A Cool New Way to Save Recipes

Okay, so I am still trying to get into the habit of writing more often. As you can see, not doing so hot yet! But hey, this is my third one in the same month! (just don't think about the fact that it's the last day of the month...)

I thought I'd share with you what I have been doing recently.

So, when I was little, I remember my mom always having a 3x5 box of recipes that she'd acquired from all over the place. Any time we cooked anything, she had me find the recipe in the box. I have several friends and family who keep all of their recipes in a big binder and I did try that, but it just didn't feel like... home. I guess we like what we know, and I definitely know 3x5 recipe cards.

That being said, while I wanted to transfer my favorites to 3x5 cards, I sure as heck did not want to spend hours upon hours writing them. I'd still rather type them and transfer them. Plus, regular 3x5 cards are so... boring! I wanted some with a little pizzazz!

I thought it would be fun to find some recipe templates online, but goodness gracious are they hard to find!! And what I mean is that ones that are free from lines or words. Just a cute design where I can do what I want with the rest.

Ultimately, I'm pretty sure that the route I took has already taken WAY more time than it would have just to write them all out by hand, but I guess I do have a lil creative juice in me after all and quite enjoyed myself while putting these cards together. I even downloaded a ton of really fun fonts to choose from!


I must admit that several of these recipes I have yet to try - they just looked so good that I knew I would want to try them... and soon!

So how did I do this? Actually, after being fed up with stupid recipe creator sites that wanted to charge me to do something I knew I was capable of doing, I said to heck with it. I opened up PowerPoint and never looked back. Turns out, you can save PowerPoint slides as pictures!

But where on earth was I going to find a place that actually prints 3x5 pictures? Pretty much every place has 4x6 and then a wallet size. WELL... after doing even more research, I found this awesome little site called mpix.com and they will print not only a 3.5x5 but a 4x5! I'm not entirely sure what a 4x5 is for, but hey! they have odd sizes. Hurray for the unusual!

So once I get a big chunk of them made up, I am going to upload them as individual pictures, have them printed off as 3x5s and voila! you have eggs! Sorry, that last part was an inside joke with my family.  

Also, this site is extras awesome because they have different print options that actually apply to what I want to print off. If I wanted a regular "high quality" picture it would be $0.29 per 'photo', but I really don't care if it is glossy or not, and there is an option that doesn't do color correction or gloss and it's only $0.19/ea instead! What did I say before? Oh yeah - hurray for the unusual!

Anyway, these are just a few of the ones that I have done so far. I think I've done about 30 at the moment, and I have awesome templates that I want to use for probably another 60. It's a fun lil hobby to have. :D

So if any of you have any absolutely AMAZING dishes and would like to share the recipe with me, I'll make it up like one of these and then give you a copy afterwards. I'm always looking for new recipes... so go ahead and comment, email, or facebook me with yours!! :)

10 Year Anniversary

September 11th, 2001

World War III here we come. Today started out as any other day... until 3rd period in Mr. Chirhart's class. We were in the middle of a hard drive lab and Mr. Wiz comes in quietly, talks to Mr. C. for a few minutes, quietly leaves, and then out of the blue Mr. C. asks, "Anyone know anyone that works at the World Trade Centers?" We all looked around at each other and said "No...?" He said "Good - because a plane just crashed into one."

We were all like "what?!" and completely shocked. Then we weren't too in to our lab and he turned on the TV and we turned it on thinking we were watching the replay of the crash only to realize we were seeing a second crash live into the other tower. Now we were REALLY surprised and completely dumbfounded or tongue-tied.

We just sat there in silence watching the TV not really knowing what to do or say, and after a while, they showed us on TV that a third plane had just hit the Pentagon; but when Angie heard that, she started freaking out and saying - almost crying - "No! They did NOT just hit the Pentagon!! My DAD works IN the Pentagon!" After that she was really quiet and I didn't really know what to do or say.

From then on Mr. C. was really quiet too because he was trying to get a hold of his dad-->who also works in the Pentagon. He let Angie use his phone a few times too, but the phones were so jammed up nationwide, that it was impossible. Mr. C. looked like he was about to cry, too. I felt really bad for both of them but there was nothing I could do.

Then the bell rang and we all walked out still really stunned, yet spreading the word because not very many people had any idea what was going on yet. They were all just as shocked as us and as I got into class (Health, 5th period), I was like "Coach Mac, did you hear what happened?!?!" She said she had, but I could tell she didn't know the whole story.

We didn't do much in Health today either - just watched the news the entire class period. By 7th period, half the kids had been pulled out of school by their parents. It took me almost 2 hours to get home on the bus because there was so much traffic and chaos.

I found out later that Hayley's dad worked in the wing of the Pentagon that was hit, but he luckily was in another room watching the news when it hit, so he wasn't there, thank goodness.

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That was my entry on September 11th. Granted, it is written by a 15-year-old girl with lots of "we were like/they were like", but these words were what came to my mind on that day. I wish I had written more, because I was definitely feeling a lot more.

School was cancelled the next day. Two boys in our school lost their mother, and I'm sure several other surrounding schools lost someone too. There were several people in our ward who worked in the Pentagon at that time, but all were lucky and weren't in the area that was hit. I remember that bus ride... the longest bus ride in the world. Part of me wanted to just get out and walk because it seemed like it might be faster...I just wanted to get home!

On top of all of that, it was my poor father's birthday... not so happy of a birthday anymore. :/ It's really weird calling to say "Happy Birthday Dad!" when everyone else is somber and reflective.

Last September, I had the opportunity to travel to NYC for work and one of our interviewees was directly involved with some of the rescue attempts. He told us how he went under the rubble to search for survivors and he heard 3 taps (which was the response signifying "I'm here! Someone is here!") and wanted so badly to find him, but right at that point, everyone was evacuated from the area because it was unstable. They waited the obligatory time, but by the time he got back down there, the taps were gone. He never found the person. It was heart-wrenching to hear him tell the story through streams of tears. I can't even imagine what that would have been like to be there and KNOW someone down there was still alive, but not be able to save him before it was too late.

I don't really have a solid ending for this entry. Just a reflective entry, I suppose. One thing I do want to mention though is: support our troops. You can be totally against the war itself if you so choose, but don't turn your back on our troops. Whether you like it or not, there is a war going on and our people are over there fighting every day to preserve our freedom.

I am PROUD to be an American. I hope you are proud as well.