Easy way to organize your pots and pans

I dont have a lot of pots, pans, or skillets, so this was a simple, quick solution so I didnt have to drag everything out. 

4 nails and a pink hammer was my solution :) I am sure there are 100 different ways to do this, but this is what I did :)

(one of my friends also suggested push pins)

Have fun organizing!

How to clean your coffee maker

You only need two things for this

Apple Cider Vinegar

and Water :)

add about a half cup of vinegar to your coffee maker and fill the rest with water. 

Run it through.  Dump the water out and run through with just water 2 or 3 times.

This will be stinky but it does the job :)

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Recently, my sister and I went to breakfast at a small town bakery.  They ended up messing up my sister's order, and since our wait was going to be even longer for our breakfast, they compensated us with some cookies, to hold us over.  We had 4 different kinds, but the one that stood out to me the most was a white chocolate cranberry cookie.  I ended up using a recipe off of allrecipes.com and this is what I ended up with.

Ingredients are as follows:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon Captain Morgan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

I read through the comments section before cooking this recipe, someone said that the Ghiradelli brand is the best to use, but I would be willing to bet that a cheaper brand will do just fine.  Also, the original recipe called for a tablespoon of brandy, I started to panic because I didn't have any, and I always follow the recipe to a T the first time I make them, but in the comments someone suggested Captain Morgan, and they always said that vanilla will also work.  For my dried cranberries, I just used craisins.

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 375.

Step 2: Grease your cookie sheets.

For this I used Crisco and a paper towel and smeared it on my cookie sheets.

Step 3: Cream together your butter, white sugar, and brown sugar.

This is what it will look like after it's creamed together...

Step 4: Add your egg and Captain Morgan (or whatever you chose to use). Then mix well

Step 5: Combine your flour and baking soda together in separate bowl

Step 6: Slowly add your dry ingredients to the sugar mix

Make sure everything is mixed together it will look something like this

Step 7: Use a wooden spoon and 1/4 of a cup at a time, add your chocolate chips and fold them into the dough

Step 8: Do the same for the cranberries

The dough will look like this when its done

Step 9: On your greased cookie sheets, place heaping spoonfulls of the dough

Step 10: Place in oven and cook for about 8-10 minutes, depending on your oven. You want them to be a very light brown color on the top and very doughy when you first take them out

Leave them on the pan for about a minute then transfer them to cool.  I don't have a wire rack, so I just use wax paper but the recipe does say to use a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.

When they are done they should look like this

As you can see it doesn't make very many.  But they are delicious so who cares :)

Hope you enjoy making these! I don't think these will last very long!

A little bit about this blog

Hello :)

Somehow, one way or another, you have stumbled upon my blog.  You might find the title a bit strange, considering the content of what I'm posting.  Back when I was in the 7th grade (1997) I had to enroll into a home economics class.  The teacher who was teaching the class had done so for many, many years.  Though she was a great teacher, anything she said couldn't grab my attention.  I didn't know how to use the sewing machines, I didn't understand knitting, and for our big cooking project, I chose to make spaghetti.  At the end of the class, I ended up getting a big fat F.  I failed at something all women should know how to do.  It made me nervous for the future, but that year, I also failed Spanish, and math.  Cooking was the least of my problems.  I had summer school. 

To fast forward to the future.

I moved out on my own and eventually got sick of cooking hamburger helper and macaroni and cheese.  One day a girl at work told me to make some chicken, so I went to the store, bought some, and some italian dressing.  I dove in head first just doing what she told me to do.  Put the oven on 350, put holes in the chicken, stick it in a pan, pour the italian dressing over it and stuck in it the oven.  30 minutes later I took it out and put it on the table.  My boyfriend at the time cut it open and asked me if it was supposed to be pink on the inside.  I didn't really know.  I reasoned in my head that I like my steak pink in the middle, and same with my burgers.  So, to not sound dumb, I said yeah that it was ok.  Needless to say, the next day we both called into work.  I had given us food poisoning.  Since we worked at the same place, everyone thought it was suspicious that we both called in.  They asked me when I returned to work what had happened.  I had confessed to my cooking mistake.  Still today, some ask me about my cooking, and make jokes about it.  I laugh, but I still am embarassed.

I have really enjoyed cooking, and have gotten quite the knack for it.  So I decided to start this blog.  It's more or less my way of saying "I did it".  I might have failed home ec, and given someone food poisoning, but now I can cook quite well, and I find it an adventure. (until the cleaning, then I jump ship.)

So I hope you learn something from this and have fun reading my cooking (and cleaning) adventures.  I think it will be quite therapeutic for me to write it haha