Breakfast Biscuits

I grew up eating these biscuits. My father would make them on the weekends and it was almost impossible to wait for them to finish baking in the toaster oven. 

Here is what you will need:

3 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar 

1 tbsp baking powder 

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cream of tartar 

3/4 c butter 

1 c milk 

 

Preheat oven to 450. 

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. 

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients. I use either two knives or two forks. I didn't grow up with the "fancy" kitchen tool that should probably be used for this step so I still do it old school. Cut until mixture resembles crumbles. 

 Make a well in the center of the mixture. Add milk and stir with a fork just until moistened. 

Sometimes I have to a add a dash of milk more. Use a fork and stir until mixture is moistened.

Lightly flour a surface and turn dough out onto it. knead the dough and pat or roll out. 

Use any kind of cutter you want. I think my dad always used a shot glass. I use little containers that I have for condiments. Cut out your biscuits. 

Look at the beautiful angle of this picture. Who needs a fancy camera when you have and iPhone? 

Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 min or until golden brown. 

BAM! Golden. 

Here's the part I always liked as a kid. We would get all the goodies out of the fridge to top our biscuits. Honey, butter, jams and jellies. I'm a lover of Knott's Boysenberry jam.

 

This is super cheap, easy, and fast which is always what I look for in a recipe.

ENJOY!

Easy Apple Pie for the baking challenged

Apple Pie is my favorite and its super easy to make. But I know of some friends that are "baking challenged" so I decided to put this super easy recipe on my blog for those who need a little help. Here is what you will need:

7-9 granny smith apples

3/4 cup sugar 

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg 

1 tsp vanilla 

addition 2 tbsp sugar 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 cap full of milk 

Pre made pie crust (im a cheater. I cant make my own crust. Aint nobody got time for that!) 

Aren't the apples pretty!? I love green. Lets just take a moment to look at them..... OK, moment over.

Peel all the apples. I peel them into the bag the apples came in.

Naked apples! 

 

I then cut the apples into thin slices. I prefer thin slices over chunks but you can do what you want. 

Put all the apples slices into a large bowl. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon (1/2 tsp), nutmeg, and vanilla. The recipe I have always used doesn't call for vanilla but I tried it with this pie and loved it. Gently toss together until coated. 

Now for the tricky part. Open pie crust box and remove crust. 

Hard part over. You did great. 

Place one crust in bottom of pie dish. 

Place apple filling is dish. 

Cover with second pie crust and carve a big S in it for Seitz.... or what ever design u want to do. But at least poke a few holes in the crust so the pie can "breath".

Mix 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Take the cap from your milk and fill it with milk. If your milk doesnt have a cap then measure about 2 tsp of milk. Cover pie crust with the milk then sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar mix. 

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Place foil around the outside of the pie. This will keep the edges of the pie from burning. 

Bake pie at 375 for 40 min. Take the foil off and bake for an additional 20 min. 

Let pie cool for an hour. 

DElicious! 

Try not to eat the whole pie in one sitting!

Cheesy Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

I LOVE this recipe. Its easy, cheap, and so yummy. I probably make it twice a month. It makes enough for a couple of days and who doesn't love left overs!? And my kids eat it so that's an A+ in my book. Here is what you will need:

Crock pot

1/2 white onion chopped

3 chicken breasts

1 can of cream of chicken 

1 box of Zatarain's yellow rice 

1 1/2 c grated cheddar cheese

2 cups frozen peas

2 cups frozen corn (corn not pictured because it was still at staters brothers waiting for me to buy!)

Trim fat off chicken (some people are super weirdos about there being any fat on their meat.... people like me... I cant stand chewing fat. Makes me want to gag). 

Place chicken on the bottom of the crock pot

 

"Sprinkle" chopped onion on top of the chicken

 

Now, I realize that I dont need to show you this many step by step pictures but I happened to take a lot of pictures while preparing this so, by golly, I'm going to make you look at them all!

Pour and spread 1 can of cream of chicken over the chicken and onions. 

Set crock pot to high and cook for 3 1/2 hours. Take this time to read a book, clean, watch your favorite movie, nap, or do whatever it is you do. 

After 3 1/2 hours, cook the yellow rice as directed on the box. Place rice, cheese, peas, and corn in the crock pot. See how pretty it looks!? You're doing a GREAT job! 

The beautiful frozen corn I bought at stater brothers made an appearance in this meal. 

When you have added all of the ingredients, mix them together with tongs. The chicken will literally fall apart like butter when you are mixing. I like to let it sit in the crock pot for another 30 minutes. 

This is the amazingness that awaits you. 

SOOO YUMMY! Of course I have to eat this meal with Hawaiian rolls. And yes, there is a bite taken out of one of the rolls and I tried to hide it. I couldn't help myself, I have to take a bite.

Crock Pot Pumpkin Spice Latte

I made this last night and it was HEAVENLY. Which was perfect because I made it for bible study. aha ahaha ahhaha...

I looked up a few recipes and kind of took things from each to make it my own. 

Here is what you will need:

6 cups of strong coffee

8 cups of milk

1 cup pumpkin puree 

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

4-6 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/8 tsp ginger

1/8 nutmeg

crock pot

Brew 6 cups of coffee and pour into crock pot. Add 8 cups of milk. Add 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 4 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/8 tsp nutmeg and 1/8 tsp ginger. Whisk in crock pot. You can cook this on high for 2 1/2. I like to cook it on low for 3 hours then on high for 1 hour. I think i just like smelling it cook for 4 hours :)

It needs to be whisked every once in a while. I added more sugar and vanilla towards the end of it cooking because I like things sweet!  So you just have to try yours and see how you like it! 

Put latte in a pretty mug topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.

Voila!

YUMMMMM...

First day of Kindergarten!

 Well, the day finally arrived, the first day of Kindergarten.  My sweet Brody was excited all Summer until 4 nights before school began. He cried and said he didn't want to go to school but wanted to stay home with mommy forever. Very sweet but mommy needs a break!

To my surprise, I woke Brody up on the first day of school and he said, "What am i doing today mommy?" "Going to school..." "Oh, ok." And that was it, just like that. No tears. 

I had him pose with the white board stating the year of school he is in, the date, what he wants to be when he grows up, and had him write his name. I plan on doing this every year. I'm sure he will hate it when he is 13 or so but one day he might think it is sweet :)

So excited!

 

 First to school. We have to make a good impression on the first day! 

We were so excited that Brody had a friend in class, Caleb. These two have known 

each other since they were maybe 1. 

 

A pic with Daddy and Cohen. Of course Mommy forgot to take a picture with 

Brody because I am always behind the camera! 

 

Brody is in my old classroom. And yes, that is a slide in the classroom! 

 

Lining up to go in. 

 

Brody was all smiles. 

 

Brody did so good on his first day of school! He is about 6 weeks in now and is still loving it!

Silly Bedtime

Every night at bed time Brody asks if either me or Kevin can lay with him. Its easier to just say yes. If we say no then for the next hour he will be calling us from his bed. So one of us will lay down with him. We read a book, sing songs, listen to the radio, pray, and just talk. One night we decided to be silly. Here is the result of the silliness. 

 The flash on my camera is so bright that we couldn't keep our eyes open

 U can see our eyes are red and watering from the flash

We were cracking up! This was probably the most fun we have ever had before bed time. I love having these moments with my Brody. Its all he could talk about the next day and he wanted to keep looking at the pictures. My goal is to have more moments like this with my kids.

HUNGRY: Brody's Canned Food Drive

One of the service projects I put on our Summer Bucket List was to collect canned/non perishable food items and donate them to a local food pantry. I didn't just want to put fun summer things on our list. I think Brody is now old enough to do things like this and to understand why we are doing them. I want him to learn to be a giver and to have a heart for those less fortunate.

I've always had a desire to start a food cupboard at my church. It hasn't happened yet but I'm hoping that it will very soon. I grew up in a Methodist church that had a food cupboard. At the end of the month my parents would look in the cupboard to see how full it was. Most of the time it was almost empty. I remember going to Costco with my parents on several occasions to buy food for the cupboard. My parents would fill the basket to the top! Sometimes that cupboard only got filled because of my parents. I think that's where my desire came from. I loved that my parents did that. 

I decided to start a page on Facebook called Brody's Canned Food Drive. Of course, I had to do everything cause Brody is only 5 but I assure you, Brody was involved in every step. I kept him in the loop every time someone donated. I wanted him to know everything that was going on so he could see how much work and love went into do this. 

I told Brody that for 10 days we were going to ask our friends to donate cans. Then I asked him how many cans he wanted to collect.... 500!! Wow, that kid has big goals. I knew we wouldn't reach 500 cans but I figured that if we got to 100 that would be awesome. 

Well, we collected cans for 1 MONTH instead of 10 days! Donations just kept rolling in and I couldn't say no. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people wanted to help Brody. Every time we got a donation, Brody would get so excited. He would often talk about the hungry people we were going to help with the food.

 I let Brody go through our pantry and pick our food he wanted to donate. 

 A few of our friends live far away so they donated cans to their local food pantry in Brody's name. I think its awesome that people still wanted to donate even though they couldn't give us the cans personally!

In the end, we collected 204 cans/nonperishable food items. How amazing is that! Not bad for a 5 year old! Here are some of the cans... this was about 2 weeks into our food drive.

 I had Brody write Thank You letters to everyone who donated. I thought it was important for him to do that. 

 

Brody didn't understand why he had to do it because it was "boring." I told him that when our friends open the letter and see its from him, their hearts are going to be so happy! That actually made him want to do it. So he wrote 16 thank you letters and mailed them out. 

Today we took the cans to Mary's Kitchen in Orange. I wasn't expecting what I saw. I guess I was thinking that it was just going to be a pantry that people could go to and take home what they need. We drove down the street it was on and immediately saw homeless people sitting around on the grass. I will admit that it made me a little uneasy. I went with both the boys, Kevin, and my father in law. I guess I just wasn't prepared for what I saw. We drove into the parking lot and there were maybe 50 people inside the gate, lined up to get food. We parked and a man who volunteers at the kitchen came to the car with a shopping cart and loaded the food up. I wanted to take pictures of Brody donating the cans so I could put it on my blog but when I got there and saw everything, I didn't think it would be appropriate to have Brody posing for pictures. Brody and I got out of the car when the man was unloading everything. I got down on Brody's level and calmly spoke to him. I didn't know if he would be nervous with the way things looked there. I told him that all the people there were homeless and were very hungry, that's why there were lining up for food. I told him that the food he collected was going to feed all those people and that their tummies wouldn't be hungry today because of him. He got a huge smile on his face. My heart exploded. 

Coincidentally, in the past 10 days we have stopped 3 times to help people on the side of the road who were holding signs that said "hungry." I'm ashamed to say that I've never stopped for them before. A lot of times I don't have cash on me. And other times I think I'm too nervous to open my window for them. I don't know why. The first time we helped was when I was exiting the freeway. It was just me and the boys. I rolled the window down and gave the man a few dollars. I explained to Brody what I was doing. A couple days later, we were all in the car and Kevin rolled the window down and gave money to a man. We again explained to Brody why we were doing it. The third time it was just Kevin and me going out to dinner. We bought the guy a meal. I've realized that I cant expect Brody to help people when Mommy is too afraid to roll down her window for someone. Lesson learned for mommy.

Next year and every year from now on, collecting food will be on our summer bucket list.

Thank you to all our friends that donated:

Christi and Andrew Gartner

Danielle Eldred

Mary Ann Christine Rich

David and Kristin Wilkinson 

Jenn Garcia 

Becca Woolstrum

Sarah Lightfoot

Rebecca Dudley 

Carol Biniasz 

Amy and Joel Garcia

Christy Boen-Kvenvik

Asa Thompson

Christina Dewitt 

Karin Duncan

Rebecca Swartz

Wayne Seitz and Linda Hollinshead