/2 c. oat bran cereal
1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
1/2 ts. salt
2 eggs
1 c. applesauce, chilled
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1. Blend together dry ingredients.
2. Add eggs, applesauce, and vegetable oil.
3. Spoon batter into muffin cups (12 muffins)
4. Let stand 10 minutes
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.


I added raisins and cinnamon to half of the batch, and then topped them with extra raisins. Then I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top after they came out of the oven. I would definately suggest that!

Just so you know that my life does NOT revolve around cooking as my blog seems to, here's a glimpse of my life...

I have always loved writing. I began writing for school newspapers in ninth grade. This year, as a senior, I'm co-editor-in-chief of the Tiger Hi-Line, my high school newspaper which is printed in our community newspaper.
I'm just about to head to Galena with Dad. We're going skiing tomorrow!! I'm so excited. I'm bringing my camera, so I'll probably put up some pictures next week. TTFN!

Oh, baby! Gotta love oatmeal

Allow me to introduce my babies. Yup, I raise llamas. The black one is Sebastian - he's the best llama in the whole world. I started training him from day one when he was born at my next door neighbor's house, and we entered llama shows and parades together. For my tenth birthday surprise! My dad bought me Sebastian for my birthday! Almost eight years later, I still love him. (My dad too) On the left is Jericho. He's such a sweetie :)

Speaking of babies, I'm in the middle of knitting my third baby blanket. I adapted them from a basic pattern I found. Here's what I knit:

Baby Blanket

1. Cast on 108 stitches onto circular needles
2. Knit four rows
3. Knit four stitches, P10, K10, P10, K10, P10,
K10, P10, K10, P10, K10, K4.
4. Repeat step 3 for 10 rows.
5. Knit four stitches, K10, P10, K10, P10, K10,
P10, K10, P10, K10, P10, K4
6. Repeat step 5 for 10 rows.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 until it is as big as you want it! (I do 5 repetitions of each, creating 10 rows of boxes)
8. Knit four rows
9. Cast off

For lack of a real baby, Nikko volunteered to model my second baby blanket. They really turn out cute!




Well today I've been busy baking oatmeal cookies! Huzzah for oatmeal! My first batch were oatmeal raisin chocolate chip. I made them really small so they're little two-bites. But they're really tasty!

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 ts. vanilla
1-1/2 c. flour
1 ts. baking soda
1 ts. cinnamon
1/2 ts. salt
3 c. uncooked oatmeal
1 c. raisins
1/2 chocolate chips (or more)

1. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy
2. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
4. stir in oats, raisins, and chocolate chips; mix well
5. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
6. Bake 10-12 minutes (or until golden brown) at 350 degrees.
7. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack.

Monster Cookies

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 pound (2 1/4 cups) brown sugar
1 1/2 pounds Skippy* creamy peanut butter
6 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
4 teaspoons baking soda
10 cups regular oatmeal
1 pound M&M’s candies
12 ounces chocolate chips

1. Combine first 7 ingredients.
2. Mix very well.
3. Add M&M’s and chocolate chips.
4. Add oatmeal 1 cup at a time.
5. Store in refrigerator for several hours.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on size of the cookie.
7. Dough freezes well and keeps well in refrigerator.

Note: I found Skippy to be the peanut butter of choice. Others seem to have too much oil.

I made these monsters MONSTER cookies! They're really big! For all of you in CF, you'll be able to find them at Barn Happy soon :)

ice ice baby...

Yay for snow days!!! We've got a TON of ice and snow, and so school is already canceled for tomorrow! Since I'm a senior I don't have to make up snow days at the end of the year (yayness!) So this weekend Ryan and Mallory came over and and got "snowed in" and we've hibernated together all weekend. Sooo much fun. We got into the dress-up box from the crawl space which resulted in the following picture:
I think I'll predict my identity if you can't figure out which one I am.




We also made a WONDERFUL rhubarb cake. It tastes so good you would never guess how easy it is to make! I chopped up this rhubarb I got from my neighbor's garden last fall and kept it in the freezer already measured out and everything-- It makes a great mid-winter treat. Here's the recipe:

Rhubarb Cake

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk mixed with 1 tsp soda
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix sugar, shortening and egg
2. Add flour, salt, vanilla and milk mixture. Mix well.
3. Stir in Rhubarb.
4. Pour into 9 X 13 pan. Top with sugar mixture.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.



On Saturday Dad braved the icy roads to go get lunch at Applebees... when he got home we realized that they had given us the wrong order! They told us to keep it and come get our own food, so we ended up with a feast! Here's me n ryan n mallory trying out somebody's pizza... it was really good! We also got a few salads and a steak. We thought about returning the steak and asking for it medium rare! =P


Well tonight I had a little fun with photoshop... dad came and asked who it was in the photo... took him a little bit to recognize me! Haha... well here's the finished product.

Let it snow!

So it's a wonderful snowy day!!!

This is my first blog, so I'm not really sure how this works... but here's what happened this weekend:




My poor little Sumo got sick =( Sweet thing. He's feeling better though. Unfortunately, I was up all Saturday night taking care of him. But now he's up n about and enjoying the snow.










Mom makes felted purses, and she's working on this awesome blue and brown bag... Here it is now. It just has to be felted. I'll post a pic of it when it's all done.


Well that was my first post! I plan on curling up and knitting and watching Gilmore Girls all day... sounds like a good day to me =)