Pineapple Stuffed French Toast

The girls at work keep talking about pumpkin stuffed French toast. I decided to make pineapple stuffed French toast this morning for Ross's birthday. He liked it.

Pineapple Stuffed French Toast

French Toast (I used some funky bread that we got at Costco)

Pineapple Filling

Crushed pineapple

Light agave nectar

Cream cheese (I used one package of the lower fat kind)

Vanilla

Powdered sugar

Yoghurt (I used pineapple Chobani)

Whipped cream

1. Whip together filling ingredients with hand mixer. I probably used 1/4 cup pineapple.

2. Put stuffing into freezer to help it firm up.

3. Make French toast.

4. Make a sandwich with the French toast and the filling.

5. Cut the sandwich in half.

6. Put a dollop of yoghurt on the toast.

7. Top off with some whipped cream.

8. Nom. Nom. Nom.

Pumpkin Smoothie

Yesterday I decided to have a pumpkin smoothie for lunch. It was yummy, and it made the kitchen smell like a pumpkin pie. Then I wanted pie, but there was none.

Pumpkin Smoothie

1/1 cup pumpkin puree (from a can)

milk

vanilla

whey powder

cinnamon

nutmeg

dark agave nectar

Add all ingredients to blender and mix well. Enjoy.

Sock Reinforcements

I finished knitting Ross's socks a while ago, but before he could wear them I had to reinforce them. Based on the almost-holes in some of his socks I reinforced the heels, toes, and ball of the foot area. I am finally done with the reinforcements. Now hopefully his socks will last longer.

This is step 1 of reinforcing the sock: I turned the sock inside out and put a piece of cardboard in the sock to stretch it out a little bit. I wove the same color yarn into the purl bumps--every other one.

 The second step: I then wove the yarn across the first layer of woven yarn.

 This photo shows what it looks like when it is completely done: The heel area (maroon) has been woven twice.

The great thing is that when you turn the sock right side out you can't tell at all that there is a bunch of weaving on the inside! The heels and toes are bulkier, and a bit stiffer, but you can't tell from looking at them.

Now Ross can wear his socks snowboarding or whenever and I don't have to worry about them having a hole after the first wash.

Time to Say Goodbye?

My piercing has been giving me trouble since this Summer. This week I noticed that the skin over the bar has become very thin. There isn't really anything I can do about that. I need to take out the piercing before the skin breaks open. I was thinking of taking it out at the end of the year, but I don't know if it will last that long. I'm really sad to see it go. Maybe I will take it out and have it pierced again later. After I get back to my goal weight and hold it for at least 3 months. So sad. I don't want to take it out.

Busy Weekend

On Saturday I went shopping in Pennsylvania with Elizabeth. We went to some outlet malls and the King of Prussia Mall, which is the second largest mall in the country. It was a busy day and although I got some good deals, I don't feel the need to ever go back. I was specifically going shopping for some boots, and I was disappointed to come home without any.

After all the shopping I met Valerie and the girls for dinner at Chick Fil-A. We then headed over to Ulta to buy makeup for Evelyn. Yes, Evelyn. She will be dancing in the Nutcracker and needs her own make up set.  Thank goodness the ballet company gave Valerie a list of approved products. It took us a while to find everything and make our choices. With no guidance we would have been there forever.

Saturday night Bailey had claimed the inflatable bed and didn't run away when the girls got into bed! She even stayed for part of their bedtime story. The girls were great with Bailey and she was really comfortable around them, even laying on her back!

After the girls fell asleep Valerie and I ran to Wal Mart for a makeup case and some other things. I finally got to bed around midnight--the second night in a row of late nights.

Sunday morning we labelled all of Evelyn's make up and Julia gave Valerie and me makeovers with all the new make up. We went to the Dairy for lunch. Even though I told them I only wanted a little bit of ice cream they double packed the first flavor and I had to tell them to stop scooping on the second flavor--and I still couldn't finish it all. I got pumpkin and gingersnap. I really like the gingersnap.

Julia really didn't want to leave. I tried to explain that she had to go back so that she could go to preschool and stuff, but she wasn't having it. When it was time to say goodbye she refused to hug us and said she didn't want to go to preschool.

After lunch I went to a couple of stores and ran out of steam pretty quickly. I took a nap as soon as we got back home. I'm still a little worn out. I'm not used to being so busy.

On My Nerves

I'm going to rant a bit about things that have been getting on my nerves.

1. The way people drive here.

It doesn't matter how fast you go, or if the next lane is open, people have to be all up in your trunk. Sometimes they are so close I can't see their license plates or headlights. The tailgating is bad. Scary bad.

2. When people say two thousand and seven.

And means there is a decimal point. The more educated the person, the more it gets on my nerves. This is a thing that has only recently started to annoy me, but man it makes my skin crawl.

3. Sucky websites.

Man, sometimes I really want to buy something, but the vendor's website sucks so much that I give up. Buy it on ebay. Sometimes the pages are just really really old and they no longer even sell what I'm seeing on the page. Jerks.

4. People using Coach as a title.

I was at a meeting recently and a man was introduced as Dr. Brown. He got up and said, "Actually, I'm Coach Brian." What the hell? And he introduced someone else as Coach Jim. Even though Jim had introduced himself without using the Coach title. We weren't talking about anything sports related. I was confused. Coach is not a title, and using a title with a first name is just dumb. Ross refuses to answer to Mr. Ross, and hates being introduced that way.

I know there are more things that have been annoying me, but that is all I can think of at the moment.

Boot Socks for Ross

It took me about 3 weeks to knit these boot socks for Ross. The idea is that he can wear them with his snowboard boots. He likes them. 

I pretty much improvised the pattern. I cast on 20 stitches using Judy's Cast on and then increased to 40. I knit them with a 3x2 rib and increased on the sides (to 5x3) for the calf. The heel is a short row heel. I don't know if I did it correctly, but it looks okay. I used Jen's super stretchy bind off. Now I'm working on reinforcing the toes, heels, and feet. He can't wear them at all until I do that because he can wear out the toe of a sock the first time he wears it. 

The socks look ridiculous off. They look like they are made for someone with a very skinny leg.

I've decided that I really like knitting two at a time toe up. Ross was able to try the socks on as I knitted them and both socks were done at the same time. If I did it over again I'd make the maroon stripes a little thicker. other than that, I think they turned out well.

5 L

Yesterday I drank at least 5 liters of water. Yes. Five. Yes, I peed a lot.