It's Things Like This That Give Me Reason To Post After 8 Months

What I Did This Weekend

On Saturday morning, Logan, Nikki, & I made these pictures. Aren't they awesome? Kind of a poor picture of the pictures, but they are awesome in real life. :)


Then, since my family is inbetween houses, we had them over for dinner Sunday. It was fun to have everyone over, and to have an excuse to make this!



Egg Nog Spice Bundt Cake

1 box spice cake mix
1 (4-serving) box instant vanilla or cheesecake pudding and pie filling mix
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup light egg nog
1 egg
3 egg whites
1 1/3 cups toasted chopped pecans
Powdered sugar (I topped it with glaze instead of powdered sugar)

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a nonstick bundt pan with cooking spray. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, yogurt, oil, eggnog, egg, and egg whites in a large bowl. Mix until creamy. Stir in pecans. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40-45 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar or use the glaze recipe below.

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup pecans, chopped & toasted

Stir brown sugar, whipping cream, and butter in saucepan over medium-high heat until smooth. Boil three minutes, stirring often. Stir in pecans. Spoon over warm cake.

So this post is a little late

The week of Halloween, I made these cookies for my Young Women to give to them after my lesson.

Candy Corn Cookies

2/3 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
2 pouches Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
Wilton's yellow paste food color
Wilton's orange paste food color

Pick one set of extracts for flavoring cookies

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract

or

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Line an 8x4-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan.

In a stand mixer beat the eggs until mixed. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the butter. *If adding the vanilla & almond extracts do so after adding the butter* Then, stop the mixer & add the sugar cookie mix. Beat until just combined.

Divide the dough into three equal parts. Put 1 section back into the mixer & add 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract, if using. Beat until combined, then set dough aside.

Next, add another section of dough to the mixer with 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract if using & a very small amount of yellow food color paste until desired color. Beat until combined and set aside.

Add the last dough section to the mixer with 1/2 teaspoon orange extract if using and a very small amount of orange food color paste. Mix until combined.

Pat the yellow dough into the wax paper lined pan. Press gently with the back of a dry measuring cup to even out the dough. Next, add the orange dough and repeat. Then spread the plain dough across the top.

Fold the wax paper over the cookie dough and refrigerate overnight, or freeze for 1 1/2 hours, and thaw on the counter for 20 or so minutes until workable.

Once chilled, dump the dough out onto a cutting surface. Pry the dough apart from the pan with a spatula between the wax paper and pan if needed before turning out.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut dough into 1/4 inch thick slices. Then cut slices into triangles as shown. You'll have some edge pieces left over. These can be kneaded together gently and made into marbled drop cookies or rolled out and cut with a cookie cutter later.

Place cookies on sheets 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 7-8 minutes until very lightly golden on the sides. *To make candy corn shape: working quickly after cookies come out of the oven, take two spatulas & gently move the two sides back into shape* If the cookies harden before you can finish the sheet, stick them back in the oven for two minutes to often.

Cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Then, move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Makes many dozens of little cookies.

The Thrifty Mama rocks my world!

I love The Thrifty Mama's web site more than you will ever know. Thanks to her, I have found some killer deals on just about everything. Right now, she is giving away a $100 Target gift card in a contest sponsored by ShopAtHome.com which is another awesome source for printable coupons and online coupon codes. Go here to get in on this giveaway!

A Small Weekend Getaway

This past weekend my family & I headed to Colorado for another of Paul's Strongman competitions. This particular competition was convenient because my Aunt & cousins live in Colorado, which inevitably made the trip more fun. :) The trip was way too short & we came back feeling way too tired, but it was well worth the drive. Here are a couple of fun moments from the trip:



1. Saturday's Strongman competition. This is a photo of Paul & a few of his Strongman buddies that went along to compete. Jared (in the middle) took 1st place in his weight class; Go Jared! I will post videos later of Paul's events as soon as I can figure out how to take out the audio...I know, I said that about the last competition, but I'll try to get it done this time. *Also, little plug for Strongman: It is way fun to watch, & it just so happens that Paul will be competing in a competition in Lindon, Utah (close, right!) in October, so check it out for yaself! :)


2. My cousin was raving about this restaurant in Broomfield called Original Pizza so we ate there after the competition Saturday night. Their food is amazing! I created this glorious calzone with artichoke hearts, fresh garlic, olives, & mushrooms...Wow. If you're ever in the area, go there. Check out their Web site, too; I think they have locations all over the place.



3. The biggest Forever XXI west of the Mississippi was just built in Broomfield, & it is awesome! I bought a couple of cute shirts there...minus the small holes I neglected to spot until I got them home. Sigh. But the store was great. Really, it was.


4. This is a bad picture of "the cousins," but I had to put it up. It was right before we were leaving on Sunday, so don't judge my sweats! :) My favorite part of the entire trip was spending time together as a family; I'm willing to bet that I have the bestest siblings in the entire world. Hopefully we can travel together again soon...and for a longer period of time. :)

A Post For Scholarshippoints.com

Every month, I accrue points on scholarshippoints.com that can be used for entry in many free scholarships. This month, they are offering 100 points to those that blog about online education, so bear with me on this post.

Online education has been very important to me throughout my undergraduate education. Online classes have provided me with the flexibility in my classes that I needed, since I work & go to school. With most online classes, you are able to finish them as quickly as you would like, or at the regular pace of a semester. You are able to log in whenever works for you and complete your assignments as you can around your schedule. I particularly enjoy online classes because they require me to do the work all on my own, & I like it that way. I feel like I learn more if I am obligated to push myself to do the work and gain the knowledge. If you prefer to work in a group setting or in a place where the teacher is right in front of you to ask questions, this could potentially be a setback for you. Another setback could be that online education requires you to be self-paced. If you tend to be a procrastinator, online classes probably aren't for you. If you are self-motivated, however, I would strongly recommend looking into different programs that offer the option of getting online degrees.

As many of you know, I plan to get my Masters degree in Social Work. I have found a few online schools that offer an alternate route of getting this degree. It is great to know that the education system is realistic about the fact that people have commitments outside of school. More and more, degrees are becoming more attainable for people from all walks of life and in various circumstances.

For the Love of Cooking

This recipe comes from Joy the Baker's blog; she adapted it from The Pastry Queen recipe book. If you like to cook at all, stalk her blog. Seriously. I. Love. Her. The way she writes is fantastic; I feel like I know her. And, every recipe she shares is so tasty & reasonably easy to make. Today, I made her recipe for Blackberry Pie Bars, except I used Raspberries instead of Blackberries. Ashley at work used Blueberries and brought some to share - Yes, they were amazing. Make these right now; I promise you won't regret it!

Blackberry Pie Bars with Lemon Sugar

Crust and Topping

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat flour & 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

zest of two lemons

Blackberry Filling

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream (I used fat free)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

2 (16-ounce) packages frozen blackberries, defrosted and drained (You can also use 6 cups of fresh blackberries, or 1 (16-ounce) package frozen blackberries and 3 cups of fresh blackberries)

**If you’re using frozen berries, be sure to defrost and drain the excess liquid. Place the frozen berries on a plate in the refrigerator overnight. They’re defrosted and ready for bar baking!

To make the crust and topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch backing pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside. Zest two lemons. Measure out the sugar onto a clean work surface. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with a bench scraper or the back of a spoon. Rubbing the zest into the sugar will release oils from the zest and create a lemon scented sugar.

Combine lemon sugar, flour, salt and butter in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Beat the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture looks dry and crumbly.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crust mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 12 to 15 minutes until it is golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the sugar, sour cream, flour and salt. Gently fold in the blackberries. Spoon the mixture evenly over the crust. You may have to distribute the blackberries evenly around.

Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture evenly over the filling. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Cool for 1 hour before slicing.