Croquet Activity

Last night for FHE we watched the portion of Alice in Wonderland as she plays croquet with the flamingos and the queen...

We also ate marshmallow popcorn balls as part of Owen's Create Random Original Quirky Unique Edible Treats activity...

Apparently my kids really like acronyms!


Recipe: From AllRecipes.com

Best Ever Popcorn Balls

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup margarine 2 teaspoons cold water

2 5/8 cups confectioners' sugar 1 cup marshmallows 5 quarts plain popped popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup, margarine, cold water, confectioners' sugar and marshmallows. Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Carefully combine the hot mixture with the popcorn, coating each kernel.
2.	Grease hands with vegetable shortening and quickly shape the coated popcorn into balls before it cools. Wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Rolo Cookies and Craft

Mrs. Claus left a yummy recipe and Rolos in Owen's Christmas stocking. Today, with a lot of help from Mamma, the kids made the delicious cookies and also used the wrappings from the Rolos for self-inspired art projects.

Below are the results (and the recipe!)

Hidden inside? Melted Rolo! Yum!

Recipe for Rolos Cookies:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Bag of rolo candies, unwrapped

sugar (for rolling the cookie dough balls in)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside

Cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add in eggs. Add in vanilla. Mix until blended.

Slowly add the flour mixture to creamed sugar mixture and blend well.

Take a spoonful of chocolate cookie dough and wrap around one Rolo candy. Make sure the Rolo is completely covered with cookie dough. Roll the dough ball in sugar and place on the baking sheet. Continue until you run out of cookie dough.

Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes (watch...). Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and cool completely (but it is delish if you eat them when they are warm too!)

Sunbread

I love books that have recipes in them. I think they are too cool because they combine my love of reading and cooking/baking into one!

Today Micah and I made sunbread, the recipe being on the back of this awesome children's book, SunBread by Elisa Kleven. It's a rainy day today, and gave us a perfect opportunity to still have some sun! (We even got a "sunburn" since we left it in the oven a bit too long... but the kids still snarfed it down.)

Pistachio Cake Balls - You Must Try These!

Cake Ingredients:

1 package 18 oz. cake mix (white or yellow)

1 package instant pistachio pudding

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup oil

1 cup 7-up

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix all these ingredients together at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into a greased bundt pan (or any pan, since you're just going to smoosh it up anyway). Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

When it cools, smoosh it up in a large bowl and add the frosting (which usually goes on top of your beautiful bundt cake).

Frosting Ingredients:

1 package instant pistachio pudding

1 1/4 cup milk

fold in 1 small cool whip

This will be super smooshy, since this is a lot of frosting. If you don't want it so super moist, save the frosting for later or eat it with graham crackers or plain, or whatever you want to do with it.

Now, find my red velvet cake balls post (April 2011), and take your time in making the balls, freezing them overnight, and then dipping 7 or so balls at a time into melted white chocolate. YUMMMMM.

Cake Balls

Leslie picked out a red velvet cake for her 12th birthday party. Since this is not mine (or many others') favorite flavor, I decided to do something fun and add some yumminess at the same time!

Cake balls are super easy. Covering them in chocolate is not so easy and takes a bit of time and patience (testing, testing, this is Dresden we're talking about, and I have little of either one!)

So, after a few messy ones, I came up with a system:

*Yesterday I baked the red velvet cake according to the cake box directions.

*I let it cool and then put it in a huge bowl and smooshed it all up.

*I added 16 oz of frosting and mixed it all in nice and gooshy (but not too moist).

*Then it went into the fridge for more cooling so that it would be easier to form into balls (think sugar cookie dough).

*Leslie and I rolled them into small balls and put them on baking sheets in the freezer. We left them overnight to make them easier to dip AND because we had to go to the airport to pick up Kenzie!

This morning after breakfast I shooed the kids outside to fill up water balloons (why do I not learn to simplify!) Good thing I took breaks in between batches so I could clean up mud (El Paso doesn't do grass) and start loads of laundry...

Back to the process:

*I taped wax paper to my kitchen counter.

*I melted the chocolate in a mug (filled it up halfway and nuked it for a minute, then stirred).

*I toothpick-ed the little frozen cake balls and then dipped them in the chocolate. I used a spoon to completely cover them, and then set them down on waxed paper.

*About 7 or 8 frozen cake balls at a time will work with each half mug.

This is the "patience" part. I really wanted to just melt a whole bunch of chocolate at once, get all the cake balls out of the freezer and go for it. But, the cake balls got too warm and fell apart if I took more than 8 or so out of the freezer at a time, and the chocolate clumps as it cools. So this system worked well.

*Between each "batch" I also cleaned out the mug and spoon so I wouldn't have clumpy chocolate.

Voila! Yummy chocolate and white chocolate covered red velvet cake balls. I also did some cream cheese frosted cake balls and a couple of marshmallow covered ones because I ran out of chocolate chips (3 bags later)!

P.S. How do those recipe bloggers have patience enough to do each step perfectly and document it with awesome drool-over pictures? Too bad. One picture is good enough for this post.

Peanut Butter Bread

This is a great quick bread. If I haven't started a normal wheat bread by 8 in the morning, I can still manage this for a yummy kids' lunch.

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 cup milk
• 2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder

Cream together the peanut butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and salt and mix well. Now add half the milk and half the flour, and all of the baking powder. Mix very well. Add the remaining milk and flour, and mix again until the batter is nice and smooth. Turn the mixture into a well oiled 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, or two smaller loaf pans. Bake at 350° for about an hour, 45 minutes for smaller loaves. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

Chocolate mousse

(I got this recipe from the Eat Clean Newsletter - it is yummy and healthy)

Tofu Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate bars, broken into pieces


• 16 oz silken tofu* at room temperature, drained


• 3/4 cup warmed skim milk or soy, rice or almond milk


• 1 tsp / 5 ml best-quality vanilla

*NOTE: You must use silken tofu for this recipe.

Preparation

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. Make sure to let the chocolate melt slowly. Stir until chocolate is uniformly smooth.

In a food processor, combine tofu, melted chocolate, warmed milk and vanilla. Process until smooth. Place tofu mixture in fine-mesh strainer or sieve, pushing through with the back of a wooden spoon, into a medium decorative serving bowl. Serve from the bowl or ladle into individual serving bowls. Chill and serve.

**Make this recipe with white chocolate chips for a different spin on decadence.

Smoky Vegetable Soup

Soup Season! I love soups. This one is realllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yummy.

Smoky Vegetable soup

My mom and I made this and were in absolute heaven over the smells, and then ... we ate it all up. This is really really really really really really really yummy soup!

We served this with my sabotage bread and apple blackberry cobbler for dessert. Yum, yum.

To make this simpler than the william sonoma catalog says, just chop up the veggies, cook in olive oil, add broth, simmer, and blend. Yum!

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

4 red bell peppers and 2 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 1 1/2-by-3/8-inch slices

8 plum tomatoes, quartered

4 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick on the bias

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

3 cups chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

(You can also add kielbasa polish sausage... it is really good)

Directions:

In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, warm 2 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the onion and bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. In the same pot over medium heat, warm 1 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the onion mixture.

In the same pot over medium-high heat, warm the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir the onion mixture into the pot. Transfer 2 cups of the vegetables to a bowl and set aside.

Add the potato and stock to the pot and simmer until the potato is tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add a few drops of liquid smoke in to the soup in the covered pot for 5 minutes.

Working in batches, puree the soup in the blender on high for 20 seconds per batch. Return the soup to the pot and stir in the reserved vegetables. Serves 6 to 8.

(Williams-Sonoma Kitchen)

Dragon Scale Cookies by Severus Snape

As potions master at our Hogwarts Correspondence School, Snape likes to coerce the children into making their own edible potions. Here was today's recipe:

1 cup bile

1/2 cup crystals

1 cup sand from the Black Lake

2 thestral eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup ground tree bark

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups dragon scales

1 cup dried fruit and nuts (or butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, whatever you fancy)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Blend bile, crystals, and sand. Hold wands around mixing bowl and chant "I love cookies" 3 times. Add the thestral eggs, spider milk, and vanilla. Repeat the cookie chant. Beat well. Repeat the cookie chant. Add the remaining ingredients except for the dragon scales and beat. Beat well and repeat the cookie chant. (Do not fight over next ingredient no matter how cool it is.) Add dragon scales and fruit. Stir well (chant again) and spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

PS If you don't have thestral eggs (we ran out) you can substitute applesauce, spider milk, and lemon juice in random quantities and hope that the Half-Blood Prince has mercy on you and allows the concoction to actually work!

YUM!

PPS If you need help figuring out the real ingredients, you can contact me!

Apple Breakfast Lasagna

THIS WAS AWESOME!!!

1 cup fat free sour cream

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 packages frozen french toast (9 oz each) or whatever bread you have on hand

1/2 pound sliced boiled ham (or lunchmeat ham)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can apple pie filling

1 cup granola cereal with or without raisins

In a small bowl, blend sour cream and brown sugar. Chill.

Place 6 French toast slices in the bottom of a greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Layer 1/2 of the sour cream mixture, ham, 1 1/2 cups cheese and remaining 6 slices of French toast. (I used some leftover mashed potatoes for the 2nd layer of bread, but those non-potato fans would probably like bread instead.)

Spread apple pie filling on top (or applesauce and chunked up apples) and sprinkle with granola.

Bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serve with sour cream mixture.

Makes 6 servings.

A new tradition is born

We had a fun dinner tonight! Basically it was a pancake dinner with a twist. I gave each of the kids a bowl of batter and told them to add their own mixings and then I cooked them. We had interesting concoctions: Trix cereal, tapioca pudding, pbj, Trix and cheddar crackers (eww...), marshmellows, oreos, and popcorn. The kids loved it, and I was glad to give them a fun dinner. My favorites were the marshmellow pancakes and the oreo pancakes.... (and then I had a salad to try to be kind of healthy).

Crockpot dinner today!

Easy and yummy... can't beat that for Sunday dinner!

1 pound beef stew meat

1 can cranberry sauce

2 T soy sauce

1 diced onion

Cook on high for 5-6 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans, and a salad.

YUMMY!!!

*probably could be served on noodles or rice for those scared of potatoes...

Conference Weekend!

We had such a great time this conference. The kids (and I) loved our packets, setting up toy conferences, making speedy quick cookies between sessions, relaxing, and being very spiritually fed.


I love how Jonas asked me what my favorite talk was before I could even introduce that subject.
I love how Leslie mentioned that when you listen to Conference it goes by much faster even when you don't want it to.
I love how Owen set up a General Conference with our Little People.
I love how Troy was honest and said that he was bored and didn't know what to do. He later retold President Monson's family story of how a child died crossing the ocean and had to be buried at sea.
I love how Micah looked through the Friend magazines pointing out the "presidents" he had seen speaking in conference.
I love how Evelyn was enthralled with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.


Here's pix to capture some of our fun Conference memories...

And here is our yummy conference cookie recipe:

Mix together
3 cups Bisquik mix
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/3 cup Nestle Quick (chocolate, of course)
1 tsp. vanilla
Reese's peanut butter chips (or other baking chips)

Spoon onto baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350. Let cool for 1 minute then remove from baking sheet and eat!


WE LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!

Cauliflower soup (from Zupa's in Utah)

I'm such a soup person. My kids aren't, but that just means more leftovers for me to lunch on during the week. I am OKAY with that! This is good stuff...

I just did a search for this soup, and more than one website showed it. Here goes!

Wisconsin Cauliflower-Cheddar Soup
Yields: 9 cups or 8 first-course servings

2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 package (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (2 cups)

In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2minutes, stirring frequently. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. (I roasted the cauliflower in the overn first and then added it in.) In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve.

Yummy and easy

I love having dinner "done" early on in the day. And this was soooooooooooooo good! All the kids ate it, even Evelyn who does not eat (meat)...

This recipe is courtesy of a lady who made a resolution last year to use her crockpot every day. She's got a lot of good recipes on her blog!

crockpot365.blogspot.com

Cheesy Bacon Chicken in the Crock-Pot

--2 T olive oil
--4-6 chicken breast halves
--12 pieces cooked and crumbled bacon
--1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
--1/2 cup Ranch salad dressing
--1 cup shredded cheddar cheese




Put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of your crock and spread it around.


Put the chicken in the crock on top of the oil.


In a small bowl, combine the teriyaki sauce and the ranch dressing.


Pour sauce over the top of the chicken. Add the shredded cheese and the crumbled bacon to the crock, getting between the chicken pieces, if you can.


Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4. The cooking time will depend on how thick your chicken pieces are, and if they are fresh or frozen.

Wow! The yummiest donuts ever!

Jonas asked for donuts for his birthday breakfast, and I forgot to get some when we were at the store. Instead of dragging 6 kids back to the store, I decided to make some. I am in trouble. I’ve eaten 3 donut holes. So far.

(I found this recipe in a cookbook by Penny E. Stone)

DOUGH
½ cup sugar
½ cup oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup milk (scalded)
4 ½ tsp yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs
4-5 cups of flour

GLAZE
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk added until you get a glaze consistency

Dissolve yeast in warm water until bubbly and foamy. While waiting, mix sugar, oil, salt, and vanilla. Pour scalded milk over this mixture. Combine yeast mix and milk mix and add eggs. Mix well, and add flour. Knead until well mixed (firm and elastic). Put into greased bowl. Let rise about 1 hour. Punch down and let rise again for 1 hour. Roll out and cut into donuts OR make donut holes (easier!) by rolling dough into balls Let rise again for 20-30 minutes. (Start heating up oil in pot or fryer.) Deep fry until brown on all sides. While hot, dip in glaze mixture and set on a rack to cool. This is the dangerous time… POP! POP! POP! And then they’re gone…

Jonas' birthday theme is Star Wars. I'm going to call them Jabba Donuts...

Rainbows

We had a brilliantly fun time with Mamma this week. We didn't do anything spectacularly crazy and wild, but we did have a fun time just hanging out around the house, having our school show and tell, celebrating birthdays, playing at parks, shopping at Toys R Us, and visiting with Grandpa and Grandma who came up for the weekend.

One of the really cool things that Mamma showed us was how to make rainbow cookies! Take your basic sugar cookie recipe (or use Raylene's below) and then separate the dough into 5 colors (purple just doesn't work well in dough form). Use plastic gloves to mix in the food coloring if you don't want rainbow hands! Then roll dough color #1 (blue) in a thick snake shape. Make thick snakes of the other colors and then flatten them out, each one a little bit longer and wider than before. Place green, yellow, orange, and finally red on top of the blue snake. Refrigerate for easier slicing and then cut with a sharp knife (or use Bob's dental floss technique shown below in our pictures!) We certainly did enjoy our fun rainbow cookies!

Raylene's sugar cookie recipe:

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 cups flour

Cream sugar, shortening, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream. Combine flour, salt, and soda. Add slowly to creamed mixture. Roll out and cut (or insert rainbow idea here!). Bake for 8-10 minutes (12 minutes for rainbows) at 350. Makes about 5 dozen sugar cookies.

Car cookies

I read a few years ago of a woman who made cookies in her car. When it reached 100 degrees a few days ago, I knew I had found a fun summer activity. The kids and I made the cookie dough, froze it for easy slicing, and then placed the cookies on cookie sheets in the car.

It didn't quite work the first time, for a few reasons. We waited until the end of the day to put the cookies in the car, and our house shaded the car... Also, it wasn't the hottest day to do it.

This was fun, and we enjoyed our 1/2 car - 1/2 oven baked cookies.
We'll try this again on a HOT day!