Holiday PreK Class Gift - Hot Chocolate Cups

So clearly I underestimated how much time I had available to blog. Between two kids, full time work, and the usual holiday craziness, I have very little free time. But now that Christmas is over and I have a little break from work, I wanted to share these super cute cups for JJ's classmates:

In the past, I have used inspiration from pins I have from here and here to make Snowman and Reindeer cups:

I considered making the Santa belt version this year but decided against it because A) I was trying to steer away from Santa/Christmas specific and B) there are 30 kids in his class and it just seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I remembered some versions of personalized Starbucks cups floating around Pinterest and a facebook group I was apart of when I first got my Silhouette Cameo a couple years ago. Knowing that I already had a ton of red cups left over from past Christmases, I had a new plan.

I followed these instructions and downloaded a blank jpeg file of the logo and added the white text on top of the green. Disclaimer: I used the logo for personal/parody use, not to make money or to be confused with the actual Starbucks brand. I downloaded the Santana Black font to get a close match to the old Starbucks logo (I read that you can use Gibson and Freight Sans too, but I was looking for something free). 

The software that comes with the Silhouette makes it easy to curve the text. I created a whole sheet, then printed it on full sheet shipping labels which are really just a full sheet sticker. Once printed, I sent the sheet through my Silhouette which cut the circles out. JJ helped me put one on each cup and we filled them with a hot chocolate pack and some Hershey kisses. The most time consuming part was finding the right font. The rest was simple, but repetitive. Here's what 30 finished cups looks like!

In the end, they were simple and pretty inexpensive. Next year JJ will be in kindergarten (most likely in public school) and hopefully I can recycle this idea and use the same stickers. I hope the kids liked them and hope you all (if there are any readers left) had a great holiday!

4th of July 2013 Recap

It seems like I took a short, unanticipated vacation from the blog. Nothing really happened, I just haven't had time to sit down and type something up. Its been a busy summer! Anyway, here's a quick recap of our 4th of July weekend:

We started off the holiday with a trip to the pool Thursday morning. After an afternoon nap (for JJ) we headed to my parents for dinner and then to the high school for their local fireworks show. JJ did much better than I anticipated considering how late it was and how delayed the actual show was. He seemed to enjoy them, but lost interest after 10 minutes.

Friday Joe had to work so JJ and I just hung out: played, did some coloring, tried to go outside but it was 1000 degrees. After he went to bed, I took the opportunity to make something to bring to Joe's parents' annual 4th of July BBQ the next day. If you remember last year, I made the infamous Flag Cake:

2012's Flag Cake

and while it came out cute, I was looking for something a little easier and less time consuming this time around. I originally wanted to make these bacon ranch deviled eggs but didn't realize I was out of ranch mix until it was late. Plan B: Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs:

Source: All Recipes

Joe is a bit of a deviled egg purist, so I made half regular and half "bacon cheddar". There's really not much to post - its sort of like just making egg salad but only using the yolks and then putting it back into the whites. Here is the filling ready to be mixed:

And here is the finished product (the paprika topped ones are "regular" and the bacon topped ones are the Bacon Cheddar):

Anyone know what is supposed to go in that middle spot? Just filling? Some sort of garnish??

As always, the recipe is at the bottom of the post.

I also made some of my chocolate chip cookies (a favorite of my father in law) to bring for dessert. 

Before we ate, we took JJ down to the lake for the first time. While I am not  fan, I prefer cement ponds myself, he loved it. I think he liked the fact that he was in control and could just walk in and out and always have his feet on the ground. 

Back at the house, we dried off, tried to stay cool, and enjoyed the food. The eggs were a hit - but to be honest, they sort of just tasted like a regular deviled egg with some bacon. Next year I will have to try the ranch version - they sound delicious! 

Things to Note: I sort of skipped #1 and just made hard boiled eggs my usual way (put eggs in room temp water just about covering eggs and bring to boil, boil for 10-12 minutes then place in ice-water bath). I also cheated and used precooked bacon. So basically I only followed Step 3. 


Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs
from USEREMILY3260 on All Recipes

Ingredients:
12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoon finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon mustard

Directions:
1. Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.
2. Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Alternatively, wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.

3. Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir in mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving.

I have a bunch of things in my backlog to post about - hopefully I get some more computer time soon. I have tried a bunch of yummy dinner recipes recently - so stay tuned!

Red, White, & Blue Cupcakes

I hope everyone had a wonderful July 4^th! I spent the day at a friend’s house for a little BBQ. It was oppressively hot, but I had a great time.

My contribution to the gathering was of course dessert. I brought some red, white, & blue cupcakes.

Why I thought baking in the middle of a heat wave was a good idea, is beyond me! The original inspiration came from something Grace had pinned.

Source

I thought the bundt cake (originally from Betty Crocker) was super cute. I don’t have a bundt cake pan, so I decided to try it in cupcake form. 

I gathered up my supplies - not much needed for this recipe!

I whipped up the cake batter and separated it into three bowls. In one bowl I added blue food coloring. In the second bowl I added (a lot) of red food coloring and the third bowl I left as is.

Next it was time to layer the batter. Red went in first. I put about 1 ½ tablespoons in each cupcake liner.

I did the same with the white batter.

I finished up with the blue batter.

As you can see not every cupcake was perfect, but that’s okay!

I baked them according to the directions. Here’s how they looked out of the oven:

Once they were cooled, I placed them on a wax paper lined baking sheet.

Aren't they so cute?

I scooped a little bit of icing into a bowl and microwaved it for about 10 seconds. That allowed me to just drizzle the icing onto the cupcakes.

Then I scooped a bit more icing out, microwaved it, added some blue food coloring, and drizzled that as well. I finished up by doing the same thing again, this time with red food coloring.

Unfortunately, my red icing was more on the pink side, but you get the idea.

I think they are adorable!

The Verdict: These were a hit! The cake itself was fluffy and light. They made a big impression but were pretty easy to make. I would definitely make these again.

Things to Note/Consider: I wouldn't really change a thing with this recipe. Honestly it was very easy to do. I did use many bowls –making clean up a pain in the rear. Also, prepare to use A LOT of red food coloring. I must have put at least 15-20 drops in the white icing and it still came out pink. 

I'm glad I used plain white cupcake liners. I would suggest doing the same. It was nice to be able to see the layers through the liners. 

Easter Recap

This post might be a little shorter than I originally planned. Over the weekend Joe dismantled our office and therefore our computer in order to get started on finally making it look nice (see home-related goals.) As a result I am on the laptop now with limited access to pics and no photoshop. I am going to do the best that I can with the pics still on my memory card...

I got home from work a little early on Friday afternoon and had a little photoshoot with JJ. Here are some choice outtakes:



Yes, I bribe my son with water bottles.



"Ok, enough of this Mom"

I decided to use this one and add a cute message. I printed out a couple copies to give to family we would see, and emailed it out to those we would not:

Saturday I started baking. My intent was to create this adorable "Carrot Cake" as seen in this pin:


Source: The Partiologist

using some sugar free (and therefore diabetic friendly) cake mixes I searched for. My plan was to use this recipe for the carrots and this one for the chocolate cake. My first issue was that I couldn't find an extra long loaf pan anywhere. So I went for the deepest cake pan I could find at (where else?) Michaels and after some brainstorming with Joe we thought to make two rows of carrots and just cut the cake down the middle. I should have seen the disaster coming at this point. I made the orange cake Saturday, let it cool, then used a pennant cookie cutter I had some a sports pack to cut triangles:

It was very very messy and pretty frustrating. But I soldiered on and froze the little carrots and before I went to put froze them in the pan. In between, I whipped up some puffy sugar cookies knowing that I would have some sort of backup. They came out delish:

Sunday morning, after JJ explored his basket:

You like our "babyproofing" of the fireplace opening? "Use what you got" is the motto in this house!

I set out to make the chocolate cake. I mixed it up, boiling water, chocolate shavings and all...

and poured it over the carrots. I have no pictures of this because it was a mess. They didn't really "stick" to the pan so they floated up a bit when I poured. Also, the chocolate cake batter didn't cover the tops of them. Still, I cleaned it up best I could and threw it in the oven. It took almost an hour for it to cook completely. By then, the carrots that had floated up were hard and it was very misshapen. I took a break from the whole thing and let Joe try and save it. I then made this icing following the tips in the comments by warming up the milk to dissolve the pudding mix and I still ended up with lumpy icing. This, I am ashamed to say, is the final product:

I bought oreos to make a "dirt" topping and cute little fondant leaves, but after two days of baking and this was the best I could get, I gave up on making it pretty.

I will say, though, that when cut correctly, it did make a carrot (sort of):



Although my baking was a frustrating mess, overall our Easter was lovely. I took a vacation day on Monday and the family just recovered, relaxed and enjoyed some playground time. I will leave you with a pic of my little man rocking his sweater vest and bunny bib while playing with his new toothbrush (if only he actually liked getting his teeth brushed!):

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! 

Easter Updates

Happy Friday! With it only being 2 days before Easter, I figured its about time to show a couple of the easy crafts I did for the holiday. Remember this pic from last year?

Well I have had those ears laying around (I think I got them for $4.99) laying around for the entire year. While surfing around Pinterest a couple weeks ago, I saw this adorable wreath:



Source: Mrs B's Hive

and thought that was a perfect use for it! While putting an Amazon order together, I threw two of these white feather boas into my cart and picked up a white wreath form from Michaels on one of my many trips.

Please forgive the lighting in these pics, it was an "after the baby goes to bed" project.

I put the headband around the top of the wreath and just started wrapping:

First problem - the wreath was just too big. I started wrapping the boa around it, but when only using one, I could see some of the styrofoam. See (look at the bottom right side and you can see the foam)?

Two boas would have been out of control with the feathers so I put the whole thing aside until I could figure something else out. A couple days later while straightening out my craft closet, I came upon a left over embroidery hoop from the project in JJ's room (also in this post).

It was smaller than the wreath form and definitely much thinner so I knew my boa would go further. So I started wrapping again:

 

 

And ended with some extra at the bottom. I just tied the two ends together near where I wanted to cut with some white thread and then cut. Warning though, this boa was cheap, and therefore feathers were flying everywhere. Here's what my pants looked like:

black yoga pants and feather boa cutting so not mix

After all that, I was left with a rather fat looking wreath. I decided to give it a little haircut so you could see a little more of the middle and make it a little "tighter".

Before and after the "haircut"

I also wound up putting a couple dabs of hot glue at the bottom where the ends meet and a couple securing the band to the hoop. Its not quite as nice as Emily's (I wish my boa was a little less "feather" and more "fur"), but I think its still pretty cute:

It makes me smile every time I pull into the driveway.

My next, even easier Easter related craft was updating my mantle with a new printable from those talented ladies at eighteen 25. Apparently this pastel version is new for this year, but I must have never printed one out last year because what I had in my frame went from St. Patrick's Day to the 4th of July!


Subway art source: eighteen25

Here it is up on my mantle. Along with a jar of jelly beans (which has been refilled 3 times) and a little stuffed Cadbury Bunny (not sure where that came from, but when you squeeze it he makes the little bunny noise - remember these commercials?).



Please forgive the dirty looking mirror - I swear its just Windex streaks!



birds!



Our little Cadbury Bunny

Shannon and I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter (and Passover for those of you who celebrated that this week)! Hopefully the bunny can bring us some sunshine and warmth on the East Coast - we have had way too much snow and dreary weather.

I will be back next week with a little Easter recap - I am attempting some creative baking so wish me luck!