Hot Party Sandwiches

Okay, first off, Did I, in fact, come up with the idea for this blog? Yes.
Have I, in fact, waited until the 17th of September to actually publish my first post here? Yes.
Do I, in fact, have before and after pics for this post? Um, that would be No.

Sorry. I'll improve, I promise!

Now that we have all of that out of the way, on to the food!

I love that I can go to Pinterest for ideas on the fly. Since it's visual, it's easy to page through until I find something that I like. Search engines, take note!

Last weekend, we had a baby shower for a dear friend. I was in charge of the sandwiches. She confessed her favorite sandwich was PB&J. Isn't that honesty and simplicity so endearing? And OF COURSE I made that cute, sweet, adorable gal a platter of PB&Js!

I felt that I was getting off too easy on this, though. I needed something else... something fancy. Something yummy. And when I saw this link: Hot Party Sandwiches, I knew I had found a winner.

I bet you've had them at Super Bowl Parties. I bet you didn't know how easy they are, even though they look - and TASTE - like you worked really hard on them.

They would be great for any occasion you might take a meal to a family, a baby shower, tailgate, or potluck. Or just dinner for your own family. Trust me. Try them this week. A real winner!

Hot Party Ham Sandwiches
adapted from Simple Organized Living

taken from Plain Chicken Blog - click on the link for a nice printable recipe

1 dozen Brown 'N Serve rolls
1/2 lb sliced deli ham
12 slices provolone cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350.

Split each dinner roll. Make a sandwich of the ham and cheese and the dinner rolls. Arrange the sandwiches in a 9x13 pan. (My tip: use a disposable aluminum tray and you can take and toss!)

In a small sauce pan combine butter, brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire and poppy seeds. Bring to a boil and pour over sandwiches.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and crispy.

Welcome - From Jessica

Hi! I am Jessica. I am married to Dibs, and am Mama to two little girls: Arden (almost 3) and Leslie (14 months). We have an Australian Shepherd rescue pup named Howie. I know Amy and Mikal because we all used to go to the same church in Central Georgia. They are military families and moved away - we're not, so we're still here.

We bought a neglected 40-year-old farmhouse back in the spring and moved in about a month ago, after a total kitchen overhaul and taking out a couple of walls. So I now live on a farm on a highway proclaimed to be "Georgia's High-Tech Corridor." Is it just me or is that pretty hilarious? I'm confident we will be working on this house forever. I expect a lot of my completed projects are going to involve the house or land in some way. I love to cook, so you can expect to see a lot of recipes. And I love to refashion things - using a sewing machine or power tools - so watch out for that, too.

In addition to Mama Pin. I also blog at My Ardent Life (warning: it's so neglected!) and you can read more about me there, if you really want to. Dibs is also known as the Shrewd Dude on Totally Shrewd (also neglected... hmmm, pattern?) and I think we'll have him do a few Papa Pin, Papa Do guest posts here. If you want to follow me on Pinterest (of course you do!), click here. I'm on Instagram, too, as @MyArdentLife.

Welcome to Mama Pin, Mama Do - let's have fun!

A Pumpkin Cake!!!!

Fall, oh fall. How I love thee!!!!

No, I'm not crazy (much), but I am in LOVE with Fall! And even more, I'm OBSESSED with pumpkin! I don't know when it started, but I know it started with pumpkin pie. Then I discovered pumpkin cheesecake--I made it a number of years ago one Thanksgiving, and now blame it for my need for Weight Watchers (well, all cheesecake, really!).

Pinterest started getting pumpkin pins a few weeks ago, and I now have a board dedicated to all recipes pumpkin. Of course, the commissary (the military's grocery store) doesn't have pumpkin in right now (that I could find), so you should have seen the excitement and dance (yes, a HAPPY DANCE) in the middle of the aisle at our local Farm Fresh when I found canned pumpkin. It was like the clouds opened up (even though it was a sunny day) and the sun shone through and the choir of angels in heaven sang. Yes, I was that happy. I bought a couple of cans and left the store, wondering which delicious-sounding recipe I should make.

Well...the answer came from my pantry. (It was the only recipe for which I had every ingredient!) Pumpkin Dump Cake (or Pumpkin Crunch Cake). Doesn't it sound yummy? 

Here is the pin's link: http://www.thepickyapple.com/blog/2008/11/22/pumpkin-crunch-cake/

And in all my excitement, I didn't take pictures of every step. But you'll forgive me, right? After all...it's all for the sake of pumpkin!!!

First, I made sure I had everything (it was, after all, 9 o'clock at night!):

And as you can see, I so totally used Splenda. And light  butter. Just to make it more "Weight Watchers" friendly. I didn't actually calculate the points for it, though I suppose I should. Hold on for me, and I'll go do that for you. Okay. If you cut this into 12 pieces when it's finished, it's 13 points, but you can make it with fat-free evaporated milk, and that will help! I don't know if it exists (it should!), but you may even be able to find a low-fat cake mix. Maybe? 

I then mixed everything according to the recipe: 

It already smelled good. Or was that just my imagination wishing it was already finished???

But finally it was finished!!! 

Doesn't it look sooooo good???? Well, it was! (Yes, it's all gone now.) I've read, too, that people turned it over so the cake mix and pecans acted as the crust. The photo above was directly out of the oven (and yes, in all my anxiousness to eat it, I forgot to crush the pecans while making it!). I do have to say that we all liked it better the next day after it had been in the fridge overnight. But it wasn't bad at all out of the oven! It was pretty custard-like, actually. But it firmed up in the fridge and was delish!!! It's definitely something I'll make again. Maybe with a spice cake mix next time....

Which pin are you going to go do?

~Mikal

Tutus

Lets talk about tutus! They are so, so easy. I seriously do not understand why more people don't make them. This is the first craft that I attempted so I only have after pictures. Sorry. I'll try to do better next time.

My Pin-The pin that I found and The site that it led to. Seriously. Just follow the directions. It could not be easier.

I used two 6"x25 yard rolls of regular tulle and two 6"x12 yard rolls of sparkly tulle for each tutu. Yes sparkly. I was making them to be like Tinkerbell and Rosetta. You have to have sparkle. HAVE TO.

I started by literally holding up a cardboard box to my daughter and marking the length I wanted. Next I measured two more inches to allow for fluff and cut a rectangle shape out of the cardboard. After that I wrapped a ribbon around her waist and added two feet to it.

Measure about one foot into the ribbon then tie a knot. After that you can tie the tulle on! I tied four pieces of regular and then two of the sparkly. I just kept doing that until I ran out of tulle and it ended up being perfect! I know. I'm so technical. Awesome, right?

Next time I will definitely use elastic. I think it will be better than ribbon because it can expand as my daughter grows.

Pictures!

So fun!

An Amy Welcome

Hello! I'm Amy. I've got a husband, Geppetto, and four kids. We'll call them Queen, Luigi, Goofy, and Sweetie. Two girls and two boys who are seven, five, four, and one in October.

Lets see. I stay at home with my kids and have been doing that since our first was born seven years ago. I wouldn't trade it for anything. As you can guess, though, we have been so busy making and taking care of babies that I haven't had much time to explore hobbies. I'm using this project as a way to do that.

When I'm not taking care of the kids or the house I'm usually watching movies, reading, or playing games. I also enjoy cooking and baking. I just don't like cleaning up the mess afterwards.

I've got a lot of projects I'd like to try! I'm sure there will be a lot that are far from perfect but I'm doing this for fun and to see what I like so lets see what happens! :)

A Fall Wreath

You would think that making a recipe would be easier than a craft for my first Mama Pin, Mama Do post. But nope. Truth is, I can’t stand cooking. I would rather have my teeth pulled out by a giant who doesn’t know his own strength than cook.

Well, that may be an exaggeration, but I think you get my drift.

I decided to do a wreath for my first project because, frankly, I know how to do those! See? I started off nice and easy. Ya really gotta ease into these kinds of things. Besides, I forgot to take pictures of my first recipe, so that’ll have to wait for another day! J

Of course, when I made this wreath, I didn’t do it as the picture shows. I just took it as an inspiration photo and went with my own flare. Meaning, I KISS’d it. (Kept it simple, stup…well, that last word is banned in our house, so I can’t put it on the Internet to be there forever! What if my kids found it thirty years from now? I would be undermining my own self!)

But I digress. Here is the photo of the actual pin:

Gorgeous, right?? It’s from http://laurenscreative.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-wreath.html (givin’ props!).

I LOVED her wreath but didn’t know if I could do it justice. Mostly, I was scared of doing those felt flowers! Anyway, I truly did keep it simple, but that’s more my thing anyway. Most of the time.

So here’s how I did mine (photojournalism at its finest…be prepared!):

Of course, I first had to wrap the wreath form in yarn (I must be super slow at it, though…it took me a couple of hours!).

(Forgive the rest of the pictures…I stand up when I can while doing projects so I keep moving—something I learned to do in Weight Watchers, even if it makes me look neurotic!)

After this, I wrapped it in a gorgeous crochet lace:

Isn’t it pretty? Not perfect, pretty. J

After that, I had to swallow my fear and attempt to make some felt flowers. It took a few trials and errors, and the final product isn’t necessarily store-worthy, but I like it!

 Yeah. Definitely not store worthy. Anyway, I attached it to the wreath with pins and craft glue.

At this point, I get all excited and show Donkey with pride shining in my eyes. He glanced up from his Xbox game and said, and I quote, “Cool.” *sigh* His excitement was overwhelming. (He did truly like it when it was all said and done, though!)

I kept going with a couple of more flowers: purple and ivory. Of course, I don’t have a picture of the ivory flower before it was finished but you get where I’m going with all this.

I ended up making three more tiny “rosebuds” to go on the side of the wreath (they’re barely visible in this photo) just to fill it in a little more. Then I attached a ribbon and hung it on the door!

So while I know it’s still technically summer, this Fall and Winter girl just couldn’t wait. I needed to hang it immediately.

And that, my dear friends, is my first Mama Pin, Mama Do Pintervention project. J

Now it’s your turn to stop pinning and start doing!

~Mikal

Welcome ~from Mikal

First and foremost, I am a daughter of the One True King, and I am SO thankful to Him for these sweet friends (I’m talkin’ ‘bout you, Jessica and Amy!) He’s given me. He’s taken me from a silly kid to a single mum to a wife (and continued mum) living a dream life.

I am a stay-at-home mum to three: Strategist (my 17-year-old baby boy who’s going off to college way before I’m ready!), Comedian (my 4-year-old hilarious son), and Ballerina (my precocious princess daughter). I’m very, very blessed to be the wife to Donkey (his Air Force call sign, named after the, um, slightly talkative Shrek character—and for a very good reason) for the past (almost) 7 years. We currently live in Virginia but dream constantly pathetically of going overseas for an assignment.

I used to be a college student until a few weeks ago (August 2012), when I decided to take a break. Since then, I’ve been going slightly mad with my Pinterest addiction. To put it mildly. To put it very mildly! My boards have exploded with fun stuff, from recipes to sewing projects to crafts to ideas for our forever home. So what am I to do with all these pins?? Start a blog with my friends!

Jessica wrote on my Facebook page that I need a Pintervention. And oh, was she right. She was so right that she shocked the snot out of me when she told me I had 108 boards!! (Admission time: it has now become 110 boards…after I got it down to 107 boards. Whoops.) But she suggested something even better: a Pinterest challenge! Then Amy jumped on board. Then this blog was born! And oh, is it ever something to behold!

So now while my three are off to school (Strategist is a SENIOR this year…eek!! and the other two go to preschool three mornings a week), I will be Pinteresting my butt off! In between cleaning the house and running errands…and reading the gazillion books on my Kindle. J I’ll likely mess some projects up, and make some recipes that should not be repeated, but I am SOOOO excited to actually do something with all these pins!