The Big GENDER REVEAL

The day has finally arrived! We had our 20 week ultrasound today, and due to my lack of patience, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret for very long from my family…so we HAD to have our “gender reveal” party the same day.

When we found out the gender of our first baby, we went to both of our parents homes and brought in a HUGE gift bag that had a balloon inside that announced the gender, “It’s A Girl”. Then we showed them the ultrasound pictures…my dad needed some more convincing then a simple balloon. (He has ALWAYS asked for a grand daughter…and didn’t want to get too excited about it).

Back to the present day announcement…now that pinterest is available, it is loaded with so many ideas for any and all occasions. I came across this "gender reveal pin" and I knew this is what I wanted to do with our family

 I found a tutorial on youtube that showed an easy way to get the frosting/cream inside the cupcake. I used a corer/peeler to cut out a small hole in the center of each cupcake and then I saved the little plug to place back on top of the cupcake after filling each of them…and then finally placed the frosting on…and *PRESTO* they are ready to reveal the gender of our newest addition. (I’m sorry, I can’t seem to find the link to the same tutorial that I used or I would attach a link)

So, we invited both sides of the family over to our house that evening. We were so excited to see everyone’s reaction when they bit down into their cupcakes. I had my camera ready…and…my when we counted to three my mom TOTALLY cheated and instead of biting into the cupcake she just tore it open and yelled out in excitement!! It was a lot of fun to see everyone’s expressions as they found the center of their cupcakes. Take a look: 

Reviews Of The Recipes I've Tried From Pinterest

I LOVE PINTEREST!!! When I first heard about pinterest I really didn't understand the concept...you post pictures that you like??? Big Deal!! Then I decided to give it a try, and here is what I absolutely LOVE about Pinterest: It isn't just about posting pictures...it's the idea and, more importantly, the links behind the pictures. You create a bunch of boards to organize your pictures/links. For example, I have boards for recipes, desserts, classroom ideas, gardening, sewing patterns, etc. Then when you find a picture/link that you want to try...some day...you "Pin It" to your specific board. On days when I'm going shopping, I actually pull up my board called, "My Attempt At Fashion" and it helps to keep my shopping guided by the outfits I know I like. If I want to try a new recipe for dinner, I'll open up by board, "Recipes To Try" and decide what's for dinner then. It's is such a GREAT concept...and has so many great ideas to simplify your life!!!!

So, in my attempt to try and cook more dinners for the family (My husband loves to cook and so I have been blessed with not needing to cook...but he is starting to get a greater work load and so I need to pick it up on my end now).

Cooking is NOT my thing, never has been, and I can't imagine that it ever will...regardless, Mama needs to pick it up. PINTEREST TO THE RESCUE!!! I have a ton of recipes on my "Recipe" board, and I have tried a handful of them...so I thought I would share my reviews of how they turned out.

CHEESE & BACON POTATO ROUNDS

This was my first recipe that I tried and they were super easy and DELICIOUS!!!! I even had Emily help out and she couldn't be happier. My main criteria for a good recipe is 1. It needs to have approximately 5 ingredients (give or take a few), and 2. It can't take up much of my time. Taste comes after all of that...but if it passes my two main criteria AND it tastes good...will GOD BLESS IT...it will then become a staple in our household. As for these delicious potato rounds, they had just a few indredients (GREAT), but the cooking time was super long...not a big deal because most of the time was baking in the oven, but I just came across the problem of them needing to be in the oven at a much higher temperature than my chicken did...and so it took a phone call to my mom to figure out how to overcome that obstacle. Please don't forget, cooking has NEVER been my thing!!! You wouldn't believe the phone calls that went home to my mother for other recipes.

CROCK-POT PULLED PORK SANDWICH

I ended up making this recipe for Craig on Valentines Day because it is one of his favorite things...BBQ! This recipe was as easy as it gets. It was SO SO GOOD and SO SO EASY!!! All I did was rubbed salt and pepper on the pork shoulder, put it in the crockpot with a couple cups of water and cooked it on low for about 9 1/2 hours. When I got home from work, I pulled the pork out, dumped out the water, put the pork back in the crockpot, used a couple forks and shredded the pork, then added a couple cups of BBQ sauce and cooked it on low for about another half hour to heat up the BBQ sauce and then turned it to the "warm" setting until Craig was home from work and ready for dinner. I am not a huge BBQ fan, but this recipe was turn anyone on the BBQ!!! Two thumbs up!!! I even had a ton of left overs too...too much actually, 

WICKED GOOD & EASY PORK CHOPS

I could tell that these had the potential to be extremely good, but I just have never fried anything before so I don't have the whole "oil temperature" thing down or the timing for flipping them. I think I put the pork chops in the oil before the temperature was hot enough so I didn't get the crispy look that is in the picture. The taste was still good, but I think that the next time I make these, they will turn out even better. They were super easy for when you need to get something on the dinner table quickly...I just need a bit more cooking experience...but I will be making these again, that's for sure.

CROCKPOT ITALIAN CHICKEN

OH MY GOODNESS...This recipe was SO GOOD, and SO EASY!!! I can't tell you how much I love crockpot recipes. I just need to get in the habit of putting it together in the crockpot the night before, storing it in the refrigerator and then, before I leave for work in the morning, set it all up so that I don't wake up my daughter in the morning. All I had to do was cook up the pasta about 15 minutes before we were ready for dinner and...PRESTO...dinner was served!!! Mmmm....Mmmm....Good. This was one that Emily enjoyed as well. You can't beat that.

BAKED CRISPY CHEDDAR CHICKEN

It seems like every recipe I have tried from pinterest have just been amazing. This one turned out super good too. The only thing I would change would be, instead of making my own bread crumbs by using the food processor for the Ritz Crackers...I would just use our box of bread crumbs. I can't imagine that there would be that much of a difference, plus the clean up would be a lot easier and bit less time consuming as well. My only problem, and I don't know if I would call it an actual "problem" because it is more of my lack of knowledge in the cooking world...but whenever I cook baked chicken with bread crumbs...the underside of my chicken has soggy bread crumbs. WHAT IS THE TRICK PEOPLE??? I know these can be so much more delicious...and even with soggy bottoms, I think they are pretty good, but I know there has to be a trick.

So, there you go. These are the recipes I have tried so far and will keep you posted when I try more. Let me know if you recommend any recipes yourself. I would love any suggestions you have.

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Mmm...Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

What I am about to tell you is a very sad truth...some of you may have to sit down before reading what is to come...

I must admit, that up to this point....I have never made banana bread in my life. I categorized "banana bread" with having to knead dough, and give the dough time to rise, and blah blah blah...work work work...NO THANK YOU!!!

But, having a little time on my hands, along with a husband who wouldn't let me throw out our bananas that were about to go bad...I thought that I was up for the task! So, to the laptop, I went, to find myself a banana bread recipe. It didn't take long at all...I came across a very basic recipe, one that had ingredients I have heard of and could pronounce (all very important). It also had a picture of what my bread should look like once finished. Here is the recipe I used from Simply Recipes:

BANANA BREAD

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
Yield: Makes one loaf.

This was such a super easy recipe!! I ended up using 4 frozen bananas. From the extensive research on the internet...the majority of people said it was best to just put your bananas in a bowl to thaw, that way the bowl would catch the water from the thawing process and you would put that water INTO the bread mixture...giving the bread good moisture!! It was a pretty funny procedure, when my bananas were mostly thawed, I cut a slit down the side of the peel and squeezed...and out plopped the squishy bananas. 

At the last minute, I decided to add a bag of milk chocolate chips. Note to self, one entire bag for this recipe was WAY too much. I felt like asking, "Would you like some banana bread with your chocolate chips?" Next time, I will cut it down to just half a bag. Overall, the bread was DELICIOUS!!! So so so good. No need for butter...just cut me a slice and my desire for dessert at the end of the day has been met! Mmmm Mmmm Good!!!

And since I'm not the best cook in the kitchen...I didn't have a regular sized bread loaf pan, so I used my mini loaf pans instead...so instead of cooking them for the hour, as directed in the recipe, I started checking in on them after 30 minutes. Total oven time ended up being 50 minutes. Using the mini loaf pans worked out perfectly because I ended up having to walk to my neighbors house to borrow some flour (so cliche)...and so I tied a ribbon around one loaf pan and Emily and I walked it over to them as a "Thank You" gift! Emily struggled a little bit in handing it over, but she eventually did. LOL