Home made chicken tenders.

You have been listening to me talk about our kids Christmas get together. I made these chicken tenders for our get together. Since it was for Christmas I attempted to make them in the shape of Reindeer heads. They looked pretty good considering I made them.

There are so many recipes floating around out there for chicken tenders. When I decided to make this for the kids I wasn't sure what to follow. This is what I did (I didn't follow a recipe) and it turned out great and the kids loved it. I didn't get a photo! I could kick myself! But the kids loved it and my husband (who isn't really a food person) gobbled up all the rest! This recipe fed 5 children and my husband.

--6 chicken breasts- I use Foster Farms

--Bread Crumbs with Italian seasoning

-- olive oil - enough to coat the bottom of the pan

-- 2 eggs

First crack open your two eggs and beat them in a bowl. Place your bread crumbs in another bowl.

I took the chicken breasts and rolled them out and sort of beat them with a rolling pin. Then I cut them out with my reindeer shaped metal cookie cutter. Dip them in the egg mixture, then cover with bread crumbs.

Place oil in the pan and heat over medium high. Place the chicken nuggets in the oil in batches.

I let ours cool for a little so the kids didn't burn their little mouths.

Enjoy!!!!

Slow Cooker Hot Coco

This is another crockpot recipe from Stephanie O'Dea. It is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. For ours I put together a little hot coco bar for the kids christmas get together that we had last weekend. The kids loved it and we loved it. It was really great because I was able to put it together and walk away from it which was fabulous because I had a million other things to do before all the kids got there.

-3 cups of nonfat dried milk

-1 cup powdered sugar

-3/4 cup cocoa powder

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 cup chocolate syrup

-7 cups of water

Combine the dry ingredients in the crockpot and stir with a spoon then add the chocolate sauce. Add the water, a cup at a time (if you do this to quickly you will have problems getting the dry chuncks to decinigrate). Cook on high for 2-3 hours or till hot. There are other variations you can do with this recipe that you can find on Stephanies website. I used our 6 quart crockpot but next time I will use a 4 as this only filled it halfway.

Slow Cooker Hot Toddy

I was under the weather over the weekend and my husband attempted (I say attempted because it obiously didn't work) to keep me confined to the couch. While on the couch I watched alot of TV and my mind started to wander. I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could make a Hot Toddy in the slow cooker?" The anwser is .... YOU CAN! This style is apple cider based not tea based. My husband said it tasted like a hot carmel apple. I'm not sure about that but it did make me feel better!

I made this in our 4qt slow cooker.

--1/2 gallon or 64oz of Apple juice

--1 small orange

--1 cups dark rum (2 if you like it strong)

-- 1/8 cup orange juice

--1/8 cup lemon juice

--1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Place all ingredients in the crock pot. Cut the orange into slice and float on top. You can add some cloves for show if you like. Turn the crock pot on low for 3 hours or on high for an hour. Serve steaming hot in large coffee mugs or special glasses. I topped ours off with one cinimon stick per drink. The rum can be left out however you may want to add rum flavoring.

Cheers!

Home Made Snow Globes

Who doesn't love snow globes at Christmas time? For our kids Christmas get together we made these adorable snow globes. Ours took some preparation so the kids could just have fun putting them together. I didn't want them to have to wait to see their creation. These are incredible easy and totally worth the work so don't be alarmed with the prep.

Ingredients

--empty jars- we used Trader Joe's PB jars. We found ours off of Freecycle. I didn't use mason because I didn't want upside down writing!
--silicone sealant - you can find this at any hardware store (Look for one that is aquarium safe or for bath or showers).
--glycerin - this can be found at a specialty store like Joann's (used to correct dried frosting coloring). If you can't find glycerin I have been told you can use mineral oil or baby oil in place of the distilled water below.
--distilled water - distilled is so mold doesn't grow in your creation. If you can't locate distilled you can boil tap water for 20 Min's and then let it cool to room temperature.

--glitter or crushed up egg shells- this is for your snow effect.

Make sure you have cleaned your jars really well. Take you lids and glue your decoration with the silicone sealant to the inside of the lid. I got lucky and found 100% silicone sealant in white! I used this on the lid of our jars for a snow effect. Make sure you let this set for 24 hours to really stick.
Note- we used faux pine branches, the holly berries were made of Styrofoam and disintegrated once they were in the water turning our water red! So you may want to test your item in water before you glue it down.

After your decorations have set, take your glass jars and fill them with the distilled water. Add the glycerin. 1/4 tsp for a small jar, 1/2 tsp for a medium jar and 1tsp for a large jar. Add your glitter or crushed egg shells to your liking. I crushed ours ahead of time so the kids didn't have to wait for me.
Place a small beading of silicone sealant around the grooves of your lid and close the jar tightly. Let it sit for 12 hours before you shake it up (I didn't follow this direction and I let the kids see one swirl of their jar before placing it upside down overnight.

Cranberry Pork Chops- Crockpot cooking

I recently came across a blog written by Stephanie O'Dea. She has an obsession with her crock pot. An obsession that I completely share. All summer long I wanted to use our crock pot but it was just to darn hot out. Now that it is cooler I am using it at least ever other day. So I've decided to start sharing some of the tasty recipes with you (I have come across some really bad ones-I won't share them).

This crockpot recipe my family really liked. Next time we are going to try it with a shot of whiskey!

Ingredients

6 bone-in pork loin chops

1 can (14 ounces) jellied cranberry sauce

1/2 cup cranberry or apple juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

I covered the pork chops with the salt and pepper and then placed them in the bottom of the crock pot. I literally dumped the rest of the items on top and let it cook for 6-8 hours. I made rice pilaf and beans so green from Trader Joe's for the sides.

This was tasty and everyone thought it was really good. Even our 1 year old!

Home made bath goodies

It's been weeks in the making! My friend Erin (whom definitely needs her own blog) and I have been making home made soap for Christmas gifts. We decided to go with a Rosemarry based sent and let me just say, my house smells absolutely amazing!

We started ourselves out slow by making a home made salt scrub. Shown in mason jar above. This turned out really well. All you need to pull this off is Epson salt, sea salt, a carrier oil (but we noticed we could have easily used less oil) and your scent. You can get the recipe here.

We then decided to try out making bath fizzes. This seems like it would be difficult. I had to order citric acid online (anything I can't walk into a store and buy I consider to be a pain). But it went together quick and the outcome as you can see is very nice looking. We made snowflakes and tree shaped fizzes. Recipe here!

The last item we made was the soap. Beware making this is not for the faint of heart. It requires Lye. Lye in days gone by was used for cleaning drains, and making soap and all sorts of other things. I warn you it is abrasive. You need vinegar around while making this, in case the Lye gets on your skin. It will "burn" you this feels like annoying itching.
Other items needed are coconut oil, vegetable oil, and in our case olive oil. We used the Rosemarry oil for scent and chopped up Rosemarry for show. You can use coloring we decided on no coloring to achieve a more rustic look. I will put the whole recipe up later.

The process requires you to get the lye and the oils between 75-78 degrees before you combine them. If I do this again I will be buying two digital thermometers (one for each pot) because we went back and fourth between the two pots with the thermometer and this slowed down our process and caused complications.

Once the oils and lye were combined and went through their sopification process it rested in a plastic shoebox that had been greased with Crisco.

It sat in the shoebox for almost a week. Then we removed it and let it dry out (shown above) I used a cake leveler to cut the block.

The soap works and smells great. I'm really glad we tried it. Now I have fabulous home made gifts to give my friends and family. I will post photos of eveyting in their baskets once that is done!

Change In The Weather

The fall to winter change always reminds me of Mary Poppins. Especially with all the wind here. Because I'm a wimpy California girl I spend most of my time indoors during the colder months. So get ready for some crock pot cooking!

Santa Anna winds

Part of living in our local (in Southern California) is the extreme high winds that we get in the fall. When I planted our garden at the end of spring I completely forgot about this! Because I wasn't prepared ahead of time this is the outcome. The below pictures were taken after I put the lattice and tomato cages back up (they all were blown over). The plants don't look very good and they all got wind burn. I guess we will just have to see what happens. Moving foward I'm going to have to invest in some covers for the planters.

Betsy

I wanted to take a moment to share a new member of our family with you.

Xavier has lovingly named her Betsy. She was found by a coworker of mine behind our office building. She was left in a bag behind the trash cans. She looks good in this photo but this is after two baths and a hair cut. The vet said she is about 4 months old, 4 pounds, and a mix between a Poodle and a Shih tzu. I'm not sure what you would call that...

Betsy is adapting really well to our family. In fact now that she is here it feels like she has always been with us. She gets along great with the boys and they just adore her. In fact everyone that meets her tells us if we aren't sure we want her they will take her ha ha! Betsy is here to stay. The universe works is mysterious ways.

Pomegranate Tree

When I was little I loved fall because it meant Halloween was coming. Now that I'm an adult (and a homeowner) I adore fall because it means the Pomegranate tree in the backyard is going to produce. This particular tree is actually our neighbors tree but it is positioned so the majority hangs over our fence, oh darn!

When the tree first blooms in the summer it has tiny red flowers all over. The flowers grow a red tube like shape and the flower wilts and falls off. This tube is what is eventually becomes the end of the pomegranate at picking time. The easiest way to open them is by scoring the outside flesh with a knife and breaking it open. I've been told it's easier if you freeze them first but I haven't tried it.

Poms are known to be high in vitamin C about 19% of a persons daily intake. They are also a good source of vitamin B5. And if you eat them with seeds in they are high in fiber. In India Poms have been used as a remedy against diarrhea (by eating the rind) as well as a tonic for the heart and throat. Although this sounds strange some studies have found that the consumption of Poms help with diabetes, rhinovirus, and the common cold (from Wikipedia).

Besides the health benefits there are so many delicious recipes to use with pomegranates. Grenadine syrup is derived from the pomegranate and the seeds are used regularly as a spice in Indian cuisine. Last year I basted pork chops the pom juice from our tree for Christmas dinner. Here are some recipes for great food made with pomegranates that I love: Pear and Pom salad, Apple and Pom crisp, Pom Margarita, Roast Pork with Pom and Ginger glaze, and Avocado, Grapefruit and Pom salad by none less than Ms. Martha Stuart.

Usually the squirrels get a large amount of our crop before we can get to them. This year I've been determined to pick them as soon as they are ripe. Do you have a favorite pomegranate recipe? do you have a favorite fruit that is out of the ordinary? I would love to hear about them.

Velcrow Plant Ties

What will they think of next? I was in the gardening section and found Velcro plant ties. At first I though - nah, but then I wondered would they be reusable? I had been using little twist ties that I found around the house but sometimes they were just sort of a pain. So I purchased the Velcro ties. It looks like this...

It is actually quite convenient and it sticks to its self well. Its softer than the usual Velcro and it has been doing well outside. Here is a picture of it on one of the tomato plants. Its nice because as the plant grows I can take it off and reposition it and it isn't a funky mess like the twist ties.

I had read an article in Better Homes and gardens on planting edibles in pots for showy fall arrangements. I was so taken with it I decided to try planting lettuce in pots for myself. So far so good. But because our weather here in California is so wonky they do better then worse as we get heat here in the 90's, on and off, till the end of October. Here are some pictures of the pots.

Right now they are up with the strawberry plants on our outdoor bar. But I'm hoping to eventually have them next to the back door to have accessible while making dinner.

Planter update

It has definitely been a while since my last blog post. Our camera was broken so I had to purchase a new one. Definitely not a purchase I wanted to make right now since we just started saving for a DSLR camera. To top it off after we purchased the new camera we figured out there was smutz stuck in the lens of the old camera so it was unable to open fully. Lesson learned, keep your camera away from tiny fingers (our children). So now we have a backup in case the old one fails again.
Planter one has had a bug infestation that I have been diligent at working on. Since we have desperately been trying to only use organic products to fight the bugs eating the plants in our planters it has proven to be a long road to recovery. Planter 2 on the other hand has been doing gangbusters! Here is a picture...

The tall bushes are the tomato plants. They have just about taken over the planter! A helpful hint I learned from one of my mothers friends, is to pinch off the ends of the buds. This will help the tomato plant use its energy to produce tomatoes, instead of using all of its energy to produce long lanky lengths. The same friend also said that sometimes pumpkins will take a year to develop fruit. We definitely haven't seen any this year and our vines keep getting eaten by green caterpillars that we keep removing. As you can see in the right hand bottom of the photo. So it seems that the food is still in growing mode. Gardening is not for the faint of hear, for sure!

Strawberry Plants in Pots

I just love Saturdays, with the whole weekend ahead to enjoy. It really puts me in good spirits. I love spending the morning in the garden, or attempting to spend the morning in the garden. This usually never works out the way I think it is going to, and I get sidetracked with the boys. But I still just adore walking amongst my little green 'children' planted outside.
A few months back at the begging of summer I had purchased strawberry seeds and if you remember they took forever to bud. So in mid-August I went to my local garden store and proceeded to purchase (break down and purchase) a couple of strawberry plants. Since I, as a new gardener, know nothing about strawberry plants, I just decided to purchase one of each type they carried (they carried three types). I figured worst case secenero, I kill them ... right?

Fast forward to October and they are all still alive! The seeds are finally growing but the little leaves are only the size of a pen cap. One of the varieties I at the store very well the Quinalt. All the plants I purchased at the store are by Bonnie Plants. But the Quinalt put out offshoots, and one of the offshoots took. Apparently the secret is if you lay the offshoot in dirt it will grow roots, and grow roots it did. It is still small but it is growing as well. So now I have 7 strawberry plants that are still alive!

The Quinalt has been blooming and has even produced flowers and teeny-tiny strawberries. Just big enough to keep me going back to adore the little guy. Here is a picture...

I decided to plant them in pots only because they shouldn't be planted were potatoes, tomotoes peppers, or eggplant have been planted becasue they can contract Verticillium Rot. So I decided to keep them out of the planters. We have a big bar area that I keep the pots up on in attempts to keep the bugs away. So far this has worked.

X-mans 4th Knight Birthday

Shortly after Logan's 1st birthday party Xavier immediately came up to me and asked for a Knight and Princess party. Since I had six months to plan the party I was able to come up with so many ideas. So first the invitations. Xavier decided on the below invite and the little pennant banner at the top really inspired me and got the ball rolling.

The entrance to our house was decked out with a fabric drape and royal banners with Xavier's initial.

We created a 'stone' (from cardboard) for each royal knight to pick their sword from. They were also able to choose their own armor.

We set up a workstation on our dining room table for the children to create their own shield. Stickers and jewels were available to decorate with. We fashioned the shields from cardboard boxes and installed a handle on the back. Each was painted silver.

The girls were able to choose skirts and princess hats from a variety of girly colors. They received wands instead of swords and had the option to dress up with earrings, necklaces, rings, and jewels.

The beverage table was covered with a simple black table cloth. We covered water bottles with a knight and princess theme label that my dear husband created. We also had royal gobblets available to drink out of. We had Lemonade, Ice tea, Capri Sun's, and water to drink. We also had M&M's and Ring Pop's to subdue the sweet tooth untill cake time.



The eating area was set for a king, or in this case a few knights and princesses. We were given the covered canopy from a cousin who was getting rid of it. We used leftover fabric to create the curtain effect. I'm planning to use this fabric again for a ship mast for Logan's Pirate party (coming in February)! The pennant banners were made from fabric and double bias tape. We rented the table and chairs at a local party rental and I used leftover red fabric to create the table runners. The carpet is an old one we regularly put outside to create an outdoor living space in the summer.

The chandelier a friend found on free-cycle. It was a little dusty and needed different light bulbs. It wasn't anything a trip to Home Depot couldn't fix. I found a string of beads from Joann's for a dollar and draped them over. The centerpieces were made from take out boxes and plastic plates from targets dollar bin. The dragons were purchased from Joann's for Xavier a couple of months back.

There was also an area for the adults to hang out at. It was covered with pennant banners as well.

The castle bounce house is the largest we have ever rented. To give you a size comparison the step stool in front of it is a normal size step stool you get at Target. This thing was huge, but it had a slide and a basketball hoop inside.

The dragon pinata was filled with candy, stickers, and small toys. The children played 'battle the dragon' with real practice swords (wood covered foam) also given to us at some point in time from a cousin.


The cake was homemade from scratch.Vanilla buttercream icing, vanilla cake, & rasberry filling. The towers were made of ice cream cones held together by icing. The little pennant banners were made of fabric and lolipop sticks.

Xavier enjoying himself with some of his best friends.

Shortly after Logan's 1st birthday party Xavier immediately came up to me and asked for a Knight and Princess party. Since I had six months to plan the party I was able to come up with so many ideas. So first the invitations. Xavier decided on the below invite and the little pennant banner at the top really inspired me and got the ball rolling.

The entrance to our house was decked out with a fabric drape and royal banners with Xavier's initial.

We created a 'stone' (from cardboard) for each royal knight to pick their sword from. They were also able to choose their own armor.

We set up a workstation on our dining room table for the children to create their own shield. Stickers and jewels were available to decorate with. We fashioned the shields from cardboard boxes and installed a handle on the back. Each was painted silver.

The girls were able to choose skirts and princess hats from a variety of girly colors. They received wands instead of swords and had the option to dress up with earrings, necklaces, rings, and jewels.

The beverage table was covered with a simple black table cloth. We covered water bottles with a knight and princess theme label that my dear husband created. We also had royal gobblets available to drink out of. We had Lemonade, Ice tea, Capri Sun's, and water to drink. We also had M&M's and Ring Pop's to subdue the sweet tooth untill cake time.



The eating area was set for a king, or in this case a few knights and princesses. We were given the covered canopy from a cousin who was getting rid of it. We used leftover fabric to create the curtain effect. I'm planning to use this fabric again for a ship mast for Logan's Pirate party (coming in February)! The pennant banners were made from fabric and double bias tape. We rented the table and chairs at a local party rental and I used leftover red fabric to create the table runners. The carpet is an old one we regularly put outside to create an outdoor living space in the summer.

The chandelier a friend found on free-cycle. It was a little dusty and needed different light bulbs. It wasn't anything a trip to Home Depot couldn't fix. I found a string of beads from Joann's for a dollar and draped them over. The centerpieces were made from take out boxes and plastic plates from targets dollar bin. The dragons were purchased from Joann's for Xavier a couple of months back.

There was also an area for the adults to hang out at. It was covered with pennant banners as well.

The castle bounce house is the largest we have ever rented. To give you a size comparison the step stool in front of it is a normal size step stool you get at Target. This thing was huge, but it had a slide and a basketball hoop inside.

The dragon pinata was filled with candy, stickers, and small toys. The children played 'battle the dragon' with real practice swords (wood covered foam) also given to us at some point in time from a cousin.


The cake was homemade from scratch.Vanilla buttercream icing, vanilla cake, & rasberry filling. The towers were made of ice cream cones held together by icing. The little pennant banners were made of fabric and lolipop sticks.

Xavier enjoying himself with some of his best friends.