Brownies!

I love brownies. I have yet to get a good result making them from scratch. Even with a box mix sometimes, I can mess that up. Anyway, the other day I came across a recipe from another blog called SkinnyTaste. They are called Black Bean Brownies. Basically all they are is a box brownie mix, made with pureed black beans in place of the oil and eggs. Check out SkinnyTaste if you want the recipe.
So I pureed the black beans in the blender.

You want them smooth. Then I just mixed them into the box mix and poured it into a pan.

See...it looks like regular brownies. And you know, the batter tasted just like the regular brownies, so I was very very hopeful for these things to turn out.
Here is the finished product.

After I let them cool, I cut them into little squares. They came out with a very fudgy texture. The bottoms were a bit gooey, so I dusted them with powdered sugar.



Honestly, today, the second day, they taste even better. If someone told me that they were made with black beans, I wouldn't believe them. Now, the calories are still up there with the beans. But they are much lower in fat and much higher in fiber. I mean basically, if you are going to eat brownies, this is just a more nutritious way of doing it. They aren't as sweet as normal brownies. But really, no one would know that there are black beans in them. I was pretty impressed!
I have heard of the black bean brownies for a while now. And have been wanting to try them. I am glad that I did! They are gooey, but fudgey. Try them!

My attempt at cake balls

For Ethan's birthday I wanted to do something a little different. I normally order a cake from the grocery store bakery, and have been pretty happy with this particular store's cake. Until Dylan's birthday in October. It just wasn't great. So I was either going to bake my own cake, which didn't sound great, or try these cake balls. I'm usually up for trying different ways of doing things, so cake balls it was. I looked online for ways to do it and hopefully get some tips on how to do it better. I looked at a 'recipe' from Bakerella and one from a blog called Kelly's Korner.
I bought chocolate cake mix and vanilla icing. I also got candy coating from Kroger. I baked the cake and then used my food processor to pulse it and crumble it.

After it was crumbled, I mixed in the icing. I noticed while searching around for the recipe, that there was a bit of variation on how much of the icing to use. So I started with half of the container. I only ended up using about 3/4 of it. I just kept mixing it and trying to form it until it came together just right.

Then formed it into small-ish balls and placed them on a cookie sheet to go into the fridge to cool for a while before the whole candy coating part. I don't remember how long I let them chill. A few hours. Then came the coating. I had an awful time with this. I only melted a little bit at a time in hopes of preventing it from hardening before I got them all dipped. Well it still happened. It was a lot thicker than I imagined it would be. I don't know if I did something wrong or not. I followed the directions on the package and it was quite thick. I did manage to get them all dipped but due to the chocolate being sooooo thick, they weren't the prettiest things in the world.

You notice I tried to add color to them by adding colored sugar. After doing 2 of them, I realized that it wasn't going to work well, so I stopped. They don't look pretty do they? But you know what? They tasted great! Interesting too. The hard candy shell on the outside, and the soft, fluffy cake/icing in the middle.
When I served them at Ethan's birthday party, I served 2 per person along a scoop of vanilla ice cream. That was a fantastic combo, let me tell you! YUM. I had taken 2 of the cake balls and stuck candles in them for Ethan to blow out. I will mention his party a little more in another post. It was a small get together, but I didn't have it in me to go big.
I would like to try these again. I just don't know how to get the chocolate to be thinner. That is the problem.

Homemade Pasta and 2/52

I told you yesterday that I had high hopes for dinner last night. Well it all turned out. A little bumpy getting there, but I got there.
I set out to give my first go at homemade pasta. It didn't look complicated, so I thought I could do it. To go along with the pasta I wanted to make the Olive Garden-like bread sticks I tried once before, another go. So I did the dough for those in the bread machine. When they were done, I got them rolled and baked. They were done way ahead of the pasta, but that was my fault. Oh well. If you want the recipe for those wonderful Olive Garden-like bread sticks, I got them from a blog called the Country Cook. Click and it will take you right to the recipe. They are pretty stinkin close if you ask me. They certainly satisfy the craving!
So then came the pasta. I browned up half of a pound of ground sausage to go with our pasta. Once it was done, I went looking for my sauce, so that they could simmer together for a while. Guess what I didn't have! Yeah....pasta sauce. I could have sworn there was one in there. But no...thankfully Ryan hadn't got home yet, so I had him stop and get a jar. Dinner saved!
So I did the dough in the kitchenaid. Seriously love that mixer. It did all of the work. I just poured in the ingredients. Let it rest for a bit and then divided it and went to rolling and cutting.

I had cleared off a section of counter top so that I had enough room to work. I could have used the table, but if I did that I would have had 4 additional and probably grubby hands trying to "help." By dividing the dough, I needed much less space than if I tried to do it in one sheet. I used a pizza cutter to cut the dough. I did try a knife, but that took a little longer. While my cuts weren't completely equal, I did a decent enough job. Half way through the rolling and cutting, I started the pot of water so that it would be boiling when I was done.

This last photo also brings me to the week 2 of 52 part of the post.

Anyway, it was good! I knew Ryan would be less than thrilled, because he really is NOT a pasta person. He tolerates it probably less than once a month from me. I love pasta! Dylan ate a lot of it. So it passed. I was worried that my fresh "linguine" sized noodles would cook into a much larger than normal "fettuchini" noodle, but they didn't! Somewhere between the 2 I'd say. While it was exactly hard, it was time consuming. It took a while to roll and cut all of it. If you'd like the recipe, CLICK HERE and you will be taken to the recipe. Time is about the only special ingredient you would need.

Very proud of myself for trying it and thrilled that it turned out!

What are you serving?

Do you have your Christmas menu planned? I think I've got mine ready to go. So I wanted to share with you and maybe offer you some ideas if you aren't sure.
We are having Ham. I nice large, bone in Ham. The only way to serve ham is to serve one with a bone. It adds so much more flavor and helps to keep it moist. Mom is making a turkey breast also. Got to have a bit of variety just in case...its nice to have that little bit of everything. Mom will also make dressing. Not a lot, just enough because we know that not everyone will eat it. Of course we will have mashed potatoes and gravy. I am also adding sweet potato casserole this year. I tested it out a week ago and it was pretty good. I am using a recipe I found from AllRecipes.com. You can find it HERE. I am changing it a bit though and will bake the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them. They just taste better that way. We will have corn and green beans. My Aunt is making noodles...from scratch. I am making deviled eggs as well. The recipe is loosely based on the one from Betty Crocker. I adjust the amounts a bit, and add some pickle juice for a bit of a bite. They turn out so good usually! And of course rolls! The rolls from a post I did a while ago and you can find it HERE. Although, I will make them smaller because of all of that food we are having!
Desserts will be brownies, pecan pie (that I bought from the store), sugar cookies, and dirt dessert. The brownies are a box mix. I have tried making brownies from scratch and just haven't gotten them right for some reason. So I am sticking with the box. The sugar cookie recipe came from Betty Crocker again. And if you want the recipe for the dirt dessert, or you just want to see what exactly dirt dessert is, well then go HERE. It came from Taste of Home.
I don't think I am forgetting anything....We have quite a bit of people to feed, so we usually do have a lot food around. I am of course hoping for leftovers as well. I look forward to the leftovers almost as much as the meal itself!
I would like to hear what you all are planning!

Santa came to town

Last night was the Santa visit up at the firehouse. Here are the photos of the boys. Ethan did shockingly well. He cried when I put him on Santa's lap. When Ryan put him on Santa's lap, he was fine. Explain that to me! I totally expected him to cry with Santa. I guess I was half right, haha!

Remember me telling you about how Ethan got a black eye? Well if you look at the picture well enough, you can see his black eye. It is getting better, but taking a while.

Stayed busy this morning. I have a to do list a mile long. Stuff I need to get done before Christmas Eve. I am working on it. While the boys were eating lunch, I made a quick double batch of Chimichurri Sauce. I love that stuff!!!! We are having steak tonight, which is perfect for chimichurri! And I think Im going to make the pressure cooker mac and cheese to go with it. The boys will love that.

Happy Thursday!

Dinner...YUM

So the lasagna I made last night turned out great. The hard part was letting it sit and cool a bit before we could eat it! The whole wheat noodles worked perfectly and I wouldn't use anything else in my lasagna again. Along side the lasagna I made breadsticks. But not just any ordinary breadsticks my friends. No, these breadsticks were modeled after Olive Garden's breadsticks! We all know how good those things are, right?! So there is this other blogger out there calling herself The Country Cook. And she shared this recipe to her readers. So I got the recipe from her. And if you want the recipe, that's where you should go. But if you email me I can always give it to you also. This was my first time making breadsticks. So I was a little unsure about how to go about shaping them. And the recipe warns, to watch how big you make them because they do rise...a lot. So here is my finished product:

So yeah...mine came out more like mini loaves instead of breadsticks, lol. BUT! they tasted great. They were soooo close to the original. Next time, I will start with a much much smaller stick that I did this first time. But hey, all that matters is how they tasted right?! Light, fluffy and sooooo good.

Ryan got the tree out of the basement and I got it put up last night. Today during naptime/quiet time, I got it decorated. All that is missing are the gifts underneath. Speaking of that, I need to finish my shopping. Not everyone is taken care of yet and this month is going by fast. I did take pictures of the tree, which I will share tomorrow. Today was the first time in weeks I even picked up my poor camera.

Sunday Weekend Review

I have been fighting a headache all weekend. It woke me up very very early on Saturday morning. I sat up for a while after I took some meds because it hurt so bad to lay down. I was so tired on Saturday. We didn't do anything that day. Really. Nothing. It was bad enough that I actually had to make dinner that night.
Today I got back to life. I had to make a batch of rolls to take to Dylan's school tomorrow for their Thanksgiving party. If you have been here on this blog for a while, you know that I have a go-to roll recipe. Here is my post about them if you are interested. They are big fluffy awesome rolls. But I knew that they would be way too big for preschoolers! So today, I made them like I normally do, only instead of 12, I halved that and made 24 (or so...). They still turned out nice and fluffy and bigger than I thought they would, haha! Here they are:

And I think I am going to do that for the Thanksgiving meals that I am making them for. With a big meal like Thanksgiving, we just don't need those big ol rolls. But they turned out so well, that's what I am going to do! The house smells wonderful right now too with that fresh baked bread smell. Makes me hungry for Thanksgiving!!!!

While the bread machine was making my dough, I got some stuff done that I had been neglecting. I haven't felt like doing much all week and things around here have suffered. So I quickly got some things straightened up and laundry going. And then I sat down and addressed my Christmas cards. I know I know, its early. But I wont send them out until December sometime. I just wanted to get that part done, so that I don't forget. I like sending out cards. I like receiving cards. I know that stamps are expensive, and I think that sending Christmas cards are becoming a thing of the past, and that is sad to me. If you send out cards, thank you for keeping up a nice tradition. Lets not lose that.

When I got some of my pictures printed from this month, I finally decided to print a big print of one of my vacation photos. I normally don't print any of my photos big, because I don't think they are good enough. But I went ahead and gave this one a shot. So here it is framed:

I know its not the best picture of the picture, and excuse the flash. But what do you think?

So now the kids are having quiet time. Ethan is sleeping, Dylan is in his room playing. It is cool and very cloudy out. I am going to sit and enjoy my quiet time.

Stupid smartphone

I had a post planned. It involved a couple of short videos that I had taken with my phone. But I can't get them off of my phone. My phone isn't being very smart right now.
So anyway. Here is what's for dinner tonight: Tequilla Lime Chicken. Click to check out the post from a while back! And if you want the recipe, just ask.

Ciabatta Bread

I have been wanting to make a good crusty bread. I have a french bread recipe that I tend to use when I want a crusty bread. But I wanted to try something different. So I went looking for a Ciabatta Bread. So I found this one. This specific one is written for the bread machine dough cycle. But is easily done without the bread machine. I suggest you go to the website though if you really do want to try it and read some of the reviews for a few suggestions and help.
Here is the recipe though:
1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 1/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Put your ingredients into the bread machine in the order that your machine manufacturer suggests. Then select the "dough" cycle.

The dough will be kind of sticky and wet once the dough cycle is done but resist the temptation to add more flour. Place dough on a lightly floured board, cover with a large bowl, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Lightly flour or use parchment lined baking sheets. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, and form each into a 3x14 inch oval. Place loaves on the sheets, and dimple surface. Cover, and let rise in a draft free place for around 45 minutes.   

After rising, preheat oven to 425.

Place in the preheated oven and bake on the middle oven rack for 25 to 30 minutes.

While they are baking, lightly spray the loaves with water every 5 or 10 minutes to create a crispy crust.

I waited about 10 minutes before I sprayed the loaves the first time.

Here is the dough right before resting. I used a flour dusted rubber spatula to get the dough out of the machine's bread pan. Like the recipe says, it is sticky. So I poured it out and then folded on itself to get it all on the board to rest.

Before the rise:

After the rise:

All done!

Now here are shots of the inside of the bread. Light and Airy!

Again, go HERE to view the recipe and read some reviews for extra tips.

Cookbooks Anyone?

I was given a chance to pass along an opportunity to get a free E-Cookbook. I checked it out before passing it on. Depending on your email, it may take a bit of time for the confirmation to get to you. Also be sure to check your spam folder in case. It took my email about 15 minutes for it to come through. It is from Chef Jeff. He also has a website located at Dinnerevolution.com If you are interested, once you click on the link, you just enter your name and email. You must also have Adobe reader to view the book. Once you get the confirmation, you will click a link from your email to confirm that you really do want the book. Then he will send you a link to view the free copy. From there, you can click on the book and save it to your computer. It was easy to do, and I saved one to my computer.
Here is the link to where you can enter your name and email and get a free copy:
http://www.dinnerevolution.com/cookbook/nerfree.html

There are over 200 recipes, that have 10 ingredients or less, and can be made in Under 30 minutes. Check it out. No worries, its free. He doesn't ask for a credit card or your address. Just a name and an email!

Pizza Sub Sandwiches

I wanted a pizza for lunch. I just didn't want to take the extra time to make a dough. Or dirty all of those dishes. So I took some hoagie rolls that I had bought, and made a sub! I enjoy pizza subs from time to time. I like the crispiness of the subs that you get from a pizza place. I just haven't had much success in making them here at home. They tend to be soggy. So anyway, today was my best result so far.
I used my little toaster oven today. I like how quick it is. I opened the hoagie rolls and then spread a very small amount of butter on them. I stuck them in the toaster oven on "toast" setting for about 5 minutes or so, to get the bread a bit crispy. After that, I topped them with pepperoni.

Then I put on a small amount of pizza sauce (maybe 2-3 tsp) over the pepperoni.

Next of course is the cheese. I used Mozzarella.

Then I put them back in the toaster oven on the "broil" setting to get the cheese brown and bubbly. I don't remember how long, but I didn't walk away from the toaster oven. I stayed and watched them cook to keep from forgetting about them and burning them.

Once they were done, I let them cool a bit before putting the 2 halves together.

I made 3 sandwiches. One for me and one each for the boys. Both are great eaters, so yes, they got their own sandwich. And they ate every last bite too, plus an apple. They like to eat!

I had to do the top halves of the rolls together and then do the bottom part of the rolls together. For one, the tops and bottoms were different thickness, so I didn't want the uneven doneness. And two, I just didn't have enough room in the toaster oven to do all of them together. Next time, I think I would sprinkle on some garlic powder after I buttered them for a little added flavor.

Give it a try! They hit the pizza craving spot pretty well and took no time at all to make!

Biscuits

Yesterday was cold. I wanted a warm, comforting meal. So I made meatloaf. And decided to make biscuits to go with the meal. I have only made biscuits one other time and used Bisquick to do it. They were drop biscuits. The texture wasn't good and they lacked a lot of flavor. After that, I focused on rolls. This weekend, I decided to give biscuits another chance. This time they worked and they were great!

They turned out so golden, and made the kitchen smell great. It is an easy recipe and so much easier than I thought they would be. I don't know why I was so afraid to make them. See that little one in the middle there? I had a bit of dough left over after cutting them out so I made a small biscuit really quick, just to avoid wasting any dough. That one was Ethan's.
Here's the recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp cold butter or shortening or combination of both
1 cup cold buttermilk

Toss flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together. Quickly work in cold butter with pastry blender until it looks mealy. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork just enough to combine.

Turn the dough (it is very sticky) onto a floured board, dust the top with flour, and just push it over on itself 5-6 times, then pat gently until it is just about the thickness of your hand. Use a large biscuit cutter or glass to cut biscuits, place them on a baking sheet with sides barely touching, and bake 15-20 minutes at 450 until golden.

Oh, and I didn't have buttermilk. So I did 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, and enough milk to make one cup total. I let it sit for a few minutes and then mixed into the rest of the ingredients.

Good Luck!

Pumpkin Bars

With it being cold and gloomy, I got the desire to bake a little bit. It made me feel good too. I had some canned pumpkin in the cabinet, so I went searching for a recipe for something that had pumpkin in it. I came across one for Pumpkin Bars. I had everything it called for and went with it. They turned out soft, moist and so comforting. Forgive the pictures. They aren't the best because I took them quickly with my cell phone.

Like I said they were fantastic. I even made a glaze to go over it. Yum!
Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 Cups white sugar
1 Cup vegetable oil (or melted butter or applesauce)
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium bowl mix eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin puree with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into pumpkin mix.
Spread batter evenly into ungreased 10x15 jelly roll pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Ok now for a few notes on the bar recipe. I only did 3 eggs. I wanted it less cake-like so I only did 3. I also added nutmeg. Nutmeg and cinnamon should go hand in hand. So I added it. I didn't measure it, but it was a little less than half a teaspoon probably. And once it started baking, it almost ran out of the pan. Almost. So be prepared for that just in case. It was an easy recipe and my stand mixer did all of the work.
Here is the recipe for the glaze. Make the glaze. You want the glaze!

2 Cups confectioners sugar
3 tbs milk
1 tbs melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk together to combine. You can thin it out if you'd like by adding a splash or 2 of milk. Just do it little by little. This recipe actually made just the right consistency. Once your bars are cool, pour the glaze over. My glaze did run over the side of the pan, but that was ok, because I had put a larger pan under it to catch the run off. The glaze slightly hardens and is wonderful. Make the glaze.

This is a wonderful treat to have on hand. And it will serve quite a few people if you cut it into squares ahead of time.

Honey-Wheat Dinner Rolls

I am always looking for ways to put whole wheat into my diet over white. I have a wonderful dinner roll recipe already, but made with white flour. So I wanted a recipe with whole wheat in it that was just as good as my current recipe. I came across this recipe in Cook's Country magazine and thought I would give it a try.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the first time I made this, the dough was way too wet even after rising, so I started again. The second time it worked well. The recipe calls for 20 minutes of bake time but that was probably 2 minutes too long in my oven. They were a dad over done on the top. They have good flavor, but aren't as good as my current recipe. I will try this recipe again before I move on though. Hopefully by not over cooking them, they will be softer.

In the mixer ready to go

Ready to rise

Waiting on the second rise

Done and like I said, a bit over done on top

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try them yourself!

Honey Wheat dinner Rolls

1 3/4 C whole milk, heated to 110 degrees, plus 1 tbs

6 tbs plus 1 teaspoon honey

5 tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tbs instant or rapid-rise yeast

2 1/4 tsp salt

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 200. When oven reaches 200, turn it off. Grease a large bowl and a 13x9 baking dish. Combine 1 3/4 cups of milk, 6 tbs honey, 4 tbs butter and egg in a small bowl.

Using stand mixer with dough hook, mix flours, yeast and salt on low speed until combined. Slowly add milk mixture and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth and almost clears sides of the bowl but sticks to the bottom, about 6-8 minutes.

Transfer dough, scraping sides of bowl, to greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in turned off oven until dough has doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Punch down dough on lightly floured counter. Divide dough unto quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Arrange in baking dish and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rolls rest in turned off oven until doubled in size, about 20 minutes.

Remove rolls from oven. Heat oven to 400. Combine remaining 1 tbs butter and 1 tsp honey in a bowl. Brush rolls with remaining 1tbs milk and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Once rolls are done baking, brush with honey and butter mixture. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve.

Good Luck!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust!!!

I love whole wheat...anything. Whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta...ect. When you buy whole wheat products you need to be careful. If you truly want whole wheat foods, you need to look for the words "100%." Or you need to read the ingredients. Just because it says "Whole Wheat" doesn't mean that it is 100% whole wheat. If you have never tried whole wheat before, go and buy the whole wheat pasta, and give it a try. It takes a bit longer to cook, and is a bit firmer if you cook it right. The added flavor is awesome. Its just the slightest added yumminess. I don't remember the last time I bought white pasta. So I have been looking for a pizza crust recipe that is 100% whole wheat. Most of what I would see on the internet was only half whole wheat at the most. Finally I came across one that called for JUST the whole wheat flour. No white flour. On vacation, our last night there we ordered pizza. I ordered us all a pepperoni pizza on whole wheat crust. Now I can't say that it was 100%, because I didn't ask and couldn't find the info online. But it was still good and had that flavor I like. So today I gave the recipe I found a shot. I made a 100% whole wheat pizza crust. And it is GOOD! It may be safe to say, I might be done with my old "go to" recipe.

I used my Kitchenaid stand mixer instead of my bread maker like I have been. And it was just as easy as throwing it into the breadmachine. Once it was done rising, I topped it and tossed it in the oven. It came out thin, and crispy. Just like I like it. Here is the recipe:

2 c of Whole Wheat Flour

1 package of active dry yeast/instant yeast

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 c of hot tap water (120-125 degrees)

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 tablespoon of honey or sugar

1 tablespoon of gluten (this is optional)

*the gluten will help the dough rise, which will also yeild a thicker, chewier crust. If you don't want a thicker crust leave it out. *

Prepare the Dough-In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Blend in the water, oil and honey (or sugar). Stir by hand until all of the ingredients are well combined. Then cover and let rise until desired size.

Grease a 15x10x1 pan or a 12-14 inch pizza pan. Press dough out until it covers the pan.

You can pre-bake the crust for 3 minutes BEFORE you top it. It will help to make a crispier crust. You don't have to though.

Top the dough with desired toppings and bake 15-20 minutes.

Here are my notes: I used rapid rise yeast. I don't know if that matters or not. It's just all I had on hand. I also did NOT use the gluten, because I wanted a thin crust. I did have to add a bit more flour as it mixed because it seemed a little wet. I let it rise until it was almost double in size. And like I said earlier, I used my stand mixer to mix it up and it turned out fine. I also pre-baked it. Like I said, I like my crust thin and crispy. I also poked it with a fork all over before baking. Once I topped it and put it in the oven, I kept my eye on it. I actually pulled it out of the oven around 13 minutes. So your oven may be different as well. Just watch it.

Give it a try next time you make your own dough. You will love it!

Peach Cobbler for One? Yep...Yum

I don't care for peaches. Never have. I don't know how to tell if a peach is ripe or not. I know nothing about them really. Just that I don't like them. On our way back from South Carolina, we stopped at a roadside stand in North Carolina to bring back peaches for Ryan's parents. Ryan' mom made me take a few. Then she and Ryan's dad proceeded to tell me how to peel a peach and how to tell if it is ripe or not. I still don't think I could go to the store and buy a good peach. Ok, so anyway, we had peaches here. I think they are a pain to even deal with. So I got to looking around on the Internet, looking for an easy way to use them up ASAP. Well I came across a recipe from Joy the Baker. It is a peach cobbler of sorts, only extremely simple. So I gave it a shot one night for dinner. This recipe calls to bake for 20 minutes. So I had it all ready to go, and put it in the oven when we sat down to eat, so that it would be ready when we finished dinner. According to Joy, it is best eaten warm, so that's what I wanted to make happen.
Here is the recipe:

1 peach
1/4 c of all purpose flour
1/4 c of brown sugar (packed)
3 tbs of old fashioned oats
1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 tbs of shredded coconut
1 tbs of slivered almonds
2 tbs cold butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 350 and make sure the oven rack is in the middle
Cut the peach in half and remove the pit. Once you remove the pit, just scoop out some of that red part to leave room for the filling.
In a small bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, coconut, and almonds. Then add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingers.
Now, place the peach halves, cut side up, in an oven safe dish. Add the filling to each half of the peach. Make sure to push that filling down in there to get as much as you can on the peach. If some falls over into the dish, that is fine...you will still eat it!
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve it warm. You can of course add ice cream if that's how you like to eat your cobbler.

I also want to add, that the first time I made this, I left out the almonds. I didn't have any nuts in the house. It was still perfect. The second time I made it, I left out the nuts and the coconut and it was still great. So if you don't like either of those, just leave it out. You will still love this! And like I said earlier, it can cook while you eat dinner, and will be ready when you are finished. That is called perfect timing!
The kids loved this. Now, even I liked it. And I don't like peaches. But I like this! I am not sure why I like this and not peaches in general, but whatever. This is so simple and yummy! Give it a try!!

Before:

After:

Doesn't that look good?!

Kids

Yesterday Dylan brought home one of the latest projects from school. I guess they had to share their interpretations of a recipe from us Moms. Then the teacher put into a book form. It was pretty cute. I had to laugh at the way they shared these recipes. I want to share some of them with you.
Jaydon's Mom's Mac & Cheese:
Put in oven for 5 mins on 3 degrees
Put in freezer for 4 minutes
Take it out
Eat

Gabby's Mom's fried chicken, hot pocket & side of Chili & Fries
Fried Chicken:
Roll chicken in flour
Put in skillet
Cook for 10 minutes on hot
Hot Pocket:
Take wrapper off
Put in oven on 3 degrees for 1 minute
Chili and Fries:Buy from Gold Star
Heat up

-Now that last part made me laugh out loud. How cute!

Lainey's Mom's Vegetable Soup
Open Can
Pour it into a pan
Cook for 10 minutes

Charity's Mamaw's Mac&Cheese, Peas, and Chicken
Mac&Cheese:
Put cheese on it
Stir
Cook for 3 minutes
Peas:
Stir them up
Smash some for baby brother
Chicken:Put in a pan
Put in oven
Leave it in for a minute and it just happens
Put it outside to cool

Now here is Dylan's entry:
Dylan's Mom's Chicken
Put chicken in a pan
Put it in the oven
Cook for 3 minutes
Wait in the living room

Aren't those just too funny! Interesting how kids see some things. I wish it only took a few minutes to cook dinner every night!

We are lucky again today. The sun is out and it is a nice day. There is a light breeze and its warm. Only a small chance of rain for most of the week. I can't tell you how much of a relief that is. I started to get things straightened back up around here, but once I got the kitchen floor mopped I ran out of steam. I am going to try to work on the living room once the kids are napping. Maybe. My congestion in back in my ears. It was gone yesterday and I felt fine. Overnight it came back and now everything I hear is muffled. It's more annoying than anything else. Ethan seems to be doing fine with his cold. Right now its just a runny nose and for the last 2 days it doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all. I think that's all for now. Have a nice week!

Good

It's been a nice day. Ryan got up with the kids this morning so I could stay in bed a little longer. That hasn't happened for a month or so. It was good. Once I got up, he made breakfast for everyone. Ethan wasn't thrilled about the eggs. But I thought it was good. I did all of the dishes and played with Ethan for a while before his nap. Once he went down, Dylan and I went to town. We walked around Walmart and then dropped off our stuff at Goodwill. And since we were out, we stopped at Subway and got everyone lunch. It was good! We've had a good day.
Last night, dinner turned out much better than I expected. I made our strip steaks, and found a recipe for a wonderful sauce. It was a mustard caper sauce that I found on cooks.com. Click HERE if you'd like the recipe. Like I said we used strip steaks, and not flank like the recipe calls for. That sauce was awesome! All we had was a medium sweet wine, so I used it instead of what the recipe called for and it was fine. I think Ryan and I were both surprised at how good it was. YUM! Try it. After dinner I made smores in the oven. I bought the good chocolate and followed a recipe from Food Network. Click HERE if you'd like to see it. The recipe calls for steeping tea leaves, but I just skipped that part of it all. They were good, but rather labor intensive. I think it would have been quicker to go out and light a fire and do them the traditional way. I'm glad I tried it though! Before After I am supposed to be working on my grocery list right now. I got side tracked a bit. I'm having a hard time getting ideas for the week's meals.