busy busy

Today I made some more cards for my mom's shop. I found the cutest papers! I will make some more over the next few days. Hank is out of town for a few days again. He'll be back on Saturday night so me and Jacob are holding down the fort.

T.

A day in the kitchen

What a day.... I have been in the kitchen pretty much all day (but it was so much fun!). Tomorrow night we're having friends over to watch the Super Bowl, so I have been doing as much prepwork as possible for my snack/meal. I'm making the yummy spinach dip in a bread bowl, crab/cheesy bites and some wings. But before I started all those dishes, I made a dish that I am brining to church tomorrow morning. I found the recipe in Paula Deen's magazine. It's not her recipe, but I figured any friends of hers who submitted recipes, had to be good! So - here it is and it's georgious if you want something that comes out pretty too :)

Strawberry Coffee Cake (makes 12 servings)

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped almonds (I used pecans)

Prehead oven to 350. Lightly greast a 9x13 baking pan. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar at medium speed till fluffy. Gradually beat in milk, eggs and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to cream cheese mixture, beating until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Place strawberries evenly over batter. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and almonds (I used pecans). Sprinkle evenly over strawberries. Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares and serve.

I haven't officially tried it yet as I have to wait till tomorrow - but the batter was sooo yummy and when it was done, it smelled up the house something fantastic!!! Enjoy

January travels

January is a month of travel for Hank. Last weekend he was in Athens at UGA taking kids to an honor band. He was there for 4 days. This weekend we are off to Savannah for his annual GMEA (Georgia Music Educator's Conf.); we leave tonight and return Sunday afternoon. Jacob and I go with him on this trip since we used to live there and get to see old friends. That's about it from here. Until next time....

catching up

Hank has been away for 4 days. He left me with the crappy car, the crappy computer and took the camera. He's back now so maybe we'll get a blog out this week. Although, Wednesday night we're all off to Savannah for 4 days so Hank can go to his annual conference and we'll get to visit with friends. That's it from here. Oh - while Hank was up in north Georgia, he got to see some of that southern snow over the weekend. Jaocb and I stayed in all day Saturday to the 40 degree/rainy day. glad to see the sun is back out today :D

T

keeping up with the bloggers

I love the new background I chose (after looking at what seemed like hundreds!!) - but DO notice that the squares bleed through on the pictures. I really don't want to mess with it anymore as I wasn't able to figure out how to NOT have to re-do al my page elements as I lost them when I switched templates and had to re-do them ALL. So - if anyone knows how I can maybe fix the picture problem - I'm all ears...

A short girl's best friend

Over the holidays I got this brand new Singer....I finally opened it last night and decided to give it a shot. After reading every page of the instruction manual - I was able to set it up, thread it wihtOUT musing the automatic threader and hemmed 2 pairs of pants! Yay me! I was so nervous I was going to thread it wrong and break the needle or something, but the manual had the best picture instructions. They were so easy to understand :) Maybe one day I'll make something... stay tuned.

new stuff

All I wanted this Christmas was kitchen stuff. I haven't bought anything new since we got married and some stuff was from before that. So, I got a new bamboo cutting board and some new knives. And yes, I already cut my finger. All those years with crappy knives and no accidents - now I get brand new ones and there ya go. And it's my mouse-clicking finger too! I also got a new peeler, a new cheese slicer, a batter bowl and a baking dish. It is fun using all my new stuff. My goal this year is to slowly replace stuff in anticipation of a new house with a NORMAL size kitchen with more than one full size drawer!!! Our lame apartment has one full size drawer so all kitchen gadgets are in a basket in a cabinet. I am hoping to find apple green stuff to go in my new kitchen. My mom did her's in red and they make everything in red these days. Looks like the green color is coming along. I hope to see more things pop up in that color this year. guess that's enough rambling. Until next time...