Homemade Sushi

You know how sometimes you see a picture of something on Pinterset and you think to yourself, "I could totally make that!". Then you go to the link, and the directions are so complicated that they might as well be written in foreign language? Well, when I saw a picture of homemade sushi on Pinterest they made it look really easy. And guess what?... It actually was! The hardest part may have been finding the ingredients and supplies that I needed. After checking a few different stores I finally found my supplies at Wegmans. I only felt a tiny bit guilty knowing that if my plan worked, I would probably never buy any of their $9.00 sushi again ...Only a tiny bit :)

                                                                   Homemade Sushi

                                         I made plain cucumber rolls hopping my kids would try it.

Logan wouldn't even consider it. Houston tried it. But then he gagged and spit his piece out in the garbage :/ The other 2 liked it though. So I guess 2 out of 4 isn't bad!

Now I can eat cheap sushi from the comfort of my home and not have to embarrass everyone by asking the waiters for a fork!

Pizza Dip

I made this pizza dip for my son's birthday party and it was a huge hit. I pretty much could have eaten the entire pan but I was nice and shared with my guests who left asking for the recipe :)

Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup pizza sauce (or spaghetti sauce) 
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 ounces pepperoni, sliced
Dash of oregano 

Directions:
Mix the cream cheese, sour cream mayonnaise, mozzarella and parmesan and spread it in the bottom of a pie plate.

Spread the pizza sauce on top and sprinkle on the cheese, pepperoni, and a dash of oregano.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until the sides are bubbling and the cheese is melted and golden brown on top, about 20 minutes.

Serve with baguette slices.

Happy customer :)

Banana muffins worth documenting

I don't usually post recipes on my blog. The truth is I'm not that good of a cook. I have a few things that I specialize in like my apple pie and German chocolate cake, but everything else is just average.

That's why I have to share these muffins! Not only did they look pretty but they tasted awesome!

As Logan put it, "It's rare for your muffins to turn out this pretty."

These types of things deserve to be documented :)


Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

  
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

1. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

2. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The only thing that I changed was that I added a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg to the flour mixture before I added the banana mixture.

I'm sure that's what made these puppies so awesome ;)

Valentines Day S'mores dip

I saw a recipe for a s'mores dip and put a little twist to it to make this Valentines version.

Ingredients:

• 3 table spoons of butter
• 1 bag of peppermint marshmallows 
• 1 can sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips (I didn't have any on hand so I used chocolate kisses instead)
• Graham Crackers

In a microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips (stopping to stir every 30 seconds or so) until melted.
Mix can of sweetened condensed milk and melted chocolate together then pour into a 9inch pie pan.
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. *You may want to start this while your chocolate is in the microwave*
Drop melted marshmallows by tablespoons all over the chocolate mixture.
Use a butter knife to makes swirls through the mixture.
Serve immediately with graham crackers for dipping

Enjoy! But be ready for some sticky hands because not only is this dip yummy, it's messy too :)

Here's the original recipe

My favorite fall recipe

Fall is my favorite time of the year! It's also a perfect time to do some serious baking. Here is probably my favorite of all fall recipes.

Pumpkin bread

Original Recipe Yield 3 medium loaves

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups solid pack pumpkin puree
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Grease and flour three 7 x 3 inch pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Measure flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices into a large bowl. Stir to blend. Add pumpkin, water, vegetable oil, eggs, and nuts. Beat until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for approximately 1 hour.  

* I found this recipe on All Recipes a few years ago and it always comes out perfect! You can add chocolate chips, top it with frosting, or (my favorite) eat it for breakfast with butter spread on top.

How to make all natural laundry soap at home. *With pictures*

Making laundry soap?!?.....I'm like flippin Martha Stewart who happens to be living in the ghetto.

I think I'll call it Jonathan's Little helper. JLH for short. My friend M recently told me that she's been making her own laundry soap for years. At first I laughed and begged her not to tell my husband. But after she told me how easy it was and that it comes out to be less then 8 cents a load, I figured it couldn't hurt to try. She also said that her daughter has eczema (so does Ethan) and that using JLH really helped her skin. It also cures the common cold...ok maybe it doesn't do that. But it could if it wanted! ;)

Anyways, below is step by step instructions on how to make your own JLH.

All you need is

• 1/2 cup of Borax
• 1/2 cup of washing soda
• 1 bar of soap (I used Lever 2000 but you can use Dove or whatever you like)
• a cheese grater
• *Note* make sure your cheese grater is a wide spaced one. Mine was to small and I ended up just cutting the bar into tiny pieces.
• a 2 gallon bucket
• and water 

Pour 1 gallon of warm water into your 2 gallon bucket. Set aside.

Grate up your bar of soap, then melt it in a large pan on med./high heat (should take about 5 min.) with 6 cups of water.

Mix in the borax and washing soda to the melted soap mixture. *It will look like snot*

Mix in 6 more cups of water.

Take it off the heat and pour it into your bucket with the gallon of water.

*Note* M said that she will sometimes top the bucket off with a little more water. I added 2 more cups

Mix again and let sit for at least 1 hour.

At first it will look a little like egg drop soup. After a few more hrs. it looks almost like broken ice.

Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.


Give JLH to your husband so he can do his job ;)

The other cool thing about this is that because it only uses a little of each ingredients, that you only have to buy them every 6 months or so.

And that's how ghetto Martha does it!

Lets take this puppy for a test drive.

I love to eat but for some reason food always tastes better when someone else is cooking. Ever since I was a little girl I would love to go to my friends house just to try out what their mom was cooking. They could be making something as simple as tomato soup and salad with ranch dressing (as one friend always did) and it just tasted so much better then the soup we had at our house. One friend's dad always had a cupboard full of his special snacks that he would sometimes let us chose from. Today at my house we have our own "snack cupboard" that the kids love to go through when their friends come over.

What can I say.... Food makes me happy! My kids will probably quote that line to me when they are morbidly obese and need someone to blame ;)  Here is a recipe Evelyn I tried today for muffins. My gang said they were the "best muffins ever"

Easy Berry Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 Teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 1 Large egg
• 3/4 Cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup of oil
• 1 Teaspoon of van. extract
• 1 1/2-2 cups of freash or frozen (blue,rasp.,black)berries.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in bowl. In another bowl whisk together egg,buttermilk,oil,and van. Gently mix berries into wet mixture then combine all ingredients. Fill each muffin cup about half full of batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
2. * Using fresh berries may require less baking time* 

Footnotes

• If using frozen berries, wait to take them out of the freezer till the last min. to prevent from defrosting and bleeding into batter. *kind of like the ones in my picture did*