I wanted to pick up some Americana decor for a party I was throwing, so I headed to Cost Plus World Market to see what they had.  I enjoy shop Cost Plus World Market for many of my party and holiday needs, they have a great selection of items from around the world and at great prices too.    The carry lots of fun and unique items as well as some hard to find food items.

Before I headed to the store, I checked my World Market Explorer account for any available coupons.  That’s how I roll!    Can’t go shopping without a coupon.   Lucky me, I had a 15% off coupon, because June is my birthday month.   If you haven’t signed up for the World Market Explorer Reward Program yet you will get a 10% off coupon just for signing up.

I spotted some Patriotic displays as soon as I entered the store.   They had a great selection of Americana home decor, kitchen items, food, kids toys and more.

I had to check out the clearance section while I was there.    A trip to any store isn’t complete without first checking out the clearance section.    Pretty much everything here was marked down to 50% off the original price.   Nice!

You don’t have to search out the clearance sections to find a great deal at Cost Plus World Market, these Ramekins were only $ .99 each.   That’s a steal!

Here is everything I picked up for my party.   I did also purchase a Microplane zester that I have been wanting forever, but I didn’t include it in the photo because it didn’t look patriotic enough.   I love so many of the items I picked up, a few of my faves are:

• Ceramic Strawberry Basket $4.99 – TOO CUTE!!  I saw something similar in a high-end catalog and fell in love, unfortunately they were too expensive.   I was thrilled to find them at World Market at a very affordable price!
• Ramekins $ .99 – These can be used for so many different things: baking, display, and gift gifving/li>
• Patriotic Banner $7.99 – I used it for my party, but not it’s hanging on my mantle  and it looks great
• Glass Candle holders $2.99 – I love candle holders, and these were a steal at $2.99
• Old Fashioned Food Baskets $4.99/6 and Liners $3.99 – These are just plain fun!  I am sure these will get used all summer long.

Here is what the table looked like all decked out in the red, white and blue decor.

The basket I bought is the perfect size to hold the utensils. They have a nice selection of baskets, this one I picked up was only $4.99.

The kids loved the red, white and blue “Freedom Chips” ($2.99), and the Ramekins were perfect to hold the little treats I bought like the patriotic chocolate covered sunflower seeds and Gummi Raspberries.

I used 3 of the candleholders on our table, and they looked really great as it got even darker outside. I loved the cool reflection the beveled glass made. These were only $2.99 and came in a variety of colors and sizes. I chose the clear, so I can use them for any occasion.

Make sure you enter Cost Plus World Market’s Red, White and Blue in London Sweepstakes. The grand prize is a trip for 2 to watch the Red, White & Blue compete in the London Games, including tickets to the Opening Event and 3 sporting events.

You can enter via Cost Plus World Market’s website or via the Cost Plus World Market Facebook page. The sweepstakes runs until June 16th, so make sure you enter soon.

Want to stay up-to-date with Cost Plus World Market:

• Follow them on Facebook
• Follow them on Twitter

This shop has been compensated by Cost Plus World Market, but all my opinions and my love for the items are genuine and true.

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October is National Pork Month and Costco is celebrating with extra savings on pork all month long.  From October 24-31, you can save $2.50 off the Rack of Pork.

I will be picking up a Rack of Pork this week and I have challenged my husband to come up with a great recipe to share with all of you.   Just for fun, I might even have him create the recipe “Chopped” style by giving him some mystery ingredients he has to work into his recipe.   If you have any suggestions for  a great mystery item, leave it in the comments.

We have never cooked a Rack of Pork before, so we had to do a little research.  Luckily, the Pork website has all the information we need to learn how to cook a Rack of Pork, as well as any other cut of pork we might be interested in preparing.  They even have my personal favorite…bacon!

Once you know how to prepare the Rack of Pork, you can find a couple of great recipes on Costco.com: In the Warehouse.   You will find a recipe for:

• Garlic and Rosemary Rack of Pork
• Herb-Crusted Pork Rib Roast with Red Wine Sauce

Temperature Update: In May, the USDA reduced the temperature guideline for pork loins, chops and roasts from 160 to 145 degrees F, with a three-minute rest.  This will yield a juicy, flavorful product that may be pinker in color than most home cooks are used to. Ground pork, like all ground meat, should be cooked to 160 degrees.

Make sure you check back later in the week when I share the recipe my husband came up with.  I will also be giving away a $25 Costco Cash Card!

This post was written by me in participation with a program from The Motherhood for Costco and the National Pork Board. I received products to facilitate my recipe creation and a stipend for my time.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The post Save on Rack of Pork this Week at Costco appeared first on Gather Lemons.

I knew as soon as I saw these Cupcake Push Pop Peeps over at Love from the Oven I wanted to make them. I teach a class at church with 14-15 year old girls, and they love treats. Cute treats are even better! So I spent part of my weekend making these super cute cup cakes.

Here is a close up of one of the cuties. I followed the instructions at Love from the Oven, and I bought the push pops from HERE (Thanks to reader who found them for me!)

Do you have any Easter treats in the works? I would love to hear what you are making!

The post I made some Cute Easter Cupcake Push Pop Peeps appeared first on Gather Lemons.

Sign up with Recipe Nut, and you will be able to save all the recipes you like from any online site. It makes it easy to have all your favorite online recipes in one place.   They have tons of recipes that you can search for too.  You can search by ingredient, type of cuisine, an occasion and more.  They even have quick and easy meals.

I just signed up and I am in love!! I no longer have to search for the recipes I use on a regular basis, I can have them all in one convenient place. Plus, they will also send you money saving coupons every other week.

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I don’t know about you, but when it gets really close to Christmas, I have no desire to head into any of the stores. I still have a few more neighbor gifts to put together, so I am getting creative and re-purposing packaging I already have around the house.

I got this package from Vocal Point a month or two ago, and I saved it, because I knew I would be able to reuse it some how.

I covered the back with a piece of scrapbook paper, tied a bow around the sides, and added a doo dad leftover from the Christmas centerpieces. I filled it with chocolates, and now I have myself a cute little package to give to someone.

Next up! I plan on dressing up this metal tin and filling it with some Chex Mix. I would love to hear any creative ideas you have to package up some homemade (or store bought) Christmas goodies.

The post Homemade Holiday: Get Creative with your Gift Packaging appeared first on Gather Lemons.

My daughter and I decided to make these fun treats for a group of her friends. They are chocolate covered marshmallows on a fun straw they can keep.

Here is what you need to make these treats:

• Marshmallows
• Chocolate Chips or dipping chocolate
• Krazy Straws (these are strong reusable plastic straws – found at Party Store)
• Sprinkles
• Cello Bags
• Ribbon

Directions:

1. Slide 2 marshmallows onto the end of the Krazy Straw.
2. Melt chocolate and dip marshmallows in. (melt on lowest setting & stir constantly)
3. Set straws and marshmallows on wax paper to dry.
4. Add sprinkles while chocolate is still soft.
5. When the chocolate is solid, add them into cello bags.
6. Tie with a bow.
7. Give them as gifts.

These were very easy to make, and fairly inexpensive too.   They were easy enough that even younger kids could help too, they could easily slide the marshmallows onto the straws and add the sprinkles.  It’s great when everyone can help a little.   Enjoy!

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So, here is what I do to make our Chicken Caesar Pita’s:

Whenever we have this chicken for dinner, I grill a couple extra so we can make the Chicken Caesar Pita’s the next night. If I don’t have any chicken already cooked, I just cut up a couple chicken breasts and fry them up in a pan. I usually throw on a little seasoning salt. You can also bake them in the oven or grill them.

Next, it’s as simple as making a Caesar Salad, you will need:

• Romaine lettuce
• Caesar dressing (Cardini’s is our favorite, but we are currently loving the Marie’s dressing we got for FREE back in March)
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese (we love the large shaved kind)
• Pepper
• Fresh Lemon (if desired)

Cut up the lettuce, toss with the dressing and add the Parmesan cheese. Next, add a little fresh ground pepper and a squeeze of the lemon (if desired).  It’s that simple!  The, add the Caesar salad and chicken inside you pita and you are good to go. I love these on hot summer nights, because they are so fresh, easy and don’t make a huge mess in the kitchen.

For a little more flavor you can add the following:

• Croutons
• Bacon Bits
• Tomato

This dinner makes everyone happy at our house.   I do have one child who is not a lettuce eater, so he fills his pita with chicken, cheese and ranch dressing and he is thrilled.

The post Chicken Caesar Pita Recipe appeared first on Gather Lemons.

We love to have Chicken Ceasar Pita’s for a quick and easy meal.   The most expensive part of the meal is the Pita’s, so I decided to make my own this time – it was super easy!    I decided to go with the Peppy’s Pita Bread recipe that I found at Allrecipes.com. I did add a little more salt to the recipe, because that’s what some of the commenters suggested.   You will probably have all the ingredients on hand to make these Pita’s.

I added the following to my bread machine and set it to the dough cycle:

• 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

When the dough cycle on your bread machine is finished, you will want to roll the dough out until it is about 12 inches long.  Make sure you lightly flour your work surface, so your dough doesn’t stick.

Divide the dough into 8 sections, and roll them all into a ball.

Then roll each ball into a circle about 6 – 7 inches.   Set them on on a lightly floured counter, cover with a towel and let them rise for about 30 minutes.   Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

After the 3o minutes, you will  want to move the pita dough to a cooling rack, and cook it directly on the cooling rack.   Cook 3-4 at a time and cook for 4 – 5 minutes, until they are puffed up and slightly golden brown.

Remove and immediately cover the pitas with a damp kitchen towel, this helps to soften up the Pitas.   Once the Pitas and soft and pliable you can then store them for several days in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or up to 1 to 2 months in the freezer.

We ate ours right away!    We had chicken Caesar Pitas for dinner, and they turned out great.   By making the pitas at home, it made the meal even less expensive and the pitas were more fresh than if I had bought them at the store.   Give these pitas’a try, they were super easy, and I was amazed how much they puffed up and made a pocket for all the fillings.

Money saving tip for yeast:  Buy your yeast as Costco,  you will get a HUGE bag for around $3-4, it will last you forever, and it so much cheaper than buying the packets at the grocery store.

The post Make Your Own Pita Bread appeared first on Gather Lemons.

First, I gather containers that I will store the ingredients for individual loaves of bread, pizza or pretzel dough, etc.

Next I gather all the dry ingredients for making the various breads and doughs that I need. I don’t add the yeast at this stage, I save that for the very end. I measure the exact ingredients for each individual recipe and add them to the containers. This makes it quick and easy by getting all of the ingredients ready just once during the week instead of getting everything out every single day.

I then end up with 6 containers of dry ingredients all ready for the week’s baking. If I do a variety of things (bread, pizza dough, pretzel dough) then I will label each one. This week I only have things prepared for white bread and pretzel dough. I use the red containers for the bread and the blue containers for the pretzels.

I have magnets like this on my refrigerator that tell me what wet ingredients I need to add to the dry ingredients in order to finish off the recipe. This makes it so easy for me to just throw the ingredients into the bread machine before I run out the door. Saves me so much time! I have mentioned this before, but the pretzel recipe I use can be found HERE. If you have a bread machine, you should give the recipe a try. We like to sprinkle them with salt or cinnamon and sugar. They are yummy!

I did a lot of research on specific bread makers before I “hinted” to my husband which one I would like. I chose this one from Amazon, and I am loving it. I am pleased with all of the results.

Another money saving tip when it comes to bread is that you can buy the yeast from Costco. The package is HUGE, but it is only $3 something, and that is tons cheaper than buying those individual packets from the store.

Have fun making some bread today!

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