Apples are in season

What are you cooking or baking with apples? My son loves apple pie but I hate having a whole pie around the house since most of the time there's just us three. So I bake up little pies using a cutter/mold I purchased from Williams-Sonoma a few years back. Here is the finished product. I did cheat and I used pre-made pie crust which is never as good as homemade but still good. I purchased The apples at a local apple farm this week. They are so sweet this year. I just love them. I chopped them up and sprinkled with a little flour, sugar and cinnamon. Delicious!!!

Please post what your making with apples.

My weekend is filled with work, hockey & football. So I made fajitas on the grill yesterday that we can just reheat when needed this weekend.  Here's a picture of those.

I grilled three chicken breasts while I sauté the veggies. So simple. I marinaded the chicken in some olive oil and fajita seasoning. I used the same seasoning on the peppers and onion.

 ~Carrie

Homemade Pizza Last Night

The Ohio State Buckeyes played against the only team they lost to last year, last night. We made homemade pizza for dinner to munch on while watching the game. I use a classic pizza crust recipe but I jazz it up with Penzey Spice Pizza Dough Seasonings. A few teaspoons does the trick. It makes the best crust. We also use white corn meal instead of flour when rolling out the dough. It helps make a crispy crust on the outside and soft on the inside. We grilled them on the Green Egg at 600 degrees for about 8 minutes.  Here's the finished product.

Quick Meal Between Showing Appointments

I didn't have much time tonight to make dinner so I opted for quick chicken fajitas.

I sliced up & sautéed some onions and peppers, grilled the chicken breasts and sprinkled some fajita seasoning on it and I was done.

Here's a look:

Have a great evening! I hope you're able to enjoy some family time. Always make time for the kiddo's. <3  ~Carrie

Finding Time to do What I Love

Finding time to do what I love...

When I'm not assisting buyers, sellers, and investors with homes or watching my son play football or hockey, I love to cook & bake.  Actually I'm a little obsessed with it. I'm always taking pictures of what I'm making. Just something I love to do. Unfortunately I don't get to do this as often as I would like. But I'm ok with that. I also love helping my clients buy & seller homes.  I'm also a football & hockey fan too.

So, here's what I made for dinner last night.

Beef with Broccoli

I used Ree Drummond's recipe from the food networks website. It was delicious and a big hit.  My son actually came up to me and said, "Mom, you have to make this all the time! I mean all the time! It's that good."  Of course this put a big smile on my face. I did make a few changes. I added sugar snap peas and used cooked rice instead of noodles. Here is a link to the recipe. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/beef-with-broccoli.html

When I get awesome compliments it just makes me what cook more. So here is what I made for lunch since I'm working from home today. Another one of my son's favorites.

Sausage, Broccoli & Pasta

 I had leftover sausage from homemade pizza's over the weekend and leftover broccoli so why not!!! Cook your pasta per the package add in some chopped up broccoli the last two minutes. (Don't forget to salt your water) Don't drain your pasta water down the sink. You'll want to save it for sauce. While the pasta & broccoli was cooking I cooked the sausage in my favorite cast iron skillet. You can add some hot pepper flakes into the sausage if you like to add a little kick. It helps with the flavor. Today I added some onion powder while the sausage was heating up.Don't worry about the little amount of grease you'll get. It helps this recipe with flavor. Leave it in the pan. Once the pasta & broccoli was done I scooped it out into the skillet with a slotted spoon. Don't worry about getting water in there either. You want the water for sauce. Put the heat on low and start grating some fresh parmesan cheese. I think I used about a cup or so. Then mixed it in. If the pasta appears dry add a little pasta water in until it gets a little creamy.  Mix up and serve. I always add a little more cheese once on the plate. It always looks nice. Now, this recipe is a bit bland but we eat so well throughout the week that sometime we like a little less flavor. 

I hope you all enjoy! Bye until next time.

Super Bowl Sunday 2014

Super Bowl Sunday in our home:

Woke up to the most beautiful snowfall. I had to take a picture out my window.  We had rain Saturday then overnight turned to snow and this is what I woke to

A league hockey game in which they won!  Way to go boys! Here's my baby in uniform

Then my husband made chili for the big game, it was so good! The best yet!

Overall it was a great day.  My son won and the Seahawks who we were cheering for also won big. The Bruno Mars halftime show was amazing! Very entertaining. I do have to say the Super Bowl commercials were not as entertaining. I'm not sure if the budgets were lower this year or if creativity is down but I wasn't impressed. My favorite was the Budweiser puppy and clydesdale ad as I'm was most people's choice.

Make it a great week!  I'm off to a good start. Two offers written over the weekend that we're waiting to hear back. Wish me luck!

~Carrie RealtorMom in Ohio

A Little Cold Out There

Woke this morning to it being -10 degrees and that's without the wind chill factored.  Today is a great day to stay inside and still get some work done. I'm making little surprises for my peeps that I market to on a regular basis. I call these my little pop by gifts and I use them as a marketing tool for my business as a real estate agent.  Since Valentine's Day is coming up I thought they were a great find at Target's dollar bins. I added a little marketing to brand myself. Here's a photo of one…

I hope they like them.  I'm thinking about putting together a "Super Bowl" one however I think I'm a little short on time.  I do have to say looking at this photo reminds me that the snowplows keep hitting my personal mailbox and I no longer have a door attached to mine. I better get that fixed. I'm a little tired of wet soggy mail :)

Here's to a little hot chocolate to warm you up!  Cheers!

~Carrie

The Power of Words

This is a great video about the power of words and how they effect all of us. Change how you say something and you might get better results. I need to apply this to may things I do everyday.

http://www.faithit.com/what-this-girl-does-homeless-beggar-so-touching/