Dessert Dip Pin Test

Not the prettiest picture but it does show the hurtin' that me and two friends put on my latest concoction! We were invited Labor Day morning to come to a game night that evening and I was asked to bring dessert. The Hubs, Dida (that is what I will be referring to my daughter as from here on out) and I were at my parents house most of the day so we only had a short time at home before heading out again. I really didn't feel like baking so I was considering just picking up something on the way when I remembered this dip that I was going to do for Dida's first birthday party. I had tried it already and it was pretty good, just cream cheese and marshmallow fluff. Then I also remembered another dip that my friend had made for her son's birthday party that was incredible. I wondered if it really mattered all that much what went into the dip, and decided that it was probably not something that you could mess up. With that, White Chocolate Cheesecake Dip was born.

You need:
1 package of Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Marshmallow fluff
1/4 - 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
White Chocolate chips

Directions: Soften the cream cheese in the microwave. Stir in the brown sugar and marshmallow fluff. Put in the freezer for a few minutes to cool. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Make sure the dip is sufficiently cool before you add in the white chocolate chips or they will melt. Serve with graham crackers, animal crackers, vanilla waifers, fortune cookies, pretzels, fruit, etc.

I am convinced that you could use a multiplicity of ingredients and this would come out amazing! Just be sure to start with a base like cream cheese and sugar. Other things you could add in are:
Nutella
Nuts
Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chips
Butter Scotch chips
Cake/Brownie Mix
Coconut
Lemon Juice
Sprinkles
Chocolate/Caramel sauce
Cool Whip
Peppermints (at Christmas)
Pumpkin pie filling (at Thanksgiving)
Granola
Crushed up cookie
Dried fruit

Get creative! This is such an easy dessert to throw together at the last minute and a great way to use up things in your pantry! Leave a comment below with combinations that sound good to you.

Matching Mommy-Daughter Hair bows

I don't normally buy things from craft stores. When I do, it's usually because I'm shopping with my mom. We have that effect on each other. On a recent trip to JoAnn's I came across these fabric flowers being sold by the yard and knew I could make my daughter an adorable hair bow out of them. They were priced at $6.99 a yard so to buy only 3 came out to $1.55 plus tax. Not a bad deal considering I was able two make two accessories from them! 

They were originally attached in a line so I removed one and then got to work on the other two. I had an ill-fitting head band from the Dollar Store that had an adorable embellishment on it but was too tight and hurt my head. I decided that I could use the black elastic from it for my daughter. 

I removed the elastic and set the embellishment aside. The next time I pull out my glue gun I will add a clip to the back of it.

After that I began prepping my flowers. I decided that I didn't like the look of them in a straight line so I moved one flower over so that it was slightly overlapping the other one and gave it a few stitches to keep it in place.

Next I decided that the flowers need a little something more so I pulled out some sparkly buttons and sewed them to the middle of each flower.

Next I worked on my elastic. I wrapped it around my daughter's head and saw that it needed to just over lap about a half inch so I made a few stitches to hold the two ends together. All that was left was to attach the flowers to the elastic.

I stitched the flowers down in the middle and on the two edges, making sure that the elastic still had plenty of give. My daughter's head band was done!

To make mine, I simply sewed the button on and hot glued a hair clip to the back. Easy-peasy!

Mine can be worn either in my hair or attached to a head band as well.

I can't wait for my daughter and I to wear them together. I think I'll also be hitting up those craft stores more often for deals like these.

I Need Glasses

I have an eye exam in the morning. Shortly after I started driving, I noticed that I couldn't see the roads very clearly at night so I went and had my eyes checked and got a pair of specs with a minor prescription to wear ONLY while driving in the rain or at night. I have not been extremely faithful to them but I always knew they were there if I needed them. Fast forward a decade. I was driving on the highway in the rain during the day and decided to pop them on. The rain stopped and I took them off. Whoa! What just happened? I totally had a Spider Man moment, but in reverse. I started putting them on and taking them off, checking out the license plate in front of me. Since when had the world lost it's edges? I couldn't not believe how much clearer I could see with them on. So, I went home and made an appointment. In the two weeks or so that I have had to wait I have had a slight incident with a traffic barricade (thankfully I hit it with the mirror that was already scraped up) and this morning when I went to my parent's house I thought that the black and white towel on my mom's head was a purple pirate hat. As we walked up the sidewalk I kept looking at her trying to figure it out. Was it a joke? Why was she wearing that? Nope, no joke. She was just drying her hair. Yep, time for an eye exam alright. ARRRRR!!

My First Time Making Enchiladas

 The Hubs and I love Mexican food. He was highly disappointed when we visited Nicaragua for the first time and their food was nothing like it. We eat out a lot as we travel and Mexican is a great option when we don't want McD's for the 1000th time because it is typically cheap, fast and tasty! The Hubs almost always orders the same thing: Speedy Gonzales - 1 taco, 1 enchilada and rice/beans. Tacos, rice and beans I can make but enchilada's are a whole 'nother story. We never had them when I was growing up and I don't really order them because I have a real aversion to corn tortillas. For the first attempt we decided to go with a mix. Not my usual style but this time I made an exception. We went with Casa Mamita, from Aldi (LOVE that place). Besides a mix you will also need:

8 oz. can of tomato sauce
6 in tortillas - the recipe called for 8 but I stretched it to 11
1 lb. ground beef or turkey - we get the 5 lb rolls and cut them into 6 pieces so they go a little farther and we eat a little less meat
1 cup of shredded cheese - I just used enough to cover the top sufficiently
1 1/2 cups of water
A green bell pepper cut into strips
An onion cut into strips

First, get your pepper and onion cooking. I put about a TBS of water into the pan and cover it with a lid. If you choose to use butter, make sure to stir it fairly often or it will burn.

While that is cooking, in a small pot, mix your sauce mix, tomato sauce and water. Bring it to a boil and then turn it to low and let it thicken. Stir from time to time.

Next, decide how to brown your meat. Not thinking about the extra fat (because we usually have ground turkey instead of beef) I cooked mine in the same pan as the peppers and onions. It tasted great but the veggies absorbed a lot of the grease which really wasn't what I was going for. If you want to avoid that, brown your meat in a different pan, or brown it first and then add the veggies.

Next, stir about a half a cup of the sauce into your meat and veggies. Now might also be a good time to pre-heat your oven to 350.

After that you will want to prep your baking dish. I have made the mistake more than once of forgetting to spray my Pyrex and ended up with an unpleasant mess. Save yourself the trouble and use some cooking spray. 

At this point in recipe the directions told me to "dip" my tortillas in the sauce before filling them with meat and rolling them up. Are you kidding me? What kind of insane idea is that? Clearly, whoever wrote those directions was was a few avocados short of guacamole! Instead I spooned some of the sauce into the bottom of the pan. After that I nuked my tortillas in microwave for about 20 seconds and then started filling them. I used about a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of meat/veggies for each one.

When you roll the tortillas up, you will want to place them seam-down in the pan. There is no need to fold the ends. Keep going until you are either out of meat or can't fit any more in. For my 9x11 in pan the magic number was 11.

Finally, pour the rest of the sauce on and top with cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes.

A little sour cream on top and you are all set! Delicioso!

Yard Sale Finds!

One of my closest friends and I went yard-saling today and boy did we have fun! For $14.50 here's what I came home with:
3 outfits, a "poofy" slip and a pair of precious pink shoes for my daughter, $1 each
A sweat and matching hat for the neighbor's boy also for $1
A brown Calvin Klein skirt for my which I promise is in the picture for $1
A really fun but completely impractical turquoise bridesmaid-esque ensemble for $3 (I plan to wear the skirt portion at some point)
And the best 2 finds of the day:
The talking Dora back pack with accessories for .50 and the complete Thomas the Train set (also for the neighbor boy who LOVES Thomas) for, get this, $3. He just had a Thomas Birthday party but his mom, who is also a very close friend didn't want to shell out the astronomical price that they ask for these things new, so she got a non-electric, and very cute, Target brand set instead. So you can understand my joy at finding this electric set at such a good deal! And my daughter already loves the Dora play set too!
The last thing I got is the Vera Bradley Backpack that I got for $1 as well. It is in need of some big-time TLC and I plan to cover the restoration process here once it is complete.

Copy Cat Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup Pin Test

Here is another Pinterest pin test, and sadly, another that I do not have any personal pictures for. I have long been a fan of The Olive Garden. It was a place that I would often ask to go to for birthday dinners, the restaurant my husband took me to on the night he proposed, and the place we went to to celebrate when we found out I was pregnant with our daughter. In one sentence I think I just revealed how very American I am! So when I saw this recipe for my favorite "cheap" dish there, I knew I had to try it! This recipe didn't disappoint either!

The ingredient list calls for:
1 tablespoons extra virgin oil
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 quart half and half
1/2 cup celery, finely diced
1 cup onion, finely diced
2 minced garlic cloves
2 14 ounce cans of chicken broth if you enjoy thick soup, use one can
1 cup carrots, finely shredded
1 cup chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 package gnocchi, cooked
1 cup of fresh spinach coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

I was also making an okra tomato soup for my husband and grandfather at the same time and both soups started out the same way:
1. Sauté the onions, celery and garlic in the butter and olive oil. I used garlic powder because the last time I used real garlic it made my eyes hurt so bad I had to leave the kitchen for an hour and now I am afraid of it. After I had enough for both soups I spooned out some of the cooked veggies into another pot and the recipes took their separate paths. Make sure you don't fudge on the butter for this one because you are going to need it for the next step.
2. Make a roux. You are going to want to have your burner somewhere around Medium for this. This part of a recipe always makes me feel like a mad scientist in an operating room. I literally treat it like it's life or death! To make the roux you are going to slowly add the flour while whisking vigorously. Sometimes this is hard to do with only two hands so I usually call on my husband to add the flour for me while I hold the pot and whisk. You have to keep whisking or you won't get that nice thickness that makes the soup rich and also so the flour and butter won't burn to the bottom of the pan. I had never done this with onions and celery already in the pot but they did not hinder the process at all. Once you have the flour dissolved you will want to slowly add the half and half. I think the next time I make this I will use 1/2 half and half and 1/2 milk, although I think technically that would just be "one and three quarters". Why don't they sell that? You may want to have a helper on hand for this as well as you will want to do this slowly and keep whisking.
3. Once you have all the half and half stirred in, add the carrots and chicken. I had some leftover chicken thighs that I had de-boned and chopped and I think next time I would add even more chicken. Use whatever you have around, just don't use the canned kind. Yuck!
4. Now would be a good time to make sure you have already cooked you gnocchi. I found some at Wal-mart for about $3 in the dry pasta section. When I make this again, I think I will only use half of the box. It was not bad, just a little over-powering. Also, the package told me to boil about 3 gallons of water but since I didn't have a pot that big I just used the biggest one I had on hand (not the stew pot, that one stays on the top of the cabinet and only comes down for special occasions) and they came out fine.
5. After a few minutes turn your burner to Med-Low and add the chicken stock. I only used one can because I could not fit much more in the pot I was using but I ended up adding more milk to the soup when I re-heated it, so two cans is probably right.
6. Let it cook for a few more minutes and then add the rest of the ingredients. I omitted the nutmeg because it just seemed weird and I didn't miss it. Let it cook for a little while longer and then it's done!

If you make this soup I would plan to freeze some of it. It made a LOT of soup and after three days, as good as it was, I just didn't want any more. My husband and I actually ended up going to Olive Garden a few days later and I got the Soup, Salad and Breadsticks lunch so I ordered a bowl to compare and I actually liked the one I made at home better. It was richer and just had a better over-all flavor. Maybe they added too much nutmeg.

The original link can be found here.

My Testimony

I have always known that if I was ever to write anything to be published in some form ever again that it had to not only contain, but be centered around Jesus Christ and His Gospel. To write something that someone I don't know might read, and to not tell them of Christ and His love for them, would be a grievous mistake. Although I am so apt to forget it, if I had to answer the question, "What is the meaning of life?" there is only one answer for me and that is Christ and what He has done. I believe that the whole purpose of this life is to glorify God.

I was born into a Christian family and was in church from the very first week I was born. I know that many would look on my parents as being over-protective or too sheltering, and there were many times in my adolescence that I thought the same, but looking back I am so grateful for how I was raised. I was taught the truths of the Bible from a very early age. I learned that all men were sinners and that Christ died to pay for their sins. I learned that if I wanted to go to heaven, I needed to agree with God about my sinful condition and accept His free gift of forgiveness and make him the Lord of my life. I also learned that if I rejected His forgiveness the only other option was to go the Hell when I died, a place that was never meant for me. I later learned more and grew in my understanding of the Gospel, but at age 12, this was enough. One day after school I yielded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and put my confidence and trust in Jesus Christ.

Life has not been perfect since then and no one said it would be. Every day is a struggle and a decision to walk with God. I come to the end of many days and wonder, "Why I didn't talk to God all day? Why did I let another day go by with out growing closer to Him?" But He is always faithful. Hebrews 13:5 is talking about being content with what you have in Christ when it says, "... I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". Even when I fail Him, God still promises to be faithful to me. You can't beat a love like that.

If you find this post and you don't know my Jesus but you want to know more, please, fell free to contact me! I will be glad to help you in any way I can, even if you just need someone to hear your story. I will also be glad to help you meet my Jesus for yourself.

As Christ was getting ready to go to the cross and die for our sins, He was giving His disciples some final words of instruction and comfort. I want to share with you one of those verses of comfort that I think is both beautiful and reassuring.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, 

my peace I give unto you:

not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled,

neither let it be afraid.