CHERRIES!!! How to pit a Cherry without a pitter!

How pretty are these!?!!

 I was lucky enough to get a bunch of cherries from two different people that had to many!  

I of course was super excited!! 

Cherries will forever remind me of my Grandma.

She would have fruit at the lunch table (Cherries being my fav) and she would put it in these little blue bowls!!  

Wish I still had some of these bowls!!

Anyway back from my rambling...I don't have a cherry pitter....so I called my mom (what I always do in this situation...Thanks mom!!)  She told me that her grandma always used a bobby pin to pit hers...So I tried it...after I mangled a few cherries I decided that I should go on an internet search...

I found a you tube video of a lady pitting one with a paper clip...So I tried it...IT WORKED!!!!

Here are a few pictures of the process...hope they help to visualize it a little...

Bend your paper clip so it looks like an S....then...get your cherries...

 Hold them by the bottom of the cherry....

 stick the small end of the paper clip into the cherry...then...feel you way around the pit to loosen it a bit and...

 POP it out!

 So easy right!!

 Look how delicious those look...

 Once I had them all pitted I made the pie filling so I could can it...with a test pie for that night...OF COURSE!!  I found this awesome recipe for filling on the Taste of Home Site!  It turned out soooo yummy!!

 It called for red food coloring...I thought at first I would leave it out...but then I looked in the pan...just not as yummy to my eyes as I wanted...

So...I added it...Happy Eyes!

 Here is the finished pie!  I used my pie crust recipe...go get a printable of that here!

 Here is the finished project in the jars! YUM!!

 So the other kind of cherries we were lucky to get were Bing and Royal Anne's!  

I couldn't stop eating these as I was pitting so I was lucky to get as many jars as I got! :)

 How yummy do these look in the jars!  I can't wait to pull one out this winter and surprise the family!  YUMMY!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Photography Challenge

When it comes to pictures...I am not the camera person...I leave that up to my hubby.

When I saw my bestie doing this challenge over at 

A Step in the Journey 

I thought...hey...that looks like fun...

I know I missed the first week and am coming into it a little late...but hey...

better late than never right.

So here is what makes me happy this week. 

A got GLASSES!  I can't help grin every time he is around!  He is just so darn CUTE!!

Cute Kids Chair!

How adorable did this turn out!  I LOVE IT!

And how cute is my little niece!  

She was so excited to have a chair she could fold up and carry with her!  

Hope it will bring her years of fun!

I got the idea for this at 

Simple Simon & Company!  

I am always getting fun ideas from these two ladies!  

LOVE THEM!  

Go check out their easy easy tutorial for this!

A Got Baptized!!

It's Great to be 8!

I am so proud of your decision to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  I am so proud of the boy you are!  You are such a good example to so many around you!  Always keep that spark!  You will always be my BUBBY (even when your a teenager and don't want to be!)  I love you more than words can express.

Thank you to all the family and friends that were there to support A in his special day!  We love you and couldn't have felt more loved that weekend!

Extraordinary Everyday...Aluminum Foil!

I am so excited to start a weekly blog post!  

I have decided to call it Extraordinary Everyday! 

I will be sharing uses for everyday objects that maybe you have not considered.

I hope this will become useful to many of you!

So my first everyday object is.....drum roll.....Aluminum Foil!!

#1  Soften up your brown sugar...who hasn't had their brown sugar get as hard as a rock?  I know I have!!  All you need to do is break of a chunk and wrap it in aluminum foil and bake it in the oven at 300 for five minutes.

#2  Catch ice-cream cone drips...wrap the bottom of the cone in aluminum foil!

#3  Scrub your pots...Crumple up some aluminum foil and scrub scrub away!

#4  Sharpen your scissors...take a piece of aluminum foil and it is as simple as cutting it up about 8 or 9 times...Super easy!

#5  Clean jewelry...line a small bowl with aluminum foil....fill with hot water and put in about 1 TB of bleach-free powder laundry detergent...Soak you jewlery for one minute...rinse and air-dry (works for silverware too!)

#6  Speed up your Ironing...Who doesn't want THAT to go faster!  All you do is add a piece of aluminum foil in between the board and the cover...The foil reflects the heat back through the clothing, which will help to smooth the wrinkles quicker!

#7  Clean your barbecue grill...after you are done cooking lay a piece of aluminum foil down to burn off any leftover bits of food

#8  Warm your toes when camping...wrap some stones in aluminum foil and heat them by the campfire...when it is time to go to bed...wrap them in a towel and put them at the foot of your sleeping bag...toasty toes!

#9  Attach a patch to your clothes...put a piece of aluminum foil on the back of the hole and then iron on the patch over top...just slip it out when it is good and stuck!

Who knew there was so many different things you could do with ALUMINUM FOIL!!  And to think I have been just using it to wrap up leftovers!!

Mom's Ultimate No-Fail Pie Crust!!

I love cooking and baking....and my favorite thing to bake is PIE!  Thanks to my mom teaching me and for passing down this ultimate pie crust recipe that makes it so dang easy!  


I have heard many people say..."pie...I can't make that...it's too hard!"  

I am gonna show you just how easy it can be!

Here is that ULTIMATE pie crust recipe!

Just click it and save it and print it!

When you are done trimming the edge...don't throw those scraps away...put them on a cookie sheet and butter them then sprinkle with some sugar and cinnamon and bake them in the oven until they are browned (about 15 minutes or so)...Just an extra bit of yumminess!

I will be adding a recipe for the filling to my yum yum apple pie here soon!  Keep watching for it!

Now go make some yummy pie crust!!

Happy Fathers Day...I know I know

It is a little late I know...I have been REALLY busy with family things the last couple weeks.

I am so grateful every day for my dear sweet husband and all he does for me and the boys!

He is the best husband and the best daddy!

I don't know what I would do without him!

So to show him just what a Hero he is to us in our home we gave him his very own Hero Survival Kit that I found on Homemade by Jill.

For Breakfast we had these yummy yummy blueberry muffins...(I will share this recipe on another blog post coming up soon!  So keep watching!)

Check out this dinner!  We can't seem to get enough of this!  This is courtesy to my mothers day present from my boys!  All three of these recipes are out of Our Best Bites new cookbook!  I LOVE THIS COOKBOOK!  Worth taking a look at!

Then for dinner I made one of my husband favorites...Apple Pie!!  (Another recipe coming soon!!)

 I hope that this made my hubby's day as special as we think he is!!

I love you!