Soup!

So here in good ol' Florida we have had a few nights of 60 degree weather.  Crazy!  I know!  It's Christmas time and we are still in shorts and t-shirts.  I miss jeans, sweaters and closed toe shoes!  So one night Zoe and I were pinning and I found a Wisconsin Cauliflower soup.  I love cauliflower.  Have I ever used them in a soup?  Nope, but I got a head for $.99 (cheap, I know!).  So I went out and bought some cheddar cheese and we made some. 

Zoe is my helper in the kitchen, she is an expert stirrer!  The soup was super easy and didn't take long at all.  The original recipe can be found at Utah deal diva.

It was a nice thick soup.  Good to keep you warm on a cool night.  I used all cheddar cheese (and I didn't measure, so I am sure I used more then its called for). 

Finished product!

 

Does anyone have some good soup recipes they want to share?

 

*Allie

Facebook

Hello All!  Its been super busy around here, finals, christmas parties, christmas shopping.....I'm exhausted!  But I have some fun crafts planned and will show you all in a post soon!  But for now I made a facebook page!  Yay!  Finally got around to doing it.  So look to the right of this post and click the Like button! 

Hope you all are enjoying this holiday season!

*Allie 

Confessions

This week I am confessing to be completely out of it!  I NEED a vacation!  I thought I did stupid things before having coffee in the morning, no.  I have been doing stupid things repeatedly with copious amounts of coffee and caffeine in me!  I am so happy that school is almost over.  I have some assignments to do for computer and an extra credit exam and then a math exam tonight, then a English exam tomorrow night.  I am really freaking out about the math class.  I have complained all semester about the teacher and really I just feel stupid, like why cant I retain this stuff.  O wait I know, because I wasn't taught it!  Doing some example problems on the board is not teaching!  Then when I look in the book to teach myself its like in another language.  I know I am not stupid and my last two math classes I aced but this time I am just having a hard time!  I have been stressed to the max with that class and writing 4 papers this semester.  I give young college students cred b/c when you get my age and have a full time job as a mom and working full time going to school is NOT easy.  It will take me years (more then 2) to get an associates!  But its OK, slow and steady wins the race right?? 

Last night we got our Christmas tree.  we cant afford a lot this year so we went to walmart.  a small 5-6 footer was $19.88, but what do you know...its only Dec. 5 and they are out of them!  What did people do buy trees Nov. 26th??  Hello, its a real tree, lights and dead trees don't mix people!  I usually wait until 2 weeks until Christmas to get one, but I am having a work party at my place and I have to be decorated (add that to the list of stresses!).  That and my daughter is all about Christmas this year!

So while getting the tree, they had a bunch of bikes out in the garden center and what does Zoe do?  Climb right on a big girl bike and start riding down the aisle....did I get teary eyed?  Damn right I did.  My little girl is growing up WAY too fast.  So I guess Santa is getting a nice new blue huffy bike this year!  It was comical watching her and my hubby riding up and down the aisle b/c Zoe wasn't watching where she was going and knocked the bikes down.  I'm talking domino effect.  That was fun :)

So those are my confessions this week, what are yours?  Linking up with adelynSTONE.

*Allie 

Feature Blogger : Melissa

Hello All!  This is my first ever feature!  This lovely lady Melissa, aka Molly Dobbins is a good friend of mine.  We met online thru our love of anything twilight!  Both of us being twilight moms in our twenty's.  After realizing that we both love twilight, along with a few other lovely ladies that I consider good friends, we all realized we like to craft! 

Melissa is a very talented knitter/crocheter.

"I guess I have been the crafty type pretty much my whole life. As a child I loved art class more than anything. When my mom went to local craft shows I BEGGED to tag along. I guess I just love making things and creating. The crochet thing started years ago when my Nana taught me. At the suggestion of a friend I tried knitting and soon became addicted to that. I also sew which is something I got into years and years ago when my mom first taught me to hand sew."

You can find Melissa's Blog right here When I grow up I wanna be......  You can find some awesome recipes, great crafts and cute pictures of her lovely children!

Other things Melissa has been up too lately.

"Unfortunately I haven't been blogging a whole lot lately :(. In the absence of blogging I have been busy volunteering at my daughters school. It's been a wonderful experience and I love seeing my DD in her school environment.
On the crafting side I've been spending most of my time planning my handmade Christmas gifts and knitting. I just finished a knit head wrap/ ear warmer for myself and I couldn't be more happy with it.
As the colder weather has set in I find myself cooking and baking more and more. I have found tons of new recipes on Pintrest and I recently gave two a try; Chicken Parmesan Crescent Rolls and Pizza Casserole. The crescent rolls were okay. With a few tweaks I bet I could make them more to my family's taste :) The pizza casserole on the other hand was FANTASTIC!! My family couldn't get enough of it :)."

Very Cute Melissa!

Picture of it w/o being worn below

(links to those recipes will be at the bottom of this post!)

I have had the privilege of receiving a knitted hat by Melissa.  I had been looking in store, after store trying to find a hat like this one.  Bigger then a beany, but hangs in the back to hold your hair.  The ones in the store just didn't do it for me.  So when I saw Melissa pin this hat, I was like oooo can you make that??  Shes like yes I can, what color would you like.  I was beyond excited to receive it in the mail!  I love it!  I wear it all the time, its great for when you really don't feel like doing your hair, you just throw it on and for it to be homemade just makes it even more awesome!

So first I tried to take the picture myself......didn't really work out (yes that is a forks shirt, I got it while vacationing there a couple years ago!)  Then I enlisted the hubby and well this is the best I got!

I love it, its comfy, it hides my bad hair days and its comfy! 

Here are the links for the awesome recipes Melissa has made recently:

chicken parmesan crescents

pizza casserole (I have to say I have this pinned, and it looks absolutely delish!)

headband ear warmer (free pattern!)

So go over to Melissa blog and send some love, she is a wonderful mother, awesome crafter, talented writer and a great friend!

*Allie 

Biscuits, biscuits, biscuits!

Ever get tired of buying biscuits and just using them as biscuits?  Does that make any sense?  You buy biscuits to have biscuits right?  Well I usually just make my biscuits with Bisquick and rarely buy canned biscuits, but they were on sale and now I have biscuits coming out of my ears.....so I tried a couple of new recipes!

First one is a mini calzone.  I honestly can not remember where I found this idea.  All I did was roll out a biscuit and added some yummy fillings.  Ricotta, mozzarella and parm cheese with some pepperoni and black olives. Mix it all together and add a heaping tablespoon to the middle of the biscuit and fold over.  Pinch the sides and your done!  Bake for how long the package says.  I added a couple of minutes so the insides were nice and warm.  I heated up some marinara sauce to serve with it.

 

All sealed and ready to bake!

All done!  Nice little dinner to serve with some salad and you are good to go!

Last night I made a crockpot pizza.  Cooking Nuggets had this awesome recipe.  I just looked at her pics.  So I don't have the exact recipe.  If you want that just visit her site :).  I took pics along the way of what I did.  The house smelled so yummy, who doesn't want a house smelling like pizza??

So first what you do, is dump a jar of pizza sauce on the bottom.  Then plop your fillings on top of that.  I did a layer of pepperoni all pretty on top of this, not pictured.  (I just woke up from my one nap a week so I didn't feel like chopping up my black olives!)

So the original recipe the lady just pinched off quarter sized biscuits.  I cut mine into six parts and then threw them on top in an orderly fashion.

Now that, that is done, turn your crockpot on high for 2-3 hours or low 4-5 hours. 

This is after two hours.  The biscuits got nice and brown so i topped it with mozzarella and some cheddar I had left over.  Put the lid back on and let it cook for 15-30 minutes more.

Cheesy goodness!

Look at that!  Its like an upside down pizza!  I could not wait until I got home from school to eat this!  It was yummy! And the best part was the sauce didn't make it soggy at all!

I was thinking this morning of other variations that I want to try.  BBQ sauce with red onion and chicken, pineapple and ham, veggie deluxe, maybe a white chicken pizza.  The ideas are endless!

So anyone in the mood for pizza?

*Allie 

a little bit of lately's

I was over at one of my favorite blogs today and she posted a lately.  I did a couple before and thought: hey why not do one now.  I can put homework aside for now.....check out retrohipmama's lately over here.

reading: a book called "the next big thing" its about an overweight lady that signs up for a reality show to lose weight.  Its kinda like bad girls club, cept they aren't bad girls, just fat girls. not bad

obsessing: lets see....I have been stressing over school, and obsessing over thinking over math problems and research papers.  I have been making wreaths lately. a post will come soon on those.  I have been at Micheal's a lot lately getting paper to make coasters.  Cant wait to start those!  I have tried a few new recipes that came out good, just haven't recorded them

listening to: BREAKING DAWN SOUNDTRACK! In honor of breaking dawn coming out, I have been listening to it non-stop.  absolutely love it.  Good love songs, and the Bruno mars song, ahhhh! My daughter is getting sick of it. he he

baking/making: nothing lately :(  I did make a yummy corn and potato chowdah.  It was yummy!

looking forward to: breaking dawn premiere tonight!  cant freaking wait!  I really cant wait until this semester is over.  I am so over school.  Looking forward to Christmas this year.

want to accomplish: all my crafts!  so I can sell them! 

watching: the vampire diaries, greys anatomy, the secret circle. those are on my dvr weekly! also pan-am and happily ever after

missing: a life w/o homework! 

Pretty Storage containers made out of household items!

So on my break in October I found some great ideas on pinterest.  One was a paper storage holder made out of a cereal box.  Well I had plenty of those (cereal boxes), so I got to it.  Didn't take me too long, well after I cut up the wrong size box (note: you want to use a smaller box, bigger is not always better, he he)

Here is what it originally looked like:

Just a few cuts, some glue, some pretty scrapbook paper and embellishments and this is what I made....

 OK so maybe the paper placement isn't the best, but it sure does look cute!  The R is for our last name.

 Just because I can, here is another view :)

I love this paper!  It came in a pack that all matched, so what is better then that, its already all matched up for you!  We use it on our desk to hold our bills and odds and ends papers!  We love it!

You can find the tutorial here at katydid and kid.

Now we all know I have ten million cans.  So one morning with the help of my daughter, we made a pen holder, well it holds usbs, staples, markers,  and antibacterial on our desk.  My daughter helped me pick out the paper (scrapbook paper) and then while I cut and glued she told me where to place everything.  This is what we came up with....

Zoe loves pink and purple, so pink and purple it is!

This sits right next to our box on the desk, doesn't match but we aren't a matchy family!

So has anyone else made some awesome storage bins out of trash? 

*Allie