New Candy Addiction

So my mother made these simple treats over Thanksgiving and I think I literally gained 10 lbs eating them.  AND the best part is this is so simple even a "not-so-domestic" woman like myself can do this.....if you remember how long to put them in the oven!

Pretzel Snaps
Hersheys Milk Chocolate Hugs

place in oven at 300 degrees for 2 min.  Then let cool for a few minutes and place 2nd pretzel on top.  Place in refrigerator for several minutes to set and serve!
Try it and let me know what you think!

Super Mom

So I am feeling so great about myself this morning.  I decided to wake up a few minutes early and cook breakfast!  Now, while some of you overachievers cook grits, eggs, bacon, biscuits, pancakes, and other such amenities, at the Hill House we had Cinnamon Rolls thanks to Pillsbury!  Not only were they delicious but I only spent about 5 extra minutes in the kitchen this morning!  That is my kind of breakfast!

3 New Recipes This Week

So my family took on big challenge this week -- trying 3 new recipes for dinner!  So let me tell you about each one.
Monday night --Kielbasa Stew
This was a healthy meal all-in-all.  It consisted of carrot, onion, cabbage, potatoes, chicken broth, and kielbasa sausage.  I cooked it in the crockpot (my favorite kitchen appliance) and I actually thought it was pretty good.  My family, on the other hand, did not.  My husband ate his way through it because he knew there was nothing else in the refrigerator.  My daughter found a Mac-N-Cheese Microwavable Bowl and found herself an alternative to the prepared dinner.  All-in-all we survived dinner -- it was edible!
Tuesday night -- Easy Mexican Pizza
This was a recipe shared here a while back by my friend, Brandy.  This was super easy, which is one reason I loved it.  It consisted of crescent rolls (as base for the pizza) and ground meat, sour cream, lettuce, and salsa.  The usual Mexican fare.  Everyone loved it.  The only complaint from my daughter was it was too spicy.  I had accidently used the "medium" salsa instead of the "mild."  So lesson learned there but it was a great, easy meal!
Wednesday night --- Rob's Veggie Soup
This was a another recipe from a friend (named Rob, of course), and it was actually the winner of the Recipe Contest I had about a month ago.  It won because it sounded easy, was something I thought my family would eat and consisted of things I already stocked in my kitchen.  So the recipe called for me to cook it on the stove, but I had no time for that.  So I threw in my crockpot.  The recipe consists of your typical veggie soup but also includes ground meat and bow tie pasta!  My picky 6 year old didn't really care for it, but really, did I think she would?  There were too many vegetables and tomatoes for her to see as she placed it in her mouth!  My husband and I loved it.  My one lesson here is go easy on the tomatoes.  I didn't use all that the recipe called for and my husband and I both commented that it seemed heavy on tomatoes.  Next time I will cut back again.
So all in all it has been a successful week in the kitchen.  My memory, fortunately, is short so I will not remember any shortcomings come Friday!  Thanks to Brandy and Rob for sharing your recipes!
 

Pumpkin Carving

It is the time of year for pumpkins and all things fall.  Somehow my 6 yr old daughter convinced me to let her buy a pumpkin carving kit.  So she runs in the door and begs her Daddy to take her to buy a pumpkin.  As they are leaving, I suggest he buy 2 since this will be our first attempt at carving with a kit and not just cutting out a couple of triangles and a long slit for a mouth!
In time they return with 2 small pumpkins.  I gently suggest that these pumpkins may be too small for the kit paper traceables that go onto the pumpkin.  My husband so nicely suggests that next time I should go get the pumpkins.  So moving on, I decide that pumpkin guts are messy and I don't want to touch that.  So I stay out of the way.  Lance then agrees that the pumpkins are too small so he attempts to reduce the size of the cutout using our printer/scanner.  So tack on another 30 minutes and it's time to start cooking dinner.  I look back to see this picture for most of the process ----

I soon hear "whose ideas was this anyway?" come from my husband and I thought it was funny.  For some reason, he didn't share in the humor.  So I decide to ask my daughter, who is off playing somewhere, to please go help her Daddy any way she can since this was her idea.

So finally the battle was won without much help from me thank goodness!  Because I considered this too domestic too!  Not really, I just can't stand getting my hands dirty -- weird I know but I can't help it.  So here is the finished pumpkins!

Fitted Sheets

I know you are looking at this picture and laughing already!  But wait --- let me tell you how aggravated and frustrated I became over folding this fitted sheet.  So it all began with my wonderful husband piling two sets of sheets on top of the dryer once they were dry and leaving them there for 2 days before I found them.  So then I found this "easy" tutorial on Pinterest (a new venture of mine) and thought --- "hey, I might can do this!"  So I take the sheets to the extra bedroom where I think I will have more room to work.  I worked toward success with that "easy" tutorial and was so confused in the end that I gave up and this is how it turned out!  Needless to say, we will have clean sheets but they will be a bit wrinkled!

Cooking Hiatus

So after a short cooking hiatus, I returned last night to the kitchen with vengeance....well sort of.  I decided to make deer cubed steak and baked sweet potatoes.  Then I decided to add Skillet Corn and Fried Okra.  Now before you get all excited for me, the fried okra was out of a bag.  The skillet corn was missing some ingredients but the rest was great!
I only had the cream cheese, red bell pepper, and corn for the skillet corn.  I thought maybe no one would notice if they didn't have green chilies or green onions in the dish.  While I'm sure those 2 items would have made the dish even better, it was edible.  Looking back, I think I am the only one who ate it though.....hmmm.
The frozen fried okra could have been better.  It was a little soggy but who doesn't love something fried with lots of salt?  So it was edible.
All-in-all no one got food poisoning so I call it a Success!

Cutting Vegetables

So this little discovery happened by accident really.  Let me first clarify, this was not my first attempt at cooking with vegetables.  I often flavor dishes with bell pepper, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, etc.  So last night I had bought a ham (fully cooked) and baked it on low with apricot jam smothered on it.  Then I decided to saute some leftover veggies from earlier this week.  I start chopping as I am reading a book (multi-tasking!)  and realize that I am chopping my bell pepper and zuchini into small pieces when I really want them to be chunky as a side to the ham.  So I finish chopping, finish the ham, and sit down to eat.
I taste the veggies, which actually are tasty, yet I notice something.  The ones that are chopped into tiny pieces taste different to me.  The flavor is different or something.  Then I hear my grandmother's voice in my head, "the way you cut your vegetables makes a difference."  Now let me first explain that when a recipe calls for "minced" or "julienned" or whatever else, all my veggies basically get cut the same because I don't know what all those words mean in the cooking sense.  Yet due to a mistake I made in chopping my vegetables, I now understand that it does matter at least in size of the vegetables as to how you are cooking them.
Another new discovery in the kitchen!  What have you discovered lately?