Yummy Cookies!

I'll have more weekend adventures in cooking this evening.  But in the meantime I thought I would share something sweet!

I got this super easy no-bake cookie recipe from my awesome "baker" friend Jen.  I'll warn you they are addicting. But nothing could be easier than 4 ingredients (only one to measure) and you don't turn the oven on, which is always a plus in Arizona in the summer.

You need a package of Oreo cookies, a package of cream cheese, vanilla and a bag of chocolate. I know my friend recommends the melting chocolate pieces, but I couldn't find them. A bag of chocolate chips worked fine.

Chop the Oreo cookies in a food processor (or a blender would work) until very fine. Combine the chopped Oreo's, cream cheese and 1 tbsp. vanilla in a bowl and blend with a mixer. Roll cookies in balls, place onto a baking sheet and put in refrigerator. I left them in there for a couple hours, but an hour is probably sufficient.

Melt your chocolate according to the bag directions.  I did mine in the microwave in a glass bowl and it took a couple of minutes.  Dip the chilled cookie balls in chocolate and put back on the baking sheet. When all cookies are dipped put them back in the refrigerator to harden.

I didn't get a prettier picture of the finished product, and they are all gone now. I need to work on my dipping skills. But it didn't matter they were delicious.

You could change it up with mint Oreo's with some mint extract in mixed into the melted chocolate. Enjoy!

Adventures in Cooking & Project 12 Layout

This past weekend we were busy getting Nicholas ready to go back to school and preparing for Mike to be down from knee surgery.  The surgery was this morning, and he is in recovery now.  It sounds like he should feel a lot better once he heals. Mike still did some cooking, but kept it a little easier.  Saturday night he made steak sliders with grilled onions.  He used a rub spice that he made a little bit ago.  To go with them he also made sweet potato fries.  They weren't really crispy like chips, but they were tasty.  The spice mix was yummy a bit sweet and spicy.

We ordered pizza Sunday night, but Monday he cooked up pork tenderloin tacos in the crock pot and made a mango pico de gallo.  The sauce for the pork included cinnamon sticks.  It added a bit of a sweet flavor to complement a mildly spicy sauce with adobo chile sauce.  The mango salsa is about medium hot.  I love the pico type of salsas, I could eat them with a spoon.

With Mike recovering from surgery, I am on the hook for the meals for the next several days.  So we'll see what kind of adventures I come up with next week.

I decided to do some monthly layouts for 2010, Project 12 style.  I just got started this past week.  I made up some picture collages in PSE with my favorite pictures from the month done through June.  I had them printed up at Costco in 8x12 and 8x8 sizes.  I ended up doing the collages myself.  I looked all over for templates, but didn't like what I found.  Costco has a collage tool, but I wanted more control.  It took a bit longer, but as I worked through each month, I got better at it and was happy with the results.

I finally got to use my Studio Calico month stamps.  I made the flower with Studio Calico Fabrips.

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Adventures in Cooking from the Weekend

This past weekend went way too fast.  Saturday I went to a baby shower, so Mike took the boys to the mall and out to lunch at Kona Grill.  He had planned to make a couple new dishes this weekend, so he picked the easier of the two on Saturday night.  So we ate Chipotle Cajun Pasta.  It was a bit spicy but very good.  It was great for left overs last night and we'll be eating it up for lunch today.

Sunday he had more time and made Teriyaki Chicken with Pineapple Mexican Salad.  I was busy on the computer when he was in the kitchen, so I didn't realize he made his Teryaki sauce from scratch.  It was the tastiest teriyaki sauce I have ever had.

The salad was really yummy and pretty easy to make.  It was a chopped pineapple and jicama with some sliced onion and minced cilantro.  Toss in olive oil (2T) and white vinegar (1T, I used white balsamic).  Then top it off with a little feta cheese and fresh cracked pepper.

I needed a card for the baby shower I was going to.  My friend is not a fan of pink, so I wanted to make a card with lavender (the baby's room color).  Apparently I am not a purple fan, I got rid of every piece of purple patterned paper I had back when I cleaned out my scrap stuff.  Finally I found an old class kit, I took apart the layout that was partly finished and made this quick card.

Weekend Cooking Adventures

Saturday was my night to cook.  We had wanted to have a roasted chicken recipe I had made a couple of years ago, again. It was from Cooking Light magazine.  So I gathered my rather simple ingredients....

Did some cleaning and chopping...

And about an 1 1/2/ hours later I had this beautiful bird....

and these roasted vegetables...

along with the best gravy I have EVER made....

All turned into this yummy bowl of goodness, with lots of weekday leftovers...

While I was busy with the chicken.....Mike mixed some peaches and berries....

and put together a little cobbler....

Now time for the true test....

and it tastes even better than it looks....as if that were possible....

Sunday's are for grilling....

Grilled salmon with Adobo Chile Merlot BBQ sauce and tasty rice pilaf.

Who needs to eat out....

Love Long Weekends & My First ScrapTiffany Challenge

I took Friday off so we could have a nice long weekend, filled with family time and lots of cooking and grilling.  So I stayed up late Thursday night finishing up my first ScrapTiffany challenge.  This week's challenge is Self Portraits.  There are 18 ladies on the design team, so the DT reveal's are on Monday and Friday.  Mine is up today, so I can share it here.  I like to do pages like this a couple of times a year and it had been a while since my last one.

Making Me Happy Now

On Thursday this week I will be hosting Thrifty Thursday over on the ScrapTiffany blog, so make sure you check it out.

We started off Friday with a quick breakfast out at Mimi's and then headed to the new SeaLife Aquariam at Arizona Mills.  It was crowded but it didn't matter too much.  Nicholas had fun and even touched some starfish.  We got an annual pass so we could go back several times.  If you live locally, it is probably the better way to go.  It is kind of pricey to just go for the day. It only takes about an hour to walk through one time.

We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe then headed back home for the afternoon.  I finished up The Short Life of Bree Tanner, (the Twilight novella) that afternoon.  Mike's been doing all the cooking lately, so it was my turn.

I took this....

And made this....Smoked Salmon Pasta,Tomato Bread Salad and garlic cheese bread.

The salad is definitely going to be a repeat recipe.  The salmon pasta on the other hand was just okay.  Just as I was about done making dinner, we heard a horrible noise coming from one of the A/C units.  So we had to shut it down and got to sleep in a warm room (thank goodness for ceiling fans and more than one air unit, or it would have been the couch again).

On Saturday Mike made us pancakes for breakfast.  Nicholas and I went to see Toy Story 3.  He fell asleep half way through and I cried like a baby at the end.  On the way home from the movies Mike called with the news that the compressor had gone out on the A/C, at the price tag of $2K.  So we are now up to $4K in the past month in A/C repairs. If it would have all blown out at once we could have replaced the unit for $5K.  So hopefully the A/C gods will be nice to us the rest of this summer and we can budget to start replacing our units next year.  You would think you shouldn't have to replace your A/C units after only 5 years, but I have concluded that Carrier stinks (and that is the G rated version).

Mike grilled us steak, asparagus and pineapple for dinner Saturday night and I conked out early that night after starting a new book.

The 4th for us was spent at home making breakfast, swimming, making cheesecake, grilling hot dogs and potatoes and playing outside in the evening.

I also kicked off my new scrapbook organization blog - Michelle's Scrapbook Studio.  I am starting off with a tour of my room and features on how I organize my stuff.  After that I plan to feature organization tips for organizing our creative spaces.

After a quick bath for the boys, we finished up our 4th by watching the fireworks from a nearby park (Tumbleweed) out on the greenbelt across the street from our house. It was great to avoid the crowds. It was a quick walk home afterwards, which was a good thing, since Nicholas fell asleep during the fireworks and I had to carry him home to bed.  Mike and I had the chocolate chip cheesecake I made for dessert and again I crashed pretty early.

This ended up being the best fireworks shot.

Of course at the end when I was trying to get a good picture of the finale two cars parked down the street from us to watch too, and left their headlights on facing us.  Thanks neighbors! :)-

Today we slept in, me after waking up at 3:30 a.m. and not going back to sleep until well after 5:00 a.m..  We had made a breakfast casserole last night, so breakfast was easy and we spent the rest of the morning in the pool.

This afternoon I was tackling scanning of a bunch of old photo's from my mom's boxes.  It's fun to look at so many of those old pictures. I think I spent the age of 3 with my mouth open, because I found several pictures where I looked like this.

Tonght Mike grilled steak tacos topped with his yummy Pico de Gallo (which ended up way too hot for me this time) served with a tomato, corn and avocado salad.

Now that I have to go back to work tomorrow, I wish I had one more day.

Halfway there....

...to my 4 day weekend that is.  Work is busy this week.  Internal audit is visiting and our air conditioning went out (again) yesterday.  We had to sleep on the couch in the basement last night to keep cool.  Our bedroom was a stifling 85 degrees with the fan blowing full blast.  That doesn't make me happy, it makes me cranky...those poor auditors. :). Air was fixed today so back in my own bed and a comfy weekend at home is planned trying out some new recipes.  Saturday we made this Smoked Salmon Pizza it was so yummy....

Nicholas and Jackson are playing pretty well together now....well maybe too well.  On sunday, after several minutes of very loud noise and a closed bedroom door we walked into Jackson's room and found this....

Trouble with a big fat capital T, I tell you...

Also on Sunday, Mike pointed out I had not updated our family room banner.  It still said Spring from one I made a couple of months ago.  We were having the family over for dinner Sunday evening, so I had an hour or so and whipped this one out.  Not super fancy but I love the colors of the Echo Park Paper Sweet Summertime line.  Mixed with some Sassafras whimsies and banner stickers, a few Making Memories glitter stars, ribbon from Michaels, a few punches and Studio Calico Carter and Storytime alphabet stamps and Stamps of Life  stamps I whipped this up in no time. We now have a Summer banner....

Can't wait for the weekend....and weekend plans

After being gone last weekend, I can't wait to be home this weekend and get some relaxation and scrap time.  This morning I had to whip up a birthday card for a friend, the leftover scraps from the May Mosh-Posh kit were perfect:

This weekend I'm looking forward to:

Starting Camp Scrap at Big Picture Scrapbooking and digging into that this weekend.

Ordering my Studio Calico July kit add-on's (OMG the add on's this month are unbelievable)

Dinner to celebrate the Arizona dad's on Sunday night.

My light potato salad for said dinner.

A quiet Saturday morning before the kiddos wake up drinking coffee from the new Kreuig coffee maker

Hoping the Kindle I ordered today (at the new lower price) gets here this weekend so I can get it set up for some books I want to read.

Working on my 1st challenge for ScrapTiffany that will debut the first week of July.

Happy Friday!

Adventures in Cooking - Volume One

Earlier this year we bought a TV and Direct TV DVR for the kitchen. Little did I know that would take Mike's cooking adventures to a whole new level.  

Ever since he started staying home with the boys he started taking on more of the cooking.  He was definitely inspired by my Dad who has been cooking great things for years. This past Christmas when Dad and Evelyn came to visit, Mike even asked my dad to supervise his first turkey on the grill.  They had fun and the turkey was great (almost as good as mine) Ha!

After the TV purchase Mike started recording several shows on the Food Network and we have been eating wonderfully,  At times we have to get creative with recipe modification. We started Weight Watchers in the middle of April, and I have managed to still lose about 2 pounds a week while eating all this yummy food.  I am really learning portion control. 

Sometimes I send him recipes I find like this one from Zesty Cook for Garlic Basil Cheeseburgers

Or maybe an idea from Cooking Light Magazine for pizza on the grill.  This one was for the kiddos, I guess I forgot to take one of the salmon pizza we had that night.

But the cheese pizza was a hit for Nicholas, who loves to be served milk and food at the BBQ bar.

Then there was Mother's Day when I requested fajitas.

And I made this Mojito Melon and Mango Salad to go with the fajitas.  I was trying to replicate something similar I had eaten at Chelsea's Kitchen in Phoenix )while seated a table away from Danica Patrick, who is quite tiny by the way).

Then there was the weekend we went out to Schnepf Farms and picked peaches and Nicholas had a ball.

And Jackson, my wild boy was a bit shy

But all was good because we had a ball that day and went on the train...

and then we had peaches to make this delicious peach and tomato salad (that is now a favorite).

that went perfectly with Jamaican Jerk Chicken, corn on the cob and a bit of wine.

Then Mike decided that the grill wasn't just for dinner.  And he made breakfast.  Bacon on the pizza stone, an idea from Becky Higgins blog, I figured if it worked in the oven, it would work on the grill.  And we finally figured out that the flat part of our grill could really be used for something...pancakes.

And I do think the scrambled eggs are better when cooked over the grill then on the stove.

We still had peaches so the next weekend we made, grilled chicken tacos with peach avocado salsa.

So now that you are probably hungry for some yummy food, I will end this installment of Adventures in Cooking.  I have lots more to come, since Mike comes up with at least one new thing every week.

Weekend update and scrappy stuff...

How did it get to be Wednesday night already? I guess with the release of the now sold out Color Me Daisy April Spring Fever kit and putting the finishing touches on the Idea Guide for the kit together the past few nights, I've been a bit busy.  I know I haven't been sleeping much.

We had a fun and busy Easter weekend. I spent almost all day Friday scrapping, it was delicious!  Then Saturday we were preparing eggs for dyeing, deviling eggs, whipping up strawberry vinaigrette for our Easter salad, baking hash brown casserole and decorating this scrumptious cake with a raspberry filling:

I got the idea for the cake from some Easter basket cupcakes I had seen while surfing the internet a couple of weeks ago. But honestly I wasn't interested in decorating that many little cupcakes. So I made a 2 layer white cake and the most yummy raspberry filling ever. I colored the frosting and coconut green and decorated the cake top with a bunny, peeps, jelly beans and malted eggs.  But I still needed a basket. So I grabbed my favorite Martha Stewart Border Punch and the Fiskars Apron Lace Punch and whipped up this basket using the Spring Fever kit scraps. It took about 10 minutes and it was just plain fun!

Other highlights from the weekend...

Nicholas had a ball dyeing the Easter eggs. He did a great job and was only medium messy.

We left a note and some jelly beans for the Easter Bunny and he delivered well...

Nicholas really got the idea of baskets and goodies and egg hunting this year and loved his new sporty toys.

Jackson is still a bit overwhelmed by the holidays, but he did manage to eat some goldfish and M&M's from his basket before breakfast.

I have a lot of scrappy stuff to share with you, but since it is getting late I'll leave it to one for tonight.

This one has some of my favorite things from the April Color Me Daisy kit...fabric, Jillibean Soup Corrugated Alphas and Pink Paislee Artisan Frames. I misted the alphas and frame with Maya Mist and love the splattered look for my little artist.  I layered the fabric after fraying the edges over packaging from the Pink Paislee ribbon pleats in the kit. I used the Artisan tape to give an anchor to the title of my layout and I cut the Pink Paislee flip notes in half to border the tops of my photos.

I'll be back tomorrow night with some more scrappy stuff as well as some pictures from the Picture Spring class I am taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

It's the Climb...and yummy cookies

We have a climber on our hands. Jackson has been climbing on everything lately...the coffee table, the fireplace mantel, the ottoman, chairs, whatever.  I told Mike he just wants to be up higher so it is easier for him to get in our face (he is quite bossy). The problem is we think he can get up just fine, it's getting down we are worried about. Nicholas never did this, so it's a new thing. I am sure my mom would call it payback.  Apparently I was quite the acrobat back in my day.

I got home earlier than normal for a Friday, so I decided to find out what happened when you take these....

and mix them up like this.....

you get something that looks like this....

I found this recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Cookies on the Picky Palate blog.  I love her recipes they are usually relatively easy to follow and every one I have tried is easy to make. When I saw this recipe earlier this week I knew I had to make them, the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are probably my favorite all year.

The recipe said it would make 4 dozen, my scoop must be a bit smaller because I ended up with 5 dozen. So I think my co-workers will be happy on Monday with some of these.  There is no way we can keep them in the house. It will be impossible not to devour them over the weekend.