Monday, June 30, 2008

Sew much fun!

Many of you know I am a big Heather Bailey fan. I was on her blog recently when I saw that she was having a sewing class at a nearby boutique. I just happened to mention it to Randy and he just happened to call and sign me up. So on saturday off I went to meet the "Queen of cute fabric."

I know, this is a super cheesy picture of me but look who I am standing next to! You can see part of the cute store in the background.

We made these cute little strawberry pincushions, and ate some of her amazing strawberry pretzel desert ice cream. You can download the recipe from her blog. It was so delicious, I think we need to make it for the 4th of July.

We got the stuffins to make a red strawberry pincushion also and her new pattern that is not yet released. It includes a pattern for a pear, apple and tomato. She printed some cute recipe cards for her ice cream and she even signed our patterns.

It was so cool to meet her and ask questions about her fabric and learn some cool sewing tips. We were chatting after the class and she pulled out some of her scrapbook line. It is so cute! I am going to have to get my hands on some of that. It was tons of fun. Thanks Randy, for letting me have such a fun treat, I will never forget it!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Lucas!



Lucas is 4 today! What a cute little farmer. We love you Lucas!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Strawberry Salsa with Cinnamon Crisps



Yum! I got this recipe from a friend about a month ago and have been wanting to try it ever since. I finaly got around to making it today and let me tell you it is delicious! This is definately a new summertime favorite. Thanks Melissa!



I had one of those rare moments today when the two littles were sleeping and the three bigs and 1 little were off playing with friends or helping their Dad on his new truck and I decided to make this. After I tasted it I was hoping they would hurry up and come home so I wouldn't eat the whole thing by myself. Yeah, it's that good! After I pigged out I realized I was going to need more cinnamon crisps so I had to make another batch. Thank goodness I did because when everyone got home it was gone in a few minutes.


Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Salsa
2 kiwis peeled & diced
2 apples peeled & diced
8 oz raspberries
1 lb strawberries
2 T sugar
1 T brown sugar
3 T fruit preserves, any flavor

In a large bowl, mix all the fruit together with sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill 15 min.

Cinnamon Crisps
10 flour tortillas
cooking spray or oil
cinnamon
sugar

Coat one side of each tortilla with butter flavor cooking spray or brush with oil. Cut into wedges with pizza cutter. Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet and sprinkle with desired amt. of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray or baste again with oil. Bake 8-10 min at 350. Cool 15 min. and serve fresh.

This is the recipe the way Melissa gave it to me. I didn't have raspberries so I didn't put them in. I used strawberry preserves and only added a sprinkling of brown sugar and no regular sugar. It was plenty sweet enough for me. You might want to play around with it and add different things like blackberries or pineapple. I had a pre-made pie crust in the fridge so I used it for some of the chips. I thought the flavor was better than the tortillas but the dipability (is that a word?) was not as good because they were flakier and tended to fall apart. That is when a spoon comes in handy.


I promised to update you on the progress of my recipe book so here goes. The boys were all up at my Mom and Dad's for a week so I was able to actually get some stuff done around here, and have some fun girl time with Natalie and Hailey. I started working on my book but I have to admit I am not done because I kept thinking of great recipes I wanted to add to it. Here is the progress so far.





Speaking of fun with the girls, we had lots of fun. We discovered Redbox movie rentals at our local Walmart and watched a movie almost every night. I took Natalie to a ceramic store that we have lived 1/2 a mile from for 3 years for the first time. She painted a ceramic butterfly with her friend Kylie and can't wait to go back. She pulled out the Easy Bake Oven on more than one occasion to make cookies.

She was so cute. I had scouts on Wednesday and she wanted to make cookies for them for refreshments. She made them all in her Easy Bake Oven.

Notice the tatoo on her arm in the upper left hand corner of the picture. She cracks me up. She even melted some chocolate in a little bowl on the top burner to dip cookies in.

It was a good week. I was excited to go get my boys though. We drove up on Saturday to get them and back on Sunday. I got to see my sister Shara and her daughter Avery and new baby Aiden. I didn't get any pics though. We got back on Sunday night and started swimming lessons Monday morning. The kids are enjoying their swimming lessons all except for Jacob because he says the teacher won't let him do whatever he wants, too funny. Hopefully I will get pictures of them swimming next week.

Sorry, I know it is a long one but so much is going on it is hard to keep up. I would rather be busy than not though, thats what keeps life fun!