Donut Recipe

First off I'm not a pro at cooking, I really really really just fly by the seat of my pants. I usually do lots of research online first, find a bunch of different recipes and then I wing it, lol. so the recipe below is going to be written as if I was talking to you, if you have questions feel free to ask in the comments.
The whole idea for these started when my god-mother mentioned that when her nieces and nephews were young they couldn't afford to go and buy donuts (my aunt had 10 KIDS!), that they would make their own. so this intrigued me. I asked how they used to make them. She said it was easy, they'd take canned biscuits, and deep fry them and then put powdered sugar or cinnamon on them. Well that shot down my hopes of making them at first because we don't buy canned biscuits. The reason we don't buy them is I don't buy ANYTHING that has partially hydrogenated oil in it, and every kind of canned biscuit I've found has that. But then I got to thinking (dangerous I know) and I decided why the heck don't I make home made biscuits and do the same thing!
so I use Bisquick Heart Smart (because the regular one has the evil oil in it, that crap is in so much! not going to get into that now though, lol).
and this is what you do
you take
2 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup milk (or 2/3 cup water)

Stir milk into Bisquick. Beat dough hard for 30 seconds to make it tighten up enough to handle. Turn dough on well-floured, cloth covered board. Pat, round it up and fold over 3 times. Roll out lightly with rolling pin, 1/2 to 1 inch thick, depending on how thick you want the biscuits.

now here is where you get out your fancy biscuit cutter (what you don't have one of those? then do what I do and take a drinking glass and use that, lol) and you cut out as many biscuits as you can with that. (you can either rework the dough from around the circles you just cut or leave it in strips and cook them the same way we'll make the donuts). Now how do you cut the hole out of the middle? well I'll tell you what I did. DON'T laugh...lol . you know how liquid meds come with with the little cup to dispense it? well I've got tons of these around and so I took one of those and used it to cut the center out. I sure hope you're not laughing...oh who am I kidding go on get it all out.....lol!! so know you have donuts and donut holes.
Now when I make these I do half of them covered in powdered sugar and half in a mix of cinnamon and sugar, so get a bowl of each ready. You can also just leave them plain, sometimes I leave a couple that way too.
now you want to have some oil (I use vegetable oil, lots of the recipes I came across said to use "deep fat", and yeah...I don't go for that, so veggie it is for me, lol) nice and hot on the stove in a pot big enough to fit 3 or 4 donuts or use a deep fryer (oil doesn't have to be super deep, the donuts will float) and heat to about 375 degrees. you're going to plop a couple of those babies in the oil for a minute or so (until the first side browns , and then you're gonna flip them. now when both sides are done you take them out set them out a plate with a paper towel to get the extra oil off, then coat them in the topping of your choice. Continue until they're all done. Enjoy.

Homemade Bagels

I've had several people ask about the homemade bagels that I make. I do 2 kinds now, plain for my hubby, who likes to put cream cheese on them, and cinnimon raisin for the little guy and I. I have to admit, I didn't come up with the recipe, I found it (with lots of wonderful pictures) at Tammy's Recipes. So I'm just going to link you right up to her. Homemade Bagels

September Calendar Topper

Credits-
Apple Festival Kit by LaWanna DesJardin
Creative BlockBusters Calander Templates by LaWanna DesJardin
Fonts-Poplar Std and Sylfaen

Apple Honey Bundt Cake Recipe page

Credits-
Apple Festival Kit by LaWanna DesJardin
Creative BlockBusters Calander Templates by LaWanna DesJardin
Font- Monotype Corsiva

Apple Honey Bundt Cake

I don't remember where I got the recipe for this, but I've had a few requests for the recipe. So I'm going to share it with you.

Apple Honey Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 eggs
* 3/4 cup honey
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 3 apples - peeled, cored and shredded
* 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch Bundt pan.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and oil ( I used half a cup of oil and half a cup of applesauce -mine happened to be homemade, but store bought is good too, a little healthier and so yummy). Beat in the eggs until light, then stir in the honey and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice; stir into the batter just until moistened. Fold in the apples and nuts.

3. Bake for 50 to 65 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the crown comes out clean. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before inverting onto a plate and tapping out of the pan.

In Remembrance

I lowered Aidan's ears

ok so this is my logic. It's was almost time for Aidan to get a hair cut. I usually take him to a kids place, keeps him at ease, and it's fun for him. But it's kinda of far away to take him for a hair cut unless I have other errands out that way and that doesn't happen often. So I've toyed with the idea of picking up a hair cutting "kit" and doing both of my guys hair. and Ian is LONG overdue for a trim (I love you babe but I don't dig the hair long enough to go in a ponytail). So I figured try it on on the little guy then go after the big guy! The little guy was just starting to get shaggy, I figured I just follow how his hair is now. no biggie. so here's the before and after shots, I'm pretty happy with it. and once I give Ian a hair cut the thing will have paid for itself.



oh Ian!! you're next! :)

Speed Scrap Layout

So one of my design teams that I'm on had a couple of speed scraps today. It was lots of fun and I did two layouts. so I'm a happy girl.
here's the two layouts


Credits:
Started out with a template by Simply Yin
Macho Flowers by Merkeley Designs
Dusty by Merkeley Designs (stitches, fastener)
Font- Myriad Pro

Credits:
Private (short stack) Paper Pack by Merkeley Designs
Dusty by Merkeley Designs (stitches, arrow, pin)
Macho Flowers By Merkeley Designs (journaling block)
Say It WIth Cubes by Merkeley Designs
fonts-Monotype Cosiva and Sylfaen

Feet Are Funny

Here are a couple of pages I did with "Feet Are Funny" by Merkeley Designs

Relax layout

credits:Merkeley Designs "Either-Or" Designer Sampler

Oscraps Summer Fling Collab Kit layouts

I did two pages using this kit, I love the bright cheerful colors (which are not the norm for me).
(click images to see credits)



I did two pages using this kit, I love the bright cheerful colors (which are not the norm for me).

The Scrap Palace of Romeo

totally rocked! I won a weekend there, and went the weekend right before my birthday. I got to meet my friend Kathy, who I've known through a scrapping group for at least a couple of years. She's a real sweetie! Hopefully we can get together and scrap again. We totally didn't get any sleep while we were there. We were up until 4 both nights and up by 9:30 the next morning. It took a couple of days to recover! Anyway, the Palace is beautiful, it's an old Victorian, that is gorgeous inside and out. The food was fantastic!!! (just wish there was more of it, lol. The portions were healthy sized I'm sure, but I'm used to eating more). I sure hope we can go back again sometime. Here are a couple of pictures that Kathy took (I'm lame and kept forgetting to bring my camera down, lol).

Back row-Me and Kathy
Front row-Keitha and Mary

My Birthday

Ian stayed up all day again, and went with us to the zoo.
Here are a couple of pictures from our day.

So sad to hear...

that Bernie Mac passed away today. It's hard to believe that the man I ran into a little over a year ago at a local theater is gone. He was so nice in person, and always seemed so vibrant and alive. My thoughts are with his family.

Very talented and funny man, he'll be missed.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Here's a layout with the recipe for the jam I made. I can't remember where I found the recipe, if I find the link to it I'll link it up, but for now here's the recipe.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients:
4 cups rhubarb, thinly sliced
2 T. lemon juice
4 cups of fresh strawberries, sliced
10 cups of sugar
2 packages of fruit pectin

In large kettle combine all ingredients except sugar. Bring mixture to a full boil. Add sugar and keep stirring till sugar is fully dissolved. Return to boil and boil for one minute. Keep stirring. Remove from the burner and skim off the foam with a spoon.

Spoon the hot jam into hot pint or half-pint canning jars. I like to pour the jam into a glass 4-cup glass measuring cup first, then pour into jars, as this makes jam easier to pour into jars. Leave 1/4 inch of space at the top. Wipe jar rims clean and screw lids on firmly. Place the jars in boiling-water canner on high. When water begins to boil, set timer and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from canner and cool on racks. Try not to disturb jam til it is cool. It may take several hours to set.

This should make about 12 half-pint jars

layout credits:

Designs by Sine template
Classic kit- Designs by Krista

2 new layouts

Designs by Sine template
Splash 'n Shine kit by LaWanna DesJardin
Peace and Quiet wordart by LaWanna DesJardin
font-Monotype Corsiva


Designs by Sine template
Macho Flowers kit by Merkeley Designs
font-Monotype Corsiva

Both of these layouts are of pictures from when the boys went camping last month, they had tons of fun!

Bagels

So, I've been on this...what would you call it? oh hell, I don't know what to call it. I've been on a kick I guess you could say, yeah we'll call it a kick, lol. I've been on this kick where I've been making things from scratch. I'm doing it for several reasons.
1- I like knowing what my family is eating, doing it this way there are no weird ingredients.
2- if I make it from scratch there isn't all that extra packaging, and it's actually cheaper most of the time.
and
3- I really enjoy it!
So I've done several things from scratch recently. I did Italian bread a month or so ago, and of course there were the donuts (I totally need to make some more of those!). And most recently I made homemade bagels. they came out totally yummy! and were super easy to make!
These are pictures of them fresh from the oven! and oh! oh! OH! are they good with my homemade jam on them!

Doing the Can-Can

Canning that is! So I'm totally new to canning. I've been researching it online for months and bought one of the "for Dummies" books about it. and a couple of weeks ago I gave it a shot. I went over to my mom's house to do it (our stove is one of those glass top ones, and the canning pot can't be used on it). So Our first day of canning we made Dill Pickles (we ended up with 9 quart sized jars, 7 of spears, and 2 of slices for burgers and such) and we made strawberry jam (11 8 ounce jars). The jam came out so good! I was so proud of us (my mama Vee helped). We're still waiting to taste the pickles, you have to let them sit so the flavor can soak in, we've got to wait for a couple more weeks for those.

Flash back to last Wednesday, we gave it another go. While searching for recipes before I came across a couple for strawberry rhubarb jam. Now I'd had never had rhubarb, I knew that I had heard of pie made from it though so I figured it must be pretty yummy, lol. So when we went to the farmers market the previous weekend I saw some great looking rhubarb, picked up some of that, and then we got some organic strawberries at the grocery store. Well this jam....let me tell you...whew! it is SOOOOOOOOOOO good. I have a new favorite! seriously! why don't they sell this kind in stores? I mean, it is such a wonderful combination! I'm eating some of it on toast as I sit here, and it is just fantabulous! We made 9 jars of the stuff and I have a feeling we're going to need to make more!

Too Precious

This is a picture of Aidan and Nanny, when he was 7 months old. This was taken during out first trip with him to NJ. We were at the 4th of July BBQ at Aunt Linda's. Aidan was such a good baby, he would pretty much sit with anyone, very easy going. And over the years I've always been so impressed with how well he adapts while on vacation, he remembers everyone's names, and always plays so nicely with Nanny. He's pretty special too, he's the first Great Grandbaby on the McB side of the family, and the second on the K side. Aidan's is very lucky to have 3 out of 4 great grandparents in his life, not to mention having the best Grammy and Grandpa in the whole world. He's a very loved little boy.
Any way...I've always loved this picture of Nanny and Aidan, it's just so sweet!

Another Lost Tooth!

Aidan lost another tooth last night! seems like they're coming out almost as fast as they came in. I'll post a new picture of the gap-py grin in a bit.

ETA- added the photo, look at that gap! The first tooth that came out, was almost all the way in when the second one came out.