Granola

My wonderful friend, previous supervisor, fellow speech therapist, and fellow blogger (check her out here) gave me some homemade granola for Christmas and I'm here to tell you it was hands down the best I have ever tasted. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me and I thought I would pass it along. Please visit her blog and read about her upcoming trip to Zambia.

Granola
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix...
-4 cups oats
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-This is also where you can add nuts or flax seed if you are into that kind of thing.

3. Over medium heat, heat:
-1/4 cup canola (vegetable oil works too)
-1/4 cup honey
-A dash of vanilla
4. Mix all together.

5. Spray 2 cookie sheets with nonstick spray. Spread granola over 2 pans in thin layer.

6. Cook for 30-40 minutes until golden and crisp, stirring every 10 minutes. This is especially important to keep an eye on, as the edges can burn quickly.

7. Remove from oven and add a few handfuls of Craisens and mix together.

8. Enjoy!

Weekend Warriors Part 2

Day two of our home improvement weekend consisted of hanging cabinets.

When we moved in, the laundry room just had a big shelf and well I'm a neat freak and couldn't stand seeing all the cleaning/laundry supplies just sitting up there.

Before
After!
What a difference some cabinets make.
Many kudos to Chad for taking down the shelf, repairing the dry wall, painting over the repaired dry wall, putting the cabinets together, and not yelling at me for incorrectly using the power drill. :)
In Chad's words, "he got his man on" this weekend.

He even installed this handy dandy holder for my broom, mop, etc...
I think I'll keep him around a little longer.

Baby Shower

When I found out my co-worker was preggo I immediately starting planning her baby shower.

Now that I have a space big enough to entertain, I love throwing parties.

I obsessed over the menu, decorations, and games we would play.

I finally settled on a menu of:

Chicken salad on croissants

Fresh Fruit

Sausage balls

Tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad

Blackberry pie (Recipe)

Chocolate eclair cake (Recipe up soon)

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and Mimosas

Some of the guest reading books for the baby
We played "Guess the belly size" with string and "Guess the baby food"
Strawberry Cupcakes! I cheated and used a box mix but added chopped up fresh strawberries to make it a little more homemade.

How cute are these little baby feet candies (I purchased these at Michael's)?

Weekend Warriors

Chad and I had big plans to go golfing this weekend but when we learned they were calling for severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes, our plans quickly changed. We decided to spend the weekend on some home improvement projects. When Saturday rolled around, we were up by 6:30...well Chad was up and had to practically drag me out of bed. We were eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel by 7:30 and buying paint at Lowes by 8:30.

Bedroom before.

When we moved in, the entire house was painted "Moody Brown."
Another before picure

During...

After!

The color is called "Ice Rink Blue"

It took forever but I love the outcome.

Every muscle in my body was sore when I woke up Sunday morning.

Next project is to hang some sheer brown curtains.

Marley's Spring Photo Shoot

If your looking for Marley at my parents house, you can always find him in the guest bedroom soaking up the sunlight.

Ah...this is the life
Vogue Vogue Vogue

Life as a doggie supermodel

Stay tuned for our Summer photo shoot :)

Grace Ann Got Hitched

One of my great friends, fellow speech therapist, and bridesmaid got married March 20, 2010.

It was a beautiful wedding!

Mom, stepdad, and me
Mom and Chad (I love this pic!)

The beautiful bride!

Blackberry Cobbler

Good lord is it really April already!

Where has the time gone?

Grace's wedding, parents in town, home for Easter, engagement party, wedding planning, work

Whew busy busy busy.

I finally got some down time this weekend and spent most of it outside or in the kitchen.

I know it is getting warmer outside and the thought of hot blackberry cobbler may not be that appealing but trust me on this one.

This recipe comes from Pioneer Woman's cookbook. Its called Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler. I don't know who Patsy is but I do love her cobbler. I made just a few changes to suit my taste.

Ingredients
1 stick of butter, melted
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of self-rising flour
1 cup of milk
1 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries (but any fruit would do)

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350. Grease a 8x10 pan or a large pie plate with butter.
2. Melt butter in microwave for 30-45 seconds.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk 1 cup of the sugar with the flour and milk.
4. Whisk in the melted butter.
5. Rinse blackberries and pat dry. Toss blackberries with 1/4 cup of sugar.
6. Pour the batter into the baking dish and sprinkle the blackberries evenly over the top of the batter.
7. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the top of the dish.
8. Bake for 1 hour or until brown and bubbly. When 10 minutes remain of cooking time sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar over the top.
9. Serve with vanilla ice cream!