Cheese Balls and a Sugar Overload

Jell-O salads look delicious. They're colorful and creamy looking, and just waiting to be eaten. They're the most good-looking food with not-so-good ingredients hidden inside. I love the green ones with pineapple, but sometimes those Grandmas can be tricky and throw you a curve ball. I imagine that everyone hesitates, as do I, not for the first spoonful to hit your tongue, but for the chewing that follows in fear of biting down on something crunchy that you just weren't expecting. It's Jell-O, for the love of Pete! Keep it denture friendly and sans whatever nasty crunchy items that you have lurking inside.

But Jell-O salads are hardly the most ominous item on the buffet table. What's with the cheese balls? And I'm not talking these cheese balls:

Although, I do have a bone to pick with its creators as well. Chris brought these home last week for his B-Ball-B-B-Q (his name, not mine). I'm not normally a fan of Cheetos, but these bring back memories of the long lost Planters Cheese Balls that my Grandma always seemed to have in stock. Speaking of which, I found a petition to bring them back! Anyway, these are abnormally large and threaten lock-jaw if you have too many. Verdict: Trade these in for a bag of Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips - delish!

But the real cheese balls in question are the ones adorned with crackers and other dippables.

I don't know why, but they've always scared me so I've actually never tried one. Perhaps it's like the Jell-O salads - you never know what's inside, but I think the real issue is the fact that it's rolled up into a ball. I guess foods lose their appeal when molded. However, I held a game night party at our house last night, and in consideration of the extreme heat, I didn't want to add to it by baking anything. So, I went to my tried-and-true resource for crowd pleasing recipes: Stephanie. I've gone to her for many an idea and have yet to be disappointed. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon a true crowd pleaser - Crowd Pleasing Cheese Ball - and decided to go for it. Once again, I wasn't disappointed. It called for seasoned salt, and I wasn't quite sure what that meant, so I just used Lawry's seasoning. Plus, I added some shredded cheese because eating cream cheese on it's own made me feel awkward. Everyone loved it, and I must say that I even dug in and enjoyed it as well!

Crowd Pleasing Cheese Ball
Adapted from Stephanie’s Recipe
Ingredients
1 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped onion
½ tsp Lawry’s seasoning
½ cup chopped walnuts, plus ¾ cup extra for topping
¾ cup Monterrey Jack shredded cheese

Directions
Mix in celery, onion, Lawry’s and nuts with the cream cheese. Roll into a ball and cover with the extra chopped walnuts. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 10 minutes, then move to the fridge until ready to serve.

And I'll bet you never thought you'd get the chance to read a page on cheese balls.

You're welcome.

Baby Cruz

Apparently 2009 is the year for babies - I have two cousins on each side of the family expecting! There will be a trio of infants at this year's Thanksgiving at my mom's side, and there will be FIVE infants on my dad's side (my cousin Katie is having triplets!). Baby #1 arrived this month to my cousins Brian & Cathy. I haven't yet been out to see him, but my mom sent pictures and he sure is a beautiful baby.

Baby Cruz

Born: 6/8/09

Cathy was able to make it up for my brother's graduation, so I gave her Cruz' birthday gift a little early knowing I probably wouldn't be able to make it back to Nebraska after he was born. I've been living on my sewing machine whenever I'm not at work or reading, so I decided to make him a few things.

The first was a hooded towel. I bought 1.5 yards of yellow terry cloth and just used scrap fabrics for the accents. It was pretty easy to make, but I must admit that sewing in circles took a lot of patience for me. It is big enough that he can be wrapped up snugly now, but still be able to use it once he reaches the toddler stage.

The second was just a simple tag blanket. I got some super soft minky fabric and a fun, gender-neutral fabric for the front. It was my first go at sewing on stretch fabric, and I hated every minute of it. Actually, it was my second attempt - the first was a miserable failure that is super cute, but poorly constructed. Chris liked it though, so I kept it for Baby Curtis. I love the idea of tag blankets as I grew up carrying around a gross burp cloth as my security blanket, so I plan on making many more of these for other gifts as they're just so darned cute! Too bad the minky fabric wasn't so expensive, but it's worth it!

I have a lot of other projects complete that are just waiting for their time to shine online, so hopefully I can get the pictures up soon!

My Very Own Modern Art

Have you ever walked into a modern art museum and thought to yourself, "Hey, I could make that!"? I know I have. Modern art museums are one of my favorite things to visit while vacationing. And not necessarily to appreciate the art, but to make fun of it. Granted, there are some really cool and inspiring pieces that grace the walls of the museum, but there are usually a lot more absurd pieces available.

Most absurd pieces I've seen to date:

1. Wood stair rail, Neues Museum in Nuremberg, Germany

Unpainted, black iron hinges still attached, laying on the floor at an angle. Perhaps it was the manner in which it was laid is what made it art (if it were instead parallel to the wall, then would it just be a 2"x4" instead of a masterpiece?).

2. Wall of framed pieces of hair from 100 different people, Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany

One squiggly piece of hair per frame. Beautiful, just stunning. I was moved.

3. Three-screen video of a woman repeatedly falling back on a wall, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN

I will never understand the "art" of artsy films. It was quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen, but I imagine many an artist walked by and stared for hours to find the meaning of the film.

Anyway, all of this to set the scene for my recent nursery project! I found this super cute wall mobile on Fawn and Forest website:

Like everything else on their website, it is fun, unique and colorful. And also like the rest of their products, it's darned expensive -- $330!! Shoot, I was just about ready to hit "buy" before I saw that! As with the modern art in the museums, I thought to myself: I could make that! And so I did.

SUPPLIES
Wood panels
Wood dowel
Fishing wire
Acrylic paint
Lacquer spray paint

During my initial brainstorming process, I thought of cutting Styrofoam to size to replicate the aluminum panels in the original mobile, cover with scrapbook paper and Modge Podge, and hang. However, I was lucky enough to stumble across some thin, precut wood panels while scouring the aisles of Michaels. I picked those up, along with a wood dowel, and acrylic paint in green and yellow (I had some white and black left over from another project, which I used to create all of the different shades for the gradient effect). At Walmart, I found the lacquer spray paint needed to give the glossy look of the original, as well as some fishing wire and a few hooks in which to hang on the wall. The hooks allow just enough space between the wall and mobile for the wood panels to sway ever so slightly in order to keep Curtis busy while changing his diaper.

Grand total for the entire project: $330 -- 1/10th the price of the original!!

It may not look as professional as the expensive version, but I am still proud to say that I made it. Plus, finding thrifty ways to get the look of something expensive is way more fun! So, what do you think??

Transformations

I remember reading that a husband might gain "sympathy weight" during their wife's pregnancy. Having gained a good amount of weight already, I can understand why the sympathy weight gain would be helpful. I've been feeling a bit tubby and I'm sure that if Chris were to gain a few pounds along with me then I wouldn't feel quite so bad about my expanding stomach:

24 WEEKS
It's not quite so bad now that the baby is getting bigger so my stomach is more pregnant looking rather than just looking bloated. Plus, I still fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans which I consider quite a feat. My favorite part is that my belly button is finally starting to pop out! I don't know why, but I just love pregnant lady belly buttons! The only slight problem is the hole from my navel piercing. I'm just waiting for that to either rip in half or sag like the earlobe of a punk rocker with their gauge removed. Either way I see belly button plastic surgery in my future - if it even exists. Note to future daughter: don't get a navel piercing.

So, back to the transformations. As I said, Chris has not gained any weight with me, but rather lost some! He recently finished a 10-week fitness program at Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. I was very impressed with his results and highly recommend the program to anyone wanting to gain some muscle, lose some weight, and get fit! Farrell's plans on opening a location in Lincoln for anyone interested. Check out their website here. I'm so proud of him for completing such a hardcore program and experiencing such great results, so thanks to him for reluctantly allowing me to show him off!