Photos of Agnes 2011 :)

Yesterday, we had a friends gathering with Sharon, Joe, Kristen, Dave, Nate and me. I made Pork Loins (I learned to make from Jo's class at Miller Farms). Kristen made AWESOME applesauce. I wished I had some more as I blog right now. LOL The applesauce had chunks of apples and it was so good. It was delicious with the pork. Sharon put together a yummy salad and we also had some mashed red skinned potatoes and broccoli.

For dessert Kristen made cupcakes. They were adorable and yummy!!

Kristen and I were stylists for Baby Agnes. It was fun dressing her up in different costumes but she got a little agitated with us. haha We had all these great ideas for pictures we got off pinterest and we went right to it setting up. Dave was the photographer. He did a terrific job.

Here are the pictures we did:

Here's a picture of the cupcakes Kristen made. (yep...a pinterest inspiration)

New Things Monday (day late)

A few months ago, my grocery store had McCormick seasonings on sale so I picked up different ones I like to use. I also saw this one. I'd never had Bearnaise sauce so I got it. We grilled some steaks on Christmas eve (it was nice and warm out) to celebrate Christmas. We grilled the steaks wrapped in foil with black pepper, red pepper flakes, w sauce, onion powder, minced garlic, and parsley flakes. Once steaks were finished I topped the steaks with the Bearnaise Sauce. It was really good and complemented the steak very well. I cooked the sauce on the stove. It's just the seasoning packet, butter and milk. We also had a baked potato and corn on the side. It was good with the potato too. :) I am def going to try this on other meats, pork, and chicken.

Christmas 2011

I hope you had a great Christmas! On Saturday, I went to my parents (who live like 15 min from me) and dropped off presents to my nephews and I socialized with everyone for a bit. Saturday night, Nate and I gave each other a gift. I got him a new snippers/trimmers kit. And he got us new 600 thread count sheets for our bed. Oh and a new shower head for our master bathroom. :)

On Christmas day we went to Richmond (about an hour away) to Nate's parents house. His brother, Dan and wife Candice joined us. We had a lots of food and of course a nice time.

Table setting! :)

This was a dish that Linda (MIL) got off of the website All recipes. It was broccoli, red peppers and cheese with croutons on top. It was delicious!!! When you cut into it, it was all Christmas looking with the red and green. Linda said she added the red pepper just for that reason. But the peppers really did make this dish good.

Another recipe from the same site. This is a pork loin with a herb topping. It's pretty good. Linda thought it came out dry but we all liked it. We ate it with homemade cranberry sauce that I made. :)

We don't do gifts.......I stopped that years ago. It's just not in our budget to get Christmas gifts for everyone so we like to have a big dinner. My MIL and FIL got us all a gift. Nate and his brother got a big box of 5 hour energy drinks and my SIL and myself got a HUGE and I mean HUGE box of chocolates. I didn't even know they were this big......

I took a picture of it next to a regular Monopoly game to compare. hahahahaha :)

I opened it up and it's just HEAVEN!!! LOL I love Chocolate and this will last a while. There's 52 pieces in there. :)

Christmas Kit Kat Cake

Yep......Christmas Kit Kat Cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How cute does this look?? :) You might remember this post. We're going to my husbands parents tomorrow to celebrate Christmas and I figured I would bring this cake. I used a Pillsbury white cake mix, mixed in some red and green sprinkles and baked 2 small round cakes. Once baked and cooled, I stacked them and iced them with Pillsbury vanilla tub frosting. Then I added the kit kat bars, pressing them into the icing. I then added some Red and Green M&M's (Holiday package). And then I tied the cake with a festive Christmas bow. :) I can't wait to cut it tomorrow and see the pretty reds and greens inside. :)

I've also seen comments about people wondering how to cut the cake. It's not hard at all. I cut slices from the 2 pieces of kit kat or 4 pieces. It all just depends how much you want. It's pretty sturdy, nothing really falls b/c the M&M's and kit kat are sturdy in the icing. :) (see cut cake here).

Merry Christmas!! I hope you have a safe, happy and healthy holiday!! :)

Grilled Cheese Roll-ups

I made a big pot of Chili this morning for dinner tonight! A few minutes ago, I was packing my dinner bag for work and thought what is quick and easy to make that could go with my chili??? I didn't want boring saltine crackers so I remembered seeing a blog from a pin on pinterest the other day of Grilled Cheese rolls. So, I made them. I had 3 slices of cheese and 3 slices a bread and quickly made them. They are awesome!! :)

All you do is take a slice of bread, cut the crusts off. Add a slice of American cheese then roll the bread up. I kinda smooshed it to say together. To your pan add some butter. Once the butter is melted take a roll up and coat it in the butter and let it brown on each side. That's it! Simple, quick and easy!! :)

New Things Monday

Kristen picked up a container of Chocolate covered cherries the other day at Trader Joe's. They were Dileltante Chocolate Bing Cherries. They were soooooooooooooo good. The chocolate was gourmet and just very rich and delicious. I loved these cherries. Kristen if you're at TJ's again be sure to pick me up another container of these. LOL

Semi-Homemade Mini Cinnamon Rolls

This morning, I got up and put Chicken Soup in the crock pot and then made some mini cinnamon rolls before I headed off for work.

I found this on Pinterest from this blog. I'm so obsessed with pinning things. There are so many great ideas on there.

These are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo simple to make and they taste sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Yep had to add all those o's! :)

To make:

1 8oz tube crescent roll dough

2 tbs butter (melted)

cinnamon

brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layout 4 of the triangles and pinch the seams together, flip over and do the other side too. Use a rolling pin (I used my hand) and roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Brush with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon and then add brown sugar. Flatten into the dough with your fingers. Roll up into a log. Using a sharp knife slice the little rolls and then add to your pam sprayed mini muffin pan. Repeat steps till dough is all used. I filled up all 24 cups. Bake about 10 to 12 min. While rolls are baking you can whip up the icing.

1 tsp syrup

1 tbsp skim milk

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Just whisk all three ingredients together until it gets all combined.

Once you pull the rolls out of the oven go ahead and drizzle the icing on top of them. Serve immediately.

My brother has requested these for his birthday. :) I took a few to work and gave them out to co-workers. They loved them. One of the guys said "I didn't know pillsbury made mini cinnamon rolls" and I said "they don't, I made these by hand". LOL :)

Craft Fair at work

The other day my sister Ashley, and I participated in a craft fair at my work.

My table set up......

Everyone setting up their items....

Cute little Gingerbread Magnets....I sold 1! :)

Gingerbread ornaments....


Cupcake ornaments......I sold 1! :)


Chocolate Chip Cookies.......They were a huge hit! :)

Handmade Coasters.....I don't think this was the right crowd for these.

Message Boards that Kristen made. I sold one of the pink ones for her.

Ashley's table......setting up. I love the card holder. It's awesome!! She had lots of handmade scrubs. I've seen them all over Pinterest. Brown Sugar and Lemon Scrubs! Ashley also made Chocolate and Vanilla cake pops. Those were a huge hit too. :)

Cookies almost gone..... :)
It was fun......not too many ppl tho. It was only open to co-workers. I made $15 for Kristen, and I made $21 for myself. :)

Homemade Coasters

Another Pinterest inspiration!! :) Homemade Coasters!!!!

You could give them as gifts or keep for yourself. :)

Cupcake Ornaments

Kristen surprised me with another craft. I'd pinned the idea on Pinterest and she went out and got everything for it so we could make them.

It's Cupcake Ornaments!!!

You will need the following:

2 1/2 inch styrofoam balls

fake snowflakes

foam brush

tacky glue

cranberry floral sprigs

foil cupcake liners

ribbon

bbq skewers

hot glue gun

tall glass

paper plate

Put a ball on a skewer. At this point you could spray paint your ball to brown, yellow, or pink if you wanted to make the 'cake' a different 'flavor'. We stuck with white. Add some tacky glue to a paper plate. Using your foam brush, dip it into the glue and then cover your ball. Once the ball is covered in glue put it into the snowflakes coating evenly. Let dry. (We stood them up in a tall glass to dry).

You will then add some hot glue to your cupcake liner, add ball and gently press till liner holds. Take your ribbon and using your skewer push it into the top of the ball. Hot glue the top so ribbon stays put. Cut off a berry from the sprig and hot glue that onto the top where you pushed your ribbon.


Let dry and then hang on your tree. :)

I packed them up to sell at the craft show I did. How adorable are they??? And they are soooooo sooooo easy to make. :)

BFF Day with Kristen

Last weekend, I headed to Richmond to see my BFF Kristen. We decided to have a Pinterest craft day! :) First off, we went to Plant Zero for a Holiday (handmade) Craft show. We were there in the Spring, but this time was way more crowded. On the way in Kristen said to me "that's the Petersik's" with excitement. I said "who are they" and she told me "Young House Love". I laughed and told her to go say hi, but she was too embarrassed. LOL Kristen picked up a few things, and I bought a cute wreath ornament. I spent $4! LOL Kristen spent around $40?? LOL But she used birthday money. :) After the show we went to Michael's to get some puffy paint and we went to Padow's for lunch. It was good. :)

Once we got back to her house we set up the kitchen table and got to our crafts!! :)

First up.....McCormick's Cinnamon Ornaments.

You will need:

3/4 cup applesauce

1 bottle (4.12 ounces) Cinnamon

We made a huge batch each. We really didn't know how many ornaments to make so we figured we'd have plenty this way. LOL

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Combine your cinnamon and applesauce until a smooth ball forms.
It was weird mixing b/c it's a lot of cinnamon. Oh and DO NOT EAT this mixture. I guess too much cinnamon could burn your esophagus.

Take a clump of the dough and lay onto plastic wrap. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Then roll the dough until it's 1/4 inch thick. Take off top plastic and use cookie cutters to get your shapes.

Place onto a cookie sheet. Take a straw and poke a hole at the top for your string. Bake for 2 1/2 hours.

Once they are done, let them cool a few minutes then transfer to a rack. Once they are cooled completely you can decorate.

I used puffy paint. (red, green and white) How cute are they?? :)

For the big Gingerbread men, I made them ornaments and put them on my little tree I have on my dining room table.

The little ones......I hot glued a small round magnet to the back of them. Once they were dried I put some on the fridge.
Others I put in a clear bag and tied with a cute gingerbread ribbon. (These I sold at a Craft Fair I did this past Tuesday).

Adorable!!! They smell so good too! :)