Yogurt Cornbread

My daughter drove down with her three kid-lets for a mini vacation. It's so much fun having them around! I forgot how quiet a home can be! This is my grandson Reese encouraging my granddaughter Amelia to come in through the dogie door! She can't turn the doorknob. (Yes, that's ugly foam insulation in the corner, and no molding around the door. My sweet hubby never completely finishes a project at our house, it's his only flaw. Don't tell him!)


She's almost through! Know I'll show you the cornbread!




Everyone loved this cornbread. It's more of the old fashioned style, not the cakey kind. Next time I'll make them all in ramekins, because the family loved them the most!

Yogurt Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk, I used milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar
1 1/4 cups yogurt
1/4 cup oil

Heat oven to 425. Grease an 8 inch springform or deep cake pan. I used a 8 inch square pan and two ramekins.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs, yogurt and buttermilk. Measure the dry ingredients into another bowl and whisk. Whisk in the wet ingredients until just mixed. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, ramekins about 15. It's best served hot!

Amish Friendship Bread Waffles and Hubbies REO Firetruck!

This is my sweet hubbies pride and joy! It's his 1930's REO Firetruck. He was washing it this morning. He can't really take it through a car wash with the open cab!
Do you notice the holes in the knees of his jeans? I'm stealing them from him real soon to make some more pot holders!





I like this recipe because you can make it up the night before. I didn't, I made it and used it right away, and my family ate all of them except one square! I forgot to take a picture of the big ones, so here's the one lonely square!

Amish Friendship Bread Waffles

Sponge

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups buttermilk, I used milk with 2 tablespoons vinegar
1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Batter

2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda

In a large bowl whisk the dry ingredients from the sponge, then add the buttermilk (warm it a little in the microwave) and the starter and whisk. sponge ingredients. Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature overnight, or as long as possible.

Mix the batter ingredients and add them to the sponge and whisk. Cook in a hot greased waffle iron per manufacturers instructions.

Terrific Sale Alert!

La Stella Blu is having their annual baby carrier sale. They have some terrific baby carriers and baby slings!

They have an article here on how to choose a baby carrier. Anyone that is interested in baby wearing, this is a great site to check out! What a great way to bond with your baby and still get things done!

Work For Me Wednesday and Non Fat Brownies, a super easy recipe!

This weeks theme for Work For Me Wednesday is Back to School. A fun idea is to make lunch sacks ahead of time for the year. You could even get the kids involved in making them. You can even make little notes of encouragement to put in each sack. We all know how hectic school mornings are! Head on over to We Are That Family for some more ideas!








A friend of mine at the gym told me about these brownies, so I decided to try them. I looked at all the low fat brownie mixes at the store, and it turns out that a regular brownie mix has less calories in the dry mix than the low fat. That's looking at just the mix before you add any other ingredients. So, I went with a regular brownie mix. My family loves these! They are more cakey then my regular brownies, but the have a great chocolate flavor and they are super easy to make!






Non Fat Brownies

1 brownie mix
1 can of black beans, rinsed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x9 or 8x8 inch pan with Pam.

After rinsing the beans, put them back into the can and fill the can with water, then dump the whole thing into the blender and puree.

In a mixing bowl mix the pureed beans and the brownie mix until well blended. Pour into prepared pan and bake 40-45 minutes. Cool, then cut into squares.

Hide N Seek Woodland Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Hide N Seek Woodland Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Chocolate Crepes for Breakfast and a contest!

I found this recipe in one of my cookbooks. Sloan had been asking for crepes again for breakfast, and we thought chocolate ones would be fun to try. I liked this recipe because I could make it up the night before and just leave it in the refrigerator and it was ready to go! The kids like their crepes with butter and powdered sugar.

Chocolate Crepes

3 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon cocoa
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, I used 1 tablespoon of vinegar in regular milk
2 butter, melted

In a mixing bowl whisk the dry ingredients. Whisk in the wet ingredients until well blended. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Pour 1/4 cup onto a hot greased pan and swirl around, cook until it starts to bubble then flip. Makes about 10 crepes.

Head over to Sweet Life in The Valley for a great contest! You could win an apron!

Spice Cake Made With Amish Friendship Bread Starter With Maple Frosting and my latest sewing projects!

My sweet hubby ripped out another pair of jeans, and instead of throwing them away I decided to make something out of them, so here's what I came up with!



These are some of the pot holders I made the other day. The pockets can be used to make it an oven mitt! I used some old towels for the batting and my sweet hubby's old jeans for the backs! I made these by cutting the print fabric a little bigger than the jean fabric, then turned the print down twice and top-stitched.


I made these a little different, I sewed them right sides together, then turned them right side out and top-stitched.


Then I got to thinking that circles would be fun, so I made these by tracing a salad plate, then I sewed the right sides together, turned them and top-stitched. They were fun to make! I used some vintage fabric on these.

This is Sloan modeling the apron and pot holders I made for the neighbor girl's bridal shower. The apron is lined and has lots of rick rack trim! The potholders are made with denim from my sweet hubbies old jeans and old towels for the batting. I love recycling something!

I think I'll make some more pot holders for Christmas presents as soon as I can get my sweet hubby to give up some more of his holey jeans!

Now head on over to Between Naps On The Porch to see what everyone else is up to!




I needed to use my Amish Friendship Bread starter, and I came up with this recipe. We love a good spice cake. My mother always liked to put maple frosting on a spice cake. If you don't have maple extract you could probably make this with maple syrup in place of the milk and maple flavoring.

Spice Cake Made With Amish Friendship Bread Starter With Maple Frosting

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
2 cups flour, I add another 3 tablespoons because of High Altitude
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves, we like a lot of spices, I added 1 teaspoon
2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon, I added 2 teaspoons
1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Maple Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk, you might need a little more
1 teaspoon maple flavoring

In a mixer beat the shortening and sugar for 3-5 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl measure all the dry ingredients and whisk until well mixed. In another bowl stir together the milk and the Amish Friendship Bread Starter. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk mixture. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack. When cool, frost.

For Frosting

Mix all the ingredients in a mixer. Frost cooled cake

My friends family favorite, Company Casserole!

You know, I think we all have them, a favorite recipe handed down through the family that's been tweaked a little here and there? Well, one of my good friends told me about one of her families, and as soon as she told me what the ingredients were, and that it was fast to put together, I knew that it would be good! Her family calls this Company Casserole, it's kind of a different version of lasagna, and hmmm, is it good!

Company Casserole

1 lb package egg noodles, cooked and drained
1 pound hamburger
1 5 oz can tomato sauce
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 lb cottage cheese
1 lb sour cream
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Brown the hamburger and drain. Add the spaghetti sauce and the tomato sauce and stir well.

In a bowl mix the sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese and seasonings, set aside.

In a 9x13 pan spread a little of the sauce, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Add half the egg noodles. Cover with the sour cream mixture. Add the rest of the noodles spread evenly. Drizzle with the melted butter. Cover the noodles with the rest of the sauce making sure that all the noodles are covered. If there's not enough sauce add another can of tomato sauce to cover. Cover with foil and bake at 350-375 degrees for 20 minutes.