The Power of Saying 'Yay!'

Four-year-old Pixie said to me today, "Grandma, come into the living room to watch me dance, then say, 'Yay!'"

So I did. I watched her dance.

And I clapped my hands.

At the end I said, "Yay!"

She beamed.

If you need me to say "Yay!" in your behalf today, just let me know. There aren't enough Yays in the world.

Pinterest Fail--Slow Cooker Peanut Clusters

Over the past few years I have learned to make a lot of things from scratch. It's not because I really wanted to. I'm all about getting things done as quickly as possible. Homemade things take longer so why wouldn't I just pop into Walmart for some pizza sauce when making it takes so much longer?

Yeah! Why wouldn't I?

Well, for one, I don't have a job. Not having a job generally doesn't pay too well, and Walmart keeps insisting that I pay for stuff if I want it.

For two, I plant stuff. Not that I really wanted to do that either, but please refer back to reason number one. Planting stuff is generally cheaper than buying stuff.

So over the last little while, I have learned to make the following things from scratch, and no longer buy them at the grocery store (unless I am really, really, pressed for time, which normally I am not. See reason one again.)

Gravy
Salsa
Alfredo sauce
Pizza sauce
Spaghetti sauce
Potato soup
Ranch dressing
Peach syrup
Chocolate syrup for ice cream
Pumpkin Puree
Fruit roll-ups
and a whole recipe book of other stuff.

On occasion, Computer Geek will come home with a bag of peanut clusters as a special treat. He'll hide them in his desk drawer, but since I know where he hides stuff, it doesn't stay there very long. And he can't get mad at me when I sneak treats because I'm his wife.

Thanks to Pinterest, I learned that you can make your own peanut clusters! And since I make my own stuff--well, it naturally followed that I could do this thing!

So I'm going to show you what the Slow Cooker Peanut Clusters should look like, as created by the super-cool Adrian over at the blog Life With Garnish.  Go HERE to see these yummy, chocolaty, peanutty, clusters. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Gorgeous right?

Now I will show you what those same clusters look like when I MAKE MY OWN.

Behold-- the human version of Kibbles and Bits.

Yup. Pinterest Fail!

It's not really my fault that they look like that, though. 

It's because I didn't obey the recipe.

The recipe clearly calls for Vanilla Almond Bark. And clearly Vanilla Baking Chips are kind of like the same thing as Vanilla Almond Bark right?

Yeah, I thought so too!

This was a great learning experience though, because until the other day I never knew you could eat peanut clusters with a spoon.