Preparing for Mom & Sister's Weekend

I will be hosting Mom & Sister's Weekend this year. It is from October 7th thru October 11th. I was working on the menu for the long weekend. I was going to have "Soup Night" - Beer Cheese and Broccoli Cheese soup (can you tell I LOVE cheese?) I decided to test a recipe for bread bowls that I have had for years!

It's supposed to be so simple to take frozen bread dough and create the bowls. Well they didn't turn out exactly round and they were way too small! I guess I will have to try again! Darn! I will be forced to eat the samples again! Maybe I need to make the soup too!

Be back soon!

Brownie Attack!

Look what happens when you leave the kitchen with a fresh pan of brownies to cool!

Apparently, the "I don't like the edges of the brownies" person in this house attacked and was so kind to leave the edges for the "I love the edges of brownies" person in this house!

Are you a "no edge brownie person" or "love the edges brownie person"??

Hopefully I will be back soon with something crafty or a sewing project! I know I have my fingers crossed!

Be back soon!

Amazing How Drugs Can Help You.......

I finally caved and got some medicine for my sinus infection.



These extra strong antibiotics at least let me enjoy Jessie's Graduation on Saturday from middle school and let me feel human again!

I took a four day holiday weekend and tried to rest and do as little as possible. Son #2's girlfriend Julie did a lot of work for me this past weekend. She de-cluttered and cleaned my dining room!!! And if that wasn't enough, She cleaned and organized my spice rack, my bake center and my open pantry! I feel so much better just looking at the clean organized work she did! Thank you Julie! I love you!! She is coming back in July to help me organize and clean my sewing room! I am soooo lucky!

While I was feeling bad and laying around, I started this book...........really good!

While cleaning the open pantry, Julie found this book, it was published in 1987.


It had several recipes flagged to try. So today after dinner, I decided to try the Monterey Jack Crisps. You just take Monterey Jack cheese, like this, slice and


cut into squares, sprinkle with chili powder or cheyenne pepper (I used chili powder)
and bake at 400 degrees for about 6 minutes. (You almost think they look like they are burning) Drain on paper towels.

They are nice and crispy! I think these would be great with a salad. Jessie said the first taste was okay, but by the third bite she liked them even better! My taste buds still are not back to normal, but I think they are pretty good, but greasy.

Hopefully I will be back to my normal self by Thursday!

Be back soon!

Do Your Bowls Have Names?

Do you see that bowl up there? That is my banana pudding bowl. It is the only bowl I use when I make banana pudding. (The picture shows banana pudding in process)

I didn't really realize that I give my bowls names until I couldn't find my banana pudding bowl. I was tearing apart my bakeware/snack pantry looking for this, all the while telling husband I couldn't find the banana pudding bowl.

He looked at me like I was insane! I guess it is weird! I also have a brownie bowl, a potato salad bowl, a summer salad/pea salad bowl. I could go on but, it sounds too weird now that I am typing it.

Guess I am weird!

Be back soon!

Strawberry Cookies for Mardi Gras

Wednesday night was spent baking strawberry cake mix cookies for Mardi Gras. One of the 8th graders fund raisers for their trip to Washington DC. I lucked out and since my last began with F, I had to bring in a home baked item, packaged individually!

Well as luck would have it, Wednesday was a busy, busy late work day and I got a late start on these babies!

Oh look, there are some more over there..........

And even more!

I only made two matches of these cookies, but it seemed like I would never be through with them! Now for the packaging..............

I put two cookies in a little cup, so they wouldn't get crushed and put a clear goodie bag over it and tied it with a ribbon.


I think Hubby and I went to bed at about 12:30 a.m. He helped with all the packaging and ribbons. No telling when I would have gotten to bed if he hadn't helped!!

They were delicious and seemed to go well at the "Cake Wheel" game at Mardis Gras.

Be back soon!

A New Nightgown....Wardrobe Refashion

I have been really busy! Between tax season and all of Jessie's activities, I haven't had much time to do anything crafty, sewing related, or blogging.

I managed to take a fall down three wooden steps to our family room (due to water on my shoes from the snow) and my tailbone hurts like heck! That has slowed me down! I also feel like I am getting swollen glands. So life isn't a bed of roses for me right now!

I did manage to meek out a new nightgown for me. All this snow and cold weather made me think I needed another sweatshirt nightgown. I have one other of these that I made that was getting too much use with the cold weather. It had to be laundered at some time and then I was left COLD. So I took a grey sweatshirt cut and trimmed, and added some bridal satin to the bottom. Cut the neckline down, added some rosettes left over from my white sweater wardrobe refashion and her it is.................

I made the length tea length (do they still use that term??) It is so comfy!

Jessie laughed hysterically at my creation. Such an opinionated girl! She thought my use of satin with a sweatshirt was tooo weird! Not to be seen by the public! (like I go grocery shopping in my nightgown?)

I would have loved to have done something with the sleeves of this wardrobe fashion..

and I had some good idea's, but I usually sleep with my arms out of the covers and this provided more warmth! I love the satin on my legs and the fleece on the upper part. Did I say this is so comfy??? I am wearing it now!

Super Bowl Sunday gave me a chance to try a new recipe, Buffalo Chicken Dip....

Fantastic dip, but next time I will not use canned chicken!

Made my own recipe up for Spinach Artichoke Dip and it was great!

I will never buy frozen spinach dip again! This probably cost as much as one little TGIF frozen dish to make and I had six times as much! It was delicious!

Then we had the "We always have this on Super Bowl Sunday" classic - Shrimp


In other news, I found this adorable Patent Leather Planner at Dollar General for $3.00

Isn't it adorable! I love anything patent leather! I don't need a planner, so I will probably use it as a notebook, To Do List, whatever.

I gotta go bake some strawberry cookies for Mardi Gras!

Be back soon!

Another Snow Day and Pioneer Woman's "Jalapeno Thingies"

We had a snow day today. When I woke up there wasn't any snow at all. It finally started falling at about 8:00 in the morning. I decided to stay home from work, even though Hubby was going. I spent most of my day cooking and not cleaning out Jessie's closet (avoidance behavior). I made a pineapple upside down cake for Hubby and a pan of walnut brownies.

Then for the big football game tonight I did the prep work for Pioneer Woman's "Jalapeno Thingies". They are fantastic if you haven't tried this recipe, you need to! I usually make half of them with cream cheese and half with cheddar cheese. I didn't have the cheddar cheese so they were all made with cream cheese.

Time consuming, but so worth the effort! I was out of disposable gloves and touched my eye hours after cutting and cleaning the jalapenos and I still think it was worth it! Man that hurt!

We have another snow day tomorrow. School is out. Here is a picture of what Jessie did playing in the snow today.


Look at all that snow!!! I can't believe we got all excited about that little bit! I also can't believe school is canceled tomorrow and Son #2 will miss another day of substitute teaching pay for this!! I may change my mind after I try driving on this tomorrow! If I try driving on this tomorrow!

Be back soon!

This Weekend.......

Well, I didn't get to work on or finish the Detectives Costume this weekend. I was running around all weekend with Jessie's activities on Friday night and Saturday.

Sunday I had to go grocery shopping and laundry. I did make some cookies on Sunday though - Death by Chocolate. Delicious!!!


.......... and to make my husband happy, I made a batch with some walnuts.

While putting some things up today, I found a project from about two years ago that I need to finish. I can finish this project while watching the news, so I brought it downstairs to work on during the week.

Hopefully I will be able to show you a completed item tomorrow.

I have another busy week with Jessie's cheerleading. Besides practice they are having a competition on Wednesday night.

Be back soon!

Rebecca's Baking

I had to show you some pictures of my stepdaughter, Rebecca's recent baking .

Cupcakes......

(Mint chocolate chip cupcakes!)

How cute are these rainbow cupcakes?

Those are all cute and delicious, but.....................look at this!

My favorite.............Chocolate!

Didn't she do a great job on decorating these! She can certainly bring one of these over any time! Just so I can add my review of flavor to this blog! I am sure it is delicious, but just to make sure...............I think I need to taste it!

How I Spent Friday Night

Baking Lemon Cookies.....................


and more lemon cookies.......................

To be sold at Jessie's play "Godspell Jr." today and tonight. I have seen the rehearsals, I am sure they will do Great!

Be back soon!

I would like to thank my family for .........

While I had my family visiting this past weekend, we celebrated my sister Vicki's 40th birthday. We had taco's and burritos for dinner and the birthday cake I made......................well not much was eaten because of how much dinner we had.

I have not made this cake in about 15 years. Yellow cake with buttercream frosting. My Mom told me Vicki - the birthday girl would love this. It turns out I love it too! I think only 3 pieces were eaten for the party, one little piece the next day, and this is all that is left of this cake now.

My husband hasn't eaten any, Jessie hasn't eaten any. Guess who ate the rest? So I would like to thank my family for the extra ten pounds I gained this week (you could have taken some with you when you left, or at least eaten more of it!).

Apparently, deprivation made me go berserk! This is what is left of the cake and I know it will be gone when I wake up for my 2:00 a.m. feeding!

What I have been doing and not doing!

I posted a family favorite appetizer recipe on my kitchen blog. You really need to try these! People will love you if you bring these to a party! I have received rave reviews on this recipe!

I will also be posting my sausage ball recipe tomorrow. Just for my son Chris. He calls me every time he wants to make them, for the ingredient list and the amounts.

Basketball for J is getting in the way of my "Creating" time! Hopefully I will have something to post tomorrow. I did have a great thrift store find while J was at basketball, so I shouldn't complain! I will show you that tomorrow.


Time to go fold some clothes and go to bed!