Caramel Waffle Syrup...

Let me just preface this blog post with...

YOU MUST TRY THIS RECIPE!!!

and yes...

that's an order!

Special Caramel Syrup:

1 cube butter (the real stuff)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream (heavy whipping cream)

1 tsp. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. vanilla

Bring the butter, sugars, cream, flour and salt to a boil.  Boil for 1 minute.  Take off heat and add vanilla.  Let cool for a few minutes.  Pour over strategically stacked waffles...like this...1st waffle, 2nd cool whip, 3rd strawberries with sugar (thus making their own syrup) and lastly but certainly not least...the Special Caramel Syrup!

I promise...promise...you will LOVE it! 

Proud Mama...

So I am one proud Mama of Taylor right now...

She just finished her Good Works project for PP...

she donated all of the money she made babysitting for the month of April to my Bro and Sis-in-law for the passing of their little Sage...

They were given a Christmas Tree from the Festival of Trees this last year and they wanted to donate one this year in honor of sweet Sage...

the tree costs a ton of money to decorate and do it up right and so Taylor wanted to figure out a way to help out...

hence the Good Works project...

She was able to raise just over $100 and gave them the money on Sunday...

it was so AWESOME!!!

after they left our house my Bro-in-law sent me this comment on one of my posts...

it read:

Amy,

I want you to know how completely amazed I am about what Taylor did today.

I'm not sure if you could tell, but I had to struggle to keep my emotions in check when she said how much money she had raised and wanted to donate it all to help with Sage's tree.

I don't know of another 12 year old anywhere who having raised $100.00 and could spend it on anything he/she wanted, and then give it all out of the goodness of her heart.

There have been many acts of love and service given to our family this past year. This one, I will remember forever.

Please tell Taylor how much we love her and are grateful for the incredible generosity she has shown.

In the midst of much sorrow and tears, I have been uplifted to see the wonderful kindness of the human heart. Taylor's is pure gold!

With love,

Tyler

Like I said...

I am one proud Mama!

For Mindy...

This family was so much fun to work with...

we were all giggling the whole time...

even when little Peyton took a spill their mojo didn't stop...

this is just a little sneak peek for Mom and Chandler...

hope you like what I did with ya Chandler...

 

 

Little Madi...

This tulip field is AMAZING...

I am pretty sure we are getting our own family photos done there soon...

let's hope for some good weather...

and isn't Madi adorable?

Miss Jordan

This was such a fun shoot...

the best part was my adorable subject...

funny thing is...

she doesn't even know how GORGEOUS she is...

stunning I tell ya...

STUNNING!!!

Rolo Cookies...

Mmmmm...Mmmmm...Mmmmm...

That's all I have to say...

Oh, and I found this recipe on Two peas and their Pod...

 

Rolo Cookies:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Bag of Rolo candies, unwrapped
Sugar (for rolling the cookie dough balls in)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Set aside.

2. With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time. Next, add in vanilla extract. Mix until blended.

4. Slowly add baking soda, salt, cocoa and flour to mixture and blend well. Take a spoonful of chocolate cookie dough and wrap around one Rolo candy. Make sure Rolo is completely covered with cookie dough. Roll dough ball in sugar and place on prepared baking sheet. Continue until you run out of cookie dough.

5. Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Makes exactly 3 dozen cookies.

Amy's Note:  I used the medium pampered chef scoop and I baked them for exactly 10 minutes.

Cheesecake...

This is such a good cheesecake.  I have a long failed history with cheesecakes and I was elated that this one worked...Go Me!  The tastiest part is the almond extract in the crust...delicious!  I got the recipe from a book I am reading called "The Cherry Cheesecake Murder" and I made my usual small adjustments to make it more me...it is sooooo good!  And, I don't like cherries on top so I just bought a can of raspberry filling for the topping...yummy! 

Cheesecake:

Crust:

2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (measure after crushing)
2/3 stick butter, melted
1 tsp. almond extract

Pour melted butter and almond extract over cookie crumbs.  Press into a 9 inch springform pan that has been sprayed with pam.  Press up the sides one inch.  Put crust in freezer.

Batter:

1 cup sugar
3 8 oz. bricks cream cheese (room temp)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
4 eggs
2 cups white chocolate chips
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix sugar, cream cheese and mayo until very smooth.  Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each egg.  Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  Let cool for 2 minutes and add to batter.  Add vanilla and mix everything together very good.  Pull crust out of freezer and pour batter into crust.  Place cheesecake onto a foiled lined cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 55 minutes.  Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in there for a couple of hours.  Refrigerate cheesecake for at least 8 hours before serving.

Warning:  Mine was so ugly and cracked really bad.  The edges were raised and I had to cut them off to level it out.  I just poured the raspberry filling over the entire thing to cover the ugliness...and trust me, you won't even remember how ugly it was once you have tasted it!....yummy!!!

My senior shoot with Sam...

This is Sam...

and she was so fun to work with...

she had lots of ideas and I am hoping she likes what I can do...

I am only partially through the editing process...

there were so many great shots...

she had a total of 4 outfits and I'm not even through outfit #1...

I'm Sold...

So I was perusing the internet the other day about the benefits of vinegar in regular, daily household cleaning and I was surprised at how many uses there are for vinegar.  I had heard of several of them and have tried many but my latest find was astonishing!!!  I had a friend tell me about pouring vinegar in the bottom of my dishwasher every time I wash the dishes and so I tried that and it worked okay.  I read online that you could actually put the vinegar in the little jet dry compartment and that seemed to be more easily done for me...since I was always forgetting to pour the vinegar in the bottom.  After I did this and washed the dishes for the first time I was so amazed at the results!  It was crazy at what a difference it actually made...and the little jet dry thingy will stay loaded for awhile so I don't really have to think about it too often.  And...vinegar is dirt cheap!

Score!!!

Having Fun...

The weather here is Gosh Awful...

and we totally got bored...

I ran across this amazing website about pancake art the other day and so we decided to try it out...

Let me just tell you that is was So Much Fun!

You should totally try it...

check out the expert artist here...

Here are our results...

 

And...

I have been playing around with my editing skills and have been adding some textures to my photos...

I want YOU to tell ME what YOU think...

I sorta LOVE them...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Anywho...

leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

This little cutie ended up needing glasses...
at her young age it's hard to figure that out...
 we knew something was wrong by the way she watched tv and also by the way she would play the DS...

and I think she is absolutely adorable with them...

her vision is terrible and she has never known what it was like to see 20-20 until she got the glasses...

pretty sad to think about...

but I am glad we figured it out and fixed her right up!

Chips....Mmmmmm

Yesterday at Wally World they were giving away free chips...

and it got me thinking...

I really like chips...

and so do my kiddos...

I really like the folded/bended ones the best...

so does Taylor...

they taste better...

we fight over them and it's funny...

I sort of always win...

cuz I am stronger...

and I pull the 'I am your mother' card...

hee, hee...

so there I was...

deep in thought...

over chips...

do you like the foldy bendy ones too?

Draney...

This is Taylor's friend Taylor Draney...

we don't call her Taylor...

we call her Draney...

in fact, Jenner doesn't even know that her real name is Taylor...

it's pretty funny ...

and she is so gorgeous...

right?

More of the Hoffmans...

Famous Amos...

So all of my dreams have FINALLY come true...

I am Famous!

 

About 20 months ago (not that I am keeping tabs), I submitted one of my favorite recipes to the Buxton lady who has published all of the World Wide Ward Cookbooks...

I never heard from her and she published two more books after the first one...

I just assumed she got a bazillion recipes and mine was overlooked and under-appreciated...

 

until today...

 

I made it into the newest of the books called Secret Recipes...

and to say that I am thrilled beyond measure is an understatement...

 

I even went out and got a new sharpie for all of the autograph signing I will be doing in the future...

 

I would first like to thank you...all of my fans for believing in me...

and I would like to thank my family...

and my mom for teaching me how to cook...

and I would especially like to thank Ashley for calling me and telling me I was in the book...

cuz I didn't even know...

smooches...

Love, Amy

and a picture for you...

in case you don't believe me...

A sneek peak of the Hoffmans...

Super Beautiful Kallie...

Sage, One Year Later...

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Sage's passing...

It's been a crazy 12 months for all of us...

lots of ups and downs...

to remember our sweet little Sage, Tyler purchased a bunch of those amazing Chinese Lanterns to light for the one year anniversary...

(think the boat scene from Tangled)

and it was MAGICAL!!!

there were so many people there...

people who love this family so much and have supported them through a very hard time in their life...

it was beautiful to see...

of course I took some pics...

so, enjoy!

This last year for Christmas, someone purchased a Christmas Tree from the Festival of Trees for Tyler and Sarah...

it was for their little Sage...

it was so adorable...

totally decked out in Butterflies and Bright colors...

Tyler and Sarah thought it would be neat to decorate and donate a tree for this coming year in honor of Sage...

How amazing would that be, right?

So here I am soliciting all of my wonderful friends to help a girl out and to donate any amount of money you can to Tyler and Sarah to make this tree SPECTACULAR!

The theme for the tree is going to be based all around Chocolate...

basically all of the pictures we have of Sagie, she has a chocolate smudge right around her mouth because she loved the stuff...

my kind of girl...

so...

if you can...

and...

if you want to...

donate a little cash for a great cause...

It's all about Sage!

I put a donate button on my sidebar to make things easy!