Welcome to 2015!

I cannot believe that 2014 came and went so quickly. I feel like it was just yesterday that I graduated high school, and now I'm going on 22! I know to most it doesn't seem like that long I'm still practically a baby! It's just crazy to me how fast the past few years have gone. Trace Adkins was right when he sang 'Your gonna miss this', that's why I encourage all the younger ones to stop rushing and wishing they were 18 or 21. In just over 8 years I'll be 30, looking back on this post and truly reevaluating how quick time goes. 

I truly hope that everyone had a great Christmas, or whatever kind of holiday you celebrated, as long as you got to spend time with the people you love, that's really what matters. 

For me being away from my family in Washington was difficult, but in the end I learned to appreciate it because I wa surrounded by people who love and care about me, even if I'm not where I originated from. My husband and I received some amazing gifts, of course that's not what truly matters, but I am very appreciative for all of it. We received a nice new pots and pans set and a knife set, both were much needed! It will all help contribute to my blogging! 

I also hope that you all had a great and safe New Years! I'm happy I got to spend mine with good friends and good company, and I'm glad I actually was able to stay awake til midnight! 

Our 2015 has started off pretty tough with having my husbands Memaw and grandad both in the hospital. Luckily Memaw is back home now after her heart surgery and she's recovering at home now thankfully. Now we are just hoping grandad has a good recovery. I pray for good health for everyone in 2015. Even my husband spent time in the hospital in December with pneumonia , which was a rough ride. 

Praying for good health for all, wealth, and happiness. Hopefully I can get in on some of that wealth before too long and get back to work! I love blogging and baking but I know my skills are much more advanced than that. But I will always continue blogging and sharing my recipes and crafts!

Happy New Year to all!

Roasting Garlic

Thanks to my husbands grandmother, we have a garlic roaster!

I've used it in the past and it's great! So I decided to use it again tonight for some home made garlic butter for some garlic toast to go with the split pea soup I made. 

The directions are on the box. But what you do is chop off one end of the garlic. Make sure you get ride of the loose leaves but not all of them; I made that mistake tonight, but I made it work. You place it on the bottom part of your roaster 

Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in a cold oven and let it heat up to 300 degrees. Set your timer for 30 minutes even while in the cold oven. 

Once your timer rings your garlic should just slip out of it's shell and you can do what you would like with it. But I mixed it up with a stick of softened butter and then spread that on 6 slices of bread. 

I put them in the oven at 450 for 10 minutes when I only should have done them at 400, so keep that in mind. Mine ended up a little burnt. I topped them with some cheese and put it back in the oven for 4 minutes. 

Gloomy Day Split Pea Soup

I remember my mom making split pea soup when I was very young, all the time. She was a crock-pot queen. So of course a few years ago she got me my very own crock-pot and I've just fallen in love.

Today I used it for my own split pea soup. Here's my recipe I used:

1 lb. split peas

8 C. Or 2 cartons of chicken broth

1 onion, diced

2 C. Diced ham

2 C. Shredded or diced carrots

2 C. Diced potatoes, about 3 potatoes

2 Tbs. Minced garlic, about 3-4 cloves

Place all ingredients, besides chicken broth, into the crock-pot. 

Once everything is in, it should look very pretty and colorful, pour in the broth and stir. Leave on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5 hours. I cooked mine on high today and it was delicious! 

Chili Review

Well I definitely used too much hot sauce, at least for my taste. The hubby liked it!

Other than the fact of my mouth being on fire, it was really good!

I added shredded cheddar and saltines and it made a great meal!

Next time I will do it on the stove, but I just ❤️ using my Crock-Pot!

DIY Shotgun Shell Ornaments

One of my latest DIY creations have been shotgun shell ornaments. After making the string of lights and having a few shells leftover I wasn't sure what to do with them and couldn't let them go to waste!

So here's what you need:

A few of these 

Some of this and a brush

Glitter is a must!

Hot glue gun

Some yarn or twine for hanging the ornament

Now here's what you do:

Coat one shell at a time with your Mod Podge and then cover it with glitter

Shake off the excess glitter and repeat with however many you plan to make. I also put my excess glitter back in the shaker as to not waste any!

The next day you will want to coat each shell again in Mod Podge, over the glitter, and again allow to set overnight. 

Now when they're all dry and ready to be put on the tree you will want to heat up your glue gun first and foremost. Squeeze a dot on one side of the shell and press one end of your yarn or string onto it. Place the other end on the other side, try to get it perfectly adjacent, and squeeze a dot of glue over it. The glue will dry very quick so you will be able to place them on your tree immediately! All that hard work and waiting time has finally paid off! 

I put some up on my tree and I'm going to place a few on my Christmas gifts.

Crock-Pot Turkey Chili with leftover turkey

Today I am making turkey chili with leftover turkey that I froze from our Thanksgiving turkey, in my crock-pot!

Here's what you'll need:

Plus one more can of chili beans!

Shred and cut up your turkey to however you would like to have it in your chili. 

I used a secret hot sauce in mine but just a few drops because it is HOT!! But the sauce stays a secret, it's one probably only people in Houston know! 

Just throw everything in the crockpot and let it sit on low all day! I started mine around 10:45 this morning and will be serving around 6.

Review to come later

My Scrumptious Stuffed Mushrooms

Last night with my amazing spaghetti I served some delicious stuffed mushrooms! This is the second time I've done them and I will continue to regularly make them!

What you'll need:

1 pkg. white mushrooms

4 oz. Cream cheese, softened

8 slices bacon OR 1/2 lb. ground sausage OR both

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees farenheit. 

Gently rinse off each mushroom and then remove the stems and set them aside. 

Fry your bacon and/or ground sausage. In a small bowl microwave your cream cheese to soften, about 45 seconds - 1 minute. Once your bacon is done frying, crumble it all up and add to the cream cheese. If using sausage, drain the grease, then add to cream cheese. Combine completely. 

Dice up 8-10 of the mushroom stems you set aside and add them to the filling. Mix that all up and start filling up your mushrooms. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes

Banana Nut Bread Muffins

Another creation from my perfect kitchen creation day!

You will need:

1 stick salted butter

1 C. Sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 C. All-Puropose flour

1/2 C. Milk

1 C. Chopped candied pecans (see recipe in blog)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Begin by creaming together butter and sugar. When finished, it should have a creamy texture. Add the eggs and mix until well incorporated. 

Peel the bananas and place in a bowl. Smash with a fork until smooth. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix well. Add half the milk, and again mix together. Add another 1/3 of flour mixture and combine. Add remaining milk, combine. Add remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Fold in candied pecans.

Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on how good your oven is. I did 15 minutes and they turned out great. It made about 20 muffins.

There's obviously some missing 😉

When my husband first bit into one he asked what kind of coatin or glaze I used on the outside, and I had no clue what he was talking about, but I guess it's just the way they baked, he loved them. And I've gotten other rave reviews.

I like to eat mine warm with a little butter melted on it, so good!

Enjoy!

Original recipe which I tweaked to make my own http://completerecipes.com/Classic-Banana-Bread.html

Sweet Candied Pecans

Yesterday I was definitely in my game in the kitchen. Maybe besides getting all the dishes done but who likes to do dishes when you have no dishwasher??

First off I made these amazing candied pecans. The inspiration for these coming from when my Aunt and I would candy almonds, this is just a different nut and slightly if different recipe. I decided I would put them in my banana bread muffins I made, recipe to come next!

So here's what I started with:

And don't forget, 4 cups of pecans!

You'll need:

1/2 C. White sugar

1/2 C. Brown sugar, packed

1 Tbs. Ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 egg white, whisked

4 cups pecans, unsalted

First off make sure your oven is preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugars, salt and cinnamon until evenly combined

In a separate bowl, preferably with a lid, combine the pecans and egg white, shake until pecans are coated

Spread this mixture out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, then take them out an stir 'em up, and put them back in for another 20 minutes.

The sweet aroma will fill your home! I like to eat these by themselves or put them in whatever cookie or bread I'm making

Review of Balsamic Vinaigrette Pork Chops

I have to brag on myself a little....ok A LOT! 

My pork chops turned out amazing. I grilled two for myself and drizzled some of the marinade over the chops on the grill, like so

I made some yummy fried potatoes to go with it, and green beans, gotta eat your veggies!

I strongly recommend you stealing thi recipe because it's delicious, so flavorful. I really like the tangy vinegar taste, along with the spices I used, it's all good magic 😇

The final product, after a bite....or two!

Balsamic Vinaigrette Pork Chops

Today I went into this new store in town called Aldi. I guess they are scattered across the south and are famous for low prices, which they definitely have! 

I do the majority of my shopping at Walmart cause they just have EVERYTHING. And living in Arkansas, they are EVERYWHERE! But Aldi beat Walmart's low prices!!

Now I haven't quite gotten into trying their products yet, but I did buy plenty of stuff to make a few meals this week.

Like today, I took 4 thinly sliced pork chops, boneless, and put them in a quart size ziploc bag with the following marinade:

Balsamic vinaigrette 

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Salt

Pepper

It will marinade for 3-4 hours

I'm hoping they will be good! I can't see why thy wouldn't be! I will update later tonight on how fabulous, or not, they are!

And P.S. I am grilling them on our Hamilton Beach grill, like a George Foreman. We use it for everything and love it! 

Got Turkey Leftovers?

I know that since Thanksgiving is over, a lot of people have some leftover turkey. It's delicious, great to eat, but by itself it can get pretty bland!

When carving my turkey I made sure to carve off whole chunks, along with small pieces. And FYI, I love the darker meat it's moist and delicious!

After eating our turkey dinner I was left with 3 quart size bags of white meat and one of dark to save.

Earlier today I took big chunks from light and dark, and gave them an egg and milk bath. I did the dark and white in separate bowls cause my husband isn't a big fan of the dark meat. I left it in the egg and milk, along with garlic powder salt and pepper for seasoning, for about 3 hours. When it came time to get it ready I used 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, seasoning salt and even some chili powder to spice it up a bit!

I fried those pieces up and they tasted amazing! I served it with homemade mashed potatoes, the only way I'll eat mashed potatoes of course!, and the cranberry sauce I meant to serve last weekend with our turkey, and the leftover home made turkey gravy. It was all fantastic, give it a shot! 

Updated Social Media

I have joined the Twitter world! My twitter handle is @PNWCountryGurl 

Also on Pinterest sharing all my recipes and blog posts just search PNWCountryGirl

And as always on Facebook, hoping to get to 100 likes by the New Year! Just search PNW Country Girl on Facebook! 

DIY Shotgun Shell Light String

So this year, thanks to my good friend Kat who collected over 100 spent shotgun shells, I was able to do some crafty things with them. 

All you need is:

A string of Christmas lights

As many spent shells as lights, maybe a few extra there will be some screw ups trust me!

Scissors

Pliers

First, make sure your shells are cleaned out, no debris or dirt in them

Next, make about 5-6 small incisions at the end, not the metal end of the casing. It should look like this:

  

Next, you should fold every other flap that you cut, in towards the middle of the casing, like this:

Once that is completed, fold the remaining flaps in and make sure they are tightly tucked in. I used pliers to pinch around the edges. The final casing should look like this: 

Once you have all your casings completed, each string light should snugly pop into the casing and stay. 

Here's a look at my final product. The lights don't get hot at all so no worries about melting! These are good for hanging around the house, on your Christmas tree or camping. 

Turkey Time

This year Scott's boss bought us a big fat turkey for Thanksgiving! Since we were away for Thanksgiving I decided to make up the turkey this weekend while we relax at home after the long holiday weekend.

If you want to make a turkey like mine you will need the following:

1-20lb turkey

1/2 C. Butter, softened 

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Season salt

One large onion

Two green apples

1-2 cups chicken, or any kind of meat broth, next time I'm using white wine

1/4-1/2 C. Brown sugar

2 Tbs. Chili powder

One Reynolds turkey baking bag

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the butter and seasonings. You can use more and different seasonings I just used what I had that I thought would be good together. Gently pull the skin away from the body of the turkey and massage the butter and seasoning mixture between the skin and body of the turkey. 

Combine the brown sugar and chili powder and rub it all over the turkey, in the creases, the legs and wings you name it, that turkey should be covered.

Cut up the onion into sixths and then separate them slightly from eachother. Cut the apples into fourths, make sure the core and seeds are removed. Arrange the onion and apple evenly inside the turkey. Close up the turkey.

Carefully place the turkey into the baking bag. Add your broth and 2 Tbs of flour to the bag. 

Tie the bag off and bake for 3 hours. In my oven 3 hours wa perfect, depending on your oven you may need to adjust the timing. 

I got the turkey carved, leaving nothing but far and carcass. There are lots of leftovers in the freezer to used for future meals that I will share later. 

I served dressing, home made mashed potatoes, home made gravy and home made mayonnaise biscuits, which will be the next recipe I share ;) keep a look out! 

Andrea's Awesome Pumpkin Roll

Here is what you need for the cake portion of this scrumptious dessert!:

3/4 C. All-Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin spice

(or you can use 1/4 tsp. ground cloves and 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg, pumpkin spice can be spendy)

3 large eggs

1 C.  Sugar

2/3 C. Canned pumpkin

Before you start mixing anything turn your oven to 375 degrees

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and salt. Make sure the ingredients get thoroughly combined. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thick. Mix in pumpkin. Gradually add flour mixture. Spread evenly into a jelly roll pan that has been lined with foil which has been greased.

*Bakers Note* I did not have a jelly roll pan so I used a standard 13x9 pan and it worked just fine.

Bake this for 12-15 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes and it worked perfect it all just depends how hot your oven gets. The cake should spring at the touch.

When the cake portion is done, allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes. While this cools, take a clean kitchen towel and heavily coat it with powdered sugar to assure the cake does not stick on the towel. 

Once the towel is prepared, remove the cake with the aluminum foil and turn thr cake side down onto the powdered sugar towel. Gently remove the foil and try to make sure it all stays in tact and does not tear. 

After you have removed the foil, gently roll the cake in the towel and place in the freezer to cool; sometimes when it's really cold outside I will place it in a protected spot to chill faster.

While the cake is chilling, collect the following ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

1-8oz. Pkg. cream cheese

1 tsp. vanilla

1 C. Powdered sugar

Allow the butter and cream cheese to soften. Blend together with an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar and then the vanilla. Let this blend completely. Cover and place in refrigerator until cake is chilled.

Once the cake is chilled, gently unroll from the towel and liberally spread the frosting over the cake. Carefully, yet tightly roll up cake with frosting. Wrap in plastic wrap and then foil. Let chill overnight.

Slice and serve!

My Thanksgiving Style

This year was definitely the year of my favorite holiday look for myself! I am wearing boots I bought from JustFab last year, brown boot socks from Target, leggings that were a gift, and I found my sweater which is Ann Taylor Loft, at the Goodwill! Thrifty shopping at it's finest. 

As far as makeup goes I used an NYC tinted moisturizer, Maybeline cream blush, two neutral tones of eye shadow and some mascara to make my eyes pop! 

And of course had to be featured in front of the Jeep!

21 Days!

Hey everyone!

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving, and are having fun preparing for Christmas! 

My husband and I spent the long weekend with his family in Carlisle, Arkansas. Thursday we got stuffed with two separate Thanksgiving meals! 

Before leaving for the weekend I made 5, yes 5, pumpkin rolls, to serve and share with the family. They turned out great and were a big hit! 

I even made one more once we got back home since I had the stuff to make them! My hubby really liked them! Recipe will be in another post.

Making pumpkin rolls, amongst other holiday baked goods, into the late night the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a tradition with me and my aunt and I really missed it this year. But I carried on some of our traditions on my own. 

I got to spend the Holiday weekend with my husband and his wonderful family oh have been nothing short of amazing to me.

Saturday we headed to Stuttgart to go I Mack Prairie Wings, they have a huge sale and duck festival there in the Duck Capitol of the world, and don't forget rice Capitol too! We ate some delicious alligator. I scored a deal on some hunting pants and even left with a new/used deer hunting rifle! 

Before heading back home Sunday night, I got real lucky and bagged me a deer! My very first one, only a doe but she was a big girl. I could not be more proud with myself about it!

Check back soon, I will share my recipe for pumpkin logs and instructions for some diy holiday crafts!

#5- Another day, Another (not) dollar

As most of you probably know, times are tough. And it's hard, especially for a newly married couple trying to make it on their own far from home.

This entry is a bit of a rant but I know a lot of you can relate. 

I have been unemployed since Friday, June 13th. The day started out bad when  I broke something glass before even stepping out my door. I got to work and it was a pretty normal day, as normal as it had been at least. I quit a job as a legal assistant where I got a paycheck every week, even though it got a little scary sometimes, and left to work for a one attorney firm making more money, which I definitely did! I thought this guy was great he made good money he was young and handsome and successful. I thought it was going to be great! He promised me vacation and bonuses, I was so excited at the thought of getting to go home for a friends wedding and spending Christmas with my family. But on this Friday the 13th my luck changed. I got my paycheck before I left for lunch, went to the mall to get my hubby a Father's Day present and lunch came back to work and around 2:30 I was called into his office where he fired me, or I consider it as being laid off. He told me my resume was false I wasn't as qualified as it shows on paper, and he just didn't have the time to train me. The day he hired me he promised to train me. This is when I realized, this man who pretends to be a nice guy, is a back stabber and jerk! How can someone take a sweet innocent 21 year old girl, take her from somewhere I had a stable job even if I didn't like it, and screw her like that?? My husband was ready to kill him knowing he hurt me and made me cry. 

That's not it for that day though! I have never been a real superstitious person. This day totally changed all that for me. My husband and I were planning on spending the weekend in his hometown with our friends and family. We still decided to go since I had just been paid and after the day we had so far we needed to get out of town. 

We were on our way to a friends when in the middle of total nowhere a black cat runs across the road in front of us! Crazy huh?! Friday the 13th and all this, odd...

Finally we made it to our destination! We hung out with our friends and stayed up nearly all night. I remember having to cuddle with my husband in a recliner that night but that's ok 😍

When we woke up that morning his phone was dead and his mom called me. We found out that his Memaw had gone back into the hospital. She had surgery a week prior to get gallstones removed after having problems for months, bless her heart!

At this point we are thinking how much worse could things get?? We spent a majority of the weekend in the Hospital. She was released after having a GI bleed which was so scary for our family! Unfortunately Memaw wound up back in the hospital about a week later. Luckily today she is home and doing so much better and we are so blessed that God allowed her to stick around awhile longer.

I have spent the whole summer unemployed. I admit, I was taking an anti-depressant that completely took my motivation away and it's taken awhile to get it back. 

The last 4 weeks I've been working with unemployment trying to get approved and bring home a check, 272 a week, just enough to help us survive. I was so relieved Monday of this week when a roe at unemployment told me I could expect a check this week thanks to her being so helpful, so I had thought. I got to speak with another rep yesterday who informed me I will not be getting a check this week. Just another setback for the Hart's.

After all these set-backs it is so hard to stay positive and believe something good is going to happen. But my husband every time I get to where I wanna give up, always tells me that I need to be positive. It's hard when it feels that the world is against you.  But God has a plan for us. He is testing our relationship.

I have had lots of opportunities to go home, and I know that if I truly was ready to leave at any point that I will be out of here. But when you marry someone, your kind of stuck. Yeah I know, I could get a divorce, but there's no way. That's the easy way out, just for now. Later down the road it can lead to regret and who know what else. When I married Scott, I got on the train for the long haul. He's stuck with me whether he likes it or not and same goes for me. We could fight all day or week but we still love eachother no matter what. Relationships are hard, especially when the world around you is falling apart. We both need to become closer to God. 

God is testing our relationship to test our faith, and to bring us closer together. Even though we fight and things have happened, we are still closer than ever. As long as we have eachother we will be ok. 

I am also so thankful for our sweet pups! Lilah is so sweet and always knows when something is wrong she will always be by your side, or on too of you, lol! And Willie, well he's just a silly puppy who doesn't know what going on but he's a sweetie 😊

Entry #4.5 Social Media

Find me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/Pnwcountrygirl

Also on Instagram as Pnwcountrygirl14

And Pinterest, search Andrea Hart