Peanut Butter Balls

 I got the rare opportunity to go visit my mom and dad for the weekend without any kids!  We had a lot of fun and tried out a new recipe.  These peanut butter balls are from Trisha Yearwood's cooking show on Food Network.  Not only were they easy to make, but they are really yummy.  They make a lot, which is great for a party or as gifts.  I think Trisha made hers a lot bigger and thus, had less PB balls per batch, but I prefer them more bite size.  I might add some mini chocolate chips or a chocolate drizzle on them next time too.  Everything is better with a little chocolate on it.  Recipe can be found HERE.

Grilled Pizza

 One of our favorite summertime dinners is homemade grilled pizza.  We have a super easy pizza dough recipe and make them small in size for easy grill flipping and personalization of toppings.  I'm getting hungry just looking at these pictures....guess what we are having for dinner tonight?

 Pizza Dough

(courtesy of Erica)

1 1/4 C warm water

1T yeast

2T sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 C flour (approx)

Dissolve yeast in water.  Add sugar, salt, and most of the flour and mix.  Add more flour if dough is too sticky or wet.  Mix with hands for 3 minutes.  Rest dough in bowl for 10 minutes.  Brush olive oil and cornmeal on a baking sheet.  Divide dough into fourths if making small pizzas and roll out with rolling pin, transfer to baking sheet.  Cook on baking sheet for 8 minutes in a 425 degree oven or 6-8 minutes directly on a medium heat grill.  If grilling, flip over and cook the top for a couple of minutes as well.  Add toppings and cook again until cheese is melted.

 

Chocolate Craving

My husband bought me some yummy chocolate bars for Easter this year.  We decided to conduct an experiment with some friends to see which one we liked the most.  They were ALL really good, but there can only be one winner.

• 1-Cherry Rooibos
• 2- Mo's Dark Bar (bacon chunks in the chocolate)
• 3- Blood Orange Caramel
• 4- Goji
• 5- Black Salt Caramel

All three of the bars that had fruit in them were very really good. The tart of the fruit really cut through the sweetness of the chocolate and you can really taste the different fruity flavors.  The Vosges company really knows what they are doing when it comes to balancing flavors.  The bacon bar was so yummy too, it was actually a really tough decision.  I know it may not sound that great to mix bacon and chocolate, but trust me, it is fabulous.  Our least favorite was the black salt caramel.  It was still really good, but perhaps because of the black Hawaiian salt, the aftertaste was a little funny.

Thanks to my husband for getting me such a fun treat for Easter...now I just need to go run for a couple of weeks to work it all off.  Thanks to my taste testers too.

(not compensated in any way for this post, we just really liked the chocolate.  Now, go get some for yourself!)

Chocolate Ginger"dead" Men

 Using some leftover chocolate cookie dough from my son's Mirror, Mirror cookies, I decided to try out a cookie cutter I bought last year after Halloween:

 Picked this up on clearance because I knew my boys would love these scary-but-cute cookies.

I first tried it out on some regular sugar cookie dough last November and it was a dismal failure. 

 First you cut out your dough in the gingerbread man shape using this side of the cutter.

Then, you flip it over and use the stamper side to indent the dough with the skeleton design.  Throw those cookies in the oven and bake...easy, right?  NO!  I could never get the stamper to stamp cleanly into my sugar cookie dough.  No matter how much I floured or greased the dough and stamper, it would stick.  AND if I did finally get a decently stamped cookie, they puffed up too much in the oven while baking, thus rendering my tedious bone stamping efforts useless!  The whole point is to have the indentation of the bones intact after baking so you can fill it in with thinned, white frosting.  It was so aggravating that I gave up and stored the cookie cutter away, thinking I would just use the cutter side at Christmas time for normal gingerbread men.

Well, after seeing how well those Mirror Mirror cookies were holding their shape, I gave the skeleton stamper another go....

 ...and it worked!  It's all about the dough consistency, baby.  Just dust the top of the dough and stamper with a little cocoa powder and you are good to go!  I love this cookie dough and prefer the chocolate to regular sugar cookies anyway.  Win, win.

These will definitely be making another appearance this October...or if one my boys wants a skeleton themed birthday party this summer...hey, you never know with my kids.

Mirror, Mirror Cookies

 I have a Disney kids' cookbook that has been in my possession for a long time, possibly bought before I had my own children, I can't remember.  I figured someday I would makes some fun things out of it with my kids.  Well, the cookbook sat on the shelf for years and years until my 8 year old found it, poured over it's contents, and chose a recipe to try.  I have no idea why it was Snow White's Mirror Mirror cookies.  I don't think he's even seen the Snow White movie.  The closest thing we get to Princess movie watching over here is skipping to the action sequences in Tangled...my boys love Max the horse and the frying pan smacking.  There were plenty of more boy friendly movies and recipes to try (Aladdin, 101 Dalmations, Bug's Life, etc) in the book.

Anyway, he must have thought they looked yummy, because that's what we made last weekend.

 Here is my attempt at making my cookie look like the ones in the book:

We didn't have red heart sprinkles or the little silver balls (do they even make those anymore?), so we did the best we could with what we had on hand.

 

My son's creations.  I think he got a little tired of the detail work around the mirror by that fourth cookie.  Can't say that I blame him.  They were a bit more work than my normal throw-everything-in-a-mixer-and-add-some-chocolate-chips cookies.  Nothing we couldn't handle though.

 And may I just say, they were surprisingly delicious.  The dough was really yummy and held it's shape well.  I will be using this recipe again for chocolate sugar cookies.  The frosting wasn't bad either, although I prefer royal icing for decorating.

"Someday my prince will come...."

"Oh, there he is!"

 Here is the front cover of our cookbook.  There are lots of fun recipes in there, most of them very easy to make.  We also tried the "101 Dalmations" Kanine Krunchies  (rice krispies treats in the shape of dog bones) a few days later.  I forgot to take a picture, but they were a hit as well.  You can pick up a copy of this cookbook HERE if you're interested.  Happy baking with your kids!

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Valentine's Day crafts and gifts were very simple this year.  We bought some small whack-a-pack Valentine balloons and made a custom label that said, "My Heart Pops For You!"  Of course, I forgot to take a picture.  We did manage a little homemade project of fortune cookie making, thanks to a recipe my 3rd grader brought home from school.

I added the chocolate drizzle using melted almond bark and a squeeze bottle.

Oh, if only this was TRUE!

Homemade Fortune Cookies:

4 TB softened butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup water

fortunes, cut and ready to go

Preheat oven to 375.  Use a well greased baking sheet or a silicone mat.  In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg whites, salt, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in flour and water until combined and smooth.  With spoon, scoop out an even spoonful of batter and carefully pour onto baking sheet.  Use the back of spoon to form a circle about 3 inches in diameter (I made mine a little bigger).  The batter should be thin, almost transparent.  Do not pour more than 5 on a baking sheet at a time.  You will have to work quickly to shape the cookies before they harden.  Bake for 6-7 minutes, until edges are golden brown.  Pull out of oven, place paper fortune on one half of cookie.  Fold over so the cookie is in the shape of a semi-circle.  Gently fold over again, so the cookie can stand up on the open edges (see pictures).  Let cool.  Cookie will harden slightly as it cools.  Drizzle with chocolate, yum!

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year have both come and gone, but maybe there is another holiday you can celebrate by making these simple, easy cookies.  You can customize a message inside to say anything!  My boys would love these with some fun birthday wishes or even some funny jokes inside.

Letterpress and Football

 After being sick with a nasty cold for almost the entire month of January, and the first half of February playing catch up because I was sick for so long....I am finally getting around to updating my blog.  As you can imagine, there has not been a whole lot of creating going on, but I was able to squeeze in a few small things:

I got a letterpress machine (the Epic 6) and I love it.  I've only had time to pull it out twice, but I'm hoping to play with it more soon.  I'll post pictures of any cute letterpress I create.  My first time I made these cute but basic "congrats" cards on silver paper using black ink.

We did manage to have some family friends over and celebrate the Super Bowl as well.  Nacho bar and football strawberries (compliments of my husband's new job).  I did not make those football berries, but they look like they would be fun to try!

Christmas Bread 2012

I hate ironing, so I use my ironing board for holding all of my Christmas poppy seed bread instead.  Can't iron if I wanted to....oh well.

More on the table.  Did over 50 loaves this year.  We have too many teachers, tutors, therapists, coworkers, and friends apparently.  Not complaining really, I love making this bread and giving it away.  It's probably my favorite part of the holidays.

Use some tags from last year and these "Joyeux Noel" ones from HERE.  Thought they were cute.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Food!

Homemade Tikka Masala via Pioneer Woman.  This is a new "regular" at our house.  We love it.

 The malt flavor list at one of our new favorite burger joints.  So far, we've tried Creme Brulee, Lime Freeze, Bacon, and Apple Pie.  The Creme Brulee is our favorite so far, divine!

 Garlic fries from the same joint.  Good thing I just ate dinner or I would be starving right now.

Sea Turtle Sourdough

Did you know that if you buy a loaf of bread at Boudin and you have kids with you, they will give you some cute mini loaves in the shape of animals FOR FREE?  This day was sea turtles.  Actually it might be sea turtles every day, not sure.  I guess we'll have to go back and see.  The kids thought they were so fun and the bread itself is phenomenal.  I love sourdough!  

July 4th Strawberry Flag

We had a wonderful 4th of July.  Our friends invited us over for a swim, I brought a strawberry flag to share.  The blue strawberries are dipped in white chocolate and then rolled in sprinkles.  I also made a batch like last year too.

The boys had a great time swimming and lighting fireworks.  The highlight of the evening is when my brother threw a smoke bomb up in the air, it came down, bounced off of the curb of the sidewalk, and rolled under my leg where I was sitting with my four year old.  It happened so fast that I didn't have time to do anything else except grab my kid and stumble away.  Luckily, the four year old walked away unscathed.  The same cannot be said for my favorite maxi dress.  There are about 4 holes in all.  I think it's going to become a knee length swim coverlet now.

The burn only hurt for a few minutes, but it took a couple of good scrubbings to get the smoke stain off.  The firework attack was not done intentionally, and I harbor no ill will, BUT revenge is sweet when it comes to siblings.  I'll get him back someday, ....somehow.

Semi-Homemade Cupcakes

Helped make some cupcakes for a friend who was hosting a shower recently.  She bakes the cupcakes and then bought the most yummy buttercream frosting from a local cupcake shop.  I just brought over my decorating tips and we added some sprinkles to finish it off.  Such an easy way to save some money and time.  I will be doing this in the future for my own hosting responsibilities.

Homemade Lemon Curd

My friend loves (amongst other things) lemon and chocolate.  For her birthday, I made her a lemon berry trifle with homemade lemon curd.  You can find the recipe for the lemon curd HERE.  I only used their lemon curd recipe and made up my own version of trifle.

The curd was amazing.  Light, smooth, and very lemony.  It was a bit of a labor of love because you have to stand and stir it while it cooks for 20 minutes, BUT it was worth it!  I will make it again.  I'm thinking for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in July....it's in London, so lemon curd with scones and tea sounds just about right.   

(My husband will roll his eyes when he reads that last bit.)

Here's my trifle.

A layer of diced poppy seed muffins (mine are from Costso), lemon curd, fresh berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries), and fresh whipped cream.  Repeat layers until you reach the top of your bowl.

My whipped cream was heavy cream, about a teaspoon of vanilla, a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and the juice of one lemon.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form.  My measurements were approximate.  I tasted as I went.

The top was decorated with lemon slices and my son insisted we spell out a "J" for the birthday girl.

Another friend brought the chocolate decadence with the candles on it (also in a "J").  It was delish and would satisfy any chocolate craving. 

Happy Birthday!

Banana Cake

I had a request for the recipe to my mother in law's yummy banana cake.  I originally posted about it HERE.  I usually bake it in a loaf pan and frost the cooled loaf.  When you slice it, then you get a little frosting on the top and sides.  Lately, I've been using the same recipe, but baking it in a tart pan and frosting the top like a cake....and adding some mini chocolate chips.  Same yummy bread/cake, just a different shape.  Enjoy!

Banana Cake:

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 beaten eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sour milk (1 T. lemon juice, add milk until you reach 1/2 cup)

1 cup banana pulp, about 2 large bananas

Cream shortening and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat until fluffy.  Add dry ingredients alternately with the sour milk and banana pulp.  Add mini chocolate chips (optional).  Bake in a greased loaf or tart pan at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, depending on your pan size.

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 T. milk (may need more)

3 cups powdered sugar

Mix ingredients.  Add more milk if too stiff, more powdered sugar if too runny.  Frost top and sides of cooled loaf or top of cooled tart.

CTR Pretzels

My 7 year old recently found a recipe HERE that he wanted to try.  We made some CTR pretzels on a rainy Sunday afternoon and they were a big hit.  Dad especially loved them and has requested that we make them again soon.

Milk and Cookies Birthday Party

Two of my boys birthdays are a month and two days apart; one in December before Christmas and one right after New Years.  While they're young, we are doing a combo party in January for both boys.  So far, no one is complaining and it's easier to throw a birthday party after the Christmas holidays.

My 4 year old loves milk and my 5 year old loves cookies.  Only natural to do a milk and cookies party to celebrate what they both love.

Milk bottles with cookies and cream flavor milk straws.  Prize bags filled with cookie making supplies for our cookie contest winners.  In the very back were bags for our guests to take extra cookies home.

The print is from HERE.  Glass jars and cake stands collected through the years.  The cake stands are on inverted glass bowls for a little extra height.  Labels from HERE.

I made sugar cookies with royal icing, my son's favorite chocolate chip cookies, and my favorite chocolate creme filled cookies.  Each family brought a plate of cookies to share as well.  We had LOTS of cookies.

Straws in milkshake glasses

The milk straws are at all of my local grocery stores and come in a variety of flavors.

Cookie mix in a jar party favors.  The polka dot top is a piece of scrapbook paper.  The cookie shaped tags were made on my Silhouette.

Paper cups for the little ones.  Cookie stickers made on my Silhouette and stuck right on the paper cups, so easy.

Carafes for white, chocolate, and strawberry milk.  I thought chocolate milk would be the most popular, but strawberry won out big time. 

Made a small 6 inch cake for each birthday boy.  Cut the cake in half horizontally, filled with some cream cheese frosting, topped with a sugar cookie and cute candles.

Sign made with my Silhouette.  Took me about 15-20 minutes, no joke.  I don't have a use for it anymore, so if anyone wants it, I will mail it to you.  First come, first served.

 My boys had a great time and all the guests seemed to enjoy themselves too.  

Happy Birthday A and T!

And NOW.....2012 can begin for me....whew!