Fun with a Baking Challenge

I was sooooo excited when I saw what Rach's Baking Challenge was this month-

Lemon!!!!

I LOVE Lemon, it is probably my most favorite, next to Chocolate, flavoring ever :)

So here are a couple of my Baked Lemon Goodies, sorry about the pictures. I didn't save mine so I had to copy the ones from my Allrecipes photos.

Lemon Bread
Almond thumbprint cookies with lemon curd

I also had some lemon cream cupcakes I wanted to make, but didn't get done yet :(

If you enjoy baking you need to go check out Rach's Challenge, there are some yummy goodies over there :)

Pretty in Peach or was that suppose to be Pink???

I am posting this recipe to enter in Deb's Souper Sunday. Which is really fun, there are always a great bunch of soups, salads and sandwiches posted every Sunday. So if you like soup, and we all know I do, you should go check it out :)

I wanted to try another fruit soup so I tried this one-

Pretty Peach Soup

Ingred;
1/2c. frozen raspberries
3c. half thawed peaches
2T. lemon juice
1c. peach nectar
1c. vanilla yogurt
1/4c. sugar
1t. almond extract

Blend together the peaches and lemon juice.
Add in the rest off the ingred. EXCEPT the raspberries.
Blend until smooth.
Put some frozen berries in the bottom of your bowls/cups- 6 med sized.
Pour the soup over the berries, then garnish with a couple on top.

Now I have decided that fruit soups are a lot like fruit smoothies,
and I think I am over my fruit soup phase for now :)
This was really yummy, I tested it out on my guinea pig first, um I mean daughter.

And not only did she like it, she did this-

Then she asked " Can I have some more?"
Ahhhh the music to every Mom's ears.

I have started a couple of other blogs, one is for kids Crafts and the other one is about Herbs, Natural Healing & products. I have buttons for them on my side bar if anyone is interested in checking them out.

Breakfast treat on the First Day of School

I am a day late and as always a $ short. But better late than never right? :)
For the kiddos breakfast to go with their cinnamon oatmeal I made them
Baked Granola stuffed Pears.
I even got a picture, the camera was right there first day of school pic's & all that.


Baked Granola stuffed Pears
Ingred;
1-2 cans reg. sized pears, halved
1/4c. plain granola
1T. butter
1/4c. brown sugar
1/2t. cinnamon

Oven 450
Pour the pears, juice and all, into a cake pan or pie plate. Lay with the middle up. Put the rest of the ingred. in a food processor and blend together. Fill the holes in the pears with a spoonful of filling and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for about 10 min. then broil until sugar is melted, about 2-5 min.

Blackberry Picking at Snake Lake

A couple weeks ago Hubby took the girls on a camping trip, which they all enjoyed- even with burnt noodles for dinner :) The camp ground where they stayed had lots, and I mean LOTS, of Blackberry bushes.

So we all went back there yesterday to pick some blackberries as a Family.

The campground is beautiful, it's right next to a reservoir that the girls nick-named Snake Lake.

So we spent some time picking blackberries, (wishing we had brought gloves) walking through the campground,
and looking for four leaf clovers.

The girls all became hair stylists and decorated each other with clovers,

even Mr R got decorated.

It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday :)

ExperiMint Time

You know the experiment where you drop a bunch of Mentos into a bottle of Cocoa cola and it makes a geyser? Well the kids have been wanting to do this so we finally remembered to grab the stuff for it, last night Mr K asked me if I thought he could put Cocoa Cola in his moulth and add a Mento and it would explode. He thought that would be pretty funny, so I told him we could give it a try.
So here we go.
Here is our Miss M with our Mentos

Miss K with the Cocoa Cola

Mr. K pours in some soda, adds in the Mento and....

nothing, darn it.
So Miss B wants to give it a try, She pours in the Soda,

Adds in a Mentos and.....
Again nothing, double darn.
Miss K & Miss M weren't having anything to do with something that might "explode" in their mouths, they wouldn't even touch the Mentos until I told them it wouldn't do anything without the soda. Then they both happily munched one down.
So then we talked Daddy into putting the Mentos into the rest of the soda for us

I wish I had a closer picture, but that's all she wrote.

I can multi-task, really I can

I have so many recipes book marked from Donna's Blog, & occasionally I actually make one. The other day she shared one that I was just dying to make- Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars.
I made a special trip to the grocery store to get the oatmeal cookie mix and apple pie filling that I needed to make this.

Now it's been so hot here that I have been doing my baking in the morning or late in the evening, so this morning I got everything out and begin making these.

Of course there were a small swarm of children with the usual questions- whatcha doin? whatcha makin? When are you going to feed us? Can I eat candy for breakfast? hahahaha!
So while I was mixing and preparing this I also set them all up with their breakfast, which is never a silent affair. One kiddo wanted to know where I thought the dog had buried his bone, another wanted to know which earring I thought she should wear, yadda, yadda, yadda. So while I was mixing and talking- cause I do TRY to multi-task, I finished making the bars and slid the pan into the oven.

Hubby walks in and asks Whatcha makin? I turned to look at him- Apple Streusel Cheesecake ba.......... I trail off as something on the counter catches my eye. There on the counter is my can-full can- of apple pie filling that was suppose to be in the middle of my bars! That were in the oven baking!!! We had a good laugh and I decided to put the filling on top after the bars had chilled.

Sorry Donna, I had good intentions, apparently I just lack focus. These were really good, but now I will have to wonder how much better they would have been if I had actually payed attention and made them right??? LOL.

Lavender's Blue, dilly dilly

Lavender's Green,
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen.

I found a recipe in an old Better Homes & Gardens Magazine that sounded intriging, it also reminded me of a song my Gram would sing to me.

Lavender Blue Lemonade
Ingred;
3c. blueberries
Juice from 4 lg lemons- about 1 cup- save rinds
1/2c. sugar
4c. boiling water
1t. dried lavender buds- I put mine in a tea ball

Gently mash the blue berries in a 4qt heat proof pitcher or bowl. Add in the lemon juice, sugar and stir. Steep the lavender in the hot water for about 5min. Add to your lemon mixture, stir to dissolve sugar. Add in the reserved lemon rinds, cover and chill over night. Pour through a mesh strainer and serve over ice.

This was pretty tasty, the kiddos & I enjoyed it. I liked the lavender & lemon flavors together, next time I want to try this without the blueberries.

Stress wouldn't be so hard to take if it were Chocolate covered

Chocolate Mousse covered that is.
This Chocolate Mousse tastes almost exactly like the mousse filling you get in the sheets cakes at Costco. It has a great consistency for a mousse cake filling but is a little thick and rich for just spooning up a cupful, unless it's an absolute emergency :)




Mocha or not Mousse

Ingred;
6 oz chocolate, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4c. sugar
1/4c. cream
2t. instant expresso powder- optional
1c. heavy cream

Place mixing bowl in the freezer to chill, put chocolate, sugar and 1/4c. cream into a glass bowl. Heat in the microwave for 30 sec. intervals stirring after each one until chocolate is melted. It took me 1-1/2 min to melt mine. Set it in the fridge to chill while you whip that cream into shape.
Whip the cream in your chilled bowl until stiff peaks form, fold in your chilled chocolate mixture, spoon into a gallon size zip baggie and refrigerate for at least 2 hours...

Best Clam Chowder I ever had

I love soup, it's pretty much my favorite thing to make or eat. When we eat out I usually order a bowl of soup, French Onion or Clam Chowder- my top 2 favorite soups. Now French Onion I have made, got it down pat actually. But for some reason Clam Chowder has always seemed like something to complicated for me to mess with.
So every once in awhile when I get hungry for it & will pick up a can, no favorites, at the store and heat it up. Which is fine, BUT I am not a big fan of canned or pre-pkged foods so I usually end up a little grossed out from this. A few weeks ago when I borrowed a soup cookbook from the library I marked a few of the Clam Chowder recipes and decided to give it a try. I kind of combined 3 different recipes in to one here, just taking what I liked from each one. This soup was WONDERFUL, seriously I have never ever had a better bowl of Clam Chowder in my life, & from start to finish it took me no more than 30 min.

Clam Chowder with Mushrooms

Ingred;
1-6.5oz can of minced clams, drain juice & set aside
4 med potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 small can cream of mushroom soup
1c. evap milk
2c. water
2T. onion powder
1/2t. garlic salt
1/2t. pepper
2t.dried parsely

Bring water and clam juice to a boil, add in potatoes & onion powder, simmer for 15 min. Stir in the remaining ingred. and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and serve.

Next time I make this I will be adding 2 stalks of celery, minced.And fresh parsley instead of the dried. Also for someone who didn't want the mushrooms in it you could use cream of potato soup or a roux.

Blessed with Sisters

There are friends,
And there are relatives,
And there are relatives who are friends.
And there are friends who are as close as a relative.

I have some great Sisters who are among my dearest of friends,

My oldest Sister J, who gave me my love of reading, who no matter how bad things are at the time always manages to make me remember all the good. She has the most beautiful smile, just seeing that smile always makes me feel as though I am home.

My Sister B, who taught me to cook, who taught me that there is NOTHING I can't cook if I want to. I can call her when I am fuming mad and just minutes later I am laughing so hard I am in tears. She is the Sister who always has my back.

My Sister C, she is younger than me so I got to mother her a bit for practice, she has the biggest heart, she is always there for me whatever I need.

My lil' Sister J, always makes me laugh.

I am so lucky to be blessed with 4 wonderful sisters, there couldn't be any better in the world. And I give Thanks to God, and my sweet Mommer every day for giving them to me, cause I don't know what I would do without them.

This post wouldn't be complete with out also adding in a Sister of my Heart,

My <3 Sister J, we have been friends since we were babies, so we might as well have been sisters. She has always had a way of seeing the good in everything, of making everything a good thing. She gives me comfort when I need it, then reminds me that all is good in its own way. She is a wonderful, Amazing, Giving person and a true treasure as a Friend & a Sister.

Today started out rather crappy, and I haven't talked to any of my Sisters today, but I looked through some pictures, and thought a lot. And ended up crying and feeling more grateful than mad after awhile. So I thought I would sit and write some of this down.

Alright, I am done being a sappy, goo :)
I have some fun recipes I have been meaning to post hopefully I will get them up by tomorrow. Happy Thursday all :)

Krafting with Miss K- Windchimes

The kids really wanted to make their own wind chimes so we did some brainstorming to think of things we could use to make them by using stuff we already had. We found a bunch of old keys that I have no idea what they go to, and a bunch of washers that we swiped from the garage, shhhhh....... Don't tell Daddy!
We thought this would make a great Krafting with Miss K, so she got nominated to show you all what we did.
Here are our finds-

I used some wire I had in my scrapbooking supplies and we used about 6 inches of wire to make a loop through each key and washer-

Then we strung them all onto a strand of wire twisting them each so they would stay in place (this would part have been a lot easier with wire hangers, but we didn't have any). Once they were all on we twisted the wire into a circle and added another strand of wire so we could hang them. (I'm telling ya, wire hanger= easier)

Here we have one hanging outside on our back porch-

They make a wonderful chiming sound :) :) :)

Quick & Easy Strawberry Dessert

For a quick and yummy dessert the kiddos and I cubed up some leftover Angel food cake and topped it with a mixture of sliced strawberries, lemon balsamic vinegar, & sugar. Then drizzled a little straight cream on top. Yummy :)

Chicken & Broccoli Shells

Ingred;
1 box of lg pasta shells, cooked & drained
1c. chopped broccoli
2 pkgs Knorr four cheese sauce mix
3c. milk
2T. butter
1c. cooked cubed chicken

Heat oven to 350
Prepare the cheese sauce following pkg directions, when ready remove 2c. of the cheese sauce & set aside. Into the remaining sauce add the broccoli and chicken, heat through. Stuff shells with this mixture and place into a 9x13 pan. Pour the 2c. of cheese sauce over top. Cover the top with tin foil and bake about 30 min.

The kiddos enjoyed this, the cheese sauce wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked so next time I will try something different for the cheese sauce.

Herb Tea, Sweet Tea, Sun Tea

A few weeks ago I started looking online for a Sun Tea recipe, I found TONS of fun Tea Recipes. I got a gallon glass jar from my Mommer a couple weeks ago and today finally gotta around to making my Sun Tea. So I thought I would share that recipe and a few of the others I found when I was searching.

Here's is my-
Sun Tea Recipe
Ingred;
1 gallon fresh cool water
8 chamomile tea bags
1/4c. dried hibiscus flowers in a tea ball
1/2c. honey

I put all the ingred. except for the honey into my gallon jar, put the lid on tightly and placed outside in the sun for about 5 hours (you can leave it all day, I was to excited to leave it any longer :) Remove all the teabags and tea ball, stir in the honey serve over ice and store the rest in the fridge.

Very tasty, I love the color the hibiscus gives this, and chamomile will always be my favorite tea.

Here are a few of the other recipes I found-

Sweet Sun Tea by TMarie

• 14 bags Tea
• 1 cup Shugga

Tie your 14 tea bags together. Place in bottom of a 4 quart clear container. I use a BIG restaurant pickle jar. I just cleaned it really, really well & let it soak with baking soda to get the vinegar smell out.

ANYWAY… fill the container with cold water, put the cover on and place outside in the sun for @ 3 hours.

Bring inside, take out tea bags, pour in a cup of sugar, more or less depending on your taste. Chill for a couple of hours or pour over ice & enjoy!

Southern Sweet Tea
Put one cup of sugar and one cup of water in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. This is called simple syrup. Add this to a gallon of tea to sweeten it. The sugar melts in the water so you don't have that "gritty" taste from the sugar.

To make tea:
Put 8 regular or 4 family tea bags in 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil and immediately cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. Pour into your pitcher with the simple syrup and add water to fill your gallon container.
Now that is Southern Sweet Tea.

Russian Sun Tea
6 Orange Spice tea bags (Celestial Seasonings or whatever)
2 Lemon tea bags
1 Cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
1 gallon water
2 teaspoons sugar

Add sugar to water in a clear, 1 gallon container. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add tea bags; leave strings and tags hanging outside jar. Add cinnamon stick and cloves. Place in sun for about six hours or so, then remove tea bags, cinnamon stick, and cloves, and refrigerate.

Serve with ice in tall glasses. Garnish with a slice of orange.

Actually, this tea brews equally well in the refrigerator, if you want to save time. A good way to make it is to brew it overnight in the refrigerator, then you have fresh tea in the morning!


So there you go enough Ice Tea recipes to get you through the last few days of summer :) :)

Ham & Potato Pancakes

Ingred;
1- 20 oz bag of shredded potatoes
1- 1/2c. diced ham
2 eggs, beaten
1/4c. flour
1T. dried parsley
salt & pepper
onion powder
garlic salt

Mix all together, heat 2T. olive oil in a skillet. Place potatoes in mounds and flatten into round patties. Cook about 2 -3 min on each side.

Very good, they even got the seal of approval from all 4 kiddos,
that's certainly a plus.

They were really difficult to make though,
because as you can see here-

There was a little snitcher that
kept taking my diced ham out!
Every time I turned my back-

She thought it was quite funny :) :) :p

Darn Kids, ya gotta watch 'em every second!