Bugs and Kisses for my little trick or treaters!

What you will need to make this super easy gift for the littles in your life.

Jars - Target dollar area, right when you walk in the store.

Tags - make your own or again... Target dollar area

Hershey kisses and plastic bugs 

Bugs - Dollar Tree

I also added pumpkin spice candy corn

Now go and give some Bugs and Kisses!  You will get hugs too!

Round two of project light and bright...

...and a Craig's list find.  

Back to the huge dark room makeover.  Since our family has grown by leaps and bounds.  Five grands in under three years is wonderful, don't get me wrong.  But, when we have family over for an afternoon or evening meal, wow the kitchen gets really crowded fast and I get a little overwhelmed.  Get out of my space, I am trying to get supper ready!!!

I wanted to divert folks aways from my work space and I knew moving the appetizer and food placement location to the front huge room would help. I saw these heavenly buffets on Pinterest!

How do I  choose?  Which would you choose?  1, 2 or 3?
1. Pinned from Refresh Style

2. Barron Furniture

3. Less than Perfect Life of Bliss

Is it the hardware that pulls you in? (pardon the pun)  Is it the skinny legs? Is it the extra storage? Color?

My wish list
Very long
19 inch depth
counter height
drawers for storage

And I have found my Craig's list beauty to paint!
So which is your favorite... 1 - 2 - or 3?
Let's see if we have the same taste.

Wrapping Station

Really Pinterest!?!

This is a REAL life wrapping station... see below!

Let the wrapping begin!

Blueberry Raspberry Lemon Cobbler

I just may try this one again.  Very, very easy and yum in my tum!

You see my portion control below, tiny ramikins.  Not the hubby, I came back in the kitchen and half the cobbler was gone!

Pinterest inspired.

One box lemon cake

1 can blueberry pie filling

1 bag frozen raspberries

one stick butter melted

chopped pecans

In a 9 x 13 pan

Layer fruit and stir together

(next time I would add pecans to this layer as not to brown during baking)

top with dry cake mix

sprinkle with melted butter

Bake 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until golden

Chicken Roll Ups

Pinterest inspired, easy and yum.

Five ingredients.  I used...

Grands large crescent rolls - 1 tube

Chicken breast strips - already cut and seasoned - almost used the whole bag

low sodium cream of chicken soup

Mexican style shredded cheese

2% milk

Below stuffed, rolled, covered in sauce and ready to bake.

Baked, puffed, browned and delicious.

Recipe found here.  I topped mine with pepper and Tony's creole seasoning before popping it in the oven.  I also did not spray my pan with that spray stuff and they did just fine.  The layer of sauce underneath helps them to not stick.  

• 6 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped
• 1 can crescent rolls
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cheese

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray.

Mix together milk, soup and cheese - set aside. Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. Top the large part of the crescent triangle with the chopped chicken. Top each crescent roll with 1 tsp of soup mixture. Roll crescent rolls up. Spread approximately 1/3 cup of soup mixture in bottom of 9x13 dish. Place crescent rolls in dish. Pour remaining soup mixture over crescent rolls.

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Read more: http://www.plainchicken.com/2009/03/chicken-roll-ups.html#ixzz3AAy1ndvo

Guest Bedroom Gallery Shelf

I had a big huge wall to fill above the bed in the guest bedroom.

I added a gallery shelf and had fun with letters.

IKEA shelf, comes in white and wood tone also.  Weird thing about the shelf it comes without the three screws?! Come on IKEA, did that save you that much money?  

I had pinned the idea of the word guest on a shelf.  They had used the large cardboard letters and painted them gold.  I knew I didn't have enough space on the shelf for anything with a big wedge shape.  While cutting through the card aisle at Wally World,  these paper letters caught my eye.  You are supposed to use them to decorate gift bags.  At 29 cents each, it was a bargain.  

Above is the newspaper announcement from 1955 for my Mom and Dad's engagement.  My Aunt sent it my way with an envelope full of old stuff.  On the right of the ledge is my hubbies Mom jumping on the back of her best friend, Gina.  Nickie said they must have been high school age.  

The interior design drawing is one of Lynley's from a class at The University of Oklahoma.

Pretty fun graphics on these letters.  Be our guest!  Be our guest!  

Sharing with:
Cedar Hill Ranch and the Scoop

Kitchen counters leads to... cabinets leads to...

The search...

This was kind of fun at first, but then after three granite warehouses, not so much.

I narrowed it down to three slabs that I thought might work and my decorator, Lynley, said no to all three.

I wanted light colored granite, with browns or greys.  The island was easy I wanted absolute black.  The granite warehouse people said that everyone wants light colored granite now and it is hard to find. (translation "we can charge you more, if you really want it")  

See fun! Ooooh, awww, wow.  The below is considered "exotic".  (translation "you won the lottery and you don't care how much, you just want it")

Getting close.... 

Second warehouse, are you kidding me!  There were four more rows just like this one.

Third warehouse, getting closer, call in the second opinion.  Lynley help!

We have a winner!  Colonial Cream.  

OK - take a deep breath and get ready for demolition. 

My Pinterest Inspirations

Notice the black and light colored granite combinations. 

Colonial Cream example below. 

I also noticed that most kitchens had the square edge on the granite.  Guess what I ended up with? Do you have a great kitchen countertop story?

Pumpkin Poppers, mini, sugary, pumpkin perfect

I have waited until October 1st to post this Pinterest inspired creation.  Yes, sometimes I do try the recipes I save to my foodie  boards.  I will always double this recipe in the future.  One can of pumpkin will make a double batch.  I froze the leftover half of the can I used for a future batch.  

Easy, smells great while baking, cool for just a few minutes before you roll them in butter and then sugar and cinnamon.  Welcome Fall!  Mom, I will bring these for Thanksgiving too.

Pumpkin Poppers
Makes 30 Poppers

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk

For Coating

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine flour, baking soda,salt, and spices in a bowl and whisk until combine.

In another bowl, mix oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk.  Pour in flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fill mini muffin tins until almost full and bake 10-12 minutes.  

Melt butter in small bowl.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl.  After poppers cool for a few minutes, dip them in the butter and roll them in the sugar mixture.  

Try not to eat them all in one sitting.  Enjoy!

Found on Pinterest

and my tips....

I changed recipe to include baking soda, to cut bitterness of the powder.

I baked them for the full 12 minutes.

I didn't have ground cloves and excluded that, still yummy.

I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 3/4 wheat flour.

I used 2 % milk.

I filled each mini muffin spot with about 1 heaping teaspoon of dough, about 3/4 full.
Next time I might lower the Cinnamon amount with the sugar.

Sharing with :

Debbiedos Pinterest Party
Funky Junk Interiors
Welcome Home Wednesday

Pasta Salad - so easy

See it looking all pretty in the trifle bowl to the left of the lanterns.

I used:

 spiral pasta ~ 1 bag

Chopped 

zucchini - two

tomato - two

bell pepper - one red, one green

Green onion- three stalks

tossed with:

shredded Parmesan cheese

Ken's Northern Italian Salad dressing

Dried parsley

Black pepper to taste

Yes, my inspiration came from Pinterest.

You can follow me on Pinterest or go to this site.

The Cooking Photographer

Coffee lovers of the world

Who would have thought my most pinned pin is the below quote?!  Coffee makes the world go round and relates to a lot of pinners.  See my pin here.  Found this little gem here.  Thanks Lynn, at Happier than a Pig in Mud.  You may notice a big blip on your blog link today.

Brewing while I pin.