Growing

Katie just spent a week in Colo. working a camp.  She came even more in love with her youth group and with Jesus. 
The conversations we've had and the things I've seen her step up to do are really impressing me.
I knew it was there, just glad to see maturity and her love of Christ so outwardly right now.
Unfortunately, with that comes some disappointment for her in some friends.
I swear life was easier before texting. 
If half of their relationship wasn't fostered through texting I think there would be a lot less drama and worry.

 

I'm so glad she spent some time in such a pretty place

with a great group of kids

Not much is happening here.  Mike not having a job yet is slowing down my usual summer activities but a whole summer of family time has been a nice treat. 

My favorite thing of the week is Banana Macaroon Granola. 

 

Vanilla yogurt, a little spoonful of Lemon Curd and some granola has been the breakfast of choice lately.

 

 

 

It's an illness

I tried something new this week...
I signed up for and picked up a "bountiful basket".  A food co op.  I stood in line in the heat with about 100 other people for my basket.

A friend went too and she is going out of town this week so  she brought me her pineapple and some ginger.  So my illness took over and I had to make something completely non healthy with it.

Pineapple Ginger Jelly

It is sooo good

I will be making more of this

 

I think I will check out the local farm with a stand that sells the produce tomorrow... I'll see what they have there I can make jelly out of...

 

 

Katie left for a "staffing" camp to work for the week.

  She was very surprised that there was no A/C in the building where they are staying in Colo. 

 Of course I looked it up and the low last night was going to be 56... think she will survive.

 



I didn't need to know about the s'mores

Darn that Pioneer Woman. 
She has once again exposed me to something I didn't need to know about.
One of the teachers at school who is a wonderful cook brought me a treat.
A treat from a PW recipe.
I've never been interested in s'mores before.
But when she told me there was peanut butter and Nutella on it I had to try it.

And now I can't quit thinking about it.
I'm helping with a wedding in Dec. and she wants s'mores... I think we've found the answer.
I had to make one yesterday.
I'll need to make some for her to try soon.
PW dips hers.  I though that was a little too much chocolate.
I don't think I've ever said those words before.

Go try them.  Now.

Where I embrace being a "Pilgrim"

Tonight at church we are having a dessert auction.  Katie said I should make homemade butter (not exactly a dessert) but I had already planned that.
You see, my making the homemade butter five a couple of times along with jelly, etc. has made Katie feel like she knows that I think we are "Pilgrims".  Now, my being raised in Miss. with a mother and aunts that canned everything that would fit in the jar, put tons of shrimp in the freezer for the winter, had gardens, and never wasted anything is more where I got it.
 I feel like my mother would have said she had churned butter and her day and would just buy it....
But if doing those things makes me a Pilgrim, I'll own it.
You would think we were eating all natural and such, too bad it's butter and jelly I'm interested in making.

Let me get back to tonight's church auction.  All of the youth group knows about the butter.
So I made Zucchini Cinnamon Muffins and am putting a jar of homemade butter with them.

I also made Chocolate Whoopie pies with Marshmallow Butter Cream filling.

While I'm talking about cooking, let me tell you about my latest food obsessions...

                        Trader Joe's -- I have read of everyones love of it in the blog world and have now managed to visit the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area stores three times.  Each time I have found more treasures!  The first visit I googled what peoples favorite products were and went from there.  Yesterday I had a good friend text me "I've got about 10 min. to run in a Trader Joe's, what would you buy?"  I quickly gave her my favorites.

My very favorite, top of the list is their Croissant rolls.  They come frozen. 

The Almond are incredible and the plain are great too. 

They put the ones in a can to shame! 

aren't they beautiful?

 

 

I read on a blog recently about copying the Starbucks Passion Fruit Lemonade, bought the tea bags, played with the recipe and can't quit drinking it.

 

and it's pretty...

 

I put 3 tea bags in a large glass of hot water and let them sit a half hour or so.  I have made homemade lemonade and used country time from powder and both are good.

I put about a 1/3 of a glass of tea, fill with lemonade and you can add simple syrup or my favorite, a package of equal, all over ice... Yummy.  Trust me on this one.

 

What are you loving lately?

 

Blizzard 2013

Well, we sure got the snow I wanted.  I think it's the first "blizzard" we've seen in Lubbock.
Yesterday when it was a gorgeous 70 degree spring like day we were already under the blizzard warning. 

 

 

crazy.

When I looked outside during the night I was pretty sure it would be a snow day.  Of course I woke up at 5 as usual to check and then was wide awake...

lying in bed drinking coffee and watching the news was a wonderful morning!!!

I used to just like a snow day because I like snow and staying home.  A snow day now is even better now.  It means we are all at home.  That doesn't happen very often these days. 

 

There has been some fighting over spots on the couch but that's not a big surprise.  Elvis takes up a spot and then the girls are left to fight over who is taking up to much space...

Kellie ventured out for a few minutes.  The snow is so powdery that it won't stick together to play with. 

                

                            the wind chill is below zero so I only enjoyed it from the door

                                          We adopted a new friend this week... meet Koala

We thought Kitty needed company and a friend had a guinea pig she wanted to re home.
She is like a stuffed animal.  She doesn't move when you hold her.  Not a muscle.  She sits where ever you put her and does.not.move!

 

see.

The girls got out American Girl furniture for them.  This is about the time Mike told us we should have gone to school...

 

The only downside to the snow day is that I have a Mon. night Bible study that I love.  And I had made a cake to take tonight.  A yellow cake with lemon curd filling and sour cream icing.

That is in the fridge calling my name. 

                                                         and I have jars of Lemon Curd for the girls.
It was so easy and it tastes so good I think I'll be making this again.  I'm having a hard time giving away the cute little jars but I will... I hope I can find more of them.

Off to do more laundry, drink hot chocolate, try not to eat the cake and enjoy the snow day

 

 

 

where did the snow go?

The weather man said we would get some snow this week. 
We didn't.
It seems to miss us most of the time. 
Two hours north they had record snow fall so I guess I know where ours went...
We did get some cool cloudy weather though.  You know that's my favorite.
It was hard to go to work yesterday waiting on that snow.

All that to say, I made the best soup!
I found a Pinterst recipe and it is a keeper!

 

Cheese Tortellini Soup

 

 

1 bag of frozen tortellini
1 small bag of fresh spinach
2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes
1 box or 4 cups or chicken broth
1 block of cream cheese
1 lb. of roll sausage

Brown the sausage and put all ingredients in crock pot,
chunking up the cream cheese.
Cook on low for 5-6 hrs.

 

It was so good that I'm taking the girls at work lunch tomorrow if I decide to share.

I have a butter problem

I have a problem.  A butter problem.
Now that I've learned to make butter I feel like I need to keep a supply. 
And I don't want anyone to use it.
At least not for just any recipe. 
You won't be able to appreciate that it's homemade butter if it's in something. 
You need to eat it on homemade bread or other things where the butter is the star.
But when I'm not looking people are eating my butter. 
They are putting it on pasta.  Pasta that I didn't get to eat. 
Using it in a cake.  IN A CAKE.  Not a butter cake but a chocolate cake where you can't appreciate that the last of the homemade butter was in it. 
And since the last of the homemade butter ended up in the chocolate cake, I had to make a little more butter.  Even though buying butter is cheaper I now feel the need to have both kinds on hand.

This batch I did a cultured butter.  I believe it was even better.  And you know I really didn't need a butter that is even better... the recipe and article says the butter is even a good "munching butter". 

 

And this time I did remember to cover the mixer as not to have buttermilk all over the kitchen.

 

After the "goat cheese" conversation with my friend I found a quart bottle of it at Sprouts so that is in my plans for the weekend...

 

I wouldn't want Katie to quit thinking she lives with "Pilgrims"...

 

 

It's sad when rain is big news...

We have had a very uneventful week.
I know this because today when I sat down to work on week two of Project Life I realized I didn't have much to work with from this week.
I'm thinking it might be a book of dog pictures.  Dogs sleeping, dogs drooling, dogs looking cute, and I can throw in the occasional girls lying on the couch, girls leaving, girls going to school pictures.
I am really still very excited about the project and that I have a good friend here doing it.  A good friend with a new craft room I might add. 
Since it was Jennifer's idea, we were sad she couldn't craft with us today.  We had a great time visiting and working on our week together.

 

 

  

 

It's Sat. night and I'm home alone.  It's a little too quiet but nice.  I have Braised chicken with onions in the over for dinner when Mike gets home. 

Have a great weekend and take lots of pictures!

 

What are we, Pilgrims?

My girls think that anytime I do things from scratch or make something out of the ordinary that I'm crazy.  Katie's question is always "what are we, Pilgrims?"...
Well, I may have answered that question in her mind this past week when I made butter.

It is really my friend Jennifer's fault. 
She sent me a link to a blog that she knew I would enjoy. 
The second post I ran across was about making butter and I was sold.
I'm not sure whats wrong with me that I see something like that and feel like I must try it.
I have discovered it is not cheaper at all to make your own butter so I don't even have that to lean on.

This blog linked to America's Test Kitchen for full instructions on making butter.  I also looked around a little in the bloggy web and found some other ideas.  I used this recipe for the first batch.  I wanted to try the cultured butter too so I did make a batch from the Test Kitchen recipe.  Both were really good in my opinion.

 

I have a lot of buttermilk if you need any

 

 

come on over for toast....

 

I made stuffed mushrooms tonight for snacking.  A family friend made them and I had them in Dallas when we were there.  They are very easy and very good...

 

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

1/2 lb hot breakfast sausage scrambled
1 8oz pk softened cream cheese
2 green onion chopped
2 pkg button mushrooms cleaned and stems removed

Wipe mushrooms with soft cloth and remove stems.  Mix cooked sausage, cream cheese and chopped green onions.  Place a spoonful in each mushroom cap and bake at 350 till bubbly.

 

Food fun with a friend

One of my good friends came over so we could make some good gifts.
It was wonderful. 
A Sunday afternoon in PJ pants cooking with a friend, can you think of a better day?

 

We had a little supervision

We made a wonderful Caramel Sauce (plus we added 3 tbsp of Bourbon to the recipe). 

 I may pour a jar over dinner tonight.  I also made some Merlot Jelly. 

 

I also made a couple of jars of "Cookies for Santa" gifts

 

I'm having a Cookie party next weekend and I made some cookies that may not make it to the party.  I combined two recipes I found and they are soooo good.

Cranberry White Chocolate Oat Cookies

1/2 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup White Sugar
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cup Flour
1 tps Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Oats
1 cup dried Cranberries
1 cup White Chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced Almonds
zest of one Orange

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add both sugars and mix till fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and oats and mix till just combined.  Mix in cranberries, chocolate chips, almonds and orange zest.  Drop spoon sized scoops of dough onto the lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Thanksgiving

I love this time of year. 
I love that it's fall. 
I love that it's a time for family and good friends.
I love that we think a little more about everything we have to be thankful for.  I am so blessed and very aware of it this time of year.

Today I got to spend the day cooking.
You know that's my favorite kind of day.... home and cooking.
I was grateful for good girlfriends that dropped in today to visit for a few minutes.
I was grateful for a little package of Trader Joe's goodies that Jennifer sent me.

 

Among all the usual dishes I cooked for tomorrow I also made a new recipe.  I made it for a treat to take to my neighbor and I I saved a little for us. 

 

 

Spiced Apple Cider Bourbon Caramel

 

2 cups Apple Cider
1 whole Vanilla Bean, Seeds scrapped out and pod reserved
1 whole Cinnamon Stick
1/2 tsp grated Nutmeg
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
6 Tbsp butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
1/2 cup Heavy cream
3 Tbsp Bourbon

In a large sauce pan combine the apple cider, vanilla bean seeds, pod and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil.  Lower to a simmer and let reduce to approx 3/4 cup.  It should be syrupy.
Add in the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt.  Clip on a candy thermometer and cook without stirring until it reaches 240 degrees.  Add in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time and stir till melted .  Remove the vanilla bean and the cinnamon stick.
Remove from heat and add in the heavy cream and bourbon.  Heat on low again and stir until it starts to slightly thicken back up, about 5 min.
Let cool in pan 10 minutes and transfer to a glass jar.  It will firm up as it cools.  Keep refrigerated.  This sauce will last several weeks in the refrigerator.
(if I don't eat it all with a spoon)

I plan on serving it over pies or ice cream.  And I am thankful that I tried this recipe.  This was easy and will make great gifts.

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of great food and people you are thankful for.

This and that and cake

I had friends over last night for a fish fry since we came home from vacation with millions of fish.

It was good but the star of the night was this

A simple coconut cake like you would find at every church pot luck.  But.  It was good!
You'll need to try this and then try not to eat it all...

It falls apart and prevents you from putting pretty pieces on the plate.  That's what makes it so good...

Coconut Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 package coconut pudding mix
1 can Sweetened cond. milk
1 tub Cool Whip
1/2 cup coconut toasted

Bake cake according to directions in 9x13 pan.  When it is done remove from oven and poke holes with the the end of a wooden spoon all over cake.  Mix can of sweetened cond. milk, 2 cups of milk and pudding mix till blended.  Pour over cake.  Refrigerate till cool.  Frost with tub of Cool whip. Sprinkle toasted coconut over the top.

I made a second one today since the first was gone in one night. 

Jennifer came to visit today and earned a big piece of cake by teaching Katie to parallel park!

Earlier this week Kellie made a trip to the mall with friends.  She called me to come get her and to show me what she wanted to buy.  She picked out a very nice kitten the human society had there. 

I explained that wasn't an option since my sister and Jennifer are allergic.  She pleaded, she offered to sleep outside with it, she tried everything.

She choose instead to replace the dead hamster with a new friend. 

Meet "Kitty" the guinea pig.

Kellie is in love, Ellie is jealous and  we found out Jennifer is even allergic to guinea pigs ...

Go make the cake

Ellie endorses it...