Caramel Corn? Yes please.

Yesterday my Mom came over and brought with her all the ingredients to make this seriously

yummy caramel corn. WARNING: It's addicting.

CARAMEL:

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

½ cup corn syrup

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

POPCORN MIXTURE:

8 cups popped corn

4 cups oven toasted Rice Chex

2 cups mini pretzels (My mom found these great pretzel mini balls in Winco's bulk food, they were perfect!)

1 cup pecan halves (or whatever nuts you like)

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Spread the corn chex on a cookie sheet and toast at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes



In a large bowl combine popcorn, pecans, raw pumpkin seeds, pretzels and your toast rice chex.

Melt butter; stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

 

Boil without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully stir in soda and vanilla.

Mix all together well in a very large bowl. Pour prepared caramel over popcorn mixture and mix well to coat all pieces. Pour out onto two large shallow pans (sheet cake pans or cookie sheets).

Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let them cool and then  break into pieces.

Enjoy!!! ( and I have no doubt that you will!)

My Husbands Many Talents

I scored big time when I met Cody....not only is he an amazing loving husband and father, contractor (who seriously can do just about anything around the house), but he is an awesome chef! He went to culinary school and worked in the restraunt industry prior to meeting me. So yes, I am extremely lucky to have a good cook in the house. He cooks fancy and I cook more homestyle, so we get lots of variety! :)  For his birthday this year what he wanted was to cook a meal for other people. And not just any meal, a 7 course meal!! So we invited a few friends over and the ten of us enjoyed a 3 hour meal together. It was awesome.

Here is the menu for the evening:

Crab salad with Grapefruit

Seared Scallop Ceviche

Apple granita & Apple Chips

Halibut topped with Lemon Foam & Tomato Salad

Chicken with Risotto Cake & Peach Gastrique Sauce

Pan Roasted Filet, Roasted Mushrooms & Grilled Asparagus

Chocolate Cake & Hazelnut Gelato

We were really full by the end of the night.........

The Menus

The placecards

One of the courses - Crab salad with grapefruit. SO good!

'Chips and Salsa' is what this is called.

Seared scallop ceviche. And on our china we got for our wedding that we finally are using!

The chef preparing the dessert - Chocolate cake and Hazelnut gelato. YUM!

Boy Shoes

Here is a peak at a few of the boy baby shoes that will be in my Etsy shop soon. I am finally getting around to making a boy design. Aren't these little loafers so cute?!?

For the Love of Fall

I love everything about fall...pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking, cozy blankets, candles, crunchy leaves, cool but sunny days, rainy weather combined with a good movie or book....everything! I love the way fall makes me feel thankful and excited. It brings in the holiday season just perfectly. This past weekend Cody, Kora and I headed over to the Oregon Heritage Farms. Our plan was to buy apples but they were a bit more expensive than I wanted so I hope to make an apple picking trip soon. But we did enjoy looking at pumpkins and walking around in the beautiful sunny Fall weather.

Kora thought every pumpkin was a perfect seat for her....

Kora found a pumpkin that was just her size....too bad it wasn't for sale! She was a good sport about putting it back though.

Kora loves to pick up leaves these days.

Fall Wreath

I saw this idea for a wreath on a blog I follow Delia Creates . I just had to make one! Decorating for fall is so fun!

Homemade Laundry Soap Tutorial

So I decided to jump on the homemade laundry soap bandwagon. I had been wanting to try it for a while but was a bit nervous that it wouldn't clean clothes good enough. But I did some research and read reviews and people were very happy with it and said it cleaned just as good if not better than store bought detergents....and they were right! I have been using it for over a month now and I am really love it, plus it is a great way to save money! Another bonus is that it was actually been better for our washing machine. We have a front load washer and the liquid detergent that we had used would build up inside and cause an odor over time. With the homemade detergent that is not the case.





Here is the recipe I used:



1 cup Borax ($3.99)

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($2.99)

1 Bar Ivory Soap (Pack of 10 bars for $2.99)



For each average size load of wash I use 1 1/2 tbsp and for larger loads I use 2 tbsp. of the soap. The ingredients I purchased should give me about 10 batches of the reciped listed above and that should average about 175 loads of laundry. This equals to about $.17 per load, not bad! Plus, it only takes about 5 minutes to make up this recipe.

**UPDATE**  We have been using this recipe for over 6 months and I have only used half of the products I orignially purchased. I am pretty positive that we are averaging better than $.17 per load.

First, grate the bar of soap. I purchased a cheese grater from the Dollar Tree so that I can use it specifically for soap.

Once the soap is grated you can add 1/2 cup of the Borax and the Washing Soda. Mix it all together and you are done! So easy!

Then find a cute container to put it in (that is a must!) :)

My New Job Title

My entire life I have dreamed that when I had kids I would be able to stay home with them. A full time stay-at-home-Mom. No question about it, that is what would happen. Well, Kora was born and 3 months later I was back at work...full time. I cried a lot when I made that decision but I just knew deep in my heart that was what God wanted me to do. A sacrifice, a big one, but one that was important for my family. We were fortunate enough that we had friends and family who were willing to watch Kora while I returned to work. I thanked God for that daily. I was also fortunate enough that I had a job to return to that I truly loved. I had amazing co-workers who had become great friends and I worked for a foundation that has a huge impact in our community. So I felt blessed. So for a year and a half I juggled two full times jobs (mother and Murdock Trust).

In August Cody and I started talking and praying about the next steps in our future plans. It had gotten tougher with making childcare arrangements and we knew a change was in order. So we made the leap of faith. August 27th was my last day at Murdock. It felt right once again to be making that choice, but once again I was in tears over that decision. While being SO excited to get to stay at home with Kora I also felt like once again I was making a sacrifice...one again that was important for my family. I will miss my friends at Murdock.

I've been home with Kora now for two full weeks and I have LOVED every minute of it. I am cooking dinner once again, have a (mostly) clean house again, and I have lots of quality time with Kora.

There will be more sacrifices along the way I know. We are not blind to the fact that this transition to one income is going to be incredibly difficult. I spend a lot of time figuring out ways that we can save money, even just a dollar. "Every dollar counts"...that is my new line that I say way too often. But this experience is bringing Cody and I closer. We are both making changes. Cody started riding his bike to work. I am SO proud of him! His commute is not a short one as most of you know. But he is doing it! Making use of the max line to get into Portland and then biking the rest of the way. He ends up riding about 10 miles right now, not too shabby.

Here are a few things we are doing different in the spirit of "every dollar counts":

- Making our own laundry soap (very easy to do and so much better for us and the environment.... and a TON cheaper!)
- Drinking homemade mochas (Price and taste tops Starbucks anyday!)
- Menu Planning
- Planning a (mostly) 'Homemade Christmas'

Those are a just a few. I have more scheming in my head going on :) It is actually sort of fun to think of ways to save money. It is a good thing I like it, huh?

Thank you to everyone for all your love and support throughout these times. I know many of you have been lifting us up in prayer, thank you. Love you all and I look forward to sharing more of my stay-at-home-mom adventures with you all!