Dial® Acne Control Face Wash-Review

So as you know I receive products from various site and review them. The latest product I received was from Smiley360, and it was Dial® Acne Control Face Wash.

I was excited for this. We go through face wash in my house like crazy. There are many I cannot use as they dry my face out something horrible.


This face wash had the opposite effect. It left my skin feeling greasy almost. It left a residue behind that no matter how much I rinse, it would not come off. Due to the residue left behind, I felt like I needed to wash my face again sooner. Maybe that is their gimmick.....either way I don't like it. I will stick to my tried and true clearacil.

Dial® Acne Control Face Wash

Dial® Acne Control Face Wash

Garden, tomatoes, football, baby, pickling

So it's been a while.......ok a loooong while. I'll try to do better.......I mean it this time......here's a quick update.

I've been busy, WAY busy. I'm back to working full time. 3rd shift, which is a major time suck. I sleep most of the day then when I get up there are things that HAVE to get done, like supper, and laundry, and ya know stuff.

We planted a garden this spring, some things have been a bust, like the radishes. Our first round did nothing but grow flowers, never knew radishes could flower......., I googled it and it means it was too hot. So when it cooled down a bit in early july we planted some more. And well these ones aren't flowering, but they aren't growing radishes either. Who knows......not me.

The kolarhabi have been great, carrots ok, green peppers and banana peppers eh, holy jalapeños we have a ton! The tomatoes have just now been turning red. We've been eating fried green tomatoes. I was convinced they were never going to turn.  Yellow squash out the ears,  a few zucchini,  we had an early bug problem, and a crap ton of cucumbers.  So many I've been pickling them like crazy. More on that in another post. 

We have also started back to school.....already. which means football 3 days a week and games every sunday and also throw in one day of dance also. So the little time I have is getting even smaller.

I'm also going to be an aunt in late September. My sister in law is having a girl! So last minute, like usual, I threw together an awesome sauce baby changing pouch, bag, carryall, whatever ya call it, for the baby shower. I'll post a tutorial someday......

Thats it for my quick update.
Coming soon:
Recipies for all things I've been pickling/canning.
Baby changing pad.
Fried green tomatoes.
Blanching/freezing yellow squash.
And whatever else I talked about above that I've already forgotten about......
Until next time

Not so sloppy Josephs

I am always looking or an easy and quick meal on the weeknights. My son has an activity almost every night, and if course they are always scheduled right at supper time. We either end up eating way early or (usually) way late. I am horrible at planning for and taking something out for supper. It is probably the easiest decision I have to make all day and well....I usually... just don't.
I spend HOURS on pinterest pinning things I will more then likely never look at again. Every once in awhile one idea sticks with me. This was one of them.
My family loves sloppy joes. But well, they're. ....sloppy. This makes eating them and keeping your kids clean(ish) easier.

Not so sloppy Joes
1 lb of hamburger
1 small onion
1 can of sloppy joe/manwhich sauce
2 cans of biscuits
Shredded cheedar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

In a pan over med-high heat sauté onions and brown hamburger. Once browned add can of sloppy joe/manwhich sauce. Take the biscuits out of the container and flatted them to approx 5x5 in circles, place half of the flattened biscuits onto a pan. Scoop hamburger onto flattened biscuit leaving about a 1/2 space around the edges. Top with cheese and add second biscuit on top and press top and bottom biscuit together at the seams.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes until biscuits are a light brown.

Fun fact: My father's name is Joseph and it is also my son's middle name. So we have always called sloppy joes, sloppy josephs.

Seriously, someday I will be better.......Maybe.......Hopefully.....

I have been busy lately, I mean uber busy. Early December I started working again outside the home. It was just supposed to be a few days here and there. But it didn't turn out that way. I was so excited by the mini vacation I got from my kids each time I went to work, I worked every day for about 3 weeks. And I still had all my kids activities, meals, laundry, and cleaning to do, every now and then I would get to sleep more then 4 hours at a time.

I'm glad I got that out of my system, lol I think I will just stick to my few days here and there for awhile to get my mini vacay fix. It was just too much, and not to mention my children started acting like little aholes. ALL THE TIME. Evidently my children need to see their mother more then 3 hours a day, who knew!

I know I have said this before, but I really plan on getting better and this blogging thing. New year, new goals....right? lol I am shooting for at least once a week, if you guys want to see me write about anything in particular recipes, life just let me know.

I know this is short, but the children just started an impromptu game of hockey in the kitchen with refrigerator letters, have I ever mentioned how much I hate those things? We'll save that for another day. I might need to break this up.........or maybe not.......I mean they aren't screaming at each other.......

PS I have brownies in the oven that are calling my name.

Crunchy Shrimp Alfredo

This is by far one of my most favoritest things to make and eat EVER! I started making homemade Alfredo sauce about 5 years ago. Before that I had to get my fix at the Olive Garden, why you ask? Because the jarred crap is disgusting and should be illegal! I don't know why people buy that crap, it is soooooo easy to make it homemade. This last time I made it for my son on his birthday, I let my children pick what we have for supper on their birthdays. My son always picks this for his birthday meal and any other chance he gets. 

Alfredo Sauce

3 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream

3 TBS of butter

2 cloves of garlic

2 cups of shredded Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by melting the butter in a pan on medium heat. Once melted add garlic, let garlic cook in butter for about a minute, stirring so it doesn't burn. Add cream and let come to a simmer. Do not let it boil, you'll end up with a horrible nasty cheese wad later on. Once cream is warmed, slowly add cheese. Now you stir like your life depends on it. Don't stop, not even for a minute. I'm serious. Stir until cheese is melted and incorporated in with the cream. This usually takes about 15 minutes. Once all melted add salt and pepper to taste. Viola! The sauce is done!

 I should of maybe mentioned this earlier, but for this particular meal, I just used store bought linguine noodles. For some reason the Alfredo ones just don't jive with me. So i've always just gotten the linguine ones. 

Some days, when I'm feeling really ambitious I will make homemade noodles, which is WAY better by far. Maybe someday I will post a recipe for that, like when the kids grow up and move out!  Ha! 

Stir stir stir!

Ok, So I messed up. One night I thought, hmmmm, fried shrimp sounds good. So I did it. And it was good, so good I have to fry the shrimp now every time I make ANYTHING with shrimp.

 In my opinion the sauteed shrimp version is just as good. And probably a little healthier, but with a meal like this who's counting calories anyway. To do that I add the shrimp to the pan with the butter and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, remove the shrimp and continue with the sauce. 

Crunchy (fried) Shrimp

1-2 lb(s) cleaned, deveined shrimp

1-2 cup(s) of butter milk, enough to cover shrimp in bowl

2 TBS Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Olive oil

Soak shrimp in bowl with buttermilk for about 20-30 minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together. Pour enough olive oil in a large saute pain to cover the bottom on med-high heat. Coat each shrimp with dry mixture. Place into oil. Cook about 3 minutes on each side, or until browned. 

Aren't they just beautiful? You can tell I cooked one batch  a little to long. ehh 

And there you have it, a fantastical fancy supper. Looking at these pictures makes me which I had some. This might just be on the menu in the near future.

My first baby turned 8!

I just can't believe it, my oldest turned 8 a couple weeks ago. It only seems like yesterday I was in the hospital scared to death being told I was going to be induced, 1 month early! It has been a long ride, but he has change me for the better. I would not be where I am today without him.

Enough of the sap. We are lucky enough in our school district to still be able to take homemade treats to school, so I of course had to dig deep to my inner Brea Vandekamp, as my sister calls it, to make something amazing. Bradlee has really I mean REALLY been into playing Mine Craft lately, so of course his treat had to include something of that nature. So I decided to make Creeper cupcakes, and let me tell you they were delicious. 

For these cupcakes I used one of my favorite go to chocolate cake recipes. You can find it on the back of the Hershey cocoa powder container. I like using this recipe, it's quick and easy and I always have all the ingredients needed. 

Chocolate Cupcake:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. 

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18 minutes.. Cool completely. Frost as desired. I usually get between 26-30 cupcakes with this recipe. 

I have to admit this is the first time I have ever made/worked with fondant. I was actually surprised, it wasn't completely terrible, and a lot easier then I thought it would be. 

Marshmallow Fondant

1/4 cup shortening, divided 

1 (16)oz bag of mini marshmallows

1/4 cup of water

1 tsp Vanilla

2 lbs of confectioners sugar, divided

Start by coating microwave safe bowl with shortening, reserving about 1TBS of shortening for later. 

Add marshmallows and microwave on high in 30 second increments until all marshmallows are melted. Slowly add water and vanilla continuing to stir until smooth. 

Slowly add the confectioners sugar 1 cup at a time, until you have a semi sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of sugar for kneading.  

Cover palms of hands with remaining shortening, and place fondant ball onto a surface dusted with powdered sugar. Work knead the dough until no longer stick and is smooth in appearance, can take about 5-10 minutes. 

Some say the dough needs to be refrigerated overnight. I just left mine on the counter for about 20 minutes and began to add the color and it worked just fine. 

Make sure when you are adding food coloring you use a gel food coloring, the liquid will mess with the consistency of the dough. 

You can roll fondant out with a rolling pin to desired thickness, or I used my kitchen aid roller attachment, I had enough of a workout kneading it. 

For the creeper cupcakes, I added green food coloring to the dough and cut it out in 2" squares using a ruler and pizza cutter. For the eyes and mouth I just used a small kitchen knife to cut it out by hand.  

Laying in bed last night I realized I cut his mouth shape out wrong. *Face smack* To my surprise my son didn't even notice, I don't think any of his classmates did either! *YAY*

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Cupcakes for breakfast! 

DIY Gel Air Fresheners

I go through TONS of gel air fresheners in my house, from the bathroom, kids' rooms and the garbage closet. I feel like I am spending tons of money on something that just evaporates over time, and personally I feel they don't last as long as they used to either. I happened upon this one day on Pinterest and instantly thought "Why have I never done this before!?!" 

Reading the directions it seemed easy enough, so I set out to make some. 

Ingredients: 

2 cups of water, divided 

1 oz. unflavored gelatin 

30 or so drops of essential oils, aromas of your choosing (I went with Lemon and Orange) 

1 TBS of Vodka OR salt, (I have read vodka prevents molding better than the salt)

Jars/Containers, large enough to hold at least 1/2 cup of HOT liquid each, or one large  (I used 5 small baby food jars) 

Food coloring, optional 

Stir sticks, (I used wooden skewers broken in half)

Start by adding essential oils to your jars. How much you add depends on how strong you want your scent to be at the end. I added about 30 drops to each of my jars and the end result was enough for me. You can also add the food coloring now. 

Boil one cup of water, slowly add gelatin stirring as you go to prevent clumps, until dissolved, about 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add the other 1 cup of water. Mix well. 

Pour gelatin mixture into your jars, stir to incorporate oils and food coloring. Let sit to firm up. I let mine cool for about an hour then placed in the fridge for 3 more hours and they were completely firm. 

Put them in a room/area you want to smell good and that is it! These are so cheap and easy I wish I would have found these sooner, Best of all they are all natural so I don't have to be as worried about one of the kids getting into one of them!