Nikon D3000 BABY YEA!!!

My new camera came in today. I felt like a kid on christmas morning.

The UPS man couldn't get here fast enough for me. I waited impatiently by the window all day.

I love getting packages in the mail, I think it's the intense feeling of not knowing exactly

when the mail will arrive.

I'm still learning how to use it.

Wish me luck!! ;-)

Ashlyn's Eleventh Birthday

It's been a busy month in the Mcool household.

My daughter turned eleven this month. It has been bitter sweet.

She's growing into such a beautiful young lady. My face smiles as my heart breaks.

It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, wondering

where the instruction manual was on how to take care of a baby.

Now I'm looking for the manual on how parents can survive through preteen years.

I will survive! (as i break out in song, in my best gloria gaynor voice) it's a new chapter in our life and I take hold of it with excitement and anticipation.

This year we just had a family get together for Ashlyn's birthday, and we decided to have

Lasagna, salad, garlic bread and ice cream cake.

O! wait a minute!! I forgot to tell you about my new apron.

My sweet hubby bought this for me.

It says, "stand back! I'm having a creative moment"

Totally me. ;-)

Now, back to the lasagna.

I use to hate to cook lasagna, because I didn't like the time it took to cook the noodles,

and a lot of times my noodles would tare.

UNTIL! I found out about the no boil method. I don't no who it was that discovered this miracle,

but because of this person we now eat lasagna again, my family would like to thank lasagna lady, or man,

for your discovery(applause)

This is cheesy goodness, from on high. Just looking at this photo, makes me want to eat another piece. Did I mention this lasagna is fat free and calorie free??

Gotcha!

I wish it was! It was worth all those calories and fat grams.

After all it was my daughters birthday, so I had to eat it (wink, wink)

I don't really have a recipe for the lasagna, just a method.

I use store bought spaghetti sauce, regular lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese,

eggs, salt and mozzarella cheese.

I do add meat to the sauce.

All you do, is layer the lasagna like you always do. just don't boil the noodles.

Bake it at 375 for 40 min covered and 10 min uncovered.

I still can't get over it!

I did have a little help in the kitchen.

Here is the birthday cake. I have never made an ice cream cake before.

My daughter had one at a friends party and asked if I would make one for her party.

Of coarse, I gladly accepted the challenge.

What do you do when you don't know how to make something?

You google.

After doing my research, I decided to come up with my own version.

For the crust:

One pack of oreos (i used an organic off brand)

one stick of melted butter.

Place in a food processor. Then press the cookie mixture into a pie plate, and freeze.

While the crust is freezing, set out the ice cream and let it get soft. That way it's

easier to spread. When the crust is froze, about 30 min.

Spread about 1 1/2 inches of ice cream over the crust, and freeze. This took a little

bit longer, about 1 to 2 hours.

After the ice cream is back to it's frozen state. Spread a thin layer of milk chocolate

sauce over the ice cream, and freeze. Now unfreeze! JK lol.

Just before you serve the cake, spread a good layer of cream cheese icing on top.

My Mother in law said this is the best ice cream cake she had ever had.

That's such a huge compliment. My mother in law is an awesome cook.

That just made me smile from ear to ear.

Here is the birthday girl. She is my pride and joy.

I am so thankful to be a mommy to such wonderful children (tear*)

D.I.Y.

I saw on another blog, Target had marked down there Fourth of July stuff 90%

off. Like any frugal mom, I immediately ran to Target.

Looking for anything red, whit, and blue, that might be on sale.

The only thing my Target had left was this metal tin. It was the last one, I snatched it up

before you could say the word "CLEARANCE!"

It was regularly 14.99 and I got it for 1.49.

Thats HUGE!

The little drink container came in my daughters lunch box

we got at Costco.

I thought I would spruce these items up a little.

I got my Cricut out, some vinyl and went to work.

This is the design I printed out using the Cricut. I think this is the cheapest project yet!

I also printed out a couple designs for my daughters drink container.

May The Force Be With You

My family loves to be in the kitchen or at the grill and the kids always want to help.

Being kids spills and stains tend to be part of every recipe.

The answer to losing the spills and keeping the thrills of coarse is aprons.

Finding aprons for girls is no problem but trying to find an apron that a boy will wear without feeling girly is pretty hard to find.

Well I was out the other day and found it!

Meet Luke SkyWalker of the kitchen!

(The Force is strong with this one)

I found this at Williams-Sonoma for $20.00.

The best twenty spent ever!

No longer do we go to the "Dark-Side" when the "Splatters Splash Back."

This baby keeps everyone happy in the kitchen and mommy happy in the laundry room.

So have fun cooking with your kids and leave the stains where they belong on the apron ;-)

Quick Quiche

I have a confession to make. I don't like making breakfast. I love eating it,

but, I just don't like making it. Which brings me to an all new confession, I'm not a morning person.

Wow!.... I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest;-)

A lot of times we'll have breakfast for dinner, the fam loves that!

So, the other night I was going through the fridge, and, I had some leftovers,

and a lot of eggs. That's when I had this brilliant idea!

Quick Quiche!

I had some turkey sausage, spinach, half of a bell pepper,

cheese, two tomatoes, eggs, and I always have onion and garlic.

O! and almond milk.

This already looks good!

Here's what I did.

Saute a small onion, a large garlic clove, and half of a bell pepper in olive oil with

salt and pepper

Cook and dice up 5 turkey sausage patties.

Beat 8 eggs and add 1/2 cup almond milk (or regular if you like),

Add your eggs and milk, then sausage,

About a cup of spinach,

1 tomato diced

1 cup of cheese. Shredded works best.

Then add the sautéed veggies to the eggs, add salt and pepper and give it a stir.

Here is the best part. Pour the ingredients into a zip lock bag,

and refrigerate until morning. Super easy! Mommy Likey!

The next morning, when you wake up, all you have to do is,

grease a pie plate, pour in your mixture, and top with tomatoes.

(I didn't use a crust for this recipe, but you could if you wanted to.)

This recipe tasted just as good as it looks and it is a snap to make which makes your morning that much better.

So go a head, have fun looking like you spent all morning in the kitchen when you actually indulged in a second cup of coffee and a plate full of peace and quiet. All thanks to the quick quiche.

Don't worry it can be our little secret ;-)

Garlic Dill Cucumbers

Garlic Dill Cucumbers. This just screams summer to me. I always have a jar of these

in my refrigerator.

1 to 2 cucumbers

2 garlic cloves

1/2 of an onion

1 tbs dried dill

salt, lots of it!!!

vinegar

Pico De Gallo

This recipe is so yummy. Hubby and I finished off the whole bowl by ourselves.

It's also a good way to use up some of those tomatoes.

5 Tomatoes

1 small onion

2 jalapeno peppers

a bunch of cilantro

2 garlic cloves

juice of one lime

salt and pepper

Don't forget the tortilla chips!

Floats for the Fourth

Since the family was already coming over for the fourth, I thought I would have

Bubby's birthday the same day. He already had one party with his friends,

and we had cake at that one. So, I thought for the family party we would do

root beer floats.

I bought a case of jars, and painted chalk board paint on the bottom

of the jars, that way people could write there names on there jar.

That was a good and bad idea. Good, for not getting there drink mixed up with

someone else's. Bad, I didn't realize it wasn't dishwasher safe. :-(

I also cut out some little patriotic thingys to hang on the jars.

I found these adorable straws at Target.

I froze the jars over night, so they would be nice and cold.

Bubby loved the root beer floats. Who knows, this may be a tradition in the making.

Katie Brown

I have been wanting a cloche jar and stand for a while.

I have seen them all over "blogging world"

While I was shopping at Meijers, (our local grocery store )

I noticed they were carrying a brand called Katie Brown.

I immediately fell in love it. I want everything in that line.

I bought a large, cool looking wooden bowl, and as I looked down, low and behold

I saw this BEAUTIFUL cloche jar and stand. My heart skipped a beat. They only had two,

So I snatched one in a hurry. The best part is, each piece was on sale for 14.99.

How awesome is that!?

I thought I would dress it up a little for the Fourth of July.