lots of deliciousness

i've actually been spending a little time in the kitchen lately, which has been nice.  i decided to try and make my beloved tater tot casserole a little healthier, and picked up a package of ground chicken at the grocery store.

it's kind of squicky and gooey when you put it in the pan.

but it cooks up quickly, and looks a lot like ground beef (aside from the color).  another big difference was the lack of fat that usually pours off of the beef as you cook it - there was none with the chicken.  yay!

i mixed it in with the rest of the ingredients, layered it in the pan, and stuck it in the oven.  it looked just like regular ol' tater tot casserole to me.

and it was just as delicious, too!  i actually attempted to make it again a couple of nights ago, but couldn't find any ground chicken in the store.  i picked up ground pork instead (i figure, i'm adding bacon to it anyway, so it was just going to be porktastic) and i was really satisfied with the results of that as well.  i may never use ground beef again.

i also decided to try out a recipe for nutella chocolate chip cookies.  it sounded so delicious, and when the nest tweeted a link, i had to give it a try.  as i often did in the past with new recipes, i cut it in half and mixed it all up.  i had some fancy-schmancy valrhona cocoa to try out that i'd bought at whole foods a couple of weeks ago, too.

they're cooling on the rack right now, but don't they look scrumptious?

dots has a few new cupcake flavors for the fall season - a honey blueberry cheesecake, fleur de sel (we've actually had this one for a while - chocolate cake topped with salted caramel - YUM!), and a chocolate malted crunch, inspired by a beloved local ice cream flavor.  it's chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting, a dollop of chocolate buttercream, and white chocolate crunchy balls.  i took home a couple to try:

so. stinking. good.  if you're local, you must try!

oh, and i finally gave in to peer pressure of sorts.  the girls on twitter have been talking about chanel's "paradoxal" nail color for weeks, and i've always been too cheap to pay double digits for nail polish.  but with a gift card i'd received for my birthday, i finally decided to take the plunge.

my hand looks really old and crusty, doesn't it?  ugh.  but i must say - i LOVE the color.  it's more purple-y than i thought, but i still dig it.  and you can't tell so much in the picture, but i did a pretty decent job of painting my own nails.  woo-hoo!

another thing to check off of the to-do list - the bean's halloween costume.  behold:  tinkerbell!

that was a lot of fun random shit, huh?

playing dress-up

so, halloween is now just a few days away. my emo, anti-pink teen, after mulling over a zillion different choices, settled on a fairy costume. a FAIRY. i love it. she already had a tutu that she'd bought at last year's l.a. county fair, and decided to build her costume around that.

after a trip to the local costume shop for wings, a wand, and a tiara, plus target for some tights, and then payless shoes for ballet slippers, she modeled part of it for me:

that knee brace is the bane of her existence right now - it doesn't fit under her super skinny jeans, and it doesn't make sense to wear it over them. so she's had to settle for wearing some of her older jeans that aren't quite as slim-cut. poor baby. heh.

and i'd said all along that the bean was going to make use of that birthday tutu and slippers and be a ballerina. and i was going to stick to it - but the other day, an idea popped into my head and i couldn't make it go away. with her new 'do, there was one costume that would be absolutely perfect for this halloween:

snow white!

so yesterday, after gymboree class, i hightailed it over to the nearest mall and headed for the disney store. i knew they had all of their costumes on sale for at least 40% off, and i danced a little happy dance when i walked in and found that they'd increased the discount to 50%! i managed to find the costume, plus matching shoes, and walked out a happy camper. unfortunately, both items are a size too big, but this way she'll have them to play with next year when she gets a little older.

at home, i decided to have her do a test run, just to see exactly how the dress would fit. and i was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually fit quite well! pardon the crappy iPhone pics. and the bedhead mop o'hair. oh, and the jammies she's rockin' under there.

all she needs now is a red headband. maybe i'll just use a red ribbon, because those plastic headbands tend to hurt after a while. and how funny are these shoes??

now, i'm off to sew the ribbons onto the teen's ballet slippers. with pink slippers and purple tights, i'm at a loss as to what color ribbon to use, but i'll come up with something.

yay, halloween is fun again!