ABC Recipe Swap: Kid Favorites

I'm a little late getting this one up...but for once, I am heavy in projects needing to post.  Seriously...how did that happen?

Anyways, onto my kid favorites.  I was tasked with coming up with recipes for "H" and "U."  Both of the letters proved to be a little difficult, I mean, how many actual foods that a kid is willing to eat starts with either of those letters? 

Up first is "H."  Homemade Cracker Jacks!  This is such a nostalgia food from my childhood.  I even remember back in the day when they gave you more than a sticker or temporary tattoo.  This recipe turned out remarkable!  Super easy and I don't have a candy thermometer, I just assumed my coating was done after it reached a rolling boil for 3-4 minutes.

For letter "U," this was also another nostalgia item from my childhood.  I LOVE homemade applesauce.  My grandmother ruined me for store bought.  I seriously cannot bring myself to eat it.  It's super easy to make applesauce and that's what I do now.  I use a sweeter apple, so I don't have to add any sugar and it tastes great.  

If you want to take a look at all my other recipe swap entries, check out the links below.

Desserts

Soups

Casseroles

ABC Recipe Swap: Desserts

Last week I got together with lots of ladies for a scrapbook recipe swap.  It was a lot of fun.  We did this before and we all loved it so much (and totally forgot about the last minute crunch to get it done) that we did it again with different themes.  This time the themes were desserts and kid favorites.  Last time around it was soups and casseroles.  Up first, desserts!

I was given the letters J and W.  "J" seems like a really easy letter for desserts, but I have failed miserably at every attempt to make a jelly roll, so I went the route of jello.  They were enjoyed and turned out great.

I decided for "W" to make whipped cream.  Homemade whipped cream is SOOOOO easy to make and tastes amazing.  With this recipe, it will work with 1/3 fat sour cream (if you are being calorie conscious) and you are suppose to use it within a day, but it typically holds up for me for about 2 days.

And for those of you who have never done an ABC recipe swap, you get a bunch of ladies together, randomly assign all the letters of the alphabet and set up your finish by date and hold a pot luck.  Sounds easy right?  This is why we scrap them in 6x6 inch cards.  Makes it look pretty and adds a little element of creativity and difficulty.  Also, in 6x6 size, you can buy scrapbook page sleeves in that size and put them in an album or on a stand.  More on the stands later...I am going to be making some.

Therapy

When I first started scrapbooking, I told myself that I wouldn't fall more than a year behind in my scrapbook.  I set that goal because of so many people that I have known that would be 2 and 3 years behind.  It's like the last kid's baby book is always put together haphazardly.  I have been scrapbooking for 5 years now and this is the first time I have fallen more than a year behind. 

Just over a year ago, my mom passed at away at 60 years old.  She was terminally ill and in the end, went down hill very fast.  I had planned to go visit her in the spring, but she passed two days after Christmas in 2009.  The hardest thing for me when I think about it all, she never got to meet my youngest son Colton who was born in October of 2009.  I was afraid of flying with him so young with that whole swine flu craziness was going on.  I ultimately ended up having to fly to Colorado right after she passed with both of my boys in tow and we were all sick with sinus infections too. 

It was a rough year dealing with my mom passing, I still harbor a lot of anger towards an ER doctor who told her on Christmas Eve, "You can go home and follow up with your doctor, it's not like you are going to die tomorrow."  She passed two days later.  I miss her greatly and it took quite a bit of adjusting to deal without her.  I use to speak to her almost daily.  My mom was a plethora of information when it came to kids.  I credit a lot of what I learned about being a mom from her.  She was the one person I could call anytime of day and it wouldn't matter.  I miss my mom dearly and this is why my scrapbook was stuck on her page for the last six months.  Sunday night I brought myself to sit down in front of my scrapbook and do my mom's page.  It isn't the most elegant or fancy page I've done, but I wanted something simple.  The photos are a mix of the last time I saw my mom, which was in October of 2008 and from her memorial service.

(this is what is written on the vellum)

Jean Marie Brewer

September 8, 1949 -

December 27, 2009

You will forever be loved and

Greatly missed by all.

Your laugh was infectious and

Your love was unconditional.

I need to add, it is EXTREMELY difficult to find scrapbook stuff that has to deal with the death of anyone.  Scrapbook companies out there, please make more items available that deals with honoring someone who has passed.  I must add, please excuse the horrible photo of the page, it was late and I was very emotional, still am.  Doing this post is some serious therapy for me as I have not put down any of this.  I am hoping that it will help me release some of the pain that I still have and anger that I have been harboring.

ABC Recipe Swap: Casserole Edition

This is the second set of cards that I did.  I got assigned C and Q.  Not difficult letters in my opinion.  I am so happy that I got them finished, it's been a very busy weekend and all around busy month so far and only getting busier. 

The Chicken and Herb recipe started off as a Weigh Watchers recipe and has been adapted to the way I make it.  The Frittata recipe came from allrecipes.com.  I can't tell you how much I love that website!!!  I don't think there are enough words to express how happy I am with All Recipes.  I love being able to read through all the ratings and reviews and you can get a very good idea just how good a recipe is from this. 

So here are the last two recipes that I completed for the recipe swap.

ABC Recipe Swap: Soup Edition

A friend of mine set up an ABC Recipe Swap.  I am sure you might be asking what is that?  Well, there is a group of people that commit to making an entire recipe book A to Z.  We are scrapbooking our pages and a total of 14 of us participating.  There were two categories set up for the swap; soups and casseroles.  We are exchanging these on Monday and so this weekend my time has been filled with finishing up my pages.  For my soups, I was assigned the letters E and S. 

Now, the egg drop soup recipe is one that I have been tweaking for a while and is my own.  The sausage soup is adapted from one that I found on allrecipes.com.  I didn't change much from it, but it was a good recipe to start with.

I hope you enjoy my pages and I hope that you try doing a recipe swap too.  This was my first time doing one and cannot wait to get all my new recipes and hope they are as tasty as the ones I am giving out.  I do 4 recipes in total and will get 48 new ones.  Works for me!

All the scrapbooking cards are sized 6x6 inches to make them cohesive and able to fit into a small scrapbook.