Peppermint Trifle/Pie and Christmas Card Holder!

Have any Peppermint ice cream left?? I love Kroger grocery stores for several reasons, but one in particular is their sale paper. They have great sales, but at the end of it, they have a recipe, and all of the ingredients needed for the recipe are on sale that week. Well a couple of weeks ago, they included a recipe for Peppermint pie, which we turned into a trifle dish for the company we had coming over. Afterall what a better time to use the mini-triffle dishes that we were given as wedding present!

All you do is crush up some oreos to use as the crust (use just a little butter to work as a kind of glue to hold it together if making a pie). The next layer is of Peppermint Ice Cream (we softened it a little first just by leaving it on the counter for a few minutes). And the top layer is of cool whip, store in the freezer until ready to serve. Garnish with some crushed peppermint if you have some.

Very tasty treat! And cute presentation!


Now onto the Christmas Card Holder!




I just used some Christmas ribbon that I adhered to the mantle and modpodged Christmas Scrapbook paper to some clothespins to hold the cards. I really like the way it came out and put our family and friends in the focal point of the room. We love them and it is a great reminder of all the beautiful people the Lord has blessed us with!

Advent Calendar and Christmas Decor

I absolutely LOVE this time of the year! I wanted to try to take it all in, so I created an advent tree! I got the verses from Gretchen at New Every Morning . I love the way the verses lead up to Christmas Day. Verses are also below...

1. Job 12:13,22
2. Psalm 103:8-12
3. Jeremiah 31:3
4. John 10:11,14
5. Isaiah 43:1-4
6. Micah 5:2,5
7. 1John 5:11-12
8. Isaiah 9:6-7
9. Hebrews 11:6
10. Isaiah 53:1-5
11. Isaiah 53:6-7
12. Isaiah 53:10-11
13. John 16:33
14. Isaiah 60:1
15. 1 John 5:13
16. Isaiah 11:1-2
17. Luke 2:1-7
18. Isaiah 7:14
19. Luke 2:8-15
20. Luke 2:16-20
21. Luke 2:28-32
22. Luke 2:39-40
23. Matthew 2:1-6
24. Matthew 2:7-12
25. John 3:16






For each day we would read that days verse as well as all of the others leading up to it. It has been fun and we will definitely do it again next year!

If you would like to create one, this is all I did...
1. Gather Sticks from backyard and spray paint white.
2. I went through my Scapbook paper and found a green stripe and a solid red. I cut the green in a little smaller square with the red a little larger. I used mod podge to attach the two squares together
3. Stamp the days on the front
4. Use fine point permanent marker to write verse on the back
5. Hole punch squares
6. Cut ribbon about 3 inches and fold in half and thread through the hole punch.
7. Pick where on your branches you want it to go, and I just wrapped it around the branch and hot glued the ends of the ribbon together.

I put the branches in a red vase filled with peppermints to anchor them. We keep a Bible on the table to go through and read together at night.



A few of our other Christmas Decorations...
















Hope y'all had a great Christmas!

Good-bye Fall Decorations, we have enjoyed you! till next year...

Fall Mantle



On top of the Armoire

Fall Baking and Family

We have had this whole week off and I could not be more thankful for this extra time! On Monday I made some homemade chicken stew via Crock-pot (love that thing!), mini-corn muffins and I also made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I had never made chocolate chip cookies from scratch before, but I happened to have all of the materials on hand, and I also had the time (although it really didn't take much time at all). However nothing compares to the Thanksgiving feast we will experience Thursday! My mom always goes all out. She always makes all of our favorite dishes in addition to the turkey and ham that are traditionally made. For example my favorite is lasagna, so she makes a whole pan of it! Too fun! This year my husband's mom and grandmother are making the 4 hour trip to come and join us! We could not be more excited!

Fall Wreath for $14.91!!!

Here this little beauty is adorning our front door! Happy Thanksgiving! and Happy Fall Y'all!



I have been looking so long for an affordable fall wreath. I can't believe I found this little guy over 50% off BEFORE Thanksgiving even! Sam's Club is selling this wreath for $14.91 (and just a little tid bit of info, anytime you see a price that ends in a 1 cent like the $14.91, or 50.21 or such, it is below what Sam's paid for the item...we now love searching Sam's for these items and finding great deals!). I could not have even made this wreath for $14.91 with pieces from the dollar store, so I am TOOOO excited!

Going to a Baby Shower!

My hubby's best friend and his wife are expecting a sweet baby boy in December and we are going to their shower this weekend! Well they are big Auburn fans, and we found the cutest little Auburn onesie...



I hope they love it! The website that sells these is:
http://passionatelyrivalicious.com
Check them Out!

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for all of those of serve this country in the past, present, and future so that we can live in freedom and safety!

Pumpkin Bread!

I made these for my pumpkin and for my lacrosse team as they began conditioning today. I am one of the sad souls that had not experienced pumpkin bread prior to making the 5 batches of mini-loaves yesterday :) But everyone loved them! The recipe I used came from the All-Recipes website and is below if you want to try it! So easy to make and so yummy! Enjoy!

Original Recipe Yield 3 - 9x5 inch loaves

Ingredients
3 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 cups white sugar
6 eggs
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

Directions
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2.In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Dresser Mirror Update

In a previous post I mentioned how we are trying to use things we already have when we are cooking to avoid spending unnecessary $$ at the grocery store...Well..we are extending that to decorating. Oh Dave Ramsey, how I miss Home Goods! I'm sure we'll reunite one day, but that day is not today. Thus, I've been looking around the house. Hubby had some unattractive furniture when we moved in together about a year ago after the wedding and I haven't looked at it since. Well this is what I found...



Anyone else have one of these? After looking past the drawers and how it used to be used on top of a chest of drawers, hubby pointed out that we could probably detach the mirror. So while I don't necessarily love hubby's furniture, I sure do love him!! Great idea! Well after a lot of pulling, a hammer and a chisel, and 30min in the 100 degree heat, we had this...

Then came this...


This is her in the garage with her old buddy...

My husband and father-in-law were able to hang it up...
Before...

After...


Now to find a new spot for the framed Love verse. Sometimes I guess that is what decorating boils down to, just moving stuff around. But that can be fun too =)

I have a couple of other projects I'm trying to finish up before school starts back, otherwise they may never get finished! I hope to post those soon!



I'm linking up at:

Cheese Danish

The thought had never occurred to me that I could make this at home, but I did =). I ran across this recipe at Life in Grace blog, she says on there that she can't take credit, so I'm not sure where this came from, but it is oooooo so good!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Unfold and press 1 can of crescent rolls into a 9×13 pan (I sprayed mine with Pam).
Mix 2 sticks of softened cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar, 3 egg yolks, and 1 tsp. vanilla (I used my mixer on low speed and it only took about 1-2 min).
Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crescent rolls and then unfold another can of crescent rolls and lay it on top of the cream cheese mixture.
Brush the top with egg wash (the leftover whites from the mixture) and then sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 35 minutes and cool before slicing (we cut ours into triangles).
Enjoy Danish as is or top with preserves or a powdered sugar glaze (just mix powdered sugar with just a little milk until you get the thickness you desire- We had actually run out of milk and so I had to use a little water with mine instead and didn't get it quite to the consistency I wanted, but milk really does get it thicker and smoother than water)


This is what it looked like coming out of the oven...


And this is another close-up right before it was eaten...


This danish is so good with some coffee on a Saturday morning! Enjoy your weekend!



P.S. A special Happy Birthday to my beautiful friend Kim!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

The hubs and I have been trying something new, revolutionary even...Cooking with only what's in our pantry without going to the grocery store...I know I know, we are real original, ha! Well it is for us anyway, I don't know why but we love running to the grocery store, but our wallets do NOT =) So, it is definitely making us more creative! This was our dinner tonight and we LOVED how this chicken came out!

Crunchy (French's) French Onion Chicken Strips! (courtesy of the back of the French's Can)

This is what you need for the Chicken...


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Cut 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips
-Put French's Onions into a baggie and crunch up into small pieces (you can use regular French's Onions or the Cheddar flavored)
-Chicken will then be dipped into flour and then egg and then the French's Onions
-Place them onto a greased baking sheet
-Bake for 20 min at 400 degrees

mmmm... It smelled so good while it was cooking. We will DEFINITELY be making this again!

Our Complete Meal




P.S. I am so excited! Bonnie at http://creatingahouseofgrace.blogspot.com/ has chosen our dining room furniture as one of her favorites from last weeks Twice Owned Tuesdays! She has another linky party starting today to display your awesome finds, check it out!

Grilled Pizza!

It is dinner and a movie at the Aldridge house tonight! Oh how I love weekends! Tonight we grilled pizza, got a redbox and some popcorn, and I just made an Oreo Pie! For those of you who have never had grilled pizza it is soooo GOOD and sooo EASY to make! Seriously takes about 10 min! and it has the pizzeria brick oven taste! Check out the play-by-play below!

First you need...


Flour your counter (so the dough doesn't stick when you roll it)...


Next you just roll it out, this particular dough ball was HUGE!...


Roll it up on your rolling pin to transport it to the grill...


Make sure you have your toppings ready outside by the grill...


Grill temp should be at 600 degrees...


Spray the grill with Non-stick spray and Roll out the dough onto the grill...


The crust will bubble, kind of like a pancake, just check the bottom and when it is ready, flip it over...


Then it's time to top it!


Once you are done topping, Turn down the grill to low and shut the lid and the toppings will melt. Just keep checking it until it has the desired meltiness (if that is a word =) ha!) And we use our cutting board to bring it in since it was a big one, and bon appetite!


And now it's movie time! We rented the movie Bounty Hunter, it looks cute, I hope its good! We love redbox AND we love the B1G1 Popcorn!


I have to give my Mama props, she gave me the idea for the grilled pizza, her blog is a southern cooking blog with some great recipes! Check her out at http://www.mamas-southern-cooking.com

Have a wonderful week and Happy Grilling!




p.s. Thank you for all the wonderful responses to our friend Kight!