Artsy Chaos

Recently, we posted about the Jacob Bromwell All-American Flour Sifter . The comments were amazing from you all!! We asked if you had any recipes or foods which have been passed down through the generations.  Karieann even shared a recipe for Pumpkin Bars in her comment and they sound amazing! Paul's Pumpkin Bars Ingredients 4 eggs 1 2/3 cups white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread the batter evenly into an ungrease...

This post must be written lightening fast because I must leave soon to pick up my daughter from the high school's Sadie Hawkins dance and ferry her and her date to their next destination. How's that for a long, stressful run-on sentence full of far too many prepositional phrases. We had the distinct pain honor of hosting the dance dinner for 19 teenagers tonight. I don't know about you but I remember Sadie Hawkins as the dance where the guys always said no. Seriously, teenage boys can cut a teenage girl's confidence to shreds. Oh who am I kidding, grown men still do that. So we had dinner in the backyard complete with Halloween lights and a cauldron full of bubbling homemade root beer. My husband loves the homemade root beer and is always the dry ice master chef of the brew. At one point, he came in from outside all dejected because apparently the ladle had fallen into the cauldron and the kids had been trying to fish it out with their hands.... he didn't feel l...

So many things are just not like they used to be; sturdy, solid, simple and built to last. Everything these days seems so rushed, hurried and disposable, including so many of the products on the market. Honestly, we get real tired of rolling the dice every time we purchase a product. I bet you do too. Jacob Bromwell is out of the ordinary. Established in 1819 with an idea to create solid cooking and kitchen ware, Jacob Bromwell creates products the same way they did back then and they are expected to last for generations. I inherited one of Jacob Bromwell's fine flour sifters from my father's family's estate. It may have belonged to his great-aunt Josephine or possibly his grandmother but in any case, it made its way to me many years later. I used to just turn the handle to feel how smoothly it turned the little wires inside the sifter. It was mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the sifter suffered during one of our moves in my early 20's and couldn't be put back tog...

Did you know that birthdays are good for you?  Indeed, statistics show that people who have the most, live the longest! We celebrated a birthday in our family today and every birthday, in my opinion, screams for cake.  So here we are, Red Velvet Cupcakes frosted with the most amazing cream cheese frosting I have made yet and topped with adorable cupcake toppers from Expressions by Devin . <---so cute, check them out!! You may have noticed that I said the most amazing frosting I have made yet .  That's because it's a quest.  This latest concoction of incredibly smooth, perfectly sweet goodness is the result of trial and error, internet research and luck.  It's not too heavy, not too thick and holds its fluffy shape perfectly.  Want the recipe?  Sure you do! Fluffy and Smooth Decadent Cream Cheese Frosting 1 8oz. package Cream Cheese at room temperature 1 8oz. container of Mascarpone Cheese at room temperature 1 cup powdered sugar 1 1/2 cups he...

Great ideas for a fun Superbowl party including a review of Super Bowl Home Party Games from Python Printable Games, recipe ideas and more! So football has never been my thing. I even dated football players in high school and college. Liked the boys, disliked the game. But, the Superbowl is a little different in that there are more things to do than sit on cold bleachers or watch slow-moving (hah!) action on the TV. Yes, we can eat great food, watch hilarious commercials, enjoy the half-time show, socialize and play games other than football!! The Superbowl commercials can be some great entertainment for the day. One of my all time favorites is the herding cats commercial from 2000. Funniest ever! Check it out below. Now just because I don't enjoy a football game doesn't mean I don't enjoy a football party. One of the best parts of a Superbowl party is having games that everyone can participate in, regardless of their love or un-love of football. Python Printable...