Sunbeam Pie Maker

I adore kitchen appliances.  I got a Sunbeam Pie Maker last Christmas, and really like it.

You need some pie crust and some filling.  You can make it yourself, but for demonstration purposes, I chose the prepackaged route. Thanks Kroger! 

Heat the Pie Maker.
Roll out the dough and cut it with the crust cutter.

Use the smoosher to push it down into the bottom crust well.

Put your desired filling in those crusts and cover with the mini pie crust tops.

Bake for 10 minutes and Viola!  Little cute mini peach pies!

For the filling you can use any fruit or meat kind you can think of.  I have read that people have had success with custard-y pies as well, such as pumpkin, but I haven't tried that yet. I have tried meaty leftover chili, chicken n dumplings, and put some pizza sauce, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella in them for mini pizzas.

Strawberry Preserves

I will never buy strawberry preserves at the store again.

I have never ever canned anything in my life and didn't want to invest in some of the fancy pants items they have specifically for canning, so I improvised with some things.  It all worked out in the end.  After doing this, I can see how those items would make life easier, and will probably invest in them in the future.  The biggest problem I have with that actually would be where to store them.  But I digress....

If you were scared like me to try something like this-don't be.  It was fun and relatively simple. The most time consuming thing was hulling the berries. 

Strawberry Preserves

• 2 pounds strawberries
• Juice of 2 big lemons
• 4 cups of sugar

Makes eight - half pint jars

Get a pot of water simmering and put the jars in it.  Also, get a shallow pan simmering for the lids too.  I used a frying pan.

Hull the berries and slice.

Squeeze the lemons in a pan using a colander to catch the seeds.

Pour all the sugar in the pan with the lemon juice.  Cook them on medium heat until the sugar melts.  This happens really fast.  I was stirring and thinking it would never happen. One second it is grainy and the next its ready!

Now add the berries.  Keep them stirred and sorta mash them as you are stirring.  Cook this until it reaches 220 degrees.  Again, it seemed to take a while for it all to heat up, then 220 came real fast so watch out.  While this is going on, try and get the jars out of the simmering water.

Ladle into the jars, leaving a little bit of space for the preserves to expand and contract.  I did invest in a funnel and I'm glad I did.  There would have been a big old mess had I not.

After you have the jars filled, take a rubber spatula and go around the sides of the jars to release the air bubbles.

Put the lids and rings on and put them into the simmering pot.  Make sure the water level is about an inch above the jars.  Bring this up to a boil for 15 minutes.  Instead of one of those canning racks, I used a craw fish boil thing (I don't know the official name of this) to put the jars in so I could pull them out together.  I also used plastic coated high temperature gloves to handle them after processing.  Hooray for improvisation.

Pull the jars out and let them sit for about 12 hours.  Then screw the lids tighter and give them away or put them in the pantry for later.  They will be good for up to a year.  Enjoy!

Oreo Balls

Everyone really likes these, especially my son.  He wanted them in lieu of a cake for his birthday!  I got the recipe from my mother-in-law.  The original recipe calls to dip the balls in white chocolate.  When I made these the first time, the store was out of white chocolate so I improvised with Vanilla Candy coating.  They turned out great!

Oreo Balls

• Package of Oreos (store brand is fine)
• 8 oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 pound of vanilla candy coating

Pulverize all those cookies.  Turn them to cookie dust in the food processor.

Mix them up with the cream cheese.

Make them into little walnut sized balls and put them on a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet.  Put them in the refrigerator for an hour. (this makes them easier to work with)
After an hour, melt your candy coating in a double boiler or the microwave and start dipping!  I find it helpful to use a small spoon and toothpick to dip these babies.

 
 Put them back on the waxed paper and stick them in the refrigerator again until they are set.  You could sprinkle things on them like nuts, coconut, or chocolate chips.  Or, get artsy with them and drizzle some dark chocolate over them to make them stripey.  My son likes them plain, so that's how I make them.

Sweet Strawberry Sauce for Shortcake

We went and picked a bunch of Strawberries and that made me want a Strawberry Shortcake.  I realized that I had never used fresh strawberries-I always used the frozen kind bought at the store and that is expensive.  So making my own sauce is tastier and cheaper!

Strawberry Sauce

• 2 Quarts fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar

Hull and slice the strawberries and then mix them with the sugar in a bowl.  Let it stand for 10 minutes, then stick in the refrigerator until ready.  The sugar mixes with the strawberry juice and it just gets yummier and yummier the more you let it sit.

I used angel food cake and cool whip to make my shortcakes...

You probably want to use this within 3 days.  I made a bunch up and put it in the freezer for later too.

Marvelous Meatloaf

Meatloaf.  I haven't ever met a child that likes it, yet most adults think of it as comfort food.  I was always on the fence about it.  The most off putting thing to me, and also Hubby as I found out, was the ketchup people always seem to slather on the top.  Ick.

This is my recipe that I have worked on and you can leave that bottle of Heinz in the fridge.

Marvelous Meatloaf

• 2 pounds hamburger meat
• 1 pouch of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• 1 14 ounce can diced Italian seasoned tomatoes, drained
• 3 slices of bread (chopped)
• 1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the above ingredients, then put in a loaf pan. 

Bake for one hour.  Pull it out and drain the fat.  If the loaf looks 'juicy', bake for another 10 minutes.  If it looks firm, pull it out and serve.  Unless you like 'juicy' meatloaf, then have at it.

Tiramisu even I can make

I love Tiramisu and have always wanted to make my own, but it always seemed so time intensive.  I came across this recipe while flipping through a magazine.  I'm not completely sure, but I think it is an ad for Cool Whip-so I'll just credit Kraft foods with this recipe.

Tiramisu Bowl

• 1 pkg cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups cold milk
• 2 (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
• 8 oz tub cool whip
• 48 vanilla wafers
• 1/2 cup coffee, divided
• 2 squares baker's semi sweet chocolate, grated
• 1 cup fresh raspberries

 Beat cream cheese in mixer until creamy.  Gradually beat in milk and pudding mixes.  Stir in 2 cups cool whip.

Line 2 1/2 qt. bowl with 24 wafers.  (I didn't count-I just put  layer of cookies down) Drizzle with 1/4 cup of coffee.

Top with half the pudding mixture and half the chocolate.  Repeat layers, starting with wafers.

 Top with remaining cool whip and raspberries.  refrigerate for 2 hours.

Kettle Potato Chips

I am not being paid by Kettle-I just really like their chips.

I am not really a potato chip fan, but Kettle chips are really good!  Usually, I get the ranch flavor, but today I tried the Buffalo Bleu and it was amazing!  The chips aren't too greasy or salty, and the thick crinkle cuts are extra crunchy.

Strawberry Pickin'

I heard that the strawberries were ready over at Froberg's, and I am always looking for something new and different to get the kids out of the house to do.  Strawberry pickin'.  That's different.  Ethan was not too happy to be going, but he went anyway, without too much fuss. 

We got our buckets and we were off! Ethan has never been a strawberry fan, but somehow he took a liking to this activity and said several times he LOVED picking strawberries now.  Imagine that.

 

Em had a wonderful time too.  She had to lug her bounty to the weighing station,  She would not let anyone else touch it.  

We had a fun morning picking strawberries and we will be going back next year!

Mini Moo Playgroup

We have the best little restaurant here in Pearland.  The waitstaff is wonderful and kind, they have fresh flowers on all the tables, the restaurant is clean, and the food is consistently good.  Think I'm talking about an undiscovered mom and pop establishment?  Nope.  I'm talking about Chick-fil-A!

I saw that our local Chick-fil-A had a 'Mini Moo Playgroup' on Wednesday mornings.  I decided to take Em.

We ate some yogurt and hash browns....

Then we listened to a book being read to us....

Then we played a little on the playground....

Then we played with erector sets and colored!

Em had a great time and we will be going back soon.

West Pearland Chik-fil-A supports local schools holding spirit nights where part of the money taken in that particular evening is donated to the school.  They often let little ones (i.e. girl scouts, band, baseball) have their fundraisers there at the restaurant.  I have also seen where they have random things like overnight camp outs in the parking lot. 

Eat Mor Chickin!

The Yogurt is a Lie

I was grocery shopping at HEB in the yogurt aisle and I see a coupon for a buy one get one So Delicious yogurt.  I am trying to eat healthier, this looks healthy right?  It has lots of fiber and it is made from coconut milk, that same stuff I make smoothies out of.  It's chocolate too, what's not to love?

Em and I get home and we were excited to try this with our lunch.  I opened the container (which was a chore), and looked inside.  It looked kind of yucky.  Grainy.  Gelatin like.  Eeew.

I sniffed and it was not pleasing whatsoever.  Against my better judgement, I tasted this strange substance.  It was horrid.  It had a sandy texture, with a red wine aftertaste.  That's right-I said red wine.  It didn't even taste chocolaty.  Em wanted a bit of it, so I let her taste.  I didn't think to take pictures of her reaction, but remember those old Keystone Light commercials?  Bitter beer face?  Imagine a 2 year old making that face and that's what she did.

Naming this yogurt So Delicious was a huge lie.  Even better, I have a strawberry flavor in the fridge too!  Will So Delicious yogurt redeem itself?  Stay tuned....

For the young... and the young at heart

This is a subject near and dear to my son's heart.  The Lego Store.

Last month, I realized there was a Lego store at one of the malls in our area.  I read they had Lego 'builds' each month and called to try to get my son in one, to no avail.  The first chance I got, I got him into the build last weekend.  We had a blast!

You go in and get your name tag and shirt.

 Do a little bit of playing and looking around.....

The kids are divided into groups and they dump out their bucket of Legos and start building!  The theme this month was Lego City Firefighters.

When they were done they put their creations up on the counter and told the other kids what they made.  (audio is super bad-sorry)

All the kids got a goodie bag after the meeting.  It contained a small Lego set and some stickers and what not.

The employees there were awesome and worked very well with the kids.  You could really tell they had been playing with and had a true love of Legos since they were kids!

I was amazed at all the Legos out there on the market.  Your local Target doesn't have near the selection of course, and the cost was comparable to discount stores and amazon.  Toys R Us still holds the crown for being the most expensive. Also, being a member of the VIP club helps as well, as you can earn discounts and free Legos. 

The Lego Store has builds once a month.  The cost is $25.  Next month is Star Wars, and yes, we are already signed up!  They have a free mini figure build on the first Tuesday of every month from 5-7 pm at our local store.  If you have a child that is into Legos, this place is the place for them to be!