The Culinary Wife: What I am loving....this week...

Whew! Y'all this week has been NUTS!!!! It's been filled with new life, death and big decisions! And I apologize for just now getting this post out to y'all!!! This week's "What I love Wednesday" is now posted... today...which is Thursday...better late than never- eh?

Will try to do better next week!-Promise!

What I'm loving Wednesdays:

1) Home-made applesauce
I saw a "how to" on the Pioneer Woman's website and it's SO simple, I thought I had to give it a whirl! The "How to" is found HERE.

I am a lover of applesauce...but I am NOT a lover of the random bits and pieces you tend to find in the applesauce- yuck! So when I saw this I couldn't wait to try it because I would be able to control EXACTLY what went into the 'sauce'

...Also, this is more of a "how to" because unlike a recipe, there are no exacts.

Personally, I just tried it out with two apples first.

1) I peeled the skin and cut the apples into fingertip size pieces.

2) Then I threw them in the crock pot- [and went to get the cinnamon and as I was opening the jar...my hand slipped and A BUNCH fell in the pot( ab a tablespoon).....oops!...So I thought....oh well- we'll try it! ha! ]

(FYI I would recommend about half a tablespoon per-two apples)

3) Next I poured in enough water to reach about half way up a cut piece of apple...i would recommend erring on the side of a little less water next time though...because you can always add more....

4) Then I set the crock pot on low for 4.5 hours....

5) and when i came back I mashed everything up with my handy-dandy Chopstir! (its also a favorite this week!) and VOILA! APPLESAUCE!!!

So mine was a little TOO sweet...considering the cinnamon...and NO I did NOT add any sugar...the cinnamon heightens the sugar flavor of the apples on your taste-buds! but needless to say...it was DE-LISH and we WILL be making this dish again!!!!

Ps. the Chopstir is G-R-E-A-T for browning ground beef and apparently for making applesauce!!!! :)

2) Hello Dolly Bars

I have actually never made nor tasted a "Hello Dolly" before until today. Mark it down in your calendars ladies! These babies are pure bliss!!! I was in a local bakery today and saw them in the window and just HAD to try one! .....It was so good I took half of it home to try to sniff out the ingredients! HA! Its got lots of semi-sweet chocolate, walnuts, coconut and butter scotch. I LOOVE blondies and these for some reason seem very similar to the recipe I make for blondies...So now I'm determined to make these...they are a Classic Southern Dessert and this Classic Southern Girl needs to learn how to make them! Pronto!

This picture CLOSELY resembles the Hello Dolly I'm actually holding in my hand right now....YUM!!!

3). Babies

One of my best friends just had her first baby on Monday!!! HE.IS.SO.CUTE and SOOO I now have to post some pictures of adorable babies...but to keep your motherly instincts in check...I'll only post three...

Y'all seriously look at those chubby cheeks- PRECIOUS!

HAHA HELLO YOU LITTLE CUTIES!!

These two are precious- but lands....I am trusting that God never gives you more than you can handle!

And OK, OKAY! I just couldn't help myself! Here is one more picture!.....

I dont care who you are- this picture is CUU-TE/HILARIOUS!!!!!

4.) Scentsy:

I just got in some new Scentsy smells! If you didnt know already- I LOOVE SCENTSY!!! And if you don't know what Scentsy is go HERE. It's pretty much amazing!

FYI- I just got some GREAT smells in: Skinny Dippin, Camu-Camu, and BlueBerry Cheesecake, YUM-O!!!! And they are doing a pretty good deal where you get to pick three scents for less than the cost of three individual ones....or maybe I just bought into it... ;)

5) Stumble upon

So apparently I am late on the "Stumble Upon" trend.....I found out about it while waiting at the hospital for my friend's baby to arrive! Anyways...I was one of the last one's to know about Pinterest too....and now I'm obsessed with that as well... but Stumble Upon is a site where you enter in all your interest and it finds all these things from the web that match your interests! Its really fun and you can get sucked into looking at it for HOURS!!!