Pizza Buffett

Not sure what to feed a group of people converging on your house for the big game? The easy answer is a pizza buffet. You can make your own crust or use English muffins, but my favorite is to buy premade dough at Fresh and Easy for a buck and split it in to four smaller sections, roll them out and let your guests top them. Toss them in the oven and you are done! They only take about 8 minutes to cook, you can take them in and out as people are done making them and if you cook them on parchment the clean up is EASY!

And you can keep the Pizza theme going with a brownie pizza for dessert!



And totally unrelated to pizza, but a must have for the Big Game Day is Buffalo Chicken Dip. I posted the recipe for New Years Eve and if you didn't try it then and you like hot wings you need to try it now.

image from Rojo's Gourmet Food

Love Blooms

You can win a little love over at maya*made! Go check it out. Or you can learn how to make your own love here.

The Best Meatballs Ever

I can't believe that it is Super Bowl weekend and I haven't posted one thing about all the yummy party food you can make! Even if you hate football you should have party food on Sunday. Because you CAN!!

One of my FAVORITE party appetizers involves a VERY complicated family recipe. I am pretty sure it is supposed to be a family secret, but I will share it with you because I love you.

You start by going here:
and buying their frozen meatballs. The Kirklands brand in a big bag. Italian Style. They are YUMMY!

You could make your own, but buying theirs is MUCH easier! And it is part of the family recipe.

Once you have your meatballs you put about 2 lbs of them in here:


Add the entire bottle of this:


a cup of this:


and let them cook until the meatballs aren't frozen anymore.

Best meatball in the world! I promise!

image from Glam.com

This super secret family recipe can also be found on the Heinz site here. But instead of grape jelly, they use a can of this:




I am going to have to give that a try. But not this Sunday. Because I already bought the grape jelly!

Giveaway: How To Enter

So it is almost February and I can't wait any longer! (Impatient much!!) So today we are starting the blogiversary giveaways! There will be a prize each day for two weeks! I am so excited to be giving such fun stuff away from talented people around the web!

To save myself from having to type out the details each day, I am going to link to this post with all of the info. You don't want me getting carpal tunnel do you?

So here are the details that you need to know:

Enter a comment on the giveaway post to receive one chance to win.

In each post there will be a question to answer. Leave a comment with your response and you are entered into the giveaway. It is that easy!

Make sure you answer the question though! You have to answer the question for the comment to be valid! I know. I am so mean!

Earn extra entries by telling people about the giveaway.

Share the news about the giveaway and you earn another entry. It really doesn't matter HOW you share the information, as long as I can verify that you actually did it, it counts.

You can blog about the giveaway on your blog! You can post about this giveaway on Facebook. You can Tweet about the giveaway. Each one counts as an entry.

You can ever conference call your friends and tell them about it, but since I have to verify it you would have to include me in on the conference call!

There are no limits to the number of entries that you can qualify for. Now I am not giving away a million dollars or a new camera or anything, so I don't expect you to go all crazy. But enter the way that is easiest for you!

Oh, and to make it even easier, there is a button at the end of every post that says Share This. All you have to do is click on it and it will automatically have the information and link ready to post on a bunch of different sites! See, I am all about easy!

Follow My Blog

You can subscribe at the top right sidebar of my blog or if you have a Blogger account you can Follow me on the left sidebar.

If you already do, it still counts. Just leave a comment.

Add my button to your blog.

Post one of my buttons on your blog by copying the code and posting it on your sidebar! That will get you one more entry.

HERE IS THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART!!

I have tried to make it easy for you to enter (except for this novel you had to read! Sorry about that!) and I want to make it easy for me too! So...

For each entry you need to leave a separate comment that states what you did to qualify for that entry. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE THEM ALL IN ONE COMMENT!

Why? Because I am lazy! I don't want to have to go through all of the comments and figure out how many entries you have earned! If there are 50 comments then there are 50 total entries. Easy!

If you leave them all in one comment it will only count as one entry. And nobody wants that to happen!

I think that is it. Happy entering and good luck!

Button Button, Who Wants A Button

I have been playing around with some buttons!! I had a hard time figuring out what image to use on them. If you can think of something fun PLEASE let me know! I need some good ideas!

These are the ones I have come up with so far. You will want this one if you are going to enter the giveaways that start tomorrow:

Copy HTML below to add to your blog!

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bedifferentactnormal.blogspot.com/"><br /><img border="0" width="200" src="http://www.rememberthemoments.com/images/blog/buttontickets.jpg" height="200" /></a>

Or if you like these better, you can use one of them!!

Copy HTML below to add to your blog!

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bedifferentactnormal.blogspot.com/"><br /><img border="0" width="200" src="http://www.rememberthemoments.com/images/blog/button1.jpg" height="200" /></a>

>

Copy HTML below to add to your blog!

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bedifferentactnormal.blogspot.com/"><br /><img border="0" width="200" src="http://www.rememberthemoments.com/images/blog/button2.jpg" height="200" /></a>

Heart Cupcakes Without a Cupcake Pan

If you want to make heart shaped cupcakes but don't want to spend the money for a shaped pan, here is a trick from Family Fun.

image from Family Fun

Fill the regular round cupcake papers with batter and then place a small marble between each liner and one side of the tin. This will push the paper into the batter to form the notch in the heart.

Don't have any marbles, roll up some aluminum foil into a ball and use that!

Valentines Decor

Amber posted her Valentine's decor on her blog. She is my kind of girl! Even the topiaries outside of her front door got decorated with glitter heart picks.

She used some scraps of scrapbook paper to make this cute frame:

Such a cute Valentine's decoration, but honestly it would look cute in the girl's room all year round!!

And then there are the roses in the covered cake plate:

I love it! Not only is it a great centerpiece, but I already have the cake plate. And the cake plate is under used. Cake doesn't really last long enough around here to be displayed! I am going to have to dig mine out and decorate it!

Heart Bookmark

I love the simplicity of this bookmark from Martha. Instead of using it as a bookmark, I think I am going to write love notes on the back of them and stick them in books and magazines that Hubby might look through on Valentines Day!

Unless he reads this post.

Lovely Hot Cocoa

It has been in the 70s here the past few weeks, so I had given up my cocoa drinking. But last night it got COLD! And tonight is going to be cold again! Hot Cocoa weather is BACK!

SO I bring you this lovely heart hot cocoa from Martha:

image from Martha Stewart

Now I am sure that Martha used homemade marshmallows. And homemade Marshmallows are DIVINE. But the one time (well two times... twice on the same day) that I tried to make homemade marshmallows it DID NOT GO WELL! They do not like to come out of the pan! Or off the foil. Or the parchment.

So I am pretty sure you can just flatten a regular old store bought marshmallow with a rolling pin and cut the cute heart out. Or you can try to make homemade marshmallows and then come and tell me how easy it is and that I just stink at it!

Heart Garlands

I love hearts! And I love heart garlands!! RBK Creations has two garlands in her shop that I am in love with!

This one:

It comes in red too! I love red!


and this one:


which reminds me of this scarf from Martha:


that you can make using this template and old sweaters! Or you could just use craft felt if you are just going to use it as a decoration and not to keep warm!

Cupcakes and Coffee Filters

I posted about these goody bags from Capture the Moment back at Christmas time. I wanted to post it again to remind you how cute it looked in pink and red!


And I thought these were made out of coffee filters when I first saw them, but they are cupcake wrappers. And still cute!

image from Martha Stewart

Candy and Flowers

This bouquet from Martha is so stinking breathtaking that I honestly can't even say anything about it!

image from Martha Stewart

I am sort of in love. Tulips are my favorite, but those are gorgeous. And I don't know why, but I am IN LOVE with the Red Hots! I am going to go out a buy a ton for one of my Apothecary jars!

Red hots not your thing? Then use conversation hearts and matching tulips!

image from Martha Stewart

Valentine's Breakfast

If you are not a pancake fan or a cinnamon roll fan then I am not sure we can be friends. But I am trying to get past that. Because I love you. SO this is for you!

You can use this:


to make these:


If you are a cereal kind of girl (or boy...assuming that there are any boys that read this besides my husband) then you can just put a touch of red food coloring in your milk to make it pink.

image from flickr

Still not working for you? How about pink grapefruit?


You could even put a heart shaped cookie cutter over it and sprinkle your sugar or salt in a heart shape. Or not!

What are you having for Valentine's Day breakfast?

Valentine Mobile

Remember this mobile from Pottery Barn Kids:

Amie made this one from paper:

So if you don't have any fabric around, don't let that stop you! The paper mobile turned out SO CUTE! You can go check out more pictures of it on her blog!

Floating Flower Heart

I think it has been a whole 24 hours since I have posted something from Martha, so here you go:

image from Martha Stewart

I hate that I love almost everything that she does! But I do! This heart shaped arrangement is floating in water and makes about the most gorgeous Valentine's centerpiece. Even though I know that Toots will be diving in after it I still want to make one!

The instructions are here on Martha's site.

Teacher Valentines Gift

I typically don't think of Valentine's Day as a teacher gift holiday. Not that I don't think they deserve gifts all of the time (I am really lucky and have LOVED every teacher both of my kids have had so far) but there are those times when you feel more obligated than others to give a gift.

We always make a special Valentine's card, but that is about as good as it gets.

But then I saw these cute bottles of hand sanitizer that Chris from Just a Girl decorated for her kids teachers and I think I might be changing my mind.

They are too cute NOT to make for my kids teachers. And what teacher doesn't love hand sanitizer

Rainbow Cake

I saw this cake, from Omnomicon, on Ohdeedoh.

Isn't it fun! They are made by mixing gel food coloring with white cake batter (and a few extra goodies like pudding and Sprite)!

For Valentine's Day I think it would be fun to make one with different shades of pink and red!! And nice white frosting.

You can see the step by step tutorial here. Even if you aren't thinking of making it, the pictures are gorgeous!

Tomato Soup

We always have tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Halloween. I might have to make it a Valentine's tradition too. Maybe lunch:

image from Brides.com

Just put some sour cream in one of these bottles:

Don't have a bottle like this, you can cut the corner off of a sandwich bag and do the same thing, but the next time you see clear bottles like these, pick one up.

Or two.

Or a dozen.

They are cheap and there are a lot of fun things you can do with them. Like making hearts on tomato soup. Or decorating desert plates with chocolate to make them fancy. Decorating sugar cookies using the flood method. Filling them with syrup and letting your kids decorate their pancakes with them! (This is super fun if you us jellies too! Then they can decorate their pancakes with different colors!!) Lots of other things too! Get some!

Lanterns

I have started to fall in love with paper lanters. Like these ones:

image from Event Rentals

I want to have them in every color! Hundreds of them! I haven't found a way to make them and I can't imaging finding one...so here are some that you can make.

Use this template to make these Korean Lanterns from Shi Shi girl:


or these tin can lanterns (LOVE THEM!! Especially the tip about filling them with water and freezing them before you start punching holes! It will keep the can from bending AND save a finger!)

Need something easier? These paper lanterns are super easy, only require paper, scissors, and tape or a stapler, and you can make them in any size!

image from About.com

Wii Party, Mii Cakes

I have seen a lot of posts about Wii themed parties, and I have a feeling that we will be having one for The Boy this summer. And that is okay with Mii, because I love the Wii!

First I saw these Mii cupcakes from Bakerella:


and then like two seconds later my friend Amy made this cake for her daughters birthday:

(Totally off the cake topic, but if she gets any more talented, I don't know that I will be able to like her any more! The cake is one thing, and it is ADORABLE, but you should check out her photography skills! She is amazing!)

The Boy is trying to decide which one he wants me to attempt for his birthday. Right now he is leaning towards the cake!

So which do you prefer for birthday parties? Cake or cupcake?

Happy New Year!

image from Travel Blog

Chinese Sticky Cake

There are two reasons I wanted to post about Sticky Cake (Well, three. It is fun to say and that is reason enough! Sticky Cake!) and none of them actually have anything to do with eating this cake. I have never tried it.

First, I learned an interesting fact from Red Cook about homonyms in the Chinese language. Sticky and Year are pronounced the same, so this is a New Year Cake or a Sticky Cake. If you don't think I am crazy for finding that interesting, you can read more about it here.

If on the other hand you think I am crazy for talking about Chinese homonyms, you can just check out the Red Cook for really amazing Chinese recipes. Because I KNOW you are all having Chinese food tomorrow. Right?

Have any of you ever had sticky cake?

Red Envelope

One of the traditions of Chinese New Year is the giving of money in a lucky red envelope. It is given at the beginning of Chinese New Year and is not to be opened until the festivities are over.

To celebrate tomorrow we will be having Chinese Food (any excuse to eat Chinese Food in our home is taken advantage of) and the kids will receive a red envelope. (I will be using this template from Activity Village to make my own).

I haven't decided if I am going to put money in it, make some Mommy Bucks and Daddy Dollars that they can exchange for some one on one time with us, or just write them a little love note.

Maybe I will just write them a note that says they have to let me eat their spring rolls!

Take Out Box Template

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year. I already posted some fortune cookie ideas, but Renee asked where to get Take Out Boxes.

I have seen them at craft stores (like Michaels) and also at Dollar Stores and Wal Mart, but they are mostly Valentine's themed. (Although Red is a very important color in celebrating Chinese New Year)

You can also go to your local Chinese food restaurant and ask if you can buy some from them. The smaller restaurants (not chains) usually have plain white boxes without any logos.

And if you strike out at all of the above places, or you just want to make one of your own, you can use this template from Mirkwood Designs. Or this one from Kimstamps