Carpe Diem

Hey, y'all!

Sorry for the lack of posts; these little ladies have been busy! We had sorority initiations, weekend roadtrips, Homecomings, formals, and a Valentine's Day!

I'll let the others tell about their events, I just want to give a little update on things back at the ranch! Deb Deb and Tom Tom have been parenting this little lonely one by herself again. We miss those girls. :) But we have been going going going here too!

Homecoming: I had my last Homecoming as a student! Ah!! I can't really believe it myself. It was bittersweet; it's just another "last" for my Senior year.

Our theme was "Holly Jolly Homecoming" and our senior hall was 4th of July!

We were proud:

^^There's my friend Anna! :)

My favorite part of the week was when my Senior class set off sparklers in our cafeteria. Yes. INSIDE. It was neither allowed nor prohibited by the administration... The smoke alarms did not go off! Which was good but also kind of scary. It was pretty smoky!

Next is Formal! My high school has a Winter Semi-formal dance the week after Homecoming...yet another "last"! It was a good time:

That's me on the left with my friends Katie and TA!

THEN I HAD A SNOW DAY!!!!

I shouldn't be so excited; there wasn't actually any snow. Yet, the threat was enough for our FAVORITE head of school to cancel school! The early Valentine's Day present was much needed. Daddy woke me up with the news. I was so happy that I hugged him! Then my mommy woke me up with Chik-fil-A! IT WAS A GREAT DAY. :)

Also on this best day ever, I baked. Cupcakes and cookies to be specific. The cupcakes were nothing special, but the cookie recipe I must share.

This is an old stand-by for our family. We call them "Drop Cookies" because you drop them onto wax paper to cool. Apparently, most people know them as "No-Bake" cookies. Daddy doesn't like them, so that always means more for the rest of us! ;) You can tell this recipe is well-loved:

RECIPE:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

2 1/2 TBSP. cocoa

Mix together on the stove top in a sauce pan and let it boil for 4min. on medium high heat. Take off the heat and add these ingredients quickly:

2 1/2 cups Quick Minute Oats

2 tsp. vanilla

(and an optional 1/2 to 1/3 cups peanut butter that I usually leave out)

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. They will harden with time.

Then eat them!! They are especially yummy warm. Do not be deterred by the copious amounts of sugar and butter. You only live once. ;)

I hope you are enjoying your February. Happy belated Valentine's Day!

~Mary Claire

Winter "Happies"

Hello, Winter! It's getting colder down here; you know what that means?

-Snow!

-Cute doggie outfits

-Dad's birthday (AKA time for cake)

-Brunch experiments

So, welcome to our house. This is what it looks like at 7:00 AM on my way to school:

This is the best house in the entire world.

There is no other place I would rather be.

I know you all have been wondering how little Tuck is doing. Mrs. P. loves cold weather because she gets to stay inside on her stoop much more. She also loves (read as: "puts up with because she gets treats") her cute outfits! Here are pictures of her favorite pink "Snuggie" and cute Christmas dress:

We know; she's absolutely adorable.

Also, December marks a wonderful time for celebrating births! Not only do we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in December, we also celebrate our Dad's birth! So this past week we partied for Tom Tom's __th birthday. :) It was a lovely evening of steaks, potatoes and good conversation around the dinner table with all of our chicks home. I took charge of the meal and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the kitchen. (Am I seventeen or sixty? Goodness, I need to get out more...) ;)

In preparation for the party, I made Dad's favorite cake! Warning: it has no recipe.

Truly, that's not my style. I like the fact that recipes are 1+2=3. Much more straightforward.

After doubling the amount of batter, resulting in overflow cupcakes, I finally produced a cake. I had to call in some reinforcements, AKA Sarah, to finish it.

Needless to say, I struggled.

MY recipe:

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 small can of Eagle Brand

Whipped Cream

Shredded Coconut (Dad likes it, we don't).

After the cake is baked, quickly poke lots of holes into the cake and pour the can of Eagle Brand over the top. Allow it to sink into the cake then cool in fridge. Put whip cream on top and coconut if you wish! :) It really is delicious!

Side note: Sarah is absolutely obsessed with Eagle Brand. She begged me to let her have the majority of the can.

It was a good time. :)

Since I am out of school, I have the opportunity to experiment with Brunch! The majority of our household does not especially love Breakfast foods, or mornings in general, so Brunch is much more our style. I decided to try out this lovely Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry recipe from Ina Garten.

(Click on the link for the recipe!)

I neglected to take pictures throughout its creation, but here's the finished deliciousness:

Mom and I, the only ones at the house awake at the time, enjoyed it very much!

Overall, this season has been treating us very well; I hope you are enjoying it as well.

Merry Christmas!

~Mary Claire

Halloween Treats!

So why do I feel like I'm the only sister blogging? :) You girls need to get a jump on it!

It is fall break for the girls so Anna and Elizabeth are home! We are so excited to spend a little time with them. Sarah took a trip to the beach with some friends during the break; maybe we will see a post about that! :) It has been really different with a full house again, but very fun.

I wanted to post about some fun treats I made from inspiration I found on Pinterest and my general love for fall! So here are some pictures and info. on the deliciousness I created!

I created: caramel filled apples, "acorns," "witches' hats," and "spider webs"!

First the apples.

Materials: apples, lemon juice, caramel, melon scooper, and toothpicks

I cut the tops off the apples for lids. Then I used a melon scooper to hollow out the inside of the apples to make it a little apple bowl (so cute!)

Then I filled them with caramel! I put toothpicks in the spheres made from the inside of the apple and dipped them into the caramel filled apple bowls! Any excess caramel and apple spheres can be "toothpicked" and made into mini caramel apples! So fun and easy. It probably took me 5 minutes per apple.

[Tip: Put lemon juice around the top of the apple and on the lid (and even the apple spheres too) to keep them from browning!]

Next up was the chocolate and pretzel spider webs! (My favorite of the bunch!)

Materials: white chocolate and stick pretzels, waxed paper, and a lot of counter space!

They are SUPER fun and delicious. Arrange pretzel sticks in groups of 6 or 8 with the ends really close. Melt white chocolate and spoon it into a pastry bag. (Or a ziplock with the tip cut off for those of us in real life) :) Fill the area in the center with white chocolate to stick the pretzels together. Then carefully squeeze the chocolate in circles over the sticks to make the webs! It takes a steady hand and few tries to get it right!

Also, it is hard to stop in the middle and take a picture.

Please excuse my face.

Last up were the easiest of the bunch: the witches's hats and acorns.

Materials: Hershey's kisses, Nilla Wafers or Nutter Butter snack bites, chocolate morsels, and Keebler fudge striped cookies

Assembly is simple. Melt a little chocolate to act as the glue. For the acorns, simply dip the bottom of the kisses into the melted chocolate and set the kiss on the wafer! To be extra detailed, add a mini chocolate morsel to the bottom of the wafer to act as the acorn stem.

For the hats, dip the kisses in the "glue" as well then stick them on the upturned cookie. For extra pizzaz as well, you can use any excess chocolate to pipe a little bow around the kiss. Ta-da! A hat.

I would call it a successful day. :)

Happy Fall and Happy (early) Halloween!

-mary claire