Home Made Velveeta Cheese

I love to cook and make things.  One thing I love but hate to buy is Velveeta Cheese.  I do not like how processed it is.  So one day while on Pinterest I came across a pin about it.  I repined it for one of my rainy day projects.  Well it is a rainy day here in Denton so on to making my home made Velveeta cheese.  I thought it would be hard but it wasn't.  It was probably one of the easiest things I have made in a long time.  It is in the fridge now setting and we wont be able to eat for a couple of hours.  I can't wait to try it!!  Here is the link to the blog of the recipe I followed.   http://www.fromaway.com/cooking/how-to-make-american-cheese  I have decided to try and make or do most or all of the things I pin on Pinterest.  Hopefully I can share all my experiences here for you guys.  I know I always say that I am going to blog more but never do! I am going to work on that!  I PROMISE!!  :)

Just a little update!

Life has it's own way of catching you by surprise.  I am loving the way my life is going and the very few people that I have in it. 

I have bee pretty busy lately!  I love being busy.  I am the Coordinator for the Schlumberger Spouses Association here in Denton.  I love that I have very small but wonderful group.  I hope that in the next couple of months the group will grow!!  I know that this will take up a lot of my time from here on out.  This is the first time I have ever done something like this.  I can't wait to see where it all goes.

Lyla is doing good in school.  The teacher says she is doing great.  We have got three report cards so far this year and she has only had one C.  I am super proud of her for that!!!!  Next year she will start Violin lessons.  She says she wants to play a sport but I know how she is and I don't think it will last very long.  She is her mother's child!  LOL 

Carter is growing like a weed!!!  He is starting to talk more and more.  There for a while I didn't know if he would talk or not.  Lyla didn't talk til she was 2 1/2 so I kinda figured that Carter wouldn't either.  On Saturday night we went to dinner.  I had Brandon go in and get us a table while I parked the car.  As I was walking in with Carter he looked at me and said "I want my daddy!"  I couldn't believe it!!  He loves Brandon so much!!

Brandon is working as usual.  Nothing is really changing there.  He is on his way to completing his Mechanic 2 and becoming a Electrical Technician/Mechanic 3.  This will hopefully open lots of doors for him. 

Well I just wanted to give a little update since I haven't posted in a while.  Hopefully later in the week I will be able to post some recipes and some projects that I have going on. 

Brandon turnes 30!!!

On January 4th my wonderful husband turned 30!! We had talked about doing something for his birthday but never made any plans. Over the Christmas holiday I talked with his closest friends and decided to throw him a SURPRISE Party!! As the weekend got closer I couldn't wait to surprise him. I wanted so bad to tell him what I was planning but I knew that would ruin everything. All week long Brandon had talked about doing something and tried to make plans with some of the guys he worked with. All the guys that he tried to make plans with were all coming to the party. Emily (one of the guys wives) helped me plan part of the party. Her and I decided that I would tell Brandon that we were going to go and get our nails done and that Brandon and Omar (Emily's husband who Brandon works with) could go to Bass Pro Shop. On Saturday morning Carter ended up with a cough that was driving me crazy and scaring me. Brandon called Omar to tell him that he didn't know if we would be going on that night because of Carter. Emily told me while we were decorating that Omar had said that Brandon sounded sad because we couldn't go out. At that point I got really excited for the party. Pat and Crystal drove up from Victoria. Pat is one of Brandon's childhood friends. I was so happy that they were able to come. As 7 o'clock drew near and all of our guest were here Emily started to call the guys and find out where they were. FINALLY around 7:30 they showed up!! Brandon stood at the door for a moment before he walked in the house. When he FINALLY walked in we got him with silly string and party poppers. He had no idea what was going on!! I was successful and had pulled off a wonderful Surprise Party for my husband. I would not have done it any other way! Here are a couple of pictures from the party. The cake was made by a friend of ours Tiffany! She did a wonderful job!!! Thank you to everyone that came and partied with us and made Brandon's 30th birthday special!!!

 Carter likes the cake!!

Carter is a little mad because he wants the cake! 

Carter is 2!!!

I can't believe it my little boy is 2!! He turned 2 on Wednesday. We had a nice chili and corn bread dinner. Then we had cake and ice cream along with his gifts. He had a wonderful little birthday at home. I am hoping that next year we will be closer to all of our family and will be able to have a party for him. I will try to post the pictures a little later tonight. I have to upload them to my computer first.

No more Facebook!!

So I have been toying with the idea of getting rid of my Facebook for a while now.  I feel like all I do is get on to see what people are up to.  I am tired of being disconnected from my family and friends.  With that being said I guess I will be blogging a lot more.  I will need something to keep me half occupied.  I will now be able to actually work on my scrapbooks.  There are so many little projects that I want to do but I spend my time on Facebook instead.  Can't wait to see how many things I will be able to get done now!!

Cheesecake and Tater Tots?!?! HMMM

OK so recently we went home for Thanksgiving.  We had bunches of fun seeing all of our family and it made me really miss living closer to them.  Hopefully sooner or later we will be able to go back south.  Anyways for Thanksgiving I decided to take a desert to my parents.  I took Sopapilla Cheesecake.  Everyone seemed to LOVE IT!!  Brandon loves it the next morning with his coffee.  Since everyone seemed to love it so much I thought I would share my recipe.  So here it is!!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans of crescent rolls (I like the grands butter flavor)
2 packages cream cheese softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup melted butter
cinnamon
extra powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

In a greased 9 x 13 pan roll out one package of the crescent rolls.  Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.  Put that on the crescent roll and smooth out as much as possible.  Put the next roll of crescent rolls on top.  I like to brush on the butter in a nice even coat and then sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake on 350 for about 30 min.  Every one's oven is different so you will just have to check on it.  The rolls on top should be done and not gooey.  When it is done and cooled some sprinkle on some powdered sugar.


The Saturday after Thanksgiving my sister in law got married (she married my cousin)! She asked me to make one of her favorite casseroles.  It is Tater Tot Casserole.  YUMMMM is all I have to say.  We love this dish in our house.  What ever is left over always goes in a tortilla the next morning.  That also seemed to be a big hit so I want to share that one as well.

Tator Tot Casserole

1 package of tater tots.  (I like the Ore-Ida ones)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 cups of cheddar cheese
12 oz sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix tator tots, cream or mushroom soup, sour cream and one cup of cheese.  Poor into a 9x13 greased pan.  Cover with foil and bake for about an hour.  Every one's ovens are different so please check on it during the cooking.  You want it to be bubbling in the center.  The last 10 min of cooking put the remaining 2 cups of cheese on it. 

I have been trying to make different things lately so when I find good recipes I will share them with you guys.  Hope you guys enjoy these two for now!!!

CANNING

I remember as a kid my Great Grandparents canning their own pickles.  I am sure they canned other things but I remember the pickles...maybe it's because I LOVE pickles.  Because of this I have always wanted to try my hand at canning. 

About a year ago I came across this website that fresh produce for super cheap.  I always wanted to try it out but was a little sceptical. 

The website is  http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.  For $15 you get a conventional basket that is fruits and vegetables.  When they say basket, they mean basket.  It is the white round laundry basket, one full of fruit and one full of vegetables.  They also have bread, cookies (at certain times of the year), pumpkins for Halloween, and then extra add on packs.  The bread, cookies, pumpkins, and extra packs range from about $8.50 to around $15.00 or more. 

The first time I tried it was in late August. They had a Mexican add on pack.  The extra pack came with 3 avocados, cilantro, 2 onions, 6 jalapenos, 4 green chilies, tomotillo's, and a bunch of limes.  All of that was $8.50.  I couldn't go to the store and buy that for that price.  We LOVED IT!! 

So I started to watch the website for the extra packs.  Then about 2 weeks ago they had a 25 LB box of tomato's for $13.   HELLO can we say GREAT DEAL!! I was SOLD.  They also had an Italian pack that came with fresh herbs.   I bought a box and later told Brandon that we were going to try canning.  He loves to make hot sauce and I like to make my own spaghetti sauce.  So we spent one Saturday making hot sauce and spaghetti sauce then canning it all.  I have never made spaghetti sauce with all fresh ingredients.  Everything that Saturday was a first for me.

Last night we tried our spaghetti sauce and we LOVED IT!!  I think this is something that I will continue to do.