Thursday: 4-ingredient Blueberry/Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls

This is an easy and cheap way to make blueberry cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients:

1 cup of blueberries or blackberries (frozen or fresh)

½ cup of sugar

2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg is a decent substitute)

2 packages of refrigerator biscuits (homestyle or traditional- either is fine)

Step 1

STEPS:

1- Wet your hands slightly and take 2 biscuits- flatten/combine them as shown in the picture

Step 2

2- Combine the sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and berries in a saucepan on medium heat until warm

3- Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the berry mix on the dough and roll it

Step 3

Step 3

4- Place the rolled dough in a round, lightly greased pie pan

Steps 4 and 5

5- Once all of the berry rolls have been put into the pan, pat the dough down to flatten it slightly and sprinkle with a dash more of pumpkin pie spice

Bake your rolls at 350 for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Spread some frosting on the top if desired, pull apart and enjoy!




PS- Don't forget Freebie Friday's this week, I'll be giving away a sushi making set!

Wednesday: The TRUTH About Being a New Mom

Yuuuuuuup.

Tuesday News-Days: Some-day Nursery and First Solid Meal!

Baby girl is on a 90-day Layaway...

This week, Sam, baby, and I are getting ready to move out of our small, basement apartment. Are we moving? Nope, not even close- but I know that we will be moving in the next few months and am preparing accordingly. 

SO, I am getting everything ready for my someday nursery.

Our new white crib!

Newest addition? This cute little white crib. I bought it at Burlington Coat Factory, and through a combination of gift cards, coupons and other discounts, it came at the low low price of $80! Take that white crib, add my rocker and ottoman and diaper changing station (a little extra paint) and I have the nursery ready to go!

Don't you think she'll be
happier in her own crib
than a pack-n-play?

Not that I HAVE a nursery, but someday when I do, I’ll be ready to go. I can see it now- white furniture, pink and turquoise for bedding, cushions, and curtains…. Just have to get a place to put it all.

Now, if a some-day nursery isn’t enough, little girl had her first solid meal this week- Rice cereal! She kept using the same sucking that she does to drink from her bottle to eat it, but couldn’t figure out how to keep her mouth closed while doing it. This, naturally, gave her face, bib, and me a fine, thin coating of milky rice cereal.

  

She definitely loved it, though. Just check out the pictures!

Practice makes perfect!

Getting ready...

Daddy RUSHED home to
give her the first bite

Sweatin' to the Oldies



Thanks for the leg warmers, Nell.....

My Monday Thoughts: Marriage and the Day I Almost Killed Someone

When I was in college, I worked as the evening manager for a stocking crew at a local grocery store. I was training a new employee (let’s call him Steve) and had made it to the back room, where the cardboard baler was. 3-4 times a day, the baler would be filled with cardboard from stocking the shelves and need to be emptied, so it was necessary for our new employee to learn how to make a bale correctly. I was ready to give Steve his first lesson in making a bale.

This lesson of mine? Almost cost Steve his life.

The basics to building a proper bale are simple: six strong, flexible wires needed to be wrapped around the bale while the machine smashed the cardboard down as much as possible. One slight problem, however, is that the holes where the wires needed to be put through in the machine would get clogged with cardboard. The solution? A long, heavy metal bar with a pointed end that could be shoved through the holes.

Steve and I were in the back, making a bale together. I told him to get in the back of the baler to make sure the wires went through as I pushed out the offending cardboard that was blocking the wire holes. I distinctly remember him asking,

“What if you push the bar through while I’m right here?”

To which I answered, “It’s easy- I’ll just shout out which hole I am punching out 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc.- and when I call out the number, make sure you aren’t behind that hole!”

I proceeded to lift that bar and shoved it through the holes with all my might, all the while shouting, “1^st hole!” “2^nd hole!” “3^rd hole!” and then “4^th hole!”. This was accompanied by a scream. “AH! You got me in the eye!” Steve was already quite the prankster and I told him to not joke about something so serious. He walked out from behind the baler, covering his face. I could already see blood streaming from behind his fingers.

I thought I wanted to die.

It wasn’t until after we made it to the emergency room that the story of what had happened came out. For some reason, he had been confused and when I said “4^th hole!”. He thought that I wanted him to see what was blocking the whole and he had PUT HIS EYE to the hole RIGHT when I shoved that bar through.

Through some amazing stroke of luck, the doctor told us, the bar had glanced off the bridge of his nose and scraped his eye lightly. He ended up with stitches on his nose and an eye patch for a few weeks, but otherwise was fine.

What made me sick to my stomach was how CLOSE that sharp, heavy pole came to piercing through his eye and into his brain. He could easily have died. This story still haunts my memory.

AND. Is a lesson in marriage.

Neither Steve nor I was doing something wrong. We both were doing what needed to be done to make a successful bale, but because we were not communicating correctly, I almost ended up killing him.

In marriage, both you and your spouse could be doing the right thing to making a good marriage (working for a living, taking care of your kids, running a good household), but if you have poor communication and cannot tell one another where you are and what/why you do what you do, you can end up killing your marriage.

Communication. It will literally make or break your marriage.

Friday: Easy DIY Earrings Organizer

DIY Earring Post

This is a great (EASY!) way to organize your earrings and only takes a few minutes and a few materials to make. I made mine when I found it hard to find my earrings in sets, since they always seemed to get lost and tangled in my jewelry boxes.

1- Cut out a thick piece of poster board into a rectangle

2- At the top middle of the poster board, make two small holes, about one inch apart.  Put a piece of tape over each hole (the tape helps to reinforce it so that the thread won’t rip through)

3- Thread your needle with embroidery floss and use the needle to puncture the holes you made at the top middle. Thread the floss through and make a knot on each end on the back.

4- Use a needle to make sets of holes (where your earrings will hang)

5- Put all of your earrings in the holes that you have made

6- Hang it up on a nail and never worry about where your earrings are!

Thursday: 4 Ingredient Key Lime Pie- Easy as Pie!

Gather:

*4 eggs yolks

*1 can of sweetened condensed milk

*1/2 cup of key lime juice (regular lime juice works, too)

*1 graham cracker crust

Mix the yolks, milk, and lime juice in a bowl until smooth, (add a little green food coloring if you prefer a more lime-colored filling) then pour into the graham cracker crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Allow to cool. Garnish with meringue, whipping cream, or fresh limes. Refrigerate after cooling.

Enjoy! You won't believe that these four ingredients make such a creamy, rich pie- and neither will anyone else who eats it!

PS! Don't forget to check back on Friday for my next installation of Friday Freebies!!!

Wednesday: Kids Say the Cutest Things- No, Really!

Kids really DO say the darndest things! This week, for the Wednesday Lark, I want to share somethig from my family. My mother had the foresight to write down any especially funny or cute things that her 10 children said growing up and compiled it into two volumes of what my family calls ‘cute sayings’. Here are some family favorites (as told by my mom).

Trevor: “I drank the juice out of my gum, but I won’t swallow it down into my skeleton.”

Darby: (said about my friend Claudia after she left our home) “Mom, why do you call her Claudia? That is an uglish name and it has ugly parts to it.”

Trevor: I told Trevor to always stay my baby and never grow up, to which he replied, “I have to or I won’t ever marry and my wife won’t like it.”

Trevor: While at a family party, his favorite aunt came in her new security guard uniform and Trevor avoided her all night. When I told her that he shouldn’t ignore his favorite aunt, he said, “She’s not my favorite aunt anymore; she is a policeman now and we’d better watch out!”

Ben: I was reading Ben a story about a boy named Ben who gets bullied by a boy named Steve. Ben pointed to the name Ben in the book and said, “Is that me?” to which I replied yes. He said, disappointedly, “Oh, dang it, I wanted to be the mean one.”

Davin: I went on a walk with Davin and the baby, but Davin wanted to be carried. I kept telling him that I couldn’t carry him and push the stroller, to which he finally said, “OK! Then I will carry myself!”

Rebecca: When the boys were taking their time getting dressed, just waltzing in their underwear, I said, “Maybe you can wear just your underwear to church and start a fad.” Rebecca, hearing this, said, “I got my underwear on and I am NOT fat!”

Emily (me): “These are board books- when you are bored, you have to look at them.”

Spencer: “My friend had a cool show-and-tell today. His dad works at the dump and found a jacket for him! Why doesn’t dad work at the dump?”

Trevor: I asked Trevor if he wanted a baby sister or a baby brother and he said “I want a girl, cause we don’t need a boy baby, we already have Ben and I don’t want to get rid of him- he’s my best friend!”

Trevor: Trevor brought me a doll and said “Turn this into good.” and I said, “What?”, so he said, “Look at

Romney vs. Obama. Obamney?

Let’s face it. The way things are headed, Mitt Romney is, barring some surprising upset, our next Republican candidate to go against Obama.

Another truth?

There is a good chance that he will win.

People in America have seen the poor economy and job market. They've been hurt by falling and unreliable stocks/401 k’s. The blame for this often falls on the Obama administration.

As president, Obama does have an influence on these things, but he does NOT single-handedly control them. This isn’t a dictatorship. He just doesn’t have that kind of power. That said, American’s still blame most of America’s issues on Obama and the Democratic Party, so a change to a Republican president seems almost inevitable.  

Now, let’s go ahead and say that Romney wins.

Is he going to fix America?

Of course not- but only because no single person can ‘fix’ an entire nation. In spite of this, however, let me tell you what he will bring to the table:

Honesty.

Integrity.

A no-nonsense approach to government.

Reasonable cuts.

His genius in business and the financial sector.

Dedication.

You may not agree with every policy he has- but when is there EVER a politician with whom you can agree on every point? There simply isn’t. He will, however,  press forward honorably in all he does- and even if you hate every policy he has, you just can’t hate his strong moral character.

So, let’s hear it for our new president to be?  Romney.

I'm a REAL mom, now.

Surprise!

I’m pretty new at this whole mom thing. My little girl is less than six months old, but in that six months, we have been through a lot.



Fresh out of the oven

The first, docile, “I want 100 more of you sweet babies” days, the hours of screaming colic, the blow outs, first smile, rolling over, sitting up and all of those other moments, good and bad, that make up that time that you spend with your baby. I have felt that special, “I never understood how much a mom can love their baby so much until now” moment and felt like I was starting to get things.

It wasn’t until late last week, however, that I felt like I had finally arrived as a mother.

My baby girl was sick- fever, cranky, not sleeping. That was not too bad- but then she started to get night terrors. From what I read, they are sometimes triggered by fevers, but are still uncommon in babies. And let me tell you- watching a baby with a night terror is terrorizing- to the mom.

Brief explanation: she ‘wakes’ up, screaming and crying, like something is attacking her, but her eyes are tightly closed. She trashes and kicks, and though you pick her up, rock her, bounce her, sing to her, she just doesn’t respond.

Within 5-20 minutes, if you can get her to wake up, she will be totally fine, cooing and laughing, obviously no memory of what has occurred. But those few moments of night terrors, watching your baby writhe while there is nothing you can do?

My precious girl when she is not sicky

Awful. 

So, Saturday night, as I rocked my darling girl, I just prayed and thought to myself how very much I wish I could protect her little body. I wash, dress, change, tickle, and feed her, but there was nothing, aside from a little Tylenol, that I could do for her inside.

I held her tightly in my arms, just wishing I could take away her pain and onto myself, so she could be free. That was it! I realized:

I KNEW that I would rather suffer than watch my baby suffer.

I am a real mom now. Officially.

Baby 9-1-1

This is for my Saturday –Simple-To-Do entry. It’s for moms and dads everywhere, and easy as pie!

1. Collect:

*A onesie

*One pair of socks

*A small pack of wipes

*2 diapers

*Hand sanitizer

2. Just throw them all into a gallon sized Ziploc  bag and put it in the trunk of your car, truck, stroller, etc. Update it every few months by changing out the diaper/onesies. It costs very little to make, and I guarantee you that first time it comes in handy, you won’t be sorry.

5 Ways to Get Your Kids (or Husband) Eating Vegetables

RULE 1: DON’T let them into the kitchen while cooking or they will know the sneaky things you put into their food.

Trick 1: Spaghetti Sauce

When making your spaghetti sauce, pick a mild-flavored veggie (most any will do- carrots, spaghetti squash, spinach, etc.), steam it, dice it, and throw it in the blender and pour the puree into your spaghetti sauce. The red will cover your tracks visually and the blend of spices will cover the flavor. If needed, throw in a little extra garlic or onion powder to hide any trace flavors, so they won’t know your ‘special’ ingredient

Trick 2: Ham Fried Rice 

Use your favorite fried rice recipe, but with a few additions. Add 1/8 cup onions (VERY finely minced) per person eating and add it when you are frying the ham. Let it cook a little longer than normal, so that the onions become soft. Make sure that your ham chunks are a little larger than normal and add 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon (Or a ramen noodle seasoning packet). The ham chunks being larger make them ignore the smaller onion pieces and the chicken bouillon gives it a yellow tint, covering the onions visually.

Trick 3: Mash Potatoes

Dice and boil potatoes, adding squash (after removing the seeds), making it 3 parts potato and 1 part squash (spaghetti squash, zucchini (make sure to remove the skin) and if your kids aren’t TOO discerning, butternut works, too.) After boiling until completely soft, mash and add (per 3 potatoes and one chunk of squash)

*4 tablespoons of butter

*½ cup sour cream (or 1/3 cup of evaporated milk)

*¼ cup of cream cheese (optional)

*Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste

They may not be light on fat… but they are delicious and more nutritious (secretly). If anyone comments on the slightly different color, simply tell them it’s due to the ‘extra butter’ that you added.

Trick 4: Barbecue Sauce

I use this one on my husband, who claims to hate tomatoes. When cooking up his favorite meat (chicken breast, pork chop, steak, etc.), I brown both sides on medium-high, turn down the heat and add, already mixed

*1 can of tomato sauce (for every 3 pieces of meat)

*1/4 cup of soy sauce

*1 tablespoon of cumin

*1/4 cup of brown sugar

*Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste

and then finish cooking the meat on low in this sauce. As it cooks, the water will evaporate, making the sauce thicker. When the meat is done, simply put the meat over potatoes or rice and divide the remaining sauce over it. They won’t know that your delicious ‘sauce’ actually gives them a full serving of tomatoes….

Trick 5: Taco Meat

Easy and fast, this is great for everyone that loves tacos. When adding your taco seasoning to your hamburger, simply put in 1/3 the water required (norm is ¾ a cup per packet, so put in only ¼ of a cup) and throw in one can of diced chilies for every 2 people eating. The strong flavor of the taco seasoning and the ground texture of the meat make it virtually undetectable. I told my husband, after a year of taco-making, that I add green chilies to his taco meat. He didn’t believe it until he saw me add them while I was actually cooking them.

Baby I Love

Princesses Only.....

America is Number.... Seven?

MSN recently reviewed some of the richest nations in the world. They posted online the top seven. Seven? Not top five, ten, or twenty? Nope, it was the top seven.

Why?

Because the United States was number seven.

So, naturally, they had no inclination to go any further. For if there is one thing we Americans are, it’s a little ego-centric. The center of the universe hasn’t been found yet, but when it is, we are all quite sure that it will be found in America. That’s why when MSN looked at wealthy, important countries, they knew their list only had to reach to America.

If America was the fourth wealthiest country in the world, then the list would have been the top four richest countries in the world.

And, according to MSN, it seems that being an oil-rich exporter is what puts nearly all of the other six countries ahead of the US.

So, dear America, if we want to bump ourselves up in the global wealth sector, we must either go totally green and use nearly NO oil and reply on other resources for energy, thereby giving no monetary gains to those oil nations, or else crack open every possible oil main we have and export ‘til the cows come home.

Gotta Love Rap?

Why is it that rap and R&B music is so catchy? Well, because they HAVE to be. If you could understand the lyrics the first time you heard the song, most people would abhor the music. So the music itself must be mega-catchy, so that people will listen to the music in SPITE of the lyrics.

To illustrate my point:

“I’m trying to find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful- Damn, she’s a sexy bitch.” (From David Guetta’s ‘Sexy Bitch’) Wow. Really. You’re trying to find the words to describe someone without being disrespectful- do you KNOW the meaning of the word disrespectful?

“This ring here represents my heart and everything I’ve been waiting for, just say it, I do….All I want you to do is be my love….but forget your face, I swear I will.’ (From Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Girl’). That’s a win. Marry me, then I’ll forget your face.

And, of course…

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! Yeah, Yeah! Yeaah! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! Yeah, Yeah! Yeaah!” (From Usher’s ‘Yeah’)

But then again, maybe women-hating and repetition is what you look for in music? Yet, the tune is so catchy, here we are, listening to the songs anyhow....

Words to live by

Americans and TV

What do Americans love more than TV?

Almost nothing, if the time we spend watching TV is any indication of our fervor for it. Most American’s average 4 hours a day. Barring sleep, there is nothing that the average American does more.

That said- how closely do you pay attention to the commercials on TV? True, with the advent of TV-on-DVD and various DVR’s, it is possible to skip or eliminate commercials to some degree, but I think most of us find that we are still exposed to a variety of commercials.

Pick a show that you watch often and pay close heed to the commercials. What do they say about you? About the other people that watch the same shows? Aside from widely popular things, such as the Super Bowl, most commercials are very closely tailored to their audience.

If you see chocolate commercials? Know that they are generally created for women. Truck commercials? Men. Others are more specific, like Axe products, which are made for men from the ages of 13-28. Baby food commercials are usually adapted for women in their 20’s (the age when most women have children).

Now, watch your show and pay attention during the breaks. See how they often seem to perfectly describe you and the position you are in.

When I watch America’s Next Top Model (my own personal guilty pleasure show), I see chocolate commercials (women-I am a woman), then Venus razors (women that care about their appearance- I do). This is followed by a whole slew of weight loss commercials, (I just had a baby- I AM working on losing the baby weight) and 30 seconds on how Huggies will make my baby’s bottom happy (I DO have a new infant).

 It goes on and on- and you can see how these commercials are so closely tailored to me, it is almost like it was made just for me.

There are a few shows that are poorly funded with their commercials or else are more for a general audience, but for most shows, you may well be surprised at what your will find if you simply pay attention.

Tuesday: DIY Restaurant Style Sushi Made at Home

What's more American than hot dogs or hamburgers? Many things, as neither originated in America. America, however, is great at incorporating items into its own culture. In that case, what's more American than sushi? It's about as integrated into our society today as a fancy burger joint- though much pricier! So, here is a step-by-step (focusing mostly on methodology) on how to make sushi at home- for about $1 a roll.

1st- Assemble your ingredients. We'll start with what you need for a basic California roll.
-Botan rice
-Avocado
-Cucumber
-Imitation crab meat
-Rice vinegar
-1/2 sheets of dried seaweed (or full sheets, cut in half)
-1 cup cold water in a bowl
(My pictures show additional salmon and shrimp for other rolls I assembled later)

A- Cook your rice (1 1/2 cups will make about 5 rolls of sushi)
    ***Add 1/8 cup rice vinegar after rice is cooked
    ***Allow rice to cool, mixing every 5-10 minutes until cooled.










B-While the rice is cooling, prep your ingredients!

Let's get started!

***Cut the seeds from your cucumber and slice even, 2-2 1/2 inch long segments
***Slice open your avocado (since it is such a soft fruit, there is no need to prepare slices until right before you add it to your roll)
***Slice, then separate your krab meat
***Use plastic wrap to cover your bamboo rolling mat

And the other side

Adding plastic wrap on one side

C- Assembling the roll
***Wet hands and place the shiny side of the seaweed down on your bamboo mat. Sprinkle a small amount of water on each of the ends of the seaweed.

***Place a line of cucumbers in the middle, then add a sprinkling of krab meat and a row of sliced avocados.

***Next Part- tough- ROLL the half sheet. The most important thing to know in rolling is to GET IT ROLLED TIGHTLY! To do this, make sure each end of the seaweed is slightly dampened, then use the bamboo mat to roll the seaweed over until the two sides touch. Once this is done, pull it tight!

Pull tightly by following the directions of these arrows.

D. This will give you a small, thin, green roll. Place it aside temporarily and wet your bamboo mat thoroughly.

***Moisten your hands in water as well and then take your vinegar-rice and sprinkle (not press) it over the mat until it covers approximately 2/3rds of the mat.

***Next, place your thin, green roll in the middle of this rice

*** Squeeze the rice together to cover the roll and roll together with the same motion you used when making your seaweed middle

***If,  upon unwrapping, you see places where the rice has not fully covered the center












***Simply sprinkle rice to cover the holes, and re-roll it tightly

E. Finishing Up!

***Get ready to slice your roll! If you don't have a sushi knife, sharpen your best blade and put it to work. (If you are having trouble slicing the sushi, make sure that your blade's surface is free of any sticky rice, wet the blade, and slice again)

***Assemble your roll in 6-8 pieces on a clean plate and get ready to serve!

This is my finished California roll-

 





Good luck to you in your sushi making! It's an acquired skill- don't give up if you don't get it perfect the first time!


Here are a few more rolls I  made in this same batch.

Spicy Veggie Roll

Shrimp Roll

Cucumber Dragon Roll

*** If you are interested in the how-to for the more complicated rolls or the recipes for your own eel-sauce or spicy mayo for your own sushi creations, just let me know.