What's 4 Supper?

I love our teens. they are a good group of kids. Last weekend, we took 26 teenagers to up state Pennsylvania to Snow Camp. Now I realize I'm from maine, but spending a whole weekend playing in the snow is not my idea of a fun time. Neither is staying up late listening to giggling girls till 1 in the morning. THANKFULLY, it was not my girls that were loud.

Upon returning from snow camp, both brian and i spent the next few days in bed sick. when I say a few days I mean Brian is still fighting to get rid of a cold. that being said, thats why the lack of posts for the past almost two weeks. But i'm back. So ANYWAYS.


Ok, so I did this post a while ago. but it needs to be done again.

So for those of you who own an, ipod touch, iphone, or ipad, or WANT one. You need to read this.

There is this awesome app called "What's 4 Supper". It's got all of these great features.

You can plan out the means for, well really as far in advance as you like.


You can put in your grocery list and check it off as you put it in your cart. NOW. not only can you do that, but it will also organize the data for you based on where it's found (example Cheese would be in the Dairy isle). That way you never have to back track.

Also, you can program it to list the items by isle. So it gets even more organized. WOAH!


PLUS, on top of that. It has a "Kitchen Helper" it's got tips and tricks, measurements, substitutions and more.

I love this thing.

However, it's not free.

It is (i think) 5 bucks. But it's TOTALLY worth it. I carry my phone with my to the store and just check things off my list. and I always know what we will have for dinner and I never end up spending more money than needed.

That and I never lose my grocery list because well, it's my phone.

If you dont have it. you totally have to. it's awesome.

ok thats all, you have to get it. it'll change your life!

-j

Ministry Opportunity

Hey friends,

Are you interested in helping a ministry that could potentially (and already has) grow our church and our school?

The Branch needs your help.

We need adults to make meals and or donate money to provide meals for students.

We have students that wait all evening after school so they can come to youth group. Most of them play sports right after school and are starving by the time youth group rolls around. Also, most parents do not bring their child home before youth group starts at 6. These kids usually do not get home until after 8pm! That is a LONG time for a growing teenage to be with out food.

PLEASE help us. Even if you do not have the resources, we ask that you pray that God will provide.

* While the meals have been approved by the church, there is not a separate "meal budget" approved by the church. You can make a donation to the youth budget or directly to Pastor Brian for specifically youth meals.

Thanks for reading this and PLEASE pass this on.

thats all for now

-j

whoopie pies take 2

Ok, So I tried Making whoopie pies again. and this is what they look like

YUMMY

As soon as they started baking my whole house smelled like pumpkin.

Now for those of you who actually read this, you know that last time I TRIED to make Chocolate whoopie pies with orange food coloring. This time I just ended up making Pumpkin Spice ones.

They are pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting.

HOLLA!

Here is were I got the recipe

I did however change it up a bit.

For the Cake part: Instead of Ginger I added pumpkin spice, and a little bit of nutmeg. I probably could have used more nutmeg and maybe a little bit of all spice. They are Spicy but not enough to be like, "OMGSH These are SO good" Just. "Oh, these are good" But I also like spicy things.

(Hence me wishing I was hispanic.)

ALSO.

For the Icing, I cut back on the butter and added more cream cheese. I added a little bit of milk in the beginning I mean like 1/4 tsp. and The icing came out running. It's different consistency than regular whoopie icing. But I guess thats ok because it's cream cheese frosting. I also added more sugar than it called for. Dont judge me.

Lastly I piped leaves and vines and use pits of pretzel for the stem. SO cute.

For those of you who are familiar with REAL whoopie pies. These are a little different, (mainly because of the cream cheese frosting) They are more like a pumpkin muffin sandwich with icing.

Now.... This is what's left. Would you believe me if I told you I did dishes in between baking and icing?

Happy Friday

Thats all for now

-j

Orange Whoopie Disaster

Ok so I'm addicted to this new site; cookiesandcups . The person who writes it is pretty funny and she usually has good recipes.

I.

Love.

Whoopie.

Pies.

I mean I love them. So when somebody posted on my wall I thought I would give them a try.

Look at how cute and perfect these are. Perfectly pumkiny orange. They are actually Chocolate whoopies just dyed to look orange.

Did you know there is a difference between liquid food coloring and gel food coloring?

Me either.

Did you know that if you put enough food coloring in, it'll mess with the recipe?

Yeah, I thought it might. But I wanted to take my chances anyway.

Last night (after i added almost all of my orange food LIQUID coloring) at 9:30 Brian and I went to safeway to find Orange Gel food coloring. Praise the Lord we found some.........But they still came out like this

They look more like Potato Shaped window clings than they do pumpkin shaped whoopie pies.

needless to say they were a fail. They are rubbery and gross.

I may try this again tonight. Or I may give up, it depends on how tired I am.

And if i do try to make these again. I am going to use my families whoopie pie recipe. Cuz well, it's awesome. For now I am just going to stare at the picture and dream. Less calories this way.

Thats all for now,

-J

Surprise!

Yesterday B told me that he was going to make dinner for me after I got off of work. It made me happy, it's nice to come home and not have to cook supper. Usually he makes pancakes, which is fine he makes awesome pancakes. So naturally I was expecting chocolate chip pancakes when I got home.

I know the quality of the pictures is aweful. But you get the point. He had gone and boughten me flowers. And for supper he cooked steaks, twice baked potatoes, green beans and later he even made a cake. I came home and cried. It was so sweet. I love my husband.

p.s. this is the first time EVER he bought me flowers. :)

thats all for now

-j

a little catching up to do.

ok. two things.

1. Over the summer I made this YUMMY tart. I guess I forgot to post it and I just found the pictures.

The recipe came from a magazine that I have. It was soo yummy. It's pie crust, a layer of chocolate. Cream cheese and whipping cream (i think) and strawberries. ohhh so delicious.And I can't even lie, that looks so awesome. I was so proud of myself.

Ok Next, We are suppose to get this Hurricane and Brian and I still aren't eating meat. So... I decided to make pizza.

Yah, thats right. be jealous. I made a margarita pizza. mmmm. Ok, so I made the pizza crust that I always make. Then while it was rising I cut up some Roma Tomatoes and in a bowl with salt, garlic, and olive oil let them sit in the fridge till I was done with the crust. I also wilted some spinach. Brush the crust with oil mixture. Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, spinach, feta, and parmesan. I also added oregano and basil for extra goodness.

It was oh so good. I'm thinking about making some bread today. However I have homework I should do, so we will see.

oh yes and that is a pampered chef pizza stone.

thats all for now.

happy eatings :)

-j

A washer for a tea pot

Wanna hear a funny story? I took a TAZO tea the other day, because I love it. It's the passion tea flavor that is Oh So Delicious. I put it in my pocket and thought nothing of it.

Guess what.... I washed it in the washer.

I thought that when I took the load of laundry out, it felt different then it should.... Probably because it had tazo tea bag flakes in it. Thankfully the packaging for the bag had plastic on the inside, so my clothes aren't tea colored. and if they were thank the Lord I like purple.

I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. I REALLY need to start looking in pockets before I throw things in the washer...Because now I'm out a delicious cup of passion tea.

thats all for now

-j

Maine girl - Meat = death

For the last 13 days Brian and I haven't eaten meat. We are doing this for the whole month of August. It's been interesting.

Growing up the only kind of meal I knew was meat and potatoes. Thats really all we dad every night. If I was lucky my mum wouldn't feel like cooking and then it would either be pasta or tacos. Now, I've grown out of that cooking style. But still, what kind of meal is it if you dont have some type of meat. ... Like I said the past 14 days have been interesting. Unfortunately there have been a few repeat meals. And surprisingly we've only had maybe two salads.

Anyway the whole point of this post is to brag at my cooking skills .. well maybe not skills but rather guts at trying new things.

Yesterday for lunch Brian and I made this sandwich. And it was awesome! Yeah, it would have been more awesome with some chicken in there. But it was still good. You have to check it out. Even if to just be impressed that a all veggie sandwich could be that good.

Also: just a tip i left out the squash. because i dont believe in eating things that are named squash... because really if thats what you're putting in your body, what is it going to be called when it comes out... just at thought

thats all for now

-j

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

I really missed my nana and mom the other day. I really can't remember my Nana making this bread, but I know she did. However, I do remember my mom making this ALL the time growing up.

My Nana was the kind of woman who made EVERYTHING from scratch. I mean everything. She had to because she was a farmers wife and didn't have the money to buy things. So she made donuts and bread and cookies and pies and. and. and. and. The list goes on. She passed down her recipes to my mom and now my mom has passed them on to me.

This is the Oatmeal Molasses Bread. it was SO delish! I can't post the recipe because then I'd be killed. BUT, I suppose if you Emailed me I could probably give it to you, if you so desire.

mmmmmm I can still smell it
Thats all for now
-j

2 months

Sorry For those of you who care. It's been almost 2 months since my last post.
You can blame it on my school work. I'd take a picture of my apartment so you'd see the explosion but I thought this would get the point across better:


Yep thats my collamore apartment at the moment. Thats my wife life, eating nothing but frozen food and or 30- minute meals.We weren't even able to go grocery shopping this week. Which is in a way a blessing because now my freezer will be cleaned out.

Although I did open the refrigerator this morning and something had died... I quickly shut the door and walked away. It was one of those "oh gosh!" moments. The kind that scare you. I'm pretty sure it's left over potato soup that stinks. It's gotta be at least two weeks old. No judgments.

I expect to live in this nuclear explosion until it's time for us to move in June. Move you say? Yeah, Thats a whole other post.

thats all for now
-j

Cinnamon Explosion pt. 1

I hope you like my name. I feel pretty proud of myself... No Cinnamon didn't explode in my kitchen... well it has, just in a good way.

I love to bake.

My husband love that I bake.

My friends love that I bake.....

I made. Cinnamon Raisin Bread

A couple weeks ago I wanted to make bread. My awesome Sister in law gave me a bread pan for Christmas. And I wanted to use it. So I did and I made cinnamon raisin bread. I made 3 loafs of it (I gave some of it away so Brian and I wouldn't eat it all.

Before I show you pictures and feel prideful about myself. I'm going to embarrass myself.

I use allrecipes.com I LOVE that website. There is a automatic calculation; you type in the number of servings you want, and it tells you how much you need of what. Well I only wanted 1 Loaf of bread. Seemed reasonable to me.

I started to make the bread and I thought "1 Tablespoon of flour?" How can 1 Tablespoon of flour make 1 loaf of bread. But I've been wrong before so I kept trucking.

Finally when I had all the ingredients in I realized there was NO way that this was going to make a whole loaf of bread. So I asked Brian what he thought. He changed the calculation to 3 loafs of bread because thats what the recipe was originally. Again. Calculations were SOOO small. Then I hear this "oooohhhhhh". Like in Despicable Me when Gru says "Light Bulb"

Brian, My Genius husband informed me that I was trying to make 1 SLICE of bread. That instead I should have been calculating 12, for 1 loaf.

Yep. He's pretty smart.

so then after feeling like an idiot, I made bread. And it was glorious. We ate half a loaf in one night. yeah, it was that good.

If you'd like to try this recipe it's

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Raisin-Bread-I/Detail.aspx

I suggest it. It's amazing.