Two Birds, One Stone

One of my major's requirements is a Growth and Human Development psychology class.  It's worth 3 credit hours and the biggest time sink of this semester.  It's a good class as far as knowledge however along with class work it also requires 10 credit hours of volunteer work.  I was able to work out with my professor that I could use my pending membership in the Heroes Alliance as part of my volunteer work since I had not done an event with them prior to the class.  PERFECT!  I love costumes, they allow me to interact with children in a way that I'm familiar with and I get to show off my costuming skills.   

My first event with the Heroes Alliance was the Stroll for Epilepsy

 We had a great time with the kids and got involved in Zumba, dancing and other activities.  I'm wearing Ms. Marvel, a suit that I'm not happy with.  I love the hand dyed silk scarf sash but I'm working on a new way to color block the lighting bolt.

We went outside to get a few "Super People in the Snow" photos.  I totally forgot that I didn't exactly have warm clothing on.  Superman was kind enough to let me borrow his cape until we made it back inside.

My second event with the Heroes Alliance was this weekend at the Chili Open at the Columbus Zoo.  The event is a huge fundraiser for many charities in the area.  The Team was thankfully inside in the children's area.  We had a great time interacting with the children- lots of ways to interact and keep the kids happy while the parents were able to eat, drink and donate.  True to form I was DDRing with the kids and hula hooping and well, acting like a kid!   I wore a borrowed Black Canary body suit but the jacket, boots and tights are my own.  I have a bodysuit but it just isn't ready yet.

 I had to take a few Canary Cry photos at the Eagle exhibit. 


 I like goofing off, Disney pun intended.  Disney purchased Marvel and Rogue and I couldn't resist posing with THE MOUSE outside of the Disney Store.
 

Last Christmas Gift!

In between anatomy studying, making some supersuits and working out I finally finished the last Christmas gift.  My little brother is another aspiring DIYer and he remodeled his kitchen with the help of Ikea.  The kitchen is modern so I knew I wanted a unique design.  The black and white fabric was purchased from walmart for $6.99 and the red came from my stash.  I hope they inspire good dinners, fine wines and wonderful memories.

World's Yummiest Granola Revisted

I've been making new batches of granola as fast as DT can eat yogurt filled bowls of yummy goodness.  I have tinkered with the recipe a bit and here is all of my hard work:

The Changes:
Instead of 3/4c unsweetened coconut, use 1/4c sweet and 1/2c unsweetened.

Instead of 5 TBSP (really?) Just use under a 1/3 cup of oil and honey or maple syrup.  Make sure you measure out the oil first, then heated honey or maple syrup.  This way the honey just slides right out of the measuring cup!  I also sprinkled a bit of brown sugar during the roasting process and that gave the granola more sweetness.  Trying to balance healthy and sweet granola goodness is hard!

I hope you like the new granola recipe just as much as we do!

Finally the weekend!

Saturday night is one of my favorite nights in the Team PirateFrog household.  DT works Tues-Saturday thus Saturday night is our Friday night.  After he gets home, DT normally goes for a run, then we have a nice sit down dinner.  Tonight I found inspiration from two places.  On my 45min commute to CSCC's campus I like to listen to audio books.  Right now I'm listening to Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews.  One of the characters, Andrea, has lunch at a BBQ pit.  She professes the reason why the ribs are so tasty is due to the brine.  Brine?  I brine chicken breasts and turkeys but ribs?  I broke out the Google-fu and found Jason's BBQ Adventures.  It looked so tasty so I followed the recipe for brine and rub.  It's in the oven now and smells wonderful!

Dinner did take a bit longer than normal so I decided to treat DT to deviled eggs.  This pin has been floating around Pinterest and this is the second time I have baked my hard-boiled eggs.  The recipe states that you have to use fresh eggs and it's correct.  I used two older eggs and 6 that I had just purchased tonight.  The older ones cracked and when we went to peal them the shell stuck and they were not conducive to deviled eggs.  DT hoovered his eggs up while I made the coleslaw and cornbread. 

The Plum and Bourbon ice cream turned out well.  I was lazy and used store purchased jam.  I thought the ice cream base had too much of a custard feel but DT loved it.  After sampling the recipe I can say that if you like bourbon, add a 2nd shot to the base.  The ice cream still froze nicely with the extra alcohol.  Next time I think I will use a vanilla base recipe if I go the store bought route for the jam.  Plums just aren't in season in Ohio year round.

Pinspiration: Holiday Window Decor

One of the cutest holiday pins was this little gem.  Simple, elegant and EASY!  I mixed it up with jingle bells I had in my craft room and for $3.00 I had window decor.  I used my gun on the ribbon and the bells are jute twine.  I will re use this next year and maybe extend it to other windows in the house it was so cute.