Chocolate Covered Marshmallows on a Stick

Posted By: Kristi

For Stephanie's baby shower for Lelo, I made white and milk chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick and they were a huge hit! Everyone enjoyed them, especially the kiddos!

They were really fun to make and looked great as part of the table decor. 

Here's what you need to make them:

Sucker sticks (I got mine at Michael's, but I made these again for another party and just cut cute paper straws in half and used them)

Marshmallows

 White and/or milk chocolate morsels

Sprinkles of your choice

1. Cover a large tray (that can easily fit in the fridge) with wax paper.

2. Line up your marshmallows.

3. In a microwavable container, microwave your chocolate morsels.

4. Dip the end of your sucker stick in your melted chocolate and place the stick in the top of a marshmallow. This will help keep your marshmallow on the stick when you dip the entire marshmallow in chocolate. Otherwise, it will be to flimsy and won't hold together.

5. Repeat this process on all marshmallows.

6. Dip your entire marshmallow in the chocolate. Keep turning the stick in your fingers to remove the excess chocolate.

 7. Add sprinkles and then repeat on your next marshmallow.

 These are a hit, you should give them a try!

Little Girl Gift Idea

Posted By:  Stephanie

I love these little feet!  They belong to my sweet 2 year old Little Lou.  She LOVES to have her toes painted and feels so special every time she looks at her feet.  Her friend was having a birthday party who is turning 5 on Tuesday and when thinking about what to get for her we decided to get her a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure.  It's always fun to get someone a gift that is a little different then they would normally get, and what 5 year old gets manicures and pedicure gift certificates?  I don't know many, that's for sure!  I just I would share this gift idea and also tell you that if you do get a gift certificate for a little one in your life, check with them, a lot of times they have a cheaper price for children under 12.  We were able to purchase a manicure and pedicure for $30!  She is a special girl and we were so happy to celebrate her birthday with her.

What are some gifts that you give kids that might be a little out of the ordinary?  We would love some great gift ideas!

Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Posted By:  Stephanie

Remember this post from last Friday when I was talking about what to do with all those tomatoes in your garden?  Well, we have MANY more tomatoes that have become ripe sense then.  My mother in law who lives next door was canning up some spaghetti sauce so I decided to share a recipe with your from the Blue Book of Preserving by Ball.

Yield: about 6 pints

2 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped green peppers

1 cup chopped celery

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons oil

2 pounds ground beef (the sauce in the picture above does not have the meat in it)

3 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste

3 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce

1 (29-ounce) can whole tomatoes, chopped (or fresh tomatoes of course)

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Saute onions, green peppers, celery and garlic in oil until onions are tender.  Add ground beef; cook until browned.  Drain off fat.  Add remaining ingredients; simmer 1 hour.  Remove bay leaves.  Cool.  Ladle sauce into can-or-freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Seal, label and freeze.

If you give this recipe a try let us know what you think!  

We have lots of projects we hope to get started/complete over the weekend and couldn't be more excited about it!  Have a wonderful weekend, we'll be back Monday for more fun!

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted By: Kristi


These are the easiest cookies and are scrumptious too! This is a nice recipe to have on hand when you are having a sweet tooth but are a little low on groceries. I don't know about you but we usually have these three ingredients on hand. Especially peanut butter, we are peanut butter freaks!

Here's what you need:

 

1. First mix the sugar and peanut butter up a bit and then add the egg and mix all three ingredients together. Doing it this way will make it so your baked cookies are the perfect texture.

2.  Once all three ingredients are mixed up well, roll small balls and place them on your cookie sheet (I used my Pampered Chef stone).

3. Make your fork marks on top of each ball.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 and place your cookie sheet in the oven. Cook for 8-13 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and let cool. 

6. Devour!

How to Make Liquid Hand Soap

Posted By:  Stephanie

Good morning!  Today I'm going to show you a quick tutorial on how to make liquid hand soap.  Seriously, it is so easy and such a money saver that we should all do this.

Gather all your supplies:

1 gallon distilled water

1 8oz bar of soap

*after trial and error on my husband's part making body wash we found Dove does not work well*

Glycerin

 *usually found near the band aids*

1 TBSP measuring spoon

Cheese grater

Step 1:  Grate the bar of soap and add the soap and 2 TBSP Glycerin to a pot of 1 gallon distilled water.

We (my husband and I) used a 5.5oz bar of soap and found that if we used a bit less water or an 8oz bar of soap it would have worked a little better.  We were still happy with the results so the soap wont go to waste.

Step 2:  Turn the heat to medium/high heat and continue to heat until the soap shavings dissolve.

As it is dissolving stir it up, this process doesn't take long.

This is what it will look like once you're finished dissolving the soap.

Step 3:  Wait about 24 hours for the soap to settle and become less runny.  Get out your handy mixer and mix it...mix it real good. (said in the tune of Push It by Salt and Peppa)

Step 4:  Use a funnel and pour your soap into the gallon container the water came in for storage.

That's it, you're done!

Of course everything turns out better when you have a messy cute assistant helping out.

Now get to it!  

Seriously this is SO easy and will save you tons of money over time.  Like I said though, don't use Dove bar soap for this, it was a runny mess!  I personally prefer the natural soaps for 2 reasons:

1.  The cost savings is even greater

2.  When we did try the dove the smell wasn't pleasant it was all chemical, no thank you.

DIY Fringe Scarf

Posted By: Kristi


What a great weekend! Bummer that it had to an end but it was great while it lasted. Yesterday evening, my sister Samantha and I whipped up a fringe scarf. It was a quick project and can be a fun addition to your outfit. Here's how we did it....


1. Find a shirt you no longer want and cut across it, armpit to armpit.

2. Cut evenish strips up the shirt, starting from the bottom, about 6 or seven inches long. Keep cutting all the way from one side of the shirt to the other side.

3. Once you are done cutting the strips, hold the shirt still with one hand and pull each fringed piece with the other hand. You want to really stretch each piece out.

4. That's it, you're done! Put on your new scarf and admire your new look. = )

Samantha is a lovely model, next time I will get her cute face in some pictures! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and that Monday isn't too hard on you!!

Tomato Soup - Canning Recipe

Posted By:  Stephanie

Happy Friday!  Today I thought I would share with you a great tomato soup recipe that you can use to can some of those tomatoes that you have grown and aren't sure what you're going to do with.  If you're anything like us, you plant WAY more tomatoes then you really need just because they are SO good!  My mother in law loves this recipe and makes sure she puts up many jars of this yearly.

Tomato Soup

20lbs tomatoes peeled and smashed, cook and stir until mushy (about 30-40 minutes)

*We have a Vitamix so we skip that step and just throw them in there with the skin, such a time saver!*

In a separate pan:

4 C finely chopped onions

2 bunches finely chopped celery and leaves

4 C grated zucchini

1 bunch fresh parsley chopped

2-3 bay leaves (optional, take our prior to putting in jars)

Boil together while tomatoes are cooking

When tomatoes are cooked add the cooked vegetable mixture.

Melt butter and add the flour stirring constantly.  When smooth add the salt, pepper and sugar.

1 1/4 C flour

4 cubes real butter

3 tbs salt

2 tsp pepper

2 C sugar (you can use less)

Slowly add to the tomato mixture stirring constantly; bring to a boil - mixture will be thick.

Fill jars; leave 1" head space.

Cold water bath for 45 minutes

This makes about 12-15 quarts.

Of course if you don't have that many tomatoes you can always make a 1/2 batch.

Have a great weekend!

This recipe has been linked to Take it on Tuesday.