I'm  teacher. As such, I sometimes get requests from my sweeties for homemade goodies. I have now taught six years and in each of those six years it never failed that I would get asked to bake brownies...

Well, I tried to bake brownies.

And failed.

Even with a box mix.

When Mister came along and we were dating I even attempted to make him some. I'm glad I tasted them first because if a man's heart is through his stomach, those brownies would have sent him running and we would not be where we are ...
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Psh. Who needs canned cream of mushroom soup? Not this girl! At least, not anymore. I found a soup recipe I really wanted to try out of my trusty Taste of Home Winning Recipes cookbook. I know, y'all are sick of hearing about that cookbook. Well, it's the best. I can't help it. 

Well, said soup called for two cans of cream of mushroom soup. I only had one. I had remembered seeing someone's pin on Pinterest about how to make your own "cream of anything" soup. So, I googled it. You can find the ...
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Three years ago we celebrated our first Christmas and New Years together. We were living in an apartment at the time, but it was spacious enough for us to have family and friends over. It was the first time I got to host a party and I wanted it to be perfect. I used a Martha Stewart menu and allrecipes.com for inspiration. That particular week there was a post on allrecipes about cream cheese stuffed penguins.

Yes, penguins.

Are you ready for cuteness on a toothpick?

Are you ready to completely ...
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First, good grannies, I can't believe it's been a whole month since I have blogged last! Eesh! It's not because I haven't thought about it. I have done plenty in the last month and blogging about it has been on the front of my mind the whole time... but with a bun in the oven, 14 kids to take care of at school, and the holidays, I've been pooped! Ok, I know those are all excuses, but still. 

One of the things I've been wanting to tell y'all about is an easy peasy recipe I found for hot chocola...
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First, don't you love having a perfect blog post typed and click "post" only to have it disappear? Yeah, me either. Ok, just had to get that off my chest. It happened five minutes and 49 seconds ago and I haven't gotten over it.

Now, onto the good stuff. This recipe may not be fit for a king, but it is definitely one any man will love. It is one of Mister's absolute favorites. We call it The Blue Plate Special. I've made this twice in the last seven days. I know that sounds bad, but you have a...
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It's officially fall and thus officially time to bring out my favorite kitchen appliance: the crock pot. This week, Mister and I were a little lazy and did not go grocery shopping. It's kind of hard to do when he starts evening shift since we know we won't be eating together anyway. So a grocery trip wasn't exactly necessary as we got used to the shift change again. 

The shift change, though, is another reason for the crock pot to make its re-entry into the kitchen scene. It's super easy for m...
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We have had the pleasure of seeing lots of family this past week and weekend. Not only have we got to see family from Missouri (including the sweetest little niece in the world who I got to see and kiss and squeeze for the first time), Mister's dad and step mom came to stay with us all the way from Minnesota! We had a great visit and were so happy that Mister's parents finally got to see our little homestead for the first time in person. 

So, since we had company, I wanted to fix a yummy break...
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It's been a while... well, maybe only a week, but still. Y'all know how much I love my little blog so it naturally feels longer than that. I have been crazy tired. I mean, a nap a day tired. And naps are easy to take since Mister is on night shift. He's in the bed when I get home, so why not join him? Of course, this has its downside... such as the house being a wreck. A daily nap does not make the house cleaner. Figure that. 

Anyway, my title says applesauce. Back to the topic. This week my s...
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Remember about a month ago how everything I was making had zucchini in it? Well, since we planted our tomatoes late, we now have an abundance of those delicious, red beauties. Next to a zucchini, a fresh, garden tomato can't be beat!

I had a recipe for sausage stuffed tomatoes that I'd been hanging onto for a week or two. I really wanted to try it, but for some reason or another I just never got around to it... until today. I went out to the garden, found about ten medium-ish tomatoes, and ski...
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I tried to make pie crust once... then twice... then a third and fourth time... Every time it was the hardest thing ever. How can something that only has three or four ingredients in it be so stinkin' hard to make!? 

Well, when my friend graciously gave me the recipe for her tomato pie and made the remark, "You can use a store bought pie crust, but something this good needs a homemade one..." I knew that I had to make my crust myself... again.

So, instead of using the same recipe I had (which w...
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It's been a crazy day. Work was great, but when I got home I soon realized we had reached a whole new level of crazy. The ducks... the ducks. The. ducks. are. disgusting. They're cute, don't get me wrong, but they have got to be the messiest creatures I have ever had to take care of. With that said, I would still rather clean duck poop than cat poop... just to clarify that there are still things nastier. I peeked over the brooder when I got home to see a soupy mess. They had splashed their wa...
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