Caramel Dip

I love September! The kids go back to school, the weather cools down, and the fall colors are just so beautiful! I have a new favorite thing about September having lived in Washington State for 8 years - Apples!!!! Apples are so good in Washington! There are so many varieties! Some sweet, some tangy - all good!

A few years ago I was in charge of the Women's Activities at my church and we planned an Apple night. It was the best and a start to many cooking classes!

One of the recipes that was shared was Caramel Dip - something I had never been a fan of! It was so good it has changed my opinion. I will share it with you at the end!

Fast forward to today. Now I teach the 8 & 9 year old girls at my church and I am getting ready for my next activity. We are going to talk about apples and good nutrition! Apples are really the perfect food! So good for you and so yummy! The girls are suppose to bring a few different kinds of apples and we are going to taste them and see how each is different. Here comes the Caramel Dip, and peanut butter and nutella! Perfect dips for apples! I think this is going to be a great activity!

Here is the recipe!

Easy Caramel Sauce

from Cook's Illustrated and Kathryn Packer

(If you make the caramel sauce ahead, reheat it in the microwave or a small saucepan over low heat until warm and fluid. When the hot cream mixture is added in Step 3, the hot sugar syrup will bubble vigorously (and dangerously) so don't use a smaller saucepan.)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup water 1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup heavy cream 1/8 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Place water in heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan; pour sugar in center of pan, taking care not to let sugar crystals adhere to sides of pan. Cover and bring mixture to boil over high heat; once boiling, uncover and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored (syrup should register 300 degrees on candy thermometer), about 7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until syrup is deep amber (syrup should register 350 degrees on candy thermometer), about 1 to 2 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, bring cream and salt to simmer in small saucepan over high heat (if cream boils before sugar reaches deep amber color, remove cream from heat and cover to keep warm).

3. Remove sugar syrup from heat; very carefully pour about one quarter of hot cream into it (mixture will bubble vigourously), and let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream, vanilla, and lemon juice; whisk until sauce is smooth. (Sauce can be cooled and refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

A Wish!

Do you ever wish that you were good at something? I do! I know that I have the capability to do things, but I am not great or even good at most things.

I wish I had some kind of special talent. I wish I were one of those great mommy bloggers that seem to be able to write about anything because they seem to know everything. I really wish that somehow the things that I write helped someone or made a difference in someone's life. I wish a had a 1,000 followers!

I want to write a book, but about what? I am not an expert on anything, and I think I am humorous, but most people don't laugh when I crack a joke. I am not romantic and I hate politics. I would still love to write a book! Would you buy a book about a not so spectacular life of an ordinary mom???

I would love to be a photographer. I look at great pictures and think I can do that and then wonder why I can't get a picture of my kids without a glare on the glasses or a shadow cast on them on a sunny day! I try to get close ups of the flowers on my porch and they turn out to be a blurry mess! I even bought a fancy camera and I am very excited to get 3 shots per second, but alas, I am still taking crapy pictures!

I like to sew, craft, and bake, but I am not really good at any of it. I find a recipe or an idea and go gung ho, but they never turn out the way I picture them. I have a few little things that I can pull off, but I can't tell you how many things that I have finished with a project and thrown away! Can't give that to anyone!!!!!

I just realized something! I have always heard that you dislike or criticize others for things they do when deep down it is the things you dislike in yourself. I am constantly harping on my husband for doing things half way or just enough to get by. It is really deep down something that I dislike in myself! I have no patience therefore I cut corners and do what I need to do to finish whatever I am working on! No wonder everything I set out to do doesn't turn out the way I want it too!

I burn most everything I cook or bake because I am excited about the mixing process and get bored with the completion and it burns. I have gotten better, but that is because my microwave has a timer on it! I love the sewing part of a project, but I cannot cut straight to save my life and that makes it hard to sew in a straight line! I also hate cutting out a pattern. It is boring to make sure the pattern is set set on the grain of the fabric right and it is totally tedious to cut the little triangles that help later when you are trying to line up the pattern. They are totally useful, but take so long to cut out!

So at the age of 35, I am learning that I need to have a little more patience in my life! Maybe I will never be great at everything, but just maybe I can be good at a few things if I start to take a little time and complete all the steps in the process. I need to find joy in the steps!

Motherhood Matters Challenge

KSL's Studio 5 is have a wonderful challenge that I am share with you and challenging you to participate in! It is called the Motherhood Matters Challenge and it is a 10 day challenge from May 2nd to 13th.

Go jump on their site and read about the challenge and take it yourself! I dare ya, you wonderful mother you!!!!!!

http://motherhood.ksl.com/about-2/

This is what I wrote on their blog about my mother:

I am grateful for my mother who taught me the value of hard work. She always said, if it is worth doing, you should not do it half way, in other words, she taught me to do my best at everything. It didn't matter the grade I got or if I won or came in first, what mattered was I did my best. My best was always good enough and if I didn't do my best, I always did it again.

She also taught me to do better for others than I would do for myself. That taught me compassion, service and how to love others. My mother always went without so that her children could have whatever it was they needed and wanted. She also went out of her way to show our friends they were loved and always welcome in our house and in our family activities!

Both of these values are lacking in our world right now and I am extremely grateful my mother had the insight to make sure her children had those skills/values! Thanks mom and thank you, studio 5 for allowing me to share!

Cafe Rio at Home!

Since moving to Utah we have found a yummy little restaurant! The name is Cafe Rio and they have to die for Pork! We all love it, but the $45 price tag each time for a family of 4 is killing our budget. So what is a girl to do????? Find a fellow blogger that has cracked the recipe! And I found her!!!!! Her name is Erika and her blog is www.favfamilyrecipes.com. What a wonderful bog with lots of great recipes, but I love that she has cracked the Cafe Rio Secrets!

So here is what we came up with for dinner last night!

Green Chili Pork Burritos

So here is what you need to make these yummy Burritos:

Burrito sized Tortillas - can use whole wheat

Cilantro Lime Rice - see recipe below

Sweet Shredded Pork - see recipe below

Shredded Jack Cheese

Black Beans - I used Chili Beans and Cafe Rio gives the option of Pinto Beans too

Green Chile Enchiladas sauce or hot sauce

Make sure Pork is heated and Rice is Steamed. I used Canned Beans but you could make your own dried beans. (See Erikas blog for a great Black Bean Recipe. Click HERE)

On a Tortilla, sprinkle cheese, rice, beans and pork on top. Drizzle a little Green Chile Sauce and wrap tortilla (I fold sides in then fold bottom end up and roll over to the top). Place on a plate and cover with Green Chile Sauce and sprinkle with more cheese. Heat in Microwave for about 3 minutes. You could place in a cake pan and bake this for 15-20 minutes in a 350 oven, but I found it just as easy to microwave for 3 minutes on individual plates. Whatever your preference! Serve with chips and salsa or rice and beans and enjoy! Another Tip: If you have picky kids like I do, mash the beans up with a fork and place the meat on top of the beans and they will never know they are there!

Cilantro Lime Rice

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09/cafe-rio-cilantro-lime-rice-and-black.html

I made a few changes:

I did not have fresh Cilantro so I used dried and put it into the rice before I cooked it. I used a few more teaspoons of Lime, but I really like the lime flavor. I also did not have chicken brooth, so I instead used water and a chicken bullion cube. Lastly, I used my rice cooker instead of on the stove! NOTE: With a rice cooker you need to use less water/chicken brooth than the recipe calls for. It needs to be 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid. I used 1 cup rice to 1 cup water and 1 cup brooth for a total of 2 cups liquid. Came out great!

Sweet Pork

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09/cafe-rio-sweet-pork.html

I cannot wait to try this recipe, but for our meal last night, I used left over BBQ pork that we had a few nights ago. I added about 1/2 cup of brown sugar to the pork and heated it up. It was great.

BBQ Pork in the Crock Pot

Small Pork Shoulder or Butt Roast (I got mine at Walmart for about $6)

1 jar of honey BBQ sauce

1 tlbs fresh minced basil

1 tlbs minced garlic

1/2 yellow onion minced

Mix bbq sauce, basil, garlic and onion together. Place roast in Crock Pot and pour sauce over. Turn on low and cook at least 8 hours. To get melt in your mouth pork, you want to cook the meat until it is at least 190 degrees. That is when the fat breaks down and makes the meat tender. The meat is done when you take 2 forks and the meat will easily pull apart.

At this point we served the meat on homemade wheat rolls and with potato salad. We used about 1/2 of the meat for our family of 4. The other half of the meat was used for the yummy burritos above. We just added a little brown sugar to sweeten the meat up!

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do! And thanks to Erika at Favorite Family Recipes for the Cafe Rio inspired recipes!

Baby Car Seat Canopy

I wish I would have had these when I had my babies! Very cute idea to keep the cold off your baby, but still be able to use the handle of the carseat safely!

I found great instructions HERE. Cluck Cluck Sew has A LOT of great sewing tutorials great for the beginning sewer like me! This project would be great as a baby gift.

Fabric is the key to this one. You don't have to use the baby prints for it to be cute! Go wild! Here are a few that I found that I thought were cute:

Click on the Link to see some Fabric Choice ideas!

Sweet n Sassy Girls

Make It Do

I found my fabric at Walmart for a total of $9 for the 2 and 1/2 yards that I got. Joann's and Hobby Lobby will allow you to use 40% off coupon on 1 single cut piece.

I loved the jungle print with the strips on the other side! I think it is perfect for a baby boy!

For the sewing challenged: You can pay me to make you one or....

Get a baby blanket/quilt (that covers the entire care seat)and matching 2 inch wide ribbon. Cut 2-8 inch strips of the ribbon. Figure out where the ribbon will be placed on the blanket where it will lay on either side of the middle of the handle and where the end of the blanket covers both top, bottom and sides of the car seat. Now hand stitch the ribbon on or safety pin onto the blanket. Now tie the ribbons around the handle and you are done!!!!

Cute Valentine's Day Kid Gift

It is called an ilove and it is complete with Kiss headphones! What a great idea. The pink paper is wrapped around a box of the individual conversation heart candies.

What a quick and cleaver Valentine!