Brownie Batter Dip

Have you ever opened your cabinet and found 3 half-used bags of pretzels? I only use pretzels for baking, and one time I needed the skinny stick variety, and one time I needed the kind that look like grids. I also had half a bag of the normal looking ones.

While I was on Pinterest yesterday, I found the perfect use for all my pretzels: Brownie Batter Dip! This is the perfect snack for an evening of Olympics watching or a game night with friends.

You will need:
8oz of softened cream cheese
1/2 a cup of melted butter
2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
5 T of flour
5T of cocoa powder
2T brown sugar
3T of milk
1t of vanilla

Use a hand mixer to cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Then add 2 cups of the powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix well. Then add the flour, cocoa, brown sugar, vanilla, and one more tablespoon of milk. Mix well. At this point the mixture could be considered done, but add another 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1T of milk until it is the thickness that you like. Eat right away with pretzels or let chill for about 30 minutes if you want it a little thicker.

Enjoy!

Homemade Bisquick

Growing up, I was extremely lucky to have a mother that cooked everything!  I don't think I ever ate anything out of a box. I'm sure as a kid that I probably complained about missing out on Kraft macaroni and Capri Suns, but now I am grateful. I think having my own kitchen and someone else to cook for made me realize that it's kind of a pain in the butt. I like cooking well enough, but my mom cooked 3 meals a day ... everyday! Maybe someday I will be that awesome, but for now, I will continue feeding Garrett cereal for dinner at least twice a week. Luckily, he doesn't mind!

The great thing about eating lots of homemade food growing up is that it really was homemade!  As soon as my mom realized how much money she could save by making her own biscuit mix, she always made up this recipe. We used to have biscuits and gravy all the time when my dad was out of town, because it was a meal that he didn't like. We went through those expensive boxes of pre-made mix very quickly.  If you like biscuits, then save yourself some money and try out this mix!

You will need:
An airtight container (I bought one that said it could fit 16 cups, and this mixture BARELY fit.)
9 cups of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of baking powder
3 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of cream of tarter
2 cups of shortening

Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then use a fork to cut in the shortening. Mixture should resemble coarse crumbs. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.

For biscuits, combine 3 cups of mix with 2/3 of a cup of milk. Mix well.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 10-15 times. Roll out until dough is 1/2 an inch thick. Then cut with a biscuit cutter.  Cook at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

You can also add 1/2 a cup of sharp cheddar cheese to the mixture, bake, and then brush a garlic salt/butter mixture over the biscuits when they are done for some yummy Garlic Cheddar Biscuits!

Enjoy!

Premier!

If we are not friends on Facebook, then there is something you probably don't know about me.  I am an independent consultant for Premier Designs Jewelry. The fall catalog just came out, and I am doing a catalog party for my friends and followers on the internet. The Premier catalog has over 500 pieces of high fashion jewelry, and each piece comes with Premier's golden guarentee: if your jewelry breaks because of manufacture defect within the first 60 days of you owning the jewelry, you get a replacement FOR FREE, and any time it breaks after the 60 days you can replace the jewelry for just 5 dollars.

This is how a catalog party works:
If you love jewelry, and would love some new pieces, let me know!  You can send me an email at garrettandkenzie(at)gmail(dot)com with your address and I will mail you a catalog. You can look through it and we can touch base through phone or e-mail to get you the pieces that you would like to order.

I am also making this party "mystery hostess."  Everyone that orders will get placed in a drawing. Whoever wins the drawing will get the benefits of a normal party hostess!  You will receive up to 50 dollars in free jewelry, 4-6 pieces at 1/2 price, and 30% of the retail value of the party in FREE jewelry!

This party will take place from now (July 26th) until August 15th.  You have between now and then to e-mail me with your address, look through a catalog, and get back to me with an order. I will draw the winner on August 15th, you will be contacted that day, and I will tell you about your hostess benefits!

Let me know if you would like to participate!

TOMS flag wallet

TOMS flag crafts have been all over Pinterest lately.  I recently saw a picture of a cute TOMS wallet. I didn't click on the link because I knew I could make it myself.  I am not the best at explaining things and my pictures are a little sketchy, so if you can't understand these instructions there are many more tutorials out there that you can easily find by searching on Google. 

To start, iron all the creases out of your flag.

Flip your flag over and fold up the bottom blue section. Iron at the crease.

 This is what it will look like right-side-up.  Using a dollar bill to measure (or just eye-ball it) mark on the front of your flag how big you want your wallet to be.

 Flip back over, and cut off the extra pieces of the flag. Save the extra!

 Next, cut off the top blue section too.  Save that as well!  The extra pieces will be used for credit card pockets.

 Next, fold up 1/4 of an inch on each side for seams.  Iron at the crease and then sew.

 Next, fold your wallet in half!  Don't sew up the sides yet.  It is easier to sew on the credit card pockets if your wallet isn't completely together yet.

 For the credit card pockets I just folded my wallet in half, like it would be if it was closed.  Then, using the extra scraps from the flag, I measured how big one half of the wallet was, and cut the scrap a little bit smaller than that.

 Unfold your flag, and sew those pockets on!  I only did one on each side, but there were probably enough scraps for 2 per side.

 Finally, fold the wallet in half lengthwise and stitch up the sides.

Ta-da! Your wallet is finished! 

Now, the only issue I have had with this wallet is that it is a little flimsy. If it turns upside-down in my purse, the cards tend to fall out.  This is a huge problem for me because I have one of those huge Mary-Poppins-purses, so digging around for a credit card or ID could take awhile.  It needs some kind of lining or maybe I just need to make the credit card pockets a little tighter fitting so they can't slide around. Any ideas?

Aurora

To all my readers:
If you have 30 extra seconds in your day, please say a quick prayer for Aurora Colorado and the families affected by what is now being called the "Theater 9 Massacre."
In case you aren't aware, 12 people were killed last night during a midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises. Several more were injured and some people are still missing.
I know several people who were affected by last night's tragedy.
Please pray.

Wandering

I love this quote.


Two of my very dear friends are traveling the world right now, and I can't help but feel an enormous sense of longing when I see the pictures they post on their Facebook pages.  There are so many gorgeous countries outside the US. I almost feel homesick for places that I have never been. 

We are 24 and almost 26. "The world is our oyster" if you will. We have great jobs. We have an amazing church family.  We live close to my in-laws, which has been an incredible blessing. But are we trapped? The spark that is my longing to travel the world has not gone out. It is shining brighter than ever before.  But how do you leave two "grown-up" jobs to spend 6 weeks in a foreign country, with no guarantee that your jobs will be happily waiting for you upon your return? You don't. It's not smart. It's a huge risk. Have you ever teared up over the beauty of a simple photograph? Maybe I'm just weird, but looking at the pictures that my friends have shared with me make me want to take that risk. If not now, then when? When will we travel the world? Is my dream to travel bigger than our dream to adopt a child?  Bigger than Garrett's dreams? I don't know.
It seems as though the wandering ones are anything but lost ... maybe those who sit and see the world through the eyes or the camera lens of someone else are the ones who are lost.`

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Simple Life

My favorite weekends are the weekends that Garrett and I mostly stay home.  He is much more of a homebody than I am, but he is rubbing off on me. We are both introverted people, but out of the two of us, I am much more outgoing. When we first got married, I would be itching to get out of the house and do something fun together on our days off of work. Now, I really value the time that we get to spend together within the walls of our own home. I know we are extremely blessed to be able to spend every weekend together, and I think it is a good sign that we can find ways to occupy our time without having to go out.

Friday night was spent at the in-laws house, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner of manacotti (my favorite food!) and played a couple rounds of Carcassone. If you have not heard of this game, I would suggest you buy it!  It is a quick game that requires some amount of strategy, but not a lot. I really enjoy it, especially now that I have beaten Garrett at it the last 3 times. The best part is that it can be played with only 2 people, or more!  We are always on the hunt for 2 player games.

Saturday I had a baby shower to go to in the afternoon, but we went on a date to Pearl's Oyster Bar in the evening. I had THE BEST lobster bisque. I do not belong in a land locked state. Our next vacation will be somewhere famous for its delicious seafood. After dinner we rented 21 Jump Street, which had the potential to be funny, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for dumb/funny. I enjoyed cuddling up with Garrett though.

Sunday morning Garrett didn't feel well so we didn't go to church or to our usual lunch at the in-laws. We spent the afternoon watching How To Train Your Dragon, which I slept all the way through.  After that we just took care of some little things like buying car insurance, working on our budget, etc. It was a nice relaxing day.

Here is my question for my readers ... if I have any ... what 2 player games do you enjoy? We have enjoyed Fluxx, Skip-Bo, and Backgammon, but are always on the hunt for more!

Enjoy your week friends. We are blessed to have somewhere to work. :)