Nutella Cream Cheese Brownies

So, today's blog is, again, about food.  I do more than just cook and eat for those out there who are wondering.  I also crochet and sew, just really have not gotten around to blogging about it!  Back to the subject.  I started out with the intent of following a recipe, but as always, I didn't.  So, here is what I came up with, that turned out fantastic! 


First mix: 1 13 oz container of Nutella
               2/3 c Flour
               2 eggs

Then mix: 3/4 c sugar
                8 oz cream cheese
                2 eggs

Now in theory I think they would be fine to mix together from the beginning, but I have only done this once, and this is how I did it.  Originally I was going to make Nutella brownies with a cream cheese swirl, but the Nutella mixture was too thick, and the cream cheese mixture too thin. 

Next I mixed them together, poured them into a 10 inch square pan, and baked them for about 15 minutes at 350, or until they passed the tooth pick test. 

Cheeseburger soup!

So, it is getting chilly out now, and thought it was time to start getting some of my soup recipes out, and maybe discover some new ones that I like.  For tonight, cheeseburger soup was on the menu, but when I looked up the recipe, there were things on it that my kids wouldn't eat.  So, here is a revised for picky eaters cheeseburger soup, that was an absolute HIT at my house tonight!!!

1 1/2 lbs browned hamburger meat
4 med potatoes
32 oz Chicken stock
1/4 c flour
1/4 butter
1/2 milk
1/4 cream cheese
1 lb Velveeta, blocked
salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder

1.Add in salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder when browning the hamburger meat. 
2. Dice potatoes, put in the pot along with the chicken stock, and boil until the potatoes are tender
3. Add in butter and flour, let thicken
4. Stir in Velveeta, and cream cheese, and let melt

You can serve right away, or let cook more, however it is a very thick soup, and very filling!!!  I served with garlic cheese bread, and everyone enjoyed it immensely!!!  

Flashback blogging of birthday parties!

I was thinking about a few of the birthday parties for my kids that I have enjoyed planning and executing, since I am now, and almost always, in party planning mode.  Now that Daegan's party is over, I have Makayla's to start planning, and I have some BIG ideas, as always.  But it really brought to mind some past parties. 

Sam's party this year featured Castle Crashers cupcakes, unfortunatly I have no pics of them, but they were great looking if I do say so myself. It also had laser tag by games 2 you.  Amazing place I recommend. Not too pricey, and for sure loads of fun activities.

Angel's this year was a cupcake themed party.  There was face painting, a cupcake pinata, various and assorted other cupcake decor, and also the kids got to decorate their own cupcakes!  They loved it!

Another favorite of mine, and I have lots of pictures of, was Angel's Alice in Wonderland party!  It wasn't easy to find all the stuff for it, I had to mix and match things from other places, since I guess it isn't popular enough to have a section at any of the party stores I went to.   First of all, everyone was invited to dress up, the birthday girl, of course, being Alice.

I lucked out and found an amazing balloon place in town.  Unfortunately, it has since closed.  However, while they were open, there were fabulous balloon creations to be found!!!

 

When it was cake time, we has a small tea party, serving juice form tea kettles, and also the plates were square and colorful, and perfectly sized for the square cakes that were served.

Then when the kids bit into them, they had a bit of a surprise!!  The cake inside was all different colors!

There was dancing, to the music of multiple Alice in Wonderland movies, lots of running around, also there was pin the nose on the Cheshire cat!  I used a poster maker on the internet, then bought multicolored circle stickers, like the ones at garage sales with the price on them, and put the kids initials on them, so that we would know who it was that got the closest. 

Going to have to dredge up some more photos on parties.  Makayla had a Rainbow Bright one with a relay race to it, the first team that went through all the obstacles, ending with putting mulicolored streamers on a unicorn booty to make a tail, won!  For that cake, I made the inside rainbow, and found the old Wilton cake pan on ebay to decorate.  It turned out really well, and there are things all over that can be found to decorate rainbows.

Hopefully I can locate some more pics from past birthdays, but until then hopefully, will just remember what all went on those day.  I guess it helps that I can blog about it as well!! :)  Now on to more brain storming for the next birthday party to get done!!!

 

 

Daegan's First "Block" party :)

For my youngest son's first birthday, I wanted to do something fun, summery, and different.  So, I did a "block" party!  I thought about making the invites myself, but my friend at KT Photography was going to be taking pictures, so I asked her to put together an amazing invite!

I made sure, of course to have a lot of block, I don't have pics of those though.  I bought 100 letter blocks, and then 100 random other shapes, for awesome castle making and knocking down in the future, as well as the party!  Everyone got into the block building spirit, and there were quite a few awesome castles and towers made, and Daegan enjoyed knocking them down!!!
For decoration, aside from balloons, I stabbed 262 dum dum suckers in a styrofoam cube, a decoration that was also happily and eagarly eaten!!  Instead of a goodie bag, they were able to take as many suckers as they liked, and also there were tons and tons of bubbles.  Everything was geared to being things that Daegan would enjoy, but also were things that all the older kids that were there loved as well!  There will be an extreme close up of that decoration in a bit, it is in the foreground of the picture that shows Daegan's excitement about finally getting to eat cake!
Now for the cake, the smash cake was a replica of the larger cake, and something I am quite proud to say that I was able to make for the party!!

Love at first sight!!  He got so excited.  Can also, kind of, see the dum dum cube in the foreground!

He wasn't so interested in opening presents, luckily he has some volunteers to help him.  He loved all of his presents, especially a guitar, and helicopter!

Then managed to grab one of his balloon bouquets and crawl off with it!!!

There was also a cook out involved, I love adding food to as many events as I can :P I would definitely call this party a complete success.  He had a blast, the kids had a blast, most importantly, at least to  me, everything about the party was geared toward being one year old friendly!!!

Shortcomings of a not-so-super mom....

I am sick today, the day I have been looking forward to this week, because my oldest daughter, Angel, is having her archeology day, and I had volunteered to go.  I wake up, and I am cramping so bad I am on the verge of doing surgery on myself.  I am also nauseous, and getting sick to my stomach.  Of all the days, it had to be today.  I  hate times like these.  I think of all those moms that always seem to be everywhere, with their hair in perfect place, and in full Susie Homemaker mode.  I used to think that I was just broken somehow to not be able to pull it off all the time, let alone my hair, as per previous discussion, is rarely perfect.  I know it is one of those ideals I have in my head that everything just comes together perfectly, and I at least hope they have to work to get their hair and make up in the right place (Did I mention I really didn't know how to put on make up until REALLY recently?)   I hate not being there.  I hate that I told her I would be.  I hate that I am not a perfect mother, and I sometimes absolutely love my oddness, and I know that my kids love it that I am into different things than "normal" moms (I know moms like me, but really there doesn't seem to be an abundance of us.) but sometimes, I think, perhaps if I were a little more Susie, and a little less, well, whatever, I would be able to have the seemingly perfectness others do.  I don't think I could do it though.  I love steam punk (working on an outfit now for an Amacon), Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, swing, punk, and stuff like that.  I do think it is funny that all my hobbies make me sound like June Cleaver.  I sew, crochet, cook, garden, read and write.  Not all those are conventional things I make, but to just leave it at that, yeah, I sound like I came out of Pleasentville, pre-color.  My kids all tell me how much they think I am a super mom, and that I can do anything, and they love everything I make them, and they love how much fun we have, but still, I will never fail to see my shortcomings, like getting sick on the day I wanted to go see something at the school.  One good thing out of it, I will always strive to be better, to be the best not-so-super mom I can be!  Later on, will have the blog I was intending to post today, about crocheting. :)