A flurry of activities

Manning saw his first snow this weekend. He was slipping and sliding trying to keep up with it. It was definitely a sight to be seen. He's now prowling outside looking for all his toys buried underneath the snow. Brrr!



On another proud note, Manning had his 2nd kill yesterday morning...a little field mouse. No pictures, but I couldn't be happier. Who needs d-Con with a puppy around!

It's a Gooey holiday season!

Given all the weddings in the Diva family, I thought it would be fun to put all of our family recipes together in a book. I headed over to Tastebook and got to work. One big perk about this website over others is that the book is spiral bound, which means we can always add more recipes in for those stragglers who didn't make the deadline or new delicious must include recipes that crop up later. I'll post the book after Christmas since it's going to be sitting under the tree for a few of my fabulous family members. In the meantime, I'll give you a tasty recipe tease.

It's been fun getting everyone to send over their favorites. Most are family staples,but a few others were surprises. The Gooey Bars were a long forgotten dessert from my great aunt, Mama Sister, that I recently made to rave reviews. You can't go wrong with cake batter and more butter!

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
½ t vanilla
1 box confectioners sugar, reserve some for garnish

Directions:
Mix cake mix, 1 egg and butter. Press into a 9 x 13 pan. Mix cream cheese, remaining eggs, vanilla and sugar for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Pour over cake mixture. Cook 25-30 minutes at 325. When cooled dust with remaining confectioners sugar and cut into bars.

Apple Slab

I've been trying lots of recipes lately, but haven't had too many worth posting until now. A few weeks ago, I made Beantown Baker's Apple Slab. It's advertised as the portable apple pie. Given that it's made in a 9 x 13 Pyrex, you can cut this slab into brownie size portions and top with ice cream or whip cream at will. It's a tasty alternative to your All-American apple pie though I wonder if you could just get by with store bought dough, which would make this dessert a definite repeat. These days I'm all about the best flavor for the least amount of work.

Operation Baby Room: Project 2 & 3

Project 2 was a success. Mr. Diva did a great job painting Baby March Madness' room. Sadly, I did a bad job of taking the before shots. It was the only room in our house I didn't have. You'll have to take my word that English Meadow is far better than the baby blue of yesterday.

Project 3: Accessorizing is already underway. I found just what I was envisioning at this year's Christmas Village. They are the cutest animal prints. Here's a sneak peek at one of them. They need to be framed before the final reveal. I'm also on the prowl for some new fabric to recover the rocker...so more pictures to come!

Santa 0, Manning 1

I really should start taking pictures of everything brand new, especially dog toys. It doesn't take long for little Man to destroy it. In the case of Santa, it took less than a day to achieve this level of carnage. Poor guy in the red suit never saw it coming!

Sticky Sweet Cupcakes

Mr. Diva and Cousin K love Oreos and really love trying anything new Oreo decides to throw out there. A few weeks ago Cousin K brought over 2 bags of Oreos - 1 bag of Golden Original and the other Golden and Chocolate combo. They quickly tore into the latter, but left the Golden bag untouched. What to do with a bag of cookies?

Cousin K mentioned something about an Oreo cupcake and of course, Google happily tossed out a few recipes. I stumbled upon Beantown Baker and immediately feel in love with loads of her sweet confections. For the time being, I set my sights on the mission at hand. BB has crafted an easy to follow recipe. I split this recipe in half, so I only had 12 cupcakes as opposed to 24...what was I going to do with that many cupcakes! Upon first bite, Mr. Diva and I both thought they were good, but far too sweet for our taste; however, they were a big hit with Cousin K. I sent her home with as many as she would take!

Apple Pie Muffins

I found this tasty recipe for Apple Pie Muffins on Allrecipes.com. It was their featured recipe of the day several weeks ago and the title grabbed me. What's not to like about apples this time of year? It's a pretty straight forward recipe with lots of brown sugar. The topping just sinks in and gives you a few surprising bites of brown sugar every now and again, which is fabulous.

The biggest note on this recipe: Don't fill the cups to the top. 1/2-2/3 full will do the trick and save you the clean up later. In fact, it's a good rule of thumb for most cupcakes & muffins.