Thanks for coming 'round, 2012!

According to the Mayan calendar, we're not supposed to be here. But I've definitely still got bills to pay, a floor to clean and cookies in the oven. 2011 was good. I can't complain. A big heartbreak but a lot of love from my God, family and friends. A summer in D.C., a marriage, a big step of independence in living in Fayetteville, and a big boost in my relationship with Christ. Hope your Christmas was as relaxing as mine turned out to be. I am so truly thankful for the holiday break. Not for the time off of school, but for the time with family.  Mom and I had a few days together.  I loved it.  It might have been scary for the city of Tulsa, at times, though.  We laughed. We laughed.  We laughed so very hard.  Mom now has this laugh when she can't catch her breath that sounds like a dog panting. Mom, if you're reading this, that wasn't an insult.  Christmas was truly about CHRIST this time around. It was so nice to focus on the meaning and not the gifts or anything. Mom and I went to the children's mass on Christmas eve night. We got there a little early- which is a good thing. But we got there about an hour early.  Someone (cough cough) thought mass started at 5:30....yaaa but we saw all the kids and their nativity scene which was great. 


 Onto Christmas morning....Madalyn took over Mom's tradition of Christmas morning brunch.  Ya, you can say it, she's definitely a married woman.  She's hosting family brunches now.  

Zeussss got a new toy! Dinosaur!! 

 Next year there will be a baby on that table...
It's a Barker tradition that the youngest grandkid gets to open presents on the pool table. 

They are starting to look just like Papa Joe...

Probably my favorite gift from Christmas.
It's a Tulsa tea towel- all the top places in Tulsa! Thanks Uncle Mark! You da, you da best! 

Cuties... 

62 years strong...and they still got it! 

Olzawski. Glad I didn't have to spell that growing up.  

Brag moment: Something I love about my family...both the Barker and Olzawski side hang out together during the holidays.  That doesn't happen when all families split. Ya...I'm blessed.

Mom got both Maddie and I got vintage pearl necklaces...mine has two verses.
 Jeremiah 29, Psalm 139, and a birds nest for Matthew 6.

Maddie got one with her and Clem's birthstones! 

My Aunt Terri. We used to have "Aunt Terri days" when we were younger.
 They were the best days of my life. 

The best dog....Barley!! With Aunt Sue. 

EASY sweet and salty cookies.

If you're wanting to get a girl a good present for any occasion...get her a subscription to REAL SIMPLE.  Fact, it is the best thing ever.  I made one of the recipes from the December issue this week. Flourless Peanut butter cookies.  But! I added in toffee and pretzels.  YUM YUM!  This is the peanut butter cookies for dummies recipe. RS adds in instructions for parchment, to rotate the baking sheets....blah blah blah. That takes time, watching the cookies in the oven, which I am not up for this week. Or ever.  

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar (I didn't add this in the first time I made the cookies)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

a PINCH of salt.  

a couple of heath bars

pretzels, any kind will do. I used stick thin ones.

Heat oven to 350, butter those pans (pam will do).  Put all the heath bars and about a cup of pretzels in a bowl. Mash with a potato masher- wait- don't do that. That is what I used. But, hey, it worked! So yes, use a potato masher and mash the heath bar and pretzels together.  In small pieces - these will be placed n the cookie mix. Set aside. 

In another bowl, mix together the peanut butter, sugars, eggs, baking soda, and salt until smooth.  I used a mixer, much easier.  

You will then add the pretzel and heath bars in the peanut butter mix.  Mix with a spoon, or mixer, either way is fine just so heath bars and pretzels are evenly in the mix.  Roll the dough into small balls. Put onto the pans! Put in oven! I kept the cookies in for about 15 min, but I let the cookies cool out of the oven after about 10 min. Everyone loves a soft cookie. 

The sweet and salty ingredients

Heath Toffee bars crushed.

PB MIx with the toffee and pretzels added. Looks gross, I know.

Bun in the oven. More like cookies in the oven. 

yum yums 

When the cookies start to break like this is when I pull them out to cool. 

A messy kitchen is a good kitchen.  

Finished product. 

Don't make these for diabetics...too much salt and sugar. 

Enjoy! 

Great recipe turned bad, then good, then great.

Chex mix is the perfect snack for Christmas time. I've never actually made this dish, but I hear about people making it, then giving it as gifts. I found this recipe for Chex Mix in the crockpot.  (I love this woman's blog- she did a meal a day in the crock pot for a year.)  Yet, I forgot the whole timer aspect of the recipe.  Thus, I got burnt chex mix. Which, by the way, blows.  And makes your apartment smell heinous.  

Scary stuff in the making. 

But, I kept trucking.  I knew I wanted to make some Chex Mix for my cousin, Brandon, for Christmas. He is overseas serving in the military.  Here's when he was about to go on leave last Spring. He looks sooo much like a Barker.

Ain't we cute? Maddie's eyes are sooo blue here!

Back to the terrible turnout of the Chex mix. Welp, I made it again. The regular way- with the stove and some yum yum ingredients.  

Yummmyyy!

Definitely made the apartment smell delicious. 

Wishing I had two ovens today.  

The three boxes I sent Brandon!
Fudge, Toffee and pretzel Cookies and chex mix! 

I put in about...

3 cups of rice chex cereal, 1/2 cup of salted peanuts, 1/2 not salted nuts, 1 cup of classic pretzels, 1 cup of sticks pretzels, 6 T butter, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 t seasoned salt - I used Lawrys, 1.5 t onion powder.  

Heat oven to 250. In large bow, mix dry ingredients (nuts, cereal, peanuts). In ungreased pan, melt butter in oven.  Stir in seasonings.  Put dry mix into pan and stir all ingredients together until the pretzels, peanuts and cereal is coated.  Bake for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The chex mix recipe calls for corn and wheat chex...I chose only rice. Turned out great! 

 I will be posting the recipe for the toffe & pretzel peanut butter cookies soon.  I used the real simple recipe...

Santa House Fudge

This is a super easy and great recipe for fudge for the Christmas season! If you expect a gift from me on sweet baby Jesus' birthday...expect this along with a recipe card. You think I'm joking. Santa House was a Christmas market in Tulsa that I grew up going to as a little naked child. As we have discussed before, Mom did put clothes on me, I just didn't like them. I felt claustrophobic. Or something along those lines. Backkkkk to the original topic- Santa House was wonderful...any trinket, any ornament or food dealing with Christmas was there. It was this old house that Junior Philharmonic put up every year. Mom was part of Junior Phil and still has great friends from the group. One of which, Brooxie, gave us this picture of Madalyn, Mom and me from Santa House back in the day. Mom still has those Santa star earrings...they are great. And by great, I mean I wear them with my tacky Christmas sweater.

It's not the best picture,
because I was taking a picture of the picture....
I'll scan later.

Katie and I made this fudge along with an AWESOME red velvet brownie recipe that you can find HERE. Obviously this was post wedding....or wait. We both have weddings coming up in the spring so...I guess we start up the wedding diet once again. I feel like this will be a constant in my life for the next five years...oh, to be in your early twenties and living in the South. Santa House Fudge recipe can be found at the bottom. Much easier to print that way.

We did so much Christmas this day...which she LOVES.

Red Velvet Mix. Scrumptious.

Cream cheese icing....only thing I would change about the recipe.
Put the cream cheese in layers...
like put half the red velvet mix,
then add cream cheese,
then layer more red velvet,
then put on more cream cheese.

If you didn't notice from above...I kind of love cream cheese.
This swirling effect was super easy--and gosh darnit, I am proud of the final product.
Super easy with the tip of a knife.

Meag's little friend, Dax who she was sitting that day, helped up out in the kitchen.
Dax is precious. Quite the gentleman, too. His manners are phenomenal.

This is the sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Definitely use a big pot- a sauce pan won't do.

Something we figured out...
Not necessary to zap and melt chocolate before you add in the sugar mix.
The boiling mixture will probably melt the chocolate...

Put on a pan and freeze! It makes a TON!

I'm really proud of this wreath that I made....SO EASY. I went into Hobby Lobby with the intention of making a burlap wreath. Welp, that didn't happen. So, I just got a branch wreath, added gold wrapping, then some pinecones, and those red berries from the fake flower department. All you need is a glue gun.
Who knew that the real simple magazine would be part of my decoration? These gold stars are old old old hand me downs from my dad and stepmoms Christmas decorations.

So...we had a ton of leftover pinecones from the wedding. Thus, pinecone vases galore!

Here is the recipe for the fudge!

Mix together:

1 16 oz chocolate bar- broken into small pieces

1 pint marshmallow cream

3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (it's your preference)

We melted the chocolate all together in the microwave. It really doesn't matter if you do that, but it is much easier to mix if all the chocolate is melted before you mix. The mix you put on the stove will probably melt all the chocolate...either way is good.

In a big pot over medium heat, bring the following ingredients to a boil for 6 minutes.

4.5 cups of sugar (wowza)

1/3 stick of butter

1 12 oz can of evaporated milk.

Mix in with the chocolate..then put on pan. Freeze and enjoy!