mini s'mores handheld pies

For yesterday's sunday sweets I made a (pinterest) s'more pie recipe. In my last post I included the picture it came with seen here...my pies didn't turn out as sultry as the pinterest ones, however they were no less delicious in my opinion. 

my only problem was the chocolate didn't get all melty and gooey. :(

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
Crust:
1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (8 graham cracker squares, finely crushed)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
1/2 cup marshmallow creme
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened (1 oz)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oven to 425°F. Line cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper.
2. Unroll pie crusts. With 3-inch round cutter, cut 10 rounds from each crust. In small shallow bowl, mix cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar. Brush both sides of pie crust rounds with butter; dip into crumb mixture to coat.
3. Place 10 coated pie crust rounds on cookie sheet. Stir together filling ingredients. Spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon filling in center of each of the 10 rounds. Place remaining pie crust rounds on top of the filling on each. Pinch edges to seal.
4. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store covered in refrigerator.

Note:
I didn't want to buy marshmallow creme for a 1/2 cup and then have to keep the rest in my cupboard screaming at me until I ate it all with a spoon so I just used marshmallows we already had and it worked fine. It probably would have turned out more gooey if I used the creme but whatevs it tasted like marshmallows were in there so good enough for me.

I also didn't have any butter in the house so I used coconut oil and that worked fine too. 

Let me know if you try the recipe and what changes you made. I had serious thoughts of adding peanut butter to the concoction, but I didn't think mr. plater would appreciate that too much. I bet it would be so good though.

sunday sweets

I need an excuse to make sweets like I do a hole in the head buuuuut I really like the sound and the taste of "sunday sweets" thus I am making something to remedy that old sweet tooth of mine once a week...at least.

This is what I'm making.

Now slurp up that drool and have a happy rest of your sunday!* I need to get back to watching the rest of season 3 just one more episode of Breaking Bad. Addicting show I tell ya!

*Obvs this isn't my picture but I might take a few tonight and post them with the recipe I found on pinterest tomorrow. just thought I would get you all salivating on sunday for this seriously sweet stuff. 

Today's post was brought to you by the letter S.

when in houston pt.2

We haven't explored much of downtown Houston yet but we did go to the sky lobby of the JP Morgan/Chase building which was pretty dang sweet.

 The building has special elevators that go straight up to the sky lobby. There are only 2 buttons in the set of 6 elevators that fly up 60 flights...in like 2 seconds. It was so fast my ears didn't have time to "pressurize".

 

Up top didn't disappoint. It was a gorgeous view and we literally could see F O R E V E R since Texas is flatter than a pancake (mountains i miss you dearly).  

big ol' housotn

After being up top we went wayyyyy down low. Houston's downtown area has underground tunnels that connect to most of the buildings. That way in the blazing heat of summer people don't die of the sun's heat and laser guns while walking outside to different buildings. Walking through the tunnels was kinda like being in a sad mall...or an airport...kinda a perfect mesh between the two. There were shops and lots of restaurants along the tunnel's path. There were even dentist offices like nice ones that do cosmetic stuff. All underneath the city. I'm convinced dwarfs run the place.

Personage and Birds

Popping back up to the surface we started heading for the car. Before we could leave though Joey wanted to make sure we saw this ginormous sculpture. He asked me if I knew who made the piece...What I major in art history and I am expected to know who makes every single art work on the planet. Assuming it was some super contemporary artist that no one had never heard of I said I had no clue and didn't think much of it. Then I walked to the backside of the sculpture and saw this.

Then I peed my pants. JOAN MIRO in Houston, Texas?? Crazy but I'll take it! I felt slightly ashamed for not knowing this was by Miro but in my defense we never studied his work in Texas. 

Have a great weekend everybody! Joey found a friend that is interested in started a fish aquarium...needless to say he is more excited than a 5 year old on Christmas eve. We are planning to see Zero Dark Thirty this weekend too so I am something to look forward to as well!

something to watch

First off, I'm alive! I was one sick lady yesterday with a nasty stomach bug. I was pretty sure I was going to die. I am still not quite 100% better but I am drinking a smoothie right now which is miles of improvement from yesterday. Hope this fruity delight stays inside of me for more that 5 minutes...Anyways what this post is really about:

 For those who enjoy foreign films, give Reconstruction a try. I watched it the other night and I really liked it. It was beautiful, perplexing and sexy. I was confused while watching it and I couldn't stop thinking about it, which in my opinion made the film even better. The soundtrack is great too. Confession: There was some girl crushing watching this film, I think Maria Bonnevie is absolutely gorgeous.

when in houston pt.1

Seeing that we are going to be spending a decent amount of time in this great big city called Houston, but are not sure if we are here forever, I decided that while here I am going to master this place leaving nothing undiscovered...which is probably much easier said than done since this is the 4th largest city in America. All the same though, I am going to do a "when in houston" series every now and then to show cool places and things to do in Houston. I'm looking at it as a "local travel blog" series or something. That way when YOU ALL (never y'all) come down south to visit us you will know where and what all the cool things are....It was 75 degrees this weekend btw. For all those of you in the 801..just saying (come visit us).

We had our first batch of visitors come this weekend. Joey's younger brother and sister flew in from Reno, NV this past Thursday. I set up camp for them in our living room (see here) and we saw a lot of this city! We didn't sit around much which was great, I love just walking around exploring. First place I am going to write about for "when in houston" is the Houston Museum of Natural Science . 

I love musuems so I am easily pleased when attending these types of places. This place was fun! They had lots of cool dinosaurs, fossils, educational stuff, and THE BEST gem collection I have ever seen. I was too amazed by all the rocks and stones in this gallery that seemed like I was walking through a royal collection or something I forgot to take pictures of it :( but the dinosaurs were sweet!

to my surprise this was not a brontosaurus? it is a diplodocus.  

this big guy is a sloth! or ancestor of. he was huge and scary! Very different from this guy we saw on our trip to costa rica this summer

 this was my favorite creature in the paleontology exhibit. he's just so cute and chubby! too bad someone is trying to eat him.

 posing with my great aunt sally.

 neanderthal! probably the only thing I remember from my anthropology class. not to be mistaken with anthropologie which is a much more fun and interesting subject.

 the museum's exhibits go through all the stages/life of the earth starting with dinosaurs, to animals, to a really big exhibit featuring oil, energy, and modern technology...hmmm I wonder why there is such an emphasis on that sort of stuff in the Houston museum???

the amazing spider man!

Overall I really liked this place. Definitely would go again. Thankfully I have a student ID that doesn't expire until 2017 so I can get my student discount for another 4 years woo! Since Joey is a student of Rice University he gets to go to all the museums/ zoo/ etc in Houston for FREE! That means we will be doing lots of exploring during our time here. Future visitors: bring your student ID.

Have a fantastic monday folks! I need to go shower since I haven't even thought about such a thing since Joey convinced me to start watching breaking bad...netflix is so evil to have the next episode automatically play 15 seconds after the episode ends.

DIY hosting guests

HOW TO HAVE GUESTS OVER FOR THE WEEKEND IN A 1 BD UNFURNISHED APT

Just how can this be done?? With my tips and tricks even you can make the most humble abode feel like the Ritz.

Step 1. Turn your bare living room into a two bed hotel suite with a fine art gallery wall. Blow up a couple air mattresses and use push pins to hang art work. This form of installation of art is the most current and innovating approach to displaying one's well invested art pieces.

Step 2. Embellish your walls with festive accents such as rubber balloons to enhance the welcoming atmosphere.

Step 3. Have a bellman waiting for arrival of guests to retrieve bags and sniff/ bark a lot.

Step 4. Use large books to stack as a night stand in between the beds.

Step 5. Have a spare iphone charger by the guest bed in case they forgot to pack theirs. 

Step 6. While your home may not have a bidet, you can keep the bathroom situation classy with flushable wet wipes and a Kindle with in reach for those particular travel bathroom visits.

Walah! 6 easy steps to make your place into a fancy hotel suite. Now time to pick up the guests from the airport in the limo (mommy wagon)!

something to read

This is going to sound super weird and nerdy but one of the things I already miss about school is the reading. I think only certain majors can say that and I think other art history majors will agree with me that we have some sweet text books. Reading assignments in art history for the most part were very enjoyable. I'm just saying reading about the industrial revolution through the visual aid of 19th century Victorian watercolor paintings is a lot more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than reading about calculus. Just saying. While this blog post has nothing to do with reading about art I guess in my mind it made sense to talk about that...I guess what I am trying to say is I love to read now and since I don't have reading assignments I am reading for entertainment...I'm sorry I'm so awkward right now and don't even care enough to edit this entire paragraph into something that makes sense and doesn't completely embarrass me.

With my long winded speech about my love for art history here are some books I've read lately since school's been out. Both are #1 New York Times Bestsellers so they have to be amazing right?

Tina Fey's Bossypants

 Seriously hilarious. I highly recommend but I even higher recommend getting the audio book. apparently it's even funnier since Mrs. Fey reads it.

 Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, Skinny Bitch

the itty bitty image hopefully makes the b-word less offensive for my readers

 Again I scored with another hilarious book. This book however has more or less changed my life. I am almost 100% full on Vegetarian/ Vegan after reading this book. I don't need to get into all the details of the book but it seriously opened my eyes about what really goes on in American food production and how the traditional American diet affects our bodies. I had my eyes first opened when I saw Food Inc. (I also highly reccommend) and went vegetarian/ gave up dairy for a while but fell out of it and just became really particular with my meat and dairy. This book has sealed the deal for me that I don't eat meat anymore. I haven't been able to do dairy either which makes me sad. At this point I am keeping it vegetarian but I will progress into vegan overtime I think. It is hard to go all in with this sort of thing especially with being married to someone who is not into either lifestyle but I can't look at a hamburger or bacon (tear) the same way again. If I do consume animal products it is going to have to be organic/local/all natural up the wazoo even with that though, I just don't want that stuff in my body anymore. America needs to know what shiz goes down to get their food on their plate. There is some shady stuff going on that's all I gotta say. READ THIS BOOK.

Both of these books were fast, easy, funny, and inspirational. I am currently reading (starting over for the 4th time) Dune....I just can't get into it I'm sorry, Joey! (it's one of his favorites) I won't start another book until I finish it though, I am determined!

this is me instagramming a selfie starting the book...over a year ago.

 While we are on a literary kick, today I learned (yes after I graduated college) what a conjunctive adverb was. I am really trying to cure my disease of terrible grammar. Reading is power!

pinterest win

I love pinterest. Understatement of 2013. Actually doing the stuff I pin is another story. Having the things I try from pinterest actually work out is a another other story. I tried a skinny chicken tikka masala recipe the other night and it was actually really really good. Better yet Joey even liked it. To top it all off it was SO easy to make. To prevent spoiling this successful dinner for Joey, I refrained myself from having a food photo shoot. I didn't even instagram it! I'm a good wife. Understatement of 2013. It looks like this.



Instead of rice we had it with Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend (which is just complete deliciousness) that I cooked with better than bouillon vegetable paste. I added some veggies to it for extra healthies. I feel like such a winner with this dinner, and I definitely will be making this again. Click on the link to try it out! I'm sure this could be vegetized and substituted for extra veggies, tofu, seitan, or other non carion items. Thanks pinterest!

oh honey pie

i pride myself in my abilities to make a stellar french toast. i made some for joey the other morning and thought I'd mix things up a bit. i sweetened the batter with some honey. it was so good. i might be biased being a honey addict myself, but i think it is something worth trying.

vatabuegah

WHATABURGER or as our german friends would probably say vatabuegah. i dunno i just like to pretend say things in german from time to time. consider me slighty germanophile. speaking of German does anyone else have a middle aged man crush on Christoph Waltz? Or is that just me?

Watch the latest Quentin Tarantino films and then get back to me if you do not. I am in love with Django Unchained and am so glad it beat Les Miz in box office ticket sales. Any anyways. we went to WHATABURGER for our hot NYE date and here's what I think of it...It's alright. Much better than your run of the mill fast food franchise burger joints, but it is no Crown, Apollo, Atlantis, Pace's or Hire's.

Hope everyone's new years was fantastic. Ours was crazay. Our WHATABURGERS were made to order and our 48oz sodas were bubblin. We recovered from our wild night fine and are getting our place ready for our first visitors!

2012 in 12

For someone who loves pictures wayyyyy too much, picking 12 photos for 2012 was really hard!

                                                                        january

this pic was taken pre-iphone or real camera days. thank you ipod touch! grain.

 one of my best friends from growing up got married. love you jude (jade&chris)! 

february

we flew to houston for joey's interview with rice university. we checked out the art museum while we were at it and saw king tut!

march

made lucky rainbow pancakes and shamrock green eggs & milk for st patty's day. luck o'the irish!

april

i will always love my cupcake days at gigi's. especially during holidays. miss my baking beauties!

may

in order to graduate in december i had to take 3 summer courses. they were mostly fun...i did enjoy spending my lunch breaks on the terrace though.

june

i went to a most beautiful wedding for my favorite cousin miss elsha rae. celebrated my bday with my family. had one wild and much needed girls night with my favorite ladies.

july

my super duper awesome in-laws took joey and I to costa rica as a final hoorah before he started grad school. it was amazeballs. costa rica is absolutely gorgeous. we beached it, kayaked it, rainforested it, ziplined it, hiked it, slothed it, swam it, ate it, and drank it. I thought I would take this time to clarify that while a few people were mistaked by this croc... he's not real...he was a stone figure in our pool. I thought about keeping the legend alive that jessica rae plater is the next crocodile hunter, but i really need to focus on my cage fighting skills.

august

 this month was a little tough. joey had just left for texas. hes started his immersion program at rice. i had to get ready to move to a house full of girls and start my final semester of college. i think i had a pretty nice environment to handle the hardships though. i house sat here for a couple weeks. watched/walked the dog that lived here. hung out with school friends...for the first time. my mom and johnny came down to help me move. august wasn't too shabby considering the circumstances.

september

this month i realized i made a wonderful decision on the house i would be living at for the semester. my roommates are the most active bunch of folks i have ever met. not even a week into living there i finished my first century ride. that's 100 freaking miles in one day people. i toured the great state of wisconsin on two wheels, made it to lake michigan which seemed like the ocean. bonded with my roommies. scored an awesome bike short tan line. it was the ultimate euphoric endorphin high. oh yeah i stated school this month too.

october

this is always my favorite month of the year, the weather, the smells, halloween...mmmm fall. this year's october was particularly amazing. I saw our president while sitting on a 13 ft 100 year old abe lincoln statue. joey came to visit me xoxo. ran my first 10k taking first in my age group. spent a weekend in chi town with my dad. saw byu lose to notre dame at notre dame's campus. met manti te'o. dressed up as a troll and danced polka at a german beer house. dressed up  as sam from moonrise kingdom. 

november

(part of) our family spent thanksgiving in san antonio texass. we spent thanksgiving day at sea world. ate at a brazilian steak house for thanksgiving dinner, eating every meat ever made but turkey. watched a boat parade on the river walk. went to an authentic mexican market. saw skyfall. slightly unconventional but nonetheless wonderful thanksgiving holiday.

december was beyond stressful and wonderful all at once. i finished my courses. graduated. moved to texas. had my husband for christmas. celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. 2012 has been a very special chapter in my life. I am eager to start 2013 with new goals

get a kicking new job

fit into my high school jeans

cook more

run a marathon

do a triathlon

be crafty

be a better writer

read lots

figure out how to use my camera and become a better photographer

learn how use photoshop

make a new blog all by my self that is super cool

be a more helpful wife

go on a vacation just the two of us

go to the temple more

not gain a texan drawl...i picked up a sconnie accent too quickly i am quite nervous about this one.

none in that particular order, but these are my plans for 2013

for auld lang syne!