Easter 2012

We had such a nice Easter weekend! Allen was able to be home (after almost 2 weeks in WA) and we really enjoyed our time together. We started at an egg hunt and potluck lunch on Friday that a local friend hosts every year. It was a blast, as always.



Saturday morning our Easter Bunny showed up with baskets for the kiddos. We like doing the secular side of Easter on Saturday so we can focus on the sacred aspect on Sunday. It works perfectly for our family.
Carter got an Angry birds blanket, AB activity book, iTunes GC and loads of treats:
Kenna got a lockable diary (such a surprise huge hit), jewelry and season 1 of Little House on the Prairie (we have been reading the books):
Addison got a Tangled nightgown and a water bottle with her name on it (the upside of having a kid with a popular name is all personalized stuff you can find)
Emery got a book, stuffed animal, banana toothbrush (favorite!) plus a few treats. You can see the Cheetos carrots I made for the kids which were so much fun (my kids never get chips so it was a big treat)
We dyed our eggs and the kids tried blowing out eggs for the first time and loved it. They are huge pain to dye though because they float in the dye.
Sunday morning we headed to church for a lovely service. The kids all gussied up in their Easter finery:

Just for fun a little peek around the house this spring season:






One of my big priorities this weekend was making sure that we had LOTS of yummy food for my sad, bachelor-ish husband. I've been making menus for the past 2 weeks. We tried a few new recipes and had a couple of big winners. Saturday morning we made this recipe for coconut crusted french toast:

http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/coconut-crusted-french-toast/

It was AMAZING and very easy. I'm on a hunt to find a tropical fruit syrup recipe to go on it next time.

Sunday afternoon we had chocolate strawberry shortcake. Allen is typically not a fan of strawberry shortcake but he LOVED this. The shortcake is not super sweet but pretty dense (almost like a scone) and we loved the unique toppings the recipe called for. I actually made this again today to take to some friends as an FHE treat tonight. It is so.dang.good.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Strawberry-Shortcakes

We also had grilled fish tacos (good but I'm still on the hunt for a to die for recipe) and bleu cheese burgers (our favorite made up recipe ever). I think I delivered on the good weekend food front!

Hope you had a blessed and beautiful Easter too!

Delightful!

A few weeks ago my cute friend Melissa (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!!!) posted this recipe on her blog. She said that it was possibly the best dessert she's ever made. Well... I made it for a Halloween party last weekend and I have to say.... she was right! It was divine. I've had a ton of people ask me for the recipe so I thought I'd pass it along here too:

Pumpkin Delight
Grease and flour a 9 x 13 glass dish.

Beat 3 eggs well. Add 1 cup sugar, 15 ounce can pumpkin, 1 large size can evaporated milk (I think it's 10 ounces give or take), 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon allspice) and mix.

Pour into glass dish. Sprinkle the dry contents of 1 box of yellow cake mix over the top. Melt and drizzle 1 1/2 sticks of butter on top of the dry cake mix. Bake about 45 or 50 minutes at 350.

Serve warm with whipped cream, chocolate chips and/or pecans sprinkled on top (I highly recommend the toppings!). Enjoy. A lot. The toppings really are what send this dessert over the top of deliciousness. (Allen will be taking this to his work party on Friday too - it's that good!)

Here's one more of my favorite fall recipes. I make this as breakfast for dinner.

Gingerbread Pancakes & Apple Syrup

Pancakes:
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
2 T. shortening
1/2 c. molasses
1 1/2 c. four
2 eggs, separated, add yolks
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. cinnamon

Beat whites until stiff. Mix all. Fold in whites.

Apple syrup:

Mix:
1 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 t. cinnamon
1 T. lemon juice
2 C. apple juice

Boil 1 minute. Stir in 1/4 c. butter.

(I usually double the pancake recipe and then freeze the extras. The syrup is SO good over any kind of pancake/waffle and makes a lot)

Kid friendly recipes

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is cook. I like to keep things simple and fun and have been meaning to blog about a few of our new favorites. So in an attempt to get out of my blogging slump, here you go!


Mall Pretzels (I *might* have had a slight addiction to these when I was pregnant with A. But at $4 a pop, I knew I could make them cheaper myself) Got the recipe here at allrecipes: Mall Pretzels Here's Carter rolling out the dough when we made them for FHE a few weeks ago. We topped ours with Cinnamon/sugar and garlic salt/parm cheese (my fave). They are way yummy!


Homemade Oreos: These are SO easy and delicious and a hit any time we make them.

Cookie:

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix (I use devil's food)

2 eggs

1/2 c. butter melted

Mix ingredients, roll into small balls. Bake at 350 for 9 minutes

Once cookies have cooled, frost cookies and stick two together (I use store bought frosting)

Edible Playdough: There's a ton of recipes out there for this one. I like this one because it uses ingredients that I have on hand.

1 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. honey

2 c. powdered sugar

This is pretty sweet but actually tastes good (don't worry, I tried it before the kids played with and germified it). You can store this indefinitely in your fridge in an airtight container. This was a big hit with my kiddos.

Individual Molten Lava Cakes: Who doesn't LOVE those Molten cakes? So yummy but expensive to buy a mix at the store. A few months ago we had an enrichment night on quick cooking. The lady who taught the class had awesome recipes and ideas. One of her ideas was these individual cakes. We've made these several times and it's an often requested treat from the kids. These are SO easy too (do you see a theme here?):

1/2 c. chocolate cake mix

1/3 c. water

mix together in bowl for one minute (you can use paper bowls for this too). Top batter with 2 T. hot fudge topping. Microwave 60-90 seconds. Serve warm with ice cream

Spider cupcakes: Here's one we did a couple weeks ago as a Halloween project. I got this idea from the amazing Bakerella (If you've never seen her blog, you must check it out - she does incredible work)

She has tons of ideas for holiday treats. The hardest part of these cupcakes was finding the skinny licorice for the legs!

Do your kids have a favorite recipe? Feel free to share in the comments!

Party!

On Tuesday night I hosted a baby shower for a friend in my ward. I had a lot of really fun ideas for this shower but didn't end up doing all of them because the invite list was HUGE. But here are few of the things that I did do.

Food:

I made this amazing trifle based off a recipe I found off allrecipes. I totally modified it though and it was so good. The filling was cheesecake pudding, whipped cream and sour cream. I layered angel food cake, pineapple, bananas and berries and the cream mixture - heavenly.

Then I made pina colada cupcakes based off the recipe that Beverly submitted for my recipe contest. Oh my! They were so so good. Very moist (they are the pink ones w/ coconut in the picture). Beverly's recipe was for a cake so I mixed the pineapple right into the mixture and did everything the same as the cake recipe called for. (I really wanted to do 3 tiers of cake stands but could not for the life of me find a small stand to go on top. If you know where to get one, please let me know - I've seen these around)

I also made Hilary's water punch. It was very light and refreshing and every bit as good as she promised! It's pretty uncharacteristic of me to make 3 brand new recipes for an event but they all turned out great. I also had a fruit tray/dip and a few of my awesome friends contributed desserts for the party.

Favors:

At the last second I decided to do a quick favor for the party goers. Last second, as in, the afternoon of the shower. So I was a little limited in what I could do. I settled on white chocolate covered pretzel rods that I rolled in cute babyish colored nonpareils. They turned out cute.

Here they are displayed:

As usual, I love hosting but am always a little relieved when it's over.

The winner...

Thank you so, so, so much for all the delicious recipes! I promise that I am going to make each and every one at some point (though I'm not doing too much baking while doing WW). I can't believe all the variety I got and except for one recipe did not have a single recipe anything like the ones submitted.

Also, SO fun to see some new faces commenting. Love that. Thanks for outing yourselves :0)

The winning recipe is the Delicate Pear Cake with Carmel Sauce submitted by my darling friend Margo! Congrats Margo!! (For sure my favorite part of today was having an excuse to call Margo to ask her a question about the recipe and chat for a few minutes!)

Just so you know, I actually made a list of all the recipes with a brief description and had Allen choose for me, just to remain completely unbiased!! And he actually chose the recipe I wanted to make! It was a tough choice though and he hard a very hard time choosing! So here are some pictures of the cake before I cut it and then the cake with the sauce:


I must say that the carmel sauce is TOTALLY what made this dessert sooooo delicious. It was a definite hit at the shower and I just snuck out with the remaining two pieces - one for Al and one for my kids to share.

Seriously, thanks for playing along. I will definitely do this again. Here's the recipe:

Delicate Pear Cake with Carmel Sauce – Margo Smith

CAKE
1 16oz can pear halves in extra light syrup
1 pkg. White cake mix
1/3 cup oil
3 egg whites
Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 10 inch spring form pan. Drain pear halves, reserving 1/3 cup liquid. Place pear halves in a blender or food processor blend until smooth. In a large bowl combine cake mix, pureed pears, 1/3 cup of reserved liquid, oil and egg whites. Mix at low speed until moistened. Pour into pan, bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let stand and cool completely.

FROSTING
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 16 oz can pear halves in extra light syrup drained
½ cup finely chopped hazelnuts or walnuts (optional)
In a small bowl beat whipping cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in vanilla. Frost cooled cake. Cut pear in half lengthwise into about 32 slices. Arrange on top of the cake slightly overlapping. Press nuts into sides of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

SAUCE
1cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup whipping cream
½ cup butter

In a sauce pan bring all the a boil. Boil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Drizzle over each piece of cake.

NOTE
You will need to get 2 16 oz cans of pears
2 pints of whipping cream to equal 2 cups

If you would like a copy of all the recipes, leave a comment (with your email addy) or email me at qballf@gmail.com and I will send them off to you!!

Submit a recipe...win a prize!

I'm helping with some food for a baby shower next week and need some new dessert recipes!! I'm not feeling the love for any of my old standby recipes! So here's the deal, leave a comment with your FAVORITE dessert recipe (no matter how simple or difficult) and I will choose one to take to the shower with me next week. The submitter of the winning recipe will get the prize.

There are only two "rules":

1. Recipe cannot require any freezing - I have NO extra room in my freezers right now

2. Recipe must be submitted by midnight on Monday. I know it's not very much time but the shower is Tuesday night so I'll need to choose by Tuesday morning so I can shop for the ingredients!

The prize is a $15 Target gift card!

I hope this way I will get LOTS of new recipes! Please play along!

Recipes Galore!

I really enjoy cooking, especially if I don't have any little helpers in the kitchen with me. For the record, I do like to cook with my kids but we usually bake or do more simple recipes. Since I've had Addison we have been eating out a lot less due to the fact that she HATES being out in the evening and also because of WW, we are trying to eat more healthy. So, I've found myself in the kitchen quite a bit in the afternoons while Carter is at school and the girls nap. Here are a few of our recent favorite recipes:

Lettuce Wraps (a la PF Chang - this tastes exactly like the wraps at the restaurant)





· 3 tablespoons oil
· 2 boneless skinless chicken breast
· 1 cup water chestnut
· 2/3 cup mushroom
· 3 tablespoons chopped onion
· 1 teaspoon minced garlic
· 4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste
Stir Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions
1. Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
2. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
3. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
4. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
5. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
6. Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
7. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
8. Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
9. Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
10. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
11. Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
12. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
13. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
14. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
15. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".
16. Top with"Special Sauce".


My notes: These are honestly DELICIOUS! Even my kids gobbled them up. Very labor intensive though so I suggest making at least a double batch if you're going to take the time to make them. Top with rice noodles!


Asian Noodle Salad (I got this recipe off of The Pioneer Woman - click this link to see her pics of this salad and to find more AMAZING recipes)

adapted from Jamie Oliver

SALAD INGREDIENTS:
1 packages linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage
1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin (if available)
1 small bag bean sprouts (also called “mung bean sprouts”)
3 sliced scallions
3 peeled, sliced cucumbers
LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch
1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet


DRESSING:
Juice of 1 lime
8 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped
More chopped cilantro—LOTS

Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.*Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.

My notes: This is a HUGE recipe. I halve the salad recipe but make the complete dressing recipe and it is still enough to feed 4 dinner sized portions. I also leave the cilantro out of the dressing so it stays good longer

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches (which I adapted from Kraft food & family magazine)

1 lb. chicken boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 onion, sliced
1/2 c. BBQ sauce
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. brown sugar
Directions: Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook on high for 4 hrs. Shred chicken and return to pot and mix with sauce. Serve on rolls, with cheese if desired.

My notes: This is a huge hit at our house. I've taken this in for meals several times and it has gotten rave reviews. It also freezes well if you want to make a double batch.

Roasted Red Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese (Also taken from Kraft foods)

3/4 c. Light Ranch Dressing
1/2 c. shredded cheese
1/4 c. crumbled bacon (I use turkey bacon)
2 lb. Red potatoes, quartered
1 T. fresh rosemary

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Mix dressing, cheese and bacon bits in large bowl. Add potatoes, toss lightly. Place in lightly greased 9x13 pan, cover with foil. Bake 40 min. Remove foil; bake an additional 10 min. or until potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with rosemary

My notes: I have made these with all kinds of potatoes and they are delish with every type I have tried.

DOC: Days 8-14

Whoa. I have really slacked on documenting this. We also skipped a day (hanging my head in shame) due to a VERY busy work/calling week and sick kiddos.

Day 8: Help with Homemade Gifts - sorry, no pictures of this one as several of the recipients of said gifts read this blog. I will definitely post after Christmas (but they did turn out great, if I do say so myself).

Day 9: Make homemade wrapping paper and wrap gifts. For this one I just rolled out some butcher paper, busted out some of my holiday stamps and let the kids go to town.

Day 10: Make a Christmas Craft (Handprint wreaths). Flew by the seat of my pants with this one since Al unexpectedly had to work late this night. M didn't really "get" the whole handprint thing. It turned out cute anyway!


Day 11: Hang the stockings - Al and I did this one ourselves after we finished our sign. Oops. Sick kids

Day 12: Make Reindeer cookies - Hilary had these cute cookies on her blog. So SUPER easy but I love them. I used a red M&M for the nose but she showed a cute red lollipop (minus the stick) for the nose. I wanted to take these to playgroup so I opted for the M&M since there are a lot of really little kids in our playgroup. Also, if I had to do them again, I would use my cookie recipe and not add the chocolate chips. You could also do PB cookies but I know there are lots of kids with allergies so I opted for chocolate chip instead. My little helpers loved breaking the pretzels for the antlers and separating out the red M&Ms.





Day 13: Make a homemade ornament - I kind of cheated here since this was the craft I did for the playgroup. Aren't these cute? I got the idea from Andrea's blog (good thing I have such creative friends, huh!)

Day 14: Make Grandma's eggnog recipe (and drink, of course) - So I know a lot of people hate eggnog, but I promise this is because they have never had my mom's eggnog. My own husband was a huge skeptic until he tried it the first time. We made it tonight after dinner and it is soooo YUM!
So here is the recipe, just in case you want to try it (trust me, you should try it).



2 eggs, beaten (0r 1/2 cup Eggbeaters, which is what I always use because they are pasteurized)
15 0z. can condensed milk
1 qt. (4 c.) milk
1 t. vanilla
1/2 pt. whipping cream, whipped
fresh grated nutmeg


Combine egg, condensed milk, vanilla and beat well. Add milk. Gently beat in whipped cream. Sprinkle top with nutmeg. Serve Immediately.

Yummmmmmy!

I just thought I would share a fantastic recipe I made over the weekend. It was so so good and perfect for fall.

PUMPKIN GINGERBREAD TRIFLE

Source: Paula Deen

2 pkg. (14 oz. each) gingerbread mix

1 (5.1 oz.) pkg. cook & serve vanilla pudding mix

1 (30 oz.) can pumpkin pie filling

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 tsp. ground cardamom or cinnamon

1 (12 oz.) container frozen Cool Whip topping, thawed

1/2 cup gingersnaps, crushed (optional)

Bake gingerbread according to pkg. directions; cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool. Stir pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cardamom into the pudding. Crumble one batch gingerbread into bottom of a large pretty glass bowl or punch bowl. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of Cool Whip. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and Cool Whip. Sprinkle over the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. Refrigerate overnight.

Modifications: Ok, unless you have a huge trifle dish, you will really only need 1 batch of gingerbread (an 8x8 pan) and about half of the pumpkin/pudding mixture. You will need the full amount of cool whip. Also, I did not have a can of pumpkin pie filling. So I mixed a can of regular pumpkin with about 2 c. sugar and all the spices recommended on the pumpkin filling to make pumpkin pie.

It turned out SO yummy. Luckily we invited some friends over to share it with.

S'mores

A few weeks ago I found a delish recipe for S'mores on another blog that I read. I think it's a Paula Dean recipe. Anyway, we have been enjoying all sorts of combos and variations of these s'mores for the last couple of weeks. I just have to share. We used homemade chocolate chip cookies for the base, filled the middle with crushed up Andes mints, marshmallows, and sliced bananas. Wrap the whole thing in foil and throw on the grill or in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Believe it or not, the bananas TOTALLY make the S'mores. I took these to our 4th of July BBQ and everyone loved them. And we had them at my mom and dad's house a couple times. Here is the aftermath one of the days we did them in the oven. Be warned that these are messy but oh so worth it!