Feta Dip

So, I have kind of been taking the summer off from a lot of cooking and blogging and just enjoying time with my teenagers and using the BBQ a lot.  We have been going to the beach, movies, having friends in and out of the house, etc.  I even tried Paddle Boarding on the 4th of July.  That was fun.

I needed to make an appetizer for a going away event for a friend of ours and I came across this delicious and easy Feta Dip.  I was in a huge hurry and did not take pictures of mine, so I am sending you directly to the blog that I got it from.  You really must try this.  So easy and so delicious.

                                                                   Feta Dip from Clover Lane

Perfect for a summer get together.

Butterscotch Brownies

These are very moist and full of butterscotch flavor.  They would also be great with white chocolate drizzled on top.

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
12 oz. butterscotch chips
1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  Over hot (not boiling) water, melt chips and butter.  Remove from heat.  Sitr in brown sugar.  Cool 5 minutes.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour mixture.  Stir in nuts.  Bake in 15x10x1 inch pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.


Print Recipe

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Who doesn't love cookies and milk?  Dunk the cookies in milk and layer them between whipped topping.  As the pie chills, the moist layers make a yummy filling.  If you buy the graham cracker crust, this recipe takes about 7 minutes to prepare, but chill time is 8 hours.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. chocolate chip cookies
1 cup milk
1 9 oz. graham cracker crust - I always make mine but you can certainly buy it
1 8 oz. container Cool Whip

Dip 8 cookies in milk and place in a single layer in graham cracker crust.  Top with one third of whipped topping.  Dip 8 more cookies in milk and place on top; spread with one third of whipped topping.

Repeat layers with 8 more cookies dipped in milk and remaining whipped topping.  Crumble 2 chocolate chip cookies and sprinkle over pie.  Cover and chill 8 hours before serving.  Yield 8 servings.

This is delicious.  I might of taken mine out too early.... I did on purpose.  I love dunking any kind of cookie in milk.  This is kind of a gooey, melt in your mouth mess.  The cookies become soft and make a delicious filling and I like an extra thick crust so it was perfect.  I hope you give it a try.



*For cookies I used Nabisco Chunky Chips Ahoy.  You'll need 26 cookies for this recipe.

Linking to my favorite Parties:         Debbiedoos

Baseball Pin Collection

After coming home from our Baseball Tournament, my son came home with 63 trading pins.  I didn't want to purchase the nice in closed pin box from the tournament for $75.00 so I knew I would have to come up with something at home.  We decided to display them in the open for a while and that way, he can look at them often, instead of being kept in a tidy carry case where you can't see them.

I decided to take one of his jerseys that he was given and put the pins on that.  It was easy to push the pins through both front and back layers of the shirt and put the butterfly clasp on the back.  We just started lining them up but weren't to worried about exactness.

Then I took a hook and put it on the wall.  We slipped a plastic hanger in the shirt and realized the sleeves were to heavy and hung down so we pinned them to the wall.  Then I took one of his caps and hung it over the hook to hide the hanger.

Now he can look at them every day and after rearranging a few things, it fit perfectly in that little corner of his room.  The cost to display......$1.99 for the hook. 



Linking to:       Smart and Trendy Moms
                       Chic on a Shoestring

Featured & More Vacation Pictures

I was featured at The Tattered Tag.  Hurry over to see Christina's Blog.  She has link parties, great recipes, and tons and tons of  ideas from other bloggers.    Thank you Christina for featuring me as the New Neighbor on the Blog.


Now, I wanted to post a few more pictures of my vacation.  Don't worry, it won't be like watching vacation movies.  I just wanted to post a few more since blogging is such a great way to journal events.  Plus, you have to see the house that we rented during the baseball tournament.  We could see the ball fields from a couple windows of the house, but our real view from the front door is worth a good laugh. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.

House that we rented for the week at the baseball tournament.  Very, very old.  The foundation was so unstable that every floor in the house was crooked or lumpy and creaked louder than I've ever heard.  Great place to rent though.

Look!  A sink in my bedroom.  Weird?  It actually was very handy.

I think I will open the closet door.  Wait...that's not a closet.  That's a shower.  Two of the bedrooms had closet showers in them.  Weird?  They also came in handy.

 Here is our view from our front door.  This was unexpected.  A grave yard directly across the street from our front door.  The only saving grace was that it was actually cool, with old headstones that were awesome to look at. 

We visited some great friends in Albany, NY and they have this fantastic historical home.  I died and went to heaven when I saw the wrap around porch.  Not a California thing.  I wish it was.  I think I am really an East Coast girl by heart.  I love the old houses and all the character.

Back view of the house.

Here we are with Morgan Freeman.  This is a wax statue just standing on the sidewalk in Time Square. 

 We love him.

We stopped in the gift shop in the NBC building and had to take a quick pic of fun memorabilia of our favorite TV shows.  The Office and Seinfeld.

Famous keyboard from FAO Schwarz Toy Store from the movie "BIG" with Tom Hanks.

My family.  Gary in back.  Dillon, Kelsey, Austin and me in the front.  I felt really short because I was wearing flats everywhere for walking.  I like heels.

Dillon at the end of the tournament.

Our team.  We were one of two teams with a girl.  The boys from other teams were intrigued to watch "the girl" play.  She hit two homeruns during the tournament.  There were 103 teams competing during this week of tournament from all over the US.  We ended in the top 32 teams.  We are somewhere between 16-32.  They don't rank teams specifically within this group but we were very happy with the outcome.

Dillon got to pitch for one inning during one of our games. 

Dillon at bat.

Now it's back to reality and I have a couple projects up my sleeve.  The oven is yelling at me to bake something, so stay tuned.

Carlo's Bakery

One of my favorite places that we went on vacation was Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken NJ.  He is the Cake Boss.  Although he wasn't there, his brother in laws were and the delivery boys.  This bakery is like a hole in the wall.  It is tiny.  You stand in a very long line, get a ticket and then you enter with about 25 other people squeezed in between shelves of pastries, cakes, pies, cookies, and sweets, sweets, sweets. 

It was much smaller than I ever imagined.  We hoped to see Buddy but if he was there, he was upstairs.  None of the sisters or his mother were there.  When we drove by on Saturday morning, the line was at least one (very long) block long.  We were glad we went on Friday morning, and waited for about 20 minutes in the line outside.  Locals say that there is always a line.  If Carlo's is open, there are people waiting to get in.  We couldn't tell if they were happy about that or not.

Here are some of the things they make. 

Me, my son Austin and my husband Gary.  They were good sports so I could go to the bakery.

We were on our way to Albany to have dinner with friends and we wanted to take a cake.  This is a Cannolli cake that was to die for.  Very, very good.  It was dark outside when we cut into it, and couldn't get a picture until the next morning and this was what was left.

Great bakery and super nice people inside.  Hoboken is the first exit out of the Lincoln Tunnel from NY into NJ.  It is the place for young, trendy people with lots of eateries outside and tons of young professional, hip people.  This was a fun place to walk around.  I will post pictures later of the World's Largest Pizza Slices which is located up the street from the bakery.  They are so big, it takes two plates to hold one slice of pizza.  The price per slice.....$3.00.  Can't be beat.