Red Velvet Patriotic Pancakes

I absolutely love red velvet anything!  So when I happened to find Red Velvet Pancake and Waffle mix at World Market for only $3.99 I knew I had found a good thing.  The pancakes are delicious and easy to make.

The mix is beige with no hint of red coloring.

Magically turns red when you add liquids.

  

    

Our patriotic breakfast for Independence Day:  red velvet pancakes and blueberry ice milk.

The drink is Mario Batali's recipe from "The Chew" which is made from only 2 ingredients.

To be honest I did not follow Mario's directions.  I dumped 2 cups of blueberries in the blender and added milk, a touch of agave syrup and flax seed oil.  It comes out much thicker like a smoothie you have to eat with a spoon but it is very healthy and delicious.  Since cow's milk gets such a bad rap next time I will try using coconut milk to be extra healthy.

I used aerosol whip cream for the stripes.  

   

Added a touch of blueberries to make it more festive.

   

My family does not like cream cheese so instead of using a cream cheese glaze they used Log Cabin syrup which does not contain high fructose syrup.  

Cream Cheese Glaze

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/4 cup softened butter (half a stick)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Drops of milk 

Combine all ingredients except milk in a bowl.  Using electric mixer beat until smooth.  Add milk until you get desired consistency.

Blueberry Ice Milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
4 cups cold milk
Thaw blueberries and puree in food processor. 
Strain out liquid from blueberry puree.
Divide the strained liquid among 4 glasses.  Top each glass with 1 cup of milk and stir. 

Recipe video link Blueberry Milk

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Leftover Peeps

Peeps...they're not just for eating anymore.  These colorful, animal-shaped marshmallows have become an endearing craft embellishment. Crafters are using Peeps in creative ways that I would have never thought of myself.  They are using them in wreaths, in flower arrangements, and making awesome dioramas in very hilarious settings.  But I do not have the time or patience to do any of those crafts.

There's only one thing my son and I like to do with Peeps.

BLOW them up in the microwave!  
This activity take less than 1 minute in the microwave and it's also healthier to nuke the Peeps in the microwave rather than eating them. The pictures do not do this justice. It really is fun and the kids get a good kick out of seeing the Peeps blow up to 4 times their original size.  FYI the snowman Peeps get really big.

Chick Peeps

Pumpkin Peeps

 

 

More Chick Peeps

Snowman Peeps

Other ideas for Peeps

 

   

http://www.facebook.com/gatewaypeople

These ads are on my church's facebook page and in our local newspaper.

I had to show this pic because I'm a nerd and it cracks me up.  

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Thanksgiving with Charlie Brown 2011

Whew! I've been absent from my blog for a while. I had an ear infection that slowly turned into a sinus infection. The process was so slow I didn't realize that I was really sick. I should have known something was wrong when just trying to think took a lot of effort.  I didn't have time to go to the doctor before Thanksgiving so I took a couple of my dad's leftover antibiotic medication. Yes, I know taking other people's medication is not responsible but I had over 30 guests coming and besides, it got me through Thanksgiving.  I just couldn't let something like an ear infection get in my way on Thanksgiving. To top the craziness my dad wanted family pictures which made the day a more stressful but we got through it. I give so much thanks to my husband and oldest son who really helped me in cleaning and getting ready for this day.

Now it seems Thanksgiving has come and gone in a flash and it's time to get ready for Christmas. But before I welcome in the season I want to post some Thanksgiving pics.

Here's a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" cake that I made. The inspiration came from justjennrecipes.com's Snoopy cupcakes.  I really had fun making this cake.  The Charlie Brown theme seemed to strike a chord within the older generation as opposed to the younger ones at the party. It brought back so many memories for us.  When I was a kid we didn't have the luxury of having 24-hour cartoon networks. Cartoons were reserved for Saturday mornings and holidays specials like Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  And if you missed the show it was too bad - you had to wait until the next year to see it again. We would talk about it at school reminding each other to not forget to watch the show.  I think that's the reason why shows like Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer hold a special place in our hearts rather than this younger generation who can watch whatever they want whenever they want.

For the cake:  I used Petit Toasts (usually found in the deli section) and mini Jelly Bellys because they are the perfect size.  The Charlie Brown images are from various sites which I re-sized on Word.  I glued the images onto cardboard, cut them out and taped them to BBQ skewers.  This helps keep the images standing erect and  the more importantly the cardboard does not actually touch the cake.

Our Dessert Table

My sister made the pumpkin cake balls.

My husband got up at 3am to start smoking 2 briskets.

This is my "I Saw, I Pinned, I Actually Did It" section.  

My gorgeous niece helped me decorate the turkey cookies.

If someone told me how tedious and time consuming making these Gobble Gobble Oreo Turkey Cookies I would have never made them.  They are cute, but not worth the trouble.  I suggest making them a day ahead or enlisting as much help as you can.  I'm so glad my niece helped me because I was about to have a conniption fit.  The idea is from Cookies and Cups blog. She used chocolate Oreos and I used vanilla Oreos because my youngest son doesn't like chocolate.

Free Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

 Here is a link to free Crayola Thanksgiving coloring pages for the children's table during Thanksgiving meal.

This is an example of one of the many pages.

Fall Decorating & "Give Thanks" Banner Download

I saw a Christmas commercial the other day and it made me anxious. The holidays are fast approaching and I don't think I'm ready.  I am hosting Thanksgiving this year and since time is of essence I decided to skip decorating for Halloween and just do fall decorations.  I allow myself 1 box of fall decorations because I have 17 boxes of Christmas decorations and storage space is limited.  This is the best I could do with the one box of decorations and pumpkins & gourds. It's not grandiose, but I think I did alright.

I thought it looked better without the feather wreath.

I glittered these nuts last year and they are holding up well.  I will probably use them for Christmas too.

 

We got this giant corn cob 90% off last year.  No one else wanted it - can't remember why I bought it either.

My one Halloween decoration. That Kisses were gone within the day. 

This beautiful banner is from At Second Street Blog.

 GIVE THANKS Banner Download 

I take no credit for creating the download. I actually saw it on Pinterest.

The only thing I did was glitter the border for my own personal touch. 

I added glitter around the border with Stickles Cinnamon.

 

The white box near the ceiling is our doorbell box. It is ugly. It makes me think of something from the 70s.  

I covered the doorbell box with a free download from Squidoo.com.  It is a public domain picture.

another free domain pic

I used the leaves that broke off the garland and taped them to the wall using poster tape. Poster tape is able to hold up to 1/4 lb weight without damaging the walls.  However, the leaves kept falling off and it was driving me crazy.  I tried removing the plastic vein of the leaf and scoring the back but nothing worked. Then  I realized that the leaf material would not stick so I glued tissue paper to the back of the leaves to stick to the tape on the wall.  This really works and it is cheap.

Measure your tissue and tear to size.

Press down & squish tissue so it won't show on other side.

Now tissue is stuck to tape.

I'm not a big gardener. My husband planted these for me a couple of weeks ago. 

 I've already blogged about my skills at killing plants.  

Please excuse the wild overgrown bushes in the background and our ghetto pot that I fixed with Gorilla Glue.

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