Re-Vamp your Grilled Cheese

No I have not forgotten about this blog, I just got a little bit busy. And I'll be honest, distracted. I usually fluctuate between "utterly obsessed" and "uninterested." And yes I stole that from a pinterest picture, but it describes me so well. So, I am flipping the switch back to "Utterly Obsessed" here we go again. Before the start of every new month I sit down and do our family budget and our menu for the month. I feel as if I'm almost always in a sate of sitting down to do the budget and menu.
Yes it's alot of work, but it's alot of work at one time, the rest of the month is easy breezy. So worth it. And to add some variety to our "Rice and Beans" budget I like to look for new recipes to try. Thanks to Pinterest it's so much fun. Of course this leads to the "Honey pick up a pizza for dinner, I was busy pinning healthy recipes" scenario (yes another theft...)
I stumbled across this recipe and thought it was interesting sounding, a nice variation on a sandwich. I would be able to easily feed myself and the boy off this, and since it had cooked fruit I figured that my husband would be okay "missing out."
You need "sturdy wheat bread", red pear, raspberry jam, cooked bacon, and muenster cheese. I took alot of artistic license with it. 

I used some of my home made white bread that I sliced on the thicker side, to make it "sturdy". Also I have no idea where you could find "muenster cheese" I was unable to find it, so mozzarella stepped in as a replacement. Last change I made was using strawberry jam instead of raspberry, I had sadly just run out of my grandmothers homemade jam. You layer the ingredients on the bread then grill the sandwich. The recipe had an order to it, but I figured there really was no big difference to how I did it. On one slice I layered the mozzarella cheese, on the other slice I spread the strawberry jam, laid the bacon on top of that, and finished with the pears. In my skillet I plopped a little butter in and melted it. Placed the slice with just cheese, in retro-spec I should have done the other one first, it's harder to flip over.Added slice number two, adjust slice number two. And grill.  

Bread, I like, along with strawberry jam, pears and cheese. Bacon made me a bit leery. I am not always sold on bacon. There are people out there who live and die by it, I am not one of them. I usually crunch a half to one whole one and I'm good. Feeling adventurous when I put together the menu is what leads to the "off the beaten path" items for meals.
I made a lunch for my son out of the pieces. He takes apart sandwiches anyways, why bother to make one for him.  He happily munched on all the separate pieces. I watched him eat while my sandwich finished grilling, wondering if he had the right idea.
Taking my sandwich out of the skillet, placing on a plate and sitting with it at the table. I was not sure what I was about to find.
What I found was a surprisingly tasty and very filling dish! All the pieces play well off of each other. No Idea if it would taste better with all the actual ingredients, but I'm fine with it the way it is, I'll keep it. Besides, the hunt for muenster cheese might prove to be more then I would like to do.

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/bacon-pear-raspberry-grilled-cheese/

Marble-toes

I'm a toe painter. I keep trying to paint my finger nails, but after only a few moments of a life as a mom they don't fare well. The beautiful gloss get's quickly lost. I'll stick to having fun with my toe nails and leave my fingers bare. 

A while ago there was a tutorial on how to make tie-dyed nails. They looked so beautiful. But my sister and future sister in law tired. Turns out nail polish and water just make a mess. The "art" you end up with on your nails doesn't make it worth the clean up around the nail.
I found a tutorial online, and I sadly I can not for the life of me find it now. But I will walk you through the process. Very easy and as long as you are careful, clean marbling affect. 

two contrasting nail polishes
and a tooth pick

You will need the items in the above picture.You can do any two colors (Eventually I will try three but for now I do two) your little heart desires. The bigger the contrast the easier to see the marble look. Just keep that in mind. And for the sake of ease, I will show you on a piece of paper. I'm no acrobat after all.  

Before you begin I recommend shaking and opening your nail polish colors first. This is where the "if your careful, clean" part comes in. Do not forget they are open, Do not open them anywhere near children (in fact wait till they are asleep) and Do not go to shake them after they are open. I will not be responsible for the after math of that. 

Paint your nail the base color, the darker color works best for the drops.  

Next drop three dots on to the still wet base.  

Quickly, very quickly using a figure eight motion swirl a tooth in and out of the drops. In all sorts of directions. And that is basically it. Be prepared for this to take awhile if you plan on doing each toe (or finger) nail, since the polish needs to be wet in order for this project to work, you have to do one at a time. 

Here is a picture of my finished Marble nail. I'm a mother of two young boys who will wake up at any moment. I have no time to do each nail. So I just do the big toe. People get the idea. 

Easy Peasy Creamy Chicken

Summer in Idaho can get hot. Hot as in "I refuse to turn on the oven, you will have to make due with the microwave or starve" hot. And it's especially bad now. Top apartment with vaulted ceilings. Impossible to cool with the AC. Thankfully the saving grace of Idaho is that we are on the edge of a desert. Temps will  yo-yo between "too hot to function" and "too much of a shock cool." So just invest in some good fans and you can suck the cool air in at night to bring the temperature down, just to go right back up the next day. Down side? Be prepared to dust and vacuum ALOT more.
Back to the topic at hand. With the temperature steadily (as steady as the weather will allow) on the rises. I depend on my crock pot more and more. The bonus here is you can fix it and forget about it, thwarting the six o'clock freak out.  I found this easy recipe on Pinterest courtesy of The Larson Lingo. 

Above is all that is needed, along with some chicken of course. I used drumsticks. Because I love the built in holder on them. But I would recommend (and will use in the future) breast or thigh, more meat and easier to shred. 

Place you chicken on the bottom then simply dump the black beans, corn and the Italian tomatoes and their contents over the chicken. Last plop the cream cheese over the mixture. Turn on the crock pot and walk away. 4 hours on high, 6ish hours on low. When it's finished cooking shred the chicken and mix in the cream cheese- it will end up just sitting there doing nothing, it you don't make it. 

My little family and I went to church, when we got back at lunch time we were greeted with an amazing smelling dish. And the smell matched the taste. We had to smell it for a bit longer while we waited for the rice to cook. I couldn't get this recipe recorded quick enough. 

really wish I could put a scratch and sniff function here. 

It might not look tasty but it was so amazing! My husband and I ate way too much, I would have gone for more but there was just no more room in my belly! Thank you very much to "The Larson Lingo" amazing amazing dish! Love the ease of it, now if I can just get a rice cooker. Out meals will be ready when we step in the door! 

http://thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com/2011/05/easiest-dinner-ever.html

Top 10 Ways to get the most from your Straightener

I am convinced out of all the different tools they make for your hair you can get by with just a Flat Iron. And here are the top ten ways to use it!
1) Get some lovely beach waves. With a combination of braiding and twisting.
http://www.ohsoprettythediaries.com/2012/04/does-pinterest-know-everything.html 
2) Create a mane of Frizz: wind sections of hair around U pins
http://thebeautydepartment.com/2011/10/halloween-hair-tutorial-2/ 
3) Make soft lovely curls
http://www.ukhairdressers.com/handbagTV3.asp
4) Traveling and wrinkles go together, set your Straightener on low and instant iron
http://www.livingfrugaltips.com/healthy-living/another-use-for-your-flat-iron/
5) And on that note, Crinkle in your Ribbon? Use your straightener to run your ribbons through
http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/use-a-hair-iron-to-smooth-ribbon-10000001193286/index.html
6)Make some chunky, messy curls
http://www.thewonderforest.com/2011/10/messy-chunky-beach-waves-easy-tutorial.html
7) Use it to seal Mylar bags
8) Color your hair with Pastels and then set with a Flat iron
http://www.seventeen.com/fashion/blog/hair-chalking
9) Diy "sunning" of your hair with out sun
http://pinterest.com/pin/88875792616430441/
10) Get the same look as using your Crimper
http://babesinhairland.com/hairstyles/how-to-get-waves-from-braids-a-flat-iron/

Huh, well know I am thinking about getting rid of the other hair equipment in my drawer and giving my Hair Straightener a place of honor possibly making one of these...?

http://yourcreativejuices.blogspot.com/2010/09/flat-iron-holder.html

Divine French Toast

I'm a sucker for all things breakfast. My husband works long hours so I can usually get away with doing breakfast for dinner, most nights. If you think I'm fibbing or stretching the truth go with me to a restaurant and if breakfast is an option, it will be on a plate in front of me.
This recipe jumped out at me, the picture looks so amazingly delicious that I had to make it! It was pinned by Danielle and I am very thankful that she found it so that I could find it.
Head over to Chef In Training for this amazing recipe. See bottom of post for the site link.
The recipe is super easy. I loved that I could make it the night before and cook it the next morning-or in my case the next night. There's alot to say about breakfast for dinner.

There were two distinct parts. You make a type of sugary glaze that you put into a cookie sheet. The recipe called for a jelly roll pan... To be honest I googled that- yah can we use normal english, Jelly Roll Pan is a cookie sheet with a good lip around the edge. But now I know and so do you. You spread the sugary mixture all over the cookie sheet then place your bread over the top. I used a loaf of french bread that I cut.

This picture is of the egg mixture that you spoon over the bread, I just poured-no sense in dirtying yet another dish. Just do it slowly, try to be fair. Don't want your bread slices to get jealous of each other. 

Here is the tasty dish after it baked for 30 min's at 350. Yes it doesn't look so divine but looky looky what's hiding underneath,

Now that is what I would like to call Ddddivine French Toast. So tasty, ate more then I probably should have. And this is great if you're out of syrup, no syrup needed in this dish. Of course if you have water, sugar and mapline flavoring- you'll have to come up with your own reason to make this dish. But a reason you need, you will be missing out if you don't give this dish a try! 

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/01/overnight-creme-brulee-french-toast.html

Mmmm Tasty homemade Bread

Is there anything that can rival the smell of fresh bread baking in your oven? I beg to state that there is not!
While checking pinterest out one day I came across a interesting recipe for refrigerated bread. It has only essentially three ingredients. Flour(6 1/2 cups of it) Salt ( 1 1/2 tablespoons of this one) and Yeast (1 1/2 tablespoons) Plus your water and there you go! Super easy recipe I thought and the best part is that you can make this bread right in a container. Picked ours up at a dollar store so it was cheap, but there is a "handle" of sorts on the side, which makes it easy for holding- not so easy for getting your hand inside to mix the bread.
So keeping it short and sweet; get some warm water, 3 cups worth. And dump it right into your large container (think one you would use for storing sugar) stir in the 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt till it's dissolved. Once the salt is dissolved sprinkle the yeast over (that's 1 1/2 tablespoons.) Once your concoction starts to bubble you can pour in your 6 1/2 cups of flour. There is no "clean" way to do this next part. So just accept that dive in. Or if your lucky enough to have a child old enough to understand what you want- have them do it. You will remain fairly clean, they will get to be un-clean along with the rewarding feeling of know that they helped you. Win for everyone.
The lady who wrote about this diy said that she doesn't wash the container out she simply leaves it in the fridge so you get that old sour dough taste with your brand stinking new bread. I'll try this out but I've never been a big fan of sour dough.
Here you have your bread all mixed- this took alot of work for me, the jar I used was narrow. Leave your bread on the counter to raise for a few hours, mine didn't rise quite as long as it should have. Then simply move to your fridge for storage. When the need arises for that delectable smell of fresh bread (you know that you Need it)  simple yank a wad out place in your bread pan and bake!
I thought the bread was so amazingly good and with only a few ingredients  I was quite impressed. I got three loaves out of this but it will vary on how big your loaves are, and again I didn't let my bread rises as long as it initially should have.  Hope you enjoy the finished product!

3 cups water
1.5 tablespoon yeast
1.5 tablespoon salt
6.5 cups flour
450* for 30-35 min

Thank you to the author of Jezebel for this wonderful pin! Go check out her website!
http://jezebel.com/5881847/how-to-make-easy-fast-foolproof-bread-from-scratch

Baked Blueberry goodness!

Today was a beautiful day in eastern Idaho. I loaded up my two boys and met my mother and sister at a garage  sale- so totally syked about garage sale season is starting- then we met my husband for a trip to the zoo. It was a fun time there and being the first day it was open it was still not too busy. My first born son is not quite 2 and loves to be around animals. So it was fun getting to show him the animals and teaching him their names. And we will have a fun memory to tease him about when he gets older- he jumped the dividing fence and took off after a peacock. The peacock was quite disturbed that something was chasing him. After we were done at the zoo I said goodbye to my mother, sister, husband and 1st born. I got to  have a "relaxing" break from being a mother of two for a bit.
I had asked my mom earlier if I could make them all dinner. I loved baked fruit, I think it's tasty and delicious. My husband does not. We have yet to find a baked fruit that he likes. Cruising Pinterest one day I found a recipe for Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast. It sounded so amazing, but it's in a 8x9 dish, I'm usual hungry but not usually that hungry, I was very excited that my mom was okay with me cooking for them. But who's going to turn down a tasty dinner, they don't have to cook?
It was a great dish and my family all enjoyed it, pairing with the sides of left over Easter eggs and  some bacon, it feed a family of five and a half. The half is my son, he's odd about what he eats.
The recipe was easy and straight forward. Although there were a few things I had to cheat; the butter is meant to be soften...opps, it's time to make dinner I have no time to wait for the butter to soften. Thank goodness for the microwave. 10 secs and then 10secs. Perfect.
It also called for a room temperature egg, enh... I just tossed it in. This is the "finished" product minus the oven time.

And this is the finished product. It was super tasty, mmmm. Looks tasty huh? My son (who is part of his father and seems odd around cooked fruit) even ate more then I thought he would. And the whole dish was gone. This will definitively get written onto a nice little index card and find a new home in my recipe box.

Give it a shot check out "Alexandra's Kitchen" for the recipe- it will be worth your time! 

http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/06/29/buttermilk-blueberry-breakfast-cake/

Say What?!? Oven Grilled Cheese?

So I found this on the wonderful Pinterest. But when I went to the said site there was not really any great directions. More of a general idea.
So here is my first attempt at Grilled Cheese in the oven. It turned out pretty well. For having not idea on oven temp or lenght in the over, I'd say great Success. Not sure it was worth it for a dinner for two. Although I am always on the hunt for recipes that leave me fairly free at the time of day when "It all hits the Fan." If you are a mother with more then one child, I'm sure you can relate. It's that time (no matter how you try to scramble it) around dinner when you are trying to get dinner ready and keep your children happy- add in if you are just getting home from work to this and oi! The situation at our house: I'm trying to get dinner on the table by 6, my first born is crying and saying "ea-ea-ea-ea-t" as I'm throwing anything I can at him. My second born is in his bouncer screaming to be feed. And unlike his brother I can not exactly throw some food at him- I am his food, and I am busy. Needless to say it's kinda chaotic for a little bit. But once food is on the table and in the baby- it's calm, calm-ish. Life ceases to be calm with children around.
Anyways back to the subject at hand,
Grilled Cheese
get two baking sheets (same size is best but not necessary & if you have a heavier one use that for the top)
bread (butter one side- let's be honest it's tastier)
cheese
*I put some sandwich meat on my sandwich
Preheat oven 350* I will most likely play with this setting but it worked--put the baking sheets in the oven to preheat
prepare your sandwiches how you normally would once the oven beeps at you that it's pre-heated pull out one sheet place your sandwiches on then sandwich other baking sheet bottom down on top. Place back in oven for 10-15 min.
My sandwiches were not golden brown they were yellow, but they were crispy and that's what I liked. My son even ate the sandwiches. Normally he will tear them apart eat only the cheese then discard the rest. Typically it looks like a crime scene around his seat after grilled cheese nights. Tonight not so much.
Hope you enjoy your sandwiches, our's were delish!
below is the site I got the idea from.
http://lifehacker.com/5900569/make-perfect-grilled-cheese-sandwiches-with-a-pair-of-baking-sheets?sf3809004=1 

Easter Eggs

So every year at this time I have to go and find how to boil Easter eggs. Then you have the did they cook long enough feeling and not to mention the cracked eggs or the icky green. So when I was cruising on Pinterest and saw all the post about how to bake your hard boiled eggs, I decided to give it a whirl!
The post says to preheat your oven to 325-350 (depending on your oven) I went with 325. Using a cupcake pan, to keep them from rolling and to be able to get them out easier(another pinterest tip), place one egg per hole. Place in oven for 30 min, which was great! I didn't have to hover or keep checking, or wondering if it's working. Just place in and walk away. After 30 min simply pull them out of the oven and using some tongs, place the eggs into a bowl of nice ice cold water. To keep them from cooking more and make it so you can handle them sooner, rather then later. Then the fun part with your children happens :) found the nifty no spill cups, not no splash, but no spill. All the eggs turned out great and un-cracked (minus the one my son threw) My husband wasn't sure of this but I thought the baked eggs were much easier to peel!
Happy baking!

Well Hello there

If you, like me, are part of the 1.36 million users that flood the Pinterest site, then you understand the appeal of the whole thing. Most are women in the 25-34 age range with children- well that's got me pegged. Although vastly wrong on the average income, I could care less about that fact. The fact is, I love Pinterest, perhaps too much. The joy of looking at other's pin, finding ppl to follow, things to try and new things that you end up keeping in your usual repertoire.  And lets face it nothing turns a bad funk around like looking through the funnies that ppl post, thank you for finally bring the Sunday morning comics to a place I can find them-free.
So regardless of who will read this, who will care and what I might be able to do with this blog, I am going to start to record what I have discovered, tried, the ones I liked and the ones I hated. Leave it or keep it, that is what I am doing. Hope you enjoy my discoveries and my own discoveries that bring me joy, will bring you joy!
and as always Happy Pinning :)