Craig has taken Claire to Daddy Daughter Dances a few times at church and they always came home with smiles. But today was something a little more fun. Craig PARTICIPATED IN a dance at Claire's spring show. They had a couple hour practice on Saturday, a dress rehearsal on Sunday before the show and then the big performance (two actually because we have two shows).
Craig was SUPER nervous. This is SO far out of his comfort zone that I actually felt a little bad for him. I was also more than a little jealous, because he got to have that "I'll never forget when.." moment with Claire. But that jealousy quickly vanished as I snapped photos (soon to come) and saw them completely enjoying the moment and having a BLAST together.
Here's the performance. Craig did a great job and he didn't drop her, which was a little bit of a concern;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLac8Dg1BQM&feature=youtu.be
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Tres Leches Cake
I found this in my draft file. I have no idea what happened to the photos but thought I might as well post especially since Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner. I'll add photos when I make this next time. Yep, another Pioneer Woman recipe. I read about this on her blog forever ago and it intrigued me. I ran across another woman who had made it and thought I'd give it a go.
Reminded me of the jello cake my Mom made in my youth:)
But back to the Tres Leches cake. I made it with only a couple minor changes for our family spring fling and people liked it. The brownie fruit pizza was a bigger hit, but maybe we're a chocolate family?? I brought the leftovers to work and had a Hispanic woman try it and she said, "YUM, good job and you aren't even Spanish"?
My cousin Melanie said that she used a can of coconut milk in place of the Evaporated milk and added a touch of Malibu Rum for a grown up version of this cake, I might try that the next time.
At any rate, this is a solid recipe and really very easy so give it a try.
1 C Flour
1-½ t Baking Powder
¼ t Salt
5 whole Eggs Divided
1 C Sugar, Divided
1 t Vanilla
⅓ C Milk ~ I used 2%
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
¼ C Heavy Cream
_____
FOR THE ICING:
1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
1/3 C Powdered Sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
Separate eggs into two different bowls.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff.
Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (her directions said 35-45 min but my cake only took 25 until it was done) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool~I didn't turn my cake out, I left it in the pan for easy transport.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher or bowl. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can~I didn't read the "all but 1 C", I dumped it all on. It was still tasty, just a little wet, "I" might like it better following that rule.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 1/3 C of powdered sugar until thick and spreadable.
Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve
Reminded me of the jello cake my Mom made in my youth:)
But back to the Tres Leches cake. I made it with only a couple minor changes for our family spring fling and people liked it. The brownie fruit pizza was a bigger hit, but maybe we're a chocolate family?? I brought the leftovers to work and had a Hispanic woman try it and she said, "YUM, good job and you aren't even Spanish"?
My cousin Melanie said that she used a can of coconut milk in place of the Evaporated milk and added a touch of Malibu Rum for a grown up version of this cake, I might try that the next time.
At any rate, this is a solid recipe and really very easy so give it a try.
1 C Flour
1-½ t Baking Powder
¼ t Salt
5 whole Eggs Divided
1 C Sugar, Divided
1 t Vanilla
⅓ C Milk ~ I used 2%
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
¼ C Heavy Cream
_____
FOR THE ICING:
1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
1/3 C Powdered Sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
Separate eggs into two different bowls.
Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir very gently until combined.
Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff.
Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
Bake for 25 to 35 minutes (her directions said 35-45 min but my cake only took 25 until it was done) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool~I didn't turn my cake out, I left it in the pan for easy transport.
Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher or bowl. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can~I didn't read the "all but 1 C", I dumped it all on. It was still tasty, just a little wet, "I" might like it better following that rule.
Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 1/3 C of powdered sugar until thick and spreadable.
Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve
Monday, April 21, 2014
Easter Cupcakes
We had a few desserts for Easter. Claire was in charge of cupcakes. She did another awesome job:)
Friday, April 18, 2014
Brownie Bites
We're going UNtraditional for Easter and having a Mexican Buffet and I thought a bunch of little desserts would be fun so I'm making Brownie Bites as one of them. The photos are a re-post and I love them this way. BUT an easier option and one I'll be doing this weekend is to simply push a Rolo in the middle of each one OR drop a few mini M&Ms on top~sorry no photos. The possibilities are endless actually. Any of your favorite candy can be pushed in the center for a fun surprise.
Make a regular box of brownies but cook them in mini muffin tins. Top with cooked fudge frosting (probably the best fudge frosting I've ever tasted) and bag up in snack size ziplocs.
Fudge Frosting
1/4 C Butter (1/2 C)
4 T Milk (1/3 C)
2 T Cocoa (4 T)
Bring to a boil. Add
1 t Vanilla (2t)
1 3/4 C Powdered Sugar (3 1/2 C)
Whisk until smooth. Top your brownie bites.
NOTE...I double this recipe for a pan of brownies or cake and have some left over. The parenthesis have the double measurements.
I use this pan and another one that holds 12. Spray them well with cooking spray, you don't want them to stick. The regular box of brownie mix fills these 36 tins perfectly. If you're pushing candy in the middle, only fill them about 1/2 way.
Fill your tins about 3/4 full of batter.
Here's a snack size bag of walnuts I had in the freezer. I broke them up with the base of my ice cream scoop and mixed it in with the left over batter. I used this batter to fill the other 12 cups because I know someone who likes brownies with nuts best:)
I used my cooling rack because these need to come out of the pan pretty quickly or they'll stick.
Time to make the frosting. Melt butter, milk and cocoa together until it boils.
This is what the frosting looks like when it starts to boil. Kind of oily and separating. Remove from heat. Add your vanilla.
Add your powdered sugar and give it a sturdy whisk quickly. Get those lumps out.
Your frosting is nice and shiny and not too thick. You can't let it sit, or it will harden.
A dollop of frosting on top of each brownie.
I sprinkled nuts on top of the nut ones so I could easily tell them apart but you want to do that quickly before the frosting starts to set up. Let the brownies set up for about 1/2 hour.
Make a regular box of brownies but cook them in mini muffin tins. Top with cooked fudge frosting (probably the best fudge frosting I've ever tasted) and bag up in snack size ziplocs.
Fudge Frosting
1/4 C Butter (1/2 C)
4 T Milk (1/3 C)
2 T Cocoa (4 T)
Bring to a boil. Add
1 t Vanilla (2t)
1 3/4 C Powdered Sugar (3 1/2 C)
Whisk until smooth. Top your brownie bites.
NOTE...I double this recipe for a pan of brownies or cake and have some left over. The parenthesis have the double measurements.
I use this pan and another one that holds 12. Spray them well with cooking spray, you don't want them to stick. The regular box of brownie mix fills these 36 tins perfectly. If you're pushing candy in the middle, only fill them about 1/2 way.
Fill your tins about 3/4 full of batter.
Here's a snack size bag of walnuts I had in the freezer. I broke them up with the base of my ice cream scoop and mixed it in with the left over batter. I used this batter to fill the other 12 cups because I know someone who likes brownies with nuts best:)
I used my cooling rack because these need to come out of the pan pretty quickly or they'll stick.
Time to make the frosting. Melt butter, milk and cocoa together until it boils.
This is what the frosting looks like when it starts to boil. Kind of oily and separating. Remove from heat. Add your vanilla.
Add your powdered sugar and give it a sturdy whisk quickly. Get those lumps out.
Your frosting is nice and shiny and not too thick. You can't let it sit, or it will harden.
A dollop of frosting on top of each brownie.
I sprinkled nuts on top of the nut ones so I could easily tell them apart but you want to do that quickly before the frosting starts to set up. Let the brownies set up for about 1/2 hour.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip
Do you have a cake that you make that everyone always likes? This one is it for my kids and it's kinda healthy or at least that's what I tell myself when they eat it:) This one, they got a piece and the rest when to work where everyone loved it.
What you'll need:
White Cake Mix
2 Eggs
1/2 C light Sour Cream
1 C unsweetened Almond Milk (you can use skim or whatever for same result)
4 really ripe Bananas
Mix up with your hand mixer and add
1/2-3/4 C chopped Walnuts
1/2-3/4 C mini Chocolate Chips (I used dark chocolate but any flavor would work)
Pour into sprayed bundt pan and bake about 35-40 minutes at 350.
Invert onto plate, frost with a little bit of cream cheese frosting and a sprinkling of walnuts and choc chips if you're feeling naughty and . It's great without but if I'm bringing a dessert with nuts ANYwhere, I always put them on top so people can see them. I don't want to make anyone with a nut allergy to get sick.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Gyro Kjome style
Another place I'd love to go, GREECE! This is at the top of my list so we'll end the week here.
Now I realize this is not even close to being a recipe from Greece but for fussy teenagers, it's the best I've got.
What you'll need:
3/4 lb Beef Tenderloin ~ you could use a strip streak or even sandwich steak
your favorite seasoning~I simply used salt, pepper and garlic powder
Package of Flat Bread
Lettuce
Tenderloin
Sliced nice and thin. Let's hope my Father in Law doesn't see this because this is a crime in his opinion to do this to a piece of prime beef
Flat bread that I heated up in the oven for a couple of minutes. You could skip that step but I think it makes it just a bit tastier. And, if you wanted to melt cheese on the bread, now is your chance.
I cooked the meat to medium because that's about as funky as it gets with meat around here.
Serve with some fries and you've got dinner
Now I realize this is not even close to being a recipe from Greece but for fussy teenagers, it's the best I've got.
What you'll need:
3/4 lb Beef Tenderloin ~ you could use a strip streak or even sandwich steak
your favorite seasoning~I simply used salt, pepper and garlic powder
Package of Flat Bread
Lettuce
Tenderloin
Sliced nice and thin. Let's hope my Father in Law doesn't see this because this is a crime in his opinion to do this to a piece of prime beef
Flat bread that I heated up in the oven for a couple of minutes. You could skip that step but I think it makes it just a bit tastier. And, if you wanted to melt cheese on the bread, now is your chance.
I cooked the meat to medium because that's about as funky as it gets with meat around here.
Serve with some fries and you've got dinner
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Crab Boil
New Orleans anyone?
What you'll need:
A pot that will hold 3 gallons of water or more
1 3/4 gallons of water ~ I bought the gallon jugs so I didn't start with cold water to get it to boiling faster
2 packages of Zatarain's Crab boil
8 T Salt
1 T Cayenne Pepper
2 Lemons quartered
1 bulb of Garlic pulled apart ~ remove the flaky skin but leave the cloves intact
1 Onion sliced
2 dozen Baby Red Potatoes washed
1 lb of Shrimp ~ I used frozen that were thawed and without shell
4 ears of Corn on the Cob
2 lbs of Crab thawed ~ I used King Crab because it was on sale
Stick of Butter melted with 1 t of garlic powder
Loaf of crusty french bread
Put your water, zatarain's,
Cayenne pepper, lemons, garlic, onions and baby reds in the pot and cover. Bring to a steady boil.
Add shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes or until they turn pink. Remove shrimp from pot. It would have been helpful to have a basket that I dropped in with the shrimp but we were at the cabin and working with what I had on hand. Steve told me to do the shrimp first because they would absorb a lot of flavor that way and he was right.
Add corn and crab, cover pot and boil 8 minutes. Scoop out the garlic, potatoes, corn and crab or if you have a colander large enough, strain in that.
Dump the shrimp out onto newspaper covered with brown paper bag, toss the rest of the stuff on top and serve with garlic butter.
You can squeeze the garlic cloves onto crusty french bread and dunk in garlic butter for an OVER the top garlic bread.
Everything was seasoned perfectly. The corn didn't need even need butter. Eat your way through the pile. It was seriously YUMMY! This pile served 4 women:)
What you'll need:
A pot that will hold 3 gallons of water or more
1 3/4 gallons of water ~ I bought the gallon jugs so I didn't start with cold water to get it to boiling faster
2 packages of Zatarain's Crab boil
8 T Salt
1 T Cayenne Pepper
2 Lemons quartered
1 bulb of Garlic pulled apart ~ remove the flaky skin but leave the cloves intact
1 Onion sliced
2 dozen Baby Red Potatoes washed
1 lb of Shrimp ~ I used frozen that were thawed and without shell
4 ears of Corn on the Cob
2 lbs of Crab thawed ~ I used King Crab because it was on sale
Stick of Butter melted with 1 t of garlic powder
Loaf of crusty french bread
Put your water, zatarain's,
Cayenne pepper, lemons, garlic, onions and baby reds in the pot and cover. Bring to a steady boil.
Add shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes or until they turn pink. Remove shrimp from pot. It would have been helpful to have a basket that I dropped in with the shrimp but we were at the cabin and working with what I had on hand. Steve told me to do the shrimp first because they would absorb a lot of flavor that way and he was right.
Add corn and crab, cover pot and boil 8 minutes. Scoop out the garlic, potatoes, corn and crab or if you have a colander large enough, strain in that.
Dump the shrimp out onto newspaper covered with brown paper bag, toss the rest of the stuff on top and serve with garlic butter.
You can squeeze the garlic cloves onto crusty french bread and dunk in garlic butter for an OVER the top garlic bread.
Everything was seasoned perfectly. The corn didn't need even need butter. Eat your way through the pile. It was seriously YUMMY! This pile served 4 women:)
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