1. My last day being 28.
2. Frost on the ground and how it sparkles as the sun comes up.
3. Birthday presents
4. Lunch with a great friend
5. Not taking the bus home!
Author: Andi
Oh Man!
Today is my last day of being 28. Tomorrow I will be turning 29….for the first time! From then on, I'll be 29 and holding. Wish me luck as I enter my final year of my 20s!
Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans
On the never failing recommendation of my dear friend, Lauren, I gave this meal a try. Wow. It was yummy!. You have to like tacos/burritos because this is basically the stuffing for one without the tortilla. And it's cheesy, a little creamy, a little spicy…Yum!
It's called Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans and is another Weight Watcher's Smart Ones.
Lauren had actually recommended the Lean Cuisine one, but this one was on sale. I will be trying the Lean Cuisine one now to compare. (I'll let you know how that goes!)
If you're looking for something new to try…pick up one of these!
93/365
1. Finding something I thought I lost
2. Actually having the answers to certain questions
3. Ingrid Michaelson
4. Wearing my headphones all day
5. Guessing what my birthday present is…and not getting it right!
Windows 7 Party
Chuck decided to host a Windows 7 release party. We invited all our geeky friends. 
Microsoft sent a package to those hosting the parties. So we got all sorts of goodies and decorations. Here are some pictures from the event.
This is a puzzle they sent us. It was a picture of one of the built in backgrounds.
This is where we had all our laptops set up running Windows 7. And yes. All of those laptops belong to Chuck and I. (We actually have one more laptop with Windows 7 on it that isn't shown.) Note that there are two Toshiba laptops, a MacBook, and a Dell Mini on the table. They all run great with Windows 7.
Of course, I also had the Cake Balls with the Windows logo out for eating.
And this was just a funny picture. We had balloons all over the floor and I found this one hovering. I know it looks like the chair was holding it up, but it was just bouncing up and down above the heater in the floor.
We had a great time. And I think Chuck showed off some of the real cool features of Windows 7 and sold a couple people on it. After the party, we drank some more and played Rock Band. It was a good night.
92/365
1. My Pioneer Woman cookbook in the mail!
2. Taking a walk with a friend
3. Black nail polish still on since Halloween
4. My hubby made me dinner last night while I was doing my homework
5. Free Noodles & Co. before class for my birthday week. (It's on Friday.)
Vegetable Pizza Minis
You didn't read that wrong. The title DID say “vegetable” in it! I am growing up! I tried these Vegetable Pizza Minis the other day when I was having a late lunch. They were more of a snack food than a meal.
These are in the same snack family as the Fiesta Quesadillas, meaning there are two in the pack. There are four mini pizzas per serving. And I am talking MINI! But they take a couple bits to get through…mostly because they are hot! You take them out of the wrapper and they are sitting in a tray. You take them off the tray, turn the tray upside down and place the pizzas on the silver coating of the tray. This apparently helps them cook or something.
They weren't real crunchy and maybe bordered on the line of chewy once they were cooked, but I still enjoyed them. I tend to like more things than I think I do when I actually try them!
So I will probably get these again for a snack, but I would pick the Fiesta Quesadillas over these given the choice.
Halloween
On Friday, we carved pumpkins for Halloween.
I am indifferent to carving pumpkins, but everyone else enjoys it. I had the strangest pumpkin I have ever seen. It was similar to the Spaghetti Squash you can get. It was all stringy inside. I was happy, since this meant it was less slimy. Chuck said it was softer to carve, too. A friend suggested it might be a baking pumpkin because those tend to be softer. Who knew. This is what it looked like inside and what came out of it.
Paige and Brian made a pumpkin face saying “Boo” and Chuck and I (Chuck did all the carving) made Pac-Man and character.
Then, on Saturday, we went to a friends' house for a Halloween party. Chuck and I wore the same costumes we did last year. But this year they are much funnier. (Too much to explain if you don't know what I am talking about.)
Can you guess what Paige and Brian were?
Paige is “Follow the yellow brick road” and Brian is a “Chick magnet”! So clever!
I really wanted one of these costumes:
Maybe next year!
I also managed to fall asleep on our friends' chair with their dog, Luigi. I am too old to stay out until 12:30!
Hope you had a fun Halloween!
91/365
1. My hubby moved my car this morning and prewarmed the seat heaters for me.
2. Getting a blog post done that I hadn't uploaded the pictures for
3. A recommended meal from a friend
4. Adding things to my birthday wish list
5. Changing the calendars to a new month. (Yes, I am a day off!)
Cake Balls Gone Awry
About a month ago I posted about a little treat I was going to make. Well, I made them for a Windows 7 party (I'll post about that soon) Chuck was having. Well, I sort of made them. I'll start with the positives first…..
First bake a cake from a box. Check. No problem there.
Then you let it cool and crumble it into a bowl and add cream cheese frosting. Check.
Then mix it together. Check.
Then roll mixture into balls. Check. (They look like meatballs, but I promise they contain no meat.)
Put them into the freezer to get hard so they are easier to work with. Check….minus the small task of finding room in the fridge to fit this many chocolate balls.
After they have frozen for a while, start melting some white chocolate to coat the balls in. I wanted to make 4 different colors (red, blue, yellow and green) since these were for the Windows 7 Party we were having.
This is where it goes down hill.
WARNING
You cannot add water based food coloring to chocolate. It will seize up on you and turn into a sad, nasty clump of grainy, hard chocolate.
So we melted some more white chocolate thinking, we'll just coat them and decorate them with colored squeezable frosting. No problem, right? Sure. If you are a master baker maybe. To get the balls to be completely coated in chocolate you need massive amounts of chocolate. So we had a couple that were heavily coated in white chocolate. The rest….we kind of made white chocolate hats with them by only dipping part of the balls in the white chocolate.
It was messy. They are not pretty like I pictured.
But on the plus side, (because I am working on being more positive) Chuck said they tasted really good! So I guess that is a bonus.
He got some squeezable frosting and we decorated them for the party. So I decorated them with the Windows logo.
They weren't what I expected, but it's the thought that counts, right? And I did something I don't normally do…Try something new. So yay! And It wasn't the end of the world when they didn't work out. We just laughed about it and have learned a valuable lesson….”Don't try”. HAHA! Just kidding!
I actually got this idea originally from a blog I read. Here is her first post about them. And here is her second post about them. I should have learned after reading these. But nope…I was determined to make this work. I sent her a Twitter message telling her I was going to try them.
Then sent her a message after my failed attempt.
Her reply was this.
Ha! So I think we would both agree that you should let the pros make the cake balls and cake pops. And we'll stick to simpler things…like boxed cake.