Friday, June 10, 2011

My Favorite Things Winners

The time has finally come to announce the ten winners of some of my favorite things! I’m so excited (because I don’t have to mail at least two of them – since they were won by local friends.)

The envelopes please… (just kidding – no envelopes… my kids drew all the winners out of a box lid…)DSCN1699DSCN1697

The recipient of the yummy Hershey’s Nuggets Chocolate is Little Homeschool Momma!DSCN0751

The T-Tapp Workout goes to The Ruby Zebra! That’s a name I’d like to know more about, wouldn’t you?DSCN0768

The luscious lipstick will be hand delivered to Laurie! I don’t know as I’ve ever noticed lipstick on Laurie – good thing this isn’t a super noticeable shade.DSCN0756

Ashley will receive the Tangerine Sugar Scrub. Remember Ashley – don’t try to eat it…DSCN0762

Prophecy Foundations DVD Rom will be on the way to Shelley. Welcome to Homeschooling, Shelley – you’ll love it (most days.) Disappointed smileDSCN0752

My sweet friend Beach gets the Happiness Digest. I hope she’ll share it with someone else too – she’s got an awful lot of happiness already.DSCN0759

New Follower, Katy – The Country Blossom, can make use of the Wallies Peel and Stick Chalkboards. I’m interested to see what you do with them, Katy. I got myself another set the same size – I just might punch and cut on them a little bit… No, I’m not in a gang… I’m a paper crafter. Well – I guess that’s sort of like a gang.DSCN0757

Jeanne can think about me every day while she brushes her teeth. At least for one to three months when she goes to buy a new toothbrushes.DSCN0754

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Monicaandrew will receive the For Women Only book. That might be Monica an Drew or maybe Monica Andrew or Monica and Rew. We’ll see.DSCN0753

And finally, Cindy will be sportin’ the softest hands and heels and elbows in town. I’ll be sending the Renew Lotion to her.DSCN0767

Thanks to all for entering and come back next week – I’ve been given some digital scrapbooking software from My Memories Suite to review and giveaway – and everyone can win with a nice big fat $10 coupon code.

Have a beautiful and blessed weekend – we’re going to be running around like crazy chickens (not exactly sure what that looks like, but it seems like an accurate description). Catch you on the flip side.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Marriage Pillow Winner

Three days late… I hope you didn’t cancel any pressing plans to sit here by your computer. I won’t bore you with the days I’ve had – suffice it to say if there’d been more chocolate available we’d all have been better off.

I will say I didn’t leave our winner in the dark – I did the drawing on time and let her know. It’s just the rest of you I left sweating…

And now… the drum roll (imagine me feverishly tapping on my desk with a pencil missing its eraser and a sharpie marker – we homeschool – I can never find two pencils at once and never one pencil with an eraser…)

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 16 Result: 4 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Beach said... LOVE the bold colored striped memory verse pillow....my Hellie would go crazy for the dinosaur themed one though :) May 31, 2011 1:45 PM

Congratulations, Beach! You won the Marriage Pillow giveaway from DSCN1539Cha Cha’s Treasure! The rest of you still win by getting 30% off at Cha Cha’s Etsy shop. Click here for more info on that.

The fun’s not over yet… tomorrow, (assuming I can find some chocolate today…) I will have my minions do the drawing for ten of My Favorite Things. Now would be a good time to enter that one… there are only 13 entries and one will be thrown out – no contact info on an advertising comment (not fond of those, by the way.) Remember, each new (or old) follower that comments, Tweets, does a FaceBook post or blog post will gain additional entries.

Click here to go enter My Favorite Things giveaway.DSCN1524

May you have all the chocolate you need today!

I’m so excited… There’s another BIG GIVEAWAY ($40 value…) and discount code waiting in the wings… If you like photography, photo editing, scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking you won’t want to miss this one! More next week about that… We’ll have to come up with a slogan name for this summer, huh?

The Summer of the Giveaways!

Nah… doesn’t quite work. I’ll have to give Darrin Stevens a call and see what he thinks.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Taste of Heaven

If manna was anything like this the Israelites wouldn’t have complained as they wandered the dessert.DSCN1508

It’s a summer staple around here and oh so easy to make you’ve got no excuse not to try it. Even if you don’t like strawberries – how about fresh peach shortcake (oh baby… I dare say I like that even better…) or a multi-berry shortcake with a mix of your favorites.

Around here if there are any leftovers (maybe when I make a double batch) they’re yummy with a cup of tea in the morning.DSCN1476

Gather your ingredients (be sure you’ve got fresh baking powder. If it’s been more than 6 months since you opened your can go ahead and get a new one.)

  • 4 Cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 Cups heavy whipping cream (no butter or shortening necessary…THIS is the fat…)

Heat your oven to 400° (that’s a real sacrifice in the summer time – you might want to bake these early in the day) and lightly grease a cookie sheet. I like to use a well seasoned baking stone.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Gradually add the cream, tossing mixture with a fork or wooden spoon until clumps form. DSCN1478

DSCN1480Press the clumps into a fairly smooth ball with a motion similar to kneading – but don’t overwork your dough.  DSCN1487

Pinch out a bit of dough and quickly shape it into a small cake. You’ll get about a dozen from this recipe.DSCN1488

Place the cakes on your prepared cookie sheet or stone and sprinkle the top with just a little sugar. (This is optional – but it makes it pretty for the few seconds that your cakes are visible before you consume them…) DSCN1491

Bake for 15 minutes  or until the tops and bottoms are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack covered with a clean dish towel for 10 minutes before you fill them. This is the hardest step.DSCN1501

I always prefer freshly whipped cream to that nasty stuff in the tub but I have, on rare occasions, used the canned variety of whipped cream.DSCN1482

Whipping cream is easy peasy. Gather those ingredients. (I show granulated sugar here, but your cream will hold its firm texture longer if you use powdered sugar.) When you decide to make these recipes (this afternoon) go ahead and get a quart of the heavy whipping cream – 2 cups for the short cakes and 2 cups to whip up and top them.

For 15 or more minutes before you beat your cream, chill your mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer. The deeper your mixing bowl the fewer splatters you’ll have when mixing.

Beat 2 Cups of heavy whipping cream with about 1 teaspoon of a good quality pure vanilla extract and somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 cup of sugar (I like a little less).

Beat to stiff peaks – don’t beat too long or it starts to get lumpy and then will quickly turn to butter… We don’t want that.DSCN1499

I’ve washed and cut my berries into chunks and sprinkled them with a little (more) sugar. To speed the juicing of the berries along I use my stick blender to whiz some of them up into a thick berry sauce. You can just smoosh them with your hands too…

Split your now cooled cakes with a fork and layer them with your berry and cream goodness.DSCN1506

Enjoy! (But not too often… these babies are loaded with fat and calories…)DSCN1510

Note: This shortcake recipe originally appeared in the June 2 1992 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. Wow – I didn’t realize that until a few minutes ago when I double checked my recipe. Almost 20 years ago today…

Don’t forget – I’ve got not one, but TWO giveaways going on right now – 10 of my favorite things and a Marriage Pillow from Cha Cha’s Treasure. Click the links and enter!

Here’s some great foodie linky parties I like to join – give them a visit!

Whistle Stop Café Cooking

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