Winter Cupcakes

I found "edible snowflakes" at Joann's and decided they were a must! So I instantly knew I was going to make cupcakes with them for our family Christmas dinner at my Mother in laws house. Below is the picture. I didn't really do anything special, I literally did these "semi-homemade" sytle! Box cake mix, purchased the blue cupcake papers at Target and a canned frosting. What I DID do was sift powdered sugar and add some vanilla, almond extract and some butter to the canned frosting so it would have more of a smooth, homemade flavor. (I cheated!) After the cupcakes were baked and cooled I put the frosting into my handy dandy Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator and went to town! My five year old helped me by putting the snowflakes on and then I dusted with the baby blue disco dust...these were a hit!

Gourmet Strawberries

With tomorrow being Mother's Day I wanted to have a brunch for a few special women, my Mom, Mother in law, my Hubby's Grandmother and my Sister in law....well, do to circumstances beyond my control, things changed.

Hubby and I surprised our 4 year old Thursday with a trip to Legoland and as we drove to our destination I saw a strawberry stand and told Hubby that if they were still open when we left we would HAVE to get strawberries there....and we did. I scored big time! Three baskets for $9.50 and they are big and dark red and juicy!

Last night I went for it turned out these!!! I think they turned out great and only hope they taste as good as they look...

On the left is chocolate covered in mini chocolate chips, to the right of that is chocolate sprinkled in coconut, to the right of that is chocolate drizzled with white chocolate, next to that is white chocolate coconut and then last is white chocolate drizzled with milk chocolate.

Valentine's

I was searching for a Valentine's idea that was simple that I could make for my son's daycare class. I came across this....
I set out to find all the materials and had better luck than I thought! I already had the glue so I purchased 2 bags of the Valentine's Tootsie Pops, 1 package of card stock at Michael's, 2 packages of the google eyes at Michael's and the felt heart stickers I found in the dollar section at Target. This whole project is under $20 and I think its better than any of the pre-fabricated Valentine's sold in the boxes. I was looking at the Star Wars ones for my son then decided these would be better!

I started by loading my printer with the color card stock and printing the pattern from the above website. I then cut the all out and I did NOT take my time to make them perfect, I think they have more character this way. The guides provided for the slits for the sucker stick are a bit small so I cut mine a bit longer and then secured the sucker with a small piece of tape to prevent it from sliding out or turning. I then decorated the butterflies with the stickers and then inserted the suckers then glued on the eyes. Finished product, what do you think?

Cookies/Brownies in a JAR!

A long time ago a girlfriend and I saw these and the Internet was no where near as big as it is today....so we had NO idea what we were doing and could not just "Google" it. So we set out to "do it ourselves" and ended up making huge messes and broken jars. To this day I still do not know if anyone ever made the cookies or just kept the jar for looks.

A few years ago I was at my local cake supply store and found a recipe book for "Cookies in a jar" and since it was only a few buck, I picked one up. Clearly it was done by one of the ladies that worked there or someone she knew and they decided to sell it for her....anyway, I forgot I had it till I came upon it a few weeks ago! SCORE! I remembered my Mom saying that I had some jars left over at her place and she brought them to me and there were eight jars. Hubby grabbed three bags of plain red/green M&M's from the store and off I went making jars for co-workers and my son's teachers. I managed to get four jars of cookies from three bags of M&M's then I was stumped for the fifth jar... I found in the back of the book a recipe for Brownies in a Jar and I did not have enough of the nuts so I substituted with the remaining M&M's and so the brownies will have walnuts and M&M's, YUM!

You use quart size jars and the book says "wide mouth" but I did not have those so I used what I had and everything fit. You layer the ingredients in order and then make your tags and you are done!

Cookies in a Jar

1 1/4 C granulated sugar

1 1/4 C plain M&M's

2 C flour mixed with 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda

layer in jar in order

attach tag that says the following

1-Empty jar of cookie mix into large mixing bowl

Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix

2-Add; 1 stick of butter, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla

3-Mix until completely blended, you will need too finish mixing with your hands

4-Shape into balls the size of walnuts, place 2" apart on sprayed baking sheets

5-Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets then remove cookies to racks to finish cooling.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen

Brownies in a Jar

2 1/4 C sugar

2/3 C cocoa powder

3/4 C chopped nuts

1 1/4 C flower mixed with

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

Layer in jar in order

Attach tag that says the following

1-Empty jar of brownie mix into large mixing bowl.

Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix.

2-Add: 1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine melted

4 eggs, lightly beaten

3-Mix until completely blended

4-Spread batter in a sprayed 9"x13" baking pan

5-Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Cut into 2" squares.

Makes 2 dozen

Creepy Finger Cookies

A girl at work made these last year and hers were so good I took a picture of one with my phone and sent it to my husband and he actually thought I broke one of MY nails! I remembered she made these and asked her for her recipe so I could make some for my Halloween party this Friday. Here is how they turned out! Not bad for my first attempt. Next time I will use half the salt and make them much thinner because they rise. I may also use the raspberry jam instead of the red piping gel.

Creep Witches' Fingers

Yield: 5 dozen

1 cup butter (softened)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1tsp almond extract

1tsp vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp salt (I'd use 1/2 instead)

3/4 cup almonds sliced

1 tube red decorator gel or raspberry jam

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoon full of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in center to create knuckle shape. Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and pres almonds back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood."

Halloween Oreos

I used these for a project at work and decided to make a small arrangement for my Halloween party that is this Friday night. I think they turned out cute!

Halloween Oreos

I used these for a project at work and decided to make a small arrangement for my Halloween party that is this Friday night. I think they turned out cute!

Terra Cotta Mummies

Well, here they are, mommy mummy and baby mummy. Hayden and I had a blast making these with my "mummy" lol. We each painted our own then I glued the material on and did the distressing ink. The third one I wrapped turned out the best because I got better as I did them. Maybe I'll have to do some more next year and use the eyes with the eyelashes and maybe put some bows or rhinestones on them for some girlie bling.

Halloween Oreo's

Another team challenge at work that I get roped into putting together.... I was given one of those cheap plastic cauldrons and told to "fill it." I decided to spray paint it with the same spray paint I used for my candle sticks before my Twilight party. It made the cauldron look more "metal" and gave it a "sparkle" too! The team donated about $45 so I decided to go to Bath & Body Works and "have at it!" I put in some of the Twilight Woods scent in the body lotion, body spray and bath gel then I added the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin hand soap and portable scent dispenser. The two smaller bottles in the front are hand sanitizer in a fun Halloween theme. I needed filler so I opted for chocolate covered Oreo's. I found the pumpkin candies at Michael's for $1.99 and went to town. Most popular cauldron wins their choice of a pizza party or ice cream party.

Hot Dog Octopus

So I'm searching online for ideas for food for my Halloween party and I discover these! I had seen the hot dog mummies over and over but then I saw these and I knew they were perfect! I just had to try one out on my three year old and he loved it! I cannot wait to serve these lil octopus at the party and see how everyone reacts!!!