Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Today I tried out my new KitchenAid stand mixer. This was my lovely Christmas present from my wonderful husband.  This year was the first time I didn't really request a specific gift, but I was thrilled with his choice. It was very unexpected.

For my first cooking project with the mixer, I decided to do a Chocolate Chip Pound Cake. It is absolutely delicious. I have included the recipe I used below. It came from Recipe Gold Mine. I hope you enjoy!



Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

1 cup sweet butter

8 ounces cream cheese

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

12 ounce mini chocolate chips (I used the regular size)

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10-inch tube or Bundt pan (unless it’s a nonstick pan).

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Gradually add the sugar, eggs and the remaining ingredients in order they appear. (I sprinkled extra chips on top before I baked it.)

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack and invert onto a serving platter.

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Lolly Jolly Christmas Cookies

Lollipop Cookies

Just a fun way to wish a friend a Merry Christmas.



Have a "LOLLY" Jolly Christmas!



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Lollipop Cookies

Lollipop Cookies

It's the holiday season, so there are lots of festive parties to go to. We are going to a small get-together tomorrow where there will be kids, so I thought I would bake some kid friendly cookies.  These are lollipop style cookies minus the stick. They are very easy to make. Basically, I took sugar cookie dough and used food coloring to get four different colors. I then rolled pieces of each color into small snakes. Next, I spiraled the colors together. Bake according to the recipe. Enjoy!

Lollipop cookies are great for birthday parties, too.

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Marshmallow Pinwheel Christmas Cookies

Christmas Cookies

Marshmallow Pinwheel Cookies

I made these for Madison's 8th grade school Christmas party.  Simply use food coloring in sugar cookie dough. Roll out a layer of green and then put a layer of red right on top of it.  Roll them together into a cookie dough log, like you would buy the slice and bake dough. Put it into the fridge for an hour and then slice. Bake according to the recipe.  Once cooled, make into a sandwich cookie with marshmallow cream inside. YUMMY!

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Publix Coupon Savings

Publix Coupon Savings

Spent $29 - Saved $60 ...
The cashier was impressed! My pocketbook was too.
A special thank-you 'shout out' to the website I Heart Publix! 
I use this website plus many others. 
I am beginning to think couponing is fun.

Plus, I couponed in style using my new hand-made by ME coupon organizer.

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Always in a Hurry

~ my personal synopsis of a recent sermon~





Are you stricken with the sickness that seems to be plaguing so many people today?  With this sickness, there is no fever involved and no visits to the doctor. Its symptoms affect everyone around you, but most importantly, they affect you. The worst part about this sickness is you miss out on so many of life's wonderful moments. 

It's called hurry sickness.  Does it sound familiar? It's otherwise known as a sense of time urgency.

Ask yourself, "Is time a major factor in my life?"

Do you find yourself running around trying to get one thing done just so you can complete another?

Does your job place so many demands on you that you can hardly focus on what your real role is supposed to be? Maybe your real role at work involves people, yet you have so much paperwork to be completed you could easily forget about the people you are there to serve. Maybe you even start to see them as an interruption.

Do you take your work home with you and when your own child asks you a question while in the midst of getting your work done, you only give them a tiny portion of your attention, nodding, and not really knowing what they are saying? After all, you have deadlines to meet. You are hurried. Maybe you even start to see them as an interruption.

Hurry hates interruption.

        You can't love.
               You can't listen to a child.
                      Basically, you can't multi-task attention.

Hurry is an enemy.

Take note, being hurried is not being busy.  Being busy can be a good thing.  There is nothing really good about being hurried. Remember, being hurried is about time urgency.  You don't have time for one thing because you are so hurried to do another.

If you are a hurried person, you don't have time for interruptions in your life.  You don't have time to jump some one's car off. You don't have time to talk to someone in need.  You don't have time to help the person who dropped something.  You can't slow down long enough to talk to your kids.

So, what is your IQ anyway?  No, I am not talking about your intelligence quotient.  I'm talking about your Interruptibility Quotient.  How many times do you allow for interruptions in your life?  Do you slow down long enough to let God interrupt your life?  What about when you didn't stop to help a person or talk to someone in need? Was that a prompt from God?  It does make you think.

The next time you feel hurried or overcome with time urgency, take a moment to ponder if this interruption is really a disguise from God that he is trying to work in your life.  I plan on trying it myself. 

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Coupon Organizer

No-Sew Coupon Organizer

I was looking for a small bag to hold my plastic accordion coupon folders but nothing really appealed to me.  So, I decided to make one myself.  I am a novice when it comes to sewing, therefore I went with a no sew coupon organizing project that uses some of the same techniques you would use with a needle and thread. I laminated the fabric using iron-on vinyl laminate.  Believe it or not, it is all sewn together using staples and white duct tape. It is amazing how durable it is. I used stick-on Velcro for the closure flap.  I think it turned out pretty cute, and it will serve its purpose of holding my coupons just as perfectly as I had planned. What do you think?

  

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Things that Annoy

Do you have anything that absolutely annoys you?  Things that don't seem to bother other people, yet they get on your ever lasting nerve.  To some people, this might be called a pet peeve. Wikipedia says that a pet peeve is a minor annoyance, but I am afraid that mine is more than minor. What do you call it if it reaches 'major' annoyance?  Good question, ah?  I'm probably getting into some kind of psychological diagnosis when it gets to that point.  HA!

My annoyance is  going to seem ridiculous to some, but here goes.......

No, it's not the potato chips and Pop-tarts themselves.  It's the packaging!  I can not stand to hear the rattling of the package.  For example, if someone is sitting beside me and they keep sticking their hand inside the package to get some chips out.  I hate the sound every time their hand reaches in the bag.... over and over again.... so annoying!  If you are sitting by me and you eat a Pop-tart (or anything else in a package), please, please remove it from the package and put it on a paper towel.  I hate the crinkling sound of each time someone reaches for more. I know, it's crazy!  oh well. 

My kids and husband have pretty much gotten used to me saying, "That gets on my nerves!"  When I was teaching and it was snack time, my students knew the routine from day one....no packages!! Either use a Zip lock bag (not nearly as much noise) or put it on a paper towel.  If they didn't know what a pet peeve was before they came to third grade, they went home from the start with a new vocabulary word.  Plus, they got a good laugh out of it.

I am not alone when it comes to stuff like this. Some favorite annoyances shared on the Internet are:

• People who drive under the speed limit.
• People who block the aisles in Wal-mart, talking
• Pens clicking
• Whining
• Smacking food
• People who take up two parking spaces
• SO many more!!

 It's packages for me, but it's other things for other people.  With me, I probably have some kind of sensitivity to high-pitched sounds or something like that. What about you, do you have anything that annoys you?

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Coupon Savings

I have always been surprised at how much money people can save using coupons. I have heard about people using store sales plus adding a vendor coupon on top of that, and then even adding a store coupon. I thought I would give it a try just to see how much I could save. My plan was to start slowly, focusing on a few items and not a full shopping trip. I used several websites to help me out. Let me first say, it is going to take a LOT of work if I want to become a "coupon mom". I mean HOURS until I get the hang of it.

Here is how my first trip went.  I was pretty pleased.  I didn't buy much, but everything I bought I do use.  I went into the store only to buy these items. If this is any indication of future savings, I am pretty much hooked on couponing!  If I had practice, I am sure I could have saved even more.

I spent $27.96 and I saved $39.34

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Faith Journey

~ my personal synopsis of a recent sermon~

As you work to strengthen your faith, do you find yourself wrestling with God?

It's funny how people sometimes seem to have a little 'g' god.  This is the god they created.  These people go to church, they are kind and generous, but when it comes to their own sin, they are a follower of their 'god'.  These people create a god the way they want god to be. It is a fabrication of reality. Their god is more accepting of sin, especially their sin.  Their god will continue to overlook repeated sin, especially their repeated sin.  Their god is okay with their cheating, lying, and deceiving. Their god is okay with being a follower on Sunday and not Monday-Saturday. These people are willing to condemn others for sinning, but they know their god will overlook these same actions when they display them. Basically, these people are pretending to be something they are not.  They pretend to be a follower of the big "G" God, but the reality is, they are not. Point being......God can't bless pretenders.

So, when God asks you, "Who are you?"  What do you say?

Are you a follower, or are you a FOLLOWER?

It's sort of like being asked the question, "Can you ride a bike?"  What do you say?

Let me ask you this, "Can you ride a bike, or can you RIDE a bike?"

If you said you can ride a bike, take 5 minutes to watch this video, and then continue reading below.

Understand that there is riding a bike, and then there is RIDING a bike.  There is being a follower, and there is being a FOLLOWER.  A true faith journey can be a radical ride. There is always a natural resistance to God.  This ride can be mysterious in that there will always be things you don't understand.  It can be exhausting as you try to understand but can't.  You will have to dig deep, and then there will be even more you don't understand. Then, in the end, you will be blessed.

Being a follower of God means letting go of the God you have created, yet never letting go of the God that created you. Be a follower of the big "G" God.

I might also add that I am continually working on my own faith journey.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last night I broke out the Christmas decorations.  In doing so, I planned to purge any decorations I hadn't used in years due to my basement space getting a bit cramped with boxes.  I have lots of decorations, but some are sort of getting a bit dated and old crappy looking.  I am so bad about throwing my Christmas stuff out or donating it, or should I say 'not' throwing it out.  I always think that maybe I will use it the next year.  I ended up boxing most stuff I didn't use right back up.

I was sort of excited about getting the tree decorated, but honestly, this is the first year my two older kids didn't seem thrilled about helping out. I turned on some Christmas music to help create the mood, and they ended up getting into the spirit once we got started, but before hand, I felt like they were really wishing they were outside playing with their friends.

Madison was a bit disappointed that we weren't able to put up our annual big Christmas tree, but I decided with a crawling seven month old and the risk of him messing with the tree,  and facing possible choking hazards, it just isn't worth it. With a recent visit to the doctor for a well-visit, I was reminded of the number of chokings that happen due to Christmas tree decorations.  This year we put a six foot tree on top of a table, and I think it worked out nicely.  Below you can see that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Phillips' house....... 

Don't you just love the holidays!

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Santa Baby

"I have been a good little boy!"

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Chocolate Chip Pie



It's Chocolate Chip Pie for Thanksgiving Day!

Pumpkin pie just doesn't work for the Phillips' kiddos, but CHOCOLATE sure does! My kids love pretty much anything that has chocolate or chocolate chips. And with it being Thanksgiving, I had to make a dessert I thought they would enjoy.  I didn't want to make regular 'ole chocolate chip cookies, although they are indeed yummy, because we eat those all the time.  Instead, I was looking for something more holidayish probably not a word, but oh well.  I went looking for something extra scrumptious, and that is when I came across the Chocolate Chip Pie recipe by the wonderful Paula Deen and the Deen sons. This pie received a five star rating, and I have to say that even though I haven't taken one bite yet, by the looks of them as they are cooling, I would have to guess that they are probably going to be a five.  See what I'm talking about!

Click here for the Chocolate Chip Pie recipe.  Enjoy!

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