St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

One of my favorite things to do with my cowboys is to bake.  Baking is one of my favorite hobbies and the boys love it too, and I love doing anything with the boys, so combining Baking and the Boys is a perfect fit for me.  We each have our own apron, the boys have stools they stand on, they each have their own little jobs.  We had planned to make cupcakes to send in to Rudy's class and since I volunteer at the school on Thursday, it is easier for me to deliver them rather than send them on the bus with Rudy.  Cupcakes+40 mile bus ride with 2nd Grader doesn't usually produce the desired results. My love of cooking was causing problems for our waistlines, but it didn't take me long to figure out I could indulge in my baking hobby, enjoy little treats here at home, but send the bulk of the treats into the class!  That was further fueled when I delivered treats once and was asked by not one but two kids if I actually MADE them or bought them at Wal-Mart.  That sort of irritated me so I asked the teacher what was up with that.  She said sadly, most kids now-a-days don't get homemade treats and some of the younger ones don't even realize that someone MAKES them...they think you just pick them up at the store.  That made me so sad because I LOVE TO BAKE WITH MY BOYS and make memories with them.

Whenever I spend extra time with my kids, it just furthers my belief that they are the smartest, the funniest, the cutest, etc, etc.  Tonight with Rudy was no exception.  If you are wondering why I call him Rudy, I explained all that in my very first blog post.  I saw these little guys on pinterest.com and thought they would be perfect for the 2nd graders this year. http://www.justcallmemaria.com/2012/03/lucky-charms-cupcakes.html?m=1

Rudy and I got an evening with each other because Daddy had a little ooooppppss on the 4-wheeler earlier this week.  The doctor called and the radiologist confirmed a broken wrist so he headed off (50 miles) to the doc to get a brace/splint and he offered to take Mr. Pickles with him.  Rudy and I whipped out these cupcakes in just a short amount of time, chatting, laughing and teasing the whole time.  I even made them as mini-cupcakes...I gotta keep Mrs.T happy too and I don't want her blaming me for 2nd Grade Sugar Highs.

One of the traits my boys have that I can claim came 100% from me is their love of cookie dough, cake batter, etc.  Tonight was no exception.  I let Rudy have the beaters and then later the bowl.  Since our cupcakes (and the batter) were green, you can see how much he loved it!  He even let me take a pic of him covered in the green batter.  I love his face expression....just melts my heart that little green mess does!


I wish this was a better pic so you could see it all over him.

Hobo Stew

Several of my friends saw a post on my Facebook page about how excited I was to use my new crock pot.  They were asking about it and what I cooked which must have been the kick in the pants to get  my blog going.  I have been wanting to blog for a long time and reserved my domain name months ago and never made time to get to it...well, here I am blogging about my crock pot.

I've had the same crock pot since we got married almost 13 years ago.  The last few months I have noticed it being "hotter" than what I thought it should be and then about 6 weeks ago my husband was washing it and broke the handle on the lid.  I cook with my crock pot several times a week during the winter so having to wrestle off the lid with hot pads was frustrating.  I have been wanting a new one since before Thanksgiving but just couldn't justify spending the money.  I really wanted one with the lock-down-lid so that when I haul food out to the cowboys during brandings and cow work it doesn't splash all over my car.  My new coffee pot broke (the one I bought special for when my in laws are here because they don't like drip coffee.)  Well, it broke so I returned it to the hardware store in town.  My lucky day!  They had a crock pot with the lock down lid and the difference between it and the coffee pot was only $4.  So I rummaged around in my bag and found four bucks and came home with my new crock pot.  Yippee!!! I secretly think being so excited about a new crock pot means my life is pathetic.  I mean, here I am writing about it on Facebook and then inspired enough to make it the topic of my first blog post.  No, I take that back...It means that I am so joyously happy that even the simple things in life are joyful to me!!

The whole point of that story was to share this recipe.  Ground Beef Hobo Stew from DeepSouthDish.com  http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2012/11/ground-beef-hobo-stew.html

We always get 1/2 a beef and that lasts our family right at a year.  But we always cook up the steaks and the roasts and then are left over with tons of ground beef.  I noticed my steak shelf looking rather thin the other day while the ground beef shelf of the freezer is still mighty full.  Why can't someone raise a cow that has only prime cuts of meat...seriously...I would pay for that!

So, I went on a Pinterest mission to look for new ground beef recipes.  I found a few new ones and this was the first one we tried.   It was good and the left overs were also good.  I froze about half of it and I think that will also heat up to be tasty.  A couple things I did differently than the recipe.

1.  I did not add the flour until right before we were ready to eat.  I prefer to thicken things about 20 minutes before I serve it so I just mixed up flour and water in a cup and poured in into the stew until it was the thickness I wanted.

2.  I did not add the green beans until 30 minutes before we were ready to eat.  I hate over cooked green beans and since I only had frozen ones, they only take 20-30 minutes to cook.

I served this with fresh homemade biscuits...I should share that recipe sometime too...maybe when I have more time.

I don't have any pictures since I just started this blog tonight, but I will for my next post. Does that also make me pathetic: that I am going to be taking pictures of stuff we cook?   Enjoy!

About Us

Well, I have been wanting to blog for a while now.  I love sharing things we do with our family and friends, especially since we moved 5 hours away from most of our network this past summer.  My husband's family lives about 20 hours away from us in Southern Arizona so sharing on Facebook or via email has always been part of our routine.  I've been an avid Facebooker for a while now, but have always wanted a blog so that I could share more of the crafts, recipes, activities and crazy adventures we find ourselves on.  I  really enjoy "keepsaking" the things I find myself doing with my cowboys and with the way technology is now, it seems like blogs are almost the same as old fashioned scrapbooks. 

We don't do much, we are pretty ordinary really...but to me...my cowboys are extraordinary.  I think my kids are the smartest, the cutest, the funniest, the sweetest, etc, etc.  I think my husband is the handsomest, the kindest, the best horseman around.....and I would argue any of the above facts if anyone dared to dispute me.  But we are pretty ordinary.  We get up every day and get Rudy (I've seen other blogs where they don't refer to their children by their given name but rather by a nickname, I'm sure for privacy reasons.  So I guess I will do the same.  My oldest son I call Rutabaga or Rudy for short.  When he was little I called him Mighty Mouse, that got shortened to Mouse and then Mouse-A-Roo being silly.  Then Mouse-A-Roo turned into Roo and that into Rudy and now Rutabaga.) 

Anyway, we get Rudy ready for school and he grabs a ride with our neighbor 6 miles to the bus stop.  There he hops on the bus with Grandpa Ralph as the driver and rides 40 miles into to town.  I usually pick up Rudy and the 5 other ranch kids who get off at our stop in the afternoons.  Lately I have been leaving a little early for the bus stop so that I can have a few extra minutes to listen to my Janet Evanovich books on CD in my car. 

While Rudy is gone to school, Mr. Pickles (Mr. Pickles or sometimes just Pickles or Picky is our youngest son.  He got the name because in cowboy lingo a "pickle" is a horse that doesn't really want to behave or get along.  Not that Mr. Pickles is bad or mean, but he is...well, he is naughty and into everything!!!) 

Anyway, while Rudy is at school and my husband is off doing whatever it is that cowboys do (I have some secret thoughts about what he is actually doing all day and I am pretty sure it involves staying "busy" aka out of sight, as to avoid my honey-do list.)  But, while he is off and Rudy is off, Mr. Pickles and I sit around and eat Bon-Bon's.  Not really. 

We do all kinds of stuff that is pretty boring and normal.  That is the whole point of this blog...to show my family what we do all day....We do lots of stuff like this....he licks the butter off his biscuits and I take pictures of it.

I am lucky enough to be a stay-at home mom, though I am not home very much.  I run a clothing website and I will give myself a shameless plug  www.thespicycowgirl.com is my business and when not tending to the website I set up a booth at barrel races and rodeos to sell my inventory.  Barrel Racing is one of the other main-stays in my life. During the day I help with the book work of a large barrel racing association.   I also spend a good portion of my time working on whatever random projects I have....my husband says I have more hobbies than anyone he knows and I am usually working on one of them....cooking, finding new recipes, surfing Pinterest, sewing, riding, gardening, taking pictures, etc...so really that is probably what the main "meat" of this blog will be....sharing my hobbies with my friends.