Congratulations to #89 Cathy Barnes

who has won the darling magnet board from Moore Magnets.

A special thank to Moore Magnets for their support  of Your Homebased Mom and sponsoring this giveaway.  Please be sure to take advantage of the coupon offer to all Homebased Mom readers -you still have a few days to take advantage of the 15% off coupon.  Just go to Moore Magnet’s website and enter YOURHOMEBASEDOM in the coupon code to receive the discount.

So many darling styles and fabrics to choose from – a perfect way to start or finish your holiday shopping!!

I am hosting a dinner party and you are invited!  There is also a really cool prize involved with this dinner party.  You are going to want it – I promise!!

As much as I’d love to have each and every one of you over to my house for dinner – wouldn’t that be fun!? – it’s just not possible.

So I’d like to invite you to a virtual dinner party.  And you get to help plan the menu.

The only requirement is that the recipe has to come from Pioneer Woman.  You do know Pioneer Woman, don’t you?

Pioneer Woman is a ROCK STAR blogger.  This woman gets thousands of comments on her posts, was recently featured in People Magazine, the Bonnie Hunt show and  just came out with her own cookbook!  She is my idol!

Over the last few years of blogging I have tried lots of her recipes.  I have yet to find one that disappoints.

This past week I was in an apple mood so I baked up her Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet.  I love cooking anything in my cast iron skillet!

It was yummy and delicious and perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, just like Pioneer Woman promised.  As good as the cake was I must admit my favorite Pioneer Woman apple dessert is her Apple Dumplings - oh my gosh!!  They are amazing!

To join my dinner party all you have to do is let me know what your favorite Pioneer Woman recipe is.  Just leave a comment to let me know.  If you haven’t made any Pioneer Woman recipes yet go on over and pay her a visit and look through her recipe archives.  You’ll be drooling soon.  Then come back and leave a comment and let me know which one you are going to try!

I can’t wait to see what some of your favorites are.

Now to the prize part.  With the help of random.org, one of you will be selected to receive a FREE copy of Pioneer Woman’s new cookbook!!  I don’t even own a copy yet!! 

So just leave a comment sharing your favorite PW recipe and keep your fingers crossed.  To earn an extra entry, just  blog about my dinner party or share it on Facebook.  Come back and leave another comment with the link to your post!

Here are some of our family PW favorites!

Brisket

Crash Hot Potatoes

Yogurt Cream & Berries

Steak Bites

Onion Strings

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

French Breakfast Puffs

The Best Lasagna Ever

My Most Favorite Salad

Can’t wait to hear your favorites!

This giveaway is open until Friday, Nov.13, midnight PST. 

Just a reminder you have until tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 6th at midnight PST to enter a chance to win a darling magnet board from Moore Magnets.  Start your holiday shopping now!!
Just click here to enter!

And we are also having a giveaway over at iLashGirls for a beautiful Gratitude Bracelet (Gratitude’s our word this month!)  You can enter there until Friday night too!  Click here to enter to win!

Last Sunday we had these cute boys over for dinner again.

At church there is a calendar that is passed around and people sign up to feed the missionaries each night.  I had told the Elders that if they ever had a hole in the calendar and no where to go for dinner to let me know!  They had an open invitation at our house.

Sunday after church I saw them in the hall and they said they had no where to go for Sunday dinner.  Of course I invited them to join us!

Fortunately for me I haven’t gotten use to cooking for our reduced sized family so there was plenty of food to share.

We were having a yummy baked ziti with spinach and tomatoes. 

Since we were having guests I decided to kick it up a notch and mixed up a batch of Melanie’s amazing Divine Breadsticks and a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Since I had a few too many things that needed to be baked at the same time I borrowed my neighbor’s oven – I do that a lot.  How I dream of one day having double ovens….

I baked the breadsticks next door.

After the breadsticks were baked and back at our house there was a knock at the door.  There were three of my cute neighbor boys wondering if they could have one of my homemade bread sticks.  Who could resist this face?!

There were plenty to share and I sent the 3 boys off with their breadsticks!  Katie – if you are reading this post don’t be upset with “D”.  I loved that he felt comfortable enough to come to my door to ask!

Dinner was a success and yummy.  A quick and easy dish to prepare.  It would also make a great dish when you need to take dinner to someone else. 

The addition of spinach and pesto makes this a little unique as far as baked ziti dishes go.  The pesto gives it a wonderful flavor and I was able to use some of the pesto I had made and frozen this summer!
 

The recipe makes a full 9 x 13 and thanks to our two dinner guests there wasn’t much left.  I was grateful they were there to help so we didn’t have to eat it for leftovers all week!

Baked Ziti with Spinach and Sausage

1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausages

1/2 C chopped onion

3 large garlic cloves, chopped

1 28-ounce can diced peeled tomatoes

1/4 C  pesto 

10 ounces ziti or penne pasta (about 3 cups), freshly cooked

4 cups or handfulls of baby spinach leaves

6 ounces grated or cubed mozzarella cheese

1 Cup grated Parmesan chees

Cook  sausage, onion and garlic until sausage is cooked through. Add tomatoes with juices.  Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add pesto. Season sauce with salt and pepper.  You can prepare up to this point a day aheadand refrigerate. Bring  mixture back to simmer before continuing.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly oil 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. Combine pasta, spinach, mozzarella and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese in large bowl. Stir in warmhot tomato mixture. Plalce in prepared baking dish. Sprinkle remaining 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese over. Bake until sauce bubbles and cheeses melt, about 30 minutes.

Inspired by Epciurious

Will someone please tell me how this cute, adorable, sweet baby girl….

grew up to be such a beautiful, amazing, fun loving college co-ed!!?!?

Today Cali turns 20!  I am now the mother of 3 children in their twenties and only one teenager.  How did that happen?

Cali, I wish I was there to celebrate with you and cook for you but this year the box full of surprises I sent will have to do.  Your love for life and all that you do is an inspiration.  Your tender heart and spirit are a blessing.  There is never a dull moment when Cali is around and we so miss your energy and noise in our home!!

You are entering a new decade of your life.  It will be an amazing and exciting one – I can’t wait to see what is in store for you and am grateful that I can be a part of it!

So today I will have to entrust you into the hands of your darling roommates…

and your loving brothers…

I love you sweet Calista Mary Wilkes!  Your Mother

Today I am excited to introduce you to a great little homebased shop – Moore Magnets.

Moore Magnets makes darling fabric covered magnet boards.  They are a great gift for the upcoming holidays.  They would also be the perfect thing to create a dream board out of too!

They have generously donated this fun magnet board for a giveaway here on Your Homebased Mom.  It comes with four cute magnets too!

The board measures 8 x 10″ and is perfect for a cluttered or small desk. It would even be perfect in a small kitchen or office. Keep up with lists, notes, business cards, and all of those other bitty pieces of paper. Display cute pictures of your kids right where you will see them. It is small enough to hang in a cubical or over a phone but big enough to hold a few pictures, business cards, or reminders!

April is the owner and creator of Moore Magnets and I am excited to introduce her to you here on Your Homebased Mom.  Meet April!

My husband, 3 boys, and I are so blessed to live on almost 7 acres in central North Carolina. 2.5 years ago we traded our larger home and the conveniences of the city and got so much more in return. We spend a lot of time outside playing, no matter the weather!

Being crafty and selling crafty things was never on my long term agenda. After all, I was finishing college, running the roads, and climbing that corporate ladder – it was the life that I was expected to have. It was a life that I thought that I wanted.

But 5 years ago, something changed. I came up with this idea to make some functional furnishings for my sons’ room. Everyone that I talked to thought it was a great idea and the creative fire within my soul was re-ignited. I spent so much time on those early things, working and changing them to get them just right. Once I thought my creations were up to par, I jumped in with both feet and signed up for a craft show.

I later lost my office job, and jumped into my little crafty business with both feet. Although I feel pretty broke most of the time, my husband, my children, and I have never been happier!

I still struggle balancing motherhood with all of the other roles that I play. However, I have learned that although I may never achieve that perfect balance, as long as I never stop trying to achieve it, everything will be okay!

 Please pay April’s website a visit and maybe get a jump on some of your holiday shopping! She has lots of different fabrics available. April is offering a 15% off coupon to all Homebased Mom readers.  The coupon is good until Nov. 9th so don’t delay!  To use the coupon just enter YOURHOMEBASEDMOM as the coupon code to receive the discount.

If you’d like a chance to win one of April’s magnet boards please leave a comment below!

Giveaway will be open until Nov. 6th, at midnight PST.  Thanks and good luck!!

 Last night we hosted a Halloweenie Roast for some of our neighbors.  I am so glad my neighbors still have younger children!

This will be the first Halloween I haven’t had to help one of my children come up with a Halloween costume – Tessa will be hanging out with friends but no costumes!  Fortunately my neighbors enjoy borrowing the dozens of costumes I have stored away in the costume boxes in the attic.  Years worth of fun homemade costumes to share!  This year Olivia is going to make good use of the Wilma Flintstone costume I made!

I am sure many of you are busy getting ready for the big night tonight but I wanted to share some fun pictures from our Haloweenie Roast last night.  Maybe you can store away a few of the ideas and use them next year.

The candy corn bar was popular!

I found these cute digital download candy goodie bags here.  I just printed them off on my computer and taped them together – so cute!

These fun chocolate fingers were a big hit too!  I found the candy mold at Michaels and just used different colored Wilton Melts to create the fingers on a pretzel rod!

I saw this fun idea over at  The Idea Room for a Creepy Halloween Apothecary.  I was able to create it using bottles out of my pantry and a couple I picked up at Goodwill.  Amy shares the link to print off the great labels in her post.

I also used the labels to cover the rootbeer and orange soda bottles.  This was the adult beverage at the party.

For the kids I found these darling little cans of soda at Target.

I covered the table with an orange and black tablecloth I had.  I had picked up a piece of spiderweb yardage at the fabric store during the week – it was 50% off and then used a piece of cheesecloth that I stretched and tore a bit on top of that.

The kids and adults had a great time roasting their hot dogs on the portable fire pit on the patio.  We decided not to use the in ground fire pit that is at the back of the yard because we had quite a bit of rain this past week and it was a bit muddy!

In addition to the regular hot dog condiments I also made some Coney Sauce for the dogs that was yummy. Neighbors pitched in with the rest of the meal – salad, veges and dip and cheese bread.

Dessert were these cute Frankenstein cupcakes that I made.  The head is a marshmallow and the whole thing is covered in green frosting.  They are pretty cute for a monster!
 

I just used a chocolate cake mix (shame on me) for the cupcake!

It was a fun evening and the best part was just spending time with my wonderful neighbors!  We are so blessed to have such amazing neighbors! 

Now off to carve those pumpkins we haven’t gotten to yet!!

Because Halloween and trick or treating usually involve rain where I live I always like to send my children off with a tummy filled with nice warm homemade soup.  The soup can be made ahead or earlier in the day.

 I don’t have anyone young enough to trick or treat anymore but we still carry on the tradition of soup on Halloween night.

Nothing goes better with a pot of soup than some nice warm bread.  Since Halloween day can be filled with lots of activities, parties etc. something that is easy to prepare is a must.

Today’s recipe is for our traditional Halloween bread.  I love this bread and really should make it more often.  It is a pan bread, done in a 9 x 13 pan, and the rising time is about an hour total.  It can easily be made earlier in the day too.

If you are looking for a new homemade soup recipe to go with the Herbed Oatmeal Bread  you might want to try one of these:

Tortellini Sausage Soup

Taco Soup

Chicken Tarragon

Roasted Red Pepper

Roasted Tomato Soup

Pasta e Fagioli

Any of these soups combined with  a pan of Herbed Oatmeal Bread would make a perfect combination.  

I actually shared this recipe here on the blog two years ago but it is so good that it bears repeating and I’ve got better pictures this time!!

Thanks to the oatmeal the bread has a great texture and is still nice and light.  My favorite part is the yummy cheese and herb topping!

Fill your families tummies with some homemade goodness this Halloween!

Herbed Oatmeal Bread

Bread

2 C water

1 C rolled oats

3 Tbsp butter

3 3/4 to 4 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1/4 C sugar

2 tsp salt

2 pkg. Active dry yeast

1 egg

Herb Butter

1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves

1/2 tsp garlic powder

6 Tbsp butter, melted

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan; stir in rolled oats. Remove from heat; stir in 3 tablespoons butter. Cool to 120 to 130 degrees F.

In large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast; mix well. Add rolled oats mixture and egg; blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed.

By hand, stir in an additional 1 3/4 cups to 1 1/2 cups flour to form stiff dough. Continue to mix the dough until smooth and elastic – about 5 minutes.  Cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.

Grease 13 x 9-inch pan. *Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles. Press into greased pan. Using very sharp knife, cut diagonal lines 1 1/2 inches apart, cutting completely through dough. Repeat in opposite direction creating diamond pattern. Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and cloth towel.

Let rise in warm place (80 to 95 degrees F) until light and doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Uncover dough. Redefine cuts by poking tip of knife into cuts until knife hits bottom of pan; do not pull knife through dough

 In small bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, basil, oregano and garlic powder; mix well. Set aside. Spoon 4 tablespoon of the butter over cut dough.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes. Brush remaining 2 tablespoons butter over bread. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese-herb mixture. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cool.

Now that my kids are all grown up and most of them gone from home I need to get my little kid fun fix with my neighborhood kids! 

We have invited several of the neighborhood families over for a Halloweenie Roast on Friday night.  We are hoping for no rain so that we can roast hot dogs out on the fire pit! 

I have been busy working on a candy corn bar for the party.  It turned out so stinking cute I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

Did you know there are flavored candy corn?  I managed to track down several different flavors for our candy corn bar.

In addition to regular candy corn I found caramel candy corn, caramel apple candy corn and harvest mix.  I also threw in some candy corn kisses because who could resist these cute little things!!!

Several weeks ago I saw a cute Halloween craft idea over at a fun craft blog I like to visit – Not So Idle Hands.  I pulled out some of my old canning jars that have been gathering dust the past decade or so and turned them into a cute lantern.  Since I was going to be using them on my candy corn bar I turned some of them into glowing candy corn as well as jack o’ lanterns!  Aren’t they cute?

There is a great tutorial for making them over at Not So Idle Hands so check it out!!  She painted around the top of her jars but I used some of the cute Halloween ribbon I had picked up on sale at Michaels!

You can also print off the patterns for the jack o’ lantern faces here and here.

Have fun!  What are your Halloween plans??

We’ve been a tad bit busy around here this week – hosting 3 parties in one week can do that to you! I can’t wait to share some photos and details with you but right now you just need to click on over to iLashGirls and enter a wonderful Giveaway in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.

We have two amazing prizes you can win just by leaving a comment. Go on over and check them out!

I’ll be back later today (after this mornings party) to share with you a few things I brewed up for the Halloweenie Roast we are hosting Friday night for some of our neighbor kids! 

Here’s the darling invite my neighbor Katie put together for me!  Be back soon with more Haloweenie fun!!

e back soon!!