Garbage Candy: A Sweet & Salty Treat

Every summer when we would go visit my grandma she would always have treats waiting for our arrival. Homemade cookies, pies, candies, you name it she could or would make it. Maybe that's where I get my sweet tooth from. She use to make this candy, that she called Garbage Candy, and it was one of my favorite, addictive little treats.

The other week when I made my dessert kabobs, I had left over white chocolate and I had no idea what to do with it, and then a light bulb went off...garbage candy! So I made a little batch and it was just as good as I had remembered and I had made a new person an addict, my husband. He's been asking me daily, when are you going to make it again?! He swears its because it breaks up into little pieces so you don't need much to calm your need for sweets, but they are like Pringles...once you pop you cant stop...

Here's how I make these tasty treats

Ingredients

• Bars of white chocolate
• pretzels
• unsalted peanuts
• rice chex
• cheerios

Directions:

 

Use a double boiler to melt your chocolate this is much more effective then trying to melt it in the microwave. I just create my own broiler by putting one of my stainless steel mixing bowls on top of one of my stainless steel pots, yes you will need gloves so you don't burn your fingers! I always add just a little oil to help thin out the chocolate a bit.

I combine the pretzels, peanuts, rice chex, and cheerios into a bag and smash them up a bit, not too much. Once the chocolate is melted I add my mix to the chocolate slowly, stirring and making sure that every piece is completely covered. You want to add enough of the mixture that there is hardly any chocolate left on its own but you want to make sure that everything you add is covered in chocolate. Then I dump the chocolate with the mixture on to a piece of parchment paper that's in a pan and I put it in the fridge for about an hour to set. Once it has set, I take it out and break it up into little pieces. I store it in an air tight container in the fridge to keep it fresh!

It's pretty easy and it will be a huge hit. It is perfect to just throw a little piece in with your lunch to carve off those sweets cravings.

Thanks for reading!:)

Fabrics Galore

When the hubs and I went to visit our friend in Virgina, it was mostly about football and boy fun, but I was determined to get a little fun for me squeezed in there somewhere. I had asked my friend if there were any cool antique stores or anything in the area, and he told me he would take us down to Floyd, VA. It was a little town and it had country stores and antique stores, it was perfect. I picked up some country jam for my mom and toured the antique stores that they had to offer.

Before we got there I did my research of course, and I read about this amazing place online, Schoolhouse Fabrics, located in Floyd. It is a converted schoolhouse to a fabric store. It said it was loaded with rooms of fabric, and the reviews..oh the reviews...they made my heart flutter, the store had been reviewed with such praise.. I was sold, we were going there no matter what. As we were pulling into Floyd, there it was! It was right before town and I couldn't wait to go in!

                               

I toured all the rooms, some had fabrics that I was not so interested in, I was looking for more decorative stuff to take home with me and I was looking for stuff on SALE! They had entire rooms full of doilies, and yarn, and sewing supplies..Just when the boys had about enough, I realized there was an upstairs. I begged them to give me 15 more minutes and they huffed and went outside.

As soon as I walked up stairs, staring at me was a fabric for the Duke Blue Devils, now if you know my hubs you know that he is the world's biggest Duke Basketball Fan. He hasn't missed watching a game in almost 4 years! Yes, it is that serious....I knew I had to get a few yards to surprise him with to make some pillows for the man room. Check out the other fabrics that I picked up...

I found the nice fabric that I had been searching for, and I found the nice fabric that was on sale. I picked up the yellow graphic fabric to make pillows for our soon to be redone master bedroom. I am using grays and yellows. I plan on creating Mr and Mrs pillows with this yellow fabric.

I picked up the graphic red for my craft room to put on our new pullout sofa. I have a red desk from ikea, so I wanted to try and tie all the colors together rather then buying a new desk.

And the gray floral print I hope can be used somewhere in our new master, or wherever. I will find a home for it, I just liked the design so I got a few yards.

Stay tuned to see how all of these pillows actually turn out, hopefully as good as I am envisioning them to be!

Thanks for reading! :)

3 Ingredient Pumpkin Cake

Last week I came across a recipe for a pumpkin cake, it was my favorite kind of recipe. You know, a recipe with only 2 ingredients! Well I read all the reviews some people added extra sugar, condensed milk, extra eggs to give it a little something extra. I wanted to stay as true to the recipe as possible but to make the batter more manageable I added 2 eggs.

This cake seriously took 5 minutes to put together and then I just let it bake for as long as the box cake mixture directed. Let it cool and put on my icing. And it turned out so yummy! I know this holiday season if  I am ever in a hurry to throw something together that does not require a lot of fuss, this will be my go to recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Spice Cake Mix
• 1 can Libby's Pumpkin
• 2 eggs

Yep, that's it! I put my ingredients in a bowl and broke out my hand mixer. Mixed it for a few minutes and poured it into my cake pan. I baked for about 35 minutes. While it was cooling I made my own concoction for the frosting. I bought Cream Cheese Icing (the best icing there is) and I mixed it with cinnamon. When the cake was cool, I covered my cake in my new twist on cream cheese icing.

Thanks for reading! :)

Taco Soup

This is one of my favorite meals to make on a cold night, like last night. If your tired of warming up your nights with chili, taco soup is a great alternative. One of our best friends made this for us in college and I was surprised when he told me that his Mom had taught it to him and that it is derived from a Weight Watchers Recipe. Ever since that night, almost 4 years ago, this soup has been a cold weather staple in our household.

Ingredients

- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1 packet of dry ranch mix
- 2 cans of tomatoes
- 1 can of corn
- 3 cans of different beans (i.e. black, red, and pinto)

Directions

Brown the meat. While cooking the meat, open the cans and prep for adding into a large pasta pot. I try to be the low sodium version of the canned beans, tomatoes, and corn and I always rinse them to wash off any extra sodium I can. After cleansing the can veggies, dump them in the large pasta pot, fill one can with water and dump into the pot, if you feel like it needs a bit more, add more, but you do not want it too soupy. Once the meat is cooked at it to the pasta pot, then add the packet of taco and ranch seasonings. Stir well...let it sit and simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes, continuing to stir. It also can be made in a crock pot and simmer for a few hours. It is yummy either way!

When serving, I add a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese. I also tear up 1 wheat tortilla for each bowl I am serving.

Super easy recipe, and so delicious! Try it out and you can tell me how much you love it! Thanks for reading! :)

Meet Virgina

You may have noticed that I have been a little MIA, well don't worry I am back! Part of the reason for my absence is all of the traveling The Hubs and I have done the last 8 weeks. But, that has all come to an end. I wanted to share with you our trip to Virgina. We drove up to visit one of our best friends (the hubs best man in our wedding) in Blacksburg. He is teaching and going to graduate school at Virgina Tech. The hubs is a die hard University of Miami football fan, and our best friend,  scored us tickets to the Virgina Tech vs. Miami game, so we were there (we would of been anyways, the game was just a bonus). The timing could not have been more perfect, the weather was amazing and all the beautiful mountains and leaves changing was so nice. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Loved this photo of the hubs

The Campus

Virgina Tech Shooting Memorial

Miami vs. VT (Miami lost, the hubs was sad)

 Gorgeous Views:

Thanks for reading!

Happy Fall

Fall is finally in the air, well it has been making its way there the last couple of weeks. I absolutely LOVE everything there is about fall, the crisp fresh air, pumpkin spice everything, lower utility bills! What is there not to love. The hubs and I have been pretty MIA, sorry about that. We were in Blacksburg, VA visiting a close friend for about 4 days and I came home to a computer that was on the fritz..

This weekend was the first weekend in 8 weeks that the hubs and I were able to sleep in our bed for the entire weekend, it was such a sweet relief. It was also the first weekend we could really get back on our house duties. We did a lot of chores on Saturday. Ran errands, and gave the house a nice scrub down all the way to the base boards. Sunday, was the day that I had planned to craft, but after being hunched over for a few hours cleaning base boards and the floors, I could barely move come Sunday. So we spent most of Sunday relaxing and taking our sweet baby Zoe to the park, it was a "treat yo self day" for her on Sunday.

Here is some Fall decor that I managed to get done this weekend...

MUMS!

These mums were $2.98 a put at Wal-Mart, each pot has 2 mums in it! 

My Fall Welcome Wreath. I bought this wreath for $4.99 at Old Time Pottery a year ago, but there was some whimpy little daisies sporadically placed on the wreath so I jazzed it up with these left over flowers! It looks so much better!

 Our front door!

Did I mention that the hubs came home on Friday night and surprised with an all dressed up date night, he wore his suit and I got dressy, and these BEAUTIFUL AMAZING sunflowers! I love them! I wish they would last forever

Zoe taking a breather from chasing the ball like a mad dog at the park! She's too cute! 

Thanks for reading! :) I promise to get back on my game now that our traveling for 2011 is coming to an end! I can't wait to share some of our pictures from Virgina!