Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Chocolate Icing

My Daddy is a die hard Reese's fan and he passed that right onto me. We are definitely peanut butter lovers and there ain't no doubt about that. I decided that I would make him some special cupcakes for his birthday this year and oh boy did he love them. They are not hard to make. You could even go the easier route and just get cake box mix and add in peanut butter. I decided to make them from scratch just so my name would be written all over them and I would not be sharing them with Betty or Duncan. Although sometimes Aunt Betty and Uncle Duncan just cant help but to assist me in some of my desserts.

Such a beauty!!!!

So these cupcakes were not hard to make at all. They were actually quite easy. I did not have a recipe on hand for this cupcake I just knew that I wanted a peanut butter cupcake and a milk chocolate icing.

For the Peanut butter cupcake I used the following recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used 2% milk)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Instructions:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar, on medium speed, until smooth and ligh in color, about 1 minute. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl, as needed. Mix in the egg. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, or until the batter is smooth. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each paper liner with batter, about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned, about 20 minutes. There will be a few cracks on top. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Carefully remove cupcakes from pan to finish cooling.

Then for the Chocolate Icing i used the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter - softened
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/4 cups baking cocoa powder (I use the Hershey's cocoa powder)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter.

Mix in sugar, vanilla, and cocoa

Slowly add in milk.

That is it. Very simple. I then placed the icing in a piping bag and went to town on my peanut butter cupcakes turning them into a Reese's cupcake. I then garnished the top of the cupcake with a resse's cup.

Let's just say my dad's mouth was drooling and he wanted to eat all 12 of them. These cupcakes were pretty rich and went great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk for you non coffee drinkers like me.

Brother in Russia!!!!

So my brother got the most awesome privilege to go over to Russia. He is 16 years old and this is the 2nd time he has been. He goes with the mission group from our church. What an amazing testimony he will have just at the age of 18. He also went to Nicaragua last summer and plans to go again this summer. I am so proud of him and what he does. He is serving the Lord in other countries and man is that great. This time he took my moms nice camera over there and took some awesome pictures. Thought I would share with you a couple of the pictures from over there.  

This is the group from our church that my brother went with. Yes he was the only boy on this trip. God Bless him LOL.

This is the infamous St. Basil Cathedral. While it was blazing hot here it was snowing in Russia.

He is quite the cheerleader.

This is the kind of stuff you see in movies. How crazy!!!

Absolutely beautiful!!! 

Russian version of Sbarro :)

Look at the top of this bridge. Does not look like a bridge for little ones to cross over.

Yarn Eggs

So I decided that I was going to attempt something on Pinterest. Crazy right? Well no not really I am actually one of those people who repins things and then tries them. Well i have almost 1000 pins so not every single one but I do get around to the good ones. So for Easter I made these really cool Yarn eggs with my little brothers and sisters.

Things you need:
Flour
Liquid Starch
Mini Balloons
Colored String (get from Joanns or Michaels)
bowls
spoon
measuring cups

Here are the steps with some pictures:

Here are all the supplies you need. Not that much and very inexpensive.

1. Blow up some smaller balloons to the size you desire.

2. Combine the flour and the liquid starch to make a glue like substance.  You will need 1 cup of liquid starch and 1/2 cup of flour. 

3. Mix until you get a glue like consistency.

4. Put the embroidery floss into the mixture in a uniform fashion. When I say uniform fashion i mean  place the string in inch by inch in a circle around the bowl you are using. If you just place the embroidery floss as is you will end up with a knot. 

5. Once you place your embroidery floss into the bowl you then must submerge it into the mixture.

6. THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! Before you are actually wrapping the string around the balloon be sure to run your fingers down the embroidery floss to get the excess glue mixture off the embroidery floss. This is so when it dries it will not be all flaky and showing white chunks everywhere.

7. Wrap the embroidery floss around the balloon in any design that you please. The design above where it looks like a spiral does not work. When you try to hang a spiral design it stretches out and does not look like an egg. 

8. This is what it will look like when you have finished wrapping it. This photo shows  what it looks like when you do not wipe off the excess glue before wrapping the ballon. We found out the hard way :)

My crazy Dad wanted to be apart of this step by step!!!!

9. Hang them up to dry. I used hangers with clips so i was only able to hang  2 per hanger.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

So I decided to open up my Pioneer Woman cookbook last night and try something new. So i decided to pick the Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. Boy was that a good decision to choose!!!!! It was addictingly good. I know thats not a word but I just made it one. I halved the recipe since it was just me eating it. I should have only done 1/4 of the recipe because I have soooo much leftovers it is not even funny. Well it is a good thing I have all of these leftovers because me oh my was this soooo good. What I loved most was the taste and what I loved the 2nd most was there there were not many ingredients. That was the awesome part. Oh and it took me t-10 minutes to make.

So here is the link to make this awesome yummy addictingly good pasta sauce!!!!!

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Easter Pictures are Coming!!!!

So I used my mom's awesome camera to document all the fun things we did this Easter so you will have to wait for the pictures until she sends them to me or until I go back down there in about 2 weeks. I am thinking the 2 week mark is what it will be. We did so much this Easter weekend. I even ended up making Easter baskets for my mom and dad. They were quite surprised since they have not had an Easter basket in years. Church was amazing this year. My pastor preached on the topic One Month to Live. It was an amazing sermon. I love how he brings the word of God and makes it so clear and relevant to the present day lives we live. Well I hope to share more of my Easter with you very soon!!!

Pet Raccoon!!!

So my mom and I were casually driving down a fairly busy road just talking away. I would say we were going about 30 MPH. Then all of a sudden I look over and I swear I saw a raccoon hanging out of a car window. My mom didnt look quick enough to see. She was like ummmm you are crazy. I was dead serious though. So the car got quite a bit ahead of us and i was sooo determined to catch back up with that car to prove to my mom. Sure enough we caught up to it. I told my mom we had to attempt to take a picture. Well just our luck there were no red lights coming at all. So we had to use my high tech iphone and try to take a moving picture in the dark about 10 feet away. I say impossible. Well my mom sure did get a picture and you can totally see the raccoon straddling the door of the car. It was soooo crazy.

What a beauty!!!

Here is a close up of this cute guy!!! I wonder how he carries his heavy feathers around without having crazy back problems?!?!?!?

Peacock!!!!

So this lovely guy lives in my neighborhood. He is the most annoying thing at night but when you get to see him in the day boy is he a beauty!!!! Peacocks are the prettier ones. Peahens (the females) only have white and brown. Crazy that the male got all the good looks in this species.

For my wedding (whenever that will be. Need a significant other first lol) I want to have a peacock color palette. There are so many beautiful colors that are apart of the peacocks feathers.

Fun colorful sugar cookies!!!

Preheat oven to 350°F. Divide dough evenly into five bowls, and color each with a different color liquid food coloring. Roll each color of dough into grape-sized balls. Combine a ball of each color and quickly roll into a larger ball. It will look like a little beach ball. Then roll that ball between your hands and the counter until you have a cylinder about 12 inches long. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a coil, twisting the cylinder as you go. Roll edges of the cookie in sprinkles. Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, or until done.

Quick workout

I found this on Pinterest and did it about 2 weeks ago. It is a good workout when you feel like you don't have a lot of time to spare during a busy day. You will get your heart rate raised and feel the burn still. Do it more than 3 times for a longer workout.

Discipline

I struggle with self discipline. Some may call it being lazy. I will have to agree with that one. If you wait for things to get done on your own they probably will not happen. You gotta go out and do it. Some wise woman in my life told me that (my mother). She is going to love reading that last sentence. Anyways be disciplined in what you do. It could change your life and who knows it could change someone else's life around you.

Photo A Day in April

In case you were wondering where all the random photo ideas were coming from here is the post. I post edit a couple weeks ago.

April 5th. Tiny

So she is not the tiniest thing I could find but this is Jinger. This is the tiniest that she ever was while living with us. We got her on Christmas morning!!!!

April 4th. Someone who makes you happy.

This little guy is my youngest brother. He is 22 years younger than me. Crazy I know. There are 10 in between him and I. Even crazier I know.

April 3rd. Mail

I know this is not mail. But I had to post this picture somewhere. Some people get their mail like this though. But anyways I drove off with this just sitting in my car. I was having a brain fart that day. Lol

April 2nd. Color

> April 1st. Reflection
>

I'm Back

Sorry I had a little hiatus for a week or so but I'm back. Tomorrow I am making the eggs out of embroidering floss. I will post pics so you can see how it went. Also I will be posting my April photos as soon as I upload them onto my computer. Should not be long before the first 4 are up. Easter is right around the corner. Think of some cheap and fun ideas for your kids, friends, significant others, or just anyone to make them smile. I will be posting some great ideas for Easter baskets later today.

Egg String Molds

Source: craftyendeavor.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I want to do this and make it into a garland. Looks like it would be a fun little project to do with my little brothers and sisters when I head down there for Easter.

Easter Cookies

Source: bhg.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I really want to make these for Easter. They are fun and easy!!!

Hey you VEGANS!!!

My lovely roommate is a vegan and she has her own blog she just started. Go check her out!!!!

That's me in the pink and my vegan roomie Leanna!!!!

www.veganout.tumblr.com

She is awesome just so you know!!!!

English Muffin Melts

This is one of the recipes I got from my Pioneer Woman cookbook. I made it this weekend and omg was it delicious. Instead of english muffins I used plain bagels. I also cut the recipe in half. It made 4 halves of bagels so 2 whole bagels for the recipe in half. One of the halves was more than enough to fill me up. Here is the recipe.....

Here is a picture of how mine came out. They are on bagel halves. They were very tasty. I recommend making these for guests.

Another idea I had was to get mini bagels and make a bunch of mini ones for a brunch party. I think they would work just as well as bite size and not fill you up too much.

No Dye Egg Decorating

So I love glitter and I always love a new way of doing things. I found this really cool and sparkly way to decorate eggs.

Looks difficult but really it is so very easy. All you do is punch out cirlces from double sided adhesive and place it on your egg. Then you roll your egg in glitter. If you want more than one color then you put on a couple at a time and then roll in glitter. You then add some more and roll into another color of glitter. So simple and yet so pretty.

Don't like circles? Just put star or heart punches in your double-sided tape. It's that easy! I always love a new way to decorate eggs. Do know that I will always dye some eggs as its a tradition I always grew up with. 

No-Bake Energy Bites

So I babysat today and the mom said help yourself to anything. So while the little munchkin was having lunch I stumbled among these tasty looking balls. Let me tell you how yummy they were. Oh My!!! Well even more good news you do not even have to bake them. Thats the best part!!!!

Here is the recipe....

No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cup (dry) oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
• 1 cup toasted coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like.  (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.)  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Makes about 20-25 balls.

I will definitely be making these for my roommates. I know that they will love these things as much as I did.

You can dress them up and place them in mini cupcake wrappers. You can also drizzle chocolate over the top of them to give them a little fancy look.

ENJOY!!!!!

Photo a Day!!!!

Here is something I thought would be fun for the month of April. Take a photo a day with your phone or camera if you have one. The idea is to take it according to that topic for the day. Here is one that I found on Pinterest. I plan to post my pictures each day and I will have a little story behind each one.

The Sun is coming Out!!!!!

So it is starting to get hot again. I am not a fan of the cold so the spring and summer time are my favorites. So when I stepped outside today and felt the sun it my face a thought to my self, "Jumping in the pool would feel so good right now." So then it got me thinking about swimming. Then it got me to thinking about how some people could not swim. Well let me just cut to the chase. Last summer my family went to Georgia and we rented a cabin in the mountains. It was absolutely amazing to say the least. Of course while we were there we decided to get out and about. We went to their version of downtown, Pickin' at the Park, tubing down the river, horseback riding, and then we decided to go White Water Rafting. Let me tell you how excited we all were. It was going to be too much fun I knew for a fact. Well at the end of our White Water rafting adventure fun was the last word I would have used to describe it.

Here are some awesome pictures from our adventure......

The first drop was fun. Not to bad at all. Looked scary though Huh???

Look at that. We are all smiling....not for long!!!!!

Nice and smooth down the white water.

Yes we are entirely submerged in water. But we did pop right back up!!!!

Our tour guides face is telling me bad news.

I would say we were airborne in this one!!!!

I posed if you look closely. I saw the lady taking pictures of us :)

So looks like a lot of fun. And don't get me wrong it was a lot of fun. It would be fun for anyone. So as the camera turned off we were headed towards another  rapid. The Flipper. We all laughed and asked if it was named that for any specific reason. Our tour guide of course said nope. Funny because our raft did the name justice. We flipped. Mind you my 11 year old sister and 9 year old brother were aboard this raft. I literally thought I was going to die. Imagine being stuck in the rapid or under the raft or floating down stream. Well my dad, 1 of my brothers and my little sister got stuck under the raft and my dad tried to push it off but another raft was heading down the rapid as that was happening. They finally flipped the raft back over and only my brother and sister got back in my dad chose to float down river to look for my littlest brother. Well my littlest brother went floating down into the calmer waters so he was fine. Me and my other brother got kicked out of the rapid and were floating in roaring waters. At the beginning of the tour they say if you happen to fall out you point your nose and toes up towards the sky. Easier said than done just so you are aware. I would say this river is about 25 yards wide. I chose yards because I am a football girl and I can picture that distance :) So I was just about in the middle of the river and the nose and toes up thing was not working. I was getting water shot up my nostrils gallons at a time. So i flipped over and swam harder than I ever have swam in my life to the banks of the river where it was the calmest. I reached for a rock that was in about 2 inches deep of water and it was covered in algae so my hand slipped right off. As you might have guessed I am balling in tears freaking out for me and my family because I dont know if they all got out ok at this point. Well i finally got a hold of a rock and that algae was not gunna beat me. I held on to that rock like there was no tomorrow. So i got stable in looked around. The oldest brother that was on the trip pretty much did the same thing I did and he was clear across the river. I saw him and waved. My dad had gotten on one of the other rafts and my little brother had gotten scooped up by another raft. So we were all accounted for but in 4 different rafts. We finally all got back in the raft we originally started in and finished our little trip. I seriously was beyond terrified the rest the the way. I wanted it to be over sooooo bad. The tour guide had told us that the rapids were ranked in numbers of severity. A 6 is not humanly possible to ride in. A 5 is what professionals would attempt and we were doing 3 and 4 level white waters. There is a scale of intensity for you. And we then found out that we went on the roughest day there was.  The damn opens every other day and we went on the day that it opened of course. 

So that is the story of my 2nd and LAST white water rafting trip. I will forever be way to nervous on any raft that is in white waters.

He's Alive!!!!

Easter is right around the corner. I love Easter!!!! The bright colors and fun times with family. Most of all I love what Easter stands for. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. I grew up in the church and I can always remember learning so much about Easter. It has to be one of the most exciting holidays in the Christian religion. It is the symbol of life after death. That heaven is our hope for the future. I pray for each one of the viewers of this blog and that this Easter you find the true reason of life after death.

I am excited to bring to you fun and creative Easter decorations and activities for all!!!!


Stay tuned!!!!!

Couch to 5K

So in the recent months I have gained a little too much weight for my liking. One of my roommates is an avid runner and she wants to do a 5K. So I decided that I would join her. I found this really cool way to go from a couch potato to running a 5K in no time. Well 10 weeks that is. If your 5K is in less than 10 weeks then you can simply skip over every other week and eliminate your rest days. I will be doing couch to 5K in 5 weeks. I will post what my schedule and what the 5 week version is in my eyes!!!!

5K = 3.10685596 miles

I will be running 3.10685596 miles without stopping. This is my goal for the 5K.

Here is how I am going to do it.....

I found this on the oh-so-famous Pinterest. Yes I am a pinning fanatic. So what if I don't use all the pins that I repin. Here is one that I will use though!!!!

Feel free to join with me in this fun adventure. There are always 5Ks going on in cities for great causes. Look up what 5K is coming up next that is near you. I am sure that this will be an awesome accomplishment for me and hopefully you too!!!!

My New Favorite Cookbooks

Last weekend I went how to visit my family. My mom had just got these 2 new cookbooks in the mail. She got all excited because she had been waiting for them to come in the mail. Well she of course gave me an overview of why she had bought these cookbooks before I was allowed to open them and look through them. So later that night my mom and I read through the cookbooks. I have to say it was one of the most fun cookbooks I ever read. It not only had recipes in it but it had tons of pictures!!!!

So without further or do may i introduce to you my new favorite cookbooks......

This is Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman. She has her own blog and you can find it at www.thepioneerwoman.com. I have used a couple of recipes from her books and they have all come out amazingly good. One thing about her cookbooks is that she gives a picture for each step of the way. She is a very good photographer not only in the kitchen but on her ranch as well. I encourage you to go visit her site. She is a very awesome woman and she is a true inspiration to me as I start this new blog of mine. 

And just so you can know how amazing my mother is....she gave me her 2 new cookbooks that she had been waiting for. She saw how much I enjoyed them!!!! That is how amazing my mama is :)