When the Cat is Away…

The mouse will buy Sally Hanson Nail strips.

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They're Sparkly Pink

And will will drink copious amounts of coffee laced with this deliciousness.

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Artificial and Awesome

Bry is out skiing the Ellingwood Coulior today. He woke up at 3 a.m this morning and will return around 7 pm tonight.

Ellingwood Coulior

Bam

Source

So far I’ve:

  • Gone to the gym, and subsequently took over the mayorship of JH Health & Fitness on Foursquare (sorry Rick T.).
  • Showered off m’glitter, had oats and watched Cupcake Wars.
  • Hit up Albertsons for said nail strips.
  • Visited Yippee I-O on the square for fabulous Valentine’s candy to adorn red velvs I plan to make Monday night.
  • Swung by Browse n’ Buy (our only decent thrift store in Jackson) to look for books. I scored a Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth (clearly I’m obsessed) and a Diane Chamerblainm novel  called The Midwive’s Confession. Both for $2. Yee yee!

Now that I’m home it’s gonna be nothing but nail strips, experimental makeup application, Dance Moms on Hulu and some  vodka + Crystal Lights. Whoa, 4:30 – I’d better skeddadle!

Have a great weekend cookies!

Unicorn Bites

This post is dedicated to Gary R. Danielson. You see, today he turns 60! He is the best father a gal could ask for and I love him so, so, so much. Happy Birthday Gary!

I like unicorns.

Kind of alot. Oh, and thank you to 14Four for making me the sorcerer of Firefox.

Today is the day where I’ll share with you the top-secret recipe I have been plotting. Please bear in mind, this recipe is not for the weak n’weary. This is balls-to-the-wall, bat-sh*t cookie craziness. Before you go assuming that nothing could be worthy of such a valiant culinary effort, know this: people will love you more after you make this recipe. It’s that simple.

Here’s what I suggest: Make these on your next day off. Print off the recipe, grab yourself a cappuccino and head to the grocery store. $30 and 7 hours later you’ll be glad you did. Not only does this recipe take a little time, but also some pre-planning. Living in a place like Jackson Hole, Wyoming means that I’m devoid of certain amenities like a cake supply shop or Target. I was forced to take to the internets to procure such ingredients as edible glitter, which costs$6.78 for 5 grams. BFD – these puppies are worth it. Plus, every gal needs a little edible glitter in her life.

I should also note that this recipe is by no means a creation of my own mind. While I hate to admit it, there are other unicorn fans out there who are darn clever – click here to see this idea in it’s original form. You’ll note the author is quite funny, which furthered my determination to successfully re-create these majestic little gems in my own kitch. I mean, she calls them “unicorn poops” for heaven’s sake. You gotta love her.

I followed her recipe on instructables very closely, but obviously modified it just slightly to fit my needs.

  UNICORN BITES

Step One: Make the dough

Here is where you can introduce any basic sugar cookie recipe you like. I used the one from the instructables site, but ended up not loving the taste so I would suggest another sugar cookie dough that you’ve made before.

Step Two: Dye the dough

Now that you have your dough completed, you’ll need to separate it out into 6 equal portions for red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I used a half cup measure for each color and it came out just about perfect for 6 portions. Place the dough into 6 different cups or bowls and using regular food coloring, dye your doughs to your desired shades.

I noticed that I needed way more food coloring for the red and blue shades. Make sure you mix the colors into your doughs thoroughly. Try and enlist a friend to help with this step as your hand will get super tired if doing this sans a hand mixer.  I went for nice, bold shades of each color to achieve maximum unicorn-ness.

Once the doughs are dyed, place them in plastic bags and refrigerate the doughs for at least one hour.

Step Three: Molding the dough

Once the doughs have been refrigerated it’s time to make the cookies! I literally achieved the shape of my cookies using the tried and true, trial and error method. What I found to be the easiest was to grab a small amount of dough (like a walnut sized piece) and roll it in between your palms to create a little snake shape, about 4 inches long. On a floured surface, roll out little snakes like this in each color in rainbow order and stack them next to eachother like this.

Once you have all the colors laid out nicely, roll them all together into one rainbow rope.

Now, take the rope and twist it like your twisting a tootsie roll wrapper.

At this point, I set the rope down onto the cookie sheet and formed it into almost a butt shape, as seen here.

You can really get creative and form your rope into any shape you like. The gal from the instructables site formed hers into more poopy looking shapes. So pick your poison.

Step Four: Baking and Decorating

This Would Be: Disney Princess Glitter Gel 4-Pack, CK Edible Glitter, Betty Crocker Flowers and Betty Crocker Pearl Cupcake Gems

After you have successfully molded all your dough into wonderful cookies, place them on the cookie sheet and bake them per the instructions you followed for your dough. They may take a little longer to bake if you made them a little thicker like I did. Watch them closely because we don’t want our beautiful rainbows to turn brown. After you remove them from the oven, immediately grab your shiny balls and push them into the dough. I used a toothpick to help aid me with this step.

Once the cookies have cooled, it’s time to add our first layer of sparkle. Take the sparkle gel and spread it all over the cookie, I used my finger because I’m classy.

Immediately after spreading the sparkle gel, press on the flower sprikles or any other sprinkles or jimmies you have on hand.

After the sprinkles are adhered, it’s Tinkerbell time! Take the edible glitter, pinch a tiny amount and sprinkle delicately across the surface of each cookie. Dot a little on your cheekbones while you’re at it.

And now, the majesty is completed. Spread the joy, share the sparkle, shine the light of the unicorn on someone’s day!

Christmas Fun in Jackson Hole

Ahhhhh December.

The month of poinsetta! Of eggnog and candy canes! Of mid-afternoon sugar crashes because I ate a whole box of these:

In ONE sitting. Jealous?

What a glorious month it is! People bustling around with shopping bags, gingerbread baking hot in the oven and me – drinking vodka gimlets while singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, Will Ferrell style. What a visual.

Other haps?

It was -12 degrees today! Definitely makes you want to sing Ding Dong Merrily on High.

Bryan and I went to the Christmas tree lighting in Town Square and saw none other than…Santa Clause! He made his grand entrance on a dog sled. Sooo Jackson Hole of him, really. Then we strolled through the shops in Gas Light Alley and grabbed hot toddies at the Caddy with our pals Josh and Katie. These are the times when living in a ski resort town is quite fun, I must say.

I bought this adorable Christmas Hello Kitty plush from Albertsons. How could I say no to this sweetness?

Also, Bry and I constructed a lovely gingerbread house from scratch a box. Look how cute!

Complete with Bryan's Booty in the Background

And currently I am obsessed with the following:

  • Sephora.com.  Not sure what brought on this spontaneous need to purchase non-grocery store makeup but I am relishing it, as I have indulged in products like this:

The Sephora Favorites Glitz and Glam Pack

So long Wet n Wild. Natalie’s classin it up.

  • Clif Kids Ropes in Strawberry.  Have you tried one of these? One of the most delicious things you can put in your mouth. Bible. TWSS.

  • PINTEREST. If you don’t know what this is than please get off my blog. Seriously. Actually just shut down your computer all together. Kidding, a little :-).
  • My new Xbox Kinect! Bry gave me this godly piece of equipment as an early birthday present. It has been earth shattering. Using the Kinect, where your own body is the controller is the most fun I’ve had with a video game since Maniac Mansion or even Oregon Trail. Another amazingly cool feature of the Xbox Kinect (or Shirley as I’ve appropriately named her) is that she takes pictures while you play! Here are some highlights:

I’m loving these captions! What a sweet job that would be, inventing the names for the captions on Xbox Kinect game-pictures. Can you major in this? Further research is needed.

Also notice how we have to scrunch up all of our furniture (which sadly includes a tiny loveseat and even tinier coffee table) to make room for our vigorous play. Right now, we only have one game that came with the system which includes 5 different activities to choose from. I’d say “Reflex Ridge” is by far the most challenging. Moving side to side, jumping up and ducking down to avoid obstacles make you SWEAT while playing this. What a great ski fitness game!

I’m getting the Black Eyed Peas dance party game next. Anyone feel like throwin on some spandex and sweating to some Fergie with me?

Lastly, check out the gorgeous sky the other night.  I took these right off our balcony.

The sky was pink. So obviously, God did it all for me ;-).

There’s a Hole in the Bucket

Hello Internets!

Today I’m blogging live, from the Teton County Library.

It’s nice here, I like the click-clack sound this keyboard makes. It makes me feel like a character from “Working Girl”, starring Melody Griffith.

Our internet is down at the homestead :(. And while I kind of like being forced to read my books, I also like the little droplets that rain from the internet cloud…aka…websites and blogs.

I am still working on our Mexico post, so don’t be spectin’ that anytime soon.

In the meantime – I’ve been busy making food items containing pumpkin. Also buying the Iphone 4 in white. Bryan and I attended a fabulous wine-themed Halloween soiree and I’ve been battling a cold. And eating copious amounts of anything that resembles a piece of candy. Even a burned piece of charcoal that I mistook for dark chocolate.

I made a cute face.

All for now!

All in a Days Work

I have the day off!

Ordinarily, I have 2 days off in a row but lately they have been split. Now, instead of procrastinating on to-do items like laundry, going to the bank or trips to the recycling center, I pounce like a tiger and knock em out faster than the Missoni collection at Target. Which I am ticked that I missed. Oh, the perils of life in Jackson.

On today’s list:

  • Bank
  • Laundry
  • Vacuum
  • Recycling
  • Work out
  • Go to volleyball practice
  • Paint nails
  • Figure out how to lose 5 pounds before Mexico

Thrilling.

In other news, I joined this gym.

Jackson Hole Health and Fitness

I was a member before and I am pumped about re-joining and probably doing Jazzercise. And Zumba. Yes, you heard me right.

These are the highlights. The low-lights?

  • Stupid boys lifting waaaay to much wight and have doused themselves in Axe body spray.
  • Crickets who are running 10 miles at a 7 incline on the dreadmill. *Crickets are what I call people who are ridiculously skinny.
  • Really old men on the recumbent bike, wearing short-shorts. And you know why…
  • Overly enthusiastic class instructors who try to get you to come in and join their class because nobody is in there. I have to admit, I always feel bad for these goons and end up shlepping myself into the group exercise room out of sheer pity.

In other news…

I have re-gained my Kitchen Aid paddle attachment…RTR (raise the roof)! Which means the abundance of cupcakes, monster cookies and maybe peanut butter and jelly bars.

I have successfully renewed my passport. Which I annoyingly had to rush (and pay en extra $60) because I waited too long and our Mexico trip is just weeks away.

All for now.

Have a great day you little jarnickles.

Grab Bag

Happy Monday skittle-heads!

This post is titled “grab bag” since it will feature a myriad of different topics and recent events. However, it also happens to be one of my grandmother’s favorite things, the grab bag.

This post is dedicated to my beloved Grandma Dorothy who turned 92 yesterday.

Notice her hat

In other news, I have discovered a new baking mix which I adore. Enter, No Pudge Brownie Mix.

Bryan and I Netflixed “Chocolat” and I decided that we needed brownies to commemorate the movie and this mix did not disappoint. I tried to get a picture of the ingredient list to wow you all with how healthy this stuff is, but my GD point and shoot belongs on the failblog.

To accompany our brownie-licious dessert, Bryan concocted his mouth-watering bruschetta for dinner. He made a few modifications this time, using ingredients we had on hand, such as…

Adding Pesto.

And using shallot.

The result?

Heavenly. Crunchy. Flavorful. Great texture. Do I belong on the Food Network, or what?!

We also opened 1 2 bottles of wine…

Which led to some…ahem, shenanigans on my part. Don’t ask.

We also attended Jake and Nacole’s beautiful wedding last weekend.

CUPCAKES!!

Delicious food.

Crab cakes, Salmon and 2 rolls

And of course, wine.

Shenanigans made another appearance post-wedding again. What is up with our shenanigans these days?

Lastly, but certainly not least was the chicken fry. This annual event is put on by the Wilson Fire Dept.to raise funds. They fry chicken in garbage cans.

Oh yes, they do.

Firemen at their best

Since Bryan and Jeremy were climbin the Petzl Ridge of the Grand Teton, I tagged along with Matt and Holly but sadly, did not eat any chicken because the line was cray-cray long. Instead, I partook in the baked goods section and procured myself a peanut butter and jelly bar with a Diet Coke. Sassy.

Holly and I really scamped it up and had a great time.

While other people stock-piled their chicken. Exhibit A:

Maybe because we don’t have a KFC? Maybe because of it’s crispy, salty exterior. Or maybe, they were fixin to make an epic meal, like this: