Monthly Archives: April 2009

Apr29

Panda Birthday

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Panda Birthday

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In just a few hours my youngest will turn 8. I cannot believe how the years have flown by. In the course of these 8 years, her “idols” have changed. First it was (ugh) Barney, then Pooh, Butterflies, Dora… and currently Panda Bears, Hannah Montana and Guitars. Her idea of the perfect birthday party would be set in China with Miley Cyrus playing a black and white guitar. We gave her a guitar for Christmas and she actually cried. We also adopted a Panda Bear in her name through WWF. She is a loving, caring and sincere, hard headed red head who knows no enemies.

Naturally, her party has to revolve around music playing Panda’s. I started tonight working on her cake for her class at school. Tomorrow I will work on the cake for her party at home (which will be on the weekend).

I can’t wait to get pictures of this first cake posted. It is a sugar cookie “pizza” cake with chocolate “sprinkles” decorated like one of those giant cookie cakes you get from the fancy mall cookie stores. These type of cakes are a tradition for me to make for school parties. I deck them out in a real pizza box and slice them with a fancy pizza cutter right there in the classroom. I will get the pics up in the morning.

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Happy Birthday Kenzie Bear!!!

Update: When I began piping the frosting on for the Panda, there was a thin layer of the top that kept coming off when I pulled the tip away. So I ended up putting a thin layer of frosting down and leaving it overnight to harden. I finished it this morning at 4 am, so it wasn’t exactly up to my expectations!

Apr21

Slip slidin away ~ Sliders for dinner

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Slip slidin away ~ Sliders for dinner

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Sliders are popping up everywhere. On the internet, in cooking magazine, on cooking shows… There are also many variations on how to prepare them. Well, while surfing the net this morning I came across this post on Trim The Fat and decided that this would be a quick, easy and satisfying choice for dinner tonight. I decided on the bake in pan version which consists of preparing the ground beef, but instead of rolling a bunch of individual burgers, you flatten it into a pan. As you can see, it creates a thin burger – almost, “White Castle or Krystal’s” like. It went over great for dinner and I look forward to trying some other variations as well.

*I prepared the yeast rolls and baked them prior to working on the burgers.

**I used simple seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, but did not measure them

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“Hamburger” Sliders

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
  • Seasonings (use your burger preferences)**
  • 18 (at least) yeast rolls or dinner rolls*
  • Cheese
  • Lettuce, tomato, onion, condiments (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare ground beef as desired and flatten into a lightly greased jelly roll pan (11 x 17″). I used gloved hands to press across the pan, but you could use a rolling pin etc…

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. The beef should be browned, but have a little pink to them – they will finish cooking in the next step. Remove and let stand a couple of minutes. There was some grease in the pan. I poured it out, then patted the ground beef with a towel to reduce the grease. Slice the burger into squares. Adjust the size according to the size of your rolls. Slice each roll in the center, keep one side attached. Place a square on each roll, but do not top (or close) the burger. If desired, place a piece of cheese on top of the beef. Place the entire roll, cut sides up, on a large baking sheet and place in oven to brown bread and melt the cheese. Remove, top and serve with desired condiments.

For the side item, I took leftover baked potatoes from Sunday and diced into squares and place in one layer on a large flat pan. I sprayed them lightly with olive oil and sprinkled them with seasoned salt. I baked them at 400 for about 10 minutes…till they were warm and beginning to crisp.

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These pictures give you an “idea” of what size the sliders are.

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Apr15

5 Ingredient Banana Bread

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5 Ingredient Banana Bread

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Judge me not! This recipe uses a cake mix. I know, I knowl….but, I needed a fast and easy fix and this recipe fit the bill. It doesn’t get much easier.

Banana Bread Fast!

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
  • 1 (18.25 oz) cake mix (*I used a pineapple mix)
  • 1 cup ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup nut or chocolate chips (I used white chocolate)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix for 2 minutes. Pour into greased 9 x 13 bread pan. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, of until toothpick comes out clean.

Note: I had enough batter to also make 6 muffins AND, I used a pineapple cake mix, white chocolate chunks and a little coconut. I guess you could call it a tropical version of banana bread. Yum!

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Apr12

Peeps Sunflower Cake

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Peeps Sunflower Cake

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peeps-cake-3 More Peeps Stuff!

I saw this last Easter in a Taste of Home Magazine and bought all the necessary ingredients to make it. Well, it never got made in 2008. So this year I bought the ingredients again (Peeps) determined to complete the task… and I did! It was really cool! The cake was a box mix, but doctored. The frosting however, was Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting.

Cake Ingredients:

  • 1 Box Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden Cake
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 pack vanilla instant pudding mix (4 serving size)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 18 – 20 Yellow Peeps Chicks*
  • Semi-sweet chocolate chips, regular and mini

Cake Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9″ round cake pans, though I used three 8″ pans for a taller cake.

Combine all of the ingredients and mix for 2 minutes, or until smooth. Divide into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes (or until it’s done). Remove, cool layers in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1 stick butter, melted (1/2 cup)
  • 2/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

 Sunflower Peeps Cake:

Prepare cake and frost. Place Peeps Chicks around the border of the frosted cake (face in). Using regular size chocolate chips, form rings in the center of the cake. For the last few rings, use miniature chocolate chips. *The Taste of Home recipe says not to separate the chicks… but I found they wanted to keep “bouncing back” to shape…so i ended up separating them.

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Apr10

Whole lotta Peepin going on…

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Whole lotta Peepin going on…

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I couldn’t get enough peeps… so today I bought more peeps, and more chocolate. I was able to find more bunny colors too, like yellow, green, pink and orange.

Instead of placing sprinkles on these, I left the chocolate plain… and was able to temper the chocolate a little better too, leaving a shiny smooth coating. Finally, I melted some white chocolate and replaced their eyes. This is such a fun and easy project. With one more day before Easter, you must try it.

Apr9

Peep Show?

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Peep Show?

 

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I grew up on Peeps… except when I was a kid, Easter was the only time you could find them. Now, there seems to be one (or 2, or 3) for every holiday… and in cool colors and flavors too! All I remember were pink chicks and yellow bunnies.

Scattered about the internet are billions (ok, maybe not that many) uses for Marshmallow Peeps. Some of these include turning the sweet little chicks into road kill, others do cool things like this:

So whatever your “Peep Fancy” is, have a great Easter!

Chocolate Dipped Peeps on a Stick!

Ingredients:

  • Lots of peeps
  • Lots of dipping chocolate
  • Lots of candy sticks (or craft sticks)
  • Hot water, or a microwave
  • An endless imagination

Directions:

Do you really need any? Enjoy!!!

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Apr5

OMG Cinnamon Roll Cake

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OMG Cinnamon Roll Cake

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This is for Fritz. Happy Birthday!

Fritz is the leader of our Bible Fellowship class, and as you might guess, today is his birthday. His wife said that he is not a “fruit” person for breakfast… I think she said he is “old fashioned”. Specifically for classics like french toast, pancakes…cinnamon rolls….. So here is my version of an OMG cake made out of cinnamon rolls. Some people refer to this as monkey bread… but seeing that I use cinnamon rolls versus biscuits, I don’t think I am wrong renaming it. My major reference was from the Pillsbury site. I must warn you, this is not a forgiving cake. If you wish to keep your calorie count under 2000 for the day, you might want to go for the fruit dish.

 

OMG Cinnamon Roll Cake

Ingredients:

  • 2 pkg Grands Sweet Rolls, made with Cinnabon Cinnamon
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
  • Cinnamon Sugar Mixture

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a Bundt pan with cooking spray.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, when melted, stir in the brown sugar. Keep the heat on low while preparing the rolls, stirring regularly.

Open both tubes of sweet rolls, set the frosting aside. Slice each roll into quarters. Place the rolls in one layer, “strategically”, in the pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over rolls. Continue layering the rolls and topping with sugar. Once completed, pour the butter mixture over the rolls. Bake for 38 – 45 minutes, or until a toothpick is clean. Note, you may need to cover the pan with foil about half-way through to avoid over browning the top.

Remove from oven and cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto serving tray. Place the frosting(s) in the microwave for 15 seconds the pour over the cake. Slice and serve!

 *If you are wondering about the darker color of the rolls, I didn’t have any light brown sugar, so I had to use dark. It no doubt affected the color, but if anything, added to the taste!

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Apr1

A Foolish Dinner…

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A Foolish Dinner…

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I spent the last week or so searching for April Fool’s pranks. Now, I cannot stand pranks that cause damage to people’s property, or worse, injury. I just wanted something fun to create a fun memory. I found a few things at the Family Fun website, one of which I thought would be perfect. The other, I have no idea where I saw it. I did so much searching, I lost track of things. The whole meal turned out great. Both for taste and for effect. Judging by the pictures… you get the gist.

The main course, as pictured above, was actually dessert. This was so fun to create. It is simply vanilla yogurt with a peach half inserted, and pound cake that I toasted in a warm skillet. I completely had them fooled on this one!

Ok, cute huh. But now for the real main course (a.k.a. dessert):

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Cupcakes for Dinner!

Darn, these aren’t cupcakes, they’re meatloaf singles frosted with colored mashed potatoes!!!

 

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Ok, simple enough. Just prepare your favorite meatloaf recipe, and instead of making a whole loaf, roll it into a ball, insert it into a cupcake wraper, and cook it. To frost it, prepare your mashed potatoes, color them if you choose, and pipe them onto the “meatloaf cupcake”. Serve warm and enjoy!

My kids really thought these were cupcakes. Even when I told them what they were… it took them cutting into them to believe me. Thankfully, my kids love meatloaf…otherwise, I would have been searching for other recipes. Oh, and on the Family Fun website, they also have a meatloaf recipe that “bakes” this into a pie crust.

I hope you all had a miserable day…(April Fool’s of course – lame I know). Thanks for stopping by!