Pinterest Recipes Take 3

These “Knock You Naked Brownies” are so good– they are a Pioneer Woman recipe and I made them on Super Bowl Sunday. I sent some over to Adam & Lauren and Lauren texted me: “I’m naked.” Ha. These really are super good…

Ingredients

• 1 box (18.5 Ounce) German Chocolate Cake Mix (I Used Duncan Hines)
• 1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (additional)
• 1/2 cup Butter, Melted
• 60 whole Caramels, Unwrapped
• 1/3 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, chopped pecans, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir together until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick.

Press half the mixture into a well-greased 9 x 9 inch square baking pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside.

In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water) melt caramels with additional 1/2 cup evaporated milk. When melted and combined, pour over brownie base. Sprinkle chocolate chips as evenly as you can over the caramel.

Turn out remaining brownie dough on work surface. Use your hands to press it into a large square a little smaller than the pan. Use a spatula to remove it from the surface, then set it on top of the caramel and chocolate chips.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours. When ready to serve, generously sift powdered sugar over the surface of the brownies. Cut into either nine or twelve helpings, and carefully remove from the pan.

Old & Pregnant

Friday, Carrie and I (along with all four kids) had a little outing. We did some shopping first, and then it was time for our standard lunch at the Chick-fil-A.

I took the easy route and left Carrie at the table with the kids while I ordered our lunch. She thought I was being generous and paying for lunch (since she drove), but really I was planning to enjoy the five minutes by myself in line. :)

Chick-fil-A is always busy, especially during lunch time and Friday was no exception. All the open registers were full and there were lines behind them. I thought it was definitely my lucky day when one young employee opened another register and motioned for me to come down to place my order with him. He was very pleasant and friendly, but most importantly, accurate, when taking my order. Accuracy, you know, is top priority to picky eaters. I was already considering this lunch a major success. That’s when said young man gives me my total: $19.83

The total wasn’t what caught me off guard---afterall, there were four of us eating for under $20.00 – it was what he said after the total…

With a little laugh he said, “ your total is $19.83…hey, that’s the year I was born…” Then he started laughing hysterically like he’d just made the funniest joke EVER and said, “Ha! Not really!” The look on his face was evident that he was mocking 1983, acting as if it were SO.LONG.AGO.

That’s when it became that awkward moment and so I said, “oh…(giggle)…yeah…(giggle)…well, um, that’s the year I was born.”  The boy looked at me like I had three heads and said, “NOT AH!!!! REALLY?? Well, you don’t look it AT ALL!!!” Then to make matters worse, he proceeds to tell me, that he was actually born ten years later in 1993.

I’m not really sure when 1983 became SO LONG AGO or when kids who were born in the 1990’s became OLD ENOUGH to WORK... ????

I mean REALLY…WHERE are the years going???

Carrie and I discussed the above over our lunch and I was able to laugh about my obviously-aging-way-faster-than-I-thought self it by the time we’d finished.

We let the girls play in the play area for a while and then it was time to go. Carrie took Whitt and Maybree to the car and I took one for the team and took AB & AC to the bathroom. While waiting in line, I had both girls by the hand and we were discussing the things you talk about with three year olds…just the standard why we have to wait in line, what’s taking so long, what was on the floor, what was on their shirts, where we were going next, yada yada yada… 

That’s when the white haired lady behind us smiles and points to my belly and says, “Well, are we getting a boy this time around?” I didn’t want her to feel bad so I just smiled back and said, “maybe”… to which she replies, “Oh, yall haven’t found out yet?” OH.SWEET.MERCY.  I just shook my head no and hung it low as we headed back to the car and I asked my BFF WHY she hadn’t told me that I look at least FIVE months pregnant???

It could have been a lot of things that lead this lady to believe I was pregnant…(and since she thought I already knew what the baby was, I’d have to be at least FIVE months pregnant)… It could have been the way I was standing…I have terrible posture. It could have been the leggings and empire waist dress I was wearing…which I told Carrie I would be burning as soon as I got home. And of course it could be the baby pooch that I have been holding on to since AB was born and has only doubled since Mamie entered the family. :)

I guess yall would understand why I am saving up for either a double jogging stroller or a treadmill. Heck, while I’m at it, I better throw in some anti-aging serum. :)

Here’s some pics of the kids once we made it back to our house on Friday afternoon…

The big sisters took turns playing on the scooter:

While Whitt and Maybree had a little talk…

Whitt did most of the talking, while Mamie did most of the smiling…

Funny thing is, I think these four keep us young AND make us old all at the same time. :) I’m not sure what keeps me chubby…must be the Chick-fil-A???

~amw~

Pinterest Recipes Take 2

The next Pinterest supper recipe I tried was pretty good, too. Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops. I am loving anything I can cook in the crock pot these days. And while that can of cream of chicken soup doesn’t make it the healthiest fare, at least it’s not a fried pork chop. Ha. :) 

Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops:

ingredients:

• Pork Chops
• Ranch Seasoning Dry Mix Packet
• 1 can Cream of Chicken plus 1 can water as needed {or 2 cans cream of chicken}  This will depend on how fast your crockpot cooks and how long you’ll be cooking it. 

directions:

Combine all three ingredients in the crockpot and mix well. Cook for 4-6 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.

It was BEYOND easy and was actually pretty good. It’s something I would make again. The crockpot is the big selling point to me.

I haven’t fried a piece of meat in over a month. I don’t even know myself.

One would think that having my “fried” days behind me, I’d be at least a little thinner. However, the REALLY good recipes I’ve tried lately have made sure that didn’t happen. :)  I’ll post about the Red velvet treats, gooey brownies, and homemade snickers next!

~amw~

Dress Up…

“ Want to know a secret?

Promise not to tell?

 

We are standing by a

wishing well!

 

  Make a wish into the well-

that’s all you have to do…

 

 

And if you hear it echoing,

your wish will  soon come

true!”  ~Snow White

Pinterest & Recipes….

I LOVE Pinterest. The online “pin-board” is genius. It’s definitely the go-to site now for inspiration for ANYTHING… parties, recipes, decorating, excercising, and the list goes on…

I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with recipe-pins-gone-wrong, but for the most part, all the new things I’ve tried have been REALLY good!

The biggest flop of all was this Banana-Chocolate smoothie. The pictures looked like the color and texture of a Wendy’s frosty.

(photo via Pinterest)

ANd while I am not even a big banana fan, I thought that if it looked like a Frosty, I might be a fan afterall. I had a bad feeling when I saw how much cocoa this recipe called for, but I followed it anyway.

Here’s what the description/directions read:

“Frozen banana, plus 2 tbsp cocoa powder, and blend until smooth and creamy. Dairy-free, 110 calories!!”

Looked and sounded good. Especially when the person said it was “Delish”…  I froze my banana, added my cocoa, blended and OH MY GOSH- YUCK. It looked like----well, I am not even going to say what it looked like. I will tell you it was dark brown and the texture was not creamy at all. It was more along the lines of runny. Against my better judgment, (and going totally against my normal character) I even TASTED it. Eck. It was TERRIBLE. Total flop.

So girls, I warn you, if you have pinned this one, DON’T try it. :)

I also heard that the Jalapeno Popper stuffed chicken is a flop, too. I had pinned that one, but had a friend post of Facebook that it wasn’t good, so glad I didn’t waste my time on that one, too.

Since I can always use new recipes and ideas for dinner, I thought maybe yall could, too. So I’m going to post some of my Pinterest successes this week.

The first is:

This Parmesan Tilapia recipe. I should pre-face this by saying while I am a seafood lover, I don’t really like FISH. Especially not fishy-fish. If it’s a flaky white fish, I can do it, otherwise, count me out. I hadn’t ever tried tilapia before, but knew it fit in the flaky-white category, so after seeing this recipe, I gave it a try. It was  really pretty good and is a great option for when we’re trying to cook/eat a little healthier. :) 

 

Ingredients
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons paprika
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 tilapia fillets (about 1 pound total)
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees . In a shallow dish, combine the cheese with the paprika and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve the fish with the lemon wedges.

For all our married life, I have mainly cooked the same things, so DW gets excited when I make something new. This week we will be trying skillet roasted asparagus. We’ll see if he’s still excited to try something new after that one. Ha. :)

~amw~

Birthday Weekend….

This past Friday, we headed to North Georgia to see the family.

Mom, Dad, DW, me and the girls were all packed up and ready for a quick, action packed weekend!

The girls couldn’t have been any better on the trip there or back. Maybree slept almost the entire trip. We stopped every couple of hours to feed and change her and let AB stretch her legs, too. Even stopping several times, we made great time, both ways.

We made it to my brother and sister-in-law’s around 7:00. We ate dinner and made our plan for the next day.

We stayed at my Aunt Kay’s Friday night and met up with Beau and his crew Saturday morning.

We’d decided to spend the day at the Fun Factory.

The trip was planned for and around this birthday boy!

Hard to believe my nephew, Jackson, turns 7 years old in one week! His actual birthday is the 28th, but we went up to celebrate early.

The Fun Factory was paradise for the kids. Pop got them all “Fun cards” with two hours worth of unlimited games, go carts and $20.00 already loaded on them for spending. Jackson spent most of his time at the hunting game. He stuck close to Pop, who was his personal card holder and swiper. Caroline went for the ticket games!

Garrett & AB started off in kiddie land. She surprised us all by getting on the bounce house and slid down twice! Garrett wanted nothing to do with it. After the second time down, neither did she. It was HIGH and FAST.

They played a few games and rides…

Then decided they wanted to “golf.” This was a first for AB, but Garrett was an old pro.

Mamie spent the day being passed back and forth between me and my mom. Grammy & I were doing our best to keep the germs off of her.

The Go-Carts were of course lots of fun for the kids. They only had two double seaters, so we had to go in shifts…Dylan got to ride first, since he was the only one tall enough to drive himself.

The rest of the crew waiting their turn…

Up next was Beau & Jackson and Kristy & Caroline.

If you can’t tell by their excitement, the girls beat the boys!

Last up from our group was DW and AB! She loved it.

I didn’t think DW was going to get in and then out of that tiny car! He looked 10 feet tall folded up in that thing!

After a few hours at the Fun Factory, we were exhausted. I didn’t do a thing, but I was wiped out. I told my Dad I was pretty sure I’d already had three seizures while we were there from all the flashing lights, noise and kids running around. :)

The kids traded in their tickets for their prizes and all got a snow cone.

After all that, I needed a sweet tea in a bad way. Thankfully, we stopped at the Chick-fil-A for lunch and birthday cake.

The birthday kids! Since Caroline’s birthday is in February, too, we celebrated both of them.

Jackson was so cute while we were singing, he sang, too, and said, “happy birthday to ME” :)

After our fun day, we made our way to my cousin Krissy’s house, for another birthday party! This time, for her son, Aaron, who turned 13 with an all-out Georgia Bulldog party.

Krissy had all kinds of yummy tailgate type food and everything was UGA themed… even a very special guest. Aaron and his friends were so shocked and excited when a University of Georgia football player showed up! “TK”, who was from Habersham and now plays for UGA, came to the party. I didn’t get a picture of him, but he was there…My cousins thought AB & Maybree (who both have orange & blue in their DNA), needed a signed pennant. Of course they did this just for DW’s benefit. Ha…Too funny… They even had TK put a special message on the back for them. (He has good handwriting, too…unless his girlfriend wrote it for him…she was also at the party and is a soccer player on the UGA Women’s soccer team).

TK stayed at the party for a few hours and signed everything the kids could find for him to sign and even played football in the backyard with them. It was too sweet. He was a good sport, too, when we met him and of course gave him the chomp. :)

It was fun to get to see the rest of the family and visit for a few hours that night.

“Biscuit”, Becky’s new dog, and everyone’s baby!

The kids had the best time playing basketball, on the trampoline and in the tree house…the tree house even has a zip line! Krissy’s house is so fun…I took some pictures, I will have to post soon.

AB & “Gave” – She loves Gabe!

 

A big group picture, before Beau & his crew left, after a LONG day!

We spent the night again with Aunt Kay, and AB and Anna had their first sleep over together! The first of many, I hope!

Sunday morning, we did get to see my Aunt Cindy. We missed seeing Uncle Ricky and my other cousins this trip. Seems like there's never enough time to squeeze it all in. We packed up that morning and headed home.

It was a good (and very quick) trip! :)

~amw~

Valentine’s 2012

Every year, the holidays get more fun for AB. This year she was SO excited about “ValenStine’s” Day!

Two Fridays ago, we met up with Aunt Carrie and Allie Claire (and Whitt) to do our annual BFF Valentine picture. This makes our FOURTH Valentine’s Day picture together! Awwww…

I can’t believe these two were Maybree & Whitt’s age when we took their first Valentine pic together!

Allie Claire & AB - 2009

This year, we were invited to a little Valentine party at cousin Willie’s house. Annabelle asked me every day for a solid week if it was “party day” yet! Tuesday morning when she woke up and I told her it was FINALLY Valentine’s Day she started jumping up and down!

There were 23 kids at the party. It was a little loud, but lots of fun! Stephanie did a great job planning and hosting it. The kids had fun decorating their treat bags, passing out their valentines and playing outside.

AB & Cori decorating their bags

I looked on Pinterest for ideas for AB’s valentines and we decided to make heart shaped crayons this year.

They were super easy to make (after DW helped me figure out the easiest way to get them unwrapped…an exacto knife! Genius!) and they turned out so cute…

AB enjoyed helping and took lots of time deciding exactly which color to put where!

I found the scallop-edged round cards in the dollar bin at Michaels and used that as a backing for the crayons. I also found little note pads at the party shop that we put in each bag with the crayon. I printed off some labels and it was done! :)

We took cupcakes to the party and from the minute we arrived, AB kept asking for one. After she scarfed her pizza down at lunch, it finally hit me WHY she kept asking for a cupcake all morning long…I forgot to feed her breakfast! Yep, that’s me…Mother of the Year. The real kicker is that she hasn’t let me forget it either. For the past two mornings, when she wakes up, she says, “’member that time you forgot to feed me? You gotta ‘member to feed me, mommy.”  As if my mommy-guilt isn’t enough. Ha.

AB having a cupcake on the way home (I guess since it’s February I could take down the Santa decal on her window.) :)

While Big Sister and I were partying it up, Mamie stayed with Nie-Nie for the first time! When I picked her up, my MIL warned me that Mamie’s back might be sore, because she didn’t put her down the whole three hours she had her. :) 

We made some special Valentine treats to take to a few people, so me and the girls delivered those after lunch.

We made stops at DW’s office and Grammy’s office. I made a couple of new recipes that I found on Pinterest. The first was Red Velvet Cookies…they were good, but the best thing I made was the homemade Snickers. They were really good, especially cold. We gave most of them away, and it didn’t take me long to polish off the ones we kept. :)

That evening, when DW came home from work, we gave the girls their Valentines… AB is always fun to buy surprises for. She gets so excited! And everything she opens is her “FAVORITE!”

Helping Mamie open her surprises!

That night, the guys had their monthly men’s dinner and meeting at church, so Lauren and I had a date with the girls at the Chick-fil-A.  :)

Nobody can say there’s ever a lack of love around here!

~amw~