Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

Ok, sorry it took so long to recreate the yumminess in writing... I kept forgetting to measure things!

1 box pasta, the ONE thing we didn't measure, because I just dumped it from the jar on my counter...whoops...but it was probably about a pound
1 cup(or more, your call) shredded cheese.  We use Kerry Gold Dubliner or Aged Cheddar (or both)
2 TBS Butter. Again, we use Kerry Gold (FYI the gold is salted, silver unsalted... Again, your preference)
1 1/2 cups Whole organic Plain yogurt. We use Stoneyfield Organic
1 tsp Garlic powder(or more, it's all about what you want)
1 tsp onion powder(do I have to say it again? However you want ;0)
2 tsp Turmeric (weird, huh?  We LOVE turmeric.  Well, I do; everyone else puts up with it because they don't cook.  It's really good for you AND makes the mac n cheese that yellow color.  Be careful, it stains.)

Boil your pasta. If you don't know how to boil pasta, google it. Drain it and set it aside. Use the warm pot on the burner on low (1-2 on my stove).  Put the butter in there to melt, then add the yogurt.  When the yogurt is a smooth soupy texture and hot enough to melt cheese, add the shredded cheese.  I generally swap my rubber spatula for a whisk here. Stir until it's smooth(maybe 3-5 min).  Add Garlic, Onion, and Turmeric. Take off heat and add noodles.  That's it...  I really like it.  My kids seem to like it, but that could just be because they know the blue box isn't coming back and maybe this is the best of many evils they've been forced to try over the last three months...

Monkey Bread to the Rescue!

Well, to be honest, I was afraid to have another dud, so I decided to really cheat. I made Monkey Bread in a Bundt, turned it out, covered it with powdered sugar icing and sprinkles and Ouala! King Cake! Sandra Lee, you ain't got nothing on me!!!

Anyways, it came out cute and tasted like a giant cinnamon roll, as it should. Monkey Bread, that is. I've never had King Cake, 'cause every recipe I have found is too difficult for my meager kitchen and it's not like it's a popular commodity here in Charleston.

Monkey Bread

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 cans Pillsbury Grands Homestyle buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees

grease 12-cup fluted pan really well.

Cut biscuits into quarters.

put gran. sugar and cinnamon into a large ziploc bag

put biscuits into said baggy, close tightly, and shake, shake, shake your biscuits!!

put biscuit bits into pan with some nuts sprinkled as you go

melt butter, stir in brown sugar, pour mixture over biscuits...

it looks like it's going to be too gooey, but it won't, it will be perfect!!

cook for 28-32 minutes (until the center doesn't look like uncooked biscuit)

I made a powdered sugar/teeny bit of milk icing to go on top, once it cooled a little bit

sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles!

Christmas Ornaments 2012

We went to somewhere Magical in October with extended family, so we decided we would make Mickey and Minnie Ornaments for them for Christmas.  I found a really cool picture on Pinterest.  The only problem was that it was only a picture...no instructions.  So I set out to recreate what I saw, and for the most part, they came out really cute!
First of all, back at the beginning of November I ordered a box of glass(I realize now I should have gotten plastic, but oh well) balls from Oriental Trading.  Now, I don't think they even sell the glass ones anymore, but I know that AC Moore carries them.  The ones we got are smaller than normal glass balls, but that worked fine for me, because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get pompons big enough for the ears. 
We poured Metallic black paint on the inside, rolled it around until it covered the whole thing, then turned it upside down on a dixie cup to drain. 
**Warning**  If you do not allow the inside paint to dry, it gets ugly.  Black all over everything ugly.
We let it set overnight to dry as much as possible, then put the metal stopper/hook back in.   Next, we painted Mod Podge on the bottom half, then dipped it into the bottle of red glitter(it was a pretty wide bottle) and turned it back upside down in the cup to dry with the glitter up.  Doesn't take very long.  On the front, we MP'd two yellow jewels for buttons and two large pompons for ears.  This time we let it sit for the afternoon then wrote "2012" on the back.

We also did a Minnie Mouse for our Maga, which was accomplished pretty much the same way, only instead of yellow jewels, we used a Qtip to MP spots all over the red glitter on the bottom, then dipped it into iridescent white glitter.  Surprisingly, it only stuck to the glued areas.  The white glitter we had poured into a bowl, as the bottle was too narrow.  We made a pretty red bow and glued it between the ears and there you have it!  Minnie Mouse!

Kindergarten Graduate!

Congratulations to my Big Girl who finished Kindergarten!!

I can't believe how she has grown, just in the last year!!

And the cupcakes came out good too!

I Can Make Anything with Candy...

Self-torture.

I made 52 cupcakes last night (they smelled soooo good).

This morning I took the Air heads, Reese's and Hershey's that I bought last night and made graduation caps for said cupcakes (now down to 50, as two were casualties named Jack).

I took the rainbow airheads and sliced them by color, also giving two little slices on the end to make a tassle.  They came out cute.

Then the mini Reese's and snack-size Hershey's(1/2) became the cap.
And voilà, a graduation cap.

Ok, to be fair, this was the guinea pig, so he looks a little rough. It kind of melted, so I put the chocolate in the freezer before doing any more and did them in batches of 20...then stuck them back in the fridge/freezer...But it's going to look really cute on top of the cupcakes!!

Fairy Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday to Our Fairy Princess!!!

She is our in-house comedic routine. She's sassy and knows when Mami is supposed to be stern but is fighting a snicker. She does things, like wear rainboots with sunglasses and polka dot shirts with plaid skorts and doesn't get why it doesn't match. She hunts bugs with the abandon of an entomologist in the Amazon. Her love of bugs is only second to her love of My Little Pony.

She's an intercessor. She prays every night whether Mami remembers or not. And she remembers prayer requests. God is going to use this child one day, sooner, rather than later, I think!

Books...

I think my biggest problem while working was how easy it was to justify buying books.
Now that I no longer work outside the home full time it's harder to justify buying them, but no less tempting.
I picked this book up last year on a whim and never got around to reading it.  I had gotten placed in a bag that I found in my closet, but I found it recently and sat down to read it.  It's actually a pretty good read.  Not too heavy, but interesting enough to want to go get more information!  We like those kinds of books.  I saw one online for Columbia, so I assume they have them for most cities.  I think it's a great way for kids to get to know the history of the cities near them.  We're not exactly in Charleston, but close enough to visit often.  I'm going to sit down with the girls this week and read it, since Our Princess is not allowed (or able) to write...