Baby Gear Guide

A good friend of mine just informed me about an awesome book full of information on the best baby gear. It's called, Baby Bargains. It is a great guide to buying baby gear. It discusses quality, price, safety ratings, recalls, etc. to help you make a decision on what gear will work best for you and your family. You may have seen it on Oprah and you can check it out on the website.

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Caramel Carnage

I found so many amazing caramel recipes and made the one I had ingredients for. As it turns out, it's an awesome recipe! You can find it on Jamie's blog. Trust me, it's so good! Her tip on using the spoon technique to check the caramel works great!

Word of caution: WATCH OUT! Make sure you have a big enough pot to boil the caramel in. It really bubbles! I didn't even see the piece fly out that hit me in the leg, next thing I know I look down and a piece had hit my knee and dripped down my shin...ouch! I didn't know this was possible, but it left a bruise as well as a burn! Be very careful!

I made some of my chocolate cookies and placed a drop of caramel in the center of each cookie.

The caramel infused into the cookie, so I had to bake them for about 15 minutes instead of 10. They turned out great! The caramel adds a different flavor and texture.

Enjoy!!!...Carefully!!!

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Hallo-Wine Tasting Party

Planning a Halloween party, but feel like all the ideas have been played out? Look no further, I've got just the thing:

Our best Halloween party yet was our "Hallo-Wine Tasting" party. Everyone brought a bottle of their favorite wine and we did a blind tasting to vote for the best. The person who brought the winning wine received a wine bottle full of Halloween-colored M&M's. It was so much fun! As the host it was great because we didn't have to provide all the alcohol and there was definitely enough to go around! My husband is a computer and graphic design genius so he was able to make awesome invites (which of course I'll share!):

Notice the eerie claw and glaring eye sneaking through... 

We sent out the invites as evites, making it cheap and easy. We did not require costumes.... a lot of people were surprisingly happy about that. We played games (Catch Phrase is always a group favorite), ate, and drank- that's all it took to be an awesome night!

Because of the "wine" theme we were able to decorate with harvest and fall colors/items and didn't have to get too Halloweeny. The decorations carried through to Thanksgiving nicely.

It was actually pretty easy to put together and was a nice break from the traditional Halloween parties. I hope you try it out this year!

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Homemade Whip Cream

Its so easy! 

Place your mixers in the freezer (and your bowl if it fits) while you gather your ingredients and get set up.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in mixer and mix on medium speed for about two minutes. You'll see it thicken and become like the whip cream you know and love.

Place on your favorite dessert and enjoy!

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Quick Chocolate Goodness

I wanted chocolate...in a bad way. I needed something fast. I saw a recipe for an awesome 2 Minute Mug Brownie that I couldn't resist. I also made 2 minute homemade whip cream too! Here's what I did to stop the tremors:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbs cocoa powder

Pinch of salt
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs milk

Sift together dry Ingredients into a microwave safe bowl. Stir in oil and milk; mix until thick paste forms. Microwave for 30 seconds. 

Add a dollop of caramel. Microwave another 30 seconds. 

Sprinkle on some chocolate chips and top with whip cream.

Enjoy!!!

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M is for Mommy

I've been working on decorating my boy's room. I've been trying to find cute cartoon versions of an Airplane, a Boat and a Car to do "ABC" canvases on his wall ("A" is for Airplane, etc.). I could not find any that I liked. I wandered on to Sarah's blog and found I could do something fun with our own photos.

I had already painted the canvases blue, so I had to place a piece of paper underneath the faces to help them show up. I mod-podged the paper to the canvas and let it dry. Then I mod-podged the tissue with the photo (dry) on to the paper, following Sarah's instructions. I didn't want harsh edges, so I tore them off while still wet.

Then I just fancied it up a bit (with scrapbook paper and lettering) and this is what I got

Please excuse the stickers covering our faces...husband's idea!

Quick and Yummy Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are so easy and so good!

Ingredients:

Devils food cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

small bowl granulated sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 325º F. Combine cake mix, eggs and oil. 

Roll dough into small balls and roll in bowl of sugar to coat. 

Place cookie dough balls on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until cookie tops begin to crack.

You can also add chocolate chips, nuts, or even marshmallows to the dough to spice it up. I like to put a junior mint on the center of each cookie right after taking them out of the oven. 

Enjoy!

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