OOTD: All You Sinners, Stand Up

Okay so again with the whole "I'm broke and can't afford crap" approach to blogging- but it's so honestly true. I'm working on making it better, but it's going to be a long and bumpy road which means I've decided to make this current financial situation work in my favor.

The holidays were a little awesome and a little depressing at the same time. On one hand, it's the first time in ten years I've celebrated Christmas with my family and it was awesome. On the other hand, I'm broke and I'm in a new place, missing my old traditions and people. In an effort to cheer myself up, I did do a tiny bit of Black Friday splurging and got myself two 10$ tees from hottopic.com. One thing you've got to know by now is that I'm addicted to band merch. I love it. The problem is most band merchandise doesn't come in plus size unless you count men's shirts, and actually a lot of those are 'slim' cut for the skinny emo boys. So when I ordered my shirts, I knew that I was going to use one of my tutorials to refashion them.

This is the first one.

Cardi/Thrifted, Dress/Handmade, Leggings/Target, Shoes/Frye-Ebay

I was going through my breakup just a few months after discovering my love of Panic at the Disco. It was actually kind of appropriate timing since they'd just released Hallelujah and it kind of became my anthem to keep carrying on through the hard times. I tend to cling to music during any kind of difficulty. I remember when I first moved to Philadelphia, MCR's Famous Last Words was on repeat all the time (that's a different blog post altogether).

Anyway, when I saw this super pink shirt on sale at hottopic, I knew it'd be the perfect pick me up. It's rare with projects for me to immediately know what I'm going to do with something. I usually just mash things together and hope they work, but I had a bubble gum pink tee in my stash and a yard of thrifted pink striped knit and I just saw this in my head. I even knew which tutorial I wanted- the Calliope tunic since I seem to be living in that style right now.

I love how this project 1. Looks amazing on me but 2. Took a shirt which I knew even the biggest size would be too small and made it into a comfy garment I'll definitely wear all the time. I love it with my sparkly $5 necklace from Wal Mart (birthday present, thanks Mom!) and my tough-as-nails Frye boots.

There's a sneaky peak of an upcoming OOTD - This is from one of my favorite shops, Rainbow Alternative. She's a great Philly artist and I miss seeing her booth at the Punk Rock Flea (she's still there, but I'm obvs. in Maryland). Told you, I'm all about the Calliope this Winter/Spring.

So, as delicious as Hallelujah is, a few months after I was so into that song, my ex admitted that he had started listening to P!ATD on my recommendation and really clicked with that song. Which made me want to throw up a little because that was 'my' break-up song! But that's fine, because they also released Emporer's New Clothes, which might just be my favorite music video ever made.



I'm takin' back the Cirque, baby, one little blog post at a time. ;-)

PS: Guys, I can't even tell you how much I'm loving my new hair.

PPS: Special shout out to Sheila, Shawna, Megan and Trees. Without your encouragement, I don't know if I could even write these posts anymore. < 3 you guys give me life. 

Cookin' with (Drunk) Meghan: Pulled Chicken Sandwich

This post is dedicated to my mom, who I think will find this not as funny as I do.

Today I'm going to share a new recipe with you. I made it up! And did not use an exact measuring method. It's a pulled chicken sandwich recipe. You see, pulled pork is one of my favorite foods, but I really suck at making it. I had a kind of wretched week and I thought I'd make some comfort food to cheer myself up, only, I couldn't make what I really wanted, so I made this instead.

I might like it even better.

What you'll need:

* Half a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (I think it's Hickory Smoked?) I know this because it's all I had in my fridge.
* third of a stick of butter (dude, this is not healthy for you at all)
* Three tablespoons (or more) of Worcestershire sauce (I can't spell that. Auto correct did it for me)
* Half a cup to 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (Or less. I was aiming for super sour) 
* whole wheat rolls (I like the super cheap ones because they are bad for you and tasty)
* some sliced Provolone cheese
* spices. I don't know which ones.
* 3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I almost forgot to write this as an ingredient)

Directions:

Ok, so basically what you want to do is poach your chicken first. This is super important and really how I make so many of my chicken dishes because it's stringy chicken goodness. You put your chicken in a pot of water, sprinkle on salt, pepper, garlic powder and pepper (I also add Cayenne and Cajun Chicken Spice). Bring it all to a boil-y-simmer-y-thing and let it cook through. Once it's cooked, pull it out and let it cool. You can expedite the cooling process by cutting it into thirds.

At this point, you should make yourself a drink. This is drunk cooking, after all. I can definitely recommend a gin and tonic with the following ingredients: grapefruit juice, peach gin, tonic and ice. Mmmmm.

Look, Ma, I'm Sandra Lee. 

Once your chicken is cooled and shredded (DO THAT BY HAND) move on to the sauce process.

In a sauce pot, pour your half bottle of store-bought BBQ sauce. Add to it the vinegar, butter, Worchest-wordces-WORCHESTI that other brown sauce, and your spices (same as the ones you seasoned your chicken water with). Add in the shredded chicken and turn the stove on low heat, letting it all mix up together. Once it's warm enough, remove the mixture from the heat.

At this point, you might be on your second drink. Depends on how hot it is outside.

So like, now onto the plating process. What you want to do is preheat your oven to about 400 degrees (maybe less, mine runs cool). Put some parchment on a cookie sheet and then put your bun on the parchment. On the bottom half, put as much chicken as you'd like. Then place a slice of provolone over it, so the cheese will melt all over the sandwich. Place the top half of the bun, rounded side down, on the sheet next to it so it can toast, and then put it all in the oven.

I've never written a recipe before, this is hard work. (Sips gin.)

Okay at this point in sandwich assembly you might need to put the drink aside as this is about the part where I almost burned my sandwich because I forgot I was cooking.

Only leave the sandwich in long enough to melt the cheese. Maybe two minutes. Then, pull it out and carefully put your top bun on the bottom bun, and put on a plate and eat!

***

I hope you've enjoyed this drunky cooking segment. I actually have a killer pancake recipe I can't wait to share with you, and now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a mess in the kitchen to clean up and a drink to finish.