Nicki Minaj Sings 'Super Bass' with Sophia Grace

By now most of you have probably seen this...SO cute! I love these little girls. But what I really loved was their shopping spree at Toys R' Us....

Paula Deen's Crunch Top Apple Pie...

A couple of weeks ago our sweet neighbor Virginia brought us some apples. They looked delicious! She is seriously so sweet, she always brings us vegetables from her garden. Anyway we had a box full of apples and I decided to make an apple pie! I have never made an apple pie before and was hesitant about making a pie crust from scratch, but it was well worth it! It turned out delicious!! I definitely will be making one for Thanksgiving!! You need some time to make it but it's worth it!

It's a long recipe so I just copied and pasted the recipe from www.foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients

• Paula's Perfect Pie Crust, recipe follows
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Dash salt
• 3 1/2 cups peeled, chopped cooking apples
• 1 (16-ounce) jar applesauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, chopped into small pieces

Crunch Topping:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Dash salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Line a 9-inch pie pan with half of dough. Combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the apples, applesauce, and lemon juice. Spoon the apple mixture into pie pan and dot with butter. Cut remaining crust into strips; arrange in a lattice design over top of pie.

For crunch topping:

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Using a fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over top of crust. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for about 45 minutes, or until crust and topping are golden brown.

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

3 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold

12 tablespoons butter, (1 1/2 sticks) cold and cubed

1/4 cup to 1⁄2 cup ice water

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball. When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.

**It was very helpful to me to watch the video of her doing it first...plus she cracks me up**

                                     

                                                                           Making the Pie Crust:

Flour, Salt and Sugar sifted together.

Cold Butter cubes.

Added to the flour mixture.

Mixed together to resemble "coarse cornmeal"

After the ice water has been added...

Rolled into a disc shape and wrapped in saran wrap.

After being in the refrigerator for over 2 hours.

Rolled out on a flour surface...I think it's important to put flour on the roller as well otherwise the dough will stick.

Not so beautiful in the pie pan...

The Filling: 

I forgot to take a lot of pictures while baking...

Apples were sliced and some were chopped. I didn't use as much apple sauce as called for and I used a little more cinnamon than it called for.

Attempting to make a lattice top...

It got a little confusing..

The crumb topping... the reviews recommended doubling it, but I can't remember if I did or not.

On the video she puts an egg wash (2 egg yolks, 1 tbsp milk) over the crust

I would maybe put the crumbly topping on before the top next time, but maybe not. Then just lightly put the egg wash over the crust.

It came out golden brown... I stuck in the freezer for a couple of minutes because I wanted to firm up the juices a bit.

After Bec, Rob, Jay, Frank and I had started eating it. It was really good and I would definitely recommend making it!

Farro & Wheatberry Salad...

I have had a couple requests to post this recipe. I got it from my aunt Cheryl and it's awesome!!! It's really healthy and a great thing to make at the beginning of the week and take to lunch. It's also a great side at dinner!

Ingredients:


Farro Grain, about a cup
Wheatberries, I just mix in a few with the farro, a little over a cup
Good Seasons Balsamic Vinaigrette, (the packaged kind that you make)
Lots of fresh Italian Parsley
Lots of fresh Basil (sometimes I use dried basil)
1 Cucumber, chopped
Tomatoes, chopped (I usually use about 4-5 roma tomatoes)
1 Yellow Pepper, chopped
1 Container Sliced Mushrooms, chopped
Green Onions, chopped
1 Can of Whole Kernel Corn, drained
1 Avocado, cut up (optional)
Kalamata Olives (optional)
Chicken, cut in bite size pieces (optional)
1 Package of Crumbled Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper

1) Cook farro and wheatberries according to directions on package. You have to rinse these first, they cook for about 15 minutes.

2) Drain farro and wheatberries and chill in refrigerator.

3) Chop ingredients above.

4) Once the farro and wheatberries are chilled, add all of the ingredients above- Parsley, Basil, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Yellow Pepper, Mushrooms, Green Onions, Corn, Olives (I don't like olives so I don't use these), Chicken, Avocado (if you have a ripe one!). Mix all of these ingredients with the farro and wheatberries. Then season generously with salt and pepper.

5) Then prepare the Good Seasonings dressing. Cheryl told me she usually just mixes olive oil and balsamic vinegar with the seasoning package...I usually follow the directions but add extra balsamic vinegar!

6) Pour dressing over salad mixture, and stir to coat.

7) Lastly top salad with feta cheese. This stays good for a few days at least!!

Mayer Hawthorne...

I love love love Mayer Hawthorne. I recommend that everyone download some of his music! It's awesome... My favorite songs are The Walk and Hooked. The music video for The Walk is kind of weird but here it is below... It just makes me want to dance!



Look how cute he is!!!!!! There is just something about a guy with glasses...

Weekend Playlist...

1) Young, Wild & Free by Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
2) We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris) by Rihanna
3) Without You (feat. Usher) by David Guetta & Usher
4) Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
5) Hooked by Mayer Hawthorne
6) You Make Me Feel... (feat. Sabi) by Cobra Starship
7) Super Bass by Nicki Minaj
8) Heart Vacancy (DJ's from Mars remix) by The Wanted
9) Give Me Everything (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer) by Pitbull
10) Lights (Bassnectar Remix) by Ellie Goulding
11) The Walk by Mayer Hawthorne
12) Dedication to My Ex (Miss That) (feat. Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne) by Lloyd (clean version is the one I like)
13) Marvin & Chardonnay (feat. Kanye West & Roscoe Dash) by Big Sean
14) My Body by Young the Giants
15) #1 by Madison
16) Play My Way by Maya Von Doll
17) Ready 2 Go by Martin Solveig & Kele
18) Go Outside by The Cults
19) Where Them Girls At (feat. Nicki Minaj & Flo Rida) by David Guetta
20) I'll Be Around (Prod. by Jonathan Marquez) by Azad Right
21) Helena Beat by Foster the People
22) Weatherman by Tarik

United Way...

This year I was put in charge of the United Way Campaign for Snider Tire. We kicked it off on Wednesday and I think it was pretty successful. I know that the employees at least enjoyed all of the snacks!! (12 dozen doughnuts later...) Anyway we had some great speakers come from The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Communities in Schools, Reading Connections, etc. At the beginning of this campaign I didn't know a whole lot about United Way. Basically United Way is an organization that is located in many different communities and provides support to the community through various charities and non-profits. They focus on improvements in education, income and health. Last year I did a little volunteer work with Communities in Schools in Charlotte, but this campaign just reminded me that I need to really focus on getting involved within the communities and helping others. Anyway I just wanted to encourage everyone to volunteer, every little bit helps. Even though I feel like most of our friends are very into volunteering so just keep up the good work! 

Here is a link to an article that I thought was really inspiring that was shared with us on Wednesday:  

http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/06/03/article/he_took_care_of_business

United Way website: www.liveunited.org 

Motivation....

If any girls need motivation to work out just check out this blog... (excuse the language!)

http://fuckyeahfitspo.tumblr.com/

Yep I headed to pure barre at 8:30 after looking at this blog last night.