Blueberry Yum-Yum!

~Blueberry Yum-Yum

Please allow me to introduce you to a family favorite, Blueberry Yum-Yum.  Blueberry Yum-Yum is a dessert that my Grandma Lewis (my Dad's Mom) was practically famous for. I don't know exactly where she got the recipe; if she created it or copied it...but I do know that she perfected it! 

I remember visiting my Grandparents home in Savannah, Georgia when I was a kid and how Grandma's Blueberry Yum-Yum was a special treat for my sisters and I.  There was always massive amounts of good ol' southern cookin' to be had on these visits, but her yum-yum was always the star of the show.  I also remember that she use to bring it to the Lewis family reunions and folks would literally line up to get some of the blueberry goodness.  My sister, Melanie, a confessed Blueberry Yum-Yum addict was always in that line.

Grandma was nice enough to share her recipe with my Mom many years ago and this past weekend Mom decided to make it for the first time in in quite a while. The picture at the top of this post is of Mom's latest version of Grandma's Blueberry Yum-Yum.  It looked just like it should and even though Mom complained that she has never been able to make it exactly the way Grandma did, I can honestly say it tasted like perfection to me! 

Mom has passed the recipe on to me and has given me permission to share it, so you're in for a real treat today!!  Thank you, Mom! And thank you Grandma Lewis!

The really great thing is that the recipe that Mom has was handwritten by my Grandma years ago.  How awesome is that!? She passed away some time ago but, when I look at her handwritten notes on making this classic family treat, it is like she is in the kitchen making it all over again. I would scan it and attach it to this post, but my scanner is broken. :(  

I'm really happy to share this recipe and hope that if you try it, you will let me know how it turned out and if you enjoyed it.

Blueberry Yum-Yum

2 Cups fresh or frozen blueberries

2 Cups sugar (Divided)

1/4 Cups water

1/4 Cup cornstarch

3 Tbsp water

1 Cup all purpose flour

½ Cup margarine (softened)

1 cup walnuts (chopped fine).

1 8oz pkg cream cheese (Soft)

1 8oz pkg frozen whipped topping

Combine flour, margarine and nuts. Press dough in baking dish. Bake 20 mins. at 350. Let cool.

Combine berries, 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup water in small sauce pan. Cook over low heat until berries are soft. Approx. 15 mins.

Combine cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water in bowl - stir to dissolve. Add mixture to blueberries stirring constantly ‘til thickened. Set aside to cool.

Combine cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Beat ‘til smooth – fold in cool whip. Speed this over cooled crust and then pour blueberry mixture evenly over top.

*Grandma’s end note says:  and that’s it!

This is what I get for asking Jack to pose with the Blueberry Yum-Yum...

~ He acts like he's going to give it to Bella...

You can imagine my frustration with this man, I'm sure!

Finally, he acts right!  It really shouldn't be this hard! :)

Inspired by Starbucks, created by 5forks, copied by little ol' me.

As I’ve previously confessed, I’m a coffee addict. I usually drink about 6 cups a day and even though I recently switched from caffeinated to decaf (mostly anyway) I still enjoy a good, steaming hot cup. So, naturally, I love Starbucks and go way more often than I should!  Anyway, last week while I was at Starbucks, I noticed, (somehow for the first time) the “Petite Vanilla Scones”. My stomach cried out “Get those, get those!”, but knowing that was meeting Jack later for lunch helped me to resist. The price of these tiny scones, 3 for $2.75, helped as well. That just seemed a little pricy to me.

Days later, I was still hankering for those little pastries and so began my mission to make vanilla scones at home. It turns out that I’m not the only one on a vanilla-scone-making-mission. I found that “Starbucks vanilla scone recipe” is a very popular Google search. I found tons of blog entries and recipes; all of which promised to be “just like” or “almost like” those at Starbucks. Since I didn’t know what the vanilla scones from Starbucks tasted like, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to compare the two, so I just went with 5forks blog who had the best looking picture (imagine that) of their scones.

I must say, I’m really glad I picked this recipe! It was rather easy and not very time consuming at all; which is perfect for a novice like me.

Here’s a picture of the scones I made from the recipe on 5forks.

The scones turned out perfect, thus putting an end (after three or four) to my ridiculous craving. The only thing I did differently was that I added a slash of vanilla to the glaze. I love vanilla and I tend to use extra in most recipes. Also, next time, I plan to make my glaze much thicker by not adding as much milk to my powdered sugar. This reminds me, there is a typo, I think, in the recipe over at 5forks. Under the list of ingredients for the glaze, it calls for milk but in the directions it says water. I used milk and it turned out great. It tasted delicious, just not thick enough, but that was my fault. So anyway, I'm guessing that you can use either water or milk.

I always enjoy sharing recipes that I have tried and enjoyed. If you would like to try this recipe, click here.

Have a blessed day everyone!

Split Personality...

Back before the Fall Semester and the horribleness that is math started, I was baking pretty regularly. Mainly, I was making cupcakes; experimenting with different ideas and flavor combinations. During that time, I came up with my Split Personality Cupcakes.

I’ve been meaning to post pictures of these cupcakes, along with the recipe, for a while. And since I was thinking about it and can actually get to the pictures (they are in an online album of mine) without having to wait for my computer to be fixed, I thought that today would be the perfect day to share!

First, I have to thank my long time friend, Brandi, for coming up with the name of these cupcakes! They’re half vanilla, half chocolate, deliciously sweet and spicy at the same time. So, I think the name totally fits!  It's perfect Brandi, thank you.

A recipe that I saw for half vanilla, half chocolate cupcakes is where it all started.  I wanted to make them because they looked pretty cool and I figured I could do just about any flavor combination with the half and half cake.  So, I played with ideas for the icing and toppings and decided on a sweet icing and a spicy topping.  I was very pleased with the result...

Here's the recipe:

For the cupcakes:
* I copied this directly from The Busty Baker, where I got this recipe. It's Martha Stwert creation, I believe. If you keep reading past the cupcake recipe, you will see a recipe for Strawberry Buttercream icing which, with a strawberry slice on top, completes her very yummy looking Neapolitan Cupcakes!*

Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12
Follow instructions for Vanilla Cupcakes below, but reduce flour to 1 1/4 cups, and add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. Whisk into dry ingredients.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla, and mix until combined. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, followed by milk; end with remaining flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated (do not overmix).

3. Fill muffin cups with 3 tablespoons of each batter, side by side. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing:
*I just used a basic buttercream recipe. *I have the link on my other computer (the broken one) so, I can't remember the one I used.  But, they are all pretty much the same.  I found this one on one of my favorite foodie sites, Epicurious.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the spicy topping:

I selected a spicy chocolate by Chuao Chocolatier called "Spicy Maya".  It's a dark chocolate infused with pasilla chile, cayenne pepper and cinniamon.  I simply graded the chocolate (after putting it in the freezer, to firm it up, for half an hour or so) over the first batch of cupcakes once they were frosted.  However, I found that the spice didn't pop like I had expected it to. So, for the second batch  I chopped the chocolate into big rough chunks and placed them on top.  As a result, the spice was definitely poppin'!

If you try these cupcakes, or make your own creation, let me know.  I'd love to hear about it!

I was hoping to have time this weekend to do some cupcake baking, but we have a pretty full weekend planned already and I'm not sure I can fit it in.  Tonight, Madison and her choir class will be singing the National Anthem at the Belton High School football game. So, we'll be spending our evening there.  Tomorrow morning Jack, Madi and I are going to the food markets in Belton and Austin.  Then in the afternoon Madi and I  are going rock climbing with her swim team.  Finally, on Sunday, we are going to see Jack's grandparents in Palestine, Texas, for the day.  It's going to be a busy weekend, but I'm really looking forward to it ~ even though I wont get to bake and enjoy some cupcake yumminess!

Wish Madi luck tonight!  She gets pretty nervous singing in front of lots of people.  She's going to do fine, I'm sure and boy are we excited to see her singing on that football field!   I'll take pictures if I can and post them later.

Enjoy your weekend!  It's actually a long weekend for some (hopefully YOU)- yippee! 

I had never heard of Swai before

so, when I ran across it in the grocery store I was kind of intrigued. We eat a lot of fish and finding something different to try is always a good thing.  So, I bought it.


Since we had never heard of Swai, we of course had never cooked it and so I pulled up some information about it on-line. Turns out the proper name is "Iridescent shark" though it's not shark at all, it's actually a type of catfish found in Southeast Asia. Anyway, while surfing around for information and recipes, I ran across a blog called Om nom nom (cute name, don't ya think?) that offered a super easy recipe for Swai.


It seemed quick and easy enough (plus, for once, we had all the ingrediants)so, I went for it! Man-o-man am I glad I did!  Jack and I (Madi was already in bed - worn slap out from four sleep overs in a row) thoroughly enjoyed it! The combination of wine, garlic and fresh basil paired with the fish was a wonderfully unique experiance!   Our tastebuds were thrilled!  Jack said it reminded him of Asian food, which he loves!   So, I did good! 

Here's a picture this yummy dish...

Your interested now, right?? Well, if so, check out the "super easy recipe" link above for the recipe! I promise, if you like fish, you will LOVE this dish! Also, be sure to read the whole post there at Om nom nom ( I just love saying that!) about Swai because Gloria gives a little more information on Swai then I do here - like how to buy it and stuff.

As always, if you try it, let me know! I'd love to hear what you thought about my recommendation! (:

Lemon-Honey Cupcakes...

I made Lemon-Honey Cupcakes for my Mother-in-Law's 60th Birthday celebration a few weekends ago. I'm pretty sure the cupcakes were a hit..or at least the family was kind enough to lie and say they were to avoid hurting my feelings! Either way, I'm going to share the recipe, because I, personally, thought they were super yummy! And that's gotta count for something because I don't really like lemon. Yeah...lemon, it's not my favorite flavor. But, I chose to make these because my Mother-in-Law loves lemon! Plus, I wanted to make the cute little bumble bee's that go on top! Lookin' at them just makes me happy! My Mom has a magazine rack in her guest bathroom and one day while...well, I'll skip that part of the story and just say, I found these cupcakes in one of the Woman's Day magazine's storied in that rack. So, thank you Woman's Day magazine and Mom for this happy~sunny~yummy cupcake recipe!!

*the following recipe is copied straight from the Women's Day website.

Lemon-Honey Frosting Lemon-Honey Cupcakes makes 24 Recipe Ingredients Cupcakes
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp each baking powder
3/4 baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest (*this took me 30 min.!  Hopefully, you have a good grater, unlike me! ) 4 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest (*another 30 mins! ) 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
7 to 8 tsp lemon juice Few drops yellow food color (I think I did 4 drops and to me, the frosting still wasn't quite yellow enough. I think next time I will do about 6 drops. Yellow IS my favorite color though, so You might feel differently and want it lighter).

Bumblebee Tootsie Roll
Two pieces of string Yellow peanut M&M
Brown food marker Clear spice drop candies
Small cookie cutter

Recipe Preparation 1. Cupcakes: Heat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl until well mixed.

3. Beat butter, honey and sugar in large bowl with an electric mixer 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended.

4. With mixer on low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture. Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Frosting: Beat butter, honey and lemon zest in large bowl with an electric mixer until creamed, about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in confectioners’ sugar until blended. Beat in lemon juice and a few drops food color until mixture is fluffy and pale yellow.

7. Spoon into a large ziptop freezer bag, snip off one corner and pipe onto cupcakes, or just spread frosting onto cupcakes. To make the bumblebee: Tear off a piece of a Tootsie Roll and roll between the palms of your hands to make a thin string. Wrap two pieces of string around a yellow Peanut M&M for body of bee (*I didn't do this - I just took the thinly rolled Tootsie roll and wrapped it around the M&M) . Using a brown food marker, draw two dots for eyes. To make wings, roll out clear spice drop candies and cut out a 1⁄2-in. circle using a small cookie cutter (I just used a knife and sliced off the bottom of the spice drops). Cut circle in half; attach each half by pressing into the front band of Tootsie Roll on the body of the bee.

 

See, doesn't this little creation make you feel happy??

 Minus the cupcake liner decor, this is how my Lemon-Honey Cupcakes turned out!

These cupcakes really are something to "buzz" about! So 'bee' sure to share their happy-sunny-yumminess!

Gooseberry Patch ~ Chicken Chimies

In my post earlier today, I said that I wanted to write about this past weekends events. I do and I will, but this post is one that I started last week and want to finish. It's a short post. A sharing kinda post. Sharing is always good, right? Gooseberry Patch's "Our Best Quick & Easy Recipes" book is currently my favorite source for...well, for "quick and easy recipes"! The recipes featured in this book are not complicated and do not require that you go to the store for ingredients you've never even heard of. I like that! And, I thought you might like that too. I found my Gooseberry Patch book in Wal-mart, but you can find SO much more on their website if you want to check it out. Jack, Madi and I really love the Chicken Chimies recipe. It's our favorite for sure! I've made it several times, with some slight variations to the recipe, and each time it's been a hit. The bonus to this recipe is, of course, that it is easy to make! Anyway, I hate to keep something this wonderful and yummy to myself, so I wanted to share the Chicken Chimie recipe here. This is not the exact recipe, I did add a thing or two, but it is very close! Gooseberry Patch's Chicken Chimie's 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded salt to taste pepper to taste garlic salt to taste 1 T. butter 10 (8-inch) flour tortillas 8oz. pkg. shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or use a cheese with added Jalapenos if you want it a bit spicy) 6 Green onions (optional) black olives (optional) Toppings: guacamole, sour cream, salsa Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper & garlic salt. Saute the chicken in a pan until done. Remove let cool then shred. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add chicken and saute for about three minutes. *I added a little more pepper and garlic salt at this point, just for a little more flavor. After three minutes, add chicken evenly onto tortillas. Top with cheese, green onions and black olives (if you are using) and fold up sides and roll up, burrito-style. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add rolled-up tortillas and saute until golden (really does not take long to get golden, so be sure to watch it) Serve with your choice of toppings and over lettuce leaves if desired. Serves about 6 to 8.

...and aquí está ~garnished with Jack's homemade guacamole,

sour cream,

tomato chunks,

red onions

and

thinly sliced jalapenos.

Fi, fie, fiddly-i-o

*the title of this post is from song lyrics in "Someones in the Kitchen with Dinah" - an American folk song.

We had a fairly busy Memorial Day weekend. In a later post, I want to write about our visit to The Homestead Heritage in Waco, Texas this past Saturday. Also, in a later post, I plan to write about the black swallow tail butterfly that emerged from it's crysalis this weekend and the events that followed.

So, there's lots to write about, but all that's for a later time. For this post, I just want to share some pictures of the Memorial Day goodies that Madison and I made together.

~Sugar Cookies with White Chocolate Frosting. Madi helped me make the cookies, but as usual she did all of the decorating.

~We made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. A recipe by my culinary hero, Paula Deen, Y'all! Madi also decorated all of the cupcakes and did an awesome job too! She's holding up one of the cupcakes she made just for her Cami & Johnny Dad in the above picture.

~My first totally homemade cupcakes! ~Madi and I gave plates like this one to family and neighbors. Everyone seemed thrilled to get them and I hope the taste did not disappoint! I really enjoy baking and spending time in the kitchen with Madi . She's always willing to help and I'm SO glad because I don't know what I would do without her decorating expertize! Thanks Madi!!

"Sugar, Sugar"

Some of you (those of you with great taste in music no doubt) might start singing "Sugar, ahh, honey, honey" when you read the title of this post. I made this fun upbeat song from the 60's the title to this post because a) as I made sugar cookies today, I started signing it to myself and haven't stopped yet. And b) to hopefully allude you to something yummy, because if your like me, when you think of sugar, you think yummy! In my last post I promised I would share a sugar cookie recipe that I recently made for Valentines Day. This recipe makes the very best sugar cookies, in my opinion, and for that reason, it's worth sharing here. This sugar cookie recipe is by Alton Brown, who, as I mentioned before is Jack's culinary hero. I found his recipe on the Food Network website at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html

Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten 1 tablespoon milk Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Trust me, it's worth making these cookies homemade and not just buying them prepackaged from the store. On Valentines Day, Madi and I topped our sugar cookies off with icing, white chocolate and chocolate, but we left a few of the cookies not decorated in order to taste the "original" cookie without all the added sweet stuff. After tasting the cookies both decorated and plan, we all agreed that we liked them plan the best. So, today I didn't decorate them. Plus, my "expert cookie decorator," Madi, was over at a friends and not here to help me. So, decorating was not happening anyway! And since Jack was out getting our garden ready and working in the yard all day, these two were the only ones in the kitchen with me...

and they weren't helpin' ~just beggin' for something to eat! I did carve a few little messages in the cookies for Madi. Stuff like, xoxo, smiley faces, hearts and even a snow flake.

And I did put a cinnamon sugar on top of a few to see how that would taste.

Tasted really good, but we still enjoy them better totally plan.

If you add Gel Food Coloring while perparing the dough, you can make colored sugar cookies. That's next on my list.

You, of course, can experiment however you like with your sugar cookies. I just hope you think they are as delicious as we think they are and that you have fun making them! So, with a sugar cookie in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other and the 60's hit "Sugar, Sugar" in my head, I wish you a great week ahead. Unbelievably, Tuesday, Feb. 23, is Madison's 12 Birthday!! YAY!! I'll post again then.

My Funny Valentine

It has been an exciting month for this “funny girl”....

First of all, Madison made the Belton Middle School Swim team! YAY! She’s been swimming with a local club here, Swim Belton, for just over a year now and has been competitive swimming for them for about three months. She will begin swimming with the Middle School team next year when she enters 7th grade. Way to go Madi! Madison was also voted “6th grade Funniest Girl” by her fellow 6th graders at Belton Middle School. How awesome is that? Our girl is funny! We,of course, knew she had a great sense of humor, but now she has a year book picture and an award to prove it! So, it's official, I live with two comedians. Boy, did I luck out! Then Madi attended her first ever school dance, a Valentine's dance for Choir members. Jack and I had a hard time with this one. It's really hard for us to watch our little girl grow up! It's hard to stand back while she does more independent things. Since this was Madi’s first dance, Jack and I decided to chaperon. Ok-ok, really, we chaperoned because we needed peace of mind and because we are so not ready for this! I took a few pictures during the dance, but not too many. I didn't want to embarrass Madi or her friends by having the camera in their face all night. Besides, nobody likes photographic evidence of themselves doin' the stanky leg!

The dance was torture for Jack and I. The music, which was horrible (stuff like Lady GaGa - enough to make Jack and I gag-gag!) was too loud and the kids were running around like a bunch of heathens.

The whole thing just reminded me of a bad night club

and why I never enjoyed such things.

At one point Jack looked at me and said “I’m in hell” with the most serious look I’ve ever seen on his face. It cracked me up!

And that's about the only thing, other then seeing Madison so happy,

that was good about our experience

as chaperone's of a middle school dance!

~ Here's Madi after the dance, just before we took her to a friends to spend the night. A week after the first dance, Madison went to a second Valentine's dance. This one was for the whole middle school . Jack and I were still recuperating from the dance just a week before and did not volunteer to chaperon this one. I was able to get Madi to sit still long enough to get a few pictures of her, looking beautiful, just before she left the house. ~Pretty in Pink...again For Madi, so far, the month of February has been a good one. But, it’s not over yet and it's only going to get better because in just five days she will be celebrating her 12th Birthday! Yes, our "funny girl" will be 12 years old! Wow and Yikes! Did i mention we're not ready for this??? Ugh! Anyway, big things are happening for her 12th birthday! She’s going to have tons of fun and a few pretty cool surprises! I’ll write all about it after her birthday – Feb. 23. So, I think that catches us up on Madi's exciting month of love! Now, I want to share a few pictures from our very busy, very enjoyable Valentine's Day weekend. Madi (her again!) got some Valentine's Goodies...

~ Madi is a scrapbookaholic, so she's always happy to get scrapbooking pages and embellishments!

Twas just a regular day for the Johnston animals...

~Tex being super cute and cuddly as usual

~Bella being super lazy and goofy as usual

~Cassie plotting the next kong fu move to use on Tex or Bella, whoever gets close to her first, as usual. We spend most of our extra time in the kitchen baking lots of yummy and fattening stuff. Jack baked bread...

Not such a great picture of it, but Jack was yelling at me not to take pictures of it because it had "too much flour on the top!" He thought it didn't look appealing because of the floor. But, I thought it looked awesome and so I managed to get a quick picture to share because I'm super proud of him and his mad bread making skills! He may delete the picture and this whole paragraph when he proof reads my work later, but hopefully not.

This particular loaf of bread is called "no kneed bread" and to my surprise it was very tasty. We've had it with dinner a few nights this week even though we don't usually have bread with our meals. We've also had it for breakfast with a poached egg atop. Another surprisingly good creation!

Madi and I baked sugar cookies...

~she was in heaven with all those cookies laid out before her!!

~the first decorated cookie

~ Madi did most of the decorating and they turned out beautiful! *I'm not a fan of Sugar Cookies usually, but I tried an Alton Brown (Jack's culinary hero) recipe and I have to say they are amazing! Soft, thick and very tasty. The reason I don't like sugar cookies is because they are (from what I have experienced) thin, hard (almost stale like) with little flavor - these are exactly NOT that! I'll share the recipe to them here in the next day or so. It's worth making them from scratch!

Then for the mother of all Valentine's goodies....

Behold, the Chocolate Cheese Cake with Ganache!

A homemade (yes, totally..from scratch) Chocolate Cheese Cake

made by JACK!!

This is a Valentines tradition for us as he has made one each year for Valentine's Day with the exception of when he was in Iraq. Super sweet and thoughtful of him!

I love that he does this.

It's the perfect gift. What a beautiful cake too, huh?! Our President's Day/Valentine's Weekend was capped off when we got to celebrate my grandmother's birthday with dinner at the Crackel Barrel (Cracker Barrel - but, in my southern family, we call it Crackel Barrel) and a swingin' party at my mom and dad's.

While at dinner, I ran into some random good lookin' family that I just had to get a picture of.....

Not really, this is my friend Diane and her beautiful family and They were kind enough to pose for a family photo for me! Thanks y'all! In he back is Diane and her husband Lawrence and in the front, from left to right: Cejay, Jordan, Jetta & C'airah. Cute family, huh?! It really made my day to run into them. Lookin' good, Ryans, lookin' good!

After Dinner, we headed to my parents to have cake, ice cream, tears and music!

We subjected Madison to this face sucking after dinner nearly ruining her desire for birthday cake. Nearly!

Grandma's 78th er, 86th birthday (she kept saying she was turning 78 but really, she turned 86) but I still say she doesn't look a day over 75!

My grandmother has only been to Texas one other time in her life. She has lived and celebrated nearly all of her birthdays in Savannah, GA. So, for her to be here with us, in Texas, celebrating her 86th Birthday is pretty special.

A five generation of girls picture featuring my Mom, Madison, Me and my grandma, Mrs. Ollie Rowe. Another five generation picture, but, Jason isn't a girl...just thought I'd clarify! Mom, Jason (cheesy man), Virginia, and Grandma The fam-damily! Thanks to about 347 tries with the auto-capture function on the camera. Me, Madi, Jack, Jason, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Virginia. Does this guy look like he should be eating cake? Nice shirt, Barney! (OK, Jack inserted this - he obviously doesn't like the picture. I love it! It's so Jack ~ funny, goofy and handsome!)

Leo, never one to pass up the sweet stuff, either.

Grandma, showing off the necklace we got her, is ready for the festivities to commence.

Madi reads her card...

An emotional Mother-Daughter kiss...

And as the evening draws to a close, Grandma is serenaded by the sweet and very strong sounds of Jason's magical trumpet! What a party!