Wednesday, September 28, 2011

New recipes

Yesterday I tried out some new recipes.  Both were super yummy.  We started out with an appetizer.  Since my Hubbie sleeps all day long, he doesn't get up until 4.  That's too early to eat dinner, so we have a little snack.  I found this simple appetizer on Pinterest and thought I would share it.

All it is , is crescent rolls rolled with pepperoni and half of a string cheese stick.  I served it with ranch, because everything goes with ranch, ha ha.  Found at dinner with the donnells.  I coated mine with some oil mixed with Italian seasoning.  They were fast and easy. 

Now for dinner I made some roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons.  I loved the soup.  My daughter wouldn't even touch it.  If its not Campbell's chicken noodle, then she wont touch it!

First you roast the tomatoes for 40 minutes, until they are shriveled up and have brown spots. (coat tomatoes with 2 T. oil and salt and pepper)

While those are roasting, just before they are done, chop up an onion and two gloves of garlic (minced) and saute (saute with 2 T. butter and 1 T. oil)  it for about 6 minutes.

Now add one can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth and your roasted tomatoes.  The recipe called for 1 t. thyme but I used dried basil instead.
 
Simmer partial covered for 40 minutes then puree.  I used my handheld.  If you don't have one of those, just use your blender.  Splatter free that way. Then add 1 c. of heavy cream and heat back up. 

Then I quickly made my grilled cheese sandwiches and cut them into little squares.  You end up with this.

Recipe:
3 pints of cherry tomatoes
3 T. oil, divided
2 T. butter (I used margarine)
1 onion
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
4 c. chicken broth
1 t. thyme (I used dried basil)
1 c. heavy cream

Grilled cheese stuff

That's all she wrote!  I'm still dreaming of cooler weather!  Have a good Wednesday!


*Allie 


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

MMMM....Pumpkin

My family loves pumpkin!  I have been pinning pumpkin recipes like crazy lately and yesterday I made a quick and easy pumpkin pie cupcake.  It was so yummy, and gooey and delicious!  The original recipe can be found at baking bites.  Its a mini pumpkin pie with out the pie crust!

I didnt have any heavy cream to make my own whip cream, so I used canned, but it was still yummy.  I topped it with some cinnomon and sugar sprinkle.  I forgot to spray my liners, so it was really messy getting them out of the liners.  If you make them let spray the liners.  And just because I couldnt not let you see the inside I took a bite to show you how it resembles a pumpkin pie  :)
Its not your usual cupcake.  The recipe only makes 12, and I could seriously eat all 12.  Oh and it calls for pumpkin pie spice, which I did not have, but baking bites tells you how to make that as well.  So now I have some extra pumpkin pie spice to use for future baking! 

Here are some more yummy pumpkin recipes I have found.

Pumpkin crunch cake....um yes please

Pumpkin Ginerbread Trifle...put some good use to that trifle bowl that sits unused.

who doesnt love pumpkin scones, especially from starbucks?? These are just like them!

Does anyone have some yummy pumpkin recipes to share??

*Allie 



Sunday, September 25, 2011

Coffee Confessional


This week's coffee confessional is brought to you by adelynSTONE.

1. I havent done any homework. which means my ten math assignments are now twenty, I get my test back tomorrow and I really think I got a bad grade.  And its bugging me big time, I slacked off in highschool, I dont want to be a slacker in college. 

2.  I actually made dinner for my family this weekend, usually I dont because I am just so tired from work.....but I dont do dishes or clean on the weekend.  That waits until my day off, or if I'm lucky and bitch enough the husband will do it for me.  since he is off on weekends.

3. I use my kid as an excuse for work.  Not anything big just, "I cant stay late..I have to pick my daughter up from my moms". In reality I am just so sick of working twice as long because the kids I work with have no work ethic.

4. we are having a bake off contest at work and I am terrified to sign up.  I like to bake but I am my worst critic.  I would be completely mortified if my coworkers thought my stuff was crap as well.  Especially since I have a culinary degree.

Thats all for this week!  What would you confess??

Have fun watching NEW Sunday night shows :)

*Allie  

Friday, September 23, 2011

Currents

Its been nearly a month since I did some currents.  So here we go!


Reading: Other then stuff for school, which have been some interesting short stories and then some terribly boring short stories, I have been trying to read the third book in the hunger games series.  I'm afraid my good reading wont pick back up until school is over in DEC.  I picked some books at borders when they were going out business so that will be read in December!
Laughing: Of course I'm still laughing at my daughter. well not at her but the things that come out of her mouth.  Like a couple of weeks ago she was playing and says "OH.MY.GOD" her father and I were both like EXCUSE ME?!!  She then goes and says "just kidding" because she knew it was wrong.  oh my goodness this child cracks me up!

Listening to: I'm back on my Florence and the machine kick.  and Katy perry's teenage dream.  Its good to listen to while I'm at work.  I really, really want Bon Ivers new CD, well anyone of his Cd's would be ideal.  I really like him right now.

Wearing: I haven't bought anything new in forever!  Still need to lose weight before I even decide to do that.
Watching: So happy the fall shows are on again!  Greys anatomy, vampire diaries, modern family, those are my musts.  Then the new ones are revenge, ringer, the secret circle

Eating: Made a yummy taco salad tonight.  Going to try out a new recipe for roasted tomato soup, cant wait to blog about it :)
Craving: Guacamole.  So excited yesterday I ate some avocados and did not get sick. that made my night!
Getting ready for: the holidays, Zoe's birthday. bummed we couldn't get reso's to eat at the castle. damn my mom for telling her about it! now she is going to be so upset about it.
Working on: homework!  I have my googly eyes wreath to make, I bought a pool noodle to make a big wreath.  Think I am going to go retro with that and do a tinsel wreath.  Magazine Xmas trees, sparkly Xmas light bulbs, and some yummy recipes to try out.  Oct. 9th we are having a bake off at work and donating the proceeds to breast cancer research, so i am compiling a list of goods to bake! 
Whats current with you all??
Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!



Fun for kids

The other day I was perusing the dollar bins at Target and came across these Disney FamilyFun magazine/book for kids.  There was everyday fun foods and then a Halloween one as well.  Of course I bought both and came across this fun pizza dippers recipes I thought I would share with you all.  It also has fun little pizza ideas, using pita pockets, french bread and tortillas.  It would be a fun dinner activities for the kids and the dip they put on there looks delish!

Another fun thing they had, which would not scan for some reason was a sandwich on a stick.  I don't know about you, but I am always buying skewers when I see them.  Not like I use them, but I love food on a stick.  This sandwich idea is cute, you can use cubed cheese, cubed bread, when you get your deli meat, have them cut it a 1/2'' thick and then cube it.  Add some lettuce, cherry tomatoes, maybe some chunk onion if your kid likes that and then have your condiments on the side to dip it in!  And viola, sandwich on a stick!  Add some fun to your kids meals :)
Enjoy!
*Allie  


Thursday, September 22, 2011

I'm dreaming of cooler weather......

Living in the state of Florida when the rest of the U.S. is breaking out their nice warm sweaters, jeans, scarves....gloves...us in Florida are still wearing sleeveless shirts, shorts and flip-flops.  It's the middle of September!  I'm dying to have some chill in the air, that lasts all day long.  I want humidity gone and to stop sweating when I'm buckling my daughter into her car seat.  So until that happens, a girl can dream. 

I made one of my most favorite soups of all times.  Its yummy and just fantastic!  A little different from your mom's homemade chicken noodle soup.  No chopping veggies, actually there are no veggies involved.  Don't get me wrong, I love veggies.  When I first had this soup my aunt made it and put raw carrots and celery with some ranch dip on the table with the soup.  So we can still get our veggie fix.  I'm not a big fan of cooked carrots so that turned out great!

Here is my super easy, super creamy, delicious chicken noodle soup minus the veggies :)

I know its not eye pleasing, I should've added some parsley.  But who keeps parsley lying around all the time?  This soup is a comfort food, I couldn't wait to gobble it up. 

recipe is as follows
12 c. water
8 bouillon cubes
4 c. egg wide noodles
3 c. diced chicken (I just boil my chicken breasts)
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 c. sour cream

Bring water and cubes to a slight boil, enough so they melt the cubes.  Then add the noodles, you don't want to bring it to a roaring boil because the water is going to evaporate and you don't want that to happen.  Add your chicken so it heats up nice and good.  Then add your 2 cans of soup and stir, let that heat up for a bit so the soup blends well.  When that is done just add your sour cream and let that melt as well.  You can use a whisk, but I just let it sit for a bit and melt all together.  Its so yummy, I even have orders from my mom for some bowls for her! 

Here's to wishing for cool weather.....maybe now I'll make some pumpkin bread...yum.


*Allie 


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Coffee Confessional



This post is brought to you by one of my fave bloggers adelynSTONE.  I am a few days late, but Mondays and Tuesdays are my weekends so I'm catching up!

Confessions for this week/month:

1. I have an essay due tonight for my english class.....I have been gathering info for two weeks now and have typed about half a page.  Did not get a majority of it done until last night, with help from a good friend.  Now need to finish it........shhh...dont tell anyone :)
2. I think I am going to go crazy with all this homework I have, working 5 days a week and Zoe doing whatever she feels like and not listening to her parents.
3. I want to throw all my stuff away (except books, decorations and cooking stuff) because I am sick of looking at all our crap and cleaning it.
4. Have absolutly no food in the house and dont know when I will find the time to go grocery shopping!
5. Feels like I have no help!

Join in on the morning confessionals, its fun letting it all out!

*Allie

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Homemade Peanutbutter Cups

Yesterday was my dads birthday.  I never know what to get him.  You know those types, that go out and buy everything that want or need, so then when their birthday and holidays come about, you are totally clueless.  Well I talked to his girlfriend and shes like no sweets.  He is on a diet.  Well then she was like, we are having subs and chips and ice cream cake for his birthday dinner.  I thought to myself, well that's not diet! 

Then a light bulb went off, I found a recipe for some homemade peanut butter cups awhile back from pinterest and bought the ingredients to make them, just never made them.  Now my dad loves Reese's peanut butter cups, so I set to work!  Original recipe found at sweetest kitchen

So all you have to do is take 1 1/2 c. of semi-sweet chocolate.  I used the mini ones and then used some big ones to make up the last 1/2 c.  Add 2 T. peanut butter to it and a pinch of salt.  Put on low, very low and stir.  Stir forever!  My hand was hurting ha ha.
but then you end up with that, so its worth it.  So you get your cupcake sheet and line it with liners.  Add 2t. of the chocolate to each cup and spread it around and up the edges a little bit.
Put this in the fridge for 20 minutes.  I put mine in the freezer.  While you are waiting for it to harden make your PB mixture.  3/4c. PB, 1/3 c. brown sugar and a pinch of salt.  Now add a heaping tablespoon of the PB mixture to the top of your harden chocolate.  Put it back in the freezer.  (its a process)

Yum! I love peanut butter!  So after it hardens, work quickly.  I let mine sit for awhile while I made the container to put them in and it melted so it was hard to spread the chocolate on top.  whoops.  So add 2t. chocolate to top of PB and then back in the freezer to harden.  Once its all done and hard take the paper cups off.....
I think they look better then the store bought!
Some came out funky so...
I had to eat it, and it was delish!
So ever since I found pinterest, I am a saver off all things, tp rolls, tin cans, glass jars......you name it, its in my top cabinet above the stove.  So I had this espresso can from work that I decided to use.  Cept I couldn't leave it saying decaf espresso, so out came the scrapbook paper and modge podge!
 

and present is complete!  It held about 8, which is good because the last 4 were funky monkeys. 

Happy Thursday!



*Allie




Thursday, September 8, 2011

Obsession Thursday-Not your traditional wreaths

This week my obsession is wreaths (Well that and tin cans and chalkboard paint!).  Besides all the crafts I have lined up and homework and housework, I have added more on to my list and that would be wreaths.  I wish I had more doors to display all the ones I want to make! 


I love the eyes on this one!  Such a cute idea.  Now I looked in Joannes yesterday and their googly eyes were kinda expensive.  So I will be hitting up the dollar store for those eyes. 


I love how this looks, you can make little balls of them as well.  I just need to find time to cut ten million felt circle's out :)


Love, love pom poms!


This one is great for halloween also.  She used supplies from the dollar store as well, extra bonus :)


Simple, yet pretty.  I have to say making felt flowers is easy and addicting.  I like the sprigs of pearls in between the flowers on these. 

The ideas are really endless with this one.  You can make your own, instead of buying Styrofoam (because those are pricey) I heard taking a pool noodle and using that.  I will be giving that a try.  If you see a crazy lady standing in front off of the noodles at the dollar store and bending them into circles and standing there with a perplexed look on her face, yeah it will probably be me!

You can cover them up with feather boa's, tinsel garland (for a retro vintage look), fake flowers for a fun spring time wreath, ornaments (which we all probably have an abundance of, I know I do!) 

Once I make some wreaths I'll post them!

Happy Thursday!

*Allie 



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

over abundance of tin cans

I have enlisted my family to save tp rolls and cans for me.  Now I have ten million of each.  So I decided to look up some uses for the tin cans, something fun to do with them.   Instead of just using them for flowers.  Don't get me wrong flowers in tin cans are pretty, but I want fun and useful.  This is what I found.
Cute for a playroom where the kids do arts and crafts.
Now if I was an avid knitter/crotchet'er that would be awesome storage.
You would need a ten can for that (or paint can).  which you can mostly find at restaurants.  If you work at one then that is an extra bonus!
In their instructions you they said to use a drill bit, I read somewhere a long time ago if you freeze water in them, then use a hammer and nail, you would get the same effect.


You can use plain ol' cans or....

paint them, cover them in fabric or scrapbook paper.  you can hold little odds and ends in them, like scissors, pens, pencils, crayons, sugar packets for morning coffee, bread sticks.....like I always say...the ideas are endless.

What would you do with your tin cans?

*Allie 









Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Short Easy crafting

I got some crafts done today, between laundry and cleaning!


First one was inspiration from a pin I found on pinterest.  Here is the original found at oh crafts.
I decided to do Zoe's gum ball machine pink because it matches her room.  I had left over paint from what we painted her room in the last house, so we just used that.

Supplies.  There really isn't much to it.  Got the bowl at the dollar store and the pot at Joannes, along with the little balls.
Zoe added her expert painting skills.
Just hot glued the bowl on and the ball on top.  It's a good holder for all of Zoe's hair ties :)

Onward...........
I got this awesome chalkboard spray paint....and I think I am in love.
Before....
in between...
AFTER!


Now what else can I spray paint?!?


*Allie


Monday, September 5, 2011

Crayon Art

I got so excited when I made this I had to rush on here and post it.  I have been seeing all kinds of pins on pinterest of these crayon art on canvas, so I decided I was going to try it out and hang it over Zoe's big girl bed.  First off I pick up boxes of crayons whenever I go out.  There is something about a new box of crayons that excite me for some reason.  I get Zoe some as well, but I save some boxes for myself.  They are only .40cents.  You cant beat that price.  Then I splurged and bought the box of 64 crayons to get a bigger variety of pinks, purples and greens.  I'm glad I did.  I then went to Joannes fabrics today because I had a gift card and a coupon, and they were havin a big sale.  BONUS!  I got a 3 pack of 11x14 art canvas for 50% off.  So I paid $12.50 for all three.  Not bad considering I was going to glue crayons on it and melt them.  Those canvas' can get pretty expensive.

This craft idea was put on my  dreaming...post, so you can see the original.  I choose to use a variety of three colors.  This is going in my daughters room, which is mainly decorated in pink and green.  So I choose pinks, purples and greens.
(so I was introduced to picnik, which is an awesome photo site.  I decided to play around with my photos for this post)

 I then lined up my colors and hot glued them.  They didnt come out perfect, but this was my first attempt and it's for a 2 year old so its all good.

This was the fun part, it did splatter tho.  So if you attempt this at home make sure you clear a big enough space and put lots of newspaper down (none of which I had...go figure)
TA-DA!
I think it came out cute.  Next time I'm going to do primary colors.

HAPPY LABOR DAY!  Hope everyone had a very relaxing day :)

*Allie 

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