Happy Father's Day!

     So, for Father's Day, I decided to finally make some of the 100+ recipes I have saved on Pinterest that I thought i'd never make...
..and they were so good, I didn't even have time to take pictures before everybody ate them all! So, since I am picture-less and can not write tutorials of my own, here are the links to the recipes I made today (every one of them was simple and turned out perfectly!)

• Breakfast:

            For breakfast, I made these Bacon Cinnamon Rolls from Pillsbury. For the icing, I cut up some of the extra bacon into little bitty pieces and mixed it into the icing, along with brown sugar and some cinnamon. (I was gunna use maple syrup, but we were out.) They turned out so good, everyone kept getting seconds until we ran out. 

• Lunch:

         For lunch, I made these Big Fat Bacon Sliders from The Pioneer Woman. And oh my god. I only ate two (they were small-ish), and I was so full I could explode. The dogs liked them, too; I made 5 tiny doggy burgers with the extra ground beef.

       I also made these Garlic Cheese Bombs from Spend with Pennies as a side instead of fries. They were to die for. But I'll use mozarella or parmesan inside of them next time, instead of cheddar and parmesan on the outside, because I didn't like the combination very well. They were still yummy nevertheless. 

• Dessert: 

        And finally, the part we've all been waiting for: the dessert. I know my dad loves carrot cake, so I made him this Carrot Cake Cheesecake from Butter Yum. This, I had a little trouble with. I followed the instructions exactly, but my cheesecake batter was a little lumpy, which was not good. But after mixing it for another 20 minutes *sigh* I got it worked out. And the final result did not look like the picture. My cake was swirled, and the image shows layers. It was still great, though; I even made little carrots on top of the icing using baby carrots and a couple of leaves off a brussel sprout for the carrot's leaves. It was adorable!

      My mom also made fruit salad with some of the various fruits in season, like melons, grapes, peaches, even a mango and papaya! She used the watermelon halves as a bowl, also. 

      Needless to say, I spent the entire day cooking. I'm just now sitting down at 9pm. But i'd also like to share with you the gifts I made, also from Pinterest. 

      I made a much less nice version of this photo on Pinterest, using our old baby pictures and photos of my parents from a few years ago. 

     And I made a "Little Box of Sunshine"- a gift that's super popular all over Pinterest. This is just one of the pictures, but there are many, many photos and tutorials all over the place. I put mine in a wooden box my mom had, that I decorated myself. Eventually i'll get photos of the box and do a tutorial, but it is currently filled with my dad's favorite candy so I can't do that yet. 

     Happy Father's Day!,

                                 -The Artistic Bibliophile

Recipe: Pineapple-Cool Whip Soda

Here's the recipe for a very simple, 3-ingredient, Pineapple-Cool Whip Soda. It's one of my favorite drinks; my friend's mom used to make it all the time and I love to make it. Perfect for parties or the 4th of July, or just summer altogether.

Ingredients:

• Pineapple Juice
• Ginger Ale
• 1 Can of Cool Whip 
• Ice (Optional)

Steps:

1. Fill any size glass 1/4 full of ice. 
2. Add cool whip from 1/2 to the top of the glass, however much you want. Keep in mind it floats to top when you pour in liquid. 
3. Add the pineapple juice until the glass is a little over half full. The proportions don't have to be exact, you can experiment and see how much of each you like.
4. Fill rest of the way with ginger ale. Put in a straw, and ta-da!

 -The Artistic Bibliophile