WIUW! My favorite soup: French Onion Soup!

I know it feels like fall when the weather starts to cool off a bit, the kids are all back in school and yes even the leaves on the trees are starting to change 

But for me it just isn't fall until I have officially started to make French Onion Soup! One of my most favorite comfort foods!

So today for my WIUW post I'm am going to share my recipe with you..(actually I can't take credit for this one, this comes from my in-laws...But trust me They can cook!) But of course you will know this is one of my recipes simply because I love the less is more kind of food! So you'll notice that this is yet another great recipe that uses just a few ingredients and the best part of all!? I timed myself today when I made this and even with chopping the onions that made me cry and taking pictures for this post it only took me 27 minutes to make! Woo Hoo!  So that sounds like a great place to start, here are the ingredients that you will need:

1/4 c. butter

2C. Onions Thinly sliced (I like to use large purple onions)

1 TBS Flour

4 C Beef Stock

1 TBS Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp. Garlic Powder

Croutons

Mozzarella cheese

Just a quick note this recipe is easy to double, triple whatever! Also I don't ever really measure the onions..I just find that 2 Large purple onions work perfect, 4 if you double it, 6 if you triple etc....

 lets start by Thinly slicing your onions 

And saute them in butter

While you are sauteing your onions dump your beef stock, Worcestershire, and garlic into your sauce pan and let it start to simmer.

Once your onions are tender, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon flour and cook for a minute or two and stir the flour into the onions. Then add to your broth mixture Simmer your soup covered for 45 minutes.

Serve hot topped with croutons and mozzarella cheese.

Happy Fall!

What is coming out of your ears???

Okay so if you have a garden, what are you answers to this question?
Tomatoes, Corn, Cucumbers, Zucchini... or all of the above?

Well today I have a yummy recipe for some of the excess hopefully you have some of it lying around waiting to be used.  How about some Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini Bread?? Are you up for it?

I love the smell in the house after making bread so I've been making this more than I should and therefore eating more than I should also!  But its worth it!

 Here's what you'll need
3 eggs
2 C white sugar (or 1 white 1 brown)
1 C Vegetable Oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 C grated zucchini
1 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1 TBS Orange Zest
3 C flour (I add 1/2 C more)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  I didn't have ground nutmeg but I did have whole cloves of nutmeg (why I'm not sure!) but it worked great.  Can you see it in the mix?

Anyone else ready for egg nog?

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light & fluffy.  Add sugar & continue beating until well blended.  Stir in Oil (I actually used 1/2 Olive oil and 1/2 applesauce and no problems), vanilla, zucchini, chocolate chips & orange zest.

Okay side note here.  In the past I've used 2 Tbs of dried orange zest.  It was okay but once you use the fresh zest you will not want to have the dried in there anymore.  So just trust me here make sure you have the orange! Ok continuing with the recipe...

Blend in sifted ingredients and pour into 2 greased pans.

So in my greased pan (because there can never be too much sugar right?) I sprinkle a sugar cinnamon mixture before I pour the batter in.  And then I actually sprinkle just a little over the top too.

Bake on 350 for 50 Min - I find that I need to cook mine closer to 60 min.  So just make sure the tooth pick is clean.

 Now go and enjoy and use up some of that garden goodness!

While The Kids Are Away...Mom will Play!

Well something like that! Actually this project I want to share with you was a little project that my son and I created to give to his teacher at my son's school open house. (really nothing special....just some fun school supplies for the teacher to use! the fun part was how we "Wrapped" it up for her!)

So to get started obviously you'll need a clean empty juice bottle! Then pick out your supplies to put inside your bottle (The gift) and also your supplies to decorate your bottle...The fun part! As you can see I used rubber stamps, ink, card stock, material and ribbon to decorate my bottle

The first thing I do after I have all of my stuff together I take off the label from the juice bottle and use that to measure how big I need to make my label (I made mine a little bit smaller so that I could layer the white stamped label on top of the blue card stock.)

Now you are ready to start stamping or however you would like to decorate your new label that will go around your gift bottle

Once your label is stamped up you may want to make a top for your bottle I used a piece of very cheap cotton material! Stamped on it to match my bottle then used a coordinating color of ribbon to tie it over my bottle top! Ok Now that the decorating is done we are ready to put our gift inside the bottle! Take an exacto knife and cut a small opening (That your label will cover when you are done)

Now carefully start putting your "gift stuff" inside..I say carefully because the plastic edges will be sharp!

Once you've got your surprise in the bottle you are ready to assemble it back together! I used a small piece of clear packaging tape to over the plastic that I had cut. Then I put some double stick tape onto the back of the white label and centered it on the blue label. I then put some double stick tape on the back of the blue cardstock and put it on the bottle where I wanted my new label to go....however I did also use some more of the clear packaging tape to hold the edges down on the side where the label met. It doesn't really show that much and still looks really cute....Next place your stamped fabric over the juice lid and tie it with a ribbon to hold it in place and Viola! You've created a cute gift! I've done this for birthday presents, I've even done this for my dad one year for his father's day gift! Hope you enjoy and have fun creating a fun gift idea for someone you love.....As for us were are just hoping for a few brownie points with my son's new teacher!!  

Hope you are getting some "Fun time" Now that the kiddos are all back in school!!

1st Day of school.... You know you gotta have something SWEET waiting for them...Why not try this: Marshmallow Fudge Brownies! 

Ok Ok Ok! I can not tell a lie! This is totally from Pinterest! I wanted to try something new for my kids and this is what I decided on.....Really it was a hard decision...I mean have you seen Pinterest lately? There's a million things I'd love to make! Oh how I need to work out more often! I'm trying to find the original post so I can share it with you ans also so no one gets mad at me!!!

So let's get started Pre heat your oven to 350! You will need the following ingredients:

1 cup buttered softened (Ok the original recipe called for margarine)

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

4 eggs

1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp vanilla

1 10 oz bag of miniature marshmallows (Now don't you just know it's going to be good?? How can it go wrong with marshmallows!?)

First mix butter, sugar and cocoa in mixer and mix well: 

Next add one egg at a time mixing well before adding the next egg. Now add vanilla mix. then you are ready to add the dry ingredients flour, & salt mix well...I couldn't believe how fluffy and light it looked it reminded me of frosting!

See doesn't it look yummy...It is yes I tried it!!

Now grease a 10x15x1 in pan...(Next time I make this I will just use my jellyroll pan it is a little larger but I think it will work better we'll see!) Spread the batter evenly in the pan. See what I mean it looks like frosting!!

Now bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes (I should have cooked mine just a couple more minutes but oh well they tasted great and my kids loved them!) I have to share my little helper here with you isn't he just the cutest!?

When you can insert a toothpick into the center of your brownies and it comes out clean they are cooked! Pull out of the oven and sprinkle the whole bag of marshmallows over your brownies put back into the over for 3 minutes or until they just start to become golden : Looks like Heaven 

Ok while it is cooling off you can get started on the yummy frosting:

1 cube of butter

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tablespoons cocoa

2-3 cups of powered sugar (You will need to add powdered sugar to your desired thickness)

Mix all the above ingredients until smooth, then when the brownies are completely cooled off frost. Just a note I think I frosted mine a little too early....I couldn't help it my 9 year old son was walking into the house yelling "Hey! Mom did you make us something for our first day of school!? SO I had to hurry and frost them so he could enjoy and boy did he enjoy as did my other kids when they got home however they would NOT let me take their picture! Darn kids!

ok these are still really warm and really needed to set up a little more but we couldn't wait...they looked better later