I am in the mood for pumpkin!

I have had a busy couple of weeks, between working and shuffling BubbaLou around to fall fun events, there is just so little time to express myself! But today, after the drama of the morning, which was walking a limping BubbaLou to school (Yes, the drama queen has sprained her ankle, or so she says. It looks fine, but I am teasing her about the Halloween that wasn't), I decided I was in the mood for pumpkin. We don't even have our jack-o-lantern yet, that is on our list TO DO today, but I did have a can of Libby's pumpkin on my shelf. Pancakes! Pumpkin Pancakes! That sounds like a mighty fine breakfast for me! I whipped them up and savored each bite! They are not Mimi's, with the yummy apples on top, but they aren't as fattening either!

Pumpkin Art by BubbaLou

Pumpkin Pancakes

I made just enough for me and Thomas the dog

1 cup of Heartsmart bisquick

1/3 Libby's pumpkin

about a tsp, or maybe a Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice

1 egg

3/4 cup of skim milk

Stir, pour your pancakes the way you like them on the griddle, and cook.

I used SmartBalance and Hungry Jack Lite syrup

YUM!!!!

BubbaLou's Favorite Pizza Slices

BubbaLou is a picky eater. She doesn't like just anything thrown together and called pizza. Mums had some great idea not to long ago-quesadilla pizzas. Didn't fly with BubbaLou or her friends. So, back to the drawing board for an easy to make snack.....

I figured out the way to BubbaLou's tummy tum tum! Pizza made from croissant dough! Thank goodness for tubes of reduced fat croissant dough! These little slices are the croissant triangles. One tore, so I sort of wrapped it. It was her favorite one.

BubbaLou's Favorite Pizza Slices

Croissant dough- reduced fat

Pizza sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Turkey pepperoni

Throw it in the oven, and walla, pizza slices with no cutting. Just be sure to spray the pan!

Oh, and by the way, Thomas the dog loves them too.

Mom, Where Can I get a Caramel Apple?

BubbaLou got a hankering for a caramel apple tonight. She came to me asking where she could get one. "At the Savannah Candy store!" I replied!

Yup, I thought I was funny. She was serious. She wanted a caramel apple, so she turned around and high-tailed it to Popsaroo to ask him. Next thing I know, they had conspired together and headed for our neighborhood Publix after Popsaroo ask me where the caramel is in the store.

I directed him to the produce department where they have those easy caramel wraps. He comes back with individually wrapped caramels. The bag even had a recipe on the back! He thought he was so smart.

"What about the sticks?" I ask. He pointed out that there were 5 free sticks in the bag. Once again, he thought he was so smart.

He brought 4 shiny apples home and 2 bags of caramels. We only used 1 bag.

I started unwrapping those little caramels. BubbaLou joined in to help me. Do you know there are like 50 caramels in those bags? This ended up being the hardest thing about the whole thing.

BubbaLou stuck the free sticks in the apples.

We used the microwave to melt those gooey caramels. It worked so well, and in only 3 minutes.

BubbaLou was 3 minutes closer to her caramel apple! She set to covering that apple with who knows how much caramel!

One bag only made 3 apples(large delicious)! The first two were perfect, the last one was a bit spooky! Popsaroo ate that one, said it had, "Character."

BubbaLou took a big bite, and maybe 9 more and she was full. We put hers in the fridge for tomorrow. Popsaroo and I ate ours, except for the cores and Thomas the dog got those!

Mom, I'm ready for my midnight snack! ~BubbaLou

Good Eats!

Where, oh, where did we eat you ask???

You may be surprised. We took time to rate each place we ate along the way. We came up with 1-6 star ratings! Bet you can't wait to hear!!!! We tried to avoid anything that we could get in Florida!

We started our food fest at Spanky's Pizza Galley on River St. It was our first afternoon, we arrived in Savannah hungry as bears, and maybe as grumpy as one too! Spanky's, we came to find out, is home to the "Original Chicken Finger." What I want to know is, how do they really know that they are home to the original chicken finger? They also had beer battered spuds. In order to try it all, I got an individual pizza-which they make from scratch, and Popsaroo and BubbaLou got the chicken fingers, plus Popsaroo tried the beer battered spuds.

Popsaroo- 1 star BubbaLou- 5 stars Momsaroo-3 stars

Next, we stopped by the Savannah Candy Shoppe on River St. Let's just say, this put us in a pretty fantastic mood. It was a fun atmosphere, they were pulling taffy and had all kinds of colorful sugar treats and candy machinery. We hit the taffy bin and filled a bag, BubbaLou scored a very sticky caramel apple, and I found the most divine pecan pralines-regular and chocolate, and a gopher(I think it is a glorified turtle)! We actually stopped by this place again, and got some taffy for the trip back and Mums and Mummy Iris a pecan praline.

Popsaroo-6 stars BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-6 stars

The next morning, we took advantage of the deluxe continental breakfast at our hotel, The Promenade. It was convenient and included in the price of the room. It was all sorts of pastries, muffins, bagels, and English muffins. Plenty of milk and cereal to choose from, with some yogurt and apples available as well. This allowed Popsaroo to sleep in! BubbaLou thought the muffins were "spectacular!"


Popsaroo-1/2 a star BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-3 stars


Our second day, lunch was a real treat and a choice! We skipped Lady and Son's(Paula Dean's restaurant, for the gem of Savannah, The Wilke's House.

Isn't it pretty? It is on Jones St., one of the most scenic neighborhoods. These are the stairs and the alley way next the entrance of the restaurant on the ground level.

People stand in line, a long line, outside the door. We waited to be the next group of eight people taken in and seated. We shared a table with some folks from the Washington D.C. area. We shared a few pleasantries between mouth fulls. I tell you, there wasn't much talkin' except for, "Can you pass the potatoes, have you had the greens, pass me a biscuit please..."

One word, YUM describes this place. We ate family style and loved every minute of it. The literal word on the street from the people exiting, (burp) deep breath, tap, tap, tap on their stomach, and loudly sharing comments like this, "That was a heck of a lot better than Lady and Son's!"

So, see! We chose well. Why flock to a place just because they have a fun cookin' show(sorry Paula, but I had to choose!) We followed the word we had heard from a friend, a tip in the paper, and we followed the word we heard on the street and came away on top! And talk about friendly, one couple we were in line with, found out at the last moment that the Wilke's House does not take credit cards-they had nothing on them. Oh, No! They thought they had stood in line for nothing. But the Wilke's House encouraged them to stand in line and eat, they could go get their money after they got full! How is that for Southern Hospitality. They even called Popsaroo, "sweetie" when he took our plates to the kitchen.

Did I mention that eating at the Wilke's House in the book "A Thousand Things to Do Before You Die"?

Popsaroo-6 stars BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-6 stars

Snacks are always important, don't ya think? We thought so. A friend also clued me into the Cupcake Emporium on Bull and State St. All sorts of yummy cupcakes to choose from. I was taking a walk by myself when I stopped by. I picked 6 cupcakes to take back to the room. 2 red velvet, 1 pistachio, 1 chocolate with butter cream, 1 nutter butter, and 1 strawberry. My favorite was the pistachio, Popsaroo's favorite was the red velvet, BubbaLou's favorite was the chocolate.

Popsaroo-3 stars BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-6 stars

Vinnie Van Ghous was the next pizza place we tried. It is in City Market, on a corner with tables outside on the sidewalk. After a long day, we sat down at one of those tables and ordered a large 1/2 pepperoni and 1/2 cheese pizza. Best priced meal we had the entire time.

Popsaroo-3 stars BubbaLou-1 star Momsaroo-3 stars

The last night in town, we tried the Wild Wings that was also in City Market and short distance from our hotel. Pretty good, I got the buffalo salad with hot spiced chicken meat, it was SPICY!

Popsaroo-2 stars BubbaLou-3 stars Momsaroo-3 stars

For breakfast on our very last day, we went to the Cobblestone Cafe. It was in a really neat building and very quaint inside. The neat thing about this little place, is that they had journals on each table for people to write a little note in. BubbaLou wrote the most embarrassing note! I think she is trying to get me back for some of my posts. If you want to read it, I guess you better go to the Cobblestone Cafe! I am not telling you what table we were sitting at either!

Popsaroo-3 stars BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-3 stars

We spent a very short time in Charleston, SC. Just long enough to catch the ferry boat out to Fort Sumter. The guy at the ticket counter told us of a place just a couple of blocks away that turned out to be very good advice. East Bay Deli. I think I had one of the best deli sandwiches I have ever had! I had a Tessa or something like that. It was a turkey with cheese, cream cheese, avocado, bacon, and grilled onions. Wow. I got a salad too, I was in dire need of some veggies. Very good. Popsaroo got a Yankee and BubbaLou got a grilled cheese. Best grilled cheese next to Popsaroo's! We got on the ferry and we still had our drinks. One guy saw our cups and said that he and his wife looked for East Bay Deli, but couldn't find it. I advised him to go back and look again and gave him a little better direction.

Popsaroo-4 stars BubbaLou-6 stars Momsaroo-6 stars

I was slacking when we stopped on the side of the road for boiled peanuts and cider in South Carolina. I can't remember the name of the place. But we found peach Nehis there. We haven't seen them in a long time. I also got a cherry cider, a peanut roll, and boiled peanuts. BubbaLou picked out some sort of wierd candy that she didn't like and a moon pie. Popsaroo had already eaten a iced honey bun from a drugstore that we stopped at earlier-so he just ate a few boiled peanuts.

Momsaroo-3 stars

Beads, Beads, Beads!

Beads. People go absolutely berserk over beads. Little shiny beads of plastic cause them to scream, reach, and jump higher than they have in their entire lives. They loop them over their necks as fast as they can, they want more. People will do all sorts of crazy things for beads.

I never knew this until we went to the Mardi Gras parade at Universal. It was the first parade I had been to where they threw beads. Wow! It was really loud. There were tons of people, because of course, it was spring break. Everyone was reaching for beads.

Did I tell you it was loud? It was. Very. But sorta fun, too. Popsaroo put 86lb BubbaLou on his shoulders! Yes, Popsaroo is big and strong, *twitter.* He held her up there the entire time. We came away with 15 strands of beads and one coin. They were quite heavy, I only know this because BubbaLou got tired of wearing the weight around her neck and I had to walk to the car with them around mine.

I have learned something from this. People go into a frenzy over beads. Plastic, shiny beads. I have come to the conclusion, that this is the secret to the presidential election. The candidate that will throw beads at their rallies, will probably, more than likely WIN, by a landslide.

People gotta have those beads!

The gator float-the last float, and I think it was my favorite.

Rosette Waffles

These are lovely, aren't they? Very easy to make with a Williams-Sonoma rosette muffin/cupcake pan! Unfortunately, I don't think they make them any more. I happened to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time several years ago and just couldn't resist paying $ 25 for something that I rarely use! Yes, it was an impulse buy-but look it has paid off only a few years later.

Now, for my secret recipe for these yummy, delicious rosette waffles......

1pouch of Belgium waffle mix

Then follow the directions on the box for waffles!

I cooked them at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes-I think...I didn't really time it....I just took them out when they were starting to turn just barely golden brown.

I served them with a great big dollop of fat free cool whip with strawberries on top! YUM!

We ate them as an afternoon feast last Tuesday in remembrance of the day that Mary conceived Jesus! It is a tradition to serve waffles on this day in Sweden!

BubbaLou stuffed herself with them-it was a feast day!

Luke 1:35

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.

Secret Recipes

I have always had issues with "Secret Recipes." Why is it that people bring these recipes into my presence, adding inches to my already fluffy waistline, and then hit me with,"It's a secret recipe!" How insulting! I can be trusted to eat it, but not to make it? I don't get the logic in that. I guess, they just want to be the only person in the world that is allowed to deliver that taste to my taste buds. What am I supposed to do when they are not around? Sit around in awe of their secret recipe thinking of how grand they are because they can make it and I can't? As far as I am concerned, if it is that secret, then don't let me eat it. It is just not fair!

I promise that I will never hold back a "secret recipe" from anyone. As far as I am concerned, if I am not selling it, what does it really matter? Recipes are to share, to bring joy, to make taste buds happy-that is why they invented the recipe swap!

I have some recipes to share, but they are not just for food-why limit myself??

Recipe for a fun afternoon with your daughter
1 mom
1 daughter-may add more to taste
1 hour shoe shopping(you both have to buy shoes)
30 minutes in the pet store looking at bunnies, hamsters, and rats! Oh my!
20 minutes in the dollar store picking out snacks that will fit in your purse.
1 large movie size coke
1 1/2 hours in the movie of your choice- we liked this one
Fast food of your choice on the way home.
Mix together with smiles and laughter.


Recipe for delousing a bad hair situation- by popular demand.

This recipe is for all of you out there that can't stand these and have small children- it is safe without any pesticides that can cause your face to swell up and create breathing problems like they do for me.
1st step
shampoo-preferably one that has tea tree oil and/or eucalyptus oil in it.
white vinegar
olive oil
Mix in equal amounts and place directly on dry hair. This will foam up beautifully. Choose your favorite color of saran wrap and wrap the hair tightly with it. Please be careful and make it like a hat so that it can not droop down over their face and suffocate them. Keep your child in site, and let them wear it for at least an hour or more if possible while all those nasty things die. Then rinse your child's hair and watch how many go down the drain.

2nd step
Place your child in a high stool(it will save your back) in front of the TV and under a good light.

place a small amount of conditioner on their hair
have some white vinegar in a spray bottle
small container of water to rinse the comb in-you won't believe what ends up in here, and it makes a great science lesson.

Separate their hair into sections and start nit-picking. Use a fine comb-a good metal one made just for this-and comb away. You may have to use your fingernails to remove some of the nits, but the vinegar will help them come off. Rinse hair.

3rd step
Wash linen, vacuum, and put the stuffed animals in the dryer or bag them up for 14 days. Oh, and these things hate the heat, so blow dry your child's hair every day. You can repeat this treatment everyday if you want. Your child's hair will look great!

4th step
Take your child out for a fun afternoon. They deserve it!

That is enough for you to digest for now, we don't want you to get a stomach ache! Hopefully, you won't need that second recipe!

Look out 2008, Here I Come

Ahhh! The first day of 2008 started out with a backache, burnt pancakes, and a grumpy attitude. It got better after pumpkin pancakes(that were not burned), a glass of tea, and some ibuprofen. Then it was time for the black-eyed peas, ribs, and chicken. I got to make Memphis magic dust and prepared the ribs and chicken for the oven. Slow cooked and yummy. I don't cook them very often, but they are good when I do! My husband and I had decided that dessert was not necessary, my daughter had other thoughts. She decided a cake was needed and brought the box to me as we were finishing dinner. Why not? So a carrot cake we made as we sipped on hot cocoa with plenty of whipped cream and marshmallows.

I lived it up today, but no more. No more eating like Santa Claus, tomorrow we eat healthy! We can not eat like Santa 365 days of the year. My husband is siked, my daughter is not so pleased-more like insulted that we would include her in the healthy habit. Too bad.

Even though I ate like Santa today, I did start a healthy habit for 2008. I started the Engage the Journey Bible Study online, a chronological read through the Bible for 2008. I sat down and started reading Genesis 1,2, &3 and I felt so much calmer. I think this will be very fun and challenging, especially since I plan to do Beth Moore's Patriarchs Bible study starting Jan 15. Hmmm, homework might be quite the challenge. Oh well, sounds like I will have plenty of reading material that will only change my life for the better. Look out 2008, here I come!

Are they muffins or cupcakes?

Kelly's birthday was yesterday, and I made him pumpkin muffins..or cupcakes. I am not sure that I could tell. They didn't quite rise like a muffin but they did not have a ton of icing on top like a cupcake. I bought icing and was shot down, he said he didn't want that stuff! Now how do you do a birthday without icing?????? I compromised. I had seen a recipe that you mix just a can of pumpkin and a spice cake mix together and cook. Hmmmm, I wasn't sure about that, so I created my own. How do you think they look? I sprinkled some oatmeal on top like you would a muffin, but then I put a Scooby Doo candle right in the middle. So I have decided to call them muffcakes!

Pumpkin Birthday muffcakes

1 box of spice cake mix

1 can pumpkin

2 eggs

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup of water

Sprinkles of oatmeal

Mix it up and put into muffcake pan. Sprinkle on some oatmeal. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. It made about 15 muffcakes.

Haley went crazy with them, she really liked them. Kelly did too, but I think he had second thoughts about the icing. I am going to make some more of these to take to the eleventh week of the Daniel Bible study tomorrow. It is my turn.

I have seen a pumpkin dumpcake recipe that I want to try. Maybe for turkey day!!!