orange dreamsicle fudge

if you are anything like me, summertime means dreamsicles.  sure, winter time could mean that same thing, if I weren’t wrapped-up in a cozy blanket, reading a good book, knitting or crocheting, all with a cup of cocoa or spiced cider.

otherwise, a dreamsicle would be perfect!!

but, I discovered something whilst perusing pinterest, and we have since decided it is a winner.

(we’ve also made two pans of it.  in one week.)

orange dreamsicle fudge.

Here’s the link and below is the recipe.

(and might I suggest, you have a cooking buddy handy, because two people is helpful for this recipe!)

1.5 sticks) butter

2- cups granulated sugar

3/4- cup heavy cream

1- package (12 oz) white chocolate chips

1- jar (7 oz) marshmallow cream (or fluff)

1- tablespoon orange extract

orange (or a combination of red and yellow) food coloring

 

Prepare a 9 x 13 pan by spraying it with cooking spray (they suggest lining it with foil as well, but it worked just fine without.)

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cream, and butter over medium heat.

Continually stir the mixture until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

Brush down the sides with a wet pastry brush.

Bring the mixture to a boil, and once it starts boiling, stir continuously for four minutes.

After four minutes of boiling, remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the marshmallow cream and white chocolate chips.

Stir until the white chocolate has melted and the fudge is completely smooth.

Working quickly, pour about a third of the white fudge into a bowl and set aside.

To the remaining fudge, add the orange extract and orange food coloring, stirring until it is a smooth, even color. It is important to perform these steps quickly, because the fudge will start to set if you take too long, and the end result will not be smooth

Pour the orange fudge into the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer.

Drop the white fudge over the top by the spoonful, then drag a table knife or toothpick through the fudge to create orange-white swirls. You can spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray and gently press them into the top to smooth out the swirls, if desired.

Allow the fudge to set at room temperature for 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

To cut, pull the fudge out of the pan using the foil as handles.  (or not.)

Use a large sharp knife to cut the fudge into small 1-inch squares. Store Orange Creamsicle Fudge in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week, and bring it to room temperature to serve.

new year festivities and junk.

so I have had grand ideas for our little new year’s celebration.

we are historically known for going to bed long before midnight, and this year will be no exception.  we will start 9-12 church block which means structured bedtime at our house.

we still like to have fun things for the kids to do, and those are usually noisemakers of some kind.  this one year, it was sticking popcorn kernels up your nose, apparently.  so this year, I was trying my darndest to think ahead, and get something fun together.  you know, something that says, “you just had a rip-roaring good time, now go to bed without complaining, mmmkay?”

and then came racheal ray.

I am going to tell you this little story that is much too long and perhaps even a tad unnecessary, but I have to let you know how I got to rachael ray.

here, where I reside, her show comes on at 10 am.  that is the slot of another show I love(ed), and thusly, really didn’t watch too much of our dear rachael.  until a couple of months ago.  my favorite local show started evolving, the co-hosts found other jobs, and slowly but surely, 3 of the four hosts were gone.  it is a bit painful to watch.  it just isn’t the same.  so my 10 am folding the laundry, or cleaning the kitchen, or even some days, fixing my hair, tv viewing time has been going through a change.

that is how rachael ray entered my life.

and then there was this episode:http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/sabrina-sotos-new-years-eve-decorating-tips/

and I was sold.

sabrina sotos had my new fun, rip-roaring good time idea.

cascarones.

(or in normal person speak: confetti filled eggs.)

so here you go..

1.  get a bunch of eggs, like one for each person.  hold them tightly (but not too tightly) in your less-dominant hand and poke a hole in the pointy end with a nail.  stick that nail into the egg and twist it around, like you are mixing the egg up inside the shell, because, well, you are, and you need to!  then poke a hole, a little larger this time, in the other end.

2.  get out a clean bowl (and be thinking of recipes that require eggs!!  we have cupcakes and oatmeal butterscotch cookies currently on the countertop, and omelets on the meal menu.) and put your cute little mouth around one end of that egg and blow!  just like you are the big bad wolf.

(I know, my analogies are incredible!!)

3.  wash out your egg and let them dry.  I used a q-tip to get out some of the white that was left by the hole and my trusty blow dryer.

4.  spray paint those babies!! (if you want, but it is what all the cool kids do.)

I put mine on sucker sticks that I stuck into a block of styrofoam.

let ‘em dry.

5.  after they are dry, and not while they are wet like my hands can prove I did (I look like the freaking tin man over here!), take your eggs, and with an awesomely crafted paper funnel, fill your egg up, about half way with confetti.

6.  after filling your eggs, gently (cause these are eggs dudes), brush on mod-podge around the edges of your hole.  place a small square of tissue paper and mod-podge over the top of that.

7.  try to be patient, and let them dry.

(or go bake something with all of your eggs!!)

8.  now you have a choice, you can glitter these up, to try to camouflage your tissue paper, or you can leave them, or you can be awesome and spray paint them again!!

(I totally did.)

and then I was really patient and let them dry while I made packaging for them.

the story with these mess-makers goes something like this:

and my kiddos will be busting them over each others’ heads outside, and I will probably vacuum them off on the porch.

don’t they go well with these?

(another new year’s eve celebration essential…)

(click on the pics for supplies.) 

have a happy new year!!!

gunning for “mother of the year”.

I might just totally get it too.

so we had a little cold floating around our house before thanksgiving.  it went from peyton, to me, to ash, and it was fun!

so when december rolled around, and some of us were still suffering from some cold-like symptoms, still, I thought it was just that, the cold.

then ashley started to complain that her head hurt (here’s where “mother of the year” comes in).  complaints would start rolling in as soon as it was bedtime, and being the night-owl she is, I thought it was all a ruse so she would get to stay up late.  but the complaints stayed consistent, and being the great mother I am, I drugged her up with some good old tylenol.  I thought that perhaps, she wasn’t getting enough hydration, enough sleep?

so this goes on for a week, maybe more.  face it, I am running for “mother of the year”, I really didn’t keep track.

then one night, I start to realize that my head has been hurting too. 

(I was sure it was a result from the complaints and lack of sleep on my end of the deal.)

then my teeth start to hurt.

there was junk in my throat too.

then the pieces (the first ones anyway) fell into place.

I had a sinus infection!

then a light bulb went on in my little noodle; and it sounded like gru from “despicable me”.

“yight bulb.”

ashley had a sinus infection too.

so I took us, and our twin sinus infections to the doctor, to pay twin co-pays, and twin doctor bills soon as well, and got us a couple of prescriptions.

then I went and stocked-up on more drugs, cause that advil congestions relief is awesome.

things got better, kind of.

then ashley got all itchy.

ashley is allergic to penicillin.

so fun!

so our christmas break consisted of her, getting in her three doses of azithromycin, and ensuring that the doctor noted her new allergy on her chart.

I am so thankful thankful that I am able to instant message my doctor!

(and not have a new co-pay to pay…)

see, “mother of the year” material here.

kennadee

this is my sweet friend’s baby.

she has been a long waited addition for their family, a source of healing for them.

she is a beauty!

(and not that I am complaining about baby boys, but it was fun to have a baby girl to photograph!!)

and with some fun edits:

kennadee with her big brother kenner..

and yawning..  because it is so cute!!  my newest favorite.

the day dictionary.com helped me be a good mom.

so we’ll just say that there has a lot been going on around these parts.  sure, sure, you have most likely been busy too.  whatever.

but there was this one day, roughly two weeks ago (I know cause my antibiotic just ran out..) and ash was home from school after having a bad night, trying to sleep with a sinus headache.

(yeah, I am sure that I am in the running for mother of the year for that story.)

so, being sleep deprived and not feeling too well, she was understandably a bit emotional as well.  she came and snuggled in my lap, and started to tell me how she was sad and didn’t like going to school, that kids were mean to her, one kid in particular.

the situation was one that some might not think too serious, but in our family, there are certain words, language that is not acceptable.  in our home, we try to have an atmosphere of love, and we just don’t say certain things.

so this kid was apparently telling ashley that she was stupid and also an idiot.

(so here’s a tangent for your enjoyment, merrill and I still find occasion to use these words, when they fit, but we don’t say these words, we have changed them just a smidge so the kiddos don’t catch on, and if they do use them, nobody else knows what the crap they are talking about.  stupid = stubbid and idiot = idjuwit.)

I knew that it wouldn’t be enough to simply tell her, “well, you aren’t.”  I sat there, trying to keep my anger in check, my knee-jerk reaction from coming out first, and thought about what my response to her should really be.  we’d had problems with this kid previously, and I was trying to be wise in my approach, not wanting to dredge up past incidences and tell her that basically this kid was just what they were calling her.

then the thought hit me.

use the dictionary.

it’s an approach I’ve taken with lynn recently while doing homework, I make her work out the bulk of it instead giving her all the answers, telling her what or how things are.

(oh, and she loves it!!)

(that was sarcasm by the way.  it has been a while, I was afraid you forgot what my sarcasm sounded like!)

so we went to dictionary.com and looked up each word.  as I read the definitions to each one, I asked her, “are you any of those things?”

“no.”

“then you don’t worry about what anyone else says to you.  you know you are not those things.”

it worked.

and that is the story of how dictionary.com helped me to be a better mom.

oh, and it was also pretty great of me to go and talk to her teacher about the problem.  her teacher is a saint!

I mustache you question…

isn’t this line the cutest?!

(click on layout for list of full credits.)

echo park’s latest “times & seasons” has these great elements for both heritage/traditional type pages, and then stuff for the funny/silly/hairy variety.

perfect for a few pictures taken at lake powell with our fake mustaches.

(thanks jaclyn, those were a blast!!!)

so many more fun and exciting things going on here..  fun activities, darling pictures, silly stores, etc.

but those will have to come after I wrap all of those christmas gifts.

(and cram in everything else I let wait until the week of…)

I am aiming at getting that chore done before christmas eve.  there is nothing quite like staying up until 3 am (christmas morning, really) wrapping gifts, thinking about how all of this hard work and lost sleep will be in the garbage can within hours.

there’s some christmas spirit for ya!!

sweet baby luke.

one week old babies are now my new favorite.

they smell so good.

they sleep so good.

they are just sweet!

here’s luke:

funny story about sweet luke’s dad..

his dad and I went to the same school in the sixth grade.  his family moved into my neighborhood the summer right before sixth grade.  he and his very cute four brothers were like fresh produce at the grocery store.  all the girls adored them.  I crushed on luke’s dad pretty hard.

his family moved a town away, but we all stayed close.  we saw each other every once in a while, and then he and his wife moved into our neighborhood.

they are such a sweet family!

 

so happy I got to photograph little luke.