Little Jelly Bean

I'm back after a long hiatus. I've happily been busy with my first born. Yes I've had a baby! I know I'm prejudiced but he's the cutest thing ever!

I kept thinking about blogging but I was busy working on a nursery (I have lots to share!)

After nine wonderful weeks of motherhood I ventured back into baking. A new cookie recipe tempted me (jelly bean cookies). If you know me, you know I have a weakness for cookies! You can find the recipe here. 

My husband, J was doing yard. He came in the kitchen surprised to find me baking (I haven't in months - with a newborn who has time?!). Well I finally found a recipe crazy enough that he wasn't trying to sneak a taste before the cookies were done! We'll see how the kids like the cookies tomorrow!

Cream shortening & sugar (I substituted butter).
Add egg, milk & vanilla.

Whisk together (seperately) flour, salt & baking powder.

Add flour mixture into sugar mixture.

Mix completely.

Stir in jelly beans.
I used Starburst jelly beans.

Side note: I love this scraper spatula that my mom got me for Christmas.

Place on cookie sheet.

Bake & enjoy!

This is how I bake with a newborn!
Baby L is the cutest reason for not blogging!

Happy Easter!

Easy Peasy Popsicles

Looking for a cool treat on a hot summer's day? Then these popsicles are for you! They're easy and you can change and add in whatever you like!

I've started a paleo/whole 30 diet and have been looking for something sweet to eat. I normally love fruit popsicles but the ones I buy from the store have sugar in them (which is a no no on the whole 30). So I decided to make my own!

My first thought was to blend different fruits together and freeze the juice. I may try that next but for my first try I used frozen 100% juice. I used grape because it's my favorite popsicle. 

What you'll need to make your own:

- Frozen 100% Juice (I used Old Orchard)

- Water

- Juice Pitcher

- Popsicle molds

- Funnel (optional - we used it to fill the molds)

Simply mix the frozen juice with water as you normally would, pour the juice into the popsicle molds, and let them freeze for about 3 hours.

Enjoy these yummy easy popsicles!

Happy Crafting!

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Homemade Ice Cream

One of the best wedding presents that my husband and I ever received (in my opinion and my husband might agree) is our ice cream maker. While we were dating there was a phrase I heard quite a bit "My mother makes it from scratch". Now keep in mind that I don't have the normal mother-in-law, daughter-in-law relationship with my second mom. We get along fabulously and I couldn't ask for a better MIL! One of the many things she makes from scratch is ice cream. So when we registered for wedding gifts, we registered for an ice cream maker. I informed my husband that if he wanted me to make ice cream, I would need an ice cream maker.

Homemade ice cream usually happens every few months in our house. I'm sure whenever God expands our family ice cream will happen much more frequently. Now I haven't done the exact math but homemade ice cream is not only fairly cheap but DELICIOUS! I love how you can customize it both with what you put in and what you don't.

We have experimented with many different types of ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry). My favorite so far is strawberry and today I'm sharing my recipe with you.

Cut and stem the strawberries (I have this nifty tool to remove the stems - makes it easy peasy!)

Now that they're stemmed, chop them up! I personally like smaller pieces because I'm not a huge fan of biting into huge frozen chunks of fruit.

After chopping up the strawberries, let them soak in the lemon juice and half a cup of sugar for 2 hours.

This is the strawberries after mixing in the lemon juice and sugar.

After soaking in the lemon juice and sugar. With all this wonderful strawberry juice, it will give all the ice cream strawberry flavor and a nice pink color. (Be sure to add all of the juice! Someone tried my recipe without the juice and it was like vanilla ice cream with strawberry chunks in it.)

In a separate bowl, combine the milk and the remaining sugar. The recipe says to use a hand mixer on low speed to combine everything but for some reason I've found that when I mix it by hand with a wooden spoon my ice cream come out creamier.

Continue to stir the milk and sugar until all of the sugar is dissolved.

Next add in the cream.

Add the vanilla (this is homemade vanilla from my friend T - everything is better homemade!)

And last but not least add in the strawberries and juice.

Put into the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker for 25-30 minutes and then put into an airtight container and into the freezer.

Enjoy your homemade ice cream.
My guess is you'll love it so much you won't want to share! I sure don't ;)

Download your own pdf recipe card here

Happy Crafting!

Salt River Bars

My good friend T came over to "bake" these... they sounded so good I broke my gluten free diet to eat some! The recipe can be found here. Of course I changed it a bit for my bars (Surprise!).

Here's what you'll need to make your own:

-1 box Club crackers (I used saltines)
-1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
-1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
-1 cup peanut butter chips
-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
-Coarse sea salt (I used fine sea salt)

First, line your baking pan with aluminum foil and grease it with cooking spray or you could use coconut oil. Line the bottom with a layer of crackers.

Next, melt the butter and then add the brown sugar, stirring constantly.

Sprinkle some of the peanut butter chips over the crackers.

And pour butter/sugar mixture over the crackers and pb chips.

Next, add another layer of crackers.

Repeat this layering two more times (Crackers, pb chips, butter/sugar syrup).
You should have three layers total now.
Add your final layers of crackers on top and melt the chocolate chips.

After adding the last layer of crackers spread the melted chocolate over the crackers and sprinkle with sea salt.
I used a combination of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips for my final layer (because peanut butter makes everything better!).
Refrigerate for about 20 minutes, cut through the chocolate layer and put back into the fridge.
Serve and enjoy!
(By the way they're delicious and SO worth breaking my diet!)

Happy Crafting!

Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail

Here comes Peter cotton tail hopping down the bunny trail. Hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way! Part of my wonderful Easter childhood memories are of my Grandmother singing that song to me.

Easter dinner is at our house this year and I'm making that childhood memory a reality... on the menu that is with little chocolate bunnies complete with marshmallow "cotton" tails! I have been WAITING to do this for Easter. I don't really care if most people don't like them lol because they are just too darn cute! I'm sure my cousin's kids will love them!

What you'll need to make your own:
Bunny peeps, chocolate candy melts, mini marshmallows, and lollipop sticks.

Cut the mini marshmallows in half for the tail.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

Insert the lollipop stick into the bunny until just before their ears
and dip into the melted chocolate.

Place on parchment paper.

And add the mini marshmallow.

The finished product! I hope everyone will enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Chocolate Spritz Cookies/Cookie Press Cookies

After some minor out patient surgery yesterday I haven't been feeling much like crafting. As part of my recovery I felt I was in need of chocolate today. So I decided to try out my new Christmas present (a cookie press) and bake some cookies.

Here is my brand new cookie press!

Here is what you'll need for the recipe: 1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter (room temp), 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract, 2 large eggs, room temperature, 3½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup cocoa powder,
optional: assorted sprinkles or jimmies for decorating

Preheat oven to 375F. In stand mixer beat together butter, sugar and salt.

Add eggs & vanilla one at a time, beat until smooth.

Gradually add  in flour and cocoa powder 1/2 cup at a time. 
Mix until a soft dough is formed.

Spoon into cookie press and choose your shape disc.
 Press dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on rack and enjoy!

Happy Crafting!

Pumpkin Brownie Bites

These brownies are the start of a Thanksgiving tradition. I made them last year for the first time for Thanksgiving and they were such a big hit they were requested twice more between then and now!

This year I decided to make them bite size brownie cupcakes. Mainly because last year a family member got a bit excited abouy dessert and cut through my silicone baking pan.

You can find the recipe for these great brownies here.

Can't wait for dessert!

Happy Thanksgiving!