Celebrating my Husband

This week is my husbands birthday and he has requested special meals for it. 

Every year we get to do a special dinner but this year he asked if I could do a breakfast and lunch also.

Sure why not its he's special day!!

 

Breakfast is Coffee Cake-- I have never made a coffee cake so onto Google I go and sure enough I found one. I wanted to make sure he would like it so I did a test run..... twice.  The reason it was made twice was because everyone ate it so fast the first time he couldn't tell if it was good enough, the second time we made it double so everyone could taste test, that is a score in my book.

Now this isn't just any coffee cake its a sour cream and apple coffee cake from Emeril Lagasse that I found on Food Network. 

Now his coffee cake also called for a brown sugar glaze which after tasting it the first time we decided was unnecessary since the cake was perfect alone.

Here is what we used:

Apple Coffee Cake With Crumb Topping

Cake Mix

• 1 stick plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 granny smith's peeled, cored and chopped 

Crumb Topping

• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease your 13x9 pyrex pan with the 2 teaspoons of butter.

In a large bowl cream together the full stick of butter with the sugar until well combined. Add in the eggs one at a time beating each one in fully. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix together well. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ones alternating, with the vanilla and sour cream. Pour into the prepared dish gently spreading it to reach the edges.

Meanwhile in a small bowl combine the ingredients for the topping until it resembles coarse crumbs. Then sprinkle on top of cake batter. Bake 35-40 min or until golden brown. Let cool thoroughly before cutting.

Now onto lunch which is Egg Sandwiches-- We toast what ever bread we will use (I am thinking Everything bagels) and spread some mayo and avocado both sides, top it with an over medium egg cooked in a very small amount bacon grease (just enough to grease the pan and keep your egg from sticking).

Now dinner is something I am looking forward to. I haven't made it yet but totally trust my source so I will be doing it by the book this time around.

Grilled Smokey Chicken and Bacon Cheeseburger

from Barefeet in the Kitchen

 I haven't figured out what rolls I will be serving it on but I am thinking onion rolls. If you have never stopped by Barefeet I recommend you do she is amazing in the kitchen and I am guilty of using most of her recipes.

Does anyone else have special traditions for your spouses birthday or even anniversary? 

I hope you enjoyed a step into my meal planning this week,

Cris

Garden Planner - A Must Have for Gardener

Okay being laid up with a bad ankle means lots of random browsing online and catching up on blogs. Well Monday night kind of late I was reading New Life on a Homestead and fell in love with the Garden Planner she mentions.

Its called Sprout Robot.

Immediately I started my free account and looked at what I should be doing soon, based on my previous gardens its pretty accurate and very easy to follow.

I have recently been chatting with friends that are starting their first garden and they were so confused as to when to start or plant anything outside. This tells you. It takes all the confusion of freeze dates, last frosts, first frosts or anything else that makes a new gardener hesitant away.

All you do is enter your zip code and check the type of plants you want in your spring or summer garden and it comes back with a list of to do's for each week.

For example mine starts the week of Feb 20th and my to do's are starting bell peppers and tomatoes indoors. 

It even will email you before its time to do it.

Now it does have UPGRADES avalible so take a good look around to see what fits your needs most. If you upgrade it will even send you seeds to plant.

If you even considered planting a garden you should check this out and see if it will work for you. I seriously love it so far. It makes me so anxious to start planting but shows me I have a couple more weeks to wait.

Happy Gardening!!

Cris

Organized Chaos??

Am I the only person that lives in utter chaos? I don't think so but at times I feel like it. I look around at all my friends and family and I see how put together they seem, nothing is out of place, all rooms in their houses are perfect as if awaiting inspection.

If you were to walk into my house you would run away scared....just being honest. I am so not organized but over the last year I have vowed to become better organized and in a lot of things I have.

I still need more organization though.

My goals for this task is:

• Buy bookcases. We have a ton of books that we have in boxes and as we keep unpacking a box here and a box there I have come to the conclusion I just need to buy a ton of bookcases so all my books can be on shelves so we can use them.
• Minimize clothes. Now we have been doing the laundry mat and I honestly don't know why my kids have so much clothes, they never wear half of it.
• Minimize clutter. I am a pack rat, if I see something that looks like I will use it and its cheap I buy it, this is hard but so far I haven't bought anything unless it has a home.
• Make the kids more responsible. I am very picky about how things get done so I tend to take all work on myself and this past year I have learned that my kids need to start carrying some of the work. As much as I want to be Super Mom, I am not.
• More school work. Kids aren't enjoying this but we have been doing a lot more structured work. We have even decided to not work our farmers market this year like we had done in the past so that it isn't taking away from the kids school like it had in the previous years.
• Plan out meals. Now this is something we always have used but recently we have started making so that I can email or text my husband a shopping list for the week as he comes home so that if I need something fresh I have it and we don't have to spend a day going to town for it. We have been doing this all month and I am loving it. We start with a calendar on the computer and input meals, then I take break it down by week onto a sheet I have laminated and have it hanging so I can see the week at a glance.

• Car care. Unfortunately our cars take a beating with us living on unmaintained roads, this past year we purchase a truck finally and we have been doing very good on keeping it in good shape. I need to be better at cleaning it out and think that with as busy as my husband is I need to learn how to do things like changing the oil, checking fluids and over all maintenance. Not something I am very confident in yet but want to be.

Pray for me as I journey thru my chaos and try to find a way out.


Blessings,
Cris

Whooops!!!

Yep thats right I made a whoops!!.

Yesterday we were all dressed and ready to go cut wood since our pile was getting pretty low and I managed to fall off my front steps. Bad part is I don't know how or what step I fell from, it was either the 2nd or 3rd I think and all I remember was telling my daughter to watch herself. My foot was swelling pretty instantly so hubby took me into the hospital and after 2hrs of sitting there and x-rays they said its just a severe sprain. Here I am homeschooling my munchkins from bed today. All of the kids are trying to baby me which is really cute.Thankfully we have some yummy leftovers for our meals today because even getting to the bathroom is tough.

I am really bored, last week we started spring cleaning and got alot done and now here I am with a list a mile long of things leftover and I can't do hardly any of it. I will be sorting piles of junk (my name for anything without a home) to see if its keep or toss. This weekend we will go and donate what we are tossing so that its out of the house for good. Then I need to (with hubby's help now) move some furniture around and get ready for painting my living room.

Thankfully one of the blogs I read posted this and  I am having to read it over and over today as I get upset or annoyed with my foot:

Hope everyone else is having a better week then me.

Cris