Reuben Fries

We love French Fries! We love Reuben Sandwiches! Unfortunately we are avoiding gluten in our house. (well kinda) How can we possibly eat Reuben Sandwiches without bread? Over french fries of course!! 

Ingredients
1 32 Oz bag of frozen french fries
1 C thousand island dressing
1 C drained sauerkraut
1 lb of corned beef diced (more or less depending on taste and desire)
8 oz grated Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (or whatever your fries dictate)
Spray a 9x13 pan with non stick spray
Place the fries in the bottom of the pan
Cover the fries with the thousand island dressing
Cover the dressing with the kraut
Cover the kraut with the corned beef
cover the corned beef with the swiss cheese
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the fries are cooked through and the cheese is melted.

ENJOY!!

Pinterest Buster: Lemon Zucchini Bread

We have an over abundance right now of zucchini in our garden. It is getting bad! We have logs of zucchini. Like thick tree trunks. I am going to start freezing it but until then I am searching for zucchini recipes. Have you seen the recipe for lemon zucchini bread that is circulating Facebook and pinterest? It looked awesome and I love lemon so I gave it a shot! 

This is the original pin. Doesn't it look dreamy?! The recipe is from Lil Luna blog and you can find it right here. Head over there to see a ton more amazing recipes!

And here's mine. Wah-wah! It did not turn out as well. My loaves were no where near as pretty! The texture was off too- it was sort of gummy. Or rubbery or something. I think there were a couple of factors. I am planning on doing some testing to get it just right because the taste was divine!

I was out of powdered sugar so I had to improvise my glaze. Really it ended up being more like frosting. But man oh man was it yummy!

Sad little slices. Have no fear they will be better soon enough! I am planning on testing and testing to figure out where I went wrong. 

Oh and just for funsies! Here is my glaze recipe:

Cream cheese and Lemon Glaze

3/4 of a can of cream cheese frosting

Zest from half a lemon

Juice from a whole lemon

2 tablespoons milk

Whisk all ingredients until smooth. And voila!  

Peace out, AnneMarie

Getting Organized for Christmas-5 Things I have started on

I don't know if I have mentioned it before but I love Christmas!! I am that lady that bugs everyone else talking and planning etc long before the rest of the world believes I should be. Sorry not sorry. :) I love everything about it! I like to focus on Christ's birth and I have no problems with the big man in the red suit.  In  fact, I believe they go hand in hand. What I do not like is the stress and unhappiness that comes when I am unprepared and unorganized. Luckily for me there are ways to ease these problems. I want to share some of the things I do to make things easier and less stressful.

1. I joined smarty pig. Smarty pig is a savings club that will withdraw my decided amount on the days I ask it too with out me having to think about it.  It is a life saver!! It allows me to save enough that the expense doesn't become a focus.  You can read more about it here...

2. I plan  to stalk up the freezer for those busy days and nights when there just isn't time or maybe desire to slave over a hot stove making dinner. Another added benefit is the fact that theses meals are "prepaid" if you will and can free up a little extra cash for all that little expenses we sometimes forget about. Not to mention the savings of not going to the fast food joint down the street too.

 PS Be watching for posts with some freezer meal ideas and recipes and freezer meals for those who don't have a bunch of freezer space coming soon

3. I have a definite budget already written  and I do my best to include everything we may possibly need to spend money on. Not just gifts. Think decor updates, fun activities, parties we may be throwing, charity giving, etc. You get the drift. Jason and I always base each category on a percentage of our wages. Better years we have more to spend.  Leaner years we will pull our belts in. 

4. I try to come to a decision on neighbor gifts, handmade gifts and our Christmas card list and get to work on them ASAP. Anything not finished by Thanksgiving will be set aside for another time. (read go gentle on the handmade items and only go for those things I know I can finish in time) I refuse  to relive those Christmases where I have been behind the 8 ball sweating and stressing on Christmas Eve trying to finish all my projects.  I feel like at some point it needs to be the moms holiday too and I should relax and enjoy. Besides, when the mom is stressed no one can really enjoy their time either.

ONE LAST THING

5. I do my best to go with the flow...if something isn't going the way I planned, I do my very best to roll with the things that are working. I remember one Christmas Eve in particular that was chock full of  planned activities including a scavenger hunt, a full Christmas dinner with ham and all the trimmings and a movie with fast food lunch. It was too much and I ended up nearly in tears, feeling like I had failed until I noticed the happy faces on my kids who could care less if every little detail was done.  They were so excited to just be in the moment. Soaking in the giddy, little kid, Santa is coming feelings. I have since simplified my vision of the day and month, we have the dinner the Sunday before etc and I just eat up being with them. (we never did a scavenger hunt again on Christmas Eve BTW) I ask them what they want to do and love hearing what is important to them and what they would consider tradition. 

Bottom line: It is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. Not the most stressful time of the year. We can do this! What do you do to get ready and organized?? We would love to hear!!

Loves 

Emily

I love a good makeover!

I have been thinking a lot about making smarter choices in my home decor lately. I have always been of the opinion that if I love something it must mean that I should put it in my house. And that really hasn't changed. However, I am now starting to want my home to be a little more cohesive. A little more intentional if you will. Maybe it is age? Who knows? So with that in mind I have chosen a color palette. If I am being totally honest that was just a coincidence. The colors of choice have been black and gold. I love the combo. I can't get away from it! This is a little re-do of a favorite art print to better reflect my family.

This is a print I purchased a while back from 20x200. I made the mat and painted the frame gold. And I loved it! Now? Not so much. But I still love the print. So I decided to make it a little bit more our current style. I wanted to cover a photo mat with gold leaf but it is crazy expensive so I improvised. I used gold candy wrappers!  

My supplies: elmers glue, black paint, poster board, gold candy wrappers and paint brushes. Of course scissors and a exacto knife also. To start I cut a new mat out of a poster board using the old mat as a guide.

I found that if you leave the candy wrappers flat and smooth the seams are much more noticeable. Which is not pretty. So I crumpled them up.

Then flattened them back out. After that I basically just glued the wrappers onto the new mat layering as I went. To finish it off I wrapped the wrappers around the mat. The glue left the bright gold wrapper a little dull. So I used a shiny spray sealant to shine it back up and seal the wrappers. I am not totally positive that this is an archival friendly project so I left my print in the plastic sleeve it came in. To finish it off I painted the frame black. Easy Peasy!

Ta-da! I am excited with how it turned out. I must admit that it doesn't really look like gold leaf but I love it!

Easy bread machine rolls

Our family really loves hot homemade rolls! I love that my bread machine does the dirty work while I go about other things. Win Win!! This recipe is faster than letting those freezer rolls thaw and much less expensive too and seriously there is nothing like butter on a hot roll! Its a feel good food regardless of the time of year but it is especially awesome on the cold fall and winter nights.

Easy bread machine rolls

1 cup warm milk

1/2 C of butter softened

1/4 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

4 1/2 C of flour

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

extra butter for brushing on the top of the hot rolls before serving (optional)

Add ingredients in the order list to your bread machine. Run on dough cycle. When dough is done, divide into 20-24 portions and shape into balls.

Place on a greased 9x13 pan. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. lightly brush with butter over the tops of the rolls (optional)


Yield: 20-24 rolls