Grasshoppers and Butterflies

Murphy's Steakhouse

The girls and I went to Bartlesville, OK today with my parents to see the grandparents and to go to lunch.  We went to Murphy's Steakhouse which I highly recommend (but not for the steak).  If you are ever in town you must (MUST, I COMMAND YOU!) get the Hot Hamburger (gravy over all).  I was a little skeptical at first but it was so good!

It is quite small but I believe it is still family owned and the service is great!

After lunch we drove around Bartlesville and visited where my dad grew up and a few other places which I remember going to as a child (some of which no longer exist).  It is funny to see just how quickly things change over the years.

The embroidery/sewing pictures will have to wait because I am in Tulsa visiting with the parents and won't be back home until tomorrow!

Canning Success

I have been wanting to do some canning for awhile and I finally did it.  Wal-Mart had peaches on sale for $.68 a pound so I spent $5.00 and tried my hand at making peach butter.  I cooked the peaches overnight in the crock-pot with all the sugar and spices and then blended it all together this morning.  Then I sterilized the jars, filled them up and processed them in a canner for ten minutes.  As they cooled the lids popped signaling that the jars were sealed and done.  The batch made 7 half pints (two of which have already found new homes). 

The peach butter turned out so yummy!  It is supposed to last for up to a year so we will see.  My mom is going to give me a pressure canner so I can do vegetables and other stuff.  I hope to grow my own veggies next year and then can them.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

I was going through my recipes and ran across one for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake so I decided to give it a try.  First of all, if you know me then you know that I love just about any food containing chocolate and peanut butter.  Second of all, YUM!  It was super easy to make too.

It doesn't have that many ingredients as you can see and it goes together quickly.  Scroll down for the recipe if you want it!

 

Doesn't it look absolutely yummy???

Make a Smilebox recipe

Oven Baked Parmesan Potatoes

This is actually a recipe of my own.  I have made them a few times and my daughters love them.

Oven Baked Parmesan Potatoes

10 medium potatoes (cubed)
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup Parmesan Cheese (divided)
1 Tbsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a 9x13 casserole dish combine all ingredients except for 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese (reserve for last step).  Mix well and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and give potatoes a good stir.  Re-cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and stir one last time.  Top potatoes with remaining Parmesan Cheese.  DO NOT COVER and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops of potatoes start to turn golden brown.

Serve and enjoy!!

I am not an expert recipe writer but I think you can follow it easy enough.  Have a great day!!

Getting Back In The Groove

We arrived home late Sunday night and spent the majority of yesterday just chillin' out and getting back in the groove of things.  I will post a few pictures later of some highlights of our vacation but for now I will leave you with a recipe.

My kids woke up and said they wanted No Bake Cookies.  My friend Krysta found a recipe online a while ago that she shared with me so that is what we made this morning.  They are so delicious!  Here you go...it is from allrecipes.com.

No Bake Cookies III

2 cups white sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup milk

1 pinch salt

3 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan bring sugar, cocoa, margarine, milk, and salt to a rapid boil for 1 minute.
Add quick cooking oats, peanut butter, and vanilla; mix well.
Working quickly, drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper, and let cool.

There you have it.  Go quickly and make some right now......just don't eat all of them at once!

Free Meal From KFC

This may be old news to some but I friend of mine (Thanks Carmen!) just sent me an email saying that if you go to KFC you can print out a coupon for 2 pieces of their new grilled chicken, 2 sides and a biscuit all for free.  I just printed mine out.  I think you can print up to 4.  You had better do it quick though because you can only print them through Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 9:59 p.m. CDT.  Enjoy!

 

Cupcake Bites!!

One of my favorite things to do is browse blogs.  A while back I ran across the Bakerella blog.  Let me tell you, she does some amazing things with Cupcake Pops and everything else yummy.  So when the school sent a note home saying we needed to bring baked items for the Fun Fair I thought it would be a great time to try out the Cupcake Bites.  Here is my contribution:

They are not nearly as pretty as what Bakerella makes but it was only my first attempt!  One of these days I am going to try out the Cupcake Pops.  The Cupcake Bites are yummy but Super Sweet.  I needed to wash mine down with some milk.

You can check out the Bakerella site for step by step instructions.  Or you can go to The Pioneer Woman site (I would link you directly there but I can't get on the site right now) and click on the cooking tab and there is a Bakerella tab under the cooking one.  Clear as mud eh?

Give it a try.  They were not hard to make and the kids had a blast helping out.  Have a good one!

 

My Menu Plans...

for the next two weeks anyway.  Starting Sunday this is what we will be eating in our household.  Now I am off to work on the two weeks after that!  So here it is in two different formats.

Download MenuPlannerWeek1-2(1)(.pdf format)

Download MenuPlannerWeek1-2(.xls format)

I am still working on the shopping list.  I will post that sometime tomorrow.  Then I will post some information and ideas on cutting them out and matting them on card stock.

Jennifer

Sneak Peak

I am finally done with my menu plan for the next two weeks.  It is a lot of work to plan out what to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  I will post it for you late Friday or early Saturday.  I am currently working on the shopping list to go along with it.  I am going to color code the items needed for dinner in case you don't want to shop for the breakfast and lunch items.  It will make much more sense when I post the menu plans along with the recipes.

 I made these to fit in a little decorative tin.  My friend Melanie is coming over tomorrow for a "crafting day" and that is one of the things I am going to work on.  I will post a picture of that tomorrow night after it is finished.  On the front will be the menu plan and on the back will be the shopping list.  You can just take it out of the tin and put it in your purse and you will have everything you need to go to the store and shop.  This is mainly just for me but I thought I would share!

This week we tried out a few recipes to see what we thought.  This one was fun to make and the kids helped too.  It is a snack recipe and oh so very yummy.  Here it is:

 

It is called Mother Goose Popcorn.  When I post the menu plan it will include the recipe along with the source of where I got the recipe because it is always good to give a shout out to the person that you got it from.

I made this tonight:

 

 

 

The Best Lasagna. Ever. from The Pioneer Woman.  This is the second time I have made it only this time I split it into two pans.  It really is the best lasagna I have ever had.  We are only a family of four so we could not eat a whole pan by ourselves.  By splitting it I can cook one immediately and then freeze the other one for a later date.  That saves me a night of cooking!  That's it for now.  Until tomorrow!

Jennifer