Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze

This recipe is so quick and easy. The entire meal, which included the Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze, Annie's Shell Pasta with White Cheddar, and Green Beans, took 20 minutes to complete.

What you will need:

Start with Salmon fillets, 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar, 2 tablespoons of Dijon Mustard, Salt & Pepper and a little Olive Oil.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack at about 6 inches from the heat source; prepare the rack of a broiler pan with cooking spray (I used olive oil).
2. Season the salmon with salt and pepper and arrange onto the prepared broiler pan. Whisk together the brown sugar and Dijon mustard in a small bowl; spoon mixture evenly onto top of salmon fillets.
3. Cook under the preheated broiler until the fish flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes. 

The big finish!

Click here for the recipe at allrecipes.com

My Hidden Talent...

Balloon Art!

It all started when our sweet girl picked out a bag of balloon art balloons at the store. She, like most kids loves balloons and this balloon art bag, with images of balloon dogs, flowers, etc. was the best thing ever! This is when I took to the internet in hopes of finding tutorials on simple balloon art. Well, as you can imagine there is no shortage of videos on creating balloon art.

The Flower was my first success.

Here is my quick and basic guide to creating the balloon flower.

First, I found this bag of balloons and the balloon pump at Hobby Lobby.

Next, inflate one balloon, leaving about a one inch tip at the bottom, and then tie the two ends together to form a loop.

 Pinch the tied end into the center of the loop and twist, creating a bow tie.

Fold the bow tie in half, matching the two loops up, then pinch the twisted/tied end into the center of the loops. Now twist at the center point to create the flower top.

It's time for the steam. Inflate another balloon, again leaving a one inch tip at the end. At the tied end of the balloon make a one inch twist to create a small bubble. This will be the center of the flower.

Position the bubble on top of the flower and push the steam into the center of the flower petals.

This is a basic flower. Click here for a video on how to create it.

It's amazing what we learn from parenting. Kids have a way of shaking things up and pushing us out of our comfort zone, and sometimes into a silly place like balloon art!

Grandma's Banana Bread and a little Soulful Sunday

With cabin fever in full swing, and a bowl full of very ripe banana's, I decided to bake up some banana bread. I have never baked banana bread before, and all the recipes I found in my cookbooks required buttermilk, which I do not have on hand. So, a call to my mom provided me with a quick and easy recipe that my Grandma used to bake.

I remember eating Grandma's banana bread and mom would bake it a lot when we were kids. It was always so yummy. Mom would serve it as a snack to us in the summertime and it tasted the best after a long day at the swimming pool (not sure why, it just did).

So my banana bread did not turn out looking so great, but it sure does taste yummy! It probably would have turned out better if not for the other dinner foods cooking in the oven at the same time. Hey, what can I say, a mommy has to multitask!

On a sentimental note, my day of baking got me thinking about my Grandmother and how absolutely wonderful she was. She was beautiful, inside and out and always had just the right words. When I was six years old she gave me a Children's Bible and just inside the first page she wrote this... 

"God's word is one of the most cherished possessions you can have. Read it-Live by it."



 

Cold Weather Colds

The cold weather moved in and so did colds for for our little family. It has been a week of sleepless nights, Chicken Noodle soup, loads of prayer, and of course mommy has to add a dash of worry (I just can't help it) to the mix!

My go-to cold care

Baby girl camping out in our bed watching T.V.

Hubby has been exiled to the couch! We still love him though.

Hope you all are healthy and have a fabulous weekend!

"This Is The Stuff"

I literally smiled the whole way home from work after hearing this new song today! It can be so easy to let the little annoyances take the spot light from all the blessings we have. Here's to a fabulous weekend!

Click here for more about Francesca Battistelli.

Welcome 2011

Welcome 2011

2010 brought a lot of ups, a few downs and countless precious memories. Here's to a fabulous New Year!

Jam to Soup

While packing my lunch for work I could not find a good to-go soup container, so I grabbed a jam jar that was headed to the recycle bin, cleaned it and poured the soup in. This was the perfect solution as I found that I did not have to worry about the container leaking in my lunch tote and I was able to heat the soup in a glass container, which is a plus!

What's in the Jar?

Well, it's my new favorite cold weather soup, Cheddar-Ale Soup (minus the bacon). Yum!