Bubble Bread

Hubby has always reminisced longingly about the "Bubble bread" his mom used to make for him.  It was not something I grew up with in New Orleans so I was not familiar with the recipe, but after 13 years of marriage I finally decided to make one for him.

I searched the Internet for a recipe and found that it is more commonly called Monkey bread and lots of people make this.  Fortunately, most of the recipes were all pretty much the same so I put together a few and came up with this.

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cans refrigerated biscuits

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

1/2 cup raisins 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter melted

Open the biscuits and cut each into quarters.  (2 cans biscuits cut into quarters = 16 x 4= 64 biscuit pieces)

Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in Ziploc bag.  Shake each biscuit piece in bag and coat with sugar and cinnamon.

Arrange biscuit pieces in a greased bundt pan.  I love Baker's Joy, it is the quick, clean, lazy way to grease a pan :-).  Alternate pecans and raisins between the layers of biscuits.

In a small bowl, mix melted butter, vanilla and brown sugar.

After all the biscuits have been placed in bundt pan, pour the sugar, butter, vanilla mixture over biscuits.

Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in the center.  Cool for about 10 minutes then turn upside down.

This was really great.  My boys and I had it for breakfast and almost ate it all in one sitting.  Now I know why Hubby has raved about this all these years.  I will definitely make Bubble bread for him more often.

Easter Eggs

With the arrival of spring and all of the Easter decorations being pinned on Pinterest, I knew it was time for me to start with my own decorations.  One thing I really enjoy about sharing my projects is to let the average person know that they can make the things they see on the internet.

I fell in love with those large easter eggs made from crochet thread and they were really easy to make.

All you need are balloons, spray starch, crochet thread, plastic cups and a large pan (or something to sit the eggs in to dry).

I purchased the yarn from Wal-Mart.  My Wal-Mart only had blue, pink and red, I guess all of the crafters already hit them up :-) Each roll of crochet thread was about $1.50.  I purchased the large roll and only used about half the roll for each egg.

I blew up a balloon to the size I wanted the egg and poured spray starch over the balloon.

Then I began wrapping the balloon with the thread.  As I wrapped the balloon, I wet the thread with the spray starch that was left over in the pan.  I found it helped to keep the thread on the balloon as I wrapped it.  

The process was a bit messy due to the starch, but when I had the look I wanted, I cut the string, set the balloons on the cups and left them to dry overnight.  Those wrapped balloons were a lot of temptation for RJ, but thank goodness he left them alone. 

The next morning I took a pin and popped the balloons.  I used a pair of tweezers to pull the deflated balloon out of one of the holes.

If you are like me and anxious to see your completed egg, make sure the egg is completely dry before popping the balloon.  The part of the balloon that was resting in the cup was still wet the next morning.  

Fortunately, I was able to retain the shape by letting them dry completely even after the balloon was popped.

I decided to put the red one in another room since it really wasn't Eastery enough and I tied a pink and blue ribbon around the other two.

I also filled to hurricane vases with Easter egg straw, tied ribbon around them and filled them with plastic easter eggs.  I think they came out great.  I've done a few other Easter/spring crafts that I will share also.

 Renee

Happy Friday Night!!

For those of you who like a nice drink to start of the weekend, here is a great one.  I call it an Apple Fizz.

The main ingredient is vodka infused with apple jolly ranchers.  I placed about 15 apple jolly ranchers in a glass container and poured in about 10 ounces of vodka.  I used Smirnoff because that was what I had in the house.  The jolly ranchers dissolved easily and in about 20 minutes.  Once dissolved I put the container in the freezer overnight.  

The vodka itself is very good and sweet.  It is also pretty strong so I needed to dilute it.

We love Izze drinks so I poured a shot glass full of the vodka into about 6 ounces of the apple Izze.

There you have it, my Apple-Fizz.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe weekend!! 

Too busy to read!?!?

In addition to my love of all things sweet, chocolate, cute and crafty, I am also an avid lover of books.  I love to hold them, smell them, collect and read them.  I have been a reader all my life.  I remember as a young girl alphabetizing my books by author and creating my own card catalog with index cards.  Crazy, I know.

Whenever I go to New Orleans, I love to visit Octavia Books, one of my all time favorite bookstores.  The people are very helpful and knowledgable.  I love to browse the shelves and look at all the books by local authors and books about New Orleans, my favorite books to collect.

At home, I can usually be found in my favorite orange sofa getting lost in the pages of a great book.

When I am not reading, I am thinking about the story and anxiously waiting to get back to it and find out what is going to happen next.

Lately I have been so involved in crafts and spring cleaning that I haven't found time to read.  I miss it so much, but I am having too much fun with my other projects.  I am still able to get a small book fix when I take RJ to the library.  We go at least every 2 weeks and check out an average of 15 books for me to read to him.  I used to do this with MJ, but hanging out with friends and electronic devices have surpassed his love of reading.

In order for me to continue with my projects, but still have my books I decided to give audio books a try.  Now I must say that my preference is most definitely to hold an actual book and read.  My parents gave me a Sony reader for Christmas a few years ago, but I barely use it.  Not because it isn't a good e-reader, I haven't used it because I am not a good e-reader.

The audio book thing isn't too bad and it is free from the local library.  I can download the book to my computer and upload the book to my iPod.  I am using this as an opportunity for me to "read" all of the classics that I haven't read yet.  I finished The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells while gardening yesterday and now I am listening to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Audio books will never replace my beloved printed book, but it is a good alternative when you just don't have the time to sit and read.

Renee

Who doesn't love cookies and brownies??

The last dessert I made was for Hubby, so now it was MJ's turn.  He is definitely his mother's child.  We both live for chocolate.  I showed him a bunch of desserts to choose from and he picked the one I was dying to make, the chocolate chip-Oreo-brownie treat.

I found this sinfully delicious recipe on Kevin & Amanda's blog, Kevin and Amanda's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar.

Oh my goodness, this is the picture that I showed MJ!!!!  Now you see why he wanted me to make it.

The first layer of this scrumptious dessert is a chocolate chip cookie.  I used Nestle's Toll house milk chocolate chip recipe.  I also love pecans, so I added pecans to my chocolate chip cookie.

The next layer is Oreos.  Kevin & Amanda used double stuffed Oreos, but I used regular stuffed only because the store didn't have double stuff :-(

The third and final layer is a brownie.  I made my favorite,  Ghiardelli Double chocolate brownie, and of course I added pecans :-)

I baked it for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

This was so delicious!!! I can't even explain how good this was.  It is a combination of my favorite things, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, brownies and my extra addition of pecans.

There was nothing healthy about this, but I can promise you it was GOOD!!!!  We topped it off with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge, Yummy.

Thanks so much Kevin & Amanda.  MJ & I are so happy you posted this little slice of heaven on your blog.

Renee