Apartment Gardening

Apartment life means limited gardening space, if any, so we 


turned an old a frame shelf into a 

garden center. We planted 

green beans in the top basket and an 

array of flowers on the 

bottom 2 shelves. Old egg crates 

make pretty great seed 

starters btw!

Also, did you know that using 

cinnamon is a great guard 

against that white or yellow fungus that sometimes like to 

grow on potting soil?! We noticed some creeping on our 

seedlings and after some research, I found the nifty 

cinnamon tip. We sprinkled some on and it worked great. 

No more fungus, and my seedlings are now perkier than 

ever! ~JennJenn ♥

A traitor in our midst

In reference to Nom Nom Palace on Facebook:

SO, it seems our former admin abandoned us on the grounds that she was the creator of Nom Nom Palace. I'm going to say this only once: I, JennJenn, am the creator of Nom Nom Palace. This page is linked to My Personal Facebook page (Jenn Jenn Lajoie). Myself and K.k. choose and add the admins. We are and have always been the page managers, From Day One, anyone else is a content creator. K.k. and I both have messages from our former admin stating that this is our page and she doesn't want to step on anyone's toes. I learned today that she has taken "her" recipes and posts to creating her own page. More power to her. BUT after reviewing whats left of our page's content, I'm finding that a good majority of what has gone missing are posts made by me, including recipes that are mine, such as my Cinnamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chips that I adapted from my own grandmother's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip recipe that I grew up with, and my Meatball recipe. Honestly I'm more than happy to have them shared since I'm the one who originally chose to share them, but to just up and take off with recipes that are not yours so you can claim them to be is just petty. I'm not even mad about that. What upsets me the most, is that this is a person who was supposed to be a friend, a person I thought I could trust and, until now, had no reason not to. I do not appreciate being accused of stealing work that I put a ridiculous amount of effort into and I don't appreciate being accused of changing a password that no one but me has ever had access too, and I really don't appreciate being accused of disrespectful to a person who is deliberately trying to muddy my name with absolutely no grounds to do so. If there was some misunderstanding or miscommunication, that's fine, but that can not be fixed unless you speak to me. Don't accuse someone of being shady when you yourself just cleaned out my page, blocked me, K.k., my boyfriend and who knows who else without a single word or heads up about any supposed problem.
For those who choose to follow our former admin, be aware that a good portion of what she has posted never gets linked to wherever it was found. I search for interesting ideas to share everyday and I do my very best to post credit where its due, and if I should miss anything I'm happy to remedy that when someone gives me a heads up. I do not, under any circumstances, claim anyone else's work as my own. I am mother to 5 children, and as such I have to lead by example, so anyone who chooses to believe otherwise about me is in dire need of a reality check.
Yes, this ran a bit longer than I expected but I thank you for your patience, your interest in our page and your support. I don't hold grudges, but I will be much more careful about who I choose as admins in the future.
~JennJenn 

Should anyone discover Michele's new page and find it contains any of recipes that belong to me, such as my Cinnamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Meatballs, or even the infamous Nom Nom Jello Shot list, please inform me if she is trying to pass these recipes off as her own. I can be reached here or on Nom Nom's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NomNomPalace?fref=ts. It really would be much appreciated!!

Thank You!

Pretty Girl Locks

My 5 year old loves having her hair done. I'm pretty sure I spend more hours styling her hair than I do my own. What can I say, I'm a sucker for that sweet face!

There's nothing special or fancy about this style, but she likes it; no matter how short lived it may be.

*divide hair into 4 or 5 small ponytails on each side of head, then braid each pony tail into the next and secure with small rubber bands.*

~JennJenn <3

JennJenn's Cinnamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
1 cup (2 sticks) softened unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups quick oats
1 12oz bag chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350
in medium bowl mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cream of tarter & salt and set aside.
beat together butter & both sugars until creamy. Add in eggs, vanilla & almond extract and 1 tsp water; beat well, scraping sides of bowl. Slowly incorporate flour mixture and blend until smooth. Stir in oats & chocolate chips, mixing well. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden. Don't over bake or you'll end up with crunchy cookies! Let cookies cool in pan for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

*For Bar Cookies: Add 4 tsp water, press dough into 13 x 9 " baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes.

Beer Can Cowboy Hats

These were pretty popular back in the 70s, so when I found a photo of one but no pattern, I had to improvise. 

I ended up making some cardboard templates to cut the cans down to the appropriate size I needed for each section.  I then used a hole punch to punch holes around the edge of each piece, crocheted 1 round of hdc stitches around each piece, then stitched the pieces together to shape the hat. 

For the top, I just crocheted a circle to an appropriate size using sc & hdc stitches and sewed it to the top.  Once the hat was assembled, all I had to do was curl the sides over and the front and back slightly under to get the proper shape.

These are pretty great gifts for the Nascar fan in your life :)

~JennJenn <3

Minion Cupcakes

My 5 year old Daughter's pre school birthday cupcakes needed to be something memorable so after receiving a Photo of a minion cupcake from a friend, I just had to make some of my own!

You Need:
1 white cake batter recipe
1 butter cream frosting recipe
Twinkies (or cloud cakes)
Candy eyes (can be found at Wal Mart in the Celebrations section)
Black decorators gel
clear decorators gel



Directions:

You can really make any flavor cupcakes you want, but I chose to divide my white cake batter into 6 small bowls and add food coloring to dye each bowl of batter a different vibrant color. Rainbow cupcakes seemed more appropriate choice for 30 preschoolers. 
I then tinted my frosting blue then topped each cupcake with a minion decorated twinkie.
Decorating your twinkies are pretty self explanatory. I used a dab of clear decorators gel on the back of each candy eye to serve as the "glue" to hold them on. Then I simply "drew" them glasses and mouths with the black decorators gel.

These were a huge hit with the children and teachers!

~JennJenn 

<3

Pulled Pork Pockets

I slow cooked a pork roast all day until it just 

fell apart on its own, then wrapped spoonfuls 

of the pulled pork in croissant rolls, baked the 

pockets at 350 for 8-10 minutes, sprinkled 

cheddar cheese over the tops of the pockets 

and put them back in the oven until the cheese 

was just melted.

These were so good, especially when dunked 

in some of the sauce left over from slow 

cooking the pork :)

~JennJenn ♥