Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year!

2012 is going to be an amazing year! Life is what you make it...so make it memorable! 

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. -Einstein


Tomorrow I will have some more fun crafts and yummy recipes! :)


--Julia

The Pioneer Woman's Iced Coffee Concentrate...aka-Pure Bliss!

If you are an iced coffee addict, then you  must try this recipe!  The full directions are on the Pioneer Woman-Ree Drummond's site and I would just go there to follow her delightful instructions!  Below is my first time making this iced coffee yumminess! :)

I only did half a batch so I poured half a pound of coffee into a 6 qt. container I got at a local restaurant supply store.

Then, I poured in 4 quarts of water and mixed it up with the coffee.

That just screams "YUM" to me! :)

Then I put on the pretty red cover and put it in the fridge for 8 hours.

Next, I got a large bowl and put a strainer over the top of it.

I covered the strainer with cheese cloth as recommended by Ree and it did make a huge difference!  There were no grounds in my concentrate at all!

Let the pouring begin!

Once I had all the contents in the large bowl, I transferred it to a container that would easily fit in the fridge.

I filled up a cup with ice, poured in enough of the concentrate to fill half the cup.

I added some Coffee-mate and voila!  A delicious iced coffee treat at a fraction of the price!

Enjoy!

Julia

Creamy Zesty Chicken

I found this recipe I wanted to try from CleverlyInspired (from Midwest Living) on Pinterest!  It is called Angel Chicken but I re-named it "Creamy Zesty Chicken" for its robust flavor and made a few modifications.  (The family just finished dinner and LOVED it!)  It's so easy to make and the chicken is deliciously tender. 

Ingredients:  

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I threw in 5)1 8-oz. pkg. fresh button mushrooms, quartered (I sliced them)

1 6-oz. pkg. fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced (I used portobellos instead)

1/4 cup butter (I used Smart Balance butter)

1 0.7-oz. pkg. Italian dry salad dressing mix

1 10-3/4-oz. can condensed golden mushroom soup

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used 3/4 cup instead) :)

1/2 of an 8-oz. tub cream cheese spread with chives and onion

Hot cooked rice or angel hair pasta

Cooking Directions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan or pot

Pour in the Italian Seasoning, wine, cream cheese and soup  

Combine until it is melted

Slice the mushrooms and lay them in the bottom of the crock-pot

Place the chicken on top of the mushrooms and cover 

the chicken with the sauce.  Cook on low for 5 hours.

So delish! :)

Enjoy,

Julia

Sugar, Sugar...

I decided to make sugar scrubs for the holidays this year.  It was super easy and fun!  After some research, I ended up with this:

6 cups of white granulated sugar (you can use any sugar that you prefer)
1 cup of light virgin olive oil (I checked the consistency as I went and added more if I felt it was needed.)
20-30 drops of an essential oil of your choice.  I used peppermint and grapefruit! 

Time to decorate:

I bought 12 small mason jars from Walmart to give to friends at work and a few larger jars at Hobby Lobby to give to my mom, sisters, cousin, best friend and her family.

I created a simple label for the top of each jar in Microsoft Word and decoupaged it on with Mod Podge! I LOVE using Mod Podge! :)  I used gift tags that I found on Pinterest.  I am still looking for the blog site that had the link to the gift tags.  Once I do, I will post it here.  They turned out better than I thought they would! It was really fun and a great way to make something to pamper yourself! :)

Three Sisters Beauty

I have become really interested in all things Pinterest!  There are so many creative ideas on the site that it has really made me want to cook, craft and laugh!  I did a blog on my other site that is not so well maintained due to the demands of work, school and just life in general. :)  I decided, after making sugar scrubs for Christmas gifts, (I am almost finished with that post and will put it up soon) that I wanted to branch out and start blogging the "things" I was cooking, creating and laughing about!  Therefore, we have Three Sisters Beauty!  (There is an Etsy shop created where I plan to sell my sugar scrubs, bath fizzes and other creative "wares"!)

The name...the name comes from the fact that there are three Armstrong sisters (also known as the three J's by our parents)  Simple as that.

I am working on a few upcoming blog posts with some inspiration from Pinterest to share with my friends and family (and anyone else bored enough to keep up!)  All blog posts will have pictures, if I can remember to take them and I plan on having my photographer mom take some as well!   :)

1.  Crockpot Chicken with mushrooms and wine sauce (c'mon, who doesn't LOVE chicken with wine!?)

2.  Individual serving sized chicken noodle soup that you freeze and then enjoy later.  I can see this being something Auntie Ju Ju makes for Greyson a lot!

3.  Ree Drummond's (The Pioneer Woman) Iced Coffee Concentrate (so excited about this one...it's been on my radar for a while but I haven't had the time to actually do it!)  The coffee is actually in the fridge for 8 hours as I type!

Well, I am super excited about keeping up with recipes, do-it-yourself crafts and beauty products!

Thank you for reading!

Live, Laugh, Love,

Julia