Do you do Challenges?

http://vicki20.blogspot.com/2011/01/challenges.htmlI have on and off last year. Well I only did one last year. It was a Brag Book Challenge with Sara Ellis. She has retired for the time due to an illness. I will burst when she comes back! Love her work!

Anyway my scrapbooking resolution was to join more. It took a while and well to be honest one kinda just felling into my lap. I got a Facebook message and thought what the heck! Well now I am actively doing 2 challenges.

First challenge that I found....searched like a mad woman and this is the one that seemed to fit pretty good. It is thru Gotta Pixel and Week 4 Challenge can be found here. What I think I like about it is that they give you a template and let you freely have fun. It is great to see what everyone comes up with. Then if you get your layout up by a certain date they enter you into a draw!

Here are my first 4 weeks....

Above layout - Kit by Connie Prince - Mmm...Milk & Cookie

The 2 payer layout - Sara Ellis - Ouchies XX & XY kits

Camera Layout - Princess of Pop - Stacey's Scraps

This layout - We've Got Game Kit - Connie Prince(Been waiting a long time to use this kit!

So far so good altho I was late for week 1 & 2 (Week 2 layout should explain it all!) I am right on track!  I think so anyway.  Hoping that this snow stops here soooooon!  GAHHHHHH!  Anyone want some?  I am willing to ship!

Now on to the 2nd Challenge I joined!  I received a message thru Facebook and thought what the heck!  It is Vicki from a Work in Progress.  I have been following her blog pretty much for as long as I have been scrapping.  Her challenges have a few rules but easy ones too.  (If I would ready and comprehend!  LOL!).  Anyway here is the page with the info for you to join the group.  Here is the page for the actual challenge rules.  So I did 2 layouts....1. cause I could and 2. cause that was the limit!  

 This kit is called Grams & Gramp's by Stacey's Scraps

This kit is by Vicki - AWP- Jack Frost

I am loving all the feed back it helps so much...especially after my crap week.  Hope this coming week is much better seeing that we have a PD day tomorrow (Monday!) I foresee a jammie day with the kids!

Take care and stay warm my snowy Canadian friends and those of you who don't know what snow is I am taking orders and will send you some!

Ok I read the oddest blogs

I read blogs many many blogs. Some sweet some similar and well some right over the top. I came across this post on one and took a bit but I tracked down the original store. OK now I hope you find this as hilarious as I do!

The Store is found here. I am so hoping my bestie back in the province that is easy to draw is having a girl! Hehehehe!

Check out a great scrapping blog called The Scrapping Sisters. I added their button to my side bar and now I am entered into a contest! You should do the same......as well as becoming a follower to get a free kit!!!

Check it out!

Bacon Cheesburger Yumminess

Since yesterday was to be one of our last cold days...on the meal plan was soup. Bacon Cheeseburger Soup was made, quite quickly I may add!

So this is the recipe I followed with my slight changes.

Ingredients:

6 strips Bacon

1 lb Lean Ground Beef

1 Large Onion

1 cup Carrots diced

1 cup Celery diced

3-4 slices of jarred Jalapenos (more if you like it spicy)

½ tbsp Cayenne Pepper

1 L Beef Stock

1 can of low fat evaporated milk

1/4 cup half and half

4 tbsp All Purpose Flour

LOTS Old Cheddar

Salt and Pepper to taste

*Optional: Sour Cream
Directions

1. Almost every soup begins with the aromatic Holy Grail: onions, celery and carrots. When these are cooked down, they take a kind back seat to enhance the rest of the flavors (whatever they may be) and allow them to be the star of the show. So we need to dice these things up first. Go ahead and cut up your jalapeno, as well.

2. Cut your bacon into one inch pieces and fry them until crispy in the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven. Once crispy, remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon.

3. Into the remaining bacon fat toss in your ground beef. Break it up with a wooden spoon and keep stirring it. You’ll notice the ground beef will remove everything that was stuck to the bottom of the pan. This is a good thing; it’s soaked up all of that gorgeous bacon flavor.

4. Once the ground beef has been browned, toss in your aromatic trio – the carrots, celery and onions. Let these sweat until they’ve softened up and the onions are completely translucent. Add your bacon (reserve some for serving), jalapenos, cayenne pepper and season with salt and pepper.

5. Toss in all of your beef stock. If you think there is not enough liquid, you can always add some hot water. It should be sufficiently soupy. I know that’s vague, but how else do you describe it? Let this simmer for at least 20 minutes. The longer, the better.

6. When you feel all the flavors have melded together as they should, toss in your cream and stir. Next, in a separate container (preferably something with a tight fitting lid) put your flour and about twice as much water. Mix or shake this up vigorously to create an even mixture, then pour this into the soup to thicken it up. If you just put flour directly into the soup, the flour will clump up and the soup will not look very appetizing, with white flour chunks floating everywhere. I learned this the hard way a few years ago.

7. Bring everything back to a boil until the soup is sufficiently thickened. You can always add more cream if you like it creamier, more flour (pre-mixed in water, of course) if you like it thicker, or more water/beef stock if you like it thinner.

8. CHEESE! Shred it, and add it. All of it. I used that whole block pictured with the rest of the ingredients. There is never too much cheese in this recipe. I recommend taking it off the heat, and adding the cheese at the last moment. The soup should be sufficiently hot to melt the cheese readily, but not boiling. That leads to some wacky textures.

9. Plate it, top it with a dollop of sour cream. Don’t forget those bacon pieces that we saved right from the beginning ; throw those on top as well – way better than crackers!

Photo courtesy Republic of Bacon.com

OMG it was awesome.....to Die for! Well I thought so anyway! Have you ever made a recipe like this??? Of have a different but similar recipe please share! I love experimenting! Can't wait for left overs tonight!

I am working! WOW!

After being sick for over 2 weeks I am back at it! Won't get into the gory details but I am better not 100% but better!

So I have been working on cleaning and recovering from the holidays. I have started on many projects....like photo album reorganizing. New storage projects and I have gotten a couple jobs designing too! YIPPY!

So I have finally mastered the art of the perfect Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte....and if I do say so myself they are yumalicious!

Not a great picture but the drink sure didn't last long.  So how did I make this......steep a bag of you favorite Rooibos Vanilla tea (to you desired strength!) Take your milk and either warm it and then froth or as I do I froth straight from the fridge.....cools the tea enough you can drink it right away! Torani Syrup.  Slowly add your frothed milk and well ENJOY!  YUMMMMMM!

With the weather being -25 before windchill this morning there will be many of these enjoyed today! SO what is you favorite (comfort) winter cold weather drink?

Christmas here we come....

 Well here it is the 12th of December and I am now caught up on baking in 5 hrs.  I still have a few more things to make.  I thought it was 1 more but I promised Miss M. that I would make her Gingerbreads.  Not sure what shape they will be but there will be some of some shape or sort...I hope!  LOL!

With being away for over half of last December and not doing any baking of any sort.  So when I started today I was out of sorts!  Didn't remember where to start...how many some of the recipes made...it was actually funny!  Even had to call the Baba......she even thought I was out of sorts too!  Gawd!  Can't skip out on baking at Christmas!!!

Anyway items #1 & #2 were tarts.  MacIntosh Toffee Tarts and Janet's (my cousin)Buttertarts.  (Forgot the picture of the buttertarts - they all pretty much look the same)  Yes I faked and bought shells - I am just too darn lazy!  Maybe one year I will make them totally from scratch.
These are the Toffee tarts that are amazing!  I got the recipe from a Mom from a Mommy's group I met with back in the day!  They are killer straight from the fridge even from the freezer slightly thawed!

 Then I made Cranberry Pistachio (Pistereo - what my kids call it!) Back.....I over toasted the pistereo's and omg it was oh so yummy!

 Here is where I stepped out of my normal box.  I normally make chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  Since they are hard to come by here in my small town (yah we are a city but it is small townish here for sure!) I decided to opt out of the rods and go the easy road.  I found some awesome thick pretzel knots at Walmart.  So I grabbed the best looking bags laid the pretzels out and went to town!!  Dark chocolate, white chocolate, sprinkles, caramel, gingerbread sprinkles, toffee bits.....you name it I threw it on!!!

 These not sure what they are called but I call them Rolo pretzel snacks.  They are yummy...sweet, salty yumalicous!  These are milk chocolate rolo...

 These are dark chocolate rolo....

 Spritz cookies....these are chocolate.  I have never made chocolate before and well yum!

Now to the regular ones....yum too!

Will be making some homemade nuts and bolt mix (or Chex mix for my USA readers - We don't have Chex in Canada and anyone wanna send me a variety case I would so so so appreciate it!  I have so many recipes I could use them in including my breakfast!)

What are your favorite recipes that you must have at Christmas???  Wanna recipe let me know in the comment section and I will share!

Take care and have a great week!

Since I haven't had time to design.....

I created a new dessert! It was Yummmmmmmy!

1 box of Sugar Free Jello (We used Strawberry I think)
1 box of Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding
Lg tub of Cool Whip
1 Graham Crust

Prepare Jello with 1 1/2 cup Milk
2/3 cup boiling water + Jello mix till dissolved add a few ice cubes to cool it down (remove unmelted ones)

Mix the 2 together add in roughly 2 cups of Cool Whip. Pour into crust. There will be extra Unless you made you own crust in a nice deep dish plate. We add the extra to little dishes for lunches.

Put in fridge for 4+ hours. You can freeze it but you need to eat it ASAP!

Here is a link to the original recipe we tried about a month ago....http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/cool-n-easy-mousse-107197.aspx

If you try either let me know what concoction you come up with?