Weekly Planner

I created this weekly planner a while back when I couldn't fit enough in my small calendar squares so I was having to look at multiple calendars and getting confused.. I fill in the dates coordinating with the week as well as fill in the meals for the week.  I like it because at one glance I can see it all.  Just thought I'd share!

Weekly Calendar

Laundry Room Upgrade

We have the "walk thru" laundry room that I would not have particularly chosen for our home - but, whatever - we weren't in the position to be super choosy when we relocated back... Charles improved the space by building me shelves for storage of extra paper towels, cleaning supplies etc.. but I hated walking in and looking at the junk up there every single time I came thru the door. My solution, a curtain. I found a rinky dinky pole that had a spring in it to fit windows - i mean, it could be the cheapest curtain rod on the market. I just needed it to squeez in tightly to the space. I have been looking for fabric to make a curtain and actually saw this at JoAnn fabric for $$$$/yard (you would have to custom order and everything.. (i passed) - but I still liked the fabric. I went to Lowes today to get the remainder of the paint for the last couple of rooms and Low and Behold!!! A panel of it for $24. yippee. I turned the panel sideways and sewed up a rod pocket and Voila!

$24 and 20 minutes later - all my problems are solved!... well maybe just this one.

Here's a peak underneath. :)

Shortbread Cookies

I noticed a recipe on the back of the cornstarch box and had to try it.. it is a fast recipe.. threw it together in a few minutes.. however, you must try to hold off eating them until the next day. worth the wait! I ate one, (okay a few) right after they were done and although they were good, they were sort of dry and crumbly tasting. With my coffee this morning..BETTER, this afternoon when I added chocolate to them... MO' BETTA!

THE BEST Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter, softened (no margarine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 cup Argo® Corn Starch

*1/8 teaspoon salt - tiny pinch(i added this)

*1 cup semi-sweet morsels (i added this)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Mix butter, brown sugar and vanilla thoroughly using an electric mixer. Gradually blend in flour and corn starch.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball.

Roll into a 1/3" thick rectangle.

Cut into 2 x 1-inch strips. Or whatever shape you want (*I used a pizza cutter. easy & fast)

Place 1-inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes.

(the recipe says 25-30 minutes - but mine were ready in 20 - i could tell because the smell was from the oven was calling my name!)

Let cookies cool completely.. I waited overnight

I melted chocolate using a double boiler system (putting a few inches of water into a small pot, put a glass bowl on top - make sure water doesn't touch bowl - and add chocolate chips to bowl.) Let water come up to a simmer and stir chips until melted. Slather on a thick layer of chocolate goodness to your cookies and lay them on a cookie sheet - place in freezer to harden chocolate quickly.

I have a inherent weakness for these type of cookies and now that I have a quick and easy recipe for them.. oh no. i'm in trouble. I love love LOVE shortbread cookies and with the chocolate added -they remind me of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, but BETTA'

yes, Mom I'm saving you some... you too Mr Travis... I know you like these too :)

Red Beans & Rice Shortcut Version

Disclaimer * This is a semi-homemade version of Red Beans and Rice.. not your grandma's real deal but oh so close. We have this dinner ALL the time since it is probably one of the easiest recipes ever and I make it ahead of time on Saturday, put the whole pot in the fridge and when we get out of Church on Sunday it reheats fast and delicious. I use a lot of words to describe stuff so that you get a good idea on what I'm talking about.. don't let a lot of words fool you into thinking this is complicated.. b/c it is extremely simple.

What you'll need:

1 pkg your favorite sausage, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 - 1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans of red beans.. I usually get one can of dark red kidney beans and one can light red kidney beans.. sometimes I can actually find a can of just "red beans" but whatever the store has is fine. I always buy the off brand. They were out of the light red kidney beans this week so we had 2 dark red cans.. whatever.
about a tablespoon of corn starch

Cooked rice *if you want a wow flavor, substitute the water for chicken stock (in the box).. MUCH BETTER with this dish
Jiffy cornbread. no substitutions. it is the best :)
Tony Chacheres, or seasoned salt

here we go...

I buy something different each time.. I like this stuff from HEB - however, I don't love kielbasa sausage in it.. use a local-ish type sausage

Brown the sausage a little bit

while it is browning, chop onions, bell pepper & garlic

Add onions and peppers to sausage and saute *hold back garlic until after onions and peppers are cooked down a bit. *I do this b/c the garlic would burn and taste bitter.

open the cans of beans, DO NOT DRAIN! Dump it all in juicy syrupy stuff and all.

Look in the bottom of the can, you'll see a little bit of bean sediments at the bottom.. fill the can about 1/3 of the way up and add tablespoon of corn starch and dissolve completely *stirring up those little bean bits off the bottom of the can.

Add corn starch mixture (rosey cloudy pink color) to skillet and stir it up
It will look like this (below). Season with Tony's or whatever seasoned salt you like. (*be careful with seasonings if you have an extra spicy sausage). Stir, cover and bring it up to boil for a minute and lower it to a slight simmer for about 15 minutes.

(The function of the corn starch is to change the liquid from watery to more of a gravy consistency.. if yours is still too watery, add some corn starch to a little water, dissolve it and then add it to your pan. never put dry corn starch into your food - it will make gummy clumps. If you have the opposite problem and it is too thick, add chicken stock or water to thin it out. no problem.)

Serve over rice and a side of Jiffy corn bread! YUMMO. I have served this dish to some true cajuns and have gotten two thumbs up. Simple. Easy. Good & CHEAP.

Fruit Pizza... the easy way

I found a yummy recipe for Fruit Pizza but I took a major short cut by buying refrigerated sugar cookie dough already done...

1 pkg sugar cookie dough
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
some cool whip
whatever fruit you like

make a big dough ball out of your pre-made cookie dough and then roll it out into a circle shape. I did this on my Pampered Chef big round baking stone thing I sprayed underneath and put flour to make sure it didn't stick. I baked the giant coookie for about 18 minutes and let it cool completely. Meanwhile, I mixed up the cream cheese and sugar until you get a smooth consistency and then add in the vanilla... {you really could flavor it any flavor you wish}. Spread mixture onto the cookie - you may not use all of it depending on your cookie size. and then I do a thin layer of cool whip on top of that - unecessary, but delicious. All that is left to do is decorate!

New Blue Playroom

I love the new blue color.. it is so calming and it coordinates nicely with the yellow painted furniture. Audrey's furniture in her room is painted the same color *her headboard and dresser.. so as she gets older we can switch out furniture as needed since all of it is a soft yellow.

there's the yellow desk from the previous post - there is supposed to be a fish tank on there thanks to my mother - but the fish didn't survive our trip to Mexico... We'll set it all back up soon.

audrey in the play kitchen..

in the closet - we hung hooks for all her dress up clothes and a shoe organizer for all those dress up shoes and we even stuff cheerleading costumes into the pockets sincet they don't take up much room!
We fit so much stuff in this cube organizer... also in the closet


I'm going to paint the table and chairs yellow too. Audrey was already enjoying some Leapster in her cozy new playroom.

Before & After

I simply painted the beat up old desk with no prep work. No, I did not prime it, sand it or anything else. I used a small roller and some Lemon Chiffon High Gloss paint and Voila!

DIY Chalkboard

What you need:
A board of masonite $8 - in the back of lowes next to the beadboard
A can of chalkboard paint $7 (found it at Hobby Lobby - but many places carry it)
a frame - any shape or size

I got the nice men at Lowes to cut my board for me to fit the frame - *remember to measure it before you go! I had more than twice the amount leftover - but plan to make another chalkboard in the future.. maybe gifts?? ;o)

Spray the board, let dry, put it in the frame.. and you're done. I wish I could have written on mine before I posted this - but it says to wait 24 hours before writing on it.

Cookie Cake Copy Cat

Ok gals, I did a little research to find out how to make a cookie cake that actually tastes like the Great American Cookie Company's Cookie Cakes... Here's the trick: For every 16.5 oz container of store bought cookie dough, add 1/4 cup of light corn syrup. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to mix it up really well... If you let the cookie dough soften a little it makes this a lot easier. The corn syrup makes the cookie stay chewy and dense just like the Cookie Company's cakes. My favorite part of those cakes is the yummy white icing, so my research continued and found an icing that is pretty dog-gone close!

I doubled it - but had leftovers..
White Icing:
1/2 stick of room temperature unsalted butter - the real stuff (not margarine)
1/4 cup vegetable shortening - I used crisco sticks *easier to measure
2 cups sifted powdered sugar *I didn't sift it - too lazy
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*I added a tad bit of milk - maybe 2 teaspoons - to thin it a little
Beat with mixer until it reaches a fluffy consistency
Put in piping bag or just cut the corner off of a ziploc bag.

Chocolate Icing:
Used Duncan Hines Homestyle Chocolate Icing

Some useful info if you try this recipe:
The cake puffs up a lot in the oven - almost spilled over the sides of my dish - but when you take it out it deflates back down..

I used 3 1/2 of the pre-cut slice and bake cookie dough packages *like in the paper tray* and the container I used to bake it in was the tin, throw away kind you can buy in the baking section of grocery store.. 18" x 13" x 1.5" deep. Bake for around 35 minutes at 325 degrees.

Use water on your hands to pat it down into the greased baking dish and to smooth it out - just use your {clean} wet hands to make the cookie have a smooth top to it

Use a pizza cuter to make clean edges - since the sides kind of cook up into the tray - i just cut them away to make a straight clean look on all four sides.

Enjoy!

Chinese Take-"In"

Here is a quick "go to" meal idea when I don't feel like making a big fuss.. I buy the Birds Eye Stir Fry vegetable blend from WalMart (around $5). It comes with two sauce packs. I only use 1/2 of the package to feed our family for a meal and that includes lots of leftovers for Charles' lunch the next day. Save the other half of the package for another night.

First, use some teriyaki sauce (mine was about $2) and marinade either chicken tenders or chicken breasts in it *I prefer to use chicken tenders. Saute in skillet until done and take them out. Let cool and slice chicken on a diagonal so your family thinks you went thru a lot of trouble... :O)

in the same skillet pour a little oil in the bottom of the pan and add 1/2 the bag of veggies and saute until they are warmed thru (but still crisp). Then add sauce packet that comes with veggies and add cooked chicken back to the pan. Stir to reheat the chicken and dinner is done!

I serve the stir-fry over rice and with eggrolls on the side (also in freezer section -we like the pork kind). Voila! dinner is done!

Mother's Day Gift Idea: Cookie Bouquet

Audrey and I created cookie bouquets for her grandmothers for Mother's Day. We saw her 'Mere and Nana this past weekend, so before we went we planned ahead and made (and ate) lots of sugar cookie dough, inserted a sucker stick in each of them and baked them all on Wednesday. We made the icing in 7 different fun colors and then put everything up for the next day. On Thursday we painted the pots, put floral foam inside, covered it with green straw (found at Michaels), decorated the cookies, let them dry and covered them with clear treat bags. On Friday morning before we left, I arranged them in the pot and off we went! Both grandmothers just loved them and have requested them for every Mother's Day! :) So if you are looking for something extra special to do this year - here's your ticket!
Recipe for cookies and icing is HERE
(i doubled the icing).. can't ever have too much, right?!
and click here if you want to see another time I made these

*a little tip: when writing names on the cookies - cut the tip of the piping bag very small (I use the clear disposable piping bags)- the icing naturally spreads out making the letters wider than what they start out as.

Paci Clip Tutorial

These look simple to make - I bought some custom ones for Will on ebay because they were actually cheaper than the ones you get at Babies R Us - But I'd like to give this a try since I like to do the burp cloths and I could easily give these as gifts.. I better get a "move" on it since after he arrives, {if he ever does} I won't have as much time on my hands... ;)

Here's the Tutorial for the paci clip: http://createstudio.blogspot.com/2008/10/paci-clip-tutorial.html

Pizza Bread

Here is one of our household favorites - and a bonus is that it is a SUPER easy recipe!

Start out with this bread dough found in the freezer section:

Let one loaf defrost on a greased cookie sheet - also spray the plastic wrap so it doesn't stick later
It needs to double in size -so take it out first thing in the morning *but if you're like me and forget, I put my oven on the lowest setting 135 degrees and leave it in there for a couple of hours until it looks like this:

Sprinkle some flour onto the dough and onto a rolling pin and spread it out.
Take 1 cup of mozzarella and sprinkle it down the middle of the dough. Then take 1/2 bag of pepperoni (I use turkey pepperoni since it is 70% less fat - you can't tell the difference once it is all cooked together) and put it on top of the mozzarella. Finish by topping the pepperoni with the remainder of the cheese (1 cup). Fold the short ends towards the center and then stretch the long sides to meet in the middle (sort of like a burrito). Pinch together and flip the whole thing over so that the seam side is on the cookie sheet. Brush the top with a beaten egg (to help with browning) and sprinkle on some Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese (both optional).
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until it looks like this:

Slice and Eat! You can also use this as an appetizer if you just slice it smaller... yum!