Smore's Snack Mix

I found a wonderful little snack recipe on the internet the other day, so had to share it with everyone. Smore's is known as a tasty summer treat, but with Smore's snack mix you can get that same tasty treat any time of the year. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups of golden grahams cereal
3 cups of mini marshmellows
1 cup of milk choc. chips

Directions

In large bowl, combine cereal and marshmallows; toss to mix. Spread mixture on sheet of waxed paper.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips on Medium (50%) 1 minute. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. If needed, microwave 15 to 30 seconds longer on Medium.

Using spoon or fork, drizzle melted chocolate over cereal-marshmallow mixture. Let stand about 1 hour or until chocolate is set.

 

Notes: If you don't want to melt down the choc. chips just mix the unmelted chips in with the marshmellows and cereal. Make sure to store in an airtight container so that the marshmellows don't get hard. This is a very simple snack mix to make and the kids will love it.

Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 frozen veggies
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can of milk
• small bag of tater tots
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar

Instructions

1. Brown the hamburger and boil frozen veggies until done. Drain both and set aside.
2. Dump can of cream of mushroom soup in a large mixing bowl and fill the soup can with milk and dump the milk in the bowl too. Mix well.
3. Add the meat and veggies to the bowl of cream of mushroom soup. Mix well.
4. Dump the mixture into a large baking pan.
5. Top with a single layer of tater tots. Put in oven and cook at 425* for 25-35 minutes or until the tater tots are a golden brown.
6. Take out and top casserole with shredded cheddar. Place back in oven at 425* for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Notes: You can use any kind of frozen veggies, cheese, ground meat, or condensed soup that you like. Dinner rolls go great with this meal. I had to double the recipe because I have a larger family.

End of October, Beginning of November

I haven't done a post on here in over a month so I thought that I would share what I have been doing lately. I'm going to start with Halloween. The night before Halloween we carved the huge pumpkins that we had bought from Walmart. I cleaned them out and Glenn did the carving. The pumpkins turned out pretty good. The kids had a blast on Halloween. We went to Glenn's dad's house and ate supper, got the kiddos ready, and took them trick or treating. Brendan was a dragon, Landon was a skeleton, Brianne was a witch, and Hailey was the wicked queen from Snow White.

Glenn and I applied for early voting this year. We filled out the cards and sent them in and then got our ballots in the mail. We filled them out, but instead of mailing them we took them in just to make sure they didn't get lost any where. We are Democrats living in a Republican state so we don't really trust people. Both of us vote to re-elect Barack Obama as President, Joe Biden for Vice President, and Bob Kerrey to replace Ben Nelson in the Senate. Bob Kerrey lost to a Teabagger named Deb Fischer who I believe to be looney tunes. Obama & Biden did win and will remain President & Vice President and I was super thrilled that they had won that I posted a ton of posts about it for several days on facebook. I lost about 15 or more facebook friends, but also made some new ones. Politics seems to bring out the crazy in some people.

 

 

I've been trying to get some of my Twisted Witches items sold. I have my website up and running again and I have about 2/3 of my products posted on there. Things are going very slow. I've hardly sold anything and there are days were I want to break down and cry, because I feel like a failure. I just need to remember that everything is not going to be sold over night and it's going to take a while to spread the word about my business. I would like to get more products to sell, but I have to sell some of the stuff that I have so that I can have money to order more items. Holding out hope because I really want this to work. http://www.twistedwitches.com/

 

This week we had to go to parent/teacher conferences. McPhee was also having their book fair. I walked around the school with the kiddos to visit all their teachers. Hailey is doing really good. Brianne is doing well, but still having trouble with spelling and reading. I have to take here in and get her checked for epilepsy. She's showing signs of having mini seizures. We are having problems with her lying and stealing like most ADHD kids do. Landon is doing better this year, but never wants to do his homework. He's still struggling with his speech and following directions. Brendan is doing pretty good in preschool. He's not used to going to school so sometimes he doesn't want to participate in learning activities. He's getting better though, but he also has a speech problem, but not nearly as bad as Landon's. All the kiddos are amazing at Math, so that's awesome. After visiting with the teachers we went to the library and let each of the kiddos pick out a book and pencil. I saw a book that I might like so got myself one as well. When I paid for the books I got $5.05 back in change which I donated to the library to help raise money for new books.

 





October Update!

I've been busy lately. It's an election year so I've been busy with that. I can't wait until the election and yes I will be voting for Obama again. Things have been going well for President Obama and I believe he will be re-elected despite a rough first debate. He doing very well in the polls and Mitt Romney may have taken charge in the first debate, but he hung himself with his own lies. I never set out to dislike Romney so much! However, as time has gone by, the more he talks the more I can't stand him. Obama/Biden 2012!

I've been busy doing stuff around the house. We fixed up a bunch of things around the house and have been boxing up clothes and stuff that we don't need. I'm hoping that we can have a yard sale soon. We need the money really bad. Glenn missed 1 1/2 weeks of work when he had an infection in his leg and he missed all this week due to a lack of work to do. So now we are broke, behind on a few bills and we still haven't had a party for our boys whose birthdays were on September 15th & September 25th. It breaks my heart that we have nothing to give them. I'm going to buy them stuff they need when Glenn gets back to work and we still can have a party for them. Just going to take another week or two.

Times are tough and I'm trying to get some of my products sold, but it's difficult trying to do this on facebook. I need to get my website back up and running, so that people can order from my site. I've made a few sales, but need a lot more especially now. Glenn is going to start looking for more work tomorrow and I hope he finds something, because we are in a tough spot right now. I made up some more soaps and I have to get them bagged up and labeled than they will be ready to go. The soaps I made are in Fall scents. They smell amazing. I have talked to Glenn about putting some products out for the garage/yard sale and to see if we can sell some stuff. It's hard watching facebook friends selling out of items they have made while you have only made a few sales. It sucks and at times I just want to give up and break down and cry. I'm just starting out so I'm sticking with it and hopefully things will turn around for me.

Samhain is coming up at the end of the month. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I know that I need to get back into doing some witchy things. I'm actually thinking about having a Dead Dinner, but I'm not sure. I do know I'm going to burn some candles for friends and family that I and my hubby have lost. There has been a lot of death in both families and a few we are still trying to deal with, so I think it's important to do something in their memory. Going to take my kiddos Trick or Treating and I'm hoping we can come up with some costumes before then.

The kiddos are doing well in school. The governor of Nebraska's wife, Sally, went to my children's school today and read them all a book. Each child got a copy of the book, so now we have 4 of the same book. It was great of her to take time to visit the kids, talk to them, and read to them. She's a smart and wonderful woman, but I can't stand her hubby because he has bigoted conservative views. My kiddos said they had a great time and enjoyed talking to her and hearing her read and that's all that matters.

I know I've taken several weeks off from blogging, but there are many more blog posts to come in the next few weeks.

Democratic National Convention

This week is the Democratic National Convention. Yay! I'm a Progressive Democrat so this is a big deal to me. I watched the speeches for the first night of the convention and it was amazing. The speakers laid out a great case to re-elect President Obama. They also let everyone know the difference between the parties and candidates. Lilly Ledbetter spoke about her struggle to help all women get fair and equal pay. She spoke about how the first bill President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. I found her speech very moving. You can read her speech at the following link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/lilly-ledbetter-speech-text_n_1852687.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro gave a speech that highlighted his mother's struggle working low paying jobs while raising two boys. He spoke about his mother and grandmother being immigrants and the struggles they went through. He was introduced by his brother Joaquin, who is running for congress. His speech was heartwarming and he thanked his mother for her love and hard work raising him. You can read  his speech at the following link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/julian-castro-convention-speech_n_1856340.html

Harry Reid's speech was more about policy and why Mitt Romney would not make a good president and why we should re-elect Barack Obama. He also hit Romney on his taxes again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dnc-2012-senator-harry-reids-speech-to-democratic-convention-full-speech/2012/09/04/69571634-f6f2-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speech was about Maryland and some of the states history. He spoke about jobs and how President Obama is moving our country forward. Read his speech at the following link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dnc-2012-maryland-governor-martin-omalleys-speech-full-text/2012/09/04/71a527a8-f6f8-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html

Another truly amazing speech was given by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. His speech included Romney's failed policies while governor of the dame state. He told of his policies that turned the state around.He spoke about how Barack Obama helped his state and how Democrats need to grow a backbone and stand up for what they believe in. It was truly an amazing and motivating speech. Read his speech at the following link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/deval-patrick-speech-text_n_1852774.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

The highlight of the night was First Lady Michelle Obama's speech. It was so heart warming and moving that I cried listening to her talk about her family. Her drees was beautiful too. She talked about her life, being a mother, and being first lady. She spoke about how the last few years have changed her and her husband's lives. Our first lady spoke of her husband quite a bit and the tough choices he has to make as President of the United States. She also talked about military families. You can read her amazing speech at the following link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/04/dnc-2012-michelle-obamas-speech-at-the-democratic-national-convention-full-text/?tid=pm_politics_pop

They had other speakers as well like a mother of a little girl with a heart condition who spoke about her daughter and why they need Obamacare. The military mom who introduced Michelle Obama spoke of her 5 kids, 4 of them are in the military. Michelle's older brother and Barack's younger sister spoke about the family and why their siblings should stay in the White House. It was a great night of moving and heartwarming speeches that outlined Democratic policies and President Barack Obama's achievements. I can't wait to see night 2 were people like Sandra Fluke, Barney Frank, and Bill Clinton are going to give speeches, as well as many others. See the speakers at the following link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Democratic_National_Convention

For more information and to watch the convention live click the following link.

http://www.demconvention.com/

Harvest Moon Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• dash salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• bag of almond splinters
• bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

Stir together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt; set aside.In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar at medium speed of electric hand held mixer. Beat in egg and almond & vanilla extracts. Stir flour and ground almond mixture into the creamed mixture. Cover with plastic wrap; chill for about 2 hours. Shape dough into small balls, about 3/4-inch. Place balls 2 inches apart; flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 350° for about 12 minutes, or until set but not browned. Melt a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a saucepan on low heat. Dip cookies in melted chocolate so 1/3-1/2 of the sides of the cookies are covered. Place a few pieces of almond splinters on the chocolate part of the cookies and let cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen almond cookies. I put brown baking parchment on the bottom of my cookie sheets so the cookies don't stick. They peel right off the paper and the paper keeps the bottom of the cookies from browning too much.

 

New Twisted Witches Website

 

I've had quite a few people wanting to purchase products I've been making. At first I thought of creating an Ebay or Etsy store, but those sights charge too much in fees for me. So with some good advice from a friend on facebook, I decided to check out Weebly. I had already checked out GoDaddy for building my own website, but they are a little pricey when you have limited funds. Weebly is so much cheaper and easier to use. So, here in a few days I will have my Twisted Witches website up and running. Still trying to figure out some details to make sure people are able to purchase items from the website, the shipping, and if this is all going to work correctly. I have part of the website done. I still have to post products and the info. & prices. I also need to type up a paragraph about Twisted Witches on the Home page. I can't wait to get this done and get things going. Also, I will have new products that I can add soon. I'm so excited.