Someone Turns 4 Today...

Happy Birthday Winifred!!

My sweet Winnie is 4 years old today!! She'll get a birthday full of toy shopping and fetch followed by a weekend on the farm. A perfect bday weekend for Winnie.

Although, if you ask her I'm sure she'd love this for her birthday.

Let's be honest though, this might really make her poor little brain explode. A bed made of tennis balls? She'd go insane. 

The Most Exciting Weekend Ever

So, to follow up the most exciting week ever I had the most exciting weekend ever. During which I slept approximately 2 extra hours for every hour of sleep I missed last week. I mean, I seriously slept 500 hours this weekend. Maybe more. It was glorious. 

We did also hit up this burger place and it was also glorious. And 5,000 calories I'm sure. But their tater tots? Best thing I've ever eaten. It was ridiculous.  Seriously though, if there's a Bad Daddy's Burger Bar near you then you should go. Now. They also have a huge salad menu and sweet potato fries if you don't feel like giving yourself a heart attack in one meal. 

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Of course we went home and took a 100 hour nap afterwards. Obviously that's the best thing to do when you've just eaten a weeks worth of fat & calories in one meal. Whatever, it was wonderful. Rest and digest, right?

Other than eat, we also took a trip to the outlets to return some things and I practiced some serious self control. I didn't even set foot in Loft or Banana because Lord knows I wouldn't have been able to help myself in either of those. I only ventured into J. Crew because we had to go in there... but I only bought 1 shirt and miraculously it doesn't look just like everything I already own. So, I consider that a win. 

Another win this weekend was this Firefly Pink Lemonade Vodka. In a mason jar, of course. I had all of about 2 sips of it before I fell asleep on the couch Friday night, but those 2 sips were delicious and tasted just like pink lemonade.

Saturday night we were supposed to break out our new Cards Against Humanity game with some friends but we turned into grandparents and went to bed at like 9pm. Well, maybe it was closer to 10 when we actually went to bed, but either way we were losers and cancelled on them. Lame.

Other than eat & sleep this weekend we continued on our attempt to rewatch all of Breaking Bad before the final season starts 8/11. I personally don't think we'll make it seeing as how we haven't even made it to last season yet. 

So, there ya have it. The world's most exciting weekend. Filled with sleeping and eating - my two favorite activities. 
Linking up with Sami's Shenanigans so that you all can have the joy of reading about my thrilling weekend ;)

Five Big Things!

Hi Five - it's Friday again! It's so nice that Friday decides to come every week. This has been a long week - James has been working til almost midnight every night and I've been working long days, too. If I did a 'real' H54F post this week it would be really boring, so instead of 5 fun things that happened this week I'll do 5 things I'm looking forward to.

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1. Portland. My brother, SIL and nephew moved to Portland in January and I haven't seen them since then. We are heading out there in September just in time for his 2nd birthday and I cannot wait - I probably think about it every day! 

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2. On our way home from Portland we're stopping in Golden, CO for a few days for this little thing called my best friend's wedding! My college roommate is getting married!! We will all be staying at an inn together and I am so excited to be with all my girls again. 

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3. Born and Raised Tour! Right before we leave on our big trip out west we'll be seeing John Mayer & Phillip Phillips in concert! I loved PP from his audition on Idol and saw him in concert when he did his college tour this spring and he was phenomenal live. I'm excited to see him again with John Mayer.

4. Farmsitting. I'm headed back out to the farm for two weekends in August and can't wait. Winnie's excited too, she just doesn't know about it yet. Can't wait to see how big the baby chickens have gotten! Plus, Winnie has a blast and sleeps for days and I get paid so really, everyone wins. 

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5. Fall TV - specifically Homeland. Can. Not. Wait. I'm obsessed with this show. Probably to a fault. It's the sole reason I have Showtime. Luckily when I signed up for our new cable the guy just threw Showtime in when I said I wanted it only for this show. 

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth as always. And Feeling Good Friday for the first time!

First World Problems

File this one under first world problems. Big time.

James has been working late this week so I've been on my own for dinner. Monday was chinese, Tuesday was Panera. Wednesday I looked through my fridge, freezer & pantry before declaring "there's no food in this house!" That is 100% false. We have plenty of food.

In our fridge we have eggs, bread, milk, jelly and 1 million condiments. Oh, and the crisper drawer that's filled with beer (isn't that what it's for?). In the freezer we have a stack of assorted Amy's meals. In the pantry there's both regular & GF flour + all baking needs, tuna, peanut butter, chex mix, triscuits, pasta and sauce. 

So now I feel extremely lazy and guilty. Lazy because there are approximately 100 things I actually could have made for dinner - including my beloved Kaiserschmarrn which I realized just now. That may have to be tomorrow night's meal. I feel guilty because this is 100% a first world problem. There are millions of people who actually have NO food in their house. Or no house. 

Obviously I started thinking about all the other first world problems I suffer from. That list grew quite long, lemme tell ya. Once I consulted Dr. Google it turned out I must not be the only one suffering. I mean, if other people took the time to make these images then these must be some pretty serious problems. 

This happens to me on an almost daily basis. James can somehow cover the entire bathroom floor with water after his shower. FYI - our shower is actually separated from the rest of our bathroom by a door so I feel like he must actually put effort into soaking the entire floor. I cannot stand wet socks. Gross.  And yes, I pitch a fit every time it happens. Total FWP.

That moment when you realize you did this? So terrible. Or I realize that I left it on the bathroom counter and then have to debate if I want to jump out and get it or not. It's hard to endure those 2 seconds of being cold! Plus, then I'd soak the entire floor and we all know how I feel about that. Yep, FWP for sure.

This is sometimes a big dilemma in our house. We try not to keep junk food around, but once we buy a bag of chips & some dip it's like you get stuck in a vicious cycle of buying more chips/dip to go with what you have left. Or you are just wasteful and get rid of what's left. Or, heaven forbid, you eat the rest of your chips without dip. That's a terrifying thought.

Don't forget the cell phone, too. Every. Day. 

I mean, this needs to explanation. It's pretty much the worst. 

This totally happened to me with my bagel this morning. I may or may not have complained about it.

It's possible that when I was younger I may have called for my dad to come up to my room for the sole purpose of asking him to turn my light off once he got there. 

I mean, who hasn't suffered from this one? Or you tilt the can so they come out easier and then they're all jumbled up inside. It's terrible, just terrible.

My dogs suffer from some FWPs, too. 

This is totally Winnie. First thing she does when she comes in from outside (where she has a giant bowl filled with water)?!? Check the toilet. Classy lady, she is.

This is all day, every day for poor Winnie. I guess she thinks we hate her.

Kaiserschmarrn

Ok, today I'm going to tell you about the world's greatest food. You're welcome in advance. Before I share more, we need to start with a little background info. Yeah, this food is so good it needs an intro. 

Brunnenburg, Italy
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Once upon a time I lived in a castle in northern Italy for 3 months. That might be a slight exaggeration. But I promise, it's really only slight. See that little white building with the brown roof? I did a study abroad program in college where a group of us lived there & worked on a vineyard for 3 months. Rough life, I tell ya. So more accurately, we lived in a farmhouse of a castle for 3 months. Basically the same thing. Anyway, that's not the point of the story... but obviously I just had to brag about the castle. I mean, who wouldn't?

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See the small castle on the bottom? That's where we were. It doesn't look like much, but the walk up to down was up through those vineyards and it wasn't the easiest, especially if you're lazy like me. Up the hill from the castle was Dorf Tirol. Quite possibly the cutest town ever.

Dorf Tirol, Italy
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See? I wasn't lying. My roommate and I would walk up to the Dorf far too often and go to this little restaurant where our Hungish friend would bring us Kaiserschmarrn. Mine with 'no fruit' and a glass of juice. Her's was normal with a glass of wine. To clarify, our 'Hungish' friend was the waiter & he was from Hungary. Somehow he became known as our hungish friend. We're pretty good at making up sophisticated sounding words, obviously. Not many things can get me to walk up a hill. Kaiserschmarrn can. I mean, it's so good there are even postcards about it. 

Kaiserschmarrn. World's greatest food.
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I don't quite know how to describe it. It's like a super eggy pancake or some sort of sweet omelette. It's traditionally served with rum soaked raisins, some sort of jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. I'm also not sure what meal it's actually meant for, but I think it's totally appropriate to eat at any time of the day. According to the interwebs it can be described as an Austrian dessert pancake. So it's breakfast AND dessert - my two favorite meals. Both of which can totally be eaten whenever as I personally believe both those meals (yes, dessert is a meal) are enjoyable at any time of day.

Fast forward to a bajillion years later and a friend tagged me in a link to the recipe. That's how addicted to this I was - 5 years later and someone who wasn't even on the trip with me tagged me in a link to the recipe. That's serious, folks. I don't know what took me so long to make this, or why I didn't look up a recipe myself (there's that whole laziness issue again) but I finally did it. And holy cow it was amazing and tasted virtually the same. It brought back a huuuuge rush of nostalgia and a longing for a trip to the Dorf with my roommate to visit our Hungish friend. That trip will have to wait, but for now at least I get to enjoy my beloved kaisherschmarrn again.

Ingredients:

-1/4 C raisins & 1/4 C rum - optional. I hate raisins so didn't include.

-1 C whole milk

-5 eggs

-1/4 C white sugar

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-pinch of salt

-1 C flour

-2 tablespoons butter

-1 tablespoon melted butter

-1/4 C+ powdered sugar

-applesauce, jam, whatever you want to serve it with. This is also optional - I just eat it plain!

If including raisins, let them soak in rum for 20-30 minutes & set aside.

In medium bowl, beat together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk in flour. Add raisins if including (drain them first!)

In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter on medium heat. Pour batter into skillet making one giant pancake. Cook 5-6 minutes or until batter has set and starts to turn golden brown on the bottom. Using spatulas or forks tear batter into small pieces. Drizzle with melted butter and dust with powdered sugar. Turn heat up to med-high and toss pieces for another ~5 minutes or until golden brown & cooked through. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and serve with whatever you'd like. Or be like me and just grab a fork and eat it plain. 

This makes a lot of food. I made it for dinner one night and we were unable to finish it. I think James finally managed to finish it off, but I'm sure it would probably reheat just fine if you tossed it back in a pan the next day.

Picture yourself in the cutest town in northern Italy and enjoy!! Maybe finish it off with some gelato just to be super authentic ;)

Dog Toys are a Waste of Money

OK, I'm sure it's completely obvious by now but I'm obsessed with I love my dogs. Well, most of the time at least. I also have a very bad toy buying habit. Mostly for Winnie because Annabelle has no interest in toys. She can't possibly be bothered with such things... unless it's time to steal them from Winnie. Then it's her favorite past time ever. I think there are currently 3 or 4 of Winnie's bones stashed away where Annabelle has hid them in our bedroom. Brat. 

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Basically, I spend too much money on dog toys for the Winifred. This would be all fine and dandy except that her favorite thing in life is paper towels. No joke. You could put a steak on the table & a paper towel next to it & she'd steal the paper towel. 

I recently spent $60 replenishing her toy supply. That red thing right there? One of her new toys. That white thing she's eating? A paper towel. Way to show your appreciation, Winnie. 

And this is what happens when you take Winnie to brunch. She steals your napkins and eats them like she's never been fed before. Classy. Real classy. This garnered a lot of strange looks from fellow brunch lovers. I'm sure they were wondering why our poor, starving dog is having to resort to paper napkins. She loves them though - and usually if they have food on them, she'll rip that part off and leave it. How dare you taint her paper products with food. So gross. Give her plain paper and she's happy as a clam. 

Basically she's the weirdest/dumbest dog ever and instead of wasting money on toys I should probably just give her a life time supply of paper products. And tennis balls. Although honestly she'd have a tough time deciding between the two if she had to. 

Head on over to the Tall Tails link up to see more ridiculous pets!

H54F 7/19

High Five! It's Friday! It's been another long week and I'm so glad the weekend is finally here. Somehow I feel like July is flying by, but the weeks themselves are dragging. Funny how that works...

Anyway, onto the high five for this week!

1. I finally made a Recipes page. If you're looking for a super easy dessert that's terrible for you, go check it out. The banana pudding & vanilla pudding cake are by far the most popular. There are several gluten free options and even a vegan one on there though! 

2. I actually made vegetables for dinner. And loved it - for some strange reason I was craving zucchini all week.  I tossed some zucchini & squash in olive oil, salt, pepper & garlic powder and threw it in the oven. So easy and so good!

3. I finally got around to watching the premier of G & B. I cannot tell you how excited I am that this show is back on. I can't lie, I love trashy tv.

4. I did a bad, bad thing and went to the grocery store hungry. I only went in for paper towels, but somehow these ended up coming home with me. I don't regret it. Along with bad tv, I also clearly have a love for bad food. 

5. Tomorrow is hair cut day. Is there anything better than hair cut day? I don't think so.

Hope everyone had a good week and has an even better weekend! As always, linking up with Lauren.

I Have a Confession

So, yesterday Back East Blonde posted about Summer TV that doesn't suck. Well, I have a confession. I like TV that does suck. The less value there is to the show, the more I will probably like it. Now, I like 'real' shows too - my favorites right now are New Girl, The Killing, Mad Men, Homeland and The Walking Dead. But, all year long I have my secret loves programmed into my DVR and you better believe when James goes out for his 500 mile runs or bike rides I park myself on the couch and dive into some trashy TV. And yes, I love every second of it. I'm not ashamed.

Here's some of my favorites.

Giulianna & Bill

I love, love, love this show and I don't care who knows it. She cracks me up, and their baby is too freakin cute. I mean, there's definitely times it feels totally scripted but I don't watch it for quality, I watch it for entertainment. And to stare at her diamond. Have you seen that sucker? It's blinding. 

Vanderpump Rules

I mean, let's be honest, this is like trash of the trash. This is the servers/bartenders who work at one of Lisa Vanderpump's restaurants. Full of melodrama and love triangles and I eat up every bit of it. With a spoon. It just had one 'mini' season and I'm shamelessly hoping there's more. 

Real Houswives of Beverly Hills

What can I say? They're rich & their lives are filled with drama. It's the perfect combo for endless entertainment. RHONY was my fave back in the day (and yes, I did watch Bethenny's spin off...) but this is my current top pick. I also totally watched RHONJ back in it's prime - aka the table flipping days. I attempted to check out Miami but I couldn't see past all their plastic surgery well enough to actually watch the show.

Keeping up with the Kardashians

I mean, who could make a list of trashy TV shows and not include the Kardashians? I have to admit though, I can only watch them in small doses as the way they talk kind of gets to me after a bit. Still, I love it.

Dance Moms

Ok, so I've actually only watched this show a few times, but these ladies are crazy. And oh so very entertaining. It's like watching a train wreck - you just can't look away. I do sometimes feel bad for the girls, though. 

So, there you have it, my not so guilty pleasures. Don't judge me. Thanks.

Winnie Wednesday #2

Remember way back when I decided to do Winnie Wednesday? Well, I really had no post ready for today and felt bad, but then I remembered it's Wednesday! That means I can totally cop out and do another Winnie Wednesday.

I was excited for a minute, and then I realized I don't even have anything to post about that. Oops. 

Since I have nothing to say, here's a picture for ya. Winnie is one of those dogs who generally looks like she doesn't have a brain cell in her head. Apparently, though, she was pondering some very deep thoughts at this particular moment in time. I'm sure it had something to do with her ball. I think that's the most complex her little thoughts ever get.

Anyway, happy Wednesday. Maybe I'll be back with something more useful tomorrow. 

Workin like a Dog...

So, last week I was lazy and didn't feel like writing a real post. Therefore to take the attention off my laziness I decided to showcase how ridiculously lazy my dogs are. If you'd like to see approximately one million pictures of my dogs being absolutely worthless (but still somehow pretty freakin adorable) please click here. 

Now, I know my dogs can't be the only lazy ones out there, but I still feel I may have painted a slightly unfair picture of them. I mean, when I sit down and think about it, I realize that they actually work really, really hard. 

 For starters, there's all the chores around the house that need to be done.

They're both TONS of help with the laundry and Winnie even likes to go that extra mile and do the dishes, too. 

Then there's all the computer work to be done.

Annabelle always likes to comment on pictures of herself on Facebook and Winnie chats online with tech support when I screw up something with our TV. (for the record that only happened once and it was an accident!)

Both dogs have a creative side, too.

Annabelle is quite the budding musician (she needs a little work on her vocals, though) and Winnie likes to practice her balancing routine. 

There are always things to be done outside the house, too. Need to run an errand? Just send the dogs.

Winnie's got some mad driving skills (a manual, no less!), but she needs a little work on picking out proper groceries. Don't worry, she's over 21... in dog years at least.

When we come home from work they take care of us, too. Annabelle gives a mean massage. 

I'm sure she's not at all mad about having to share her seat.

Winnie also does a little farm sitting on the side. She can fill up water troughs like a pro. I'm not sure she quite understands the concept, but she tries.

Heading to the beach? Bring Winnie, she's a great life guard. Check out those Baywatch moves.

In her free time Annabelle likes to hone her Poker skills. We're hoping to send her to Vegas soon to win us some money. She does have quite the serious Poker face.

Unfortunately we don't have the same high hopes for Winnie. Just counting her balls seems to puzzle her poor little retriever brain.

Ah, well. It's a good thing she's the sweet one. She certainly doesn't have much going for her in the brains department. 

After all that work they do it's not surprising they sleep so much. I mean, clearly they lead exhausting lives. 

Want to know more? Of course you do. Read more about devilish little Annabelle or sweet, but not so bright Winnie.

Now head on over to the Tall Tails link up to read about more cute pets :)