The Revision of The Dream

The last post I did felt pretty good at the time. I was satisfied with the pictures I had found and felt I was successful at conveying my ideas. I was glad to hear that some of you out there could identify with what I was feeling at the time....yes, it felt nice to have a dream of mine illustrated so that I could see it "on paper". However, I was gently reminded that I left something out.

My life is good.

It's not just good, it's blessed with all kinds of gifts from my Father in heaven and I am so thankful for what He has already given me that to "daydream" about having something different seemed ungrateful.

So here's a little post about reality.

I have two beautiful, smart, creative, funny children whom I love with all of my heart.

I actually got to carve out some time this week to make our first Christmas cookies together!

I have to say, even though getting together with all my family and friends still sounds great, this time with my kids satisfied me more that I could imagine.

I love building memories and traditions into our lives!

And look at the cookies we created :)

They aren't like the cookies that you see in certain magazines about "living" but they have more meaning and love than a perfectly decorated cookie will ever have. (By the way, the one that looks like a ghost is my sons angel)

I also have a husband who does everything he can to take care of me, whom I love with all of my heart also. He's smart and funny and thoughtful. He works hard to provide us with nice things and takes care of them when they break (which seems to be often lately). I'm also blessed because he knows so much about God's word and is able to teach his family the truth of scripture. If you haven't checked out his blog, you should. He's got some great stuff on there.

There are so many other things to be thankful for that it would end up being a very long list so I'll sum it up with this...

God continues to provide for our needs, He is faithful and trustworthy. And, as I was reading in Jeremiah this morning, I found comfort in these words from Him which were meant to strike fear in the hearts of the Jews because of their rebellion against Him, but for those of us who love the Lord they mean something else entirely...

"Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord, "And not a God afar off?"..."Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:23 &24

God is near to us and is active in the world today. He does not stand afar off and leave us on our own but takes care of us and cares for us and for that I am thankful.

Have a blessed day and a worshipful Christmas Season!

The cookie and frosting recipe I used can be found at

www.landolakes.com

"Best Ever Butter Cookies"

"Favorite Butter Frosting"

And the cake in the above picture was the lemon cake I posted about here.

Visions of Sugar Plums

I love Christmas Cookies. They almost look too pretty to eat...almost.

I know they're not sugar plums, what are sugar plums anyway? I don't really care since I won't be making any this season, my point is I'm dreaming today.

This post is a little different than my normal posts, I guess I'm in a bit of a wishful state of mind today. The weather outside my living room window, where I sit typing this, with my Christmas tree glowing and sparkling from all the decorations, looks like a typical "winter" day. The sky is gray and the wind is blowing like crazy. It looks like it should snow at any minute. But, alas, I live in Florida where the feels like temperature today is somewhere around 80 degrees (I'm sure) and instead of snow we will get rain (oh yeah, and a possibility of tornadoes). So, I sit in my warm, cozy house pretending to look out onto something like this...

...and daydream of being in a kitchen like this...

...with family and friends, sharing wonderful stories and laughing at funny things that have happened to us over the year, since the last time we got together to do some holiday baking. Not that I've ever done this but I dream of doing this. A whole day devoted to female bonding! Mothers, sisters, friends, anyone who wants to come to my house, relax, listen to Christmas music, have a glass of wine or egg nog and bake till their little heart's content (that is why I need such a big kitchen, it's not that I'm greedy, I need the space!)

And look at this kitchen table!

Can you imagine the cookie making that could go on at that table???

And for those wanting to take a break from the kitchen, you can sit and nibble on the goods by the tree.

What would the men be doing? I have a few suggestions. Hunting, fishing, snowmobiling...

...or relaxing in front of the TV watching football...

Or maybe shooting a friendly game of pool?

See, I didn't forget about you guys.

Welcome to my dream on this blustery December day.

Maybe one day it won't be "just a dream"

Lemon Perfection

Look at this cake. Isn't it beautiful? I didn't make it, you can find it here. I needed a picture to go along with the lemon bundt cake I made because in all my haste to get it out the door of this sometimes crazy household I forgot to take a picture of mine. I had to give you the recipe though since it is one of my all-time favorites. If you are a cake-lover but you hate what it does to your body this recipe will be your friend too. It's simple, budget-friendly, figure-friendly and delicious! It's also low-fat, low cholesterol and low calorie. There is something nice about being able to bake a great dessert that won't put everyone into a high calorie nose dive and your friends and family will appreciate that you're looking out for them too. I actually made this for a class that I'm attending at my church about eating right! So go ahead and bake up some love for the people in your life this season! Their waist-lines will thank you for thinking of them.

Lemon Bundt Cake

1 box of lemon cake mix

1 whole egg

2 egg whites

12 oz can of diet lemon-lime soda

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar

Juice of 1 lemon (approx. 2 TBSP)

Mix, bake and cool cake according to box directions using the ingredients above. After inverting cake out onto a serving plate, mix glaze and pour over cake. Slice and serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 servings.

Cake Pop Eyeballs

Here they are, the cake pop eyeballs I promised! These babies were slightly more difficult than I anticipated but the end result was worth it. Cool to look at and sweet to eat, they were a hit at the Halloween party I took them to and my kids couldn't keep their hands off of them! Well, who can blame them? It's not everyday you get to eat something like this.

So here are the products I used...

...and here is the process.

First, make your cake. Just a 13x9 pan will do since it doesn't matter what it will look like coming out of the oven.

Then, crumble it in a bowl and add some FROSTING!

Right here I'm thinking "I could skip all the work and just use that spoon to eat it like this and I'd be a happy girl" (did I mention I LOVE cake?) But my mom has drilled into my head "delayed gratification" all my life, so I restrained myself and pressed on.

This is what it should look like when it's all mixed together (that's one cake and one can of frosting). Not as appetizing to look at but let me assure you it tastes just fine. I had to taste it, for YOUR sakes!

Then roll into balls and place on a piece of wax paper and chill in the freezer. The colder they are the better they will hold their shape when you dip them.

I stuck some of them with sticks to make pops but most of them I left as just "cake balls".

I AM NOT HAPPY HERE!

The candy coating didn't melt in the microwave THE WAY THE PACKAGE SAID IT WOULD!

So I moved it to the stove and added some shortening because it looked dried out. Pretty soon we were back on track.

That's more like it!

The rest of the steps aren't photographed and I'm sorry about that. I got very focused on getting these things to look right (it was my first time doing anything with candy coating) that I forgot to take pictures. Just dip the frozen cake balls into the coating, spoon over the cake if needed, and lay on wax paper to dry. Bakerella suggest sticking the pops in a block of Styrofoam to dry upright, I agree with her.

Before they dry, stick an M&M in the middle to be the pupil and then let them dry completely.

The red frosting is just powdered sugar, a little water and food coloring piped on.

After a while I got tired of making eyes and decided to do some pretty sprinkles on the advice of my daughter who is a big sprinkles advocate.

The final presentation.

They were fun but I think it will be a while before I do this again,

maybe when the kids can help more :)

The "Sweet Reward" of Being Married

Don't you just love waking up to nice surprises? My husband knows how to make a girl feel special. Sunday morning, after a hard week with sick kids and little sleep, I wake up to find these beauties sitting on my dining room table. Aren't they GORGEOUS?! It was our 7 year anniversary and neither one of us knew if we'd be celebrating as usual because of some kind of virus going on in our house, but my husband made sure that I had lovely roses waiting for me. He's a keeper. I don't have time to list everything I love about him but he knows what they are.

We did manage to have dinner out at our traditional anniversary restaurant thanks to Grandma watching the patients at home and it was nice to get away just the two of us (which doesn't happen very often). Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you! Thank you for the flowers...

...and the wonderful life we share.

I praise God for the marriage I have with you, it is by His grace that

we are who we are today.

I Love Your Eyes....They Taste Really Good!

Halloween is coming up fast and I am super excited! My brother and his wife are having their annual Halloween party and I'm thinking about making these to bring along. Right about now my husband is rolling his eyes.....well, honey, you better be careful or they might end up on a plate! Just kidding Jason, I love you.......I'm not in trouble right? OK.

I have been looking at Bakerella's website and ooooooing and awwwwwing over her sweet little cake pops, wanting to do something with that recipe for Halloween and of course she has very cute ideas for them during this holiday but I'll admit, I'm intimidated. The shapes and the colors and the artistry....I needed something easy for my first attempt. So, while looking through the Taste of Home Halloween recipe book my mom gave me, I came across these little eyeballs. The recipe in the book actually makes a confection similar to a buckeye but I believe (and will try to prove) that it can easily be translated into a cake pop. Wish me luck!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies to the Rescue!

These cookies have a mission beyond what any other cookie claims it can do, are you ready for this? These cookies were designed to ease my PMS! YES, I'm telling you the truth. I came across this recipe while trying to find a "healthy" oatmeal cookie recipe to make for my family since all of us these days are watching what we eat. Even when you're dieting you still want something sweet, in fact, you'll tear the kitchen apart in search of it! So I saw this on another website (http://www.fitsugar.com/4016081 ) and decided to give it a try.

I had my lovely little helper by my side as usual and my trusty stand mixer (love that thing) so I got to work. Adding in bananas and Flax to help with cramping, butterscotch chips for yumminess and oatmeal for vitamin B6, the batter started coming together. I left out the peanuts that the recipe calls for because I wanted to keep it as low fat as possible but looking back now I should have thrown some in, they help with moodiness apparently.

I left plenty of room on the cookie sheet between each one because I didn't know how they would spread, they ended up not spreading at all and looked like little clumps of oatmeal coming out of the oven (that picture is of them before going in). So I flattened out the next batch and put even more on the sheet. They came out more cookie-like.

They weren't exactly what I expected them to be, so I got mad and threw them across the kitchen.....KIDDING! They were good enough to keep and my family loved them (my picky one wanted more after having had two already!) Did they ease my PMS? I can't say that they are miracle cookies but I haven't been craving things like usual. Maybe next time I'll grind up some Midol and throw it in there.......hmmmmm, new "pharmaceutical" cookies. Could be my niche?