who says you can't tailgate in your kitchen?!

well you know really...why can I only make certain foods to be eaten in a parking lot prior to a football game?   So I did because you know these just looked yummy and besides I had a monster pack of Hawaiian rolls to do something with. I love football, football season and tailgate foods!!!

Take a pack of those luscious lovely deliciouslyawesomefantastic hawaiian rolls and cut them in half

(you know separate the top from bottom)

put the bottom half in a greased 9x13 pan

I topped those with some nice black forest ham and then some Jarlsburg lite cheese

In a bowl I mixed up some cream cheese and a little bit of dry spicy ranch dressing mix

---ok confession, you were supposed to use the Philadelphia Chive and Onion cream cheese but I didn't go to a regular grocery so they didn't have any and I'm lazy so I improvised.

now just smother the bottom of the top halves of the rolls

and slap them on the top of everything else

Now let's mix up 1/2 stick of butter, melted, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce and 1 1/2 tsp minced onions

Mix it up really good and pour it over the top of the sandwiches and let them sit around on the counter for about 20 minutes. 

Then pop those in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, until heated through

I just baked up some nice sweet potato fries along with them and we had us a nice little tailgate at the dinner table.    I gotta tell ya...these were even good leftover.  I just wrapped them up in some foil and popped them back in the oven to reheat.  I think you can do so many options with these.  The meats...the cheeses...the cream cheese toppings!!!  Seriously go wild and use your family favorites and see what happens. Besides, can you really mess up a Hawaiian roll??!!

Peace, Love & Tailgate Yummies

Cotton candy, sweetie go, let me see the Cinnamon Roll! ...cake

well well well Peeps...it is my fave day TuTu Tuesday and today we are having a sweet treat, compliments of my favorite new way to waste the day....Pinterest
Now if you click on that little link and take a peek-ee-poo at all my boards and want to follow me just go right ahead and then I'll follow you right back.  And if you need an invite well I can send you one of those if you just give me a shout out!

LL and I were like drooling over this recipe and when SuePoo and Chuckles invited us over for a BBQ it just made logical sense that we should have this!

Cake Ingredients:  

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted

Mix all of those ingredients together except the butter. When ingredients are combined, slowly pour in the melted butter.  Pour into a greased 9x13 baking pan.

I have no clue why this is the only part of the cake process I took pictures of...maybe I was too excited!

Now let's make the topping:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients until well combined

This is well combined....hey, I remembered to take the pictures so now I'm obligated to use them!!

Drop the topping mixture over the cake batter

Then take a sweet little butter knife and swirl that around.

Then lick the knife...oh come on, you know you would anyway!!

Bake that in the oven on 350 degrees for 28-32 minutes

Doesn't that already look yummy...like a big honkin' 9x13 cinnamon roll?

Well a cinnamon roll needs some icing so let's make that really quick

2 cups powdered sugar

5 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Just mix that up

and get that poured all over the top of that warm cake....

Please make every effort to not stick your fork directly into the middle of this and start chowing down........just cut out a small square out of the corner.  Hey!!!  I never made this before and I wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna like poison my friends or something.   

Here's a piece and I'll tell you what...this is some kind of sweeeeet cake.

It's very rich but excellent when warm so make sure if you don't get to eat it while it's still warm just nuke it in the micro for a few seconds and get a big glass of milk.  Then please don't check your blood sugar levels for the rest of the day... it might scare you.

I think this might be a nice brunch addition for the holidays, you know just to change things up a little.

Oh and could someone PLEASE tell Mother Nature that it is NOT supposed to be 100 degrees in September. And yeah, we could use some rain too please!

Peace, Love & Yummies

New curtains and a crazy good Broccoli Pasta Salad

Hi Dee Ho Peeps!!!
Wow It's been a whole week since I posted and I'm not really sure why.  I have actually cooked up some goodies!

First up...last week Sweet Gloria came over on Thursday to "help" me sew up some new dining room curtains.  Well they turned out beautifully so here's that update ('cause I know you've just been on pins and needles dying to see my new curtains)

I'm pretty sure this isn't what they recommend when they say to "decorate with ladders"

in any case..the old curtains are down.

the kitchen table is all set up with the goodies awaiting Sweet Gloria and her sewing expertise!

Unfortunately the sewing machine didn't play nice and Sweet Gloria had to take the stuff to her house

But she sent them back on Friday and WOW.....Don't you just love them??!!! 

Here's a closeup of the fabric...it's now on all the chairs and the windows in the dining room and since the formal living room has only 1 window and I had enough leftover fabric, it's gonna get a cornice board with some silvery-gray sheers (if I can find them).    Happiness indeed!!!

Soo let's talk some good food.  

You know that yummy broccoli salad you get in the deli at the grocery...well this is a new twist on it and I must say. FAB-U-LOUS!!!!

It's now dubbed the Broccoli Pasta Salad  so let's get it started!

First thing...get about 1 cup of chopped pecans in a 350 degree oven

Roast those for about 5-7 minutes, stirring halfway through.

We're just toasting those to bring out the flavor!

While those pecans are roasting let's get out everything else we need

8 oz of bow-tie pasta (farfalle--if you're fancy)

1 lb. fresh broccoli

1 cup mayonnaise (no miracle whip here people)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup diced red onion

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

2 cups seedless red grapes, halved

8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

Now get that pasta going too!!

Just cook it like the package says.

Cut your broccoli florets from the stems using a small paring knife

Whisk together the mayonnaise, sugar, onion, red wine vinegar and salt in a large bowl

Add the broccoli, hot cooked pasta and grapes.

Stir it all around to coat

Now give it a nice cover and pop that baby in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours

Cook up that bacon and break into crumbles

Slap husband's hand when he tries to steal it!

Right before serving mix in that bacon and pecans and grab yo' fork!

And ya'll this stuff was even gooder the next day!!!  

'

And today's bonus photo....Here's how you tell all our children were home

How many sets of keys, computers and water bottles can a counter hold??!!

:0)  Believe me when I say...I LOVE seeing this mess because it means all 3 are in the house and lately that's a rare occurrence! 

Now if you will excuse me.... I have floors to vacuum, walmartin' to do and I think I seriously need to do something with these!!

How embarrassing...did you ever see such over ripe bananas??

Am I the only one who lets them get THIS ripe???

Peace, Love and Yummies!!!

Wednesday wackiness on Thursday

well....I just got home from the movies and I'll refrain from spilling any details in case you feel like I did until today ...you know, the only person left in the country that hasn't seen The Help yet.
If you read the book and have great fears of seeing the movie and being disappointed...rest easy you may proceed with your movie viewing.  Was it EXACTLY the same as the book? no Was it sufficiently close enough where it mattered...Absolutely.  Seriously fabulous movie.

So before I went to the movies LL and I had to have craft day because you know all the kids are back in school and we can glue and decoupage freely on Wednesdays. 

I started my painting on Tuesday because I knew it might take awhile and boy was I right!

This is the beginning of the 2nd coat...the first coat ended up being washed off while it was still wet.

Second coat dried and NOT what I was looking for...back to the "painting" board

ahhh...that's more like the color I was looking for

Now let's add that Martha Stewart copper glitter paint and let it dry because it's time for dinner

It was a Schwan's dinner night

There was 1 stuffed potato left so Hubster and I split it.

I found some beef filets in the freezer so I wrapped them up and put them on the grill.

Actually everything but the veggies was cooked on the grill and those were done in the microwave.

In case you haven't heard we're still frying out here in Texas!!  

Moving on to the actual Wednesday craft follies....

LL and I decided to make fall wreaths for our front doors.  

Hence the reason I was painting letters yesterday.

This is how I put those letters to use and now...I've decided to not use it on the front door but to use it inside the house on the big hall tree/bench thingy.  I'll show you when I get it up there because the colors go perfectly with the new dining room chair covers & curtains. 

I totally planned that!!  yep, I really did.....NOT  

This is LL's wreath and let me tell you the photo does not do it justice.  You will have to go by her house and see it for yourself.  So much prettier in person!   

So before we head off to the movies LL needs to go home and let adorable Peaches out to tinkle...

Don't freak out, Peaches is their new dog!

So while she's doing that I thought I'd go ahead and make one more fun little craft item...you know cause it's Wednesday craft day!  It's also a Pinterest discovery. 

Take an ovenproof bowl and some vegetable oil

coat the bowl really good with the oil

Spread some Perler Beads into the bowl and mush them against the sides.  

Just start flattening the bottom out and they will work their way up the sides of the bowl

Now pop that in the oven on 250 degrees for about 15-20 minutes

Keep an eye on them and they are "done" when the eyes of the beads get long and oval shaped

Let cool.....do NOT try and pry the beads away from the bowl while they are still hot.

It's not pretty.....yeppers, I tried.

once cooled pop out of the bowl and Ta Daaa ...you have a melted beady bowl.

Here it is on my sofa table.

It's pretty cool and something I'm sure the kiddos would have a blast making and those beads are so stinking cheap that you can pick out the colors you like and just go to town.  I'm thinking I'm going to try making a bigger one now that I got this process down.  I'm thinking they could be cute little gift basket holders...you know school colors and stuff.  

Sweet Gloria came over this morning to help me with my new curtains for the dining room....Sweet Gloria took them home with her. I don't think I'm a very good sewing helper.  Besides we tried 2 sewing machines and couldn't get either of them to work.  I'm good at a few things but sewing is NOT one of them ...no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to grasp the concept!

Is there anything you just can't do no matter how many times you try?