Anyone that
lives in Chicago knows (or should know) the deliciousness of Portillo’s
Chocolate Cake. It is the BEST chocolate
cake anywhere. Now that I live in
Atlanta, not only do I miss the hot dogs and cheese fries (I'm on a personal quest to bring Portillo's to Scenic Hwy.), I also miss the
chocolate cake. I’ve even converted Joe
into a lover of Portillo’s chocolate cake.
He requests it when we’re back visiting my family. He even went on a business trip to Chicago a
couple of years ago and had to get some cake while he was in town! I had seen copycat recipes for quite some
time, but I was always a little leery of trying one in fear of it not being
anything like Portillo’s cake. I decided
to make one for Sam’s 2nd birthday.
It was a hit with the three of us and really easy to imitate. If you like chocolate cake, this is a really
close second to the actual, real Portillo’s Chocolate Cake.
Here are a few notes about the recipe. I didn't have large eggs the day I was baking the cake, so I used 4 medium eggs. The original recipe I used called for 3 large eggs. The recipe also called for 2 cans of frosting and I opted to use one. One was plenty, but if you like a lot of frosting, similar to Portillo's, go with the two cans of frosting.
Copycat
Chicago’s Portillo’s Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
1
Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil’s Food Cake Mix (It's important to get the Super Moist kind even if you use another brand.)
3 large eggs (or 4 medium if you don't have large)
1
cup ice cold water
1
cup mayonnaise
1
can creamy Chocolate Frosting (or 2 if you really like frosting. I use one.)
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 2 9” cake
pans. Beat all ingredients together for
4 minutes until smooth. This will make
the batter creamy and fluffy.
Pour in
pans and bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
Here's a simple list with links to local upcoming Fall Festivals. Some of these festivals are the entire weekend, but I listed all festivals on the Saturday of each weekend. Click the link for the festival to find out more details and if it's being held multiple days.
I found this dip on Pinterest a while back, and
it’s been my go-to party dip ever since.It’s extremely easy and great to feed a large group.I have served it with Ritz crackers, Wheat
Thins, pretzels, tortilla chips, carrots, celery.If you make it a few hours ahead of time, the
tastes blend together even better!
Tailgate Dip
1 red pepper
2 jalapenos,
unseeded (optional)
1 can of corn(drained)
½ can diced olives (I find it much cheaper to buy a can of regular olives and chop them in my mini-food processor. Sometimes I'll put the whole can in the dip, too!)
16 oz cream cheese(softened)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
1 packet Hidden
Valley Ranch dip seasoning
Mix all ingredients.
Serve with crackers. Delicious!
My thoughts: I think it might be
good with something like black beans, too, Or you could change it up and add
spices or swap out the Ranch packet. Lots of possibilities!
Fall is finally here! I absolutely love fall...the colors, the sounds, the festivals--all of it! I decided to try this simple, two-ingredient recipe for pumpkin muffins that I found on Pinterest. I figured if they didn't turn out, it would only waste two ingredients. They turned out great and people have loved how they taste! Give 'em a try this autumn. They'd go great with a cup of hot apple cider.
Here’s another slow cooker soup I threw together yesterday. I had most of the ingredients in the pantry,
so it was something pretty quick and easy to put together. This was one of those soups that you can just toss in a can of this or a cup of that if you have something you want to use up.
Tortellini
Chicken Soup with Black Beans
Ingredients
1
can black beans
I
can Rotel (I used Aldi brand.)
1
Can Mexicorn (I used Aldi brand.)
1
can diced tomatoes
1
onion, chopped or diced
1
small green pepper, chopped or diced
1
small red pepper, chopped or diced
2
32oz. chicken broth or stock
1 Ranch packet
3
Tbsp. garlic, minced
2
Tbsp. garlic salt (I added this about ½ hour before serving. Add as much or as little as you like.)
1-2
Cups chicken breast, diced or shredded (I used 2 chicken breasts.)
1
bag frozen tortellini Parmesan Cheese to sprinkle on top, if desired
Add
all ingredients to the slow cooker except the tortellini. Add the frozen tortellini to the soup
about 30 minutes before serving. In this
final step, you basically just cook the soup until the tortellini is heated
through. Top each bowl with Parmesan cheese, if desired. Enjoy!
I
love simple recipes. I really love simple slow cooker recipes.
This is a quick project I put together for the first night of our Community Group tonight. I have seen these burlap banners all over the place, and I've always wanted to make a personalized one, but I never knew what to make. I saw how easy this is to do while at a Pinterest party earlier this year and a lady was painting/stamping lettering on her own project.
All I did was get a yard of burlap (super cheap!), a pack of $3 letter stencils at Walmart, paint, and paintbrushes. I used some twine and hot glue to assemble. You will also want something like scrap paper or newspaper to put under the burlap when you're painting, since the paint will go through to the surface underneath. I forgot about that until I was about 3 triangles into the painting process.
Our church's name is Anchor church and this year our small group ministry has changed names from Home Groups to Community Groups. With these two bits of information in mind, I wanted to incorporate both ideas into the banner. I toyed with many different wording ideas, but they were all way too long. My banner would go across the whole house if I used any of them. Then, this idea struck me...so here's what we had for our first meeting tonight...
I absolutely love how it came out! Seeing how easy it was to make, I see myself doing this again for other events, holidays, rainy days, you name it! This is such an easy project to make and personalize to suit your needs.
This fall I've been doing a
homeschool/preschool group with some moms in my area. It's been a ton of fun
and we've made some new friends, too. Two of this week's themes are rainbows and
the number 6. For those who were unable to attend, here is my project in
case you want to do it at home.
This is how I did it. Of course, you can do it however you want! Materials: paper plate (I used yellow from the Dollar Tree.) paper streamers (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) glue bottle (not glue stick) Raindrops w/dots (I printed on blue paper.) number 6 Scissors Ribbon or string if you want to hang it when finished
1. Cut paper
plate in half. If you don't want to cut the plate, that's fine, too.
2. Glue
the streamers (6 rainbow colors) along the bottom of the plate. They have to be close
together or else they won't all fit.
3. Cut
out and glue the raindrops to the plate where the streamers meet the plate. I created numbers 1-6 so your
child can practice counting.
6. Glue
the colorful polka dot 6 to the front or back of the plate. I stuck it on
the back since I'm going to hang mine rather than put it on a
wall/refrigerator. 7. Punch hole and tie string/ribbon if you're going to hang it.
Here are the
parts. You can print them right from here, but it will work best if you
right click, save the file, then open and print that way.
I wanted to use this new
McCormick Caribbean Jerk Seasoning in a slow cooker recipe. I put together the
following recipe and it was delicious! My husband was a HUGE fan of Red Robin’s
Jamaican Jerk’d Chicken Sandwich, but they took it off the menu some time
ago. (He is forever disappointed about this.) I was going to try to come up with
a variation using some of the same ingredients.
This is what I came up with.
1 can chunk pineapple (drain, but
save juice 4-5 Tbsp.)
Juice from 1 lime
3 tsp. garlic, minced
This is super easy!
Put frozen, yes frozen, chicken in bottom of
slow cooker. Rub with Caribbean Jerk Seasoning. Squeeze lime juice over
chicken. Spread garlic over chicken. Drain pineapple saving 4-5 Tbsp. of juice.
Pour pineapple chunks over chicken. Pour reserved pineapple juice over
everything. Cook on high 4-5 hours, low 6-8 hours. I served this with red beans and rice and
green beans.
Salsa is pretty much a staple in our house. When we have something simple like sandwiches
or hot dogs and don’t want to go to the store for something “extra” as a side,
we just have chips and salsa. It’s also
great for an afternoon or after dinner snack.
J
We ran out of salsa today! What a travesty! I remembered we had a jar of Tastefully Simple Simply Salsa™ Mix in the pantry so that’s what we did. I used two cans of diced tomatoes and
approximately 1/3 cup of the Salsa seasoning.
The seasoning mix does have a bit of a bite to it, so I didn’t quite
double the seasoning.
It worked out perfectly to use the salsa jar we’d
just finished and now we’re fully stocked again. If you're not familiar with Tastefully Simple products click on the "Tastefully Simple" label on the left side of my blog to see other posts where I used Tastefully Simple products. I highly recommend them!
I’m not exactly a bookworm, but having a good book to read is a
great way to fill time when you’re trying to fall asleep at night, waiting at
the doctor’s office, looking to have a quiet time, or…ummm, when you’re
procrastinating the boring parts of life, i.e. Cleaning. J
I get book recommendations from so many places: my sisters, other family, friends, Facebook,
Pinterest, and more. I usually save the
book’s Amazon link somewhere in my digital mess of an email account or pin it
to my Pinterest wall. I also pin to a board of what library patrons are reading at the library where my sister works. Lately people have
asked ME for recommendations and I’ve found myself giving away a recommendation
or two.
Because of this, I’ve decided to keep a running list, of sorts. I’ll add to this list and try to keep them
somewhat categorized. Most times I get
my books from the library since hoarding books is one of my downfalls. We have so many books in this house that I
actually get excite to buy a new bookshelf.
We’re running out of space for shelves, so the public library has been
awesome. We are fortunate to have a
library system with an extremely extensive collection of books, music, and
movies. In case you need to know, you
can have up to 75 books checked out at any one time at our local library. Although it was when I was teaching, yes, I’ve
reached that limit. More than once.
Here goes…
(My categorization system is
imperfect. If something sounds
interesting, ask me about it or look up Amazon’s description. Many of these fall under more than one
category, too.)
Life
(parenthood, motherhood, inspiration, etc.)
Sparkly Green Earrings by Melanie Shankle
A little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson
Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
Raising Happiness by Catherine Carter
Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
Choosing to See: A Journey of
Struggle and Hope by Mary Beth Chapman
The Noticer by Andy Andrews
Marriage
(Marriage specifically, not generally speaking like the
previous category)
Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Beyond Ordinary: When a Good
Marriage Just isn’t Good Enough by Justin & Trisha Davis
Mended: Pieces of a life made
whole by Angie Smith
Faith
Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney
Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli Making Life Work by Bill Hybels
Parenting
& Children
Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel
On Becoming Baby Wise by Gary Izzo (We didn’t read the whole
book and used it as a guideline for getting baby on a schedule. You’ll find big opinions on this book, but
what we did worked for us.)
What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff (Again, we
loosely used this book.)
Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore
Adoption
Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore
Choosing to See: A Journey of
Struggle and Hope by Mary Beth Chapman
I've had thoughts for this blog entry for several days, but it's so scattered that I wasn't sure I should bother with putting them all down on "paper" to read. Besides the scattered thoughts, all of my typing these days is being one with two fingers on my left hand when I'm actually right-handed. All that to say, I'm going to blog some of my ideas, little by little, so I can share some of my inner thoughts and realizations while in the midst of this trial I'm going through. No, wait. We're going through.
As a quick review, I have had rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) for almost my whole life. I only remember life with it so I typically forget I have it. Before getting pregnant with Samuel I had to come off my arthritis medication due to the severe complications it can cause an unborn child. It was a month after stopping the medicine that it was very apparent to others that I had JRA. Fast-forward to now, two and a half years later. I have had damage to my knees for years and after seeing my rheumatologist for knee issues, he ordered an MRI. I went for the MRI and did just fine. When walking out of the MRI room, I tripped and fell over the door threshold on the floor in the doorway. I knew as I was falling that it wasn't my knee, but I didn't know why I fell. My hands broke my fall and I ended up with a broken wrist. The ladies who helped me up asked if my knee gave out and I said, "no, I know it wasn't my knee." I turned to look back at the doorway and pointed to the threshold saying, "THAT'S what I fell over."
At this point I was very upset, had a swollen, painful wrist, and got the medical attention I needed. I immediately began to feel bad for Joe, my husband, who was home on his one hour lunch break watching Sam. Yes, it was quickly becoming well over an hour. Thankfully he was able to call his boss and was able to work from home until I arrived. This was the first of many blessing that would be given to us through the situation. While sitting waiting in Urgent Care it really hit me that no matter what was going to happen with treatment, this was my right hand and I'm right-handed. The simple fact that my right hand was immobilized quickly changed how I'd "do life" in the coming weeks.
My biggest disappointment came at my first actual orthopedic appointment. The good news was that the break wasn't as big as it could have been. The bad news was that due to the location of the break, the movement of my elbow was causing swelling and inflammation at the wrist. Because of this, I'd need to be in a cast from my wrist to above my elbow, with my arm being bent at 90 degrees in the cast. After a week or so of that, once the swelling was down and healing begins, I'd get a short arm cast. I was most disappointed since they'd told me at Urgent Care that I'd get a short arm cast at the ortho. appointment. Needless to say, this was a step I was not prepared for. Up until this point, and now including this surprise, I felt like a hormonal woman who had just had a baby. I would feel fine then something would upset me enough to cry; this roller-coaster was me for a few days. For those that know me, I'm generally a very even-keeled person when it comes to showing emotions. Joe probably wondered when this would end. I'm sure random emotional outbreaks are hard to handle when it's your spouse that feels so badly. That leads me to my next thoughts...
My husband. I don't know where to begin when it comes to the awesomeness of my husband, Joe. He's had to help me with medical issues in the past, be it JRA, diabetes, or pregnancy bed rest, but this is different. In all of the other cases I could still do things; I just needed assistance. This time I cannot do the most simple of tasks by myself. I thought I'd need the most help with our toddler, but I seem to be managing him okay. I thought I'd need a lot of help tying my shoes, but I can just wear my sandals. I though I could wash dishes in a funky sort of way, but that uses your wrist way more than I ever thought. I thought I could just use the crock pot for cooking, but I cannot cut vegetables, cannot use the can opener, I can't hold a bowl with my bad hand and use a hand-mixer with my good hand. Simply put: what I thought would work just isn't.
Joe has been amazingly patient with me, especially the first couple of days when everything was new, when we were figuring out new ways to do things you and I never give a second thought. He helps do diapers, empty the garbage, helps me to get dressed each day, open my medicine bottles, shower, cook, laundry, wash dishes, and on and on. It's been a struggle to replace my insulin pump infusion sets, since I use my right hand for this. Using my left does work, but it is much harder especially with the more fine-motor tasks of my daily life. Aside from doing much of the household chores and also working his regular job, Joe continually reminds me that it could be worse. I know that. I really do, but I need the reminder from time to time. I keep reminding myself of Jennifer Niday, a local school assistant principal, who died after falling down a flight of stairs last week. I fell, yes, but I didn't hit my head, I'm not in a hospital, I'm still alive. I'm grateful for a husband who is committed to our marriage and our family. We work together in all types of situations, but his help now speaks volumes to me. I know he's right there with me each step of the way. He's got my back, I have his. Each day he gives me more grace than I deserve.
After receiving dinner from our pastor and his wife the night this all happened, I said we'd be okay and I think we could handle cooking and basic stuff here at the house. After seeing how difficult and how much effort it was taking for simple things, I realized I had to put my pride aside and accept help. That is hard for me to do. I hate having others do for me what I should be able to do for myself. Our church family, as well as a few of our other friends, have been AWESOME at providing us with meals. I can't thank these women enough for making time for our family on top of taking care of their own homes. It has been a huge blessing to us since cooking has been one of my biggest challenges. We've had countless people offer to help in any way they can...thank you, thank you, thank you! Sam's been cared for when I have doctor appointments, we've had a friend bring simple things for Sam to eat that don't require preparation, we had someone offer to come do dishes and laundry, and the list goes on. We are truly grateful for all of the people willing to help.
As I've been in slow-motion as I try to figure out how to get things done, the Lord reminded me to slow down in my time with Sam lately. Generally speaking, I try to enjoy the small moments with our little boy. I can't believe we're about a month and a half away from his second birthday. I know these moments are fleeting, but with this whole broken arm ordeal, I've been more introspective. Yesterday I had Sam on the bed to change his diaper. He was just babbling as I changed him. When I was just about done he said "kiss" to me. This isn't that uncommon, but it caused me to pause. This little person was watching, listening, learning as the days go by. At that moment he wanted my love. I gave him a kiss and a big lay-right-over-him kind of hug. He thought this was so funny that he giggled and laughed the entire time. I thanked God for that moment, since I knew those moments are what motherhood is all about. I hope Samuel grows up to be excited for life and to not takes things too seriously. What a simple, sweet moment despite the chaos.
I have felt so loved and encouraged by all of my family and friends who live huge distances from us. I know it's times like this that make living so far from any family very difficult, both on my part and their part. I know it's hard not being able to jump in the car to come visit and help. I'm grateful for my family and the ways they show their love and concern. I wouldn't say falling and breaking a bone is the best way to understand this, but this has been another time of me seeing how important my family is to me. I'm thankful to have my family and Joe's family by my side. No, our side.
I found out a couple of months ago that a local church (not the one we attend) has a ministry for moms. I had heard a few random things about it, but they were taking a summer break so I couldn't check it out. I found out when they were kicking off the year and was very excited about it. It is different from another moms groups I spend time with. This was more for the moms--a time of fellowship, Bible study, friendship and food as we explore God’s special promises of encouragement to mothers in every season of life. As the date got closer, I realized I now had a big 'ol cast and sling to contend with when taking Sam out in public. I did think about staying home, but something told me I should go check it out. I LOVED the MOMS time. It was exactly what was written about it. There was time for fellowship and food. There were young moms and ladies whose children have long since been out of the house. I felt so welcome with this group of ladies. I knew a lady that was going to be there, but I was surprised to see that I know four ladies who've been attending for a couple of years. Anyway, my point in even mentioning all this was to reflect two things from the morning. My first thought is a song that the worship leader sang. She told of her struggles and trials over this last year closing with the song "I Know How to Say Thank You." (Video can be seen below or heard here.) Although I'm not a huge fan of the musical style, I absolutely loved the lyrics to this song. It spoke to my heart and I feel as though the words are my thoughts about what I can say to everone who has offered encouragement, prayers, food, or help to me over the last week. I've received so many blessings and so much grace that "thank you" just doesn't seem good enough. My second thought was about the message that was taught. I felt like it was just for me. Most people who have been to church have at least one time when they felt the message was meant specifically for them, but I haven't had that in a while. Jennifer, the lady teaching the lesson, spoke about trusting God more. Fully. I know my faith has been tested in these trials of life, but I haven't really thought much about it. I just keep pressing through. I think that's important. I think that's good. But, that's not all of it. I'm learning to trust in Christ more...for things that are far beyond my imagination.
So, what's it all mean? When this all first happened I saidI do believe the Lord is teaching me something through this; I just don’t know what that is yet. I still haven't figured it out, but maybe it happened so I didn't rush into knee surgery, so I didn't take a part-time work from home typing-type job I'd been considering, so I'd have to swallow my pride and accept help, so I'd draw closer to the Lord, so I'd have to rely on others and rely on HIM when I'd otherwise depend on myself. Maybe I broke my wrist to be an example to the doctors and nurses who would treat me, to remind me to pray for others despite my own situation, to think about (again) that there are millions of people with less than I have, in worse situations than mine. Maybe I'll never know, and if that's the case, I'm okay with that. What I DO know is I've been made to learn and grow through it all. A quote I learned years ago goes something like this: Someone not need to set a good example in order to take away a positive message. This trial is not one I would have chosen, but I choose to look at the positive in the situation that was given to me.
Robin Roberts, from Good Morning America, used this (make your MESS your MESSAGE) as her mantra during her cancer treatments. I've loved it since I heard her say it.
I was super excited to try my latest sewing project. After pinning several different sewing projects on Pinterest, I decided I really wanted to try making a pillowcase. I started out thinking I'd make a travel size pillow for the little guy, but I went ahead and did a regular size pillowcase. Sam adored a Thomas the Train flannel fabric when we were shopping at the fabric store, so I purchased it and got started a few days later. It came out so much better than I was expecting, even with its imperfections that I know are there. What I loved most about the tutorial I used is that it has a great video to go with it! The video doesn't take you through the entire project, but it shows enough to get you about 3/4 of the way through. I took a few pictures along the way, but the video and pdf tutorials are much better at telling you how to make the pillowcase. One of my favorite things about this actual pillowcase is that there are no exposed edges, which gives it a nice, finished look.
Materials:
12" x 42" fabric for band of pillowcase
24" x "42" fabric for pillowcase body
iron
sewing machine I will admit that my measurements weren't exact this first time around and one of my fabrics only measured about 41". Because of that, I just trimmed both to match the 41"...it was no problem at all!
1. Place your band fabric right side up on your work space. Place pillowcase body fabric right side down, matching up your long sides at the top.
Once you have it lined up, it should look like this:
2. Now you're going to do the roll-up part of the project. Starting at the bottom of the fabric, roll up the body piece of fabric until you see about half of your band fabric.
3. Leave your "roll" sit there. Now bring the bottom of the band fabric up to the upper/top raw edge.
4. Pin the entire top edge in place. You should have three pieces of fabric that you are pinning together to make a little pocket/tube with your fabric. Be sure you do not pin the rolled up portion. It should remain a roll inside of your new tube of fabric.
5. Sew your pinned edges together with a 1/2" seam allowance, again making sure not to sew your inner "roll."
6. Invert your fabric by pulling your "body" fabric out from the tube. You'll be turning the pillowcase band right side out making the pillowcase body. Unroll the entire pillowcase. All seam allowances should be encased within the pillowcase band. So pretty!
7. With your iron, press the band with seam allowances going toward the band. You may have to pull it a little bit to make sure it's pretty flat and taught. Turn over and repeat, pressing the back side.
8. To finish the pillowcase, finish it with French seams. In doing it this way, all of your edges will be finished and won't be exposed at all. It gives this pillowcase a really nice, clean look when you're all done. Use the pdf tutorial if you need help learning the French stitch. That is what I used to learn, and it worked out perfectly!
We have one happy customer!
Go here for the video tutorial.
You can download the pdf of this entire tutorial just below the video at the same link.
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