My First Award

Thank you Michelle of Flour Child for this (my first) award. You have to check out her site for some wonderful baking blogs!! I love her pictures of mouth watering baked goods and I even pick up some great recipes from the blog. I also love keeping up with what is going on with her family through her blog. My favorite blog on her site is dated August 10, 2008. You must go read about how her wonderful hubby is the discus champ!!

I will be passing this award on to some other well deserving blogs later today. For now....I must get some children ready for school.

Here is a video of my daughter

This video is from my oldest daughters competition acro dance 2 years ago. I just loved it and thought I would share. Mulan Princesses

Maybe I can figure out how to post videos that I have on DVD from last years competitions....hmmmm.

Pumpkin Bread

My friend posted a pumpkin bread recipe on her blog (http://homebakedsweetness.blogspot.com/) and I gave it a try. I had never made pumpkin bread before. I've never really been much of a baker. I'd only baked cakes from box mixes a few pies for holidays, etc. This year, I've really started to try other things and I find that I enjoy it. My girls even loves to help me and make their own pies.

Here is the pumpkin bread from yesterday. I think I'll go eat another piece now!


Here is a picture of my ugly cake!! It is the first cake I did from scratch(back in the spring). It is certainly ugly, but it tasted sooooo good.
I made the same recipe for my mom in May. She was on her way to Charleston SC with my dad and came for a few nights. She was at my house for her birthday and I am honored to have been able to make her a homemade cake for her last birthday. She loved it.

In a sweets kind of mood!

In the past week, I've made 2 batches of homemade peanut butter candy. I was really missing my mom earlier in the week and that made me think of her peanut butter candy recipe. I had never made it before. I remember asking her for the recipe years ago but never made it. My mom didn't really ever measure and part of her directions was "cook it til it's done". When I asked "when is it done?", her reply was "you'll know when it's done, it will spin a thread". Of course I had NO idea what that meant, so I never used the recipe. Fast forward to this week, and I sat at my computer to google "spin a thread". I think it is the same as "soft ball stage". It turned out great. My kids love it and it reminds me of my mom. Perhaps my kids will think of me someday when they make this candy in their own homes.

Peanut Butter Candy (aka Peanut Butter Fudge)

2 cups of sugar
1/3 cups light corn syrup
1/3 cup milk
1/4 stick butter
2/3 cup peanut butter

Cook the sugar, corn syrup and milk until it "spins a thread", stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add butter and peanut butter and stir quickly until butter is melted and peanut butter is blended into the mixture.

Pour onto a buttered platter to cool.


I, of course, have to eat some while it is warm!!

Hodge-Podge

hodge·podge (hjpj)

n.

A mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumble.

I think that I should have named my blog "Hodge-Podge". It is certainly a mixture of dissimilar items (just like my life). Today will be no different. LOL

I received an email yesterday titled The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe in the World. I usually quickly read over this type of email and then hit delete. I'm not sure why I kept this one, but I'm sure glad I did. The email contained the following recipe:

Ingredients

4 tbsp self rising flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract

Directions

1 - In a large coffee mug, add dry ingredients and mix well
2 - Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Add the milk and oil and mix well
3 - Add the chocolate chips (if desired) and vanilla extract and mix again
4 - Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
(The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!)
5 - Allow to cool a little. Tip the cake out onto a plate if desired
6 - EAT!! (This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous

And...why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!!



This actually turned out very well!!! It was quick and easy. I wish that the chocolate chips would have been all throughout the cake, but they settled to the bottom of my coffee mug. Then when I tipped it out onto my plate, it acted kind of like a chocolate chip frosting (which is okay too!!). This is quite a lot for one person, so you can share. I was sharing with my youngest and she liked it soooo much that she acted as if she was going to stab me with her fork if I took too many bites!

Books I like to read

I finished my most recent book about a week ago and haven't started up another yet. The book I finished is a 1980 book by Dean Koontz called Whispers. I have enjoyed Dean Koontz books for a long time and am now trying to go back and read many that I have missed over the years. Thanks to the Dean Koontz collection of a friend and thanks to the many books at Value Village, I can find many books that are no longer in print. I hope to start my next book soon. I believe my next Dean Koontz selection will be Strangers, which was released in 1986. I'll keep you informed of what I think of it.

I'm still here...!!!...

With 3 kids I have a hard time finding the time to blog (or time to do much of anything). I'm still here and wanted to put a quick post on my blog.

With Halloween coming up, I went through some of my older Halloween pics and found one from 2004 that I like. Aren't they sooooo cute???

Garage sale over...but I still have lots of junk.

The garage sale was yesterday. I only had about 25% of my normal turn out. I'm not sure if I just picked a bad weekend or if the ad in the paper just didn't grab much attention. Well, at least I've got everything boxed up and ready to go to either Goodwill or to keep for the neighborhood garage sale planned for next month. I don't know if I want to have another sale so soon or not..but at least it's all ready.

My brother, his wife and son (Andrew - aka Matthew) came for the weekend too. My brother, Kyle, put some shingles back on the roof for me. Some had blown off in some high winds and he took care of that for me. It was good to visit with them again. They only live about 2 1/2 hours from here, but it's hard to find time to visit in this day and time.

Now...here are the pictures of the progress of my first embroidery project.

The stitching isn't evenly spaced, but...hey....it is my first attempt. I'm sure it'll get better with time.

I sure do have a lot of junk!!

I have been working in the garage all week going through boxes, sorting and tossing and making a big mess. I've come to the conclusion that I have entirely too much stuff. No one family should have this much stuff. While trying to prepare for my garage sale on Saturday, I've only focused on the garage. I have plenty that I need to go through in the house, but I haven't made it that far yet. If I don't get to all the things in the house, I guess I can have another garage sale in October which is when the neighborhood sale is.

I have priced lots of items, tossed lots and am just downright unsure what to do with a lot of stuff. I'm sure the girls would want to keep it all. They are bigger packrats than I am. I had several boxes already in the garage full of items that I had planned to get rid of. While going through those boxes, I pulled out a few items that I now want to keep. These are items that my mother had given to me. I had placed these items in the garage in the spring, but since her death in June, I guess I just can't part with things as easily.

I have also started on my new found hobby of embroidery. I haven't done much since I've been working in the garage, but I have traced the pattern onto a pillowcase and started a few stiches. I'll have to take a picture and upload it later. It's time for me to head back into the dusty, dirty garage.

My First Post

This being my first post, is a good weekend to do so. Yesterday, I went to lunch with 3 friends I had met in Idaho. It's been a long time since all 4 of us have been in the same room. I met up with Tona (flew in from Colorado), Stephanie (moved to the area in June) and Erica (moved here a few years ago). What are the chances that 3 of us who met in Idaho would now live close to each other in NC??

Today, Erica and Tona came over for lunch before Tona met up with her family in Hickory. We had pulled Pork, green beans, Broccoli Cheese casserole, home made rolls and Chocolate Pie. How is that for a Sunday lunch?? Tonight, we have leftovers.

For those who know me, you know I like to craft (Scrapbook, Stamp, Crochet, etc.). Now, I've decided to try yet another craft. I bought a book on embroidery yesterday and today I bought supplies to embroider some designs on pillow cases for Ella and Sarah. I hope to get started today...but I really need to go through things in my garage and house. I'm planning a garage sale on Saturday, but I have nothing ready. I'll keep you posted on how things are going.