Just a Moment...

It seems like my life has flip flopped up, down, and sideways the last few weeks.  Hang in there with me and I promise I will be back soon!

Another Game, Another Recipe

It's been a few days... Or a week?  Sorry! I've just been so busy (not really, but hey). Anywhoo, we went to our second Cardinals game last weekend and it was a great time!  The rain threatened us towards the end of the game, but we made it through without a drop (until a little later).

If you have a sec, click on the cooking page for a new recipe.  Philly Cheese Steak Pizza. It was yummy!  That's about all I have as I prepare for the holiday weekend.  I will leave you with some fun photos.  Be safe this weekend!

At the game, it was beautiful to start!

The scary clouds rolling in around the 8th inning. Oddly pretty?

Enjoying the game!

It was pooches in the park day, Tucker couldn't come but wanted to show a picture anyway!

We went to an Irish bar and these were on the shelf. Rusks!  Apparently they are from Europe and are a biscuit/cracker for infants? Hmmm???

I Love the Desert

We (The Husband, Myself, Mom, Dad, and Baby Sis) went to Vegas almost a month ago and I don't think I ever posted any photos!  I realized once I got home that I didn't take near as many as I usually do, but perhaps that was because I was having so much fun!  If you are ever headed to Sin City, let me know and I can give you a great heads up on places to check out. Here is a rundown of our week(mostly from an eating perspective)H!

Monday:

We got into town around 4pm Vegas time and checked into our rooms at the Signature @ MGM Grand. The Signature consists of apartment style suites located in 3 gold towers behind the MGM itself.  If you book at the right time, you can get suite for the same price as any regular room on the strip! We were pretty hungry to we walked (hiked) up the the new Cosmopolitan hotel and casino for dinner at Holstein's Shakes and Buns.  Dinner was fantastic and not overly priced as you would normally expect in a restaurant on the Strip.  I highly recommend the Rising Sun burger or the Big Fat Greek burger. From there we went straight to Fat Tuesday in Caesar's Palace.  This is a frozen drink chain in town and the drinks are good and inexpensive. Fantastic for those hot desert days.  We also did some sight seeing because this was my sisters first trip out to Vegas.  They had the conservatory gardens at the Bellagio decorated with a Memorial Day theme and it was beautiful!  The photo below was also a part of the gardens where everything is made out of flowers (think Rose Bowl parade).



All flowers and seeds!



There was also a train of marshmallows at the Jean Philippe Patisserie (sweets shop).

Tuesday:

We woke up Tuesday and had breakfast at the MGM buffet.  Decent food, nothing spectacular.  Later on that afternoon we stopped in Diego for happy hour to have some pork tacos, chips, salsa, guac, and sangria!  It was a great way to get the night started.  Later we met up with the husband's cousin Levi and his girlfriend Melissa.  We had a few drinks and people watched on the Strip. 

Melissa and I thought it would be classy to split a bottle of Moscato even though we didn't have cups or an opener (check out the cork floating INSIDE the bottle).

Wednesday:

Wednesday was my rest day.  I spent some time using the jacuzzi in the room and went to the pool for a while.  That evening, everyone went downtown to Old Las Vegas on Fremont Street.  We met up with Levi and Melissa at Sidebar which is a bar just off the main street downtown.  We had a few happy hour apps that were delicious!

Thursday:

On our last day in Vegas, the husband and I woke up early and walked up the the Paris to eat breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi.  It is a French restaurant (at the Paris, who would've thought) and has outdoor seating right on the Strip!  Jeff had a turkey eggs benedict and I had a chicken, apple and brie crepe.  Heavenly!  The funny thing was when we received our bill, we realized it was only about $10.00 more than what we normally pay at Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel around here!  After breakfast we kept walking up to the Wynn to have a drink (I promise it was almost noon by this point, we did a few stops in between) at Parasol Up, Parasol Down.  It is a small bar with an outdoor patio overlooking a waterfall and garden.  It was relaxing to sit in the sun and just talk for a while.  Apparently at night, there is a light/water show that runs every half hour or so as well!

The husband chilling at Parasol.

The famous MGM lions are always fun to watch whenever we walk by. This trip we found out they had cubs on exhibit too!  Look how tiny!

The little cub was as small as my dog!  Adorable!

So there you have it.  Las Vegas is perhaps one of my favorite places to visit.  I always take a list of things I want to do and never seem to get to all of them, so I guess that means I will just have to go back again soon!  Like I said, let me know if you want some tips and tricks for the city!  Also check out http://www.yelp.com/ for awesome local reviews (where do you think I find these places?)

PS. There is a new post on the cooking page! Click on the page for a new soup/stew and pasta recipe! Yum!

Almost a 'Royal' Day...

We're back from the ballgame!  It was a great (toasty) day!  The husband and I decided to get up super early and be down in St. Louis by about 10:00 am. We met up with our wonderful friends Beth and Kelly at the casino and played around for a bit till our favorite restaurant opened, Morgan Street Brewery!

A wonderful restaurant on the Landing downtown.  I highly recommend their Beef Melt Sandwich and BBQ Chicken Pizza!

 We all made it to the ballpark around 12:30 and found our seats. They just so happened to be right behind home plate about 20 rows up!  I've never had better. Shout out to Beth for bidding on them in a silent auction and winning them at an EXCELLENT price.

 

A little warm, but we finally found shade in the 5th inning.

  

The view from our seats. Perfection!

 

 Jeff had a few adult beverages at the game and I played DD for the day.  Just a tip for those of you who go to a game in St. Louis: they have a Designated Driver program  that you can sign up for and they give you a coupon for a free soda while you are at the game!  That's over a $5.00 savings. Check it out!



This is the husband's first empty glass. These are the new bottoms up glasses at the ballpark.  As you can see, there is a hole in the bottom of the glass with a magnet placed over the top.  There is a machine that fills the glasses quickly from the bottom and the magnet seals the liquid inside.  Check out the link above to see it in action!  The husband learned the hard way, though, not to mess with the magnet while the drink was still full! :)

Maybe I should have taken this glass with me to the game.  The husband and I are Cubs fans, but Beth and Kelly are Cards fans. 

The Royals were the visiting team yesterday and held their own until the 9th inning when the Cardinals took the game with a home run.  It was a pretty exciting game to watch and can't wait to go back (which will be next weekend again actually!).  PS. Check out the crafting blog for a new tutorial!!!  Learn how to make a fun loopy ribbon wreath for your front door!

Monkey Business

Just a quick hello! Check out the cooking page for the classic recipe: Monkey Bread!  YUM!  Have a great weekend!

Take me out to the ball game!

I couldn't be happier.  I will be seeing my first baseball game of the season (live of course) this weekend!  Now, it isn't a Cubs game, but St. Louis is so much easier to get to!  Any baseball game this late in the season will be just fine. After all that excitement, I get to turn around the next weekend and go right back. Maybe I should learn how to space out my plans a bit?

I just noticed that I haven't posted on the food blog in almost a month!  I was on such a good roll for a while.  I have a few recipes with photos ready to go but none of them 'look' tasty when I go to post them.  They are fantastic recipes, but I want to get some colorful photos to go with them.  If you hold on with me, I promise I have some still on my camera that will be around soon.

Otherwise it has been pretty quiet around here.  I've been busy painting glasses for my first show this weekend at Woofstock.  If you haven't seen my work, or want your own personalized glassware (shameless plug) check out www.facebook.com/whimsyglass.  Be sure to 'like' the page to be entered into the drawing for a free glass when it reaches 100 fans.  I've been in the 90's for quite a while now and need your help! THANKS!

You Don't Need a Green Thumb...

To grow your own herbs!  I just finished the second part of the Indoor Herb Garden tutorial on the craft page.  Check it out and let me know if you plan to plant your own! 

Crowdtap and Free Pants!

OK, so I have a lot of time while I'm at work some days to surf the web.  I participate in a few legit survey sites and they are fantastic. Who doesn't love free money?  Well, I recently found Crowdtap.com and am in love.  I've had to do quite a few surveys before I actually qualified for a product review, but it finally happened.  Last week I was sent 4 gift certificates (1 for me and 3 for friends) for FREE workout pants from Old Navy. The only catch is that I had to review the product after I received them.

Awesome, right? If you want to participate follow this link to get started! As for the pants themselves, they were super comfy and will be perfect for working out.  I got ones similar to the photo above and my friends got the long pant variety!  Thanks to Crowdtap and Old Navy!  I will be sure to let everyone know when more samples come around!

On another note, I forgot to upload the rest of the herb garden photos onto my flash drive so hopefully I will get to that tomorrow!  Be on the lookout for a new cooking post soon though!

Sorry, Friends!

It's been a few days... or weeks.  Did you miss me? I hope so!  Well, I'm happy to say that I have been on vacation (only last week, I have no excuse for the week before)! The husband and I went to Vegas with my baby sis and parents to celebrate her 21st birthday (which was in September, but this was her first break from school/work).

I promise I will update with some photos soon even though I didn't take nearly as many as I usually do :( . It was a great week though. We stayed at the Signature at The MGM and I highly recommend it.  The husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon and had to go back!  We had a junior suite room complete with a small kitchen and a bathroom the size of my bedroom at home.  My parents had the one bedroom suite which was bigger than the main floor of my own house!  No, we are not rolling in money these days. The Signature was originally built as 3 towers of condos/timeshares right around the time the economy went South.  This is a plus for anyone wanting a nice hotel room now because they book them for around the same price as a regular room if you know where/when to look!

Anyway, we did venture out of our rooms and did plenty of sight seeing and lounging by the pool. We also spent two evenings with the husband's cousin and his wonderful girlfriend.  We don't see them often so it was nice to catch up a bit. So there you have it, my pathetic excuse for not posting for two weeks.  To redeem myself I am going to start posting a tutorial for a little indoor herb garden on the crafting page.  Head over there to check it out!

Chicken Pot Pie

A simple comfort food recipe posted on the cooking page.  Have a great day!

Dinner!

Check out the cooking blog for an easy, yet wonderful, dinner tonight!

I'm Crafty

Head on over to the Crafting page for the first artsy post!  It's a quick project that you can do anytime, even while watching TV. Let me know what you think!

With the gloomy weather, I got a few crafty projects started this weekend, so keep an eye out for more to come including spiral bangle bracelets, interchangeable ribbon necklaces, and an indoor herb garden. 

It was an otherwise uneventful weekend, so I don't really have any exciting news. I do have a few new recipes to post and will be working on those in the coming days!

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties...

Blogger has been down for almost and entire day and all I've wanted to do this morning is make my FIRST crafting post.  I tought a class to some awesome ladies down at Petals last night and now they are the first in the area with what I hope will be a new fashion trend!

I'm kind of nervous about spending my time on a post right now, because many recent posts that bloggers have spent time on have been deleted.  They say they are working to restore the posts, but until I see my Veggie Pizza recipe back online, I amd going to take a little break!  Hopefully I will be back with you this weekend and will share a new recipe and craft then.

Finally!

I'm definitely a summer girl. I really should consider moving south someday.  With that being said, I couldn't be happier that the warm weather is here in the Midwest!  I even got my first tan line of the year yesterday (ugly as it is, right around my neck along my t-shirt line).  Guess it is time to break out the sunscreen!!!

To get in the summer spirit, I recently made a veggie pizza.  This is one of my favorite snacks and everyone seems to love it.  Check out the cooking page for the recipe!

Wrong Place

For some reason, the post I meant to make on this page last week posted to the cooking page.  I'm going to call this computer error (even though I'm pretty sure it was human ((me)) error).

Head on over to the cooking page for some Carolina Crabcakes (and bourbon balls and butterscotch brownies in case you missed them).

Facelift

I was kind of over the jumble of the blog layout before so I decided to clean it up a bit.  Next up, a cute header for each page!

Check out the cooking page for a new post.  It is kind of irrelevant at the moment but it was so cute that I just had to share!

COMING SOON!!! My first crafting posts!  I will be teaching a little craft class down at Petals next week and will share our project once it is all complete.  I also have a page full of photos of things I would like to make soon so hopefully it will get the ball rolling with the 3rd part of the blog.

There isn't too much going on in the land of Rusk at the moment.  We (and by we I mean the husband) are just trying to get the yard ready for the summer.  I love picking out the flowers, but hate the dirt-under-the-nails feeling.

I did remember that it is Cinco de Mayo... Too bad I had the taco bar at LSB last night. Guess I just celebrated a day early? The Kentucky Derby is this weekend as well.  The husband actually attended the event last year and had the time of his life (while I stayed home and hosted a wonderful Derby themed bridal shower for my lovely sis-in-law).

Now that I've rambled about every possible random thing in no order, I'm off to pick out a 'favorite' horse for the race this weekend!

Did I just spend 4 hours watching 1 television show?

The newest guilty pleasure in the Rusk household happens to be the television channel G4.  Actually, it is just a few shows, but we keep getting sucked in! 

The first is Campus PD. It is simply a 'cops' show that follows college campus police departments.  They do noise violations, DUI stops, underage drinking arrests, etc...  It is a shame to watch so many young people getting in trouble for things they obviously know are wrong, but I just can't look away.  A great show when nothing else is on just before bed (if you like terrible reality television like me).

The second was discovered this weekend.  Ninja Warrior has been running 24 hours straight all weekend.  Basically, it is the original Wipeout from Japan.  Instead of the 'Big Red Balls' and other funny challenges we have here in the U.S. they have really tough obstacles and strength challenges.  There were 6 of us adults at our house last night watching it.  I think we were more involved emotionally with the competitors than we were with the Super Bowl.  It is amazing to see what people can achieve when they try!

I promise we did not spend our ENTIRE weekend watching Ninja Warrior, but I can not promise that there were plenty of things on my 'to do' list that were not accomplished because of the show.  Oh well, that's what the weekend is for, right?

Be on the lookout this week for new recipes on the cooking blog.  I have plenty of photos to share just as soon as I upload them from my camera!

Foodie Heaven

Sorry for the delay.  I could say I've been busy, but that would be lying.  Lazy would be more like it I think. Before I forget, check out the recipe page for a quick Southwest Pasta dish. It's tasty!

Last night I attended Corks and Forks with my friend Beth.  I look forward to this event each year (while my husband who has to work at the event dreads it).  For those of you who are not familiar with it, just imagine a ballroom with over 100 wines to try and over 30 restaurants with food to sample. Everything is unlimited with your paid admission ($50 donation to the Decatur Arts Council) so you can eat and drink until you can't anymore! 

Some of the highlights of the night included Lobster Ravioli from Tuscany Steakhouse, Coconut Shrimp from the Decatur Park District, Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche from Paco's Sol Bistro, Baby Cakes cake balls, Pork and Ham Sandwiches from The Decatur Club, and many many more! 

The food plate with a holder for your souvenir wine glass!

We have already started counting down the days until next year's event.  If you would like to join us, just let me know!!!  It will be an awesome time, just be prepared to forget about the diet/healthy eating for 1 night!

New Recipe

Check out the cooking page for an awesome pulled pork recipe! It was a hit!

Brrr....

It's cold and rainy... I want nothing more than to go home and curl up on my couch and relax.  I also seem to get the 'cooking bug' when I'm stuck inside so tonight will be perfect for the last batch of chili for the season!

Be on the lookout for our special chili recipe coming up soon.  It even has a few 'secret' ingredients!  In the meantime, check out the cooking blog for an all new recipe: yummy meat loaf!

Oops!

So I realized that while I have been doing well with the cooking blog, I have neglected the other two blogs. Oops.  I have actually been pretty busy the past few weeks which is good (and Spring is in the air so I am spending as much time as possible outside!)

As for the crafting blog, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I PROMISE I will get there eventually.  Lately I've been focusing on my hand-painted glasses (Whimsy Glass, check it out on facebook). I did a trunk show this week at Petals in downtown Decatur and now have over 20 new glasses in stock.  If you are around you should definitely check out the shop. Kari, the owner, has some amazing things just in time for Spring.

For now, just keep a close eye on the cooking blog.  I hope some of you will try out a few recipes (and let me know when you do).  The nice thing about these is that they have already been tested by me so you know they will be deeeeelish.

Speaking of, I think I'm headed to make a new cooking post now!

The Finish Line

Well, for those of you who have been wondering... I'm still alive after the run! I completed the race in 21 minutes and 30 seconds (2 miles). It's a good start to what I hope will get better as the year goes by!

Don't forget to keep an eye on the cooking page! I update it much more often than I do this page! I haven't gotten around to starting the crafting page up, but hope to do it soon! I will let you know as things happen!

Does anyone out there have any questions for me? Cooking, crafting, life in general? I would love to answer them, so just shoot them my way!

Just Keep Running... Just Keep Running...

Running is one of those activities I was never fond of. I was always the student in P.E. class walking and goofing off when we were supposed to be running the mile. I rarely exercised because I didn't see the need and had a few joint/muscle issues. I was the kid who was skinny without trying. Basically, I had a million excuses up my sleeve and used all of them at one point or another.

So why in the world would I sign up to do a 2 mile run for St. Patrick's Day? I must be crazy!

I recently joined a local gym with my husband (who exercises regularly) and I think I may be falling in love. No, I'm addicted to working out. Yes, I am addicted to the way it makes me feel! It's is amazing that you can exercise to the point of exhaustion and then have MORE energy later.

I've slowly worked my way up from the first time I set foot in the door. Day 1 I was pumped and ready to go... Until I thought I was going to pass out after 10 minutes on an elliptical machine. 3 months later and I can go 30 minutes on the same machine and then go walk/row/lift/etc... afterwards!

The running part is still a little tough for me. I can now run 1 mile without stopping on a treadmill. The question is, can I run 2 miles this Saturday morning, outside, with hundreds of people watching me? I signed up because 'everyone else was doing it' so there should be some motivation to keep up. I also feel I will have some extra adrenaline pumping because this is the first time I will participate in anything like this.

So here we go! I will let you know how it all turns out next week. Until then, if anyone has any points/hints/tips for running PLEASE send them my way!

And P.S. Check out the cooking blog for some new recipes. I may be working out, but will always be in love with food!

Kids in the Kitchen

As some of you may know, I have been teaching an after school class focusing on ISAT preparation using nutrition lessons. A.K.A, we practice math, science, and reading skills by learning about the food pyramid and making food projects. The kids love the activities and don't even realize that they are learning at the same time!

This week we are focusing on fruits and vegetables.

Math: Learn how to calculate the area (length x width) of farms and gardens.

Reading: Follow Pumpkin Pie in a Bag recipe.

Science: Measure and mix ingredients for the recipe.

If anyone out there has a child, the recipe (mentioned above) I've posted on the cooking page is a great one to get them involved in the kitchen. It's also just a good recipe in general!

So, in short, check out the new recipe and let me know what you think!

Happy Eating

The first recipe has been posted in the cooking blog. I hope many of you will be brave enough to try it out with your families soon!

Welcome!

Welcome to blog attempt... 3? 4? 18? Who really knows? Anyway, I'm Samantha. I'm a wife, daughter, sister, friend, artist, baker, teacher, and the list goes on and on.

I've decided that I need a place to post (brag) about all of the wonderful things I do and create. As you can see, there is the main blog page, a cooking page, and a crafting page. I plan to update this page regularly and will let everyone know when the special pages are updated as well!

What can you expect? To answer that question, I'm not entirely sure. I plan to share tips and tricks for DIY projects around the house, fantastic recipes straight from our kitchen, and other news as it comes along.

If anyone out there has a question or comment about cooking/crafting/life in general please feel free to send it my way via a comment or send me an email at srusk85@gmail.com! I feel like sharing ideas with others is the best way to learn.

See you soon!