Category Archives: Photos

Taffy Apple Salad

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I’m not one that typically enjoys random side dishes but this recipe works great as a tasty side for a cookout or potluck.  It’s also a great snack or dessert.  I originally found this recipe when I was doing Weight Watchers made with sugar free/fat free pudding and Cool Whip free.  However, this batch was fully leaded.

I thought my kids might like it but they weren’t even willing to try it.  Neither was Mike.  It’s a strange combination of ingredients but the flavor and taste is quite delicious.  It’s also pretty quick to throw together for a last minute gathering.

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Taffy Apple Salad
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 4 green apples, chopped
  • 1 - 16 oz. can crushed pineapple
  • 1 small instant butterscotch pudding mix
  • 1 container Cool Whip
  • ¾ cup peanuts (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a blender, puree the crushed pineapple. Add the butterscotch pudding mix and whip until well combined. Fold in the Cool Whip. Add the chopped apples and fold in. Garnish with peanuts and chill before serving.

 

Chocolate Pudding Cake

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On Saturday evening, Mike was grilling steaks to celebrate our new deck and I threw together this tasty chocolate pudding cake.  I had seen a similar recipe on Something Swanky for Easy Hot Fudge Cake (wish she’d host a photography class…) late last week and it reminded me of this recipe.  However, I knew if I called it Hot Fudge Cake Mike would be 10 times more likely to eat it.  So I dug out my old “Heavenly Dishes” cookbook that my mom and my deceased ex-step-grandma bought for me (I have two copies) when I was around 9 and threw together this recipe, dubbed it Hot Fudge Cake instead of Chocolate Pudding Cake, and it was was enjoyed by all.

This was actually the first cake I ever made from scratch by myself.  It’s extremely easy — it is all mixed in the same 9×9 pan it’s baked in — and turns out super rich and gooey.  I remember eating it as a kid with milk poured on top.  However, it’s even better with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It’s very rich so a little goes a long way.  Definitely one of my ultimate comfort foods!

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Chocolate Pudding Cake
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Serves: 9
 
Ingredients
  • Cake:
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp. cocoa
  • ½ cup milk
  • 3 Tbsp. melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Topping:
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup cocoa
  • 1½ cups water
Instructions
  1. Combine dry cake ingredients in a 9 inch square pan. Stir in milk, butter, and vanilla. Spread batter in pan. Mix topping sugars and cocoa together and sprinkle over batter. Pour water over all (do not mix) and bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm with cream.

 

Laura’s Eclair Cake

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I’m starting to wonder if my best bud Laura is trying to make me fat.  🙂  On Saturday evening, we got together to make tortellini and she made this delicious eclair cake for dessert.  She’s made it for me one other time and it always ends up being my nemesis.  I just can’t stop eating it.  I had two pieces on Saturday night and then she left the cake at my house — and I’ve eaten it for breakfast every day this week.  Healthy much?

Laura says that this recipe is quick and easy to pull together — the trick is that it needs to be made at least 24 hours in advance.  However, when you’re getting together for dinner that can be nice because it is all made and cleaned up in advance.  The best part — it’s delicious!  Even Mike, avid pudding hater, thinks this cake is pretty amazing!

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Laura's Eclair Cake
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 box graham crackers
  • 2 large packages instant French Vanilla pudding
  • 9 oz Cool Whip
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1 container chocolate icing
Instructions
  1. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with PAM. In a large bowl, combine the milk and pudding until thick. Fold in the Cool Whip. Place a layer of graham crackers over the bottom of the pan. Spread half of the pudding mixture over the top and add another layer of graham crackers, then the other half of the pudding mixture. Add the last layer of graham crackers (3 layers of crackers total). Microwave the icing for 30 seconds to 1 minute until pourable and pour over the top of the graham crackers. Chill for 24 to 48 hours before serving. This is a recipe that gets better with time!

 

Butterscotch Easter Nests

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Well, our Easter didn’t turn out exactly as we’d planned.  Both Clara and Anna are sick — it’s a strange illness — 100-102 fevers in the morning and evening — seemingly fine most of the day.  Not really eating.  Coughing.  Hacking.  Blah.  They were supposed to be Baptized this weekend and now we are working to reschedule it.  Best laid plans…

But that didn’t stop us from having fun in the kitchen to celebrate Easter.  One of our projects were these Butterscotch Easter Nests.  I made my mom’s haystacks and added jelly beans and Peeps.  All three kids thought they were neat to eat.  However, Bo was mad I put peanuts in the nests — and Anna and Clara wouldn’t eat the nests at all.  However, they did eat the Peeps and jelly beans.

The nests are very quick and easy to make — perfect for a cooking activity with preschoolers.

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Butterscotch Easter Nests
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 - 12 oz. bag butterscotch chips
  • 1 - 16 oz. bag chow mien noodles
  • 1 cup peanuts
  • milk (if needed)
Instructions
  1. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the butterscotch chips. I typically melt for about 30 seconds and then stir to judge consistency. Depending on the type of chip you have, you may need to thin them a bit with milk. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until chocolate is a pourable consistency. Add in the chow mien noodles and peanuts and stir well until everything is coated with the butterscotch mixture. Scoop onto waxed paper and form into nest shapes. Add jelly beans. Nests will need to set for several hours to harden.

 

Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal

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I’ve always loved oatmeal, but for the past several years I haven’t eaten it often — mostly because I simply didn’t have the time in the mornings to babysit a pan of oats on the stove to make sure they reached the right consistency.  My mornings are filled with attempting to feed, dress, and contain my trio so that they end up at school on time.  In text, this seems like a simple task, but in reality, it made dealing with a pot of oatmeal for 30 minutes in the morning nearly impossible.

Recently, I discovered the perfect crockpot steel cut oatmeal recipe.  It is divine!  I’ve eaten it nearly every day for the last two weeks and it is perfect for my busy mornings!  I make a batch on Sunday evening and then I have breakfast ready for four days that week.  I make the batch plain and add my toppings based on my mood. To the oatmeal above, I added half of a sliced banana, a teaspoon of brown sugar, and 10 pecan halves chopped.  Amazing.  Seriously.  It’s the texture and creaminess of the oatmeal that makes it so delicious!

The recipe below makes 4 servings, but can easily be doubled or tripled if more people in your family eat oats.  I store them in a Tupperware container and scoop out what I would like into a bowl and microwave for about a minute and 15 seconds before adding my sweetener and toppings.  Some topping ideas besides the banana/pecan mixture include mini chocolate chips/chopped almonds/sugar, chopped apple/crunchy peanut butter/honey, and this mornings creation – raisins/brown sugar/vanilla extract – tasted like an oatmeal cookie!

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Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal
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Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup steel cut oatmeal
  • 3 cups water
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • desired toppings/sweetener
Instructions
  1. In a small crockpot, combine the steel cut oats, water, and salt. Stir. Cook on low for approximately 4 hours, on high for approximately 2 hours until desired consistency. Transfer to a Tupperware container and store in the fridge for up to 6 days. Dish out and microwave in the morning - topping with your desired ingredients.

 

Banana Pudding

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I’ve made this recipe four times in the last 5 days.  Yes, seriously.  Take it as evidence that this banana pudding is amazingly good — and that it’s super quick and easy to prepare — and that I’ve been making dinner and desserts for too many people this week!  I need a nap!  🙂

On Saturday, we celebrated my Mother-in-Laws’ birthday and she requested banana pudding and French Silk Pie.  I made a double-batch of both for her birthday celebration with the family.  On Sunday, I made it again as we hosted dinner for a friend and her family.  On Wednesday, I made it again, as we hosted Mike’s boss for dinner. Apparently, I’m on a banana pudding kick.

My mom first made this recipe for me when I was in high school and it became one of her staple dessert recipes since I enjoyed it so much.  I didn’t make it myself for the first time until a few years ago when my mom gave me a binder for Christmas of some of her most loved recipes.  Now, I know the recipe by heart, which makes it even easier!

This pudding receives 5 wooden spoons from my family.  We all love it.  Mike, Bo, and Clara refuse to eat bananas on theirs (so it’s really vanilla pudding…. details…) but both Anna and I like the bananas on ours.

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Banana Pudding
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Prep time: 
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Serves: 8-10
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pint heavy whipping cream
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1 small box Jell-O instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 box vanilla wafers
  • 2-3 bananas
Instructions
  1. In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, water, and instant pudding mix -- mixing well to avoid lumps (I usually end up blending this with the hand mixer). Fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until combined and uniform in color. Layer the dessert by placing a layer of vanilla wafers, a layer of bananas, and topping with the pudding mixture. Repeat until all of the pudding is layered. Allow to chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

 

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

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We had a crazy busy weekend.  How we manage to fit so many things between the hours of 4 pm Friday and 7 am Monday is always a mystery to me — but some how we do — and have fun doing it!

Mike and I spent the night in Chicago on Saturday and followed it up on Sunday with two birthday celebrations with the kids.  The first was a birthday party that we attended and the second was a family dinner with the Cetwinski family at our house to make up for Riley’s 6th birthday party we missed the previous weekend when the trio was sick.  I took some short-cuts with our meal and our dessert — mostly because we arrived home only 2 hours before our guests were set to arrive.

Instead of making a meal, we ordered pizza, and instead of making homemade cupcakes, I just fancied up a box mix.  However, the resulting cupcakes were amazing!  I loosely based this on the idea behind the Oreo Cupcakes I made previously.  These were quick to throw together and truly tasted fancy — as we discussed that evening, they were much better than some of the local cupcake shops we’ve tried.  They are definitely worth a bake!

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Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
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Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • 2 bags individual peanut butter cups
  • 1 box chocolate cake mix
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • ¾ cup water
  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 5 Tbsp. butter, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 1 bag miniature peanut butter cups (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Place a peanut butter cup (regular size) in the bottom of each tin. Prepare cake mix according to package instructions. Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full. Bake for 18-22 minutes.
  2. Once the cupcakes have cooled, prepare the frosting. Cream together the peanut butter and butter. Add the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until well combined. Add the milk to reach the desired creaminess and texture for the frosting. I used a Ziplock bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
  3. To garnish, cut miniature peanut butter cups in half and place on top of each cupcake.

 

Homemade Vanilla Extract

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The secret ingredient in the Snow Day Ice Cream I posted earlier in the week is good quality vanilla extract.  After paying through the nose for vanilla for several years, I ran across several Pinterest pins that discussed recipes. In June, I decided to give it a whirl and at Christmas, I gave bottles of this tasty Homemade Vanilla Extract to nearly everyone on my gifting list.

The key ingredient to this recipe is time!  It’s really quite easy to throw together and the taste is delicious — but it really needs a good six months to become worthwhile.  That’s why I had to make it in June for Christmas gifts!

I ordered 24 Italian Glass Flasks and vanilla beans in bulk from Amazon.  I picked up several large bottles of vodka from Costco and then I was ready to make my extract.  I sliced the vanilla beans in half and split them open.  In each bottle, I used two full vanilla and used a funnel to fill the bottle with vodka.  Once all of the bottles were filled, I put them in one of our storage rooms so they would have a cool dry place to work their magic.  I tried to go in and shake them every week or so but there were definitely some weeks where I forgot about them.

To finish them off and make them “gift worthy” I purchased a Groupon for My Own Labels and customized the label you see above.

I love this type of an item as a gift since it’s usable.  It’s not just another trinket that’s going to take up space and end up in the garage sale pile in a year or two.  Now, I need ideas for what to do for everyone for next year…

 

Snow Day Ice Cream

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If you’re in one of the many states currently experiencing a winter storm, let me introduce you to a beautiful little secret – snow ice cream.  My kiddos aren’t huge fans of hot chocolate – I think in part because it’s hot.  Bo will drink it but it truly isn’t something that the kids are excited about.  (And yes, I find this very strange — personally, I love hot chocolate.  Maybe when they are a bit older!)

The trio was dismissed from school early today and Mike’s work closed early as well due to our winter storm.  I had everyone home for the afternoon and we made the most of it by playing out in the snow.  We “helped” Mike shovel the driveway (he mostly used the snow blower) and then built a snowman and a snow fort in the yard.

After we stripped off our wet snow pants and boots, I threw together this snow ice cream – literally in minutes.  This recipe is extremely easy and provides instant gratification.  The trio all sat on the barstools at the counter and slurped this up in no time.  It’s delicious!  If you like vanilla ice cream, I promise this will be a recipe you will enjoy!

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Snow Day Ice Cream
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 Tbsp good quality vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • snow
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl, combine the white sugar with the vanilla. Add the milk and heavy cream and stir until well combined. Using an ice cream scoop or measuring scoop, scoop packed snow into individual bowls (I filled a large bowl with snow and brought it inside). Pour cream mixture over the top of each scoop until it looks coated and absorbed. Serve immediately.

Homemade Thin Crust Pizza

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Last week, we had the Kilmartin’s over for a Valentine’s Day dinner.  Mike asked me to invite them weeks ago as he was planning to order three cakes (a redo of our wedding cakes) and wanted to be sure there were plenty of people here to help us eat them.

I wanted to do a Valentine theme for the kiddos – so I decided to try my hand at heart pizza.  I made one big heart and used heart cookie cutters to make smaller individual pizzas for the kiddos. Laura brought heart shaped jigglers and cut strawberries into hearts and I also made peanut butter cookies with Dove heart chocolates on top for our heart- themed meal.

Apparently I was feeling lazy as I didn’t take a picture with my good camera of any of our heart-themed food.  However, I did snap this photo of our large heart pizza with my phone.  This one is topped with Italian sausage.  Yum!  The pizza was a hit — I doubled the recipe for the dough and we had just enough for the 10 of us.

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Homemade Thin Crust Pizza
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Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 2¼ cup flour – white/wheat/ or some combo
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 pkg. dry yeast
  • ¼ cup + ½ cup warm water
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar or alternative sweetener
Instructions
  1. Combine and mix ½ cup of warm water and sugar. Dissolve yeast in sugar water mix and let stand for a minimum of 5 minutes. Put flour and salt in the food processor and blend in oil, ½ cup of water, and yeast mixture. Process until a sticky ball forms. Transfer dough into a mixing bowl oiled or sprayed with PAM. Cover and let rice until doubled – about 1 to 1 and ½ hours).
  2. Preheat oven to 500 with pizza stone inside. Roll dough flat on a floured surface until 14 inches in diameter. Place on a pizza palate that is sprinkled with cornmeal and poke holes in crust with fork. Slide the crust into the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly golden. Remove and add toppings. Reduce oven temperature to 425. Return pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted (5-7 minutes). Enjoy!