Twins.........again!

Joe would freak out and shoot himself if I was pregnant and certainly if it was twins, again!  Honey, relax, it's twin awards! 

The first award is from Lorie at Rice and Beans and Other Fine Things.  Great blog which I recently found.  She has several desserts that are in my try stack.  She also has some great organizing tips for those of us that need help in that area.  Go by and check her. 

The second award is from Becky at  Satisfying My Sweet Tooth.  With a blog name like that you KNOW she's gonna have a tremendous amount of yummy desserts!  If you missed her brownies week, click here for day one.  I made day four's  Cookies and Cream Brownies, talk about delicious! The recipe made it from the "must try" stack to the ""must make again" stack which should tell you how just good these were.

7 Things I did before...........

1. Worked as a Page at the public Library
2. Attended Lehman's College in NY
3. Worked at BookStop & then transferred to Barnes & Noble  in NYC
4. Worked at the Tax Collector's office
5. Worked at my parent's furniture store
6. Shopped a lot
7. Read  a lot

7 Things I do now..........

1. Work at MMC
2. Cook but especially bake
3. Read alone & with the kids
4. drive the kids to their sports practices and events
5. study & do homework with the kids
6. LAUNDRY
7. Yell at the kids to "knock it off", "STOP", "run", "be quiet",
8. Tell them I LOVE them!

7 thing I want to do.............

1. Be more daring when it comes to baking
2. Get McKenna to let me throw out more junk!
3. Be MORE patient, less yelling
4. Balance my time better
5. Manage our finances better, save more
6. Spend more one on one time with Joe
7. Help my children achieve their full potential & be well rounded

7 things that attract me the opposite sex..........Joe

1. Blue eyes
2. loves me and the kids
3. good with/to us
4. athletic
5. great sense of humor
6. a terrific person
7. works hard

7 favorite foods.............

1. SALADS, no onions or tomatoes please
2. warm gooey marshmallow filled desserts
3. icy cold milk & water
4. Blue Belle ice cream
5. Pizza from NYC served on a piece of wax paper
6. bread w/ real butter
7. Pina Colada smoothies

7 things I say..............

1. Knock it off, stop, be quiet, run, no, okay, I'll think about it
2. I love you, good job
3. Devon, Jalen, McKenna, Joe, Mom
4. Seriously
5. Holy cow
6. Aaahh, man
7. Hi, this is Ingrid from Miller Motorcar

7 awards & tags times 2

1. Syndey from The Crepes of Wrath
2. Julia from Dozen Flours
3. Jin Hooi from Smell and Taste are My First Memory
4. Fran from Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie
5. Cassie at How to Eat a Cupcake
6. Miss.Cupcake.Face
7. Cakebrain from Cake on the Brian
8. Duckie from A Duck in Her Pond
9. Grace from A Southern Grace
10. Janna from Honeyed Hashette
11. Frantic Home Cook
12. Baking Blonde
13. Nella from Peckerwood Gravy Company
14. Jaime from Good Eats 'n Sweets

If you haven't visited any of the above blogs then please do so now.  All of them are wonderful and offer something special!!

LiveJournal Tags: awards

Meme, what's in me purse?

I've never done a meme.  I'm not even quite sure what it is......I'm guess that it has something to do with "me"?

Jin Hooi from Smell and Taste are My First Memory tagged me for a Purse Meme.

Here are the rules.
Find a safe quiet place free of significant others, nosey meme makers, priests, nuns, all things religious and men in general. (If you're a guy just reverse this process to male and tell us about your wallet, tool box, briefcase or metro sexual accessory.)
1. Dump the contents of your handbag in a pile
2. Take a photo of your handbag and the contents
3. Be brave and explain to your fellow bloggers what lurks inside the handbag.
4. Tag others who might want to embarrass themselves
5. Answer these questions:
Describe the contents of your handbag.
What's the most important thing in your handbag?
What's the most embarrassing thing in your handbag?
What's the smallest thing in your handbag?
Is there anything illegal in your handbag?
This meme was started by Mimi, Queen of Memes who thinks up brilliant memes.

Here are the answers to the questions.....

1.  &  2.  Okay, I didn't dump my purse as it goes against my basic natural but here's the shot of what's in it.

3.  & 5.  Here's the list of what's in my purse: 

1. Red lipstick holder
2. Spare key
3. Wristlet, holds all my membership cards & coupons
4. Wallet
5. Paperback book
6. Change purse
7. Sunglass pouch
8. Bobbypin
9. Rice paper skin blotters
10. 2 pens
11. 1 mechanical pencil
12. Info sheet for the Twins'  Duke's TIP SAT & ACT dates
13. Lipliner
14. posted note

5.  The most important thing is my wallet.  The most embarrassing is (I'm not embarrassed) is the post it note which has my stepmom's cell phone number.  I don't have anything illegal.  The smallest thing is a bobbypin!.

4.  Let me see?  Tag you're it:

Janna from Honeyed Hashette & Becky at Satisfying my Sweet Tooth & Leslie from The Hungry Housewife.  can't wait to see what's in YOUR purse!

LiveJournal Tags: MEME

Suppa Club

In a prior post I mentioned how Molly at Batter Splattered had the wonderful idea of getting a group of foodies together to cook a dish that was chosen the previous week by another member.  While our group is still small the past  two dishes have been huge in flavor.  This last one in particular. 

This week's dish, Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot was a chosen by Corinne at Moonlit Knit .  I'll be honest after looking the ingredients over I wasn't certain this was for me but the whole point of my being a part of this club is to push myself out of my comfort zone.  I wasn't  quite sure how it was going to go over with my children but I went for it and boy, am I glad I did!  My photo does not do this dish justice.  

My children absolutely LOVED this! Before they finished with their first serving they were asking for seconds!  Joe and I loved this dish!  I've already given out the recipe to two different people.   Besides being so tasty this was super easy to throw together.  I had it on the table last night within 45 minutes.  I intended to serve it with crusty bread but after the football game I just didn't feel like running to the grocery store to then start cooking after 8 instead of 7:45pm so I just made some Pillsbury biscuits.  I pretty much followed along with the recipe though I did leave out the peas and I added about a 1/2 cup more beef broth (the kids like things saucy). Also, my spice measurements were heaping ones. 

To see how everyone one else did with this recipe please visit Moonlit Knit!  Thanks, Corinne we loved it!

LiveJournal Tags: supper club,sausage

Simple S'mores Bars

Are simply delicious!  These bars are ridiculously easy, too!  It doesn't get  any easier or better.  This another recipe is from  the  The Crepes of Wrath. 

I have actually made these bars three times though the first time I didn't get to take a photo as I made them for Devon's baseball team.  The boys and parents raved about them but didn't leave me one to photograph.  The second time I made these was for lasts month's Operation Baking GALS.  Unfortunately that time my camera was in Greece vacationing at 5 star spa resort for ten days.  (Must be nice! )Anyway I didn't have my camera so I once again was unable to take any pictures and this is one of those recipes that though it sounds good, it looks even BETTER!  With that said once my camera got back from its vacation it was S'mores time, baby!  When I made this these this past weekend I made them at 10:00 at night and had two new taste testers in the way of Devon's football buddies.  When they asked for seconds I figured they liked them.  Did I mention that I whipped these bad boys together in just minutes?  Because I ran out of semisweet chips and only had  bittersweet ones I didn't add the full amount that the recipe required. 

The exact recipe can be found here.  

 Question:  Has anyone heard of S'mores Ice Cream?  Recipe?

LiveJournal Tags: s'mores,bars,chocolate,marshmallows

Oops, my bad!

I don't remember when exactly but a week or so ago I saw on the Recipe Girl's blog these drool-licious photos of Dulce de Leche Apple Bars with Browned Butter Icing!  Now what out of that name doesn't sound yummy?!  No brainer, right?! 
While I like apples I prefer them raw.  I won't turn down a slice of apple pie but it does head the top of my "to make" list so you can imagine how good these looked.  What drew me in was the browned butter icing dripping down slices of her bars and the swirled in dulce de leche.  I had never had dulce de leche before and thought what better way to try it!  Now if you've followed my link and hopped over to check out her photos you might notice a bit of a difference.  I followed her recipe and everything went well until the buzzer dinged and I pulled them out TOO SOON.  I kinda knew it too, but it was 11:30, I had just finished wiping down Devon's pads and helmet, we had to be out the door by 8:20 the next morning, and  I was just so tired!  I figured they would just be on the "moist" side.  Oops, they were moist all right.  Too moist! I salvaged all the pieces along the edge and tossed the undercooked middle over some ice cream.  (YUM!)  Because the bars were so moist I passed on the icing (bummer) and instead just sprinkled a little powdered sugar over them .  The bars were very good and my children  liked them.  Babygirl wasn't fond of the apple chunks in them (didn't stop her from having 2 pieces) but she LOVED the dulce de leche.  As a matter of fact we ALL loved the dulce de leche!  Would I make these again, YES, but with just one basic change, outside of baking them the right length of time, I would leave out the apples and called them Recipe Girl's Dulce de Leche Blondies!

LiveJournal Tags: bars,blondies,apples,dulce de leche,browned butter,icing,frosting

Hip Hip Hoo ~RAYS!

YAY, the Tampa Bay 'Rays are going to the World Series!  While it's not my Yankees at least it's NOT the Boston Red Sox!

LiveJournal Tags: baseball

Another one!

Miss.Cupcake.Face who was one of my recipients for the "I'm a Chocoholic"  Award has returned the favor and given it back to me!  Thank you Miss.Cupcake.Face!  Doesn't just saying that name make you smile and if you go over to her blog she'll also make you laugh! 

I'll make my next selection of chocoholics in the next day or two,so, stay tuned 'cause it could be YOU!

LiveJournal Tags: awards

We are the Champions of

Pop Warner's Division II North Conference!  (no, it's not baseball) Devon's team WON!  This Saturday, his football team, the Winter Spring's PeeWee Grizzlies team won their last game to clinch their division! He scored the winning and only touchdown for his team.  Go Devon!  Go Grizzlies!  We're going to the playoff's, BABY!  Bring it on! 

Nest Sunday is our first playoff game.  It's win or go home at this point.  The team we play is Ocoee and they haven't given up ANY points this season.  It's gonna be tough, it's gonna be a battle, but it's gonna be FUN!  Nothing like cheering on the home team and your favorite player!

Devon's also been mentioned in three separate articles this season in our local paper!  Cool, huh?!  The write ups are generally just a mention that he scored a touchdown.

    Here's a shot of my favorite football player, #44, Devon! 

LiveJournal Tags: football

Finally some books...a lot of books

I'm an avid reader.  I love books and to a lesser extent magazines.  I love crisp new pages and the smell of the new books.  Before I purchase a new book or magazine  I have to look them over to find the perfect one,  pages straight , no bent corners, covers not scratched.  I must look crazy in the store handling all of the books to find the best one.

I generally always carry with me something to read.  I will be honest and say that most of the reading I do is "light" fiction.  I have read and enjoyed some "heavier" stuff but with kids and a super crazy schedule I need something I can pick up and put down with ease.

This past month I've hit jackpot!  I've gotten FIVE different cookbooks and the new Cody McFayden thrill, The Darker Side!  If you haven't read any of his previous two books and you love a good FBI thriller  run to your nearest library or bookstore!  I've also read some other stuff but nothing worth writing to mama about.

I also have 2 more cookbooks that should be here sometime this week!  I've gotten so many in that I haven't had a chance to do more than browse through them quickly. 

Here are the newest additions to my over flowing kitchen bookshelves!

• Luscious Creamy Desserts by Lori Longbotham
• The Brownie Lover's Bible by Lisa Slater
• Deep Dark Chocolate by Sara Perry & Jane Zwinger
• The Modern Baker by Mick Malgieri
• The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet

Do you know the craziest thing about all the cookbooks, I have about 150, most of them about baking?  Is that I hardly make anything out of them! I have become so entrenched in the blogosphere and all that YOU are baking that after I read the cookbook, on my shelf it goes and stays.  Here's another funny thing....some of the recipes I've tried from YOUR blogs have been adapted or taken out of the very same cookbook that is sitting on MY shelf!  How come I didn't see that recipe?  Why?  'Cause it didn't have the awesome photos that yours did!

One last thing my "supplier" is The Good Cook.  Love that site!

LiveJournal Tags: books

Found it..............

Or rather my brother had it In Greece with him on his honeymoon. He says he doesn't know how it got it. He didn't realize I was missing it until he got back and my Mom mentioned to him that my camera was lost.


Thanks everyone for your camera suggestions and all your well wishes !

Betcha didn't know I'm a chocoholic....

Janna from Honeyed Hashette has so graciously passed on to me the "I'm a Chocoholic" Award!   Thank you, Janna!  For those of you who haven't been by her blog hop on over and check her out.  Her previous two posts offers up some yummy cuppycakes, one chocolate and one vanilla!

Now it's my turn to pass along the award.  Drum roll, please...and the winners are ....actually all of you are winners!  I hadn't known until I started blogging what an awesome group of people you are!!!)  Okay, where was I? Yes, the winners are

Julia from Dozen Flours, who if you've read a bit of my blog will know is the mastermind behind those OUT OF THIS WORLD Snickerdoodle Blondies.  Besides the Blondies that my family are just gaga over she is a truly thoughtful and giving person.    I've been very fortunate to get to know her through her blog and emails.  Julia, you're the BOMB! :-)

Ann from Velvet Lava.  I recently came across Ann's blog through FoodGawker or Tastespotting, it doesn't really matter which one as she has a great blog!  The posts I read are well written and too funny.  If her great photos are anything to go by than the recipes are definitely a must try.  For the record Ann  has a Blondie recipe that she claims is delish  but to make sure you use all white chocolate.

Miss.Cupcake.Face!  Here's another blog that is sure to make you chuckle.  She has a wonderful imagination and  the cupcakes she features are drool-licious!  Check out her S' mores Cupcakes!  Yes, you'll be seeing those around here soon!   I love the captions she writes for some of her photos!  Oh, yes and before I forget she is  "missing" a cupcake.  On her blog she has posted a number to call if you've seen him.  Please help her find Mr. Brown E. Cupcake!

Avesta from Check it out!  Check it Out is another blog that I recently stumbled over.  (Not the "stumble" whatever that is but the original stumble as in tripped.)   Avesta features  lots of yummy dishes, both savory and sweet.  Just last night Babygirl and I whipped up one of her dishes, Cilantro-Lime Pepper Shrimp n Scallops (more about the dish tomorrow)! Can you say delicious?  Yes, you can!  Besides the great recipes, did I also mention that she features Kurdish cuisine, Avesta also quickly responded to all of my comments and questions!  Thanks, Avesta!  Check her out! 

Last but not least is Bridget at Bake at 350!  Bridget has some of the most creative and beautiful cookies!  I'm going to pause a moment so you can go take a peek.  Didya see the cookies?  I so admire anyone who has the patience to sit and create such detailed works of art.  Did you also notice that she's also one of the  Baking GALS?  How thoughtful is that? She not only creates lovely cookies but she's shipping them over seas to our much deserved soldiers! Go Bridget!

If you haven't already please take a moment to visit all of the well deserving blogs that I've mentioned.  You won't be disappointed!

LiveJournal Tags: award

New camera in the works

Thanks for everyone's well wishes in locating my camera. Unfortunately, it hasn't made an appearance yet. It will be two weeks Saturday that it's been gone. At this point I don't think it's coming back.

While I may have appeared calm, I haven't been, ask my children and Joe....it hasn't been pretty. I'm not know for my patience. I've made some great stuff and haven't been able to get ANY pictures. Boo-woo! On a side note I have every intention of posting the links to the recipes so you can still swing over and check 'em out. Good stuff people, promise!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel in that I am going to get a new camera, a really nice camera. Here's where YOU can help. There are so many cameras out there; which do you use and why? Please let me know. I know next to nothing about camera's and am hoping that some besides Julia at Dozen Flours takes pity on me. (I have learned that I need to turn the flash off, set it to macro, and shoot during daylight but that doesn't help without a camera.) I appreciate all your help. There is one thing I need the camera to be able to shoot action shots. The Twins play various sports (baseball, basketball, and football) and I've been relying on others to take and give me pictures of my guys. Yes, I know, slacker Mom!

Bad news!

I can't find my new camera. You know the one I just got in July for my birthday? The one I was finally (I think) getting the hang of using. Besides not having it for my photos shoots, ha-ha-ha, it had over two hundred photos of friends and family from my brother's wedding! Keep your fingers crossed I have a few more places to check but it isn't looking good.

A new found love.......

  We  HEART Blondies! 

Until this summer the kids and I had never had a Blondie.  I know crazy, right!? Well, we have since had several kinds and have yet to find one we didn't like.  Our favorite is  the Snickerdoodle Blondies from Julia at Dozen Flours though these Butterfinger Blondies from The Crepes of Wrath are pretty darn good. 

Besides Blondies being so good.  They are easy to make unless of course you mess up printing out the recipe and then leave out a cup of flour but hey that's for another post.  Another plus for Blondies is that the ingredients are a staple in every kitchen. What baker doesn't ever have brown sugar, butter, flour, vanilla, and eggs on hand at any given time in their kitchen?  On top of those basic ingredients Blondies can easily be tweaked to suit everyone's taste!  What's not to like? 

        

If you guys have an awesome "go to" recipe for FAB Blondies leave me a comment with the link.  I'd love to try it! 

 

LiveJournal Tags: blondies,bars,candy bars