Orange Ya Glad It's Friday Candy Skewers

I'm pretty sure my favorite day has always been Friday. It means the weekend is just around the corner, which means more family time with the hubby around and maybe even a date night?! Hey, I'll take it!

Anyways we're having an "orange ya glad" party and made these little candy skewers from orange salt water taffy and peach rings! I then stuffed each one in the top of an orange and sat it on each plate setting! What can I say, we have to get rid of this candy around here somehow! :-)

Happy Friday friends.

^^^Sage had the right idea...more taffy than peach rings. I like her style :-)!^^^

Party Table Color Schemes

My one and only blondie sister is getting hitched in May...so my other sister is taking the reigns on the bridal shower and we are trying to conjur up a few color palette ideas. Here are some of my favorites...thought I'd throw it out there for you to give your opinion. I tend to go more for corals and pinks...with yellows and greens. It's crazy how much you can do with a few good group of colors, aint it?! :-)

photo cred:  pic1   ////    pic2    ////     pic3     ////     pic4      ////     pic5

DIY wedding backdrop

When my littlest sister, Sadie, got married last October she wanted to have her reception in my parents backyard. She wanted to do the ring ceremony on their tennis court...and somehow magically transform the court into this gorgeous, romantic scene. Well, that's sort of difficult when the court is blue and green and there is a huge net on one end of it. So my oldest sister had a BRILLIANT idea on how to cover the net, and create a backdrop to where they would exchange rings.

It turned out even better than we all expected! I wish I could take credit for it, however, Whitney was the master mind on this project! Here's the how to:
-she bought about ten pairs of curtains from Ikea to cover the width of a basket ball court
-cut curtains into strips about 6" thick
-she sewed two strips together (short end) so it was long enough to reach from the top of the net to the bottom. Depending on how high your backdrop needs to be this might not be necessary.
-dye strips in a bucket of dye (each batch sat in the dye for about an hour or so)
-hang them to dry (note: they drip so make sure you hang them somewhere where dripping isn't an issue...like the grass) She took pvc pipe and made something to hang them on.
-She than took wood, placed it at the top of the net and draped the strips over it so they hung at different lengths. She stapled them in placed, and continued to layer the strips.
***the end.

the BEST brown sugar pecan coffee cake I ever did have...

I have this box full of breakfast recipes...and I always go for the same ones every.single.time (I've shared two of my all time favorite ones HERE and HERE). 

So this weekend I thought I'd try and make something new. You guys this coffee cake recipe is now, hands down, at the top of my list! It isn't just any old coffee cake...it's a succulent, moist, brown sugar pecan coffee cake (try saying that ten times super fast?!).  I'm not joking when I say I wanted to down the entire thing in one sitting.

Now, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't share this amazingness with all of you...especially on a holiday weekend when you've been gifted an extra day to try it out! I'm just going to say your welcome ahead of time...it really is pretty life changing!

The three main ingredients: Pecans, brown sugar, and well the dough :-)

Brown Sugar Pecan Coffee Cake

streusel: 

1 cup chopped pecans (toasted)

6 TBS unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

cake:

1/2 cup butter

2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

***spray bundt pan and dust with flour. Whisk together streusel and set aside. For cake mix butter, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla...and on low speed add flour and sour cream. Spread half of the batter in the pan, than half the streusel, and repeat with streusel on top.

Bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes

             

Hadley dried food...and stuff

My dad is notorious for going to the grocery store for milk, and coming home with five bagfuls of completely unnecessary, delicious things. I always secretly loved when my mom would send him to do a grocery errand because I knew I was in a for sweet surprise when he got home. 

So anyways, the other day I was down visiting them and I opened their pantry to find a stash of Hadley  dried fruit, and chocolate covered treats! I am telling you, if you've never had beet chips, or hadley gourmet green peas, or chocolate covered cherries...well than, you should drop what you're doing and go buy some.

Plus, the colors were too beautiful not photograph...so yes, I had a little photo session with dried fruit and veggies. Oh, and than I attempted to make a necklace out of the chocolate covered cherries, almonds and the green peas but it didn't go over so well. I had really good intentions though. :-)

***for all you christmas party planners, this stuff would be a great choice for finger foods!***

a whole lotta chocolate...

Saturday night, Josh and I hosted a Christmas party for all the teens he teaches in early morning seminary (and when I say early, I mean like Josh is out the door by 5:30 AM...it all seems like a dream by the time I wake up with my kids ha) 

There was pizza, games,  a whole lot of chocolate,  and of course ugly Christmas sweaters (p.s. if any of you are in need of a good ugly Christmas sweater...EBAY has superb ones!). I'm actually so bummed because amongst all the craziness I forgot to snap a photo of everyone in their holiday outfits :-(.

There are a few things I learned last night. One,  that charades is hilarious when you play with a bunch of sixteen year olds. Two, that hot chocolate is way better when you add a ridiculous amount of whip cream and mini chocolate chips with a heaping spoonful (thanks to my 3 year old) of colorful sprinkles on top! And, lastly that I am just getting old considering by the time everyone left (10 PM) I was beat. Like really, truly beat. ha.

The colorful cocoa bar was a hit, and also might I just add, so were my homemade carmel bars (I mean you can't go wrong with butter, chocolate and caramel?! recipe below.)

I had a little mishap in the midst of baking...

I tend to forget that you have to start off mixing SLOWLY otherwise this happens

but it was totally worth it...because well, I mean just look at them

Cocoa bar included:

marshmallows

mints

mini chocolate chips

sprinkles

reddiwip whip cream 

1 gallon of whole milk with 8 packets of hot cocoa powder 

My mom's famous Caramel Bars

1 1/2 cup cold butter (cut into sections)

2 cups quick oats
2 cups flour (plus 1/4 cup to mix in with caramel)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 (12 oz.) jar of caramel topping (I like Mrs.Richardsons butterscotch)

In bowl combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. But butter in until crumbly and the dough all starts sticking together. Set half of the dough aside for topping--and press the other half on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. In the meantime take your jar of caramel topping and add 1/4 cup flour to thicken it. After the 15 mintues...sprinkle the chips and drizzle the topping all over and lay the rest of the dough on top (I flatten it between my hands and lay it on top). Cook for another 18 minutes.

coloring on the go...

You guys, I found the perfect on the go toy!

A couple weeks ago when we traveled out South to visit family and go out for my husbands work...I bought a bunch of little on the go things to occupy my children on the flight. A four hour flight with two babes under the age of 3 is worth buying a lot of "maybe this will keep them busy for a bit" things!

Thankfully this Water Wow on the go coloring book kept them occupied for quite some time...not to mention it's pretty neat to watch! YOu fill up a little paint brush with water and go to town. The colors suddenly appear..."like magic!" as Sage yelled while going to and fro with her brush.

I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of nice to not have to fumble through a bunch of coloring book pages, and scramble after dropped markers/crayons!

Anyways, moral of this post. If you have kids, you should get this. It's worth the 5 bucks!

My Foxy, Turkey Day Table Setting

So here it is...the plate layout for our Thanksgiving Day! I got all of the plates at Target, and for each setting it came out to be $14. However, some people don't like having multiple plates. I will say the fox plate is a must...it just ties it all in!

I love the layered look, so I figured this only happens once a year AND I can use these for other occasions too...right?!?!

main color pallett: 

gold, silver, black, orange (and if foxy was a color, I'd add that one in too) 

and since I had to google where the fork, knife and spoon goes...here is the right way to set a table ha

The Pecan Pie that has stolen my heart...

Yesterday, I was in search for the perfect dessert to fix for my Halloween feast. I finally decided on Pioneer Womans Pecan Pie (she calls it The Pie That'll Make You Cry) and holy macaroni!

Josh didn't believe I made it...goes to show how much trust he has in my baking skills?! This pie is good my friends, like I wanted to lick the pan clean than make another one, good. I did a few things different to the recipe just because I'm weird like that.

My little twist:
I used 1 1/2 cups pecan chips instead of 1 cup chopped (they're just smaller and easier to chew)
I added a little extra vanilla and brown sugar
I used 3/4 cup corn syrup rather than 1 cup
I cooked it for about 1 hour and 10  minutes
...and lastly, instead of serving it cold I let it sit in the fridge for about six hours and then when I got it out to serve I warmed up the slices in the microwave and added a scoop of icecream (it seemed to be the more popular vote over a cold slice)

SEE THE ORIGINAL RECIPE HERE

Ree, you dog gone done it again. This pie was pretty tear jerking!

 is your mouth watering yet?