Sunday Ramblings

Today has been exhausting. Due to our trip yesterday, I've had to cram 2 days of housework into one. And, due to my laziness, that one day actually turned into one afternoon. What this has actually meant is that I've had to recruit The Hubs' help. He has, not completely unwillingly, been my cohort in clean today! We managed to get everything we wanted to do done.

In addition to our cleaning, I made an awesome meal this evening (even if I do say so myself) and my mom came and had dinner with us. I made baby green lima beans, rice and tomatoes, roasted sirloin steak, deviled eggs and cornbread. A very Southern meal, but incredibly tasty. Both The Hubs and my mom loved it. The Pog even appreciated it because there was enough left over that she could get a little (not enough to bother saving the leftovers, but enough to give the pup a treat).

The only downside is that I had intended to make a Mars Bar (Milky Way) Cheesecake for dessert and also one for The Hubs to take to his play practice tomorrow but time got away from me and the cheesecake was not meant to be today. It'll have to wait until either later in the week or next weekend. As a treat to you readers, though, I'll share the recipe with you at the end of this post.

During my internet travels this last week, I have encountered two posts I wanted to share with you. In their own ways, they are awesome and definitely worthy of your time to read.

The first one is part of a new feature from Jjiraffe called Faces of ALI. Her inaugural post for the feature is an extremely moving, detailed profile of Courtney Cheng who blogs at Bodega Bliss. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you there were tears streaming down my face while I read this. Jjiraffe manages to capture the very essence of the ALI community in the words she uses to describe Courtney's journey. A fabulous new feature I look forward to reading more of.

The second post I read that had me returning for second and third looks was actually from April of last year. Its a post of slow cooker recipes that can be made ahead of time and put in the freezer! These recipes look awesome and I'm really looking forward to trying some of them! In fact, her whole site had me completely enthralled and I'm sure I'll be spending a little time investigating everything there is to see over the next few days.

I found the last article via Pinterest. I'd never taken a look at it before, but I think I'll really like it. That is always assuming I'm ever able to create an account. I requested an invite and got a response telling me I was on their waiting list. That was about 4 days ago. Anyone have any idea how long you generally have to wait to get your invite to join? I hope it's soon. There were a load of recipes and craft ideas on there I'd love to try out!

Anyway, I promised you a recipe, so here goes:

Mars Bar (Milky Way) Cheesecake

1 package Graham Crackers (3 packages per box)
1 stick butter – melted
¼ oz gelatin
¼ cup boiling water
½ cup super-fine sugar (not powdered)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream
9 oz cream cheese
2 Milky Way bars or 6 minis

Crush Graham crackers and mix into melted butter. Press into a pie dish (can use disposable). Refrigerate.
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
Beat cream into soft peaks
Beat cream cheese, vanilla, super-fine sugar and gelatin together.
Fold chopped Milky Way bars into cream and fold both into cream cheese mixture.
Pour over base and refrigerate.

Serves 8

Hope you enjoy it! And, have a great start to your week tomorrow!