Peanut Butter Krispie Cookies

Here's my attempt at artistic photography with my point and shoot camera. A little blurry but not too bad....

These cookies are DELISH! A combo of soft and a slight crunch from the Rice Krispies. You'll want to eat the "whole" stack.

Peanut Butter Krispie Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups Rice Krispie cereal

Cream butter and sugars. Add vanilla, egg and peanut butter. Add dry ingredients to wet. Gently stir in Rice Krispies. Let dough chill 1 hour. (If you don't do this, you will get a flatter cookie)
Roll into balls or drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheets. Bake 9 - 11 minutes at 350F.

Whippersnapper Jackson

Here's my card for this week's Little Red Wagon Challenge #173 Totally Teddies.
I used the Whippersnapper Stamp called Jackson. Isn't he a cutie? And he coloured up really quickly.

I'm enjoying the challenges. It's really helping me to focus on accomplishing my goals AND using my supplies.

Polly and Butterscotch

Growing up I had a pair of New Zealand Red rabbits that I called Butterscotch and Caramel. They had the most beautiful coloured coats. Well you know what happens when you have a Buck and a doe! Eventually, I had more New Zealand Red rabbits then I could handle. Now I like my bunnies in stamp form.
This week's challenge from Sassy Cheryl was to use a sketch. Here's the sketch that was provided...

And here's my take on it. I used the Digi image; Polly and her Bunny Butterscotch. How great is that?

Scotch Squares

My recipe this month comes from another Cookbook in the Bridge series. I chose to make Scotch Squares from this recipe book. It's Reading Week here in Ontario for many universities and colleges so it was a perfect excuse to make some goodies for my god-daughter to take back with her to Queen's.

These squares are so easy to whip together and super yummy! I was able to accomplish several goals at once. I made a recipe from a cookbook in my collection, I did a random act of kindness and I was able to make a dent in the stockpile of chocolate chips and baking supplies that have accumulated in my pantry.
Here's the recipe so you can make someone's day also........

Scotch Squares
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and M & M's (whatever you prefer)

Mix butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients. Mix well and spread in a 9 x13 pan. (they called for 10 x 15 but I didn't have one and it turned out great)
Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Cut with a sharp knife while still slightly warm.

The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society

It's Family Day here in Ontario and what's better to do after spending some quality time with your loved ones, then to lounge around and read. I just picked this up at the Public Library. It's a new release and the second novel by Darien Gee.

It's a delightful novel about a small town in Illinois that follows the lives of its residents particularly 5 women who are all struggling with different issues. There is something in each story that we can all relate to and the references to the world of scrapbooking will bring a smile to your face. If you've ever read the Friday Night Knitting Club, it is a very similar type of story.  I would definitely pick this one up for a light read.

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

I'm very excited that my first digital downloaded, linked- up challenge card was a winner at http://sassycherylschallenge.blogspot.ca/ I get to pick out two images and I'm having so much trouble deciding because I think they are ALL adorable. Hopefully, I will get a few cards made once I get the images and you can see what I decided on.

I stumbled across this recipe not that long ago and I liked it so much, I've made it 3 times since then.
The beauty of this recipe is that you don't have to stand over the stove stir frying and it's pretty low in calories also. This recipe is adapted from Taste of Home.

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bit size pieces
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Flour Tortillas

Toppings: (as desired)
shredded cheese
salsa
sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 13 bake dish with non-stick spray. In a small bowl, stir together oil and spices. Pour over chicken and stir to coat. Add the veggies to the dish and stir to combine. Bake uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes until chicken is cooked.
Serve with tortillas and your favourite toppings.
You can vary the vegetable amounts and types to your liking.
Easy peasy!

Back to Nature Card

The challenge this week at    http://sassycherylschallenge.blogspot.ca  is Back to nature. So according to my new goal to be more computer savy, I decided that I would purchase a few digital images so I could link up to her challenge.
Well, needless to say, this was the only image that I could figure out how to get onto my computer and resize and print. Still some challenges in the technology department for me, but I'm working on them. Anyhoo, I pulled out a snowflake embossing folder (for the first time), coloured up my snowman and here it is. Maybe I'll give it to my neighbour who snowblowed my driveway after 20 cm of snow fell Friday. I sure appreciated his help.

K pups one year old TODAY!

One year ago today, I was helping 9 little black furbabies make their entrance into the world in my family room. NSD Lindor,a chocolate lab and Vito, a yellow lab from the Lions were mated to produce 6 black males and 3 black females. Three of the puppies went to Guide Dogs and the remaining 6 entered the NSD puppy program as the K litter.

 

 

Our fund-raising efforts sponsored and named 3 males; Kingsley, Krosby and Kasper and 1 female; Khloe. The other male and female are named Koko and Kobe.

 



 



Around 6 weeks old.

 

 

Aren't they beautiful puppies?

 



Kingsley (now)

 

 

I just got this photo of Kingsley from his puppy raiser. Isn't he gorgeous?  I'm glad they are all doing well and wish them a Happy 1st Birthday!

Fudgy Peanut Butter Brownies

 

 

If you need a quick and easy dessert recipe for Valentine's Day or some other occasion, this is the ticket. Recently, I was re-organizing my Pantry and found 15 vanilla instant puddings from my Pudding Cookie obsession. So in order to begin using up the backlog, I decided to make this recipe.

 

You can cheat and use a box mix (I used Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix) and a canned frosting. This square offers just a hint of peanut butter and a small portion packs a big punch.

 

 

Fudgy Brownies (adapted from Taste of Home)

 

1 package brownie mix

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 - 3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 Tbsp. cold milk

4 1/2 tsp. instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can chocolate fudge frosting

 

Prepare brownie mix according to instructions in a 9 x9 pan.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat butter,sugar, peanut butter, milk and pudding mix until smooth.

Spread over cooled brownies. Refrigerate until firm and frost with chocolate frosting.

Yummmm-eeeeee!!!!



13 in 13 Update

Just a quick update on how January went with my 13 in 13. I'm now reading my 4th book, a "big girl" book as my friend Anne Marie would say, no more dragons and spaceships for awhile.

I picked out yarn for an afghan and after 3 patterns and 9 attempts to get the pattern correct, I am on my way. Lindor has enjoyed the crocheting experience also and enjoys pulling balls of yarn out of the yarn bag and tossing them around the living room.

  

I have a new modem that has WIFI potential even though I don't have any appliances that require it yet. LOL. Baby steps. I successfully joined 2 challenges for the first time. I linked up to Little Red Wagon with my Mason Jar card and Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday blog. Still figuring out how to put it into a post but I'm getting there.



 

It was down to the wire but on the last day of January, I hauled out the Cricut and cut 2 titles; one from Base Camp (my fav) and Graphically Speaking so I met the Cricut monthly challenge. I hope I can keep the momentum going for Feb. 



Mason Jar/Valentine Card

 

I found a couple challenges that I thought I would try to link up to so I made this card last night using my Papertrey Ink Friendship Spring Jar Fillers. The little words are individual teeny stamps. Aren't they precious? I hope I can figure out how to link up. As you know, this is one of my goals for 2013. Wish me luck!

 

Here's a close up of the words....