Recipes | Pam's Cheesecake

I've never met Pam, but man, I think she's pretty darn great!  :)  If you're willing to devote a few years to perfecting a cheesecake recipe, you are someone I could definitely be friends with.  Here's her heavenly cheesecake recipe...you should go make some right now...

 

While the strawberries were a great addition, my only regret is that I opted for strawberries instead of whipped cream...rookie mistake.  What was I thinking?!?  Always choose BOTH!

Oh my...

Typically, Thursday nights = Archiver's for me (a very happy place indeed, where I meet with a few great friends and have some time to chat and do some creative things!), but tonight I felt like I hadn't been home a lot this week, and I wanted to spend some time with my 3 great boys.  Usually on Thursdays when I opt to stay home, I do still miss my creative time and am a little sad, despite the great trade-off.  

But this Thursday, I am not sad...not in the least....because staying home meant I could get this in the oven.  I was salivating as I mixed it all up, remembering how amazing this was at Craft Weekend.  Oh my....let me just say that tomorrow night's dessert will be to-die-for, and I'll post pics after eating what may be a million calories, but is totally worth it!

10 on 10

Have been needing some inspiration lately for taking more pictures, and I remembered this project, so I thought this would be a great way to have a mini-view of the day.  Love these 10 pics...a great reminder of why I love taking pictures of everyday life!

8:30 - Saturday morning cartoons...a glorious tradition!

9:30 - getting Ian dressed...with a great cheesy smile...

10:30 - debating on grills at Home Depot

11:30 - doesn't take more than $1 to make me happy!  :)

12:30 - taco salad with baked pita chips...yum!

1:30 - love watching those 2 boys snuggling...with Pinterest on in the background

2:30 - working on a family room project...so very excited about it!  (will share more next week!)

3:30 - the grill coming together on an absolutely gorgeous day

4:30 - snuggling with a boy who wasn't ready to get up from his nap

5:30 - roasted potatoes in the oven to go with grilled steaks...heaven!

Hope your day was great!

Rainbow Goodness

Have been a little into the color spectrum lately....here's some of the goodness I've been loving:

It all started with rainbow Jello cups I made for my son's preschool class...

rainbow day calls for rainbow snacks!  :)

Then for Valentine's Day we rounded up all the broken/old/sad crayons in our house...

...so we could melt them into these for the boys' friends!  (thanks to this pin)

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...then it was at Target...of course...

 

...loved this print at Meg's house for Craft Weekend...

 And then the crayon art continues...

(thanks to this pin)

Isn't color awesome?!?!

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

First off, I should say that I'm hesitant to even write this up....I was loving these cupcakes and frosting so much, but then I went to Craft Weekend, and Kimberlee made another version of this that was absolutely TO-DIE-FOR...completely negating everything I was thinking about these cupcakes.  However, Mark said that these are still post worthy, so here they are:

Press a frozen Reece's Peanut Butter Cup into your favorite chocolate cupcake batter.

Watch them bake up into these cute things...  :)

Top with amazing Peanut Butter Frosting....and another Reece's, cut in half...you can never have too much chocolate and peanut butter, right?!

Repeat.  Because you're gonna need more than one of these babies!

Here's the frosting recipe (modified from Barefoot Contessa), in case you don't have Kimberlee's (which I don't yet...key word is yet):

Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup 2% milk

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Craft Weekend!

I was so fortunate to be picked in the random lotto to go to Craft Weekend, hosted by Meg Duerksen & her amazing sidekicks Kimberlee and Ashley.  So many amazing things to say about this weekend....really great crafts, amazing women that I can now call friends, to-die-for food, and so much fun!  Not a lot of sleep...but hey, you can't have it all...  :)

We were greeted by a super-yummy dinner from Kimberlee and a bunch of great swag, provided by some really great companies....gorgeous stuff!

I love me some great fabric, and there was no shortage...picking was so hard, but I narrowed it down to these...

...and I'm still in awe that in just a few hours, that cute fabric became all ruffled...

...and then turned into this cuteness!  All from a girl who's only ever sown straight-line curtains!

Bear-ly Makin' It Antiques in Marion, Kansas gets a big vote from me...I love how organized this place is!!  Talk about great finds...

And no good weekend is complete without a trip to Sonic...yum!

We all found great stuff...Meg said our group spent the most time shopping, but she also said we came away with the most stuff.  She was pretty willing for us to leave it all in her house!  

I have been looking for Dr. Pepper crates for a while....yay!

Need to take some final pics of the other crafts, along with some other goodness from the weekend....will put that up soon!

The bottom line on Craft Weekend:  totally and absolutely worth it!  It is such a gift, in so many ways...talk about doing your soul serious good.

Fruit Slush Cups

I signed up to bring fruit for my Bible study brunch last week....and while I do love a good fruit salad, it gets a little old, so I wanted to bring something a little different.  And then I remembered these fruit cups my friend Crystal made for my baby shower... probably more of a summer food than one you'd typically serve in February, but honestly, I think they're good anytime!  (And they got rave reviews...Mark said I had made his day by making them because he remembers his mom making them when he was a kid!)  Anyway...here's the yummy recipe, modified a bit from the one Crystal's mom passed on to her.

Fruit Slush Cups
6 oz pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
6 oz orange juice concentrate, thawed
4 bananas, sliced
20 oz can of crushed pineapple
16 oz frozen strawberries, sliced (just the strawberries,    
           not the kind in the syrup)
1 can (12 oz) strawberry soda

Mix all the ingredients together, and pour into 12 individual cups.  Freeze.  Pull out of freezer an hour and a half before serving.