Peanut Butter Blossoms with Hearts

Peanut Butter cookies are delightful. Peanut Butter cookies with chocolate kisses are adorable, but a little more difficult to eat - unless, like me, you just remove and eat the kiss and then move on to the rest of the cookie. However, I've found a solution! Introducing, the peanut butter blossom with chocolate hearts.

Photo from Pinterest

My original intent of making these cookies with the heart chocolates was just to be a little more cutesy in honor of Valentine's Day (which, by the way, if you have forgotten is tomorrow!). But, what I discovered was something so much better than anything that I would just make for Valentine's Day.

I, honestly, did not use the blog for my recipe. Since, the blog calls for peanut butter cookie mix from a box, I decided to go with my own version and used my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and went with their Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe and substituted the kisses for hershey hearts.

These were such a treat! I plan on making them again for certain. All of the chocolate pretty much melted (and then re-solidified) and they are absolutely terrific.

The cookie doesn't hug the chocolates quite like it does in the Pinterest picture, but it worked. Even when the chocolate was cooled, the cookie and the chocolate were more like one, rather than being able to pull them apart and they truly were wonderful.

However, a cautionary tale awaits you: if you have a toddler who has had the privilege of trying these cookies, be sure to remove all ability he (or she) may have to climb up to retrieve more of said cookies and poke at many of the hearts leaving beautiful smudged up cookies to be eaten by only your immediate family as you would not want to share your toddler's love of chocolate...art... with anybody else.

DIY Etched Glass Vase

It's coming up. The day when florists have the most deliveries. The day when many, many people say "IS THAT TODAY?!" and run to the store to find slim pickins of any chance of Valentine's Day card for anybody other than their dentist. I'm here to help you out - with another reminder. Valentine's Day is coming up! And, also to give you another idea. Flowers are always a nice gift to give or receive. They require little thought but are beautiful and someone else puts them together! What a simple solution! But, what if we were to go one step further and make it a little more special...say, designing your own vase? I know, most (if not all) of you who read my blog are ladies, but I've done this for my mom (my sister and I have been her stand-in Valentine since my dad passed away over 6 years ago) and for friends for birthdays and whathaveyou and they have really enjoyed it as well. Plus, you could use this for any kind of smooth glass that you think it would look cool on. Consider the possibilities!

To find out how to make the DIY Etched Glass Vase, check it out here.

This project was so very simple and easy and took practically no time at all. And, if you have kids, it's a great way to get them involved in the gift making process. They can, at least help put rubber bands on a vase, my nephew helped me with this. (I wouldn't recommend having help with the spraying part...that could be a little more dangerous.)  The other cool thing about this is, if you had a stencil, you could spray paint in the stencil so you could have a letter or a heart or whatnot instead of just lines from rubber bands. So many ideas and so cool!

Couple more quick tips:  

*Spray paint where there's a lot of ventilation - either outside or in a garage or shed. 

*Don't remove the rubber bands until it's completely dry and the paint can chip when removing the rubber bands, so be sure to do it very carefully. 

*Where the rubber bands have been removed, the edges will feel a little raise and rough - not to worry, just rub gently with your hands to remove the excess - it works wonderfully. 

*You don't have to use the etched glass spray paint - I just got glitter spray paint and I am SUPER excited to try that next. 

It'll be so great to be able to personalize any flowers you may be giving somebody - it shows that you cared enough to go the extra mile (even though it takes practically no time, but we don't need to share that. *wink wink*)

One last little piece of advice - since those flowers won't last forever, something I read on Pinterest recommended having little sheets of paper next to a jar and anytime you have a wonderful memory from this year, put it in the jar - then, on New Year's Eve, take out those little sheets and relive all the wonderful joys of the past year. What a great way to have that vase just keep on giving!

Candy With Love!

Awww, love is in the air. Well, at least lots of red and pink candy hearts and jewelry and mushy cards and all that jazz are in the stores. I like the chance to give gifts. And, if I'm being honest, I also like the chance to receive gifts. Heartfelt, loving, sentimental gifts. Those are my favorite kind to give. Although, sometimes the cheesy, silly, cute gifts are fun too. Last year, one of the gifts I gave to my husband was a giant candy card. I stole the idea from Pinterest, but alas, there is no blog to refer you to. Here is a picture though:

Photo from Pinterest

I thought this was a cute idea, but found it to be quite challenging to find a piece of paper large enough and strong enough to hold the message and the candy, without spending more money on poster board and whatnot. I ended up using some scrap cardboard that was in my recycling and covered it in paper (a Pampers box doesn't exactly work for writing a message and it certainly doesn't make you think of Valentine's Day - unless you think of the little diapered or diaperless angel baby, Cupid.)

I also adjusted some of the phrasing so that it would fit with the candies my husband might enjoy most. Here's what I ended up with.

Super corny, but also kinda cute in a not-as-put-together-as-I-would've-liked sort of way.

If you are looking to make your own gifts (for pretty much anything) and you'd be interested in using candy, I found this on Pinterest too: a blog that has a gazillion sayings for different candies!

Hopefully this little post will get your creative juices flowing and you'll be able to have a whopper of a good time making something that your sweet will enjoy (whether candy-related or otherwise)...if nothing else, at least it's a good reminder that Valentine's Day is on Thursday!

Avalanche Bars

Photo from Pinterest

One of my favorite snacks to get at the mall is an avalanche bar from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Oh-so crumptious! It's a little like a rice krispie treat and a little like a white chocolate reeses peanut butter cup all rolled into one. So very very tasty. However, I try to get them as I'm leaving the mall or my best efforts for finding that perfect top or those to-die-for jeans (do they even make those?) will be thwarted as I try them on only to discover how unfortunately heavy I feel after eating such a delightful sweet. All that aside, I will continue to eat them, because they are just that good. 

Needless to say, when I discovered I could make these divine morsels on my own for a fraction of the cost, I jumped at the opportunity. To find out how to make them, you'll want to check out this blog. 

I just gotta say, these turned out just as good as the ones from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, maybe just a wee bit more peanut buttery, but very, very tasty. The only thing I would change is not adding the chocolate chips on as a garnish. They just make it harder to eat and is a little bit messier. But, still, worth having!

If you've never tried an avalanche bar, I would highly recommend them; especially if you like peanut butter, marshmallow and rice krispie treats. Yum-o!

Now if you'll excuse me; they seem to be calling my name.

Oh, and P.S. - these are also very good frozen. Stick 'em in the freezer and they'll last even longer.

Quick Pizza Casserole

This isn't actually something I found on Pinterest, but it's something that I make at my house whenever we are short on time and I thought you all might enjoy it.

I love pizza and I love pasta...so, putting the two together couldn't be anything short of pure tasty goodness. I have to give credit where credit is due - a co-worker from a job I had many moons ago gave me this recipe. It is one of my husband's favorites and it's quick, easy and tasty.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 green pepper
1 onion
2 cups noodles (any pasta of your choice)
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 cup of water
1 tsp of italian seasoning
1 can of mushrooms
Grated cheese for the top

You start out by browning your ground beef, green pepper and onion.

While that is cooking, you put all the rest of your ingredients into a microwave-safe deep dish (like a pyrex or a Pampered Chef covered baker - which is what I am using for this post) and mix it up.

I generally do more eyeballing than following the recipe exactly because I pretty much always put in more pasta than what it calls for in the recipe, but, following the recipe exactly the first couple of times helped me figure out the right amounts and how to adjust them.

After the meat is browned, put it on top of the noodle mixture - do not stir.

The rest is easy-peasy. Cover the dish and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes. Take it out and stir. This is where I add the mushrooms. You can certainly add it at the beginning, but since my husband doesn't like mushrooms, I wait until I've done the big stir and put mushrooms on only half of the pasta. That way I have my lovely mushrooms, but my husband doesn't have to worry about picking them out of his food as much. Yes, he is incredibly spoiled.  Cover the dish again and put it back in the microwave for 10 minutes. Once that's done, pull it out, add grated cheese on the top and cover again just until the cheese is melted.

Voila! A tasty meal ready in under 20 minutes. Plus, it is really good reheated as well!

Homemade Finger Paints Take 2

As many of you saw, the other day my nephew and I made homemade finger paints that both he and my son enjoyed using. If you missed that blog entry, you can find it here. In that post, you may have noticed something different with the canvas my son was painting on vs. what my nephew was painting on. Because my son is so young, and I'd still love to save his art, I tried out an idea that I saw on Pinterest; tape a word or design on a canvas and see a little masterpiece come to life. This worked brilliantly. Click here to read more about this idea.

Since my son wasn't overly enthusiastic the other day about trying out the paints and getting his hands all dirty, we tried it again today. He seemed to enjoy it a little more and, although the other paint that he had done on the canvas had already dried, it made no difference using the same canvas - he still enjoyed it and it still turned out wonderfully. 

All business

In follow up to my last finger paints post, I thought I'd fill you in on how well the paint worked after 3 days. It pretty much had solidified with a little bit of runniness, but it still worked - at least the parts that weren't like a sort of jello worked. The yellow, for some reason, wasn't as lumpy and I popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds to see if that would help and it did! I actually thought it painted even better than it had before! Popping the rest of the colors that didn't have as much liquid in them did not help, however. My guess is that if I had made them originally without allowing the base to get lumpy, the paint would've lasted longer. There's the lesson for me - don't let it boil and keep stirring the base until it thickens so as to not let it get lumpy. Either way, the paint still worked fairly well and Cade seemed to have fun. 

As you can see, the yellow (I used the same stirring spoon that I used for the green - hence the green dots) had the right consistency, but the purple was much harder to use as it was a little too lumpy. 

And, here is Cade's completed work of art before it was dry. It's not very pretty (which I blame on the ugly tan tape that was on there), but it worked for him and he had a good time. That is, of course, the goal in making this. 

 After the paint had dried, I peeled off the tape and was left with this gorgeous piece of art courtesy of my son. I'm quite happy with how it looks and look forward to doing this with him again.

 So, there you have it! Another Pinterest Test completed and worth doing again! I may even hang this one in our living room...until the next one is completed.

How To Pick Green Peppers

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This blog is not a scientific journal and is meant to be for entertainment and fun only. 

Photo from Pinterest

Gender Specific Green Peppers? Um...why? Those were my first questions when I saw this picture on Pinterest today. So, I looked into it a little bit more by going here.

I put this to the test today as I made Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner. Basically, the theory is that the peppers with three bumps are males (which have less seeds) and the peppers with 4 are female (and, have more feeds). My female green pepper may have been a little more gender neutral than what I should've aimed for considering the test I was conducting, but it still worked for the most part.

You can see below that there are definitely more seeds in the female green pepper vs. the male green pepper. We also got a significant amount more of the vegetable from the male green pepper.

Just for cuteness sake, I have to tell you - my son was so excited about the top of the green peppers, he kept putting it back on and saying "hat!!" Just adorable.

Anyway, you get the point. Next time you are shopping for green peppers, make sure you get the peppers with the 3 bumps and not the 4. You'll get more bang for your buck and won't have to deal with more seeds, or crazy green pepper girl hormones. (Where's my rimshot when I need it?)