My First Fondant Cake

I've always had this great ambition to make amazing birthday cakes for my kids, but frankly I'm not very good at making the frosting smooth. I usually end up just buying figurines and putting them on top of a regular cake. I've seen lots of cute fondant cake ideas and wished I knew how to that.

My cousin found a recipe for homemade marshmallow fondant for me and since my little man turned 1 this past weekend, well, I decided to try it. And after ruining my first batch, and then employing the aid of my husband, the second try worked. I am so excited how it turned out.

So do you want the recipe? Here it is with all the tweaks we made:

Marshmallow Fondant

8 oz mini marshmallows (4 cups not packed)

4 c powdered sugar, plus a little for dusting

2 T water

Food coloring and flavoring, optional

Put marshmallows and water in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until smooth. If you are adding flavoring, stir it in now. Also if you are only doing ONE color, add it now too. If you're doing more than one color, wait. Add the powdered sugar and stir until it becomes too difficult to stir. Dust your counter with powdered sugar and dump the mixture out. Knead with your hands until all the powdered sugar is incorporated and it is smooth. If your doing more than one color, split your fondant and hand knead the coloring in. It is now ready to use. If you're not using it right away, wrap in plastic. You can store it in the fridge also. If the fondant gets a little stiff, microwave for 5-10 seconds to soften it up again.

Note: If you don't want to have to knead the coloring into the fondant, split the recipe up before you make it so you are doing several partial recipes and dye each section before you add the sugar.

Now to use your fondant:

Spray your work space and rolling pin with cooking spray. Yes I know it sound weird, but trust me you want to. This is where I messed up my first batch. Roll out fondant to desired thickness. To transfer to your cake, roll the fondant up around the rolling pin and lay over the cake. Use your hands to smooth out.

To add the shapes to my cake I rolled out the fondant, or rather my husband did, and we used regular old cookie cutters! For the border around the bottom we made two long snakes out of the two colors and twisted them together.

Isn't it AMAZING!!!!!

Get Your Mexy On

Have you ever wondered if you can make your own tortillas? I try to make what I can from scratch, it's cheaper that way. So why not tortillas? They are a staple in our house and I have wanted to learn to make them for a while. So I finally googled it and found this easy recipe at allrecipes.com. I love this site, I find so many recipes there.

Homemade Tortillas

3 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

2 t. salt

3/4 c. shortening

3/4 c. hot water

This is a lot like making pie crust. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. With a pastry cutter or fork, cut in shortening until mixture is crumbly. Add in hot water and mix well. (I found that I needed a few extra tablespoons of water than what the recipe called for).

Cover with a cloth for an hour. Split dough into ten equal pieces. Roll out to 1/8th inch. Cook on both sides on a griddle on medium heat. Be careful not to over cook or they go crispy.

For my first time I think they turned out pretty good. My husband and kids loved them.

A Valentines Treat

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Valentines Day. It has taken me all day to post this. Everyone in our house, except the baby, is sick. A great way to spend the holiday, right. And between taking care of sick kids and resting myself, I have not gotten to post before now.

I wanted to show you the fun Valentines treat we made this year. I found this idea at Disney Family Fun. They were very yummy and we will most definitely be making them more often.

Jam Tarts

2 1/4 c flour

3/4 t salt

2/3 c shortening

12 T water

Any flavor Jam

1 egg beaten with 1 t water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the shortening to pea sized clumps. Cut in water a couple of tablespoons at a time. (This is just a pie crust recipe, so if you have your own that you love use it.)

Roll out pie crust 1/8 inch thick on a floured surface. Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies, you need two for each tart. We used a heart shape, but you could use any shape.

Place your cookies on a greased cookie sheet. Scoop some jam onto the center of the cookies. Make sure to leave space around the edges to seal your tart.
Brush the egg onto the edge of your cookies and place a second cookie on top. Press a fork around the edges. Bake at 400* for 15 min. Place on a rack to cool. After they have cooled decorate with frosting/sprinkles, whatever you want. We used frosting to make a cute quilt pattern.

Hamburger Hash

Do you need to get your kids to eat more of these?

Here's a fun way to get them to eat some veggies:

Hamburger Hash

4 regular sized potatoes

4 carrots

1 lb ground beef

Wash and peel your potatoes and carrots. Then grate using the large grater on your food processor. Place in a large frying pan with ground beef. (I usually add a little oil too, but this is optional and may depend on your pan.) Cook on medium heat, stirring regularly, until all the meat is cooked and the veggies are tender.

Serve with ketchup and some yummy homemade bread.

It has a little bit of that "Hamburger Helper" kind of feel to it and for some reason kids go for that kind of stuff. You can also add other veggies to this as well: onion, snow peas, squash......... Whatever you can sneak in there.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Have you ever seen those breaded chicken cordon bleu in the freezer section?

Have you ever looked at the price?

YIKES!!!

I don't know about you but no frozen food is worth that price. So today I'm going to share with you my moms easy recipe for homemade chicken cordon bleu. Now you can have it without breaking the bank.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2 chicken breasts

6 thin slices ham

6 slices swiss cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

4-8 oz half and half

melted butter

crushed corn flakes or bread crumbs

Fillet your chicken breasts into thirds. Lay out the chicken breasts and place a piece of ham and a piece of cheese on each. *Note: if you use ham from the deli the slices tend to be pretty big around. You may be able to cut them in half and only use 3 slices. Roll up the chicken breasts and coat them in the melted butter. Then roll them in the corn flakes/bread crumbs. Place in a sprayed 9x9 pan.

In a bowl mix soup and half and half. *Note: I said 4-8 oz because it depends on how thick you like your sauce. I like mine a little more runny so I use closer to 8. Pour sauce over the chicken. Bake covered at 350* for 30 min. Then uncover and bake for 15 min.

We like to serve it with rice or noodles and put the sauce over the top. I have also used mozzarella instead of swiss to save on a few bucks and it still tastes yummy. Bon Appetite!

Apple Sauce Pancakes and A Little More

Before I delve into this weeks recipe, I just wanted to throw something out there. I read on facebook about a lawsuit against McDonalds. They are being sued on the basis that by offering toys in their happy meals they are luring children into eating unhealthy food and adding to the childhood obesity problem.

Okay, can I just say that our culture is way to "sue-happy". Holy Cow!!!! Seriously, it's not like a child can just jump in the car and go buy the happy meal themselves. Parents have to take them there and PAY for it. So how can you blame McDonalds for your kids being overweight from the food when you're the one buying it for them!!

Second, I get that the kids want the toys, but you can buy the toys without buying the happy meal. Just buy the toy and give it to them at home with a healthier homemade meal. Stop blaming McDonalds for your poor eating habits. As a parent you set your kids eating habits by what you feed them AND (probably more importantly) by example of what you eat.

I just think it's ridiculous!

So now that I have that off my chest onto this weeks recipe:

Apple Sauce Pancakes

Dry's

1 1/4 c flour

6 T sugar

2 T baking powder

1 1/2 t salt

Wet's

3 eggs

approx. 3 c milk

3 T apple sauce

Mix all the "Dry's" together in one bowl and all the "Wet's" together in a separate bowl. Then pour the wets into the drys and mix together. You may need to add a little more milk depending on how thick you like your batter. Now cook and serve.

Now if you noticed in the picture, my kids love face pancakes. It's simple. Drop a couple dots of batter for the eyes and nose and make a line for the mouth. Let them cook for a few minutes and then pour batter over the top of the face like you normally do for a pancake. When you flip it over the face will be a little bit darker than the rest of the pancake. So fun!

A Recipe for Him (and you!)

Do you need a meal that will make your husband so happy that he'll want to do the dishes, put the kids to bed and then rub your feet while watching a chic flick with you? Hehe!

Men love barbecue ribs. It's just a fact of life. But even the thought of cooking ribs makes us women need a nap. They are a lot of work. Not anymore!! I have the easiest recipe for you and I guarantee it will make your hubby happy. It's my husbands favorite (right next to lasagna)!

Okay here it is: Sorry I don't have a picture for you. I realized half way through dinner that I forgot to take a picture. Oops. But it sure tasted good!

Barbecue Ribs

3-4 pounds of country style boneless pork ribs

(They come in the long cartons like the chicken breasts at the meat department. Just use one carton.)

18 oz bottle of your favorite bbque sauce

(Our favorite is western family honey)

Put the package of ribs into your crock pot and pour the bbque sauce over it. Then cook on low for 6 hours. You can cook it on high for 4 hours if your short on time but they turn out a little more tender on low. Then serve with your favorite potatoes and veggies and Mm Mm Good!!!!

And enjoy your chic flick! Hehe!

Pizza Pizza

Pizza is a kid pleaser at our house. I'm going to guess that's true with most every house. I'm not quite sure why kids find it so much more attractive than other meals but hey, you do what you have to right?

We happen to have a great pizza place in the next town over that delivers for free. And a family deal (large 3 topping pizza, bread sticks and cinnamon sticks) is only $11.99. Can't beat that on crazy nights. But it does add up if we do it regularly.

And besides nothing beats homemade right! So this week I'm going to share with you our families favorite pizza recipe. And maybe tonight the kids at your house will be smiling!

Hawaiian Pizza!

Pizza

Crust:

1 T yeast

2 c warm water

1 t salt

1/2 t sugar

4 1/2 c flour

approx. 1 lb cheese (depending on how cheesy you like it)

your favorite toppings

Preheat oven to 375*. In a mixer put yeast, water, salt, sugar. Turn mixer on medium and add flour while mixing. Once all the flour is added leave to mix while you make the sauce.

Sauce:

8 oz can tomato sauce

1/2 t oregano

1 T sugar

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t basil

Mix together in a small bowl. Set aside. Press pizza crust into a greased cookie sheet. Spread sauce over crust. Layer on your favorite toppings. (Do not add cheese yet.) Bake at 375* for 35 min. Sprinkle on cheese and put back in over until cheese melts. And enjoy!

Time For Hot Cocoa

This is the view out my bedroom window this morning:

It's been snowing at our house for the last couple of days and putting me in the mood for some nice hot chocolate. But to my dismay, we're out. Isn't hot chocolate like a winter staple? How can we be out! So I googled and found an easy hot cocoa recipe at Martha Stewart.com. There is only three ingredients and quick to mix up. So find these three things in your cupboard and lets get started.

Hot Cocoa

3 1/2 C sugar

2 1/4 C cocoa

1 T salt

Mix them together and store in an airtight container.

When ready to use heat 1 cup of milk to desired warmth and add 2 T of cocoa mix. Mmm.

Zucchini Bread

This weeks recipe is a great way to get your kids to eat some vegetables. Normally I have a hard time getting my kids to eat zucchini but they love this bread because it tastes like cinnamon.

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 c flour

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t nutmeg

1 beaten egg

1 c sugar

1 c finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

1/4 c cooking oil

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease bread pan (makes 1 regular loaf or 1 mini loaf pan). In medium bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Set aside. In a separate bowl combine egg, sugar, zucchini and oil. Add zucchini mixture to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes. *If using a mini loaf pan you may want to reduce baking time.

Halloween Treats

I had to make cookies today for the school carnival cake walk and I've also been meaning to take some treats to the neighbor who has been helping with rides to school. So I though, hey kill two birds with one stone right. I decided to make some cute Halloween sugar cookies and I used my Great Grandmothers recipe for sour cream sugar cookies. Mmmm! My favorite! And I'm going to share this wonderful recipe with you.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1/2 c butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 c sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

4 1/2 c flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs- beat well. In a separate bowl mix sour cream, vanilla and lemon juice. In another bowl mix baking soda, baking powder and flour. Now add small amounts of sour cream mixture alternately with small amounts of flour mixture until well mixed.

Roll out dough on a floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Cut shapes with your favorite cookie cutters. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375* for 10-12 minutes.

I cut my cookies into pumpkin and ghost shapes. To decorate them I used a round tip to pipe on zig-zag designs. If you don't have cake decorating tips you can use a ziploc bag and cut the tip off.

For the ghosts I added two mini chocolate chips for eyes.

Then remember those little Frankensteins I made. I put some of those on a plate with the cookies and it made a fun treat for the neighbor.

Little Frankensteins

I saw this cute Halloween treat idea on another blog, but I of course can't remember which one. So sorry to whomever it is out there that deserves the credit for this one. They dipped big marshmallows in chocolate to create these cute Frankensteins. Here is our version: (Not the best picture but hey.)

The kids had a blast making them. And they are yummy to eat, probably a little too yummy.

Here's how easy they are to make:

Melt white chocolate chips in a mug in the microwave and add green food coloring.

Melt milk chocolate chips in a separate mug.

Dip the marshmallows in the "green" chocolate and put in the fridge to harden.

Then dip just the tops of the marshmallows in the milk chocolate for the hair. Put some melted chocolate in a baggy and cut of the tip to squeeze on the face and bolts in his neck. Put back in the fridge to harden.

I also saw another blog that did them as pumpkins. So fun.