Recipe

Christmas Craft Round-up

January 8, 2014 Suzanne Strength1 Comment

I did try a few Pinterest crafts with the kids this year for Christmas. Cute enough, but not the best I’ve ever done. The children had fun, though, so worthwhile. Here’s how my versions stack up to the Pinterest versions:

First up is the Christmas Tree Cone. Here is where the idea came from and what it was supposed to look like:

From Free-n-Fun Christmas

And here’s mine:

Perhaps not as pretty, but I let the kids do most of it. You could spruce up the bottom with “presents” from Starburst Candies, or Teddy Grahams..that’d be cute!

Next up:

This is the picture I found on Pinterest. A large marshmallow with peppermint sticks jammed down in them, dipped in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with sugar. These were easy enough, though I couldn’t find peppermint sticks. Thanks, Lincolnton Walmart.

Theirs

Mine:

And the last project: Homemade BBQ Sauce YUMMM!

This one I got out of a magazine and gave it a go. Absolutely my favorite sauce for BBQ..and I even had a couple of calls from people I’d given it to for the recipe. So here it is for the world to see 🙂

Spicy Barbecue Sauce

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar (or white distilled)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons dry rub seasonings, mix
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Stir well. Over medium heat, bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 60 minutes. Stir occasionally as it cooks. Store in refrigerator. Keeps for several weeks.

Recipe

Happy 4th of July!

July 3, 2013 Suzanne StrengthLeave a comment

Fourth of July falls on Thursday this year, so I need some easy ideas for our annual cookout this year. We intend to have a few families over for hamburgers and hotdogs, then head up to the high school for our town’s firework display. Happy Birthday, America!

The desserts I’ve chosen are quite simple. The first is a white chocolate covered strawberry dipped in red and blue sugar. If you’ll look in the baking section of your grocery store near the chocolate chips, you’ll see a cup for melting chocolate. You may use this, or the melting blocks of white chocolate there. Use your imagination!

After dessert, we will head to the high school to see the fireworks. For such a small town, Lincolnton has a great display! They begin around 9pm (or whenever it gets dark enough) but we have to go early to get a parking spot. There we’ll make camp with our chairs and I’ll bring this set up for a little glow in the dark bowling to keep the kids occupied while they wait. (Thanks to Dumpaday for the idea!)

Hickory

Cool Park!

July 29, 2008January 17, 2015 Suzanne StrengthLeave a comment

We went to Cool Park today in Hickory and had such a blast! We have usually made the first visit here by now, but we took that trip to Disney right after school let out, so we delayed our first visit to almost July…unheard of in the Zick house!

To get here, take StarTown Road all the way to Spings Rd. in Hickory. Take a right on Springs and a left on Kool Park Rd. Take a right at the first red light (by the church) and you’ll see the sign for Cool Park on the right. You can thank me later.

Some stats: It costs $12 for adults, $8 for kids, bring a picnic as there are plenty of picnic tables. No glass bottles, no alcohol. The lifeguards are quite lax and you can do pretty much what you want.

Cool Park is open daily from 10-6 pm. During the week you can go at 3pm and get in for 1/2 price. 3 hours of swimming is usually plenty for us. Going at this time also ensures that all of the daycare kids are gone by that time.