Posted on

Easter Egg Jars

EasterEggJars

Looking for a super duper easy Easter craft or gift to make with your kids. These Easter Egg mason jars are easy, fast, and fun.

Ingredients:

Shredded coconut
Green food coloring
Colored Egg Candies
Small Mason Jars
Large Ziplock Bag

GrassIngredients

    1. Pour your coconut into the ziplock bag.
    2. Add just a little bit of green food coloring (1/8 to 1/4 tsp depending on how much green you want)
    3. Close the bag, leaving lots of air.
    4. Shake the bag (or do what I did, and have your kids shake the bag) until all the coconut is green.

GreenGrass

  1. Pour your “grass” into your mason jars and top with eggs. You could also toss on a little rabbit or chick if you want more variety.
  2. Want more eggs in your jar? Hide some in the grass and then add the eggs on top.
  3. Set your jars out open on the counter or put on the lid and give as an Easter gift to friends and family.

EggJar

Posted on

Dinosaurs and Cookies

How do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague.

Our book topic for this month’s book craft was “How Do Dinosaurs…” I’d never read this series before but it sounded like fun.

I went a little overboard and check out maybe a dozen from the library – and there’s still more! The kids didn’t mind because these books are super cute, and fun to read. They all have a fun rhyme and my 3yr old loves dinosaurs so he was very excited to have all sorts of dinosaur books to read.

With the cold snap last week, baking cookies together was a great project. We made chocolate cookies with multi-colored dinosaur eggs (mini m&m’s). So much fun, and so tasty!

Along we way we got to talk about how dinosaurs help in the kitchen – they don’t throw the m&m’s btw. And how dinosaurs are very polite when they eat their cookies.

How do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies is a super cute board book with “scratch & sniff” cookies throughout. Lots of fun to read together over and over.

IMG_20170316_192822620

Dinosaur Egg Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 package mini m&ms – or other chocolate chips of your choice

  1. Heat oven to 350
  2. With an electric mixer, blend together butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture, until well blended.
  4. Stir in mini m&ms
  5. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
  6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool about 5 minutes then remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen cookies

DinoCookies

This post does contain affiliate links.

Come join us for the Monthly Crafting Book Club. Each month we focus on a different book and encourage early literacy by pairing it with a craft.

Monthly Crafting Book Club

 


Posted on

Ginger Cookies

img_20160828_184646444

My very favorite holiday recipe. I’ve made these for years and I never get tired of them.

Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbsp. sugar

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add the 1 cup sugar, beating on low speed until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses; beat well. Using a wooden spoon, stir flour mixture into egg mixture.

Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll balls in the 2 Tbsp sugar. Place about 2 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes.

Makes 24.

Posted on

Food Friday – Baked and Breaded Eggplant

eggplant

So far, this is my favorite way to eat eggplant.

Breaded, Baked, Eggplant

1 medium eggplant
1 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon pepper
salt

1. Start by slicing your eggplant in 1/4 to 1/2 in. slices. Salt them and set them out on a cookie sheet. Place a second cookie sheet on top and press down onto the eggplant. Let this set for about 20 minutes. Rinse the eggplant slices under running water, set on a towel, and pat dry. This removes a lot of the extra juices from the eggplant and will help your breaded eggplant to not be too soggy.

2. Put the flour, 1/4 t pepper and 1/4 t salt in a bowl, mix. In a second bowl beat the egg with a fork. In a third bowl combine the cornmeal and parmesan cheese.

3. Dip the eggplant slices on both sides in the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, then the cornmeal mixture. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, flipping halfway so they cook evenly on both sides.

5. You can serve as is or with a marinara sauce for dipping.

Posted on

Easter

I love Easter! It’s probably my favorite holiday after Christmas. Sometimes, I wish it was a month long celebration like Christmas always turns out to be. Really, I think it should be, there’s so many fun things you could do for this holiday!

First of all, we’re celebrating Jesus rising from the dead. So, it’s a celebration! The kids love it too, on Palm Sunday they get to wave palm branches (which is probably their most favorite sunday school activity), and then on Easter they get to go with us and see our service – which is more fun than usual because there’s lots of kids in there and it is a Sunday of celebration. If I could just find a decent recipe for a resurrection cake I’d be all set…

Next, there’s lunch, and I make some of my favorite foods! Corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, glazed ham, green beans, rolls, salad, desserts, and anything else that sounds yummy.

And after the meal there’s the egg hunt. I like to put candy and small toys in the eggs. I have some special candy hidden away from the kids this year that they don’t get to see until they open their eggs!

And, best of all, it’s spring! so it’s a nice warm (or at least warmish) holiday. It’s the beginning of the growing season and I have a whole spring and summer to look forward too. What better way to celebrate new life and growth than by celebrating resurrection and life!

Posted on

Easter Chocolate

I love making stuff in the kitchen with the kids and now that my oldest is almost 5 it’s gotten even more exciting. She’s actually able to do a lot of things by herself and supervision means I get to stand by and take LOTS of pictures!

One of the easiest projects I’ve found is the molded chocolate. I picked up a bunch of trays at a yard sale last year and I buy the chocolate when it’s 50% off after holidays so it’s really a pretty inexpensive project. I also got some flavorings over Christmas and we love using those. My husband found the blue cinnamon eggs to be a little unexpected so as long as guests are warned about the flavorings it’s all good.

The purple ones are peppermint and the brown are cherry. My favorite are the brown ones, you can’t go wrong with chocolate and cherry!

I did all the microwaving, but once the chocolate was soft my 4 yr old was able to do all the pouring and tray tapping (to get the bubbles out of the chocolate you have to drop the tray on the counter a gazillion times – which she loved!)

Add some coconut dyed green and you have a great, easy, edible, Easter decoration!

Posted on

Meringues

I love meringues! And this recipe is so easy to make. I make them every time I have extra egg whites. In this case, I had 10 extra egg whites after making my pudding so I made a triple batch. That’s a LOT of meringues!

Meringues
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar

Have egg whites at room temperature. Add vanilla, cream of tartar, and dash salt. Beat to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, beating till very stiff peaks form. (Meringue will be glossy.)

Cover baking sheet with wax paper. Drop spoonfulls of meringue onto paper. Bake meringues at 275 for one hour. Turn off heat and let dry in the oven with the door closed for about 1 hour.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Posted on

Easter

Easter with little kids is so much fun! From the fun Easter dresses to all the tasty food, and the multiple egg hunts. Easter at my house is always lots of fun.

I like to do Easter dinner for my family so the next few posts are going to be my favorite Easter dinner recipes. I calculated this weekend and I used over three dozen eggs, two boxes of butter, and almost a gallon of whipping cream! Mmmmm!

I get out my nice dishes and cloth napkins and have lots of fun. This year my 3yr old got to help me set the table. She didn’t quite get which side of the plate the knives and forks went on but we had fun!

Posted on

Sugar Cookies

Here’s the first of my favorite holiday snack recipes.

I’ve been hunting for a decent sugar cookie recipe for years. I finally found one a few months ago. It was in an old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that I picked up at a yardsale about a year ago.

I’ve made it several times and it turns out right every time 🙂 Maybe I’m just really picky about my sugar cookies but I’m really happy to have found this recipe!

Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup shortening (I usually use 1/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup shortening – the shortening is necessary for the right texture)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
4tsp milk
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Thoroughly cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg; beat till light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Sift together dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture.

I form 1in balls, roll them in sugar and then use my thumb to press them flat in the center (makes a slight well for icing).

If you want to roll them, divide dough in half, chill for 1 hour. On lightly floured surface roll to 1/8 in thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Baking instructions are the same for balls or shapes. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 about 6 to 8 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.