Homemade Cinnamon Ornaments

Whenever I see a link for an adorable/neat/funny kid craft, I think, "Oh! I wonder if Mellisa and her kids would like this one?"  So, I blast her email with links to random things in the hopes that at least a few will turn out to be goodies.

And look at these ornaments!  Mellisa and her family made them this week, and they're seriously adorable.  And, as I suspected, while the ornaments were baking, her house smelled like a cinnamon fairy had wafted through, making everything feel magical.  Ahhhhh.... Love it.

Click over to Mellisa's post for the recipe and photos of her sweet family!

Homemade Cinnamon Ornaments

on Getting All My Ducks in a Row

Winter Vegetable Soup

Winter Vegetable Soup
Trisha Yearwood's Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 14-ounce cans of chicken broth
3 red potatoes, peeled and  diced in 3/4 inch pieces
1 12-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 8-ounce package frozen lima beans
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 12-ounce can of cream-style corn
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, combine the broth with the potatoes, tomatoes, beans and onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat, stir in corn, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crackers or cornbread.

This is a great easy soup recipe for busy nights. It can be easily ready for the table in under 30 minutes and most of that time it's doing it's own thing...so you can too.

I made a few changes (white potatoes and peas) and it turned out really yummy. I think this would be a great one to experiment with - I've saw a soup recipe recently that called for white and red potatoes. The white break down when cooked and the red hold their shape. By using both you could really get the best of both worlds - a think soup with lots of yummy potato chunks!

What's your go to on a busy weeknight?

Giving My Daughter a Seat in My Kitchen

Do you invite your kids into  the kitchen?

What's your best memory of your Mother's Kitchen?

Trisha Yearwood's Meatloaf - My Way

This year for Christmas I received this cookbook - Trisha Yearwood's Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen. It's full of great recipes that not only look fun and yummy - they look like things that my family would actually eat.

It's a crap shoot sometimes - even if I really really like the author of the cookbook - my family will sometimes rebel against trying the recipes or the ingredients will not be available in my area. But this cookbook is great! I didn't have a single doubt that my family would enjoy all of the recipes.

Meatloaf
Trisha Yearwood's Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 pounds lean ground beef
20 saltine crackers, crumbled
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Gently mix all ingredients. Shape the mixture into two loves and place side by side crosswise in a 9 X 13 X 2 inch pan. Bake loaves for 1 hour, or until they are browned. Transfer to a platter immediately and allow the loaves to cool slightly and firm up before slicing.

My version - I did exactly as the recipe suggested - but as I was mixing (by hand which my kids thought was really gross) I thought that my mixture needed a few more crackers and a bit more ketchup. My kids took turn squirting a bit more in since my hands were covered in ya know - Meat.  Once I got the loaves formed I realized that there wasn't a topping included - since this is my favorite part of meat loaf - I added more ketchup to the top and sprinkled it with brown sugar.

While my kids complained that they didn't like meatloaf - every single bit of the 2 loaves were eaten. I had orginally thought that we would have enough left over for meatloaf sammies the next day - No Chance.

All I Want For Christmas is Hubby's ESP

Wouldn't it be great if our husbands had ESP or maybe just listened when we talk about all the cute stuff that we saw while window shopping? If they could look inside our heads and see that the visions of sugar plums from our childhoods have turned into cute kitchen equipment. Well in my case anyway.

I'll have a Holly Jolly Christmas if Hubby shops at Antropologie:

Images thanks to Anthropologie and total spent (in my dreams) $180.00 since I would need 4 lovely mini colanders and 2 sets of oven mitts.

What's on your Holiday Wish List?

Have You Found Your Dish Yet?

Holiday traditions in the Rock house:

1. Taking Hot Chocolate and a tin of popcorn along with us to see the Christmas Lights and Snow Globes.

2. Putting up our tree on Thanksgiving Day.

3. Opening PJ's and stockings on Christmas Eve.

4. Counting down the days of Christmas with simple presents. 

5. Annual shopping date with Hubby sans children. We shop, chat and eat somewhere fabulous.

But no tradition is as important as the food. My childhood memories are all about being around family. Year after year we would all gather at my Grandma's house. While I can remember lots of funny things that happened...the thing that brings those memories to life is the food that everyone would bring. They all seemed to have signature dishes that we all looked forward to enjoying.

I think with every recipe I try...Could this be the one that I save to make year after year? Will my children tell their children you have to try Grandma Rock's (insert fabulous dish here).

This year I'm trying my hand at peanut butter balls, while they didn't turn out fabulous, I think with a few adjustments they could be.

Peanut Butter Balls
By: Karin Christian

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons shortening

Directions

1. Cream together the butter, vanilla, salt and peanut butter. Stir in 2 cups of the confectioners' sugar, nuts and all but 1/2 cup of the graham cracker crumbs. Add the last 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs only if needed; otherwise it may be difficult to mold the balls.
2. Form the mixture by hand into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball in the remaining cup of confectioners' sugar. Set the balls in a single layer on a cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm. At this point the cookies may be dipped in melted chocolate or they can be left plain. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
3. To Dip Balls In Chocolate: In the top half of a double boiler; melt the chocolate chips and shortening just until the chips are melted. Remove from heat but leave over hot water. Insert a toothpick into the chilled balls and dip into the melted chocolate until coated. Set on waxed paper until hardened.

I didn't use graham crackers and am rethinking the semi-sweet chocolate chips. I think they would have been  much better with a milk chocolate instead.

What about you? Have you found a recipe that with time could be one you are famous for in your family?

 

Brown Sugar Cookies

Cookies and I have never really got along. I blame it on poor timing and incorrect measuring for this general disgust with each other. Well to be honest - it's a little one-sided since I had a couple of these cookies for breakfast with my coffee this morning and loved them!

But - Thanks to our very own Sara, I tricked them into loving me back. - I now have some cookie know how.

1. I lined my cookie sheets with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
2. I used a small ice cream scoop to make sure that the cookies were uniform in size.
3. I turned my cookies sheets around half way through the cooking time for even cooking.

Brown Sugar Cookies

Crisco Recipes

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt 

DIRECTIONS:
 

Heat oven to 350ºF. 

Beat together shortening, butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in medium bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt. 

Shape dough into 1-inch balls or use small cookie scoop. Place 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. 

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack after 1 minute. 

What do you have trouble making?  Let us know and maybe we could offer some tips!

Nacho Beef Soup

Last week I got so wrapped up in reading this book. I couldn't put it down. It was an amazing and gripping tale that refused to let me go until I had read every last word. I was so completely entralled with this book that when my family started complaining of hunger - I had to find a quick and easy recipe to throw together so that they wouldn't waste away.

I was able to put this recipe together without having to put my book down too much. Unfortunately I forgot to bookmark my recipe...so I am going by memory. Thank goodness it was quick and easy.

Nacho Beef Soup

Brown 1 lb of ground beef in a large dutch oven with half an onion. Stir in 1 Tbs chili powder and cumin then season with salt and pepper. When beef is cooked through add one can of fiesta nacho cheese soup, 1 can of tomatoes with green chilies and 2/3 cup of milk. Heat stirring continuously until heated through. Top with your favorite nacho toppings: such as avocado, jalapenos. cheese and tortilla chips.

Read any good books lately?

I Won A Sweepstakes!!

Remember when I shared my love of antique shopping? I really really wanted to buy this beautiful set of antique dishes from a local antique store but couldn't stand to spend the $200.00 on them.

Just a little update:

They are mine!

I was one of the winners of the Frosted Mini Wheat's School Years Resolutions!! I won $250.00! Combined it with my saved up change and it was enough to buy the dishes, a great center piece for my dining room table and even the kids Halloween costumes!!

I Now Own a Gravy Boat...lol - who cares if I don't even really like gravy!

I can't wait to serve my Thanksgiving Dinner on my new dishes! I think they are going to make my 2nd year of cooking a great success - now...to figure out how to carve a turkey so that we all actually get to have some and have leftovers.

Do you enter sweepstakes? Have you ever won?



 

Easy Recipe to Bring to Holiday Get Togethers

I love to bring something with me when visiting for the Holiday's but with 4 kids I don't always have the time to make elaborate dishes. I'm lucky if we all make it there dressed and on time. So when I saw this recipe in Every Day with Rachael Ray - I knew that it would be a great for holiday gift giving...takes only 5 minutes to throw together and while it sets up I can get ready to go.

I love that the magazine talks about using ice cube trays as candy molds - it worked beautifully! They came out mostly uniform and really easily!

White Chunky Chocolates

 Every Day with Rachael Ray

Ingredients: 

12 ounces white chocolate morsels 

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 dried cranberries

1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts

1/2 cup roasted, salted cashew pieces

In a medium, microwaveable bowl melt chocolate, stirring once, for about 45 seconds. Stir in the raisins, cranberries and nuts.

Spoon mixture into 2 flexible ice cube trays, whacking the trays on the counter to remove any air pockets and to level out the mixture.

Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

 

Flex trays to remove candies. 

Bask in the glow of bringing some really yummy candies.

   

After this Past Weekend...I Need to Take 5

How are ya?

Are you as tired and worn out as I am from a weekend of fright?

When we got home on Sunday night my kids were full of sugary energy and I was down for the count.

I kept saying your Momma is just plain worn out...and they kept saying Why? You didn't even do anything...we were the ones running from house to house.

It's exhausting worry so much about all the cars, candy consumption and that they were as gracious as they should be for what they have.

So last night I was on the hunt for something super easy to make for supper:

Take 5: Ravioli & Escarole Lasagna
Kristy Isom/Rachael Ray Magazine

5 ingredients: 1 pound bulk Italian sausage, 1 head escarole (I substituted mustard greens,) one 24 ounce jar tomato sauce, 9 oz cheese ravioli and 16 oz mozzarella cheese.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.In a large skillet, crumble the sausage and cook, stirring often, over medium heat until browned, about 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the greens to the skillet, season with salt and pepper and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes.




 In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish layer the tomato sauce...


 

and the raviolis..



and then when you figure out that you don't have enough to really layer just throw in the rest like I did.
Here you can see the tomato sauce, ravioli, crumbed sausage, greens and mozzarella cheese.



Mix it all up and bake until bubbling in the middle, about 45 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes.




While this easy peasy recipe did help me to take a bit of a break last night - I still can't believe that it's already November...weren't we just shooting off fireworks?

My Trick or Treater's & Swamp Juice

 Every year my kids and I haggle over what costumes to buy - they usually win with good arguments like I am the one that has to wear it and didn't you always want to be something that you wanted when you were a kid...but this year I won!!

When I saw these 3 costumes in the right sizes the wheels in my mind starting turning.

The oldest and youngest were an easy sell but E wanting to be just like Av wouldn't be convinced unless I let him buy a sword just like Av's.

I think it was well worth it to say YES!

They look adorable!

Avery picked out something so super scary that I had to make Miss Maddy watch him put it on 6 times before she was convinced that it really was just Av.


In the spirit of Halloween I made these cool drinks for my kids - to bad I was unable to find the tapioca pearls since I think would have added a ton more gross factor...but they were still pretty good.

Next time I make them I am only going to use lemonade since we didn't care for the seltzer water taste.

I was so surprised by how realistic the gummi fish looked in the drink...it had oxygen bubbles and everything.

Swap Juice
Disney's Family Fun

Ingredients:
1/2 cup small tapioca pearls (found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores)
Food coloring
4 tablespoons sugar
8 gummy fish
Seltzer water
Lemonade
8 gummy worms

 
MAKE THE EGGS:
Bring 6 cups of water to a boil and add the tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat slightly and boil the pearls, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes.


COLOR THE EGGS:
Divide the pearls, with the remaining water, between two bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring (we used 3 drops of yellow and 1 drop of green in one bowl, and 4 drops of blue in the other) and 2 tablespoons of sugar to each bowl. Stir the mixtures, then allow them to sit uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls with cold water.


ASSEMBLE THE DRINK:
Spoon 2 tablespoons of pearls into each glass and drop in a gummy fish. Fill the glasses with seltzer water, then add a splash of lemonade. Place a gummy worm around a spoon as shown.