If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake!

I tend to bake goodies when we have guests coming. As luck would have it, we have some guests arriving tonight! I've been dying to try this recipe for "spicy pumpkin cake with chocolate chunks" and visitors (especially bachelor visitors) give me the perfect excuse. Also, I won't wind up eating the whole thing by myself... which is always a concern. I am a serious fat kid in hiding (ok, maybe I'm not hiding all that well).

Although spice-type cake is probably my least favorite type of cake, it's still cake and therefore still delicious.

I meant to take a picture of it but, I ran out of time and then I cut it before I remembered that I wanted to take a picture. Pretty much a photo fail all around.

Bag it up!

Okay so, I made these a while ago and planned on using them as gift bags for all of the handmade goodies that I will be gifting for Christmas but, with the recent addition of the potholders, these will be much too small.

The reason I'm even posting this at all is because it was my first foray into button-holes on my machine. It was ANNOYING but I eventually figured it out (after much swearing).

Potholders Potholders and MORE Potholders!

Yesterday I was browsing the internet looking for something to sew because I had a lot of "scrap" fabric leftover from all of the aprons I've been making. I found a lot of potholder tutorials. A lot. So, after reviewing some of them, I headed off to the fabric store to get some insulated batting and when I came home, I got crackin'!

As for most projects, my first attempts were decent but not stellar. They'll be good to use in my own home (in fact I used a set last night to pull my chicken out of the oven). Turns out, they work better (meaning keep my hands from burning off) better than the ones I have that I purchased in stores. I was very hesitant to use them at first.

Anyway, so it will seem that everyone will get matching potholders to go along with their aprons!

Deck the Halls!

With home-made adorable-ness made with scrap fabric!! Wahoo!

This is actually twice as long but, I couldn't find a place that I could hang it so I just did the half. Please ignore the lingering Halloween decoration... we are slow to put stuff away around here.

I found this little project while searching the interwebs for things to do.

It's HERE at a fabulous little blog that I've found called MaggieMakes.

She posts lots of tutorials and inspires lots of craftiness. She also has a flickr page so, you can see lots of photos of all of her projects.

Just so you do not think I'm decorating far too early for Christmas, I have to admit that I took down the stars after 24 hours of appreciating my handiwork.

PS- I also made that "leaf art" in the frames

Bargain BBQ

Yesterday, I bought a Boston Butt Pork Roast (I have no idea why it's called a butt... from all of my research, it's a part of the shoulder?). Anyway, it was 99 cents a pound (essentially 1/2 price) so, I found the smallest one that I could (6lbs) and threw it in my cart!

It's pretty cold outside in Charlotte today (by my Florida standards) and I thought that it would be a good day to make some BBQ in the crock pot!

I decided that 6lbs was too much BBQ and it would surely go to waste if I made the whole thing (being that it's just me and Uriah), so I chopped that sucker in half. I plopped 1/2 of it in my crock pot with 1/2 a large onion and some salt and pepper and decided to freeze the other half for another time. It still looks like a LOT of pork but that's okay because I'm a big fan of leftovers!

I closed the lid and started cooking it on low for 4 1/2 hours. After that, I noticed that it wasn't cooking as quickly as I wanted (dinner would wind up being at approximately 9:30pm) so, I cut it up into 4 pieces and turned the crock pot on high.

I cooked it on high for about an hour and then I removed the onions and poured about 1/2 of an 18 oz. bottle of Hickory BBQ sauce and approximately 1.5 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce over the meat, closed the lid and let it cook for another hour and a half.

Then, I shredded/chopped the pork up in the slow cooker and gave it a good stir. Cooked it on Low for another hour.

After all of that... it was ready.

I put some Tabasco sauce on mine (just a few shakes) and it was... delicious.

Best of all? Uriah loved it! He's not really picky but, when he really REALLY thinks that something is delicious, I can tell. He takes the first bite and his eyes get all big and he makes yummy sounds.

Big hit! And, really, it only cost (including the buns and the sauces) about $6. And, as anticipated, we have an abundance of leftovers. I'd say that's a (delicious) bargain!

Not your grandmother's sugar cookies

These are CHOCOLATE sugar cookies! I know, I know, they sound delicious. Well, guess what? They ARE delicious. They kind of taste like brownies but they are the texture of cookies and they are rolled in sugar (so they kind of sparkle). It doesn't get much better than that, people. It just doesn't.

I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I've made these cookies a few times now and they are always a hit.

If you want to make these yummy delicious treats, here's the recipe!

What you will need:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

4 squares  BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine

1-1/2 cups  sugar, divided

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

 

 

How all of those things come together:

 

MIX flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted (have patience). Add 1 cup sugar, egg and vanilla to the chocolate and butter mixture; mix well. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Refrigerate 30 min - 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

 

HEAT oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in remaining sugar. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. (For thinner, crisper cookies, flatten balls with bottom of clean glass.) I like mine nice and fluffy so, I skip the flattening step.

 

BAKE 8 to 10 min. or until set. Cool on baking sheets 1 min. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

 

ENJOY!!

Redundancy!

Do you like seeing the same thing over and over? Yes? Good!

Finished another apron today!

I should probably take pictures of these with something other than my iPhone but, I guess I'm just lazy.

A legitimate photo shoot is pending.