SheSpeaks+Torani=Awesome!

I have been a member of SheSpeaks for quite some time now! If you are not a member of this amazing forum you should be! You get to try amazing new products, ask people for advice, or give advice. I quite enjoy it :D Recently they allowed me to join the Blogger Community, I get to try amazing new products, write a blog, and link it to their site :D Super cool if you ask me! Shespeaks sent me a couple HUGE Bottle of Torani Syrups, I received Torani Sugar Free Salted Caramel & Torani Gingerbread syrups! YUMMY! I wasnt sure I would like to the salted caramel, but to my surprise it was delicious! I am drinking it in my coffee as I write this. The Gingerbread one is equally amazing (a teensy bit better than the caramel) Not only have I been using it in my coffee, I have also baked with it! If you know me, you know my secret ingredient to my home made frosting......Coffee Creamer! It flavors it so much richer than extract. I made some delicious cupcakes using the Torani Syrups. Here is the recipe I used....I will be making them again to get another picture, my blonde self accidentally cleared out my camera card before i put them on the comp. I guess that is what happens when you are super tired....OOPS!

Frosting recipe (Best things first!)
1 cup softened butter (Unsalted is best, but you can use what you have)
1, 2 pound bag of powedered sugar
1/4 cup Torani syrup of your choice (I used the salted caramel)
water as needed to get desired consistancy

Using a stand mixer or a handheld mixer beat the butter until there are no chunks, add some sugar and 1/2 the torani syrup, slowly add in more sugar and the rest of the syrup, adding water as needed. Alternate between adding sugar and water until all of the sugar is gone and you have an amazingly smooth frosting. Set aside.

Cake Recipe (you can make 2, 8 inch rounds or 24 cupcakes with this recipe)
Vanilla Butter Cake with Torani Syrup

2 1/2 cups cake flour (You can use all purpose too, you will just have a slightly denser cake)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/4 milk
1/4 cup torani syrup of your choice I used gingerbread (With the caramel frosting it is to die for!)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter sliced.

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter and flour your cake pans if you are making a cake.
In a bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
in a second bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, 1/2 cup milk, Torani syrup and the vanilla.
add the remaining milk and the butter to the dry ingredients, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment mix for about 2 minutes. or until well combined. add one-fourth of the egg mixture. Work until smooth. then work in half of the remaining egg mixture combine well and add in the rest.
Transfer the batter to teh prepared cake pans (or cupcake wrappers) smooth the tops with a spatula. bake about 25 minutes, checking for doneness around 20 minutes. May take up to 35 minutes. Let cool on rack, frost when completely cool to touch.


Frost with your already prepared Frosting!!!!! :D ENJOY!!!!

For more information on Torani Syrups, please visit their website at: WWW.TORANI.COM

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks & Torani and the above opinion is strictly my own.

Roller Coasters.

Life is a Roller Coaster. Full of ups and downs, some tiny hills some huge mountains where the drop is straight down if you are like me you just raise your hands at the straight down parts because you know you are buckled in and will be just coasting or slowly climbing another hill in a few seconds. Unfortunately life's mountains are not always passed within seconds, but everything will always be Ok at some point. I feel like the last few weeks have been this insane roller coaster that is skipping the coasting moments and just doing the hills. Hill after Hill after Hill.

As some of you know, I lost a friend a couple weeks ago. Not even sure at the moment that we were "friends" we got into a huge fight about 2 months ago and had not made it past it yet, although he had talked to others about feeling bad and sad that he felt he had lost me. He was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and sadly did not survive it. I have known a few people with cancer but they all survived it, I thought he would to. As scary as the word "cancer" is, I did not know until recently just how scary a word it truly was. I also had never lost someone I cared about before. In 28 years I have avoided losing friends so I had no idea what it felt like to have someone you care about pass away. I know now, It hurts like Hell. Especially when it is someone which whom I had a fight with who passed away not knowing how much he meant to me. Our relationship was like a roller coaster in and of itself. That roller coaster is now out business. Like my mother I believe with all my heart when someone passes away that you love that they always watch over you, so I know he is here somewhere checking in on me. 

Our dog Daisy had also been going down hill. Nate even cried at work about it while we were emailing back and forth and figuring out what day would work to get her into the vet for some testing. She had stopped eating, wouldnt drink, just laid in a tight ball on the couch and slept with teddi when the lights went out. We brought her in on Saturday. Both of us nervous as hell. They checked her out, weighed her, did the full blood panel. she couldnt be more perfect health wise!!! They gave us some antibiotics for her to treat Lymes desease just incase. If she is showing improvements by tomorrow we will call the vet to get the rest of the 30 days supply. They gave us 7 days since we were unsure if it is lymes and since we thought it was something more serious we wanted the full blood panel workup. After hearing that she was perfectly Ok and is either suffering from Lymes or is depressed from her false pregnancy we heaved HUGE sighs of relief. I even caught Nate giving her extra attention later that day, Lol he denied it but I saw with my own eyes :p  Maybe sometimes it takes almost losing someone/something to realize how much you love it and can stop taking it for granted. 

We also dealt with some car probs that day and the night before, we got it all fixed and everything is good. But I did get slightly upset, I never ask for help i had to call people to ask for help that night and not one person responded to me. I feel like I do alot for people and try to always be there, when I finally need that help it hurts like hell to not get it in return. 

Sunday we went to church.....our 3rd week in a row!! GO US!!! lol :D  We got home and got some things done and i was sitting outside having an icky and my Bella came and jumped on my lap and started purring, as I was petting her I felt something hard on her neck. I thought it was a tick or something so I put down my icky and proceeded to check her out and head inside to get tweezers, Nope not a tick. She was attacked by an animal and has a hole in her neck. We sedated her with a teeny tiny drop of a sleeping pill and we were able to clean her up about an hour later. I could fit a dime in her neck.....real live piggy bank LOL JK Sometimes you just gotta laugh! We called the vet, crappy thing about sundays vets are not open so the nearest one we could find was an ER vet in Blaine. So we called them and asked what to do, since the wound had been there for a few days, we didnt need to get her into them right that second, we cleaned it up, flushed it, treated it, fed her, kept her inside. Called our vet today & emailed them a photo, We need to keep doing what we are doing, stitches are not the best idea, since we need to keep flushing it and cleaning it. if it doesnt rescab within a few days then we need to take her in because it would be a sign it is not healing. So please if you are the praying type, please say a lil prayer for our baby bella, Nate and I have had her almost 6 years and she is such a great sweet cat.

I am hoping this coming week will be the part where the coaster starts to coast and slow down, Not sure how much more my brain, emotions, and neck can take.  Luckly Nate's family is coming into town this coming weekend and they are very comforting to me, so I know the week will end well.

Sorry this isnt the happy go lucky Soozy we all know and love, but at the moment I dont have anything else to write about. We are all entitled to pity parties every now and then....right!? :p  I will be trying a new bread recipe today, if that turns out I will post pics and a recipe. :D Pinky Swear!

XoXo

HomeMade Laundry Detergent.

I finally did it! I made home made laundry detergent. I found a recipe for it over a year ago and was going to make it, then decided not to. It sounded like a lot of work and I needed a large bucket that I didnt have and space to keep the bucket that I also didnt really have. A few of my friends were talking on facebook about the soap that they made so I decided to dig out my recipe and give it a shot. It is SOOOOOOOO Easy to make and so cheap to make and it makes TON! So here is the recipe I used (I dont remember where I got it, Im sorry)

~Recipe~
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha (or other bar laundry soap) I got this at Walmart for under a $1
1/2 Cup Washing Soda This was like $3 also at Walmart. You want Washing Soda Not Baking Soda. Arm and Hammer makes both :)
1/2 Cup Borax I got this at the local Whole Foods store for a couple dollars, I bought about 2 pounds so I dont have to go back next time I make this.

Grate the soap into a saucepan add 6 cups of water. Heat until the soap dissolves. Add the powders, stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot tap water into bucket. Add the Soap mixture and stir. add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of additional tap water. Stir and let sit for 24 hours. It will Gel and is ready to use! You can add essential oils if you want it to have a particular smell. I actually like the smell of this as is. It is a very clean fresh scent!
Use 1/2 cup per load.

I used this tonight for the first time and I am actually quite amazed at how well it worked and how great my clothes smell. I am very glad I gave this a shot and It will save me oodles of Moola!!! :D XoXo If you try this let me know what you think!!!

Meat Loaf Cupcakes.

Yummy! I got the idea from a friend of mine who got the idea from Pinterest. I am not a big meatloaf lover but I did pick up a packet of McCormick Meatloaf seasonings a few weeks back. So I figured I would make it. Everyone loved it, the kids had multiple servings and loved that they were in the cupcake wrappers (which are reusable!) and that they got to pick what color they wanted. Also didnt hurt that they cooked in about 20 minutes and I served with a salad so it was a very simple and delicious dinner.

~Recipe~
McCormick Meatloaf seasoning packet
2 pounds ground beef (or you can use turkey)
2 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2  cup milk
1/4 dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup ketchup, tomato soup

Preheat oven according to package directions 375, I did 350
Combine all ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated. Seperate into muffin pan, cupcake wrappers, whatever you wish. I also have a mini heart cake pan that i have used previously. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.  Eat and enjoy. :D

Note. I cut the recipe in half and used 1/2 the packet. I knew my family wouldnt eat 2 pounds of meatloaf so I made one pound and there were no leftovers. I still have enough seasoning to make another meal out of it in the near future. 

My JoJo Bear.

Most of the excitement around here lately has been centered around Teddi. Here is a post about my JoJo. She is the complete Opposite of Teddi. She is very shy, reserved, quiet, sneaky, She is also a Practical Joker, with tons of funny quirks and personality traits that are so amazing. She 100%  brightens any day. It is so hard to believe that I will be planning her 3rd birthday in a month. Some days I feel like she is turning 4 and then others I feel like she is still my little baby.  One of my Fav quirks so to speak that she has is she HATES to be called Princess. If you call her a princess she will ball her hands into fists tilt her head down and in a growly voice tell you " I am NOT a Princessesa!!!!" She adds the A at the end, I think for dramatical purposes :p My mom believes that we all have had previous lives. She thinks that Josie must have been a high woman of power in a previous life and to her the term princess is an insult to what she is capable of. She says how else do you explain a little girl who Hates the word "princess" with such passion?! It does make sense in a weird way....lol. She is totally a Mama's girl. Although she has Dad wrapped her tiny little finger. She is also afraid of the dark. She has to go to sleep with the light on, we shut it off when we go to bed, 99% of the time when I wake up her light is back on from her waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes if she doesnt want to get out of bed to turn the light back on she will cry for me to come and turn it on. She has been afraid of the dark basically since she was born. We had to have night lights in her room. But as she got older those stopped "cutting" it and now the overhead light needs to be on. I love her shyness and reservedness and little things about her that are just part of who she is. Every kid is different in my case my girls are as different as Night and Day. I had one friend one time when commenting about her Shyness say "make me wonder what happened to her" LOL nothing happened to her, she is the way she is and she is perfect. I never have to worry about her going off with a stranger LOL, where as Teddi introduces herself to every person she meets whether on a sidewalk or in a store. Josie just sticks closer to me or dad when people are around. I have my Princess Teddi and I have my TomBoy Josie. I love my Midgets with everything I have.

Deliciously Simple Pork

This is the easiest way to cook pork chops, you can use bone in or out and they are oh soooo good and makes the house smell like apple pie! Yummy!!!!!!!!!!

~recipe~
 pork chops
4 medium apples
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Lay the pork chops in a crock pot (cook on low 6 hours) or in a casserole dish (cook at 300 for about 2 hours) in a single layer, cover with sliced apples, mix all the seasonings together and sprinkle on top of apples. Layer more pork chops, cover with apples, sprinkle with seasoning. Do this as many times as needed. Cover, cook and enjoy!!!!!!! :D

Brown Sugar Wheat Sugar Cookies.

These are my new absolute favorite cookie. The texture alone is wonderful. They are so flaky and delicious with a wonderful glaze to top them off with. The photo does NOT do them justice please make them and try them for yourself. Here is the oh so easy recipe!!!

~Recipe~
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup vegi shortening (not Oil)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 egg white
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/4 teaspoon orange rind (optional)

Cream the sugars and shortening together. add the extracts and orange, add the dry ingredients and egg white.  The cookie dough is going to be pretty "runny" not like normal cookie dough. Refridgerate for 4 hours.

preheat oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. (you can also grease the pan but I find that parchment paper makes for much better cookies) Form into balls or use a spoon and lightly dump onto pan. bake until brown About 20 minutes give or take a few depending on your oven.

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
water

Add all ingredients and whisk together, add the water last and keep an eye on the consistancy. you want it kind of thick.

Spoon the glaze onto warm cookies and let it run where it will. it will harden as the cookies cool.

Eat and enjoy! If you make these please let me know what you think. I LOVE them! :D