Photo Challenge #3

 - BOLD COLORS -

http://www.makingmelodinmyheart.blogspot.com/

http://www.theblogofus-hk.blogspot.com/

Bracelets

I made these for my volleyball group down in the Bahamas. I am so sad I'm not going back this year. But I made them each a little package with a pic of us all last year and a little note and one of these. There was a purple one too... but I forgot to put it in the picture.

I finally figured out how to do the fastening knot so that the bracelet can adjust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-Ajs9cYLk

Whoopie Pie in Strawberry Carton

One of the guys we go to church with had surgery, so we wrapped up some New England Whoopie Pies I made, and put them in a strawberry carton. It worked really well! 

Quote...

Heard this on the radio the other day and thought it was really good.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

We had a huge bag of cranberries sitting in the fridge, and so I looked for good recipes with cranberries in it. And this was a really good one. It called for cranberry sauce, but I wanted to use the fresh ones, so I improvised a little!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. almond extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

12 oz. fresh cranberries

1 cup of sugar (or more if you want it to be sweeter)

GLAZE:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. milk

1/2 cup almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.

Put cranberries and sugar into large sauce pan. Turn heat to medium/low. Cook until cranberry skin's have burst, and sugar has dissolved, stirring constantly... about 4-10 minutes. Make sure the bottom doesn't burn. Smash cranberries using a potato masher.

Grease Tube Pan. Pour half of batter into pan. Pour in the cranberry mixture. Gently swirl mixture into batter with fork. Add remaining batter. Top with walnuts.

Bake at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over cake. Enjoy!

Photo Challenge #2

- WHAT MAKES YOU SMILE -

http://www.makingmelodinmyheart.blogspot.com/

http://www.jake-n-brittforever.blogspot.com/

http://www.theblogofus-hk.blogspot.com/

Pin It Button

I love this! If you want to install a pin it button on your blog, this blog is the easiest. And it works.

http://www.ravisaive.in/2012/02/pinterest-pin-it-button-for-blogger.html

And if you only want to have a pin it button occasionally, this is another.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZnk_IH9vNQ

Chicken Breading Recipe...

Me and Mom made this a few weeks ago, and the kids loved it!

This makes enough for 6-8 pieces of chicken.

- Chicken Breading -Ingredients:

2 cups bread crumbs

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. onion salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients well. Add vegetable oil and mix well again. Put in big plastic baggie.

To Use Coating: For 6 pieces of chicken beat 1 egg and 1/3 cup together. Dip the chicken pieces in that, and then put them into the baggie with breading. Shake it around until the whole piece of chicken coats, then place on your baking sheet, bake until done, and it's done!

Photo Challenge #1

So Melody, Britt, Kayla and I are doing this photography challenge!

 I think it's going to be really fun!

Here are their blogs:

www.makingmelodinmyheart.blogspot.com

www.jake-n-brittforever.blogspot.com

www.theblogofus-hk.blogspot.com

Not the greatest... but here's the first pic!

- SELF PORTRAIT -

Cocoa...

 So a few days ago, I woke up, and it was really cold in the house. I never do this, but I decided to make myself a cup of hot cocoa! The sun was peeking up over the hills out our window and it made the steam from my cocoa look really cool!

 And the sparkle on the cup is real! I thought it was so cool!

And I thought this one was funny! It looked like a ghost! No editing!



Banana Muffins...

My amazing sister, (aka my best friend) used to make this recipe all the time before she got married. And before she took her cookbook, I copied all her recipes! Haha! Thanks Britt!

This is an awesome recipe! Perfect solution to your browning, spotty bananas. They are waaaaay better the second day, and if you keep them in a air tight container, they stay so moist! I just made them the other day and they were gone the next morning! The whole family loves them. They're also great with butter.

If you have a Kitchen Aid, it only takes about 10 minutes to prepare the batter! Nice, huh!



- Awesome Banana Muffins -

Freeze Well - Makes About 16 Muffins - Prep. Time: 10-20 minutes - Cook Time 20 minutes

Ingredients:
3 or 4 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup sugar
1 slightly beaten egg
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix bananas, sugar, egg, and butter together. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda and powder, salt, and flour. Add to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and don't over mix. Grease muffin pans and fill about 1/2 way full with batter. Bake for approx. 20 minutes give or take for your oven. Done when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Enjoy!

Icicles...

I've been longing for a better camera for a while now. I finally got brave, sold the one I had, winced, and bought a Canon 50D. It was one of the riskiest things I've ever done with my money!

 I bought it off Ebay with only 20 seconds remaining! So glad I did though!

 I asked the guy I bought it from why he was selling, and why so cheap. He told me that he bought a large pallet of professional series store return cameras, and was afraid he wouldn't be able to sell it soon. Hence the low price. I received the camera, but didn't have a memory card, so I had to wait an agonizing week before the one I ordered got here.

 When I finally was able to use the camera, I noticed the shutter button wasn't working all that well. I would focus by holding the shutter button halfway, and then press it all the way down when I was ready to snap the shot. But it would pause... then take the picture. That was really weird, and I kicked myself, thinking, "Duh! This is probably the reason it was so cheap!" It kept getting worse and worse too! It got to the point to where I'd press the button all the way, and it would do nothing!

 I wasn't about to spend hundreds of dollars getting it fixed. I went online and for about 2 days just looked up the problem and possible ways to fix it. I guess it's a common problem with Canon 40, 50, & 60D's. So finally I looked on.... wait for it... this is good... You-Tube... (I love that place) ...and there were 3 or 4 videos on how to fix the problem. 2 of them showed you how to take your whole camera apart. Scary! But I would've had Dad do it. But he was pretty busy and I didn't want to wait. And the other 2 videos showed people pouring a little bit of 99% isopropyl alcohol into the emptied battery compartment. It goes right through the shutter button and pretty much dissolve all the junk inside of there. And with it being such a high percentage of alcohol, it evaporates quickly, and doesn't ruin your camera! I decided to try it, even though pouring liquid into the camera scared me half to death! And.. drum roll.... it worked! I prayed so hard that night! Thank you God! I'm so relieved! Now I have a practically brand new camera with no scratches, and it's amazing! I... just have to figure out how to use it! Lol. It's just a tad bit more complicated than my last one! Here's the link for the video I watched.

http://youtu.be/7VQ6oKFxSzA
And the other one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCca7Tjqmdc

 

Free Editing Programs...

Wow! So I was on this person's site reading how to make buttons for your blog. And she had this free editing program listed. I was messing around with it and it seems pretty cool!

www.pixlr.com