Christmas craft

LONG overdue! Here's one of the Christmas crafts I worked on a few weeks ago. Turned out really cute! 

          ~Nat

Emily's birthday cake

November 27th was Emily's birthday and I wanted to make her birthday cake. My mom was PERFECTLY fine with that! Here are some pics:

It was pretty awesome! It was 3 cake mixes! I did a thin layer of cream cheese icing between the layers because I didn't want it to be TOO sweet. 

The cake was SOOOOO pretty!! I just wished I had a white cake stand for it. It has motivated me to start looking for one. Everybody loved it!! 

Happy birthday Em!!! Love you!!

          ~Nat

Turkey Day Part 2!!

WOW...I've been terrible at this lately!! Things have been crazy!! So I want to finish up my Thanksgiving post almost a month later!! Here's the other recipe I have for the MOST amazing queso ever!!

Queso Recipe:
1 block (32oz.) of Velveeta Cheese
1 package (8oz.) of cream cheese
1 can of Rotel
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 lb of beef of sausage (or both)

• Brown ground beef or sausage (or both) in pan over medium heat and set aside. 
• Cut up Velveeta and cream cheese into cubes and place into a crock pot. (I just used a pot on the stove and let it on almost the lowest heat setting.)
• Pour in the Rotel and cream of mushroom soup and stir ingredients together. 
• Place the crock pot (or pan) on low setting for an hour, letting the ingredients meld. 
• After about 30 minutes add the browned meat and continue to let cook, stirring as needed.

When I make queso I usually would just use Velveeta and a can of Rotel. Honestly, I didn't think this recipe tasted much different from mine, even with the meat in it! Spence thought it did! I think it just made it more creamy and thick. Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious and super easy! 

Here are some other pics from the day: 

This is my cousin's dog, Rosco!!!! We love him, especially his cute bat ears!!

Then the rest of the night was followed by the A&M vs. UT game and Black Friday shopping!!! It was a great holiday! Can't wait til Christmas when we get to talk to Stephen!!!!


          ~Nat

Turkey Day Part 1

Well I haven't posted in a while so I figured it was about time! Of course I've got some recipes to share! Thanksgiving day we spent at my parents house. Spencer's parents joined us along with other family and friends. I love Thanksgiving and spending time with family. You eat until you can't breath, sleep, and then eat some more. AND of course we got ready for Black Friday shopping!!! After lunch/dinner we sat down and looked at the newspaper with all the Black Friday ads in it. 

Here is my first recipe. We were asked to bring a dessert. I figured by the time dessert comes around every body is so full they want to die (you know that doesn't stop us from eating dessert) and so something light would be the best thing to bring! I found an awesome, really easy strawberry cream pie dessert and made two of those to bring. Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Cream Pie:

Crust (I used premade crust. I bet it would taste delicious with a homemade cookie crust.)

1 small package of sugar free strawberry Jell-O

1-8 oz. tub of cool whip

Strawberries--Washed, sliced, and sweetened

This is all you need! So awesome. I've got double of everything because I made two pies.

Dissolve the entire package of the strawberry jello in a 1/2 cup of hot water until jello is dissolved. Add 1/2 cup of ice cold water and stir. Add the entire tub of cool whip and stir until well combined. Chill jello mixture in the fridge until it starts to thicken. (It will thicken in about 20-30 minutes).

Stir the mixture until it is smooth.

Next, remove from fridge and fold in slices of strawberries. 

I left them in the fridge like this overnight. Then Thanksgiving day I added whip cream and strawberries to the top. 

Now I'm hungry!

The pie was REALLY good and perfect on a full stomach! : ) The pie tasted SO much better a day of two after Thanksgiving. I think it's because the flavor had more time to set in after being refrigerated for a little longer.

 This concludes Part 1 of Thanksgiving! MORE to come soon!! Thanks for following!

          ~Nat