BOO!!!

Applesauce Bars

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to share a recipe that I got from my friend Bonnie. She had these yummy bars one time when she went to get her hair done. Boy I'm ever so glad that she got the recipe too! These are so moist and oh so good too!

Mix together your wet ingredients; eggs, applesauce and oil. Now add the dry ingredients; flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon baking soda and salt. Now the recipe does not call for vanilla but I do add some. I don't know if it is suppose to have it in or not but I do add some.

I mix this all together with my hand held mixer until everything is well incorporated. Pour into an ungreased 15" x 10" x 1" pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Pull out of the oven and set aside to cool.

After the bars have cooled...

Cream together your softened cream cheese, room temperature butter, and vanilla.

Add your powdered sugar gradually, mixing well.

Frost your cooled bars.

Now my husband and daughter like to eat these cold, I prefer them at room temperature because the frosting is soft and gooey. You decided how you like them, but I hope you do like them!!

Applesauce Bars

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped nuts, you can omit if you don't like nuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 beaten eggs

2 cups applesauce

1 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla, not written on the original recipe maybe a mistake??

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in eggs, applesauce, oil and nuts, until well blended. Spread batter into an ungreased 15" x 10" x 1" baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool. Frost

Frosting

2 - 3 ounce packages cream cheese, softened (I just use the whole 8 ounces)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1 pound box powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter; add vanilla, mix. Gradually add powdered sugar until all added and spreading consistency.

Well I hope you all will enjoy this recipe, it is so easy to make and so good too! Mary

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Crock-Pot Ham Bone Soup

Hi everyone!! It sure has gotten cool around here, how about where you live? Last week it was so cool that a big pot of soup or crock-pot full sounded so good. I went digging around in my freezer and found a ham bone, so I decided to make some Ham Bone Soup.

I found this recipe over on Allrecipes. Normally I just make it on the stove top but on the day that I made it, I had alot going on and so I put it in my crock-pot. I love using my crock-pot, it's so nice to come home to the meal done and the house smelling good too! As you can see from the picture you use a ham bone (honey baked is fine too), chicken stock, potatoes, onion, carrots, celery, green beans, garlic, tomatoes and kidney beans. Of course you peel and slice the carrots and celery, dice the onions, drain the green beans and drain and rinse the kidney beans. I use 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic too. Now the original recipe calls for 4 cups of water and 6 chicken bouillon cubes but I just use 4 cups of chicken stock, I was in a hurry one day and that change worked really well with this recipe. Here is what it looks like in the crock-pot ready to be turned on. Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.

About 30 minutes to an hour before you are ready to eat, pull the ham bone out, my ham just came right off the bone and I had to fish out the meat. You can dice, slice or shred the meat, however you would like it. Put the meat back into the crock-pot and stir. Leave until you are ready to eat.

Here is what a bowl of the soup looks like and oh the wonderful smell, YUMMY!!! I serve it with cornbread. Hope you give it a try, you will not be disappointed!

Ham Bone Soup

1 ham bone with some meat

1 onion, diced (I use half)
1 - 14.5 ounce can peeled and diced tomatoes, with juice

1 - 15.25 ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

3 potatoes, cubed (you decided if you want to peel them)

1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed (I omit this)

4 cups water

6 chicken bouillon cubes

Place the ham bone, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, potatoes and green pepper (optional)  into a 3 quart or larger slow cooker. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water and pour into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on High until warm. Reduce heat to Low and continue to cook for 5 to 6 hours.

Like I said earlier, I use 4 cups of chicken stock. I also add, celery, carrots and green beans. If you don't like kidney beans, use your favorite.

Thanks for stopping by. Mary

Linked to: Skip To My Lou Made by You Mondays

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Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Hi everyone, sorry to be missing for awhile but I've been very busy here of late. But I guess everyone is busy too, no excuse! Today I want to share with you my mashed potato recipe. You've probably have a recipe similar to this but these are just too good not to share with you!

First off I peel a five pound sack of potatoes, I usually use the white one but I think the red ones would work just fine too. Put them on and let them boil until you can stick a fork in them and the potato is tender. Oh, I dice mine so that they cook faster. After they are done, drain them. Than add milk, butter, cream cheese, sour cream, salt and pepper. I use my hand held mixer to mix everything together.

Here is what they look like with some yummy meat loaf and green beans....yummmmm!!

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

one- five pound sack of potatoes

4 ozs. cream cheese, cut into cubes

8 ozs. sour cream

1/2 stick butter, sliced

1/4 cup to 1/3 cup, depends on how you like the consistency of your mashed potato

salt and pepper to taste

Peel and dice potatoes and place in pot large enough to hold, fill with water to cover the potatoes. After the potatoes are cooked to the tender stage, drain. Return the drained, cooked potatoes to your cooking pot. Add salt, pepper, milk, cream cheese, sour cream and butter. Mix well either with a potato masher or mixer until well blended. Serves about 6 to 8.

You can put them into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish and put them in the refrigerator, covered with foil for a couple of days. When you need them, put them into a preheat 350 degree oven and bake for 1 hour. You can also put additional slices of butter on the top, if desired.

I have used this recipe at Thanksgiving and put the mashed potatoes in a sprayed Crock-pot,large enough to hold them, and put them on LOW to re-heat and serve, I think for about 4 hours.

I hope you enjoy these potatoes, we sure do, in fact my one daughter can make a meal off of these!

Thanks for stopping in to see me. Mary

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Cake Mix Cookies

Hi everyone!! Hope your day is going good. Today I'm going to share a super easy cookie recipe that I found three years ago on Skip To My Lou. It is so easy and they really are very good too. This is a good recipe to have when the kids yell at 10:00 at night, "hey Mom I need two dozen cookies for school tomorrow". Bet that hasn't ever happened to you right!? Okay, enough talking let's get started. In a large mixing bowl combine your eggs, cake mix and oil ( I used a 1/2 cup of oil when I make my cookies).Mix it all together until it looks like this, yes, it will look dry and be sticky and it may crumble just a bit but that is correct.Now take about two tablespoons of your dough and make into round balls. As you can see here I have a handy, dandy cookie scooper for when I make cookies, it holds two tablespoons. My mother got this one for me before I got married (clear back in 1979) and it makes making cookies sooo easy and fast too! I would recommend you get one for yourself too! Here they are all lined up to go into the oven. Now you can leave them rounded or you can squish them down some if you want, your preference.Here they are after baking.

Now after they have cooled, ice them with your canned icing or if you want, your favorite homemade icing. The ones I made today taste like little brownie bites to me.

You can use any flavor of cake mix you like, white cake mix taste like sugar cookies. I've had some made using the Funetti cake mix too. They are all good in my book! Hope you enjoyed this simple recipe to day, now go make some, hurry!! Mary
Cake Mix Cookies
1 Cake Mix, your favorite brand
2 eggs
1/3 to 1/2 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup for this tutorial)
Mix together cake mix, eggs and oil until well combined. Place balls onto a parchment lined cookie sheets (you will need two sheets). Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes. Cookies will be soft. Ice cookies after they have cooled to the touch. Makes 20 cookies.

When I make this I get either 22 or 23 cookies, you could steal some dough from some and squeeze out 24 if you need 24 cookies.

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Repurposing a 1970's Record Cabinet

Hi everyone!! Today I'm going to share my brand new storage cabinet with you!! I'm so thrilled with the way this turned out that I couldn't wait to share it with all of you! I'm going to show you the before pictures, and than the after. The story behind this record cabinet...our elderly neighbor passed away last December and they just had the estate sale a couple of weeks ago. We were walking around in the basement and here stood this little cabinet all by itself off over in the corner. Now when I saw this little cabinet, I could envision it painted white, to match all of my furniture in my scrapbook room. I've been on the hunt for a cabinet to hold all of my larger Sizzix dies that I've gotten the last couple of years, but I also wanted a place to put my Big Kick on so that I could just go and grab a die and run it through my machine, all in one place, instead of being spread all over in my craft room. When I saw this I hoped that it would work and it was for sale for only $10.00. So my husband asked if there was anything there that I wanted and I showed him this cabinet. He said will wait until tomorrow (half price day), he said he didn't think anyone else would even be interested in it. So first thing the next morning we walked across the street and I made a bee-line to the basement, and yep, it was still there!! Oh boy was I ever so happy, but before I bought it, I took the extra-long die that I had brought with me to see if it would really work for what I wanted and....YES!!!! it did!! So I hubby carried it upstairs for me and I laid my $5.00 on the table to pay for my treasure (the cashier just looked at me like, "really, you are buying that ugly thing?") So I got it home and started working on it that afternoon.



As you can see, it was pretty ugly, even had to wipe off the cobwebs...

Yes, there is a small piece missing on the left, but I can work around that, no problem.

As you can see the top was in very sad shape, it looked like they had used it to store laundry soap on it. The metal feet had rusted too.

After sanding it, wiping it down, I primed with with spray paint...

Than use Rust-oleum white satin spray paint to finish the cabinet with. Didn't the top turn out nice!!? Look at all that storage underneath! I even taped off the metal and spray painted them silver.

Here it is in my craft closet holding my Big Kick and all of my dies too!

In the space behind the doors, I have some of my crafting supplies, all nice and put away!!

Now if I were to do alot of repurposing of ugly/old furniture, I would invest in a paint sprayer because it did take three cans of primer and three cans of the Rust-oleum. I did get the paint at Wal-Mart so I did save there. So for around $30.00 dollars, I got a nice piece of furniture and I know Frank and Dorothy would both be pleased that it is still being used!!

Linked to: http://www.myrepurosedlife.net/
http://www.skiptomylou.org/

Grandma "D" Meatloaf

Hi too all of you! Since the weather has been on the cool side here, I've started cooking more, which makes my hubby very happy these days! Today I'm going to share my recipe for my Grandmother's meatloaf. It is the best, well my family thinks so, in fact, they get down right mad if I even mention that I would like to try a different recipe! So you will have to be the judge on if you like it or not. I can understand why some people don't like meatloaf after taking pictures of making it for the blog, doesn't look the yummiest, but boy it sure is yummy after it is cooked!!OK, here we go. In a large bowl, add--eggs, milk (I mix them together first),cracker crumbs, onion, salt, pepper, sage and ground beef.

Mix all together really well, I use my hand, but only my right hand, in case the phone rings, got to be able to answer it! Now put it into a greased (I PAM mine) loaf pan.

Set it aside while you mix the topping ingredients together. In a cereal bowl, add sugar, nutmeg and dry mustard. I mix this until there are no lumps of dry mustard left.

Than add your ketchup. Mix well.

Now pour and spread it all over the top of your meatloaf.

Bake for the time stated. After it is done, take a turkey baster and remove any grease that has collected in the bottom of the pan.

Let set for 5 to 10 minutes to let the juices settle in the meat. Cut and serve.

Hmmmm......now doesn't that just make your mouth water?!! Oh and my hubby just loves to use the leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches! Enjoy. Oh, I will share my mashed potato recipe with you soon.

Meat Loaf

2/3 cup cracker crumbs

1 cup milk

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I use 93% lean)

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground sage

Mix all together and pat into a greased 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pan. Set aside and make topping.

Topping

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Mix together and pour over meat loaf.

Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serves four.


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Good-bye to Our Sweet Molly

Good-bye, sweet Molly we will all miss you so much. You were our gentle giant and you gave us unconditional love for the last 12 1/2 years. We were so lucky to get you from the family that could no longer keep you and you brought so much joy and happiness into our lives. Now you and Samantha can run and play, once again, with each other. Until we see you again, love you mu;ch.

Love from your human "pack".

Remembering 9-11

A short video I would like to share with you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7b2ZTlWiOg&feature=player_embedded

Mary

Baked Potato Bag

Do you have trouble making a really good baked potato in your microwave? Boy I use to, until my mom told me about these baked potato bags. My mom received one of these bags from her granddaughter, Jennifer, last year and was just going on about how good your potato comes out. Well, I don't know about all of you but when I try to make a potato in the microwave it either comes out all shrivel up or still hard in the middle. So when I got home from her house, I did a "google" search and found all kinds of ideas on these bags. I must say though, that after reading what some people had to say, I was also scared to try these in the microwave too! I guess if you don't use the right kind of fabric/batting, they can start a fire or scorch! Hmm....
Well as you can see I decided to give it a go and hope my husband didn't kill me for messing up the microwave.

YOU MUST USE 100% COTTON FABRIC, COTTON BATTING, COTTON THREAD and COTTON FLANNEL. This is very important in making these bags. They also suggested that you only use them in microwaves that have a turntables too.
You can make sweet potatoes, corn on the cob. You can reheat biscuits, rolls, tortillas, sweet rolls, etc.

To make your potatoes: wash the potato and dry with a paper towel, wrap the potato in the damp paper towel you just used. DO NOT POKE HOLES IN THE POTATO. Pop into the bag and put in microwave. Bake for 4 to 8 minutes, depends on the size of your potato, checking every 2 minutes and turning the bag over every 2 minutes, until you squeeze it and feel it give some. I let mine sit in the bag for 2 minutes after removing from the microwave. DO NOT use the bag over and over to cook many potatoes. The bag may overheat and scorch or start a fire. Heat it only ONCE, then let cool COMPLETELY before using again. Wash the bag if soiled, dry before using. Do not use fabric softener.

Here is where I found the directions for making my baked potato bags:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/5585/baking-potato-bag

Now I've made my bags two different ways, one with the cotton batting and one with cotton flannel fabric. The two that I made with cotton batting I gave to my daughter to have. Than I looked at my mom's and the one she had didn't have any cotton batting in the middle, her's just had cotton flannel fabric on the inside and cotton fabric on the outside, so that is what I did with the ones in the pictures.
You can make these bags to any size you would like, the one's in the pictures are small, just right for one potato for a single person. I cut the material at 9" x 16".

I must say that the ones we had last night for supper were very good! Of course, that was after I put about 1/4 stick of butter and some sour cream on mine!!
To see a video on how to use one of these bags go to this link and scroll down:
http://www.potatobakingbag.com/index.htm

Thanks for stopping by to see me!!
Mary

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