New Dinners & Desserts



Crockpot Whole Chicken/Rotisserie Chicken

I found this recipe HERE.. on Pinterest of course.

So very simple.

I bought a small whole chicken and cleaned it.

 

Then got out a load of different spices.. Onion Powder, Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder.... geez..

Mix all the spices together.

Put the chicken in the crockpot

Rub spices all over chicken.

Turn on and thats it.

I cooked mine on high for 3 hours, and low on 3.



If you like the kind of chicken that is super super moist and falling off the bone.. then this is a great recipe. The only thing that wasnt like a Rotisserie Chicken was no crispy crust. But I dont really eat the crispy skin part anyway. The whole family liked it .. even picky eating Andrew.

 

We're using the bones and dark meat to make soup stock tomorrow.. so it was a cheap meal, and its going to make us another meal tomorrow!

(served with steamed corn, and chicken stuffing)

I served the chicken with the Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler.

Amazing..

If you have Flour, Sugar, Butter and about 1 cup of blackberries.. thats all you need.

My hubby really liked it too.. as he claims he doesnt really like sweets.. yea right...

 

Easiest dessert I've found in a long time.. took a whole 4 minutes to put together.



 

And to add to our sweet tooth coma...

I wanted to make these for Valentine's Day but ended up with brownies instead.

 

Milk Chocolate Cupcakes with Cherry Buttercream Frosting

 

(via pinterest)



 

You can find the recipe HERE.. via Pinterest.. 

I made the cupcakes & then performed some cupcake surgery.

I realized I have no small heart cookie cutters... I need to fix that .. very soon...

So I found a tulip & flower instead.

Cut them out from the tops..



The cherry frosting was so good... I halved the recipe..





Cupcake in a jar.... I had a little time on my hands .... 

After my cupcake creating .. I made some pizza for dinner.

 

DIY Vintage Clothespins

Some blogs I read really inspire me

I recently found one, and she did a DIY Clothespins tutorial.

So I decided to try it myself last week.

I bought a package of clothespins at where else, Target...

 

Then I made some instant coffee in a mason jar.

I added 4 heaping spoonfuls, and warm water and let it sit for about 5 minutes

 

Dumped in as many clothespins as I could fit.

And I let them sit overnight.

 

In the morning I clipped them to a baking rack to try

And Voila.. vintage looking clothespins...

What I'm Loving Wednesday

WILW
Linking up with Jamie today 

These thrift finds.. I love the blue dish, especially for Easter, and the other scalloped one, I have no idea what it is, or what its used for.. I just thought it was cute! And it was 29 cents..

Car Easter Eggs

Too cute to resist for our little man

 

 

Im Loving baking a little this week... Its the cold weather I tell ya!

I dont bake nearly at all in the summer.. but when its cold, theres something cozy about smelling goodies and a warm oven.

 

Freezing Meals

I made sauce along with all the baking this week, and I put together a pan of the Pioneer Woman's Lasagna to freeze. Hope it tastes good.. Ill know whenever I have no idea what we're having for dinner, and Im searching through the deep freezer.

 

 

Crafty Party Details {Andrew is ONE}

 Here are a few party details

 

I ordered these cups from Garnish, and printed out the personalized circles and used Glue Dots to secure them. I added pretzels to the cups and displayed them on a red cupcake stand. 

Gift Bags

I cut out maps and taped more circles in the center.

Inside the bags were kazoos, gum, red and blue chocolate sixlet candies, and toy airplanes.

Since the theme was an "airplane" .. I had pretzels and peanuts for snacks.

I made him a little canvas for the party room that I had been working on for a while.. I tried to mirror his invites and colors to match.

Bunting of course made from the same atlas book

 

I made cut outs.

And tried my hand with royal icing.

Airplanes, Letter 1's, and Letter "A's" 



I saw these lollie stick markers on Garnish's site.

I almost bought them, but I tried to do a DIY..

and Im glad I didnt waste my money...

I absolutely loved how they turned out

I made some rice krispie "pops" and stuck a lolly stick in the middle of each one.

I didnt go nuts for this party.. one because I have two children now.. ha! And because our party was in the winter, and not at our house, so transporting everything was a little bit of a chore.

I love the way everything turned out!

Cooking & Crafts



Its Winter.. and its been really cold..

So I've been doing a lot of crafting and baking..

 

The very yummy Barefoot Contessa's Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins.

I made these last week, and froze half of them.. they freeze very well..

And Mathew grabs them sometimes before he goes into the office for breakfast so its perfect.

 

And we were on a blueberry kick so I made some blueberry ice cream too

 

Steel Cut Oats

I make it the night before for Samantha and I



Tea towels for some friends

Chicken Soup was on the menu.

This time I made some Crepe Noodles.. which I havent made in a while since they are hard to do if Im alone with the kids, but Mathew worked from home that day .. 

 

Cookie Dough Bites

Another Pinterest find... so dangerous..

I had a girls night with some of my friends from high school... and I brought a bunch of these and they were a hit.

Before I left for my girls night.. I defrosted a Chicken Pot Pie for Mathew and the kids to eat when I left.. but I had no biscuits.. so I went rooting around our cupboards.. 

And I found this recipe I'd never tried before.

On the side of the Bisquick box...

They were pretty good!

Winter = the need for cozy meals..

I so enjoy all these meals, sweets and crafts.

Im just happy that I've been getting the time to do them!

You Wanna Go to Ohio?

It was Friday afternoon around 1pm.. It was dreary.. cold, and we were just sittin around the house.

I suggested half joking.. "You wanna drive to Ohio?"

We talked back and forth ... and finally after about 20 minutes decided.. lets do it.

We never ever do this kind of thing.. I mean, you usually cant with a toddler and 1 year old, right?

 

Turns out the kids were angels in the car.. BOTH ways..

We timed it just right with naps/exhaustion.. ha..



It felt good to pack and get out of town.. and have no plans once we got their either. 

 

We arrived shortly before 7:30pm.

The kids were in bed late.. but who cares..

And you know what? Andrew slept through the night until 7:30am the next day.. it was amazing...

It just made us so releived that we decided to do something so last minute.

 

I had exactly 1 hour to pack everything for Andrew, Samantha, and Myself.. and you know what? Between the ipad, phone chargers, diapers, food, creams, favorite blankies, and all my stuff .. We didnt forget ONE thing... I think its those trips we prepare for and overthink everything that I always forget a lot of things...

 

My mother and father in law's back yard looked so pretty the next morning.. even if it was a frozen tundra all weekend long...

 

We had some cozy fires.. 



 

Andrew was a pretty good little traveler.

Slept good (ok only the first night)... 



Samantha even had a playdate with her cousins on Saturday ... she stayed over there for about 4 hours and had the best time, eating pizza, and ice cream and dressing up in princess dresses, hide and seek, barbies... she was in heaven..

 

The next day we ate dinner with them again.. and the whole family had so much fun

Dance parties to Taylor Swift are a must anytime we get the girls all together.

We headed home Monday (Presidents Day) around 11am..

We had some yummy oatmeal with Baka and headed back home.

It was the best spur of the moment trip to Ohio.

We had a very nice weekend.