Yummy Flaxseed, Oat & Whole Wheat Bread

Home Management Binder

I finally decided to break down and make a schedule for myself so that I can keep the house nice and tidy and not go crazy in the process.

I wrote out a schedule for myself, and as I did that I randomly stumbled on a Home Management Binder on Pintrest. I was intrigued. I have heard of them before, but I had never seen one up to that point.

After a bunch of googling and downloading, I figured I was all set to go. I have SO many things that I want to add, but I am going to do it slowly and make it work without being overwhelming.

I got a bunch of adorable printables HERE, and a few more here.

I will post again about how it is coming along. Maybe I'll even include some pictures ;)

Home Made Pizza Pockets

Courtesy of my wonderful boyfriend:

Pizza Dough Recipe:

2 cups of flour

2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast

1 cup of warm water

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of sugar

2 tbsp of oil

2 tsp of pizza seasoning

Mix warm water and yeast until dissolved and foamy. Add other ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes.

After dough rises, cut into separate little sheets of dough. Don't stretch it too thin or the fillings will come out. About 1/4 inch thick. Sizing depends on how large you would like them. Cooking will take longer if they are very big. Roll dough pieces out evenly.

Add 2-3 tbsp of pizza/pasta sauce to the middle of each piece of dough.

Add 1/4-1/2 a cup of mozerella cheese (or cheese of your choice).

Add pepperoni or other desired toppings.

Bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.

You can also make a delicous stuffed sandwich the same way. I have made them with pastrami and cheese, ham and cheese, and turkey and cheese. All non-pepperoni sandwiches were made without pizza sauce. The sky is the limit! So yummy, and fast.

I apologize for the formatting. I don't feel like fighting with this right now.

Baby Sabrina

My friend has a beautiful grand-baby, Sabrina. Sabrina is special needs, and the sunshine in their life. This beautiful little girl is very sick, and currently in the PICU. They have known since her daughters pregnancy that Sabrina was going to be special, but things have been difficult since her birth.

If you can find it in your heart to help them, it would be greatly appreciated. If you can't afford to help financially, support and kind words are wonderful as well. You can donate via WePay, or leave words of encouragement on their facebook page.

From their page:

Sabrina Jean Marie Herrera began having medical problems even before she was born. When her 17 year old mother Bethany was 20 weeks pregnant an ultrasound told us that Sabrina was a girl, but it also told us that she had a stroke.

By the time Bethany was ready to deliver, Sabrina’s doctors had lost count of the amount of strokes she had and had little hope for her. She was born September 08 of 2010. She was born screaming. Shortly after her birth we found out that she had a rare genetic disorder called MTHFR and something called lipoprotein alpha deficiency.

We knew she was going to be special to everyone. Since that day 20 short months ago, her list of challenges has grown. She has Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Failure to thrive, respiratory issues, hydrocephalus and she is blind.

Recently she has become gravely ill with pneumonia and an additional infection. She requires a lot of support, her grandparents and mother work very hard to take care of her. Unfortunately there are things that Medicaid does not cover. Sabrina has always been a fighter. We are asking for you to help us fight.

For updates, please visit Sabrina's facebook page.

Cinnamon Roll Fail (and a yummy filling)

Sometimes, what seems like a good idea turns out badly.

I made cinnamon rolls. It's not like I've never made cinnamon rolls before, in fact I made some less than a week ago that were a-maz-ing. This time, things didn't go so well.

The bread recipe I use for the cinnamon rolls is the one I use for everything- hoagie rolls, loaves, bread sticks, etc. I made a double batch. Not a bad idea, as I also wanted to make some yum hoagie rolls for sammiches. The problem I had was taking too much of the giant lump of doughy goodness. The area I roll things out in is small. Too small for the amount of dough I had. It ended up being about ½ an inch, if not a little more, thick. WAY too thick for cinnamon rolls. They didn't want to bake evenly.

My biggest fail? Well, you know those tiny half containers of spices? I only have 2. A ton of the regular sized ones, but only two itty bitty ones. I grabbed the wrong one. Instead of nutmeg, I dumped in Allspice. *gag* I did try to get it out of the mix before it sank in. I wasn't fully successful sadly. Did I toss out the mixture and start again? No. It'll be FINE, I thought. Not so much. Of course I didn't want to toss out half a cup of butter, but still.

Correct cinnamon roll mixture:

½ cup butter. You want it to be melty.

A bunch of cinnamon (3 tbsp-ish? Not sure, I just dump more and more in until it seems cinnamon-y enough)

1 tsp nutmeg

¼ cup honey (trust me, yum)

Mix everything together and spread on the inside of the dough, then roll up. Put leftover mix (if there is any) in the bottom of your pan, and dribble a little on the top of your rolls.

Live and learn.

Kyle Cake

O hai! I finally gave the cake to him, so I can post it now. Yay! He loved it.

I made my brother Kyle a Kyle from South Park cake. I'm pleased at how it turned out. Next time I will do a few things differently, but for the most part I am quite happy.

The fondant on the side isn't that great, because I don't have a fondant smoother. I think for my first real fondant cake I did well.

I had to cut it out by hand, as I didn't have a pattern (or a cake pan that matched!). It's a double layer chocolate cake, with cream cheese frosting and a buttercream crumb coat.

All of the fondant pieces are hand cut, with the exception of the mittens, which I used my Wilton round cutters.

Beginnings of this years garden!

I have begun my garden for this year. By saying I've started, I mean that I have planted seeds that are now (mostly) little seedlings for plants that need a little more time going inside. Some I just sowed a couple of days ago so I have no sprouts yet.

If you want to follow the progress of my garden, check out my "social" garden here: Herbal & Heirloom I will be posting there about what I am doing in the garden and what all I am growing.

So far I have started peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, beans, a few different herbs, and I have planted my potatoes in their permanent containers and will keep adding soil as needed. I also started an apple tree from seed, so we will see how that goes. At this point it is doing quite well.

My sage is doing well in it's little spot out on the porch. I planted it last year, and it seems quite content. Other than adding a little coffee grounds and egg shells every now and then, and light watering, it has been thriving with pretty minimal help.

I am going to try to container grow a few things to see how well it goes. What exactly those plants will be I haven't determined yet. I might try to grow a few tomato plants in the large containers I have, but I want to companion plant them with some basil. I am not using any chemicals/pesticides and my garden will be all organic.

Wilton Decorating Classes

I just finished the Wilton Method Course 1: Decorating Basics as well as course 2 at one of my local craft stores. I'm taking the classes with my mom, and it is quite fun. If you want to see if they offer classes near you, do a search on their site.

Now, what did I think? Our instructor was quite helpful and very nice. She made sure that any questions we had were answered. I didn't really know the first thing about how to decorate when I started, and I feel much more comfortable now. We have just started class 3 and it is so much fun!

If there is anything I would complain about, it's the class prices. I don't think they're high (especially with the coupons!), but the sheer amount of STUFF you have to buy is a little daunting. You have to get your class kit, your instruction book, and some other things like a cake turntable if you don't already have one. You can do without the turntable probably, but it would make things much more difficult.

Plan on spending at least what you paid for your class on materials. So with a $45 class fee, it's about an additional $45. Not bad for 4 weeks of classes at 2 hours a pop, but if you're not expecting and budgeting for it, it can be a little much.

Watch for buy one get one deals on classes. If you want to take the classes with a friend then it works out perfectly for the first class if you're not quite sure that you are interested in taking all 4 classes.

My first cake. I got lazy with the border.

My final cake from the second class:

Sorry the pictures are crummy, they were taken with a cell phone camera.

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

Decided to make cupcakes. Didn't feel like looking up a recipe for pudding cupcakes, so I made one. They are very yummy. Sorry about the picture, I don't have my camera battery so it's a cell phone pic.

I put strawberry frosting (from a can... I know, I know!) and it was fantastic.

Preheat oven to 350

2 1/2 cups Flour
1 package Vanilla (I used French Vanilla) pudding mix.
1/2 cup melted Unsalted Butter
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
2 (large) Eggs
2 tsp Baking Soda

Mix dry ingredients. Add in liquid ingredients until combined. Don't over mix! If you add beaten eggs there will be less mixing. I did everything in my stand mixer.

Lightly spray/coat muffin or cupcake tin. I used muffin tins, and got about 9. Fill each cup about half full. If using muffin tin (jumbo tin) at 350 it will take about 20-25 minutes. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool, then frost.

They are *super* moist!

Enjoy!