Cinnamon: The Fragrance of Love

Earlier this week my husband and I entertained a few of our friends (including a newly engaged couple...Matt & Kayla...Congrats!) with a fish fry and fellowship. We fried up loads of bass and some good ole' hushpuppies and sat around talking for a little. The guys got bored so they took the kids outside for some bubble blowing, football throwing, horseshoe flinging fun. So us girls took advantage of the empty house and began cleaning up the kitchen. Inspired by all of the frying and oil splattered all over the stove I decided to go ahead and try a dessert recipe that I saw on a friends Pinterest board. (Since we'd already greased up the kitchen and killed our healthy eating for the night...Why Not?...Good excuse right?) Kayla and I thought it might be a nice surprise for the guys. *And I cannot resist a snickerdoodle flavored anything!!!*

Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.ohbiteit.com/2012/12/snickerdoodle-poppers.html 

I checked the fridge for flaky canned biscuits (which is jokingly a 'sin' to buy in our family)...we actually had some! The week before, my hubby bought some in hopes that I would get the hint and make "doughnuts"...didn't happen! Then I checked for pudding...SCORE! White Chocolate Jello Puddin'...it SERIOUSLY tastes like cake batter! I *always* have cinnamon on hand so now I know I'm ready to start cooking! Mix puddin', cut dough, roll dough, drop in oil, dip out, roll in cinnamon/sugar, and squeeze in puddin' (I used a pastry bag and medium piping tip).

The windows were open in the kitchen to let out some of the heat and apparently...to men...the smell of hot oil and cinnamon is like the smell of clover to a bee. They came flying in the house..."What's that smell?" It's true...the house smelled like pure love! There is just something about the smell of cinnamon...it evokes a happy, lovey feeling when it is warmed up.

Here's the first 1/2 of the batch!

They popped them left and right with a glass of milk and went on and on about how they really shouldn't have another...(while stuffing their mouth with...just one more!). My word...those little things were good! I enjoyed mine with a nice warm cup of coffee...the guys had milk with theirs.

I realized just how enticing they were when Matt asked Kayla (his soon to be bride) if she paid CLOSE attention to how I made them ;) I guess they were a hit! This got me thinking about the effects of smells..."aromatherapy" is a real thing...smells trigger memories, thoughts and feelings. To this day, the smell of plumeria takes me back to being at my babysitter's house when I was a little girl...old musty books remind me of the Joanna Library...CoolWater cologne for men takes my mind back to my first sweetheart...the smell of burning wood makes me wanna curl up on the couch...honeysuckle reminds me of playing outside in the summer as a kid... lavender makes me tired and the smell of cinnamon makes me want to kiss my husband ;)

Upon further research...I found that cinnamon is mentioned in the bible for quite a range of things. Solomon speaks of  cinnamon in the 4th song when describing his lover as a garden of rich spices. In Exodus chapter 30, God commands Moses to use pure myrrh, cinnamon and calamus and cassia then mix in olive oil to make holy anointing oil. In Proverbs chapter 7 there is a warning to young men of temptations of a harlot that uses cinnamon to fragrance her bed to seduce and tempt. And in Revelations chapter 18 there is mention of cinnamon as one of the great merchandises or luxuries of great value that will be consumed when the city of Babylon is cast down.

It appears to me that cinnamon has great power over the desires of man's heart. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but thats why we are all  instructed to do our own studying and research?

"Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." 

-Song of Solomon 4:11-15

uh oh....

For my followers...I had a health scare yesterday and I was told to get much rest so I'll be away from the blogosphere for a few days! Hopefully I'll be back to crafting and posting in no time! Thank you in advance for your patience :)

Forget Gangnam Style...its Bee Style now!

So yesterday my son comes into the living room laughing and wiggling his little hiney on my leg...over and over and over. I asked him to stop and he says "I can't...I'm communicating with you! Bee's dance on each other to communicate, so that's what I'm doing!" I laughed like crazy and said "Well, I don't speak bee so what are you trying to communicate to me?" he simply says "I love you!" and flutters off. It was so cute...I absolutely could not stop laughing! Well, in honor of my little honey bee...tonight I baked a Honeylicous Honey Bee Coffee Cake and thought I'd share it with y'all! So here goes...

Ingredients:

      1      9oz package of white cake mix
                (this particular box was 15oz so I used a little over half)
         1     egg, room temp
               (I don't have time to wait on one to come to temp so I placed it in a                     cup of warm water)
1/2 cup     milk, room temp 
     4oz     cream cheese, softened (or in my case...zapped for 15 seconds)
 4 Tbsp     sugar
1/4 cup     honey
 2 Tbsp     butter, softened
 1/2 tsp     almond extract
1/4 cup     chopped almonds
 2 cups     crushed Honey Combs cereal (I let Morgan do the crushing ;) I put a bunch of cereal in a gallon freezer Ziploc...pushed all the air out...zipped it up...then turned her loose with a rolling pin while I prepared all of the other ingredients.

-Preheat oven to 350*F.
-Lightly grease a 9-inch square pan
-Beat cake mix, egg and milk for 2 minutes and pour into pan
-In a small bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth
-Spoon cream cheese mixture onto cake batter and spread evenly

-In a large bowl whip together honey, butter and almond extract
-Add crushed cereal and almonds; mix well

-Sprinkle cereal mixture over batter & cream cheese in pan
-Bake for 25 min or until golden brown and center springs back when lightly touched

(optional: drizzle honey over top after baked)
*Best when served warm*  

This was delicious and I enjoyed it with a nice warm mug of coffee on this absolutely freezing "Spring" night!

I hope you try this out and enjoy it as much as I did...if you do...come back and tell me how it went :)

"But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people,"

                                                            -Leviticus 20:24

              

I have an addiction ;)

My name is Savannah and I've been an addict for most of my life ;) I'm a jar-aholic! I love any kind of glass vessel...but mostly Mason jars! As a kid...I collected all kinds of glass bottles and jars...coke bottles, pickle jars, apple juice bottles, baby food jars, even peanut butter jars. We drank from Mason jars, collected lightening bugs in pickle jars, stored small items such as buttons or safety pins in baby food jars, organized pens and such in peanut butter jars and there is a really funny story about an apple juice bottle (when used to be sold in little glass bottles) that I MAY share with you one day...just not today...lol. I'd find old liquor or wine bottles on the side of the road and I'd take them home, wash them, remove the label and stick a flower or rocks in them just to decorate my room. Now that I'm "grown" I still have an obsession with glass bottles and jars. We have remodeled our kitchen recently and I've decided that my decor theme will be Mason Jars...and of course I've picked a theme that you can't buy pre-made decor for so I'm improvising. So over the next month I'll be posting randomly about my Mason Jar kitchen. Today I'll share with you how I customized a few jars to match my color scheme PERFECTLY. All I needed was my jars, the left over paint from the wall trim, a long paint brush, a cookie cooling rack and some Dollar Tree flowers.

 I poured a little paint in the bottom of the jar, spread it out all over the inside of the jar with my paint brush, turned it upside down on a cheap old cooling rack with (newspapers underneath) and let it dry overnight. The rack isn't technically necessary...I just didn't want a pool of paint in the bottom which would occur if it was left upright to dry. So I flipped it upside down to let the paint drip down.

It may not look clean from the inside but the outside is virtually perfect and since I'm putting flowers in it, those imperfections will be covered up. Now with this technique, obviously, you couldn't put real flowers and  water in it but for artificial flowers...its perfect! Real flowers do not fare well in my home so I tend to go fake :) If you put artificial ones in a clear jar...you can still see those ugly plastic stems. But with painting the inside, instead of the outside, you get the color you want and still see all the beauty that the jar has to offer.

I bought cheap flower bunches at the Dollar Tree in creams and whites to compliment my kitchen colors, cut them off at the base, and arranged them like a bouquet and then just dropped them in my pretty little jars! I made 2 of them to put in the empty corners of my counter top. I love them but my husband thinks I've gone Mason Jar Mad! 

I would also like to share with you how I keep Raylan protected, during my crafty moments, from Rowdy Wyatt (who has never learned to WALK and seems to think that running is the best way to get around). I've had a few people ask me..."How do you do it? How do you find time with a new baby in the house?"

...Well, I keep him close to me at all times ;)

By the way...I'm sorry for the long delay in posts :( But please excuse me...It was a holiday weekend ya know ;)