happy {heart} day

We had a great time preparing for Valentine's Day this year. Xavier's homework was to make a box for all of his Valentines...



I helped but the design was all his own. Cute! He chose Star Wars Valentines and also gave out Fun Dips. He did a great job addressing everything:)

 

Dax also worked on his Valentines.




The boys did crafts over the weekend too.




I saw this idea on a blog and made these cookies.
 

I just followed the recipe for Peanut Butter Blossoms but used Dove hearts instead of Kisses. Cute and easy!
This was sitting at the table for each of the boys when they came to the table for chocolate chip heart pancakes in the morning.



Dax, Lincoln and I went to a party that had tons of activities and was so much fun for all of us!  Here is a really cute treat that Dax got from his friend Sadie.


Sadie's mom Hillery made the cutest cookie dough pops covered in white chocolate and tiny heart sprinkles. Adorable!!

We all certainly enjoyed some Valentine treats....all of us except Lincoln. How did he feel about that you may ask???


'Nuf said!!

happy b-day

to my "older" (wink**wink**) husband!!

The boys wanted to make a special dessert for Daddy and we talked about making him a giant chocolate ship cookie because he loves cookies so much. But we couldn't tell him because we wanted to keep it a surprise. After we decided on it, X asked Steve at dinner a few days before, what his favorite dessert was.

Steve: Well, I like eclair cake...
X: What else?
Steve: I really like berry cobbler...
X: Is there anything else?
Steve: Well.... I like chocolate chip cookies!
X: (smiling huge)Well, I am not not going to nod my head...
Steve: So I guess it will have to be a big surprise then!

So as a big surprise we made Steve this



Xavier helped me make the cookie dough. After that, he helped to clean up by doing this


and this



He also helped to choose the right blue.



It was a nice day. By chance Steve had the day off. He and Dax went to get haircuts.



We fed the kids early and then had a "date" and made homemade crab cakes and scallops for dinner and had his special cookie for dessert.



I asked Steve if he wanted a candle and at first he refused. I asked him if he was sure about that. After all, you only get to have a birthday wish once a year...he reconsidered and blew out the candle. At what point do the candles stop being better than the cake??? Not yet... although the cookie was delicious!!



***We just used the regular Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe and added pecans. I then spread about 2/3 of the dough on a pizza pan and baked it at 325 until it looked done. I used a cookie scoop on the rest of the dough, put them on parchmant and stuck them in the freezer to harden. After I remembered that they were in the freezer, I took them off the parchamet and stuck them into a ziplock freezer bag to bake later. I have made a giant cookie before using all the the dough and it was BIG disaster, with dough oozing over the pan and all over the oven. Lesson learned there!! My MIL also has made this with the chocolate chip cookie bar recipe with good results.

goodbye december

We certainly enjoyed you!!


I have one last recipe to share this year. I had been looking for a new sugar cookie recipe that tasted like a sugar cookie that we made all the time growing up called "Mary's Sugar Cookies" but that held its shape better for cutouts. I think I finally found it on Tasty Kitchen of course:) You can find it here.
And her icing is dynamite too. Found here. (Thanks Amanda!)

spring salad and wedding cookies

In attempt to find a new and interesting salad for my SIL's wedding shower, I came across this recipe for a salad. Here is the recipe as written.


Blueberry Spinach Salad


1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach, torn
1 (4 ounce) package blue cheese, crumbled
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted


In a jar with a tight fitting lid mix the first 5 ingredients together. Assemble the rest of the salad in a large bowl pouring dressing over right before serving.


I tested out a version of this salad out on a friend who was visiting (thanks Steph for being my guinea pig!). Here are my substitutions:


I used raspberry white balsamic vinegar and feta cheese for the blue cheese. The store was out of blueberries so I used strawberries and I used my friend Susan's awesome sugared nut recipe (which I will post) with walnuts instead of pecans.


Susan's Awesome Sugared Nuts


2 cups nuts
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water


Put all ingredients in a glass bowl and stirring to mix. Microwave in one minute intervals and stir. It is finished when the mixture crystallizes. Pour out on a plate or baking pan to cool- breaking up clumps. My microwave takes about 7 minutes total. You can even add cinnamon or cayenne pepper to them if you would like but I like them best plain:)

In the final shower for the salad, I used a mixture of spinach and spring lettuce mix and used blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. The dressing was served on the side. It was beautiful and very tasty!

I also made some wedding shaped cookies as favors with fondant and royal icing . The recipe was from the William Sonoma website. It makes a very rich and flavorful cookie.



Sugar Cookies

16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 piece vanilla bean, about 2 inches long
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt


In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and, using a small, sharp knife, scrape the seeds into the butter mixture. Mix well. In a sifter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift the flour mixture directly onto the butter mixture. Reduce the speed to low and beat until well mixed.


Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball, then flatten the balls into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (The dough can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.) Let it soften slightly at room temperature before continuing.


Position a rack in the upper third of an oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 2 large baking sheets. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out a dough disk 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes. Transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets. Gather up and re-roll the scraps and cut out more cookies. Repeat with the remaining dough disks. Bake until the cookies are golden on the edges, about 8 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.


Makes 24 to 30 cookies.


I think that using real vanilla bean is such a nice touch since the ingredients are so simple. You can get them in the grocery spice section or online. After the cookies cooled completely I spread a thin layer of buttercream icing (to act as glue) and then rolled out fondant and used the cookie cutter and put the fondant cutout on top of each cookie. Royal icing was used to make simple embellishments. So pretty!

Thanks J for all of your help and planning for the shower. I think it turned out great!

festive fun food

I made this fun jello salad for Easter at Steve's parent's house. We all got together the Saturday before Easter and had a great time.

Ribbon Jello Salad

1 (3 ounce) package cherry flavored gelatin mix
1 (3 ounce) package lemon flavored gelatin mix
1 (3 ounce) package lime flavored gelatin mix
1 (3 ounce) package orange flavored gelatin mix

1 (3 ounce) package berry flavored gelatin mix (optional)

2 cups milk
2 (.25 ounce) packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup white sugar
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
In a medium saucepan, boil milk and sugar. Cool completely, but do not refrigerate.
Dissolve each package of flavored gelatin separately in 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. Set aside.
Dissolve unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add with sour cream to cooled milk and sugar and vanilla mixture. Set aside.
Spread gelatin of one color on the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Chill in refrigerator until set. Then put 1 1/3 cup of the sour cream mixture on the chilled, firm layer of gelatin. Keep alternating these until all gelatin is used. Be sure to chill after each addition of gelatin.

This was really fun to make and was so colorful but took a loooong time due to letting each layer set. The visual results were totally worth it though! I actually used 5 packs of jello so that is why I added an optional pack in the ingredients. The layers wanted to slide off one another so the next time I make this I will add each layer after about 20-25 mins instead of letting it set completely. I was not very diligent about timing the layers and often would forget about it! Don't let the sour cream throw you....the white layer tastes a lot like cream cheese:)

I also made Bird's Nests. This is a throw back to the days of my youth when Mom would whip these up. Super easy and very cute!

Bird Nest Cookies

1 bag milk choc chips

1 can (5 oz.) can chow mein noodles

1 c. chopped salted peanuts (optional)

1 bag sm. jelly beans

Melt chips in microwave or double boiler. Add noodles, stir until completely coated. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper shaping into nest. Cool completely. Add jelly beans.

There are so many variations on this cookie. You can use white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or combine the butterscotch with the chocolate. You can even add peanut butter. Whatever you would like. I just went for easy and used the milk chocolate chips and the noodles. AND jelly beans of course!

White Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I came across this recipe in the "Creating A Stir" cookbook that I had picked up a few years ago. It is published by the Lexington Medical Society Auxiliary and had a ton of great recipes in it. It also has a lot of very interesting southern history tidbits scattered throughout. Try this instead of your regular Chocolate Chip cookie recipe for something a little different.


White Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ cups uncooked oats
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
1 package white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, and eggs until creamy. Add vanilla and almond extract. Mix together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in white chocolate chips. Bake for 10-12 mins.

We thought these were good and would be even better with dried cherries added. Would also look cute with the red cherries and white chips for Valentine's Day.

My official taste tester thought they were great! He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough! "More TT's please!"