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Holiday Baking – Sprinkle Pop

I was sent an awesome assortment of SprinklePop sprinkles to review. With such awesome and festive sprinkles we got started on our holiday spirit early!

At about $9 a bottle Sprinkle Pop creates mesmerizing sprinkle mixes that taste just as good as they look. These sweet mixes combine vibrant colors and innovative textures making every sprinkle batch feel like a work of art.

Bring Sprinkle Pop home to your own kitchen and decorate those like a pro! As you get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas this winter, Sprinkle Pop has the mixes that take your desserts over the top! You might just be tempted to add a splash to that whipped cream on your pumpkin spice latte too. I know I couldn’t resist adding whipped cream and sprinkles to my hot chocolate!

Their sprinkles are so much fun! There’s a great mixture of larger and smaller sprinkles. And their Marshmallow World even has mini marshmallows that are perfect for adding a little sprinkle to your hot beverage.

Since we received our sprinkles, we’ve been sprinkling everything! This Christmas Magic Sprinkle Mix was the perfect topping for my iced sugar cookies!

Having sprinkles pre mixed like this makes it so easy to create something super fun and cute without having to put a lot of effort into finding the right sprinkle. Everything I put sprinkles on was perfect!

They even have some solid color mixes, and glitter stars, and confetti trees. These sprinkles are so creative and fun! I’m just loving SprinklePop sprinkles for my holiday baking!

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Lemon Tart

I’ve been trying out new recipes for Easter Dinner Desserts and I’m just loving this Lemon Tart. It’s the perfect blend of sweet and sour and everyone in my family loves it!

Plus it’s a make ahead and refrigerate overnight kind of recipe, which is perfect so it’s one less thing I have to worry about the day of my dinner.

This is one recipe I’m definitely making this Easter!

LemonTart

 

Crust:

12 Graham Crackers
2 TBSP sugar
5 Tablespoons butter – melted

  1. Crumble the graham crackers and sugar in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.
  2. Add the butter and pulse until well combined.
  3. Press onto bottom and sides of an 8 or 9 in springform pan.
  4. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes
  5. Set aside to cool

Filling:

1 Cup Sugar
1 TBSP grated lemon zest
1/2 Cup lemon juice
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks (yes, you need eggs plus extra yolks)
4 TBSP butter

  1. Combine the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs in a sauce pan. Whisk until well combined.
  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (very important), until the mixture is nice and thick. About 6 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter until fully combined.
  4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into your graham cracker crust. Smooth. Place plastic wrap on top to prevent a skin forming and refrigerate overnight.

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Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 TBSP sugar

  1. Beat whipping cream and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer (you can do this by hand, but it will take forever) until the the whipped cream is nice and thick.
  2. Spoon dollops of whipped cream on your tart when serving.
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Monster Cupcakes

I decided to do something fun and easy with the kids for Halloween. They had so much fun making these monster cupcakes, and even more fun eating them!

For something fun and different, I made ice cream cone cupcakes. It’s super easy. Just mix up any cake mix following the package directions and fill your ice cream cones about 1/2 full. Bake as directed on the cake mix box and let cool before icing.

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I whipped up some buttercream icing, dyed it green, and piped it on. I gave them mini-marshmallows for eyes and triangle sprinkles for teeth. They ended up just sprinkling everything on top instead of creating the monsters I had envisioned, but they still ended up looking like some pretty awesome monsters with eyes all over.

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We had so much fun making these, and they were tasty as well.

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3 Thing Im Glad My Mother Taught Me

My mom taught me so much! And there’s lots I continue to learn. Thinking back through this year, there’s 3 things I’m so glad she taught me!

IMG_20150124_1949362231. Cooking – I cannot tell you how often I’m so glad I can cook! And I can do more than follow recipes, if I don’t have the right ingredients I improvise, I add spices as needed, and I’ll just wing it when I feel like it. Having confidence in the kitchen is such a blessing. I remember being at the counter helping bake, cook, and making a mess right along with my mom. Now, I let my kids do the same!

I’ll never forget the time I mixed up this beautiful tri-colored pound cake (in a bundt pan). I was in my early teens so fully capable of following a recipe. That cake was lots of work, and having three colors just made it more complicated. I successfully mixed it, baked it as instructed, and then set it on the rack to cool for 5 minutes. Next, continuing to follow the directions, I tipped it over and dumped it out onto the rack.

Only problem was, it wasn’t done. There were 3 colors of poundcake batter dripping down the counter and making a puddle on the floor. I cried, and I know my mom felt exactly as I did (even though she wasn’t crying). She had to clean up the mess. And then, we had a lesson on how to check a cake for doneness BEFORE tipping it over.

2. Sometimes Life is Hard – But you don’t give up. Life is constantly frustrating, irritating and just downright hard. But that’s all part of life, and definitely part of mothering.

Thankfully, that usually balances out with fun, love, and successes! You just don’t give up when things get hard, just keep going and things will come out ok in the end.

20141211_1316183. My Emotions are My Choice – I don’t mean I don’t have them. I can’t always choose when they’ll strike. But, I can be responsible for them. There are days I count to 10 before answering any questions. And there’s times I’m just tired, hungry, and crabby – and everyone knows it. That’s what coffee and chocolate are for!

Some days it’s really hard, but I can’t blame anyone for how I respond to things – like right now I would really like to tell the girls exactly what I think about them interrupting my writing for the 20th time instead of playing quietly in their room! Instead I calmly gave two choices. They can play quietly in their room until I come get them or they can take a nap like their Brother. We’ll see how long it lasts, but hopefully at least until I’m done writing!

With 2 girls I’ve started teaching emotional responsibility already. It’s ok to be mad – but we do not throw things or slam doors when we’re mad. It’s ok to be upset and it’s ok to cry – but we don’t yell at siblings or say unkind things because we’re upset. It’s not about not experiencing the emotion but it’s about remembering that no matter how I feel I still have a responsibility to be kind and considerate towards others.

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4 Tips for a Successful Easter Dinner

I really love Easter, it’s such a fun holiday, and I enjoy the celebration of life, resurrection, and spring! Every year I host an Easter Lunch. With finishing prep as soon as I get home from Church, it’s important that things run smoothly! Here’s the top 4 things I do to make sure my meal goes as planned.

1. Don’t overload your oven or stovetop – You want all your food done at the same time. If you have to rotate items this won’t happen. I have two casseroles and a ham that are standard to Easter Dinner, but, guess what. This fills my oven. This year, my husband suggested a chocolate pudding cake for dessert, which is an awesome dessert but has to be whipped up and baked at the last minute. If I want to make this, I have two options, bake it after all the other food is out of the oven or put less in my oven.

I’m thinking that I’ll probably end up using my roaster for the ham and that will free up that oven space for rolls and dessert. The dessert is best hot so if it’s baking while we eat lunch that’ll work out great.

2. Minimize last minute prep – You don’t want to be chopping a salad, whipping up a gravy, making deviled eggs, and prepping an hors d’oeuvre all when guests walk in. As a rule, I try to only have one last minute item. If I decide to do deviled eggs I’ll make them up the night before. Also, any hors d’oeuvres will have to be made the night before.

I’m already mixing up a dessert and putting the final touches on my salad. So, nothing else can be last minute. You don’t want your guests coming in and seeing you running around like crazy trying to get stuff done.

Also, I usually set the table the night before. It’s tough keeping the kids away from all the pretty dishes so I’m not convinced that this saves me any time, but it seems like it should.

3. Make a list – I love lists! I have a list of items I’m making, a list of ingredients I need to buy, and a list of baking times so I know what to start making when. On the day, I’ll have a list of food that I’m serving so I don’t forget anything. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of your meal and realizing that your salad is still in the refrigerator!

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – Feeling overwhelmed? Ask guests to each bring a dish. Salads, casseroles, and snacks all transfer well.

Just check with your guests and find out if they’re planning to use your oven or stove. I asked a guest to bring biscuits once – she makes great biscuits and I was envisioning baked biscuits in a basket covered with a towel. Nope, she brought the ingredients and mixed them up on my nice clean counter (that was all set up for food as soon as it came out of my oven). Then she needed my full oven to bake them!

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Randomness

My goal is one blog post a week, on Tuesdays. And this Tuesday morning I’m squeezing in a post before we head out the door for preschool, sewing class, and errands.

After making breakfast for the kids, I have about two minutes to write a blog post before it’s time to get them dressed and head out the door. I am really looking forward to summer when the only think on our schedule is a trip to the pool!

The other day a friend gave me a couple bags of Amish Friendship Bread Starter, so, yesterday we were baking – also yesterday my husband was home sick, and we had ballet lessons and grocery shopping. Anyways, back to the baking. So, Amish Friendship Bread makes great bread and muffins, but it does not make great pizza crust. I tried a pizza last night for dinner, and while the crust turned out great, it was too sweet. It would have been perfect for a dessert pizza, but with cheese and pepperoni on it, it was pretty bad. Well, I thought it was pretty bad. The kids loved it – I don’t know what wrong with them!

I did save myself another starter and in 10 days I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’m going to try. Since the dough is sweet, they should be pretty tasty!

Yeast is such an interesting thing. One person starts a bag, lets it sit for a while then shares part of it with someone else, who can then just add sugar, flour, and milk, and the yeast keeps producing. No need to add more yeast. It’s amazing how it keeps going and going and going.