I Saw, I Pinned, I Made, Sweet Salted Badassery!

This is what Heaven must taste like.

You know what I look for in a dessert recipe?

• Easy
• Cheap
• Delicious

I definitely got it with this. 

It's called Chocolate Toffee Bark, and it looks like this...

Unfortunately, I didn't follow this recipe, and I should have. Because the recipe I did follow was....well, it could have used accurate directions. 

The linked recipe calls for you to mix the brown sugar and the butter over medium heat for three minutes. THe one I followed, said heat, mix, and BOIL for three minutes. 

It also, unlike the link, called for a single stick of butter. It didn't make enough to coat all of them. 

Sadly, the recipe I followed also called for you to bake it at 350 for....five minutes. Yep. Only five. Which left the syrupy brown sugar mixture still wet and sticky, instead of hard and solid, like in that picture up there. 

It did say to spread the chocolate chips once they melted, and it also said to refrigerate. I froze mine for an hour. 

In the end, the result was more or less the pictured image, but with wet sticky sweetness on the bottom. 

Tony enjoyed the giant piece he snagged, and he's not a fan of sweets. Guess it was just salty enough to  balance out the sweet!

I Made....The Easiest Chili Ever!

Seriously, it really was.

Gift from my mom. ♥♥♥ She's awesome.

Mmmmm....beef.

First, I browned 2.5 lbs of ground beef. Because we REALLY like our chili.

After draining it, I dropped it into a crockpot.

Yep, that's what it is.

They were out of Palomino and Clydesdale.

Added two cans of diced tomatoes. Added two cans of Pinto beans.

Added 1 cup of water, and two McCormick Original Chili Seasoning packets.

You look funny with your head like that.

After about an hour, Tony added 1/8 cup of flour, because we wanted it a tad thicker.

Awesomesauce.

And after 90 minutes on high, it was amazing.

I added my own seasonings to mine, after. Like a generous splash of hot sauce, some medium salsa, and some sour cream, and topped it off with a handful of crushed saltines.

Speaking of Saltines.... Check out my next post for something super sweet and super easy.

I Made...A Mobile!

 I really did! But it's not the one I have in my head. This one was more of a practice piece, to test out the general layout. I started with:

• Compass
• Glue
• Bamboo skewers
• Fishing Line
• Construction paper

Need this. 

2 of these.

Fishing Line.

Rainbow construction paper.

Glue.

First, I gathered my supplies.

I took two of the bamboo skewers, and snipped off the pointy bits.  

Then I took a length of fishing line, and made an X with the skewers. After tying it off, I put a dab of glue on the end To ensure the fishing line remained knotted. 

With my base finished, I stacked the paper, and traced several different sized circles using my compass. 

I also made sure to have a large circle that I could use for my centerpiece, and just cut out a smaller circle from the inside.  Then I folded it in half. 

And ran glue along one side of my now half circle.  

I bent a yellow one in half, the same way, and fit it against the glue.

I then folded the yellow over, ran glue along it, and fit the blue against it. And glued the other half of the blue to the red. 

I also cut out some hearts, and
repeated the process using purple, green, and orange.

After some drying time, I tied some fishing line to the top of the heart in the center, and dabbed some glue on the knot.

Then I tied it to the bottom of the top 

part of the ring, with another dab of glue

 to keep that knot, too, and then ran some 

fishing line from the very top part of the 

outer ring to the center of the skewer X 

(with another dab of glue to hold it) 

and voila! 

My center part was done.

What isn't pictured is that I took additional lengths of fishing line, and tied them to opposite ends of one of the cross beams of the X. Going back to my circles, I made sure that one set of circles descended in size from red (big) to purple (small) and then from Purple (big) to Red (small.)

I took a pushpin and poked two holes in a row into the center of each circle, and threaded them through the lines. Afterward, I dabbed a tiny bit of glue on each side of the hole to prevent the circles from sliding, and then hung it over the bassinet.

Vera went bananas. She laughed and screeched and squealed and finally lay there, smiling, as she watched me turn it.

It's not perfect, and I know what I can do next time to improve it. But for now, she adores it, and really, that is all that matters.

Delays...

Sadly, my camera's failness prevents me from showing you any decent pictures of the two mobiles I made for my daughter.

And speaking of fail, let's not discuss the wet weather that is preventing me from upcycling some frames!

I'll be making salt dough later, with pics.

I Saw, I Pinned, I Made... Breakfast!

Last week,  I made the decision to make breakfast for the family at least twice a week, on the days Tony has off. And since yesterday was one of them, I figured there was no time like the present. I earn awesome points from Owen and Tony, fill all our bellies, and get to be all lazy till dinner. Plus, bacon.

So, I break out the Bisquick and whip up some pancake batter. I am pretty sure I don't need to post the recipe here, since it's on your box, but it's ridiculously easy. 2 c Bisquick, 1 c milk, and 1 egg. Mix, pour, flip, eat.

Best when slightly underdone and still hot.

Mmmm.....bacon.

 But a lonely pancake es no bueno. Pancakes need company. Otherwise the breakfast police really will haul you off and execute you. True story, it happened to my friend's brother's roomate's nephew's girlfriend's cleaning lady's kid. They made pancakes, and forgot to make eggs, and poof, gone 

Tony has this thing where pancakes should only be cooked in bacon grease. I think it's his way of getting me to make him some bacon.  So... I did. Cooked the pancakes....

and broke out the mini pie tins. 

This was super good, and easy. You may enjoy your pig strips crispy, but we don't. So I sprayed the tins, and dropped two strips in, then cracked open two eggs. Baked them at 375 for 25 minutes. It was a tiny bit too long, but the guys loved them anyway. Tony sat his in between a split biscuit and was so happy. 

If you want the "right" way to do this, click here. But feel free to experiment! It often comes out delightful!

I made...Something!

And it was pretty good.

Now, I am not a fan of SPAM. I like very little about it, aside from the song by Save Ferris. My dad likes it. He's made the kids eat it. But I am kind of intimidated by the fact it has a longer shelf life than paganism. But, Tony loves SPAM. And I love Tony. So.... I decided to break my own commandment of "I WILL NEVER COOK SPAM EVER" and got some of the little pink ovals.

First, I assembled my ingredients. And my rectangle pan. And then, I turned on the oven to 350 and began....

Boiled some of these while I cubed and lightly stirfried some SPAM.
Drained the noodles and dumped unceremoniously in my pan.
Reiterated for the seventh time that I knew I didn't have to make it, but I was making it anyway, and stop telling me I didn't have to if he had any interest in my cooking ever again.
Added the SPAM and a can of drained peas.

 Added a few spoonfulls of Sour cream, and a can of Cream of Soup.

Baked for 7 minutes, then stopped with a mix of crushed saltines and shredded cheddar. Baked again for another 7 minutes.

And got delicious.

Tony had two helpings, and set aside some to take to work tonight since he has to work a double tonight.

I made...Dinner!

Okay, this one is actually mine. I've been making variations of this for years, because I can never seem to do the same thing the same way every time. So here was dinner tonight, my Everchanging Broccocheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts. 

Yes. Yes, they totally tasted like awesome.

 And I baked extra broccoli, drizzled with butter and lightly kissed by salt.

First, I preheated my oven to 350, but I decided not to take a picture of that. Go ahead, you can thank me. 

So, While the oven preheated, I reached for my trusty rolling pin, arguably one of the best inventions EVER, and cringed at the thought of all those bacterians crawling all over it once I introduced it to my chicken. So, i rinsed out a plastic shopping bag, turned it inside out, and stuck my roller in, poking the handles out through the sides of the bag, and tied it closed. 

Ah, chicken. I love chicken, and I could eat it every day. This is the split boneless skinless breast I get insanely cheap at our local Bi-Lo. Most of the time, whenever we have chicken, I marinate the hell out of it in crazy weird concoctions like lemon juice, pepsi, and cayenne pepper. I didn't marinate this time. 

And this is what it looks like after culinary therapy....

Shredded cheddar, tons of fresh broccoli. Love. 

I flipped it over so the rough and ugly side of the breast
is exposed, and layered on some cheese and broccoli.
I broke up the florets. 

Then I rolled it up, seam side down, so it's all pretty like this . 

Feel free to use bisquick, or whatever. I'm out of breadcrumbs but I like
applying a thin coating of Miracle Whip (or mayo, if you're one of those people)
 and rolling in crushed ritz crackers and breadcrumbs. But since
 I was also out of Ritz, I just used these. A quick spritz with the spray,
a light dusting with the mix.  

I also had a pic here of what it looked like in the over, but upon closer inspection, the picture kind of revealed my ugly oven interior, and I was all hinky about adding it. So, it didn't make the cut. 

Now, after the light dusting with the baking mix, I popped the tray in the oven for fifteen minutes. After the 15, I took it out, loaded the empty spaces with broccoli florets, and drizzled them with a little butter, and tossed it all back in for 10 minutes. The chicken was done when I tested the thickest portion of the thickest piece, and the broccoli was so super crispy yet not too hard. And with a very light sprinkling of salt, it was pretty much a plate of hot damn. 

And even the baby let me eat most of my piece!

I hope you try this. And I hope that, if you do try, you're not one of those people who freak out because there were no actual measurements used here.

I just don't do measuring cups if I can help it. 

Good luck and enjoy!