Cupcake Tree I decorated for the Wedding

I took this cardboard cupcake tree I purchased online for $29.95 at save-on-crafts.com (they have amazing things) and used modge podge, glitter paper and trim to make it match my daughter wedding colors. I used a stencil and white paint to add a rose. I actually plan on adding more and covering the holes that should not have been cut out :( I will update the pic when I can.

Alfredo Sauce

My Alfredo Sauce recipe is the Best! You have to try it.

1/4 C. Butter
2 Cloves of Garlic
8 oz. Cream Cheese
3/4 C. Milk
1/2 C. Shredded Parmesan Cheese

                       Melt Butter on Med. heat in a sauce pan, then add 2 cloves of pressed garlic.

                                      Saute garlic for 2 min. and then add the cream cheese.

 Warm cream cheese for just a bit, until it starts to melt, then add milk and whisk together, continuing to stir until everything is melted together and smooth. Then add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese cook and stir over med. heat until melted and creamy. When you pull the spoon out, it should not be stringy.

 Then serve over any pasta. For this dinner, I used spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli, I bought it at Walmart in the refrigerated section. It was a family size, cost about $6, which I thought was pricey for pasta, but so worth it. It was the best ravioli ever.

I also like to top with various things such as grilled chicken strips, or green onions, tomatoes and bacon bits. It is one of my family favorites.

Sunflower B&B Moab, UT

The Sunflower Bed & Breakfast sits back a few blocks off Main St. providing a quite cozy refuge from the constant excitement and motion of life downtown. It is a beautiful place with old fashioned charm. They have a pool and gorgeous grounds. A great breakfast is served in the morning, restaurant style.We try to stay at B&B's when we travel, they are usually a little more expensive than hotels, but  if you can afford it, they are worth it.

  

Wedding center piece

My daughter is getting married! She got engaged the middle of Nov. and they are getting married 2 days after Christmas. He is in the Air Force, this is why the rushed wedding. It has been a crazy year. Earlier this year, my husband had emergency open heart surgery, moments away from a fatal heart attack. So paying for a wedding this year, at Christmas time, seems somewhat impossible.
Because of this, I get to use my creative side, which I love to do. Everyone thinks I am crazy to do all the work, but what choice do I have. I am making the center pieces, the cake (which will be a cupcake tree) and the food, with lots of help from my daughters, mother, and the grooms mother.
So here is my first creation, the center pieces. Thanks to the grooms sister getting married last year, they have a lot of vases, that was quite a savings, Then I bought everything a Hobby Lobby while it was half off, flowers, marbles, a string of battery operated lights and ribbon.

Italian Lemon Cream Cake

I found a Lemon Cream Cake in a magazine and really wanted to try to make one. This is the recipe I used ( Lemon Cake Link ). It was a huge hit and fairly easy to make. SOOOOO YUMMY! I doubled the recipe and made 2 so I could give one to a friend. Her family loved it too. I highly recommend this cake, especially if you are a lemon cake fan like me. The cream in the middle is light and not as sugary as frosting. It is very refreshing. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Italian Lemon Cream Cake

Rated: Submitted By: CindyAnn Photo By: carmvw Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes Ready In: 4 Hours 50 Minutes Servings: 12

"Homemade Italian lemon cream cake filled with lemon cream and topped with vanilla crumbs is just like the one at a famous Italian restaurant chain."

INGREDIENTS:

cooking spray Cake: 1 (16.25 ounce) package white cake mix 3/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon milk 2 eggs 3 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil Crumb Topping:

2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Filling: 4 ounces cream cheese, softened 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, divided, plus more for dusting 3 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 2 cups heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
2.	Measure 1 cup cake mix; set aside for crumb topping. Place the remaining cake mix in a large bowl; add 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk, eggs, and oil. Beat cake mix mixture using an electric mixer until batter is thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3.	Mix melted butter and vanilla extract together in a bowl; stir in reserved 1 cup cake mix until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle crumbs over top of cake batter.
4.	Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake to room temperature in the pan.
5.	Beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Beat cream and remaining 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar together in a separate bowl using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream.
6.	Remove cake from springform pan. Cut cake horizontally into 2 layers using a serrated knife; remove top layer. Spread filling onto the bottom cake layer; place top cake over filling. Refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours. Dust cake with more confectioners' sugar before serving.

Back splash tile

Before

I have this awkward area above my sink and
and opposite of the sink. So I bought 3 squares
of back splash tile and glues the rows on. It took all of 15 min. and it adds a lot to the kitchen.
I would love to go all the way around, but we
are trying to sell the house. So we just wanted
to add interest and show buyers that the green/gray counter tops can look nice.

After

Cancun, Mexico

 

Earlier this year a friend of mine invited me to go to Cancun with her, all expense paid. What would you say? YES!!  We stayed at an all inclusive resort, it was hard to leave the beach. We just wanted to soak up the sun, and that is what we did. It was amazing! The creatures pictured were just on the path between our room and the private beach. There are a lot of excursions you can take outside of the resort, that cost extra of course. We did not do any of them, we just wanted relaxation, and that is what we got. Lazy Days on the beach and Dancing all night. You don't get a lot of culture that way, and it is not always my preferred way of visiting another country, but for this vacation, it worked out perfect. We stayed at Catalonia Royal Tulum, it was small compared to other resorts where I have visited. But the rooms were nice and the beach was beautiful. The food was better at Sandals in Jamaica, but I guess when it is unlimited, they have to use lower quality. Overall, beautiful place to stay.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Making these cupcakes has become a fall tradition in my house. They are so yummy!

The one bit of advice I would like to offer in making these, is the frosting, it says to beat the butter and cream cheese for 3 min. (DO THIS STEP) set a timer, even longer if you have to, the longer you whip it, the better the frosting tastes. I use to avoid making homemade frosting until a professional cake maker told me the use a lot of butter and whip it for up to 5 min., I tried it and my frosting was amazing, FINALLY! It does make a difference.

 

Pumpkin cupcake recipe

Cupcakes:

• 3   cups 

  all-purpose flour
• 1   tablespoon 

  pumpkin-pie spice
• 2 1/2  teaspoons 

  baking soda
• 1   teaspoon 

  baking powder
• 3/4  teaspoon 

  salt
• 1 1/2  cups 

  granulated sugar
• 3/4  cup 

  vegetable oil
• 1/2  cup 

  buttermilk
• 1   can 

  (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
• 4   

  eggs

Frosting:

• 1   package 

  (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 3/4  cup 

  (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1   box 

  (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar
• 1   teaspoon 

  vanilla extract
• 2   tablespoons 

  milk, plus more if needed
•  

  Orange food coloring
•  

  Fine and coarse orange decorating sugar
•  

  Pretzel sticks or rods

directions

1.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 mini cupcake pan indents and 12 regular indents with foil or paper liners. Line 6 jumbo cupcake indents with foil or paper liners.

For cupcakes:

1.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt together until well blended; set aside.

2.

Beat sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk, pumpkin puree and eggs in a large bowl on low speed for 2 minutes or until combined. Add flour mixture and beat for 2 more minutes or until just combined.

3.

Divide among liners, filling each about 2/3 full.

4.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12 minutes for the minis, 18 minutes for the regulars and 26 minutes for the jumbos, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

For frosting:

1.

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl on high for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk and beat until smooth and a good spreading consistency, 2 minutes. Add an additional tablespoon of milk if mixture is too thick.

2.

Divide the frosting into two bowls and tint to different shades of orange with food coloring. Mound the frosting on top of cupcakes and make rounded. Roll the entire cupcake in the sugar to coat or roll just edges in sugar, alternating between fine and coarse sugars as desired. To make indentations, press a wooden skewer on top of the sugared cupcake. Add pretzel sticks or rods as stems.

Roxy -Halloween

 In 2013, a local radio station had a costume contest for animals, my daughter wanted to enter our darling pug, Roxy. So, being the wonderful mom that I am, I worked for 2 day straight on this flying monkey costume, made from scratch. You can probably tell. It was fun, everyone wanted to get a picture of her when we got there. She was not even phased by the costume, she just followed along like the star that she is.

Loving the attention "Here, get my good side!"

Chicken gnocchi soup

This is one of my families favorites. My 16 year old says mine is even better than Olive Garden's :)
Last night I substituted the spinach with swiss chard, I have also used kale, my family of 6 eats it up anyway we try it. Click on the link to get the recipe. Delicious!!
Chicken gnocchi soup

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart half-and-half
• 2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth (if you enjoy a thicker soup, use 1 can)
• Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup finely shredded carrots
• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh spinach leaves
• 1 cup diced cooked chicken breast (you can use a rotisserie chicken)
• 1 (16-ounce/500g) package ready-to-use gnocchi

Instructions

Melt the butter into the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes translucent. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in the half-and-half. Simmer until thickened. Whisk in the chicken broth. Simmer until thickened again. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, the thyme, parsley, nutmeg (if using), carrots, spinach, chicken, and gnocchi. Simmer until the soup is heated through. Before serving, season with additional salt, if necessary.

`Roxy 10/8

                                      How could you not love this face?
Roxy is still doing well, other than the tumor in her mouth, you would not know she was sick. I take her everywhere I can, and of course she gets a lot of treats, which are her favorite things in life. She believes all food should be hers.

Painting Polk-a-dots

My daughter wanted me to paint polk-a-dots on her wall, so I came up with a cool way to make this happen for her. I had just bought a set of three plastic mixing bowls with lids, so I took all three different size lids and traced them onto the walls with chalk. Chalk is great to trace things with, because it is easy to wash off, you do have to be careful of the color, it can change the paint color a little if it mixes in too much. Then, I just filled in the circles with the colors I wanted to use. She loves it! And it was so easy :)

Peanut butter Chocolate Chip Bars

I just made the yummiest bar cookies, my kids are divided when it comes to dessert, half want chocolate chip cookies and half want peanut butter, so the logical answer is to combine them, of course.

 1/2 C Butter Crisco
1/2 C Peanut butter
1 C Brown sugar
2 tbsp Honey
Mix together then add
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
Mix together then add
2 C Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 C Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Mix together and spoon into a 9x13 cake pan
Bake @ 350 degrees for 15 to 20 min.
It will be a little gooey in the middle.

Goblin Valley, Utah

 

Beautiful sunset at Goblin Valley, Utah

Our camp spot is amazing, the kids can be entertained for hours in these rocks, there are caves and cliffs to climb on. The best part is, it is contained and private. The dogs can run and so can the kids, we don't have to worry about bugging anyone, but when the sun goes down, it is DARK!







This is Goblin Valley in Southern Utah, me, my brothers, our parents and our families try to camp here once a year. It is beautiful and there is lots of hiking to do. The neat thing about the actual park  (shown below) is that there is one way in and one way out. So we take the kids over at dusk and give them head lamps and glow necklaces, and they play game until past dark, they love it. We can just sit on the hill and watch them.

Pumpkin Soup

If you are wondering what to do with some of your pumpkins, besides carving them, try this delicious, low fat pumpkin soup.
We cut the pumpkin in half and roasted it in oven for about 45 min @ 375 degrees.

1/4 C. Canola Oil
1 med. Onion (diced)
2 cloves of Garlic
2 stalks of Celery
Cook onions, garlic and celery in oil until translucent. Then add
2 can of Chicken broth
1 C. 1% Milk
1 tsp of Veg. Curry
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. Rosemary
2 tsp. Hot sauce
1 tsp. of salt (more if needed, keep adding till it tastes right)
(Once these are added, blend in a blender or with a had blender in the pan) then add-
2 C. Cooked lentils
Heat until warm and then simmer about 20 min. on low heat.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese (I would have used Parmesan, be we were out, so Cheddar was used, it was tasty.)

Backyard Chickens

 After patiently waiting for 4 months, our chicken finally started laying eggs. We get about a dozen a week.
So far I am enjoying having our back yard chickens, they are fun too watch. They do like to destroy flower gardens though, I will have to plant accordingly next year, or fence them into their own space. If they are locked in their coop, they beg to be released when they see us come into the back yard. Often times, they will sit at the back door and beg for treats. They are a lot more social than I thought they would be, but they are very messy, we have to clean up after them quite a bit.

Uinta Camping Trip

 We went camping in the Uinta Mountains over the 4th of July. It was amazingly perfect. We saw a mama and baby moose walk right by our camp, and 3 bull moose while out driving, also saw countless deer, including one who hung around camp the entire time, my kids named her Sheila. Went fishing at Whitney Reservoir, my husband caught 5 trout, practically in a row. It was in the low 70's the entire time (it was in the upper 90's back home). We were practically alone where we chose to camp, so the dogs did not have to be chained up. It was so relaxing I could have just sat in camp all day.
We drove into Evanston, WY for the fire works on the 4th, that is something everyone should try at least once. No matter where you park in town you can see fireworks going off in every direction for a couple hours. My kids kept saying "I don't even know which way to look, they are everywhere!"

Roxy

This is our beautiful pug, Roxy. She is my protector! When possible, she will not let me out of her sight. I love this gal. We adopted her into our home and our hearts almost 2 years ago. We found out 2 days ago (when this pic was taken) that the lump in her mouth is a tumor. It is a fast growing cancer, and she might not make it through the year. We are saddened by this news.
My experience with pugs- My daughter had been begging for a pug for about 3 years, finally, her boyfriend gave her one for Christmas. Roxy! I was not happy about this as we had 3 dogs and did not need another. But she kept looking at me with that face, and her temperament is amazing, Soon, she won me over and I did not want her to go. We can walk her around the neighborhood without a leash, she will not leave my side, even if we pass another dog or person. I have never had a dog that I could do that with, usually they are dragging me or I am dragging them. I would recommend a pug to anyone now that I have had an opportunity to have one. (You just have to be able to tolerate snoring and snorting noises).

Here she is, 2 months later and still with us. She is loving her stuffy. Roxy's tumor has gown to 3 or 4 times the size it was when she was first diagnosed in Sept. She seems to be getting weaker, but she is still eating and like to take short walks. She hasn't needed medication yet. We spoil her rotten. She gets to go everywhere we can take her, and I stop at the gas station and get her pepperoni sticks whenever I can, she expects it now :)

Cruise to Cabo San Lucas

We took a cruise on Carnival Cruise lines for our anniversary in 2011 to Cabo San Lucas The first day was fun, everything was new and exciting. The next day we felt trapped and it got kinda boring, we wanted to explore. Finally we docked at Cabo and it was beautiful. We went shopping and had lunch at Cabo Wabo, that may have been the funnest part, there was a band playing at the bar and it was packed at noon time. We took an excursion that included a boat ride, then a meal on the beach, we even had a bucket of Corona like a TV commercial. Then we went shopping at the mall, which was too much like the American Malls, so that part we could have skipped. The authentic shops and flee markets
are a better shopping experience.
As Far as cruising goes, it was not my favorite
I got sea sick, and medication just makes you sleepy.
I would definitely go back to Cabo, but next time, by air.

View of Cabo at night from the ship.

View of Cabo from the ship

Bucket of Corona on the beach :)