Goal Accomplished!

I finally did it.  After a month and a half of having exactly one item on my to do list I finally accomplished said item.  I planned out dinners for the next two weeks.  I am absolutely horrible at planning meals. Horrible. And for the past several weeks/months we've been eating a late dinner after the baby is in bed that consists of whatever won't take too long to make. No more! For the next two weeks anyway. I've got a plan. I've got recipes, I've added the needed items to my shopping list, we WILL have dinner together as a family!

I use a google calendar to plan my meals. I can keep several calendars in one place and that way can see what we have going on and I can plan my meals accordingly. And since we only have two people who really eat the meals, most of what I make I can use as leftovers the next day, so I only plan 3-4 meals per week. We have plenty of "backup meals" like tuna helper in our food storage in case the day goes awry and the meal doesn't get cooked, or if we don't have the planned for leftovers. It makes it so much easier to only plan 3-4 dinners a week rather than 7.

I also started keeping a spreadsheet of meals I like to make.  I keep track of when we ate it last and where the recipe is kept.  That way I can take a quick look there to help plan my meals when I don't have time to hunt for recipes on Pinterest.

And can I just say thank goodness for Pinterest? When it comes to food I'm pretty visual, I like my recipes to have pictures. If I had to just browse my mostly pictureless cookbooks I would never decide what to eat. But thanks to pinterest and food bloggers, the internet is my cooking inspiration! What in the world did our moms do when it came time to feed all of us?!

The Best Cookie Ever

A letter to my favorite cookie company, Selmas.

Dear Selmas,

I love and adore your cookies.  I make trips to Disney parks just to eat your cookies.  OK, that might be an exaggeration since I don't live near a Disney park, but finding a Chocolate Chip Supreme cookie is one of the first things I do when I get there.  I've gotten other people as addicted to your cookies as I am.  I was browsing your website today and discovered that you also sell your cookies in Las Vegas Casinos, and it just so happens that I'm headed to Vegas next week!  Imagine my delight at thinking I can have a Selmas cookie without having to go to a theme park!  Can you tell me what casinos you are in so I can have my dream fulfilled?  (Also, are you by chance in any coffee shops or stores in the Salt Lake City area?)

Thanks!

A Devoted Fan,

Annie

Yes, friends that is how much I love Selmas Cookies.  I first became acquainted with Selmas when I worked in Walt Disney World.  I scoured all four theme parks and several of the hotels and could tell you every store they were sold in.  I did make special trips when I worked for Disney for these cookies, and whenever I came home I brought at least one to every family member.  When I moved back to Salt Lake I was so obsessed with these cookies that my bosses at my new job bought me a box of a dozen for my birthday.  It probably took me six months to get through the box because one cookies can seriously be three or four servings, they are just that good.  Needless to say, every time I go to a Disney Theme Park I DO make it a priority to get a Selmas cookie. They're harder to find now, they're not in every park, and they are also sold under the Disney brand, but make not mistake, it's a Selmas cookie.  It's been to long since I was in Walt Disney World, but in Disneyland you can only find them on Main Street in the Confectioners Shop.  They're sold individually packaged, and they truly are the BEST COOKIE EVER.  So, wish me luck on my quest in Las Vegas to find my favorite cookies.  And maybe wish Shawn some patience in case we have to visit more than one casino to find them.

What I've Been Up To

It's been another long and hard week.  This is what I've been up to when I haven't been working:

I got on Pintrest.  I love it, but it's so easy to lose an hour there!  I'm SaltLakeAnnie if  you want to follow my boards.

I've been watching the first season of West Wing this week.  I'm not sure how many times I've watched the first season of West Wing, probably 3 or 4.  I love it because I feel smarter when I watch it.  It makes me want know what is going on.  But sadly, I probably could tell you more about the politics and what is going on in the Washington, DC of West Wing better than what is actually going on today.

I am working on making this skirt.  I love it and have been dreaming of making it since before I owned a sewing machine.  The fabric I'm using is similar but slightly different.   I ran into a slight snag though when I discovered I needed an invisible zipper foot.  Did you know you needed more than one zipper foot?

I made this pie for Shawn.  Well, not THAT pie, but that's the recipe for the pie I made, which I got here.  Only, I didn't do the lattice crust, I went for a regular old pie crust.  And I think it was the best apple pie I've ever had.  I'll definitely make it again, and next time I'll try the lattice crust.  (Oh, and to be perfectly honest, I bought the pie crust, I didn't make it, I just used the recipe for the insides.)

I harvested the first of our sunflower seeds.  The sunflowers were huge, easily three feet across!  We cut them down and let them dry for two weeks and yesterday I harvested them.  I'll try to post pictures of the actual flowers later, they were amazing!  I've roasted most of them and left the rest raw to either give to the birds this winter or plant next spring.

Right now I'm making this soup, found on Pintrest (and here).  It's so nice to have a Sunday.  Shawn and Scooter are asleep on the couch and later Shawn will make some bread.  We plan to take a drive up the mountains to see the beautiful fall leaves this afternoon, and I plan on convincing Shawn to let me whoop his butt at Ticket to Ride Europe after dinner.