Cold Season: How to Warm Your Soul

Once upon a time I was a germ-a-phobe. You may think I'm kidding, but 3 months of mononucleosis, followed by 2 months of pneumonia, followed by 25 weeks of colds can do that to someone. In summation, that was my senior year of high school. I was extremely sick all the time, which called for drastic measures. I soon became a 'germ freak'. However, when I came to college, I had to quickly overcome this.

Yes, I think it's good to be clean and sanitize yourself (yes, I still make my husband wash his hands when he comes home for the day), but I often couldn't function because I was too preoccupied thinking about the germs associated with a particular activity. To make a point, I hyperventilated when my boyfriend (now husband) went to kiss me because I was afraid of the germs in his mouth! Needless to say, kissing quickly helped me overcome my fear of germs!

Any hows, everywhere on campus there seems to be a surplus of coughing, sneezing, and moaning. Several of my neighbors have been out of commission for weeks. Last night I was visiting one of my friends whose husband had first gotten sick, then their baby had gotten sick, and she was now sick. It sounded horrid and so stressful with finals approaching, so I decided to step in and make some "soul warmin' soup". Bring in the chicken noodle soup!

I have never been a huge fan of chicken noodle soup, until I homemade it. I am also anti sketchy meat pieces in canned soup, therefore, the dislike of canned chicken noodle soup. I first made this recipe during our first year of marriage when all we had in our cupboards was spaghetti noodles, better than bouillon, carrots, and a can of chicken. Thus, this recipe was born. Here's how I do it:

Anna's Chicken Noodle Soup

1 large can of chicken (I use the cans from Costco, just one)

3 spoonfuls of Better Than Bouillon **this may change your life (I also get this at Costco)

10-20 small carrots (or 2 large carrots)

3 handfuls (or 1 package) wheat spaghetti noodles

1 bay leaf

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/4 tsp. garlic

Instructions:

Fill a large pot 3/4 full with water (probably about 24 oz.). Once boiling, break the spaghetti noodles into thirds, and put into boiling water. Add the 3 large spoonfuls of Better Than Bouillon to the cooking noodles. Cut the carrots into 1/8" slices and add to the boiling water. Open the can of chicken (I always rinse the chicken off before I use it...preservatives freak me out) and dice the chunks of meat with a knife while it is still in the can. Then pour the meet in with the noodles and carrots. As it simmers and the noodles start to cook all the way, add the seasonings: 1 bay leaf, a dash of salt and pepper, and 1/4 tsp. of garlic. (*Be forewarned, I am obsessed with garlic. Paula Deen's must have ingredient is butter, mine is garlic) Allow the entire pot to simmer for 10-20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

To make this faster, I frequently put everything in together so that I don't have to account for any simmering time. Often times, I also add dumplings...which are my favorite! Dumplings make the world a better place.

Let me know if you have any questions on the recipe, and I hope you all stay healthy this winter season! Don't forget your portable hand sanitizer.

P.S. Maybe I have a little bit of germ-a-phobe left in me...I asked my mom to get me this for Christmas. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! I hope that you all enjoyed spending time with friends and family as well as eating delicious food!

Due to a lack of financial resources to travel as well as the need to stay and work on homework, this year Mr. Strange and I decided to stay in Provo by ourselves. This was an extremely hard decision to make, but it was worth it.

In our 2 1/2 years of marriage, Mr. Strange and I have never celebrated a large holiday like this one by ourselves. We both worked up until Wednesday, this made Thanksgiving day extra special because it was our 1st day off for the week. This was also the day that we did not allow ourselves to do or think about homework - that was the BEST part of the entire day.

Since it was just us, we didn't want to kill ourselves by making the 'perfect' spread. So we ended up making a turkey (Thanks Grandma L.!), Stove Top Stuffing (who doesn't just love this?), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry, and store bought pumpkin pie with whipped cream. In my opinion, our dinner was perfect, especially because I shared it with my best friend and lover!

Originally when we decided to stay in Provo, we were going to invite others over. However, due to our stellar Christmas party that is coming up, I decided that I wanted a "hassle free" Thanksgiving. However, if we would have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, I would have made these:

Oreo Turkeys

*courtesy of Our Best Bites

AND

Turkey Flower Place Cards

*courtesy of Our Best Bites

I just can't handle those, I think they are both so cute and SO do-able. They could even be a great family craft the day of! When I was a little girl, I would always make place cards for our family dinners (even though we always knew where everyone would sit) along with our extended family holiday dinners. I would have loved these crafts!

I think that I will have to make these next year!

Christmas Party Invitations

I know I've been slightly obsessed with invitations in general lately, however, today I'd like to focus on holiday invitations in particular.

Recently I purchased my invitations for my Christmas Party on etsy.com. You all know how much I love that site. My favorite part about invitations on etsy is that you can purchase a "printable" version, which means that you print the invitation yourself. This is such an easy option!

In my searching for the perfect holiday party invitation, I found the graphic designer, Sarah Evans, whose business name is "chachkedesigns" and was originally going to purchase this invitation:

As soon as I saw this, I knew that this was invitation that I wanted. However, one tragic day, I went to click on the purchase button and it didn't work. In search of a different invitation, I went straight away to Sarah's main product page. That was when I found the perfect invitation for what all that I wanted included in the invitation. (Note that after not being able to purchase my first-choice invitation, I emailed Sarah who responded quickly and was SO helpful...but by then I had already fallen in love with a new invite) The original invitation on etsy was blue, but Sarah easily changed the color scheme to red.

Here is the final invitation:

How can you not just LOVE that invitation. It makes me excited for my own party!

Some of my other favorite invitations are below.

*Courtesy of LunaPetuniaDesigns

*Courtesy of BeesKneesCreative

*Courtesy of BeesKneesCreative

Our Best Bites

Today's post will be entirely posted to one of my most favorite websites, Our Best Bites. I found this website when one of my sister's neighbors dropped this Pie-in-a-Jar on her doorstep. They have crafts and recipes. I love their variety of recipes, from entree's to house-warming food tokens to holiday goodies, these ladies are pros and have got you covered.

One of their recipes that I'd like to discuss today is their 'Apple Cider Floats'. I'm a sucker for GOOD apple cider. You know that thick stuff with lots of pulp? Yep, that's what I love. Anyways, this recipe calls for the following:

Apple Cider Floats

-apple cider

-vanilla bean ice cream

-nutmeg

-cinnamon

-ginger ale

-caramel

*Follow their step-by-step recipe here

Doesn't this look delicious? I think I could drink one of these in every season, it's all a matter of stocking up on the good apple cider while it's in season.

Halloween Traditions

While my husband and I have not been very festive this Halloween (we spent our Halloween night in the library studying), I have fond memories of Halloween as a child. My brother and I used to use pillowcases to go trick-or-treating. I think my mom instituted this practice after she realized that we were getting more candy than the little jack-o-lantern buckets hold. After trick-or-treating, my brother and I would come home and lay out all of the candy we had gotten and trade for "the good stuff". Ah, those were the good days.

Now that I no longer go trick-or-treating, I have found new ways to enjoy the holiday. Namely, decorating and baking. Originally this post was going to be dedicated to Halloween "finger foods", but YUCK! looking at the creepy creations people make just gives me the willies. Growing up, my mom was not into the creepiness of Halloween. We never had extreme decorations, nor were us kids ever allowed to dress up as anything terribly frightening. Therefore, my decor preferences for this holiday are geared toward more mild holiday celebrations. Below are some of the party decor ideas that I love.

*I like the "poison" bottle labels in this one, along with the wreath.

*Some people are so creative -- hull out and use a pumpkin as a cooler?

I think so.

*This just makes me salivate.

*I love the candle oranges idea here. You can purchase candy in bulk (as seen above) online.

I love how cute these ideas are without being creepy. Don't even start me on possible Halloween invitations, just head straight to etsy.com and search "halloween party invitations".

Baby Shower Invitations

Once again, I AM NOT pregnant, but I still enjoy looking at baby items as well as browsing baby shower themes. It's like I told my husband the other day, "Sweetie, I don't want a baby for a while, I just want to accessorize one now." With that in mind, I want to talk to you today about invitations.

Invitations set the mood for your event. This doesn't mean that you should spend thousands of dollars out of your budget in order to have an amazing invitation, but it does mean that you should put some thought into what you're sending to people. Think of it as marketing your event. The better you market your party/event, the more likely it is that a guest will attend.

Hand-made invitations are totally acceptable, just make sure that they look put together and clean...unless you're going for the ragged party look.

The following invitations are some that I found on etsy. I love how fun and put together these look.

*image courtesy of Pix Fix

*image courtesy of PineappleFarm

*image courtesy of CadencePaige

Now, try to tell me that you're not going to go to those parties just to see the decor and layout that the invitation hints about! What I love about these etsy products is that the designer will specialize the invitation to suit your needs and then for $10 - $20 they will give you the file and you can print off as many as you want!

In my searching, I found a paper graphics designer who I just fell in love with. Check out her stuff on etsy, she is called "andersruff".

Enjoy searching for the perfect invitation and remember, you don't have to pay thousands or even hundreds, just make sure that you put some effort into the 'marketing of your event'.

Better Than Disneyland, Sex, and Whatever Else Cake

Recently I was assigned to bring treats to a Business Writing class that I am taking at Brigham Young University. I was torn about what to make. You see, my husband and I hardly ever have sweets in our house, so when I have the chance to make something, I like to go 'all out'. At first I thought about making several different types of cake: pumpkin, banana, zucchini, and wheat; and bringing hot chocolate in a large thermos. However, after much deliberation, I finally settled on making a "Better than Whatever" cake (also known as a Better than Sex or Better than Disneyland Cake).

Luckily, the class loved it! I was just thrilled. Due to the response that I received, I have decided to share the recipe with you, along with my secret procedures.

Better Than Sex Cake

1 box of regular chocolate cake mix (and all that that entails: oil, water, eggs)

6 oz caramel

14 oz sweetened condensed milk

8 oz whipped cream

4 Skor bars, crushed

Bake the cake according to the instructions on the box. Once it is done cooking, let it cool for about 20 minutes. Then take a wooden spoon and punch holes all over the cake (a great way to de-stress!). Next you will pour the caramel and sweetened condensed milk all over the cake, spread it with a spatula. It will fill up the holes that you just punched.

Next comes my big secret! Let it sit. This is the true trick, the longer you let the cake chill in the refrigerator, the better it is. I generally like to let the cake chill for at least 8 hours (it's best overnight). This allows the cake to absorb the caramel and milk; which also allows the cake to keep its form better when you cut it.

As soon as you're ready to serve it, spread the entire tub of whipped cream over the top of the cake and top it with the crushed Skor bars. Cut, serve, and enjoy! Your guests will love it!