Duff Tie-Dye Cake Mix - A 'House of Fauci's' Product Review

My girls attended a birthday party last year and when I went to pick them up I saw the most awesome home made cake by a non professional baker ever! The cake was tie dyed and it was perfect! The colors were bold and bright and did not bleed into one another. I just knew this mom had used a recipe off of Pinterest and probably put tons of hours into making it; I was wrong!  She said she purchased the Duff Tie-Dye Cake Mix from Target and she said it was simple; so with that said I had to try it out. 

This kit comes with everything that you need; cake mix and food coloring. 

My girls were really excited when they found out that I purchased the Duff Tie Dye Cake Mix kit. They were very eager to help and I was excited to let them learn how to make a tie dye cake. 

Mixing the cake was just like mixing any other cake. The detailed part was mixing the color but even though it was detailed, it was so simple.

I will admit that I had to concentrate when mixing the colors. It was easy but I had to focus on the color count. In addition, I ran out of yellow so I had to grab my personal yellow food coloring to finish the mix. 

I have to say how impressed I am with the Duff Tie-Dye Cake Mix. It was not only easy to make but it tasted great. My daughter has already requested one for her birthday ... in December. 

'Finish This' Week 29

It's back!!! I skipped last week's 'Finish This' because I was just not 'feeling it'. Guess what? I am definitely feeling it this week, so let's 'Finish This'!

I add spice to my life by...drinking hard liquor. I'm not kidding. I've been married a long time and liquor is my new best friend when I need to add some spice to my life. Okay.. you can giggle, but I am not kidding. 


Bacon is... everywhere! It's on clothing, socks, band-aids, in chocolate, wrapped around chicken, and most everywhere else you can think of. It's amazing and I have to wonder if pigs are pissed about this. 

The perfect meal... is a meal that is 'down home country cooking'. I'm talking chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with white gravy along with a side of green beans and a slice of pecan pie. Oh my goodness, if I was only 23 again and had a high metabolism. 

My favorite food to grill is...meat! To be honest, I do not grill but my husband does, so with that said.. my favorite grilled food is anything he chooses to grill. 

I beat the heat by... staying inside my air conditioned house. I do not do the heat very well. If I get too hot I become grouchy and moody, quite similar to a 3 year old. 

Link up next week! Go to http://nicoleandkevin.wordpress.com/ and link up! Next week's questions can be found there. Join in on the fun! 

The Best and Freshest Southern Peach Cobbler

I have a love for Peach Cobbler and since it is the season of fresh peaches, I thought 'Why Not'. Of course I immediately went to my favorite resource Pinterest and found a recipe called 'Fresh Southern Peach Cobbler'. I looked over the recipe and decided that it was simple enough and I had all but one ingredient; it was lemon juice and I decided that my recipe could live without it. This dish turned out not only beautiful but amazingly delicious. I decided to rename it 'The Best and Freshest Southern Peach Cobbler', because it is! 

The ingredients are pretty simple, however as I stated above, the original recipe calls for lemon juice but since I did not have any I decided to exclude it. The recipe calls for 9 peaches, I think that if you have 8 peaches you will be fine but no less. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel peaches. In a bowl, combine cut up peaches, 1/4 c white sugar, 1/4 c brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cornstarch. Stir to coat evenly. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish and bake 10 minutes.  

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, 1/4 c white sugar and 1/4 c brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Blend in butter with your fingers or a pastry blender. Stir in hot water. Once the peaches are removed from the oven, plop the flour mixture throughout the peach mix. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Let cool a bit before serving and serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Heavenly Brownies

Often times our grocery store will have a meal deal that offers extras when you purchase a certain product. On this day, our extra was Kraft's Marshmallow Creme. When I was a kid I would make peanut butter, marshmallow creme and banana sandwiches, but I was not sure that my kids would appreciate this sandwich like I did. I decided to mix it up with some brownie mix and turn it into my version of Heavenly Brownies. 

Bake: Follow the baking directions on the brownie box. The main thing you will need to watch for is the time frame in which you cook the Heavenly Brownies. If the box says to cook for 25 minutes, I would cook for 25 minutes but be ready to add extra time and keep a close watch. The marshmallow creme has a tendency to make the brownies take longer for the center to cook, but once they are finished.. they are Heavenly! 

Cinnamon Banana Muffins

Instead of using my standard Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin recipe that I normally use; found here by the way. I decided to do a Pinterest search for regular Banana Muffins. I decided to use the 'Banana Recipe' found at 'Mama Chocolates' blog, but I decided to rename it to 'Cinnamon Banana Muffins' since the spice of cinnamon is so amazing and should be recognized. 

For this recipe you will need ingredients that you most likely already have in your pantry. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin trays with muffin liners or non stick spray. 

Once everything is mixed up, pour the batter into your prepared muffin pan. Fill the muffin cups halfway. 

Bake at 350 degrees for around 25-30 minutes. Once they bounce back and the toothpick is clean once inserted into a muffin, you will know they are done. 

ENJOY!!!

Orbeez Mood Light

My girls have always wanted me to buy them Orbeez. For those moms and dads that don't know what Orbeez are, they are little balls that expand after being soaked in water and then have different ways you can use them. I vowed to the high heavens that I would never allow this product in my home for the fear of my anxiety level rising from the tiny little Orbeez balls bouncing everywhere, but when we were at Kohl's and my girls had money burning in their pocket I couldn't say no. In addition, the Orbeez Mood Light was marked 1/2 off so it was a win and my girls were really excited! 

They decided to make an 'Orbeez Mood Light' toy review VLOG. 

From my girls 'three thumbs up' I believe that we will be buying more Orbeez products in our future! Right now you can purchase them from Amazon.com by simply clicking here. 

*House of Fauci's uses Amazon referral links, so when you shop through the Amazon links on this page you support The House of Fauci's at no cost to you*

Written by: Aimee Fauci

John T Floore Country Store - A 'House of Fauci's' Review

One of my favorite things to do is to drive through small towns and find interesting shops and eating establishments. On this day we were in Helotes, Texas; a small city right outside of San Antonio, Texas. As we entered the city I saw the coolest country store that had an awesome truck parked outside of it and signs, all kinds of signs posted on and around the building. I knew we had to stop; so we did.

My husband had previously read that John T Floore Country Store was listed in the 2001 Texas Monthly as one of the '50 Things Every Texan Should Do'. I am happy to say that over the weekend, 5 Fauci Texans did and it was fabulous. On a side note, this establishment is not only an eating establishment but also a bar that plays live music with some pretty amazing artists. Now since we had the girls with us, we were not able to enjoy the night life but we were able to enjoy the food that was served during lunch. 

As you enter John T Floore's Country Store you are stopped in your tracks by the inside decor. I was loving the outside decor but the inside was crazy cool! After we ordered our food, my husband and I just walked around and studied all of the signs and pictures and everything else that made this place so awesome. 

The menu looked delicious! I was not very hungry but I knew I wanted to eat. My husband ordered the pulled pork bbq nachos with a side of cole slaw and I went ahead and ordered the pork tamales; why not, right, they raved about them on the signs outside. My girls, as usual, split a kid's cheeseburger meal with french fries. 

After we ate our amazing food we decided to walk around outside. John T Floore Country Store has 2 stages, one inside and one outside. The one outside is so Texan (aka freaking awesome) and there is so much seating outside. I will be trying my hardest to pick a day and find a sitter for the girls and see what the nightlife at John T Floore Country Store is all about. I hope I get to see Willie! 

If you visit San Antonio or if you live in San Antonio or in the surrounding area, you should definitely visit this country store. Either stop by for a bite to eat or come on down for the night life. I know we will be back and this time I will be hungry! (SN- if you bring your kids, tell them not to wiggle in the chairs, they are cool chairs but not too sturdy. My sweet Bell took a backwards dive, but hope this will teach her a lesson ;-) )