I am participating in a mission through Smiley 360 Sharing Network to share my Holiday recipes and all the fun we have had baking together.
First the kids and I made Sugar Cookies with frosting and sprinkles. My mama was the sprinkle decorator while the kids and I decorated with frosting. I had tried a number of sugar cookie recipes that never worked, the dough was always too sticky to roll and cut or had some other issue. A couple of years ago I was eating some cookies from the Pot Luck at work and realized that these cookies tasted just like I remembered having made as a kid. I asked for the recipe and have made these cookies multiple times and have not had any trouble with this recipe.
The Recipe is as follows. Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt Directions:
Mix butter and sugar well then add eggs and stir until blended. Add 1 cup flour with the rest of the indgetients and mix well. Add rest of flour and mix well. Chill in refrigerator for a half hour ten let sit on counter 10-15 minutes before rolling. Roll about 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes of until edges barely start to brown.
Makes 20-30 cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutter shape you might choose to use.
Decorate with frosting.
I also make a homemade pumpkin bread. I got the recipe from my cooking class in High School and love this version. It is so tasty and more flavorful that other store bought pumpkin bread loaves. My son loves the Pumpkin Bread and said that I need to make it more often than just during the holidays.
The Recipe is as follows.
Directions:
Move the oven rack to the low position so that the tops of the baking pans will be in the center of the oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brease BOTTOMS ONLY of pans. Mid together the pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients except the pecans. Gently stir in the pecans if you have chosen to use them. Divide the batter evenly. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack. Gently loosten the sides of loaf pans. Remove and place topside up on cooling rack. Cool completely before wrapping.
Makes 6 mini loaves or 2 regular loaves. Hashtags: #SmileyThanks
I was selected by Crowdtap to try and review for free some French’s Tomato Ketchup made with No High Fructose Corn Syrup. In the Crowdtap sample package we received 1 full size 20oz bottle of French’s ketchup. I first gave some to my son with his snack of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. He definitely seemed to enjoy the ketchup as he finished all of it along with the mustard and must not have noticed any sort of difference compared to what he is used to because he did not comment on the ketchup at all. When I asked him what he thought, he looked at me sort of funny and just said good; I think he was wondering why I was so curious about the ketchup. The ingredients are not something that I would typically concern myself with too much but I am appreciative that this ketchup is Non GMO and does not contain any High Fructose Corn Syrup. I can feel that the condiments I provide for my family are somewhat healthier than alternative brands that I may have purchased.
I then made hamburgers for dinner one evening and we all ate our burgers with the French’s Ketchup we received. We all thought that the ketchup had a good tomato flavor yet also had a good tanginess to it. My mama is a ketchup critic, she loves ketchup but often complains about the generic brands that I purchase. She loved this one, good thing I think I saw it at Costco because she said I need to purchase this one from now on.
Check out our masterpiece creations with French’s Ketchup
Hashtags: #FrenchsCrowd #Sponsored #FreeGift
Check out Crowdtap for your chance to contribute to companies and your chance at receiving some free samples. http://crowdtap.com/portal
Hello,
My son and I received a bottle of these Lil Critters Gummy Vites free to try from Smiley360 in exchange for an honest review. These are kids daily vitamins that are in gummy bear form. My son has loved these since the first one he ate, he asks every morning for me to open the bottle for him so he can take his vitamin now and says they are delicious. They are a little bit stickier than I would have imagined but that does not seem to bother my son at all, and he has enjoyed picking out the different color choice each day. I am so proud that my son is being responsible to take these and I believe it is thanks to the great taste. I love that he is now happily taking his vitamins every day, we will be purchasing these as soon as we run out of those we received for free.
Hello, My mama and I were at the mall and decided to stop into the Sephora store. I just recently signed up for the Sephora Play! Monthly subscription box and have really loved it so we decided to check out the store. While we were in the store, an associate asked if we were signed up for the Beauty Club, I was but my mother was not. She decided to sign up and while doing so gave her birthday which happens to be this month (November); because it was her birthday month she received a free gift. She was able to choose between 2 different gifts; one was a skincare set and the other a makeup set, she chose the makeup. The makeup free gift was a Tarte blush and lip gloss combination.
November Birthday Gift:
Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour blush in Paaarty And Tartiest creamy matte lip paint in birthday suit
I cannot wait until my birthday in January to receive my free gift, I think I would choose the makeup as well.
Visit a Sephora store or go online to sign up for their Beauty Insider program so that you may receive an awesome Birthday gift as well.
I was selected by Tryazon to hose a party featuring Strictly Briks which are similar to Legos but have some awesome features that I have not seem from Lego such as the flexible pieces. We hosted our party on Saturday November 18th which also happens to be my Papa’s Birthday so it was perfect timing to host a party. We invited over family and friends and were pleasantly surprised at all the fun that was had for both adults and children. I had originally thought this party would really be geared to the kiddos but was thrilled to see that the parents had a blast building too.
In the party pack we received:
1 Strictly Briks Brik Breaker Game
And
Many varieties of Strictly Briks Brik pieces to build with including several square, circle, and triangle platform pieces. It also included some awesome pieces that are taller so that one could make a set with various levels.
Silicone Briks and Straps: A small package of the pieces included the soft flexible brick pieces which are great for building slides and ramps from one level to another. These flexible pieces are awesome as they have so many uses that the standard hard bricks do not allow for. Most of all, as every parent knows, stepping on Brik pieces is the worst feeling. With these soft flexible bricks, that is not a concern I need to have anymore. Well, of course we have tons of regular hard Legos laying all around the house as some sort of trap it seems but at least I don’t have to worry too much about these few pieces when I see them left on the floor. Brik Breaker Game: This game was super fun and it was great for little boys who like to destroy stuff. This was a bit of authorized destruction that the kiddos had a blast with. After a couple of tries, the boys got tired of rebuilding the tower so the parents jumped in and began building. It was fun for the parents to try to figure out how to build it more sturdy so that it took the boys more time to destroy it. Baseplates: The baseplates are awesome from this company. My mother and I have struggled to find any like these for a while because the ones we typically find are flimsy and flop around. These are nice and sturdy so that they can easily be used for various levels as shown in the image but they are also great for a kid like my son who likes to build his creation then transport it all over the house to show everyone. My son struggles to carry his creations when the baseplate is flopping around and the pieces fall off so these new ones are great for him. I would definitely recommend these to anyone and will likely be purchasing more. Additionally these fit perfectly with name brand Lego pieces as well.
Each of the kiddos wanted to keep the Strictly Briks creation they had built together so instead we divided up the pieces and each kid took home a few of the platform pieces and a bag full of Brik pieces to play with at home.
Hashtags: #Tryazon #StrictlyBriks
Check out Tryazon for your chance to host a party with some Free Products: https://www.tryazon.com/
Thanks to .08Liter, I was selected to receive and try these awesome Nightfood bars for free in
exchange for a review. These bars are designed to be a filling snack for nighttime to help prevent continuous snacking. These were a chocolate flavor and in my opinion were a similar consistency to an energy or protein bar but they were tasty. My mama liked these best because she definitely struggles with night time snacking so she is hoping these will help her to kick the late night cravings. I think the box of 12 will last quite a while because about ½ was enough for one sitting in my opinion.
The box says: nighttime cravings taking over? I know the feeling. I used to eat everything in sight. I eventually switched from ice cream and cookies to energy bars, but then I couldn't fall asleep. I got to wondering "Why doesn't anybody make a delicious snack that can satisfy your nighttime cravings without eating a ton of junk or messing up your sleep?" I decided to create NightFood for that perfect night time snack. Give it a try... I really think you'll love it. Feed the CraveMonster!
Hello,
We were selected to host a Smart Games party thanks to Tryazon and Smart Games USA. These games are designed to help stimulate brain activity and they sure do what they say. We have been discussing starting up a family game night so this acceptance arrived just in time to get us started. The Smart Games website states "Have fun exercising your brain with SmartGames! Utilize skills ranging from spatial insight to pattern recognition, while improving your problem solving abilities and your memory. Each Smart Game is carefully designed and produced using quality materials that last. And with so many included challenges, each game can be replayed over and over again. Challenges are divided into 4 or 5 levels of difficulty. You start with the easiest challenges. Gradually, the challenges get more difficult, so that they stay interesting and fun."
I introduced each of the games by opening up each of them and reading the instructions along with the party guide. Then, because each of the games were 1-2 player at most, we split into groups and each played different games. Then we switched so that each group had a turn with each game. This worked out well and gave each person a chance to play each game and figure out which would be beneficial and/or fun for their family. In the party pack we received:
2 Color Code Games
2 Little Red Riding Hood Games
and
2 IQ Puzzler games
We also received a coupon code to save a few dollars should we or any of our guests decide to purchase more of these games.
Each of these games are at most a 2 player game so we broke into groups to play each game then switched so that everyone attending would have a turn with each game. We definitely did have fun and were using our brain power to play these games but some were definitely easier than others even at the most difficult levels, this made it difficult to keep some of the kids engaged in their own game while waiting for another game to open up.
I think the favorite game was the IQ puzzler, even at the Junior level it became very difficult even for the adults to solve the puzzle. I heard some comment that it would be a great stress reliever to play this game and that it would be good for road trips because it is so compact.
We also really liked the Color Code game, it was slightly easier than the IQ game but was still very fun at the difficult levels.
Little Red Riding Hood Deluxe: The Little Red Riding hood game was fun but I would say it was also the easiest, my son had fun playing it but got bored quickly and wanted to play the other games. My husband commented that the Little Red Riding Hood game would have been more fun and would have taken more time and interest had the board been bigger and contained more pieces to place. This game is definitely geared to a younger crowd, I would say more around the 3-5 year age range. I think with all of the electronics that these kids play, that by the time they are closer to 6 or 7 years old their brains have already surpassed this level of game play for the most part. To make it more exciting my son and I made up some of our own rules for this game, it is designed to be a 1 player game but we decided to make it 2 players; I pretended to be Little Red Riding Hood while my son pretended to be the wolf. We then would race to place the pieces and make it to the house while I continued to yell “Don’t Eat My Grandma!!!” My son found this very funny and it made the game more exciting for the both of us. Color Code: This game was fun, it consisted of many colored pieces that you needed to place correctly to match the image that was provided in the booklet. Myself and my sister played this game and at first she thought that it was too easy and was not having much fun so we decided to go to the back of the book and play the expert level. At this level we did have quite a bit of fun and we also struggled a bit on some of them what definitely made it more exciting. I think this game would be the perfect transition for my son from the Little Red Riding Hood game to something that is a little more difficult for him. I also thought this game was just OK for adults, not very difficult but was OK. IQ Puzzler: This game was by far everyone’s favorite game of the evening. This game was great for both adults and children and was much more difficult than the other games from the very beginning (at the easiest levels). My mom loved this game the most and has asked for it for Christmas as a present so I have ordered an additional one for her. We had tons of fun playing this game and while one personplayed others would sit around watching trying to figure it out themselves just from looking at it. We also liked that this game was small and compact so that it could easily be taken on road trips or on an air plane. This game is absolutely perfect for any age and seems to seems to require the greatest amount of brain power in comparison to the other games we received and played. I noticed on the website that they have a number of games that are very similar to this one but with different shaped pieces so I think we may be ordering a couple of the others that looks like this one.
Hashtags: #Tryazon #SmartGamesUSA @SmartGamesUSA
Check out Tryazon here for your chance to host a party of your own: https://www.tryazon.com/
Check out Smart Games USA here, I will definitely be checking out some of the other products for our family and you should too. http://www.smartgamesusa.com/
