Recipe: Butterscotch Cookie Butter Fudge

Oh my gosh, I re-found cookie butter (from Trader Joes). I found a jar in my cabinet, next to a bag of butterscotch chips, that I haven't used in forever and was fast approaching the expiration date. Today was a rough day and Keith went back to school so I was trying to pass time until he could come home so I decide to make one of the best things ever---fudge.

What you need:

• 1 14 oz can of sweetened condense milk
• 12 oz of butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup of cookie butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Get out a 8 x 8 pan and spray it with cooking spray. Mix sweetened condense milk, butterscotch chips and cookie butter in a pan and heat over medium to low heat. Stir regularly until all (okay, or most) of the chips have melted. Turn heat to low and add vanilla. Stir just 5 more second and remove from heat. Pour mixture into pan and put in the fridge for a few hours.

This recipe yields a lot. BUT, it yields a lot of deliciousness!!! Enjoy!

Recipe: Vanilla Lemonade

Today was a gloomy day. You know those days when it DOWNPOURS all day and then turns into 80 plus temps with humidity. Plus it just wasn't a great day. So, I decided to make myself perk up in a delicious way.

I found some delicious, huge lemons. So, of course I need to make myself lemonade, no question.

Here's what you need:
-Juice of 4 lemons
-1/2 cup of sugar
-6 cups of cold water
-1/2 tbsp of vanilla
-Ice

I juiced 4 lemons and then strained it to get out the pulp (yuck!). I added the sugar and vanilla. Then I poured in the water and stirred until dissolved. Add ice to your cup and pour. It's delicious!!! This lemonade is a bit tart, because I wanted to cut back on sugar. The vanilla adds something really extra.

Enjoy guys! 

Recipe: Jazzin' up Freezer Rolls

This week has just felt off. Keith is sick and I have been feeling a bit restless. I miss crafting, but am waiting until my craft room is full set up to start making creative messes again. The last few nights have been spent with a quick walk, watching old shows on netflix, lounging on the couch and making food we have had in our freezer for too long. 

So tonight was no different, however I wanted to liven up some frozen rolls I had to go with our ravioli and meatballs.

So I present to you: easy jazzed up rolls

These are boring old freezer rolls. Remove the plastic cover. Preheat the oven to the directions that come with the rolls- ours was 325 degrees. While it preheats, spray on olive oil (we have this handy thing), sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper and seasoning (I used a mix of Italian Seasoning from a local spice shop).

Lookin' Good

Bake the bread to the packaging instructions.

Once baked, eat it up! It's a really good and easy way to make freezer rolls even better! Enjoy!

Three Easy Camping Recipes

We went camping! It was so fun, and new to us. We both have camped throughout our childhood, but this was our first time, only us. So, we went for it. We stayed in Northern Michigan (lower peninsula) at two different campgrounds. One was on Higgins Lake, a beautiful state campground that I used to go to as a child, with my partner of this blog, Megan and our families.

The second camping site was off the coast of Lake Michigan in Mackinaw City. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been.We walked along the beach, went to the city, and even traveled up to the Soo Locks. It was a great trip. Keith and I learned a lot about camping, including how to chop wood, start a great fire and cook some delicious food.

Breakfast Recipe: Breakfast Sandwiches
I don't do eggs, you can add eggs but I found them really gross (I know, I am a wimp when it comes to food textures)

What you need:

• Two slices of bread
• Spreadable butter
• Two turkey sausage patties
• Cheese
• A pie maker
• a fire pit

Make sure you spread an good amount of butter onto the bread so it does not stick to the pie maker. We always heat up our pie maker first in the fire. Then make your sandwich, close the pie maker and put it in the fire. After a few moments check the pie maker, flip or take out. It took about 5 minutes on each side to melt the cheese. Easy and great sandwich.


Lunch Recipe: Hobo Hash

 What you need:

• Aluminum foil
• cooking spray
• hashbrowns (we got the kind in the refrigerated section and kept cool in the cooler)
• shredded cheddar cheese
• pre-cooked chicken sausage
• salt and pepper to taste
• Fire
  

Make sure the fire is nice and hot and has some good amount of coals at the bottom. We actually let the fire die down so that it was only coals. Next I laid down two foil sheets and sprayed the top sheet with cooking spray. Put down hashbrowns, then cheese. I cut up the sausage and put them in too. I rolled up the aluminum foil and we put it right on the coals. Make sure to flip the aluminum foil package halfway through cooking. Ours took about 15 minutes to cook. But it did burn the bottom because we did not rotate it enough.

Dessert Recipe: Peanut Butter Cup S'more

Okay, this isn't really a recipe since everyone knows how to make s'mores. But, try this! Instead of putting a chocolate bar between the graham crackers and marshmallow, replace it with a peanut cup. IT IS A GAME CHANGER! Seriously- you won't regret it.

Okay- well, I hope you enjoy these recipes and now go camping.
 

Recipe: Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

Keith had a birthday last week. So, to celebrate- I threw him a party. We had our great friends come over and eat delicious food and drink and have fun. I made Keith a taco bar, which was awesome! But I also made two special desserts- pretzel gelatin and dirt cake. This post is going to focus on the pretzel jello.

My aunt usually makes this for all our holidays- but in a large batch since we come from a large family. So- I tried to make individual servings. it turned out pretty good.

Ingredients
-1 and a 1/2 cups of crushed pretzels
-4 tablespoons plus 1 cup of sugar
-10 tablespoon of butter
-2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
-1 tsp of vanilla
-1 (8 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping (thawed)
-1 (6 ounce) package of strawberry gelatin
-2 cups of boiling water
- 1 (16 ounce) package of slices strawberries

The how to:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 I lined up small ramekins on a cookie sheet.Then I ground up the pretzels using a rolling pin.  Combine 4 tablespoons of sugar, melted butter and pretzels in a bowl. I then put the pretzel mixture in the bottom of the ramekins and baked for 6 minutes. Then let it cool completely- I actually left them in the fridge overnight.

Next, I put the cup of sugar, cream cheese and vanilla in my stand up mixer. I mixed those up. I folded the whipped topping into the mixture and blended. Keith help me pipe the cream mixture using a freezer bag with the corner cut off, on top of the pretzel mixture. Then we let it sit for an hour.

I then mixed the boiling water with the gelatin and stir it until it dissolved. While still hot, I mixed in the frozen strawberries. The gelatin was too runny, so I threw it in the fridge for about 5 to 10 minutes, not too long though! I scooped a large amount of the gelatin into each one.

Once all set, let them chill in the fridge for a full hour before serving. I left two without strawberries because I don't like strawberries and some people don't like gelatin. There was extra strawberry gelatin when we made them, but I think that's why.

Enjoy everyone!! 

For the Home: a smple bathroom storage solution

It's been over a week since my last post! What? I have been very busy though, I promise. Since my last post:
-Keith had a birthday!
-I had a half birthday (not as exciting)
-I read two books and started a 3rd. So- that's like 12/13 more until I finish my challenge that I made in an earlier post.
-I reopened my etsy shop lokibean
-I have a new plan for my etsy store, and started working on it. The new stuff/updated store will be coming soon
-Keith built me a desk
-I am planning a party

And I have a full time job. So, busy. We are still finishing up odds and ends at the apartment too, which I just want done. This is a post about a simple storage solution that I wanted to share.

I love my apartment. I love it. But a huge downfall is the lack of closets, or storage. This is really true in the bathroom. We don't even have a medicine cabinet. First we bought a tall storage self from Ikea and got large boxes that fit the shelves and have lids. We store those thing we don't want people to see in those (toilet paper, medicine, razors, etc). However we ran out of room.

So, I went to the dollar bin at Target and bought skinny baskets with large holes and some 3m plastic hook.

Attach the plastic hooks to the inside of the bathroom counter and make sure they are properly placed. I make the locations using the basket as a guide and a pencil. They are pretty sturdy too. I store vitamins, hairbrushes, etc in them and they hold out.

This post seems like a goofy one, but I thought it was important to share this in case any of you are city livers like us and just don't have space.