Oh, where has the time gone...

My beautiful baby girl went to the Prom last night. Where has the time gone? Just yesterday I remember her running up the driveway after getting off the bus. Sigh.....

Chirp, Chirp..

I think that's the sound baby chicks make. I've loved making different kinds of cupcakes for a while now, but I've been dying to make some cake pops. I've made the traditional cake balls in different flavors, but they just didn't have the pizazz of cute cake pops. I found Bakerella's website a long time ago and I even attempted to make the cupcake cake pops without success so I gave up. My dad was in town visiting this past weekend and we went to our usual stomping grounds Barnes and Noble. I thought, "Let me at least look at Bakerella's cake pop book I have been salivating over...." Well, needless to say the book came home with me. I had a cake mix in the pantry and whipped that up and impatiently waited for it to cool down. I made the cake balls and dipped them in just plain 'ol chocolate to see if I'd have success with at least the coating. I did, so I had to wait until my day off today to run out and get the rest of the items to try one of the recipes in the book. Well, about an hour after I got home this is what I finished up with...

Now I realize that my little chickadees are not exactly the most round in cake pop form and the pics are not the brightest due to the nasty weather, but I am pretty proud of the outcome. The hard part will be eating them since I don't want to!

Yummy Layered Salad Recipe...

I recently received two different magazines in the mail. My youngest did some type of program at the beginning of the school year and it looks like my family donated their magazine subscriptions to me (it is much appreciated!). As I was looking through the Southern Living mag I noticed a pic for Southwest Layered Salad. Looked yummy so I hopped on-line to search for the recipe. I printed the recipe earlier last week and finally made it to the store to pick up the ingredients yesterday. Let me tell you this was soooo good~at least in my opinion. It was hard to wait the two hours in the fridge (and I may or may not have eaten it before the two hours because I am impatient like that). I couldn't resist! The only thing I did differently from the recipe is omit the cornbread as I am not a huge cornbread fan. It turned out wonderfully anyway!

Here's the website info:http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000642233

Hope everyone enjoys!

Yummy Stuffed Pizza Rolls

Today I attempted to make some stuffed pizza rolls from the Our Best Bites website/blog.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/06/stuffed-pizza-rolls.html

Let me tell you they were so good I didn't even get the chance to take pictures as they were gobbled down so quickly! On the blog they used hawaiian pizza toppings, but I used the basic pizza standby-pepperoni and cheese. (I did sneak in a few with some chopped up chicken breast I had in the fridge.)These were so easy to make and I can see us definitely making them again in the near future. As I am typing this the kiddos are already planning for the next batch!

New Year's Day 2011

So here it is, New Year's Day already. How did 2010 go by so quickly? In the grand tradition that is New Year's Day we made our black eyed peas. I didn't follow a specific recipe of any sort I just threw together some things in a pot and it turned out pretty yummy! Here's what I did:

4 cans black eyed peas (I admit I am a total slacker and didn't use the dried version)
6 slices of bacon
1 medium onion
3 large carrots
3 stalks of celery
4 cubes chicken bouillion
Approx 4 cups water

First I cut up the bacon and fried it in a dutch oven. After it was nice and crisp I put in the chopped onion, carrots and celery and cooked until tender. While those were cooking I opened and drained each can of beans and rinsed them. Then I added them to the pot. Next step I added approx 4 cups of water and brought it to a boil. When it started to boil I added the bouillion cubes to the pot and let simmer until cooked through.
When we have beans I always like to have some crunch or add other items when I go to eat them. Usually I add some tomatoes, but today I added some jalapenos and fresh cilantro instead. Really it's because I forgot the tomatoes, but I won't admit that part to the hubby.
Happy New Year!

Next!

Okay, so Halloween has officially come and gone. I was such a slacker with the Halloween and fall decorations. (The true reason being is that the hubby didn't get the decorations out of the attic. We really need to get some stairs to the attic and then I can handle it myself-until then, I have to rely on him!)
I've been working on some gifts for the holidays already so I am definitely in Christmas mode. I can't share too many details just yet, but boy is my brain over-loaded with ideas! The pic shows just a taste of what I've been working on...

Uneventful Halloween...

Halloween was very uneventful for us this year. Our middle child was the only one to go trick or treating. He's techinically got one more year after this year. Our youngest has never truly had a love for Halloween. We tried to encourage him to go to just a few houses, but we couldn't convince him. Instead, he stayed home with his older sister and her boyfriend to help out the candy. This is what my house looked like that night~no tricks or treats here!