Recipe: Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2¾ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
1½ c. white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Makes 48 cookies, approx; Preheat oven to 375°F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

*These are red because I asked my husband to pick a color and he picked red. I was tired of the plain ole' sugar cookie look! I also put my thumbprint on the top of each cookie before I stuck them in the oven and sprinkled sugar down in the thumbprint for a thin, sugary coating.


3 year old approved!

Fix-It Friday #151 with Julie Rivera Photography

Fix-It Friday #151 with Julie Rivera Photography.


Before


After


Another edit (b&w version)


Join us on Iheartfaces.

Recipe: Doodle's Surprise

This is probably my favorite pasta dinner. It's so delicious. Named "Doodle's Surprise" because my Aunt (nicknamed Doodle) is the one who came up with mixing the perfect amount of ingredients together & it just STUCK! :) It's quick, easy, & delish! Ready now? With pictures, of course.

Ingredients:

Velveeta Shells & Cheese

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce (I use Mushroom & Green Pepper for the flavor, but you can use whatever kind you like)

6-8 slices of cheese, depending on the size of the pan you are using

1-2lbs. hambuger meat

Getting Started:
* Preheat your oven to 425°F.

Brown your hamburger meat and in a seperate pan, put your noodles on to boil.


Strain and rinse hamburger meat.


Make sure you non-stick your pan first, but then add your hamburger meat to your pan. I always use this really small dish because it's my favorite, but you can use a bigger size if needed. This dish typically makes around 8 servings. For more, I'd suggest a bigger pan & doubling the noodles & sauce.


This is optional. I always put my spaghetti sauce through a strainer and hold it over my meat pan. I don't like mushrooms & peppers, but I love the flavor it gives. If you like those things, then this step isn't necessary, but if you don't - it's a life saver from having to pick them out later!


Pictured above: Meat & sauce after straining the mushrooms & green peppers from the sauce. Like I said, completely optional! Or if you're in a hurry and don't mind the taste of the peppers & mushrooms, it just saves you a step from having to strain them out.


Pictured above: All of the strained-out mushrooms, green peppers, tomates & extra stuff from the spaghetti sauce. After straining them, feel free to toss them on out!




Remove noodles from stove once they are nice & done. Strain them as well, then add to your meat & sauce pan.




Next, pour ontop your velveeta cheese. And mix mix mix mix mix.


Once mixed well, add on a top layer of sliced cheese. I usually cover the whole pan with cheese.


Bake for about 30 minutes or until cheese browns. Remove from oven, let cool, and DIG IN!!


Yummy?


Why yes! Yes it was!


Good side dishes:
Garlic bread! Or just any kind of bread, really.

Oh yeah, I forgot the warning.
VERY CHEESY!! Haha.

:) Enjoyyy.


This was posted to an older blog entry and had pictures still from before, so I just copied and pasted. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Recipe: Garbage

No image yet
Garbage

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 tsp. Peanut butter
1 lg box Chex cereal
1 lg box raisins
1 jar Nuts
1 lb. Powdered sugar
1 white garbage bag


approx 32 servings; Use what nuts, etc. that you like. If you really like chocolate chips, use a bigger package. Melt the butter, chocolate chips, and peanut butter in a saucepan. In a very large bowl, place the Chex Cereal, the raisins, and the nuts. Pour the melted ingredients over the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix. Put the entire mixture into a white garbage bag. Add 1 pound of powdered sugar and shake. Snacks galore!

What's for Dinner? Wednesday

What's for dinner, you say? Tonight we had: pot roast w| gravy (thanks, crockpot!), mac & cheese, carrots, corn, green beans (not pictured), and biscuits! Yum yum yum yum.. yum.





What did you have for dinner?

Wordless Wednesday: Lunchtime!

Touch-Up Tuesday: Natalie's maternity shoot

Here's an image from one of my best friend, Natalie's maternity shoot that we had back a few months ago! Her and her husband Jon are just adorable and so made for each other. ♥


Before | SOOC


After | Edited

Addison Reese: 13 months.

Saw this idea on Pinterest (if you don't follow me, you should!) & I thought it would be really cute. I hope to try and do this every month, but we'll see!


Addison Reese | 13 months old - July 2012

If you have children and you haven't ever done anything like this, you should!

Let him sleep . . .

Let him sleep... for when he wakes, he will move mountains.

Gunner Trace | 3 years old

More fireworks!

I've considered making a bokeh texture set for download. Would anyone be interested if I did? I've got a few icon texture downloads that are sized 100x100 that I made a few years ago. If anyone's interested, I may post those also. Font downloads.. would you want those? Of course it wouldn't be fonts I made, just some I use often. Let me know and if there's interest, I'll get them together and post them!

Now onto some more fireworks pictures that I didn't post...

Recipe: Cheeseburger Pie

No image yet
Cheeseburger Pie

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef (or chuck)
chopped onion
cheddar cheese (shredded)
½ c. Bisquick
2 eggs
1 c. milk
½ tsp salt

Brown hamburger meat in a skillet, using onions as flavor. Drain. Preheat oven to 400°. Grease a round pie pan and add hamburger meat to bottom of pan. Sprinkle cheese over the meat. In a bowl, mix Bisquick, eggs, milk and salt. Pour over meat. Sprinkle more cheese over top and bake for 25 minutes.

Oh, the little things!

As a parent, you often find yourself in a whirlwind of chaos. I don't necessarily mean bad chaos, but having to re-learn the mumbo jumbo of better managing your time, if you know what I'm saying. I have officially done the unthinkable.. honestly something I never pictured myself to even attempt, rather yet be able to accomplish -- but I'm going to roll with the punches and hope like crazy that with all of my hard work, I succeed! I am going to manage to multitask. I've enrolled back in college, will (most likely, and hopefully) be released to go back to work as of Friday, am a mother to 3 children, am a wife to one somewhat needy husband, and I run a photography business.

This seems unthinkable. I am enrolled full-time in college, but haven't been since 2007 when I dropped out right after High School. Since then, I met Sean & married him and we had 3 beautiful kids.. and my life has been a rollercoaster of all three things -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm willing to do this! This is not only what I want, but this is what I need. And while doing so, I hope to set some personal goals.. weight loss, healthier me, growing out my nails and not just picking, clipping or biting them off because I get stressed out (which is what I did during college orientation for re-admits the other day), lol. And so on and so forth. I want to take more pictures, enjoy my kids more, do things as a family. I want to live life. I feel like I've been sitting on the sidelines for so long.. waiting on life to live for me! And it's time for me to do something for ME and my kids will all benefit from it in the long run. I want to know that if, come hell or high water, I needed to stand on my own two feet -- I could do it without a problem and not have to flip out over a huge life changing experience or something.

Does this make me crazy? Maybe. Am I going to feel overwhelmed as can be? Probably. But is it worth it? Is it what I want? YESSSS. And will I do it? You betcha!

Recipe: Iron Skillet Chocolate Pie

Iron Skillet Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:
3 c. sugar
3 c. milk
1 c. flour
6 tbsp Hershey's cocoa
6 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp butter
2 9" baked pie shells

Makes 2 9" pies!; In an iron skillet, mix dry ingredients together. Mix well with a whisk, beat egg yolks and add them to the milk and mix together. Turn stove on medium low, and add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir constantly, slowly at first. When pie filling starts to thicken, you will have to stir quicker. Make sure you are stirring the bottom also because the filling will stick to the bottom of the skillet once it starts to thicken. Once it starts to thicken, you will have to stir quickly. It will probably wear your arm out stirring so much, but stick with doing it if you want a great chocolate pie. Be sure to stir, stir, stir.. and don't burn it -- OR ELSE! Once pie filling is thick enough, take the skillet off the heat and add the vanilla and butter. This will make your filling more smooth and yummy! Pour it into your baked pie shells (should be enough to split half and half), then once it cools you may top it with Cool Whip!

*If you want to use meringue, then whip the remaining egg whites with approximately 3/4 c. of sugar until it peaks. Put on top of pies making peaks and for extra decoration, sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles. Bake in oven on 350 degrees until meringue is golden brown.

Fix-It Friday #149 with Wendy VonSosen Photography

Fix-It Friday entry for Friday, July 13, 2012 with Wendy VonSosen Photography.





To enter yours, join us on IHeartFaces.

My 3 year old love.

I rarely get good photos of him, so his pictures seem so few and far between the girls. I've found myself feeling guilty, almost like since he's my firstborn I've betrayed him or pushed him to the side. Now, I know this seems silly but I don't ever want him to feel left out! Not in blog posts, not at home, not at school.. not anywhere, ever. But don't we all want the best for our children? Ah, anyway. I think I'm getting a bit drowsy, finding myself blabbing on about things that probably just seem silly at the time.

I just look into his little brown eyes and I can't believe how much my life has changed. I went from one lifestyle to a whole new lifestyle. I knew nothing about being a mother. I never pictured myself having kids, and to be honest, especially not before more than half of my friends were! Now here I am, what I feel like is a good mother -- and 3 beautiful, healthy children later. I couldn't be more thankful.

But, alas, they're growing up on me.. minute by minute.




Gunner Trace


Callie Brynn