Month: October 2014

Bridal Shower Fun and Food Ideas

My daughter Tiff and I went to a really cute Bridal Shower for my Niece Becky and had a real fun time.

Besties Nikki, Becky and Elyse. All 3 have a foodie blog! All 3 grew up together. 

I loved this pretty invite to the Shower. It was designed on photo paper. Cute!  

The hostesses were 2 of her best friends who are also bloggers. One was Nikki, of Chef in Training, and another one was Elyse, one of the Six Sisters Stuff sisters.  As you can imagine, the food was delicously wonderful.

Here is a little bit of it. We had lots of fun and yummy party foods at the Bridal Shower. 

There were so many  things to choose from! Salads, sandwiches, finger foods and lots and lots of sweet treats!
This fruity salad with Asiago  cheese, apples and berries and sliced almonds was my favorite. 

Some kind of bruschetta. It looked yummy. 
I just really liked this water dispenser. Got to get me one of those. 

Lots of friends from the neighborhood and ward were there too. 
Some of these girls went to high school together. 

 The brownie treats on the top were my favorite. Yum. They were to DIE for! I was a good girl and only ate one. 

They are called “Samoa Brownies” and the recipe is HERE.  These are decadent and oozing with flavor! Mmm. I want one in my mouth right this minute! 
Mother of the bride, my pretty sister-in-law Robin, and her youngest daughter pretty Becky. 

She had lots of friends there who were already married so they really spoiled her. She got lots of good loot!

Just some of the loot from the party. 
Loot for the kitchen parked at the door. 

Lots of  girlfriends at the shower. Many of them had been married a while so she’ll have lots of peeps to go to for advice. 😀 

I thought this gift was wrapped up so pretty! Great idea for a Bridal Shower. 

Guess the Groceries Game was a great Bridal Shower Game! 

This was a fun game. We had to price all these items from Walmart. I was off by about 80 cents. I was pretty close. Yeah. I’m a Walmart rat.

 Okay back to the food! These cake bites were so pretty. Mine never turn out looking this good. I think I need cake bite lessons. I think these were lemon flavored. And I did love them.

These Swig Copycat cookies were so good too! Swig is a drive through in St. George Utah. It is a fun place to go get a treat when you are down there going to see a show at Tuacahn. They have chocolate ones too. I’ll have to try one of those. 

Real Swig Cookies come in all these varieties. 

Check Swig out next time you’re in St. George. It’s a fun stop! 
Yummy brownies. I didn’t try one but don’t they look so yummo? 

It was a really lovely bridal shower for Miss Becky.  She is such a pretty lady. And so is her mama. We are so happy for you Becky, Mrs. Secrist. Love you. 

Crockpot Mexican Chicken for Tacos and Burritos

This is a DIVINE and EASY way to do a Crockpot Mexican Chicken. You only have 4 easy ingredients, and they are easy to make in the crock pot, or in the oven in only a few hours. Dump everything in and let them simmer all afternoon. Then fry up some tortillas, or use some store bought flour tortillas, and dinner is served!

Crockpot Chicken Tacos….easy and very yummy! 


I have always loved Tacos. Even as a very picky child, I would always eat my mom’s homemade tacos. But it wasn’t until I was married that I really got a few good recipes from friends for a good taco filling. 

Sherry was my favorite newlywed friend. We both had only 2 kids and we hung out as stay-at-home moms together, going to the park or shopping at the mall. She has since moved to Northern California and I to Utah, but once upon a time we were very good buds. 

She used to invite us over for dinner and she was an excellent, gourmet cook. She taught me to put a packet of taco seasoning in with a small jar of green chili salsa to my ground beef. It was so easy but soooo good! 

This is the way I like my Crockpot Chicken Tacos…..with corn tortillas and cilantro along with traditional toppings.
Well, now I’ve tried lots of other taco recipes, and this chicken taco recipe is super duper easy and yummy…my kind of cooking.  Here is the recipe…..I hope you like it too! 
 Chicken Tacos using flour tortillas and some avocado, sour cream and peppers for toppings….. My hub’s favorite. 

 Crockpot Chicken Tacos Ingredients 

1 envelope of Taco Seasoning
5 to 6 pieces Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 16-ounce jar Salsa 
1 small can green chiles (diced up)

Directions: 
Dump everything into a crock pot no water needed. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. When done, the chicken should shred easily when stirred with a fork. It is even better as leftovers the next day. Sometimes when I don’t have all day I just put it in an oven baking dish on 350 for 3 hours in the oven and it’s pretty ready to shred by then. 

Use your favorite taco seasoning packet and salsa brand for these.  I just used generic salsa and it was wonderful. I have heard that Paul Newman’s Own salsa is great for these tacos too. Maybe Mango Salsa if you want to try
a sweeter taco mix? 

The main ingredients for Chicken Tacos in a crockpot are 4 simple ones; chicken, salsa, a taco seasoning packet and green chiles. That’s pretty much it! Dump them all in a crockpot and wait for the magic!! 
I try to find the diced green chiles in the can, but these were on sale for 50 cents, so who minds chopping a
little to save a lot. These can cost up to $2.00 a can! What a savings I scored! 
2 seconds to chop them up. It’s kind of fun anyway. I feel like a real chef with my chef’s knife!

Top it with lettuce, cilantro, tomato, avocado, sour cream and cheese. They are delicious, messy and yummy. 

Here is THE BEFORE  PICTURE  of Crockpot Chicken Tacos.

 Here is the AFTER PICTURES of Crockpot Chicken Tacos topped with avocado and sour cream, cilantro and red peppers, or whatever your favorite toppings are!

The hubs likes flour tortillas and lots of avocado so here is his taco. It’s pretty massive I’d say. He likes them that way. Nice and sloppy. Messy eating means good eating, I always say! 

With the leftovers you can do a Tortilla Soup, check out my very favorite recipe HERE., or add some rice or black beans and make chicken burritos! Yum! 

Fall Decorating Ideas

I love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday of all. Maybe it’s because as a kid I was a candy-holic. Maybe I love dressing up. Maybe I love dressing up AND getting candy. That must be it.  Here’s my Skeleton Bundt cake. He’s so scary! but he tasted sooooo good! Check it out HERE at my personal blog.
Here is my kitchen table runner (spiderweb from Pier 1 as well as the cute salt and pepper shakers) and my Halloween cupcakes I made for a work party. They turned out too cute! Check them out HERE.
This is my entry table in my home. My grandkids love the little jars of “gopher guts” and stuff like that. I got them from Michaels.  Check the Witch Warts out HERE at Mockery’s blog.
At Yeringtonflowers they did a cute Fall table decoration grouping.  Just simple mason jars
filled with acorns and candy corn! Easy Peasy!
Elle Interiors  had the idea to use green apples in a glass trifle bowl to decorate.
 I love the  “green apple” colored candle too! 
We were at Pier 1 and their fall tablescapes were sooooooo BEAUTIFUL! 
Front-porch-ideas-and-more had this cute idea! 


Use gold metallic spray paint on real pumpkins for a dash of 
sparkle. I think I’ll try that for my fireplace area this year. 
How cool is THAT look? it’s cool alright….

It’s a blog party did a simple but beautiful fall mantle that looks easy to copy…
I love the leaves, pods and acorns strung along in an easy twine garland. But simple pumpkins outside with a bale of hay or a cornstalk is pretty too. I love this old wagon. I wish I had one! 



Antsi-pants has this FREE printable Fall Subway Art project. SUPER. CUTE!
I made one for my classroom and for my home with a dark brown glossy picture frame. It looks GREAT! What is it about Fall colors that are just so appealing? 
Pure Style Home did another fall fruits in glass idea that I loved.
I’m going to be looking for some of these glass domes.
I think they are cool and you could use them for every season.


Nest Handmade has an easy Christmas Ball Wreath tutorial on how to make this
beautiful and welcoming addition to anybody’s front porch!
And Hobby Lobby has all the Christmas balls stacked in the aisles already! I LOVE this! 
Well, and who could resist just a plain old pile of pumpkins and some straw hay bales or an old cornstalk. And if that’s not enough, how about a cute grandkid in the mix? Yeah….she makes my day. Love her. Happy decorating. Gotta love a little
“punpkin” like this cute one…..:D

Gourmet Glazed Donuts from Beyond Glaze

This delicious looking but evil donut is from a gourmet donut shop in Draper, Utah called “Beyond Glaze”. I had a donut instead of birthday cake this year. It was decadent, to say the least! 
For my birthday this year my daughter took me out for lunch at Zupas. We had some yummo salads, just take a look! And donuts were on the dessert agenda. 
She had this salad from ZUPAS  with black beans and guacamole. 

I had this salad with berries, apples and candied pecans. They both had chicken. 

Zupas has these panini sandwiches I just love too. We had turkey and avocado and bacon, and Tiff had some soup. I just LOVE how they give you a chocolate covered strawberry with every meal too. It is just a nice touch. 
Then we wandered over to the donut shop called Beyond Glaze. (Shouldn’t it be “Beyond Glazed?” The grammar teacher in me is always bugged by these things, you see…..It reminds me of those “Shave Ice” stands where they sell Hawaiian snow cones. It should say “SHAVED ICE”. Mind your grammar people! 
This one just looks mouth watering doesn’t it? It is a caramel apple cheesecake donut. It is very popular as you can just imagine! 

 The carrot cake looked a little too yellow for me. But it matched the cute yellow chevron tablecoverings. 😀

My grandson Dylan was just staring at all the donuts in the window. He liked all of them too! What should we choose Dylan? Help me out here, Dude!! 
I LOVE mango, I thought. Maybe this one could be it. I just didn’t know. I love Raspberry shakes from Bear Lake. Maybe the two would make a divine combo? Hmmmm…….thinking….thinking….

My very favorite donuts are USUALLY maple bars. I bet this one was maple madness overload! Yummy. That one is for our next visit for sure! But I want something even MORE special and over the top decadent. 

These babies are pretty pricey though. Each one is about $2 bucks! Woop! Let’s just get one each and share with Dylan. 

 But GOOD LUCK choosing! Every one of them looks so yummy. What to do?

So I asked the owner of Beyond Glaze if he had a favorite. He said the “S’mores” donut is very popular. But I have never liked S’mores. So I went back to hunting through the window. I’m sure I was getting annoying by now. 😀 I am so decisive! 
Wanna Donut don’t ya? Lookie, the S’mores donut has a bite taken out of it….tee hee…(bottom left corner donut). I guess it is popular if peeps are taking bites out of it already!
I finally decided on one. I have heard all this talk about “salted caramel” and how good it is. So I’ve been on the hunt to try anything and everything with salted caramel in it. 
And, well…..just look at it. It is to DIE for good. I loved it. I wish I could make donuts like this. They were so Yummy. Think of the best glazed donut and the best piece of cake mixed together. Yup. There you have it. Glorious and a gazillion  and a half calories. On my birthday. So it is subtracted…….right? That just make for good Karma! 
Go see the little man at Beyond Glaze Donuts in Draper. He is very nice. And the shop is real cute too. 
But not as cute as my little man Dylan is. He just trumps it all. Gimme a kiss you dollface. 😀