Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I cannot believe it!

I'm a winner! I won my first blog giveaway! My sweet WABC-associated friend Kim is hooking me up with something totally fabulous!

Everyone go check out Kim's blog!

I'm feeling especially philanthropic now and will be hosting my own awesome giveaway very shortly! Check back in the next few days for a sweet treat!

My most favoritest dessert ever!

My Mom & Denney made it in town Thursday night, hence the lack of blog recently. We've shown them around Rockport and Corpus Christi. FBC's Easter musical is this weekend and so they've seen that also. We've gone out to eat several times and cooked a few times too.

Mauve has monopolized everyone's time and sniffed crotches like nobody's business.

I determined at some point during the weekend that I was going to try a new yummy recipe- something that just so happens to be my most favorite dessert ever. EVER. Creme Brulee. Sweet, crunchy, creamy deliciousness. Combine the creme brulee we had with the baked potato soup lunch and you've got enough heavy cream to increase my waistline exponentially. Oh but it was gooooooood.

I found these little red ramekins at World market for $2.99! (it's a 4pack!)

I put my mom to work too. Please overlook the dirty pyrex in the background. It held Cheese Danish, which was also divine. The pyrex is clean now.

MMMMMMmmmmmmm... yummy vanilla bean speckles.

The brulees were an overnight undertaking, baking in a waterbath and then cooling the custard to room temperature and then refrigerating for several hours. We dont have a torch, so I put the finished custards under the broiler and voila! Brulee!

Now the only thing this pot of flavored cream needs is a little more cream on top...

Perfect.

I got the recipe from Food Network (A Paula Deen I think). It was time consuming, but not nearly as difficult as I anticipated. Today creme brulee; tomorrow the world!!!!

An Ode to Cas.

I love my sister.

Today is her birthday.

Go tell her Happy B-day.

Happy birthday to my awesome sister! You've seen me without makeup (and the 4th grade short 'do). You got my hand me downs. We shared a bed until I was like 10 years old. I hit you with a broom once. You put up with my neverending bratty-ness. We've been quite a pair for 22 years now. Thanks for being my bff.

More renovations at Mims Manor

Jordan will be back home tonight and I had one last big to-do to cross of my list.

My mom & Denney (blind guy) will be visiting us next weekend and I had a little landscaping to take care of! These huge weeds are taking over our back yard, and I had a flower bed in the front yard with nothing in it but dirt. So earlier this week, I hit up a local nursery with my friend Marsha and got weed killer and new plants.

My momma is gonna keel over when she gets here....

-new house

-home cooked meals

-a dog

-green plants in the yard

We are so domesticated.

Mauve decided she needed to supervise the planting.

Something amazing happened while I was sweeping off the porch - It started raining! I got all 5 plants (4 on the right and 1 new fern on the left) done and happy before the storm. The bushes on the right are pink Indian Hawthorn. I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Ski trip Update

I spoke with Jordan last night and things are going well in Glorieta!

They drove to Santa Fe yesterday and spent the day skiing. No reports of injuries or broken bones which is wonderful! He did say a couple of the adults were sick yesterday, so please keep the group in your prayers- for health! We definitely dont want a stomach bug going around any more! Jordan said it snowed all day long yesterday and was supposed to continue throughout the day today. This makes for a beautiful landscape, but he was worried last night about how that would affect ski day #2. Please keep them in your prayers- for safety! My Georgia-raised husband is driving a van up a snow-covered mountain!!!

Tomorrow they will spend the day in downtown Santa Fe and then Winter-Fuge will begin Tuesday night and end Friday morning. They'll take off Friday afternoon and drive to Fort Stockton and make the remainder of the trip on Saturday.

New Update: Due to poor weather conditions, the mountain was closed to skiing. And one of the vans started having issues in Santa Fe. Thankfully Scott & Kim are there also and were able to help Jordan and the kids get back to Glorieta and get the van to a mechanic. Jordan says there's at least a foot of snow outside and even though they arent skiing, everyone is having a great time.

You know what they say,

...when the cat's away, the mice will play. Or bake. Or scrap. Or run.

I was in the mood for something sweet and warm. Arent fresh baked cookies the ultimate comfort food?? So in my desperation, I perused a few cookbooks, got some ideas from the items in our pantry and came up with my own yummy cookies. All I need is a name for them.

Hollie's Nameless Cookies

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

3/4 cup softened butter

1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

a couple splashes of milk (I used skim because that's all we drink)

2 & 1/4 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

A couple handfuls of craisins

A couple handfuls of chopped almonds

A couple handfuls of chopped vanilla almond bark

(Some of the measurements are just play-by-ear, ya know?)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Incorporate vanilla and whole egg and blend until smooth. Combine dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt) on a paper plate and incorporate half of this mixture until smooth. Add yolk and milk and blend until smooth. Add remaining dry ingredients and blend until all ingredients are well incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl and continue blending if necessary. Add mix-ins and combine with a spatula. This is where the measurements are a little kooky. Just add more until you think you have a nice cohesive mixture. It just worked out that I needed 2 large handfuls of each mix-in. Spoon dough onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cool & Eat with a big glass of milk!

The higher ratio of brown to white sugar makes these cookies more chewy and the substitution of milk for the second egg yolk will make them moist! They are very very delish!! I made a small batch (just 8!) since it's just me & Mauve here this weekend. I have frozen the remainder of the dough in little cookie portions for another day.

I have frequent cookie urges. After ingesting whatever cookie dough landed on my fingers and spatula AND 3 baked cookies, I've now satisfied my cookie need! I think now I need some pepto!

Army

Ive been a busy scrapper lately! I made an army of Thank You's for all those who had a part in our Mpact weekend. They should be in the mail sometime soon. Not only have I done this, but I'm working on so much else at the same time! Graduation announcements, baby shower invites, wedding shower invites, wedding announcements... I'll be keeping busy for a while!

Jordan will be leaving tomorrow morning (saturday) around 5am with a group of teens for Glorietta/Santa Fe NM for a ski trip. Please keep the group in your prayers not only for traveling mercies but also that our kiddos will have a great experience!

Come on Garrett!

So my #1 reason for the recent DFW trip was Allison's baby shower. You may recognize her- she came to visit (with her hubs Nate) in January and put up with us and crazy-crotch-sniffer Mauve for several days. I wouldnt have missed her sweet baby Garrett shower for anything!

Here's a tip: when throwing a party where there will be a sweet course like birthdays and baby showers, try Sam's cupcakes! They are so yummy and SOoOoO cheap! Allison specifically requested some Sam's cupcakes and even though you cant see it here, they are topped with red/blue/green/yellow sprinkles to match the primary color theme. The sweet cup-n-cakes come only in 30 packs (thus perfect for parties) and are $12 & change! You cant beat that! It comes out to like $0.42/cake. Ridiculously cheap. Love that Sam's!

The shower was super fun and the other hostesses (all Shady Oaks Fusion Friends! L to R: Jalissa, Me, Alli, Catherine and Shelley) were fantastic! Garrett got all kinds of goodies and since Allison will be 38 weeks this week, hopefully he'll make his grand entrance soon to check out the goodies for himself!

Other important DFW-only errand? Getting my hair done!!!! I absolutely love my gal Jessica (She's now at Olive Beauty Lounge in Mansfield) and am having a hard time trusting anyone else with my hair and especially my hair color! Yet again, Jessica worked her magic and transformed my overgrown, root-heavy hair to red/blond/bob/bang deliciousness. I've stalked Jessica around 3 salons so far and I'd follow her just about anywhere!

Cheese Danish

I've been a little blog-delinquent the past week. I had a nice weekend trip to DFW. I saw friends, I showered a friend and her on-the-way baby and I got my hair done. I am a total stooge and forgot BOTH of my cameras so now I'm just waiting for friends to send me their pics. More on this later.

For now - a fun recipe!

Cheese Danish

2 cans crescent rolls

2 8oz pkgs of cream cheese

1 & 1/4 cups of sugar (separated into 1 cup and 1/4 cup)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Take 1 can of crescent rolls (dont tear into triangles) and remove 1 of the 2 sections and lay it on the bottom of a 9x13 pan and then do the same with the other section. Mix cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth and then spread over the rolls. Take the second can of rolls and place on top of the mixture in the same way as the first can. Pour melted butter over the top. Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar together and sprinkle on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Yum!!!!!

Big girl panties

Funny story.

So back in late January/early February, I contacted Kelly about a new blog design. I'd seen her work here and there and always admired her fabulous designs. The girl did Beth Moore's blog! I place my order the first week of February and pay a rush fee because the girl's busy! She's got a 9 week wait list!

And then I wait. And Wait. And Wait.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. I was so worried and frustrated that I had heard nothing about my blog design! So I tell myself, "Hollie, if you dont hear something from this girl by Monday, you need to ask for your money back." This is a big deal for me, because I am non-confrontational to a fault. So I take a deep breath, give myself a pep talk, put my big girl panties on and stick up for myself.

20 minutes after I hit the send button on my nastygram (which I like to think wasnt really all that nasty... I even had Jordan read it for me and give his ok.), I get a reply back. A reply with an attachment dated 2 weeks ago with a picture of my finished blog design.

Ummmm... how about that?

So apparently, the proof email was filtered out as spam because I neverrrrr got it. So we sorted out the little snafu and got the new design installed. Kelly was such a pleasure to work with. Isnt it awesome?!?!?! I L.O.V.E. it! Check out the Fabulous K link to see some of Kelly's other work. And help yourself to a button!

Yay!!!

Lessons

Life lesson #3531:

Raisin Bran Breakfast

+

Salad lunch

+

2 mile run

=

Ugh.