What is it?? Wednesday

It's granola!!!! We went healthier this week.....everyone over it loves it! My sister in law shared it with me a few years ago. It's great as cereal, on ice cream or over yogurt. If you'd like to try it, here's the recipe:

Granola

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 c. water

Microwave this in a large bowl for five minutes.

4 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
8 cups rolled oats
2 cups nuts...any kind
raisins, craisins.....or any kind of dried fruit is optional.

Mix this with the brown sugar and water. Spread onto two buttered cookie sheets. Bake at 275 degrees for 45 minutes-1 hour...or until golden brown. Makes 10 cups.


This can also become a birthday present!!!



My dear friend Ms. A celebrates her birthday on Friday and we got together to celebrate this past Sunday. A few weeks ago I asked her if she would like to try something new for our birthday exchange this year. We agreed to the same thing as the soul sisters did for the soul sisters first annual Christmas party The way our gift exchange went was that we had to make our present using only things we had in our house....or only spending $10 on supplies. So for M. A's birthday I thought she and her family would like a glass canister of their very own to fill with wonderful treasures and treats. I made her granola and recipe cards with the recipe written out...the cards were just blank index cards I already had and I stamped them with a "from the kitchen of/recipe" stamp I had as well....I included two jars of "Pam's Jam"...strawberry and peach that I made last summer....a dozen vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting and a little OPI nail polish set I had......I think this is techinically re-gifting.....but I knew she would love it and I was honest with her and 'fessed up to it as she opened it :) I only spent $6.00 on the canister, $2 on the little metal scoop....and I got a cute birthday ballon at the Dollar Tree to tie on the basket. She loved everything....and I had so much fun putting it together!!

cupcake perfection!!!!

Well.....here I am on my very first morning of making cupcakes all by my very ownself!! I could barely sleep last night knowing I was going to be doing this! I made two batches of cupcakes using the recipe Marzipan Mom taught me....one as a birthday treat for my dear friend Miss A. tomorrow....more on that tomorrow...and one batch I put in the freezer to have as a treat next weekend when my sister and mom are in town visiting.



And they turned out perfecty scrumptious!!!!!!! I am just sooooo happy! Now I know I can do it!!!!



......all I need is my very own mixer so I don't have to keep borrowing my sister in laws :)...I know to most, making your own cupcakes and buttercream frosting from scratch aren't a big deal....and for many of you, you truly enjoy it...but this is a turning point in my life!!! I don't "enjoy" it yet......I LLLOOOOVVVEEE eating them when they are done though!!! ....but the possibilities are endless.....sooooo many cupcakes, so little time!

spring!!

Spring has finally arrived....and to prove it I thought I would take some pictures of all of the springy things around here!! I started out with these cutie patootie little bunny rabbits I treated myself too yesterday :) I always like things in 3's because of my three kiddos....



Here is a view of the mantle in my great room...again...3's of everything!!! This picture doens't do the chicks in the eggs justice...they are actually all glittery.



When Cindy Lou and T. were just little they painted two of these wooden eggs...and can you believe I found one more in my stash down in my craft room when Cubby was two and he painted one too!!



Cubby loves trains and when we saw this on ebay last spring...he had to have it!! He LOOOVVES decorations!! He always wants to help me when I get the bins out for every holiday....



He was in charge of arranging the little easter village too!



The day lillies in my back yard are getting ready as well. Pretty soon everything will be budding and green!

Twitter??!!

Okay.........I got sucked in!!! I've been chewing on it for a few weeks now and I couldn't resist to give it a try. Cubby has been away all week and I'm missing him terribly so I thought I'd play around on the computer SOME MORE!!! I really didn't want to get wrapped up in the whole facebook thing....some weeks I had 8-10 friends asking to me to be their "friend".....and I just couldn't bring myself to get caught up with it...but last night I jumped off the deep end signed up for Twitter. Twitter is s social network that is like a cross between texting and blogging. You basically answer the question, "What are you doing?" in a 140 characters or less... I have been asking around to some nieces, nephews and friends if they had heard of it, or did it....and several didn't. Everytime I have the t.v. on celebrities are talking about too....Ellen Degeneres, Jimmy Fallon, M.C. Hammer....to name a few. And I guess my son had heard me talking about it all week....so when I went to sign up I was alerted that someone in my address book was a follower....it was him!!!! hmmmm, I'm not so sure I'm going to allow it....we'll see how it goes. Anyway... I thought I would play around and give it a try. It's easy to get signed up and give yourself a little avatar and a profile. Then the first thing to do is to find some fun people to follow....I've started with some celebrities.....and this morning I even got a notification that Oprah was following me!!! With 1,873 other people!! A terrific blog I follow Bloggety Blog Blog has a little Twitter sidebar to follow her twitters.....I emailed her to ask her help in adding this widget, but I'm proud to say I figured it out all by myself!! The only problem I'm having so far is not being able to recieve updates on my Blackberry. After a little digging I'm finding out this is actually a Verizon problem...so while I'm out tomorrow I will be stopping at the Verizon store to see what they say......I haven't actually responded to anyone yet....... I'm just taking baby steps for now. But feel free to follow my Twitters! Join in.....the more the merrier!

What is it?? Wednesday

Well.....the kiddos certainly are happy about whats in the canister this week!!! Fruit roll ups!!.....While I was at my all day scrapbook crop a week or two ago, Chip took the troops to wander around Costco...a favorite thing to do. They came home with the chocolate chip cookies from last week and this big, HUGE box of fruit roll ups. I guess Chip isn't aware of the fact that I NEVER buy these!!! In my mind they are a step below fruit snacks, which I only buy on rare occaisions. I can't wait for next week!!!!

word rocks

Aren't these simple??? I got inspired by Danny Seo over at www.dailydanny.com last week. He is a green living expert with eco-friendly and crafty ideas for everyday living. I thought they would be perfect to use as place markers at an informal gathering.......I just used a set of my little alphabet stamps and a black ink pad on some rocks I collected last summer with the kiddos.

....and just check out jennifer junipers wonderful idea for wine corks as well.....hhhmm, looks like we both have food, drinks, and socializing on the brain!!

fastnachts

My dad called several days ago to see if he could bring Cubby up to Buffalo for a while. He came today after church and the art show at preschool to pick him up. And of course he called yesterday to get my "order" of my favorite Buffalo stuff that he could bring down for me......usually it's Bison chip dip, Chiaveta's marinade, Sahlem's hotdogs....but 'tis the season for FASTNACHTS!!!!....I haven't come across them here in our area....but where I'm from the best place to get them is Eileen's Bakery.



Fastnacht is a german word meaning the Eve of the Fast. Fastnacht Day is Shrove Tuesday and that is the day before Ash Wednesday when lent starts. Eileen's only makes these scrumptious things for the six weeks of lent. And for anyone who knows me....I would literally o.d. on them when I lived at home...when there is a time limit on something like this, I just can't get enough!!! The fastnachts I know and love are a special doughnut. For this lovely little post I googled fastnachts and found there are a ton of different recipes and none of the pictures I saw looked anything like the ones from Eileen's. Hers are a little bit thicker around the edges like a doughnut.....and then the middle part are really super thin and crispy...like a potato chip. There are two kinds....the cinnamon sugar ones and the ones with all powdered sugar. My Dad brought me six of each!!! What a great guy!!!



I ate one of each standing over my kitchen sink just after he pulled out of the driveway with Cubby. Yep, they are as wonderful as I remember!!!! And Mom, I put a few in the freezer as a treat for you when you come to visit from Florida next month, I just can't guarantee they will still be there!!!