Just to help you out, I got this recipe from Martha Stewart's website and I suggest using a really large baking sheet or having two ready because she doesn't specify the size and I used the large baking sheet and it came out pretty thick. I would use a large and small one next time. You want to brittle to be pretty thin because you are adding chocolate to the top and bottom and I had to use a clothe and hammer to break it apart. I also skipped the praline dust step because I didn't have enough corn syrup.
Also make sure you are using salted pistachios because it makes a huge difference in flavor. I couldn't find them salted in the bulk section and I think it would have tasted a lot better with it.
With that said the brittle turned out really good and is quite tasty. I might try to come up with my own version of the recipe next year but for now I'm done making brittle ;)
It's a lot of work.
- Ingredients
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 cups salted pistachios, plus 1 cup coarsely chopped
- 4 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- Praline Dust
- 1 1/2 pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- Vegetable spray
Directions
- Spray a baking sheet with vegetable spray, wiping off any excess with a paper towel; set aside. In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir to combine. Cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Uncover, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook without stirring until the sugar mixture reaches 295 degrees.on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.
- Stir in 3 cups pistachios, the butter, vanilla, and baking soda. Return to heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees.on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet. Working quickly, spread mixture until about 1/4 inch -thick. Set aside to cool.
- In a small bowl, combine praline dust and chopped nuts; set aside. Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler set over a pot of simmering water. Pour one-half of the chocolate over the brittle, spreading with an offset spatula to cover completely. Sprinkle with half of the praline dust mixture. Transfer to refrigerator until set, about 15 minutes. Remove from refrigerator. Turn and coat other side with chocolate and sprinkle with remaining praline dust mixture. Chill until set, about 15 minutes. When chocolate is completely set, break into irregular pieces.
This is a combo of two recipes I found that I love! I couldn't find a cheese biscuit recipe that didn't use biscuik mix so I made my own. They are so much better from scratch and just as easy. These turned out amazing!!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 C cheddar Cheese, shredded
Melted Butter Mixture:
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp oregano, dried
3/4 tsp garlic salt
Directions
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Add about a cup of cheddar cheese. I sprinkled in a little more milk just to make everything stick together but make sure you don't add much because you don't want a runny batter.
- I used an ice cream scoop to shape the biscuits. I ran under a little water and shook it off then scooped out the mix and help it out of the ice cream scoop with my finger. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. I took them out at about 8 minutes and I brushed them with the melted butter mixture. Then I returned them to the over for a minute or so. Serve warm.
- It seemed like a lot of oregano when I was brushing it on but trust me you will love it when it's done.
Two of my biggest struggles in life are trusting my own heart and holding on too tight to other people. As I've grown and let myself go piece by piece, I'm learning (God's teaching me) that I can't depend on myself and I can't depend on other people to feel permanent love and contentment. It's so easy to be consumed by all those amazing emotions but we have to anchor into something more permanent. We can't put that much pressure of other people and especially ourselves to keep us afloat because as life goes on we learn that we are all trying not to sink. You can't save someone who is drowning if you can't swim. Learning to give my dependence to God has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do but has been the only thing that has been truly fulfilling. And as I learn to not lean on everyone else I am finding that I have so much more to give them. My goal is to give myself to others 100% and to try and expect nothing in return. Instead I want to receive all I need from God. He does have everything I need after all. Then when other people give themselves to me and give their love to me then it's like this huge bonus. I'm not depending on that because I already have it.
My faith is 100% about a real relationship with my God. A relationship with dialog and love I can actually feel. I relationship that doesn't rely on what I do but instead simply on the love He's craving to give to me. And now I am have figured out that all that emptiness I felt was just my intense craving for His love. All I had to do was ask.
This is a daily battle, giving of myself and not being dependent on faulty foundations, but I am slowly learning that all I have to do is ask.
I was skimming through recipes the other day and I came across a recipe for slow cooker chicken sandwiches made with beer and bbq sauce. I liked the idea of using chicken instead of pulled pork because I haven't been able to find pork as cheap as chicken lately. My only concern was cooking chicken breast in a slow cooker might turn out really dry. A slow cooker is usually used for meats that don't break down easily when you cook them any other way. I decided I would give it a go though and to my surprise it turned out great! The chicken wasn't dry at all, actually it turned out better than baked chicken. The only thing I would change about this was I wouldn't use Kaiser buns. They fall apart too easily and they get soggy way to quick.
3 Chicken Breasts
1/2 C rootbeer
1/2 C BBQ sauce (reserve another 1/2 C for later)
Take your chicken breasts, 1/2 C rootbeer (or regular beer), and 1/2 C BBQ Sauce and throw it all in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. When your eight hours or so are up take a couple forks and shred the chicken. Once the chicken is shredded and has soaked up all the extra liquid you will want to add about another 1/2 C of BBQ sauce. Now Make sure you add a little at a time because you don't want to make it too runny but make sure you do add more or it wont taste right. I cut up a couple slices of cheese for my buns and covered them in the chicken. They turned out so good.
Serve with some homemade fries and salad.
My boys love fish sticks but I hate how unhealthy they are and do you really know what kind of fish they are? Well my solution was to make my own... kinda. This is so easy and it turned out really good. I don't know if I make tartar sauce the "right" way but I've always made it this easy way and it's so good.
For the Talapia:
2 filets of Talapia (you can use any fish but I really like talapia and it's really healthy and one of the fish with the lowest mercury content)
Flour
Panko Bread Crumbs
1 Egg White
salt and pepper (just a little sprinkle)
dash of garlic powder
Preheat the oven to 350 F. While you are waiting for the oven to preheat start your rice and cook according to the package instructions. Take your flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Panko and mix a reasonable amount onto a small plate. Sorry I didn't measure this out, seeing as I can usually eye ball how much I will need and you can always just add more. In a shallow bowl have your egg white. Dry your talapia really well with a paper towel so the egg white will stick.
Grease a small baking dish, big enough for your talapia filets.
Take your talapia and coat it really well with the egg white and then place it in the flour mixture and coat really well. Move to baking dish and continue with the rest of your talapia. Once the fish is in the baking dish use cooking spray (try to use the olive oil one) and spray the battered fish down so it looks damp and you can't see the dry flour.
Place fish in the oven at 350F for about 15-20 minutes. It will be done when the fish is white and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Now the easy part. I can't believe how easy it is to make tartar sauce. Take a couple small dill pickles and chop them up finely. Mix the chopped pickles with a couple tablespoons of mayonaise. You can judge the amount by simply looking to the consistency of tartar sauce. There you go, it's as easy as that and I think it tastes exactly the same and way cheaper.
Here are the pictures from Troy's 2nd Birthday party. I had so much fun putting this all together! I can't wait to plan more and make them even more exciting as he gets older.
Dino Cake Pops: Sheet cake and icing rolled into balls and dipped into chocolate. The green chocolate is the candy melts from Michael's. You can get them from bulk barn but they are cheaper from Michael's and there are more colors. The tops of the pops are the tips of candy corn cut off and just placed in the chocolate before it dries.
Fun ways to eat candy: Candy Corn, yogurt covered peanuts, candy rocks, and pretzels from bulk barn. The bowls are plastic and also from the dollar store.
Goody bags: Filled with a little bag of candy, dinosaurs, fake tattoos, stickers and playdoh from the dollar store. Each bag had a different dinosaur name on it and inside was a picture and description of that dinosaur I printed out.
dinosaur placemats with dry erase markers from micheals 25 cents each
Dinosaurs hidden in easter grass. Troy's dinos he had in his toy box.
A sign leading to the backyard. I made this on my computer and got the caution tape at the dollar store.
I made a dino excavation in the sand box with toy dino bones, eggs, and candy from the dollar store. The kids loved this! The sand was only 6.99 at Home Depot for a big bag.
Carnivore and herbivore signs for the food
"Please Sample the Carnivore (meat eating) dinosaur diet."
I made these online and just put them in some frames I had lying around the house.
I'd like to thank my lovely friend Sharayah for the idea of making food in muffin tins. I had so much fun making these pancakes and they were so delicious. The way I made them were a lot thicker because I used more eggs and I actually like this way better than regular pancakes. The family really liked them and my son thought they were the coolest things.
Makes 12 Large Muffins
Preheat oven to 400 F and grease your muffin tins really well.
Ingredients:
1 C Milk
1 C Flour
6 Eggs
1/4 C Melted Butter
Blend the ingredients together. I used a mixing bowl but using a blender will have a better turn out. Pour the batter into each muffin tin about 3/4 way full. Make sure they are greased really well because these stick really easily. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until golden and puffy.
Note: While the pancakes sit they will fall and turn into a cup shape so you can pour your syrup in them.
Use strawberries, icing sugar, and syrup for toppings.
Enjoys!
1. You were convinced your Furby would kill you while you slept
2. you think Mr. Feeney would be the best teacher ever
3. Are You Afraid of the Dark? still gives you nightmares
4. Teletubbies still creep you out
5. you think Pluto is a planet
6. you can successfully insert the Capri Sun straw on the first try
7. you learned how to use your computer before your parents did
8. you came close to administering a lethal dose of cootie shots
9. you were surprised when Lance Bass came out of the closet
10. you say Hakuna Matata to relieve stress
11. the graphics in Toy Story are still amazing
12. Harry Potter was the first book you enjoyed reading
13. you’re still jealous of Matilda’s powers
14. you wish Jumanji was a real game
15. you still think your way out of Yoshi Valley in Mario Kart 64 was the fastest
16. you refuse to believe yo-yos were popular when your parents went to school
17. Austin Powers is a better spy than James Bond
18. your parents thought South Park was a shitty influence
19. the only boxing worth watching involves the biting off of ears
20. you still hate Angelica Pickles
21. Free Willy still makes you cry
22. you learned how to spell from a VTech
23. you know every word to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song
24. your parents still won’t buy you Lunchables
25. you use the Clinton definition of “sexual relations”
26. your scary story is a rip off of Goosebumps
27. the fact that the black Power Ranger was African-American and the yellow one was Chinese doesn’t bother you
28. you still wonder why anybody would want to be called Scary Spice
29. your Tamagotchi is still alive
30. roller skates suck and roller blades are awesome
31. you still “rewind” movies instead of “fast-backward”
32. you still want to go to Jurassic Park even after seeing the movie
33. the end of Men In Black still makes you wonder
34. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? isn’t just a rhetorical question
35. you wish the Magic School Bus was real
36. the ending to the Sixth Sense still surprises you
37. You remember when Kurt Cobain, Tu Pac, River Phoenix, Selena, and John Lennon died.
38. You know that “How Rude!” comes from Stephanie from “Full House”
39. You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
40. on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
41. You remember reading “Goosebumps”
42. You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.
43. You danced to “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls, Females: had a new motto, Males: got a whole lot gay-er. (so tell me what you want, what you really really want.)
44. You still get the urge to say “NOT” after (almost) every sentence…Not…
45. You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green Ranger were meant to be together.
46. You remember when super nintendo’s became popular.
47. Two words… Trapper Keeper.
48. You never got injured on a Slip ‘n’ Slide
49. “Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black, with silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back” SHE ASKED HER MOTHER MOTHER MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS CENTS CENTS TO SEE THE ELEPHANTS PHANTS PHANTS JUMP OVER THE FENCE THE FENCE THE FENCE
he jumped so high high high he touched the sky sky sky and he didnt come back back back til the forth of july ly ly he jumped so low ow ow he stubbed his toe toe toe and thats the end end end of the elephants show show show
50. You remember boom boxes vs. cd players
51. You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere
52. You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles
53. NANCY DREW AND THE HARDY BOYS WERE THE BEST MYSTERY BOOKS
54. Yikes pencils and erasers were the stuff!
55. All your school supplies were “Lisa Frank” brand.(pencils.notebooks.binders.etc.)
56. You remember a time before the WB.
57. You know the Macarena by heart.
58. “Talk to the hand” … enough said
59. You thought Brain woud finally take over the world
60. You always said, “Then why don’t you marry it!”
61. You remember when everyone went slinky crazy.
62. You remember when razor scooters were cool.
When we were younger: Before the MySpace frenzy…Before the Internet & text messaging…Before Sidekicks & iPods…Before MIKE JONES…Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX…… Way back.
1. When light up sneakers were cool.
2. When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.
3. When we recorded stuff on VCRs & paid $3.50 for a movie.
4. When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off our walkmans.
5. When 2Pac and Biggie where alive.
6. Tag.
7. Hide-n-Go Seek at dusk.
8. Red Light, Green Light.
9. Heads Up 7 Up.
10. Playing Kickball & Dodgeball until your porch light came on.
11. Hopskotch.
12. Slip-n-Slides.
13. Tree Houses.
14. Hula Hoops.
15. HELLO….HOT WHEELS!!!!!
16. The annoying Giga Pets & Furbies.
17. Running through the sprinklers.
18. That “Little Mermaid”
19. Crying when Mufasa died in the Lion King.
20. Happy Meals where you chose a Barbie or a Hot Wheels car.
21. Getting the privelage to sit in the front seat of the car.
22. CAPRI SUN
23. Watching Saturday Morning Cartoons in your PJ’s still wrapped up in your TMNT, Power Rangers, Barbie, Fairy Princess comforter.
24. The original Power Rangers
25. Hey Arnold.
26. Rugrats.
27. Rocco’s Modern Life.
28. AAAHH!! REAL MONSTERS.
29. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
30. Kenan & Kel.
31. Doug.
32. Nick Arcade.
33. Dinosaurs.
34. Pinky and the Brain
35. Sailor Moon.
36. Beavis & Butt-Head
37. Wishbone.
38. Who could forget Snick? & Nick @ Nite with Bewitched, I Dream of Jenie, The Facts of Life, I Love Lucy and TGIF.
39. Nick Jr. with Face
40. Busy Town
41. PEE-WEE!!!
42. Kool-Aid was the drink of choice.
43. Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.
44. Class field trips.
45. When Christmas was the most exciting time of year.
46. When $5 seemed like a million, & another dollar a miracle.
47. When you begged to go to McDonalds for dinner everyday.
48. When Toys R Us overruled the mall.
49. Decisions were made by going ‘eeny-meeny-miney-moe’.
50. Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming ‘do over!’
51. Money issues were handled by whoever was banker in ‘Monopoly.’
52. It wasn’t odd to have two or three ‘best’ friends.
53. Being old referred to anyone over 20.
54. Scrapes & bruises were kissed & made better.
55. It was a big deal to finally be tall enought to ride the ‘big people’ rides at the fair.
56. When playing Nintendo was the hardest thing ever.
57. When Ninja Turtles ruled the world.
58. When Aladdin was new, before the trilogy was complete.
I was really bored today so I decided to bake. Here is what I came up with. I didn't have a lot of stuff to use but I did my best.
I found all these yummy looking things on Pinterest and now I want to make them on my own without a recipe. They look so yummy!
Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad
Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken
Caramel Pears
Jalapeno popper dip
Muffin Tin Lasagna
Parmesian Oven-baked fries
I finally got my dish set!! I have wanted these dishes for as long as I could remember. I know it seems silly to get so excited about dishes but for a little housewife this is amazing! I can't wait to cook something a little more fancy for them but here's our first meal on my new plates.