Christmas Crafts

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Now that Christmas has past I can finally post pictures of the crafting I have done before the holidays. All of my crafting was presents so it was a little hard to post pictures before the holidays. I have gotten really into the whole mesh wreath making. To buy one of these wreaths in the stores is like a good $50 or so, but it looked easy enough to make so I thought I would give it a try. There were also tons of diy instructions on Pinterest. If you want to learn how to make your own you can google it or if you are as addicted to Pinterest you can check out links on there. With it being so long ago when I started them I do not remember what links I watched first. 

This is the ECU wreath I made for my Mom. She already had a Christmas one so I went with ECU instead. Go Pirates!

This is the one I made for my Site Super Visor at my practicum site. I had shown her pictures of the others I had made and she tried making her own. So I made one for her :)

This one looks kind of crazy. I made this for my oldest sister Jennifer. I need to get a picture of it hanging either on her door or in her house. Then I don't think it will look so crazy. But this one took forever to make! I took it apart like 3 times!

I made this one for my middle sister Erin. She also had a Christmas wreath so I decided to make her's more winter than Christmas. The ones like this are really easy to make. 

Holiday Favorites!

Hello everyone! I told you I would be back more now that I am not stressed about classes and studying!  And as promised I have been doing alot of baking. One of the wonderful things about Christmas is you can bake a bunch of different things and it is totally ok! The first thing I have made this year is Snicker Doodle cookies (the recipe calls them Santa's SNICKERS Brand Surprises but thats too complicated) and Almond Cookies. I also made a sour cream pound cake but I don't have a great picture of that one... Maybe I will still share it ;)

Snicker Doodles
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks butter (softened)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3.5 cups all purpose flour (shifted)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 package (13 oz) SNICKERS Brand Miniatures

Directions:
1. Combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars using a mixer on a medium to low speed until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until throughly combined. Then mix in flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Cover and chill dough for 2-3 hours.
4. Un-warp all the SNICKERS.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide into 1 tbls. pieces and flatten.
6. Place a SNICKERS in the center of each piece of dough.
7. Form the dough into a ball around each SNICKERS.
8. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degree for 10-12 minutes.
9. Let cookies cool on baking rack or wax paper.
*Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Almond Glazed Sugar Cookies:
Ingredients for Cookies:                               Ingredients for Glaze:
- 1 cup butter (softened)                               - 1.5 cups powered sugar
- 3/4 cup sugar                                             - 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 tsp. almond extract                                 - 4 to 5 tsp. water
- 2 cups all purpose four                              - Sliced almonds
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Combine butter, sugar, and almond extract in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. (1 to 2 minutes).
2. Reduce speed to low; add all remaining cookie ingredients. beat until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).
3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
4. Flatten balls into 1/4 inch thickness with the bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar.
5. Bake at 400 degree for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned.
6. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool Completely
7. Stir together all glaze ingredients in small bowl, with wire whisk.
8. Decorate cooled cookies with glaze and sliced almonds. Glaze sets up quickly so frost and decorate a few at a time.
* Makes 3.5 dozen.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Cake Mix:                                                       Topping:
- 1 cup butter                                                  - 1 cup chopped nuts
- 2 cups sugar                                                - 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs                                                         - 2 T. brown sugar
- 1 cup Sour Cream                                    
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Mix together ingredients for topping and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add one egg at a time and mix until smooth.
4. Mix together sour cream and vanilla and fold into butter mixture.
5. Sift together baking powder, flour, and salt and fold into mixture.
6. Grease flour tube pan. Pur 1/2 batter, 1/2 topping, 1/2 batter and rest of topping.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Make sure it is done.
8. Cool completely and remove from pan.

I Passed!!!!!

Well I have officially heard gotten my test scores back from my comps exam and the NCE and the good news is I PASSED!!! I have never studied for anything so hard in my life. It just goes to show how some hard core studying can really pay off. For those of you who don't know my crazy study method.... I made about 1000 note cards... no I'm not joking. I turned the Encyclopedia of Counseling into note cards. I am very much a visual learner so writing the questions out helped me alot. I seriously thought about burning the note cards after the exam but they took me months to make so I couldn't do it. In stead I have passed them along to another girl in the program and told her to just keep passing them along. Hopefully they help other ASU counseling students as well.

Man it has been a crazy month or so! I thought the beginning of the semester was crazy with studying so much but the end was way crazier! Between finishing up classes, finishing my practicum, Christmas, and trying to pack to move it has been nuts. And for a little while I didn't know if I was going to be moving to another place in Wilkesboro or if I was moving back home. Well I'm moving back home which is not totally a bad thing, even though a job would have been nice.... one more semester!

So yes I am now back at home and getting ready for the final leg of masters program.... internship. Even though I am a little bummed I didn't get the job I am trying to remind myself that it just means God has something else planned for me and maybe I will get lucky and get a job in one of the school systems I really want. I will be doing my internship at Fuquay-Varina Middle School. I am pretty excited about it because the counselor that will be my supervisor really wanted an intern and is working on a plan to help me learn as much as possible in one semester. I doubt I will get to be as creative as I was at my practicum site in the elementary school but I am really wanting to do an expressive arts group so who knows. I am trying my best to live one day at a time and not stress too much about the future. Maybe that should be an early new years resolution...

Be on the look out for some Christmas cookie recipes as I will be starting to bake probably later today!

THINK before you speak!

Hello all! I am sitting at work and I should be doing homework since I don't have any work to do for the department but I can't because the website I need to do anything is down. Like majorly down. Code red down... well that is what the university email said. Something about it is down due to a code red error. I have spent most of the day on Pinterest. I have even deleted stuff off my computer from undergrad that I no longer need. I'm not sure why I am just now thinking about up dating my blog!

The counselor that I work with for my practicum is pretty freaking awesome! I have learned so much working with her and she is loving how much I love crafts! She found a picture of a poster that she could order but she wasn't crazy about it. It was black and white and very boring but had a GREAT message. There are so many ways to pull it into classroom guidance! She had me make three posters. One for the girls bathroom on the fourth and fifth grade hall and one for the boys bathroom on the same hall. And then another for outside her classroom door. Here are a few pictures:

Bruschetta Chicken

Hello Everyone! This will be a short sweet and to the point post. I will fill you in on the craziness that has been the past few weeks in some other posts that will probably come within the next day or so. A few weeks ago I had to take the National Counselors Exam (NCE). Well I came back to Boone early over my fall break to take this exam. As well as like 30 other people. We were suppose to be at the exam room by 8:30. I got there a little after 8 and there were a few other people there but no test administrator. I was thinking well we are really early. 8:30 comes and goes and everyone who is suppose to take the exam is there and still no test administrator. 9:00 comes and goes when the exam is suppose to start and still no test administrator. So finally someone calls the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). Thankfully we had their number on a letter we had to bring with us. Well we still aren't sure what really happened but for some reason NBCC thought no one at Appalachian was taking the exam. So we were told sorry for the inconvenience but to go home and they would have to reschedule the exam.

Well thankfully they rescheduled the exam for the next weekend. I wasn't crazy about it because I had plans for that weekend but nonetheless I was glad to get it over with. Because I was now going to be stuck in the mountains on a Friday night that I wasn't planning on, I decided to make a really yummy dinner! Of course I found the recipe on Pinterest! I think you guys should know that most recipes I make come from my Mom or Pinterest haha! I made Bruschetta Chicken and I think it might be my favorite chicken dish ever!

Bruschetta Chicken
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup crushed garlic croutons
- 1Tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 large tomatoes
- 3 Tablespoons minced fresh basil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (approx. 1 teaspoon)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9x13 baking dish.
2. Place flour and beaten eggs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken into flour, then into eggs. Place into baking dish.
3. Combine parmesan cheese, crushed croutons, and melted butter then sprinkle on chicken.
4. Loosely cover with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until top is browned and chicken is cooked through.
5. Chop tomatoes and combine with last ingredients. Spoon mixture over chicken, and return to oven for 5-7 minutes or until tomato mixture is heated through.


* Bruschetta (tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil) can also be made in the blender. It depends on how fine you want your tomatoes chopped. I also had leftover bruschetta that I didn't put on the chicken. This could be a great appetizer on some toasted, small pieces of bread.

I made rice and a salad to go with the chicken dish. I really wanted to make asparagus with it but sadly I didn't have any and wasn't going to the store. But it was still good :)

Enjoy!

The Best Shrimp Ever!

Hello all! I am trying to get back into the swing of making new dishes now that I finally have a handle on the semester. I take the NCE this weekend and my Comps exam the next so studying has slowed but not stopped. I am trying to make sure I know the information without over studying. Lets sure hope I pass because I really never want to study like this ever again. I will still have to take the Praxis II but I have heard after taking these other two exams its not too bad. I will hopefully take that at some point this semester or next. I am starting to get things figured out for my internship next semester. I am hoping to land a job so I can get a paid internship but I am also making plans for a normal unpaid internship so I am not screwed come January. I will keep you all posted on that as I get it more figured out.

I am sad to say that I have not been running like I would like. My days have been so crazy and there is not as much free time as I want. I am hoping that next semester when every day is a little closer to the same schedule I can get back into running. My friend Stacy has said that I have inspired her to start running and she is also using a couch to 5K program. They seriously work if you just keep at it!! When I have had free time I have been doing some crafting. But I am making some Christmas presents so you don't get to see pictures until after Christmas!

Oh to what you really care about... The Best Shrimp Ever! Well I found this recipe of course on Pinterest and that is what it was called. When I clicked on the pin to go to the website I could not find the shrimp recipe. Luckily the recipe was in the pin so I was still able to make it. I love seafood! I eat don't eat alot of red meat or pork simply because A. usually more expensive and B. I only know so many ways to make it. I know seafood is usually expensive too but I like it more than red meat so I'm more apt to spend the money on it. This was a simple and easy recipe that I will totally be making alot I'm sure come lent. I made the shrimp with mashed potatoes and broccoli. You could also turn the juice that is in the bottom into a sauce and put it all over pasta.

The Best Shrimp Ever
Ingredients: 
- 1 pound fresh shrimp
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 lemon
- 1 packet of dried Italian seasoning

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degree.
2. Melt stick of butter on cookie sheet.
3. Slice the lemon and layer on top of the butter.
4. Layer shrimp on top of the lemon.
5. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.






* I told you it was easy! I used frozen shrimp that I defrosted in some cold water. I also left the shells on while baking but I am sure you could do it the same way without the shells. For the Italian seasoning I just sprinkled it on there because I had it in a bottle versus the packet. I just eyeballed the amount making sure it got all over.

Crockpot Baked Ziti, BlackBean and Corn Salsa, and blanket up date!

Hello world! I am soooooooooo beyond ready for the National Counselors Exam, Comps, and the Praxis II to be over!!!I miss my life! I miss cooking and crafting. Ugh I have so much crafting I want to do. But the NCE is this coming Saturday and Comps a few weeks after that and I still haven't registered for the Praxis but it will happen this semester. I hope I pass all these exams because I never want to study like this ever again! Ugh! 

Well I have still be cooking. Not a whole lot of new things sadly. I have been making alot of things that I can make quickly so its usually stuff I know like the back of my hand. And alot of it is on the blog.... or frozen pizza. I did make a few new things lately. My friends and I were tailgating for an App football game and we all decided to bring food. I wasn't sure what to make for a while. I knew that I wanted to do something big and filling because I figured everyone else would bring sides. And I really wanted more than just sides. So I went to my trusty Pinterest boards! I came across crockpot baked ziti! It was so simple and so yummy! I will be making this again! 

Ingredients: 

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons dried italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 (25 oz) jars pasta sauce

1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 (16 oz) boxes ziti pasta

Directions: 

1. Cook ground beef and onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is no longer pink. Stir in seasonings to evenly coat meat; stir in pasta sauce. Set aside. 

2. Mix 1 cup mozzarella, the ricotta and parmesan in a medium bowl. Spoon 2 cups of meat sauce into the slow cooker; top with 2 cups ziti. Drop half of the cheese mixture, by rounded tablespoons, over ziti; carefully spread over ziti using back of spoon. Layer with 2 cups meat sauce, the remaining ziti and remaining cheese. Add remaining meat sauce, completely covering all the ziti and cheese. Place lid on slow cooker. 

3. Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours or high for 4 to 5 hours or until noodles are tender. 

4. Carefully remove lid to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle food with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella; let stand 10 minutes until melted. Serve directly from the slow cooker. 

*Use a crock pot liner! Reviews I read said otherwise you will hate your life when it comes time to clean the crockpot. I cooked mine on high for 4 hours and already the sides were starting to turn black. It still tasted fine I would just cook it on low and really keep an eye on it if you can. Also the cool thing is that you don't need to precook the pasta! Just dump it on in there. Some reviews said to rinse it in water before you use it so that is what I did. I'm not sure if it made the pasta any more moist or not but I figured it wouldn't hurt anything. 

The following Monday after that football game I was going to my practicum site. I usually go on Wednesdays but this Monday there were going to be some important meetings that I really wanted to observe. Woah baby did I get to see some great stuff that day! That Monday the ENCORE team (guidance, art, music and PE teachers) were all having lunch together. Something they try and do the first Monday of every month. What a great way to build community! I'm going to remember this! Well since I was going to be there I wanted to bring something too. My mom makes this salsa alot and it is always a huge hit! 

Black bean and corn salsa 

Ingredients: 

1 can black beans rinsed and drained

1 cup frozen corn that has been thawed 

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

8 green onions sliced

3 Tablespoons Lime juice or 1 Lime juiced

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

1. Mix together in a dish and let sit in fridge until ready to serve. 

2. Serve with tortilla chips

*I used a green bell pepper because it is what I had. The color bell pepper doesn't matter. Use what you have. 

*Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the salsa. You just have to take my word for it that it looked and tasted yummy! 

The only crafting I have really had any time for is occasionally doing a row on my blanket before bed. It is really starting to look like a blanket! I am pretty proud of it so far! :)