Crock-Pot

New thing of the day, got an original Crock Pot for Christmas.

We did Christmas a little early this year with certain family members, due to the hectic holiday schedule coming up. In the gift exchange, we got a crock pot. It was on our list of wants, and with little/no experience with a crock pot - I've heard wonderful things so wanted to try it out.

Love this as it's red like our rice cooker. Set it and forget it - I hope. We may try cooking with it at first over the weekend so we can get comfortable with the timing of the food and be present and be around when it's cooking. Maybe do some mass meals ahead of time and have leftovers over the week. I'm a fan of easy cooking and maybe we might find some great ways to make yummy food with this. 

Got a 4 qt ceramic - which I think will fit all our general needs. Should be interesting to try out. I'll let you know when we try our first recipe with it :) 

Antiquing Table Display

New thing of the day, visited some antique shops and got our first display table.

Here it is :) It's on our upstairs landing and it's just a cool little table we can put or keys, wallet, purse or other things on it. Right now it's got a plant and some mail on it. Yeay antique shops!

Blinky & Star tins

New thing of today, tried candy from the Blinky and Star tins.

I got these awesome little candy tins at City Walk in a store called It's Sugar with lots of fun candy stuff. I saw these awesome little tins and decided to get them. Being not a huge fan of candy, was going to give the candy away and use the tins for my stuff. I was going to use the red Blinky pac-man ghost as my vitamin/advil/pill box. I was going to use the Star from Mario World as a mint holder.

So today I opened the boxes and tried out the candies - disgusting! They had no flavor, although they had cute shapes like the tins they came in. 

The star one had zero flavor, banana-ish, but gross. The red one had a sour flavor to it - very mild, but not even that tasty. So I dumped out the candy on a napkin, gave it out to coworkers, and now have fun empty tins to use for my stuff! It will make me more likely to take my vitamins and to use up my mints - both of which I forget to take and really should take more often. Anyway, just love the tins, but glad the candy is gone - so gross!

PS - did you know that Mario World has it's own Wiki - check out the listing on the Mario Star. Also some info on Pac-Man and Blinky :) 

Tins

New thing of today, bought some old fashioned tins.

Today we were browsing some antique stores. Saw a basket of neat tins. The one on the leftmost caught my eye and it got me looking at a bunch of other tins. The back middle one will be a gift. I love the tiny tiger one and might use it for jewelry or whatever. The red one was just neat and not sure if we'll keep it or give it as a gift.

So that's it. Yeay for antique stores!

Blame it on the gas oven

New thing of today, blamed my undercooked chicken on the gas oven.

Yes that is a ridiculous "bun in the oven" costume, and no that doesn't mean we have a bun in the oven I just thought it was a funny photo to post with this blog.

Anyway, I finally figured out why I don't like using our oven - it doesn't work the way we're used to. It's a gas oven. Both husband and I grew up on electric ovens and stoves. When we moved, I was excited because we both like gas burners when frying. Plus I hear it's the superior way to cook.

Ever since we started using the gas burners - perfect and love cooking with it. The only downside is it's a bit more dangerous with spills and the open flame, but overall I like how quick and easy it is to heat and cool foods.

We've had nothing but issues with our gas oven. I made bread in it which turned out ok but not great. We've made chicken and every time the chicken comes out underdone and we have to either keep it in there much longer than expected, or cook it somewhere else. There was a tri-tip that was in there too long and came out over dry. I got an oven thermometer just to check and make sure I could monitor the temperature. It's still hard to use because we can't see it from the glass window. It's hard to control the temperature and keep it high and consistent. I also do not like how the heat comes out above the dials and it's hot when you try to change the settings or get something from the cabinet above.

When we got the place, the home inspector said that it's a small oven, and that we have to keep the door closed to keep the temperature consistent, but I do open it quite a bit to check on things. I also remember he did not like the oven, and perhaps recommended us getting a new one. Don't know for sure though.

Today I tried to bake chicken at 350 for an hour, and it was still underdone. So we stuck it in the toaster oven for 20 minutes and it cooked through properly. So odd how in our old electric ovens we never had issues, but with our gas oven we're having all sorts of issues. I'm almost sure it's because it's gas, or because there's something wrong with our oven.

Anyway the experiment continues. Next time I may just up the temperature and keep the door closed for meat. Also I may pre-heat a lot more, and I don't know, up the temperature if i'll be opening it a lot. Or we may get it checked out by a professional and we may get a new one.

I hate to blame the machine. I believe our food is a result of our own actions, but when you cook multiple times in a machine and it consistently does not perform the way you need it to, it's time to blame the machine. So this time, for the first time, I'm openly blaming the gas oven.

No idea what it is about the gas oven that the issue is. I'll try some different cooking methods before we look to really having someone come out and look at it or worst, pay for a new one. Saving, saving these days. I'm just sad that we got a funky oven and wish it was working well. Oh well, here's to our toaster oven. I may default to that for now.

First Pick

This was bizarre, but new thing of today, found the perfect greeting card on the first pick. How often do we really find the perfect thing the first time? I know we want to and we wish we did, but how often is the first choice really the best?

Anyway today we were perusing the card section in Target. We have a friend's wedding anniversary and vow renewal in VEGAS this weekend! So excited! Anyway was looking for a nice card to give. Found the anniversary section, looked for cards in their sort of wedding colors. 

Saw a card that looked good, picked it up, opened and read it. Then I just knew, this was perfect. Inside it had the perfect sentiments I wanted to express. No holding on to it and checking other cards to look for better ones. I read it and knew immediately - this is the one. It's a lovely feeling. 

I looked around at other cards just for fun and curiosity while waiting for the husband to be done in the toy section - but overall was amazed and happy that we found a card so quickly :) 

Also saw this at target - so cool! Gift card and wooden plane. Target by far has the coolest gift cards! 

I love lamp

Lamp, you light up my life! Yesterday we went to Ikea and I got a little desk lamp. Today I assembled my first lamp. I've assembled furniture before. Never assembled a desk lamp. It was super easy.

Notice the paint job in the background :) Per previous post on painting a room. This little lamp is so cute. It almost makes me want to do homework and read at my desk. It's inspiring. I don't usually like desk lamps, but I saw this one and well, fell in love a little. Thank you little lamp for lighting up my life, and my room.