Brookies

I've got another recipe for y'all. ( <-----Check me out! I'm getting more and more southern by the day!) Today we made some delightful nuggets of goodness. I'm not exactly sure what to call these, but for now I will call them Brookies. Half cookie, half brownie, and REALLY simple, but super impressive.

Look how yummy they look!

 The original recipe that inspired these is here. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE pinterest?) I really only made very minor changes.

Preheat oven to 350

Using a cupcake pan, smoosh down some refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough in first.  The kind of dough I used was already divided into cookies, and I used 2 cookies in each cup.

Next, I took a Werther's Original Caramel chew, and put in on top of the cookie dough.

The last step, is the brownie top! I used good ol' boxed brownie mix, but feel free to show me up, and whip some up from scratch. Spoon the brownie mix over the cookie dough, and caramel chews.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you know the drill. Let them cool before you try to take them out of the pan. I was a little to anxious and had a couple crumble on me. They still taste good that way, but just don't look a pretty.

Finally, EAT! And if you make them while your Husband is at work, like I did, make sure you either save him some, or get rid of ALL evidence that they existed.  He might be upset that he didn't get any. Sorry, Brad!

Project Time! DIY chalkboard paint

This stuff is fun, and there are a million things that you could find to use it on. It's chalkboard paint! You can buy the stuff but I don't think it's cheap, and if you make it you can make it any color you want, and it's pretty dang easy!

All you need is
1 cup paint (the recipe I found called for latex, but I used acrylic)
2 tablespoons unsanded grout

I made this today

I used a piece of plywood for the base. I sanded it a little bit and then primed it with a spray paint primer.

While that was drying, I mixed the paint.

(Sorry some of these pictures are so blurry. I think I got spray paint on the lens of my phone)

When the primer dried, I sanded it again, then started painting away.

I gave it an hour or two to dry, and then lightly sanded it a third time. After that I used the side of a piece of chalk to color all over it, then erased it with a very slightly dampened cloth. This is supposedly supposed to "condition" it. Idk how important this step is, but Martha said to do it. And ever since she went to prison, I always listen to Martha.

Anyway, then I just decorated it with some buttons (I have a HUGE jar or buttons and am trying to use them somehow) and added a few clothespins to hold pictures or notes or mail or kids artwork or whatever.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

As I promised..

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

1 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 salt
1 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 vegetable oil
1 egg
3 packages (14 oz. each)
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 cups chopped roasted peanuts (I actually used walnuts... because that's what I had on hand) 

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Combine applesauce, sugar, oil and egg in a large bowl. Add flour mixture; stir until blended. Spoon batter into a cupcake tin.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers come out clean. Let cool completely when done baking.

4. Place unwrapped caramels and milk in large microwavable bowl; microwave on high 2 to 3 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring after each minute.

5. Spoon caramel over cupcakes and top with nuts!

6. Get some milk and stuff your face!

I have two more cupcake recipes that I want to try soon. Pink Lemonade and Margarita! Stay tuned...

The Band

So, The Band is the whole reason we are here. So maybe I should post a little something about them. They are called Softsilence. There are 4 members in the band, Bryan, Kody, Nathan and Brad. Brad has been in the band for a couple of years now, and loves all of the guys to death. It's a little odd at times, but whatever. I am probably a little biased, but they are really awesome! You should definitley keep your ears open for them. They will do big things!!!

Here is a picture of me and the band at our wedding

Personally, I think this picture should be in the little booklet thingy that comes with CDs. But, I doubt that will happen.

Here are a few videos of Softsilence and their songs

What do you think? 

Like them on Facebook here!

jinxed it!

Well, sure as shit, I jinxed myself with my last post about how perfect everything was. We woke up this morning to Niagara Falls dumping from our upstairs bathroom into our kitchen. Right onto my rotisserie oven, bread maker and crock pots. But fear not, my kitchen aid was out of the splash zone. And I'm pretty sure nothing else was damaged. So we had to call Michael, the maintenance guy, who has a great accent by the way, to come fix it. Which he did by sawing a gaping hole in the ceiling above my kitchen sink. He seems to have fixed the leak. He had to order us a new bathroom sink, that should be here tomorrow, but we are at least dry. The gaping hole is still there, but I was told that will be fixed tomorrow too. I KNEW I was going to jinx it if I said things were going well. And to top it all off, with my kitchen in shambles I didn't get to make my milky way cupcakes. WAHHH! (In my best Snooki voice)  

This was actually earlier in the day. The hole is now twice the size of that.

Everywhere we live has plumbing disasters.

Week 1- CHECK!

We have been in Nashville for a week now. So far I think it has been great. I really like it here. I am almost scared to say that, because I am scared of jinxing it, but hopefully it will be okay. It is just so green and beautiful. Brad is still not feeling the bugs, but he is just going to have to get over that one. He will actually walk through the grass to the laundry room, which is a small victory. We have been sticking close to home for the most part. There are a few things that we want to do, but just getting here was pretty damn expensive, so we are going to have to wait a while to re-coop from that. But that is okay. The kids have so much room to run around and play that they don't seem to mind being home. I have been enjoying having a functional kitchen. I love to cook and bake but it was just so hard in our old house so I didn't do much. Currently, I have fresh french bread baking, and peanut butter and white chocolate chip cookies cooling. People always compliment my peanut butter cookies, and they are super easy to make. I planned on sharing the recipe with y'all, with pictures and all that, but I think my phone charger is in California, and I only have a car charger left, which means that my phone is dead quite often. I probably should just go ahead and get a new one. Anyway, Peanut Butter Cookies..

Preheat Oven to 325 (I couldn't remember what the actual recipe called for, but this seemed to work out)

Mix
     1 cup Sugar
     1 cup Peanut Butter
     1 egg

I tossed in a handful of white chocolate chips, but you could leave those out, or use milk chocolate, or nuts, or whatever you like.

They are pretty dang good.

Happy Easter Egg

 Yesterday was Easter, and our first holiday away from our families. We missed them, especially Mema and her breakfast, but we had a great day. The band came over and hung out and stuffed their faces with us. It was nice having friends around. I like having people over, I've just never had the room before.I feel like I was cooking all day long, but it was worth it. I made roast chicken, red potatoes, salad, cupcakes, rolo turtles, deviled eggs ( I even dyed the whites of the eggs so they were extra easter-ish.) I also made 2 different kinds of dips, 2 different kinds of salad dressing and cheesecake stuffed strawberries. Most of it was from scratch. I cheated and used funfetti cake mix for the cupcakes. I think most of it came out pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

Dyed Deviled Eggs

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

Rolo Turtles.... Always everyone's favorite

Before all the food, the kids hunted eggs and discovered baskets and bunny prints left behind be the Easter Bunny. It was all great fun. Easter was always one of my favorite holidays, and it seems like my babies feel the same way! All in all it was a great day. We are diggin Nashville so far!

Seaching for eggs in the backyard

Brother and Sissy

Easter Bunny Tracks!

Checkin out the Haul

The Keeper of the Keys

With everything going on in my life, I haven't gotten a chance to talk about this, but it is something that has been heavy in my heart and mind for a few days now. A friend from High School gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Sunday. Throughout her pregnancy she called the baby Wyatt, but upon meeting the little man she felt that Kai was a much better fit for him. And I would have to agree. He was perfect and beautiful, but on Tuesday, God had other plans for him, and called him back up to heaven. Kai means "keeper of the keys" and even with such a short time on this earth he holds the keys to many, many hearts.
I can't imagine the pain that Whitney must be feeling, or how she can even begin to think about what to do next with her life. Another friend made the statement that "Kai was too extraordinary for this world." I have to believe that. He was just too good, and too perfect for this world, and is in a better place.
A few of Whitney's close friends have started a fundraiser to help during the unimaginably difficult time. If you are able to donate a couple if dollars, here is the link http://www.gofundme.com/ForBabyKai

Hold your loved ones close. Never take a moment for granted. You never know what's going to happen next week, tomorrow, or even 5 minutes from now. Everyone matters, and every life makes an impact. No matter how short.

In loving memory of sweet Kai.

Home

We made it! We drove through rain, hail, snow, mountains, desert, and narrowly escaped some tornados in Texas. All of our stuff made it too! Even the car on top of the car, the kittens, the turtles Blake and Miranda, and our 2 year old goldfish from the fair. I thought for sure those turtles were goners that first freezing night in Flagstaff.
So far, I think I like it here. It's peaceful, except for thunder and birds. The thunder is kind of crazy. I hope it doesn't scare the kids, but if it does they will just have to get used to it. Also, the bugs. There are a ton of them and they are huge. Brad is determined to get one with his blow gun.

Let&apos;s see America. Part 3

Today is the third leg of our journey. Amarillo to Little Rock. We should be "home" tomorrow! We are really starting to miss those little munchkins of ours.
Yesterday was a looonng day. No disasters or anything like that, but we did run into some snow, which did make me nervous. Brad is a lot more comfortable driving our rig now, which is good and bad. We aren't chugging along at 47 anymore. Now we are barreling down the I-40 with all of of everything we own. And the kitties! They are doing good too!
This morning we stopped at Cadillac Ranch! Woot! But we encountered the same problem today that we had yesterday at the crater. We are just a couple of stupid Cali Kids that need to get some jackets and some real shoes.
But it was pretty cool before we almost froze to death!
So today another 500, or so miles. Brad's cousin, Andy, lives in Little Rock so we are hoping to have dinner or something with him tonight.
Thank y'all for your well wishes and prayers!

And I just want to add that the Blogger app on my phone borderline sucks so my pictures are all out of order. I will try to fix them when we get home.

Let&apos;s see America Part 2

Brad and I made a small detour the Barringer Meteor Crater this morning. It's just past Flagstaff, on the I-40. Take Meteor Crater Road for 6 miles and you're there. It was $16 for adults, I didn't check the kids prices, but there is a little museum there too. Brad and I aren't really dressed weather appropriate, he's in shorts and I'n in flip flops. Don't be dumb like us. Dress for the weather. It was freezing and windy. My face was numb. Anyway, it was pretty cool. A big giant hole blown out in the ground by a giant space rock 50,000 years ago.

Day 1

We are stopping in Flagstaff tonight. Ventura to Flagstaff is just about 500 miles. Tomorrow, Flagstaff to Amarillo, 600 miles