Wednesday, January 30, 2008

#72 - # Try 12 new recipes (and actually use the recipe). (2/12)

If you've ever been to Red Lobster and had their cheesy biscuits, you know that they are pretty much the best reason for going to Red Lobster. Well, I did a search for Red Lobster biscuits recipes and I found this one. When I made it, I halved it, but I'm still counting it as following the recipe because I didn't change anything. Seriously, Mike and I could probably have eaten 12, but we shouldn't. Next time, I'm going to make a full batch and see if they freeze okay. I was really pleasantly surprised how close these were to the real thing. Very awesome. And they took like 2 minutes to throw together and baked while I was finishing up with the meat sauce & the pasta.

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2 c. Bisquick
2/3 c. milk
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 c. butter
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Mix Bisquick and cheese; add milk. Spoon on an ungreased cookie sheet
(makes about 12). Bake at 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Brush with
melted butter and garlic powder.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

#89 - # Find pants that really fit me and are comfortable.

Honestly, I never thought this would be completed.

But the after-christmas sales this year were very good to me. I did breakdown and buy a pair of pants before the holidays for full price. ($30 - ouch) The after-christmas sales made up for it and I managed to get 3 more pairs of pants for around $10-15 each. I've now got 5 pairs of pants that fit me. Jeans, black slacks, brown slacks, khaki slacks, and a pair of pants that are nice enough to wear to work - but almost sweat-pants-ish. Which is definitely awesome. The new pants are all either from Lane Bryant or JCPenney. I think Lane Bryant is my new favorite store. Clothes that fit me - yay!

#72 - # Try 12 new recipes (and actually use the recipe). (1/12)

I thought I had written about this, but apparently not! Over the summer, my family had a get-together. For the life of me, I can't remember what the special occasion was! Anyway, I decided to make zucchini pancakes. My grandmother had given me the recipe (who knows why!) and it is still on my fridge. I don't think I'd ever make them again, but they were good. Just a bit too much trouble. Grating zucchini is not something I ever want to do for fun in my free time. They turned out pretty good, but probably weren't meant for traveling. Not everyone liked them, but they certainly did eat them all! I think there were a few leftover, but mom had them for lunch the next day.

I followed the recipe with no alterations, though! That was the main goal.

#74 - Use my fondue pot

For our family New Years Eve celebration, I decided it was finally time to open my fondue pot that I got almost 4 years ago! We had 2 different fondues - cheese and chocolate. The cheese fondue I did with no problems. We had pretzels, bread cubes, multi-grain tortilla chips, and sausage chunks to dip. It was very yummy and I think we ate almost every drop! I just used the simple white sauce recipe with the "cheddar cheese modification".

The chocolate fondue we had a bit more of a problem. Well, first of all, there wasn't enough. I had a pre-packaged thing that you just heat up and - viola - fondue! But it barely covered the bottom of the fondue pot and the ravenous masses were starting to lick their lips, so we decided to add some chocolate baking chips. It was okay until Mom suggested we add some half-and-half. Oops, adding cold milk to warm chocolate made the whole thing seize up. Mom took over from there and un-siezed it and it was very yummy. We dipped banana, apple, oranges, pretzels, and marshmallows (regular and strawberry). We didn't finish it all, but having a leftover lump of chocolate certainly wasn't a bad thing. :-P

The whole process was way easy and I plan on doing it again soon!

#73 - Try 5 new non-chain restaurants. (2/5)

The last day of work before Christmas, my boss took us all to Fiesta Mexico - a new Mexican restaurant in the area. It is, however, run by the same family that runs a local chain called El Rodeo. The menu and prices at Fiesta Mexico are very similar to El Rodeo, however, the atmosphere is very different at Fiesta Mexico. It is much more of a laid-back, may-I-please-take-your-order-sir type of restaurant. The restaurant itself is very spacious and there is plenty of room between tables. They did a great job of accommodating our large group (14).