Blueberry Crumble Cake and a Busy Summer

It has been quite some time since my last post.  What have we been up to you might ask—hey I said might.  Here is a little run down…

• The cat disappears
• Swim lessons
• New septic —oh yeah fun times—I will leave that one alone
• Jake almost loses part of his ring finger—again… I will leave that one alone
• The cat returns…a month later!
• A trip to the OBX
• VBS
• 2 month vaccinations for one child
• 4 year vaccinations for the other child—that trip was FULL of drama
• Leaving one preschool and joining another
• And a myriad of other things but this list making has reached an obnoxious level.

The good thing is we are slowly getting into a routine and Lillie

and I continue to cook and craft.  Here is a blueberry cake we made with a few modifications.  I think anything blueberry deserves a good crumb topping—and I am not talking the “healthy” kind with all those oats.  Who needs oats when you can just have buttah!  Oh yeah. 

Need crumb topping ingredients—soooo easy!

You need:

• Butter
• Sugar (brown or white)
• and Flour

I would play with proportions but roughly speaking a stick of butter cubed and mixed with pastry cutter (or just the back of a fork) into a cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of flour—but play around  with proportions until you get consistency you like.  It is always fun to zing it up with some cinnamon and nutmeg and if you must…rolled oats.

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Black Bean Salsa

This is the easiest little dish I learned from my friend Melissa.  It is quick and easy and makes a nice amount to share with a crowd.  I love it and think that I am going to give a whirl sometime soon with my homemade salsa instead of the canned.  On a side note… It is so wonderful to have my homegrown tomatoes coming in!  Eat your heart out mealy hot house tomatoes!

2 cans of black beans  rinsed and drained

1 can of corn  drained

1 cup of pre-made salsa

1 clove of garlic minced

1 red pepper chopped

1/2 cup of cilantro chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon limejuice

3 spring onions  the white and green part

dash of salt

So easy and serve with your favorite type of tortilla chips

**If you want to add a little heat you could add:

Chopped jalapenos

Medium or Hot Salsa

Hot sauce

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Lemon*ie* Goodness

My husband made dinner tonight (I know…I am so spoiled) and he picked out this Rachel Ray recipe.  In the middle of cooking it—he says “what is lemon curd?”  I start to describe and he says “oh well-guess we will just skip that ingredient.”  Next thing I know he is whipping up some homemade lemon curd!  Isn’t he the coolest?  Even though the curd recipe didn’t have a chance to sit for a week-the dinner was still delicious and the house smells phenomenal!

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4th of July – late again. Do you sense a trend?

I love a long holiday weekend.  Extra time with the family, get togethers with friends and cooking out on the grill.  Lillie and I kept busy with some projects that I thought I would share. 

I decided to brave the tie dye experience.  I can’t believe that I have never tried this before now but really what better way to say I am an American then (than??  Oh crap…I am American!  No knowledge of grammar, spelling or as I am sure you have gathered…punctuation.) with some gaudy tie dye apparel?   We just used some older clothes for the project.  Everyone dug up an old white tee and I even found an all white onesie so Caleb could join in the fun.  I limited the palette to red and blue and we kept some of the tee white and ta-dahhhh!   Our patriotic look to sport on the 4th was complete.  It was fun…and MESSY!

 

We remembered to wear our plastic gloves so our hands wouldn’t get dyed but I forgot about my feet and didn’t wear shoes.  Genius.  Lil really got into the color and I was worried her shirt would look too purple from the colors mixing but I was pleased with the end results.

  

 

And here is a quick project that cost under $5.  JoAnn flip-flops for a buck and a tiny amount of fabric.

I thought this would be a good project for Lil to practice tying knots…she petered out after about two fabric strips so it became my project.  So if you want to try it at home just cut your fabric into strips and tie onto the thong portion of the flops and voila!

Firecracker Flops 

 

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Father’s Day… a bit late

Life has been a bit whirlwind lately so I am behind on just about everything in life.  Thank goodness for my friend MaryLea at Pink and Green Mama!  She posted a wonderful idea via facebook that I just had to try out with my little one for Father’s Day.  Sadly I had waited till the 11th hour to do anything so this was perfect!  She  located this on the wonderful blog, “The Magic Onion”

We started off with our supplies.  Watercolor paints from Prang.  Bare wood frames from Michaels—these only cost about a buck.  I added Mod-Podge since I love to have things sealed up and shiny.  I swear I am part crow!  And what would an art project be without glitter?  Incomplete I say!  I had to select Martha’s glitter.  It is just so fine and like pixie dust-grown up glitter.

So to make the easy peasy lemon squeezy project…

• Soak your wooden frames
• PAINT—this is the really fun part for the kids!  Make sure the color is really saturated and vibrant.  If you want to rub some paint off for the grain of the wood to show.
• Dry time
• Mod-Podge and glitter it up…again this is the fun part for the “kids”.
• Last but not least find a cute photo and pop it into place. 

In hindsight I would have most likely used a black and white photo in this colorful frame but it our end result was still darn cute.

Topsy-Turvy

My new little man

My neglected/depressed dog

My life has been a bit crazy these past few weeks. We welcomed a new little one on May 31. I am delirious from lack of sleep and I don't know what that will mean for this blog post--or those that could come your way in the next few weeks. But try to hang with me! The house is completely chaotic dishes, laundry and toys everywhere. Not to mention all of the baby paraphernalia we had to pull outta the basement. We are all trying to adjust to the new non-routine routine. I feel like I am just here for milking purposes only and I am relying heavily on my hubs and my 4 year old. She has become a champ at finding mom the wipes, diaps and a fresh onesie... and feeding the pets. We have a dog? Poor Parker. He is now so low on the totem pole. Who knows when I will be back to posting but I am in total love with our new little one and my family. Cloud 9 for this topsy-turvy life and girl.

I thought this picture was fitting since my life has been so crazy. Here is a picture of my topsy-turvy plant. Yes. I was sold on this idea from the commercial. I know. Sad! Look at that darn thing--not growing down is it?? Nope. Goes up towards the sun. Thanks for telling me that in the commercial topsy- turvy!

OAMC aka Once a Month Cooking (freezer food)

A few weeks ago (spring break time?) I had the brilliant idea to stock my freezer. I thought with baby on the way it would be a good idea to have some food stored away. I worked for several mornings putting away some homemade freezer food. Seriously-home cooked will always kick Stoffers behind. No matter how good their French bread pizza. :) I looked for some good recipes. I gathered most of mine from family members and from my favorite...Southern Living. After a quick Google search I quickly discovered that this is a popular topic. A lot of people are into what is called "once a month cooking or OAMC. I am not the only one who wants to have dinners ready and on hand. I found some great links from a blog "Money Saving Mom" Where she had a post (posts?) on this very topic! So check the links out and also enjoy some recipes from my lovely family members!

Aunt Beth's Spaghetti Pie

Ingredients:

6oz Spaghetti
2 Tb. butter or margarine
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 well-beaten eggs
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 8 oz. can tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella

Cook spaghetti, stir in butter and Parmesan cheese. Let it cool for a few minutes before stirring in the eggs. Put spaghetti into pie plate making it the "crust". Cook ground beef, onion and peppers. Stir in tomatoes, paste, sugar, oregano and garlic salt. Spread ricotta cheese over the spaghetti and fill with the sauce. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, sprinkle top with mozzarella cheese and bake for 5 more minutes.

Notes: Pie can be frozen. (Bake longer, make sure middle is hot)

The ground beef can be left out for a vegetarian dish.

You could also use your own sauce recipe instead of the one in the dish.

Mom's Manicotti

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

4 cups tomato juice

1 6oz. can tomato paste

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon pepper

16 oz. mozzarella

15 oz. ricotta

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

2 eggs

1/2 cup Parmesan

Manicotti shells

Brown meat with onion and garlic. Pour off fat. Stir in two cups tomato juice, tomato paste, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer. To prepare filling combine: 8 oz. mozzarella, ricotta, spinach, eggs and parmesan. Mix well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells, arrange in 9x13 pan. Spoon meat sauce evenly over shells. Pour remaining tomato juice evenly on top. Cover with foil. Bake 1 hour (maybe even longer, especially if frozen). Remove from oven and top with remaining mozzarella. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Susan's Chocolate Cool Bars

(Try these--so good!)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups chocolate waffer crumbs (I use Oreos)

1/4 cup melted butter or magarine

2 packages (4 oz. each) Baker's German Sweet Chocolate

1/3 cup milk

1 package (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened

13 oz. cool whip

Combine crumbs and butter. Put in bottom of 9x13 or 9 inch square pan.

Can save part of Baker's chocolate to shave on top. In saucepan melt chocolate in milk. Whisk in cream cheese until melted. Cool 5 minutes. Fold in 3 1/2 cups of Cool Whip. Put over crumbs. Put remaining Cool Whip on top and grated chocolate on top. Freeze until firm--about 2 hours.

* I would love it if you would post your favorite freezer meal! *