Pannekoeken!!!

I made pannekoeken for breakfast this morning so I thought I would share! It is so good! One of my favorites! I actually got the recipe from a childhood friend whose mom used to make it whenever I slept over so it not only tastes good, but it has good memories, too! 

So let's get to it...

Here's what you need:

4 eggs (mine are from my parent's chickens, aren't they pretty?!)

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter (or margarine)

Set the oven to 425 degrees for a glass pan or 450 degrees for a metal pan.

Put your butter in the pan and let it completely melt in the oven while it's heating up.

Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. I try to get most of the bumps out of the batter but I don't bother with using a mixer.

 Once ingredients are mixed and butter is melted, pour the mixture in your pan and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes. 

Comes out perfectly every time! It's really big and poofed up when you first take it out, but it quickly deflates...

don't be alarmed!

A little syrup and some fresh fruit is all you need to make this a delicious breakfast!

Enjoy!

Super Sweet Deals

I love, love, love a great deal. Whether I'm going into Target for one birthday card or an entire cart load of groceries, I cannot leave without quickly scanning the clearance stuff. My husband really hates this. He also hates that we live so close to Target - it's faster to walk from our house than to drive (a fact I much appreciate however;). I don't think of myself as an impulse shopper though. I have in the back of my mind a list of things I would really like...for our house, the kids, myself. So when I see a great deal I mentally skim through the list in my head and if the item is there I buy it! (If it's not there, but it's a good deal I will often buy it anyways and put it in my 'gifts' box. It's justified...) So I decided I would share my good deals with you. I need somebody to be excited with me! And let me know what you find while skimming the clearance rack:)

I have wanted for the longest time some cute summery plates to use during the few months of warm weather we get up north so when I saw these bright flowery plates were half off ($1.50) I decided now was the time! I bought 6 of them. 3 of each. I also bought some smaller salad plates that were only 74 cents!  The pictures were a super good deal, too. I paid $4.48 for the big one and $2.98 for the smaller ones. The only unfortunate thing about this particular trip was that I had pulled my girls to the store in their wagon so bringing all this home (along with a jug of milk) was a little tricky... but worth it!

Cupcake Birthday Theme

 

My sweet little Vivian turned one a couple weeks ago (I really can't believe it either!). I decided to do a cupcake theme for her first birthday party. It turned out super cute so I wanted to share it with you. Maybe you will be inspired for your own theme idea!

 I decorated with cupcakes and Guess Who's One? signs (Vivian's name is on the other side:)

We had to have lots of cupcakes of course! I made red velvet with cream cheese frosting. They turned out so moist! I found all this cupcake stuff in the dollar section at Micheals. The colors matched my 'scheme' perfectly! So I bought the stickers and used them for cupcake toppers.

 

   I also made mini yellow cake cupcakes with strawberry meringue buttercream frosting. The frosting was DELICIOUS! I will post that recipe soon!

And of course, Vivi's cake! My girls get their own cake for every birthday and my mom always makes them. This giant chocolate cupcake turned out so cute and Vivian thought so too!

Vivi had a cupcake birthday shirt and sweet polka dot tutu I found at Target. I love how the cupcakes match. We didn't even plan that!

Thank you gifts for the guests - clothespin magnets with our little cupcake

I wrote out questions about Vivi on cupcakes. The answers are on the inside. Just something fun for the guests!

It was a very fun day...and I think Vivian agrees!

  

....I have to add one more thing. The day we celebrated Vivian's birthday was actually my 30th birthday. My sweet husband felt so bad that nothing special was happening for me. I didn't really mind and understood it was just too hectic, but when I got up in the morning I found our entryway ceiling filled with balloons! My husband tied little cards to each one that told of something he loved about me. It was the sweetest thing. I cried!

Chicken Rub-a-Dub-Dub!

Well I'm just going to jump right into this thing with a delicious recipe/gift that's perfect for summer and sunny afternoons at the grill. This was actually a project I put together for my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group when I was the Creative Coordinator.

Here's what I used:

•  A long neck bottle (anything will really do, I save all my sauce and dressing bottles for just such fun projects as these. but you could use a mason jar, a tin, or even one of those cute spice containers with the flip top lids.)
• One sheet of sticker paper for printing the recipe on
• Last but not least...Spices! I got all my spices at Penzeys Spices. They are more expensive, but well worth the results trust me! It was also a really fun experience going to the store so if you have one nearby I highly recommend it! But you can also order from them online. Here's the list:
• 1/4 c sugar in the raw
• 1/4 c sweet Hungarian paprika
• 3 tbs kosher salt
• 1 tbs ground pepper
• 1 tbs garlic powder 
• 1 tbs onion powder
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tbs cayenne pepper (I'm not a fan of spicy but my husband is so I only added half the amount. It was still a little too spicy for my girls but I could handle it)

The easiest way to do this is use a funnel (or make a cone with a piece of paper if you don't have one) and pour all the spices in your bottle and shake it up good. If you think your container won't shake up good I would mix the spices in a bowl first and then pour them in. I made cute labels for mine on sticker paper that I just printed off. You can make your own or when I figure out how to do it I will link my labels...errrr...

It's really good on chicken but it would be good on pork too...maybe even salmon, yum! To use it mix a couple tablespoons in some peanut oil and brush it on your meat before grilling. So delicious!

Early Morning Cravings

I woke up at 4 am yesterday morning with two thoughts consuming my mind. The first was of the new spicy buffalo Doritos we have on the top of the fridge, and the second was of starting my own blog. So I did what any normal crave-driven woman does at four in the morning. I got up and ate half the bag of chips. Which is really weird for me. Not to get up at 4 am and eat, but to eat SPICY chips. I'm not a fan of anything even remotely spicy but my husband had given me one that night (in hopes of seeing me run around the kitchen like a mad woman scraping at my burning tongue, I'm sure) and for some reason even though they were a little spicier than I would have liked I just couldn't stop thinking about them. Anyway, enough about that. 

Once I got back in bed I continued daydreaming about what I would put on my blog. Different projects I've attempted; some successes, some failures. Yummy recipes I've made (or wish I made). Craft projects, to do lists, adventures with my children. And around 6 am I finally fell asleep while visions of blogspots danced in my head.

I've now been sitting at this computer for about 3 very interrupted hours and I still have no idea what I'm doing. Well, welcome to my life! Mishaps and mayhem describes it quite well I think!