[Cupcakes & Puppies]

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love to cook & bake. I guess you could say cupcakes are my thing. I would love to give up being a nurse and open a cupcake shop-but who am I kidding. So for now, I will just stick with baking for my friends and family.  Ryan needed a dessert for work today and I have been wanting to work on my banana cupcake, so last night I made  homemade banana cupcakes with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I am not that big of a banana fan, but these cupcakes were DIVINE!

Today marks 7 weeks for the puppies. I don't know how I am going to give them up next weekend! All week they have slept through the night, and it has been very much appreciated. They are now loving to be outside of their room to roam through the house when they aren't sleeping. And of course, they all 4 take off in different directions.



Jacks passed out under the coffee table, if you look in the back you
can see Little Miss too. She decided he couldn't sleep by himself
under the coffee table.



Jacks



Total change of subject, but I am so excited that I am finally switching to dayshift at the hospital. I will actually be able to see my husband and have a life again! I will get to work two 12 hour shifts and one 8 hour shift a week, yahtzee! Unfortunately that means I have to work 2 weekends in a row. Not fun. The hospital has been chaos this week, and we even had to open our extra overflow floor.  Hoping tonight is not too bad! Hope everyone has a great weekend!



[Hello Sunshine]

Wow! What a beautiful week. Finally! We had a tease of warm weather a couple weeks ago, then the cold weather came back in a whirlwind, but finally the warm weather is back! The puppies had their 6 weeks shots and vet visit yesterday, so my sweet husband decided to take off work :) After the vet we headed home for some much needed yard work. Our house was in shambles when we got it, but with great potential! My awesome father-in-law pretty much gutted it and we comepletely renovated the inside. Well for the outside..yikes. Our yard was a disgust to the local gardener's club. The elder lady who used to live in our house was a gardening FANATIC! We have grapes, figs, muscadines, several pear trees, different kinds of apple trees,pecan trees...etc etc..get the picture? Gardening is not a strong skill for Ryan nor I, but our first goal was to at least get the front yard looking decent so it didn't look like a bunch of bums lived in our house. Flowers to come, but it's slowly getting there!
Our front yard before:

A work in progress:

and since the weather was so nice, we were finally able to let the puppies outside to play in their runner!

Jacks



[Give and Get is Here!!]

Give and Get is Here!:

"Enjoy 30% off from March 17-20 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy plus we'll make a 5% donation to a non-profit."


Just click the link above and print the coupon, Pass along to everyone! Great deal, 30 % off your ENTIRE purchase!!

[Cheesy Shrimp Soup]

After hurricane katrina, we lived in a fema trailer behind our church building for several months. There were 3 different families that lived there as well as lots of workers that would come and go. It was so much easier for us to cook in the church building and all eat together as a family vs in the small tiny kitchen of a quaint fema trailer. One of neighbors were the Tates. John and Charlene have also been close family friends of ours and it is amazing how much closer you get to people when you are living under similar circumstances. Mrs. Tater would stay up ALL hours of the night making pies and all kinds of goodies and loved to teach anyone how to cook!  If you couldn't sleep, and went to the kitchen at 3 am-she was there....with an apple pie waiting. This is such a delicious, easy soup that she taught me to make. 

-2 cans cream of potatoe
-1 can sweet creamed corn
-1 can cheddar cheese soup
-1 pint half & half
-1 small block velveeta(chopped into small pieces)
-1 lb shrimp( i am not somewhere i can get fresh shrimp, so i use precooked frozen shrimp)
-1 capful crab boil
-3 tbsp butter

1. Add cream of potatoe, creamed corn, cheddar cheese soup, half & half,  crab boil & velveeta into a crock pot on low. Salt & pepper to taste.
2. Thaw frozen shrimp out, and sautee on low briefly in butter to warm shrimp up. Add to crock pot.
3. Leave on low until cheese is melted through. Stirring occasionally. (see..EASY!)

*Note: If in hurry, you can cook this on stove top, but I prefer to throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and cook all day until dinner.

[happy 4 weeks babies!!]

Our puppies have finally made it to 4 weeks! After a rough start, they are all finally thriving. They have learned they have a voice and are barking quite frequently, and enjoy singing along at 4 am each morning : / Each of their personalities are starting to develop, and I am getting more attatched, which means...trouble. It's so hard not to get attatched when you have a sweet fur ball that gets so excited to see you and goes crazy to get to you. I don't know how I am going to give them up at 8 weeks... but without further ado, meet our furbabies:

       the escape artist:                                  the snuggle bug:

  

         the ring leader:                                  the curious one: 

     this is the puppy we

      are keeping, meet..

Anderson's Gentleman "Jacks"



[Mardi Gras King Cake]

In the south, Mardi Gras is a big deal. This is the first year I have not been home during this time. I am not so much bummed out about missing the parades, but missing out on king cake....now that's a different story. So I had to improvise and make a homemade king cake. It is so easy to make & delicious! 

Ingredients: (this makes 2 small king cakes or 1 large)

-4 packages of crescent rolls

-2 8 oz cream cheese
-2 egg yolks
-1 can pie filling(I prefer blueberry,but cherry is great too)
-2 cups of powdered sugar
-3-4 tablespoons butter
-1 tsp vanilla
-sugar & food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg yolks and cream cheese until softened. Set aside.

2. Roll 1 pack of crescent rolls out into a ring, then lay the other roll out in the center matching up the seams.

3. Scoop half of cream cheese mixture around the seam, then add a blueberry pie filling on top.

4. Fold center seams over, and then outer seams inward to create a ring, filling in the spaces.

5. Bake @ 350 for about 35 minutes. You want outside to be a golden yellow, and the bottom not to be soggy where the seams and filling are.

6. While king cake is baking- put a small amount of sugar in 3 different containers and stir in food coloring to create purple (red + blue),green,and yellow.

7. Add vanilla to powdered sugar,stir. Slowly add in melted butter.

8. Once king cake out of the oven, pour icing ontop and sprinkle colored sugar! You can also add a small plastic baby if you have one. Enjoy!

[to blog or not to blog]

To blog.

I have decided to join the blogging world. I have recently moved to a small town  the middle of nowhere north Alabama and thought it would be a way to keep up with everyone.  So here is to an attempt at blogging!