Mom’s Best Recipes Book Review and Giveaway!

Are you ready for yet another great Gooseberry Patch Book Giveaway?

This time it’s for their yet to be released…

I had so much fun perusing this book and finding recipes to try for this review. As always there are super fun tips and ideas sprinkled throughout the book.

I found so many recipes in here that I remembered eating when I was growing up. There is definitely something in here for every one. You’ll find something for every course of the day.

Take a look!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH

APPETIZERS AND SNACKS

SOUPS, BREADS, AND SANDWICHES

SIDES AND SALADS

MAIN DISHES

DESSERTS

See it takes you right through the whole day with tons of yummy recipes.

Here’s a few that I’ve tried so far that were thumbs up in my family.

Ham and Gruyere Egg Cups

Porch Popcorn

and Polka Dot Soup! The kids liked this one a lot.

As with the other book I reviewed, there are still a bunch I want to try. Like Mom’s Sweet Apple Omelet, Evelyn’s Crab-Stuffed Potatoes and the Rich Oatmeal Cake!

So do you want to win a copy of this yet to be released book? Of course you do and here’s how.

Giveaway Rules

1.  Tell me one of your favorite recipes that your mom used to make or still does.

That’s it! Easy huh?

Giveaway will be open until Thursday, March 3rd @ 12:00 pm EST. A winner will be picked by using Random.org and announced that day. Giveaway is only open to the U.S and Canada.

If you don’t want to wait you can preorder your copy today by visiting the Gooseberry Patch website.

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!!

*Gooseberry Patch provided me with Mom’s Best Recipes Cookbook and one to giveaway in return for an honest review of the book.*

Friday Funnies! Dissecting a Turtle!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Are you ready to end this week on a good note? Well then you’ve stopped at the right place. Here you’ll find family friendly funnies to get your middle jiggling. If you would like to participate please feel free to link up a family friendly picture, video, story etc.

My funny today involves my 8 year old son, again. He is constantly doing something to make me laugh. 

My parents had sent down some Turtles for the kids for Valentine’s Day. Three HUGE boxes of them. These are not something that we would normally give our children so I was proceeding to tell my kids that they weren’t good for them and that they had corn syrup and too much sugar, yada, yada, yada, blah blah blah.  Basically I didn’t want to deal with the sugar high that comes after they eat them.

So the next day he’s at the table doing this.

Dissecting a poor Turtle. (Notice the quizzical brow!) He wanted to see for himself how bad they were.

Doesn’t that look sick? The ooey gooey caramel?

The sickening chocolate!

Thank goodness for best friends who’s husbands happen to LOVE  Turtles and took most of them off our hands!

Have you dissected a turtle lately?

 

 

Coffee and a Kiss!

Seriously, what’s he trying to say?

Is he on to me?

 

Have I eaten one to many Hershey’s Kisses in his presence?

Is my pure enjoyment of a good cup of coffee to evident?

How come he’s never given me a picture with a carrot stick or a piece of celery on it?

Where’s the 3-D picture of the my bible and a granola bar?

Is he trying to soften me up to find out where my stash of chocolate is?

Whatever the reason, he put  a lot of effort into it and I love it. I mean it’s 3 dimensional and everything. LOL!

Love that boy!

Firsts! From Garden to Trees, Part 2

When we moved in, there were some trees that needed some trimming really bad.

This was one of them.

We have no idea what kind of tree it is but soon after we moved in my hubby was trimming it and we had worried neighbors come over and tell him that it was a favorite tree on the street.  I think they might have thought he was going to chop it down. LOL!  It let go of thousands of little tiny leaves that ended up in our garage this past winter. I’m REALLY hoping it gets better looking then it is right now. But it is starting to green so we’ll see.

 

This new life belongs to…

…this cypress tree. I can’t wait till it’s covered in green.

 

This beautiful bush here….

…. well, it’s dead. The freeze took it from us and we hardly even got to know it. It was beautiful when we first moved in 3 months ago. But it’s deader than a doornail now. 

 

But I’ll leave it there “just in case”.

One thing I liked about this house was that it had such a variety of trees on the property. There are also long needle pines, a couple of palm trees and an oak tree in the way back.  It’s so refreshing to look at something other than cabbage palms all year round. And to think we only had to move 8 miles to do it. LOL!

The front of the house is a clean slate and it’s screaming for a makeover. I can’t wait to dig into that and make it beautiful.

Here’s a before glimpse.

 

Anything blooming in your yard yet? Or are you still under snow? What’s usually the first thing to bloom?

Thanks for joining me in my little outdoor tour.

Have a FABULOUS day!

Why wait till Monday? The Winner is…..

…….#24 Carolee Jones!!!

Congratulations Carolee and thank you to all who entered. There are still a lot of giveaways going on. If you FB Gooseberry Patch, they can keep you up to date. I myself will be having another book review and giveaway next week. So don’t miss it.

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Firsts! From Garden to Trees! Part 1

It was such a gorgeous day here today that I couldn’t resist going outside and taking pictures. As I was walking around I was thinking about how many firsts are going to take place (and have already taken place) this year in our new home.

So won’t you join me in my little tour?

This is our first “real” garden here.  Shoot, it’s our first real garden anywhere!  My hubby has put a lot of effort into this garden. We are VERY excited about this!

The benefit of living in Florida is a longer growing season. Yay!

And then there are the first buds of our trees on the property.

Next is the same type of maple tree but in at a different stage.

I believe this last maple is the furthest along as it now has green on it.

This next tree stumps me. I have no idea what it is.

It started out with these. That turned into…

 

these….and now it looks like…

this.

What is it?

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of the “Firsts Outdoor Tour.”"

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

Friday Funnies! What do you pass around?

Happy Friday Everyone!

It’s time to end another busy week on a happy note. If you’d like to help spread some of that fun feel free to link up a family friendly funny. It can be a joke, video, picture etc.

Let’s get to it.

 

I saw this on FB last week and by now a lot of you have probably already seen it but for those of you who haven’t, it’s HILARIOUS!

Enjoy!

(Ah, there’s a “vote to legalize marijuana” comment at the top of the screen when it starts playing. You can X out of it. Just thought I’d warn you about that! Not promoting that! Didn’t want you to think I’ve gone off the deep end! LOL!)

And don’t forget about my giveaway.  Click here to enter!

Gooseberry Patch Book Review and Giveaway!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*


When Gooseberry Patch asked if I would review some books for them I totally jumped at the chance. I have a slight obsession with their books for those of you who didn’t know.

So I officially became an

and this is my first official

I was so excited about the book they sent me.

HELLO? Cookies? Heck yeah!

But I knew I had to be good when choosing a couple of recipes to try, as we had just come off of Valentine’s Day and if I’m not careful I’ll gain 100lbs. LOL! So I went directly the chapter entitled Light and Healthy Cookies! Aren’t I a good girl?

I loved all the healthier choices in this chapter but 2 recipes stood out to me.

The No Cook Date Balls

And the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies! 

(You won’t believe the missing ingredient in this one.)

With permission I have posted the recipes over at my cooking blog. Just click on the pictures or the links above.

One thing I love about this book is that it caters to everybody. I don’t think there is a person out there who couldn’t find a bunch of yummy recipes in this book.

Just look at the Table of Contents:

Cookie Jar Cookies

Holiday Cookies

All-American Cookies

Old-Fashioned Cookies

Best-Ever Brownies and Bars

Fast and Fun Cookies

Light and Healthy Cookies

Big-Batch Cookies

Seriously, they have your cookie needs covered in this book. I was pleasantly surprised with the selection of gluten free recipes to. They are scattered through out but they are in there. Plus one thing I’ve learned is that if it’s truly a good recipe it can be altered to your taste.

I still have a list of ones I still want to try.

There’s Pumpkin Pillows, Lemony Almond Macaroons, Coconut Kisses, Coconut Mounds and so many more!

You want to know what else I love? The little helpful tips that they put on the pages with the recipes. Take this one for instance.
“If you need a round cookie cutter and there isn’t one handy, just use the open end of a clean, empty soup can to cut the dough into circles.”

Love that!

So are you in love with this book yet? If so I have some exciting news. Gooseberry Patch sent me an extra copy to share with YOU. So that means one of you lucky people can win a copy of BEST EVER COOKIES before it’s even released in the stores. BUT if you don’t want to take any chances and insure yourself a copy you can click here to pre-order your own.

Giveaway Rules!

1. Leave a comment telling me whether or not you have a Gooseberry Patch book or books of your own and which is your favorite.

2. Facebook about the giveaway and come back and leave another comment.

3. Blog about the giveaway and leave another comment.

That’s it! You have 3 chances to win.

You have until Sunday, February 20th at 3 pm EST. A winner will be chosen using the random number generator and announced Monday morning!

Open to U.S. residents only please.

I have another book review in the works and yet another giveaway. Be looking for that next week.

HAVE A GOOSEBERRY PATCH KIND OF DAY!

*Gooseberry Patch sent me a book to review and one to giveaway in exchange for an honest review .*

Valentines Day 2011

We actually celebrated Valentines Day yesterday as  the husband to my BFF has a birthday that just so happens to fall on Valentines Day. And every year for his birthday my BFF puts on a really beautiful dinner for the 4 of us. It’s always so much fun.

So yesterday I made my family a special Valentines dinner like I do every year.

Main course :Enchilada Casserole (Hubby’s request) with a nice green salad.

Dessert: Lemon cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting! (SOOOOOO Good!)

 

 

Do you see those cute heart shaped bowls? Here, take a closer look.

 

Aren’t they adorable? They match my red and white plates perfectly and here’s the best part. They were only .49 a piece at Michaels. Can you say SCORE! Oh yes!

 

Here are the super yummy GF lemon cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing. The icing was a little soft so it didn’t stay put but it was sooooo yummy it didn’t matter!

YUM!

I hope you all have a super duper Valentine’s Day!

XOXOXOXO!!

Friday Funnies! Women’s Dictionary Terms!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I hope you had a good week. But whether you did or didn’t I think we need a few good laughs today. So if you have  family friendly funny that you’d like to share, please feel free to link it up below. It can be a funny video, story, picture etc.

Join in the fun.

 

This just made me laugh!

Enjoy!

Dictionary for women

Argument (ar*gyou*ment) n. A discussion that occurs when you're right, but he just hasn't realized it yet.
Airhead (er*hed) n. What a woman intentionally becomes when pulled over by a policeman.
Bar-be-que (bar*bi*q) n. You bought the groceries, washed the lettuce, chopped the tomatoes, diced the onions, marinated the meat and cleaned everything up, but, he, "made the dinner."
Blonde jokes (blond joks) n. Jokes that are short so men can understand them.
Cantaloupe (kant*e*lope) n. Gotta get married in a church.
Clothes dryer (kloze dri*yer) n. An appliance designed to eat socks.
Diet Soda (dy*it so*da) n. A drink you buy at a convenience store to go with a half pound bag of peanut M&Ms.
Eternity (e*ter*ni*tee) n. The last two minutes of a football game.
Exercise (ex*er*siz) v. To walk up and down a mall, occasionally resting to make a purchase.
Grocery List (grow*ser*ee list) n. What you spend half an hour writing, then forget to take with you to the store.
Hair Dresser (hare dres*er) n. Someone who is able to create a style you will never be able to duplicate again. See "Magician."
Hardware Store (hard*war stor) n. Similar to a black hole in space-if he goes in, he isn't coming out anytime soon.
Childbirth (child*brth) n. You get to go through 36 hours of contractions; he gets to hold your hand and say "focus,...breath...push..."
Park (park) v./n. Before children, a verb meaning, "to go somewhere and neck." After children, a noun meaning a place with a swing set and slide.
Patience (pa*shens) n. The most important ingredient for dating, marriage and children. See also "tranquilizers."
Waterproof Mascara (wah*tr*pruf mas*kar*ah) n. Comes off if you cry, shower, or swim, but will not come off if you try to remove it.
Valentine's Day (val*en*tinez dae) n. A day when you have dreams of a candlelight dinner, diamonds, and romance, but consider yourself lucky to get a card.

 

Word-Filled Wednesday

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is better than wine.”

Song of Solomon 1:2

My daughter took this picture and when I saw it, it got me thinking about what the bible has to say about kisses.

The Lord had to have taken the love between a married man and woman very seriously to have written a whole book about it.  Have you ever read Song of Solomon? Maybe this Valentines Day you should sit down with your hubby and read a passage or two. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it won’t hurt.

May we as wives take this Valentines Day and every day to show our husbands how much they mean to us! You won’t regret it.

Have a FABULOUS Wednesday my friends!