Homemade Ice cream in a baggie? In 5 min!!!

It's been raining here for DAYS!!!!!!. Friday night is our family pizza/movie night. however we decided to forgo the movie that night, and play a game or do a project. I had been saving this project for a rainy day, and well it was rainy! First we read a book and then off to the kitchen we went. I didn't tell them what we were doing, just what we needed to do this project. I have to say I was surprised at the out come.  We really made homemade ice cream in 5 min! here's how to do it!


Here is what you will need to make homemade ice cream in a baggie:

2 TBL sugar
1 cup half & half (or light cream)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarse salt or table salt
ice
gallon-sized Ziploc bag
pint-sized Ziploc bag




Mix the sugar, half & half and vanilla extract together. Pour into a pint-sized Ziploc baggie. Make sure it seals tightly.

We were out of gallon baggies, so we used a crock pot bag

Now take the gallon-sized Ziploc bag and fill it up halfway with ice and pour the salt over the ice. Now place the cream filled bag into the ice filled bag and seal.




Make sure it is sealed tightly and start shaking. Shake for about 5 minutes (or 8 minutes if you use heavy cream.)

Shake

shake

and shake for 5 mins

Open the gallon-sized bag and check to see if the ice cream is hard, if not keep shaking. Once the ice cream is finished, quickly run the closed pint-sized baggie under cold water to quickly clean the salt off the baggie.

Wow!! ice cream in 5 mins

Open the baggie and pop in a spoon.

yummy!

you can find this in family fun - familyfun.go.com/recipes/homemade-ice-cream-in-a-bag-684806


Hope you enjoy it!  Have fun....oxoxox

Crock pots and Pork chops

- My Crock Pot took a dirt nap!! Well I am not surprised, I had  it for 15 years! and before that it was my Mom's. So I would say it had a long life.  But, the good news is,  I got myself a new one.  If your in the market for one and You have a Aldi , get in the car now!!!! and go go go! they have them for 19.99!!! CrAzY !!!!  Crazy good that is. Here's a picture of my pretty new baby!

7 Quart and a 2 year warranty...

easy clean up

-I love that you can remove it from it's base to put in the dish washer! I know, I know, these have been around for quite sometime, but my old one did not do this.....and I am so excited that this one does!  Hey it's the little things in life right?....lol

- I will be breaking it in this Saturday , We are having Ranch house pork chops with parmesan mashed potatoes.

Yummy!

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup
4 lbs peeled, cubed potatoes
5 Tablespoons real butter
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
6 cloves roasted garlic (directions are below)
1- 1 1/2 Cups warm skim milk (any milk will do, I used skim)
1 Tablespoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper, or to taste

Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours.
Place potatoes into a large pot of cold water. Place onto stove top over high heat and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling, cook for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Drain and transfer to the work bowl of a stand or electric mixer. Mix on low until potatoes are mashed then add butter, Parmesan, garlic, milk, salt and pepper. Season to taste if needed. For thinner mashed potatoes add more milk, slowly until your desired consistency.
Scoop mashed potatoes onto serving plates and top with pork chops and soup gravy from crock pot. I put a little parsley on top to serve.

Roasted Garlic

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place bulb of garlic with skins on, wrap lightly in tin foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove from foil and let cool for 15 minutes. Remove garlic from skins, place in a bowl and mash with a fork until completely mashed. Set aside. One garlic bulb will have around 12 cloves.

- You can find the recipe for this over at Real Mom Kitchen     click here http://realmomkitchen.com/287/ranch-house-crock-pot-pork-chops-with-parmesan-mashed-potatoes/

-Pork Chops will never be boring again!  After I make this, I 'll let you know, how we liked them!
-Have a great day Sweeties! oxoxo

2 Doritos Dinners

Yes that's right! Doritos for dinner!  Who would have thought.  And I have two recipes for them also. So get the kids ready to do some chip crushing!

- start with two of these or your favorite style

I got this first recipe from my friend Melissa, thank you Melissa! This is on monthly dinner rotation in our household now. Yummy!

1 pound of ground beef (you can use more than one pound, if you want)
1 package of taco seasoning mix... ( I only use a tablespoon)

1 tomato cut up
lettuce shreds (you can shred yourself, but we are lazy and buy pre-shredded)

2 cup of shredded cheese (we use the pre-shredded Mexican style)
Catalina Salad Dressing  ( we use half a bottle)
Tortilla Chips, Corn Chips, or Doritos-style chips

Brown  ground beef and drain in a colander, then rinse in water to remove all grease. 

put beef back into skillet and prepare as directed on the taco seasoning mix, with water. 

add to large bowl with lettuce, tomato and cheese. toss. add salad dressing to taste and toss again.

Crush Doritos (kids Job) and add to salad and mix in!

Meal 2: 

Mexican Dorito Casserole 
Serves 4-6

2 c. shredded cooked chicken
1 c. shredded cheese (or more if you are a cheese hound)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can Ro-tel tomatoes (canned tomatoes with jalepenos-mild)
1/2 packet taco seasoning (or more- to taste)
Bag of doritos

1. Pre-heat oven to 350-f degrees.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except doritos.

3. In a greased 2 qt baking dish, put a layer of crushed doritos (about 2 cups), then a layer of the chicken mixture. Repeat once more, ending with a layer of chicken mixture. Top with more shredded cheese, cover, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till bubbling hot.

Source: Domestic Chicky 

We had this two nights ago! Here is the finished product

Warm cheesy goodness, oh and don't judge me on the snowman potholder!
like you don't use them year round..lol

Tell your kids they are going to have chips for dinner!...hahaha....oxoxo

The Tooth fairy!

The Tooth fairy visited my house last night or early this morning I should say. My oldest lost his first tooth! I tell you they grow up to fast.  He was so excited to put it under his pillow and get a dollar. A dollar I said, who said the tooth fairy leaves a dollar! in my day she left 25 cents maybe 50 cents.  And his reply - that was in the old days mom, she leaves more now.  Got to love kids! So off to bed he went, proud of his little money maker...lol

When he woke this morning the tooth fairy had been here. She left a mess of gold fairy dust on his pillow case and a dollar gold coin under his pillow! Man, that tooth fairy is getting fancy!....lol

our first missing tooth

Wow! a gold dollar, what a fancy fairy!

make it fun,  gold fairy dust and gold coins are more fun then a basic dollar bill!

I just can't believe it!

 a small jar, tooth charm and initial charm is a great way to keepsake their baby teeth

tiny tooth!

The Holiday Cottage

This is a Tuesday extra, just to throw in some Cottage eye candy. This is my favorite on film Cottage and one of my favorite movies.

the Holiday

- Inside this perfect english cottage

All I can say is wow

just perfect

love, but my husband would hate

charming

I could spend hours in here

ummmm

so sweet

feels like christmas

I found these pictures over at hooked on houses again....you really should check out the site!

Money saving Chalk Boards ( another expensive catalog do it yourself)

Hello Everyone, I have another expensive catalog money saving , do it yourself. This will save you tons of money.  And you will have extra paint left over for other projects.

So let's start with the expensive catalog version: These range from 69.00 to 399.99 !!!!!

So the first thing I did was start looking around the goodwill and thrift store for a frame with good bones. You can paint the frame whatever color suits you. My Idea was to paint it white, but after looking at it for awhile I left it alone. However, nothing says I won't go back and do it.  I found this frame at the goodwill. It had a mirror in it with yellow sunflowers painted on it. The cost was 3.99 . I didn't need the mirror, so I went out to my car and popped it out and returned it to the goodwill as a donation. And in return they gave me a 20% coupon for my next purchase. Score! 

Starting project

-You can use any frame that suits you

- If your frame has no backing or you need to pop out a old picture, just paint the wall behind it with roll on chalkboard paint , and hang your picture over it.

Can of chalk
board paint, first time I used it in a can

- Chalkboard paint 3.69

first step

it took two coats of paint

- Let the first coat dry, then add another

Finished product

In it's place, still wondering if I should paint it white

- Final cost for my project about 7.00......savings from expensive catalog 62.99- 392.99 and that's not counting shipping!

-You will have some left over paint, that you can use for other projects. 

- Here are some ideas

http://www.plaidonline.com/polka-dot-chalkboard-flower-pots/3647/project.htm

This is from http://www.scissorsandspatulas.com

love this

Skys the limit, Have fun oxoxox

S'more Cookies, Yes please!

This cooler weather has me in such a baking mood. Today I made some S'more Cookies. YUMMY!!!! Did I mention they were YUMMY!. haha.  They have a graham cracker base, they are a chocolate chip cookie with chocolate and Marshmallows baked in.

Graham crackers broken in half

Dough chilled for a Hour

Scooped and ready for the oven

After 5 min of baking, add Hershey Bar

All done and cooling

gooey yummy goodness

Finished Product!

Recipe as follows: S'mores Cookies
Source: Ice Cream Before Dinner

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.

The Dragonfly Inn (Gilmore Girls)

Hello Everyone,  Good Monday Morning to you all!  We officially have fall weather here in Virginia. And ,that has put me in a cozy decorating, baking and Gilmore Girls mood.  Have you ever seen that show? It's one of my favorites. It's off the air now, but you can still see reruns on different channels.  I love love Lorelei Gilmore's Inn . The Dragonfly Inn. If at all possible, I would move in and never leave. It's like someone took all my home decorating dreams, hopes and wants and built it! I have a very quirky since of decorating. I love missed matched cottage like homes. If I like it and it feels good, well it's coming home with me!  Here are some pictures I was able to find. They came from a site called Hooked on houses! If you haven't been over there yet...you must. I could look around on that site all day! hookedonhouses.net/

Outside of The Dragonfly Inn 

Love the lights and the Fountain

Come to Mama!

Love the Juke Box

Dining room

Library

guest room

I so want this house and all it's decorating goodies! It just screams Jessica!!!!! haha...Ok, maybe I have gone overboard just a bit. But I truly love this Inn! Hope you enjoyed it. Talk to you later. oxox