A friend of mine asked me if I had a recipe for cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. She said she always buys them at a local sandwich shop and would love to make them at home.
Just like that, the wheels in my head started turning and I couldn’t wait to get home to find a recipe for these cookies. After looking at a few recipes online, I decided to venture out and come up with my own version. And that my friends is how this magical cookie was born.
When I have ripe bananas sitting on my counter, this is my favorite recipe to make.
A few years ago, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The original recipe is for banana bread and it has 7,937 five-star reviews. Of course after seeing all the positive reviews I had to try it.
I use this recipe for banana bread or muffins. I added some vanilla extract to the recipe, as well as streusel on the top.
I love how moist these muffins are. They are still very moist even the next day..
These muffins are perfect for a grab and go breakfast or as a snack when the kids get home from school.
Until next time,
Carrie
Is there anything better than fresh pineapple in the summer?
A pineapple is like a fortress holding its coveted prize hostage under all of its layers. If you are lucky enough to figure out how to get past the spiky outer shell, don’t get too cocky because you have not won the battle yet. You still have to figure out how much of the pineapple is the tough core and what is the juicy fruit.
After having completed this maddening task, one can only hope that there is enough pineapple to reward you for all your hard work.
I love fresh pineapple but sometimes all the work that goes into being able to eat it makes me opt for an apple instead. That is until I found the pineapple slicer and corer.
This is a recipe I found in The Bon Appetit Cookbook. I am a sucker for rice pilaf and this recipe did not disappoint!
The original recipe did not call for grilled chicken, but I happened to have some chicken breast I needed to use. I thought the grilled chicken was a great addition to the rice pilaf. However, this rice would not have any problems standing on it own without the chicken.
This tart would be the perfect dish for a meal as you sit on the back porch of a private beach house watching the tide come in.
I bought these bar stools from my SIL with the intention of redoing them. Well, here it is two years later and I finally got around to doing it. After looking on Pinterest for inspiration, I saw some stools on The DIY Village that I fell in love with. SO with my plan in mind, I went to work.
I made some chalk paint so I didn’t have to sand or prime which is always a plus. However, you do still need to lightly sand between coats.
The verdict is still out on the homemade chalk paint. I found a recipe for the chalk paint on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try. I have used both homemade chalk paint and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the past. I thought I would try to save some money on this project and make my own.
One of the benefits of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is that they say that you generally only have to paint one to two coats. On another project that I did in the past, the AS Chalk Paint I used was the pure white. The pure white paint doesn’t have any pigment so I had to do more than two coats. It did however go a long way and I have been very happy with how durable it is. A quart of Annie Sloan paint is around $30 dollars. It’s expensive, so I guess you will have to figure that it does save you time and like my husband always tells me, time is money (he’s an accountant).
To make the chalk paint, I mixed 3 tbsp. Plaster of Paris with 2 tbsp. of water and then mixed it into 2 cups of paint.
The Plaster of Paris makes the paint a little thicker and gives it a chalky finish after you sand it. Adding the Plaster of Paris also makes the paint more durable. It isn’t as likely to chip and scratch like other paints. With my five kids, any little bit helps!
I had to paint 4 to 5 coats of paint on each stool. I think the reason was because I didn’t buy a high quality paint at a paint store. I just bought a medium grade paint at Walmart. Chalk paint does dry faster, so that did help.
I cut the circle design and numbers out on my trusty Cricut. Then I traced them onto the stools and used a small brush to paint it. The nice thing about the vintage look is that if you mess up, it doesn’t matter as much because you are going to distress it anyways.
After I had finished painting and lightly sanding (I used 180 grit sandpaper), I noticed that there were a few scratches on one of the stools. Of course, my three year old had been driving one of his Match Box cars over it. The scratches are not what you want to see after spending so much time painting. I wasn’t too stressed because I figured I was going to distress them anyway. Once I let the paint cure for 24 hours and I have applied the Annie Sloan wax over the top, I don’t think I will have any more problems with the paint scratching.
All in all, I am very happy with how they turned out! Even though I had to paint a few more coats then I was planning. It was still worth it. Now I can proudly say that I have one less project on my mile long home project list.
Until next time,
Carrie
At my house, if my kids don’t want to eat something and I pour a little ranch on it, chances are they will change their mind. It can’t be just any ranch off the street. We do not consume bottle ranch in this house. We might be self proclaimed ranch snobs, but we know a good ranch when we taste it!
Mother’s Day is only 13 days away. Whenever I think of Mother’s Day, I think about this cake. It is my mom’s favorite and she always requests that I make this for our Mother’s Day dinner.
I got the original strawberry roll cake from my eighth grade cooking class. I remember bringing home this recipe and as luck would have it we happened to have all the ingredients. I told my mom I wanted to make this cake and she didn’t object. When my mom tasted the cake for the first time, she declared it as her favorite cake and has asked me to make it for her birthday and Mother’s Day ever since.
In true Carrie fashion, I have tweaked the recipe over the years to better fit my taste buds.
My favorite way to eat this cake is on the second day. The first day it is amazing and will leave you asking for more. However, do your self a favor and set some aside for the next day. Trust me, you will thank me! You will be dreaming of this cake all night, but be patient. Remember, good things come to those who wait!
The next day when you have a chance to eat your second piece of cake, you will feel like you are floating on a cloud and maybe if you listen really closely, you will hear angels singing.
What, you don’t believe me? Well then, I double dog dare you to make this cake and try to prove me wrong!
Until next time,
Carrie
I grew up eating beef stroganoff which consisted of ground beef, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and some sour cream. The first time I ever had beef stroganoff made like this recipe is when a chef I worked with made some and he had me try it. I was quickly hooked.
Over the years, I have played around with this recipe. I never wrote down the recipe. I just kind of had a method that I followed and ingredients that I liked to use. As you can imagine, one pot of beef stroganoff always varied from another.
One of the great things about this blog is that I am forced to keep track of the ingredients and measurements that I use in every recipe. All though it can be a bit of a pain, it has also been a blessing. Now, I have a documented recipe that I can refer to. It also comes in quite handy when one of my sisters calls asking for a recipe and I can just tell them to look on my blog.
So my friends, here is my tried and true recipe for beef stroganoff.
I know beef stroganoff generally has mushrooms. However, my kids will not eat anything with mushrooms in it, so I usually leave them out.
Thanks for stopping by today. I will see you back here tomorrow for some more delicious dishes!
Until next time,
Carrie
These cookies are my three-year olds favorite cookies. When they were baking in the oven, he sat by the oven waiting for them to finish.
Once they had finished baking, I think he asked me for a cookie every 5 minutes. Later, between my older boys and their friends, the plate of cookies quickly disappeared. If you don’t like peanut butter chips, try adding butterscotch chips or even regular milk chocolate chips.
These cookies are so soft and moist. They will be sure to satisfy your chocolate craving. Do not over bake these cookies or they will be dry. Don’t stress, the cookies will continue to cook a little bit after you take them out of the oven.
Until next time,
Carrie
