College Graduate!

My husband graduated from college with an AA in General Studies. I am very proud of him as he did all of this in is "spare" time while playing Army full time including 2 deployments!

Pancakes!

After my kid's exclamation that these are the "bestest pancakes ever!" I thought I would share the deliciousness with the world. Or whoever is reading my blog ... whichever! The best thing is that you can add fresh fruit or change the flour to wheat flour and still get great results. My personal favorite are blueberry-banana.

So here they are ... Pancakes from scratch.

Yield: Nine 6 inch pancakes

Ingredients

· 2 2 cups flour

· 1 3/4 cups milk

· 2 2 tablespoons baking powder

· 2 2 eggs, beat them separately before adding to mixture

· 1 1/4 cup butter, melted (1/8 of a pound)

· 3 3 tablespoons sugar

· 1 1 teaspoon salt

Directions1. 1

Mix the dry items first.2. 2

Combine the eggs and melted butter to the milk and slowly stir in the flour.3. 3

Let sit at least 10 minutes while heating the pan.4. 4

These will be high, but light and fluffy -- .

Feedback

So, the recipe for the Sweet and Sour Kielbasa was not one I will be keeping or making again. I scrapped the whole bit in the trash, and my husband brought home take out. I don't know what I did wrong, but I do think that Kielbasa is probably not the best item to be in the crockpot since it's already cooked.

Anyway, I got a new Cricut cartridge in the mail! Simply Sweet. I haven't had time to try it out yet. My new project is a "Home is where the Army sends us" plaque with all of our duty stations on it. I got the base part done today (no pictures, yet) and I'm hoping to work on the rest of it sometime this week.

For now I've got to go ......... busy day tomorrow. After almost 7 months without our beloved dog Josie, we are finally picking her up from the airport tomorrow and she'll be joining us in Hawaii! We're very excited.

Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Kielbasa

Crock Pot Sweet and Sour Kielbasa

This crock pot recipe comes from my friend Laura. This is our first time trying it, so I'll let you know how it goes! Today is a busy day for me, so the crock pot will definitely make my life a bit easier.
6 tablespoons butter
2 diced onions
1 cup packed brown sugar
1-¼ cup ketchup
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1½ teaspoons spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 pound kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 inch piecesMelt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until tender. Stir in brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper sauce. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Place sausage in a slow cooker with the sauce and onions. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. The longer it simmers the better!

What's for Dinner?

I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I really just love cooking! Tonight we had chicken chimichangas, refried beans made in the crock pot, and Salsa Verde. The meal was good, although if I were making the chimichangas again I would leave out the green onion, or maybe use a sweet white onion instead. I just didn't care for the flavor. Anyway - I thought I would share the recipe for Salsa Verde. This is one of our favorite kinds of salsa ... my husband always asks for it at mexican restuarants. The grocery store I shop at in Hawaii carrys tomatillos so I made my own today. Consider yourself forewarned, this is HOT!!! Too hot for me, my husband said it was the perfect heat for him.

Salsa Verde -

• 1 lb tomatillo
• 3-4 jalepeno
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillion granule
• Directions:

1. To make the salsa, boil the tomatillos (without the papery husk), and jalapenos, until the jalapenos change color (About 10 -15 minutes). Put all the tomatillos, and jalapenos in a blender, add some of the water that was used to boil them. Add the onion coarsely chopped, along with the cilantro, garlic, and bouillon.
2. To prevent minor burns, either use a clean washcloth instead of the top of the blender to cover, or if your blender top has the little attachment you can remove, remove it before you blend the hot ingredients. Blend everything.
3. 
   

Some of my Cricut creations...

So, my very sweet husband got me a Cricut for my birthday (which isn't until next month, but who's counting?) I've been experimenting with it and I am still really in the learning phases. I haven't scrapbooked in years, so I'm getting reacquianted with my scrapbook supplies as well as getting to know my Cricut.

Anyway, here are my latest creations.

Some thank you cards for my in-laws (these are being sent to thank them for the birthday gifts she got last month. Better late than never, right?)

These are basically the same cards, I was just trying to save paper so I alternated the burgundy and blue papers on these.

This one is probably my favorite. The printed paper I've had for years, I got it from a scrap bag of papers at a scrapbook supply store.

All of these cards were made using the "Beyond Birthdays" cartridge.

These are signs I made for my kids' rooms. This was my first attempt at cutting Vinyl. I'll just say this - this is the first and last time I'll be cutting welded letters without transfer tape to apply it! Taylor's sign was made using the "Life's a Beach" cart and Braden's was made using the "Sans Serif" cart w/ the "Beyond Birthdays" cart for the stars.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Hello! And welcome to my blog. I started this blog mainly as a way to organize & share my recipes, keep track of crafting blogs I like, and share my handmade goodies.....

So, having said that I'll start my adventures in blogging with a recipe. We're having this for dinner later.

I finally found a low calorie Fettuccine Alfredo recipe that doesn't suck. Really good, kid tested and approved!

399 calories including the pasta! This comes from Cooking Light magazine, Jan 2007. As a side note, I didn't add the salt b/c I felt like the (fresh grated parmesan) cheese was salty enough.

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
2 tablespoons 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked pasta)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Cracked black pepper

Preparation
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook 6 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, cream cheese, and salt, stirring with a whisk until cheeses melt. Toss sauce with hot pasta. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and chopped parsley. Garnish with black pepper, if desired. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information
Calories:
399 (30% from fat)
Fat:
13.5g (sat 8g,mono 3.4g,poly 1.1g)
Protein:
21.3g
Carbohydrate:
48.9g
Fiber:
2g
Cholesterol:
34mg
Iron:
2.1mg
Sodium:
822mg
Calcium:
451mg