Thrift Store Finds~decorating ideas~ and a great Recipe

~Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas to all of my blogging friends and faithful followers.  Thanks for sticking with me all these years!

*One of our family's traditions is to make White Peppermint Hot chocolate on Christmas Eve.  Enjoy the recipe!

White Peppermint Hot Chocolate

4 Cups 1% low-fat milk

7 hard peppermint candies, crushed

½ cup white chocolate chips

½ tsp peppermint extract

4 hard peppermint candies

1 Tbsp light-colored corn syrup

6 Tbsp frozen fat-free whipped topping

1.    Cook milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until warm (do not boil!)

2.    Add crushed peppermint candies, stirring until candies dissolve.

3.    Add white chocolate, stirring with a whisk until chocolate melts. Cook until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan (do not boil), stirring constantly with a whisk.

4.    Remove from heat, stir in peppermint extract.

5.    Coarsely crush 2 peppermint candies; set aside.

6.    Finely crush remaining 2 peppermint candies.

7.    Coat rims of  3-6 mugs with corn syrup.

8.    Place finely crushed peppermint candies into a saucer; dip rim of each mug into candies to coat.

9.    Pour 2/3 cup of hot chocolate into each mug; top each serving with 1 Tbsp whipped topping. Sprinkle 2 coarsely crushed candies evenly over topping.

Rosemary, Lemon and Gruyere Artisan Bread~

Ok,  I'm back to give a shout out again for Janet's Crusty Bread! (simplysogood.com)  This time I tried the Rosemary Lemon with Gruyere cheese.  (I used medium Gruyere instead of mild or sharp). Also, I read her recipe again and realized I had been using the wrong yeast.  It must be instant yeast, not regular.  The loaves were good before, but now they are amazing!

If you haven't tried this recipe yet, I highly recommend it.  It is super easy!  I just wish you were here to taste it and share it with me.  I'm not sure my kids will appreciate it. ;)

Zuppa Toscana Soup~

coconut oil granola & boxwood update

A little bit of pink and Etsy shop SALE!

This post is brought to you by the color pink.  :)  Even though I love blue, I like to have just a little bit of pink sprinkled here and there throughout my house. I think a little goes a long way, though.  So, last year, I found this old shadow box in my house that I picked up at hobby lobby years ago.  I mixed up my favorite pink shade with craft paints, painted it, and then distressed it with sandpaper.

I got out some old scrapbook paper that I picked up at a really cool antique shop, and sketched a vintage cruiser with a basket full of peonies and daisies.  It looks cute up on top of my piano!  Along with my yard sale peonies, it adds just another little *pop* of pink.  I sure wish I would have bought the other peony arrangement at that yard sale...(they had two).  I debated, and then decided just to buy the one.

Anyway, this year, I loved it so much that I decided to create another one for my etsy shop...Right now, it's on sale for $14.99.  Lately, I've been selling a lot of my art on ebay!  Like this birds nest painting...

I have a few other pieces on sale in my shop also.

In other news, I tried out a recipe that I had pinned from pinterest for Mongolian Beef.  It was a big hit with my teenage boys!  Here is the Recipe if you would like it.

Have a great day!
Robyn

What's for dinner?

Skinny Taquitos~

Okay, Yum.  This recipe was a Pinterest Success!  You can find the recipe here.  I think Ashley from Centercutcook.com nailed it!  Some of the recipes I have found on pinterest have been less than par.  Have you found any keepers lately?

Pork Carnitas with Cilantro Lime Dressing

Beef Brisket Recipe

More Artisan Bread please!

a farewell and new yummy recipes

one cool cake

I was on facebook the other day and saw a post from my very creative cousin Karen.  She had made a hamburger birthday cake for her son Josh, and I asked her if I could share it with you!  Isn't it so fun?!

To make it, Karen said that she doubled her cake recipe.  She then baked it in three pans, two that were 8 inch rounds and one in an 8 inch bundt pan.  She filled one of the rounds about 2/3 full and the other only about 1/3 full.  The smaller half was the bottom bun and the bigger one was the top.  

Then she trimmed the edges of the top a little bit to give it the curve of the burger.  She filled the bundt pan with the rest of the batter (so the "meat" would be the thickest part.)  When frosting, she just filled the hole in the bundt with the extra frosting.  

The lettuce, cheese and tomato were made from marzipan, colored to the appropriate color.  Only the edges had the marzipan sticking out since she didn't have enough to go all the way through the middle.  And the sesame seeds? 

They're toasted Rice Krispies! 

~Two minute Artisan bread!

Lemon Artichoke Pasta~my favorite

Hello!  My friend gave me this recipe several years ago, and it remains one of my all time favorites.  So now, I am going to pass it on to you!  It is fast, fresh, delicious, and fancy!  And, a great way to use those tomatoes from your garden.  :)

Here is the recipe...

The lazy way to grill...

image source

Happy Independence Day!  It is sweltering hot here, so instead of grilling, we will be popping these into the microwave.  Have you had them?  We think they are DELICIOUS!  I buy the six packs at my local grocery store.  They come to about $1 a patty.  This 12 ct is from Sam's Club.  I don't have a membership there anymore, so I am not sure of the price.  

Either way, I like fact that I don't have to deal with raw meat and take the time to grill the burgers.  In fact, I discovered these right before Memorial Day, so we had them then too!  Then we had more time to relax on the holiday.  :)

Lee Lowe's Blueberry Bran Muffins

Good morning!  Yesterday I made a batch of the tastiest yet healthy muffins.  You can add fresh blueberries,  raisins, or even chocolate chips!   The recipe makes about 48 muffins.  I make them all, and then freeze them.  It is so nice to just pop a muffin into the microwave for about 10 seconds for a quick healthy breakfast or snack.  I made Blueberry Bran muffins with fresh blueberries (and sprinkled in some chocolate chips)  :)  SO YUMMY!

Here's the recipe...

Bananafest

It sure feels like summer here...hot and humid!  I bought way too many discounted bags of ripened bananas recently.  It was our turn to bring breakfast for the teenagers at our church's early morning bible study class.  I decided that I would make some banana bread to bring in with fresh fruit.  I ended up having so many bananas that my kitchenAid shifted into overdrive.  I kept having to make loaf after loaf to use up all the bananas that I had bought!  Then, Grace found a recipe online for banana cream pie and asked if she could try to make it.  Of course, I happily obliged!  :)

Next time, I think I will stick to buying bagels!

delicious homemade maple bars

From time to time my husband and I have lamented the fact that we can't buy maple bars on the east coast.  On a recent stop at Krispy Kreme, my husband reminded me that they are his favorite.  We were both once again disappointed that we couldn't buy them there.  After we got home, I remembered that I had seen a recipe for homemade maple bars floating around pinterest.

I am a youth leader at my church, and the past few months I have been getting together with the girls for "hot chocolate nights".  I was going to host the get together at my house, and decided that they would be a tasty addition to the cocoa.

Skeptical about how good they would actually be, I tried out the recipe from this cute blog.  They were a bit time consuming, but now that I know what I am doing, I think they will go faster the next time I make them.  Anyway, they were SO DELICIOUS!  And, they were baked.  I had all the ingredients on hand, even the Mapleine.  We always make our pancake syrup using the recipe on the Mapleine box~it is so much less expensive.

These maple bars totally satisfied our cravings, and didn't disappoint.  They tasted just as we imagined.  The girls loved them, as did my husband and kids!  Definitely a keeper recipe.

Have a nice Sabbath Day,

Robyn

Two ingredient Truffles!