Mothers Day and Homemade Lemonade!

I will forever remember my first Mothers Day as a perfect day with Lee and Greyson, easy going, sweet cards and gifts, yummy food and although we had to sit for what seemed like HOURS to buy new bedroom furniture it was still a fun outing as a family.

I also decided to make some lemonade as we had (and currently still have) about 92 lemons on our lemon tree in our backyard, so thought I'd use a handful and what better way than making some delicious, refreshing lemonade?! I decided to add some frozen fruit to it as well to give it some extra flavor and as it got a huge thumbs up from my hubby, it means a definite success for me!

 Someone wanted to help with the cat food...thanks Greyson!

This is what you get when Mom and Greyson are bored at the furniture store...

So back to this delicious Mixed Berry Lemonade, here is how I did it!

Picked 8 lemons off our lemon tree- Washed them and cut them in half

Used my classic juicer and juiced all of them - You will want 3 cups of lemon juice (Don't mind the orange knuckles...I had just eaten some cheese puffs lol)

 I then poured the 3 cups of lemon juice into a glass pitcher along with 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water. I stirred it all up really well and then added an additional 4 cups of water and about 12 oz of frozen mixed berries and mixed it all together and put it in the fridge for a couple hours.

This is a shot from the top of the pitcher with all the berries floating in it

It not only tastes amazing but it looks so fancy-shmancy too!!

Recipe
3 cups lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
2 cups sugar
6 cups water
12-14oz Frozen Mixed Berries (or any other frozen fruit you like) - Mine had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries

1. Juice all the lemons and pour into a pitcher. Add sugar and 2 cups water and mix well.
2. Add remaining 4 cups of water and mix together
3. Pour in Frozen fruit and stir together
4. Put in the fridge for a couple hours before serving

Enjoy!

Soft and Gooey Skillet Cookie

So as many of you know, my husband travels quite a bit so when he does I have very quiet nights around here once Greyson is asleep (He's asleep by 7 or 7:15pm every night) So after I quietly shout, "I'm free!!" I figure out my next move for the remainder of the night- Which may be only an hour (Yes, sometimes I'll crash at 8pm) or it could be a whopping 3 hours of free time! So sometimes I sit in bed watching TV but 9 times out of 10 I plop down on the couch and catch up on all my recorded shows that Lee refuses to watch throughout the week, I'll read (Which is one of my favorite things to do and it's EXTREMELY hard to do with an infant!), work on finishing my cross stitch Christmas stocking for Lee (3/4 of the way done, will show when it's complete), watch a movie or bake something yummy and maybe have a nice glass of wine to indulge a little.

So during this trip that Lee was on, I decided to make a skillet cookie as not only did I want a gooey cookie but I wanted a GIANT ONE!! So here it is for you all to try out...

Ingredients:
1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Bread Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 oz milk chocolate chunks (NOT chips) *trust me the chunks put these on a whole other level

1. Mix the butter and all the sugars together- once combined, add the egg
2. Add all the remaining ingredients and continue mixing on low until well combined
3. Refrigerate for 1 hour
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. Scoop the dough into a iron skillet and put in the oven for 24 minutes

6. Voila! Just add a scoop of ice cream and you've got a giant cookie a la mode!

So delicious!!