Too Much Easter Candy? Make Easter Chex Crispy Squares!

We received 10 Easter baskets between the four of us. TEN. So I'm going to be finding some creative ways to use some of our candy up over the next few days. Today I hit a real winner - Easter Chex Crispy Squares!

Easter Chex Crispy Squares

4 T butter
1 bag Easter marshmallows (we used Easter ones plus some that were leftover from Valentine's Day)
1 box Chex
jellybeans

First, melt your butter in the microwave in a large bowl. Take it out and stir in the marshmallows, coating evenly.

Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until marshmallows are melted.

Stir until smooth. Add Chex cereal and stir until evenly coated.

Press mixture into a greased 9x13 pan, press jellybeans into top, and allow to cool.

Cut into squares/rectangles/triangles and enjoy :)

Easter Egg Hunt Fare

Today we had our 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt and I'm proud to say it was a huge success! Part of that is probably in thanks to the food of course! Here's what we ate:

Candy, of course!

Clockwise from bottom left: Veggies and Cheese from a guest, Grapes from a guest, Annie's Organic Bunny Snack Mix (3 boxes!), Marinated Olives, Mee Maw's Deviled Eggs, and Nana's Deviled Eggs.

Carrot and Ranch Dip Shooters, Assorted Cheeses (from Costco), Grapes and Strawberries. We also had Hebrew National Hot Dogs with all the condiments, Beer & Wine, Lemonade, Sweet Tea, and plenty of Juice Boxes for the kiddos.

Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (both recipes from my Betty Crocker Cookbook). The frosting and jellybeans on top are supposed to look like Bird's Nests :)

And perhaps the biggest hit: Carrot Cake Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. (I purchased the royal frosting carrots for the top.) Recipe Below because it was requested a lot!

Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
from Allrecipes.com
(makes 12 cupcakes)

2 oz white chocolate
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t orange extract
4 C powdered sugar
2 T heavy cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/8 C white sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 t vanilla extract
2 C shredded carrots
1/2 C crushed pineapple
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground ginger
1 C chopped walnuts 

Preheat oven to 350. Line or lightly grease 12 muffin cups. 

For Icing
In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat (or you can carefully melt it in the microwave). Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream. 


For Cake
Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.

Chocolate Half Birthday Cake with Naturally Purple Frosting

Today was Cora's half birthday and to celebrate we had the usual half birthday cake. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a few days ago she said "Chocolate Cake with Purple Icing." I immediately thought, "How can I make purple icing without food coloring?" Well, it didn't take too much searching to figure it out and now I have a technique I can use for every occasion. I LOVED the color of this cake and Cora did too. And even better, it tasted FANTASTIC! This will be my new go-to chocolate cake recipe and I'll be playing with icing colors for years to come :)

Chocolate Cake
from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, Bridal Edition

2 1/4 C flour
1 2/3 C sugar
3/4 C butter, softened
2/3 C baking cocoa
1 1/4 C water
1 1/4 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/4 t baking powder
2 large eggs

Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches, 2 round pans, 9x1.5 inches, or 3 round pans, 8x1.5 inches, with shortening. Lightly flour (I used baking cocoa instead of flour).
Beat all ingredients with electric mixture on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).
Bake rectangle 40 to 45 minutes, rounds 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
*To make the half birthday cake I baked two 9-inch round cakes, cut each in half from the top to make four halves, and stacked them with frosting between the layers.

Naturally Purple Buttercream Frosting

Begin by placing about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of frozen blueberries in a pan on the stove. Cook over low heat until blueberries burst and release their juices. Smash and strain thru a sieve to obtain blueberry juice. (you can add the blueberry pulp to some yogurt for a snack if you'd like!) Cool completely.
Next, make a double batch of Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, adding only 2 tablespoons of milk. Replace the remainder of the milk with your reserved blueberry juice until you reach the desired color of frosting. If your frosting gets too thin add more powdered sugar. Then frost and enjoy! The blueberries give the frosting a gorgeous purple color and a only a very slight hint of fruity flavor.

Strawberry Milkshakes!

What's the perfect afternoon snack on a random 60-degree day in January? Well, you read the title so I guess you already know :)

First add 3 scoops of ice cream, 8 strawberries, and 3/4 to 1 cup of milk to your blender and start your engines.

Next, watch your kids literally jump up and down with excitement while the blender does it's magic.

Last but not least - Pour, swig, and smile. Then use your new found energy to go outside and play!

Witch's Hat Cookies

Forgot to share these adorable and super simple cookies we made at Reagan & Reed's house over the weekend. Fudge Shoppe Cookies (turned upside down), orange icing, and hershey kisses. How easy is that?

Daddy's Birthday Dinner

Today was Daddy's birthday and he requested Manicotti and Black Forest Cake. I can do that!
Leyna helped me prepare our favorite manicotti recipe and demanded that I take a picture of her :)

Beef and Cheese Manicotti with Caesar Salad (from a bag)

I looked at a lot of Black Forest Cake recipes spanning from super easy to seriously complicated. This one was in the middle and it turned out SO good. I will definitely be making this cake again. I'd like to try making a few more of the elements from scratch next time. Love, love, love this cake!

Black Forest Cake

Back to School Feast

Well, it's more like First Day of School Feast but it's going to be a tradition so I'll just start calling it that now! Tomorrow is Leyna's first day of school so this evening we wanted to set up a little something to make her feel extra special and confident. The girls got dressed up, I set the table extra special, and I made some of Leyna's favorite foods. Slow cooker lasagna (recipe below), salad with ranch (Leyna had 2 helpings!), and a special surprise dessert - S'mores! Leyna really enjoyed her feast and says she wants to do it again ASAP :)

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Ingredients
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 box lasagna noodles (it seems to work fine with either the boil kind or the oven ready kind)
1 15-oz container ricotta cheese
1 bag baby spinach
1 C grated Parmesan cheese
16 oz mozzarella cheese (I actually used a shredded mexican blend this time and it was good)


Directions

Use a 4 quart slow cooker. Put about 1/4 cup of sauce into the bottom and spread it around. Add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (you'll have to break them to make a layer). Smear ricotta cheese onto the noodles. Add a handful or two of baby spinach and top with a sprinkling of Parmesan and shredded cheeses. Repeat layers until you've run out of ingredients.
Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or on high for 3-4. You'll know it's done when the top layer begins to brown and the cheese is melted and bubbly. Test a noodle to make sure it's cooked all the way.
Enjoy!!! I found myself sneaking a few bites of cold lasagna straight from the crock before I went to bed :)

Cora's Birthday Party Food

Today we had Cora's birthday party - beach style. I think the food was a big success so I'm going to share the recipes here for everyone else to try, and so I can find them next time I need them!

First off, my favorite part - the "CAKE." Cora is not a huge cake fan but she loves dirt pudding so with a beach theme I thought it would be a perfect match. Our friend and neighbor Allie makes the absolute best dirt pudding and was nice enough to let me have her recipe. I doubled it so it would fill this huge bucket and then I topped it with crushed Nilla wafers and chocolate shells. We managed to devour all but about 3 or 4 servings. YUM!

Dirt Pudding
Ingredients
1 package Oreos
1 stick of butter - softened
8 oz cream cheese - softened
1 C powdered sugar
2 4-serving boxes of Instant Vanilla Pudding
3 1/2 C milk
12 oz Cool Whip
1 t vanilla

Directions
Crush Oreos in a food processor and set aside.
In a stand mixer combine butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar and blend until well combined. Add boxes of pudding, milk, cool whip, and vanilla and combine until smooth (I switched from the paddle attachment to the whisk attachment for this part).
Now you're ready to assemble. All you have to do is alternate layers of the cookie mixture and pudding mixture in the container of you choice and enjoy!

In addition to the cake we also had 53 of these adorable little Flip Flop Milano Cookies. I got the idea here. I used the Milk Chocolate Milano cookies, either strawberry or lemon icing, flower shaped sprinkles, and assorted fruit Twizzlers. I have to say that cutting the Twizzlers was a huge pain, but I got it down to a science after a bit and using kitchen scissors was definitely the way to go.

For the main meal we had:

These Octopus Hot Dogs
Slow Cooker Carolina BBQ
Baked Shells & cheese (see below for our go-to recipe - passed down from Nana)
Chips with Pioneer Woman's Restaurant Style Salsa
Chick-fil-A Coleslaw
Watermelon
and we washed everything down with Pee Paw's Famous Lemonade. It was a big hit!

Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Ingredients
1 package (16 oz) macaroni (shells, elbow - be creative!)
1/2 C butter
1/2 C flour
salt & ground black pepper to taste
5 C milk (I use 2-3 cups Half and Half and the rest 1% milk)
4 C (16 oz) shredded cheddar - USE GOOD CHEESE! I use half sharp cheddar (NOT WalMart brand) and half 4-Cheese Cheddar blend from Kraft

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions. In a large saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. Whisk in flour, salt, and pepper and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Gradually whisk in milk/half and half mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens and mixture begins to boil. Add cheese, switching to a wooden spoon to stir, and stir until melted. Dump cooked pasta into a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Pour cheese sauce over top and stir to mix. Bake 30 minutes until bubbly. Makes 8-10 servings. Definitely make 2 pans for party - it goes fast!

Yummy dessert

We went to a little cookout tonight and they had the best dessert! Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches with the edges rolled in crushed pretzel sticks. YUM! Definitely have to make these!!!

Squirrel Cupcakes

Great Grandpa's 90TH birthday is on Sunday so today I made him something a little special. Squirrel cupcakes! He likes squirrels (he even feeds them by hand in his back yard) and there was a squirrel cupcake page in the lovely What's New, Cupcake book that the NY aunts sent me for Mother's Day.
Now, I'll admit there was some frustration and they didn't turn out nearly like the picture, but I think they pass as pretty cute :)

 I hope Grandpa LOVES them! (But I'll never make them again!)

What we ate today...

I hadn't planned on it but I did a lot of cooking today! It makes me happy to feed our little family so well. Here's what we ate...

Leyna & Cora's breakfast: Smiley Pancakes with Fruit

Mommy & Daddy's Breakfast: Egg, Salami, Sage, & Cheese wrap

I made a batch of Pioneer Woman's Restaurant Style Salsa this morning and we snacked on it with chips throughout the day.

Leyna & Cora's Lunch: Turkey, Strawberries, and Carrots with Hummus

Dinner: Cheese Pizza for the girls, Balsamic Strawberry & Basil Pizza for the grown ups - YUM!

And Strawberry Crisp for dessert. I had leftover topping in the fridge from making Peach Crisp so I pressed half into the bottom of this pan, topped it with my homemade strawberry jam, and sprinkled the rest of the topping over it. Delicious on vanilla ice cream!

Memorial Day Fare

We ate really well today. Maybe a little too well ;)
I didn't get any pictures of lunch but we had our neighbors over and feasted on hot dogs, bratwursts, watermelon, pretzels, and fresh veggies.
Dinner was steak and potatoes on the grill, and leftover Sagaponack Corn Pudding (one of my fav dishes) from yesterday. The kids skipped most of these items and ate macaroni and cheese.

Grilled potatoes with sour cream & Nana's salt, NY Strip Steak, corn pudding, and of course A1

My genius invention: Chocolate chip cookie S'mores. Move over graham crackers!!!

Strawberry Crisp for Two (or Five)

Uncle Steve was here tonight and looking for some dessert. Our pantry and fridge are slim pickings right now but I had some frozen strawberries so I searched for a recipe and found this one that I made once last summer. I doubled it so we would have enough for everyone. This one is a KEEPER. So good & SO simple.

Strawberry Crisp for Two
Adapted from Food.com 

Ingredients

1 T butter
1/2 C oats
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

My special addition: 2 T mini chocolate chips
1 C sliced strawberries (I've made it with fresh & frozen and both work great)  

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Mix in oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon. Let cool and then add chocolate chips.
Divide strawberries between 2 single serving sized oven-proof dishes. Sprinkle 1/2 of oatmeal mixture over each.
Bake 15 minutes or until hot and browned.

Half Birthday Cake: 8-layer Starlight Yellow with Strawberry Filling

I made this cake this morning for Leyna's half birthday. It was SO GOOD. My only regret is that I didn't make my own icing because the store bought kind is super sweet.
For the cake I used my standard birthday cake recipe found here, and baked two 9 inch round cakes. After they cooled I stacked them and cut them in half straight down so I ended up with 4 half circles. I then cut each half circle in half horizontally to make it half as thick. I could use a little practice on this step - they weren't quite straight. Next I put some icing on my cake stand and set the first layer on top. I then alternated cake and strawberry jam layers (I used Costco's Organic Strawberry Jam) until they were all stacked, flipping the layers this way and that so that if the cake was lopsided I could put the thinner or thicker side of the next layer to adjust it. Does that make sense? I finished it all off with white icing from a jar but I wish I had used homemade buttercream. I also need lots of practice on my cake icing skills. Crumbs everywhere!
I meant to finish the whole thing off with sliced strawberries right before we ate it but I forgot. Oops. It was delicious anyway and I'll be making this again FOR SURE!!!

Blueberry Oat Crumble Bars

If you saw yesterday's blog you'll know that Leyna and I attempted to do a little baking. It didn't go so well the first time around. We had a bowl full of oats, flour, and brown sugar. I turned my back to get the salt and heard a crash. Then I saw the bowl upside down on the floor with Leyna next to it. There was a fine dusting of flour on her face, slippers, and dress, the stove, the cabinets, the floor, and halfway across the adjoining morning room. Leyna was hysterical, not because she was hurt but just shocked and upset by the disaster. She was much more upset than me and I did my very best to make her laugh at the situation. It was the only thing left to do. I put her on the couch with a movie, cleaned up the mess, and started over. Luckily it's a very easy recipe! And it was worth EVERY second. The four of us plus Uncle Steve made it through the first pan in less than 15 hours. Leyna and I made a second batch today (with strawberries added) and we put a severe hurting on it. You should make it ASAP!!!

Version 1 with blueberries

Version 2 with blueberries & strawberries

Blueberry Oat Crumble Bars
Courtesy of How Sweet It Is

1 1/2 C rolled oats
3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 C butter + 2 T
1 C blueberries (or 1/2 C blueberries and 1/2 C strawberries)

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt. Melt the 1/2 cup of butter and stir the vanilla into it. Add to the oat mixture and stir until completely moistened. Fold in the blueberries.
Butter and flour an 8×8 baking pan or use a non-stick (I actually used a 9x9 and cooked them for the same amount of time). Press batter into the pan. Melt remaining butter and drizzle it over the bars. Bake for 20 minutes and then let it cool completely. Cut and serve. Try not to eat the whole pan in one day, but if you do just concentrate on how healthy most of the ingredients are ;)

Chocolate Pretzel Candies

In my opinion, there is no better sweet & savory combination than pretzels and chocolate. Leyna and I wanted to make some goodies for Daddy's co-workers so we whipped these little goodies up. They are so easy and SO addictive. Leyna helped to unwrap and place the Hershey Kisses. We used 4 bags of kisses & hugs so I think we made over 200 of these things. Yikes!

Chocolate Pretzel Candies
pretzels "snaps"
Hershey Kisses or Hugs
M&Ms

Preheat oven to 250. Lay pretzels on a non-stick or foil-lined baking sheet and top with one Hershey Kiss or Hug each. Place in oven for about 4 minutes, or until the chocolate is soft enough to give when you press it. The Hugs will melt a little faster than the Kisses and I know oven temperatures vary so you may have to eyeball it a bit. As soon as you take them out place an M&M on top of each Hershey Kiss or Hug and gently press it down. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden, then store at room temperature in a sealed container. Summon all of your will power not to eat them all in one sitting!