Toffee Caramel Cream Soda Cake

Caramel and Heath Bars are on the very top of my list of favorites so after making my husband his favorite cake for his birthday last weekend I decided to try to make something kinda similar but one that would satisfy my tastes. I was skeptical (as with any recipe I pull from my head) but it turned out good. The only problem was that after sitting in the refrigerator for a day the caramel got hard and chewy. Which wasn't really a problem for me because I thought that made it yummy!

TOFFEE CARAMEL CREAM SODA CAKE

White Box Cake Mix

2 cups cream soda (not diet)

14 oz. bag of caramels

1/2 stick of butter

1 cup evaporated milk

14 oz. bag of Heath Candy Bars, crushed

2 envelopes Dream Whip

1 cup milk

Beat cake mix and cream soda together.

Pour into a 13x9 greased pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

While cake is baking, unwrap caramels and place in a saucepan with the evap. milk and butter.

Over medium heat, stir and let caramels melt.

When cake is done, remove and pour melted caramel over top.

Return cake back to the oven for 5 more minutes.

Remove and let cake cool.

Once cool, beat Dream Whip with milk till stiff peaks form.

Spread this over top of cake.

Sprinkle the crushed Heath bar on top & refrigerate.

Meet My Blogger Sister-In-Law

Stop on over and meet my sister-in-law Crys.

She is on a mission to shed some unwanted pounds and has been a member of (WW) Weight Watchers for a while now. She has made it half way to her goal and fears she will lose her motivation so she thought if she blogged daily about her progress she would be more apt to stick with it.

She is going to share recipes that she has tried and have been well liked by not only her but her husband (my brother) and their son. She will eventually be sharing her weekly meals and points as well as everyday life stories and pictures.

She is new to blogging and would like to meet others so stop on by and welcome her to Blogland if you get a chance. You can find her at Fit and Flabless

** I keep telling her that since we both blog about recipes that she will be the healthier blog with WW recipes and then when you fall off of the WW wagon you can always stop back by mine for the good old-fashioned add a few pounds kind of recipes. :0)**

A Chip Dip and a Cracker Spread

Here's a quick dip that I made this weekend with just a few ingredients.

Chip Dip

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 heaping tbsp. of Miracle Whip

1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

1/2 tsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend

1/16 of a tsp. ( 1/2 of an 1/8 tsp.) garlic powder

4 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. milk

Blend all this together and DIP away!

Add more milk if you want it a little bit thinner.

***************************

My Mom and Dad always made this quick spread when I was growing up. We used it as a spread on crackers or even for a chip dip. I don't have the amounts because I just toss it together. So round about you will use:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 of a can of crushed pineapple, drained

Miracle Whip

Milk

Mix all together and adjust ingredients as you go to suit your own tastes.

Tossed Salad With Creamy Dressing

I mixed this up yesterday to take to our cookout. It's loaded with lots of cheese and all the extras plus a quick and creamy dressing that I threw together and poured over.

Tossed Salad with Creamy Dressing

1 head of lettuce, chopped

6 oz. can small black olives, drained and left whole

8 oz. bar of sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
8 oz. bar of Monterrey Jack cheese, cubed

1 red bell pepper, cut in thin strips and then in half

1/2 of an English Cucumber, sliced thin

2 tomatoes, chopped

Dressing

1 cup Miracle Whip

3/4 tsp. prepared mustard

1/2 - 3/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend

4 tsp. milk

1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Cut and toss all vegetable together.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and pour over salad and toss.

I topped this with croutons and bacon bits.

A Bittersweet Holiday Weekend

Holiday weekends are always full of picnic foods, kids running around and plenty of extra rest and relaxation.

However this holiday weekend is a little bittersweet for us.

My Aunt Jeanie passed away unexpectedly Thursday morning and the funeral proceedings will begin tomorrow with the service being held on Monday.

Today also happens to be my husband's 38th birthday. We celebrated simple with some grilled steaks and I made him a Turtle Cake, which is his favorite. Chocolate, more chocolate and caramel. Have I mentioned that he LOVES chocolate.

We will also be celebrating the holiday itself with a family cookout on Monday evening. So there is lots to celebrate. Some happy and some sad.

Happy Birthday Mark

and

Wishing Everyone a Safe & Happy

Memorial Day Weekend!

SCHOOLS OUT!!!!!

YEA! School is out as of today!!

At least for my youngest two children whom I homeschool. My oldest son is in the public school system and they still have about a week and a half left.

Now I can sit back and relax a bit, maybe get back into the sewing mode and catch up on some other projects that I have been putting off.

It has been warm and sunny here for the past several days with no rain so the kids have spent alot of time outdoors. We had a big old tree in our backyard when we bought this house but it was beginning to rot out so we had it cut down. Now we don't have any shade in the yard. We did replant another oak tree but it's gonna take it a while till it gives us any amount of shade. So till then I guess we are just going to have to make these little shade tents on my clothesline for the kids to have any shade. I threw this up for the kids this morning and they loved it. Gage is pictured here sitting with Maggie and Katie was hiding on the backside of the blankets. When I walked away to come into the house they were both sitting underneath it discussing who was going to be the driver of their imaginary pirate ship. (I guess maybe the blankets were their sails.) Wouldn't it be great to be able to go back to childhood and only have to worry about who was going to be the driver and who was going to be the passenger of your imaginary ship.

Hope you all have a nice holiday weekend!

Homemade Heating Pads (corn bags)

Here is another simple idea I use in place of an electrical heating pad. Not that I have anything against heating pads but I don't think it is safe to fall asleep while using one. It's a fire hazard (it could overheat) plus you could actually burn your skin if it gets too hot and you just sleep right through it.

So here is a safe version to take to bed with you when you have aches and pains or just to give the kids to curl up with on a cold winter night. You can also make little ones that I call Boo-Boo bags and throw them in the freezer for when the kids fall or get bumps and bruises. These aren't as cold as an ice cube so the kids actually like to use them and often ask for them when they get hurt or get stung or bitten by something.

I make these from whatever scrap material I have laying around and field corn that I purchase in bulk from the local Co-op. (Field corn will not pop open in the microwave like popcorn.)

I buy a large bag of corn and then store it. It is so cheap and I always have people asking me if I will make them corn bags so it's nice to always have extra on hand.

I cut two pieces of fabric just a little larger than I want my finished corn bag to be. I then place wrong sides together and sew around three sides. I double stitch these to give it added strength and you don't have to be a great seamstress or even be neat about it. After my 3 sides are sewn I fill the pouch about 3/4 of the way full with corn. Then I sew the end shut. To give it a little neater look I take pinking shears and go all the way around the edges.

If you are making these for your back I prefer to sew tubes into the pouch ( just sew simple lines creating little tubes) and then I fill those tubes with the corn and sew the end shut. This just makes a more comfy bag, especially if you are going to lay on it. It keeps all the corn spread out as opposed to it all sagging to one end or the other of the bag. (The red bag has the tubes sewn into and the smallest bag is a boo-boo bag for the freezer.)

When you need one you can just pop one in the microwave and heat. I usually heat mine for about 2 minutes but everyone's microwave heats differently so I would suggest starting out for maybe a minute and build from there till you figure out the right time and temperature for you.

I hope these directions make sense to everyone. I'm not the best at describing by word how to do a project. If anyone wants to make these and needs a little better explanation then feel free to email me.

Awesome Old Fashioned Remedy

(I put a dab of this on a bandage just to show you what it looked like.)

My daughter has had two splinters within the past couple of weeks and both times she tells me "please just go get the black stuff." She asks this after I have tried unsuccessfully to remove the splinters with tweezers.

This "black stuff" is called Ichthammol and we use it here all the time.

It is a drawing salve that will draw infection out of cuts or wounds and it's also excellent for drawing splinters out.

This is black.. like tar and smells like tar.. so we always apply it with a bandage so that it doesn't get on anything and stain it. I apply this and leave it on for just a few hours and then a splinter will usually pop right out with little effort. If I'm using it to draw out an infection of a small cut then I apply it at bedtime and bandage it well so not to get it on the sheets. In the morning we remove the bandage and the infection (pus) is usually on the bandage. It works like magic to draw all of the yuck out.

I can only find this around our area in the small old-fashioned family owned drug stores and not in the big chain pharmacies.

The last tube that I bought cost me just under $7.00 and it will last me for several years if not more. This is a great old-fashioned remedy to keep in stock!

Chunky Potato Soup

Potato soup is probably my favorite kind of soup but I hardly ever make it because no one else in our house cares for it much. Last night I had a little of this and a little of that for supper that would please all the others so I decided to make a pot of potato soup for ME. I never use a recipe for potato soup so each time it turns out a little different. Here is last nights version.

Potato Soup

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, diced small

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup water

1 large vegetable bouillon cube (could use beef or chicken)

1 tbsp. flour

12 oz. can evaporated milk

11-12 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks

6 cups milk

2 cups water

1 tsp. parsley

2 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. celery seed

a pinch of celery salt

Saute onion and carrots in oil.

Add the 1 cup water and bouillon cube and let simmer till bouillon is dissolved and water has evaporated.

Sprinkle flour over veggies, stir and let cook for a few minutes but don't let it burn.

Whisk in evaporated milk and let that cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add potatoes.

Add milk, 2 cups of water and the spices.

Simmer till potatoes are tender.

Washed Out Weekend

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Little Katie wants to play!

There was grass to be cut and a garden to be worked but the clouds dumped buckets of rain on us this weekend.

We had several rain storms that passed through on Saturday and they seemed to last forever with hard pounding rain.

I was doing my BIG once-a-month shopping during one of the storms and decided to slow down a bit because there was no way I was going outside to load the truck with groceries in that mess. While I was driving home I noticed that a few of the roads had been blocked off due to high water.

We put groceries away and took a walk to snap some pictures.

This little bridge right down the street from my house quickly got clogged with debris and came spilling out the sides.

The city workers showed up with their equipment so the kids wanted to watch as they cleared the debris.

We had one more shower after that and then it finally cleared out. Here is Katie playing on the front porch during the last storm. She was being a drummer beating on her drum as well as the columns, siding and anything else she could use.

By Sunday, the ground was still way too soggy to cut grass so we worked on getting the kid's fort all cut up and stacked. (They never got the fort finished and seemed to lose interest in it so it was time to get rid of it.) We got most off it cut up and stacked to be used as firewood in the firepit. As we were doing this I told Mark that some of the pieces were the perfect size for some crafts like simple signs and little name blocks. Not that I will get the time to make any, but it's there if I do.

Well I better get a going and get the kids up and moving.

I'll be back later today to catch up on all of your blogs.

Enjoy your day!

Creamy Coconut Pecan Pies

Here is yet another dessert recipe.

I think maybe I should be focusing on some main dish ideas with beef, chicken and so forth because I have realized that there are more dessert recipes on here than anything else.

Maybe that's why I never seem to lose any weight ! :0)

Creamy Coconut Pecan Pies

7 oz. pkg. coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup butter

8 oz. cream cheese

14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

3 cups Cool Whip

2 graham cracker pie crusts

1 cup caramel ice cream topping

In a skillet, cook and stir coconut, nuts and butter till coconut browns.

Be careful because it will burn quickly once it gets hot enough.

When browned remove to a cookie sheet & spread it out to cool.

In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and milk till well blended.

Fold in Cool Whip.

Place 1/2 of filling in each pie shell.

Sprinkle the coconut - nut mixture over the tops.

Drizzle with caramel.

Place in freezer and let freeze all day or overnight.

ENJOY!

Homemade Window Cleaner

Here is a new window cleaner that my SIL Joan passed on to me. Her recipe called for Vodka but I didn't have any so I just used rubbing alcohol and it worked. This one didn't produce the awful streaks on the glass like some of the other ones did. Oh, if I remember right she said you could use a squirt of blue food coloring to make it look like Windex but I chose not to.

Homemade Window Cleaner

Empty Windex Bottle (or any bottle)

2 tbsp. Vodka or rubbing alcohol

4 tbsp. ammonia

Water

Pour alcohol and ammonia in bottle.

Fill the rest of the way up with water.

Happy Cleaning!

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

Today, May 12th, is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day!

You may ask, "What is Fibromyalgia"?

Well, the good thing is that Fibromyalgia or FMS is not a life-threatening disease. However, it is a life-changing and debilitating syndrome that creates havoc to your body from your head clear down to your toes. It is no fun and it can stop you in your tracks either in a slow progressive way or it can hit you as quick as night turns into day.

Fibromyalgia has many symptoms. Here are just a few of the more common ones:

Pain (can range from flu-like achiness to a deep "to the bone" pain)

Stiffness

Headache

Dizziness

Irritable Bowel

Skin Sensitivities

Sleep Disorders

Anxiety

Depression

Fibro does not only affect adults, it can also effect children.

Studies have proven that FMS can be passed down genetically from parent to child, therefore if you suffer from FMS then your children have a chance of developing it. Keep that in consideration, if and when your child complains of constantly feeling tired or achy.

There is no "magic fix" for Fibromyalgia but there are several prescription drugs out there that can help & I personally have had great success with homeopathic remedies.

If you suffer from FMS then you will benefit from learning as much as you can about this disorder. You can't make it go away but you can learn how to change your life-style and routines to make everyday be easier and less painful. To get more info you can go visit these sites.

National Fibromyalgia Association

National Fibromyalgia Research Association

Lemonade Cookies

I didn't cook a whole lot this weekend. My husband was out of town spending Mother's Day with his mother so the kiddos and I just ate simple meals. I did get up Saturday morning and make these Lemonade Cookies. I found the recipe in a Taste of Home book and thought I'd give them a try. They are the SOFTEST cookies I have EVER made and love the lemon taste.

Lemonade Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 (6oz.) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed & divided

Sugar to sprinkle on top

In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar till light & fluffy.

Add eggs and beat well.

Combine flour and soda in a bowl and then add it to the creamed mixture alternately with 1/3 cup of the lemonade concentrate.

Drop by rounded teaspoonful about 2-inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Remove to wire racks to cool.

Brush warm cookies with the remaining lemonade concentrate.

Sprinkle with sugar and let cool.

Wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day!

Garden of MUD

My veggie garden now looks more like a MUD garden after the past few days of rain. We haven't had any rain today but there are still puddles everywhere. Here are my potatoes that are going to rot at the rate things are going.

My peas are coming up nicely, however they seem to be growing in little patches. Two or three plants and then nothing for the next few spots. I need to get in there and plant some more seeds here and there. (and pull a few weeds)

Our corn was planted about 2 weeks ago and it is popping up now too.

Here are my tomatoes. They still sit indoors just waiting to be planted. The ground needs to be tilled again before I plant them and with all this rain that we have been getting it may be July before it dries out enough. I shouldn't complain because I'm sure that later this summer we will be dry as a bone and wishing for the rain.

On another note, I may take a few days off here and there. I haven't been cooking a bunch lately so I don't really have many new recipes to share. I have a few but don't have pictures to display. (Dummy me :0) My sister in law showed me how to make a great beef sandwich this past weekend. I took a picture when we were preparing them but forgot to take a finished pic before we started eating. (Where was my head?)

I can tell you that my head as well as my kids have been stuck in books lately--school books that is. We are trying to wrap up things for this school year so I have been kinda extra busy this week. I have two more Pay-It-Forwards to finish before the first of June so that is next on my list. Along with those I have had about 4 email requests for purses so I have got to get moving. There is just so much to do in a days worth of time and just not enough hours in the day. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do and right now I gotta go teach. (Don't worry! I teach them better English than this :)

Have a great day and a super Mother's Day Weekend!

Dream Whip Pistachio Cake

This isn't the recipe that I intended to post today but I didn't get the other beef recipe ready to go so this will have to do.

I made this cake for Sunday dinner and it was good. Nothing fancy, just a quick & simple thing to throw together at the last minute. I may have to experiment with some other flavors with this recipe too!

Dream Whip Pistachio Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 oz. box of sugar-free, fat-free pistachio pudding mix

3 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1 cup water

1 tsp. butter flavoring (or vanilla)

ICING:

2 envelopes Dream Whip

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

green sprinkles

In mixing bowl, mix cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, water and flavoring.

Pour into a greased bundt pan.

Bake for 1 hour (or till toothpick inserted comes out clean) at 350 degrees.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan onto a serving tray.

Once completely cool then mix the icing ingredients well till stiff peaks begin to form. Once they do then you can spread the icing on the cake.

Top with sprinkles.

A Little of this and a Little of That!

It was a cool weekend here with part sun and some rain. Just enough rain to make the garden too soggy to work in but just enough sun to be able to get the lawn mowed.

I did get a little time to paint a small stand that the neighbor was throwing out. It's a great size to use on my porch between some chairs. It's heavy enough that the wind won't blow it away and it was free so if someone steals it then I'm not out anything.

I also got time to stop by our local library on Saturday. They were having a book sale so Katie and I stopped. She found a good many "kids" books and I grabbed some more cookbooks, cross-stitch and embroidery books and of course a few historical romances. The embroidery book is an older one with Sesame Street designs in it. It would be great if you were decorating a child's room with Elmo and all the other characters.

Now today, the dreaded Monday, it's back to the ole' routines. We are anxious to be finishing up on our schooling for the year. I have already ordered and received some of next years textbooks. I will still use county supplied books but I have found that the A-Beka books provide great subject matter that is fun and interesting for the kids. Once we finish this years studies then I will jump right in on organizing next years. ( A good game plan always makes things go smoother!)

On a sour note, we learned last week that my mother-in-law needs to have a liver biopsy done. She goes in tomorrow for this procedure. She battled lung cancer seven and a half years ago followed by heart bypass surgery and came out on top of things. The doctors say that she now has a mass on her liver so we are all hoping and praying that whatever tomorrow's results may bring she will be able to overcome it too!

Catch you all tomorrow with hopefully a new recipe to share!

Delicious Taco Soup

My husband brought this recipe home from a friend at work and I love it. I of course, love any Mexican food (well almost any) so this has become a regular here at our house.

TACO SOUP

2 lbs. ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dry dressing mix

1 can corn

2 cans mild chili beans

2 cans mild Ro-tel Tomatoes

1 cup water

2 tsp. garlic powder, optional

Corn chips

Brown meat & onion, drain.

Add seasonings and mix well.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Serve over corn chips and top with your favorite toppings.

** This makes a large amount so you could cut it in half for just a few servings. Also, if I don't have chili beans, then I use any old bean that I do have and it still tastes great.**