Author: Nicole

Hi thank you for stopping by. I am very excited to have you here. Pull up a chair and have a seat, this is the view from my side of the table.
Recipes

Pull-Apart Peazer Bread

Nicole
This is a really great recipe. Not only is is dirt cheap to make, but it’s easy, requires very few ingredients, and tastes great. It also makes a great presentation. It’s my version of a monkey bread. The great part about this concept is you can do just about anything with the recipe. Keep the margarine and lose everything else, add a little cinnamon and sugar then you have a great monkey bread. You could also make a great garlic pull apart bread too. So simple yet so diverse! Love it!!



Ingredients:

  • 1 can Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuits
  • ½ stick margarine
  • 2 green onions (thinly sliced)
  • 1 tbsp. bacon bits (not Bacos)
  • ½ tsp. garlic powder

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 
  2. In a microwave safe bowl melt margarine. 
  3. To the melted margarine add garlic powder, bacon bits, and thinly sliced green onions and mix together. Set mixture aside. 
  4. Quarter each Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuit half the biscuit then half it again. 
  5. Take the quartered Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuits and add them to the margarine mixture and slowly mix the ingredients together. 
  6. Once everything is well combined spoon the biscuit mixture into a 3 quart baking dish. Pretty much any baking dish will work as long as the biscuits will stick together.  
  7. Cook on 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Test the middle biscuits to insure they are done before removing them completely from the oven.

Recipes

4 Do-It-Yourself Hair Remedies

Nicole
I have long hair, and I love having long hair, but there are many times my hair is in desperate need of help. I stumbled upon this article on Yahoo and love the tips. Check it out!

The secrets to rescuing your brittle, over-processed strands might just be in your refrigerator.Let’s face it: Lustrous hair can take a lot of upkeep. Even if your stylist doesn’t make house calls, fear not. “You can give your hair the TLC it needs to look its best by using items you have at home,” notes Lorri Goddard Clark for the Privé Salon in Los Angeles, whose clients include Reese Witherspoon. Here, she dishes on her tried-and-true recipes for getting — and maintaining — healthy hair.


Feed Your Head
“You can’t have full, bouncy hair without a healthy scalp,” says Goddard-Clark. To reduce excess oil, dampen a cotton ball with witch hazel, dab it along your hairline and part, and rinse hair with cool water. Fight flakes weekly by adding five drops of tea-tree oil to your favorite shampoo as a booster. Skip conditioner, though, and apply a detangler only to the ends of your hair — your scalp may be sensitive after this treatment.
Marie Claire Tip: Before any type of scalp treatment, check for burns from hot tools that could be easily irritated.


Add Volume
Lifeless strands got you down? in a bowl, mix one egg yolk, a half cup of honey, two tablespoons of olive oil, and two small, ripe avocados. Apply the concoction to the entire head and leave on for one to two hours, until hard. Shampoo and condition as usual. “This is a miracle cure,” notes Goddard-Clark. “And for extra-bouncy, nonfrizzy curls, Drew Barrymore taught me to blot ringlets dry with paper towels.”
Marie Claire Tip: Short on time? Apply this mask only to bangs or small pieces around your face. These areas are the most abused by heat styling.

Boost Shine“Dull, overstyled hair benefits from regular olive- or jojoba-oil masks,” explains Goddard-Clark. Starting at the roots, brush a quarter cup of natural oil (synthetic oils don’t work as well) through dry hair and leave it on for an hour. Blast the ends with a dryer for five minutes to help oil penetrate deeper. Skip the roots — the scalp emits enough warmth on its own, and applying extra heat could lead to greasy textures later.
Marie Claire Tip: Cut washing time and add shampoo to strands before they get wet to dissolve the oil faster.

Preserve ColorMinerals in the water system can cause brassiness for blondes and redheads. A quick fix? Mix a quarter cup of distilled white vinegar with a half cup of filtered water and pour it over hair before rinsing with cool water. Graying brunette beauties need to be careful, too. “Peroxide-based dyes give darker shades a reddish hue,” warns Goddard-Clark. Use a toothbrush to paint boxed dye over individual strands.
Marie Claire Tip: to neutralize the scent of vinegar or harsh hair dyes, add a few drops of an oil essence, like lavender.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE 

Recipes

From My Side of the Table: Starbucks Love Them or Hate Them?

Nicole
I read an article yesterday about the Starbucks CEO and that got me to thinking about the whole concept of Starbucks and the relationship I have with them. I have a love hate relationship with Starbucks.
I love them because I love their frozen drinks. I love having them in my hands and slurping them down on a hot Houston summer day, or even having a nice hot coffee or hot chocolate on a cold wet winter day. They smell good, and taste great! My favorite drink at Starbucks is their Strawberry and Cream Frappuccino. It’s wonderful, and no matter how hard I try I can’t quite replicate it, but I am close!!
What I hate about Starbucks is their coffee really isn’t THAT good and when I say THAT good I mean $5’s of good!  Of course when you think about it most “coffee houses” have over priced coffee. I even noticed that McDonald’s coffee is starting to reflect the Starbucks prices, or in some cases they are closing in on them. On the grand scheme of things in my opinion Starbucks coffee is watered down tasting, and it makes me choke each time they tell me how much I owe them. Maybe I have grown too cheap for Starbucks?
With all of that being said I don’t completely avoid Starbucks, but by no means am I their number one customer. I never thought a thing about paying their prices until I married my husband who is a BIG coffee snob. He doesn’t mind paying $25 a pound for a bag of good coffee (Seriously), but he will not pay $5 for Starbucks. They $25 a pound coffee is the best coffee I have ever had, but it’s still something we don’t have often. We have it in the house, but we don’t drink it daily.
What are your Starbucks feelings? Do you love them, hate them, or like me… both?

Recipes

Baked Penne with Philadelphia Cooking Creme #LoveMyPhilly

Nicole

This is a fantastic recipe! Not only is it simple to make, but it’s also very very good! Next time I would half the recipe because it’s double what we would normally eat. The great thing is I can freeze the left overs for another meal. I also think the next time I make this recipe I will make it with Italian sausage to give it some extra pizazz! I really like using the cooking with the cooking crème! In truth I could eat it with a spoon it’s so good!!


Ingredients:

  • 1/2 lb. extra-lean ground beef
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 1/2 cup green peppers
  • 1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce ( I used Ragu)
  • 1 tub(10 oz.)PHILADELPHIA Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme, divided
  • 1 cup KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
  • 3 cups cooked penne pasta (I used rigatoni because I had it on hand)

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Brown meat with vegetables in large nonstick skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce, 3/4 cup cooking creme and 1/2 cup mozzarella: cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until mozzarella is melted. Add pasta; mix lightly.
  3. Spoon into 2-qt. casserole; top with remaining cooking creme and mozzarella. Cover.
  4. Bake 20 min. or until heated through, uncovering after 15 min.

Recipes

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Nicole

I was looking for a good Sunday dinner recipe last week when I came across OrgJunkies Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe. It can’t get any easier than this recipe. You put all the ingredients in the crockpot and you let it cook. This recipe is super simple and super easy. Thanks for the great recipe Laura. CLICK HERE for the original recipe. 

Ingredients:
  • 2 pounds beef chuck or stew meat, cut in 1″ cubes 
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper 
  • 1 1/2 cups beef broth
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
  • 1 clove garlic 
  • 1 bay leaf 
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 4 carrots sliced or baby carrots 
  • 2 cans of potatoes
  • 2 onions, chopped 
  • 1 stalk celery, sliced

Directions:

  1. Place meat in cooker (no need to brown first). 

  2. Mix flour, salt and pepper and pour over meat; stir to coat meat with flour. 
  3. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. 
  4. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or high 4-6 hours. 
  5. Stir stew thoroughly before serving.