Changes ahead...

I mentioned some time ago a desire to redesign my blog. Although I am far from "tech savvy" I have begun designing a few things. Stay tuned....

Here comes Mama Bear

No, this is not a post about my mom.

Its not about my sister or any friends who are moms.

In fact, it's not even about a specific mom, or moms in general.

No. This is a post about me.

Me, who is most definitely not a mom.

As an act of love and service the sister I do most everything with; from scrubbing down the kitchen to taking care of babehs to teaching ESL; has left me, FOR TWO WEEKS. I'm very thankful she is where she is, but I am already missing her something fierce.

She has flown south to help out some friends that we call "family." They have three children, and we love the whole family dearly. Just a few short months ago, we got a picture via text letting us know, there was one more coming! (8 years after the youngest!) It was like being told one of my sisters were pregnant! The next nine months were very hard, and her pregnancy was rough and medically dangerous.
Finally, on the 17th, a beautiful little girl arrived! Healthy and whole! However, there were still some complications, as the mom has been hospitalized since with high blood pressure, and the baby in and out with high Bili Reuben levels. Enough was enough. So off she went down to be with them for two weeks. So understand me when I say this: I'm not sad she's there; I'm sad she's not here. Make sense?

Anyways. We pretty much work as a team, her and I. Without her here, I'm doing what we normally do together and then some and it is crazy! Since I could not go and be with the family, I volunteered to take her little boy for the next to weeks, in addition to my baby. And in a single week, we typically deep clean the house, have dinner ready most nights, get laundry done and dishes, and keep our babies clean, happy and fed. I'm finding that it is quite a feat.

She just left yesterday and already I'm counting down the days. And finding myself increasingly grateful for little things. Like only having my baby two days a week, instead of five. Like having my mom home three days a week instead of only two. Like friends who are willing to do stuff at weird hours so I'm not alone when mom and the Little do have to go to work. Like having only one baby in diapers (AH's little guy is newly potty-trained, however this has been quite a funny story for him and I...more to come on that.)

Yesterday, after deep cleaning the stairs, foyer, living room and bathroom; getting all the laundry done, and having the kitchen cleaned(i.e. just the dishes, but hey.) I was feeling preeeeetty awesome. But I got the little Pickle (as I call him, affectionately) up from his nap, and took him potty. Not to be all TMI, but basically, my clean bathroom had to be re-cleaned after a miscommunication between him and I. As he looked at his bull's eye wet spot on the back of his pants and then up at me, I literally sat down on the bathroom floor and just started laughing. What else could I do? There was no point in any other reaction, and it eased him up. We fixed our new found issue and went about our afternoon (only to repeat the incident today, and this time the pants were not there to catch it =/)

But today I had both kiddos. And thank the Lord, my mom as well. Up earlier than normal, working a little harder than normal. And feeling accomplished, but very tired. And the only label I can put on it is: mom. I feel like a mom. Not playing house with a silent, plastic baby doll that never actually needs a clean diaper or food. Yes its only been two days (roughly) but I'm starting to have a new found appreciation for young mamas all over the world. And thank goodness, there is no one coming home that I have to look all nice for, because I'm not sure that will happen so much the next few weeks. I'll get there eventually.

And even though it's been a harder two days than normal, it hasn't deterred me at all. This is what I want. This is what I'm training for. And I guess that's why I'm thankful for these few weeks of "trial run" by myself. I obviously have some work to do, but I am loving every crazy, chaotic moment of it! :)

As I type my little girl is screaming in protest of a nap. This may become the chronicles of a mom in training for the next few weeks but until this....

~the lady with snot on her shirt

All spiffed up!

Due to recent snow days, I have had time to work on my blog! It looks great doesn't it?? But trust me, it didn't get this fabulous because I'm good at blog design; my sister has quite the knack for it and helped design my new blog.

At 19, I wanted something just slightly less juvenile than I had, and I wanted it far from boring. Because I am the adult that lives simply. And by simply I mean I still have fun like a teenager; hence my header "looks 23, acts 17".  Now, by "17" I don't mean flamboyant and boisterous, loud and obnoxious, or flirtations and immature(not that all 17 year olds are this way). I mean simply, in that I don't take life half as seriously as most adults. I pay bills, have a job, and have to deal with contracts with employers, taking care of house and a baby(since I'm a nanny), and maintain my personal life. I don't have it "easy". I have it normal. But its not a drudgery, its an adventure. I had a younger friend encourage me in finding everything I do as an act of worship, and let me tell you, I now look forward to doing the morning dishes.

Sorry for that little bunny trail, and I'll get off my soapbox. AAAAAALLL that to say is, I wanted something that combined my fun-loving nature, and fact of being a young adult. So gone is the pink paisley, and now we have a much simpler, and still quite fun cardboard and arrow themed blog! :)

Hope you all enjoy reading on a much cleaner background!

~M

Chocolatier

Thanks to my sister, EP, I got a wonderful chocolate recipe and I have been busy in the kitchen aaaaall week long creating some yummy(if I do say so myself) confections! I have made eight batches of chocolate (only six successful ones) and the texture has been spot on! I purchased some Special Dark cocoa powder from Hershey's instead of regular(milk) because I really like dark chocolate! I made my first batch of milk chocolate today and it was a hit! I've also made several batches with coffee in them, and those are absolutely decadent. My latest endevour was raspberry flavored dark chocolate, and it isn't turning out so well. I think because there was so much liquid in it, that it's not firming up the way the others have been. We'll see. Its been fun experimenting! I'll post what I call the "skeleton" recipe below. (And also the recipe for raw sugar solution, which is what I use as my sweetener. The recipe I use comes from the "Skinny Chocolate" recipe by Trim Healthy Mama.

Smooth and melty chocolate:

What you'll need:
1/2 C. measuring cup
1/4 C. measuring cup
Table spoon
metal whisk
small sauce pot
*parchment paper
*small petal pan (I've been using toaster size)
metal soup spoon

*You only need these if you chose to do a sheet of chocolate. I've also been using candy molds. If you have candy molds, use them. I found that a more uniform looking piece of chocolate is more enticing and presentable.

Ingredients:
1/2 C. coconut oil
1/4 C. cocoa powder
3 T. raw sugar solution
1/2 T. vanilla
Flavoring of your choice (I've done coffee, coffee raspberry, and my sister has done toffee flavoring, and caramel.)

1)Melt down the coconut oil in sauce pan. (It melts quickly, so stay right with it.)

2) Remove from heat promptly and wisk in sugar solution, vanilla, and liquid flavoring(this is when I added my coffee concentrate; only about a tablespoon or so. Judge the amounts for yourself, I like mine with more flavor, but found that more liquid alters the texture making it difficult to freeze.)

3) Whisk in cocoa powder. The texture should be liquidy and smooth. If you still have clumps, whisk them out.

4) If you're using candy molds, spoon or pipe(if you have piping bottles) the chocolate mixture in. If you're using a pan, line it with parchment paper and pour the chocolate in. The bigger the pan, the thinner the chocolate. I don't like my too thick, but too thing is just unsatisfying. Again, judge this for your own personal preference.

5) Freeze it. The time depends entirely on the overall texture and thickness of your chocolate. Some of my chocolate has taken as little as 10 minutes to freeze completely, and some has taken upwards of an hour. If they sink at all to touch, or seem tacky with you touch them, keep freezing. If they're still tacky or sticky after an hour, the batch is, sadly, scrapped. I've done this twice now :(

6) Once your chocolate is frozen through, pop it out.

For candy molds:
turn them over, and bang the back of each candy with soup spoon. The should pop out fairly easily; if not try freezing them a tad longer.

For a pan:
Lift the parchment paper out and simply bang the chocolate with the soup spoon. The pieces will be unevenly shaped and sized, but oooo so tasty!

I store my chocolate in Rubbermaid containers in the freezer, but it can also be kept in the fridge. Because of the coconut oil, it needs to be kept cool.

Raw Sugar Solution:

What you'll need:
1 C. measuring cup
Glass 2 C. measuring cup

Ingredients:
1 C. boiling water
1 C. sugar in the raw(found with normal white sugar)

1) Simply put both ingredients in the glass container, and stir with a fork. The sugar won't dissolve completely, so I pop it into the microwave for 1 1/2-2 minutes and the sugar is usually fully dissolved. I keep mine in a Rubbermaid(no...I'm not actually obsessed...) container that has a small pour hole on the lid and store it in the fridge. My sister uses it in cold coffee, my mom uses it in plain yogurt, and I use it in my chocolate. It's a great little sweetener to use! 


Hope someone finds this and enjoys it! :)

Beauty Hacks-take two

I have about 15 posts with substance in the making, however they are just not coming together how I want them to go.

So in the mean time, here's some more of my favorite/original BEAUTY HACKS. (Part one here)

SKIN CARE:

1) I have told y'all before that I have very oily skin. HOWEVER. I have read a TON about over-drying your face; and all the information in its most basic form is: when you dry out your face(over wash), your pores over compensate for the stripped oils, and leave your skin even oilier. (Same general idea goes for your hair as well, I'll write about this later on.)

ANYWAYS. Someone in my family bought this lotion, decided they didn't like it. So I took it. On the back it notes "won't clog pores" and I took a little risk and put it aaaaallll over my face. Forehead to chin, earlobe to earlobe. The next morning I rolled over and skeptically looked in my little mirror. To my surprise, not only was there indeed no new spots on my face, but my normally angry looking skin was quite clear. So now it's been several weeks of applying this to my face right before I go to sleep, and my skin has cleared up SO MUCH. Old scars are gone. My skin isn't splotchy, or red and angry looking; and no new spots have appeared. My skin is yes still oily, but slightly less than normal. And it's super clear. More than it has been in YEARS.

2) However sometimes, ya do get those spots that nothing seems to help and no, there is no miracle cream or paste or concoction. But this little green stuff helps a lot. I used to apply it all over my face before I started doing the lotion; the lotion works better. However for little tough spots, this stuff is good. (If you chose to use it all over, you'll look like Shrek, but it fades by morning.) Its better in small portions like concentrated spots instead of all over. It dries out new spots and this also helped clear up some old scars.



GENERAL:

~I've talked about my goats milk soap before. But I can't speak highly enough of it. I am out and in desperate need of more!  This stuff kept my skin clear and healthy looking, and helped with some general body odor. I HAVE MISSED THIS STUFF. I'll post a link here where you can get some for $5 a bar. Its incredible.

I actually have nothing else. Just theses.

More to come as I discover them! :)

Jesus and Jeans: Behind the name

My mom was asking why I was grouping my "controversial" posts as Jesus&Jeans (all future topical posts of that nature will fall under that name as well.) Since she had questions, I figured perhaps others do as well, and since these recent posts tend to be quite lengthy, I have to work on them for a while before I can post them. I want each of them to be thought out, and written with the accountability of my family, which means they often have to wait until upwards of two people have read them. Although I want to speak truth boldly, I want it also to be Biblically true and I want it to be presented in a way were people don't feel judged by me. All that said, know two things: they aren't shot from the him, carelessly composed rambles about things I know people have issues with, they're thought out, and often even prayed over. The other thing is, all that said, they take quite a while to write up.

SO! Behind the idea of "Jesus and Jeans". This title was borne out of what was going to be my first post, and I ended up writing what I had planned on being my second post, first. Make sense?? I was going to write about the idea of what Christianity and the skirt vs. jeans/pants on women, since we are headed into the season where pants are all the time around us. (For some reason skirts seem more widely accepted when the spring and summer are here.) And since that's what this post will (eventually) encompass, I decided to call it that. But I was getting behind on my writing, and when I sat down to work on it, I found my self looking at the end of October, and I really wanted to put my two cents in on the Halloween articles that had been circulating, so I went ahead with that, but thought "Hey...'Jesus and Jeans' is fairly catchy, and since that in and of its self is a topical idea, I'll just use that as my coverall for all posts of this nature." And that's pretty much how it went down. "Jesus and Jeans" is my unofficial official name for this part of my writing! :)

Up next: Millennials, skepticism, and marriage

Training

While most other 18 or so year olds are in school, gaining all that book knowledge, I too am working like a mad woman on my "studies". I don't have midterms, or fall breaks, but I do have to work hard at it. It's somewhat rewarding at the end of the day to feel tired, and know things got done. And it's been fun developing and falling into a routine. I was thinking today as I was bustling around about that idea; study and work. I feel like I'm in an incredible opportunity. My mom works two days a week, and is still a homeschool momma, my other sister nannys and is very active in helping take care of things with J and medical stuff, and homeschools someone else right now. By default (and I happen to believe, by God's great design) it means I get to play mommy! (Because in addition to housework, I get to nanny a beautiful little girl three days a week). I get to clean, cook, do laundry, dishes, and tidy up. These are things that are often viewed as monotonous chores, and on some given days, I too feel that they carry some sense of drudgery. However for the most part, I do enjoy working around the house. And when I finish my work, I enjoy writing (sometimes on the blog:)) or creating something in the kitchen. I am enjoying finding His joy on the journey and seeing where He has me. Some days, I wish it was different, but other days, I wouldn't change one thing about how life is going.

In addition to being a home-maker in the making, I'm deeply involved in fundraising for J. My friend and I had our first event on Saturday (pictures and post to come!) and we were so blessed at the response! Both from our church family, and the community around us that came out to either serve or support. Although the day of the event presented its troubling pressures, we worked through them, and the dinner itself turned out wonderful! By the end of it, we looked at each other, at the success God gave to our cause, and said "we can do this again!" (honestly, God totally blessed this thing! Can't wait to share all about it!) The night before the event, M and I looked at each other and we agreed on this point: we felt very good. We felt like we weren't just living for us anymore, we had something bigger we were doing that was beyond just us and our circle. Its incredible to me how when you're no longer looking to receive, giving is so much more rewarding.

I'm learning so much, and loving every second of it! :) Keep praying for my learning heart!

Beauty Hacks

Over the past several months, I've gotten creative, hacking and squeezing my way out of expensive products by coming up with ways to do so. Some of these I found on Pinterest, but most of them are (as far as I am aware..) 100% original ideas! :)

Makeup Hacks:

1) Mascara stretching:

This hack will not be across the board, in-home for everybody. But I wear contacts on occasion, and so I have contact solution on hand. But if you don't typically have it, this one might not be helpful for you. (This is a Pinterest hack)

I did this before my mascara started getting too terribly low, and found that it helped it not dry out at all. But if you do have dry mascara, adding just two drops of contact solution loosens it right now.  My mascara would have run out months ago, but it's still perfectly liquidy and doesn't make my eyes burn at all. My mascara has lasted more than twice as long as it normally would, and when it starts to get dry or sticky, I just add a drop or two, and it continues to work perfectly.

2) Flawless foundation:

I have two different foundation/cover all makeups that I alternate with. One of them is a foaming foundation. I really like this one because it is very light, and doesn't make my face feel caked. The other I use is BB cream. (The one I have right now is by Rimmel and I am not a huge fan..I loved the one from L'Oreal). I became really interested in makeup artistry and watched copious amounts of tutorials on youtube for weeks. Although I do not do makeup art on my face, some of the techniques were applicable to how I applied my makeup, so I began experimenting: applying with a brush. This worked soooo much better with the foam. I just dabbed the brush into the foam, and "painted it" onto my face. The look made my skin look flawless, and I was not getting any of the oils from my fingers onto my face. I then bang the brush out, and go over it with a powder and set it. When it's blended well, it looks good and flawless. I love how my skin looks when I do this way. Since all I have is the Rimmel BB cream, I don't know how this would work with other creams. The Rimmel cream is thick and heavy. It feels and smells like sunscreen (and actually has a higher SPF protection than the other BB creams I've looked at.) I've found that if I just put about a dime sized amount in my palm, and just a few drops of water, it thins it up really well and I can apply it very much the same way I apply the foam. (still like the foam better though.) This makes it feel not as heavy on my face, and has a very similar effect on my face.

3) Makeup remover:

I HATE TAKING MAKEUP OFF. It is one of the biggest drag of womanhood in my mind. Not to be all T.M.I. but I bought some feminine wipes for a missions trip I went on in June, and had a lot left over. YEP. They work perfectly for taking makeup off! Eye makeup too! One wipe does my whole face, and my face doesn't break out after using them. They're gentle and smell nice. I get Walmart brand, which is cheapcheap, and they have 48 wipes to a package. For someone who hardly wears makeup above twice a week, these last for quite a while!

Random Hacks:

I currently only have one for this category, but perhaps in the future I can add to it! :)

Homemade odor-eaters:

I try to take good care of my shoes, so that I feel comfortable taking them off around people, but somehow, that still doesn't happen so well. So I began trying different things I had heard over the years and found fault with all of them. Mom suggested cornstarch, and every time I took a step, I sounded like I was stepping on a duck. I had seen baby powder used for like everything, and tried this as well. But the odor wasn't cut completely, and when I took my shoes off, both of these solutions let me leave a white foot print trail everywhere I went. I also heard that baking soda was a deodorizer, but I found that on it's own it irritated my skin, and was very rough.

I also tried Lysol, dryer sheets, washing them, airing them out. NOTHING seemed to keep the stink out. And as I have found, nothing is worthy of promoting as totally able to work. But I have concocted my own process that seems to be working fairly well. It works best overnight, so do it ahead of time!

Spray the selected shoes with Lysol (the kind in the aerosol can). Get them a little damp, but not soaking. Mix a handful of baby powder and a handful of baking soda. Rub it around on the inside of the shoes; the bottom, top, and sides. If you get your shoes too damp, this becomes like a paste. But don't worry about it, it's ok, just rub it around until most of the inside is well covered. Let the shoes sit overnight. In the morning, they'll be white inside. Bang them out over a trashcan. The white paste is all dried up, and just comes out when the shoes are hit. I've found that I can wear my shoes several times with no stinky issues before needing to do this again.

Hope something was found helpful! :)

(Untitled Post)

It's one of those "nothing I have to say is remotely related to anything else I have to say, and thus I have no creative title to encompass it all" posts.

This past weekend, one of my best friends decided to take me out for my birthday and it was a great start to celebrating my birthday! (any reason to celebrate, right?) She took me to get my very first pedicure! (FELT WONDERFUL!) And then we tried on horrible looking formal dresses for the fun of it and then walked down to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! It was absolutely delicious! Then we went to a friend's birthday celebration for just a little bit, and then went back to her house to watch the movie I got her older brother for his birthday last month! It was a great afternoon, and we really enjoyed just catching up! With my life, that hasn't happened much right now!

This week is major crunch time for me! We had out first official fundraiser on the 5th of this month, but this coming Saturday is the first one that M and I have planned. We're a combination of nervous and excited! We've had a lot of help from some ladies in our lives, and for them we are sooo very thankful and wouldn't be able to do any of this without them! (my very own AH being one of them!)

We decided early on, that since this fundraiser was coming from a Latino community that we should do some traditional food. Her mamma, being from El Salvador, and also being the one who was cooking picked our food. It's awesome having women so willing to help us! We began searching for some donations from different stores. After asking some local Latino markets, we were donated over 45lbs of JASMINE rice, 40lbs of chicken and money enough to purchase the rest of the food! God has met every need we have had, and gone over and above our wildest dreams and prayers! M and I are completely floored. Even when we have despaired about different things, someone steps up and helps us out, and we are so grateful. We see the Father's hand heavy upon this event and cannot wait to see how He works on Saturday!

In other news, I got a part-time nannying job! She's a beautiful little nine week old beauty! She has my whole family wrapped and I love it! She's a very good baby, and even when she isn't feeling well isn't ugly about it, but just pathetic, which makes those cuddles extra special. She had her shots today, and was not a very happy little lady, and still was sweet. This job is perfect for this season in my life, because I get to stay at home, and it's only three afternoons a week. So I am able to be apart of this family and an active member of what is going on. (Also super helpful for all the planning I've been doing for fundraising!)

My life is pretty much consumed with these things, and we'll see what else God has in store. I've enjoyed serving the body of Christ this way, and wouldn't trade on second of crazy for anything!

Look for pictures soon! :) (And a finished blog!)

New Blog Challenge?

A few months back I attempted to start a 30 Day Blogging Challenge, however life exploded at the time, and a blogging challenge was the least of my concerns. Yet now here I am with significantly more time than I had then, and slim to none on the creativity scale. Although I've been busy with events, since we've already discovered my writing abilities, I'll probably just end up doing a very picture-ful post with some captions as way of explanation. I seem to have copious amounts of creativity until I set out to do something. (Such as blogging.)

So my sister suggested that I attempt another blogging challenge. She threw out ideas including a "5 new _" (foods, outfits, movies/books, friends, experiences, etc.) a photo challenge, or a run of the mill thirty day challenge. So onto Pinterest I went, (where else do we go nowadays?) and began searching for a challenge I liked the look of. I began digging and discovered that most of them included some cute things (favorite childhood book) and things I do want to do (talk about your favorite junk food, cos lets be honest, you have one.) But almost every single one was an instant "no" because they also wanted my Zodiac sign(what in the world even is this???) and my opinion on LadyGaga. I want to do a challenge I want to do...not one where I play "skippies" because the topics for the day are stinky. So I decided to kind of create my own. Using several ideas from the ones I found, and some of my own! Feel free to use it yourself!(: [Also, because I tend to chicken out at the ominous idea of thirty whole days, I'm going to do 15 :)]

1. Intro, update, and a recent picture.
2. The reason behind the name. (Tell us about your blog name.) 
3. Family History (Tell us some about the people you do life with)
4. Five songs you love right now, and why if you have a reason.
5. Favorite Verse, and the story behind it (if there is one)
6. Dream job
7. What's in your makeup bag?
8. Top Five memories 
9. Your role model
10. If you could share a conversation with any, (either fictional or historical characters, or people of power you admire) who and why? 
11. Something you want to try but either never had the opportunity or the guts.
12. Earliest memory
13. The time you failed (tell us about the time you tried something, and have to try again some other time)
14. Your favorite moment with the Father. (Share a memory:))
15. Where do you hope to be in ten years?

So there's my list!! I hope I can make it through this time!

~MadaLee

Goat's milk soap?

My mom has some friends raising money by making and selling goat's milk soap. To support them, mom bought a bar for herself, AH and myself.

Now, I've been around goats before, and honestly; they smell horrid. And I keep trying to eat goat's milk cheese, but psychologically in my quirky, mind, it tastes like goats smell. Which is...well gross. So I can't eat it, great. But we get it, (I got to pick my scent) and I thought it was going to be like...well not smell like goats milk. I decided to give it a try anyways, and discovered that the stinky scent doesn't linger on my skin. Which was great, because I began to notice some improvements right away. The morning after I showered, my skin was clearer (on my face) and smoother. (This is coming from someone who has literally tried EVERYTHING.) Although I'm still looking for that magic (and preferably affordable) cream that makes all black heads disappear and all zits non-existent, I was very pleased with how my skin looked with the goat's milk soap. So I continued to use my stinky wonder  bar, and noticed yet another improvement. Not to be all TMI here, but I've also tried some specialty deodorants, because nothing seems to work. Hot or cold, I seem to produce excess amounts of sweat and I really would rather that stop. After bathing with the goat's milk for a few weeks, I noticed that that changed a little bit. I was no longer sweating in my under arms, and have not been using any specialty deodorants because they weren't working. My regular deo seemed to be enough and then for a few weeks, I stopped using the GMS (its too long to keep typing out!) my skin got all splotchy and broke out again, and my under arms were again over productive.

So I conclude from my little personal experiment that GMS is very beneficial! May be worth a try?

30 Day (post) Challenge

I am considering undertaking a 30 Day (in my case might be 30 posts, not days!) blogging challenge! I hope any other bloggers who read will consider it as well, and readers will enjoy a bit of a personal side of posts for a while.

Here's the one I've selected:

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your siblings

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-Favorite city

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture

Coffee Brownies

I made these for my family, and they really enjoyed them! They are super moist and yummy! If you don't like the coffee, omit the granules and 1/2 c. coffee, and add another 1/2 c. oil.

Ingredients:*
2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Flour
2/3 Cup Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

(Put this in a baggie with the rest of the directions, and it makes an adorable gift!)

Mix all these ingredients together with a whisk.

Add:

4 Eggs

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

2 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 Cup coffee .

1 T(+/-) coffee granules.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 25 minutes in a greased 9x13. Then watch closely for up to another 10. Enjoy!

~Madalee

INDIAN FOOD!!

I loooove me some Indian food! I also really enjoy Ethiopian and Thai, and if you haven't tried any of these, you really should! They can be pricey, but a whole lot of fun!

I recently found a recipe for one of my favorite Indian dishes, Butter Chicken. Can't wait to try this! If you get around to it before I do, let me know how it turns out!

~Madds

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, divided 1 onion, minced 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce 3 cups heavy cream 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon garam masala 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 tablespoons tandoori masala DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). 2. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and cook slowly until the onion caramelizes to a dark brown, about 15 minutes. 3. Meanwhile melt the remaining butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat along with the tomato sauce, heavy cream, salt, cayenne pepper, and garam masala. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low; cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then stir in caramelized onions. 4. While the sauce is simmering, toss cubed chicken breast with vegetable oil until coated, then season with tandoori masala and spread out onto a baking sheet. 5. Bake chicken in preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, about 12 minutes. Once done, add the chicken to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes before serving.

Happy Father's Day!

If your dad is anything like mine, you love him dearly, but have a hard time buying for him. Dad getting a tie every year just might not be cool. You've probably seen this done, where the kids somehow write out "We love dad" or "I <3 Dad" I think the idea is really adorable, and we personalized ours by each family unit creating their own word.

I really like the simplicity of theirs, as their family adds to the "decoration"

I think they were pretty creative :)

And then each of us decorated our own letters. Bean colored hers, I have a map of South America on mine (Dad and I are eventually going to Peru) and AH did a crossword puzzle on hers (Pop really likes to do those :))

Our finished product!

It's a fun, simple, and creative way to bless Dad. The more kids you have, the more you can play with it. I've also adapted this idea for other gifts. It's a lot of fun to give to people, cos it's pretty unique :)

Have fun, be creative!

~MadaLee