Blog Archives
ProjectSTIR
#PhotoChallenge #October #2015
#ProjectSTIR
Use your social media to share your family’s cooking traditions!
Details about the project, prizes, and so forth can be found by clicking here –> http://www.sarahshotts.com/projectstir/
In addition to posting my photos on my personal fb page, IG account and Pinterest, I’ll update this blog daily to add new photos to THIS post!
Day 1: kitchen tool
(Yes! I have a kitchen utensil or two! Here is one of many drawers that house my kitchen utensils.)
Day 2: recipe card
(Yes! I have LOTS of cards. My favorites: those that family members have filled out for me and my extensive collection of cards that I used to pick up for free in the @WalMart produce section years ago. I have like 100 of them in this square basket. It’s not hard to tell that I’m born and raised in Arkansas!)
Day 3: Mixing Bowl.
FireKing Jadeite. I don’t have a complete collection. My first one was passed to me from my great grandmother via my Gram. I’ve purchased several at antique stores to accompany it. I use them all the time. They’re the best for cheese dip. They’re fabulous to serve salad. They’re my “go to” mixing bowls.
Day 4: Memory
I remember my great grandparents (my dad’s mother’s parents.) I have vivid memories of sitting at their kitchen table drinking a malt, picking up pecans in their backyard, and so many more. They were amazing. These are photos of them as I remember them, one of her recipe books that my grandmother has trusted me to care for and pass to future generations, and a glass juicer from their kitchen. You can read quite a bit about the amazing life of my great-grandfather, Bill Seiz, at: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=2719
Day5: Globe
💞🌍🌏🌎🇦🇺🇧🇪🇺🇸🇹🇷🌎🌏🌍💞
I have 100 or so #cookbooks. Here are a handful of favorites representing various cuisine. Chinese, Spanish, Italian, American (specifically, Southern,) English. 😊
Day 6: Ingredients
🌿🍐
I like using seasonal ingredients and prefer to include at least one ingredient a day from my garden.
Today, I made scones using Rosemary, Pear, Asiago cheese, and Eggnog! They turned out great! The Rosemary is from my 15 foot long, evergreen Rosemary Hedge! Love it!
Get my recipe for these scones, here: https://whatamberloves.com/2015/10/07/scones/
Read more about my love and uses for Rosemary on another post:
https://whatamberloves.com/2014/06/23/rosemary-water/
Blueberry Pretzel Salad!
Happy Sunday, y’all! How was your weekend? Ours was awesome! Yesterday, I went to an estate sale, had lunch at Purple Cow diner and then spent the afternoon with Mitch, our girls, my dad, Tammy, and a few nephews. Today, I visited another estate sale this morning and bought a cute little hand painted bowl, grocery shopped, have had a parade of my daughters’ friends stopping by to see Abigail’s newly redecorated room, and am now making this yummy, yummy treat!
This year, we grew enough blueberries to eat a few fresh, shared some with the birds (not by choice), and we froze the rest. Today, we decided to put some to use in a BLUEBERRY PRETZEL SALAD! It’s great as a snack or dessert!
Using whatever fruit is seasonal, make a delicious Jell-O dessert that is sweet, savory, creamy and crunchy by adapting this easy recipe:
Ingredients:
3 cups crushed pretzels
1 cup melted butter
4 tablespoons sugar, plus 3/4 cup sugar
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1 (8 oz) container whipped topping
1 (6 oz) packages Berry Blue Jell-O gelatin dessert mix
2 cups boiling water + 2 cups cool water
1 pound of frozen blueberries (mine are from my garden, frozen)
Easy Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Make Jell-O with water per package instructions.
Take off burner and stir in blueberries. Set aside to cool.
For the crust, mix the pretzels, butter, and the 4 tablespoons of sugar.
Press pretzel mixture into a 9 by 13-inch pan and bake for 7 minutes.
Set aside on wire rack to cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar
Fold whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.
Once crust and Jell-O is cool you are ready to put your salad together!
On pretzel crust, spread cream cheese mixture evenly then pour Jello with strawberries on top
Refrigerate for 3-4 hours until well set.
Notes:
Please be sure to spread cream cheese mixture evenly and up against the edges of the pan…this will ensure that the Jell-O will not seep to the bottom under the pretzel crust. Also, kids LOVE helping with several steps of this recipe! Enjoy!
(For the strawberry version from which this was adapted, visit Strawberry Pretzel Salad at Women Living Well.)
Your Friend,
~Amber Hamilton Henson
PS
This post will link with some great blog hops this week!
Pop into the parties at these links:
ArkansasWomenBloggers ~ Sunday Link Up
my1929charmer ~ Sunday’s Best Par-Tay #64
Rattlebridge Farm ~ Foodie Friday
Stuffed Dates Re-Invented!
Y’all, I love to give to a precise, technical recipe, but that’s not how this one went down. I saw a cool story/recipe about stuffed dates and decided to use the same ingredients in a slightly different way, because I just couldn’t find the time to stuff all of the dates individually, but I was drooling about using those flavors and textures together!
So here’s what I did:
I baked a traditional, flour based pie shell.
I softened 8 oz cream cheese.
I mixed in a few Tbsp of local honey and a tsp of cinnamon.
I folded in about 1.5 cups chopped walnuts.
I folded in about a pound of pitted dates, cut into quarters.
I spread the mix into my pre-baked pie shell.
I used a few leftover dates and walnuts to make a cute heart shape on top!
Fam and I ate it! LOVED it!!
Photos:
Your Friend,
~Amber Hamilton Henson
This post will link with some great blog hops this week!
Pop into the parties at these links:
FromMyFrontPorchToYours ~ Treasure Hunt Thursday
SweetBellaRoos ~ Pin It Thursdays
SavvySouthernStyle ~ Wow Us Wedsnesdays #181
RattlebridgeFarm ~ Foodie Friday
Happy 4th of July!
Garden. Patriotic Cake. Independence Day! More!
Our family is hanging out at home, today, then tonight we’ll light a few sparklers and watch fireworks! Fun!
Hubby is enjoying this gorgeous, bright, sunny day here in Little Rock, Arkansas, by repainting our front door and its surround with Gloss Black Enamel. It was a bit tired looking and dull, but not anymore! Shiny, Shiny! Yay! Love him!
We’ve been picking oh, so many tomatoes and peppers from our garden!
For lunch I put together a lovely Caprese Salad.
(Tomatoes and Basil from my garden, balsamic vinegar reduction, a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, and my house pepper flakes.) Yummy. Quintessential summer fare.
Then, this afternoon, the girls wanted to make some sort of patriotic looking treat, so we decided to make a lemonade cake with lemonade cream cheese icing and decorate it with berries!
The recipe (via Pillows A La Mode):
Our “Patriotic, American Flag inspired Lemonade Cake”
CAKE
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs + 2 egg whites
• 2 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups of milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar, butter, lemonade concentrate, and vanilla with a mixer. Add eggs and egg whites, beating well. Add dry ingredients and milk.
Pour batter into a prepared 9 x 13 glass pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool. Chill for one hour before icing.
ICING
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons frozen lemonade concentrate
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
Mix cream cheese, butter, lemonade concentrate, and vanilla until well blended. Add powdered sugar. Thin with milk, if needed.
*OPTIONAL: Last, decorate with fresh blueberries and strawberries for a patriotic design!
Happy 4th of July!
Please, feel free to share, pin it, etc!
Your Friend,
~Amber Hamilton Henson
PS
9pm Update:
It’s that time! Happy 4th, y’all!
PPS
Love Linking!:
ArkansasWomenBloggers ~ Sunday Link Up
St. Patrick’s Day Fun!
We used a cookie cutter as template/border for pouring our sprinkles onto our St. Patrick’s Day pie! It’s a Jello brand no bake cheesecake that we tinted green with food coloring! Yummy!
My nails are also painted sparkly green for the occasion! Haha! Can’t pinch me!!
I may update this post with a few more pics, tomorrow!
We hope you enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day, too!!
Your Friend,
~Amber Hamilton Henson
Trifle
Some of y’all sure make pretty trifles! This isn’t so pretty, but it was certainly a yummy enough dessert for my daughters’ New Year Eve sleepover party last night, apparently, since it is all gone now! Every bit! Love.
Large glass bowl.
Layer of Crumbled brownies.
Layer of Jello Chocolate Pudding.
Layer of Cool Whip.
Layer of Heath brand toffee bits.
Repeat layers. Refrigerate. 🙂
Happy New Year, today!
I’ve got black eyed peas for good luck in the new year cooking on the stove, right now! See my recipe for annual Black Eyed Peas, here and on my recipes page!
🙂
~Amber Hamilton Henson
Zombie Rats for Dessert!
It is definitely a Halloween tradition of ours to let the kids make a few crazy treats each Halloween. Last year, we made witch cupcakes, that was before I started blogging. Maybe I’ll upload a round-up of old Halloween pics? That would be fun! Regardless, here is what we made tonight, ZOMBIE RATS!!!
The “zombie rats” are actually red velvet cake balls coated in a hard chocolate shell! They have almond slivers for ears, red hot candy eyes, and candy tails!
I saw the “creepy cake ball lab mice” tutorial on Polish The Star’s Blog, and decided to try it, with a twist! 🙂 Instead of white lab mice, we went for big brown rats with red velvet filling! Mice + Rats + Halloween at its best! Yum!
My husband, Mitch, and our daughters really get all of the credit for actually assembling our yummy little rats; I was in the room, though, so that counts, right?!
Here’s how they did it:
Bake a cake, let it cool, crumble it up, mix it with icing, form balls (mice bodies).
Put in freezer for ten minutes with a skewer to use for dipping.
Melt coating. Dip bodies. Return to freezer for 10 minutes to firm the coating.
Remove skewer, insert twizzler tails, and affix red hot candy eyes with addition chocolate.
🙂
Happy Halloween!
~Amber Hamilton Henson
what AMBER loves 