Some snow, some sugar, and a crockpot

Yes, once again, snow has hit us! We've had literally no snow all winter, and once spring came, so did the snow. Here is a view out my front door. So I thought...

Why not make some Monkey bread? Yummy!

How can you resist all that brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon?

I've seen this recipe floating around for years, but never paid much attention until last Christmas, I was getting bored with quick store bought cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. I made these, and boy were they good. Good and fast, with that Islavedoverthisandtheyare definatelyhomemadetaste!

I took this recipe, and tweeked it to make it my own. Will I share? Of course!

Homemade Monkey bread

1/2 Cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cans Grands Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 stick of butter, no substitutes

Heat oven to 350F, lightly spray a fluted bunt pan with cooking oil.

In a large ziplock bag, mix white sugar and the cinnamon. Open biscuits, and cut each one into 4 pieces, then a few at a time, shake in sugar mixture, until all are coated.

Mix melted butter and brown sugar together.

Place half of the coated biscuit pieces in the bunt pan, and pour half of the brown sugar mix over the pieces, then repeat with the second layer of biscuits, pouring the second half of the brown sugar mix to finish the top. If you want the walnuts and raisins in there, just sprinkle them among the two layers evenly.

Bake 30 minutes, uncovered, then pull out to see if the layers are cooked all the way through. I always have to cover it with foil, then bake it an additional 10-12 minutes, to finish it off.

Pull from the oven and eat while still hot. Yumm-o!

My daughter loves the snow, so we bundled her up, to go out and help Dad shovel. That lasted about 10 minutes, then she was off to the backyard to play by herself!

Then, she came in and was treated to some hot chocolate, her favorite.


After that, I assembled everything to put in the crockpot for some hot split pea soup for dinner tonight. If I'm feeling really energetic (which I doubt), I may make some homemade biscuits.

I have to tell you about my crockpot. Last night for dinner, I decided to do some BBQ chicken in the crockpot. I put the stuff in, and turned it on, and forgot about it, like you're supposed to do. I was so busy sewing the poodle skirt, and doing other things, I didn't really notice there was no yummy smells filling the house.

At 5:30, I go up to check dinner, and the crockpot had apparently decided to give up the ghost, AKA die!

I fiddled with the knobs, plugged and unplugged it, and nothing! Stupid thing!

I can say that, because I've always hated my newer crockpot.

About 3 years ago, I bought a bigger, fancy stainless steel looking one, to replace my smaller, totally 90's looking one.

The only thing I liked about it was that it was bigger, so you could cook more food. But it really was weird, because even on low, it vigorously boiled everything to death! The lid rattled to no end the whole time, and you couldn't leave it for the day to cook stuff, or it was burned to a crisp when you came home!

I'm glad it died, because now I can go buy a new one, how cool is that?

Here's my old trusty one, below, that is happy to come out of the cupboard, and tirelessly serve our family, once again.
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I actually think the pattern on it is rather cute!

The soup is a really easy recipe, which I'll also share with you. I used leftover ham from Easter dinner last week.

"No Hassle" Split pea soup

1 lb. dry green split peas (soak overnight)

4 C. water

3/4 lb. ham, cubed

1/4 tsp. pepper

3 Tb chicken bouillion

1/2 C. celery, chopped

1 C. carrots, sliced

1/4 C. onions

1 bay leaf

Drain peas after soaking overnight, and add all ingredients to your crockpot. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours, or high 4-5 hours.

This fit in my smaller crockpot fine, and was plenty with leftovers. Double and put into the bigger size if you have a large family.

Enjoy!

With the cold temperatures, I will not be able to do my silverware project, due to spray painting in a cold garage gives me the shivers, so stay tuned. Instead I'll be working on something indoors.

Spring, Spring, wherefore art thou, spring?

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

SNOW!

We didn't get alot, but it was cold, only 19 degrees, and dreary. Luckily, the beautiful sunshine came out and warmed things up to the high 40's.

Our winter here in Colorado has been fairly mild, compared to other winters, where it dumped on us Big-time (think 2006). That was one of the worst I can remember, with 2 storm, back to back. It left us completely buried for days, and our roads a nightmare for weeks and weeks afterwards. I think my car is still suffering the effects of driving through snow sinkholes 2 feet across!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of my garden last year, for those of us who are suffering from Spring fever, and are sick of the cold weather. My snapdragons, delphiniums, and roses are my favorite, so full of bright, cheerful color.

I'm excited to get out in my garden and start planting. I am totally redoing 2 of my beds, by relocating some of my salvia (I had salvia overplanting issues last year!), and pulling out 2 large Russian sage, to let the Liatrus I planted there last year have some room.

The dang squirrels kept digging up the bulbs, after I planted them, and so I had to keep going out and reburying them! They could smell the fresh dirt all dug up, and knew something was going on, so they wouldn't leave the area alone!

This is not one of MY squirrels; when I went out to take pics of the 59 squirrels that live in MY yard, of course, there were NONE to be found! I borrowed one off of a squirrel picture website. Who knew there were so many squirrel fans out there?

I am an avid birder, so I have no fondness for squirrels anymore. Sure, they're cute when they frolick around the yard, with their stupid little antics, but when they destroy all my bird feeders trying to get the seed out, and gnaw their teeth down on my wood deck, and dig up and eat my bulbs, then they are on my black list!

I have baffles and deterrants on my feeders, but I am really limited on where I can place my feeders, due to the many trees on my property. My inlaws live out in the country, and they get those cute little ground squirrels, you know the ones that look like a chipmunk? They hate them , because they burrow tunnels everywhere, and ruin the lawn.

Today marked the return of Doves to my backyard. I have the Eurasian collared doves, and the mourning doves. I love the way they coo in the morning, so soft and sweet. Soon they will have babies, and bring them into the yard for food and water. Here is a baby from last year.

And a robin, freezing in our late spring snow!

The dove babies are so unafraid, that you can literally walk right up to them, as they are laying in the grass. They just stare at you, so cute and small. I'll post pics of them, when they are finally here. Just today in my yard, I've had Juncos, assorted Sparrows and Finches, Robins, 2 kinds of Doves, Black-capped Chickadees, Flickers, Blue Jays, and a few hungry squirrels. The juncos will soon be moving on, and we'll have spring migration moving through. What do you get in your yard during migration? Comment on your favorite visitor!

Hang in there, it's almost Spring!
(As promised, tonight or tomorrow I will post pics of all of the journals I made, covered with vintage paper ephemera.) I'll also do a short tutorial on how to make these darlings, so start scouring your local flea and antique store, for old paper things to use.