Our Texas Suburbia

 

 A white, fluffy, smooth buttercream with a delicate vanilla flavor. Perfect for topping cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. You’ll need a stand mixer or hand mixer for this one or the consistency just won’t be right. Your welcome in advance! My husband says “ get yo glucose monitors ready!” 😝  Ingredients   2 c Crisco (384g) 1/2 c butter (112g, I use Land O Lakes Olive Oil and Sea Salt) 1 2lb bag (907g)(32oz) of powdered sugar  1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp heavy cream (30g) 2 tbsp light corn syrup (30g) 2-3 tbsp vanilla extract (20-30g) Method Combine all ingredients in your stand mixer bowl or large mixing bowl. Turn your choice of stand or hand mixer on low for 1 min and then increase the speed to high for 5 mins. After 5 mins turn off your mixer and stir the icing to incorporate the ingredients that may be sticking to the sides. Turn your mixer back on the high for 5 more minutes. Enjoy!  Refrigerate the icing if you don’t plan on using it right away. It will keep for 3 d...

 I’ve been trying a lot of new cookie recipes lately. One in particular was a sugar cookie recipe. I wanted to make snowflakes using a cookie cutter I have and I had a lot of trouble getting the shape to hold. My dough was soft and when I would transfer the cookie from my cutting surface to my baking sheet it would cause malformed edges. I also tried laying parchment paper on my baking tray and cutting my dough directly on the sheet I’d be baking with. Then, I tried pulling off the unnecessary dough between snowflakes. The dough clung to the parchment and stuck so bad! I was annoyed however I had a plan. I rolled  my cookie dough onto parchment paper laid onto a cookie sheet. Then, I put my dough in the freezer. I let it sit in there for around 30 minutes. A miracle happened! I was able to cut shapes with the cookie cutter and the edges were sharp and perfect! As an added bonus, the dough stuck to my cookie cutter so I could carry over to a newly set up baking tray with parchm...

We are decorating gingerbread houses this weekend! Yay! Last year we attempted to assemble the typical store bought gingerbread houses and failed miserably. The kit comes with royal icing to hold everything together and I didn’t realize it takes a long time for the icing to dry and actually hold together. Our houses fell apart in a matter of minutes...ugh. This year I had a different plan and it worked so well. I ditched the royal icing for assembly purposes and instead I used white chocolate melting wafers from Ghirardelli. It worked amazingly well. I simply melted the wafers per the instructions on the package in a small glass bowl and used a popsicle stick to spread the chocolate where it was needed. I was also able to dip some sides directly into the bowl to make it even easier. The chocolate set within a minute so that the house would stand well enough on its own and completely dried in about 5 mins. I will do this every year now! Let me know if you try it. 

It’s here! I’m confident these are the best sugar cookies you’ll ever make! These are by far my favorite soft sugar cookies and the only ones my family loves. An excellent addition to your holiday table or cookie exchange. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do :)   Ingredients  300g all-purpose flour   ½   teaspoon   baking soda   ½   teaspoon   fine salt  224g Land O Lakes olive oil and sea salt  butter, softened to room temperature 130g granulated sugar  85g powdered sugar   1   egg 1  1/2  tsp  vanilla  1/2 c granulated sugar for rolling Method   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir lightly with a fork. In a separate bowl, mix together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix well. Place 1/2c granulated sugar in a bowl. Use a small or large cook...

I really do believe in you... let’s see if you believe in me.. Gifts for that special person in your life. They've been working hard so why not reward them? For Him Rtic Stainless Steel Bottle (36oz)  -  Lifetime 65qt High Performance Cooler  -  Adidas Comfort Slide  -  Apple Watch Series 5  -  DEWALT 8V MAX Cordless Screwdriver Kit, Gyroscopic  -  Apple Airpods With Charging Case  -  Percussion Deep Tissue Massager  -  Ingersoll Rand Air Compressor 230V ss5 5HP 60 Ga   -  Nalgene 32oz Bottle  -  VacMaster 4 Gallon Wet/Dry  -  DEWALT Srewdriver/Bit Set 100 Pieces  -  Sun Joe SPX3000 2030 Max PSI 1.76 GMP 14.5-Amp Electric High Pressure Washer Braun Series 9 Electric Razor  -  AirRow Fitness Rowing Machine  -  Portable Car Jump  -  Portable Air Compressor  -  Dremel  -  CRAFTSMAN Tool Cabinet  -  Logitech Gaming Shi...

If you don’t like coffee then you’ll like this recipe ;) Created while trying to replicate my favorite iced caramel macchiato, it’s a sweet and smooth dessert coffee that will leave you wanting more. A guilty pleasure perfect for an afternoon pick me up. Ingredients  10oz of cold dark roast coffee (I use 1 Peet’s Dark Roast coffee pod) 3oz Heavy Whipping Cream 5oz 2% milk 30g caramel sauce 2tbsp white granulated sugar A scoop of ice Method  Brew your choice of dark roast coffee. Refrigerate 10oz of coffee for at least 1 hr. Pour the 10oz of coffee into a large cup. Add 3oz of heavy whipping cream. Add 5oz of milk. Add 2 tbsp of white granulated sugar. Add 30g caramel sauce. Stir well. Pour over 1 scoop of nugget ice or 4-5 ice cubes.  Enjoy! *You can make this coffee with medium roast coffee as well. Simply reduce the amount of milk to 2 oz.

Dear Santa... Happy Tuesday! Bringing you all of the smart home gift ideas today. Have the comfort of knowing that your home is secure with goodies such a video doorbell and automatic garage door lock. These gifts are sure to please.  Furbo Dog Camera  - Logitech Harmony 650 Universal  Remote Controller  -  Remote Control Outlets  -  Smart Wifi Lightbulbs  -  Sensor Dusk to Dawn Light Bulbs  -  Anker Wireless Charger 2 Pack  -  Eufy Robo Vac  -  Arlo Pro 3  -  Smart Plugs  -   Yale Liftmaster Keypad w/Lever  -  Liftmaster Automatic Garage Door Lock  -  August WiFi Smart Lock (4th gen)   Echo Show 8  -  Google Nest Thermostat   -  MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener  -  Brilliant Smart Home Control Panel  -  Caseta Dimmer Switch Set  -  Ring Video Doorbell Pro  -  Item Locator w/Beeping Capability  -...

Dear Santa, I can explain... Hey guys! I’m Bringing you more gift ideas today. This time for kids ages 2+. I want to preface this post by saying don’t feel pressured to buy your child every toy out there. The best gift is the gift of experience and making memories together. Your child will outgrow their toys but memories made will last a lifetime. That being said, most of us have been cooped up this year and still are. So, if you feel the need to provide more more home entertainment or spoil your kiddo then go for it. I fully support you and have linked everything below the photos. Have a great weekend!   Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Tower  - Mighty Pups Action Figure  -  Mighty Pups Jet w/ Ryder Action Figure -  Pj Masks Headquarters  -  Sonic Figurines  -  Mario Characters  -  Hot Wheels Cars  -  Hot Wheels Track Builder  -  Heroes of Goo  -  Mario Race Car  -  It’s Me Super Mario  -  Pl...

Dear Santa,  I’ve been a very good baby this year... Hey guys! I’ve put together a gift guide based on the toys I feel my babies have used most often. If you are struggling buying gifts for a child age 6 months to 2 years then any of these toys would be a great option. The links are below. Happy shopping! 1.   Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Stroll and Learn Walker 2 .  Rock N’ Rider Tulip Rocking Horse 3 .  Step 2 Whisper Ride II 4.  B. Toys Wooden Activity Cube 5.   Baby Einstein Discovering Music Activity Table 6.   Basketball Ball Pit 7.   Click N’ Play Ball Pit Balls 8.   Paw Patrol Marshall Ride on Truck 9.  Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy 10.   Pop! Pop! Piano 11.   Melissa and Doug Classic Wooden ABC Cart 12.   VTech Peppa Pig Learn and Discover Book

It’s December! If you haven’t dug out your Christmas tree then it’s about time! We all need a little holiday cheer after a terrible year of COVID-19 and quarantine. The picture above is my tree. I’ll be sharing how you can achieve a look like mine.  First, you’ll need a tree. Let me tell you all about mine ;) It is a 7.5ft skinny tree I purchased from Hobby Lobby several years ago. I don’t believe it’s available any longer so you can look for one that has a light coating of faux snow and pine cones added on to get a similar style. Funny story, it used to have red berries on it too but one year my kids decided to pick them all off the bottom half so I went ahead and removed them all. That was disappointing but life goes on! I could hot glue them back on but I haven’t been motivated to do that yet. Maybe next year! It was also a pre-lit tree but this year none of the lights would work :( Rather than testing them, I decided to cut them off with wire cutters and I added 6 strands of 7 ...

     I was having a hard time naming this recipe. I didn’t want to just call it Spanish rice because that’s boring. I asked my husband what he would call it and he said, “call it Dad’s favorite Spanish rice. That way when the kids see this later they will know it was dad’s favorite”. I like the sentiment so the name will stay :) In my opinion this recipe tastes authentic and  has a wonderful flavor. It is important to note that I name the particular brands of some of the ingredients I use because using another brand will alter the flavor. I’ve tried several combinations but this is the best so far. This rice pairs nicely with our favorite ready made refried beans from Isadora. I have a homemade bean recipe I’ll share in the future ;) Without further ado here is the recipe for the tasty Dad’s Favorite Spanish Rice. Enjoy! Ingredients  2 tbsp diced yellow onion 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups of jasmine rice (270g Lundberg Organic California White Jasmine Rice or ...