Tea Time

I love tea.  I love hot tea.  I love iced tea.  I love tea.

We have a tea shop nearby called Fezziwig's Marketplace.  HEAVEN!!  Ok, it's tea & wine so it is AWESOME!!!  I recommend it to everyone!  I love to stop by and get a couple ounces of tea every once in awhile.  :-)

So...anyways... I love loose leaf tea and am always on the lookout for a new tea infuser.  No, I don't collect them.  I have only 1, my sister's, and I loaned it to a friend when I shared a pot of tea with her.  Plus, I didn't want to buy my own til I found the absolute cutest one possible.  :-)  Well, I did! 

FREAKIN' ADORABLE, RIGHT!!!!!!

It's called the "tea duckie tea infuser" and it is by Decor Craft Inc.  I found it at Cracker Barrel after having breakfast with my awesome Mom.  :-)  She got it for me.  *happydance*  I decided to have a cup of tea today and used it.  LOVE IT! 

Love it!!

I was singing to myself:

"Rubber duckie, your the one.

You make tea time so much fun..."

Perfect cup of tea.  :-)

**NOTE OF WARNING: Toddlers will also like your duckie and will be tempted to try your tea.  They will not be so thrilled about it and may dump it all over the floor.  This may or may not have happened to me.**

The Salad Challenge

I have been trying to lose my baby weight from the twins.  It has not been easy but I have lost almost half of it.  Now I am impatient to lose the other half.

I have several friends who are vegan and are participating in "The great salad challenge" by Engine 2 Diet and I was inspired by them to start my own salad challenge. (If you are interested in a vegan lifestyle check them out, lots of information.)  I know that a vegan lifestyle is not what I want right now but I also like to try and fit more veggies in my diet whenever possible.  So, I decided to challenge myself to eat a salad a day.  From now until whenever (why limit myself) I will either eat a salad for lunch or a salad for dinner.

Oh, and I have managed to con...uummm....I mean, convince Mae over at Mae's Got This to join me.  (Haha! Now she can't back out!!!)

What do I hope to gain?  With any luck I'll lose a couple pounds and discover a few delicious salad recipes.  So...  Who's in?  Who wants to join me & Mae in The Salad Challenge???  Oh & feel free to share some recipes.  I'll start, seriously, how yummy does this salad look? I can't wait to try it!:

Jamie's Cranberry Spinach Salad



Jamie's Cranberry Spinach Salad*

 *I got the photo from allrecipes.com

Lumps of Coal

I'll start by saying thank goodness this is a holiday cookie.  By holiday cookie I mean there is really no reason to make it any other time of year (unless, of course, it is to hide in your closet and inhale the entire batch!)  This cookie gets it's name solely from the fact that it looks like a lump of coal, though I have heard it called a cookies & cream bar but what fun is that??? 

The recipe is pretty simple:

1 - 16 oz. package of Oreo Cookies (30 cookies)

4 Cups of Large Marshmallows well packed

(about 38 to 40 marshmallows)

1/4 Cup of Butter

Prepare a buttered cookie sheet.

Grind up the Oreo cookies in a blender or place the cookies in a plastic freezer bag and beat them to bits with a rolling pin.  You want a crumb like consistency.

Melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave, when butter is melted add the marshmallows and microwave for another minute to minute and a half (just until the marshmallows are melted.) Stir the butter and marshmallows together until full incorporated working quickly so it doesn't cool.

Quickly add in the cookie crumbs and stir til they are completely coated.  Using a greased cookie scoop or a tablespoon drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the cookie sheet to set into lumps of coal; place the sheet into the refrigerator to make them a bit more firm.  These cookies are soft and yummy!

For larger lumps of coal you can press the mixture into a buttered 8x8 pan, allow it to set for 20 minutes and then soften the edges to make it look more coal like.

Store in an airtight container.  For giving away put several lumps in a bag and tie closed tightly with a ribbon.
 

Here's a tag you can use to label them:

There really isn't much else to say about these except that if you eat an entire batch it is soooo not my fault.  :-)  ENJOY!!!!

Garlicious Roast w/Potatoes & Carrots

After buying this for hubby the other day I figured I'd better find uses for all of it before it goes bad. So I grabbed the round roast I had purchased and came up with a game plan.  I usually just throw the roast in the crockpot with a packet of onion soup mix and some water.  This time I resolved to work a little harder.  I had heard of cutting slits in meat and stuffing garlic into it to season so I just went for it.  Amazing!  Here is how I did it:

First, I turned my oven on to preheat it to 525 degrees.  I then cut my garlic cloves into big slivers.  After that I cut pockets into my meat and shoved the garlic slivers in.  I suggest doing this to your own taste.  We are huge garlic fans so I used 5 cloves all over the roast.  Honestly, I think I could have used even more.  It came out looking like this:

I then mixed up a little rub to put on it.  I used approximately 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1 tablespoon dried onion.  I sprinkled the rub allover the roast:

I then flipped the roast over so that the fat side was facing up onto a roasting pan that had been coated in nonstick cooking spray.  I halved my new potatoes and circled the roast with them and some baby carrots.  I then halved more garlic cloves and sprinkled them around with the veggies.  I could have put more potatoes, carrots and garlic.  I sprinkled some salt, black pepper and white pepper over the veggies:

I put the whole thing in the oven for 6 minutes per pound for a medium rare roast (5 minutes per pound for rare and 7 minutes per pound for well.)  So for my roast, which was a little over 4 pounds, I cooked it for 24 minutes at 525 degrees.  Now comes the most important part!  Once the cook time is over TURN THE OVEN OFF & DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!!!!  Leave it alone for 2 hours.  After the 2 hours are up you have 2 choices.  You can either take it out and eat it as is, it will be lukewarm or you can turn the oven on to 325 degrees and let it cook for 10 minutes.  This will warm it up without overcooking it, which is what I did:

I sliced it up and it was a perfect medium rare.

PERFECTION!!!!!!!!



I will definitely use this method again, only next time I will be using even more garlic.  :-D

Garlicious Roast w/Potatoes & Carrots

1 round roast approx 4 pounds

15 cloves of garlic (5 in slivers & 10 halved)

6 new potatoes halved

20-ish baby carrots

Salt, black pepper & white pepper to season vegetables

Rub Mix:

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried onion

Preheat oven to 525 degrees.  Cut slits in the roast and stuff with slivers of garlic.  Sprinkle rub mix over the entire roast.  Place roast fatty side up on roasting pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Surround evenly with new potatoes, baby carrots and garlic halves.  Bake in oven for 24 minutes.  Then turn oven off and allow to continue cooking with the oven door closed for 2 more hours.  It is imperative that you do not open the oven door during these 2 hours.  Once the 2 hours is over either serve as is (it will be lukewarm) or turn oven on to 325 degrees and allow to reheat for 10 minutes.  Enjoy.

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