Food

It's Saturday and we are taking it easy. One of your kids wanted to do a Harry Potter marathon so that's what everyone is watching. She also requested funnel cakes. I whipped up a batch and they gobbled everything up. 

This is hubby's. He likes his with jam and whipped cream.

This is what everyone else likes, just plain old confectioner's sugar on top.

Enjoy your weekend. 

Food! Food! Food!

This is what our summer has been like filled with food, food food!!! It's been fun hanging out with our children. We decided to make some fresh hamburgers so off to Costco to buy ground beef.  Grilled it and topped with some secret sauce and grilled onions. 

Desserts have been plenty around here. Here is my version of chocolate velvet cupcake. It's pretty good : -) I can't handle all the red food coloring.

This is called Halo Halo. It's got sweet red beans, coconut jelly, jackfruit and vanilla ice cream. It's good but too much will make you sick.

We went out with a couple of friends and had this hot fudge brownie sundae. It was so YUMMY!

We love s'mores. We went out to our backyard and made some one night. I think I've gained a ton of weight with all these treats :-D

Hope you're having a great summer! Our kids will be heading back to school in a couple of weeks so we're trying to squeeze some more fun in. You might not see a lot of updates until our kiddos go back to school.

Favorite Holiday Treats

Around this time of the year, I love to have two of my favorite holiday treats. We were introduced to Tim Tams by a friend of ours. You bite the ends and it acts as a straw then you stick it into your yummy Ghirardelli cocoa and sip the cocoa up through the ends of the Tim Tams. It's so yummy! You can go onto You Tube and search "Tim Tam Slam" and they have hilarious videos showing you how to eat it. My family uses cocoa since we don't drink coffee, but the videos have people using various hot drinks. We can only find Tim Tams at Target or the commissary, so if you haven't tried this yummy cookie, head on out and get some and give it a try. It's delicious! Be forewarned, it will melt in your hands if you don't pop it in your mouth quick enough.

Another thing I like during the holiday is pumpkin cheesecake. This cheesecake is so yummy, I don't know why I don't bake it year round. Wait, maybe because I will eat it all :-D

Labor Day Activities

I am running behind on getting things ready for tomorrow (Friday). The weather has been so hot, I feel like I am going to melt and it brings on my headaches. Yesterday we went out to grab some dinner because it was just too hot to cook. Since I am running behind. I downloaded pictures of somethings we did over Labor Day weeekend. We had such a fun time going out to the country to hang out with our dear friends and do some fun activities.


We went to Lake Fulmor to use the canoe and swim in the lake. The grey rock is where people can jump off. It doesn't look high but it is. I would never ever jump off it, but I know some crazy people who do :-)

We also saw this little guy wandering around at the lake. Hubby fed him some bread.

On the last day, we had a bbq at the lake on our friends' estate. We had ribs, chicken, corn on the cob and among other wonderful dishes.

This is my plate and hubby's. YUM!!!

This is the lake at our friend's estate.

Before we head home, there's this sunset. It had these long cloudy streaks. Looks pretty cool.

Hubby and I are working hard to get things done for the reveal, but it won't be ready Friday as I had hoped. It's alot more work than we thought re-arranging my workspace.

Cinnamon Rolls

I think I've got my baking mojo back. This is the first time in quite a while that I've actually baked some goodies. While our kids were still sleeping, I went and made a batch of cinnamon rolls. 

As you can see when they got up, they dove right into it. I had to remind the kiddos to save some for Dad.

Yummy Cupcakes

The other day I was looking for a red velvet cupcake recipe that I could make without all that awful red food coloring. I don't usually eat beets, but I bought a can to use it for these cupcakes. It actually turned out pretty good and it looks nice and red. I brought these to share with some friends and they were gone by the time I was ready to go home.

Our daughter's teacher wanted the class to bring in a German treat to share for extra credit. We made our version of black forest cupcake. Our daughter didn't want the cherry on top so I made cherry sauce, drizzled it over the frosting and shaved some chocolate on top. There are cherries in the cupcake. This was so yummy that DD's friend said she wanted to take the four extra cupcakes home. Get this, when our 13 year old came home from school and saw the four I saved for us she asked if I bought it. I asked why she asked that and she said because it looks so pretty. So sweet :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Holiday Recipes

Here are some recipes that I love to use during the holidays. I usually make the desserts a couple of days in advance and prep the side dishes the day before our holiday dinner. We'll start with cranberry sauce.


Cranberry Sauce


1 -lb bag of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar (more sugar if you like it sweeter)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest


Place all the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to medium. Cook until cranberries pop. It should be done when they pop. Place in a serving dish. Can be served warm or cold.


Garlic Mashed Potatoes


10 potatoes, peeled
1 head of garlic, roasted and peeled
1/2 stick of butter
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
milk


Cook the potatoes and place in large bowl. Mash using a potatoe masher. Toss in the garlic, butter and rosemary. Add the milk a little bit at a time and mix until desired consistency.


Bacon & Garlic Green Beans


1-lb green beans
8 oz. bacon
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced


Cook green beans for a couple of minutes and place in cold water to stop the cooking process.
Cook the bacon until they are nice and crispy. Drain off bacon grease, reserving just enough for cooking the garlic and beans. With the skillet on medium-high add garlic and saute for a minute or until light brown. Add the green beans and cook for a minute or two, don't overcook the beans. Add the bacon, remove to a serving platter.


Pumpkin Cheesecake


1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp. butter, melted
1 tbsp. sugar
3-8 oz pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin
3 eggs
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, add graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Mix until crumbly. Press mixture into bottom of spring form pan. Bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.
In a large bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar. Add vanilla and mix until smooth. Add pumpkin, eggs, nutmeg, and allspice. Beat until smooth.
Pour into prepared crust. Bake for 60-70 minutes until top turns a bit darker.
Remove from oven and let sit cool. Refrigerate and serve the next day.


Kim's Note: I usually test to see if cheesecakes are done by giving the pan a little shake to see if it's too jiggly in the center. If it gives just a slight jiggle and not loose, it's pretty much done. I don't really depend on the time given because most of the time it's not really that accurate.


That's all I have for my favorite holiday recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Strawberry Jam

I love homemade jam so the other day my local grocery store had a sale on strawberries. They were $.99 per pint. I grabbed 8, half to eat and half to make jam. I had enough to make 5 large jars and 3 small ones. This should last us quite a while. I think I see homemade biscuits in the next day or two. Nothing like biscuits and jam. Are you hungry yet?

Pizza

I have made pizza before but was never happy with the dough. I found a great recipe over at Good Things Catered. The dough is super easy to make. In place of the traditional pizza sauce I made a cream cheese spread for one of them. Even our son says it was good. The time before this he said he preferred store bought pizza so this dough is a keeper. I thought I took pictures of all the pizzas but guess not. I have  a pizza stone but was not in the mood to go get it out of storage so I used baking sheets. The pan I lined with foil did brown the bottom of the pizza nicely.

Here are my recipes:

2- 8 0z package of cream cheese, softened

milk

pizza seasoning or fresh dill

Topping of your choice

Mozzarella cheese

Whip cream cheese until smooth. Add in milk till you get a smooth spreading consistency. Add the pizza seasoning/dill. Spread on pizza crust. Add toppings and cheese. Bake at 500 degrees until crust is nice and brown.

Summer Sausage & Veggies Pizza

Sauce:
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 of small onion, finely diced
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning

Various bell peppers, thinly sliced
Roma tomates, thinly sliced
Onions, thinly sliced
Summer sausage, thinly sliced
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Spread onto pizza crust.
Add toppings and cheese. Bake at 500 degrees until crust is nice and brown.

The last pizza was a pepperoni pizza. I used the same sauce and topped it with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

Have a great weekend!

Yummy!!!

I don't have anything crafty to share with you today. I do have a yummy muffin recipe you're going to love! It is SUPER easy to whip up and tastes so good. Our children inhale these muffins every time I make them. I don't know who created this recipe because it is not on my copy so whoever you are... THANK YOU!!!
These are some notes of mine: I usually don't use 1/3 cup of oil, maybe 1/4 c. will do since I don't measure. I only add a pinch of salt if I add the salt, sometimes I just don't bother with salt. The direction doesn't have any baking time. I usually bake the muffins for about 15-16 minutes and check, usually it's done by then, if not go for 18 minutes at the most. We don't want dry muffins:)
You can freeze the leftover streusel if you'd like, it keeps very well.

Here's the recipe:

These are the muffins I baked up. Some visual for you.

Streusel Topped Muffins

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. milk

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 egg

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with baking cups.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg, blend well. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy).

3. Fill cups 2/3 full. Top with streusel topping - see recipe below.

Streusel Topping

Ingredients:

3/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

3/4 c. rolled oats

1 tsp. lemon zest

1/2 c. butter

In medium bowl combine flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, rolled oats and lemon zest. Mix thoroughly, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle streusel on top and bake until toothpick comes out clean.

ENJOY:)

Sweet Treat

Happy Monday!!

I love cupcakes. I made this boston cream cupcake with vanilla cream filling inside. It's so yummy, too bad I couldn't eat the chocolate, but my 12 year old loved it.
We are off to the beach. It's a beautiful day outside and my kiddos are still on spring break so off to the beach we go.

Have a super day!!!

Birthday Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my classmate's birthday. She's 74 and she's become a great friend to me. I love going to class and visiting with her. Have a wonderful cupcake day!!

Cupcakes

Here are some cupcakes I practiced for Halloween. I think my cake decorating skills need some work. I haven't decorated cakes for quite some time. These were fun to make though. My children ate quite a bit of it, even my 12 year old who swore off sugar. That sure makes me happy that she liked my cupcakes. Since I had fun doing these today. I think I will do some holiday ones and maybe move on to cookie bouquets. Stay tuned......







I don't know about making witches. I think this might be the last witch I will pipe.

Jam & Bread Baking

I have this week off from school because of Spring Break. YEAH!! I told my husband I wasn't going to do any papercrafting (it's really hard). I wanted to concentrate on sewing a few things just for me. I managed to cut the fabrics yesterday, but today I felt the need to make some jam and I had to make whole wheat bread to go with it. Here's pics of what I accomplished today. Bread doesn't last very long in our home. I always bake everything from scratch. Do you think that's where all my time goes too????



Jams I made: dutch apple pie, mixed berry made with Splenda (YUM!), orange marmalade