You hear aprons you think "June Cleaver".  Well at least I do.  I have never had a huge love for aprons, being that I associate them with dull, drab and domestic.  Perhaps if it made a fashion statement I could be persuaded to wear one.  Like a jungle print or something...  <-- Yes like that, exactly like that.  It's so cool.

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I stumble across recipes on the internet all the time that I would love to make.  I get really excited about them and then they don't turn out.

For today's post though, I have a couple of easy recipes that are fun for St. Patrick's Day for you to make.  I will tell you how I "mixed" them up a bit too!

This is an easy delicious treat that really is all about the garnish to make it festive for St. Patrick's Day.  Duncan Hines Brownies are one of those things you can't stop stuffing your face with LOL!  They are kind of an addiction.

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 If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that we're passionate about Disney in our home. And if you are newer to my blog, or if this is the first time you're visiting, the Disney category just below the featured section should give it away!

I was sent a mini Mickey Mouse cookie cutter from http://www.cheapcookiecutters.com/ to review, and yes I'll admit, it made me a bit giddy!

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Do you ever get a craving for a really good donut? I grew up chowing down on yeast donuts on a regular basis. When we moved to the city we're living in, all I could find were cake donuts. That didn't leave me overly pleased. Finally, finally a donut shop opened in town, but it didn't last long (what is wrong with all the people in the city I live in!?!) and closed up. Which left me with that elusive hunt for a good yeast donut

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As I have mentioned in posts before we love gingerbread!  We especially like building gingerbread houses, and have enjoyed viewing oversized ones produced for hotels and other places.

If you want to see an amazing culinary creation check out this Gingerbread Pirate Ship at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. 

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For the first post of Holiday Food Week I want to introduce you to Calorie Count.  Calorie Count is a free service of About.com  Health.

 

This holiday season you can have your cake...and eat it too!

Mary Hartley, R.D. from Calorie Count put on a roundtable for bloggers to share hints and tips on how to make the food that we serve and eat during the holiday season healthier.

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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

 

 

 

 

***Special thanks to Jennifer Willingham of Simon and Schuster for sending me a review copy.***

 

 

 

Tammy Maltby is a writer, speaker, and media personality. For eight years, she was the co-host of the Emmy Award-winning television talk show, Aspiring Women. She serves on the board of the National Women’s Ministry Association, Christian Women in Media and Arts, and Women of Courage International. She and her family live in Colorado Springs, CO.

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A trip to the apple orchard and our bags are laden with delectable fruit, waiting to be used for yummy baking recipes...but wait...sigh...peeling and coring them is so much work, and I seriously do find it a chore to do so.

I was recently sent a Starfrit Apple Pro Peeler to use and review; and my family  is thankful.
It now officially takes me longer to do the dishes, than it does to prepare the apples for baking.

In just seconds the Apple Pro Peeler, peels your apple with such precision that only a minuscule amount of fruit gets removed with the peel.  Use the included corer/slicer and you might only have to cube the apples at that point for baking.

The see through design make it fun for kids to watch you use, or if they are a bit older use themselves (only under supervision, the blade and the prongs are very sharp), and it has some what of a retro look to it.

When you're done, the directions state to rinse the blade and prongs under running water, but I'd simply use a soapy sponge and then go over it with a wet cloth to remove any soap, again being very careful around the blades.  When I rinsed it under water I ended up getting water inside the housing.  It did dry out on its own, but to avoid that happening again, I've successuflly cleaned it just using a sponge.

The suctioned cup feet on the base make it slip resistant when using it, which is a nice feature.

The only thing I found awkward, is while taking the apple off the prongs when the peel has been removed, I have to hold the handle down with one hand, while grabbing the apple with the other.  Maybe that's the intended way to remove the apple or maybe I'm just a 94 pound weakling, but I find it a little tough to do, lol.

All in all though that is a minor inconvenience for the quickness that this system does peeling, coring and slicing the apples.

Here is a recipe I made, using the Apple Pro Peeler as my prepping tool.

Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

2 1/2 cups apples, chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
(mix together set aside)

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
(Mix together set aside)

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
(Stir into apple mixture)

Mix the apples and the dry ingredients together.  Pour into a greased pie plate.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Top with Ice Cream Caramel Sauce.

If you'd like to make the apple prep work in your kitchen faster, you can purchase the Starfrit Apple Peeler Pro for $16.99 - that includes the corer/slicer and 3 additional replacement blades.

To enter visit Starfrit USA and leave a comment with another item they sell that you would be interested in.

For extra entries (the above must be done first) you can:
 
1. Become a fan of Starfrit USA on Facebook
2. Become a fan of Three Different Directions on Facebook

This giveaway will end on November 8, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst and open to U.S. Residents ages 18+. The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be e-mailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail or an alternate winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you are stating that you have read my **About Reviews and Privacy/Rulesdeclaration and agree to them.

I received a complimentary Apple Peeler Pro from Starfrit USA prior to writing this post.

While the idea of being able to shed pounds quickly and easily appeals to just about everyone, reality suggests that one needs to use a weight loss program that will be possible to follow for the long haul in order to keep the weight off.

Recently as part of this Mom Central blog tour, I was sent some new Atkins products to try in my home, and they weren't at all what I expected.  I had always felt that I could never follow the Atkins program because of the low carb issue, but with these products I would not feel that I am missing out on anything.

Of course I couldn't make a judgment without actually trying the products so for a couple of nights at dinner we tried them out.

The first product I used was the All Purpose Baking Mix.

The nutritional stats compared to a generic brand of low fat all purpose baking mix I currently have in my cupboard are pretty much the same.  The Atkins one has 1.5 more grams of fat but it has 6 grams of fiber per serving (with the generic one have a big 0 grams of fiber!).  There is a recipe for pancakes on the package, but I chose to make some Garlic Cheese Biscuits with it.

The biscuits had a bit of different texture to them, but everyone in the family ate them without complaining, and I personally had seconds.   I have not used the mix for anything else yet, so I'm not sure if the texture issue was just with this recipe (which is not an Atkins one), or not.

I think I could really keep the motivation to follow the Atkins program though with this next product.  The Penne Pasta.

We are big Penne noodle eaters.  It is my husband's favorite pasta.  I made it for dinner last week, and I was expecting a big ole harrumph out of him when he tasted it.  He did however proclaim it to be excellent.  I too agreed with his opinion, and the 13 year old had a second helping!  The texture was perfect, a lot of times I find certain brands of pasta get too starchy when they're cooked or have a mushy texture even if you follow the cooking directions.  Not these ones.

The 18 grams of fiber per serving plus the great taste would convince me to purchase these even without following the Atkins program.

To celebrate the launch of these new products, Atkins has announced an online recipe contest where you can share your own recipes that you serve in your dining room, featuring the All Purpose Baking Mix or Penne Pasta and win great prizes.   Recipes can be submitted to atkins.com by September 30, 2009.

I guess I should get busy thinking of some new dinner ideas!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Atkins and received samples to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Last week I received a jar of Virgin Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions.

The first thing you may notice about this is, when you open it, it doesn't really look like oil.  The properties of it solidify somewhat and so it is soft enough to scoop but it is not in an actual liquid state.

That is so easy to remedy though.  Just boil a bit of water and put it in a bowl and then take how much coconut oil you need and put that in a smaller bowl.  The use a "double boiler" effect and in no time you will have "liquid" coconut oil.  It's so worth the little bit of extra effort too.

Already I have substituted the Tropical Traditions Extra Virgin Coconut Oil for vegetable oil in baking, and I have used it as a hot oil treatment on my scalp and hair.

One would never have noticed the difference in my zucchini bread, except that perhaps it was moister than ever before.  As for the oil treatment for my scalp and hair, lets just say this will be a routine that I will keep.

You see I have psoriasis on my scalp and have sores and itching  because of it.  Psoriasis of the scalp basically is that the skin on your scalp grows at different rates causing build up of skin deposits on same parts of it.  Often it will cause itching and yes that flaky white stuff too.  I have tried all sorts of shampoos and hair treatments some which have worked for a bit, others not, but generally those that have worked have contained medicates which I'd rather not use on my head. 

The coconut oil treatment was a bit messy, but well worth it.  I left it on all night (covered my hair up with a shower cap and an old towel to absorb extra oil) while I slept and washed it out in the shower the next morning.  Seriously my hair has never looked so soft and shiny, but even better when I combed out my hair, I had hardly any hair casts (the white flakys) fall out.  Amazing!

After reading about it success for skin blemishes in Virgin Coconut Oil, How it has changed people’s lives and how it can change yours! by Brian & Marianita Jader Shilhav, the book I was sent along with the oil to review, my 13 year old daughter plans to try and help eradicate her pimples with it as well.

Along with the skin care tips, it is chocked full of recipes and other ways you can implement coconut oil in your daily routines.

But if you can't wait to see if you've won, hurry and order some by September 6th, because they are on sale Buy 1 Get 1 Free for $27.50.  That's an UNBELIEVABLE price!

Also if you order and enter my referral code 5414915, you can receive a free copy of the book.  Even better Tropical Traditions provides excellent customer service and you can reach them here with any questions.

To enter the giveaway:  Visit Tropical Traditions and comment with another one of their products you would like to try.

For extra entries (the above must be done first) you can:

1. Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter.
2. Follow me on twitter & TropicalTraditions and tweet this giveaway (this can be once per day, please leave the direct link to your tweet in the comments).
3. Follow my blog publicly.
4. Subscribe to my feed via e-mail or reader.
5. Blog about this giveaway linking back to my blog.
6. Add my button to your blog.

This giveaway will end on September 16, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst and open to U.S. Residents ages 18+. The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be e-mailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail or an alternate winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you are stating that you have read my **About Reviews statement at the bottom of this page and my Privacy/Rules declaration and agree to them.

Nature's Hand is a company that has been making granola since 1971. All of the varieties they produce are sweetened using caramelized brown sugar and honey and the taste is amazing.

I received four different flavors to try; Original Vanilla Almond, Cranberry Apricot, Wild Blueberry and Cinnamon Apple.

The Original Recipe is delicious and my favorite of all the granola I sampled. The almonds and sunflower seeds offset the granola so well.

The Cranberry Apricot's chewy dried fruit pieces are fresh and pair nicely with the granola.

While I ate all of the granola flavors for breakfast, I also just sat and snacked with the Wild Blueberry. It was a very satisfying snack to keep me full, and knowing I was eating something good for me instead of junk was a plus too ☺.

1/4 cup is the recommended serving size but when you pour that into a standard cereal bowl, it doesn't look like a lot. If you're like me....you'll be adding more. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that for breakfast you might be overeating the stuff. I almost always double my serving size because it is that yummy ☺.

Since he watches his cholesterol intake, Nature's Hand granola is a perfect choice for Hubby. All 6 flavors (the other two I did not try are Raisin Hazelnut and Coconut Cashew), have 0mg of cholesterol.

Nature's Hand is also lending a hand as it is the official granola of Outward Bound U.S.A. Outward Bound is a non-profit organization that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through active learning expeditions that inspire character development, leadership and service.

Made right here in the U.S.A. Nature's Bound Granola has a sticker price of $4.99 a bag which each have about 13 servings (or 6 if you're like me..... lol!). Available in stores in 6 states (finally, finally something available here in Podunk, thank you Nature's Hand!), and online at their website. The whole family will enjoy the taste and your options for using it are many from breakfast to baking (there are over a dozen recipes to use it in on their site!).

Please read **About Reviews at the bottom of the page. I was provided 4 bags of Nature's Hand Granola in order to try it out prior to writing this review.

Remember I told you that we baked a really easy Key Lime Pie, and it was delicious? Well here are some pictures of Genius whipping up the insides of that yummy pie!

Thanks to http://skittlesandscraps.blogspot.com/ and http://leatheo.blogspot.com for the template and papers (A piece of Star).PIE alphabet letters are from http://stolenmomentsdesign.blogspot.com.

Well we made the Key Lime Pie recipe that I posted the other day, and it was very good! I tweaked it a bit - I only added one can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1/4 cup of lime juice, I baked it for the full 25 minutes, but probably should have taken it out at the 20 minute mark. It was the perfect flavor for our family. I should note that if you make it as stated you will have extra filling the crust won't hold that much - also if you like your Key Lime Pie tart - you will want to add the entire amount of key lime juice to it. We are more sweet than tart around here! If you are looking for an easy yummy dessert, I suggest trying it. If Hubby ate a piece, it's gotta be good!

Hubby loves chocolate - most anything that has chocolate he likes. Brownies are a favorite of his. For Father's Day, Genius and I whipped up a small batch of brownies, sprinkled some confectioners sugar on them (to make them taste like Cici's!), and Hubby was in his glory!

But imagine yummy brownies... huge ones.... that you don't have to bake, that come fresh, delivered to your door. Mmmmm...good.

The Daily Grind of a Work at Home Mom, has a giveaway on her blog, sponsored by Yummy Mommy (what a wonderful name for a site!). Yummy Mommy will send the winner some of those yummy brownies.

Genius participated in a wonderful music camp put on by a church June 2-6. The kids did a fabulous job singing and acting. I think they learned a whole lot about Unity and the importance about the Body of Christ as well. They performed the musical "We Are United". The children's director asked if the kids could sing in their church service on the Sunday morning as well. So we attended. I tell you it's good to get out of your home church once in awhile and experience worship somewhere else. In any case their pastor, recently graduated with his doctorate and after the service they had cake and refreshements to celebrate with him. Seeing as we don't know many people there or that we had never even met the pastor before, I felt a little awkward staying for that fellowship time, so I promised Genius we'd bake a cake when we got home.

So I don't know how many of you have ever used those silicone pans, but I have been wanting them forever. My sister was kind enough to purchase a couple for me for my birthday. At the Target 75% off Christmas sale I had picked up a Wilton one in snowflake molds. I had tried earlier in the spring to make individual zucchini breads in it, but they just did not turn out, I attributed it to the fact that the bread was just too moist for that type of pan. So for the first time I attempted to use the pans my sister purchased for my birthday. Whipped up the cake mix (thanks good old doughboy!), and put it in the circular pan. Now I know that one should not need to use any greasing agents in silicone pans, but for good measure I greased it with some shortening, just so I know it would release well. Baked it all up, smelled good, let it cool, and yup still stuck a bit to the bottom, and get this, it was as flat as a pancake. It was cooked (tasted fine too), but flat, it hardly rose at all. Very disappointing, so I guess I'll stick to the tried and trued metal pans.

That being said, My Wooden Spoon (who is also linked in my sidebar), is having her weekly giveaway, and in that package is 2 Jumbo Wilton Muffin Pans (metal I might add!). So if you're like me and after 14 years of marriage, need a few new kitchen items, click the link, read her blog and enter!