Friday, June 18, 2010



*I know that's not the best picture, but that's all I could do,it was the only thing left! I was going to take a pic of the whole thing, but Nicholas (my 7 yr old) just couldn't wait any longer! He informed me that he broke his old record. I asked record for what? He said for eating his pizza that hot, LOL! Gotta love boys and their records :)
***Every Friday is normally pizza night. We always watch a kiddie movie or do board games with the kids'. This has been our normal routine for years now. I guess with summer here and no school our routine has been thrown off! But at least we still had pizza for lunch :) Will try to take a picture of the whole pizza next time. I really hope you attempt to make the pizza crust, it's the most simple thing in the world to make and doesn't require alot of ingredients and is very easy too! Plus what kid doesn't love getting their hands into some dough??

Ingredients you will need:2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil OR vegetable oil
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

*In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

*I always pre-bake all my pizza crusts, only b/c I like mine crispy. You just take the dough w/out anything on it and stick it in the oven and bake for around 7-8 minutes, then take out and do your normal toppings. Oh, the speckled things on the crust aren't anything gross, LOL! I also add basil to the wet dough mix and garlic powder. I like flavor in my crust, this is optional and it really makes your dough "pop" with flavor!!

Something funny...

I get the baby up from his highchair, stand him up and knock him off, food goes into the floor (so thankful we have a dog!!) go to lay him down for a nap and food starts falling into his crib?!! Where did it come from?? Sometimes I think babies cram their diapers full when we're not looking, ROFL!!! That's too funny!!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies



**I have much happier kids' when the cookie jar is full :) Not to say that all my kids' eat are sugary treats, b/c they just love fresh fruits! I'm the one with issues, I'm the one that likes them to have treats throughout the week. I would rather fix them things myself so that way it is less processed and I control all the ingredients in it and can actually pronounce them, LOL! It's also a lot cheaper too!!

Ok, so I was super excited to try out this recipe from allrecipes.com. I LOVE trying out new recipes (just for baking though), anyway, it's called Beth's Spicy Oatmeal cookies. It got rated really well and I fixed an oatmeal cookie recipe one time that was just the best ever and now I can't find it so was hoping this was it. Well it wasn't :( The only difference between this recipe and the one on Quaker Oats box lid is the addition of cloves! I was disappointed when I realized this! Anway, here is the recipe in case you want to fix it. They were good, just not my favorite one that I'm still on the search for. I have a horrible habit of jotting recipes down on paper, fixing them, then losing the recipes, ugh!! We are usually out of ink for the printer so I just write it down on whatever piece of paper I can find. from now on I'm going to stick it on the fridge till I can rate it! I just wanted to show off my cute little cookie jar! I collect Pfaltzgraff Tea Rose.


Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Cooking with Nathan

Anytime I have one of my sweet boys' in the kitchen with me is a good thing! What's even better and just warmed my heart was that Nathan (my 10 yr old) asked me to make oatmeal raisin cookies for him, and he wanted to help me!! I held myself together and tried not to feel faint, LOL! It's been so long since he has helped me in the kitchen, I mean that he actually brought the subject up. Anyway, it was very special to me and he'll never know how much it meant to me for him to "want" to bake with me once again.
I thought about taking pictures of the process, but just wanted it to be as wonderful as it could be, so I didn't :) I did manage to snap an after picture though. I will post that tomorrow with the recipe.

I also fixed homemade croutons. Nicholas and Evan gobbled them up. They were made out of whole wheat bread hills. We had lasagna and a fresh salad with the croutons, they were very good!

Kroger has their green beans on sale for $.69/lb! So guess what's on the menu for dinner tomorrow?? yes, fresh green beans! now need to figure out what kind of chicken to fix with it.

I also promised Nicholas pizza and I guess I'll need to do that for lunch. Will try and do a tutorial this week. It's very time consuming and with 4 kids' free time is something I'm short of :)


Vicky

Friday, June 11, 2010

Where did the week go?

I actually spent a lot of the day yesterday in the kitchen. I made a homemade chocolate cake for my friend's Mother (who is just the nicest person ever!), it was her b-day. Then I made a sweet potato casserole to go with our homemade nuggets and lima beans for dinner. The casserole made me think of my sweet Mother-in-law that introduced me to it! Then I made brownies for dessert, from a box, not homemade though. So I was busy indeed! I didn't have time to photograph any of it, so not sure how my blog will grow. I seriously doubt anyone wants to just read about my babbling on here :)

This weekend I'm going to try and post a photo tutorial of something, anything that pops into my head and we fix :)

I can't believe it's the weekend already! Normally every single Friday we always have homemade pizza. Tonight I think we'll have something else, only because I don't have any mozzarella cheese on hand and really don't want to go to the grocery store today :) I don't think the kids' will mind since I'm not sure they even know it is Friday. I can't remember what day of the week it is half the time when the kids' are out of school. I love summer!
I did learn yesterday that lima beans were the big kids' 2nd favorite vegetable, right after broccoli, who would've known?? I have weird kids' that love green vegetables, I LOVE it :-) Evan (my 3 yr old) said his favorite vegetable is chicken nuggets, LOL!!! Where did I go wrong with him, LOL! I will have to continue to work on him! I hope each of you are enjoying this beautiful sunny weather with your kids'!!

Vicky

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Flea Markets!

I just LOVE flea markets! Yesterday we went and I found a Franklin Covey all leather organizer for $10, it was in near perfect condition and it retails for $119! I also found Coupon Mom's book for 2 bucks! How cool is that?? My husband found the complete guitar hero band for $50, it retails $399 new and $199 used! so he saved $150! It works fine! For many years I didn't go to flea markets, I thought it was just a bunch of junk, who wants other people's trash?? Well 4 kids' later and only one income, I have changed my way of thinking and to be honest, even if we were rich, I would still go to flea markets! Oh, I forgot, Scott (my dh) bought a Kodak photo printer that hooks up to your camera (the dock) or computer at the flea market for only $5! I wouldn't have bought it thinking there's no way that thing would work, he said he would take the chance. Well he brought it home and it works perfectly! Now we can print photos out on our little machine :-)

So I hope each of you find a little flea market to go to, you never no what "treasure" awaits for you!

Vicky

Friday, June 4, 2010

A couple of things...

If you get my updates by email, please check your spam folder. For some reason it goes to spam sometimes and sometimes not. I think it has something to do with pictures within the post, not sure.

Anyway, I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to put my blog on a schedule, yes I know how bizarre that sounds :-) For those of you that don't know me, I'm blessed to have 4 amazing boys'! I didn't realize blogging takes ALOT of time! Time is something that I feel should be given to my family! As much fun as a blog is, I must remember the most important things in life: kids' are only young once and there's no dress rehearsal for life, you only get one shot at it! So I will only be posting food tutorial's 3 times a week. I would like to do book and product reviews 2 times a week and eventually giveaways weekly.

So enough rambling for today!


Vicky

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Fudgy Brownie Pie



Ok, so maybe not the most attractive dessert you've ever seen, but it sure is chocolaty and yummy!!

I've never had anything sweet cause me so much grief with Evan (my 3 yr old!). He now has baby's illness (coxsackie virus) and is feeling bad. Well he saw me go into the kitchen to bake and immediately wants to help me. I told him no, b/c he's sick. Well he started to chant mean mommy, mean mommy! WOW! I didn't see that one coming! I always knew he really enjoyed baking, but apparently he wants to do it sick or not! I have 2 rules in my kitchen RULE #1 You must have clean hands to help! and yes I do want to feel their recently washed hands :-)
RULE #2 You must not be sick, no fever or snotty noses please!

Anyway, he must've got sidetracked b/c he was fine by the time it came out of the oven and all was peaceful at the Hadley house once again. Hmm? Maybe it was the sweet heavenly aroma of chocolate cooking in the oven that acted like a natural tranquilizer for him? LOL!! Whatever it was I'm thankful!

Now on to the recipe,
Ingredients you will need:
Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, OR do like I did and use a bowl inside a cooker filled with water, same concept :)

Next add beaten eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and nuts if you're using them
Spoon into unbaked pie shell, OR just pour into greased glass or ceramic pie dish. This is the one I used, my wonderful Father-in-law bought it for me a couple years ago at Cracker Barrell, I just love it!
Bake till set, about 25 minutes, cool on wire rack. We have trouble letting things cool around here :)
Cut into pie shape. Top with Cool Whip and finely chopped nuts, if using. Or serve each slice with Cool whip on top, yummaroo!

*Fudgy Brownie Pie:

-1 whole stick butter (8 Tbls)
-2 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
-2 large eggs *who ever buys small eggs? oh excuse me sir, but I would like to purchase some extra small eggs? you never hear that one! LOL!!*
-1 cup granulated sugar
-2 Tbls self-rising flour
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional, OR walnuts (which is my favorite nut!)
-1 (9") unbaked pie shell

-Whipped cream optional

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler set over low heat. Melt over simmering water, stirring frequently, until blended. Remove from heat. cool slightly.
3. Whisk eggs in a small bowl until blended. Add the eggs, granulated sugar, flour, vanilla extract and nuts in order listed to chocolate mixture, mixing well after each addition. Spoon into unbaked pie shell (or just regular greased pie pan).
4. Bake until set, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
5. Cut pie into 8 equal portions. Top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and finely chopped nuts, if desired.


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Aprons...

Today I actually managed to sew two aprons today! I haven't had a chance to sew in many months now. Justin (aka pickle) played in his crib while I sewed the cutest little aprons! One for a boy and one for a girl. In the next week or two I'm going to be doing a free giveaway for toddler aprons. I think Evan wants to keep the Toy Story apron for himself, LOL! I guess I'll be doing another Toy Story one tomorrow for him!

I have the cutest fabric to sew myself an apron! I need to make my aunt several aprons I promised her, so Jane if you're reading this, your aprons will be made shortly!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful evening and enjoying summer with the kids'!



Vicky

Chicken, Chicken

Since the baby is still feeling bad, I thought I would direct you all to an incredible website, southernplate.com I made this last week and it's great! If you're new to southernplate, then boy do you have a treat ahead of you :)

link:

http://www.southernplate.com/2009/09/mamas-chicken-poulet-or-chicken-chicken.html

I never did get around to trying out that new chocolate recipe, I'm easily sidetracked! When the kids' get sick I'm a tad frazzled! Hopefully baby will feel well enough for me to do some baking tonight or tomorrow!

I would love to hear if any of you are baking something yummy! I'm working on my blog trying to get a comment thing working, I don't think it is yet! Oh, these computers!! Or as my dh (dear husband) would say, not the computers, but the people working them, LOL! He's a computer expert and me, well let's just say I know how to do my blog, that's incredible for me :-)


MySticky.net

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Britax Stroller giveaway, link below

Born 2 Impress is having an incredible giveaway, a Britax stroller! All our kids' have used Britax at one point or another, they are the best car seats out there, in my opinion! Here is the link if you want to sign up for the giveaway

http://kidzborn2impress.blogspot.com

MMMM, fresh blueberries!

Well, it looks like the Blueberry Buckle thing I made yesterday got all thumbs up from the kids', even little pickle ate it and he's feeling bad! I had actually forgotten what a taste difference using fresh blueberries made! Like I said yesterday, the kids always eat fresh fruit and between 3 kids (baby's just now starting to eat fresh fruits) fruit doesn't last long around here! So my post today is to encourage you to go buy some fresh blueberries and eat half of them raw and bake something with the other half :)