This post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for any purchases you make at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

     I am not usually a huge raspberry fan.  I prefer blackberries, as many of you know if you have followed us over the years.  But, when raspberries go on sale for a fantastic price in the grocery store, you can't pass them up!  
       I've eaten in the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland exactly once in my life.  It is pretty pricey and you have to make a reservation way in advance.  Years ago, it wasn't quite so pricey or hard to get into and my husband and I didn't have children yet. On a trip with my sister and her husband and some friends, we took the splurge.  The ambiance was amazing and the thing I remember most about my meal there was that for dessert I had Peach Melba!  Peaches, vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce with a few whole raspberries.  It was simple and delicious. Ever since that memorable moment, when I think of raspberries, I think of Peach Melba.  
      The problem I see with Peach Melba is that right now, when the raspberries were on sale, the peaches were not.  Luckily, I have home canned peaches!  Problem solved!
        But wait!  Did you know that January 23rd is National Pie Day?  (Seems weird, I  know, after the holidays are over when we have just eaten a ton of pies.)  So, the girls decided that I should come up with a new pie recipe to share with you in honor of National Pie Day.  Can you guess what happens next?  You're right!  The idea for Peach Melba Pie popped into my head!  

      Come to find out, I'm not the first person to come up with this idea.  Although, I don't recall seeing a recipe that contained a mixture of canned peaches and fresh raspberries.  I mean, this is real life folks, we don't always have access to all of the fresh things all year long, especially if we are trying to be frugal.  The best thing of all though is that this pie came out so good and I know it is something anyone can make!  Here are a few tips before I share the entire recipe.            

     Don't forget the scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! 
​

     If you have already purchased our For the Love of Pie ebook from our Etsy Shop, you can print off this recipe and add it to the many pie recipes already contained in that thing!  If you haven't purchased your copy yet, give yourself a gift for National Pie Day!  You will be a pie expert by next Thanksgiving! 

     Over the last few years, I have seen a lot of recipes for different types of coconut chicken and curried chicken soup.  Many of them require mushrooms, which I am not a big fan of, and fresh ginger which I don't always have on hand.  So, eventually, I came up with my own recipe for Coconut Curry Chicken Soup that is easy to put together and you will probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry and freezer.  
​

There are some nice fresh veggies in this dish, lots of chicken and the curry and coconut flavors compliment each other so nicely, as well as the hint of ginger! It is the perfect soup to comfort you during cold winter months, or even  sort of cool Phoenix days! 
     I love my recipe because it is simple and not to spicy but extremely tasty.  If you are in the mood for something a little spicier and maybe more authentic, there is a good Epicurious recipe here.  But, I think you will love this recipe.   Remember, you can always add more veggies or change them out for something else.  Add mushrooms if you love them!  I was eating a bowlful for lunch and I was thinking a few potato cubes or some rice might be nice in it. I might try that next time I make it. 
​     Enjoy!
​

Here are some other soup posts you may enjoy: 

• ​Pumpkin Sausage Soup-Keto Style
• Renny's Homemade Chicken Soup
• Encebollado
• Tips for Hosting a Fabulous Soup Buffet Party

This post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for any purchases you make at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
​

     It has been 1 year since I bought my, what still seems very new to me, car!  At least because of the pandemic, I haven't put as many miles on it as I might have. (Except for that trip to Disneyland in February and the one to Wyoming in May.)  ​When I purchased my car, I was very surprised when all of the "paperwork" for the warranty, etc. was handed to me in the form of a little flash drive!  (I realized then that the digital age had truly invaded my life whether I was comfortable with it or not.)     
​
     The other day, I found that car warranty flash drive in my sock drawer.  I also had a couple of them in my jewelry box that are loaded with pictures. On my kitchen counter I have an SD card that came with my new phone.  Anyway, I realized that I needed a way to store these little things in a way that I would be able to easily find them when I need them and not have them cluttering up various areas of my house. I figured you guys might have this need as well, so I did the research and the work and I have some solutions for you! 

    It is very interesting to me that when I searched on line for ways to store flash drives, I mostly found boxes to hold a single drive or little contraptions to hold 1 flash drive.  That was weird to me.  They are such little things, there had to be a way to store them in a group! Finally on Etsy, I found a few options such as this one that I found in the shop M3is3D.   I haven't gotten permission from them yet to use their picture, so click over to it through that link and you will see this cool device that would be great to have standing on a computer desk to have all of your flash drives or SD cards handy whenever you need them.  

     For my personal use, I thought I would like to be able to put a folder in our filing cabinet that would hold the cards and drives in one place until I need them on occasion.  I decided to craft one with little pockets that my cards and drives could slip into and I could label them to help me remember what is on them.   Here is what I used:

• Manila File Folder.  I just used a plain one, or you could buy a fancy one if you would like.  Mine is only fancy on the inside. 
• Scrap Booking card stock and papers of your choice. 
• Paper cutter
• Roll on adhesive, similar to what I used here. 
• Washi Tape
• cellophane tape
• Ruler

     First, I covered the inside of the folder with a decorative base card stock.  I bordered it with a decorative washi tape.  
     Then, I simply cut pockets in 3 1/4" squares out of card stock. and used the roll on adhesive to stick my decorative paper on them.  I also cut smaller pockets for the SD cards.  I measured how I wanted to arrange them inside the folder and attached them with roll on adhesive and then covered them with the wide cellophane tape to sort of laminate them in place.  Here is how it turned out:
​

     If you would rather keep your drives in a binder on a book shelf, here is one more idea.  

• Get a binder
• Get baseball card sleeves
• Put them together and slip in your SD cards and thumb drives.  Be sure to put a label on the front of the pocket to tell you what is on them or if they are blank! 

Bonus Tip:  I also use these pockets and a binder to hold and organize my grocery coupons! 

    Okay!  There you have it!  3 ways to help you figure out how to store those flash drives and SD card!  Did you even know that you had a need for this?  You're welcome!  Let me know if any of these ideas work for you. 
​

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thanks for your support!

     The holidays are over, but in most parts of the country, the cold weather is not! There are still plenty of reasons to enjoy Hot Cocoa Bombs. When I found these White Funfetti Chips in our local grocery store, I knew that White Chocolate Funfetti Birthday Bombs for the Winter Birthdays would be an awesome idea! 

      In ourFall Flavors Hot Cocoa Bomb Book, available in our Etsy Shop, I explain that different types of chocolate act differently when you melt them and try to put them into the molds.  I was a little unsure about how Funfetti Morsels would work, because white chocolate is usually very hard to get to cling to the mold if it is melted to too high of a temperature.  But, I was so pleasantly surprised at how well these funfetti chips worked in the molds.  There wasn't a lot of pooling in the bottom of the mold and the white chocolate, mixed with the funfetti sprinkles,  kept its shape very well.  

     I want to let you in on how the process works when we come up with new flavors and designs of Hot Cocoa Bombs.  
     First of all, I needed to decide what flavor to put inside of these Birthday Bombs.  When I tasted the chips themselves, I didn't really get a birthday cake flavor, simply white chocolate.  I thought to myself that banana flavor might go great with them.  When I asked the girls what they thought, they thought vanilla or cheesecake.  So, I made a few of each flavor.  Guess what, they all tasted good!  I used Jello Instant Pudding in various flavors to add the flavor to these Bombs. I wanted the color to be light so that other surprises could happen when the Bomb is melted into the milk. You can flavor them however you would like! Here are the 3 things that I did:

• Marshmallows with Banana Instant Pudding
• Marshmallows with Sugar Free Vanilla Instant Pudding
• Marshmallows with cake mix and White Chocolate Cheesecake Instant Pudding

     Second, I had a giant swirling colored marshmallow that  Maddy had brought over and we thought it would be great for Hot Cocoa Bombs that were decorated for birthdays or a unicorn effect.  Since it was a giant marshmallow, I had to cut it into small squares with a hot knife.  I heated the knife on my stove and cut up the marshmallow.  I tossed the sticky cut edges in yellow cake mix.  My thought was that the cake mix taste might come out a bit, but in the end the pudding taste won out, which was still delicious.  You could also use those fruit flavored multi-colored marshmallows instead.

     ​

     Third, I had to decide how I wanted to decorate them!  I thought I would pipe on stars and make them look like a birthday cake! A star on top with a gold sprinkle would be like a candle.  WELL, that was less than successful! My family was split in the decision that I should do something different when they saw the pictures! Here is one of the original pics.  I leave you to your own thoughts. 

     So, I changed the look by adding more sprinkles.  I rolled some of the bottoms along the bottom sides, others, I just sprinkled more on the top.  Remember, these are my first prototypes of these Birthday Bombs. 

     Of course, the fun part is testing the bombs to see how they melt into the hot milk and how they taste!  All of these blue sprinkles turned the milk blue right away! I know kids will love that! Then there were some bubbles and the best part is always when the marshmallows pop up to the top! 

     We usually make our Hot Cocoa Bombs in the traditional bomb shape.  But, we have been known to make them in other shapes as well.  We have done Christmas Trees and this year Maddy made some Star Wars Ship shaped ones. (Those would be great for a Star Wars or Outer Space themed party!)  I have seen people making a lot of pretty round ones as well.  I have a one inch round mold that I used to make chocolate bells for the 12 Days of Christmas.  I decided to make smaller Hot Cocoa Bombs for the smaller kids, since our normal Bombs make a large mug of Hot Cocoa.  They came out pretty cute.  

I think that at a snowy day birthday party, these fancy snowballs would be a welcome treat.  For young children, I like to have them drop their Hot Cocoa Bomb into a hot cup of milk that has a lid.  They can stir it, or you can help them stir it and they can watch the marshmallows pop up.  Then, add some cold milk to cool the drink down and pop on the lid and add a straw!  Saves on a lot of mess and the kids love Hot Cocoa! 

     The beauty of this process is that you can create Hot Cocoa Bombs in any shape or flavor that you would like! Use milk or semi-sweet chocolate and flavor them with peppermint or peanut butter.  You can find all kinds of ideas in our books in our Etsy Shop, as well as tips to make it easier.  We also put out a new YouTube video this year that gives more tips.  
     If you have anyone with a winter-time birthday, make them some special birthday Hot Cocoa Bombs!  What a great treat! And, let us know how your Cocoa Bomb making is going.
​