Mexican Wrestlers?

Somehow it's Sunday night and I can't remember much of what happened this weekend. I'm having one of those moments where I'm trying to think back and am completely drawing a blank. A few things do stand out, though.

We finally saw Lincoln. It was good, but very long and seeing as how I was curled up on my couch I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep. Daniel Day Lewis was amazing and I cried a couple of times as per usual for me. Can't really think of a movie that didn't make me cry at some point. Embarrassing.

Saturday night I went out with some girlfriends for a friend's birthday. We went to a mexican restaurant and somehow this happened.

I'm not sure there's any explanation that would make sense so I won't really try. I mean, the place had these all lined up and who could resist trying them on? I think we look pretty fab.

Sunday? A completely lazy day. Had sonic for the first time in years - their tots are as good or maybe even better than I remember. Pretty sure there's nothing better. I had the good intention to tackle the scary, scary place that is my closet... but I napped and ate instead. It's the thought that counts though, right?!? Maybe next weekend... On the plus side I was on call for work all day Sunday and didn't get called in. That's always a good feeling.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Linking up with Sami and Molly.

H54F 7/12

It's Friday again. Sweet, Sweet Friday :)

1. This was the text convo between me and James the other night. It pretty much sums up our life. He runs, I sleep. Perfect combo. 

2. Had a smoothing treatment done on my hair. This NC humidity is not a good match for my crazy curls. So far it's been a life saver. If you have frizzy and/or curly hair I definitely recommend it, read more about it here. You won't regret it, promise.

3. Made another batch of my banana pudding. Still my least favorite thing to make by far since I actually hate banana pudding, but if you like it then I highly suggest you make it since people seem to love it. Updated the recipe with some tips on how to make the custard a bit thicker. 

4. Is there a better snack than 'nilla wafers & crunchy peanut butter? I don't think so. I used to eat this all the time and then forgot about it for years. Glad I rediscovered it. Plus, since these are mini wafers that means I can eat like 10 of them and pretend it's the same as just 1 or 2 big ones... right?

5. As soon as I read this recipe from Still Being Molly I knew I had to make it. We had it for dinner last night and it was fantastic. And ridiculously easy. Especially since I cheated big time and just used a rotisserie chicken. But hey, since I make dinner like once a month I still consider it a big success :) This is the beginning of my newfound effort to contribute to making dinner a bit more often. It may not last long, but as least now I know there's one thing I can make!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth

Homemade Banana Pudding

The Perfect Southern Dessert

In the name of full disclosure I should probably tell you that I don't actually eat banana pudding. I've never really tasted this recipe, but I have picked out some of the nilla wafers. They were delicious. However, of everything I make, this is probably my most requested (other than a vanilla pudding cake which I'll share later). Especially in the summer. It also happens to be my least favorite dessert to make. It doesn't really involve baking as much as it does stirring custard constantly for 20+ minutes and handling yucky slices of slimy bananas. 

I have, however, learned that people in the south love their banana pudding and are quite picky about it. So, through a bit of trial and error, I have combined a few recipes to find one that seems to satisfy most banana pudding lovers.

I started with this recipe from Southern Plate and then added to it just a bit. Although, in this recipe she makes her own topping and says she'll hunt down anyone who uses Cool Whip. I use Cool Whip. Hopefully she wasn't serious. But, since its already something I don't eat & don't particularly enjoy making I didn't feel like going through the extra effort to make my own meringue topping. Plus, no one who's eaten it so far really seems to mind :)

Anyway, onto the recipe.

Ingredients

-1/2C sugar (original recipe says you can use Splenda. I haven't tried that)

-1/3C flour (you may want to add some extra depending on how thick you like your custard. I usually add just a bit more)

-3 egg yolks

-2C milk (I use whole milk for this - helps make the custard thicker & creamier, I think)

-1 box vanilla wafers (I use the whoooole box. The cookies are the best part, right?)

-5-6 ripe-overripe bananas

-1/2 tsp vanilla

-dash of salt

-Slice all bananas 

         *I save one whole banana (leaving it in the peel) & wrap in foil and place in oven on warm. 

           Once the custard is done I mash this banana into it. I think this would make for a weird texture,

           but James prefers it this way and others haven't complained. I'm a texture person so it doesn't 

           seem appealing to me, but it does help thicken the custard and add more banana flavor.

        *If this is to be served next day you can squeeze some lemon juice on the bananas to keep them 

          from turning brown. The custard does thicken as it sets so, unless you like it warm, its better after

          it has sat in the fridge for a bit. ( at least several hours)

-Layer nilla wafers and banana slices in a large bowl (ie a glass pyrex bowl)

-In a pot, add all ingredients except vanilla and cook on medium-low heat. DO NOT turn up heat, it  will burn! Stir constantly for ~20 minutes or until custard thickens. It will suddenly thicken up in the  last few minutes. Until then it will seem like nothing is happening. 

-Once custard is thick remove from heat & stir in vanilla. This is also where you would mash in the  extra banana if you choose.

-Immediately pour over wafers & banana slices in bowl. Let set in fridge & then top with your choice  of topping. Cheers to you if you choose to make your own, but Cool Whip works just fine :)

-I like to put some wafers on top of the topping also, just because it looks nice. And then I can eat     cookies dipped in cool whip.

Enjoy!

**Update 7/13 - if you want thicker custard, add 1 extra egg yolk and a bit of extra flour (a little less than an extra 1/4 cup).

Lazy

I'll be honest, I was lazy and didn't really have a post ready to go for today. But, sticking with the lazy theme I decided to share how I'm not actually the laziest one in the house. That award definitely goes to the dogs... literally.

By now you probably know I have two dogs: Winnie and Annabelle. You probably also know that Winnie is my favorite the good one and Annabelle is evil naughty. For the most part they are polar opposites but there's one thing they have in common - sleep. 

These dogs can sleep allll day. And I do mean all day. It's not just like a casual snooze, it's more like 'OMG I'm soooo exhausted'. Cause, ya know, doing nothing all day must be pretty exhausting. The only thing worse than how much they sleep is just how many pictures I have of them sleeping. I mean, it's ridiculous. And who really needs to see that? No one, that's who. Lucky for you though, you get to see them! I know, you're crazy excited. 

Here's some of the best most ridiculous sleeping pictures I have shamelessly compiled. I apologize in advance. 

Sunbathing. By far their favorite activity to do together. Quite possibly the ONLY activity they do together. If she sees you watching, Annabelle will promptly move and deny it ever happened. I had to take this pic through the sliding glass door.

Winnie with my parent's dogs. This just makes me laugh because they're all laying in the same position. Running around like fools must be really exhausting.

This picture demonstrates the unfair rules in our house. Annabelle is allowed on furniture. Winnie is not. Really the only reason annabelle is allowed is because no one can tell her what to do. Main reason Winnie's not allowed? Because the first day we brought her home she hopped on the bed with Annabelle and was promptly chased across the house by a screaming devil. I mean, Annabelle. 

Have cold feet? Annabelle will gladly warm them up. All while she's mostly unconscious.

This is just ridiculous. And yes, she's wearing a hoodie.

When Winnie's really tired she sleeps with her head on the floor. Seems so uncomfortable.

There's nothing special about this picture, I just think it's adorable :)

Spoiled. That is all. And yes, she crawls under the covers herself.

I mean, why not pass out in your princess dress? It's gotta be tiring ruling the whole house and all...

The obligatory upside down sleeping picture. She's the only upside down sleeper I've ever had.

And just for good measure another head off the bed pic. Just to prove that one time wasn't a fluke. It really is how she prefers to sleep.

So there ya have it. More pictures of sleeping dogs than you ever wanted, or needed, to see. You're welcome.

Croissant Bread Pudding

Croissants are one of my all time favorite foods. I could eat one every day and be a happy, happy girl. So when a friend of mine sent me a picture of this on twitter I knew I had to try it. 

She used the original recipe found here at the Stone Soup blog. There's even a handy video you can watch!

I don't have a loaf pan, so I just used a glass casserole dish and watched it closer to the end of baking. The original recipe also calls for dark chocolate and that happened to be all I had in my pantry at the time. I used 72% I think? Anyway, it was too dark for me but I'm not a huge fan of dark chocolate to begin with. I ended up sprinkling some powdered sugar on top to help balance out the bitterness of the chocolate. Next time I'd love to try this with Nutella instead. 

Anyway, onto the recipe! You can start with any croissants, but I highly recommend the frozen ones from Trader Joes. If you love croissants you need to go pick up a box. There are 8 in a box and they look itty bitty, but you set them out to rise overnight and they triple in size. If you use those for this, overcook them just a bit so they're nice and crispy. I didn't do that and it made them a bit hard to work with when cutting them.

The original recipe calls for 3 large croissants sliced up into rounds. I ate one of the 8 (I couldn't resist!) and then sliced the rest up minus a few pieces that ended up so mangled they were fed to the dogs. 

Let the croissant pieces soak in the cream/sugar/egg mixture in a large bowl for a few minutes to soak up the custard, then throw them in your baking dish and that's it! Easiest recipe ever. 

Ingredients:

-Croissants (3 large, or 6-7 smaller ones)

-2.5 cups whipping cream

-1/2 C sugar

-3 eggs

-handful of dark chocolate broken into chunks (or use chocolate of your choice!)

Preheat oven to 350. Slice croissants into rounds. Combine eggs, sugar and cream in large bowl. Add croissants and let soak for a few minutes. Layer half of the croissants in baking dish, add chocolate on top and then layer remaining croissants. Pour some of the remaining custard on top. Bake 40-50 minutes (adjust depending on what size dish you bake it in!) or until no liquid custard comes out when you press on the top. 

In the original recipe they let it cool and removed it from the loaf pan to slice & serve it so she lined it with parchment paper. I served mine in the baking dish and served it warm with whipped cream. It's really up to you!

Let's Talk Hair

OK, I should start out this post by saying I am NOT a beauty blogger by any means. In fact, the only make up I own is moisturizer (does that even count?) 1 eyeshadow (+ 1 free one I got as a gift from Ulta) 1 blush, bronzer (that I don't actually use since I don't really know how!) and mascara. Out of those the only thing I use on a daily basis is moisturizer... and I just started using that in the last few months.

This weekend was all about hair. I have enough hair on my head for 3 adults. And they would probably have too much hair. Not only that, but each individual hair is curly & frizzy. It's great, really. Especially in this lovely NC humidity. 

Here's what my hair normally looks like if I just get out of the shower & let it dry. 

Dry, frizzy & curly. Not fun. Luckily I don't have to worry about this anymore! This weekend I got a Pravana Perfection SmoothOut treatment done. 

Right after leaving the salon. Excuse the terrible photo quality!

Second day - curls!

The first picture is right after the treatment - my hair was so silky and smooth. The second day I took a shower and just let it air dry to see what it would do on its own. I was happy to see I still had plenty of curl but my hair was soft, shiny and smooth. You can't really tell in the picture, but the biggest difference is the texture. I can't stop touching it - and I've never been able to touch my curls! Anyone with super curly hair knows what happens once you start touching curls - hello, afro! The curls definitely aren't as tight as they were before, but they aren't limp and flat either. All I did was hop out of the shower and let it dry as we went to lunch and ran errands. Normally I'd have to put leave in conditioner, curl cream, argan oil and gel on humid days. I'm excited to enjoy the rest of the summer with calmer, happier curls :) Plus, now I can straighten it when I want to without worrying that it'll just turn into a frizz ball 10 seconds after walking out the door. 

Aside from staring at and running my fingers through my hair this weekend, I also had the most ridiculously good ice cream ever. Cinnamon Crumb Cake. And yes, it's just as delicious as it sounds. If there's a Kilwins near you I highly suggest you go there. Now.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Linking up with Sami and Molly.

**Update - I thought I'd update to include a bit of info about the actual treatment itself.
The whole procedure took about 3 hours to do on my hair - wash, condition, rinse, apply product, let sit, blow dry & flat iron, wash/condition/rinse again, blow dry. From what I've read into online it looks like price varies depending on your area but is generally $100-300. I was lucky and got mine at a discount since my stylist was running a promotion, but if it really lasts as long as it's supposed to (8-12 weeks) then I'd say the original price is probably worth it. At least for these crazy humid summer months. My favorite part is that it doesn't contain all the harsh chemicals that some other straightening treatments do. It's basically a nano-amino acid complex that softens your hair and relaxes the curl. No harsh chemicals or hazardous fumes! Plus, you can wash your hair that same day unlike other treatments where you have to wait 1-3 days with gross stuff in your hair before you can wash it. 

It's Friday?

Wow, this Friday totally snuck up on me. Having a holiday during the week really threw me off. I enjoyed it, but all day today I kept thinking it was Monday. What a nice surprise to have it actually be Friday! I'm way late to the game today, it's currently 6:30pm and I'm just now sitting down to catch up on blogs and write this post.

1. July 4th!! My absolute favorite thing about this week was the 4th. Obviously having the day off work was awesome, but it was also nice to have a cookout over at my parent's. Hadn't done that in a while. Also got some belated birthday gifts which is always nice :)

2. I made this bread pudding with croissants and dark chocolate. I'll post more about that soon, but it was pretty delicious. I'm not a huge dark chocolate fan so next time I'd love to try it with nutella or semi sweet chocolate since all I had on hand was super dark chocolate. 

3. We FINALLY got some sunny weather. All we've had is rain, rain and more rain. It's been awful. So glad to see the sun. I wore shorts for the first time yesterday... definitely need to spend more time in the sun before I do that again!

4. This is the story of my life. Definitely got up on Thursday and then proceeded to take a nap until noon. 

5. Winifred got a new bed. She was super confused at first seeing as how she's not the brightest dog in the world, but she figured it out pretty quick. You didn't think I'd do a whole H54F post without a dog picture, did you?!?

Hope everyone had a good week and has an even better weekend!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth.