~*~

Happy New Year!

~*~

Merry Christmas!

~*~

Merry Christmas!!

I got a NASTY computer virus earlier this week that prevented me from going on the web to visit my my bloggy friends, but tonight I'm back on again.  Thankfully I had my cellphone to access the internet to Google for help.  Funny thing was my issues weren't isolated as others before me paved the way with help.

Now I have a lot of emails to read and visiting to do! 

See you soon and I pray that you all had a safe holiday with your friends and family!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

~*~

Light looking and Hot Cocoa!

~*~

We had a short break in the rain,

so we bundled up the kids and went light looking

and stopping along the way for hot cocoa!

~*~

Christmas Party

~*~

Last night we went to my Man's Christmas Party...

The view of the harbor was lovely...

Sailboats were decorated in beautiful lights...

The food was delicious...

But the memories we made were the best...

~KARAOKE MEMORIES ~

My personal favorite was a tie between a few ladies singing "Harper Valley PTA"

and a closet singer who blew us away with "In the Midnight Hour".

~*~

So Sweet!

~*~

I'm so sweet, I'd give you cavity!  ha ha

Actually all the treats I'm making this holiday will give you a cavity!

Today I'm making Peanut Brittle!

Click for the recipe I used.  By the way if you use this recipe, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla, use plain  unsalted peanuts and have a large bowl of ice water nearby to put your utensils in to make clean up a snap!

~ Here are my candy tips ~

When I first learned to make candy, I "heard" you shouldn't make it if it's raining/snowing however I had a great teacher who told me if it's raining just adjust for any humidity and/or air pressure.  My response was.... I didn't do well in Chemistry class Ma'am!  And because I used to live high up in the mountains, I was also taught to adjust recipes based on the altitude. We were at 3,000 feet above sea level (did you know all recipes are written at sea level altitude - yep, I didn't know that at the time either).

For example, water boils at 212 degrees at sea level.  Now because we were at 3,000 feet ABOVE sea level, our thermometer would DECREASE about 2 degrees for every 1,000 feet.  This is due to the difference in air pressure because air is thinner the higher you go up the mountain, hence the term "light headed".  So our water would boil at 206-207 degrees ~ crazy huh!  Then, when we would make our candy and the recipe would say cook to the hard crack stage or soft ball stage, we'd make our adjustments on paper before beginning to know when OUR right temp was reached which was always considerably lower than the recipe would say due to our altitude.  IF we had cooked it to the temps on the recipes, we'd have burned everything! ha ha

Give it a try!  Before you get started, put your themometer in a pot of water and bring it up to a good boil - remember normal sea level says it will boil at 212 degrees. See what your particular "normal" is.

But don't worry, even if it taks a couple of tries to get the consistency right, it will still TASTE yummy!

~*~ 

Do It Yourself

~*~

I'm the Betty Crocker of the family.

I bake from scratch.

I like to use GOOD ingredients.

I lurve to save money doing it.

For example, I'm preparing all my cookie doughs this week

and first on the list is my famous Sugar Cookies.

My fame extends to the end of my driveway

but I tell myself I could have my own show!

Just like I tell myself I'd lurve to have

my closet of clothes match the one in my mind!

At the store I bought a 5 lb bag of sugar

for $2.99.

Then I went to buy a bottle of sprinkles

Except they cost more than the sugar.

No, no, no..... there has to be a less expensive way.

Thank you Martha Stewart for sharing her

tips as I make my own sugar for less than

.20 cents!

~*~

It's beginning...

~*~

... to look a lot like my 
VACATION
has started!


Can you guess the movie I'm watching?
Here's a comic to give you a clue!

~*~

Mrs. Albee

~*~

For my birthday this year, my sister Melody (whose taking a blog hiatus)

got me a large set of Avon's Mrs. Albee miniature figurines!

They are all Victorian in appearance and I just lurve them!

Here are just a few of them to give you an idea of what they look like.

 I had never heard of Mrs. Albee so I went to Avon's website and learned...

In 1886, Mr. McConnell and his wife Lucy started the California Perfume Company.  The company's first product was called the Little Dot Perfume Set, and it contained five different fragrances.

As the company became even more successful, and made more money, Mr.McConnell added on even more products and even had a catalog of all the available products printed up. Fifty-one years after its intial start up, in 1937, Mr. McConnell passed away and left the company to his son, David McConnell, Jr. The younger McConnell renamed the company Avon Products. 

He too worked and strived to build the company into a bigger and more successful venture than his father had already made it.  Mr. McConnell and his wife found that they needed help to sell their perfume early in their venture, so they hired on Mrs. P.F.E. Albee as their first saleslady. Mrs. Albee had earlier helped Mr. McConnell in selling his books. Mrs. Albee went from door to door selling the Little Dot Perfume Set, and she signed up even more women as salesladies for the California Perfume Company.

~*~

Do you?

~*~

Do you improve your left overs from Thanksgiving?

Our favorite is Turkey Shepherds Pie!

For something new this year, we made Betsy's Roasted Carrots 

and they were delicious! 

~*~

Happy Thanksgiving!

~*~

Happy Thanksgiving!

And here's me this morning, cutting apples for my cranberry chutney.... 

Have a blessed day with your friends and family and...

Make a memory!

~*~

Most requested recipe

~*~

"Janeen, you're going to bring the Sweet Potato's right?"

My most requested recipe at Thanksgiving...

is Naomi Judd's Sweet Potato Casserole!

I lurve cookbooks but my favorite are the ones that have

MORE than just recipes, I enjoy the stories behind them!

Naomi's does not disappoint!  Her cookbook is full of wit, wisdom 

and delicious EASY recipes with ingredients you already

have at home.

And here it is...

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 C. mashed sweet potatoes (about 2 lb. sweet potatoes)

1/2 C. granulated sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 C. milk

1/4 C. butter, melted (1/2 stick)

1/2 t. salt

1 t. vanilla extract

TOPPING:

1/2 C. packed light brown sugar

1/2 C. chopped walnuts, pecans or other nuts

1/3 C. all-purpose flour

1/3 C. butter

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a shallow 2-quart casserole.

In a medium bowl, stir together the potatoes, granulated sugar, eggs, milk, butter, salt and vanilla and scrape the mixture into the prepared casserole.

Make the topping: In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, nuts and flour and cut in the butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole. 

Bake, uncovered, in the 350 degree oven until heated through and lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Weekend Random

~*~

Making my To Do list... A LOT to do this week!

Grocery shopping for our turkey and fixin's 

Over the moon excited about the Royal Engagement

Donating my hankies for the local ladies at our long term care facility

Teaching my girl to bake this cake for our church dessert auction tomorrow

Get the recipe here

~*~

Testing for technical difficulties

~*~

I'm experiencing technical difficulties on the blog

Test posting...

Thankful

~*~

Thankful!

I've been preparing to facilitate our next women's 

bible study that will begin in January.

(hence the reason for my absence of visits to you)

Although my women's ministry typically uses the video and workbook

style... for example, a Beth Moore study that is already outlined

and ready to go... I take it a step further. 

When I prepare, I'm reading a lot of additional 

material that can help me understand scripture 

so when it's my 15 minutes to facilitate - I am able to share 

with our ladies a LIFE application of what we are learning

that week, something that they can understand and use TODAY.

To do this I have the NIV bible, 

a bible summarized handbook and a bible dictionary.

I want to share with you something I am so thankful 

to have stumbled upon recently 

and I think that it may be useful to you too!

When your reading scripture, do you get stumped on a particular passage?  

Do you read something over and over and still not 'get it'?

Yep, me too!  I was googling the book of Matthew and in the 

search results I found this...

DVD's made into The Visual Bible!  

Several books of the bible follow the text of scripture through dramatized video!

They are produced very well and use scripture Word for Word!  Lurve it!

Take a look HERE to watch a quick reference.  Enjoy!

~*~

Have you heard ?

~*~

Have you heard about the Benefit Brow Bar?

Benefit is a brand of cosmetics that specialize in make up for your face. My favorite is their Brow Bar because with my lop-sided brows, it's become my cosmetic quest to have lurvely brows instead. ha

I bet ya' all just looked at my picture to see my brows didn't ya?

My friend Ann, who knows my of my particular 

quest to have brows of perfection, told me about this particular product. 

It comes in Light, Medium and Dark.

One side is a tinted wax to shape your brows 

and the other is a soft powder to fill in with.

I LURVE IT!

~*~

What to do?

~*~

~*~

I made these Chunky Apple Cinnamon muffins tonight

for breakfast tomorrow and as you can see

I slightly over filled the pan.

Perhaps "slightly" is being used loosely here.

Oh my stars, how am I going to get them out of the

pan without making a mess?

UPDATE...

They flipped out intact and no mess!

Amen!

~*~

It's back!

~*~

It's true!  Starbucks has brought back this season

my beloved Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate!

My girl and I recently ran some errands together,

(5 long hours and no complaints of "Are we done yet?")

so I rewarded her with a trip to Starbucks to get some hot cocoa.

As I was looking up at the hot cocoa board, I saw it ...

Then I sighed softly and ordered quickly!

***Warning, do not look at the calories on this. 

Just ENJOY it and move on!***

Now I can't get the drink out of my head! 

I must learn to make it at home!

The hunt begins for a clone recipe!

~*~

{Insert mind blowing, earth shattering, 

heart stopping SHRIEK here} 

Fun when there's no sun

~*~

What to do when it's raining outside?

Make Paper Airplanes!!

We went here to get some fun ideas!

 

~*~

I lurve YouTube!

~*~

There are days that I just lurve living in 

this time of technology to enjoy things

such as this....

I was surfing YouTube last night looking for

a memory and I so excited to find this one because 

it reminds me of when we saw Kent & Candy Christmas at a local church when I was pregnant with my girl.  

He personally prayed over us and she 

sang many gospel songs for everyone.

This particular song just slays me every time.

Click here to see video

Enjoy!

~*~

It's that time again,,,

~*~

It's that time again...

After carving pumpkins, we'll watch the Charlie Brown classic! 

Update** We'll watch Charlie and the gang after the baseball game.  ha ha

Congratulations San Francisco GIANTS!

What traditions do you have with pumpkins?

~*~