CHURROS!

Okay, so I got this wild "hair" and decided to make these today. They were pretty simple....here are my pictures;
Okay, so the recipe said to use a pastry bag and the star tip and I could not find my star tip then I remembered I had THIS! Its from Pampered Chef and its for frosting and it has a star tip. It worked PERFECT! Just squeeze the handle and out come churros...
I put the oil in the cast iron pan that we make our taco shells in. This pan as been around for MANY years! It worked great....

When the churros were golden brown, I took them out and rolled them in cinnamon and granulated sugar...

Here is the finished product. I went all out on the plate, I know! I made hubby try them and he said they were good an my three year old asked for another and knew exactly what they were before I even told him! Now he wants to go to Disneyland, lol!

Semi-homemade cupcakes

Tomorrow night is my son's last tee ball game and there will be a pizza party after the game for medals and certificates. I volunteered to bring/make cupcakes and realized I am limited time and in this heat I do NOT feel like baking! I ended up at Sam's Club asking for a box of white cupcakes with white butter cream frosting. I called up my brother and asked for his two cents and together this is what we came up with:

Started with the plain cupcakes that I purchased

Took the frosting off

Put it in the bowl

Piped it onto the cupcakes
Ran a butter knife under hot water too smooth out the tops of the cupcakes

So they looked like this

This is what I purchased to pipe the threads on with

This is all the frosting I have left over

And this is what I ended with!

It Has Been Chosen!

My son has decided that he would like a Star Wars birthday party this year. I knew it was coming since he is obsessed (I use the word loosely) with ALL things Star Wars. Now it is time for me to scour the Internet looking for some great ideas for his party. My Nephew had a Star Wars themed party for his fourth birthday so it is my duty to NOT replicate anything that was done at his party! Well, one exception....my brother will make the cake! Here are a few of the ideas I have found so far....
I LOVE this first idea, "Yoda Soda." It's simple and very cute! It is simply lime sherbet and sprite! Wa la...Yoda soda. Genius!


I like this idea as well, make your own R2D2 but I need to find more than just THIS picture. I need to find the tutorial so I can figure out if this is something for smaller children as well...

If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them! I am looking for "original," fun, exciting things for a three, well four year olds birthday.

Hello Blogland!

I have recently become obsessed with searching other people's blogs for GREAT ideas that I can copycat! I love seeing what other people are doing and trying it out for myself. Here is a list of things I am wanting to try:
Door Wreath from plastic grocery bags. I think this would be a great idea for Christmas, add a sparkly "Christmas" ribbing and you have a great wintry decoration or inexpensive gift.
Something else I saw was this so very cute garland! I am a sucker for anything red, white and blue and I love patriotic decorations. This looks so easy I am dying to try it!

I found a churro recipe online and then while I was searching blogs, I found the snickerdoodle muffin recipe. The pictures make these muffins look sooo amazing!

Here are some cute Valentine's ideas I JUST came across. I have never done a garland but after seeing all these posts, I may have to try one (or two.) I am now on the hunt for something fun for Halloween!

Speaking of Halloween, how cute are these terra cotta mummies?!?!?! I am so going to make these this year!

S'mores! (on a stick)

I saw this idea on Christy's blog that I follow and decided at the total last minute to try it. I found myself at Michael's at 9pm getting chocolate, ribbon and the paper cups. I was not sure exactly how I was going to present them but I wanted to cover all my bases. I then ran to the grocery store for the graham crackers, marshmallows and a few other items that we needed like MILK!
Here goes!
This is what I started with...

I ran a whole sleeve of graham crackers through the food processor

I then melted my chocolate

While the chocolate was melting, I put the marshmallows on the sticks

I dipped the marshmallows in the chocolate using the spatula to coat them completely

I tapped them lightly on the edge of the bowl to knock off any excess chocolate to prevent dripping

I then sprinkled the graham cracker crumbs all over the melted chocolate covering them pretty good

I knew I did not want them to have flat "bottoms" so I figured out a way to "hang" dry them. I was just going to put the through the cooling racks but the sticks were a bit longer than I thought so I solved this problem by stacking the cooling racks

When they were dry I placed them each in a paper cup and placed them on the tray. These were such a big hit at work. Everyone loved them and a few people even suggested roasting the marshmallow before covering it in chocolate (which I really considered) another said that her son was having a beach party for some kids and this would be perfect because then the kids would not have to get near fire! I will definitely do these again!

Brownie bites/balls

Okay, so yesterday I blogged about making churros for work....well, I decided due to time and money, I would just bake brownies. Needless to say, they did not turn out the way I expected! I baked according to package directions and let them cool then cut them up. As I was taking them out of the pan, they fell apart! I cannot take a pile of brownie chunks to work, not when I have been dubbed "Martha Stewart!" (This is what was left when I was finished rolling, just the "crust.")
Luckily I had some white chocolate left over from my Twilight party so I started rolling the pieces into balls. These turned out perfect! I was going to fork them but did not have enough forks left so luckily I had enough sucker sticks (I always have plenty of those on hand!) I put the balls in the freezer just long enough for me to melt my chocolate
and while I was doing that I fished through my pantry for something fun to "decorate" them with and found fun little sprinkles! Who doesn't love sprinkles....of course my 3 year old son saw the sprinkles and he wanted to dive right in helping Mama.
Once my chocolate was melted, I took the balls from the freezer and inserted a stick and dipped them in the chocolate. I immediately sprinkled with the sprinkles and placed them on wax paper. I repeated this process until all 20 were finished!
I let the chocolate harden on the wax paper on the counter and once they were set, moved them to the tray I will take them to work on. Wha La! Brownie balls! This is my third attempt at making these, each time I get better. My secret is the cheapest brownie mix I can find (.99 cents) and then just roll the brownies bite size. The bigger they are, the more difficult they are to work with. They are more heavy and fall off the stick. I made these small and they stayed on the sticks perfectly!

Churro or NOT to Churro, that is the question!

New shifts start Monday, July 12th and we have decided to do a Mexican theme potluck at work tomorrow. Kind of like a send off for those of us going from swing shift to days. I have been debating what to bring and this morning I got the hair brained idea to make churros. So I searched online and found this simple recipe:

Churros
Ingredients: (Makes one plate full)
Vegetable or Olive Oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Prepare to fry the churros by heating oil in a pan (1 to 1&1/2 inches) to 360 degrees F.

To make churro dough, heat water, margarine and salt to rolling boil in 3-quart saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from heat. Beat eggs all at once; continue beating until smooth and then add to saucepan while stirring mixture.

Spoon mixture into cake decorators' tube with large star tip (like the kind use to decorate cakes). Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. (Mix Sugar and the optional cinnamon); roll churros in sugar or dump the sugar on the pile of churros, like the pros. That churro taste will take you right back to your favorite summer days walking the paseos of Spain.

Note: REAL churros in Spain are made without cinnamon mixed with the sugar, but the cinnamon adds an extra nice flavor.

Now I just need to go to the store and buy some flour and see if I can do this.