Moving

Well kids......I am moving on.

Don't get me wrong! I still intend to blog, and I still intend to cook and post recipes, but I wanted a blog that covers more about me in general, rather than just the attempts I make in the kitchen.

So update your Google Readers and follow me over this way:

www.crazyinminnesota.blogspot.com

See you there loyal readers!

Red Apple Sangria

A long time ago I tried the red apple sangria at Applebees and I loved it. I have wanted to make it since I tried it. I finally got a chance tonight.

I found a recipe here, but I had to modify it. Here's how I did it:

1 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
1 small bottle Smirnoff green apple (couldn't find Shakka red apple liquor at the store we went to)
6 oz grenadine
18 oz cranberry juice
18 oz pineapple juice
12-16 oz of Sierra Mist
1 lime - sliced
2 apples - cored and sliced
1 orange - sliced
1 small jar maraschino cherries

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and place in fridge until chilled. Can serve over ice if needed.

YUMMY!!!!!

Updates

LOTS of things have been going on lately. I started a new volunteer position last weekend, and I get to work with wildlife now! That's pretty neat and a new experience for me. Work has been hit and miss for busy days. I've been studying algebra for a test I have to take next month. Geez I never thought I'd be studying algebra again - who would have guessed I'd be doing it again nearly 7 years after my first encounter with it? I have to take a placement test, and if I assess at a pre-calculus level, I can avoid retaking algebra. So wish me luck! My brain is definitely rusty in this area, but it's slowly coming back.

Sadly, I had to resign from the Daring Bakers this month. I'm not happy about it, but cooking has been the least of my priorities lately. I'm hoping to be coming back to blogging, but more about random things like new dinners and fun cocktails and other things. I just don't have time to do much serious baking these days. But I will leave the link to the Daring Bakers Blogroll on my blog because I think they do awesome stuff and I want to make sure people check them out. They're a great group of people, so keep checking their monthly posts!

Memorial Day is just around the corner, and I just got some boneless pork chops! I haven't made pork chops in a long time, but I thought it would be good for this weekend or for a dinner item. We'll see how that goes. I have also been dying to make Applebee's Red Apple Sangria because I love that stuff! I found a recipe for it, so I'm hoping to try that out this weekend as well.

I'm still trying to update around here, so be sure to check back!

P.S. To the person who asked, sorry to say I won't be selling my cupcake cookie jar. I plan to be buried with it. :) But I did see some cute cupcake cookie jars on ebay!

Sorry

I have had zero interest in blogging lately. I've become very wrapped up in going back to school this fall, and I'm trying to get my ducks lined up before the semester starts.

I never really saw myself going back to school for quite awhile, but I had one of those "what am I doing?" moments and that was motivation enough to do something with myself. Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am for the furry and feathered friends. I decided to pursue the tough road to veterinary school. Having 2 Associate in Science degrees already, I'm lucky in that I only need about 30 credits to fulfill the pre-vet requirements that I need, and everything else should transfer to fulfill the general education requirements. What I don't have, however, is a buttload of science credits, so that's what I'm doing this fall. I need chem, bio, pysics, all that fun stuff I thought I left behind in high school. On top of that, I have other requirements to fulfill just to get my application considered, so I have a long 2 years ahead of me before I can even apply.

My longterm goal at this point is yet to be determined, but I'm thinking I don't want to do the companion animal private practice type of work. I'm actually thinking about going into public health, or maybe focus on wildlife or exotics, or maybe even nutrition. I have a way to go before I really need to make that decision. First thing's first.

At any rate, cooking and blogging have become a low priority. I'm looking to make a giant career leap, so my focus has been pretty much doing a ton of research and investigating whether this would be the smartest thing I ever did, or the dumbest.

I'll be back with some new food posts later on, but you may start to see more school related items around here. I'm nervous as hell, both in a good and bad way. Time to dive in head first and see if I still know how to swim.

VACATION!

Vacation
All I ever wanted
Vacation
Had to get away
Vacation
Meant to be spent alone

Well, maybe not completely alone....

After many many months of working my little booty off, I finally get a break. Sure we had a couple days off for the holidays, but that doesn't really count in my eyes. The last significant non-holiday time off I had was in September! I am so burnt out I can't even sleep these days.

J took the week off with me. We plan to spend the week painting our house, working in our yard, watching The Price is Right, and wandering through the streets of Minneapolis and reminiscing. I have been dying to get back to Uptown where we first met. He was living there for the first year of our relationship, and I miss it. The funny thing is that Uptown is maybe 10 minutes away from where we live now, but we just never get around to going over there! No more excuses, I'm getting my butt back to Uptown!

Not sure how much blogging I'll be doing when I'm up to my eyeballs in paint, but I'll try. I really hope to spend the next week decompressing from the last 6 months. Home vacations are the best kind. There really is no place like home.

Also have the MS Walk on Sunday. I'm a co-captain for my office team, and we are supposed to have great weather that morning. Wish us luck!

Daring Bakers - Cheesecake Pops

I love cheesecake! It has been a favorite for years. This month's challenge hosted by Elle and Deborah, and the recipe was full of cheesecake goodness!

But what is with all the DB challenges lately? They have been damn good at not only getting me to try new things, but also pointing out what tools and other kitchen items I don't have! Making a pie - crap I don't have a pie plate! Making a cheesecake should be easy now that I have a pie plate right? WRONG! We have to do a hotwater bath for this thing in a big roasting pan. You guessed it, I didn't have a roasting pan. *Sigh*

So now I'm in the middle of my recipe and I'm getting ready to bake this thing and I think I can fit my round cake pan into this larger rectangular cake pan and do the water bath in there. It was a very tight fit and I had to really squeeze just to get it in there enough that it wouldn't slide all over the place. But the pan wasn't touching the bottom of the other pan, so this was going to be interesting.

I followed all of the other directions perfectly to the letter, but because of my lack of roasting pan, this cheesecake took an hour to bake. I kept thinking "ok 10 more minutes" and kept checking it, but it just wasn't quite done. An hour later I was finally ready to take it out.

The rest of it was (dare I say) a piece of cake. Absolutely loved this challenge because the only cheesecake I'd ever made on my own till now was Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake. This was a nice change and I loved how it came out.

Good stuff! I'd make this again. Recipe here.

Master Baker - Hot Vanilla

The April challenge is Vanilla for the Master Bakers.

No pictures of this one. Let's just say this was a very welcome beverage on a day where you're:

(a) one week away from a very needed vacation;
(b) living in a state where the weather is all over the place (sun, snow, 70 degrees then 40 degrees); and
(c) dealing with car issues.

I added Irish cream to it for obvious reasons. Frankly I think it helped!

Recipe can be found here. I used skim milk instead of 2%, added the Irish cream, and honestly I don't think you need quite as much cinnamon or sugar that the recipe calls for. You can get away with using probably half the cinnamon and sugar.

Cheers!