Snack Time

A here,

This week I had a chocolate craving...when I was at the store during my weekly food run I decided I would make some Muddy Buddies! I know this isn't what everyone calls it but it's what I'm going to go with! I'm going to try out a new format by putting all the recipes (with all measurements at the end of the post)
Let's get started:

 Assemble the ingredients!

 Over medium heat melt peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips

 When it is combined and smooth add vanilla

 Remove from heat and add the Chex

 When everything is coated transfer to a bag/container and put in powdered sugar

Close the container and shake shake shake until the powdered sugar has coated the goodies!!!

Princess had a lot of fun helping me and what I found out I love about making this snack is how child friendly it is. I love when my kids help me in the kitchen and they love it when I make something they can help out with!!

Here is the recipe:

1/2 C Peanut Butter

1/4 C Butter

1 C Chocolate Chips

1 tsp Vanilla

9 Cups Chex 

1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

Combine the first 3 ingredients over medium heat until smooth. Add vanilla and take off heat. Mix in the Chex. Transfer to a Ziploc or other container and add the powdered sugar. Zip/close container and shake until the powdered sugar has coated the Chex. Enjoy :)

Until next time,

 xoxo

Disaster!

A here,

While Mr. Wonderful was out hunting last week I had to deal with my first home disaster all my lonesome. Lucky for me my parents raised me to be self sufficient and gave me a good head on my shoulders to figure things out! Good job mom and dad.

As I was relaxing in the living room my oldest came up to me and we had this conversation:
"Mom, my toilet is going crazy!"
"Your toilet? What does that even mean?"
"You have to come see. It's going crazy!"

As I approached her bathroom I saw at least an inch of water covering her floor. GREAT! The toilet got clogged and was running water (gross water - if you know what I mean...). I went and got the plunger, thinking that would do the job. I plunged and plunged and nothing happened. By this time I was having to use a plastic cup to take water out of the toilet and put it in the tub to drain....what a sight! My mom called about this time and reminded me to turn the water off to the toilet (don't ask me how I didn't think to do this!) and said I should try to snake it. I was aggravated so I got off the phone and grabbed our snake. Would you believe it if I told you that it didn't work?! Nothing was coming up with the plunger and the snake didn't bring anything up either. I was getting so mad and water was EVERYWHERE!! I grabbed the plunger and took out my frustrations at that moment...at that moment someone felt bad for me and the toilet drained.

With the toilet drained I moved on to part 2....cleaning the gross water infested bathroom. It took me 1 hour to clean! The girl's bathroom is so small that it normally takes about 15 minutes to scrub it clean so the fact that it took that long says something (I don't know what, but something!). After an hour the smell was gone and everything was clean so I gave myself a pat on the back!

Fast forward 2 days later...

I was putting my princess to bed and said to her:
"What is that smell? Are you hiding food somewhere in here?"
"No! What are you talking about, mom?"

Putting my nose to work I walked into her closet and found the smell! Musty, poop, mold...I can't describe how bad it smelled. Here we go for round 2 of overflowing toilet...why is it haunting me?!?!

I had to take everything out of her closet so I could pull up her carpet and take out the padding to see what was going on. The floor board was soaked (of course) so to make sure it was just from the toilet and not an on-going leak I had to go under the house.  Luckily I knew what I was looking for to see if there was a leak (that's a different story for a different day) and I found my first break...nothing! Good news...that meant that the water in her closet was from the bathroom 2 days ago. I opened her window and put a fan in her closet to help it dry out. In the mean time the padding from under the carpet and the carpet were drying off outside.

When all aspects of this unwanted project were done drying I decided I would take to opportunity to re-do her closet. Along the back wall she had double hanging racks so I took the bottom one out so her dresser would fit in the back. It turned out exactly like I wanted. I should have taken pictures of this process but I was so mad I didn't think about it.

Here is the present closet, smell free and looking new!

Until next time, 

xoxo

Banana Bread

A here,

For some reason I don't think banana bread tastes as good as it does in the autumn. Maybe because I feel like it's a fall treat. Or perhaps because this time of the year contains a little more love than the rest of the year. Who knows! What I do know is that my family has the BEST banana bread recipe. I refuse to make a different...its that good :)

Here is the recipe:

Cream together

2 Cups sugar

1 Cup melted margarine (I have always used unsalted butter - only because I don't buy margarine)

4 eggs

6 Tablespoons buttermilk 

2 teaspoons vanilla

6-8 bananas

Then mix in

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 Cups flour

(I always add the flour one cup at a time...incorporating the flour before I add the next cup)

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes

This particular go round I only had powdered buttermilk and decided to try it to see if the taste would be any different. Good news: the end result tastes perfect! 

I'm not sure if my sisters do this but I put a pan of water under the bread pans in the oven to keep moisture in there. Just one extra step that doesn't take long at all!

I made 3 loaves out of this recipe yesterday and we have already gone through half! We love banana bread and eat it up quickly every time I make it.

Until next time,

xoxo

Birthday Fun :)

A here,

As I mentioned in my previous post my daughters birthday was on Sunday. Every year for her birthday we go to the local bowling alley with friends and family and celebrate another year's milestone! It is always so much fun and we are always so thrilled that the wonderful people in our lives look forward to celebrating with us.

The morning of the party I made my little princess her cake. She is the definition of girly girl so of course it was no surprise when she told me she wanted a pink cake! I totally spaced having to do a cake and luckily there was a box of white cake mix in my pantry. (I know, I know...BOX?! Next year I will be prepared to make her one from scratch :) ) It was super easy to make it pink, just drop in some food dye and BAM it's pink!

I did end up having all the necessary ingredients for cream cheese frosting! Into my Kitchen Aid I put 16 oz of cream cheese and 1/2 Cup of butter then whipped it until it was combined and creamy. Then I added 1 tsp of vanilla and added 4 Cups of powdered sugar (one cup at a time).

When the cake was completely cooled I frosted it and added the sprinkles :) Here is how it turned out...

She loved it and even helped me with the sprinkles! In six months I get to do it all again with my other 2 princesses!! 

Until next time,

xoxo

Corn!

A here,

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Reds, yellows, oranges...the colors are always gorgeous. I don't think its possible to take a bad picture in the fall. (Though my opinion is skewed because I live in a beautiful place) Food is another reason why I love fall. Banana bread, soups, chili...yummy I love them all. Fall vegetables get me going too! Squashes, potatoes and CORN!!

This week I froze 48 ears of corn. I have heard that you can freeze them right in the husks...go throw them in your freezer. I didn't plant and harvest these 48 ears, which means I spent money on them and I because I have never just thrown corn in the freezer I wasn't about to waste 48 ears if it turns out I was given false information. So I went the long way about it and froze them. I would have loved to can them but for health reason you should always pressure can corn. And this little lady does not own a pressure canner (don't worry it's on my Christmas list!)

I thought it would be a lot more time consuming than it was. I was expecting to be in the kitchen all day and as it turns out I was only in there for 2 hours :) 2 hours from start to finish! Before we begin let's talk about my meaning of start to finish. I start by cleaning my kitchen so I can begin with a spotless surface. And by finish I mean walking out of my kitchen with ALL the dishes done and counters clean! So total time working strictly on corn was no more than an hour and a half.

 To begin I husked and cleaned the silks off the cobs

 I then put about 7 cobs into boiling water. Wait until the water returns to boiling and then set a timer for 5 minutes

 When the timer goes off I immediately put them into cold water

 While I waited for the second round to boil and cook I did this! I read this on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. It worked fabulously! 

 With each batch I got 8ish cups of corn!

This is the end result. After the corn cooled I put about 2 cups into bag and used our Food Sealer to vacuum seal 20 bags :)

It was a complete success!

Until next time,

xoxo

Pre-School Treats

A here,

Time for a fun (non-preserving) post! My perfect, sweet, beautiful, amazing daughter turns 4 on Sunday. I can't believe how fast the past 4 years have gone. The moment she was born my entire existence made sense to me. She is the reason I am here. Everyday I am in awe of her and she continues to teach me so much about life. I know as a parent I have a lot of teaching and guiding to do for the rest of my life but what no one tells you is how quickly you also become a student. Before she could talk she taught me about unconditional love, patience, the little things (I never that a smile and giggle could make my whole day), and in general how to be a better person.

She is my life and without her I would never be whole. She will be my little princess for all time...even when she is a big princess and has baby princesses of her own :)

We ended up making dip and animal crackers. It was pretty easy and thanks to Pinterest such a cute idea!

 Here is what I used for her treat. Animal crackers, frosting, extra sprinkles, solo cups, 1 oz containers, bags, napkins and ribbon

I once saw on Pinterest that if you put frosting in your KitchenAid and whip it the frosting will double in size so you don't have to buy as much. I will tell you that is crap and totally doesn't work! Don't waste your time trying you will just end up with more dirty dishes than necessary. I put the frosting in the containers and my princess helped by putting the sprinkles on top :)

Into the solo cups I put some animal crackers and the individual frosting containers on top of them

     

From there it was super easy...just put the cup in a bag with a napkin on the side. Then I just tied a ribbon through the bag. Super easy :)

Her teacher said it went over really well with her classmates and it was a nice treat for them all

Until next time,

xoxo

Too long!

A here,

I'm going to make an effort to try and post at least 4 times per week. So here we go :)

Lots and lots of stuff happening this week. My Mr. Wonderful is hunting this week in the back country so I get to play single mom to my 3 beautiful, wonderful little girls. My oldest is turning 4 on Sunday. She is in pre-school this year so I get to send her to school with snacks on Thursday :) I've been looking forward to these little moments since she was born. I will post about the snack later this week...

On to this post!! I bought 22 pounds of peaches and 48 ears of corn so naturally my posts will be about preserving them. Since this topic is my hobby and passion that is what you get ;)

 Look at this pure deliciousness! I took one look and thought fresh peach ice cream was the first thing I was going to make. I didn't make a dent but I did get to use 4 perfect peaches

 Here are the ingredients I used for the ice cream. Whole milk, sugar, vanilla and 4 peaches. I would love to give you exact measurements but I make ice cream so much that I dump what I think looks like a good amount into a bowl and stir it all together. A little of this, a cap full of that. I can tell you that I put the peaches in my Magic Bullet...I let it go a little longer than I should have and didn't end up with any pieces of peach. I wish I would have used a 5th and chopped it up and added it to the cream mixture

 I poured everything into my ice cream maker and let it do it's thing.

The picture makes it look like scrambled eggs! I let it go a little longer than I usually do so it wasn't creamy when I transferred it to a bowl.

This was a total success and it tastes wonderful. The right amount of summertime in my freezer :)

With the other 21 pounds I did what I do best, canned them! (15 pints)

I used the same method I did with the tomatoes. I made a very light syrup (4 Cups of water and 1 2/3 Cups sugar brought to a boil) so when I use them this winter they will be nice and sweet. 

Until next time,

xoxo