Brownies

Annie loves to help me in the kitchen. Sometimes it's fun....sometimes. I'm not one to easily relinquish my control of the kitchen. Not even to Jared. I love to cook and it's the one place I have complete control...until now. I'm actually thrilled that Annie has taken an interest in cooking. I'm hoping in the long run it will help her become a really good eater. She's great so far but people keep telling me that she's going to go through a hot dog and mac n cheese phase... I suppose we'll see.

One of Jared's favorite treats are the Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies. Annie and I decided to make some for Dad before he got home from work. I managed to snap a few pictures before the batter hit the floor from her enthusiastic stirring.

 Enjoying her labors :)

Christmas Eve Dinner

My family has the best traditions. I might be biased but I really think so. Since my Mum and Dad cook a fabulous prime rib for Christmas dinner, we always do fun appetizers and snacks for dinner on Christmas Eve. The past couple of years we've "upped" it a notch and throw out some crazy new dish. This year, Neal and I kicked my Mum out of the kitchen and prepared the whole dinner.

The table...some of the usual include: sheepherders dish (pictured in the bread bowl above), chips, crackers,

stuffed mushrooms

my new dish: Blackberry baked brie (wouldn't make it again, the brie didn't stay gooey long enough)

Neals new dish...AHMAZING!!!! Three Cheese Crostinis. seriously kicked me out of the park with this one

cheese ball (my personal favorite!)

Shrimp/Cream Cheese/Cocktail sauce dip

Asian BBQ pork

a veggie plate

a salami and specialty cheese plate

7 layer bean dip

As always a feast to remember. I love this tradition. Thanks Neal for helping out!!!!

Christmas Cooking

I LOVE Christmas. I love the music, I've been known to listen to it waay before Thanksgiving...it's just music people, settle down. I love the decorating, the lights, the food, oh the food, and people are generally happier this time of year.

The biggest thing I love of all? The cooking. I love to bake. I don't do it all year because, let's be honest, I don't think I could work out hard enough to lose the amount of weight I would gain. So I save all my baking for the holidays. My Mum always made the best goodies so I've made it a tradition to do the same with my family.

Traditions include (click to get the recipe. p.s. three of those recipes aren't on here yet, apparently I never posted them...):

Italian Nut Balls (i.e. thumbprint cookies)
Butter Cookies
Caramels
Russian Tea Cakes (i.e. snowballs)
Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies
Divinity
Toffee Crunch

Annie wanted to get in on the action this year so I put my apron on her. She wore it most the afternoon :)

Valentine's Day Yummyness

So last year I cooked Jared and I a pretty fabulous Chinese food feast on Valentine's Day. Since I like to go over the top on the Holidays, I decided to host a Valentine's Dinner this year. This would be the first time that we've had a group over and I've cooked the whole meal. Usually we do a big potluck but I wanted a challenge (by the end of the day, my feet were not appreciative of being in the kitchen all day long).

Jared's best friend and his wife have moved into their parent's house temporarily while they remodel their home so I thought it would be nice to have them over. His brother found out about it and promptly invited himself and his girlfriend to dinner the day of...YIKES! Good thing I already had my menu planned!

This years theme....Comfort Food!

 Jacksonville Carrots

...probably not a recipe I would revisit. It just wasn't that awesome.

Honey Game Hens 

...Paula Deen you do not disappoint! These turned out fabulous! I've never cooked cornish games hens but they were on sale at Smiths and I thought it would be a fun challenge. They were delish!

 Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes

...words do not express the delicious melt in your mouth goodness that these were. I would go so far as to say they were the star of the dinner table. Oh my goodness.....

Grown Up Mac and Cheese

...the flavor in these is really really good. I added too many noodles. So if you make this one, stick to the recipe if you want them really cheesy!

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding with Chocolate Whipped Topping

...Miss Paula, you know how to raise those boys! I must apologize for the picture, I forgot to take one before I started eating it. It....was....amazing. I could make this every day and not get sick of it. If you don't mind the calories DO IT! This one is definitely going in the recipe book. YUM YUM YUM!

Of course I was so worried about getting pictures of the food I missed the opportunity to grab pictures of the guests. The night was a success. I even got Jared to do the dishes the next morning ;) And I currently have requests to make it a tradition. We'll see...Annie is at a manageable age now but in a year??? we'll see.

Cravings you have met your match

And by met your match, I really mean with these sweetum's around, there is no stopping you. 

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
powdered sugar, enough to roll the balls of dough in

1. Heat oven to 375

2. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons into the powdered sugar and coat evenly. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

4. Bask in the buttery, chocolatey, ooey goodness (note: make sure there is plenty of milk on hand, we had to make an emergency milk trip for Jared as you apparently must have a whole glass of milk for each cookie...what a nut)

Basket-O-Thanks

Jared's Uncle went to great lengths to get him his interview with E*Trade and we wanted to give them something to say Thank You. Jared's solution..."Just get them a gift card"...seriously, you're married to me, you just gave me all day freedom, and you expect me to just hand them a card loaded with one nights dinner and be okay with it...I think not.

So I did some searching and this is what I came up with...

 Cookies in a jar (Cowboy Cookies recipe found here)

 

 Cocoa Cones.

I made two different kinds. Regular cocoa and peppermint cocoa. Note: if you ever want to make these, TEST THE RECIPE YOURSELF! I made one then thought of the embarrassment I would cause if they dumped this into some steaming hot water and spit it out in disgust. So I had to tweak the recipes a bit (the original was quite icky so I'm glad I did) and this is what I came up with (Each of the following recipes are for 1 serving, so you just add 1 cup of boiling water to the mix).

Regular Cocoa

4T powdered milk

3t cocoa powder

5t white sugar

3t mini chocolate chips (do milk, not semi-sweet)

small handful of marshmallows

Peppermint Cocoa

4T powdered milk

3t cocoa powder

5t white sugar

3t mini chocolate chips

3t crushed candy canes

small handful of marshmallows

 Another cookie mix in a jar (recipe found here).

 Peanut butter rice krispie treats. (LOVED how these turned out, I just smashed the treats thinner onto a cookie sheet and went to town with some cookie cutters then outlined them with some melted chocolate).

 Add a basket and a couple of fun autumn colored kitchen towels and voila! Now this is what I call a complete Thank you basket ;)

Brides & Babes

So this was a couple of weeks ago but I was quite proud so I thought I would share. It's been so tough being unable to do all the fun craftsy stuff I've been so used to doing for the last five years so when I was put in charge of bringing cupcakes to my future sister-in-law's bridal shower...I went to town...maybe even a little bit overboard for someone trying to care for a gimp and a newborn all at once.

The flowers are made of a yummy marshmallow fondant and then I dusted each flower with some fun edible pearl powder and topped them with some sprinkles for the center. I LOVED how they turned out!

 

 up close shots of the glittery goodness!

My mother-in-law made these. Aren't they fabulous?!?!

Then just last week, I went to a baby shower for a cute girl in my ward and I just can't settle to give her a store-bought gift. So I whipped her up this fun carseat cover.

 

 Sew-n-save might just end my bank account...aren't these fabrics fabulous?!?! Notice the fun buttons...

Just for fun... two Sundays ago, my brother-in-law blessed their sweet little Noah. I managed to get this shot but apparently minutes before, they were trying to suck on each others noses....oh the blessings of good nursers. I'm sure these two cousins will appreciate those pictures someday ;)

 

Someday I'll have to explain to poor little sweet pea that her mom only put her in oversized clothes with her best interest in mind...we just have to get as much use out of all these cute clothes that we can!

crafts, crafts, crafts...cake!

So they say "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" But you know no matter how this baby came, I would have come up with a way to make tons and tons of cute crafts. So this weekend. I treated myself to some "me" time in my craft room :) This is what I came up with...

Hooter Hider

Diaper Wipes Case

Diaper & Wipes Clutch / Changing Pad

Tutorial found here

Burp Cloths

Edging patterns found here

 I'm not sure what happened with this picture but you get the point.

And just for a minute I need to show off Jared's awesome handiwork. I told him I wanted a modular system that we could put in the nursery closet because as of a week ago, it was just a top shelf and one bar across the top. Her clothes would have filled it up too easy. So this is what he came up with. He built the shelves in the middle and made it so we can move them around if we don't want them so close together. To the left of the shelf, there is a little nook that seemed totally useless. Well of course he came up with something. I put shoes there for now, but the possibilities are endless!

Let's not forget this cake... We participated in Bountiful Baskets this last week and got all these berries and since I already have a ton of frozen berries, I wanted to make something with them. So I made a cake. The cake was made from scratch using my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook. If you're interested it's the Silver White Cake. Jared doesn't like cake but he really likes this one, so you know it's a good recipe. It's a bit more dense than the box mixes.

Baby Shower Goodness

So last weekend I was fortunate enough to fly out to Washington to visit my family. While I was there my mom, sister-in-law, and best friend from high school threw me a baby shower. Here are a couple of the pictures to document the occasion.

My mom made over 60 of these FABULOUS invitations. If you click on it, it should enlarge it if you want to see them closer. The picture on there is of me when I was in the hospital. I weighted 4lbs 2 oz when I was born...if only that was genetic :)


The table spread included fruits, veggies, roasted red pepper hummus & bread, salami & assorted cheeses w/ crackers, a cheese ball, lemon cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, spice cake balls, assorted nuts, and of course Starburst Jelly Beans (ultimately the best candy that comes out this time of year).


Close-up of the cupcakes. My mom did the cute lemon ones, and I got a bit carried away with my new cake decorating set on the chocolate cupcakes.


These are the spice cake balls I mentioned in an earlier post. I made them before I flew out to WA and it's a good thing I did. They are quite time consuming but OH SO YUMMY!!! I could hardly keep my brothers hands off of them.


This was my sister-in-laws idea. I thought this was so fun. She set up a table for people to create a page for me to put in a calendar for me to use when I get closer to having my little sweet pea. Each page will serve as encouragement while I sit and twiddle my thumbs for her arrival. Such a fun idea!


Couple of gift shots...is that hat not fabulously cute???? It's felted and I love it :)


My good friend from high school organized a group gift. Instead of bringing a gift to the shower, people had the option to pitch in for this awesome travel system. This was so fabulous. At the shower she had wrapped a toy stroller (of which my niece Charlotte quickly claimed) for me to open but had sent the stroller and car seat to my house so I wouldn't have to lug it home. I'm so grateful 'cause now I have something to actually bring my sweet baby girl home from the hospital.


I had to include these shots. So I knew that Neal would be driving up to visit that weekend but to my surprise when I walked in the door my other two brothers who live in California were just hanging out on the couch. They had driven up to visit too! It was so nice to be around family other than just for the holidays. I had such a good visit. These pictures are actually of them contributing to the calendar I had mentioned above. I haven't seen the pages yet but I'll be quite interested to see what they came up with. I only caught glimpses of their conversation as I was doing this....


Laying half asleep on the couch watching Ace of Cakes on the Food Channel...I love the Food Channel. Little miss was kicking around like crazy (as she does these days) so I was just enjoying the moment.


Not to mention watching these sweet peas. Jillian was on the "torture tube" and Charlie and Chloe decided it was play time. It was so fun to be around these girls. I miss them so much these days and I miss so much of their growing up. Charlie is the biggest chatter box, cute as a button (and oh does she know it)...my favorite "yuh you" (love you). Oh it just makes you melt! And little miss Chloe isn't so little anymore. I can't believe she's 9 already. She's so grown up!