Meet my mom. Sweet. Selfless. Caring. Wonderful. This woman is super special!

For mom’s day I picked her up and drove out to Somis for some berry picking at the Underwood Family Farms. This is something that I have never done before (and also happens to be on my 101 in 1001 list!) so I was looking forward to it. I was very pleased with the experience and enjoyed the one on one time with my mom. We spent about an hour picking both raspberries and blueberries for our cobbler.

It was a beautiful day in the high 70s and the sun was shining down on these beauties. While I didn’t so much enjoy the bees around the raspberries, it was a little bit of an adventure for my mom and I as we scoured our way through the long lanes of berries. After about 10 minutes I realized the bees were pretty comfortable with people walking around and started picking without hesitation.

When we got home we made a yummy “cobbler” for dessert after our dinner. I decided to keep it simple and do it dump cake style. I have never done this recipe with fresh fruit before but it turned out wonderfully.

Fresh Berry Dump Cake (Cobbler)

• 1 box Yellow Cake Mix of choice
• 2-3 cups of Berries (enough to cover the whole bottom of a 9×13″ pan)
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 sticks Butter (cold, sliced)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar *optional
• Vanilla Ice Cream — Recommended!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray or butter a 9×13″ pan and pour berries (any mixture) over the bottom of the pan until complete covered. Sprinkle the berries and let sit for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the cake mix over the berries and slice your butter into 9 thin slices. Arrange the butter slices to cover the cake mix layer and sprinkle with brown sugar if so desired. Bake in the oven for approximately 50-60 minutes, until the berries are bubbling and the cake mix/brown sugar is golden.

Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

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Happy Easter!

This year I came across some lovely ways to use eggs for Easter celebration and have to share them with you! I am so excited to hopefully try out a couple of these this year if I have time. At the end of this post I will also share a wonderful article on fun ways to  keep Jesus the main part of Easter!

My favorite — Adorable Easter egg cupcakes! via  Cupcake Project

DIY Speckled Eggs! via Southern Living

Oh, and I can not resist some awesome neon Easter eggs! via Oh Joy!

Leaf-print Easter eggs, too! via Apartment Therapy

Loved the idea of dying eggs using muffin tins — especially if you only want partial dying! via Parent Hacks

And last but not least, I thought I would share a fun link that I found on Pinterest — Ten fun ways to keep Easter about Jesus. Which is obviously the most important one! I pray that you all have a fun and blessed Easter celebration. My favorite part this year has been teaching our Sunday school class about the meaning of Good Friday and Easter. I love hearing them understand that Christ did such a scary and painful thing because He loves us and in the end, He rose again because He is our Deliverer and is victorious! Thankful to be a part of that part of their lives.

Happy Easter!

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We don’t normally do much for Valentine’s day, but this year I was actually excited for Valentine’s day for a few reasons. The first is that Garrett has been working a lot of extra hours lately, so our time together is very precious. But mostly because these last few months of dealing with my back issues, we have grown closer in our marriage. He takes care of me and sacrifices for me. He has shown concern for me in a way I have never seen before and on top of that, I need him in a way that I have never needed him before. I am so thankful that God placed him in my life and blessed me with such a sweet, loving and giving man. That blessing has been more evident than ever lately.

I needed something simple to make for dinner but wanted it to be cute and special… Icouldn’t resist using a heart in our meal! I had a lot of fun putting this together and when it was ready I asked my handsome to grab it out of the oven for me :) He was surprised and basically thought I was a silly girl. Only silly for him!

As for dessert … well, I have been pinning a lot lately and came across donuts made with canned biscuits!! I could not resist. One of our favorite desserts is at BJ’s Brewery and I thought this was a great opportunity to duplicate it. Check this out…

First I put about an inch of vegetable oil in the pan and let it heat up on medium heat for several minutes. While that was heating up, I took out the biscuits and used a coke bottle top to “punch” out the middles. Once I the oil was simmering, I popped in one of the donut holes to see if it was ready. Since the oil was sizzling around the dough, I knew it was ready and gently placed all of the donuts into the skillet.

After about one minute I flipped each of the donuts over to cook for just another minute (until both sides were a light golden color. Then I placed them on a couple of paper towels on a plate to let them cool a bit.

Another thing I did while heating the oil was melt one stick of butter in a bowl and mixed a cup of sugar and 2 tbsp. cinnamon into another bowl — healthy, I know! Once the donuts had cooled enough for me to handle them, I dipped them in the butter and then into the cinnamon sugar! YUM!

I did the donut hole that I had started with first so that I could take a bite before doing the rest of the donuts … really though, can you blame me!? It was crispy and so perfect!

As you can see, these were easy and super delicious! It didn’t hurt that the buttermilk biscuits that I used only cost me 79 cents!!! By the way, we aren’t even done! While I was dipping the donuts, I had my handsome slicing up some fresh strawberries….

We topped our donuts with some vanilla ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream — just like at BJ’s! It was perfect. Obviously you don’t have to do the ice cream or strawberries, they are perfect as a simple donut. Be careful though, these are dangerous to have around and I can’t guarantee that you will share these once you take a bite!

Wanna make it?!

Easy Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

• 1 Can refridgerated biscuits (I used Buttermilk, any except for the flaky type will work fine)
• Vegetable Oil
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Cinnamon
• 1 Stick of Butter, melted

Enjoy!

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Could it really be two short weeks until Christmas?!

Here is a peak at how we do Christmas. First and foremost a Christmas tree; my favorite part of the season and this year we switched up the decor. All red, white and gold ornaments with a fun garland made of felt rounds stitched together. I got the garland on Etsy at TwoOtters.

Next up! Cookies! And Cookie Parties! Tonight I had the girls over to trade Christmas cookie recipes and do a little taste-testing. Eight delicious cookies, lots of laughter and Christmas joy! I love baking this time of year and though my back kills me lately I can’t resist! My recipe is below-

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread (BHG)

• 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup cold butter
• 12 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 drops red food coloring (optional)
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• White nonpareils and/or red edible glitter (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in drained cherries and 4 ounces (2/3 cup) of the chopped chocolate. Stir in almond extract and, if desired, food coloring. Knead mixture until it forms a smooth ball.

3. Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2-inch rounds.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

5. In a small saucepan, combine remaining 8 ounces white chocolate and the shortening. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Dip half of each cookie into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. If desired, roll dipped edge in nonpareils and/or edible glitter. Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set. Makes about 60.

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The holidays have snuck up on me this year and while I was thinking about how much I can not wait for Christmas, I find that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away! Now that I have had some Fall fun, I am definitely ready to hop into the Christmas season (which begins strictly the day after Thanksgiving in my house!).

Are you ready!? With the help of Etsy I am sure you can find plenty of good buys, inspiration, ideas and much more. Here are a few of my faves!

Soft White Yarn Wreath from Saffron Fields

Rustic Garland from Sunshine Safari Homegoods

Let It Snow Rustic Christmas tree Pallet Art from Songbirds & Lace

Christmas Bunting from Sew Realicoul

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