Easter Egg Ornaments

Who else has toddlers who won't leave the Christmas tree alone? Even my four year old occasionally brings me an ornament to ask me about it or to request permission to fly it like a space ship. And then leaves it in the two year old's reach. ARG.

Some years we set up a separate little tree for them, which they love, but which I totally forgot to do this year. I forgot in part because I was busy obsessing over these babies:

Pin it!

The 2yo was so excited that he wouldn't hold still.

The kids went nutso over them, too. They flew them around like spaceships. They ran through the house with them. And only one out of six started to fall apart!

I got the inspiration from a Martha Stewart craft where they wanted you to use actual craft materials to make nice looking owl treat boxes. Since I wanted them for my little kids to destroy, I used:

1. Easter eggs

2. Felt

3. Googly eyes

4. Ribbon for hanging

5. Low temp hot glue gun/glue

Here is how I put them together:

1) I sketched out the pieces I wanted on plain paper, cut them out, and held them up to one of the eggs as a prototype. 

2) Then, I selected eggs that still had both halfs attached and still opened and closed easily, because the kids were going to be coming to me any time that they had trouble opening and closing them.

3) I lay out several different colors of felt and traced my paper cut outs with white fabric pencil all in one go.

4) I cut all the pieces out, making small piles that went together for each egg.

5) Then it was time to warm up the low temp hot glue gun! The seam where the eggs are held together I designated the back and, in the case of the angels, glued the wings there first. For the owls I began by gluing the face on the "front" top. Careful not to glue anything to the seam or across the seam, so that the eggs will still open.

6) Cut ribbon and glue on the top back.

TADA!

Have fun!

Raspberry Turnovers

Source: recipe.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I have a wee problem, and that problem is that I bought too many chocolate chips. BJs had a giant bag of them, which I then purchased and set in the cupboard over the over-the-stove microwave. Pretty soon they were breaking down and starting to color. Yeah, turns out it gets hot there. So, in my panicked search for chocolate chip recipes, I came across this one.

 Verdict? Simple and delicious! A friend and I may or may not have eaten the whole pan in one sitting.


Ingredients:

1. 1 package/1 cup frozen raspberries
2. 3/4 semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chips
3. 1/3 cup seedless strawberry (or raspberry) jam
4. 2 tubes refrigerated crescent dough

 Process:

1. Heat the oven to 375*F. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking oil for good measure. 
2. Open your crescent dough roll and place half of the triangles out on the sheet. Use the rest to turn these triangles into squares, pinching the joining sides together. We managed parallelograms, so ours turned into triangles instead of rectangles and didn't hold quite as much.
3. Mix together chocolate chips, raspberries, and jam in a bowl. Spoon into your squares, covering only half of them. It's easy to put in too much.
4. Fold your squares in half and press the sides together with a fork. Pierce each top for venting. We didn't bother with an egg wash, but if you're going to, this is the time to whisk a bit of egg and water together and brush it on top.
5. Bake for 11 at 375*F or until the edges begin to brown.

Lesson: you cannot have too many chocolate chips!

Collards

Source: athoughtforfood.net via Michelle on Pinterest

Michelle, here!

Collard Greens are a(nother) first for me. I love garlic so when I saw the clear instructions for this easy recipe, I just had to try it. You can mix in similar greens like kale, as I did, or stick to collards.

All you need are:

1. Collard Greens
2. Whole Garlic
3. Salt 
4. A pot of boiling water 
5. Strainer
6. A saute pan
7. Olive Oil

The original post has measurements, but I eyeballed every thing because I wasn't sure exactly how much greens I had and I love garlic more than most rational human beings.

The process:

• First, prepare the greens by washing them and cutting out the stems. Removing the stems helps achieve an even consistency once they are cooked.
• Second, salt the water in the pot and bring the pot to boiling. Dump in your greens for 5-10 minutes. Leaf vegetables are fairly delicate and you're about to cook them again, so it's difficult to under cook them. They also shrink down as they cook, so feel free to shove more in the pot than appears reasonable.
• While they are boiling, slice your garlic thinly and heat up your olive oil in your saute pan. I used a whole bulb of garlic for about 3 bunches of greens. YUM.
• Strain your greens.

  

  See? They already look cooked, but I want that garlic flavor in there!

• Add the garlic to the hot saute pan, then a minute later, add the greens. Add a bit more salt if you like. Saute for a few more minutes, or until you can no longer resist the smell of garlic. :)

  

  OM NOM N-- Wait. The greens. Still need the greens.

-- NOM NOM!

This makes a great side and it is hard to mess up! Happy cooking. :)

Roasted Peanuts

Source: thekitchn.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Michelle, here.

This week I held raw peanuts in my hand for the first time ever. It was less of a magical moment and more of a "OMG. Raw peanuts exist? Now what?" Thankfully, roasting peanuts is very easy. You don't even have to shuck them, if you prefer.

My husband said that, if you like your shelled roasted peanuts salted, you can soak them in salt water overnight. But, see, that requires that he tell me this the night before instead of when the peanuts are in the oven. Bah! Sounds like work.

Here is what I did:

1. Spread shelled peanuts on baking pans.

2. Set oven to 350*

3. Roast for 25 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Tada! Really, that's it.

Tips:

1. Do one pan at a time. I tried to do two pans and the pan closer to the heating element was overdone. Thus my burnt first attempt. Peanuts seem to quickly go from perfect to What Have You Done!

2. If you have a gas oven, like me, roast them for only 20 minutes.

3. If the peanuts are a tad overdone, remove them from the pan right away so that they will cool off faster.

Left to right: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd attempts. :)

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Source: theartofdoingstuff.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I was very pleased with how these turned out! They weren't quite as crispy as in the original post, but the original poster also does a good job of setting your expectations. Basically, baked fries are hard and sweet potato fries are the hardest.

But I love sweet potatoes!

I also love the sirachi sauce recipe she has on the same page. WOW.

You'll need:

• Sweet potatoes
• A bowl of water
• Corn starch
• Olive Oil

The process:

1. Slice the sweet potatoes and slice the slices to get fry shapes. Mine were a little thick so aim for closer to a centimeter than 1/2 inch.

2. Soak them in water for at least an hour. Several hours is better.

3. Preheat oven to 425*F

4. Place the fries in a bag with about a tablespoon of cornstarch and shake, shake, shake! Too much cornstarch is a bad idea.

5. Place in a single layer on a lined cookie sheet. If they don't crisp up well you WILL regret leaving off the liner.

6. Drizzle with olive oil and toss them around in it.

7. Stick the fries in the oven and check after 15 minutes. If they're not too floppy or sticky, turn them. 30 minutes total should do it depending on the thickness of your fries.

And now, the amazing dipping sauce:

• 1/2 cup of mayonaise 
• 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce 
• 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper. 

Adjust to taste. OMG.

Banana Coconut Bread

Source: aspicyperspective.com via Amy on Pinterest

Banana... coconut bread? Yes, it is as amazing as it sounds, even without the chopped nuts, which I leave out for allergy concerns. My Dad doesn't even like coconut and he liked this bread.


Ingredients:

What your bananas should look like.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick of softened butter
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas, smashed
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¾ cup shredded coconut

Directions:


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a 9X5 loaf pan. (1.5 quart capacity)

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Then add the applesauce, eggs and bananas. Mix until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dried ingredients. Slowly beat the dry mixture into the wet.

4. Add the coconut. Mix well.

5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325 degrees F and bake another 40+ minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

6. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minute in the pan, then flip it out onto a cooling rack.

Nom nom nom!

"Starbucks" Lemon Loaf

Source: familycampingchat.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I'm going to make this again. Like, today. I love the simplicity of this loaf and the quick icing makes it even better.

I made one small change that I'm going to keep for future loaves. Instead of lemon extract, I used orange extract, and for the frosting I used lemon juice. YUM.

Ingredients:
Loaf

• 1 1/2 cups FLOUR
• 1/2 teaspoon BAKING SODA
• 1/2 teaspoon BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 teaspoon SALT
• 3 EGGS
• 1 cup SUGAR
• 2 tablespoon BsUTTER; Softened.
• 1 teaspoon VANILLA
• 1 teaspoon Orange EXTRACT
• 1/3 cup LEMON JUICE
• 1/2 cup OIL

Lemon Icing:

• 1 cup POWDERED SUGAR; Plus 1 Tablespoon.
• 2 tablespoons WHOLE MILK; I Used 2%.
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

_____

1. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. Use a mixer to blend together the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon juice in a medium bowl.

3. Pour wet ingredient into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.

4. Add oil and mix well.

5. Pour batter into a well greased 9x5-inch loaf pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into center of the cake comes out clean.

7. Make the lemon icing by combining all the icing ingredients in a small bowl with an electric mixer on low speed.

8. When the loaf is cool, remove it from pan and frost the top with the icing.

9. Let the icing set up before slicing.

Parmesan Potato Bread

Source: partial-ingredients.com via Max on Pinterest

Mine may not be quite as pretty as the above but it was delicious! The original recipe makes two small loaves, so I froze half of the dough before the second rise. I've cooked the frozen one off since and it also turned out well. Don't forget to let it thaw AND do the second rise, though!

I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the process, so let's get straight to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized russet potatoes (about 8 oz.)
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour or all purpose flour
• Olive oil
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 egg, lightly beaten + 2 tbsp water

Directions:

1. I used instant mashed potatoes by preparing them according to the package. I'm a big fan of not going to the store for a single ingredient and going with a substitution instead. One potato is about one serving of instant mashed potatoes, maybe a little more. Go figure. So, you'll need 2-3 servings of instant mashed potato.
2. Add the dry yeast and sugar and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Add the salt, water and 3 cups of flour. Mix until smooth, adding more water if necessary.
4. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and gradually add in the rest of the flour by ¼ cup increments. I didn't have the full amount of Parmesan cheese but the bread turned out fine any how.
5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5-7 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more water if necessary.
6. Drizzle some olive oil in the empty bowl and place the dough back into it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.
7. Place the dough on a floured surface and deflate. Divide the loaves and freeze one.
8. Place the loaf on lightly oiled parchment paper,
9. Cover with a dish towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
11. Stir together the egg and water and brush the wash over the loaf.
12. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until bread is a dark golden brown (internal temperature should read 195-200F).
13. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Here you can see how well the parchment paper works for a clean removal from the pan:

Becomes:

Delicious!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies...?

Source: creampuffsinvenice.ca via PennyB. on Pinterest

I made these meringue cookies for Christmas and it's taken me this long to get up the courage to admit that I don't know if they're a success or a failure. They were NOT like the meringue cookies that I had last year that inspired this endeavor. Yet, they were delicious and did not give me food poisoning. I think this is one of those cookie categories that every one expects something different when they make them. So... 80% success?

First, and most importantly, I did not have the patience to try piping these babies. When I was mixing the batter it became quiet clear how many it was going to make. What you see above is HALF of what the recipe made, after I'd given a bunch away to relatives.

Secondly, the cookies reached perfection after several days rather than a mere 8 hrs overnight. Between how big I made them and the humidity in NC... yeah. They were always good, but after about four days they were perfectly dried all the way through. Which, I think, makes them perfect for gift giving, because by the time they get to the recipient, they're perfect and still have weeks left of shelf stable storage. I assume. Mine vanished faster than that!

I followed the directions and you might want to go to her page for the blow-by-blow, but here is the overview. Consider HALVING the recipe:

Ingredients:
2.5 cups sugar
4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch-processed)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
8 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted

Let's Do This:

1. Preheat oven to 225*F and and for the love of all that is good, don't forget that parchment paper for your cookie sheets. I had 4 sheets going in rotation in the oven.
2. Combine sugar, cocoa and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside.
3. Whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the salt and whisk at high speed until soft peaks form. A stand mixer is best for this if you want to keep your arms from falling off.
4. Slowly add the sugar/cocoa/cinnamon mixture on medium speed and then increase speed to high and continue whipping until stiff peaks form and the meringue is glossy. Some people also add cream of tartar at this point. Maybe 1/2 tsp. I did! With a rubber spatula clean the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is fully incorporated. This  step takes forever and a day. 
5. Use a large spoon to plop the mixture on the cookie sheet. The smaller they are and the more space you leave between them, the faster they'll dry out.
6. Bake for an hour and 10 minutes and then turn the oven off. Let cool in the oven for one hour. At this point they should be pretty sturdy and not too collapsible in the middle , but if they are turning dark brown, remove them anyway. Remove from the oven and transfer the meringue cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling. If you have sheets to rotate, put the new set in now and turn the oven back on for an all-day experience. Leave overnight so that the cookies will dry out completely.
7. Cookies should be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a week or so, if in theory you do not eat them all before then!

Sorry I didn't get an in-progress pictures! It was night time and too dark in my kitchen, and I was expecting an embarrassing failure. ;)

Food Coloring, Round 2: Icecubes

Source: thepreschoolexperiment.blogspot.com via Ruth on Pinterest

When we did the food coloring experiment (here), we froze the water in ice cube trays afterwards, but it wasn't any good for consumption, what with bits of paper towel and dust from being left out over night.

I saw the lovely pin linked above, where you can read about her boy painting afterwards as part of the lesson. But, see, the last experiment was so much work compared to how much my boy got out of it. I mean, he's only three years old. So one day when the kids were in the bath, I had an idea.

Bathtub + ice cubes + white plastic bowl = no mess.

We took it slow and used blue and yellow for a couple of nights in a row, then moved on to the other secondary colors. C really got it this time and was telling me that yellow and blue make green. The kids loved it. They fought over the ice cubes and the one year old tried to eat them. Sniff. It was a beautiful thing.

Cookie Sheet Literacy Letters

Source: blog.maketaketeach.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Just a quick note this week to say that these are pretty cool. My kids love magnets but sometimes they need to sit in a chair at a table for school time. These sheets work ok with the larger letter sizes, too. Just make sure you have enough ABC sets or it will look like this:

Y_U don't say?

We've extended this idea to other worksheets that had large spaces for the child to write, and flash cards. We also like to do things like pattern recognition and, well, let's just say that I own a hot glue gun and craft magnets... ohmergerd I just saw a picture of a jigsaw puzzle with magnets on the back of each piece.

Is your child obsessed with magnets?

S'mores Cookies

Today's Episode brings you...
Our first Epic Fail!

Here is what it is supposed to look like:

If you want to know how to make them, click above.

Source: diana212m.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

This is what ours looked like:

But it IS still a cookie.

1) Our first mistake was when I wrote the recipe down on a handy note card, but only wrote the ingredients. Me: "It is a cookie. I read the directions. How hard can it be?"

Looks easy, right?

2) Our second mistake was when we forgot to pull out the butter to soften. We tried to nuke it but somehow failed at that, too. Oh, and I think we used marsh mellows that were a size too big.

Nothing could possibly go wrong from here.

3) Lastly, when we checked these babies, we laughed so hard that we couldn't take them out of the oven for an extra five minutes, so not only did they look hilarious, but they were over baked and - alas - had to be consumed quickly before they hardened.

Are you guys baking under the influence again? I'd better confiscate.

I think this is a wonderful pin if you don't suck at following directions. I made this recipe as a cookie "cake" twice - for my mother's birthday and my sister's birthday, which are only a few days apart. That's right. My sister loved my mother's cake so much that she wanted the exact same thing less than a week later. I followed the same recipe, but placed it in a casserole dish and placed the cookies touching each other. They puffed out and up and filled all the gaps. If you make it this way it takes closer to forty minutes to cook and you can prick it with a toothpick in the non-chocolatey bits to test it.

You can also try simply leaving the top graham cracker off. Ours popped off and slid away:

Another alteration you can try is to stick a peanut butter cup in the middle. Or probably any kind of candy that you like. The peanut butter cups turned out better for us because they are smaller and don't have a tendency to fall apart while you are smashing cookie dough around them.

I dare you to try it and send us pictures!

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Because crispy is hard.

Source: jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

Ingredients:
Chicken:
4 large chicken breasts
2 sleeves ritz crackers
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup milk
3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp dried parsley
Sauce:
1 10 oz of cream of chicken soup
2 tbs sour cream
2 tbs butter

Method:
1. Grind up the ritz crackers. You can use a small food processor, or place them in a plastic bag and smash them like the Hulk.

2. Pour the milk, cheese, and cracker crumbs in three separate bowls and line them up in that order. You are creating yourself an assembly line, folks! Add the 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8th tsp pepper into the cracker crumbs and stir. Spray a 9x13 pan to complete your assembly line.

3. Get ready to work with raw meat! Cut each chicken breast into three large pieces and set all the pieces in the bowl of milk.

4. Press each piece into the cheese, and then press into the cracker crumbs, then the casserole pan. Yep, it's going to make a cross-contaminating mess. Your cracker crumbs are going to be kinda cheesy by the end but that is all a part of the diabolical plan.

5. Sprinkle dried parsley over the chicken.

6. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 400* for 35 minutes. Remove the tin foil, bake another 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden.

Abracadabra!

So, confession time. We didn't bother with the sauce. If you try it, let us know how you like it. We thought it was great without!