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Chocolate Crescents

August 26, 2010
Chocolate Crescents

One word… YUM! I volunteered to bring the bread to our Mother’s of Preschoolers brunch this morning. I couldn’t bring just a plain old sliced baguette or anything, but we’re feeding roughly 10-15 women (hopefully more someday!) so I need my assignment to be three things: simple, tasty, and inexpensive. Crescent rolls are one of my favorite breads to pair with a meal, morning, noon, or night. Their buttery flakiness pairs perfectly with whatever you decide to serve them with. But I didn’t want to bring plain crescents. I went to the store and figured that a brilliant idea would hit me at some point. Well, crescents were on a deep sale last week ($1.68 per roll!) and as I was checking out I noticed that Hershey’s chocolate bars were only 50¢ each! I tossed a few of those into my order and decided that my brilliant simple idea was nearly complete. Once I got home I had the thought to dress them up just a bit more with a little egg wash and some chunky raw sugar. Line ‘em up, plunk down a piece of chocolate onto each triangle, and roll ‘em up. So easy. This step isn’t...

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Orange Chicken

June 23, 2009
Orange Chicken

Last night I pulled together and made a truly amazing main course. I hadn’t realized how quickly it would be ready, so I completely forgot to make the side dish of veggie fried rice. Oops! Well, before I could even get two bites into my own mouth, Jason was nearly finished with his plate. I asked if he wanted me to make some Minute Rice, and he replied “Nope, I’m very content. This was really good.” I beamed. Here is my recipe for Orange Chicken. I was browsing through a few highly-ranked recipes online and read through some of the most helpful of the comments. I sorted through it all in my head, implemented some of the suggested changes, and made a couple of changes of my own (because I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients that I didn’t realize I’d need). As I said, it turned out fabulous, but I’ll tell you what changes I made so that you can switch it back if you’d like. Step 1: Heat about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a large pan. Saute 4-6 chicken breasts in the oil until cooked through. Step 2: Combine the following into a medium-sized...

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Handpainted Child’s Stool

June 12, 2009
Handpainted Child’s Stool

Several of the children in my family received a wooden stool when they were between two and three years old. All of them were handpainted by a wonderful old woman in our hometown. Each was different but they all looked uniform. They all came from the same blank so they were all the same size and shape. Here is a picture of my 25-year old stool: It was personalized with my name and a very sweet little poem: “This little stool is mine I use it all the time To reach the things I couldn’t And sometimes things I shouldn’t.” As you can see, the years have been rough on this treasured piece of my childhood. There is a significant crack that my mother patched with a piece of clear packing tape. My 2 1/2-year old son Jeremy has fallen in love with my stool. I keep putting it away to keep it from being broken any further, but he always drags it out from wherever I’ve stashed it. He loves to “help” me do dishes, cook, and do all number of things as long as he can stand on the stool (even washing his hands!). In my wanting...

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Jen’s Lemon Pie

June 11, 2009
Jen’s Lemon Pie

As my very first post on my brand new blog, I’d like to share my absolute favorite pie in the entire world. I love Baker’s Square’s Lemon Supreme Pie, I go wild for it. Unfortunately, the closest Baker’s Square is a few cities away from where I live now and I can’t just take a walk to get a slice of pie like I could when I was a kid. So, I decided to make a copycat recipe. I must say, my first attempt was fantastic! I hit it on the nose on the first try. Without further ado, here is my recipe for the very best lemon pie you’ll ever eat.   This pie is created in three layers: crust, cream, lemon curd (with a little whipped cream for garnish). Layer 1: A Simple Pie Shell, 9″ or 10″. You can use a boxed mix, your grandma’s recipe, (LifeasMom’s Gramma John’s Pie Crust is really fantastic), prebaked, or the refrigerated kind that you unroll and put in the pan. Whichever crust option you choose, just make sure you let it get completely cool before adding the next layer.   Layer 2: The Cream Filling. - 8 oz. of softened cream...

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