My Favorite Toy!

I would have to say without a doubt that my KitchenAid stand mixer is like my favorite toy and best gift I have ever gotten. A couple years ago I was following the Kohls sale ads before Christmas for the best deal on one and my wonderful husband bought it for me for Christmas!
(this way he gets his chocolate chip cookies more often, right?)

Then sometime in the last year or so we bought the slicer/shredder attatchment for it. They have many different attatchments you can get (meat grinder, can opener, pasta roller,etc.)

Here I am using the shredder to make some homemade coleslaw. Figure I better post something healthy to balance out all the sweets on here! Yes, we do TRY to eat healthy. It's just that we both have a sweet tooth and I just LOVE making desserts! So I appologize if they rule the rest on here!

I just grind up some green cabbage, purple cabbage, and carrots.

Then stir them together like this:

Then decide whether to make a creamy dressing or a vinagrette dressing because they both are so good!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I think I may have finally figured out how to start a line above the top picture after about 3 or 4 months of blogging now with failure every time I tried!!! How dumb am I??!!

Preheat oven to 350*. Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle 1C. brown sugar over the butter.

Place pineapple rings on top.

Put a marachino cherry inside of each pineapple ring.

Prepare pineapple cake mix according to package directions.

Pour on top and spread it out.

Bake for 48 minutes at 350*

Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving dish. (I just flipped mine into a 10x15 pan)

Let cool until your middle child (who loves pineapple) spots it. Then you have to cut into it and try it out!

Peanut Butter Pie

About a month ago I made peanut butter pie and it was okay, but I thought "this would be much better with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in it". So I made it again today with the p.b. cups in it and it is soooo gooood!! The reason I waited to make it again (if anyone remembers) was my daughters comment fom last time - "why do we put peanut butter in everything?"

Well the way I see it there are 4 food groups:

1. Chocolate and peanut butter

2. Chocolate and caramel

3. Chocolate and marshmallow

4. Chocolate and mint

As long as there is chocolate, how can one go wrong?

Homemade T.V. Dinner

Browning the patties

Adding mushrooms and beef broth

Making the gravy

Pouring it into pan to bake in the oven

Salisbury Steak from scratch! Much better than the one from Banquet in the cardboard box! I found the recipe here: http://tinamommyx3.blogspot.com/2008/08/salisbury-steak-crock-pot-style.html. If I remember right her blog is called Mommy's Kitchen. I've been checking out recipes on other cooking blogs and she has some great recipes on hers!

Hannah's Hair

Hannah absolutely HATES it when I do things with her hair! I am lucky enough if I can get it brushed, muchless styled. So when I was able to get by with putting it up in a cute little bun, I thought I better take a picture of it quick while it lasted!!!

Marshmallow Sludge Bars

I made these delicious bars for a church potluck we had yesterday and came home with an empty pan! Will definitely be making these again! I found the recipe here: http://www.cpbgallery.com/2009/01/22/marshmallow-sludge-bars/ . This blog/website is titled "The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery". I think I will be going back to look at more of her recipes!

Just one of those days!!!

I generally enjoy cooking and baking, but today it was rather cold out and I was just plain tired. Randy and I both had sore throats over the weekend, so I have been rather exhausted the last couple of days. So it's just "one of those days" where you say,"Let's just have pizza tonight"!


Then my hubby was searching for something sweet to eat, so Betty Crocker came to the rescue for that with some fudge brownies! Not the most healthiest meals, I know, but we are just going to cuddle up and enjoy each other with the extra time not spent making a meal or doing the dishes. (Praise the Lord for paper plates!)

Valentine Goodies

My kitchen has turned into a Valentine goodies factory today! Gotta spoil my husband who is my main Valentine and our 3 little "Valentines"!

(see recipes & pictures below!)

Peanut Butter Hearts

This is the same dough as for making peanut butter balls.

Mix well, then roll out. Cut with heart shaped cookie cutters.

Then have your lovely assistant place them in the pan for you!

Oh, yeah...this is MY lovely assistant...sorry. The shirt says it all "I'm A Special Hershey's Girl". What can I say, like mother like daughter!

Once in pan, put them in the freezer to harden up a bit.

Once they are firmed up you can dunk them in chocolate! Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I figured as long as I was into the chocolate I might as well make some chocolate covered strawberries......right??

Cake Balls

Prepare cake mix according to package directions.

Once cake is mostly cooled, crumble it up and add a can of frosting.

Mix well.

Scoop out into balls on cookie sheet.

Dip into vanilla or chocolate coating.

I made some of each.

Final result! This is just one of our Valentine goodies! .....stay tuned for more!

WANTED!!!!

Here are the most recent photos for "America's Most Wanted". Has anyone seen these people lately? If so, you are encouraged not to take action yourself as they may be armed and dangerous. Let the law enforcement handle it!

The kids had a field trip to the Marion Police Department today as well as the Marion Fire Department. I was unable to get more pictures because apparently nobody else brought their cameras so I was instantly the "camera lady" taking pictures of their kids too! But they got to get their mugshots taken, sit in the police car, and see the K9 dog. Then they got to see some firetrucks and see a fireman get dressed up in his full gear. They were so excited! They were all trying to tell daddy everything all at once and I couldn't hardly get a word in edgewise!

Grilling Out!

I'm so glad we've had a couple of nice days for grilling out! Lastnight we had barbequed chicken on the grill and tonight we are having grilled chicken breasts with Webers "kickin chicken" seasoning on them. We are also having mixed veggies and homemade bread to go with it. I was also THRILLED to be able to "shove" my kids outside for the afternoon!! What can I say....when you are a stay-at-home mom, and homeschool your three kids, and have been stuck inside all winter....you look forward to spring so you can send them outside for a while!!!