Autumn Turkey Loaf

In Celebration of cooler weather, I set out to make a "fall like" dinner.

I am not a big fan of meatloaf... I could say I hate it, and it would be the truth. I have tried to make it several times, and it just never turns out. Today I was feeling creative... but we only had some turkey burger and some salmon in the freezer.

I grabbed the turkey burger and stuck it in the microwave to defrost. I was going to make something yummy.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees

I chopped up a carrot and a stick of celery and put it in a bowl.

Next I added half the box of stove top stuffing. There is about 3 cups total in 1 box... so you will be adding

1 1/2 cups. Be sure to shake it up good first. The seasonings settle to the bottom. 

Add your 1 pound of ground meat.

Add half a can of cranberry sauce. I used jelled, but whole berry would be just as good. SAVE THE REMAINING HALF OF THE CAN! 

 Add 1 egg (beaten)

 Roll your sleeves up... stick your fingers in the gooey mess... and pretend it is a chore and you really aren't enjoying it. Once everything is all mixed up good. Stick the mess in an un-greased loaf pan.

 Bake for an hour. I made some mashed butternut squash "tatters" to go with my creation (baked a butternut squash for an hour at 350, pealed it, mashed it, whipped it. Added some milk, butter, salt, pepper, and brown sugar. Baked for 20 minutes at 350. I didn't measure anything... I just added what seemed enough) . I made up the remaining stove top also.

Ana was looking extra darling... I had to snap a pic! 

 Once the hour is up, and you have removed the loaf from the oven. Add the remaining cranberry sauce.

I usually call a creation like this "slop"... we often have slop for dinner in our home... but this was super tasty... and easy... I will make it again. So this creation has a permanent  name of "Autumn Turkey Loaf"

                                                                            ENJOY!

Happy Birthday Woody

What do you do when...

It is so hot outside that you are certain that a trip to the mail box will leave you melted to the sidewalk? So you stay inside... with the A/C pumping sweet cool air to every inch of your home.

But then your children start climbing the walls... they are literally taking objects and stacking them to make a ladder to touch the ceiling.

They are bored... so bored and annoying... and it is only 9am and you are already on your 5th cup of coffee... and your stash of emergency chocolate has been depleted for 15 minutes... you panic!

One kid is crying "but WHY can't I have a burp day" (birthday). "I see the napkins". (I found some decor for his party on clearance... and hid it in the closet... which he found... his birthday isn't for 2 months)

And the other kid is taking my yoga ball and slamming it into the crying kid.... with this evil look I have never seen before. She is out for revenge I am sure.

I try to curl up smaller on the couch... praying for the couch to swallow me... I need a moment.

The oven timer beeps. I reluctantly get up to take (our new favorite) Pumpkin cupcakes out of the oven. Read here on how I whipped up these in under 5 minutes!

I then have an idea!

Why can't we have a party???

I see a Woody doll fly into the kitchen... out of the hands of Eli... and he starts crying "Why can't Woody fly? I WANT EGGS I HUNGRY".

I start making eggs, it takes like 4 minutes... I am still thinking about this party... what am I going to do??? HMMMM...

I serve Eli  his eggs... and give some to Ana in her high chair.

Eli starts crying again... "I do not like green eggs and ham I do not like them in this house"... he is balling his eyes out.

I didn't make him green eggs... whatever... he is being so stinking sensitive today. He is bored... we all are bored... it is too hot to go anywhere... we have been inside for DAYS.

I pick up the Woody doll... and the eggs Ana threw on the floor...

IDEA!!!!!

"Oh I forgot today was Woody's birthday! We need to have a party!"

Eli's face lights up! "ya it Woody Burp Day!"

"Hurry eat your eggs and go put Woody down for a nap and we will get the party set up"

Eli gobbles up his eggs, runs and puts Woody in his room... and I hear him read Woody "Green Eggs and Ham"... it is Eli's new obsession... that is where he got the "green eggs" bit from.

I go out to the garage... and dig in my "party" bucket... it has all the leftovers from all the parties we have. I find the leftovers from Eli's 2nd birthday party... WOOOO! He had a Toy Story party... perfect for Woody's Birthday Party!

 I use the pumpkin cake I made this morning for Woody's Birthday Cake. Read here how to make this scrumptious goody! 

 Eli was so excited! He was playing "host" of the party. Telling us to sign "Happy Birthday" and everything. 

 Ana wasn't sure what was going on.

 I gave Eli a gift bag, and told him to find Woody a good present... something Woody REALLY likes. 

 He gave Woody an old 'Toy Story' cowboy boot. How perfect! 

 He says "what is inside Woody? OH A ORANGE IN YOUR BOOT, no snake HAHA"

 I then lite the candle, we sang Happy Birthday for like the seventh time, and Woody blew out the candle.

 We all enjoyed some pumpkin cake.

  

This is how we enjoyed the 105 degree weather today... How did you beat the heat and enjoy today? 

Pumpkin Cake!

It is hot... very hot outside... this is a attempt to will cooler fall like weather

My family has become a fan of pumpkin cake... and it is so stinkin easy to make, I can't find a reason not to make it on a whim... even when it is 105 degrees outside!

You will need:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 can of pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup (any) milk
1tsp. pumpkin pie spice
powder sugar

This recipe can be make without milk, chocolate chips, powder sugar or spice... it taste good still without any or all of them. You could also add a nut of choice... or raisins... raisins sound good... I am going to try that!... also, I don't exactly measure any of the ingredients... I just eyeball it. This is a hard recipe to mess up... it is very flexible!

Preheat oven to 350degrees

Mix the above ingredients

Spoon into cupcake trays, or pour into a cake pan

To make cupcakes, bake for about 25 minutes
To make cake, bake for about 30 minutes

Sprinkle powder sugar over cake/cupcakes

ENJOY!

Peek Into the Whipple Home

Our new home is lovely! We are so blessed! I am so proud of Daniel for working his way up at Walmart, so that we can live in this home! I have had a fun time decorating... funny thing about moving to a nice home-- all your old furniture suddenly looks really cruddy. 

Being on a tight budget, but using my frugal skills- I set out to improve our surroundings.

This red dresser was given away by my Aunt. Before it was red, it was a multi-colored mess... complete with an anarchy symbol and the lyrics to a popular Pop song. I sanded the dresser lightly and used two coats of spray paint and added new knobs. 

The dresser displays my Kitchen Aide mixer and many cook books. I am so proud of my mixer! Read my post here about how I came to own such a awesome appliance. The dresser also doubles as a "pantry"... it hides all of my canned foods! 

 I used chalkboard paint to re purpose a few serving trays. I posted a blog on "how-to" here. 

This is my favorite wall in my home! Over a year ago I won the "Family Rules" subway art sign from a blog give-away. A relative of mine makes them :) I kept the sign rolled away... praying God would lead us to a home where I could properly display the sign! When we looked at the house, before we decided to move in, I saw the brown wall and knew that my subway art sign would be perfect there!

To display the sign I needed a 20x30 frame... which are unique in size and aren't sold at Walmart... I had to go to Michaels. I waited till all of their frames were 40% off, and paired it with an in-store coupon for 20% off. I then imported a few of my favorite pictures from Facebook to the Target photo processing website... choosing the "black and white" feature. Then picking them up in the store. I then went to the Dollar Store... again... and picked up the necessary size frames for the pictures I just got developed.

You can visit Alexander Creative here on their Facebook page to get your own Subway art sign! They come in different colors and have a variety of sizes and sayings. They even come on a canvas! Currently a different blog is doing a give-away with Alexander Creative artwork... you should visit the Facebook page and enter! The link is HERE

AND---- we have a fireplace! AND it works too! I can't hardly wait for winter!!! Cozy! 

My new couch... don't mind the mess around it... Children DO live here also! Daniel got me a new couch for Mothers Day... he is a pretty swell guy!

Desk for the Generations

 I have this desk here. My Mother gave it to me and told me I can NEVER get rid of it. She said it has sentimental value and belonged to Great Grandma. SO I moved this desk with us when we moved. I stared at it in our garage and thought "well I don't want it in our house looking like that" all scratched up, dirty, with stickers. All the handles were broken as well. So I called my Grandma and asked her if I could fix it up. 

She said sure.

So I start sanding it... and about choke on the dust. It was green! I call my Grandma and she tells me that Great Grandma had put a vanish on it. I think "well that was like in the 40's... it is probably toxic and illegal to use now." SO I get out my tough Hello Kitty hankie and cover my face. Eli thought it was hilarious! I had to get someone to come over and watch the kids inside so they wouldn't breath it in. 

See the shinny varnish... it took two weeks to sand the whole thing down. Plus side-- 

my arms are super buff now!

 I started off using the sandpaper by hand. But it was taking SO LONG. My Aunt brought over her sander... which made it much easier! After it was sanded, I left it in the backyard so I could paint it the next day. Then we got the crazy summer rain! It poured and the desk got wet.

 I let it dry out, and Daniel sanded on it some more.

He then painted it for me! I was going to do it, but he just was a nice guy and did it for me. He used a Espresso Brown spray paint with a gloss finish. 

He went to Lowes and picked out some really nice handles and put them on too!

Then he hooked up my laptop and printer :) And took a picture for me! 

I emailed my Grandma and told her that I would like to know the story behind the desk. She emailed me back... now when I sit at the desk I think about her, sitting at the very same desk-- looking for her birth certificate, dreaming of the rest of her life. The following is her email to me... I thought it would be really neat to share!

Dear Sarah, I finally figured out how to use this new fangled thing! Here is the story of your desk as best as I can do in writing. I do better talking better then writing. Wish I had your talent.

We moved from Jerome Arizona to San Francisco in 1946 after we pulled up stakes and sold most all of our household furnishings. So when my folks bought the house, two bedroom one bath, we were in need of furnishings. Mom and Daddy bought some real inexpensive furniture and charged it. My Daddy was only earning one dollar an hour working driving public transportation in San Francisco.

That is how we got the desk which we needed for doing homework etc. Mommy kept bills and important papers in there. Which we were all aware of. When Bill and I decided to elope to Reno, this was July 1951. I thought maybe it would be good to have my birth certificate to prove I was 18. The reason we decided to elope for several reasons. One being Bill was expecting to be drafted any day. Plus my folks could not afford a wedding, plus my Mom was pretty sick in those days. Number one reason was that we loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We had planned on a small wedding in Jan 1952, but because of the draft threat, we decided "why wait"?

We talked about it, Bill and I, on a Sunday night after Church. We went and got the ring Wednesday, and that Friday we took the Greyhound bus to Reno. We got to Reno around 3 or 4am. We went to the Court House when they opened and they issued us a Marriage Certificate. We took a taxi over to the Assembly of God Church and got married by the Pastor there with his wife and an Evangelish as witness.

We then took a Greyhound bus home to San Francisco. We went to my parents home. Oh, before we left we each told our sister's, so that when we were missing they would know where we were. By the way, Joan (Bill's sister), told her Dad before we really left San Francisco. He called my Mom and said "you know what our crazy kids are doing"?. He then told her. Poor Mom and Dad were in shock!

Fourteen months later we started our brood of 5 kids, which has been a real blessing in our lives. Thank God for leading us to do the right thing in our lives even at that tender age when we tied the knot for a lifetime.
Love your Grandma

Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

Just made the BEST cupcakes EVER...

I had help :)

I was looking for a fun recipe to use for Ana's first birthday. I found one on Pinterest. Tweaked it a bit... and what turned out was absolutely divine! I was really excited to use my Kitchen Aide Mixer. I had received it as a gift over a year ago... but our old home had no (none... not a single one) plug outlets in the kitchen. You can read about my Mixer of generosity here. 

Cupcake Ingredients:

1  strawberry cake mix

1 vanilla pudding mix

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/4 cup (4 Tbsp.) lemon juice

4 eggs 

Glaze Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup pureed strawberries (made from fresh or frozen strawberries)

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. vanilla

3-6 cups powdered sugar (adjust to achieve desired consistency)

1/2 cup cream cheese

1 tub cool-whip

Shreds of white chocolate candy bar

Don't mind the mess in the background. We are still unpacking

To Make Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I don't use liners for the cupcake tins. I spray each cup with PAM. But you can use liners if you so choose. I will be using liners for Ana's actual birthday cupcakes. 

Add the cake mix, pudding mix, buttermilk, oil and lemon juice to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until moistened. Add eggs one at a time, until the batter is well-mixed. Increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and thick.

Pour or scoop the batter into cupcake tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove and cool.

This is my son, licking the powdered sugar from the table.

To Make glaze:

I had issues with the frosting/glaze. I followed the original recipe, but it wouldn't thicken up... so I added the cream cheese. When it still didn't thicken up I folded in the cool-whip and called it a "glaze".

Cream butter in an electric mixer on medium-speed until smooth and fluffy. Then add in the strawberries, vanilla and lemon juice, and mix on low-speed until combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Blend in cream cheese. Fold in cool-whip. 

When cupcakes are cooled- pour glaze over the top. Top with shredded white chocolate. 

Take a bite... ENJOY! 

-EDIT: I remade these cupcakes... exactly the same way BUT changed how I made the frosting.
To make frosting:

3/4 cup butter, softened (This is where I messed up. I melted the butter thinking that "softened" meant "melted". I had melted the butter before, that is why I was unable to get the butter creamed into a smooth and fluffy consistency)

1/2 cup pureed strawberries (made from fresh or frozen strawberries)

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. vanilla

3-6 cups powdered sugar (adjust to achieve desired consistency)

1/2 cup cream cheese
Shreds of white chocolate candy bar

Cream butter in an electric mixer on medium-speed until smooth and fluffy. Then add in the strawberries, vanilla and lemon juice, and mix on low-speed until combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Blend in cream cheese. Fold in cool-whip. 


Visit my post here for the outcome of my edit