When life hands you tomatoes..Make Salsa!

Well summer is in full swing and all the gardens are blossoming.. well, except ours. My husband always plants a HUGE garden in the summer, but unfortunately has not had enough time this year to make that happen.
  Fortunately for us, we live in the "country."  And plenty of our neighbors have gardens of abundance and are gracious enough to share with us.  Everytime we go to church or to a neighbors house, we are handed a bag full of freshly picked vegetables.
   Last week I had lunch with one of our neighbors, and they gave me a BUNCH of tomatoes as well as many other summer veggies.  So what better to do with tomatoes than make salsa!  Yum! 

And due to my lack of blogging this summer, here are a few pictures of sweet pea and preshy poo!

Ready to go after swimming at the pool.

She thinks she's big stuff..until later when the chair folded in with her in it!

This is what happens when you give a two year old Markers!

Sisters hanging out together

How does she do that with her tongue?

How is is that Campbell screams and throws a fit when I try to put her in her car seat when its IN the car..but throw it in the kitchen, and she climbs in and buckles herself!

Summer reading!

Campbell and Daddy after feeding the catfish!

I love my presh poo!

Could these two look any more different?

Fun in the sprinkler!

Only in the South, do we monogram "pannies"

We are heading to Montgomery this weekend to see Sissy, Laney, and Aunt Lele.  We will be showering Becky Buchanan and her baby bump this weekend.  Then we will be celebrating the marriage of our cousin Laura Courson the next weekend.  It will be a busy but fun week ahead!

Monkey Bread

I wanted to make something to take to our Sunday School class and Monkey bread is always a breakfast favorite. I have made it several time before and finally twiched the recipe till the monkey bread come out just perfect!

Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 tubes refrigerated biscuits (I used Philsbury Flakey Biscuits that come 8 in a can)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar

1. Coat bundt pan evenly with oil.
2. Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl and then mix in the brown sugar.
4. Cute each biscuit into fourths. (I like to use a pizza cutter to cut the dough.)
5. Dip each piece of dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
6. Place half of the dough in the well greased Bundt Pan. (Do NOT press the dough together.)
7. Pour half of the butter/sugar mixture over the first half of dough.
8. Put the rest of the biscuit dough into pan and then pour the rest of the butter mixture of dough.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 35 minutes.
10. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then turn pan over onto plate.

This monkey bread just pulls apart with your fingers and melts in your mouth!

Note: I sometime make this recipe the night before. I just put the bundt pan in the fridge after finishing with the dough. Then just stick it in the oven in the morning!

Now here is a couple of pictures of my sweet little monkeys!

From mud pies to Fudge Pie

Thank goodness we are finally having some pretty weather!  This week we stayed outside as much as possible!  Campbell is a happy camper in the great oudoors.  She especially enjoys playing in the dirt!

Campbell had to drag all this out just to make sure that Adeline had enough toys, bibs, clothes, etc.  Oh! And a tiolet just in case!

Easy Fudge Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter (melted)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 of flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 TB cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate)
• 1 preprared pastry pie crust

1.  Mix butter, eggs, sugar, flour vanilla and cocoa powder until evenly combined.
2.  Pour batter into prepared pie crust.
3.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until toothepick inserted into middle comes out clean.

Note:  This recipes doubles really well!  Great to take to a friend or church event!

Served warm with ice cream..yummy!

Spinach Artichoke Dip and Cream Cheese Pecan Pound Cake

So I need to make an appetizer and dessert for our last MOPS meeting of the year.

This Spinach Artichoke Dip is my favorite! And the pound cake..well, I just wanted to try something different.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 box Chopped Frozen Spinach
• 1 small jar of Artichoke Hearts
• 1 small jar of pimentos
• 1 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonaise
• 1 1/2 cups or 2 cups Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 cup or 1 cups shredded Pepper Jack Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Thaw and drain spinach.
3. Chop artichoke hearts. I recommend using a food processor if you have one. I believe a blender would work also.
4. Drain jar of pimentos.
5. Mix spinach, artichokes and pimentos. Add sour cream, mayonaise, 2 cups Parm. cheese and 1/2 cup of Pepper Jack cheese. Mix well.
6. Sprinkle extra 1/2 cup of Pepper Jack cheese on top of dip.
7. Put in oven for 30 minutes.

-Serve with your favorite cracker or chip!

Note: I make this recipe ahead of time and stick it in the fridge until ready to serve!

Cream Cheese Pecan Pound Cake

This recipe is a variation of a couple of recipes

that I have liked in the past.

Not the greatest picture.. I know..

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 sticks of butter (softened)
• 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 3 cups of sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
• 1/2 cup of shredded coconut (plus some to sprinkle on top)

1. In a mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Then gradually add sugar.
2. Add eggs, one at a time just until the yellow disappers. Add vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Sift flour and salt together. Add flour mixture and milk alternativley to the cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
4. Add chopped pecans and coconut. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed.
5. Pour mixture into a oiled and floured tube pan.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 25 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes (until long toothepick inserted into middle of cake comes out clean.)
7. Let cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.
8. Remove cake from pan onto wire rack to cool.
9. Sprinkle coconut on top of cake after taken out of pan.

Note: I would have liked to make a glaze for the cake but did not have all the ingredients. It would have made the cake much prettier and slightly tastier!

Note to self.. Never leave cake on the table! As soon as you turn your back to do the laundry, your two year old will climb onto the kitchen table, open of the cake case...and DIG IN!!!

Ice (Cream) of Wheat

I know this blog shouts "you know I am a parent." So, if you are one that gets annoyed by parents bragging on their child's every move, then please do not read.
But I just have to say that my two-year old potty trained herself in one day all by her self. I kid you not, she went to the potty all on her own(number one and number 2!) I will spare all the details. But lets just say that we were proud, especially considering I had not been enforcing the potty yet. So, we decided to celebrate this mile stone in her little young life with none other than some ICE CREAM!! This kid loves her some ice cream. You say ice cream, and she starts running to the car.

Our sweet little Adeline also reached a miltestone this week, SOLIDS. We started her with some cream of wheat. Man, I do not think I was ready for this. For one, I can not believe that she is 6 months old, for two, I forgot what a mess this is, and for three, it takes like weeks before she will even be able to get anything down! But thats just part of it. I'd do anything for my little bundles of joy.







And just a few more pictures from the week...

This is what happens, when a two year old dresses herself...a deflated inner tube and sunglasses...

Enjoying her ice cream! "Dats good!"

"Cheeeeeese"

That's all folks! Have a great week!

Busy Weekend in Montgomery plus Granola Bar Recipe

The girls and I headed south to Montgomery for the weekend. We had several events planned for the weekend.

My mother, me and Adeline (in a stroller) all walked the 5K Walk for life in honor of Jeannie Tapley (my sister-in-law's mother.) It was just a beautiful and pleasant day, which made the walk a breeze.

Mommy and me after the walk.

So many people walking for such a great cause.

Refreshing Gospel music encouraged us along the way, and yes the water in the fountain is PINK!

Campbell was worn out after playing with Aunt Lele during the walk. They had all kinds of fun events for the children like face painting and a man on stilts to make balloon shapes!

I had also planned a Baby Shower for my sister Lele and her baby Laney at the home of my Aunt Clair Fain for Sunday afternoon. With the help of several of her sweet friends, we were able to put together a really nice shower. The guest enjoyed chatting with each other along with afternoon treats such as cheese straws, strawberry mini cupcakes, fudge brownies and pink mint cookies. One thing I can say for sure is that Laney will be one well dressed baby!

(pictures courtesy of my sister-in-law Emily, because somehow I did not get any pictures from the shower on my camerae!)

Also, whenever I got out of town, I try to leave my husband with plenty of food to eat because if I do not... He will either a) not eat at all- and be grumpy and feel bad or b) eat cheap gas station food- and be irritable and sick or c)-cook eggs, and leave the mess for me to clean up when I get home! (I'm just giving him a hard time..I mainly do this because I just love him ;)So I left him with one of his favorite meals is red beans and rice (with Conecuh Sausage.) I also like to leave a sweet treat, even though he is not big on sweets. But he LOVES anything with peanut butter especially when mixed with a little dark chocolate. So I came up with this Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bar Recipe. They are kind of like a granola bar, but these bars are chewy rather than crunchy(and probably a little sweeter.) Here is the recipe:

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Butter
• 1 cup Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Honey (or corn syrup.. I use honey in place of corn syrup in most recipes for a "healthier" alternative)
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 3 and 1/3 cups Oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips (or Chunks)- I like to use dark chocolate, but use which ever type you like best)- Add more or less chips depending on how chocolaty you want it... (Add less if you add other ingredients)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat 9x13 baking dish or pan.

2. Melt Butter in microwave safe bowl.

3. Add peanut butter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla extract. Stir until mixture is smooth.

4. Stir in Oatmeal and chocolate chips until evenly mixed.

5. Press mixture evenly into greased baking dish.

6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

(Note: You can also add any type of nuts, dried fruit or even coconut to this oatmeal bar. I sometimes add in whichever extra ingredient I have at the house. This particular time, I added mini chocolate chips to the top of the bars AFTER I pulled them out of the oven.)

This make a great morning or afternoon snack to help you make it through to that next meal!

What a great weekend with family and friends! We even had time to snag a few cute pictures of the girls.

Fun with Auntie Lar!

Well, I hope everyone else enjoyed the beautiful weekend as much as we did! Have a great week!