Go to angelaeubanks.blogspot.com and check it out – don’t forget to update your bookmarks.

Believe it or not – I follow 133 blogs – they range from Baking (duh) to friends blogs to money-saving strategies, running and local blogs. My reader is full of fun stuff.

One blog I follow is Janieoutofdebt – she found her self in a lot of debt – and totally kicked butt getting out of it. She offers really good advice on ways to think about money and how we spend/save it.

She was very sweet and gave my blog the Lovely Blog Award!!!

3- My Daddy (but his blog isn’t lovely – it is manly )

This weekend has been a weekend of me working on projects! Typically 3 at a time. One project that I have been working on is this blog. Well not THIS blog – but this blog at its new home!

It is time to update those bookmarks and subscriptions because confessions of a wannabe baker has moved! Please move with me!!!!

angelaeubanks.blogspot.com

Enjoy!! Let me know what you think of the new design!

1- I am working on moving my blog to blogspot.com – after much research – I can not make this blog pretty without 1- paying wordpress for an upgrade and 2- paying someone to help me create pretty blog materials. However blogger lets you use all sort of pretty HTML to decorate your blog – and better yet – people create amazing things for you to download and use – for FREE! I am so happy about this – however, the process for moving my blog is long – the blog posts all moved over fine – but the captions on the pics are not right and some other things  aren’t right. Plus I am working on making it pretty. This makes me happier than you can ever understand. So when I do work on my blog – it is on that end.

2- I haven’t baked anything new lately – I think we are in a rut dinner wise, and I am holding out for the holidays to start baking new things. I have 2 things planned for next week – and December is going to be a whirl wind of yummies flying out of my kitchen. Also- baking for the sake of baking is fun, but it is wasteful and I don’t eat more than a piece of my stuff, and Matt only eats it for a day or so – and always seems to forget to take it to work (SIGH – Coworkers of Matt – nag him about this please) It also costs money – and my budget is so tight right now. Mainly for the last reason I have been neglecting this blog

3- Monday I signed up for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon. It cost more than I should have paid – but running a half marathon is on my bucket list, and I have always wanted my first half to be a Disney half. So here I go. I have been running 4 days a week, and doing strength training 2 other days. After work and working out – I am pretty beat and just don’t have the energy to go make something for fun. Especially since I am trying to get in better shape while training. I am very excited about the race.

So be patient dear reader – I will be back with yummy goodness soon! Hopefully by Christmas my blog is all set up and you can update your bookmarks and subscriptions so you don’t miss anything.  I miss blogging I really do – I won’t let this blog die. Promise.

How many people are on your list for the holidays this year? Would you consider a gift for Africa?

Every day, 4500 mothers bury their children due to contaminated water. They are forced to sustain their families with a diabolical liquid that contains both life and death. This lack of clean water is the leading cause of death in underdeveloped nations. And it just doesn’t have to be!

So as we gear up to scurry through department stores and browse endless catalogs in search of new jeans, Tonka Trucks, gadgets and dolls….we are pausing. We are pausing. And today, November 13th, we are buying water. Clean, life-saving water.

$10 will provide one person in Africa clean water for 10 years. It will literally change and possibly save someone’s life. A mother. A child. A brother. A grandfather.

We are rallying together for a cause. Clean water. One day. $10. Asking everyone to let this be their first gift. Let water, let life be their first gift of the season.

Click here to be directed to the secure donation site of the highly recognized, non-profit, charity: water. All donations are tax deductible, and 100% of your donation will go to clean water solutions in West Africa.

(I did not write most of that text- but I think they said it better than I could. Please consider donating to this cause and spreading the word about clean water. I promise I will post food for a while – I have some upcoming holiday stuff for you Thanks for listening/reading)

My parents were coming because we were going to go on a West Wing tour (it got canceled but rescheduled) I gave my dad the option of poppy seed chicken or chili and yay he picked chili.

This was so easy. I tossed it together Friday night – and got up Sat and put it in the crockpot and forgot about it.

By some standards I cheated – I used the McCormick chili seasoning packet. I just needed quick , easy and cheap.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of beef ( I actually used 2.5 lbs)

1 Package of McCormick chili seasoning

2 cans (14 oz) Diced tomatoes ( I used petite dice because I don’t like whole tomato chunks)

2 cans (16 oz) kidney beans, drained ( I used one of the large cans of Dark kidney beans)

1 can (15.5 oz) tomato sauce

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Directions:

Brown the meat and season with onion and garlic powder. Drain the meat and combine everything together in crockpot. I refrigerated over night and got up and put it on high for 3 hours, then I switched it to low for the next 2. If I was going to be cooking it all day I would have just put it on low for 8-10 hours.  Spoon into a bowl, and eat with toppings of choice.

Brown the ground beef

combining everything

Mix well

cook for at least 4 -5 hours

hot sauce, sour cream, cheese, fritos and corn muffins - pick your toppings

Eat!

This was super easy to make which is great because I had to clean the apartment- it was nice to set it and forget it. This was good for lunch on Monday and also on hotdogs for dinner the other night.

A year ago today a woman with a passion started a movement. I year ago today Jody Landers launched the Water 4 Christmas campaign. This looked different for everyone. Some people gave up getting presents for Christmas and requested all money that would be spent on presents for them be donated to water 4 Christmas in their name. There were bake sales to raise money and an etsy shop.  My daycare had a change jar and kids brought in money towards it. The money went to charity:water who drills wells in Africa.  So from November 3 until Christmas (or the end of the year) people donated money for clean water. There were $10 Fridays, and people donated shirts, and crafts that were sold with 100% of the proceeds going to water. That was how I supported Water 4 Christmas. I bought crafts. The bottom line was that money was raised for clean water in Africa.

I have 2 tee shirts – and I love wearing them because I get weird looks and questions and I am able to spread the word about water.

If you come to my house and get a drink you will use my water coasters. I bought a set and loved them , and had the lady make me pink and green ones too

My favorite water thing is my ornament. I can’t wait to put it on my first tree. This will be the only ornament that isn’t pink and that is perfectly fine with me!

Without Jody behind the water movement – many people in Africa would still be drinking dirty water. In a 2 months she helped raise 59,000 for wells. The movement continued throughout the year and is gearing up for another water for christmas campaign*.

Today Jody is flying to Liberia. Clean water became an obsession of Jody’s – but she shared the obsession with a lot of people and now there are lots of people obsessing over clean water for Africa.

Thanks Jody for all your hard work and sacrifice. You rock!!

* A blog post to follow later about water for christmas 2009, I will write 1 post, put it all out there, and then let you do with it as you wish.

Lots of food to come soon!!!

I carved my pumpkin last night – and that was a flop too! It broke But I semi fixed it and put it outside the door on the ledge – even though it started drooping worse at least tomorrow is Halloween.

I washed and dried the seeds

Then put them on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.

I then sprayed the seeds with Pam and sprinkled Old Bay and salt on them.

I baked them at 300 for 25 mins ( 5 mins less than most of the recipes I found online) When I took them out and ate 1 they were burnt.

Sigh. O well. The pics look good. And you should try them and check them earlier! ( I should have but I was busy making my crock-pot chili and forgot until the timer went off)

The Old Bay concept seems yummy, wish I knew – try it will you and let me know.

Kristen, We are THAT family is having her 2 year blogoversary. Her blog is great and funny – often brings a smile to my face! She is offering lots of lovely prizes – one of which is a blog makeover – which I need – BAD.

While I don’t have kids of my own, I can think back to MANY stories that prove that my family growing up was THAT family.

What is THAT family?

THAT family is the one that talks their mother’s best friend into babysitting (who is single and childless) and while she is taking the children to Pizza Hut for dinner – as the pizza comes K attempts to clean up all the crayons on the table and reaches for the one that fell in the lap of a 5ish year old – who screams at the top of his lungs- “Don’t touch my privates!!!” then follows up dinner with a trip behind the pink curtain at the video store (where the racy videos are kept) Poor K – It is a wonder she even had children after that!

THAT family is the family that searches the whole church looking for keys  – when they finally ask the kid where they are she promptly walks to the potty and points! Because that is where they go of course!

THAT family has the kid who climbs out of the crib, up the changing table to get the Sams club size bottle of baby powder and gets back in bed with it – only to jump up and down and empty the whole bottle. What mom? You didn’t want white carpet, white walls, white suits (dad’s suits were in the closet – and the door was open) and a white child – all 15 mins before you were about to go out to a work function?

THAT family has a mom that will do anything to embarrass her children at all costs – Walking through the middle of Walmart she looks at me very seriously and says “Angela, do you know what time it is?” I of course unknowingly took a big bite of the bait and said “no mom! what time is it?” thinking we had to be somewhere- NOPE it apparently was HAMMER TIME . Yes – my mother stopped in the middle of the aisle and broke it down MC Hammer style. OMG! I wanted to die ( please understand – this was when the hammer was big – many years ago)

We were THAT family, but we still are.

Being a member of THAT family means that one of my teachers at school will ask me, “Hey, was your mom IN a tree trying to cut it down?” Yup she was – She is still alive too by some miracle.

There are many times I shake my head and hope no one saw what just went down in public. THIS family is great – the stories and memories will never go away and I hope one day when I have kids of my own we are THAT family too! Because if you can’t laugh with (and at) your family then you can’t laugh at anything!

Congrats Kristen on 2 years of blogging – over 1 million visitors to your site, and 30,000 comments!! WOW

Apple Crumble

I love apple pie and this recipe seemed similar. I tried making this for my family on family dinner night, and I messed it up. I wanted to give it another try. I decided to use a pizza pie pan instead of the 9×13 it called for since it was for a pizza themed girls night. Some of the pictures are from the first attempt. (for the record – I was in a hurry the first time and messed up the streusel topping – I used way too much flour- mom said it tasted ok but I wanted to do it right)

I found a recipe for apple crumble bars on the blog Dessert First. It really wasn’t hard to make, I just needed to take my time. 2nd time around was much better.

Ingredients:

Filling

3 tart apples

3 tbsp softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Crust

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp softened butter

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 egg – room temp

Streusel

1/2 c. sugar

2/3 cup + 2 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter cubed

Directions

Peel, core and dice the apples into cubes about 1/2 inch.

Make the filling first by melting butter in a pan over med heat. Saute apples until they are semi soft.

softened apples

Add the sugar, lemon juice, flour and cinnamon to apples and stir. Cook until the mixture bubbles then turn down heat to low and let cook for another 3 mins. Keep stirring.

Put in a bowl to cool while you make the crust.

To make the crust line your pan with foil and spray with pam.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In separate bowl cream butter sugar until fluffy.

Add egg and let combine

Add flour mixture and combine.

Pour dough in pan and press into pan and up sides 1/4 inch or so

Make the streusel by combining sugar, flour and salt. Add the cubed butter and mix until crumbly and butter is really small. I used a pastry blender .

The first time around - with pecans and too much flour

Spread filling over dough and then sprinkle streusel topping over the filling

first time around in a 9x13

Bake 350 degrees for 35-40 mins until golden

Serve cooled or warm – I prefer warm.

This was very good I really enjoyed it. I took some to the David and Meredith ( who I work for) and I am pretty sure David ate some for breakfast Monday am. Very good!