French Bread

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but life keeps demanding my attention.

Anyway, I've made this recipe a couple of times now, and it was delicious both times. I found it on pinterest, but you can get the recipe here.

This is how mine turned out:

It was really easy. The instructions are well written. And it's totally worth the effort.

It's that time of year....

Every year I make about 100 dozen (yes, really) cookies for some of our monthly clients. Next week is that time so I've been busy using my family for taste testing. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to share the recipes here, but at least it finally did.

The first recipe we tried was for Lemon Bars from Living Practically's blog.

Now, these are SUPER easy....only two ingredients! A single step (only add water to the mix kind) angel food cake mix and a 15(ish) ounce can of lemon pie filling. Boom! That's it.

 And we liked the way they taste. However, because they really aren't very bar like they won't be included with the boxes of cookies.

I really think it would have been better if I had cooked them a little longer. The bottom didn't cook quite long enough to hold them together when I tried to get them out of the pan. So we just scooped it out with a spoon and ate it that way.

Hey, whatever works!

Now, if you want to make these, go to her blog and read the instructions and follow them. You will find that there are a lot of comments and some of them might scare you away from trying this recipe, but if you follow the directions they're super easy and will work for you. I suspect many of the commenters didn't even bother to actually read the directions.

I would have included a picture but, like I said earlier, I never thought to post the recipe links here until now.

Many more to come.....

Good Food

It's been super busy around here which is predictable once school starts back up.

Addison is busy with soccer 3-4 days per week.

Addison and Abigail both have cheer leading at least 2 days per week.

We just signed Addison up with Kumon because she's needing some help in math and that's another 2 days per week.

If we throw in working, orthodontist appointments, and now doctors appointments since Wyatt dislocated his knee, that pushes us almost into overload.

However, I have been crafting in my spare moments as I find them. They mostly come while I'm in the car waiting for someone to their current activity. lol

The other morning I did make these s'mores crescents.

I saw a picture on pinterest and decided I could probably figure it out on my own.

(btw, is anyone else as addicted to pinterest as I am? It's an obsession, people!!)

I just took crescent rolls and places a few mini marshmallows and a few chocolate chips on top.

 I rolled them up (it helps to fold the sides in after the first roll--rumor has it that the gooey stuff can leak out and make a mess--not that I would know from experience) and cooked them just a minute or two longer than the directions on the package.

I guess they tasted alright since the kids ate them all and I didn't even get to try one. But I'll take those types of critiques any day.

For the love of cookies

...and easy cookies are even better!!

I bake cookies every morning to put in my children's lunches. They each get two cookies so one batch of dough will last for the week.

If I made all of the cookies at once, there wouldn't be any left by day 2!!

I know I've posted about the recipe using a cake mix before (one box cake mix, 1/2 cup oil, and 2 eggs--that's it!!) but they're sooooo versatile that I couldn't help bring it up again.

For these I used a red velvet cake mix and white chocolate chips.

Talk about good!!

Great cupcakes

On Friday night we had family movie night. 


At our house that means that we watched old home videos. When given the choice, that's what the kids usually choose.


Since Dax & I aren't eating any kind of junk food and the kids like to have a treat while watching movies I made some cupcakes for them.


I just used a box mix that I already had. I didn't want to have to make a trip to the store.


I decided on French Vanilla.


For frosting the cupcakes I knew that I had some heavy cream that needed to be used so I decided to whip it up. Once I did that I added powdered sugar to get it a little bit thicker than I would normally make it.


That's because then I took a jar of butterscotch icecream topping and poured in about 1/2 a cup, beating it into the whipped cream well.


It turned out really good. (I tasted it!) And I know the kids liked it because they ate two cupcakes each. lol And, by the time it occured to me to take a picture, they were all gone.

When a cake fails

Today is a friends birthday so last night I was making a cake for her.


I had grand plans. Everything was from scratch. And then, despite generous greasing and flouring, the cake stuck to the pan anyway. And not even in a remotely salvageable way. One side stuck, while the other side fell out. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got until it all crumbled into a big mess.


So what was I supposed to do then?


I fretted for awhile, and then inspiration struck.


If life gives you a messy cake..........put it in a jar!!!! LOL

Of course Dax looked at me like I was crazy. But, the birthday girl and the other cake-in-a-jar recipients thought it was a really cute and clever idea.


That is until Dax made me tell them why it was in the jar. lol


But, hey, it works, right?

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies

Each year I make a box of cookies for some of our monthly bookkeeping clients.

Let me tell you, it's a major undertaking.

I spend about two weeks making test cookies for the family to taste until I settle on the 6 or 7 diffent kinds that will will be in the boxes.

I usually make about a dozen of each kind and do this for about 10-15 different clients.


I know, right?

Here are the cookies I chose this year.

From left to right: Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies, S'mores Cookies, Melting Moments cookies

Chocolate Raspberry Bars, Snow Balls, Cinnamon Cookies

It's always a lot of fun trying all the new cookies in order to make a decision, but, honestly, I'm sick of cookies for awhile.

Cookie Options

I bake cookies for my kids' lunch every morning. I make the batch of dough and then only bake 8 cookies each morning.


I love the options that the cookies using cake mix give me.


If you haven't tried them, they're the easiest cookies in the world to make.

1 pkg. cake mix (flavor of choice)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs

Mix together. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 9-10 minutes.


How much more simple can you get?


Anyway, this week I made a french vanilla cake mix into cookies.

These I sprinkled with International Foods coffee in the dark mayan chocolate flavor.


This week I've used this dough base and made cookies with white chocolate chips one day, caramel pieces the next, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon the next day, and finally with peppermint chips. All of those from one box of cake mix!!

That's what I LOVE about these cookies. They're so versatile so you can make them over and over and not get bored with them.

Baking fail

Usually, I make bread for my kids' lunches (and to eat in general). They go through a loaf bought at the store much too quickly so I try to save a little $$ by making it myself.

I love  Craft Gossip and saw this post and decided to try making the panda bread myself. She used cocoa to color her bread but I didn't want the flavor so I just kneaded in some gel black food coloring. That part worked out fine. My fail was the overall outcome.

See?

He's only a panda if he's really messed up.

Poor little thing. lol