Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Caramel in a Can

With summer finally arriving ice cream becomes a big hit. There's nothing better then sweet gooey caramel on a scoop of vanilla ice cream!  I found this recipe on Pinterest and have been so curious if it would actually work.  The other night I got brave enough to try!  Before I went to bed I put my can (label off) of sweetened condensed milk in my crock pot and submerged it in water.  I put the crock pot on low and let it cook for eight hours.  When I woke up in the morning I took the can out, dried it off and put it in the fridge to cool down.  We had to go to Salina that day so I had to wait til later afternoon to open my can and see if I really had caramel.  As soon as we got home I opened my can and sure enough I had the gooiest yummiest caramel begging for a scoop of ice cream!!  It worked!!
Here is the link to the gal's blog who originally posted it. (Click here)  She has excellent easy to follow directions.  I'm off to talk my husband into making some homemade ice cream for me to put my caramel on!  Enjoy!!     

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Mexican Dorito Casserole

I could eat Mexican food almost anytime it's seemed the last few months.  I found this recipe here when searching for something new and different.  This was super easy to put together and didn't take long to bake.  Even though there's Doritos in it, we both kind of ate it as a dip with regular tortilla chips.  Justin also tried it wrapped up in a tortilla which was really tasty as well.  Enjoy!    

 

2 c. shredded cooked chicken

1 c. shredded cheese (or more if you are a cheese hound)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

1 can Ro-tel tomatoes (canned tomatoes with jalepenos-mild)

1/2 packet taco seasoning (or more- to taste)

Bag of doritos

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except doritos.

In a greased 2 qt baking dish, put a layer of crushed doritos (about 2 cups), then a layer of the chicken mixture. Repeat once more, ending with a layer of chicken mixture. Top with more shredded cheese, cover, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till bubbling hot.

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Grandma's Country White Bread

Once again I found this recipe on Pinterest. I have a bread machine that I got at a garage sale several years ago, but I've never been impressed with the quality of bread that it makes.  It always seems so heavy and just blah.  I've been wanting a good recipe and thought I'd give this one a try.  We loved it!  I didn't have the white wheat flour, just white or just wheat.  I tried the white first and the bread was very moist and delicious!  I froze one loaf to see if it really froze well like she said.  We got the frozen loaf out after a little over a week and it was still moist and yummy!  I want to try it with the wheat flour to see how that turns out.  I will be keeping this recipe close for whenever we want some delicious homemade bread!  Enjoy!  

INGREDIENTS

3 cups luke-warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoon yeast

1/3 cup oil

1 Tablespoon salt

6 - 7 cups unbleached ground white wheat flour (you can use regular all-purpose bleached flour with success as well. It will make a softer, less-coarse bread.)

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and sugar. Let sit 10 minutes. Add the oil. Add the dry ingredients starting with 6 cups of flour. Mix all together. Knead the dough thoroughly until all ingredients are incorporated, and dough is smooth, elastic, very slightly sticky, and pulls away from the bowl (6-10 minutes). As you knead the dough, you may add more flour as needed, and repeat the process until dough reaches the desired consistency.

Cover the bowl of dough with a dish towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (an hour or more depending on how warm your kitchen is.) You may speed up this process by placing the covered bowl inside the oven with the oven light on, and another bowl of warm water sitting on the lower rack.

Punch the dough down, divide and and form into 2 loaves. Place the dough in 2 greased bread pans. (I use 9" pans.) Cover and let rise until the top of the dough is an inch or two higher than the bread pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the baked loaves from their pans immediately, and place on a cooling rack. Slice, and serve warm with butter and honey.

Store in an air-tight bag. Baked loaves AND bread dough freeze well.

Little Schrader's Room

Since school has been out I've had a little bit of time to rearrange in what will be Little Schrader's room and start making plans.

We ordered a crib a while back and set it up to make sure it was what we wanted.

My sewing machine needs to be moved out of the room and I will be putting a dresser against this wall.  On the top of the dresser we will put a changing pad to make a little diaper changing area.

I think I like the shelving where it is, but I'd like to paint it yet.

We need to put the shelving up in the closet.

I think I'm going to paint this little dresser as well.

I am doing an owl theme for the room.  A while back Mom and I were in JoAnn's and came across this owl fabric.  It was pieced together like a quilt.  We bought some backing and she sewed me a blanket.  I just love it!! 

A friend gave me this cute owl bank.

My little niece came to school one day with a surprise for the baby!  I hadn't told the rest of the children yet and she came in and put this bag on my desk.  She whispered,

"It's for the baby!  You can open it when we go to P.E."

After a few minutes she came back and whispered,

"It goes on the carrier!" 

Another couple of minutes passed and she was back again,

"It's an owl!"

It was the cutest thing ever!  Later her mom told me she used her allowance to buy it.  I was so touched, what a sweet heart she has!

I saw a cute owl taggie on Pinterest and decided to make one of my own.

A good friend's mom made these cute owls that are attached to a mobile.

I bought these three canvas' and I'm going to use my Silhouette to make a Daddy owl, a Mommy owl, and a Little Baby owl to hang on the wall.

Well there's a sneak peek of my plans for the nursery!  There's several more ideas I've seen places and have come up with that I'd like to add to the walls and such.  Hopefully everything will continue to come together and it will all be finished before the little one arrives!

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Congo Bars

I was searching for a dessert one day on Pinterest and found these bars.  I already have a recipe very similar to this one that I believe are called Blondies.  I've made them numerous times but they were never as good as a chocolate chip cookie.  For whatever reason I decided to give these a try.  To my surprise they tasted very similar to a chocolate chip cookie.  The middle stays gooey and moist and the top has a thin layer of golden brown cookie.  My favorite part is that they are very quick to make!  I needed a snack for life group one Tuesday and hadn't had time Monday night.  I woke up early Tuesday morning before school and quick made a batch.  They were ready to take that evening without me spending forever in the kitchen.  I never know when I'm going to need a quick dessert to take somewhere.  It's nice to have something quick to throw together if needed!  Enjoy!

Picture by Six Sisters Stuff

Congo Bars Recipe:

(Recipe adapted from Bakerella)

2 3/4 c. all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter, softened
2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 package milk chocolate chips
1 c. chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended. Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour and mix until combined. Stir in chips and then pecans.

Coat a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.