Mmmmmm Yummy!!!

Does everybody else love bread as much as I do? Not just bread, but cookies and muffins and biscuits too... haha

Last night, Scott & I decided to have a few friends over for dinner. This isn't exactly anything out of the ordinary for us, but its been awhile since we've had people over at our house. Lately we've been going to everybody else's home!

So yesterday afternoon I put a very nice looking beef roast on our smoker after coating it in Cabela's Bourbon Man Rub (wonderful seasoning by the way!) followed by looking for a bread recipe to go with it!

After searching though all my cook books and not finding one that I had all of the ingredients for AND sounded good, I took my search to the computer! I really enjoy using a couple of different cookbook type websites. One is cooks.com and the other is allrecipes.com! This is where I came across a recipe for Rosemary bread, which I had never had before but it sounded great! I just wanted to share this with everybody because it was a HIT last night! There was nothing left of it by the end of the evening.

So here it is.

Jo’s Rosemary Bread (Macaroni Grill type)

INGREDIENTS

· 1 cup water

· 3 tablespoons olive oil

· 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

· 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

· 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

· 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

· 1 tablespoon dried rosemary

· 2 1/2 cups bread flour

· 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Yeast + 1/4 c. warm water, wait 10 minutes.

2. Add flour, salt, sugar, oil, 3/4 c. warm water knead like heck!

3. Add the herbs & pepper and knead some more! (Other substitutions - oregano instead of an Italian blend or fresh rosemary instead of dried!)

4. Let rise an hour or so in an oiled, covered bowl in a warm place.

5. Punch down, let rise another hour.

6. Form into round loaf and bake at 375 until browned. (This took about 30 minutes)

7. Remove from oven, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Serve with olive oil and fresh cracked pepper. Oh, and don't forget the wine!!! haha YUMMY!

Hello Fall!!!!!

Last night after putting Kymberlyn in bed I couldn't help but feel like fall is officially here!!! Its a little sad, because I really never felt like we had a summer! Kymberlyn & I only made it to the pool a couple of times and the hot days that use to send us down to the river to cool off on a sand bar were few.

I have to be honest though, I LOVE fall! Crops coming out of the field, brisk morning air, deer season right around the corner and probably my favorite part --- starting our wood stove. There is nothing better than the feel of cozying up on the couch with the heat of the wood stove around me. However, with Kymberlyn being more than active, we've had to make a few adjustments to keep the wood stove area childproof!

So anyway, last night I decided it was time to make some firestarters. I've seen these at craft shows before and then found some instructions on a candlemaking website. Really easy to make! I used scrap pieces of bark and old potpourri set in cupcake paper. I did put a wick in each of these although I've been told that isn't completely necessary since the cupcake paper will light as well.

After you've arranged your wood in your fireplace or wood stove, you take a firestarter, place it in the middle and light it. Its a very quick and easy way to get your fire going! The wax burns up completely and doesn't leave any residue.

The first batches I made last night are unscented, but I'm planning on making a few scented batches as well. I'm thinking about making cinnamon, cedar and balsam fir scented firestarters. If you have an idea for a scent or would like to try some let me know!!!

Container Candles

Oh I have been having so much fun lately!!!! I've been making candles like crazy! I don't know why, or what I'm going to end up doing with all of them but they are sure fun to make! haha I feel like a mad scientist melting the wax and adding the dye and fragrance oils.

I found a bunch of cute containers from Goodwill and the Thrift Store in St. Paul. It's a little bit harder to get the correct wick size on some of the odd size containers, but its been a fun process just the same! I have some jelly jars and mason jars that are easier to wick if somebody wanted me to make them something in particular.

I'm one of those people that like really smelly candles and lots of different scents so I'm constantly checking online to find different fragrance oils. The great thing is you can find nearly any fragrance out there, I've even found some discontinued fragrances that I'm really excited about!

Family and friends will probably be getting these for Christmas gifts! hahaha Cuz I'll eventually run outta room for all of them. So weigh in on what scents you like if you haven't already!!!

Its been quite interesting, I'm still playing with dye colors and such, I'm about to order some liquid dye and see if I like that better.

The 2 candles burning in the picture (on the right) and the tealights are lavender scented (very relaxing). The green one in the back is called Fireside Embers, very much a fall scent. The peachy pink one is Jasmine Vanilla, its still in the curing process, but the cold throw is really nice. The blue candle in the middle I just made yesterday afternoon is called Midnight. If you were walking on a moon lite beach this is what it would smell like... I wish I could have gotten the blue a bit darker, but hey, if I like the hot scent throw I'll make it darker next time!

The candles on the right side, I made last night with a Sandalwood fragrance oil. These will cure for at least a couple weeks before these get burnt, but the cold throw is really nice so far! The color was a little experimental, next time I'll use more brown I think.

Other fragrances I have on hand right now is Juniper Breeze, Jasmine Vanilla, Cappuccino, Gingerbread & Maple Syrup, Red Hibiscus & Acai, and Ocean Breeze. I have others that I'm waiting patiently to order!!!! But I will probably be ordering different dye soon also to give me more color options.

Craziness & Crafty Stuff!

I know its been forever since I've been on here to give an update. The month of August was completely INSANE! Weddings, birthday parties, traveling to visit family, family traveling to visit us, I'm ready to be at home for awhile.

Kymberlyn's big 1st birthday was VERY successful! It was a fantastic turn out, she survived the whole day and was in great spirits! She got WAY too many toys of course and quite a few super cute outfits for this winter!

She had her own birthday cake that Grandma Joyce made and it was hilarious watching her eat it. She was so careful to ONLY eat the frosting!!! We tried getting her to eat some of the cake itself and she picked it up and threw it away! haha

With all the activities we had going on every single weekend it made it nearly impossible to do anything else but prepare for the next weekends worht of activities! But now that that's all over for a little while maybe I can get back to my hobbies...

In addition to my yoga practice which I am still thoroughly enjoying, I've gotten into candle making as well! Its actually alot easier than I even thought it would be, though it'll be awhile before I can compete with Yankee Candle, mine are DEFINITELY better than anything I've ever tried from Wal-Mart, Kmart, Shopko, etc.... I'm only doing container candles at the moment, but I'm going to start doing some experiementing with some firestarters for our wood stove.

I started using a 100% soy wax, just because I really like the thought of using sustainable products. Its the same price as parafin wax so why not right? Help the farmers!!! It will definitely keep me entertained this winter when its not exactly "nice" outside... But I am looking forward to using the wood stove again!

I posted that thought on Facebook the other day and got message after message telling my how insane I am! hahaha I like the wood stove! I love the type of heat it puts off and the warm, cozy feeling I get from it. I didn't say I love winter or having to go outside and freeze off my unmentionables!!!

As I create more candles and other fun goodies I'll probably post some pictures. I would like to know, what is everybodys favorite candle scent? Or any scent for that matter, perfume, cologne, foods, sweets, nature smells... I wanna know!

Cookies & Wine

For those of you that don't live in a rural area, or the sticks and I like to call it, entertainment isn't very easy to come by. Those that do, know what an evening with friends in a small town is like... There aren't many activities to go participate in no matter what day of the week it is.

Last night one of my great mommy friends called me to see what I was up to already knowing that Scott was out of town again for another week. My usual response is "Not much", which is really code for "NOTHING AT ALL" if it was possible to be doing "less than nothing" that’s the group I would be in.

My normal routine is much like any full-time mom, it revolves around your children. Get up, eat, change clothes, play, eat, nap, eat, play, change clothes, go to bed! Yeah, I know I said “change clothes” twice, that’s on a good day!

Well, it so happens that two of my mommy friends and me were all without husbands this week! So to break up the week we decided to get together.

This is called “Wife’s Without Husbands Night”.

We made burgers and mac and cheese for the kids and let them all play together outside while we sat on the front porch with a bottle of our favorite wine and B.S.ed the night away. This is a fairly normal activity for us but, its one of my favorite things to do!

When this friend called and asked me what I was doing, I was making chocolate chip cookies at 9:30 at night. I only wanted one cookie and had no other sweets on the house, so the Betty Crocker in me took over. My only requirement for coming over the next night was to bring the cookies.

Kymberlyn is the youngest one in this group for right now so I get to listen to the funny stories about their kids and all their antics. This usually follow with "See what you have to look forward to?" or "That's gonna be YOUR child!” Stories about the kids always crack me up.

The three of us think alike on a lot of different topics, which is probably something that our husbands worry about. But more than anything else its so good to have girlfriends that can understand what its like to have your spouse gone.

Sometimes its almost like we become each others spouses when our husbands are away. You always know if you need something they’re just a phone call away. Not to mention the fact that we’re all extremely easy to track down.

So girls, thank you. Thanks for being the best girlfriends I could have.

My Newest Hobby

Since becoming a stay-at-home mom, I've been trying to find a hobby for myself. A hobby that really means something to me, that is for me only that I can do in a limited amount of time. What I needed from this new hobby was to really be able to make it more than a fling. I've had plenty of those hobbies that I tried out for a couple of weeks and decided it was too time consuming or expensive or whatever.

I started looking at my friends hobbies to find something that might be a good fit for me. I have really enjoyed baking and cooking, but with Scott being gone all the time, who in the WORLD was gonna eat all that food??? Certainly not me, I'm still working on losing the "baby weight", which I've been told you can call it that for anywhere from 2-5 years! So, that's what we're calling it. Anyways, baking/cooking everyday was wasteful with nobody else to eat it so on my search continued.

Whatever it was, I did want it to be something healthy for myself. Lately I had been feeling incredibly stressed out with all the obligations that Scott & I have and I really needed a good form of release. So one day I'm in Grand Island and on a whim decided to stop at Hastings Bookstore to see what I could find in the catagory of "stress release, hobbies and fitness". It was there that I found a book on Yoga!!

I know, hilarious right?

Its only for skinny, veggie eating, tree huggers right? Oh no! I sat down in the aisle and read a few paragraphs of the opening chapter and it sounded like exactly what I'd been looking for!

I left the bookstore with one book entitled Total Yoga and then stopped at Wal-Mart and bought an exercise/yoga mat. After I started to read the book I found out that Yoga is more than awkward poses and saying "OM". The book shows you how to get into the pose as well as getting back out (which is MUCH more important than it sounds!!!).

It's been about a month since I started doing Yoga. I usually practice in the evenings after Kymberlyn goes to bed and make that my quiet time. There's something very relaxing and therapeutic about it if you let yourself really fall into each pose and listen to what your body is telling you. For myself it's a time for relaxation, reflection and meditation. I download podcasts off of iTunes to give me variety, plus they have music with it and guided instruction.

If you're looking for something to help relieve stress, lessen back pain or shut your brain off after a long day; I highly recommend trying Yoga. Though I will not be giving up meat or going on any nature retreats anytime soon its definitely something I'm going to continue doing and learning more about. Even though it'll be awhile before I successfully make it in AND out of chakrasana (wheel pose) or bakasana (crane pose) I'm excited to get there.

Small town Life

So after much reading of all my other friends blogs, I finally decided to create one for our family to keep everybody updated. It seems like we're always so busy and its near impossible to keep up with everybody anymore! Not to mention then you'll get to see and hear about all of our small town adventures!

To give a recap on whats been going on with us, Scott is STILL traveling out-of-town for work every week. He's currently in Colorado right now and will be for another week I think. I am a stay-at-home mom, which I will be honest, I NEVER thought that I would enjoy doing! But I really love being able to be with Kymberlyn and watch her learn and grow and explore. Somedays more than others but I would much rather be at home then have to be at a job that I don't enjoy.

We live just north of St. Paul, Nebraska where we have some really great friends that have become like family to us. As far as we're concerned, this is home! St. Paul is just over 2,000 people so we're really excited about Kymberlyn being able to go to school here. Small enough that she's not just a number, but big enough that she'll have plenty of opportunities to do just about any activities she wants.

So, here as where you'll hear about rural life with our 3 dogs Scylla (7 yr. old Great Dane), Louie (3 yr. old Great Dane) and Panzer (1 1/2 yr. old Rottweiler). All of our hobbies and of course my adventures in baking, cooking and other domestic duties will also be included! Everybody should get a big kick out of that!!!

Anyways, stay tuned! I'll be adding pictures and links as we go!