The Review Ballerina

I don't know about all of you but Texas Summers just suck. I cannot stand Texas heat, I love cold. So when I wanted a fruit salad, this was the perfect one to make!! Although this calls for bananas due to my stomach I can't eat them, but you can make sure to add them to yours! Ingredients Sauce: ⅔   cup   fresh orange juice ⅓   cup   fresh lemon juice ⅓   cup   packed brown sugar ½   teaspoon   grated orange zest ½   teaspoon   grated lemon zest 1   teaspoon   vanilla extract Salad: 2   cups   cubed fresh pineapple 2   cups   strawberries, hulled and sliced 3   kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced 3   bananas, sliced 2   oranges, peeled and sectioned 1   cup   seedless grapes  2   cups   blueberries Instructions For the sauce: Bring orange juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, orange zest, and lemon zest to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and ...

This has to be one of the most incredible desserts we've ever made! Make sure to make this with a little vanilla ice cream to cut the sweetness, as Dolly Parton said in Steel Magnolias! Prep: 10 mins Cook: 45 mins Total: 55 mins Servings: 4 Pan: 1 8-inch glass pan Ingredients 3-4 Golden Delicious Apples 2/3 Cup of Water 2 Tablespoons warm butter 1 1/2 Teaspoons all-purpose flour 1 Teaspoon corn starch 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 Tablespoon honey pinch of salt Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Layer apple slices in the bottom of an 8-inch glass baking dish.   Mix water, butter, flour, and cornstarch together in a bowl until no lumps remain. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Pour apples in the baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes, until soft and juicy, about 45 minutes. Once cooler, add one scoop of vanilla ice cream into bowl, and top with delicious apples! Elizabeth is a wife to her wo...

Delicious, Decadent, Quick and Easy to Make! Take a look on how to make delicious 5 minute fudge! Ingredients 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 9 ounces butterscotch chips  1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk  1 teaspoon vanilla extract Instructions Lightly butter an 8-inch square pan.  Heat chocolate and butterscotch chips along with the sweetened condensed milk together over low heat.  Stir until fully melted and smooth. Velvety! Stir in vanilla and remove from heat.  Pour into the prepared pan making sure the top is smoothed out, and chill covered in the refrigerator.  Slice and serve when fully cooled and you have some delicious, amazing fudge! A Couple of Sweet Notes: If you’re adding nuts, make sure to add them before removing the mixture from the heat. It will set up quickly once removed and you don't want the nuts to just fall off.  Any type of chip can be substituted for the butterscotch. Some suggestions: peanut butter, mint, a differ...

It is seriously like the best lemon merengue pie ever but in a different form! Enjoy!!

Delicious Strawberry Shortbread, a must have during a get together!

BLT Deviled Eggs (KETO) Recipe My husband makes these for every party practically that we go to. They are devoured and requested on numerous occasions! I'm sharing this amazing recipe with everyone because it's just too good to keep to ourselves...just know we'll still bring them to parties!!

Did you know that July 9th is National Sugar Cookie Day?? Seriously! It is go look it up! So how about we discuss today cookies, and I'll even add a recipe at the bottom! I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies and I willingly admit it. I mean I'll eat them (who wouldn't?) if offered in front of me but sometimes you get a sugar cookie that is hard as a dang rock. You try to eat it, you do, but each bite is just nothing but sandy bits of hard crunch and you smile sweetly while swallowing it right? Yeah, that's about right isn't it? Thanks Peter for the great example!  But come on, sometimes you get that amazing sugar cookie that is soft, moist, just delightful! Sweet but buttery, and you can't help but eat one, two, ten...the whole package right? What is your favorite kind of sugar cookie? I love the soft ones so here's a great recipe for that! This is Alton Brown's recipe. To be honest, my husband does a lot of this man's recipes so we're going t...

Holmestead Bakery: Official Facebook Everyone has that dream of finding the perfect bakery who will do what you want for your daughter's birthday. Here in the Texoma area, Holmestead Bakery goes above and beyond to bring you what you're wanting and even does more than you could ever expect! I had the honor of receiving cupcakes and cookies from Holmestead Bakery and now I'm going to show all of you the amazing and delicious birthday treats we had!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Last month, my coffee maker decided to rip a huge hole into one of my Crazy Cups, and instead of getting a delicious cup of brewed coffee, I got a cup of coffee grounds with my water. Took a long time to get the coffee maker cleaned out and ready once more but I'm back, and ready to go! Especially with this month's flavor! Starbucks came out at the end of August and announced "Pumpkin Spice is back before Fall" so of course everyone I knew ran to Starbucks. But Crazy Cups said "I don't think so..." and they put out their own Pumpkin Vanilla Creme flavor and yeah, Starbucks needs to sit down!

Come and Bake It: Official Facebook Come and Bake It: Official Instagram We moved to our small town back in 2016, and one of the things that I recently found out about was the Sherman Farmer's Market. I actually found out about it during another event that our small town does, a Christmas in July event that is based in downtown. After going over to the farmer's market, we came across Come and Bake It and WOW, they have some incredible delights. I'm so excited not only to support local businesses but to give you all a small taste of what we get to experience in our town!

Whataburger: Official Website Whataburger: Official Facebook When someone crosses into Texas who have never been here, the first thing a Texan tells them to do besides get a glass of "real sweet tea" is: "Go to Whataburger"! Since 1950 Whataburger has given some of the best quality meals all fresh, and always the same fantastic flavor. While other chains have tried to take over the Lone Star State bringing their uniqueness, Whataburger continues to stand the test of time and today, I wanted to bring to you a bit of that yumminess!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Every month Crazy Cups sends extraordinary flavors of their coffee and when I review them, I will always say they are "amazing", "incredible", "delicious", and more. But this time, I received a flavor that was so fantastic that I had to run to them and tell them even before I got the review started. I'm not a huge fan of fruity coffee except for like raspberry and chocolate mixtures. But this one, Apple Pie a la Mode, is well...incredibly amazing. I can't even think of new words because Crazy Cups is just that good but this one, mind blowing!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Have you ever paused in a store and went "That...sounds really interesting!" Well yes Crazy Cups is back and once again they bring us a coffee flavor that makes you pause and go "I wonder..."! This month's flavor is Snickerdoodle...now stop snickering after hearing the name. I can wait!.... Okay great, haha. Snickerdoodle is a fantastic flavor that reminds you of that sweet, cinnamon and sugar rolled cookie you love to get from your Grandma's house. Let's just hope there's no Cream of Tartar in the coffee!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Before drinking Crazy Cups coffee, my house only drank Maxwell House. We'd have to buy flavored creamers and quite a bit of sugar to take the bitter coffee flavor away, and still drink coffee. Every month, Crazy Cups has incredible flavors that don't need creamers with flavors like "Irish Cream" or "French Vanilla". For example, this month the flavor of coffee I get to discuss is "Belgian Chocolate Truffle" and oh my gosh, I always say "This is my favorite!" Well, yet again, I get to say that!

Busy Mom's Bakery: Official Facebook Busy Mom's Bakery: Official Store Within the local area of Texoma (Based out of Bedford) is a fantastic company named Busy Mom's Bakery. The Bakery's owner Sheree is an at-home baker that specializes in many sweet treats from cakes to cheesecakes, cupcakes and even chocolate dipped fruits. I reached out to Sheree to discuss a review and I feel she went above and beyond what I could've ever expected!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Have you ever unwrapped a piece of butterscotch candy? That lightly caramel colored candy that once it hits your tongue is so smooth tasting that you savor it while you have it? You don't ever crunch it or chew it, because it's just that amazing? Well Crazy Cups has found a way to bring about that delicious Butterscotch flavor into coffee while keeping with their ability to not be overpowering, or "fake" flavors. Today (if you can't tell already) I'm reviewing their Butterscotch flavor!

In 2015, I made a top 10 list that I truly thought could not be beaten. Last year it became clear that the Pumpkin Spice craze has really became so insane that I wonder how many people do not have brains--just giant pumpkins filled with "spice" in their heads! Here is the 2017 edition of "Top 10 Pumpkin Spice Items Currently in your Stores!"

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Guess who's back! That's right! I am back and adoring coffee like you would not believe! A huge thank you to Crazy Cups for being patient while I was able to get back on track with my coffee reviews. Coffee is a staple of every day life, whether people want to admit it or not; and the fact that the last several months I couldn't really touch coffee well let's just say...it was so hard to get through the weeks without my Crazy Cups. But, this month's flavor came in just as I was able to go back to drinking coffee and it was heaven in a cup!

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook On March 3rd, unfortunately my family was in a car accident so it put the blog on a bit of a hold. Shortly after that, my monthly selection from Crazy Cups arrived and it put some sunshine back into my daily routine for a while as I was struggling to handle all the "adult'ing" I had to do. Sometimes, a good cup of coffee makes all the difference in the world every day and this month was no exception.

Crazy Cups: Official Website Crazy Cups: Official Facebook Every month, Crazy Cups reveals a new flavor that is always better than the last. This month's flavor "Rum Vanilla Rhumba" is smooth, sweet, completely makes you forget you're drinking coffee, and had me reacting to it the same way Mary Poppins reacted to her medicine: