Randi with an i

A cause for celebration

November 26, 2013 Randi

Happy random Tuesday, you guys. I’m a little belated with this post because I’ve been a little busy with work. For those of you who don’t know, my newspaper cut three newsroom positions about a month ago, knocking us down to a staff of six full time reporters, editors, photographers, proofreaders and community engagement editors. Yikes. So I’ve been a bit busy with 60-hour work weeks over here while we try to get a lot of the work shifted around and priorities rearranged. However, I still got to take a nice break and enjoy two weekends ago.

Happy anniversary Jake!

Slow cooker stir fry

November 22, 2013 Randi

If you haven’t noticed lately, I’ve been on a major slow cooker binge. I guess I’ve been inadvertently slowly making the transition from the fall theme of my Food Fridays segment into a Crock Pot/ slow cooker theme? It’s about this time of the year when I start getting really busy. Between work, end of semester finals and the DIY holiday craftiness that suddenly starts taking up a part-time job’s worth of every day, I really don’t want to put the same effort into cooking my meals that I do in the fall. Hence, the slow cooker. It’s pretty great. Unfortunately, most feasible slow cooker recipes are not very vegetarian friendly, which is a bummer. I love a good vegetarian chili or stuffed peppers, but I like a little variety. I found this recipe the other day, and I thought it was actually pretty good. It branded itself as a orange honey tofu, but by the time I finished with it, it ended up more as a slow cooker stir fry, and I’m not too disappointed about it.

Chunky slow cooker applesauce

November 15, 2013 Randi

I gave you a good three or four week break, but now we’re back to apples! This is a suuuuuper easy slow cooker applesauce recipe, and it’s mildly impressive. It’s freezable and can-able and only needs four ingredients.

Ticket stub shadow box

November 14, 2013 Randi

OK, so I finally got sick of the number of errant ticket stubs and broken wristbands filling up shoeboxes inside my apartment and decided to do something about it.

I’ve been seeing these ticket stub shadow boxes all over Pinterest lately, and finally decided to make one for myself!

Etched monogram wine glasses

November 9, 2013 Randi

Happy Saturday all! You know you’re old when you choose Quentin Tarantino movie night and Insomnia Cookies over bar hopping and clubbing on weekends. I’m taking the night to catch up on some ~~homework~~ Pinteresting, crafting and blogging. I spent my day finishing up the DIY project I started earlier this week: custom etched glassware.

Easy slow cooker mac and cheese

November 8, 2013 Randi

I love mac and cheese.

I promise you I’m a 24-year-old.

I swear.

The caveat? I hate boxed mac and cheese. I know Kraft had good intentions, but if it comes in a plastic dish and you cook it in a microwave, I will not eat it. Ever. I like real cheese that doesn’t come in powder form.

So, when I found out you can actually make mac and cheese in a slow cooker, I was floored. I headed straight to Pinterest and typed in “CROCK POT MAC AND CHEESE.” Most of the recipes I found required you to pre-cook your noodles or use Velveeta. 1. If you’re already cooking your noodles on the stovetop, you might as well just make the mac and cheese then and there, rendering the whole slow cooker concept pointless, and 2. I’m trying to avoid fake cheese.

The next day, I asked my coworker if she’d ever made mac and cheese in a slow cooker, and she said, “Yeah, you just dump in a bunch of uncooked noodles and milk and cheese and let it sit there.” Might as well give it a try. I did a bit of Googling because I knew it was probably a little trickier than that, but it really wasn’t hard at all.

It was delicious and only took five minutes of preparation.

My first woodburning attempt

November 4, 2013 Randi

When I was a little kid I was deathly afraid of fire. No joke. I wouldn’t go near candles and the thought of even lighting a match was enough to give me a miniature nervous breakdown.

Seriously- even in high school AP Biology- I made someone else handle the lighter.

It took me quite some time to get over my fear of flames, so you should all be shocked that I made my first attempts at pyrography (yes pyro like fire) aka: woodburning this past weekend. It was surprisingly not as hard (or scary) as I thought it would be! I didn’t burn myself at all.

Slow cooker corn chowder

November 1, 2013 Randi

I promised and I now I deliver. Remember last week’s multigrain bread recipe post? I mentioned how great that bread goes with a hearty slow cooker soup, like this corn chowder recipe. This is such a great fall day recipe my friends and I accidentally stumbled upon during homecoming weekend, taking inspiration from a few blogs and recipe sites. We threw everything together while we were pregaming (read: we had quite a bit of Captain and cider and were a little tipsy) before our alma mater’s football game. We cranked the slow cooker on, left for tailgate and came back after the game to fully prepared dinner. Can’t get much more convenient than this. Here’s the incredibly easy five ingredient recipe.

Fall foliage

October 31, 2013 Randi

Pst.

You guys.

Fall decor is 70 percent off at JoAnn Fabrics right now.

I know, I might have gone a little overboard too… but is it really going overboard when the bottom of your receipt says “Total Savings: $61?” I don’t think so. So, I bought a few things. Namely, three strands of leaf garland, a fall wreath and four bouquets of fall foliage. You know- instead of fake flowers, it’s a bouquet of fake fall leaves, mini plastic pumpkins and a small styrofoam squash or two. I was super excited to find this sale, because I’m old fashioned in that I wait until Thanksgiving is over to decorate for Christmas. So I’ve got another good month out of my 70 percent off decorations. Thanks JoAnn Fabrics! Because yesterday was my weekday off (yay!) since I work this Saturday (boo!), I decided to do what I could to spruce up the bouquets.

My mom’s amazing multigrain bread recipe

October 25, 2013 Randi

One of my favorite things about fall is my slow cooker. In the past week, I’ve made post-tailgate corn chowder and basic mac and cheese for my boyfriend’s work lunches. (Just to keep you reading for the next few weeks!) But today’s recipe compliments all of my fall soups and stews. It’s a dense and hearty multigrain bread, best served warm from the oven. Because this task is a little labor intensive and requires the tools my kitchen doesn’t possess, it’s a recipe I whip up every time I go home to visit my mom.