Cracker Dip!

Hi All!  After a few month break I am back! 

I hope you have all had a great summer as I have.  We've had lots of things going on in this house.  We've played outside, we gone on lots of adventures, had family parties and best of all we just got back last week from Disneyland with my husband's family.  Right now, Mickey Mouse is my little boys favorite thing in the whole world.  This momma is just about Mickey Moused out!  But, it was so fun to see the look on his face when he saw Mickey.  My little guys melt my heart. 

 Don't mind me in the family picture, it was hot, sticky, and a get ready quick kind of morning!  The guys look pretty cute though!

This little one did not want to get out of Mickey's car.  Every time I turned around this is where he was or where he was heading.

Any how, enough of that. 

I have a delicious cracker dip recipe I want to share with you all.  This one is definitely a keeper.  It is great during all seasons which is the best kind of recipe I think!

This recipe is soo easy and takes five minutes to throw together.

Cracker Dip:

1 tub whipped cream cheese
1 packet clover club green onion dip mix
1/8 cup sour cream
A couple shakes salt

Mix altogether and chill.  Serve with all kinds of crackers. 

My favorite are the Triscuit thins with Parmesan and Garlic.  But, I serve with Wheat Thins, Club, Ritz, and Chicken 'N Biscuit also. 

Hope you enjoy!

Sweet Rolls

Hey Guys!  I'm finally back after a little while and I'm so excited. 

On every third Sunday, we go to my husband's parents for dinner and this week was my turn to bring the rolls/bread of some kind.  I asked my husband what kind he would like and he gave me the "I don't care, just whatever" answer that I totally hate.  So, I got thinking that I wanted something a little different and I wanted to try something new.

I'm so glad I did.  These turned out delicious!  If I do say so myself! The best part about it was they were so super easy and really don't take a whole of time.  The most time you wait is for the dough to rise.  While that was happening, I was able to get the boys ready to go see Grandma and Grandpa.

Don't these look divine?  (Don't mind my picture, I was trying to hurry and take it while trying to get the rest of the rolls on a plate and get out the door.) 

Sweet Roll Recipe:

Bread Dough

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg yolk
4-5 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cold water

Combine the yeast, water and sugar in large mixing bowl and allow to stand a few minutes until it starts to foam.

Add salt, oil, and egg yolk and mix together. Add 3 cups flour and mix until it's combined.  Add enough more flour to make the dough barely stick to your finger.  Mix for another 2 to 3 minutes. 

Cover and let rise for an hour. 

While your dough is rising, mix together the ingredients for the filling.

Filling:

1-8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 can pie filling (I used raspberry but blueberry or cherry would be great too!)


Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.  Fold in pie filling.  (This does make kind of a funky texture but it still turns out great.)

After the dough has raised, roll out so it is between 1/4-1/2 thick depending on your preference.  (I like mine at about 1/2.)

Spread your mixture on the dough and roll the dough up like you would cinnamon rolls or jelly rolls.  Cut into about 12-15 equal pieces and put each one in a greased muffin tin.

Turn your oven onto 350 and let the rolls rise while the oven is heating. 

Bake for about 20-22 minutes.  You may want to keep an eye on them and check on them half way through or so to ensure the tops are browning to bad.  If this happens, just cover with aluminum foil and continuing baking.

After they are finished, let cool a little bit and take them out of the tins and glaze if desired. 

Glaze:

1/4 cup melted butter
4-5 heaping Tablespoons powdered sugar
Evaporated milk (Enough to make it the runny consistency.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and pour over semi-cooled rolls.

Enjoy!

If you make these, come back and let me know what you think!

Elegant Chicken Salad

I love salads. Any kind of salad really.  Pasta, broccoli, vegetable, fruit salad.  You could almost call me a salad junkie. When I make salad I make sure and have enough for dinner that night and breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day!

My dad and I are a like in the salad loving goodness.  I remember growing up that on his birthday his request for dinner was always potato salad, vegetable salad, chicken salad and rolls.  It is the best dinner ever and now it gets made more than just one day a year.   

I also love love love having BBQ's in the summer.  In fact, there are very few times that my oven is on when it is hot outside.  I'd rather keep the heat outside and the cool in and in order to do this, the meat cooking is done outside on the grill.  I'm almost becoming a pro at grilling but often times it is taken over by the hubs. I'm not complaining.  If he wants to help, I say let him!

I say this because this is the perfect salad to go with a summer BBQ.  It's light, easy and absolutely delicious!  I usually end up eating way to much of it and feeling like a bloated balloon by the end of our BBQ dinners.  But, it is so super worth it.

You should definitely try it out.

Elegant Chicken Salad Recipe

2 cups uncooked shell macaroni (I like to use the small shells)

1 cup Kraft Coleslaw dressing (Must use Kraft, it tastes and works the best)
1 cup mayonnaise

4 cups cooked cubed chicken
2 cups chopped celery
1/2 Tablespoons chopped onion
2 large cans pineapple (drained)
2 cups green grapes
2 cups chopped apples

1 1/2 cups cashews

Cook the macaroni, rinse and let cool.  While waiting for it to cool, mix together the Coleslaw dressing and mayonnaise.  Then mix the macaroni with the dressing mixture.  Chill for an hour to overnight.

When the macaroni and dressing have chilled, mix in the chicken, celery, onion, pineapple, grapes, and apples.

Then, you can either mix in the cashews right before serving or you can just let people put the cashews on themselves.  I like doing the later as it allows them to control how many cashews they have on their salad.

Now for the best part,  ENJOY!!

Try it out and tell me what you think!



 

Easy Baby/Toddler Bib

Do any of you moms out there have the same problem I do when it comes to getting your child to keep a bib on?  For Pete's Sake!  I just don't think it should be that difficult.  I put one on my toddler and he instantly has it off and looks at me, with strawberries dripping down his once upon a time clean shirt like "What mom?  What's wrong with looking like you never bathe me or wash my clothes?" It drives me crazy!

Not to mention, that I have an 8 month old who still manages to get his food everywhere while I'm feeding him.  Seriously, how does that happen?  I swear I put the spoon in his mouth every time.  How does it get in his hair, eyebrows, down his shirt, and in his eye? I guess it could be when I am trying to get the older one to put the strawberry in his mouth instead of across the room.

So, I came up with a solution that works for all of us.  Well, for the most part.

This bib is super easy and super cheap.  That's the best part.  I do love the cute bibs that are out there but who wants to spend a billion dollars on bibs that don't cover enough of the kids' chest?  Not me!  I would rather spend that money on something else.

P.S. I wish my good camera was working because these pictures are driving me nuts!

I really didn't think anything about this bib was really great until I started packing them around with me everywhere for the boys to wear when we were out to dinner and I got lots of questions as to where people could find them.  A lot are surprised when I said I just make them.  They think there is much more to them than there really is.  That is the best part!


So, the supplies you will need are:

1 kitchen towel
1 package of Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape that coordinates with your towel
Thread
Sewing Machine
Pins
Scissors
Ruler

First, take the towel and fold it in half lengthwise.  Then measure 5 inches in from the outside corner and cut a half circle like shown below.

Stick a pin in the center of the towel. (pretend that I didn't mess up here and that the tape isn't on.  I forgot to take a picture of the pin in the center before putting the tape on.)

Then measure 36 inches of your bias tape, fold it in half and stick a pin in the middle.

Unfold the towel and insert it into the fold of the bias tape making sure to line up the centers.  Continue pinning the bias tape around the "neck" of the bib.

If you want, you can pin all the way down the bias tape or if you are lazy like me, just hold it together while you sew it.

Final step is to fold the ends of your bias tape inward like shown and then fold back in half and sew from one end of the bias tape to the other.

Hooray!  You are done!  Super easy huh?  The best part is my toddler keeps it on because he still can't reach around to untie it in the back and it covers him almost completely from head to toe.

For my 8 month old, I follow all the same steps except for the first step would be to cut the towel in half like this first:

  Then, there are a couple ways to go.  I use my serger to serge across the cut edge of the towels but you could also fold it down 1/4" and then 1/4" again and sew across.

Then continue with the steps above.

Super simple!

July 4th Door Hanging

Yes, yes I know that my last post was a tutorial for the 4th of July, but like I said, I don't have anything for this holiday.  I'm feeling the need this year to spice up my house and my collection.  (I assure you, the hubs is not liking the feeling I'm having.)

I had so much fun with this project. (Mostly)  You know those days where you just can't get the itch in your pants to get anything done, then all the sudden, after the kids are in bed and the clock hits 10:30 pm you finally get some kind of energy from somewhere and you stay up way to long? Yeah, that is exactly what happened to me with this project just last night.

So, I got out all my stuff and my husband asked "What the heck are you doing?  You are usually getting ready for bed or are in bed sawing logs by this time."  All I could say is "I'm not really sure.  I just got some kind of energy and I need to feel like I have done something productive today."  So, the project began and then I had to finish it because I wanted to see the finished project right then.

It actually wasn't so bad and I liked how it turned out for the most part.

I actually wanted to put "God Bless America" or "Land of the Free" or "America the Beautiful" on it but I just couldn't get it to fit.  Oh well, this works for just wanting to get it done!

I just grabbed a pack of these babies from Hobby Lobby, they come in a pack of 4 for $2.99.  ( I then used a 40% of coupon which took them down to $1.80.  (I think I can handle that!)

I sanded them down a bit to make the paint stick a little better.  Then I painted two blue, one red, and one cream. The cream one I turned over and used the back side to paste the paper for the flag on.  It was a flat surface and easier to make the flag.  But, I wanted the grooves to show on the red and blue ones.

I painted the cream on first so that paint could dry as I was painting the others.  While I was waiting for the red and blue ones to dry, I took some paper I grabbed from The Wood Connection traced the block, cut the paper out and Modge Podged it on.  I then found some paper that would work for the star part, cut a square and Modge Podged that paper on top of the red and white stripe.  I had a little wood star and painted that cream as well and just plopped it down with some Modge Podge onto the star paper.  After everything was glued together, I Modge Podged over the top of everything again to make sure it all stuck.

After I got the flag part done, I grabbed my Cricut and cut out the letters using a 1" setting and the paper I used for the flag. (You could also paint them on or use stencils, but no where in my body do I have a steady hand to be able to do that.)

I Modge Podged all the letters on where I wanted them, once again making sure to Modge Podge over the top to ensure it is glued down.  Then when everything was dry I took my trusty ink chalk and went around the flag, star, and all the letters to add just a little more to it. (I tell you I love this thing.)

To assemble it, I just hot glued some heavy duty wire on the back of each piece and tied a loop on the top.  You will have to use quite a bit of hot glue and make sure you hold it down while it dries or it will just keep popping up.  After it was all put together, I didn't like the space of just wire between the loop and the flag so I decided to add some ribbon.  (However, the ribbon only came about after what felt like ten hours of trying to get the perfect ribbon bow. That failed.  Then tried to get the perfect burlap bow.  That failed.  So, then I decided to try this with different ribbons.)  I just tied the ribbon in knots around the wire, alternating colors, then fixing them at the end to how I wanted.  (Make sure you melt the ends with a lighter so they don't fray.)

So, other than a few things that I wanted different, I at least felt a little productive yesterday.

Let me know what you think!

4th of July Flag Tutorial

Are you like me and have zero decorations for the 4th of July? I decided it was time to change that this year because I finally have a few places I can put them up.  Hooray!  I also needed one more thing in my house to dust every week.

I began looking for something fun to create or do and I stumbled upon this already cut out wood flag from the local Wood Connection store.  Have you ever been?  It's far to much fun in there and you need about a million dollars every time you walk in.  So, because our family is trying to save some money, I had to limit myself to just one thing.  I settled for this!

After a little less than an hour, this is what I came up with and I am a little proud if I do say so myself!

Friends, this is seriously the easiest thing ever!  Nap time works great for this craft especially since all you need to do it cover it in paper because it is already cut out.

Supplies Needed:

1 flag from Wood Connection (or cut out yourself if you are amazing like that)
1 sheet red scrapbook paper
1 sheet white scrapbook paper
1 sheet of paper for stars
Red Paint
White Paint
Blue Paint
Brown Chalk Pad
Modge Podge
Paint Brushes

I grabbed my paper from The Wood Connection also because I loved what they had and it made it easier to make just one stop instead of what feels like 15.

 I did sand my down a little at first to make the paint stick better.  That is totally up to you.

Then I painted every other strip red and white and the square blue.  I painted all sides but the side I knew my paper would be covering.

After the paint dried, i took my white sheet of paper and tore it up and just started using the Modge Podge and a paint brush to glue it onto the white stripes.  I love this tearing method because it gives it some texture and you can't mess it up.  It always ends up looking super fun!  After the stripes were covered, make sure to Modge Podge over all the paper again to ensure it will stay glued down.

After I was done with the white stripes, I just traced the red stripes and the blue square on the coordinating papers, cut them out and Modge Podged them on.

I painted the star white and when the blue star paper was dry, I just used the Modge Podge to glue the star on to finish the flag.

 I liked it at that point but decide I wanted a little more so, I took my chalk pad  (Which I LOVE, if you haven't every used one you should because they are awesome)

and just brushed the edges of the stripes and brushed some in the middle of all pieces to add the little bit more that I wanted.  Then, I loved it!

I did also end up hot gluing the pieces together so I didn't have to keep reassembling it every time it gets knocked over.

 

So fun, so easy, and super cute!

Best Banana Bread

I'm finally up and running again and I couldn't be more excited.   There are lots of things on the list to share with you and today it's Banana Bread.

Friends, this is the best banana bread I have ever had.  I say that because I hate banana bread.  Really, I hate anything banana.  But this recipe is fabulous!  It tastes more like a cake instead of a bread which makes it that much better.  It also doesn't have the super overwhelming banana flavor that I hate.

It's super moist and the best way to eat it is straight out of the oven.  I can't keep this bread around our house between my two year old and the hubs.  I have to take a slice or two when I can for me to even get any. 

You should definitely give it a whirl!  I promise you won't be disappointed.

Doesn't this look like it will hit the spot?

Banana Bread Recipe:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 smashed bananas (sometimes I only use 2)

Cream sugar and butter together.  Add buttermilk and eggs mix again.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix together and add the smashed bananas. 

Grease and flour two loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  I check mine after about 35.  Insert a toothpick to make sure it's done all the way through. 

Enjoy the banana goodness.