Butter Pecan Raisin Bread Pudding!

My Hubby and I have a favorite dessert that we may or may not sneak away to a certain Famous restaurant to order and share. It is their yummy  BREAD PUDDING! Now...I have had my share of bad bread puddings too. Some that are some slimy and so squishy that they are not enjoyable at all. I am happy to announce that this recipe is AWESOME!! Its nice firm but still soft if ya know what I mean...HAHA!!

BUTTER PECAN RAISIN BREAD PUDDING

 1/4 cup butter, melted
 2 cups half-and-half
 2 cups milk
 1 (1 pound) loaf soft raisin bread, torn into small pieces
 3 eggs, lightly beaten
 2 cups white sugar
 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

 Butter Pecan Sauce
 1/2 pound unsalted butter
 1 cup heavy cream
 1 cup brown sugar
 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 13x9-inch baking dish with 1/4 cup melted butter.
Pour half and half and milk over bread in a large mixing bowl; let soak for 10 minutes before gently stirring. Stir eggs into the bread mixture until incorporated. Add sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, stirring each addition into the mixture before adding the next. Spoon bread mixture into prepared baking dish.
Bake in preheated oven until bread mixture is firm and pudding-like, about 50 minutes or more until the bread appears firm.

BUTTER PECAN SAUCE
Stir 1/2 pound unsalted butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar together in a heavy saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, stir pecans into the cream mixture, and simmer until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes; pour over each serving or over entire pan depending on preference. Can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream... ENJOY!!

Quick Easy DIY Christmas Bow Hair Pretties and Matching Necklace for Christmas

 Looking for a quick easy way to feel more festive? How about a gift that is inexpensive and fun for all ages? 

Check this out!

You will need:
 Hair clips (we used some ribbon lined alligators we happened to have)
bails
ball chains
glue gun 
glue sticks for the gun
tiny christmas bows
modge podge sealer
buttons with a flat back

Spray the bows with 4 to 5 coats of sealer so that they will be safe to be in the weather etc. 

 Glue the bail to the back of your flat button. (please forgive the blurry pics. I have no idea what was wrong with my camera but it did not want to take a nice picture this button and bail. These are the best I could get. Boo.

Finally glue one bow to the hair clips and one bow to the button. String the ball chain through the loop in the bail. 

ALL DONE!! 

Need some bails??

GO here!

LOVES

Emily

Easy Yummy Crock pot candy (pssst....this is an awesome Hack!!)

 This recipe is inspired by OMG Candy...So Delish! I love that it is made in my crock pot and that I was able to go about my other kitchen duties while it melted away for me.  It is very good!! It would make a wonderful addition to your treat trays for the holidays! Come check it out! Give it a try! Youll be glad you did!!

OMG inspired Crock Pot Candy

1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

1 bag of milk chocolate chips

1 bag of white chocolate chips

1 bag of heath chips

1 1/2 C of your favorite nut (we used cashews this time)

2 Cups of teddy grahams ( golden grahams cereal would work well too)

Place all of the ingredients in your crock pot. 

Mix together

Set your crock pot to warm and let it go for about 3 hours or until melted.  If you do not have a warm setting set to low and keep an eye on it, watching for it to melt. When it is melted stir and place spoon fulls on a lightly sprayed sheet of aluminum or parchment paper. Once the chocolate is set you can break into smaller pieces or not depending on how you enjoy your candy.  

LOVES!!

EMILY 

DIY Gift Hand Stamped Kitchen Tools

Here is a great idea I found on the lovely pinterest! I, in fact, had pinned it twice on different days so clearly it was a must do. HAHA! I actually already had stamps so it was a no brainer for me. You can pick up the stamp set at Harbor Freight for fairly inexpensive. 

Here are the things we used.

1 set of 5 new bamboo kitchen tools

1 ultra fine sharpie 

(BTW the one in the picture is not the sharpie we actually used, This one wasn't quite fine enough)

1 small nylon cutting board

1/4 inch steel stamping set

A short handled ball peen hammer

Place the wooden tool on the cutting board. This is to protect your table etc from the hefty blows. :) 

Note: Be sure to wipe the stamp with a paper towel before using it. There is oil in the bottom of the box used to prevent the rusting of the stamps. 

Place the stamp where you want it and give one big blow. If a second blow is needed align the stamp in the  already stamped letter and go for it. 

See the J?

Once the word is a stamped take your ultra fine sharpie and fill in the letter. 

PS these tools will need to be hand washed only but hey! they already were hand wash only because they are bamboo so no biggy!!

Tada!

 All done! 

Notice that we changed the theme after the first spoon? 

Yep I like the kitchen words better but you could do all kinds of word ideas. 

Christmas themed words or thanksgiving words, Names etc. 

I am so excited to make more! 

You could give them as a set or just one. Imagine inside a hot pad mitt with a brownie or cookie mix!? 

YES! 

I am excited and very happy with how these turned out! 

Give it a try!

Mock Abalone-A family traditional Recipe

Do you know what Abalone is?? Let me tell you...:) it is the meat inside the shell that mother of pearl comes from. 

It looks like this...

after meat is removed

the meat 

the whole complete abalone

My husband Jason's grandparents (who lived near the ocean) would eat abalone occasionally but the price was and is still daunting! $70 to $105 a pound approx. A delicacy worth the price from what I understand although I have

 never had the privilege of eating it myself. 

(it may as well cost a million dollars at that price. I could afford it as easily LOL!)

Enter the invention of Mock Abalone...

Thank you Grandma Hill!

It is delish!

Do give it a try! 

You will love it and it tastes a lot like abalone with the price of good ol' chicken! YAY!

MOCK ABALONE

2 jars of clam juice

3lbs boneless skinless chicken (cut into strips or nuggets)

1 Cup masa herina

Oil for deep frying

Seasonings to your tastes and desires...We like to use seasoned salt, creole seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, old bay, black pepper, etc etc. Whatever suits your fancy.

Instructions

Soak the chicken pieces in the clam juice for as long as you can preferably over night. When you are ready to cook, put the masa herina and the seasonings in a gallon size zip lock bag. Drain the juice away from the chicken and add the chicken to the masa mix.  Shake to coat. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes. Meanwhile heat your oil to 375. Place a few pieces in the oil and cook for about 3.5 minutes or until the internal temp reaches 160 degrees. Placed the cooked chicken on a plate or tray lined with paper towels to drain. Repeat the cooking until all the chicken is cooked. 

Enjoy!

Loves 

Emily

How to do temporary dip hair dye OneTimeShow

My awesome daughters Lindsay and Sarah and I made an fun tutorial on how to do a temporary hair dip dye.  

It would be perfect for Halloween!

Come Check it out!

Look what I did! A shameless easy Halloween craft show off/tutorial you can do too!

Ok friends check out what I did this weekend!!  

This is not really an official tutorial but a explanation of what I did. :)

  

READY? Ok...??(I say in my best cheerleader voice)

I just covered an 18x24inch canvas with Halloween fabric using hot glue but staples would work great too and I made sure that the fabric was good and tight over the canvas.  Then added my custom monogram vinyl over the fabric.  

I should tell you that the first vinyl run did not stick using the indoor vinyl and even this outdoor vinyl didn't exactly want to stick but w some finesse and a nice hot blow dryer over it, it has finally stuck wonderfully. 

I am planning on making one for every month and hanging them in our landing so all who visit will see it! 

Actually I have considered using heat transfer vinyl next and ironing the next design to the fabric first and then putting the fabric on the canvas. We will see what happens. :)

 Needless to say I love this!! 

Looking for somewhere to get custom vinyl?? Check out my etsy shop!

CLICK HERE!!

LOVES!!

Emily

Halloween Apothecary label Printables-FOR FREE!!

Happy Halloween! 

These are for you to use as a gift from us and especially from our little Gabby and her amazing design talents! 

(for personal use only please) 

We put them on some 2 liter soda bottles but 

you can do whatever your imagination can think up. 

ENJOY!

PS she does custom work and would love to help you design something fun and her prices are very reasonable too!! Just comment below and we can get in touch with her!!

Click here 

and

Click here

to download the printables

Thanks so much lovely Gabby!

LOVES

Emily

Eyeball Wreath-A Halloween Craft Tutorial

I saw this idea on pinterest and when I found the Halloween colored googly eyes at Michael's it became a must do! 

I think it turned out so cute!  Here is what I did.....

YOU WILL NEED

1 14 inch wreath form

6 yards approx of 1.5 inch white ribbon

 (if you spring for the white form you might not need the ribbon)

90 ping pongs

90 googly eyes

a low temp glue gun 

low temp glue sticks

First I enlisted my Gabby Girl (hey many hands make for light work) and as she glued the googly eyes onto the ping pong balls, I wrapped the wreath with the white ribbon. Once the ribbon was wrapped and glued to the wreath form, I glued the ping pongs onto the wreath fitting them as close as I could to each other. I did find that it was necessary to hold some of them on long enough for the glue to cool or they would slide down but other than that this is a straight forward easy fun Halloween craft!!

Give it a shot!!

LOVES

Emily

Black Bean and Yam Enchiladas-A great recipe for meatless monday!

I found this recipe from the wonderful shrinking kitchen! She has super duper, healthy recipes and you should totally check her blog out! Click here!! we love Black Bean Enchiladas at our house! Especially the homemade enchilada sauce! Wonderful and no stuff I can't pronounce in it! Yay! Totally meatless too. Sweet! 

Here's the recipe!!

Black Bean and Yam Enchiladas

2 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons chili powder
4 tablespoons flour
2 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
3 cups lower sodium chicken broth 
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/ t2easpoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
3 cups of the enchilada sauce
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups yam, cooked and mashed
2 15 ounce can black beans, drained
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
18 small corn tortillas

To make the Enchilada Sauce
In a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add chili powder and flour whisking constantly to combine. Mixture will be a thick paste (roux).
Slowly add in a small amount of tomato sauce whisking until the roux has dissolved.  Once the roux is combined, add the rest of the tomato sauce and chicken broth. Whisk to combine.
Add in the rest of the spices, stir to combine.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and use in your enchilada recipe, or cool and divide into containers for storage.

For the Casserole
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Add the onions, saute until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
Remove the onions from heat and throw in the beans and the yam. Mix well.
Measure out 3 cups of the enchilada sauce you just made. Set the rest aside - it freezes well. Save it for your next batch!
In a 9x13 baking dish, lay out six of the corn tortillas. You may need to tear one up - you just want to make sure you're covering the bottom of the dish.
Spoon some of the enchilada sauce onto the tortillas and spread around.
Dot 1/2 of the bean/yam mixture over the tortillas and sauce, then spread as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheese over the bean/yam mixture.
Repeat the layers EXCEPT the cheese.
To finish, do the final layer of tortillas, then pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top.
Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until bubbly.
Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
PS only 239 calories per serving!!

LOVES!!

Emily

Fancy Puff Pastry Deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie-Great for Entertaining!!

This is really a cool concept! The first time I saw this idea was at the Lion House Pantry. Unfortunately I have no idea what their recipe is but I really love how mine turns out! This is just my recipe for chicken pot pie filling and a great puff pastry square! It is great for serving at a party too! So much less complicated! 

Fancy Puff Pastry Deconstructed 

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes enough for 12 squares

2 sheets of puff pastry thawed

2lbs of chicken breast cooked and diced

1 Cup of sliced carrots

1 C peas

1 C sliced celery

2 potatoes peeled and diced

1 onion diced

1/3 C butter

1/3 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp thyme

2 C chicken broth

1 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a pan with parchment paper. Cut your puff pastry sheets into 12 squares and place on the parchment. Place the carrots celery and potato in a sauce pan and cover just barely with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for approx 15 min or until the veggies are fork tender.Drain. Meanwhile, melt the butter in another sauce pan and onion and saute until the onion is translucent.  Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat. Mix milk mixture and veggies together.  Add the peas and the chicken. Allow to heat through. Place the puff pastry in the preheated oven and cook until the pastries are golden and puffed. 15-20 min approx. 

 Once the pastry squares have rested about 5 min. place one in an individual serving dish and ladle the chicken pot pie mix over the top with the desired amount of "gravy". Enjoy!! 

PS wouldn't it be cool if we cut the pastries out in fun shapes too!

Loves,

Emily