My Kids, My Sunshine, My World

Part 1: Many moons ago, I'd pinned this on Pinterest. I sing You are My Sunshine to my two girls all the time. I changed the words when my second was born from 'only sunshine' to 'little sunshine', because I now have two little sunshines in my life! However, I'd never gotten around to creating my 'masterpiece'.

Part 2: I'd recently posted about my friend Alice's husband, Alex,who had gone missing. While I commend so many friends who posted and posted about helping to find him, the ending was not what we were praying for, and he was found after he'd passed away.  At his funeral, Alice spoke of his love for his children (ages 22 months and 4 months). Two of the things that he'd once said, I could not get out of my mind. They were so true, and so full of love. I knew that these words were special. I decided to create two additional pieces of wall art to flank my 'Sunshine Art', using the things that Alex had said. These are the pieces I came up with. It just so happened that the colors Yellow, Black, and Gray are special to Alice, and remind her of Alex. The fact that these colors matched perfectly with the Sunshine piece makes it even more perfect in my mind.

Now I will hang the 'Sunshine Art' and the 'Words of Love' art in my children's room. To me, they are just perfect.

I will continue to pray for comfort and peace for Alice and her two babies. There will be many hard days ahead of them, and I ask that all my readers please keep them in your hearts and prayers as well.

*Anyone wanting to purchase Alex's Words of Love may contact me at SweetPeasMarket@gmail.com. 100% of the profits will go to The Blevins Children Education Fund

Homemade Applesauce/Apple Butter in a Crock-Pot

I'd found a recipe on Pinterest for Crock-Pot Applesauce. I had a bunch of home grown apples (not my home) that were getting pretty nasty looking, so I decided I'd better do something with them! I made mine with a few variations from the Pinterest pin, so I'll share my version instead.

What you'll need:

Apples

Juice (I used White Grape, but I assume many would use Apple :)

Cinnamon

Sugar

If you like your applesauce to be a bit on the chunky side (like me), the only real way to get texture, without having hard bits of apple, is to leave some skin on. So, if this is your chosen method, chop the apples into very small chunks/dices. If you like silky smooth applesauce, peel the apples, then chunk them any size. The smaller they are, the faster they'll be done!

Put the apples in a crock pot on high for a fast (2-3 hours) result, or low if you're going to be away from the crock pot for a while. Add about a cup of your chosen juice, and sprinkle in some cinnamon and sugar. If you're using a sweet apple, you probably don't need much sugar, if any. You can always add more at the end, so if you don't want to commit to a lot of cinnamon at this point, you don't have to... it just makes your house smell really yummy if you add it at this point!

Check the apples after a few hours. Stir the juices in and around every once in a while if you're around to do so. Once they are soft enough to mash, you can do so with a potato masher or a hand held blender. Taste test, add more sugar and spice if you like, and viola'! It's done!

The recipe (for me) is the same for apple sauce or apple butter. For butter, take the lid off and let some of the juice evaporate. I wouldn't leave for hours at a time on this part, because you don't want it to get dried out!

Here's mine!

Homemade Croutons

On Pinterest, I'd found a recipe for home made croutons. I followed the recipe to a T for my first batch, but both my husband and I thought they were very bland. So, in the many batches we've made since (yeah, ours are that good), we've altered the recipe to make them much more bold flavored!

What You'll Need:

1/2 stick of Butter

Bread, cubed

Butter Flavored Cooking Spray

Seasoning: Garlic, Onion, Parmesan, Spicy etc... just one needed per batch!

Cut up bread into whatever sized croutons you like. I wouldn't go too small, but they don't have to be huge. I think mine were about 1 inch long x .5 inch wide x.5 inch thick... but again, your preference. We've used Panera's Sundried Tomato Bread, and French Bread, and also some Sesame from Panera. Any kind will work really, though I haven't tried sandwich sliced bread.

Either leave the sit out on the counter for ONE night, or bake them in the oven at 300 for 10 minutes so they can dry out a bit.

Melt the butter in a pan on MEDIUM heat (don't ever change the heat setting from medium!), and sprinkle some of your chosen seasoning in. Just a light dusting over the top of the melted butter. This will absorb into your croutons... the more seasoning you use, the stronger the flavor!

Let the bread sit in the pan in a single layer. Check one or two pieces ever few minutes to see if they've started to brown on the other side. Once they brown, flip them over. Just before you flip them, spray them with the Butter Cooking Spray and sprinkle on another dusting of seasoning.You'll almost need to do this piece by piece to not burn any. You don't have to toast the exact opposite side of the crouton, just make sure that you're toasting a side not already toasted!

Once the other side has browned, take the off the heat. They can sit in the pan to cool and will stay good and crunchy. After they have cooled, put them in an air-tight storage bag or container. 

 My husband and I have found this to be a great way to rescue bread that might be tasting a little old or dried out. They last for weeks after you make them, so make several batches to have on hand! We will never buy croutons again!