New Things Monday

I finally found a passion fruit at Wegmans. It was $3.99 for one. Even though it was pricey, I had to get it because I'd been wanting to try one. I couldn't wait to cut into and eat the fruit.

When I got home, I cut it in half. It didn't look appealing at all. It looks a little bit like snot doesn't it? BLECH

I scooped out the 'snot' and then took a spoon and tried it. It's kinda sour. The seeds are edible but was a turn off for me. I hated it and I hated that I spent $4 on it and it was gross. :(
I'm glad I tried it. But...........NEVER AGAIN.

NOTE: New Things Monday is just a spotlight on NEW things I've tried. I do not get paid for talking about any of the featured products. I just like trying new things and sharing my experiences. :)

A visit from a Turtle

Nate is cleaning the grill and cutting the grass today. It's really nice outside so we have the windows open. Nate was talking to me by one of our windows and he looks down and sees a turtle in the basement window. The poor little guy was trapped and couldn't get out. Nate put him on the porch and he poured some water on him to see if he would respond. He closed up his shell. I picked him up and looked at him and he was just scared hiding in the shell. LOL

I walked down towards the front of my neighborhood where there is a water reservoir. I walked as close to the water as I could get and set the turtle down on the ground pointed to the water.

He has a nice new little home that's so much better than being stuck in a window in my backyard. LOL :)

Cute little guy. :) I waited a few minutes for him to come out of the shell and start walking but he was too scared. I hope he gets in the water and makes a home there. :)

Road Trip to Pennsylvania

The last few weeks, Nate's been doing some family history research on Grandma Millers' side of the family. (Her maiden name is Mast) Nate came across some info about his first Ancestor (Jacob Mast, who's his 7x great grandfather) who was Amish coming over from Switzerland on the Amish Mayflower back in the 1700's. How awesome is that? Nate found info that Jacob Mast is buried in Berks County, PA so we decided yesterday to take a road trip to PA. Our main goal was to find the cemetery and after that we would go to Intercourse, PA for a little Amish Country trip. We got up at 5:30am and left our house at exactly 6am. We made a quick stop at Starbucks where I got a Venti Caramel Apple Spice with extra Caramel, then to WAWA to fill the tires with air and we were on our way. Once we got into PA we stopped at a visitor center for a bathroom break, stretched our legs and got pamphlets for Amish Country. We got to Berks County a little after 10am. We made great time. :) We came upon Roadside America and figured someone there might know where the cemetery of the first Amish Settlers is located. A guy there told us of a farm where the cemetery might be and gave us directions. And off we went....

But first, I had to get a picture of the Amish Statues out front of the place. :) (I think that Amish Woman's hands are a little big...LOL)

At the entrance of the Roadside America there is a sign about the Northkill Amish. This was a marker that Nate wanted to see as well so I'm glad we found it. Apparently, some of the Amish in this group were killed by an Indian Attack. There is a building down the road from the marker but the current owners don't allow anyone to visit.

We made our way to the farm......We drove by it and Nate saw the cemetery in the field behind the farm. He knew it was the place so we turned around and went to the farm house. I stayed in the car and waited and Nate knocked on the door. Nate talked to the owner for a few minutes and the guy said to him that he had the right place. I then changed out of my flip flops and into my socks and sneakers and we headed on back to the cemetery.

As you can see in the picture, it's very small and the tombstones are very old.

The owner of the farm told us to untie the gate and stay as long as we wanted. There was a lot of strings to untie. Here's Nate untying the knots....anxiously wanting to get in.

A view of the surrounding farmland from outside the cemetery.

Tombstones.....The older tombstones have faded or broken into pieces. There are 28 Amish people buried in this cemetery. Only about 15 or so have a tombstone. Not sure if Jacob Mast and his wife had a tombstone or not. We do know it's been confirmed that they are buried there.

The owner of the farm gave us a sign in book that he let us take with us to the cemetery to look though. He also told us to sign it.

Several visitors have come there. Apparently, every June members of the Mast family come for a little reunion and clean up the cemetery and mow the lawn. Nate wants to go if they have a reunion this year.

At the front of the farm there is a marker next to the road.


After Nate was done exploring his family history we plugged Intercourse, PA into our GPS and made our way to Amish Country. (If I remember correctly, it was a little over an hour)

I hear that the buggies are Grey in PA, so I was excited to see that. The buggies in Ohio are all black. I couldn't wait to compare the differences to the Amish in Ohio to the ones in PA.

Clop, Clop, Clop :) You gotta watch for buggies and road apples. :)


By this point it was a little after 12 noon and we were hungry for some Amish food. Nate found Yoders Restaurant and Country Market on the map so this was our first stop in New Holland, PA near Blue ball, (yes blue ball) PA.....15 min from Intercourse. :) We both had water to drink and got the buffet.

I loaded my plate with Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, mac and cheese, a little roast beef and a roll. MMMMM I only had 1 plate and then I got an ice cream cone for dessert. :)

After our bellies were full we wanted award winning cheese so we drove to Honey Brook (15 min from New Holland) to September Farms.


We got lots of goodies while in here and got to sample just about everything before we bought our stuff. We got garlic and basil jack cheese, smoked cheddar, and apple cinnamon cheddar. I got a jar of apple butter, cheese fudge, and a homemade cherry cheese tart. They had these little tarts (many flavors) for $1.25. Not knowing if I would like it I only bought 1 cherry cheese tart. OMG!!!!! It was like a mini cheese cake. I loved it and will def be back for more of those. LOL :) Oh yes....we bought 2 little ice packs that they sold at the farm and put them in our little cooler we brought with us with drinks and put our cheese in there to keep cold. :)
Animals at the Cheese farm.

I petted the mini horse. He looked kinda sad. LOL

Next, we drove to Intercourse. In route, a Rooster decided to cross in front of us. He was in no hurry. He took his time crossing in front of us.

haha

Cute farm we passed on way....
We stopped at some trading post place where I bought a sticker and a magnet. I don't remember the name of it. It was right in Intercourse.

Also in Intercourse, we came upon The Kitchen Kettle Village. Nate got some Hazelnut coffee packets at a coffee shop. Then we both got an Intercourse sticker as some gift shop.

I found this cute garden flag but I wasn't going to pay $12 for it. I don't pay over $10 for a garden flag. I love the little lamb.
We then went into a bakery place that had all sorts of treats that made our mouths water. Nate picked up this cinnamon roll and made fun of the icing. It was lathered in icing. I don't even know if that would taste good. LOL

Shoo-fly pies. :)

Whoopie pies! :) YES PLEASE!
We got.....a small package of Mint and Chocolate Whoopie pies, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Whoopie pies, a small shoo-fly pie, tortilla chips, a jar of black bean salsa and a jar of pineapple salsa. We also got a tote bag for 99 cents to carry all of our goodies. :) It was almost 5pm which is basically when Amish Country shuts down for the day so we decided to go ahead and head home.

Right before bird-in-hand we saw a sign for homemade rootbeer. We passed it and then Nate said "yeah we need to try it" so he turned around and we pulled into the farm to get rootbeer. I wanted a picture of the sign so as we tried taking it there was a couple taking pictures at it as well. Nate took their picture next to the sign. LOL They laughed at us. :)

This is the farm with the homemade rootbeer. A little Amish girl sold us 2 cold rootbeers.

The rootbeer came in a cute glass bottle. They were $2 each. :) It was different from any rootbeer I've ever had. It wasn't bad. We def liked it more once it got a little warmer. We finished them.

And now showing all of our purchases.....

This is a little pinecone I took from the cemetery. :)

A magnet for my cubbie at work. Dirty town names eh? :)
Here is the cherry cheese tart I mentioned above. Sooooooooooo good. You can also see one of my stickers I got for my rainman book.

The little shoo-fly pie. I'm excited to try it. :)

Cheese fudge.....sounds gross....but smells and looks like fudge. And guess what? It tastes just like fudge too. If I just bought it off a shelf without knowing there was cheese in it, I wouldn't even have guessed there was cheese in it. LOL :)

Oh my favorite salsa ever!!!! Pineapple Salsa! :) I love this stuff. :)

Here is a picture of all of the loot. :)
Oh yes.....We pulled into our drive way at exactly 8pm! :) 14 hours we were out and about and we did everything we wanted. YEY! A fun road trip with my Nate. :)

Homemade Peppered Chicken

For dinner tonight, I made Homemade Peppered Chicken. Got the idea from something else I've done before, Homemade Peppered Steak. I had chicken that I needed to use up so I figured I'd make this yummy dish. :)

You need:

2 chicken breasts (cooked and cut up)

Medium to large white onion (sliced into long pieces)

Red Bell Pepper (sliced into long pieces)

Green Pepper (sliced into long pieces)

minced garlic

Black pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

Rice Wine Vinegar

Olive Oil

Soy sauce (reduced sodium)

corn starch

water

Rice (I used whole grain brown, 90 second pack)

First cook your chicken. I cooked my chicken last night and cut it up so all I did today was heat it up in the microwave.

Next take your sliced onion, red and green peppers and add them to a bowl. Add in 3 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp water, and 2 tsp of corn starch. Mix everything well. I also sprinkled in some black pepper. :)

Once the chicken is heated go ahead and add 4 tsp soy sauce, tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp corn starch, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and some red pepper flakes. Mix well.

Then add some olive oil and minced garlic to your pan/wok. Once heated, add your onion/pepper mix. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Then add your chicken mix. And let simmer for a few minutes. I also add 1 to 2 tbsp water to keep everything from sticking to bottom. The corn starch makes the sauces thicken up and you don't want to it stick to the pan.

I then cooked up a 90 second pack of whole grain brown rice. Add your peppered chicken on top of rice and serve. :) Enjoy!

New Things Monday

I've had this dry patch on my stomach for a while now. One of my doctors thought maybe I was allergic to the buttons on my jeans b/c the metals are different on new jeans now and a lot of people are allergic from them. I tried different creams and witch hazel but nothing would clear the patch or making the itchiness go away. Nate got me this Gold Bond healing lotion. Finally.....RELIEF!! :) This stuff works! I love it! The dry patch is gone and my stomach is nice and smooth now. :)

New Things Monday

photo credit

Sharon gave me a package of Belvita- Golden Oat Breakfast Biscuits to try. She said she liked them and thought I would too. I tried them the next day on the way to the gym. They were delicious. 4 comes in a package. I was actually okay with just 3. They tasted like graham crackers. Who doesn't like graham crackers? :) The only thing I didn't like about them was the bits of oats getting stuck in my teeth. I felt like I was picking oats out of my back teeth for an hour. LOL I would buy them again. They also have apple cinnamon and blueberry. I would love to try the others.

photo credit

Rainbow Cupcakes

My friend, Christal Blue, at work has a birthday this Sunday. My friend, Kristen made me these super cool cupcakes a few years ago for my birthday one year and I decided to make ones similar to them. I surprised Christal with Rainbow Cupcakes at work yesterday b/c I knew I wouldn't see her before her birthday. She loved them, and so did everyone else that was lucky enough to be at work when I came in yesterday afternoon. :)

I used a white cake box mix. (Pillsbury....you could use a from scratch mix if you'd like)

Mix up your cake mix in a large bowl. Then divide the batter evenly into bowls (I went into my party drawer and used some styrofoam bowls and plastic spoons so I wouldn't have a ton of dishes). Be sure to use a bowl for each color you're doing. Once you've got the batter in all the bowls, add your food coloring and mix gently until the color is combined. I used these classic gel food colors from Betty Crocker. I love them! :) And for those of you who didn't pay attention in art class on how to make the color purple or orange from your primary colors well there is an easy guide on the package to tell you how to get different colors. :P I lined the bowls up so I knew how I would do the layering once I was ready to fill the cupcake tins.

You can use cupcake liners but I HATE those things with a passion. I don't want to sit there and peel off a liner before I eat my cupcake. LOL I sprayed PAM spray in the tins so they wouldn't stick. I then started my layering. Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and then red. I put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 18 min. or until a tester comes out clean.

And now they are done and cooling....

How cute! That massive one there in the bottom left corner, I left for my hubby since it overpowered the others. haha

While the cupcakes are cooling you can make your frosting. I didn't make mine. I used a white pillsbury frosting tub. I added food coloring to get the purple. I chose purple for the icing b/c purple is Christal's favorite color. :)

I saw this tip on pinterest a few days ago. Put your icing bag in a tall glass jar and fill your bag. This made it so easy. :)
I'm not a pro at icing cupcakes. I basically used the plop and spread method for the icing. I wanted the cupcakes to look adorable so I knew I had to learn the signature swirl. (DC cupcakes makes it look so easy) haha Kristen sent me this youtube link and it helped. :) Once iced I added some rainbow sprinkles. :)


The best part (besides not peeling off a liner) is the awesome colors inside. :)


Yum, yum, yum! :)
These are so cute and fun! I know they'll be a hit at any party you bring them to. :)