Last Week in Instagram

I baked so much last week that I was SURE some of these pictures were from the week before. Alas, they are not!

Mr. Cheddar ordered me a Troy & Abed In The Morning mug from the NBC store. It brightened my mood about my favorite beleaguered TV show to have a little piece of merchandise from it. Oddly, except for the DVDs, I didn't own any Community swag before this mug, despite how much I love the show!

I had decided to bake my brother three different kinds of cookies for his birthday (which is tomorrow, 5 June, and he told my mother via Skype yesterday that he got the package I sent him) but these chocolate chip cookies came out flat and mutilated.

Yvette Nicole Brown tweeted me sweetly saying she didn't see anything wrong with them!

All of the cookies I sent to my brother. The pan in the back is holding Blondies, my first out of three testing recipes. These turned out good but a little crunchy around the edges.

This is no way to treat a $600 camera.

Mmm, have you ever had Firehouse Subs? They started here in Jacksonville, and they've steadily spread all over the Southeast. It was started by actual firemen and these things are TO DIE FOR. This is the Italian sub, my personal favorite. I highly recommend them.

My second attempt at Blondies, this time for a friend who is stationed in Afghanistan. This was a Betty Crocker recipe that turned out poorly (the caption I added with this photo said, "Okay, Betty Crocker, color me dubious.")

They didn't rise at all; they simply hardened. It was like cutting into crunchy cookies.

My mum made Lumpia, much to my dad's disappointment. My sister was home on break and requested it, but my dad prefers my mum's homemade eggrolls over her Lumpia. One of my Twitter friends, who lives in the Philippines, teased me, "How do you know that word?" My mum is actually half-Chamorro and learned the recipe from HER mother. She also makes Keleguin, which will be a future blog post whenever she makes it again.

We had some leftover wraps, so my other sister mashed some bananas and cream cheese and made these dessert rolls. I burned my tongue on one but it was totally worth it.

And my THIRD attempt at Blondies, this time because I was waging war on Blondies and was desperate to get a working recipe. This one was sent to me by Sara and is an Amish recipe. These turned out great! They rose properly, they had a brownie consistency, and they weren't too sweet. 

Mr. Cheddar and I are eating cheap this week (eggs for dinner, that sort of thing) because we spent some of our precious funds on paint for the back hallway. This is a progress shot from the day after I did two coats of primer. Lucy was NOT amused with being barred from her bedroom for a whole night, but luckily she walked so gingerly on the plastic that I stopped worrying about her puncturing it with her claws.

Originally, we were going to leave the hallway primier-white for a couple of weeks, to save up some funds for an actual color, but Mr. Cheddar hated the look of the white walls with the white trim, doors, and ceiling, so HE actually dragged ME to Lowes the next day to buy paint. We chose "Woodsmoke," an Eddie Bauer Signature color for Valspar, and this is just a teaser shot. A full post about the back hallway is forthcoming.

On Saturday afternoon, I was surprised with a gift basket in the mail from Stephanie! I was delighted to get four maple syrup samples (it's hard to come by good, quality, REAL maple syrup in Florida) some chocolate, and two different kinds of tea! I have the best friends :) And Mr. Cheddar is really excited to try the Mango Mist tea.

That concludes my week in Instagram! More recipe and painting posts are coming up, and Mr. Cheddar and I are also waiting to hear news about a change in our current living situation that has me very excited AND very nervous!