Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Basic Biscuits


I'm more of a functional cook, than a "make it look pretty" cook.  I'll start out with that warning.

But then I'll tell you that being efficient equals less time in the kitchen.  So there's that.

I've found with a few simple ingredients you can have something hot, homemade and with much less chemicals than in the tubes or frozen.

Even better...in less time.  It was "an aha moment" when I made my store-bought frozen biscuits that bake for 25 minutes the second or third time and realized that this recipe could be done in about half that time, start to finish.  


Source

Basic Biscuits

2 C flour
1 t salt
3 t baking powder
1 C milk
1/3 C oil

Mix together until barely combined (don't overbeat).  Drop by spoonful onto cooking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees 12-15 minutes.



Sunday, January 26, 2014

Real Words


Hi!  It's Bobi!  For realz!  I've been posting a lot of picture posters lately that speak to me.  But I also want to share with you my heart since that is why I am here on the web.

I've discovered roller skating.  Per my dream board you can see that I am hoping to purchase my own skates.  I went from trying it (after about 25 years) with my kids one day to being totally in love with it as a hobby.  I can go for 3 hours straight, get blisters, push my muscles, get a little sweaty, and STILL love it.  I really can't say that about most exercise.  I've been going to a couple 3 hour sessions per week.  I'm also taking a once a week hip hop dancing class, which has been a fun change, too.

I've found it really empowering to find things I love doing and experience more joy in a given day than having goals of "shoulds," like learning something or achieving some body goal, etc.  Embracing things that give me JOY has been so good for the soul.  Of course books (and more books, and more books) from the library are part of that.  I joined a site to review books online (come!  follow me!) and have been trying to keep better track of all that I read and how it affected me.

I got a guitar for Christmas along with a system to help learn it.  I practiced every day for the first four days and then discovered roller skating :).  I did enjoy it though, although I soon remembered why I gave it up so quickly when my brother tried teaching me as a kid.  My fingers are short!  They were then and they haven't grown :).  It's so hard to reach some of the notes, so I'm not sure if they'll get more flexible or I'll just be instrumentally limited.

I'm healthier, a lot healthier now.  I take quite a cocktail of vitamins and prescriptions, even some prescription vitamins, but I am glad to have reached a much happier balance in my brain health.  I still struggle and have the occasional panic attack I just feel stronger in a position of power to combat it or know what to do to avoid it.  Sadly, that seems to often include events I used to enjoy, but I have so much more peace when I listen to my heart and body rather than force myself into a negative (for myself) situation.

SO, HOW YOU DOIN'?

Monday, January 20, 2014

Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream (homemade)


So, it's above freezing in the midwest today (over 40 folks!!), so that means summer is practically here, right?

We wish.  We're dreaming of camping and lake swimming.  But since that isn't quite around the horizon yet, we chose to spend this day at home using up some of our various dairy products in the fridge.  With my daughter's hankering for chocolate cheesecake and my desire to use up a couple of quarts of cream this recipe was born!

Photo Source


Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream

2 qts heavy cream 
1 1/2 packages of cream cheese
1 C sugar
1/2-1 C cocoa powder to taste

Using the blender (1/2 batch at a time) whip the cream cheese and cocoa and sugar into the cream.  Then pour into the Ice cream freezer and make according to your ice cream maker's directions.  We have an electric one that takes ice and rock salt in layers around it and several hours to make.  If you have a smaller self-contained counter variety you may need to alter the recipe for quantity as I know those can be smaller.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Lovin' up the Chalkboard



I've told you I have a chalkboard wall in my kitchen, right?  Almost two years strong, and haven't regretted it a bit!

Today I decided to wipe it down and change it up.  The next upcoming holidays for us are our 15th anniversary! and Valentine's Day.  I sought out inspiration on the web and it did not disappoint.  Here is some of the words and designs I plan to adorn the wall with later tonight:



Saturday, January 11, 2014

Scripture Memes


It's that time again...

Preparing my church lesson

I think in pictures

So I made memes

with the pertinent

scriptures for my lesson


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Movie Suggestions from my Friends





So, I crowd-sourced a few months ago on Facebook (of course) and got movie suggestions from my friends.  Here's the thing with me and movies.  We don't get together often.  This could be considered sad, but its got its benefits.  I am SO BEHIND that someone can suggest a movie from pretty much anytime and it can be brand new to me!  Wheeee!

So, for my own reference I am going to post the list here.  I'm not endorsing these movies myself, as I've obviously seen none of them, but if you like recommendations and this gives you a starting point, enjoy!

  1. Lars and the Real Girl
  2. Robot and Frank
  3. The King's Speech
  4. Psycho (1960's)
  5. The Hangover
  6. Inglorious Bastards
  7. Taken
  8. Into the Wild
  9. North and South
  10. Argo
  11. Bernie
  12. Fight Club
  13. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  14. In Bruges
  15. Once
  16. Garden State
  17. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  18. As Good as it Gets
  19. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
  20. Office Space
  21. Kissing Jessica Stein
  22. BBC Sherlock Series
  23. Schindler's List
  24. Run, Lola Run
  25. Crash
  26. The City of Lost Children
  27. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
  28. The Village
  29. Silver Linings Playbook
  30. The Hurt Locker
  31. The Usual Suspects
  32. The Big Lebowski
  33. Zero Dark Thirty
  34. Argo
  35. The Royal Tennenbaums
  36. Beasts of the Southern Wild
  37. Lincoln
  38. Adaptation
  39. Grosse Pointe Blank
  40. Pushing Tin
  41. Little Miss Sunshine
  42. Sunshine Cleaning
  43. True Grit
  44. Winter's Bone
  45. The Fighter
  46. 3:10 to Yuma
  47. Coco before Chanel
  48. Up in the Air
  49. Lord of the Rings series
  50. Cloud Atlas
  51. I Hart Huckabees
  52. With One Voice
  53. Intolerable Cruelty
  54. Shin Bet
  55. Gone Baby Gone
  56. Stranger than Fiction
  57. The Boxer
  58. Walk the Line
  59. Doubt
  60. The Hobbit
  61. Milk
  62. Return to Me
  63. Amelie (French)
  64. To Live (Chinese)
  65. Letters from Iwo Jima
  66. Grand Torino
  67. The Full Monty
  68. Le temps qi reste
  69. Much Ado About Nothing (Emma Thomson version)
  70. Le Tableau (2011)
  71. My Cousin Vinny
  72. Pan's Labirynth
  73. The Way Way Back
  74. Dumb and Dumber
  75. Ace Ventura:  Pet Detective
  76. Young Guns I and II
  77. Eulogy
  78. The Invention of Lying
  79. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  80. Best in Show
  81. A Mighty Wind
  82. Life Aquatic
  83. Dan in Real Life
  84. There Will Be Blood
  85. Old School
  86. Anchorman
  87. Super Troopers
  88. Knocked Up
  89. Rounders
  90. Good Will Hunting
  91. Bourne Trilogy
  92. Super Bad
  93. Pulp Fiction
  94. The Bling Ring
  95. Mystery Men
  96. Art School Confidential
  97. Horrible Bosses
  98. LA Confidential
  99. This is the End
  100. Dr. Strangelove
  101. The Princess Bride
  102. So I Married an Ax Murderer
  103. Broken Flowers
  104. Shanghai Noon
  105. Midnight in Paris
  106. Sahara
  107. Music and Lyrics
  108. Zombieland
  109. Moon
  110. Hereafter
  111. Unforgiven
  112. Quiz Show
  113. Sliding Doors
  114. Avalon
  115. El Norte
  116. Mi Familia
  117. Jean De Florette
  118. Three Colors: Blue
  119. The Intouchables
  120. The Other Guys
  121. Crash
  122. American Beauty
  123. Spirited Away
  124. The Tree of Life
  125. Waiting for Guffman
  126. V for Vendetta
  127. Hot Fuzz
  128. Slumdog Millionaire
  129. Moulin Rouge
  130. A Life Less Ordinary
  131. Sweeney Todd
  132. Long Way Down (TV miniseries)
  133. Big Fish

P.S.  If you have any absolute favorites that I've missed, leave me a comment.  This list could stand to get up to an even 150 in my opinion :).

Chocolate Yogurt Oat Muffins

  1 C oat flour 1/2 C sugar 1/4 C cocoa powder 1/2 t baking soda 1/4 salt 1/2 C chocolate chips 1 egg 1/2 C plain greek yogurt 1/4 melted bu...