WIWW: Turquoise & Yellow

I totally fell in love with this turquoise cardigan from Target.  Normally I'd pair it with something safe, like a white tank.  But in an effort to be a little more bold I decided to go with a bright yellow.  And I absolutely LOVED the color combo!

Cardigan: Target
While long sleeve: Target
Yellow tank: Styles For Less
Jeans: Aeropostale
Shoes: Discount Shoe Factory
Jewelry: 99cent Store & Burlington












I love my ruffle wedges! I even painted my toenails to match my cardi.  :)










Bright & bold accessories just complete the outfit.

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Christmas Light Show

My husband has been hard at work to get our Christmas lights up.  He's been doing the light show for several years now and it never gets old to me.  I love when I come home at night and just sit in the car and enjoy the show.  :)  This is just part of one of the songs.  I'll try to post some more later this week. 

Pikelets

What Do You Do With Leftover Pancakes?

Don't dare throw them away! save them for later...
Then make a yummy dessert /snack called "Pikelets"

So easy & delicious.. You can't just have one. Adults & kids love them.

They taste best cold...

Just make your favorite pancakes...

Let them Cool!!!!!

Top it with your favorite Jam, then top with whipped cream.

You will be so surprised how good they are.

Our favorite jam is raspberry....enjoy

              -Buff-

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Teacher Christmas Gifts

For teacher gifts this year I wanted to do something quick and easy.  Between school teachers, aides, and primary teachers we had 6 to buy for.  So I headed out to Bath & Body Works and picked up some cute Christmas apple-scented soap.  Then I headed over to Crafts Re-designed for these adorable printable tags.  The kids cut them out and we tied them on with some (homemade) bakers twine.  I think they turned out cute and hopefully it's a gift their teachers will enjoy. These would be great for neighbor gifts, too.  I think I'll make a few extra to have on hand!

I wanted to do a little something more for Cailyn's 3rd grade teacher.  So in addition to the soap we made some personalized cards for her to use.

I got some lined scrapbook paper and ran it through the printer to put her teacher's name on.  Then I got to use my favorite border punch.

I put them all together, added some ribbon and a few festive pencils and it was good to go!

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Christmas Pizzas & Dough Recipe

Every Friday night in our house is pizza & movie night. So for the holiday season I decided it would be fun to do some festive pizzas. I made my regular pizza dough and just shaped it into a snowman and a candy cane. The kids thought it was great! We sat on the family room floor and ate it while watching The Santa Clause. I love making memories with my family. :)

(Please excuse the terrible state of my pans! :P )

Breadmaker Pizza Dough 

(adapted from food.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 2 teaspoons parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to breadmaker in order listed by your manufacturer.
2. Set breadmaker on dough setting.
3. When cycle is done, form crust on a pizza pan which has been lightly greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Using a fork poke a bunch of holes all over the dough (this helps to keep it from bubbling).
4. Bake 8 minutes at 425 F until light brown.
5. Add sauce and toppings and cook another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly.

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Chocolate Coconut Fudge Bombs

I am your typical woman... crazy about chocolate and also coconut and couldn't find a good recipe for fudge that included both, so I decided to make one and then I entered it into Nestle's Recipe contest recently, which announces the winner on December 20th next week. Wish me luck, and I decided to share the recipe. Hope you like it like my family & co-workers do.

Bottom & Top Layer  (repeated twice ) 

“Nestles Fudge Recipe”

1 ½ C Sugar

2/3 C Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 TBSP butter

¼ tsp Salt

2 C miniature marshmallows

1 ½ C Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels

1 tsp vanilla extract

Middle Layer

1 C evaporated milk

1 C sugar

24 Large marshmallows

1 14oz pkg. coconut

Combine sugar, milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Stir in marshmallows, morsels and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously till blended. Pour into 9x13 pan lined with foil for easy removal, and cool in fridge. To make fudge thicker, you can pour into 9x9 pan.

Combine the 1 Cup milk and the sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Stir in marshmallows until melted, then add coconut: pour over cooled layer of chocolate fudge.

Let cool in fridge.

Prepare another batch of the “Nestle Fudge recipe” and pour over the top of the coconut layer, cool and enjoy.

Using Nestles recipe and a new version of coconut center of my own and my family loved it

as much as I did.

-Buff



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10 Food Tips You May Not Know!

1. Bananas- when you get home from the store, pull them apart. They go bad faster if they stay connected to the stem.

2. Block cheese- when you buy blocks of cheese, wrap them in aluminum foil. It stays fresh longer and NO MOLD!

3. Peppers- peppers that have 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter, when peppers with 4 bumps are better to cook with and are more firm.

4. Ground beef- add 1tsp of water to ground beef when frying it up. it helps keep the grease separate from the meat when you cook it.

5. Garlic- when cooking, for a light taste of garlic add it at the beginning stages of cooking and for a stronger taste add it to the recipe at the end

6. Chocolate Chips- adding your chocolate chips into the flour of your recipe prevents them from sinking to the bottom of your cake and keeps them separated

7. Frosting- when you buy frosting from the store, put it in your mixer and mix it for a few min. It will DOUBLE in amount and it will go further. **You will eat fewer calories and less sugar per serving!! Always a good thing!

8. Eggs- to make creamier and richer scrambled eggs, you can add a few spoon fulls of cream cheese, sour cream, or heavy cream as you beat them up!

9. Flour- by putting a bay leaf in your flour container or taping one to the top of an unopened bag of flour, you will NEVER have weevils!

10. Mushrooms- to keep them fresh and lasting longer, place them in a brown lunch bag when storing them in the fridge!

-chelz

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