Fairy Cake

Tomorrow is my daughter's 8th birthday party and she decided on a fairy theme this year.

I searched all over for ideas, but the ones that caught my eye were covered in flowers...so I asked my sister-in-law (our family cake expert) for some help. She is amazing with flowers, isn't she? She made all these up, so all I had to do was make the cake, frost it and arrange everything. It was great fun!

I looked at some of the Tinkerbell cake toppers in the cake decorating section, but they seemed kind of cheesy to me and not very well made for sure. I found this while out Christmas shopping. It's a Hallmark ornament, so Natalie will be able to keep it and use it at Christmas time!

Fabulous Food Friday: Spooky Treats

Happy Halloween! 

Last year I had a lot of fun making Halloween treats for the kids. I made these cute mummies stuffed with chicken salad:

You can find the instructions for these mummies here.

This year, my friend Teri told me about a Halloween treat that she was making and I had to give it a try. They were really easy to make which was great because this year I seemed to be full of festive plans, but short on time.

STEP 1: insert chow mien noodles into double stuff Oreos. I used chocolate mint Oreos cause those are my fave, but I think there are orange Oreos this time of year that would be cool too.

Second melt 4 squares of chocolate almond bark to 1 C chocolate chips and drizzle over the "spiders." I found it was the easiest to scoop up the spiders with a fork, then using a mini ladle or large spoon, drizzle over cookie until coated. Let the excess chocolate drip off and then place on waxed paper to set. Lastly use two mini M&Ms for eyes. The kids had fun with this part and were trying to figure out which color was the spookiest for spider eyes!

Chocolate covered spiders...good enough to eat!

Fabulous Food Friday: Fried Won Tons

To make these yummy appetisers, you need to purchase won ton wrappers and whatever ingredients you want for the filling. I typically use a mixture of cream cheese, ham (or chicken) and chives.

Separate the won tons as you go and spoon a small amount of the filling into the center.

Fold over and wet the edges to seal.

And tuck the end up to the middle. Seal the ends using water. Fry in vegetable oil, a few at a time, until brown and crispy.

Now here are some photos of my newest hobby...bento lunches!

These are made with sticky (sweet) rice, using rice molds found in Asian markets or online. I got mine from my brother-in-law's fiance who brought them back from Japan!

I used my paper punches to punch holes and flowers for the eyes out of nori (dried seaweed)...see, crafty and tasty!


Here is a lunch I made for my daughter this past spring using the rice molds. This time, I didn't use sticky rice, just leftover rice that I added Yoshida's gourmet sauce to make it "sticky." The bunny has a carrot nose and is surrounded by Edamame. She loved it!

April Fools!!!

Gotcha!

I came across this kitty litter cake idea while searching Madonna's (yes THAT Madonna) blog some time last year. I went back later to write down the instructions and her blog was no longer set up...little did I know that a simple Google search would turn up multiple instructions and even some photos.

My kids though it was gross!!! Heehee LOL!

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Kitty Litter Cake
Serving Size: 24Notes:
This is a fun cake! It might look gross, but it does taste good!
Ingredients:
1 (18 oz.) box spice or german chocolate cake mix
1 (18 oz.) box white cake mix
1 pkg. white sandwich cookies
1 large box vanilla instant pudding mix
12 small tootsie rolls
1 litter box (preferably a NEW one!)
1 plastic scoop
green food coloring

Preparation:
Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions (any size pans). Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in blender, they tend to stick, so scrape often. Set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix using a fork or shake in a jar.
When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining white cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. You probably won’t need all of the pudding, mix with the cake and “feel” it, you don’t want it soggy, just moist; gently combine. Put mixture into clean litter box.Put three unwrapped Tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Form the three softened Tootsie rolls into one roll. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie rolls and bury in mixture. Sprinkle the other half of cookie crumbs over top. Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly over the top, this is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty litter. Heat remaining Tootsie Rolls, three at a time in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Place the box on a newspaper and sprinkle a few of the cookie crumbs around. Serve with a new pooper scooper.

A Whole lotta love on Valentine's day

Breakfast

Heart shaped pancake w/ whipped cream and a cherry on top!

LunchHeart shaped PB&J w/ heart shaped pretzles and heart shaped melon.

Dinner

Heart shaped pizza!

This is how Natalie's homemade valentines turned out. We made 22 of them!

She really liked making all the faces too.

Don't eat that yet...

I have to take a picture of it!!!

Most people (non-bloggers mostly) think I am a little crazy for taking pictures of food...but when I take the time to make something special — there's gonna be a picture! I read enough blogs to know I'm not the only one who does this, but I still get weird looks when I "pose" my food!

It's all good though, cause I get to share with you all.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I made this dessert with chocolate cups you can buy in the grocery store and chocolate cool whip. (You could also use a cupcake) The groundhog was made from a Mounds candy bar and mini chocolate chips and other various candies. The "dirt" was made by crushing chocolate grahm crackers. The kids loved em!

Superbowl Super

For the superbowl yesterday, I made a batch of chili in the crock-pot and sandwich roll-ups. We also had corn bread, veggies and other munchies.

We got snow!!!

A happy snowman bowl of cream of wheat was an order before going out to play!

This is the view out our bedroom window yesterday morning! I quickly ran downstairs to turn on the news and learned we would be having a snow day!!!

I just love how the snow looks on the trees out here.

Dan and Zander had fun making an igloo...I am in awe of the amount of snow we got. As a native of Portland, I'm not used to having enough snow to build much more than a modest snowman.

All the kids got to ride on the sled...this is a huge improvement over last year when we didn't have a sled and used the recycling bin and some rope!

Olive Penguin Tutorial

So here's the scoop on the olive penguins...they are easy to assemble in just a few steps:

1. First drain the juice from a can of Jumbo olives.
2. Next cut out a slice of olive.

3. Then fill with softened cream cheese. I used a sandwich bag with the tip cut off to pipe the cream cheese into the olive. (you can also just use your finger).
4. Smooth out the cream cheese and wipe away any cream cheese from the outer part of the olive.

5. Cut a small carrot into 1/4" disks. (This will be the feet.)
6. Now cut away a small triangle for the beak. (hey looky...it's pac-man!)

7. Cut a slice vertically down the long side of a small olive.
8. Insert the carrot triangle. (You may have to slice the triangle thinner to fit inside the slit.)

9. Now that you have all your pieces, just insert a toothpick through the head, body and down into the carrot feet.


Repeat this process until you have enough penguins for your party. I found that it worked best to prep all the parts and then assemble all at once. If you need to store these over night, keep them in an airtight storage container with a little olive brine.

Halloween goodies

This is what I served for lunch yesterday. My 2 year-old couldn't believe I was putting candy on his sandwich. He kept looking at it like it was too good to be true!

I wrapped up a little treat for my first grader to surprise her at lunchtime...

She got a cute jack-o-lantern pin, nestled in some fall leaf confetti.

Mummy Wraps
Before going out trick-or-treating, we planned to take our kids out to see a matinee showing of Ratatouille. We wouldn't have much time to stop and eat before going out trick-or-treating, so I made these Mummy wraps (chicken in a blanket style). I started with a triangle from those Pillsbury crescent rolls. Then I cut slits along the sides, formed a head, filled with chicken salad mix and wrapped it all up, alternating sides (kind of like you do when you are braiding hair.) I used cloves for eyes, which should be removed before eating. (I forgot to tell my husband and he bit into one!) I think these mummies baked for about 12-13 minutes on 375. It worked pretty well...I wrapped them in napkins and put them into snack size ziplock bags. My husband snuck them in his coat pocket and we ate them while we watched the movie