My undying love to the Pioneer Woman, very belated cards, and things Kenzie does that I'm not supposed to know about...

I am in love with the Pioneer Woman. Please do not fret, my husband knows of this latest infatuation and I think he may hold a special place in his heart for her as well.

She has a plethora of things on her site for all different kinds of people and their interests, photography, cooking, homeschooling, home and garden stuff. Me, I read it all...because I love her.

She introduced me to these potatoes and not only are they easy. They are so flippin good that I don't know what to do with myself when I start eating them. I don't know how to stop! Easy and Yummy could explain why I need to lose 20 lbs....but I digress. I don't totally blame Ree for my waistline, as previously mentioned Chelle has some blame there as well! :)

Hot Crash Potatoes

Boil in salted water as many washed new potatoes as you'd like to serve. Once they are soft remove from water and place on a sheet that has been drizzled with EVOO. I use a fork to split the potatoes and "smash" them. Ree uses a potato masher, I say use whatever the heck you have that looks like it might work.

Then drizzle your potatoes with EVOO, sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper and whatever herb floats your boat. I am partial to parsley. Really, I don't think there is a wrong answer.

Bake at 425* for about 20-25 minutes or until they get a little crispy around the edges. Trust me, you want them brown and crispy. It makes all the difference in the world.

I dare you to eat just one.

Go on, try. I dare you.



Also, I participated in a Halloween swap with my fellow Losties, we each sent an image, card stock, and patterned paper enough for each person participating and then all created a card from the same elements. I think there were 15 in all. I sent some of mine out without taking pictures. DUH. But here are a few pictures of the ones I remembered to snap from.

Maggie's Kit

Justine's Kit

Debbie's Kit


Tammi's Kit (the sword is silver ep and the hat is flocked)


Kim's Kit

Amanda's Kit (I couldn't get a good picture without glare on the acetate)

Jeannie's Kit (the belly is stickled and popped up on dimensionals)

Liz's Kit

Lastly, Kenz got ahold of my camera last night and here are what her pictures look like...

what is this anyway???


and HOW does she manage to take pictures of herself???

I'm FAST....

Oh good Lord in Heaven above. Please, please help me. I am so screwed. My kids, they've got my number. I'm sitting here at my computer after a long day of very hard work. Trying to just relax. My temper is short because I'm tired and Bradan kicks a ball across the room and it hits me in the face.

I jump up and take off after him and I believe in my heart that I might be whuppin' his butt tonight.

He takes off running. The fear of God in his eyes and a nervous giggle escapes his lips as he shouts

MOMMY YOU CAN'T CATCH ME! I'm SUPER FAST. YEAH. THAT'S ME. SUPER FAST.


Oh and I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hit you with that ball mommy ok? I'm so so sorry. So stop ok? You couldn't catch me anyway cuz I'm FAST!

Out of my Ever-Lovin' Mind!

Can someone please tell me WHO? (who wrote the book of love) oops (I did it again)

CRAP CRAP CRAP

WHO!?!?? WHO wakes up one morning and decides to have a garage sale in TWO DAYS? Apparently me.

I blame Grace. She woke up at 7 am and woke up the other kids. Which means I was up at 7 am. Which means I wasn't thinking clearly when I made the decision and PAID FOR AN AD IN THE PAPER...FORCING ME to get everything ready by SATURDAY AT 8 AM.

At 8am I started getting things together. That was 6 hours ago. Other than eating lunch and the occasional phone call to Brian to ask how fond he is of something, I haven't stopped.

I have nothing PRICED, but by golly I have a ton of stuff to put on my lawn and pray that someone wants to take it off my hands.



This is my laundry room, well part of it.....



Here's the other part.



And this mess is in my kitchen...



And my living room....




and my hallway....





oh and my bedroom, can't forget about that!




wait, how did they get in there????

This doesn't even include what's already in the garage and don't even get me started about all the CRAP in the attic. Anyone have oh say the next 42 hours free to help me price this stuff?

Outrageous Brownies!

Have I, as of yet professed my love for Chelle over at Brown Eyed Baker? She has so many awesome recipes that she shares usually adapted from somewhere but hey, isn't that how we all start our recipes?

I have never made scratch brownies. Scratch cakes, yes. Cookies, YUP! Brownies, no. I mean can you really beat Betty Crocker box brownies?

I'm here to tell you YES YOU CAN. And it doesn't take much longer than tossing in that egg and oil either. And OH MY GOOGLE. They are so worth it. But believe me, when this recipe says WAIT TIL YOUR BROWNIES ARE COMPLETELY COOLED BEFORE CUTTING.

WAIT TIL THEY ARE COMPLETELY COOLED. I cooled mine on the counter for about an hour and then put them in the fridge for another hour. These things are awesome!

So without further horn tooting from me, I share with you gladly

OUTRAGEOUS BROWNIES (recipe from BROWN EYED BAKER

(my notes are in italics...)

(Source: Ina Garten)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 pound (1 1/3 cups) plus 6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (I didn't have this, so I used 3 tbsp of Hershey's cocoa & 1 tbsp of Vegetable oil for each ounce)
3 extra-large eggs
1.5 tablespoons instant coffee powder (I omitted this ingredient)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 cups diced walnut pieces (also optional, I left them out because really...nuts and chocolate aren't my friend)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan. (325 degrees if using a dark non-stick pan)

Melt together the butter, chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler (I did this step in a glass dish in the microwave at 30 second intervals). Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and chocolate chips with flour to coat. (Since I did not use walnuts, I only used 1 tablespoon of flour to toss the chocolate chips.) Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not overbake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

I made a card! I made a card!

OK so technically I made a TON of cards but some of them are for the LOSTie Halloween Kit Swap so I can't show them to you.

However, I did make this beauty for stamp club and I must say I am very impressed with how it turned out. I think I'm going to mass produce some for this Christmas season.



and a close up of the snowflake. I used Stardust Stickles to make it sparkley!



Snow Swirled set
Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White paper and inks
Little Felt Flurries the snowflake embellishment
Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon
Oval Nestabilities
Versamark
Hologram Highlights EP

Space Cadet...are you surprised??

OK so I totally never made it back here to post my chili recipe and announce a winner from the last post. Jess...of course as my most favorite food connesiour you were right. Who could possible know me and not guess CHILI!

So I'll save my chili recipe and my chili pictures for another day, but Jess your goodie prize is on the way!

I gotta tell y'all a story (bout a man named Jed...) not really but dang it do you ever do that? Say a word or sentence and start singing? I do it all the time. Some people might call me crazy...(I could do it again but I won't)

Anyway so Kenz and Bradan started Sunday school at our new church. Peace Lutheran in Seymour in case anyone was wondering. www.seymourpeacelutheran.com It's awesome. I've never been one to LIKE going to church or to even really get anything out of it but I just feel so at home here. I enjoy going and love that my kids love it. So anyway back to my point about Sunday school.

The first day I drop the kids off, they are in the same class. I quickly introduce the kids to the teacher amongst the uproar of little children playing excitedly and take off for adult bible study.

Fast forward to later, after the donuts. (Yup, donuts and coffee between Sunday school and church service, how cool is that???) Miss Leta the Sunday School teacher comes up to me and says "I'm sorry what did you say your daughter's name was?"

Kenzie. Kenzie Jane. She might say it's Janie. She's got a few names. *chuckle*

She says to me "That's right, ok. Well I asked her what her name was during class and she told me it was Punkin' Pie. So I asked her brother and he said "You heard her it's Punkin' Pie"

I've called Kenz my Punkin' Pie for as long as I can remember. She's gotten to the point where if I don't call her that before bed, she will cry. I have to say "g'nite punkin' pie I love you" last thing before I close her door. TOO CUTE.

'cept, now she's telling teachers it's her REAL name. (she actually says that. It's my REAL name, my nickname is just Kenzie Jane) I can see her wedding announcements now...