Did you hear that? It was my apple chips

Tonight I made a delicious treat, Apple Chips! It was a sweet, healthy treat! Yum, yum, yum, yum. :) Anyone who has a sweet tooth and has trouble staying on a diet would enjoy these. Anyone who is trying to give their kids a healthy snack, this is it!!! And they are so easy to make.

Here is the how to:

Ingredients:

2 apples 

(I used Red Delicious)

cinnamon powder and sugar 

(you can use whatever sort of mixture that you want;

I used 1/3 cup of sugar and less than a 1/4 cup or cinnamon)

That's it! 

Now how to do it. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Slice the apples very, very thin. It is hard. You can see that I had some
trouble with it. But they still turned out great. Also, you can core the
apple to avoid the seeds if you want, but I think that the star center
gives them a little something extra.

Next, I held a slice of apple, one at a time, over the bowl of cinnamon sugar
mixture and used a spoon to sprinkle it on top of the apple. I covered both sides
 of the apple slices. It gives it a better crunch, and I like a nice crunch.

OMG! How good does this look?

You can use lemon juice here to prevent the slices from discoloring. I didn’t need to do that because the chips turn brown with cinnamon and the baking anyways.

Bake them for about 2 hours till they’re dry and crisp. If you can resist eating them all, store in an airtight container. 

Beauty and the Beast theme

How would one capture the Beauty and the Beast theme for a wedding. These are some things that I have found. This is basically just a post of pictures.

Hair is love and hate

I think this style is the one that I would want the most. It is classically Belle. It is also very elegant and stunning. I think that I am mainly wanting curls and flowers; I want to be girly and fair. (Not the fairest of them all, just fair :)). So this is how I would wear it if I wore my hair up.


If I wore it down, any of these would be nice. It would also require me to grow my hair out. Blah. I don't really want to do that...I love how whimsical and soft these ladies look. I think that the flowers reinforce those qualities. I am still undecided on how I would wear my hair, but that's okay because the wedding is a ways away.

                                                                                           

Guest Gifts

I have been searching and researching for what an appropriate and cost friendly guest gift would be and this is what I have come up with so far.

The leaf cookie cutter is my favorite so far. I found a lady on Etsy who was very sweet and said that as long as the order was big enough that instead of selling them for $2.50 a piece, she would sell them for $1 a piece. I am thinking that the guest would range from 40-70 people. So it would be cute and practical. I don't want to give something that screams WEDDING, and I don't want it to be something that people at going to throw away when they get home. This is why cookie cutter seemed like a nice idea. It was defiantly better then some of the other things that I found.

I think that the castle are cool, but I think that they might be a bit too much. I am trying not to go overboard. But I thought that they were cute nonetheless.

I love bird decor. I love, love, love it! Seriously!!! These would serve a purpose as decoration, blend in nicely with the theme, and be awesome take home gifts. They are really stinking expensive though. Ouch!

I thought that the "Dreams really do come true"stamped paper was classy, and I also thought that they would make cute bookmarks. Let's be serious. J.D. and I are both English majors, so a bookmark as a gift would represent both of us, but again, I think that the fairy tale theme would be taken too over the top by this.

The cookies themselves would be too expensive, but what a cute idea! And could you imagine eating the tuxes? Everyone's teeth would be black. That is not very attractive.

And then finally, I saw these and thought awe. That is a nice way to give a wedding themed gift without being obnoxious. They are mint tins, so there would be a purpose beyond just, "Here, have this thing that you will throw away immediately when you get home." It will be thrown away after the mints are gone :)

This is why the leaf cookie cutters are my favorite so far. Also, did I mention that it will be a fall wedding? If not, that is another reason why these would be perfect.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

These are all shoes that I found on glassslipper.com. It's so fitting :)

They all vary in price and basically I have no idea what sort of shoe I want to wear. 

Each shoe can be dyed if I want and each shoe has a different quality that I like.

If anybody actually looks at this thing, I would love some feedback!

I have to admit that the shoe below might be the closest to my favorite. I think it continues the simple theme that I have stated over and over again that I want.

Lions, and Tigers, and Cake Toppers, Oh My!

This is the one that I have been looking at on amazon for about a year now, and it is so darling. J.D. and I both love it.

The colors are simple and elegant which is the how I want my wedding to be.

The cost of the figure depends on the sale that is on amazon. At it's highest amount it costs $145, but when it is on it's best deal, it costs $99.

BUT there are other potential toppers or even decorative pieces that I am thinking about.

 

The two figures above are separate, and when they are on sale, they run about $70 a pop. So for you math wizards out there, that would total around $140 give or take a few bucks with tax and shipping.

The figurine above is called, "First Love's Touch." Oh my gosh, how sweet! It is priced most places at $195. I don't think that it is one that I would invest in for the wedding, but I would like to get it someday, maybe as an anniversary gift or something.

This topper is a very, very, very close second to the first one. Obviously, it is Belle and the Beast, in human form, and it is too freaking adorable! They look so at peace together. I love the simple, light colors and their serene faces!

Decisions, decisions.

Oh Wedding Dresses, You are so beautiful!

The dress above is from the Alfred Angelo Disney Fairy Tale Wedding collection. It is Belle's dress design, and I am in love with it. Beauty and he Beast is my favorite Disney movie, and I would die for this dress. The problem is that I haven't tried it on yet, but I plan to do that soon! To take a little romance out of the dress, I am going to list the price, $1,399.

The dress above is Cinderella's dress ($999) from the same line, and while Cinderella is not my favorite tale, I love love love this dress too, but I have yet to try it on. Admittedly, I am nervous that I will finally go to try them on and then hate them both. That would be the pits. Also, the dress is the one of two items that I am willing to spend the most money on (photography is the second).

On a scale of one to ten, this dress ranks at one hundred. It is beautiful, but I can't find it anywhere. :(

My heart is just broken, but I will work with what I've got picked out already.

Three Cheese Eggplant

Oh my goodness. Over the holidays I encountered the most delicious new recipe. While my fiance and I were celebrating Christmas with his family, his sister cooked three cheese eggplant. First off I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of vegetables. I know that they are good for me, but they just aren't as good as a cheeseburger or an all meat pizza. I like bad food, what can I say? Anyway, she made this dish, and it was the star of all the food. I made it for Christmas Eve dinner, and my tummy was super happy. This made me want to share the recipe with everyone else. So here it is.

These are the recipe cards that I designed on my silhouette; aren't they awesome?

Obviously, the olive oil is not very healthy, so something that you could do is use extra virgin olive oil.

Look at how bright and beautiful these veggies look! I always tweak recipes, and a minor adjustment that I made was to chop up two garlic cloves and garlic press two cloves. I enjoy a strong garlic flavor; it was the perfect little extra. I also used cherry tomatoes. They were cheaper, brighter, and easier to cut up. Just a quick chop, chop, and they were ready to go!

So gorgeous!

And into the pan it goes.

I only used two types of cheeses. I used parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I also used the Aldi's brand spaghetti sauce because it has a better flavor than Prego. Don't you think the cheese sealed it quiet nicely.

Tweety and Sylvester were my little kitchen helpers. Aren't they sweet?

The finished product! It tasted soooooo yummy!!!!

Would you believe me if I told you that it is only 250 calories per serving? Well, it is. And I believe because it has all that veggie goodness. 

Super cute right?!

Here's how this cute little scene is made!

The trees are sugar cones.
The fire ring is the leftover part of a cut sugar cone.

Use chinese noodles for the firewood and leftover rolled starbursts to cut flames. 

The sand is just a mix of crushed vanilla wafers and famous chocolate wafers.
The log is just 2 marshmallows drizzled with chocolate frosting. 

And the plate to lead you to your campsite...just a pretzel "glued" with frosting to a vanilla melting wafer. 

The fishing poles are wheat sticks with left over flattened starbursts.
The water is decorating gel tinted blue. 

Found a box of bunny crackers to add to the scenery and goldfish for the water.
Use 6 large cupcakes and 11 regular size cupcakes.

I found this at http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/

I would recommend using vanilla cake mix (or chocolate) and vanilla icing, bought from the store. Like I posted before, semi-homemade is easier, faster, and yummy!

Hot Cool Treat for Summer

Grilled pineapple with ice cream on top!!!! 

Can you say YUM!?

The glaze consists of brown sugar, spiced rum, butter, and vanilla. 

It gets brushed onto the pineapple slices, which are grilled until browned with some light charring. 

(Sam's change: If you don't like the charred taste, which I don't, then you can use a George Foreman Grill, to get the same results!)

The pineapple was finished with vanilla ice cream and toasted coconut.

The other change that I would recommend is that you could make an ice cream pineapple split using this recipe. Add some chocolate and strawberry ice cream, and cherries. Also, don't forget the nuts, which could be mixed in a variation of the pineapple coating to give the split a cohesive taste.

Hope you enjoy!!!

I found this recipe here

Love is battle. Love is War. Love is growing up. ~James Baldwin

I think that a lot of people lose sight of the fact that the marriage is more important then the wedding, and personally, I don't want to be one of those people. So in honor of keeping your spouse before your wedding I am posting quotes from the book 1001 Things Happy Couples Know About Marriage (Like, Love, Romance, & Morning Breath). And I will be posting some of my favorite questions that J.D. and I went through and answered in the book 356 Questions For Couples. 

Think about it, if love is war, and most people say that it is, then the better you know the person that is fighting along side you, then the better off you will be. And I think that knowing your partner does not mean that you are better equipped to demolish them in a fight. I think it means that you know have the knowledge to stop a fight, to say that I love you more and care about you more, then I care about this fight. Will that thinking work all of the time? Don't be naive, of course not, but it will be useful and help you feel closer. And how fun is it to learn new things about the person that you are with? The best!

"You need to know you're promising 'till death do you part.' Not 'till the good times end.'"

"You need to know you're choosing the person you'll spend the rest of your life with. And still make passes at when you're both on walkers."

Question:

What is anything, do you feel you need to sacrifice of compromise by being a part of our relationship?

-Trust me when I say that you need to know the honest answer to this question. IF, and that is IF, you or your partner feels that they are sacrificing or compromising to be with you, then you need to share and you need to know. This is how resentment starts, and it is ugly and the destructive.

Question:

Would you be willing to adopt children if you or I were unable to have children or our own? Would you adopt even if we could have children? Would you prefer surrogate motherhood or fatherhood to adopt?

-I feel that this is an important question that does not have a right or wrong answer. What it boils down to, is that this is one of those big things, that having differing opinions could be volatile. And it is important to know what your partner is and is not willing to compromise on.

"You need to know to try and look good at home. Don't just put on stretch shorts and a Grateful Dead T-shirt and assume you look fetching"

-I love that quote because so many people have problems keeping the illusive spark alive in their relationship. Take pride in how you look. I don't look nice all the time, there are days when we sit around in a big heap on the couch, being lazy, greasy, and content. Some times those days are necessary, but when that becomes your routine, then there is a problem. Don't be complacent. This is a lesson that we are still ironing out.

"You need to know how to express heated emotions without cursing, yelling, make accusations, o throwing things. Even though they are all effective when you were a teenager."

-This is very important because when you yell and curse and hurt the person that you are with then you have dented them. Each relationship starts out new and fresh. Every fight leaves a mark, you can buffer it out, and rework the metal but the mark is still there. Big hurtful things leave big awful dents, and are hard to fix. Would it be easy to fix a car if the bumper had been totaled in an accident? Rework each piece, piece by piece? No it wouldn't and things would never be the same, so be careful and loving. If you wouldn't talk to a stranger on the street that way, then why are you talking to someone that you love that way?

That is all for now, maybe I will try to post something like this every week or two? What do you think?

How Well Do You Know Tradition?

Soooo I am not crazy, and most times if you have to disclaimer that, then, well, maybe you are? But I swear I am not. I was never one of those little girls that planned out my perfect wedding when I was a kid. I played with Barbie dolls, I played in the mud, and I had a great imagination, but planning some future fairy tale wedding was not something I dreamed of.

Now that I am at a point were I will be getting a ring soon and have discussed getting married, I kept asking myself, what do I really know about weddings? And honestly, I don't know much. So I did what any half normal, half crazy, very nervous girl would do, I went out and bought some books. One of the books that I purchased was Anti-Bride: Etiquette Guide - The Rules - And How To Bend Them. It is an awesome book! And it is by no means anti-bride or anti-wedding, it is just all about helping people understand that they can have a wedding however they want to.

I am a big believer in tradition, but I don't know if all of the traditions with weddings are really for me. For instance, who pays for what:

Bride's Family

• Invitations, announcements, and other wedding stationery
• Wedding consultant
• Location rental for both ceremony and reception
• Food and Drink
• Musicians
• Flower arrangements (not including bouquets for bride and bridesmaids, corsages for mothers, and boutonnieres for groomsmen)
• Wedding photography
• Groom's ring
• Gifts for attendants, parents, and groom
• Bridesmaid's luncheon
• Attire for bride and parents
• Travel to the wedding city and lodging for bride's wedding party and close family

Groom's Family

• Bride's ring
• Marriage license and other legal documents
• Gifts for attendants, parents, and bride
• Officiant's fee
• Bridal bouquet, boutonnieres for best man and groomsmen
• Attire for parents and groom
• Travel to the wedding city and lodging for groom's wedding party and close family
• Rehearsal dinner
• Honeymoon
• Groom's family photo album

Seriously though, I know that neither my parents, nor J.D.'s parents, have the money to pay for ALL of that, and I know that we also don't have that kind of money. So I have to be thrifty and efficient with the way that I decide to spend our money, and yes I did word that correctly. J.D. is not an uninvolved man by any means, and he openly shares his opinions about what he likes/dislikes, but because he is a rockstar, and he knows that a wedding will be more important to me then it will be for him, he gives me the final veto and say so. He is sweet and I love it! And don't worry I know that it would be his wedding too. I have know idea what we are going to do yet.