Sweeping Through Life

Cooking is one of my happy places. I had a friend give me ALOT of apples and I did not know what to do with them.I went on Pinterest and started looking up some recipes that have apples include. You know there are lots of recipes. I decided on one of them for standard applesauce but decided to make it my own. My daughter seemed to enjoy it (kid approved).  The recipe is located below if you want to make yourself. Crockpot Strawberry Applesauce 6-8 Apples ( you can make use any apple that you want, Gala are the ones that I used) 4-8 Strawberries ( you can use any fruit that you like or just make plain applesauce) 1/4 cup of brown sugar 1/2 water 1/4 lemon juice Add all the ingredients to the Crockpot. Cook on high for 2-3 hours, until the fruit is failing apart. One done, mash the fruit with a potato masher or a fork. Take an immersion blender and blend the fruit until smooth or the consistency you like, sometimes I like mine a little chunky.  Enjoy! You can freez...

With this being Easter weekend, my household will be a flurry of activity from dying Easter eggs, to having any egg hunt with friends and of course church and Sunday dinner. We started out the weekend by dying Easter eggs. I did not purchase a kit, but did it the old school way. It is cheaper and the items used, I can use for other baking or cooking recipes. Here is the recipe that I used:   3/4 cups of  hot water for each color   1 tablespoon of white vinegar per color   food coloring (2-4 drops of each color depending on how deep of  color you want) Let the eggs sit in the color for at least 2 minutes to obtain some color and occasionally roll around to make sure all sides are covered. You may let the eggs sit in the color mixture as long as you want to obtain the color that you want. I believe that we let some of our darker eggs sit in the color for at least 4 minutes on each side.  Miss G. enjoyed making the creating...

I am loving that the Duggers new season has started.  shoes I am loving these cute shoes for the Miss G. I am loving watching my little smile at me when I pick her up from the sitter.  I am loving the chicken salad that made  for dinner. It was really yummy on the Triscuits . I am loving that it is a 3-day weekend. What are you loving this Wednesday?

I am loving watching the Olympics. I am loving reading Forever Soul Ties by Vanessa Davis Griggs. book I am loving using my Cockpot on a weekly basis.  I am loving that my little has such loving godparents. I am loving the Cherry Berry Chiller at McDonalds. I am loving the 10 for 10 at Kroger.  I am loving the possibilities of each new day.

In my church babies are dedicated to the Lord and not baptized. They are baptized when they are ready to dedicate their lives to the Lord. Miss G. will be dedicated at the end of the month. Ever since I received the date from my Pastor I  have been planning the dinner afterward. It is just going to be family and a few close friends at the dinner. I have decided to go with a purple and green theme party. credits: pom poms , straws , popcorn and cake I have already ordered the straws. My sister-in-law is going to make the cake for the event. I found a recipe to make the popcorn on this site and it seems really easy to make as well as yummy. The pom poms are from Martha Stewart, but I think that I can make these cheaply without purchasing them.  I plan on also making some G cookie cut outs, as favors. I am still planning the menu, but I think I have the decor under control. I am looking forward to my little ones special day. Even though she may not remember it, it will...

On Friday , went and did my civic duty and passed out political literature for an issue that I care about that will be voted on at the upcoming November 8 election. I enjoyed the exercise, but I was tired from all of the walking. It made for good sleep on that evening. Saturday ,  I did the normal Saturday housework and did a little relaxing.  That afternoon I went to church to assist with our Hallelujah Fall Fest. We had games, food and even have a game truck come out. If you do not know what a game truck is it is a truck that has all different game consoles in it with all different types of games. I really enjoyed exploring the game truck and think  that I had more fun in it than some of the kids. It was a really fun event and I hope that it gets bigger next year. After attending that event, I came home and watched HGtv, loving the High Low Project show,  until I went to bed. Sunday , went to church and it was really blessed service.Came home and the hubby made ta...

On Friday , I got off work and went and visited my little cousin Jisiah. He is so cute and I enjoyed my visited with him. After my visit I went home and quickly packed and hit the road to my sorority meeting. It was the first time that I stayed out in a hotel by myself out of town, and I must say that I do not liked it. Luckily if anything happened my husbands family was near by. . Saturday , I woke up earlier to get to my area meeting for my sorority were I was going to be presenting on our AIDS/HIV initiative. It was nice to see all of my sorority sisters for near and far and I really obtained some important information. After the meeting I went and visited with my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law before I got back on the road home. I got home in good time and was able to spend some time with the hubby before falling asleep on the couch. Sunday , started out as usual with attending church. After church, I went and did some grocery shopping. Once home I prepared Sunday dinner and al...

Friday Just another day at work. Since the hubby has been off since his recent surgery, it was nice to have him home on a Friday night. We ended up ordering Chinese food and watching a couple of movies on HBO. It was a nice way to end the week. Saturday Did some house work. In the evening we went to a wedding reception. The couple Alan and Iyanna, had a small ceremony at a local chapel and then had a small reception at their home. It was a quaint affair with lots of friends, food and drink. The food served was good and so was the cake. I always look forward to wedding cake. We were not able to stay long since, the hubby started to not feel well when the pain meds began to wear off. Sunday Went to church. My friend Bev decided to join me at my church this week. It was a nice service. Came home and cooked dinner. I really wanted some fried chicken. I must say, that I do not like frying chicken since I feel like every time I fry chicken it is not completely done. Since the hubby...

Friday I started my extended holiday weekend. I went and saw Transformers 3. I went to an 11:00am show so that it was not so crowded. I did not see it in 3-D and I am glad since there was so much action going on I am sure my eyes would be crossing if I saw it in 3-D. I really enjoyed the movie and it was everything that I expected it to be and more. transformers Since I went to the early show, I was able to come home and just veg out the rest of the day.  I must say there are some interesting shows on TV in the early to late afternoon. I did end up going to the grocery store later on that evening so that I would beat the crowds for the weekend shopping. Saturday Spent most of the day cleaning and preparing for our annual 4th of July party which was taking place on Sunday. Hubby and I just hung out and got alot done so that we could really enjoy the party. I made tacos for dinner, my favorite. They were yummy. Sunday Spent the day with family and friends at our annua...

Friday Picture taken on my Blackberry. It is not really clear, but she looked beautiful. I attend a beautiful wedding of Tracy and Adam. It was rainy for part of the afternoon, but luckily it stopped to have their ceremony outside. Congratulations Tracy and Adam. It is interesting to that you always reflect on your own wedding, when you attend another. Saturday Was to attend a picnic but since it decided to storm, I did not. I did some housework and some laundry. The hubby and I invited one of my bridesmaids and her husband, Alena and Kenneth over for dinner. I made some lasagna, salad and a lemon cake. It was yummy. We ended up watching Big Mommas Like Father, Like Son. It was alright and had some funny parts. Sunday Attended church. It was good to see my Pastor at church, since he has been ill for a while. Since I did so well last week with  grilling, I decided to do it again. I grilled some steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs. I even roasted some potatoes and peppers a...

The Evite's have gone out , yes I did say Evite, and now the planning needs to begin. The hubby and I have two annual parties a year, New Year's Eve and the 4th of July. With having a party every year, as a host you  have to change things up to make things fresh, which means Mr. J and I  have to step our game.  Here is what we did last year. I like some of the things that I did and may do some of them again, but I am looking for new decoration and food ideas. I saw some ideas on From Marriage to Motherhood and began to get inspired.  I  also found these ideas...........   I found these ideas at the Entertain Exchange . I really like them all and they seem so simple, but make a statement.  I found these on the All You website. I would like to make several different sizes of these to hang from the ceiling. The instructions looking simple enough and I think that I already have items needed to create these. I also found some ideas at Celebration...

Friday Had pizza and a movie with my little friend Ben.We watched Tron and Little Fockers. I was surprised that I really enjoyed both of them. The weather started to get stormy and I hurried home. I hate storms. Luckily, the hubby was home from work early. Saturday Attended my last sorority meeting of the year. I spent the day with one of my "besties" Bev. We went to lunch at "our spot" El Vaquero. We then did some window shopping and of course hit the Bath and Body Works sale.I think I did a little damage. Here is some of my hubby's hard work in the back yard. I must have did a little to much shopping, because when I got home I took a long nap.  Luckily, once my nap was done my husband was done working in the yard, so we were able to spend a little time together just vegging out. Sunday Attended my friend Bev's early morning service. I wish my church had an early morning service. Her  church service started at 9:45 am and I was able to  attend s...

Friday I took a "mental health day" from work and spent the whole day just chilling at home with the hubby. We watched lots of great TV and just vegged out on the couch. I made some yummy low fat cupcakes (will share the recipe before the end of the week). It was nice just to relax and not have to do anything. Saturday Did more of the same from Friday on Saturday morning. Attended a  Greek step-show with the hubby and some friends.It was held in the newly rebuild The Ohio State University Union . It was so nice and the building is alot nicer that when I was attending there. While at the show, I got the yummiest Brown Cow ( diet coke and vanilla ice cream) at Sloopy's . It was fun and I had a really enjoyable evening. After the show, I went home  and put my collard greens in the crock pot to cook all night for Sunday dinner and  then allowed the TV to watch me as I fell asleep. Sunday Had a good church service, after I locked my keys and purse in my car in the ...

My husband had a wonderful birthday celebration this past weekend. On Friday, I had a small gathering of friends to surprise him at a local resturant for dinner. For an extra special surprise I made him a birthday cake shaped like a car. I had the cake hid at one of my friends homes until the party. He loves cars  and everything doing with cars and even used to have a little yellow sports car. He loved it and so did everyone else. No one really seemed to believe me that I had made this cake. I made it and I have the two days of being tired to prove it. I used the Wilton 3-D car cake pan for the car shape and used a regular rectangle pan for the bottom of the cake. I made buttercream icing, that I learned to make from the cake decorating class that I took this past summer. In decorating the cake, I used the star tip for the car and wheels and the grass tip for the grass. For a the actual cake I made a pound cake recipe for the car and a yellow cake for the bottom. The rocks and ...

Here are a few thoughts.... Well, I had previously talked about the big game between OSU and Michigan. I am happy to announce that the Buckeyes won the game. In winning the game, they became the Big Ten Champs and have secured a spot to play in the  Rose Bowl. The hubby and I went to a OSU/Michigan party..but with a twist. Mr. J's friend is a huge Michigan fan. I enjoyed heckling the Michigan fans as the game with south. I was proud to be wearing my scarlet and grey. Go Bucks!!! This year was the first year that I was Mr. J's wife at Thanksgiving time. I have had Thanksgiving with his family before, but this year as a little different. I made green beans and was a little nerves about taking them. His sisters, all 5 of them,  all have cooking talents and I wanted to make sure that my creation was up to standard. My nervousness began to fade when talking to one of his sisters, she stated that she was nerves about cooking food for her family since they were such food critics. ...

Today is day 15 of  my National Blogging challenge and I am trying to find something to talk about. I started this blog because I got such a response from my wedding blog and I wanted to record my life after getting married. I really enjoy talking to other bloggers out there and hearing about their life and their thoughts on things. I need some feed back. Talk to me. Tell me what you are thinking? Is there something that you want to talk about? 15 more days until I finish the National Blogging challenge. Really trying to think of what I am going to take for Thanksgiving dinner. This year...since I am married I have to go to my husbands' family home for dinner. There always to many people there..I am use to a small gathering. Thank goodness I am dragging my mom with me and even think that I am driving seperately so that I can get home and get myself ready for "Black Friday" morning. I usually make cheesecake for dessert, but I know that one of my husbands sisters alr...

I think that my Halloween party was a great hit. I had so much fun and I think that my friends did to. All of my guest showed up with some cool costumes and the ones that boycotted wearing one had to pick something from my costume box. We played games  and had great conversation. I do not think that everyone who attended my party, knew how much I enjoyed Halloween. I had several comments about the my decor and the food that I had. My costume was great. My mommy made it for me. I think that I made a good Dorothy. I think that I was a mix of Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz and Diana Ross from The Wiz. I used my Pound Puppies from my childhood for my Toto. Since I had 2 dogs, one was Toto and the other was Tutu. The pot, which I used as a punch bowl, had a fake leg hanging out of which took people by surprise when they walked into my dining room. Of course the punch was red and I added dry ice for the smoke effect. The label on the outside of the pot, was from the dolla...

I have been getting ready for my Girl's Night in Halloween party that will take place this Friday. I can not wait to see everyone's costumes. Of course, I had some moans and groans about the costume thing, but I do not care. That is the best part of Halloween besides the candy. When looking for  food ideas for my party I found a few websites that were helpful and wanted to share.... About.com Martha Stewart Halloween Food Network The site that I used the most was this one called Halloween Recipes . It is a simple site full of great food and party ideas. I got a lot of inspiration from this site. I want my party food to be creepy, and kinda unexpected but still taste good. The ideas on this site have allowed me to do this. I have used some of the recipes on the website, but added my own twist with either changing up some of the ingredients or how I plan on displaying the food.  I can not wait for my guest to come and see the Halloween feast that I have planned....

I attended my first Tastefully Simple party on Friday night. I must say that all of the foods were really yummy. Our consultant Carol, was really funny and I liked her stories of how she got started and the recipes that she makes with the products. There was so much food there that you would never think that eating appetizers and sampling little bites of stuff would make you so full, but I was stuffed half way through the party. There were lots of dips, breads and dessert that you can make really quick and taste really good. I really liked the beer bread with the balsamic dipping oil. I can wait until I get the items I purchased to try them at home. I had a really good time breaking bread and talking with others at the party. It made for a relaxing way to end my Friday. Have you ever attended a Tastefully Simple party of had any of their food? If so, how was it and want did you like the most? Have a simply great weekend.

Last Thursday was my final cake decorating class. I was really excited about it, since we were learning how to finish making the rose. I got to work on some of the other techniques that I had been practicing on as well. I think I have finally got the hang of making the icing the right consistency. It was really hard to not eat the icing while decorating since it smelled so yummy, but I did not like since I would not want to eat a cake that the decorator licked their hands the entire time. Most of the people in the class copied a picture of one of the cakes in our instruction book, but I decided that I wanted to design my own. My instructor said that it was really pretty. My husband came home from work and asked where I bought the cake. I said that I made it. He said that he was proud of me because it was so pretty and that it was yummy to boot. Yeah!!! My next class does not start for another few weeks and I am looking forward to learning how to work with fondant and royal icing. I...