My DIY Recipe Binder

Everybody has their own way of storing recipes. Once upon a time, people used recipe boxes. Then people had fill-in-the-blank recipe books. Then I think everybody either switched to some kind of app or stopped cooking altogether. None of those options were going to work for me, so I decided I needed to create my own recipe storage solution.

My Criteria

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a wee bit opinionated about things. (See: Brand Wars.) Given that I may have a stick up my butt from time to time, when I decided to invent my own, unique, absolutely perfect recipe book, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted and how it would work. These were my criteria:

Flashback Post: Epic Minecraft Surprise Party!

Guys, I need a new blog. This new blog shall be called "Things Katie Did That Required Her Whole Ass and Six Months to Plan." It shall be a blog all about this amazingly epic Minecraft Surprise Party that will go down in history as the most awesome party ever.

It all began back in February, right after my brother's ninth birthday. I asked him if I could throw him a tenth birthday party next year. He said no. I begged. He said no. I pleaded incessantly. He said no. So I resorted to Plan B: enlist my brother to help me throw a surprise birthday party for my roommate, and BOOM, the World's Most Epic Minecraft Party was born.

I spent a hell of a lot of time online searching for Minecraft party ideas, and despite the fact that everybody wants to throw a Minecraft party these days, not many people have many ideas on how exactly to execute such a party. (If you don't know what Minecraft is, you are a loser and you need to jump in your archaic time machine and bring yourself into 2014 where all us cool people hang out.) Robin and Ed did have a few pretty awesome Minecraft party ideas, though, so mega shoutout to them.

The first thing I started working on was the food. Because....I'm me. And I'm always hungry. And food is awesome. I ended up with a four page Google Doc on all my ideas for all the food that I could somehow twist into Minecraft food. One of my favorite ideas that I'm sure I stole from somebody (if I stole it from you, tell me and I'll give you props) was for Rice Krispy Treat sandstone and obsidian blocks. I made Rice Krispy treats a couple of months ago and wasn't ready to make them again, so I chose against serving obsidian.

I opted, instead, to serve all of this:

That glorious smorgasbord includes melon, "sticks" (pretzels), carrots, cookies, "golden apples" (sliced golden delicious apples), bread, "baked potatoes" (chips), and "slimeballs" (grapes).

Oh, yeah, and chicken.

 Plus, there was a whole table of desserts, including Cookies and Cream Hershey's Kiss "diamonds," Hershey's Special Dark Minis"gold ingots," Hershey's Milk Chocolate Minis "iron ingots," and Twizzler TNT.

And cake. Can't forget the cake.

The cake originally had more cacti on top, but I don't know what happened to them. Maybe the scary turkey in my neighbor's yard stole them....

The second thing I started planning was the decorations. I love, love, love these Minecraft windows, but alas, they would have made my already epic Minecraft party so supremely epic that the universe would have imploded at its sheer epicness, so I didn't do them. Instead, I made a ghast. The ghast was originally supposed to be a pinata, but since it took me three hours to make, I officially forbade everyone from whacking it with a stick.

My favorite part about the decorations was probably the brown tablecloths with fake grass on top. I scored the fake grass at Home Depot and had enough to cover all my tables and then some. (If anybody needs to borrow some fake grass, I have plenty.) Beyond that, it was mostly just balloons.

Next up on the list is the shirts. I completely, totally, 100% ripped these off from Jennifer. Aren't they awesome?

My brother and I made them almost two months before the party and then had to wait to wear them! Ack! But hey, it was worth it for how awesome we look. The guys wore some pixelated Minecraft sunglasses to complete their looks.

With everybody well-fed and decked out in their Minecraft best, we got to start the shenanigans. I set up a bow and arrow shooting range with pictures of mobs.

We played Pin the Tail on the Dog. I didn't win.

 We created crazy explosions with Coke-and-Mentos TNT.

Also! I totally rocked the invitation. I rocked the invitation so much that when my roommate showed up at the party, we met him at the curb and handed him the invitation so that he could see just how cool it was. Then we brought him around back and got the party started.

"What about mood music?" I hear you ask. No worries. I've got that covered too. Lots of very creative people with very much time on their hands have created Minecraft-themed parody songs based on popular music. I rounded up a whole bunch of those and burned CDs to play at the party and give out as favors. And, of course, because I am beyond extra, I designed totally rad CD covers.

I am deeply sorry that you weren't all able to attend the most radical block party of all time. (Block party...get it? Because Minecraft has blocks? I'm so clever). That being said, I hope you have the opportunity to steal my ideas and create an equally awesome party of your own. If you want any of the printables, let me know and I'll hook you up. The original files are in InDesign, but I can send you PDFs of the signs and whatnot.


EDITOR'S NOTE: This post was originally written in 2014, about a party that also occurred in 2014. I found it drifting through my drafts and decided to publish it anyway. I know it's out of date, and I know it's out of the blue, but I put a lot of work into this and thought some of you might still enjoy it.

Life Updates

Guys, life happened. Like, holy crap, life happened A LOT. So let's catch up.

First of all, I quit my job. You know, that one that was 30 miles away and made me hate myself and all of humanity? Yeah, that one. I quit. I really really thought about doing something completely destructive to the building before I left, but I decided that I would rather not go to jail, so I returned all 438 rolls of toilet paper and gave up my elaborate tripwire plan. Walking out all civilized wasn't nearly as much fun, but at least I didn't leave in a straitjacket, so I guess it all worked out.

Second of all, I got some new jobs. My first new job kinda sucks, and I kinda suck at it, but that's okay because at least I'm not trying to burn down the building. My second new job is fabulous. Everybody is absurdly nice and I get to work at two different locations,one of which is three minutes (three minutes!) away from my house and has a pond view and a family of geese, and the other of which is a gorgeous 100-year-old building with spiral staircases and stained glass. I love it.

Also, there's the whole school thing.

Since the last time we spoke, I managed to survive the Math Professor From Hell, and as pissed as I am at my reduced GPA, I will never have to MOD7 again, which is a very good thing. Over the summer I took my mandatory literature class and completely fell in love with the class and the professor (who shall henceforth be known as Professor Koi Pond). I also developed a raging love/hate relationship with John Steinbeck, who is an excellent writer and a despicable human being. I am currently contemplating becoming an English major and to further this contemplation, I am taking two more classes with Professor Koi Pond in the fall. Last week I was officially inducted into the the honor society (thanks to my newly discovered nerditude) and you are now speaking to the Phi Theta Kappa Vice President of Communications. I hope you are adequately impressed. ;-)

In similar news, I recently rediscovered reading for pleasure, and it has been awesome. For anyone else out there who spends 80% of their life drowning in homework, "reading for pleasure" is this kooky idea that lets you read things that aren't on a syllabus AND you don't have to write a paper after you read them! I know! It's crazy! In the last two weeks I've read The Women of Brewster Place (which was amazing but broke my heart), half of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which sucks), and almost half of Julie & Julia (which involves some gruesome animal bits but is otherwise pretty cool).

As you can see, I've been pretty busy these past few months, but lucky for you, there are new Pop Tarts flavors and Sheetz has released a quesorrito and I learned how to make Lazy Girl Risotto, so we should be seeing lots more of each other soon.

In the meantime, tell me what you've been up to! Anything awesome happen to you this summer? Anything less than awesome? What have you been eating? I want to hear everything! (especially the eating)

Katie Does Coffee

I hate coffee. It's icky and gross and it tastes terrible.

That's what I proclaimed to the world for...oh, gee...twenty two years.

Okay. Probably not twenty two years, because I wasn't so great at verbalizing my opinions on beverages as a wee tot, but still. I hated coffee for a really long time.

Until last week.

I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but I want coffee. Like, I really, really want coffee. Like, all the time. I have no idea what to do with myself now.

Maybe it's because I'm in college now and, like all college students, my brain requires caffeinated fuel to produce coherent sentences.

No, that's not it. I'm still not producing coherent sentences egg.

Maybe I'm maturing and developing good taste in my newly discovered adulthood.

Nope, that's not it either. Butts. Boogers. Burps. Giggle.

Whatever the reason, I'm in the beginning stages of a coffee addiction and I would love to hear your recommendations. Are there coffee brands I should be trying? Flavors? Mochas? Lattes? And by the way, how do you pronounce cafe au lait?

All the Things I Ate During Finals Week (or, Why My Jeans Won't Button)

So, my English professor thought it would be funny to assign our class a research paper two weeks before classes ended.

My English professor has a terrible sense of humor.

Lucky me, the same day my English professor assigned us our research papers, my car died. Then the school library closed for five days for "Thanksgiving," which, from what I gather, is an antiquated holiday celebrating love, gratitude, and yams. (Conincidentally, this holiday coincides with what we in the life-leeching retail business refer to as Hell Week, during which I had the pleasure of working six days straight and getting yelled at for not having enough earbuds.) By the time I had time to research anything at all, my roommate came home from Colorado barfing like a high schooler at a frat party, and I had to procure the necessary chicken noodle soup and orange juice. (The bastard lost five pounds, too. Me? I gained seven.)

As I'm sure you can assume, all this stress led to quite a bit of comfort eating. Here's a rundown of what I ate during the last two weeks:

Half a bag of Oreos.

A McDonald's apple pie.

Three white hot chocolates.

One possibly poisonous bottle of Diet Coke.

Half a pumpkin pie.

Four boxes of macaroni and cheese.

A $1 Jimmy Johns sub.

A "Party Size" tub of humus.

Two mini bags of Cool Ranch Doritos.

Twenty-three oatmeal raisin cookies.

A LOT of Twizzlers.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

The best part of all is that I totally bombed the paper, which means I am now simultaneously looking for all possible opportunities to shove Oreos into my face AND ways to lose twenty pounds before Christmas so that at least I won't be the fat freshman failure for the annual "my, how you've grown, how is school?" holiday inquisition. If anyone happens to know of a diet that lets you eat Nutella and spray cheese for two weeks, take a 48-hour nap, and wake up with the body of a bombshell, please let me know.

Fall Bucket List

Hey guys! Today I'm linking up with Jackie from Our Nashville Life to share my fall bucket list!

Fall is my favorite time of year (if you hadn't noticed from my recent fall foods craziness), and since it always seems to disappear five minutes after it starts, I thought making a fall bucket list was an awesome idea. If you make a fall bucket list, leave me a comment and I'll come check it out!

My Fall Bucket List:

1. Bake apple crisp.
2. Jump in a pile of leaves.
3. Get all dressed up and take my brother trick-or-treating.
4. EAT ALL THE APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUTS!
5. Make pumpkin spice muffins.
6. Carve a jackolantern.
7. Set up an awesome graveyard out front.
8. Make soup NOT from a can.
9. Bake bread.
10. Bake something with ginger that will make the house smell amaaaazing.
11. Watch Rocky Horror Picture Show.
12. Watch Nightmare Before Christmas. (My friends and I have decided the only appropriate time to watch this film is on Thanksgiving.)
13. Go to the Minecraft Corn Maze. I hate corn mazes, but there's one nearby that does a theme every year; last year it was Angry Birds and this year it's Minecraft. Since my roommate and my little brother are both obsessed with Minecraft, we can't pass this up.
14. Go to the eye doctor. Nope, not exciting, but I've been putting it off and it needs to happen.

That's it for today, guys. Keep your eyes peeled for autumnal Oreos later this week!

I did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

Yesterday my roommate and my little brother decided to tag me for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. They are big meanies, but here's the videographic evidence that I completed the Ice Bucket Challenge.

I'm tagging my friend Mosby (TheFantasticIan), Devon Battilega (DevonDoesGames), and my mother (spiffy URL nonexistent).

If you'd like to get in on the cold, wet fun, consider yourself tagged! To take the challenge, film yourself (or a friend) dumping a bucket of icy cold water over your head and film it for all the world to see. If that isn't quite your style, feel free to make a donation to the ALS Association to help them create a world without ALS.

P.S. I didn't know what ALS was so I looked it up. ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. It is a degenerative nerve disorder that affects approximately 30,000 Americans.

Chips and Buttermilk and Why I Will Be Homeless

My roommate thinks I'm crazy. And yeah, okay, maybe sometimes that's a little bit true. Maybe. Sometimes. A little. But I am not nearly as crazy as he thinks I am. In fact, I think he's crazy because he doesn't completely love one of my favorite foods.

Now, you guys now I love sour cream. And what's better than sour cream? Well....cheese. But no, that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about sour cream and onion potato chips.

And what makes sour cream and onion potato chips even more delicious?

One Year Blogiversary!

Happy Blogiversary, guys! We're one!

Now, because I'm all nerdy and want to brag a little, here are some stats from the last year of blogging:

Number of Posts: 95

Number of Page Views: 3,235

Number of Brand Wars: 7
(Coke vs. Pepsi, Cheez-Its vs. Cheese Nips, Twizzlers vs. Red Vines, Blizzard vs. McFlurry, Sprite vs. Sierra Mist, Nutella, and Ketchup)

Number of Recipes: 26-ish

Number of Videos: One. This one.

Number of Times Written "Oreo": infinity

Most Popular Post: How to Make a Spongebob Oreo Birthday Cake in 19 Easy Steps

Least Popular Post: The Great Apple Crisp Bake Off

Personal Favorite Post: Starburst Minis, Bad Eggs, and a Love Story

Favorite Recipe: Triple Cheese Baked Ziti


Thank you so much for hanging out with me here and listening to me blabber on about Oreos and girly alcohol for the past year. You're the best!

What do you want to see next year?

Almost Edible Earring Collection

Last Christmas I mentioned that food-shaped earrings make great gifts for people. And by people, I mean me. Call me crazy, but I just can't get enough of dangling fake food off my earlobes...

Okay, so these ones aren't exactly food, but they're some of my favorites. I bought these before I got my ears pierced and then had to wait three long months before I could wear them. Worth it!

These strawberry waffle earrings were made by Heather from Sweet & Savory Trinkets--my favorite food earring shop of all time. I don't think these waffles are still available, but if you ever see them, snatch them up!

Tacos! These ones were a Christmas gift, so I don't know where you can get them. If they're yours, please let me know! They just might be my favorite...

I can't say these earrings look a lot like my homemade peppermint bark, but they're so adorable, I just don't care. They were also from Heather.

Speaking of Heather and how awesome she is, she also made these pears.

And these gingerbread men.

These submarine sandwiches are fantastically detailed. They're a little heavier than the others so I don't wear them as often, but I love them! I think the creator has moved away from the mini food recently, but she still has some adorable coffee earrings.

Last but not least, these cans of Heineken were a 21st birthday gift from my sister. I don't like beer, but these are just awesome.

If you're looking for your own food earrings, a couple of my favorite Etsy sellers are Jody from Art Wonders (s'mores, anyone?) and Shay Aaron whose cupcakes are currently making me drool.

What are your favorite earrings?

What I Ate: First Day of School Edition

Guys, today was my first day of school. Ever.

This week I'm taking a four-day Student Development seminar, which ordinarily would have been a mandatory one-credit sixteen-week course but is now a four-day week of educational craziness.

I now know what the Cornell Method is, if anyone was wondering.

Since I didn't have a lot of time for cookie baking this weekend, what with cram-reading the whole textbook and all, today I'm going to show you what I ate.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Because, yaknow, cinnamon. And sugar. And crunch.

For lunch I ate most of a fake turkey sandwich and some Garden Salsa Sun Chips, which, if you have not yet experienced, needs to become your number one priority. The Sun Chips. Not the fake turkey. The fake turkey sucks. The Sun Chips are delicious.

My roommate bought me pizza for dinner, mostly because he just really wanted pizza, but who am I to say no to cheese-drenched carbs? Nobody, that's who. Besides. I hear college kids are supposed to eat a lot of pizza, and I'm just trying to fit in.

Right now I am sipping on a celebratory root beer float because on my first day of school I did not get an embarrassing nickname (unlike Willi-with-an-I), nobody tried to give me a wedgie, and I did not hide under the stairs and have a panic attack, which, as far as I'm concerned, means today was a successful first day of school.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

I Have a Garden!

Plants and I have never really been friends. Sure, I appreciate their existence and all, and they're nice to look at most of the time, but we were pretty much mutually oblivious. That is, until I got my first place and decided I was going to have houseplants. I went out and picked out the perfect houseplant. It was adorable and I was going to name it. I have no idea what I was going to name it because the damn thing died two weeks after I brought it home. I watered it, I swear, but somehow I couldn't keep that freaking pot of ivy alive.

I bitched and sulked for a while after that and decided to never have another plant ever again.

Yaknow, until I went to the store and saw all the adorable mini cactuses and stuff. Then I wanted a houseplant again. But I'm not completely stupid. This time, instead of getting houseplants, I opted for traditional outdoor plants.

I got a little carried away.

My yard now looks like a veritable jungle, and not just because we haven't mowed.

At the beginning of May I filled three planters with petunias (I think) and sweet potato vines:

They don't actually grow sweet potatoes, but they're nice to look at.

I also planted jalapenos....

and some other kind of pepper....

and a pot of peppermint....

and I started cilantro and dill and spearmint from seed. Two weeks later they were definitely not dead. Score!

Well, kind of. It took another month before I finally figured out the stuff in the spearmint pot wasn't so much spearmint as a very impressive weed. I went out and bought a spearmint plant instead.

Now my deck looks like this:

The seeds have gone absolutely crazy....

the mint is all splayed out and probably pissed I didn't give it a bigger pot....

and I have peppers!

So many peppers!

Also, thanks to a little Miracle Grow, the flower boxes have filled in pretty well too.

As if that wasn't enough, my roommate has also started a vegetable garden with cucumbers and corn and tomatoes and more peppers and pumpkins and mini pumpkins and funny-looking gourds. Me, I would have been totally fine with just having a giant gourd patch, but apparently that's "boring."

Even with all that greenery, I think my favorite thing in the entire yard is this piece of onion grass growing out of a cinder block.

What's growing in your yard? Do you have any ideas for all those peppers? Let me know in the comments!

I Fixed My Stove!

Guys! I did it! I fixed my stove!

Now, I know this isn't a cinematic wonder or anything, but I figured it would be easier to show you the process in video form rather than blog post. Thus, I present to you my YouTube debut:

For the last week, the only way to turn off my stove has been to flip the breaker, which has vastly limited my culinary endeavors. Luckily, the fantabulous dudes from Appliance Parts Pros provided me with the knowledge and appliance parts necessary to repair my stove all by myself.

(This is a very big deal for me. I called my roommate when the stove broke and not only would he not let me attempt the repair myself, but he told me not to order the part until he came home. I also told my mother I was going to fix my stove and she yelled at me and told me to hire an electrician. I showed them.)

It was actually a very simple repair; I just had to swap out the Infinite Switch. (I totally know what that is, by the way.) The whole process took me less than thirty minutes, even whilst trying to find camera angles. It saddens me that the people in my life have so little faith in my stove fixing abilities.

If any of your appliances are being bitchy, I highly recommend checking out AppliancePartsPros.com. Actually, if none of your appliances are being bitchy I recommend breaking one of them just so that you have a reason to check out AppliancePartsPros.com. The part I ordered was less than $25 with shipping, whereas ordering it directly from GE would have set me back $35 before shipping. And, speaking of shipping, I ordered the part on Sunday night and had it on my doorstep at 10am Tuesday morning. I was absolutely floored and cannot say enough about how awesome the Appliance Parts Pros are. (No, they're not paying me to say this, they're just that rad.)

Regularly scheduled blog programming will return on Monday with the long-awaited Peanut Butter M&M Cookie recipe. For real this time. I promise.

What's in My Fridge?

I was planning to do this post sometime next month, but my stove went wacko this week and now the only way to turn it off is by flipping the breaker. This means I can't use my oven without the stove running full speed for an hour and a half, which means I can't bake you cookies, which means I'm strapped for content, which is why today I'mma show you what's in my fridge. Yaaaaay!

I was planning to spend the next month unofficially cleaning out my fridge so there wouldn't be anything embarrassing in there when I showed it to the whole internet, but since desperate times call for desperate measures, today you are getting a completely uncensored look at the inside of my fridge. With the exception of the bag of chocolate chips that I took out and then started eating and never remembered to photograph. Whoops.

The first thing you'll notice once you find my fridge (it's that big thing buried under the pile of crap and the Zits cartoon) is its lack of organization. It was organized once. That was a long time ago.

The second thing you'll notice is the collection of salad dressing. I don't eat salad--nor does my carnivorous roommate--but somehow we ended up with five different kinds of dressing. I do not understand this phenomenon.

I also have Miracle Whip "dressing" and mayo.

Next up: pickles. Lots and lots and lots of pickles. And jalapenos. But mostly pickles. I'd love to tell you I bought the pickles for a recipe, but I didn't. I just love pickles. Mostly because they make for great dirty jokes. I did, however, buy the jalapenos for a recipe.

Then I have spaghetti fixin's and a jar of roasted red peppers.

After that, there are a ton of jelly-type substances. I don't actually eat jelly on anything, but somehow I have a fridge full of it.

And, of course, more condiments.

I also happen to have some ketchup left over from Brand Wars. If anyone has a recipe for ketchup ANYTHING, please let me know. (Just kidding. That would be gross.)

Moving on to the second shelf, we have a wide selection of fizzy beverages, including sparkling grape juice and peach Fresca. Peach Fresca isn't nearly as good as alcoholic peach lemonade, but it's okay.

Also, there is yogurt on the second shelf. The second shelf tends to be a catchall.....but then, my entire fridge is a catchall.

Then we have the big, tall shelf which houses the big, tall pitcher of iced tea. And water. And milk. But mostly the iced tea, because iced tea is amazing. (I've been having iced tea withdrawals since my stove has been on the fritz. It might be time for me to learn to make sun tea.)

Underneath the iced tea is the best part of the entire fridge: the cheese drawer. I love the cheese drawer. It holds the cheese. I love cheese. I love cheese more than I love iced tea. That's a big, big love. Right now my cheese drawer holds a package of Laughing Cow Creamy Swiss cheese, a package of American Cheese, a bag of cheese sticks, a box of cream cheese, some provolone, some sliced Swiss, two bags of mozzarella, a bag of mild cheddar, a bag of sharp cheddar, a little shredded Parmesan, and some stowaway fake meat and old pepperoni. (Someone please leave an old pepperoni joke in the comments.)

The next shelf is typically home to all the meat, but since I have the house to myself this week, that's where where my bagels are chilling (no pun intended). Bagels and lettuce.

Bagels and lettuce and apple sauce.

(All those eyeballs are from April Fools Day, by the way. They've been falling off things and appearing randomly all over my kitchen since April.)

All the way at the bottom we have two drawers: the candy drawer and the overflow condiments drawer. The candy drawer currently contains half a bag of Easter-themed mini Kit-Kats, two full-sized Kit-Kat bars, a strip of snack-sized Kit-Kats (I like Kit-Kats), some 3 Musketeers, a bag of old scummy Halloween candy, a bag of caramel filled Kisses, a bag of mint filled Kisses, two strips of snack-sized Hershey bars (for S'mores), chocolate chips, Andes Peppermint Chips, three Holiday Mint White Chocolate Hershey bars, a bag of mini Reeses, a bar of orange-flavored Moser Roth chocolate, a bar of chili-flavored Moser Roth chocolate, a bar of mint-flavored Moser Roth chocolate, and the remnants of our Costco-sized package of Kraft Singles.

The first shelf on the door holds the margarine and butter.

The second shelf usually holds water bottles, but lately it has become an all-around beverage holder to include my roommate's post-mowing Gatorade, lime juice, and whipped cream. Yes, whipped cream should be considered a beverage.

Finally, we have the booze. Since I don't have any super-girly alcohol right now, I've opted for tonic water (gin and tonics) and root beer (for root beer and rum).

And that, my friends, is my fridge! I'd love to snoop on yours, so if you do a similar post leave me a link in the comments!