Showing posts with label Kiddos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiddos. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Honey-Barbecued Pork

OMG!
This recipe is Abby approved. I am stunned. I think it would have been an even bigger hit if I served it on mini buns. Who can resist sliders? Can’t get you finicky eater to eat. Just make their food cute and tiny and they’ll gobble it up.
If you haven’t done it yet make sure you enter the giveaway for this cookbook. –>Gooseberry Patch Cookbook Giveaway<--
120611a
Recipe from Gooseberry Patch 101 Soups, Salads & Sandwiches.
Ingredients
2-3 lb pork roast
2 onions, chopped
1 (12 oz) bottle barbecue sauce
1/4 cup honey
6-8 sandwich rolls, split
Directions
Place pork in a slow cooker. Add onions, barbecue sauce and honey. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours. Use 2 forks to shred roast; mix well. Serve on rolls. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Birthday Girl

Fifteen years ago at 9:51a in a little hospital near Ft Drum the most amazing person was born. She is brilliant, intelligent, creative, a smart ass, beautiful and just plain fabulous.
Happy Birthday Haillie! I can’t even begin to express how proud of the young person you’ve become.
041411a

041411b

041411c

041411d

Monday, April 11, 2011

Cupcake Mania

Are these not just the cutest cupcake liners ever?! I found them at Walmart of all places.
041111a
Abby can be a cupcake monster. She rules the cupcake flavor combinations in our home. So when she requested another batch of chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting I swear I could hear Haillie grumble. She is not a fan of chocolate. So I decided to make six chocolate cupcakes and six vanilla cupcakes.
041111b
For Haillie I made a light and fluffy vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting swirled with a blueberry sauce. The buttercream frosting didn’t care for my humid house but still received an “OMG! Mom these are fabulous!” And for Abby a moist chocolate cupcake with a buttercream filling and peanut butter frosting. She thinks I’m the bestest. Smile. These recipes make more than you need for six cupcakes per. I refrigerated all the extra batter and frosting to use later.
041111c
Vanilla Cupcakes w/Buttercream Frosting & Blueberry Swirl
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/3 cups cake flour, sifted
1 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325⁰F. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla extract, and beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt three times. Add to egg mixture in three additions, alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.
Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
Directions
In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.
Blueberry Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/2 cup water and sugar. Stir gently, and bring to a boil. In a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the blueberries so as not to mash the berries. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon. Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.
Chocolate Cupcakes w/Buttercream Filling & Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, softened
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 ⁰F. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Fill and frost with your favorite frosting when cool.
Peanut Butter Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
Directions
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Captain Crunch Chicken

Captain Crunch cereal.
Boneless chicken.
Fun child friendly food. Right?
NOT for my finicky eater. What a little food snob butthead. *lol* I first made this last week when Christopher wasn’t home. Haillie and I loved it while Abby was whining “why would you do this?” Sigh. Anyhow, this quick fix meal was perfect for our busy day. The morning started off with me rushing to get all the laundry done. Check. Nephew’s birthday presents wrapped. Check. Skruffy needed a good walk before being crated. Check. Everyone ready to go and out of the house by 10:30a. Check. Did anyone remember the camera? Of course not. Even though I don’t have any photos of my cute nephews and niece I enjoyed the time spent with our family. If only they lived closer so we could hang out more.
This recipe is suppose to be a copycat of Planet Hollywood’s Chicken Crunch. I think it’s pretty darn close. Do you have a favorite copycat recipe and if so what is it?
041011a
Download Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups Captain Crunch cereal
1-1/2 cups corn flakes
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 lbs chicken breasts, cut in 1-oz tenders
vegetable oil (for frying)
Directions
Coarsely grind or crush the two cereals and set aside. Beat the egg with milk and set aside. Stir together the flour, onion and garlic powders and black pepper. Set aside. Dip the chicken: pieces in the seasoned flour. Move around to coat well, then shake off the excess flour. Dip in the egg wash, coating well, then dip in the cereal mixture, coating well. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet to 325 ⁰F. Drop coated chicken tenders carefully in the hot oil and cook until golden brown and fully cooked, 3 to 5 minutes depending on size.  Drain and serve immediately.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Waffle Of Insane Greatness

Snow day!
Even Christopher has a snow day which is rare. That makes this morning waffle time! A couple of post ago I shared my pancake recipe and a virtue friend of mine shared this waffle recipe with me. At the time we were waffle ironless. It is just one of those appliances that when it broke I kept forgetting to replace it. Well over the weekend Christopher remembered we needed one. Oh how we missed waffles. This will kick Bisquick’s waffle recipe’s butt.
022111a
Recipe from Food Network via Lynn (thank you!)
Download Recipe
Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1-1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
Butter and syrup, for serving
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Add the milk, vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat a waffle iron. Do not use non-stick spray on the waffle iron; the oil in the batter will allow the waffle to release easily. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and syrup.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Family fun days should always end in fresh baked cookies. We went to the movies today and saw Gnomeo & Juliet. The gnomes were too comical and cute. Abby is already pestering to buy the movie when it comes out. Haillie was less than thrilled about the movie but still tagged alone to get out of the house.
022011bOf course whenever we go anywhere that has a crane machine we must stop and try our luck. My “Crane Master & his apprentice” hard at work.
022011c
As always, we have a winner! They won two stuffed animals but were bummed that the baby Shrek fell out of the claw right before it was dropped in the shoot. Bummer.
022011d
The rest of our day was normal old chore detail. Christopher watched Nascar while doing his homework. The girls pooper scooped the yard. I gathered the trash. Laundry was started but the motor coupler broke bringing it to a halt. Then for dinner the kiddos helped me make a batch of gnocchi. Later when we had the munchies and nothing seemed to tempt our taste buds I decided it was cookie time. I whipped these up quickly. These are better if you let them sit and completely cool. Straight out of the oven they just don’t taste as peanut buttery as they should.
022011a
Recipe from All Recipes
Download Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1-1/4 cups peanut butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 ⁰F. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, peanut butter and vanilla. Add flour, cornstarch, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in chocolate chips.
Roll into balls about 1-1/2 teaspoonful's (or use cookie scoop) and place onto ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly because they do not flatten much while baking. Bake for 10 –12 minutes.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Flowers & Twine

Christopher bought the kiddos and I our traditional Valentine’s Day flowers. Awww. I love me a man in uniform but a man in uniform walking through the door with three bunches of flowers in his arms. Be still my beating heart. Only one problem. I use to receive 200 Peruvian lilies, my favorite flower of all time. So I have a lot of tall big vases. With the addition of two daughters my bouquet has been downsized. *lol* I had to get creative this morning and grabbed the twine.
021511b

There is a ridge around the top of my favorite and simple vase. I double wrapped the twine around it and tied a bow. Then I simply knotted off four pieced across. And in the opposite direction I weaved and knotted. Simple fix.
021511c

Once the flowers were placed I felt it looked a tad loose and messy. So I pulled the knots inward to help them stand straight and tall. Simple and beautiful.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine Goodies

I am slightly behind on my Valentines. The goodies are done but I have to finish up on my family’s cards. I just lots track of time and before I knew it the day was here. Oy. First I had a Valentine exchange to mail out. We were to keep it under $10 but I actually didn’t spend a cent on mine. First I started with a sheet of scrapbook paper cut into an 8.5” square.
021211c
I printed out my Valentine on the white side and then followed the instructions on how to make an “Antique-Style Puzzle Purse”.
021211d
I wanted to give a gift as well so I went through all my leftover fabric and picked out four different patterns. I then printed out two different size hearts to use as my cut outs.
021411e
Sowed them up with twine going through and stuffed them with cut up Walmart bags. Ta-da! A cute heart garland for the holiday.
021411f
Now onto my family. For Christopher and Abby I made a batch of Homemade Oreos. I will be posting a recipe later but if you’re impatient I got it from “Bake @ 350”. I loved her idea of the smaller heart indent in the middle. Too cute.
021411d
For Haillie I made Chocolate No Bake Cookies. To make them extra holiday special I spread them out onto a cookie sheet, chilled for a few minutes and then used a heart cookie cutter. Chilled some more and then broke them apart.
021411c
Enjoy your Valentine’s Day with your loved ones.

Day Of Love

“Friendship isn't a big thing – it's a million little things.” ~ Author Unknown
021411a

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Lost In Electronics

I am sort of experiencing some technical difficulties. Christopher surprised me with a new laptop. I am so spoiled and he totally rocks! It’s a delicious coffee brown and sparkles.
020611a
This started a game of musical laptops and I’m our in-house tech support. Since there was really nothing wrong with my old laptop it was decided that I would take it back to factory settings and pass it down to Abby. Her currently laptop tends to overheat and shuts down during games. Well my laptop, that never gave me any problems crashed after the restore. Grrr. I’ve been working on fixing that and uploading to my new laptop since Thursday. Stress much. It’s amazing how many little things you overlook with a computer move. Like fonts. All gone. Or photo watermarks. Bye bye. So bare with me as I slowly get everything up and running again.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Snow Vs Soup

Dear Snow,
Go away NOW!
All day on Facebook were status updates complaining of children going to school in the midst of this horrible snowstorm. I was so confused because it wasn't doing a darn thing here. Normally if it's snowing where my SIL lives we are getting double the flurries. Not today. Then I received a call from the school, the kiddos were getting out early. For what? By the time the girls were home it was barely flurrying and now five hours later Christopher can't make it home. Grrr. It was a perfect day for loaded baked potato soup. Soup just warms me up on cold snowy days. This time I left the skins on and added some cubed ham. Delish. I think I will always leave the skins on. Next time I want to make it with baby red potatoes. That just sounds so yummy. With it being just the kiddos and I for dinner there was so much leftover. Tomorrow night should really be a fend for yourself night but I'm anxious to try the white cheese chicken lasagna. I'm not even hungry and that sounds good. After dinner was done and the kitchen was cleaned up we headed up to my room. What an exciting life we lead climbing into bed at 7:00p. I can't help it when Christopher isn't home the girls and I love watching TV in my bed. I love cozy girl time. There was nothing on and our favorite shows were repeats but we still had so much fun.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A Word From Haillie

An Ode to Semi-Solid Fruit Paste
Oh, apple sauce, how I love thee. You refresh my taste buds of the recently familiar greasy crap taste and remind me of a time when I didn’t understand innuendo. You make me feel like the carefree, sprightly young lass I once was. I will keep you in stock, apple sauce, my darling, for the rest of forever. And you will continue to rejuvenate my palate whenever I’m sick of Mom’s cooking. Thank you, apple sauce, for being left over from Christmas so I could rediscover you.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Pancakes

Our big & huge snowstorm wasn't all that after all. The girls went to bed knowing there was at least a 2 hour delay. They were excited to sleep in and Abby was disappointed when she woke up. She was hoping for no school and going sledding all day. Sorry Doodle Bug. She turned chipper when she remembered 2 hour delays mean pancakes for breakfast. And that got me thinking, how do you make your pancakes? Even though I use Bisquick I add a bunch of other ingredients. It would probably be just as quick to whip a batch from scratch.
Abby always has to have plain silver dollar pancakes. Perfect for dipping. Haillie and I like a little more excitement in our flapjacks. Today we added chopped up bananas, they were amazing.
Ingredients
1 tbsp lemon juice
1-1/4 cup milk
2 cups bisquick
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Directions
Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening.
Mix lemon juice and milk; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.
Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden. To keep warm, place in single layer on cookie sheet. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in 200°F oven up to 10 minutes.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

To: You

Let the spirit of love gently fill our hearts and homes. In this loveliest of seasons may you find many reasons for happiness.
I have so much to post and so little time. Tomorrow will be a catch up day for sure.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Santa Was Naughty

Sigh.
It began with a lot of pestering and begging from Abby. Then she was carrying around "The Book of Dogs" showing us all the different cute breeds. Three months later we started considering it and checking out puppies online. Then Thursday night while Christopher was out to dinner with his ROTC Cadets he received a text from Abby. Don't buy your children cell phones for they are evil devices.
A: *snaps a pic with her phone from a puppy website* this is the puppy i love.
C:  isn't that puppy is expensive?
A:  you can't put a price on love. ps... but yes
The rest of the night was Abby constantly questioning me on whether or not Dad called and talked to me. By Friday morning she was sure she wasn't getting that puppy. Meanwhile, Christopher was calling around puppy searching. The original chosen puppy was already sold but that puppy had a brother. Introducing ...
Scruffy!
Scruffy is a 16 week old Morkie (Maltese & Yorkie). This is Abby's first real responsibility so we were looking for an older puppy. Scruffy is perfect. He's full of that fun puppy energy and old enough to hold his bladder some. Housetraining is my detail and I'm thankful he is easy. He seems to already grasp the concept so once Abby is more comfortable carrying him downstairs I will hand over that job. I can't wait, it's cold out there. Between Christmas and Scruffy my poor blog is gathering dust.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Just Stringing Along

Yeah! The girls went back to school today, that break was way too long. They were so bored and yet didn't want to do anything I suggested. Goofballs. You know it's bad when Abby is watching the clock eager to go out to the bus stop. Once they were gone I got the house back into order. Finished up the laundry. Brought the last of the holiday decorations down from the attic. Then I made a cup of tea and strung some more popcorn. Ugh. Every year I swear I will never string popcorn again and ever year I can't help it. I love the way it looks on the tree and garlands.
I also had time to finish my first scarf. The directions said it would end up about five feet long and I'm a few feet short. And the binding into "bell ends" is still in process. I have no clue as to what the directions are telling me to do. To add to my frustrating and fun I started a scarf for Abby with the combination of yarn and fun fur. I bought twice as much yarn so her scarf doesn't come up short too. With Christopher not coming home tonight I plan on knitting and stringing popcorn late. Oh I live a wild and crazy life.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Recipe Cards

Sometimes I just wonder "what the hell I was thinking". I am a very bad appointment scheduler. This morning Haillie had a dental appointment for 8:00a which meant leaving the house at 7:30a. Hello! Abby wakes up at 7:30a. Apparently it totally slipped my mind that I have a second child. Luckily it was a rare morning where Christopher was still home. I serious think we need a third parent on call for days like this. So sorry Abby, I promise to remember you exist from now on.
The rest of the day was rainy and dreary. Our house was clean, laundry was caught up and dinner was prepped. What is a mom to do now? Out of my boredom I started playing with recipe cards to share online. I've been thinking about doing this for some time now and today was the day. I created a layout, uploaded it and hopefully you'll be able to download it with ease. This was a project I was going to share starting with my "25 Days of Christmas Cookies" but I was excited and I'm not good at waiting.
Download "Comforting Chicken Plus Dumplings"

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Trick-or-Treat

Happy Halloween!
I am the happiest person in the world tonight. Halloween is over. *smile* I think the girls had a good time, I know they both enjoyed their costumes. We went out trick-or-treating tonight as a family but only Abby was collecting candy. Haillie just dressed up for fun.
"Enjolras" from Les Miserables
Haillie as "Enjolras
"Mystique Sonia" from Hero 108
Abby as "Mystique Sonia"

Friday, October 29, 2010

Hero 108 *sneak peak*

Costume #2 is FINISHED!
Abby's Halloween costume is DONE!
Mystique Sonia's is COMPLETE!
Where on Earth do my kiddos come up with their costume ideas? One year Abby was a pierogie and I thought that was a hard costume to make. That was easy compared to this hat. I made it out poster board, glue, duct tape and felt. I love duct tape, it makes everything better. Now that both costumes are complete I can sit back and not give Halloween a second thought. I love my kiddos but this is the last year I get stuck making these insane costumes.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Les Mis *sneak peak*

I am FINISHED!
Haillie's Halloween costume is DONE!
Enjolras's vest is COMPLETE!
Words can't even begin to describe how happy I am to be rid of this project. I own a sewing machine but apparently I can not read a pattern. They need to sell "Patterns For Dummies" because I was lost from start to finish. Then there was the issue with buttons, we needed 29 one inch gold buttons. What is with the price of buttons? Walmart was the cheapest place I could find them and it they were a pack of three for $0.79. Ouch! After a lot of thinking we ended up at Staples and bought counting chips. I then spray painted them gold. Christopher drilled holes in the four that were going to be used to close the vest and I hot glue gunned the rest.
Everything seemed to fall into place at the end. My sewing job really wasn't that bad, it wasn't correct but still not bad at all. After everything was stitched and glued the end result was pretty close to what Haillie wanted. *whew* I better be allowed to take a picture of her fully dressed up after all that stressful hard work.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...