Microwave Caramel Popcorn

Linking up with Aimee over at AJCrazies

I made caramel popcorn for snack at church last night.  It'd kinda late for Baker's Review Wednesday, but I'm going to do it anyway.  I normally make this with margarine but I made it with butter this time and liked it way better, plus, they seemed not so chewy.

Here's the recipe:

4 qts. popped popcorn

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Put popcorn in paper grocery bag.  In microwaveable bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.  Boil for 3 minutes, stirring every minute.  Add baking soda; stir.  Pour caramel mixture over popcorn. Close up bag and shake hard.  Microwave for 1.5 minutes.  Shake again.  Cook for 30 seconds longer.

We only left a little bit at home and that was definitely fought over!!!   

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Table Centerpiece and Birthday

 

Rachel and Aimee made the centerpieces at school.  Mom got roses for her birthday.  Altogether it made a beautiful centerpiece for our kitchen (dining) table.  I love the Christmas look to it.

 

Here's Mom with her Birthday Cupcake and Roses.  Her birthday was on the 18th of December.

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

PJ Shirts

Bronwyn, Hunter and Walker all have t-shirts that they use for a "nightgown" of sorts.  They all wore them together one night.  

Bronwyn, Hunter and Walker

Hunter and Walker

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Blog Craft Sale

We had tables at a couple bazaars and still have things left, so I decided to offer them to you on here!

I have a bunch of photos here.  Please respond if you want to buy anything!  A few of the things you've probably already seen if you follow our blog.  Most of it is recently made.

First off I have a bunch of carseat toys.  They hang from the carseat handle.  They are $7.50 each.

Next are my little bags.  These would work great for a little cosmetic bag, a bag for little things in your purse, a bag for a little girl to keep her important stuff in, etc.!!!!  1-3 are 9" across the top and 6" tall - $9 each.  4-8 are 7" across the top and 4" tall - $8 each.

My burlap pillows have their sizes shown.  They are all $8 each except for the Mr. & Mrs. set, which is $17.

Then comes these cute little noteboxes.  The first one shows how they open up - and there is a place you can put a photo in it.  They have a stack of paper about 1" tall in it.  These are $4.75 each.

 These are Tara's notebooks - composition size.  They are $5 each.

 Now a last few odds and ends.  These 2 Christmasy aprons do not seem to want to leave my house, but I want them to go, so I'm slashing their price in half - down to $7.50 each!!

Last, but not least, is this wondrously soft Minky blanket.  It is $18.  My purple circle quilt is $85.  More pictures of it can be seen here.

I would love to hear from you if you're interested in anything.  Shipping charges will be additional.  I can let you know a price for anything you want.  I think Aimee at AJCrazies will be having a sale soon, too!



While I was cleaning the junk drawer I realized we had a lot of colored pencils.  It's amazing how many different colors and sizes there can be.

 

 More pictures . . . 

The bottom right shows what it looked like when it was done:) 

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Muffins and Little Meat Loaves

I'm linking up with Aimee over at AJcrazies for her linky party . . .

Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Muffins

I made a few things this week.  First I made Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Muffins.  I made a double batch.  One thing I would suggest is that if you make a double batch, for the melted butter only do how much it says for the single batch because I had about half of it left over and what are you supposed to do with that?  I also had a little bit of cinnamon sugar left over but that just went into the cinnamon sugar thing.

Here's the recipe:

• 1-3/4 cup Flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Oil
• 3/4 cup White Sugar
• 1 whole Egg
• 3/4 cup Milk

FOR THE TOPPING:

• 1/4 cup Butter (4 Tablespoons)
• 1/3 cup White Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, and set aside.  Mix oil, sugar, egg and milk, then added dry ingredients, mix just until blended.

For regular size muffins: (this is what I made) - spray muffin pans with no-stick cooking spray and fill each cup 1/2 full.  Bake for 15-20 min. Yields 8-12 muffins

For mini muffins: - spray mini muffin pans with no-stick cooking spray and fill each cup 1/2 full. Bake for 10-12 min. Yields 18 mini muffins.

While muffins are baking melt butter in one bowl.  Mix 1/3 cup White Sugar and 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon in another bowl.

Remove muffins from oven, let cool for just a minute or two, remove from pan and place them on a platter.  Dip each muffin in the melted butter then roll in cinnamon and sugar.

Let cool or serve warm.

 From Tidy Mom.

I liked them and everyone else seemed to . . . they were gone within one day:) 

I also made Little Meatloaf.  We had it with baked potatoes, corn, and beans.

Here's the recipe for that:

1 egg

3/4 cup milk 

1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese 

1/2 c. quick-cooking oats 

1 Tbsp. minced onion, or 1/4 c. chopped raw onion 

1 tsp. salt 

1 lb. lean hamburger 

2/3 c. ketchup 

1/4 c. packed brown sugar 

1 1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

In a bowl, beat egg and milk.  Stir in cheese, oats, onion and salt.  Add hamburger and mix well. Shape into 8 loaves; place in a greased 9 X 13 inch baking dish.  Combine ketchup, brown sugar and mustard; spoon over loaves.  Bake, uncovered, at 350* for 45 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and meat thermometer reads 160*.  Yield: 8 servings. 

From the Rhoades' cookbook

These are always a big enough hit:)  I like them a lot.
.

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Bronwyn and Morgan

So, Aimee had a camera from school and she was taking pictures of Bronwyn.  I decided it would be cool to take some of Bronwyn and Morgan.  Wondering how we got the effect we did - although blurry . . . Well, we shut blinds and turned off lights.  Then there were a few of the kids shining flashlights at the subject.

Hope you enjoyed!

P.S.  Here is a link to the Bazaar we're having.

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Urban Couture - Raw Edge Circle Quilt

It was pretty exciting to finish a quilt I've had in the making for several months.  It mostly just sat for the whole summer.  I think I started it before Morgan was born, but it was for Faith and her birthday's on October 31st, so I just planned for that to be my finish time.

I first bought fabric to make a baby boy quilt earlier this year, not knowing the sex of my baby-to-be.  I chose blues, greens and browns from the Basic Grey Urban Couture line of fabric.  You can see that quilt here.  (It's the last of the 3 quilts in that post.)  I bought way too much fabric for that quilt so I had a bunch left.  I decided to go back to Country Manor Fabrics and buy some of the reds and yellows from that line of fabric to make another quilt.  She has soooo much fabric!!  She usually buys the whole line of fabric, not just a few different bolts.  This shop is where I usually shop if I'm shopping locally.

I'd seen and printed off a tutorial for a raw edge circle quilt, and this fabric seemed a good fit for it.  This is the first regular quilted quilt I've made with part of it being raw edged.  I got my idea from here and she had the link to this tutorial here.

Here are my photos:)  I was kinda nervous whether Faith would like this because I don't know her taste at all.  I decided to go with the red border - it looked kinda beachy or tropical to me.  (She did like it!!)

Here is a close-up of the quilt and quilting.  (You can see the fabrics a lot better, too!)   I've mostly only done the meandering quilting, but I thought my circles needed something else.  As you can tell, it was my first time and not too great!  Overall, I like how it turned out anyway.

This is the back of the quilt.  When I went back for the third time to find backing and binding, I found this large print that I hadn't seen before and decided to go with it.

Here is the quilt label.  My quilt group puts Bible verses on their labels, and I've copied them and done that on all of mine.  I got David to choose a verse this time.  Normally I sew the label into the backing, but I'd forgotten to have it ready in time and so I just topstitched it in place.

Here is a close-up after the quilt was washed.  You can see it's a little more raggedy around the edges of the circle.

And last, but not least, here's Faith with her quilt.  I hope you enjoy it:) 

I wish there was more time to make quilts!!!  This was a lot of fun:)

P.S.  I'm not done with this line of fabric yet!  I have a bunch more left and want to make another quilt!!!



A Few Pictures

Awhile back Tara gave Morgan a ride in the wagon.

Here she is, her smiley self :)

October 23rd was Christopher's birthday.  James and Ramona and Grandpa came over for a ham dinner and birthday cake.

Walker with a clown wig.. he kept moving so we couldn't get a good picture but he really liked it when he saw himself in the mirror :)

Have a wonderful day!

Rachel

Mom's Bread Pudding

Mom's bread pudding was the best ever.  She often made it when she was coming down to visit one of us kids who she knew liked it, or when some of us were going to her house.  I finally decided to try to make it a couple years ago, and got the recipe from her.  I've tasted bread pudding made fancy at restaurants, but this is some good old fashioned bread pudding and I think it's the best!!  Eat it warm with a generous helping of cream on top of it:)

A couple weeks ago I made some. I know I hadn't made it since before Mom died, so it had been quite awhile.  I was really good (ha-ha!!!) and had only 2 helpings - one when it was warm out of the oven, and one the next morning for breakfast, warmed up.  I really could have eaten the whole pan of it by myself!  I absolutely LOVE it!!!  Here is the recipe.

BREAD PUDDING

7 1/2 cups milk

9 eggs, beaten

1 1/8 cups sugar

dash of salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup raisins

9 slices bread, cubed*

Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350*.  Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla and raisins.  Line bottom of 9X13 baking dish with cubed bread.  Pour milk mixture over the bread, pushing bread back into the liquid to coat well.  Sprinkle with the cinnamon.  Place baking dish into a bigger pan filled with water about 1 inch deep.  Bake about 1 hour or until mixture sets and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

*I have only made this with my cinnamon raisin bread.  We don't like the crusts of the cinnamon raisin bread, so when I slice my loaves before freezing, I take all the crusts and freeze separately for bread pudding.  Because I use cinnamon raisin bread, I do not add raisins to it.  I think Mom mostly used coffee bread or cinnamon rolls when she made it.

I saw that someone happened to snap a picture of my last bread pudding, so here it is!

I am linking up with AJcrazies, who has Baker's Review Wednesday today.

A Birthday - and a 6-Month Old

Time truely flies!  Just the other day (April 17th) Morgan was born and Walker turned 18 months.  On Monday, Walker was 2 and Morgan is already 6 months!!!

I just wanted to share a few pictures with you.  Since it was a nice day Monday, I took Morgan outside to snap a few pictures.  She was pretty excited out there and I had a difficult time getting her to look at me, because the kids were playing football close by.

(Notice her 2 little teeth on bottom.)

Walker is very happy and giggly - when he wants to be.  Otherwise, he is very serious, as you can see in his pictures!  He doesn't appreciate being told when to smile, and will only smile exactly when HE pleases:)  He was quite serious about his cake until we started to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Dear Mom:

It's been three months since I was last able to look at your beautiful face!  Three months since your body was lowered into the ground!  What a sad day that was!  For you it was no different.  You'd already been singing with the heavenly throng for six days!

"On that peaceful shore of glory,

Morn has broken for the blest,

And the pilgrim, tired and weary,

Is enjoying peace and rest.

Oh what joy to be beholding

Jesus face to face at last,

And to join that glorious singing

With the saints from ages past."

I know for you it's so much easier, but there is such a big hole for us who miss you on earth.  I just want to talk to you, Mom!  The other day we spent the night with Dad.  There's no one to talk to when he's outside working.  The house is empty.  Your chair looks lonely.  Loneliest of all is Dad.  You were always there for him for more than 53 years . . . and now he's by himself.  When it seems so hard for us kids, I know it's much, much worse for him!!  

"Let us watch and wait together,

Fervently in faith and love.

Soon the call, dear sister, brother,

Will sound forth from heav'n above.

In that blessed home in glory,

Reunited we will be;

In the heav'nly mansions lovely,

We will sing so joyfully!"

Earth is earthly and life still goes on.  The children have been in school for a month already.  Walker turns 2 in 10 days and Morgan will be 6 months that day, also.  Walker is a pest, seeing how much trouble he can get into, and Morgan is a little sweetie!!  Besides canning, it doesn't seem like I've accomplished much lately.  I'm finally getting a little sewing done.  David has been working in Bickleton, so we have long nights when he doesn't come home until Friday.  It will be a happy night tonight:)

I know you don't know or care what I write, but I write for me anyways!  I will always love and miss you!!  You were the best Mom ever!!!

"When we all get to heaven,

What a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus,

We'll sing and shout the victory!"

South Dakota

So awhile back I got back from vacation.  I (along with Reid) went to South Dakota from August 23 - September 3.  It was a very fun trip and I decided to show you a few pictures...or a lot :P  So I hope you all like looking at pictures :)  Be ready for a super long post..

On the plane on the way to Minneapolis.  We flew there...

...where we were met by Nina, Marcus, Cherri, Martha & Stephen, Lizzie, Sari, Angie, Anikka, and Minda.

After leaving the airport we drove through this huge national cemetary.  From almost any direction you looked at the markers they made straight lines.  We drove and drove and drove through there - it's huge!

Then we went to Ikea and ate there (about 2:30 maybe?  We flew into Minneapolis at 1:20 I think). 

 

Me, Minda, Lizzie, Sari, and Reid at Ikea.

Katelyn (Seppala) Fraki was staying at Cherri's when I got there and stayed till Thursday afternoon.  Some of us girls rode with her to Dennis West's funeral and afterwards.

Sawer

Hope

Gary

We went to Walmart with Katelyn and when we went out to leave, Ruthie had just got there.  Angie and I stayed with her and then went to her house.

Logan

Leander

Lars

Friday night we (Cherri's), Walter and Sue, Stewart, and Julia Kaiser went there for Karin's birthday.  Her birthday was really Thursday, but there was church that night.

Karin

Walter & Sue's Trey

Karin with her toy phone and doll house in the background, both that she got for her birthday and absolutely loved :)

Landen

Karin and Walter & Sue's Jasmine and Isaiah

Karin and Jasmine

The beautiful sunset.

And the sunrise.. Monday morning I woke up early so I could get pictures and it was really nice to watch.

Wednesday me, Abby, Lizzie, Sari, Angie, Anikka, Ariel, Jenny all went to Watertown together.  First Lizzie had a class from 10-12.  Becky was also taking it so we dropped off Lizzie and took Becky's kids and went to a few places till they were done with their class.

Sharaya

Tessa

Then after eating we hurried to the Sale Barn.

The big ring.

The little ring.

After that we went to the hospital to see Marti and Tara's new baby boy, Briggs.

Sari and Abby holding Briggs

 

Thursday I went to Nathan and Wanda's.

Molly, Maybel, Brynna, Jude, Elijah

Tacy

Trina

Trina and Molly

 At about 5:30, Klara picked me up and we went out to eat.  Afterwards she brought me back to Cherri's and stayed awhile.

Klara and I

Up early again on Saturday morning and took some more sunrise pictures.

We flew out of the Watertown airport at like 1:15 or some such time.

Rachel