I'm Moving!

The time has finally come for me to move... I have fallen in love with wordpress and out of love with blogspot. :) So, come visit me at my new address!

http://lovesweetlove.wordpress.com/

Christmas Time is Here At Last!

I LOVE Christmas time. It's not just the gifts that people give me, but it's more about people's attitude during this time of the year. Everyone seems so happy around the holidays. People don't seem to let "little" things bother them as much. People always have a smile on their face and a bounce in their step. Everyone gets together around the holidays so you get to see all your extended families. And everything is always decorated so pretty with Christmas decorations. Christmas decorations will make even the ugliest of houses look wonderful.

Sooo, last night John and I set up our Christmas tree!

Our family portrait. John set the camera on a dinner tray and used the timer function... Didn't he do a good job! Zerbie was so sleepy, she wouldn't even sit up, she just kept laying on me, almost pushing me over.

The Write Plate

I've been busy working a couple of craft shows selling some plates for a company out of Dallas, TX. Several of my friends asked me to put some pictures of them on my site so here they are.

The great thing about these plates is this is all the same plate! (Well, the Santa hat plate is actually my large platter, but you get the idea). You just write on these plates with a dry erase marker, coordinate the ribbon, and you have a brand new plate. Catherine (the lady who owns the company) is a genius. If you want to get your own plate you can go to http://www.thewriteplate.com/.

Here is my Thanksgiving plate.


Here is my plate at work. This is what's on it right now.

This is my plate at home... Nothing says Christmas like a countdown. :)

The Nativity Plate.

Black Friday!

Since I have never been to the crazy Black Friday sales, I thought this was the perfect time. I was in the market for a new digital camera and there were many onsale. We went to Walmart on Thanksgiving to look at a couple to see which one I liked best. I found the perfect camera, then we went back home to see who had it on sale.

While driving home, we decided to go look at Best Buy to see if anyone was in line yet. Low and behold, there were! At about 1:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day there were about 20 people in line! Crazy!

After many hours of persusing the the sales. We went to bed. At 5:00 we got up early to go to some stores. The stores weren't nearly as crowded as I thought they would be.... but we didn't go to Best Buy or Walmart early though... I got a couple of sweaters at Old Navy, oh yea, and the shiny new digital camera!! And Joe and Patti (John's parents gave us money for the camera to be an early Christmas gift, woo hoo!! Thanks Joe and Patti!)

Here is the very first picture from the new camera... don't pay attention to my grossness, it was way to early to shower when we left the house to go shopping.

Fun at the Garden

For Thanksgiving, John and I went down to Louisiana to spend some time with his extended family. On Friday evening we decided to go out to the garden. The garden is where John's grandmother grew up and where they started to raise their family. Their house has since burned down, but the land is still full of memories for his entire family.
If you look closely at the tree, you can see bullet holes. This was the "target" tree they used when they shot guns with their Grandpa.

There are "grape vines" that grow from many of the trees. They pull/cut the vines down and make wreaths with them. (That's why John has the machette in his hand.)Since don't have a wreath from the garden, this was the perfect reason to make one.

John had all the hard jobs, some of the vines were stuck in the tree pretty good.

On the way back to Grandma Weaver's house we stopped at a Christmas Tree farm to get her a tree... but they all had flimsy branches so we went home with just this cute picture.

Dump Cake, yumm

My dear friend Katy suprised my at work yesterday by bringing me a "piece" of her dump cake. I have never had a dump cake before, but it was quite tasty. Check out her blog for the recipe. http://tickle--me--pink.blogspot.com/2007/11/dump-cake.html

Thanksgiving Recipes

For the story on why I made Thanksgiving already, scroll down to the previous post. :)

Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way
(Recipe from allrecipes.com, picture from me)
INGREDIENTS:
1 (12 pound) whole turkey
6 tablespoons butter, divided
4 cups warm water
3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons dried minced
onion
2 tablespoons seasoning salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Discard the giblets, or add to pan if they are anyone's favorites.
2.
Place turkey in a Dutch oven or roasting pan. Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on both sides between the skin and breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat.
3.
In a medium bowl, combine the water with the bouillon. Sprinkle in the parsley and minced onion. Pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt over the turkey.
4.
Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.

Southern Style Dressing

(Picture from me)

5 cups Cornbread, crumbled ( make sure to pack it tight when measuring)

8 cups Bread, dried and cubed

1/2 cup Butter, melted

1 cup Onions, chopped

1 1/2 cups Celery, chopped

4 eggs

1 quart Chicken Stock

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

2 teaspoons Salt

2 1/2 teaspoons Sage

Saute onions and celery in butter. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Easy Turkey Gravy
(Recipe from allrecipes.com, picture from me)

INGREDIENTS:
5 cups turkey stock with pan
drippings
1 (10.75 ounce) can
condensed cream of chicken
soup
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:
1.Bring the turkey stock to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in soup, and season with poultry seasoning, pepper, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. Reduce heat to low, and let simmer.
2.Warm the milk in the microwave, and whisk in the flour with a fork until there are no lumps. Return the gravy to a boil, and gradually stir in the milk mixture. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened. Be careful not to let the bottom scorch.

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie
(Recipe from the back of the pumpkin pie can, and allrecipes.com, picture from me)
INGREDIENTS
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 (12 fluid ounce) can NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

Apple Pie
(recipe from Betty Crocker, picture from me)

INGREDIENTS

pie crust for 2 layers

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

5 cups thinly sliced peeled apples (3 large)

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crust, roll out, and lay in pie pan, except trim overhanging edge of bottom pastry 1 inch from rim of plate.

2. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar, the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in large bowl. Add apples; toss. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter.

3. Roll remaining pastry; (I cut out little apple shapes before I put it on the pie. You need to have some hole to let the steam out. If you don’t want to cut out shapes, you can just cut some slits with a knife) seal the edges completely.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice is bubbly.

Thanksgiving! (Just a couple of weeks early...)

This past weekend I had "Thanksgiving" at my house. We are going to Louisiana to visit John's grandma and extended family on Thanksgiving, but we still wanted to have a dinner with John's mom and step-dad. I'm busy this weekend, so we decided to do it yesterday (Sunday).

Saturday I went to the store and bought a turkey (I know, very last minute...) and all the fixin's. I was going to just make an apple pie, but John put on his sad face and asked me to pretty pretty please make him a pumpkin pie, so I obliged. I made the pies on Saturday so we would have the oven free on Sunday for the turkey and dressing. Denise (John's mom) brought mashed potatoes, greenbean casserole, and rolls.

My first ever turkey!

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

John and I

Salsa Chicken

Several of my online friends have been raving about Salsa Chicken. There are 2 versions of this recipe floating around; I thought John would like this one the best since he can wrap it in a tortilla or eat it with chips.

This recipe was posted on http://crazydeliciousfood.wordpress.com/?s=salsa+chickenRecipe from sparkpeople.com

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts - put in frozen if you're worried about overcooking
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 16 oz. jar salsa
1 can corn
1 can rinsed and drained black beans
1 cup reduced fat sour cream

Directions:
Mix soup, salsa, and taco seasoning together and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Before serving, shred the chicken, add corn, beans, and sour cream. Cook for a few more minutes until everything is heated through. Serve with tortilla chips or in a tortilla.

I forgot to go home at lunch to put this in the crockpot. So I boiled the chicken on the stove until it was done. Then I had John help me shred the chicken. Then we put the chicken and everything else in a skillet on the stove, warmed it on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Make sure you stir it every so often so it doesn't scorch. We sprinkled some cheddar cheese on top also.

John loved this recipe. He said to make sure I know where this recipe is so I can make it again.

Fun Evening Snack

I love fall. Nothing says fall quite like carmel apples. A lot of evenings I'll slice up an apple and heat up some carmel dip. I usually get the low-fatIt's a cheap snack and I feel like I'm being somewhat healthy since it is an apple. :)

New Fall Decorations!

One of my close friends, Katy, always has her table decorated so cute for different holidays and seasons. Since we received a large amount on Linen's-n-Things gift cards after the wedding, I think we will use the remaining to buy table decorations. Here are the first decorations purchased for Fall/Thanksgiving. The placemats are reversible which is a bonus. The metal food things were too cute to pass up. LNT didn't have any candles that fit in the holes, so I bought some from Pier 1 (also using a wedding gift card). So, I have a brand new table with $0 out of pocket. :)

Sugar Cookies!

Decorating sugar cookies is one of my favorite things to do. There is something relaxing about icing the cookies that I love. I went to my friend Katy's house to make the cookies. I was feeling lazy earlier in the day so instead of making sugar cookie dough from scratch, I just bought a tube of Pilsbury. It was on sale and I have a coupon so it was only $1.50 which is probably pretty close the cost of homemade. Katy made cream cheese frosting for the cookies. When I got to her house, she told me she forgot that she didn't have a rolling pin, so we had to make due with a Pam can.

We colored the icing in many different colors.

After many hours of decorating we were finally finished. Here is my cookie family. John is on the left in the orange shirt, Zerbie is in the middle, and I am on the right in the pink dress.

My grandpa is in town and asked if he could have some of the cookies so I made a couple espcially for him. He likes to buy old cars and fix them up. So I made his maroon car and yellow car.

Here is a plate of our wonderful cookies. The airplane is a Beta Theta Pi airplane. That is the fraternity the John and Katy's boyfriend Kyle are in. Katy loves pink and is from Texas and loves pink so I made her a pink cowboy hat. The heart is a world.

Another yummy plate of cookies. Katy tried to make a palm tree, but it looks more like a stalk of celery. :)

Here we are after the cookie making adventure.

My BGEX Gift!

Here is my gift from the BGEX (Baked Goods Exchange for all you non-JKnotties out there). She made Kahlua Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Fudge Butter Cream Frosting with Halloween Sprinkles. Yum....


Kahlua Chocolate Chip Cake

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 oz.) Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1 small (1 oz.) instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt (or sour cream)
¼ cup canola oil
⅓ cup skim milk (or buttermilk)
1 large egg
3 large egg whites
⅓ cup Kahlua liqueur
⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips (some like a few more)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat a 9x13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with cocoa.
Place all ingredients, except chocolate chips, in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer for 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted int eh middle comes out clean. Cool before cutting.

Fudge Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
¼ cup shortening
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup hot fudge topping
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Cream together the butter with the shortening.
Sift the cocoa with the confectioner’s sugar and add to the creamed mixture. Mix together adding 1 tablespoon at a time of milk to keep the mixture smooth, don’t add more than ¼ cup of milk.
Add the hot fudge topping and the vanilla. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Cooking Class!

Last night I went to a cooking class at the local vo-tech. The class was Holiday Desserts and Candies. We learned abunch of different recipes. I didn't really learn any new techniques, but it was still a lot of fun. I went with 2 of my coworkers and one of their wives.

The recipes got are

• Pie Crust,


• Elegant Pumpkin-Walnut Layered Pie,


• Festive Cranberry Pie,


• Irresistible Pecan Pie,


• Buckeye Candy,


• Cheesecake Truffle Bombs,


• Peanut Brittle

My Irresistable Pecan Pie

In the middle are Buckeyes, the chocolate squares, circles with white chocolate drizzle are Cheesecake Truffle Bombs, and the other 2 things are Peanut Brittle.

French Dips

Last night I made one of the easiest meals ever, French Dips. I made this recipe about a month ago and just put it in my freezer until I was ready for it. I took it our of the freezer at lunch and put it in the crockpot (still frozen). Cooked on high for 6 hours and it was finished. I bought a bag of frozen Pilsbury French Rolls, bake in the oven for 10 minutes and you're done!

French Dips

1 roast (doesn't matter what kind)

2 cans beef broth

1 can french onion soup

I cut my roast in half and trimmed off the fat. Then I placed 1/2 the roast, 1 can beef broth, and 1/2 can french onion soup into a large ziploc bag. Then I placed both bags into the freezer. (Make sure you label the bag with what it is and how to cook it). Cook from frozen state about 6 hours on high in a crock pot. When it's finished shred the meet and serve on french rolls. Strain the remain broth that's left in the crock pot for your au jus. Yum!!

Family Signs

I'm sure everyone has seen the "family est." signs on ebay and whatnot. I didn't really want to spend $30+ on it, so I asked my grandpa to make me one. He went above and beyond what I thought he would do. We used a piece of cedar and engraved the words on the plank. It's gorgeous!

Out With the Old, In With the New!

So, after marriage, most women get the "post wedding chop." I didn't think I was going to fall into this trend, but alas I have succumbed to it.... Here is what I looked like yesterday morning. (I put my hair in a ponytail after this, so don't pay attention the the horrid straightening job I did yesterday morning.)

Last night I had my hair cut at the local vo-tech's cosmetology department. Kara, has been in the program for almost a year. She did exactly what I wanted. Let me know what you think... Surprise Mom!! :)

Marshmellow Goodness

One of my friends Nikki (http://www.illtakethatrecipe.blogspot.com/) posted a homemade marshmellow recipe. All my friends raved at how good they were, so I decided I needed to make them. They were right, they are way better than store bought.

Homemade Marshmallows
.75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cups light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Line 9 x 9-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, to high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, add in the vanilla extract beat to incorporate.Scrape marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly (Lightly greasing your hands and the spatula helps a lot here). Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal.

Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.In a shallow dish, combine equal parts cornstarch and confectioners’ sugar.

Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners’ sugar mixture. Store in an airtight container.