Key West Grilled Chicken

We love to grill at our house, so when I found this recipe in one of my school cook books from many years ago, I had to make it. It's something a little different with a hint of lime, sweetness of the honey and salty from the soy sauce. This Key West Grilled Chicken paired with white rice and salsa black beans was a nice dinner that our whole family enjoyed. I look forward to making it again. That's another perk of this recipe. Just let it marinate and then put it on the grill! I like easy! Enjoy!


Key West Grilled Chicken
(adapted by Missy)
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. lime juice
4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken tenderloins thawed,not frozen(I use tenderloins)

Mix together all ingredients except chicken to make marinade. Put chicken into a casserole dish and pour marinade over chicken. Turn chicken to coat with marinade.Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for at least 1 hr.(I prefer to marinate it all day).Can also marinate in gallon size Ziploc bag. Grill chicken on outdoor or indoor grill.

I'm sharing this recipe today for Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage. Stop by and take a look!

Star Wars Art

R2-D2

Today I'm featuring some of the art work by my talented husband. He is a very good artist .........and , yes, he does draw and paint more than just Star Wars related things. I thought these particular sketches were great. Recently, he has been drawing some things for our son's room, who is still quite the Star Wars enthusiast. He already has 2 pictures framed and hanging in his room and my husband has one more to go. These are some of his practice(I know! Practice!) sketches which will be in the last picture, only smaller. I know Trent, our son, loves the pictures that he's already done and can't wait to get the third one. It looks like Trent and our daughter, Laci, both have a talent for art like their dad.(I know they didn't get their drawing skills from me!) Enjoy your day........and may the force be with you!

Darth Vader

Boba Fett

Strawberry Crumble Cake

Today I have a recipe for Strawberry Crumble Cake to share with you. It comes from Paula Deen's sons' magazine, which I think is called Deen Brothers Cooking. Don't quote me, though. I'm not exactly sure if that's what it is.

Overall I thought this cake was delicious, although I can't call it my new favorite or anything.It is bursting with strawberry flavor from the strawberry preserves and I like the crumble on top a lot. I would make it again. My family seemed to like it, too which is a good sign. Just a note on the servings. The recipe says it makes 12 servings. Well, I got way more than 12. More like 24! I guess I wasn't as generous with my pieces. I cut them into smaller bar- like pieces because it is a pretty sweet cake! Happy baking!

I'm also sharing this at Mandy's Recipe Box for Totally Tasty Tuesdays! Stop by and check it out!


Strawberry Crumble Cake
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 c. strawberry preserves
Crumble Topping(recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar with a mixer until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until just combined. Stir in sour cream. Spread half of the batter evenly into prepared pan. Gently spread preserves over batter. Drop remaining batter by tablespoonfuls over preserves. Sprinkle evenly with Crumble Topping. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting. Makes about 12 servings.*Read my note in my blog about servings.

Crumble Topping
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c. butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.Makes about 1 cup.

Look What I Can Do With Veggie Straws

Hello all! Okay, hello to the three of you who read my blog! Ha! I have been busy the past couple weeks so the blog has been neglected. I did manage to make a few changes recently, so I hope you like them. I do!! .......Now onto this sweet(and spunky) little girl up there. A couple weeks ago Ivy was eating one of our favorites with her lunch, Veggie Straws. I was doing my thing in the living room when she came in to get me. "Mom, look what I did. Come see. Look. My name." This little cutie had used her remaining Veggie Straws to spell out her name.......well, almost. She didn't have enough left for the "Y," but she did great with the "I" and "V." I guess I hadn't expected her to know how to actually spell out her name yet. We help her write her name and show her the letters, but I didn't know she grasped it yet. She does!! So those yummy Veggie Straws aren't just for eating, you can spell with them too!

Yummy!

DVD Storage

Just a quick storage tip to share with you today for DVD's. I bet you can guess what it is by the picture above. That is an old CD binder/wallet we had that was not being used by CD's, so I thought it would be great for our DVD's. We have been storing them like this for a while now, but before that two of the three drawers in our t.v. cabinet were being taken up by all of our DVDs in their cases. I wanted a different solution and this has been working out great for us. We just flip through to find the one we want. Best part, our t.v. cabinet drawers are freed up for other things rather than being overrun by DVDs. What can you do with all those DVD cases? You could make your own labels for them to use as gifts for homemade c.d.'s, as decorations for a movie party or you can do what we did and toss them in the trash! Ha! Ha! We don't have ours organized in the binder any particular way either, but you could do that as well. Have a great weekend!

Bathroom Drawers Are Messy No More

I gave my bathroom drawers an "organization makeover" recently, so thought I'd share. This is only a pic of one of our drawers, but I also made over my make up drawer, too. I just didn't get pics of that one. Trust me, both are waaaaaay better than they started out.
I used little white plastic baskets in various sizes to divide up and hold my things. They were 2 baskets for $1! So my makeover was quite cheap! *Like* Sorry, no before pics either. I just started cleaning and organizing one day and didn't even think about taking a before.

For my drawers, I took everything out and wiped out the insides of them. Next,I got rid of the old. If you don't use it, toss it! You know, that lip stick you haven't used in three years or the body spray that you never really liked. Then I arranged my little baskets and put all of my similar things together. For instance, in my makeup drawer my baskets are grouped: eyes,mouth, hair, lips & face,and lotion. I also have a few miscellaneous items in there. For the drawer above, I grouped all of our batteries in a basket, miscellaneous child proof things(we replace these frequently), grouped my Scentsy melts together and stored my hair dryer and flat iron nicely. It's so much nicer seeing an organized drawer with everything in its place. Makes me smile! Happy organizing!

Fudge Revel Bars

Last week I tried this new recipe for Fudge Revel Bars I found here at Mandy's Recipe Box.She's got some good stuff , so check out her blog! These bars did not disappoint! Oh my! They are delicious! Fudgy, oat goodness! Aside from being so good, I also liked the fact that this recipe makes a whole sheet pan of bars, so we had plenty to share with two of our neighbors and still more to eat as dessert after we barbequed with some friends on Saturday. I did find that I preferred to warm my cooled bar in the microwave for about 7 seconds to make them all melty and gooey again. Get the recipe by clicking on the link above.-- Go! Make them!

The Pink Boots

There they are. The pink boots. Ivy's shoes of choice.

The child will not wear anything else lately. I tell her to get on her shoes and she immediately finds these or asks where they are. I'm not sure what the fascination is. Maybe it's that they are boots, could be that they used to be her sister's or maybe because they are pink. Not sure, but she LOVES them! That's fine by me. I just let her wear them. Sometimes she wears them with jeans, on Sunday after church she put them on with her dress and here she's sporting them with shorts and pig tails. She has them on when we get Laci from school and gets many compliments. It's so fun to see her innocence and her love for different things. I'll let her wear these while she can, because I know little girls get bigger and she shall soon grow out of her pink boots. Gosh that girl is a cutie!

Oatmeal Cake - One of My Favorites

I have a dee-licious recipe to share with you today for Oatmeal Cake. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get this up on my blog because it is one of my favorite cakes!

I got this recipe a few years ago from a friend that I went to church with, but she has since moved. She was a great cook! When I made it and then ate a piece, I knew that I'd had this cake before. Sure enough I had. My nanny said that she used to make an oatmeal cake like this.I'm sure I ate this at her house. She is another great cook! And this is a great cake! The broiled pecan, coconut topping is so, so good! It is also very moist.

I actually have a couple recipes for this cake which are both pretty similar. One of them can be made in a sheet pan, which is great for larger crowds. For this one, I used the recipe from my friend.You can get it below.

Oatmeal Cake
1 1/4 boiling water
1 c. quick oatmeal
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon

Pour water over oats and butter. Microwave for 2 minutes. Add white sugar, brown sugar , eggs and vanilla. Mix remaining dry ingredients together first before adding to the oat mixture. Mix well.Pour into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done.

Topping:
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. evaporated milk
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. shredded coconut
6 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Bring sugar, evap. milk, brown sugar, butter and vanilla to a boil and cook for one minute. Add nuts and coconut. Stir together. Spread on cake and broil in oven until it is lightly browned. Do not leave cake unattended while broiling.

A Lunch Date

Last week I got to have a lunch date with the other guy in my life, my son Trent. His G.A.T.E. (gifted and talented education) class went on a field trip/ lunch to Tokyo Japanese Restaurant. They wanted to experience Japaneses food and hibachi style cooking since their course of study this year is Japan.

I think it was a fun experience for the whole class. Trent certainly had fun being with his friends and watching his food being prepared right in front of him with the fire and quirky little things the cooks did! It was a good show and good food! Trent chose steak while I chose chicken, but next time I'll go with steak. He let me taste of his and it was so, so good! I was surprised that Trent even chose the miso soup over salad and he ate it! I guess my picky boy is branching out a bit. It was fun times with my big man!

Trent's teacher, Mrs. Hurst, and some of the guys from his class. Jemarcus, Owen,Trent, Carson and Austin.