Mmmmm

Sorry it's been awhile. I was so excited to show you guys our newest project- our new coffee station, but it hasn't been completed yet. Did I mention it was for Mother's Day? Weeks ago. Yeah. My list of unfinished projects is getting longer and longer, I know.

So anyhow, last week I was blessed with the opportunity to switch to the day shift at my work and I am soaking it all up for however long or short it lasts. You would never know how much you miss dinner, baths, and bedtime until you get stuck on night shift. Last Friday night we got to enjoy one of my favorite family past times- movie night. Best of all- the kids are on a superhero streak and the hubster chose The Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds in a tight green costume, you think I was complaining? Mmmmm.

All this presented me with the perfect opportunity to try a recipe I found on Pinterest.

Now, we had already had the pleasure of tasting this recipe at a prior family get together. My sister in law made it a few months back but with so much going on with such a big family I wasn't sure if my little family got any. Check out her recipe on her blog here.

I digress. The recipe is for a large bowl size so it does make a good go-to for parties or get togethers. However, by the end of the movie the bowl was pretty scraped clean. Even my pickiest eater devoured two bowls. So it's definitely a winner at our house. And I feel just a little less guilty since it has the word salad in it's name.

With no further ado I give you:

Snicker Caramel Apple Salad  

What you need:

1 large package of vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup of milk
1-16 oz. container of cool whip
4 apples ( I prefer the tang of green apples with this.)
6 regular sized snickers bars
1/2 cup of caramel ice cream topping

What to do:

Chop the apples unpeeled into bite-sized cubes
Chop the snickers into bite sized cubes
In a large bowl mix the pudding, milk, and cool whip together
Fold in the apple bites
Fold in the snicker bites
Drizzle the caramel over the top
Chill in the fridge for about an hour before serving.


Okay so here's the small changes I made. First off , don't forget I usually have 1-3 kids with me as I'm shopping. So when I was picking up the snickers I thought I was being clever by getting the 12 pack of fun bites. You know, two of those would equal one regular right? So in reality it would probably take three of those to equal one regular, but hey I'm blonde! So ours didn't have as much snickers as the recipe called for, but truth be told I thought it was plenty. Then you know how it says to chill for an hour. Yeah, well we couldn't wait that long. But it was gobbled up in no time anyway.

It was relatively quick, easy and delicious. Totally makes you say "Mmmmm".

What are you waiting for?

 Go get your snickers.


Don't forget to check back soon. You never know, I might just get the whim to finish a project.

Cakes, Cakes and more Cakes.

Cherry Chocolate Cake

A few weeks ago was one of my co-workers birthdays and I was asked to make a cake.  I seem to always be running low on time and actually threw this one (lovingly of course) together. I got some inspiration from this pin. It is actually much simpler than it looks.  Start out gathering-

Ingredients:

Milk Chocolate cake mix

Eggs

Butter sticks

Cherry Coke or Dr. Pepper

Jar of cherries

Milk Chocolate icing

Directions:

    ·         Follow the cake mix directions
       o   substituting the butter for the oil and double the quantity. If the mix calls for 1/3 cup of oil- then use 2/3 cup of butter melted.
       o   Substitute the soda and cherry juice for the water. If called for 1 1/3 cup of water use 1 cup of Cherry Coke and 1/3 cup of Cherry juice.
       o   When it comes to the eggs be sure to add one more than the mix calls for.
      ·         Bake as directed on the box.
      ·         Be sure to let the pans cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake. Place cakes on flat plates and place in the freezer for at least three hours. This help when leveling the cake and avoid excess crumbs.
      ·         After the cakes are leveled, by cutting the rounded tops off with a large knife, spread one can of icing over the tops and sides- saving a small portion for decoration.
      ·         With your second can of icing- pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds and pour over the top generously.
      ·         Use a cake decorator or piping bag to place medium sized dollops of left over icing around the edges to your liking. Place a cherry on each dollop.

See, simple and easy! Plus it was a huge hit. They all awed over the look of it, and even more so once they cut into it. One of the best feelings is when everyone thinks your cake is store bought and you have to convince them you made it yourself.

 

 

Cheetah Cake

So a few days later was another birthday. This time it was for a 17 year old girl.

 So what do teenage girls like? I had no idea, sadly it’s been over a decade since I was a teenage girl. But I do know that I found a really cool pin I had been wanting to try, and this seemed the best opportunity. So I tried the cheetah print cake.

The gist of it is, that you get a white cake mix and set aside a portion for coloring. The first color would be a really dark brown to black color for the lining of the spots, and second would be a light tannish brown color for the inside of the spots.

So I will tell you what I did, so you can be sure to not do the same. Cause let me tell you- this was the most evil cake I have ever worked on! Nothing turned out the way it was supposed to. But on the bright side, it did taste good-which is what really matters in the end right? So here’s how it went:

·         I used one box of French vanilla cake mix using one egg more than called for, doubled the oil amount and used butter instead, and milk instead of water.

·         Next I made a milk chocolate cake as well using the same substitutions.

·         In a smaller bowl I mixed both the vanilla and chocolate to make a light brown color.

·         Next in my two 8” round pans I poured a thin coat of the vanilla. With a piping bag I filled with the milk chocolate batter, I made circles on the top resembling a target.

·         In another piping bag I used the tan color to trace along the milk chocolate circles.

·         Once again I covered the tan circles with the milk chocolate circles and poured another layer of French vanilla. And repeated the process of the circles.

·         Then bake as directed. After they cool, freeze for a few hours.

See here is where it started getting crazy. I did the crumb coat layer of icing with chocolate icing. Then I got a can of vanilla icing that was going to be turned hot pink. I used the gel type food coloring and perhaps a bit much of it. The color was awesome, but when I just so happened to taste it- it tasted horrible! The food coloring was all I could taste. Yuck!!!

Since I didn’t have another can of frosting I decided to improvise. Yikes!!!! So my reasoning was that we make lots of fun desserts using melted almond bark, and I had plenty of that so…. Yea I did. Don’t judge me. J So the first bowl I melted and burned so it got chunky instead of pretty and smooth. So onto the second try. It melted all pretty like and I used a different type of food coloring this time and the color was good- so I poured it over the top of the cake. I can’t even tell you how absolutely blonde I feel right about now! So, yeah, it doesn’t just pour and spread all thin and pretty like. It puddles up on top and hardens rather quickly. In for a penny in for a pound, right? So I tried working it. I tried trailing it down the sides to make it look better, nope doesn’t work that way! So needless to say, the good thing about it hardening is that it came off in large chunks and I was back to square… 3?

So the Beast and I had to make an emergency run to the store less than two hours before I had to be to work. But it did turn into one of my all-time favorite photo ops. The Beast decided he wanted to be a superhero all day and wore his cape to the store, it really was too cute!

Anyhow, we got another chocolate icing to melt over the top, because let’s face it I was pissed by this time. I really didn’t want to do any more decorating. However I also got another vanilla icing to color purple and did the piping puffs all around the bottom edge and top edge. As well as using my 1 and 7 cookie cutters to sprinkle rainbow sprinkles and that turned out pretty cute. Until it all melted down the sides and the 17 spread to look bloated.

I already hated this cake and I knew because of how evil it was, that there was no way it was going to have the cheetah print when we cut into it. I was right, if anything it just looked like a marble type cake.

There was no way I was going to take a picture of this horribly mean cake, at the rate we were going it would have probably broke my camera! And I was a little afraid to taste it too. Now that I think about it, I have seemed a little feistier since I ate it! Sorry Chelsey, I hope your year goes more smoothly than your stinkin cake! Lol!

 

Weight Watchers Cake

Another Birthday just days later!!! Is there nothing else to do in July?

The birthday girl this time is actually one who has been on a Weight Watchers diet for 5 months now and has lost a considerable amount of weight. But I figured even a girl on a diet needs a cake for her birthday!

This cake is actually a pin I found and once again wanted to try but hadn’t had the opportunity. I give you the-

Weight Watchers Cake

Ingredients:

• Funfetti cake mix
• 12oz can of diet Cherry 7up

Yep that’s it! Just mix the cake mix powder with the can of diet 7up. Bake as directed.

Instead of frosting use lite Cool whip.

This cake was not very pretty, I used the Bundt cake and whipped cream in a can. I sprayed the whipped cream all over the top and sides in a kinda messy fashion. But the big girl deep down inside the skinny girl was in heaven and the taste was pretty awesome. I would definitely make this cake again!

 

Rainbow Cake

The piece de’ resistance.

I wish I had taken more pictures for all this, but it was quite an eventful day. Avery’s 8^th My Little Pony party. We made a hamburger bar and then a cupcake bar. We used rainbow colored mini cupcakes for all the kids to decorate, and one medium sized rainbow cake for everyone else. Inspired by this pin and this pin. So here’s how we made the rainbow cake.

Ingredients:

2 boxes of vanilla cake mix.

 *don’t forget to sub the milk for water, double butter for oil, and an extra egg.

Food coloring

2 Vanilla icing

 

Directions:

Make cake mix using substitutions.

Separate into smaller bowls. One box makes three, for a total of six.

Use the food coloring to make Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

Bake as directed in separate pans.

When cooled, freeze.

After cakes freeze, level the tops with a large knife.

Use vanilla icing to smooth a crumb layer on each. And stack.

Use another vanilla icing can to color blue and melt for 15 seconds.

The reason I forgot to take step by step pics, I got enjoy watching her instead.

Pour and smooth all along the top and sides.

On the corners I used the sour rainbow Extremes candy strips, since it was difficult to make the edges perfectly smooth.

Use a piping bag and vanilla icing, place puffs all along the bottom edge and three puffs in the corner.

Using the Extremes candy- I shaped into rainbows and froze them so they would stay- i placed them frozen on top of the cake with a few small MLP toy ponies.  It was too cute. Unfortunately we took the décor off the top before I remembered to take a picture of it. Throw the dog a bone here- we had a slumber party with thirteen girls!

So there you have it- 4 cakes in two weeks. I’m a little caked out at the moment, so were working on our front flower garden this week. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

What would Easter be without the eggs?

I was actually lucky enough to find the time and muster the energy to decorate a couple of dozen eggs with the kids this weekend as well. I found several ideas on Pinterest and decided to try a couple.

The first I had wanted to try for a while now. This one uses shaving cream and food coloring. For some weird reason I absolutely love the smell of shaving cream. Yes I know I'm strange- but at least I haven't started eating it yet. So this was really simple, but pretty messy- my favorite combination. I used a paper plate, covered it in white shaving cream, and dripped drops of different food coloring in it. Simply roll the egg around to get the color effects you desire. If you mix it all too much it will turn an ugly color so you may need a few plates of it. They turned out tye-dyed, soft and smooth, and smelling very manly- Yum!

My next set was inspired by this pin, and dedicated to my biggest kid. The hubster loves The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and any time we're at the toy store we have to stop and play. So all I did was dye them green and use a black sharpie to draw their mouths once they were dry. While I waited for them to dry I cut some seriously thin white ribbon and put them in the egg dye to see if it would color them for me. It didn't, even after 20 mins. So I cut more ribbon and used colored sharpie to color the ribbons. When it was all dry, I used my hot glue gun on the back of the egg to secure the colored ribbon like a mask. Then I dotted black sharpie for the eyes. I couldn't tell you who was who, but one had some serious acne problems. But then again they are called Teenage turtles for a reason.

For the plain colored eggs used my ingenuity. I know right- Yikes!! So with the dyes you buy at the store they say to use water, and to really make them stand out add some vinegar. So I thought, get this, let's just use all vinegar and food coloring. Well it does at least work, but not all that well. For some reason the coloring on it bubbles or is uneven, and also when it touches anything the color rubs off easily. So needless to say I probably won't do that again. Unless I forget by next year. Which very likely could happen.

Well I hope you all made an egg or two yourselves, I would love to see your creations.

The Tale of the Bunny Tail

Happy late Easter everyone!

One of my favourite traditions in our family for any holiday, is our entire family gathering around the table. When it comes to Easter, we usually do a potluck type lunch so no one person has too much to worry about. It works great for us so we can all sit back and enjoy the day, unfortunately this is Texas and that usually means rainy gray days this time of year.



Now holidays are usually an exciting time around my house, I usually plan months in advance all the fun crafts, treats and even gifts that will make the holiday totally memorable. But since I started working the night shift they have sort of become a pain in my tail. As I scroll through my Pinterest page I see all the fun things the PPM (Perfect Pinterest Mommies) have planned in their futures and it only got me more bummed. They had crafts anywhere from stuffed chocolate eggs- to blowing out the egg and putting scrolled notes inside- all the way to glow in the dark Easter egg hunts. So I nearly said screw it all, until a friend at work- who also happens to be on Pinterest- showed me the Bunny Tail Cake she planned to make. It seemed rather simple and I always like to get ideas from others but put my own twist on them, so I started pondering small changes I could make to it to fit me better. So, I give you our attempt at the Bunny Tail Cake.

So we started off making the cake. One box of cake mix to make two 9" rounds. Now I had previously found this pin talking about additions and substitutions to the boxed mix to make it taste homemade. Basically it states to add one more egg than the box calls for, use milk instead of water, and instead of oil use melted butter but double the amount. In the end, I thought it did alright. I didn't notice too much of a difference, but my grandma did suggest adding a tsp of vanilla as well.

We baked them as directed on the box and left them in the freezer over night, as per Buddy on Cake Boss taught us.

So the next morning we leveled the tops of both rounds and iced the cake with green icing (white whipped mixed with 10-ish drops of green food coloring).

Meanwhile, through all this my sioux chef was making our grass. My family and I are not big fans of coconut, which is the go to ingredient for making edible grass on cakes. So, he melted white almond bark in the microwave into a rectangular pan. While it was melted he added about 5-ish drops of green food coloring to make it close to the same color as the icing. He then put it in the freezer for 10- 15 minutes. Once it was hard, he used our potato peeler to shave the sides in long strokes. Because it was a flat brick he could angle the peeler and the shavings came off as spirals making it much cuter than flakes.

Our next step was to add the KitKats around the edges. You are going to need about 12 packages. My personal shopper happened to only grab 9, and had to make a KitKat run halfway through the project.

So while the hubster was gone, I went ahead and added the bunny booty. The booty was made from one of the Conchitas, which is actually more of a bread than a cake. But after it was iced with white whipped icing it was perfect for the fluffy looking bunny booty.

The tail was next and only consisted of a regular sized marshmallow clipped around the edges to round out. The two little bunny feet were also made with marshmallows cut in half. I was actually stumped on how to add the pink on the bottom of the feet until I found the sprinkles from valentines day. I just used three pink hearts as the toes. It got the job done.

So when my personal shopper returned with the rest of the KitKats we finished the outside. Once it was all put together, we sprinkled the grass on top around the tail.

I was lucky enough to already have some cute ribbons on hand and the flowered one fit just perfect!

And Voila! The Tale of the Bunny Tale.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Truly my all time favorite past time is when the hubby and I are in the kitchen working on a project together. It's nearly better than an actual date. Except the mess- I can always do without the mess!

Ah-mazing!

One of the best blessings God has granted us (in my opinion) is Chocolate. So I was in hog heaven when I came across this little beauty of a pin. That’s right! Chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Oreos!!! I’ll give you a moment to wipe that drool off your chin.

I actually made these a while back (ok, so over a year ago) and they were Ah-mazing! All I needed was another special occasion to make some more. Well, I found one, or it found me.

The brat pack and I were on our way back from the public library and passed by the fire station. A few of the nice firefighters were standing around chatting (probably like hens in a hen house) and waved to the kids on our way by. Which started the highly repetitive conversation about visiting the fire station and getting a ride in the truck.  All of a sudden the reoccurring whirlwind of thought goes through my head. Why couldn’t we go visit the station? Do they even do that? If I called the number to ask will I get in trouble since it’s not an emergency? Its spring break for crying out loud and all I’ve done with them is a trip to the library and a stop at the park. Isn’t spring break supposed to be all about cramming as much fun into one week to make up for the four dull months of winter? So I mustered up the courage to Google the fire station phone number. As my smart phone nearly begged to call the blue number for me, I reasoned with myself. It’ll be ok- they won’t even know who I am (in case I look a fool for even attempting to waste their precious time on a small pack of brats). And if they trace my number because I wasn’t supposed to call for non-emergencies, I’ll just pretend to speak Spanish. Have I mentioned I don’t know a lick of Spanish? The funny thing is that all this takes place in the mere minutes it takes to go exactly tree blocks to our next stop.  I hit the call button and a surprisingly pleasant gentleman informs me that no, it’s not a crazy question I am asking. And they actually do tours of the fire station all the time. Just come on by. So we set up a time for a couple of days later.

Now, I was always taught that you don’t show up to someone’s house empty handed. And this is their home away from home, right? So the whirlwind began again. Would hand drawn pictures from the kids be enough? Could we add this to our RAOK (Random Acts of Kindness) album? What kind of thank you goody do you take a bunch of grown men? And then it hit me. No man I know would ever turn down a cookie, let alone a twofer!

So with that decision made I had to go back and search my extensive Pinterest board appropriately name Recipes. Why I haven’t broken that board up into smaller categories I don’t know. After twenty minutes of searching and getting sidetracked because, “Oh, that looks good; Ahh, I need to make this soon; and even a Look something shiny”, I found the sweet pinnacle of chocolate. Find the Original Pin here.

So I give to you my attempt at recreating the deliciousness.

 

 

Okay, so they may not look all that Ah-mazing but they taste un-freakin-believable. Plus we put them in a nice cake box (the smallest sized bakery type box I could find) and added some manly colored tissue paper to make it all pretty. (My brother rolled his eyes at all this) Did they like the cookies- you might ask? Not sure. They happily accepted these tokens of gratitude and the hand drawn pictures, then proceeded to amaze the kids with all their hero toys. 

I have to say, the cookies weren’t the only thing Ah-mazing today. Those men were wonderful! They were very kind and really seemed to enjoy entertaining and educating the kids. They made a point to show the kids how they get dressed in all their equipment; and that they may look a little scary, but if our house was on fire he would be the one to come save them. They let them get inside the fire trucks and even let them spray the big water hose. This experience is one that will be talked about for quite awhile in our house.

Thank you R. Gantt, 2^nd Lt. Flippin and team for making a big impact on our kids and for all that you do.

You all truly are local heroes!

                   P.S. I hope you enjoyed the cookies I know I did!

 

Treasure Map

One of the best pins I have found so far is one that I'm positive will help with my sanity! Someone posted a book called "When did I get like this?" by Amy Wilson. Buy it here I looked it up on my book app on my handy dandy (sticky) iPad. Within a few pages I just had to have it. But, being the oh-so clever lady that I am, I decided it had to be the hardcover edition (you never know, the hubster might get bored one night... scratch that more likely he might drop it only to pick it up, happen to read the first few lines and get hooked. I can just see it now!). All those things I have ever wanted to explain to him, only to be lost for words, written here like a treasure map to my sanity. Seriously this book, this woman, is awesome! She just gets me! I do believe she may be my kindred soul. There are other mothers like me! She summed it up perfectly just on the front cover, "The screamer, the worrier, the dinosaur- chicken- nugget buyer, and other mothers I swore I’d never be."
 
I showed another mother at my work the book, and she asked what's up with the dino shaped chicken nuggets. Apparently her kids get a well balanced diet, because if you don't get the essence of those dino delights I just can’t explain it to you.
 
When I was twentyish and working on starting a family, I had this friend and we would talk about the others in our circle that had already joined the ranks of motherhood. Ones that did things one way where we would do it another. Then we joined those prestigious ranks and laughed our selves silly over our former selves and our high and mighty ideals. That was only the beginning.
 
The worst part of it all is, I now have my best friend whom I grew up with (and should know me best of all) completely fooled. She actually thinks I'm a good mother and someone to look up to in that regard. Whenever I hear her say things like that I cringe. She apparently hasn't yet figured out that I still- three kids later- have no clue what I'm doing! She doesn't realize there are things she does as a mother that I wish I could or would do. I mean she actually takes her son to the park every day after school to let him blow some steam. I wish!
 
As I read more and more of this addicting book I think that's the whole point of it. We as mothers, wives, and women do things different or even extreme, but with only the best of intentions- and that should be commended not judged.
 
I can’t say it enough, I love this book! As I sit here on my couch in the peace and quiet of the midnight hour chowing down on days old pizza unable to quit turning the pages I inch a little closer towards the sanity beckoning me from the land of self acceptance.
 
Thank you Amy for putting into words what I could never say.
 
(And thank you mom for making it all look so easy, which in turn has given me a complex! I kid, I kid. But seriously you must have done it right cause I did turn out to be pretty awesome if I do say so myself!)   XOXO

 

P.A.

Hello, my name is Laura and I am a Pin-aholic.

I'm sure you've all heard of Pinterest by now, if not what the heck are you waiting for? Much to my hubster's dismay I have become addicted to finding oh so many new projects that I just know are really going to make this crazy life we lead just a little bit simpler. He may moan and groan the entire way through one (and by that I mean bitch about how much he hates Pinterest), but deep down I know he loves all the money saving ideas that just cost a small amount up front. Right? Hubbies love that stuff right? Oh well, if I didn't drive him crazy with home improvements or new un-perfected recipes I would have to find something else to pester him with. We just can't have it get too boring around here now.

I started this blog thinking all the fun projects and parties I do would make a cool blog. Ha. I never was good at finishing diaries when I was a kid, and apparently haven't gotten any better. But I made up my mind. I'm turning thirty in nine months. Yes I know, you can cry for me in a minute. The problem I'm having with this horrible momentous occasion is that I haven't done anything monumentally page turning. But that's all about to change. This newfangled blog/ diary is the first step in the right direction (don't ask me how).

So be forewarned most of the fun projects I do kinda usually fail, but I always sometimes know what I did wrong and I will perfect it the next go around. I hope you enjoy it more than the hubster (cause really who could love it any less?).

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/lrude/pins/