Kitchen Fun

Sorry that I haven’t wrote lately . . . sometimes life just gets too busy for you to just stop and write, so here I am again, feeling the need to play catch up! ☺ I said that I would try to write every week saying what I have been baking; well, I have been baking, just not writing about it! Opps! Here is some of the things that I have been cooking up for the past month!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 16th: We have a bunch of left over Peanut M&Ms from Halloween, and since Roland and I aren’t too big of fans of the peanut ones, I thought that I would try putting it in something and seeing if that would help us get rid of them. So, I made up some Peanut M&M Brownies. They actually tasted better than I thought they were going to, but after a brownie or two, I just ended up picking out the M&Ms and eating the brownie by itself! Oh, well! I guess it is the thought that counts, right? ☺ So, my lesson that I learned is: don’t try put something you don’t like in something you like when you can pick it out . . . you will end up picking it out and throwing it away anyways, so save yourself the trouble and don’t do it!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 23rd: Well, since it was the day before Thanksgiving, I didn’t actually do any baking on the Wednesday itself, but I did help my mom out with making the Thanksgiving lunch/dinner the next day, so I am counting that! (After all, I am the one who is making the rules, so I can!)  On Thanksgiving Day, my mom and I baked up some super yummy dinner rolls! She put me in charge of it, but we didn’t have enough space for me to hand knead the dough (do to other yummy things being made) so we ended up putting the ingredients in my mom’s bread machine and just set it on Dough, that way it wouldn’t back it! We thought it was a brilliant plan, until the machine beeped saying it was done and I went to look at it . . . let me just say, if you are using a bread machine, make sure you don’t put in more ingredients than the directions on the machine says, it WILL over flow and make a mess if you don’t! haha Don’t worry, I cleaned it up and saved the dough, before anyone noticed, and the rolls turned out great! My lesson that I learned from this is: don’t skip steps just to make things go faster, you usually end up making a big mess and having to spend more time cleaning it up than it would have taken to do it the right way in the first place!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for November 30th: I don’t remember if I baked anything this week . . . besides a baked potato that I usually have every week or so! Ever since I got into my second trimester (and now that I am in my third) I get the craving for a baked potato every now and again. Since Roland isn’t a huge fan of then, I usually just make myself one for lunch if I am in the mood. I know that everyone has a different way of making baked potatoes, so I shall share my favorite way! I always start my preheating my oven that way it is all ready for my potato to pop in when I am done getting it ready! After I scrub the potato, I stab my potato for ventilation. I always use aluminum foil, but I do something a little different before wrapping my potato up . . . a rub it with olive oil and then sprinkle some salt on it (sometimes other spices too). I do this so then after the potato is all done, the skins a soft and uber yummy too! I don’t know where I found this idea, but I have loved it ever since . . . even Roland says it isn’t too bad! Then of course you bake it in the oven for about an hour! That’s it, super easy! Lesson learned: umm . . . write more in my blog so I actually remember what I really made that day! haha

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for December 7th: Last week, because Roland was gone ALL day (I mean it, he left before 7:30 in the morning to go to school and came home from work a little before 11:30 at night) I made for Roland his favorite kind of cookie, Spritz! Turns out, they are super easy to make and taste pretty good too! I might have to spoil the boy more often and make them for him more! I had to borrow my mom’s cookie press, because ours didn’t come until this week! My only problem came in to play when baking the cookies themselves. For the life of me I couldn’t seem to get them not to come out looking more done than they should be, there might have been some extra well done bottoms on a few of them too! I don’t know if I had my temperature up too high or that I had them in too long for our oven, or if our oven what just hating me that day, but it felt like a epic fail! Then Roland came home and his face lit up like a little kid when he saw them, and he immediately started eating them . . . so not so much a fail! ☺ Lesson of the week: Be more patient when baking cookies, and always remember, no matter if they even come out a little burnt, Roland will still eat them!

My “Wednesday Baking Adventure” for December 14th: Hey, that’s today! How about that! Well, yesterday I baked some yummy banana bread! I have this no fail recipe that I go to for banana bread . . . here is a link to the website that I found it at and I highly recommend it! http://www.banana-bread-recipe.com/ I usually spice it up a little bit by adding a little cinnamon and nutmeg, but it tastes good just straight by the book too! If banana bread is something that kind of scares you or never seems to turn out right for you and you have those extra bananas that are over rip, the is the recipe to turn to! I promise, it will turn out! ☺ I also made for Roland some homemade pizza last night for dinner.  I used a new to me recipe. I was pretty sure it would turn out good, because I was using Roland’s sister’s recipe, but it is always nice to have something come out of the oven done “perfectly” knowing that you did that! It always makes me smile! I haven’t decided weather I am going to bake something later today or not yet. Roland wants me to bake him some more Spritz cookies and some No-Bake cookies . . . I might do that this evening or tomorrow, I probably should do my laundry first! My learning moment for this week so far: follow the directions, they were put there for a reason, and usually they are right!

Well, that’s all my baking for the last month or so . . . I really love to bake! I love the process of making a new creation, the way it makes my home smell super yummy, and the eating part when it is all done! Sometimes it is important to just step back and enjoy the simple things in life . . . like FOOD! ☺

A Thankful Post

Since it was Thanksgiving a little while ago, I figured that I would share ten of the many things that I am thankful for this year!

1.    I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is truly a huge blessing in my life!
2.    I am grateful that I have a family that can be and will be together forever, until death is not long enough!
3.    I am grateful for education . . . even if I am not the one going to school right now, I am grateful that Roland has this opportunity!
4.    I am grateful to have been born in and be living in a free country, when so many don’t.
5.    I am grateful for all of the men and woman (past, current, and future) who have chosen to put their lives on the line for my freedom.
6.    I am grateful to have a safe roof over my head and enough food in the cupboards.
7.    I am grateful for technology . . . simply being able to pick up the phone and talk to someone who is over one thousand miles away!
8.    I am grateful for a wonderful husband who loves me and is always more than willing to help me and support me through anything!
9.    I am grateful for the ability to create and rise my children . . . I am already seeing the blessings and joy it brings, and my first one isn’t even born yet!
10.    I am grateful to have so many loving friends and other loved ones, who truly care about me and really do go that extra mile for me!