Tasty Dessert

Alright, one more quick post before I attempt to go to bed. I tried out a really tasty dessert recipe tonight. I had quite a few 'guinea pigs' test it out for me to make sure it tasted good. I had a few request seconds, so I guess they liked it! It's actually very easy to make and really pretty to look at. Anyway, I took a few pictures of the outcome and I think I did pretty well. I'm testing different things out since one day my dream is to have a catering/cake business. One day...


The only thing I would've liked to have is some mint on the top... but forgot to get some. I'm thinking I just need to buy a mint plant and grow my own. Just looking at these pictures make me want to make more!

Cherry Ice Cream Pie

I just bought a new dessert book and couldn't resist this recipe. Actually, Alex was the one who picked it out (with a little help from me). I messed with the recipe just a little bit, but I like the adjustments.







I've just had a slice and I'm loving it!!! I made a little too much... I have 3 whole pies made. I have some friends coming over tonight. So hopefully they'll take a little bit off my hands.

Alex's Cake

I made a Mario brothers cake for Alex's birthday party this year. I was hoping to make a practice cake before I did the real one, but never really got the time. There were a few things that I didn't particularly love on the cake, but overall I think it turned out well. This was the first cake I've made for an actual event, so I was a little nervous. Alex was really happy with the way it turned out and his friends even commented on it. So really, that's all that matters. Here are some pictures of the Mario cake.















Sorry for all the pictures. I just wanted to post all angles of the cake.

Cake Fun

I was supposed to go to my cake class last night. But because of the storm, our teacher canceled and rescheduled for another day. Well, my friends and I had already made our cakes and icing, so we decided to do our own thing last night and still make our cakes. I think we all did a pretty decent job, but the important thing was, we had a TON of fun doing it.

Icing our cakes

More icing

Me, staring on my decorations.

I think this was Darek's was of trying to get our attention.

Look at that face!

Tammy working on some decorating


My cute little flowers

Kaylene trying to hold back from taking a bite :)

I had to wait for my flowers to harden a little, so I finally got to finish decorating this morning

More of my cake

The finished product. I need to work on placement and my writing, but overall I think it turned out pretty well. I'll let the other girls show of their cakes on their blogs. I don't want to take their glory away!

Cupcake Fun

I posted this on my main blog as well, but wanted to post it here, as it had to do with baking and such. I will also try to get the recipes on here soon.

I had an incredibly fun night tonight. My 3 girlfriends came over and we went to town making some really fun cupcakes. I recently found a book at Alex's book fair at school on decorating cupcakes. So we got all the ingredients together and did two of those recipes tonight. I have to say that we did a pretty darn good job making them look like they did in the book. But more than that, we had SO much fun putting them all together.

Kaylene having fun while decorating

Tammy mistaking Crisco for frosting... just kidding of course :)

Cupcakes right out of the oven

Going WAY overboard on decorating supplies

Our very yummy frosting being prepared

Our first recipe. Looks pretty weird here, but turns out looking much better.


Kaylene taking her turn putting on the "noodles"

Beccie taking a bite out of a meatball

Me, attempting to put some more noodles on


After all the noodles were finally done

Putting on the first few meatballs

A few more...

After a bit of Parmesan cheese, we have a finished product

Doesn't that look appetizing.... okay and maybe a little weird

The girls, showing off our finished product

Our next recipe was to make a complete dinner. Our first task were the chicken drumsticks.

Can't forget the veggies... peas and carrots

Some mashed potatoes with butter and gravy

And a little pudding for dessert


Here is our complete dinner.


I can't tell you how fun this was. I have many more recipes to make and cannot wait to do them. I ended up eating the mashed potatoes and Tammy tried out one of the spaghetti and meatballs. Both were very tasty, but gave us quite the sugar high. If you're interested in getting the recipe, let me know. It was very fun to make!

Cake Class

Until I can get my butt over to the DATC to start my culinary arts program, I will be taking several cake decorating classes. I had my very first one last night, and already learned so much! Next week we'll actually be making our first cake. It's going to be one of those character ones that you decorate with the star tip. Nothing too extravagant, but you have to start somewhere! There wasn't much to take pictures of last night, but I'm sure I'll have a lot to post next week!

Cookies

I love making cookies, and my family loves to eat them for me. I've been thinking about making some cookies the last couple days, but it meant cleaning my kitchen. So tonight, my darling husband cleaned the kitchen if I promised to make cookies. I ended up making chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. They all turned out very well and were very tasty! A few pictures of these tasty treats.








Yummm... I think I'm going to go eat another one now!

Something Helpful

My sister just told me about this website that lets you schedule your dinners, also has some great recipes that you can try out, and then will create a shopping list for you. I haven't used it yet, since I still have another 1 1/2 weeks of meals planned out, but I can only imagine how much time and effort this will save me! I can't wait to try it and thought I'd pass the tip along!

www.simplifysupper.com

Chicken Club Pasta Salad

I had a lot of fun with this recipe. It's a very simple, yet tasty recipe that only takes about 15 mins to make.

Ingredients

1 pkg Kraft Classic Ranch with Bacon Pasta Salad
Chicken Strips - use what you feel is needed for your family
1-2 small tomatoes, chopped
2 cups of shredded romaine lettuce
1 small can of sliced olives
1 cup of croutons
bacon bits (if you use "real" bacon bits, it tastes a little better)

Prepare the pasta salad as directed on the package.

Stir in remaining ingredients.

Serve.

Pretty simple, huh?







The nice thing about this recipe is that you can add or remove ingredients depending on what your family eats. For instance, the original recipe did not include olives, croutons, or bacon bits.

Both Ryan and Alex (and myself) really enjoyed this recipe. I even had a few friends taste it who also liked it.

Let me know if you try it and if your family enjoyed it!

Let me say...

I want to say before I start this blog, that this is not an attempt to prove I'm a better cook/baker than anyone else out there (because I'm not). I'm creating this blog because I want to remember recipes I've attempted in the past and whether or not they were good. If I can provide someone with an easy dinner recipe or help them attempt something they might not have otherwise, that would be great!

Anyway, I hope it's enjoyable to someone out there!