Autumn Apples Week Recap

I just wanted to go over the week, fill you in on a few behind-the-scenes tidbits, and announce the giveaway winners! Did you enjoy Autumn Apples Week? Did you find a new apple recipe to try?

Day 1: 

• Shared links to apple recipes I already have {German Apple Cake is still my fave even with the yummy new recipes I posted.}.

 

• Great Apple Hill pic - me & dad in front of a pond and not an apple in sight. Kind of embarrassed that of all the times I've been to apple hill, I've never taken a pic of apples, apple orchards, cider presses, apple doughnuts, or basically anything having to do with apples. 
• The winner of the muffin mix and tea is...Ally!! Congrats!!

Day 2:

• Almond Apple Bars. Yum. Good thing I sent these to hubs' office. 

 

• Tried something new with my photos this week. I recently read a post that made a good argument for getting rid of the watermarks and titles, etc. on food photos. I do know why we put them there, but thought the author made some good points about it taking away from the beauty of photos. I decided that eliminating the extra stuff really appealed to my lazy artistic side. :) So I'm trying it for a while - what do you think about it?

Day 3:

• Pie Crust Chips & Apple Salsa. So fun and such a good snack! 

 

• Cheated and used a Pillsbury pie crust for the chips. I'm still traumatized since my last homemade crust fail. Someday I will try again...someday.

 

• Took me a while to figure out how to cut the crust into little wedges - LOL! Guess I needed more coffee that day! 
• There are some great apple recipes linked up on this day too, so be sure to check those out and add them to your collection!

Day 4:

• Apple Pie Ice Cream. Yesss. There is still some in our freezer. How can that be? Because *somebody* {son} forgot about the ice cream on the counter until it melted and then put it back in the freezer and then the next day got it out but put it in the refrigerator, where it melted again before being refrozen. It's just not quite the same - LOL!

 

• You have no idea how many times I've avoided donating the mini pie tins over the years and I finally used them for something - woo hoo! :)

Day 5:

• Loaded Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake. So.good. The cake batter is not overly sweet so it is more like a coffee cake - giving you the perfect excuse to eat it for breakfast! :)

 

• Messed up on the amount of coconut oil that I added during recipe conversion, but since the oil had solidified and I realized my error while trying to get the oil to melt, I was able to remove what I needed! Too funny!
• If you use too much caramel and too small of a pan, your husband will eventually point out to you that the kitchen is very smoky. Oops! Caramel was oozing out the sides and dripping onto the bottom of the oven. Threw in a cookie sheet to catch the rest, but still had to air out the kitchen.
• The winner of a copy of Autumn Bliss is...Kassia B!! Congrats!!

I hope you had fun during the week - I know I did!

Reminder - my #31Days series starts tomorrow. Are you going to join me for Anything I Can Do, You Can Do Too? I'm looking forward to the challenge and hoping to spread some encouragement along the way. You can click here to subscribe by e-mail, click here to follow on Feedly, or click here to follow on Bloglovin' if you don't want to miss anything!
 
Have a blessed day friends!

Winners & Dinner & Grins & Tin

Wow - there really should be some sort of award for the Best, Most Creative, Clever Blog Post Title - 'cause I would SO win. ;)

Happy Monday to y'all (I'm not Southern, but I seem to have a drawl in my head at the moment)!!

Winners:

Here are the 5 winners of the coupons for FREE Sun Burst laundry detergent!

Nicolle
Crafty P
The Real Me!
(It's true and I even triple-checked it since I don't trust her) :)
Tabatha
Kat
Congrats winners!!!
Dinner:

I wasn't originally expecting company for the 4th, but ended up that I was having 2 BILs and a friend of one which meant 4 men, 1 boy & me. Anyway, as I was shopping for food on Thursday, I suddenly realized that I had NOTHING to use for a patriotic table setting. I didn't need anything fancy. Thanks to WinCo bulk bins and a stop at Dollar Tree on the way home, I came up with something. No design awards, but at least it had a festive feel.

The "napkins" are dish cloths with star garland wrapped around. The "coasters" are actually cloth trivets. In the center are chocolate candy-coated sunflower seeds. When I have that many boys for dinner, I need to keep the centerpiece simple - we need all the space for the FOOD!

Grins:

My friend Kim had a Brian Regan comedy clip on her blog for Friday Funnies - I laughed so hard and so did my hubby! You need to take a few minutes and go enjoy. That evening hubby and I looked up a few more clips of him on Youtube and I laughed so much I cried on more than one. I love laughter!

And my friend Kathy posted a clip of the dance scene with Kevin James from the movie Hitch - another good laugh!

Tin:

Rocks In My Dryer posted an easy Strawberry Pie Recipe last week (note - recipe doesn't specify, but it uses 8 cups of strawberries and a 6-oz. pkg of jello). It makes 2 pies at once. I have never made strawberry pie before and I knew it would be the perfect dessert for my 4th of July dinner and the second pie would work for my church potluck the next day. It was delicious and a hit!!! I wanted to take a picture to show you how yummy it looks...

Sorry - that was the quickest I got to it to get a pic - it disappeared too quickly! Mmmmm, it was good!

**ETA 8/7/10 Finally got a pic to add!  Soooo yummy!  :)

Have a fantastic Monday my friends - hope your week is off to a great start!

Cake Week Winners!

Thanks for joining me for Cake Week last week! I know I enjoyed it and I hope you did too. Do you realize that between my recipes and your linked up recipes, there are over 40 cake recipes?? What a great cake resource (how will I ever try them all?!)!

I have each day of cake week listed with its own link on the top of my right side bar. If you missed Cake Week, click on the links to see all the great recipes. If you already saw all the recipes, now you can easily find your favorite yummy cake ideas!

We should announce the winners, I suppose! I did use the random number generator to choose the numbers and it gave me #8, #2, and #1 - isn't that wild?

The winner of the Cake Recipe Book is...

Donna @ Way More Homemade
Congrats Donna!

The winner of the Etsy cake-themed necklace from Our Daily Chocolate is...

Melissa
Congrats Melisssa!

The winner of the chocolate apron from An Occasional Chocolate is...

The Real Me!
Congrats Kim!

The winners have already been e-mailed. Congrats to all!

I am so glad that all of you came to Cake Week with me. I really do appreciate all of my readers and commenters!

I have had lots of giveaways lately and really am trying to slow down on the giveaways for a while, BUT things keep coming my way! You'll have to keep your eyes open for another great giveaway that is coming soon.

Oh, and I think that this week is going to unofficially be double-post week. I am thinking of 2 posts that I feel the need to do each day this week - so buckle up and enjoy the ride!!

Tea For Two-sday ~ Winner and Iced Tea

Welcome again to Tea For Two-sday! I'm glad you could join me! Pour your cup of tea (or coffee or something else if you must) and take a little time out of your busy day.

First, we have a winner for the DaySpring tea-for-one set!

It's Deb!
Congratulations Deb!!

Moving on now. I was going to show you another wonderful DaySpring item today, but my memory card was full and I didn't get it taken care of in time. So I will rerun a post for you today.

Since the weather is starting to warm up (at least in some places), I thought I would give you these links for iced tea recipes again. Enjoy!

Have some iced tea - there are many ways to prepare it. Here are a few:

Sweet Tea by Like a Warm Cup of Coffee

Tea at Dawn: Spiced Iced Tea by Tea In My Cup

How to Make Inexpensive Iced Tea That Wows Your Friends by Tea Party Girl

Red Zinger Iced "Tea" by Steph's Cup of Tea

Celestial Seasonings Powerfully Plum....Iced Tea by Marye Audet

And last, a great recipe for sweet tea in the middle of a humorous post - Sweet Tea by We Are THAT Family

Hope you enjoy these. Happy tea drinking!

Stop back next week when I will be showing you more pretty DaySpring items!

It Was My Best Blogaversary Ever

Well it was my only Blogaversary, but I still say it was the best - LOL! Wow - it was a blast! I hope you enjoyed all the partying with me! :)

Did you like the giveaways? I have the last 3 winners for you!

The winner of the Decorative File Folders from Misty Kristy Designs is...

Muthering Heights

Congrats Jessie!!

The winner of the Charm Necklace from RJ Charms is...

Lori Ann

Congrats Lori Ann!!

The winner of the Homemade Biscotti from me is...

Mary Snyder

Congrats Mary!!

That was really a lot of fun giving away all of those prizes! And don't forget to take advantage of the offer at RJ Charms for free shipping on any order over $10 (code is "chocolate")!

Thank you all so much for coming by during the party and leaving such wonderful comments!

Here's a little "vlog" to say thanks! You can try this link if you're not able to see the video. If you sign up at www.newbaby.com to load up your videos (public or private), come see me - over there I'm Lisablogschocolate.

Thanks again! Have a blessed day and I'll "see" you later! :)

Weekend Blogaversary Prize Winners and Still More Prizes to be Won

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a beautiful and blessed Resurrection Day!

I hope you are all having fun during my Blogaversary! I know I am! Since we don't usually do much for my birthday in real life, I am celebrating it vicariously through my Blogaversary - LOL!

I have some more prize winners to tell you about, but remember there are still prizes left. The party is not over yet!

The twitter-only prize of Harry & David Mint Creme Maltballs was drawn this weekend and the winner is...

@WayMoreHomemade!

Congrats to Donna!

Saturday's winner gets the 1/2 pound of Chocolate Raspberry Coffee from Javateas and the winner is...

heresmycuplord

Congrats Ginger!

Sunday's winner gets the Chocolate Apron from An Occasional Chocolate and the winner is...

The Real Me!

Congrats to Kim (who has been trying to win a giveaway on my blog for sooooo long - LOL)!

Yay for the winners! There are still 3 more prizes!! The deadline is tonight, then I will draw the last 3 winners and announce them tomorrow.

Remaining prizes are:

~ Cute set of decorative file folders from Misty Kristy Designs
~ Your choice of under $10 charm necklace from RJ Charms (and don't forget that she is offering you free shipping on any purchase over $10 if you use the code "chocolate"!)
~ Homemade biscotti (dried cranberry or double chocolate walnut) from me

See? Still great prizes left! More fun to be had! Probably even another post from me today!

Have a fabulous Monday!

Another Prize Winner!

I've drawn a winner for a second prize: the DaySpring journal. The winner is...

Charlotte

Congrats Charlotte!!

Now even if you didn't win anything from DaySpring, you can still get a discount of 20% off of your entire purchase there!! They have so many lovely things! Just use the code "SPRING09".

There are still plenty of prizes left, so be sure to enter! I will give one prize away for Saturday and one for Sunday, but will announce both on Monday. The giveaways will end on Monday night 4/13 with the remaining prizes drawn at that time.

Hope you are enjoying all the Blogaversary fun!

And The Winners Are...

The Bloggy Giveaways have come to an end. I hope you had fun and enjoyed visiting here!

But you want to know the winners right now!

The winner of the cocoa is...

Noreen!

Congratulations Noreen!

And the winner of the Hersheys cookbook is...

Sylvia!

Congratulations Sylvia!


I really enjoyed hearing about all of your favorite chocolate desserts - thanks so much for playing along! Hope to "see" you here again!

Random Ramblings and a Winner

Good morning! I thought about making you wait until the end of this post to find out who the doily winner is, but since it's Thanksgiving week, I'll be kind and start off with it!

The winner of my Dad's doilies is: MLE
Congratulations!!

Giveaways are tough - I always want everybody to win, but I'm sure you will all survive the loss. :)

I had several random thoughts floating around my head, so I thought I should get rid of them here - LOL!

~ My blog was very quiet on Friday - crickets chirping and I even think I heard an echo - but then I discovered where all of you were. You were at Walmart blocking the aisles while I was trying to do a little shopping. And then you were in WinCo on Saturday taking all the Thanksgiving supplies that I needed! But don't worry, I managed to get everything anyway and had to go to Safeway to get the last few things (they were not busy and fully stocked!).

~ My son announced to me Friday after school that one of his new favorite books to read is the dictionary. And he read it for a while, finding all sorts of crazy words. After thinking about how unusual and delightful this was - I discovered the real reason. He was writing a silly story for a friend, trying to make the longest, weirdest sentences with words that his friends would insist were not real and then he could say - oh yes they are - I got them out of the dictionary - so there!

~ I suppose most of you heard about the eHarmony thing. If not, you can google it. Anyway, let me just nicely say that it greatly upsets me!! But I suppose that I should be more upset that in my own state, the Governor signed a law last year that impacted the public schools, including a provision that students in school may use either the male or female bathrooms and locker rooms, depending on which gender they identify with the most. That means boys can use the girls' bathrooms! Scary stuff and I wonder how many people here with their kids in school are even aware of it. Sigh.

~ Can anybody listen to Bob Carlisle's song Christmas Shoes without crying? Or am I just too emotional? It gets me every time. Sometimes I'm OK until the chorus but I can't make it through the last line of the chorus: And I want her to look beautiful, if Momma meets Jesus tonight. Sniff.

~ My hubby just told me to confess on my blog what I had for breakfast, which does nicely fit into a list of random things. I had a Weight Watchers English Toffee ice cream bar (only 2 points!). Dairy for breakfast is totally appropriate, don't you agree? :)

~ There will not be a Chocolate Friday this week since it's after Thanksgiving and I will not be able to tear myself away from the couch and the movie-watching (we are not too big on the shopping). Also, after cooking a huge meal like that, I will need at least a day of recovery. The following week, Friday 12/5, will be for any kind of dessert posting (no chocolate required) or chocolate if you wish.

~ My friend Kim at Homesteader's Heart passed on a fun award to me:

It's The Bookworm Award. I do love books though I haven't had as much time to read lately.

This award has a fun twist ... find the book closest to you, turn to page 56, and type in the fifth sentence plus a couple more after that.

OK, you will laugh - the closest book to me was: Chocolate Lover's Cookbook. I kid you not! Here are the 5th through 7th sentences of page 56:

Fold in flour carefully; then fold in nuts and white chocolate chips just until combined. Spoon mixture into pan and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

I know you want to know what the recipe is! It's White Chocolate Macadamia Bread. Sounds yummy, huh?

Now I have to pass on the award to 5 people. I picked some people that I think will have fascinating books nearby (no pressure - LOL!):

His Beloved
Real Life
Like a Warm Cup of Coffee
The Great Adventure
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

I think that's it for the random thoughts today - thanks for letting me clear those out to make room for more - LOL!

Have a wonderful, blessed Monday!

Bloggy Giveaway Winners!

My giveaways are now closed. Wasn't the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival fun? The next one is in January.

I have 2 winners to announce. Winners have already been notified by e-mail.

The winner of the books is...

cherie j.

Congratulations Cherie!

And the winner of the chocolate is...

Michelle

Congratulations Michelle!

Thank you all for stopping by and I hope you had fun! Come back again - you're always welcome!

Pumpkin Potpourri Week Winners

Pumpkin Potpourri Week was so much fun! I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as I did! It was like having a big party! :)

Thank you everybody for making it such a success! My commenters gave me wonderful support; my linkers gave us more fun ideas and recipes; and my promoters helped spread pumpkin all over the blogosphere!!

I will work on putting the button on my sidebar with the week of posts so you have a place to come back to for all the pumpkin recipes and ideas.

I suppose you want to know who the winners are...

OK, here they are:

Winner of the Commenters' Giveaway:

Steph at Angelic Accents - Congrats Steph!

Winner of the Linkers' Giveaway:

Ashley at Livin our Love Song - Congrats Ashley!

Winner of the Promoters' Giveaway:

Cynthia at Springmont Cottage - Congrats Cynthia!

The winners have all been contacted. If for any reason, I don't hear back - I will draw new winners.

Thank you all again for joining in the pumpkin fun last week! Come on back anytime - you're always welcome!

Bloggy Giveaway Winner!

*EDIT* - My first winner didn't respond, so I had to draw a new winner. New name listed below...


What fun the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival has been. Thank you to all who stopped by and entered. I LOVED hearing about chocolate from all of you and heard of some new kinds that I need to try!

The winner of the chocolate cookbook and dark chocolate from Trader Joe's is...
Tracey!

Congratulations, Tracey!!

Stop by here

if you want to see a list of Bloggy Carnival winners.

Thanks again and hope you enjoyed my blog. Stop by anytime!