Jan & Feb 2013

Let me start off this post with one of my new favorite dinners I've ever made. It has just enough spice with a so much flavor. 

Jalapeno Crisp Chicken 

with Jalapeno Ranch Dipping Sauce 

Chicken: 

Chicken Breasts

Buttermilk

Kettle Brand Jalapeno flavored kettle chips

Pound chicken until tender. Dip in buttermilk and roll is crushed kettle chips. Bake 375' for 25-30 min or until chicken is cooked through and chips are lightly browned.

Dipping Sauce:

1 chopped jalapeno mixed in ranch. Omit seeds if you want less spice.

My friend had a Birthday so I decided to make her a cake. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting. 

Easy Fondant:

Put mini marshmallows in a bowl with a little bit of water sprinkled on top to coat. About 1 t water per large bag of marshmallows. Heat in microwave 1 min. Stir. Continue heating at 30 sec intervals until marshmallows are a soft cream. Stir in small amounts of powdered sugar until it makes a soft fondant. You can knead in food coloring until you have your desired color. If fondant is too soft, knead in more powdered sugar. If fondant is too hard, knead in more water:) roll out and cover on cakes, cupcakes, or sugar cookies. 

Kyle and I babysat our nephew and Kyle had his first diaper change. Blow-out style. Never laughed so hard. He's a champ. Haha.

Kyle and I won cupcakes from our favorite cupcake shop. So happy!

I have started to coupon and it is amazing! I bought a subscription to weekly Sunday newspapers for the majority of coupons but the website I use also has links where you can print off manufactures coupons. The website is grocerysmarts.com and I love it!  

I decided to go lighter and I love it! I may just never go back to being a brunette. It's always just fun to have a change:)

Old oatmeal container and a cheap $2 candle stick makes the cutest headband holder! Love it!

Homemade Butterfingers:

Equal parts of melted candy corns mixed with creamy peanut butter. It makes a soft dough. Press into a parchment paper-lined baking dish. Let cool. Cut in bars and dip in melted candy coating chocolate. Yum! I'm not a fan of candy corn but I swear by these chewy bars!

Happy Valentines Day!

I made this cute folder out of scrapbook paper and an old cereal box that I filled with pictures, a CD I burned, and a card for Kyle for Valentine's day:)

Kyle surprised me with a Carlos Bakery sweatshirt from Cake Boss in New Jersey! Soo fun!

So I was in charge of decorations for our stake Valentines party and it was so much fun. Did you know you can sew paper? I used my cute heart shaped cookie cutters to trace hearts on paper, cut them out, then sewed them together to make vertical banners for our photography shoot backdrop.

I also had a very limited budget for 50 centerpieces... I bought 2 6ft 4x4s from Home Depot and cut them into blocks and sanded them. I then bought dowels and cut them in 3rds. I drilled holes in the blocks and put the dowels in each cute and painted them white. Then wrapped a glittery white bow around each base. For the flowers I layered tissue paper, folded them like a paper fan back and forth, cut two little slits in the middle, also rounded the edges, tied them in the middle with string, then pulled each side of tissue paper apart until they made a flower. Very cheap and cute:)

Went to the most amazing Valentines Buffet at Elements in Logan. Some of the best food I've had!