Trellis anyone?

FINALLY- a non food related activity!!! Lollll...

Since my parents are really into gardening and slowly renovating our yard, I decide I'd make my mom a trellis.  My day yesterday was very productive, might I add. Very befitting to this blog, yeah? We started off going to Cosco-bought some toothpaste/mouthwash. We were just window shoppin' round Lowes looking at prices for things.

"Mom this is nice. Dangggg, it's like $150!! I could make one. Mom, you want one? I'll make it for you today. Let's go buy some wood." 

Home depot- bought lots of wood.

Man, we spent hours upon hours there! Even until it closed. My mom really likes that place. Finally we're done with the checkout and the guys asks us if we need help loading up the car.

-Nah I got this.

As I load up the car, mom's yellin' at me, "Why aren't you letting them help load the car?!"

-I got this mom. I can do it. I don't need their help!

"They're men, they should do it! And they work here."

-I don't need men to do stuff for me! If I can do it, why do I need to ask for help?!

So she starts to get frustrated with me.

-I don't understand, mom. I can do anything they can do. I don't need their help just cuz they're men.

"I'm not saying anything to you anymore. They're men and it's their job. You can do the heavy lifting when you're at home but let them do it when they're here."

-MOMMMM... I can do it!!!

Well there was that conversation. You'd think any parent would be PROUD to have a self-sufficient daughter who doesn't beg for the aid of men. Pfft... 

Back to the subject, aye.

Firstly, we bought the white boxed trellis already set up like that. So my initial step was to nail it down to the pieces of wood on each side. I will give you a specific price quote at the end to amaze you! Mind you, this was my first time really using a power drill and it was amazing. I have a new favorite toy! I split the wood on my very first attempt to drill a nail. Then my dad gave me a good tip: Drill a smaller whole first and then drill the nail in. DUH moment. Such a good tip and makes sense too. I shoulda thought of it. Anyway, the rest were fine. 

Kind of skipping ahead a little bit but this was the finished product. Two planks on the bottom for stability. There's a side view as well. I think I got this little project done in ~2:30-3:30 hours. And that was probably only because I'm a noobie. Normally, I'm sure it'd take closer to 1-2 hrs! 

Here are the materials and costs: (Everything bought at home depot)

cedar composite white ladder trellis x2 @ $13.98/ea. = $27.96

cedar board x2 @ $6.77/ea. = $13.54 

(Cut to the dimensions of ladder trellis)

cull lumber x4 @ $0.51/ea. = $2.04

Total = $43.54

not including the nails and convenient power drill

compared to this for $49.00 at home depot.

 But honestly, I didn't want to settle for the above. I wanted to do something cooler... Like a bench... Like this for $4.08 more:

It would've been so awesome... You could sit there and everything... Of course I'd have to get some bricks or something to support the bottom of the chair so you don't break it. But that can't be more than $15 depending on the brick you use.

Squash stir fry?

I'm not sure what to call this. I literally just threw this together from what my mom had in the fridge.

She had originally made the chicken and squash. I'm not sure how she marinated either.

She baked the squash, which I would next time keep it plain since I really like the natural sweetness and flavor of it as it is. I don't know what to say about the chicken... Lol :S. I'd probably have cooked it a bit saltier than normal to counter balance the sweet of the squash.

For the noodles, I cooked vermicelli flat rice noodles and threw it in the pan. I seasoned it with some mushroom seasoning, salt and pepper. I wanted this to be a little bit salty as well.

Dough failure turns into dough-licious!!!

Was the title of this kind of lame?? :X At this time I was already home for the summer. It was a clear day and night so I wanted to have a little bbq in my backyard. The guest list was full. Though a couple more staggered in from word of mouth.

So this assortment of deliciousness spouted from a failing pastry moment. Unlike regular cooking, baking is extremely precise in recipe and direction! I probably failed at both when attempting to make this recipe for burger buns. I was planning to have a bbq with homemade buns for a mushroom burger stuffed with cheddar cheese inside the patty. Everything came out well except the one component that makes it a burger: The bun. Instead of baking into a risen fluffy roll, it resembled something like a spherical rock. You could probably skip it in a river. So yeah- that was a fail. To keep it short, my bun failed to rise. I was upset. I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell my little sister and ex boyfriend that the event was canceled! But we just settled for store bought bread that night. I'll try to be a bit more patient next time.

A couple days after that devastating moment, I regained my composure and accepted the defeat to come up with something to make out of this left over dough. I had no choice but to face it. Plus my mom would have smacked me if I wasted it. 

My little sister and I managed to come up with quite a few treats. We had a ham and cheese pizza, pretzels, stuffed hotpockets, and cinnamon twisties. Not bad, not bad.

There is no real recipe here. Just the one I linked above. Note: That following the above recipe will NOT get you to this assortment.

This can only be achieved if you:

1) Have never made dough before

2) Ran out of flour

3) Had to substitute a bit of dumpling flour for all purpose flour

4) Did not follow directions well