May 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
The Arkansas Food Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry was a wonderful success!
(with a side of fun and a sugar rush!)
The grand total of $2000 was achieved (DOUBLE last year’s total!)
and you can still
contribute here!
Did you know that Arkansas is #1 for Childhood Hunger?
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| My Momma’s Brownies on Display! |
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| Momma’s Brownies Up-Close and Personal |
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| Just a few of the Lovely Bloggers Who Participated! |
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And here are just a few recipes from the sale:
It was so great to meet up with some of my bloggy friends I’d met at AWBU last year and some I’ve never met but have wanted to! What a great group of people who love food!
A big “Thank You” to Christie (AKA Fancy Pants Foodie) for organizing everything. You rock!
May 6, 2013 | Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
my momma was kind enough
(as she always is)
to make me some brownies!
(Thanks mom!)
Now my momma’s brownies are by far the best brownies around.
(And I might fight ya if you say otherwise!)
She uses the recipe from the 1963 Betty Crocker Cooky Book (one of the best cookbooks I own BTW)
and I’m not sure why but even when I follow the same recipe mine are not quite as delectable.
(She must do something secret I’m not aware of…)
Here is that recipe:
Brownies from the Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book
4 squares of unsweetened chocolate (4 oz)
2/3 cup of shortening
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
Heat oven to 350.
Grease a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ pan.
Melt chocolate and shortening over low heat.
Beat in sugar and eggs.
Blend flour, baking powder, and salt and stir in.
Mix in nuts.
Spread in pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
Cut into bars!
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| Mom’s Brownies on Display! |
May 4, 2013 | Recipes, Sweets, Uncategorized
Come on down and get some goodies
TOMORROW from 9AM- 2PM!!
at the
Argenta Farmer’s Market,
Main Street- North Little Rock!
to help fight childhood hunger in the U.S.!
Arkansas food bloggers raised $1000 last year and we hope to top that this year!
My momma has made her fantastically marvelous, special, nutty brownies
for the occasion and I can tell you you won’t be disappointed!
Can’t make it (maybe because you don’t live nearby?)
You can still help fight childhood hunger by
REMEMBER…
- $35 can help a child care center begin
providing free after-school snacks and supper to at-risk children
- $65 can provide a grab-n-go cart to an
elementary school making it possible to provide free nutritious
breakfast for all their students as they enter their classrooms
- $100 can help provide 25 children facing hunger with backpacks full
of healthy food over the weekends and holidays when school meals are
unavailable.
Apr 20, 2013 | Green Living, Uncategorized
“Green is the prime color of the world,
and that from which all loveliness arises.”
– Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Tulips in downtown dog-town,
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| Sliding down the green hills, |
A king on his patch of green,
A friend searching for greens in the backyard,
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| *Sweet baby dove |
Just some green love that made my week sweet.
*I know, she’s not so green…
My boys found this sweet baby dove and we thought she was a goner. The second day we put her outside to get some sun and her mama and papa came down to greet her! So sweet. We put her in a bush and they’ve been taking care of her.
Apr 18, 2013 | Missouri, Travel, Uncategorized, United States
Part 2 of our Spring Break…
Thursday of our week off we drove to St. Louis, MO.
(It’s about a six hour drive from here.)
What is fun to do in St. Louis for families? (Just for you, Kelly!)
Our top picks:
1. City Museum
(This is honestly the main reason we go to St. Louis.)
An old shoe factory that’s been converted into the most awesome artist colony you’ve ever
seen. Artists have turned empty spaces into a magical wonderland for both children and adults.
Your imagination can go crazy (and so can the kids!) Plan to spend an entire day here. This is the most expensive thing we do in STL and it’s around $13 a head I think.
There are lots of clubs and restaurants in this area also so you won’t be bored!
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| My kids want to live here! |
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| Inside the “caves” 15 story slide! |
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| Opera Poster exhibit I adored |
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| Waiting to hear it play |
2. Forest Park (Home of the 1904 World’s Fair)
So many things to do IN the park (and many for FREE)- We’ve been in the summer and rented bikes there- that way you can explore the park and go from attraction to attraction.
- St. Louis Zoo (FREE, and as my happy husband said “They have BEER!” If you park in the zoo’s lot it costs $10, but you can also park along streets in park for free.)
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| Beautiful butterflies |
- St. Louis Science Center (free)
- Grand Basin (or the grounds where you can fly kites, picnic, or just let the kids run- and free)
We happened upon a nice guy flying a kite so high up you could barely see it. He let us all “fly” it for a bit and talked about the science of kite flying.
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| My family visiting the second silver tree in a week- second state! |
- St. Louis Art Museum (free)
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| Dear Old St. Louis |
3. Fitz’s American Restaurant
In the DelMar loop- A fun family place to go after the park, Fitz’s makes their own Root Beer and soda right there. You can see the bottling plant working while you eat.
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| Be warned- This is a float SPLIT in 1/2! |
4. The Gateway Arch (This was the first time we didn’t stop to see it. You can ride up to the top, or just explore the park and the Museum of Westward Expansion under the arch which is free.)
5. Anheuser-Busch Brewery
(We didn’t visit the brewery this time either. It’s a neat FREE tour of the factories and stables for the Clydesdale horses. I find the history and actual factory very interesting. Some like the free sampling and snacks at the end of the tour… Kids like the horses the best I think.) Grant’s Farm is also supposed to be a really neat place to visit but it wasn’t open this trip due to weather.
My honey had to work the next week so our plan was for us to drive up and stay til Sunday morning, and he’d fly back the following week after working at his company’s office there.
However, Mother Nature had other plans! Snow started Saturday night and by Sunday morning this was our view from the hotel…
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| Snow Dancers Outside the hotel |
12 inches of snow by the time it was over!
Another day of vacation is never a bad thing, right?
On the way back we stopped at Lambert’s Cafe “Home of the Throwed Rolls” in Sikeston, MO.
Really a fun place for kids- they actually yell “ROLLS?” and if you want one you raise your hands and have to catch them. Really hot, good, homemade rolls. Wish the butter was real…
The kids liked the giant drinks and all through the meal they come around asking if you want this or that. Make sure you’re hungry or share a meal. We shared and still had leftovers for days. Oh, and they don’t take credit cards…(this is when a teenage daughter who doesn’t spend money comes in handy- Thank You, E.)
For more fun in St. Louis check this out:
They have a great food festival Labor Day weekend that’s FREE and fun!
St. Louis in Fall
*If you’re driving up from LR, also check out Blue Owl Bakery in Kimmswick, MO (fun!), Mastodon State Park and Museum of Transportation right before you get to St. Louis. REALLY fun with kids!
Apr 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
My sweet friend, Jerusalem, launched her new book this weekend
with a Homemade Hootenanny!
(for those of you who don’t know a “Hootenanny” is an old time throw-down, or PARTY!)
Of course, most (ok, pretty much all) of the pictures I took were of
food or people stuffing their faces. I didn’t have even one of an adult
not eating!
Jerusalem really is a Jolly Goode Gal.
She’s one of the sweetest,
most down-to-earth people I know
AND she also happens to have
was in full swing with great folk and gospel tunes.
I really adore their music!
Such a fun night!
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| Jerusalem and friend at Wordsworth books |
Make sure you stop by
Jolly Goode Gal today and get your copy of
A Homemade Year!
If you buy today Jerusalem is autographing them for you! 🙂
(They’d make lovely Mother’s day gifts!)
