Monday, May 29, 2017

Chelan in the Kitchen

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I'm so grateful to the people (and their families) who have given their lives for this beautiful country so that we can live here freely. Their sacrifice is humbling! I hope your holiday is full of sunshine, great company, and good food!

Speaking of food. I am not a good cook. I don't enjoy it at all. I hate grocery shopping, meal planning, the whole shebang. The only good part about all of that is actually eating but everyone knows that food is soooo much better if you don't have to make it, right?!

So last night my parents were Face timing Parker and me, and we started talking about what a struggle meals are at our place. We had frozen pizza 3 days last week. IN A ROW. 3 separate frozen pizzas one day after another. That's where we are at these days, folks. I was telling my mom that I made roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, and vegetables yesterday for Sunday dinner and that I was quite proud of it, but the potatoes were kind of wet... Apparently, I cooked them too long because who knew that that was even a thing?! lol so my mom says, "Not to be rude but how do you mess up mashed potatoes?!" hahaha! Then I got the idea to share a blog post of my favorite cooking blunders because I think they are hilarious and who knows, this post could help someone else who sucks at cooking to know that they aren't alone. Or maybe they can take comfort in the fact that there are worse cooks out there than you. Namely me :). Sooo here you go. Enjoy!

+ I made brownies from a box a couple of months ago and we didn't have any canola oil but we did have olive oil so I used the olive oil and the brownies had a little Italian flare to them. Still edible but really quite gross haha I wouldn't recommend it!

+ We had some pork chops in our freezer from who knows when and I decided that it was time to use them. I don't even remember how I cooked them, only that I took one bite and told Parker to not eat his pork chop because it was nasty.

We didn't have paper towel but we had bacon that needed to be used so I thought, saran wrap will do the same thing right? Wrong. It melted all over the bacon so we couldn't eat it. Whoops!

+ One summer while staying with Parker's grandparents, his grandma had surgery so each of us staying there got a meal to cook/clean up after for the week. Ours was chicken salad which called for like 2 teaspoons of dill weed but I thought it said tablespoons so I dumped a ton of dill weed in. Before we stirred it in, Parker caught it so he was able to scoop some out. I, on the other hand, was mortified and it was after we were newly married so I went to our room and tried not to cry. Parker has had to salvage a lot of my cooking disasters, bless his heart.

+ Parker once mentioned that he really liked pinwheels. I didn't know what they were or how to make them so I looked them up on Pinterest and tried to make them off of the photo because I didn't think to look up an actual recipe?? #facepalm They were the grossest things ever and Parker still ate them because he is a good husband and didn't want to make me feel bad.

+ Soggy meatloaf. I didn't have enough bread but I was already too deep into the recipe to stop and didn't want to go to the store so I kept going. It honestly tasted fine but it was just a bit soggy... haven't tried again since.

+ Last but not least, French toast. I have tried multiple times to make French toast for Parker for breakfast and I fail every time. The milk to egg ratio is always off no matter what recipe I follow or what bread I use and we just get soggy milk bread. It's gross but we laugh every time after I'm finished crying. I have 0 patience in the kitchen and when something goes south, I usually just leave it for Parker to try to fix while I go pout in the bedroom lol.

So there you have it! Do you have any cooking disasters that will put mine to shame? If so, please share! Thanks for reading and happy memorial day!

Also, totally unrelated but flights are booked to visit family this summer and I can hardly wait!!

xoxo, Chelan

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Hollingsworth Travels | Florida

My sister, Matlin, and her friend, Shaylee Farren, joined us in Florida for spring break this year and it was such a blast! We went to Hollywood Beach and our Airbnb place was right along the famous boardwalk and the beach. Most of our time was spent relaxing at the beach or the pool. We packed a cooler every day full of pop, sandwiches, and snacks, and we loved boogie boarding and playing Spikeball. Parker and I were the undefeated champions until I threw out my back and couldn't hardly move so Matlin and Shay used my injury to their advantage lol ;). One day we rented a fun convertible and drove down to the southernmost part of the United States to Key West where we ate some seafood at DJ's Clam Shack which was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and it was soooo good. Key West has such a fun vibe and we would love to go back and stay there someday. On that same day, we visited one of the beaches along the keys and took a tour of the Everglades to find some gators!


I don't know if I've ever laughed so much in my life as I did this week. Matlin and Shaylee are hilarious and we had the best time with them. Still dreaming about this vacation and can't wait for our next adventure!

And in case you missed it on social media, here's the music video I put together from our trip. Between the four of us, we took so many videos and it was so fun to relive the trip as I edited! Thanks for watching!

xoxo, Chelan

Friday, May 5, 2017

Traveling on a Budget

If you didn't already know, we love traveling. I never really thought of myself as a big world traveler but ever since we got married, Parker and I have been able to go on some pretty amazing adventures. So far we've been to Las Vegas twice, Southern Alberta several times, a Carribean cruise that took us to St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Barbados, and St. Lucia. We've been to Florida twice (once to Universal Studios and once to Hollywood Beach/Key West), California twice (next weekend will make that 3 times), Montana several times, North Carolina, Cancun, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Arizona, and all over Ohio and Utah. We are blessed, to say the least.


Monday, May 1, 2017

4/2/17 - 5/1/17 Currently


Sometimes when I'm feeling less than inspired, I'll share a random currently post to get the creative juices flowing again (also, is that not the grossest phrase?). So here ya have it, folks!

Currently reading: I just finished reading Two By Two by Nicholas Sparks and I did not like it.... I would have featured it on my blog but I didn't like it enough to waste a post with it. I wanted to like it so bad! I usually love his books and movies and my mom gave it to me for Christmas so I feel bad saying that it wasn't great but it was less than great. I was actually quite bad. Super boring and it took me months to get through. I'm excited to start reading something else! I have two books to choose from now: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton or The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines. Which one would you choose first?