Chicken Parm Pizza

A quick and easy meal in our house is pizza. This is my go-to pizza recipe...its fast, easy, tasty, and semi-homemade.

French Bread Pizza

1/2 loaf of garlic bread
Pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Toppings (usually pepperoni and chicken nuggets in our house)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake garlic bread and chicken nuggets for 7-8 minutes or until bread is golden brown. Top with pizza sauce and cheese. Add toppings and bake until cheese is melted (usually 4-5 minutes).

We have also used the frozen garlic bread that is sliced for individual pizzas.

Slice and Enjoy!

 

Yankee Candle Store

 Another place that I really wanted to stop at was the Yankee Candle Flagship store. We drive RIGHT by it and you can see it from the road. They were smart enough to put the gas station past the parking lot to tempt you to go in. :) Chris gave me a strict time limit since we were on our drive home so I flew through the store (which is deceptively huge!). 

While I was running around like a mad woman shopping, Chris took the kids to the toy store inside. 

These are not real people, but wax people who sing country songs every so often in the cafe area. They really thought this store out. There is a kids area to keep the kids busy while Mom shops and a cafe and comfy chairs for Dad with entertainment. Smart designer.

Back to shopping, I thought of my sister when I smelled this beauty. I think you might like it more than you realize. :)

This was on the 70 percent off rack and there is a very good reason. Its awful! And it doesn't remotely smell like wood or a woodshop or even leather like the picture might indicate.

The store had all kinds of unique items in it from cows to trains going around the ceiling. 

Their test kitchen in the cooking section was cute. I was there were samples, but one can wish, right?

Fun in the NH snow

For Derek the highlight of our trip to NH was the snow. He talked about it for over a week before we left. It was no surprise that all he wanted to do was to play in it every day and build a Frosty. The snow was straight powder and since the weather wasn't above freezing it wasn't melting and helping our cause. So, Papa got the garden hose out and turned the powder into Frosty making snow.

Derek surprised us and loved to play outside for hours on end. He made snow angels and went sledding and even rode the four-wheeler. 

The first day when he woke up he asked if the snow was still there. Yep, he is a southern boy where the snow melts overnight.

And Brooke wasn't that into making Frosty. She just wanted to eat the snow. :)

King Arthur Flour

One of the places that I really wanted to go when we were in NH was to go to King Arthur Flour. It was about an hour drive away in Norwich, VT, which wasn't too bad of a drive at all.

It was a nice snowy day so going to a place and the drive was beautiful. Their facility is new and it a beautiful facility. The exterior is a combination of wood and tin. In the picture below the store is on the left and the classrooms are on the right. 

Once we arrived, it smelled like freshly baked bread. Who wouldn't love that smell?!?!

This was right as you walked in. The cafe is behind this sign, the store is to the left, and the classrooms and bakery are to the right.

I could have spent way more time and money in the store, but I came with a list and tried not to deviate too much. :) Behind the registers was this huge wood sign, which was gorgeous.

I didn't take too many pictures in the store because I was focused, but here is one that Chris snapped while he was waiting for me to make up my mind about something probably.

And because we needed to take a pit stop before we drove home, I got to check out the awesome bathrooms, which naturally had kitchen decor everywhere.

All in all a fun place to visit with some cool new stuff to try out on my family. 

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip

I am very excited to share this recipe. I don't typically make a lot of dips, but I needed to bring a dip to several events and I wanted something different. It is the perfect blend of sweet and creamy.

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip 

from Chef-in-Training.com

2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar

Whisk milk, sour cream, and pudding mix together until smooth. Next, stir peanut butter and sugar into the pudding mixture and mix until well blended. Serve with sliced apple, bananas, or whatever fruit you like.

Teacher Gifts

I wanted to do something for Derek and Brooke's Sunday School and MOPs teachers. I tried to just make 1 gift for both sets of teachers for my sanity's sake. I tried to come up with a teacher gift that looked nice, Derek could help me make, and that was relatively easy. That left my list rather small. One thing that I remember making when I was younger was cinnamon ornaments and so after checking out the recipes online I thought Derek could help me make them.

I adapted this recipe.

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

3/4 Cup Regular Applesauce
1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Mix applesauce and cinnamon in bowl until a smooth ball of dough is formed. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness between plastic wrap. Cut dough into desired shapes. Place ornament onto baking sheet. Make a hole at the top of the ornament with a plastic straw. Bake 1.5 hours. Cool ornaments on wire rack. Let stand 1 to 2 days, turning occasionally. Insert ribbon through hold and tie to hang.

*FYI This is A LOT of cinnamon. I bought a large bottle from Sam's Club because I was making a lot of ornaments. Its just more cost effective.

I wanted to decorate the baggies to make them feel a little more special. I added a little thank you note and Derek helped me stuff them in the baggies. Then I stapled a piece of scrapbook paper to the top which covered the ziptop to give it a more polished look.The lighting was tricky because the baggies were so reflective but you get the general idea.

For our Sunday School boys, we made candy bags. Candy is what speaks to 3rd grade boys. The bags toppled over when I tried to take pictures but I promise there is more candy in the baggies.

Gingerbread Houses

I saw this Gingerbread House kit while Christmas shopping. It was pre-assembled, contained all the icing and candy, and was on sale. I had this "oh! such a wonderful family moment" that ran through my head so on impulse, I bought it. I'm not an impulse buyer so when I brought it home Derek was sooo excited to help.

We made the icing and started putting the candy on when we realized that Brooke was not interested in helping but eating the ridiculously hard candy. The last thing I wanted was for her to choke on it so she and Chris danced to Christmas music and played with her dollhouse instead.

Derek did really well though most of it. He didn't like using the icing bag so he directed where the "glue" needed to go and then he would put the candy on the "glue" spots.

At the end, he just told me where to put the candy. Ha! I kept trying to finish up and he would tell me "Mom, you missed that spot" or "Mom, you forgot the back". Such a strict little supervisor!

I think it turned out quite nicely. We may even do it again next year.