UV cake vodka mixes

Review by Lyndee:

This weekend Melody and I experimented with some new drink recipes.  One bottle on the agenda was UV Cake because we love it and it’s just so smooth.  Instead of putting it with high calorie and sugary juices or sodas, we broke out the handy bag of crystal light drink packs.  First up was a raspberry lemonade. This one tasted like a refreshingingly sweet pink lemonade. 

Next we tried a cherry pomegranate drink pack.  Wow! Although it looked like blood in the glass, it tasted awesome!  It was like eating a dessert through a straw.

Remember, to add water to your concoctions! Not just vodka and crystal light.  Mix the crystal light like you would normally and then serve over ice with a shot of the vodka in it.  

Easy pork enchiladas

Review by Lyndee:

Remember my crockpot pulled pork recipe last week? Well we had a lot of meat leftover and I decided to use it up in something spectacular last night.  The kids love Mexican food.  We’re generally chicken or beef kind of taco people but the idea came to me to get a little creative.

1 package flour tortillas

Pulled pork

1 can rotel

1 jar queso

Shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 450.  Grease baking dish with non-stick spray. 

Place pork on tortilla in a line.  Add a dollop of queso and a pinch of shredded cheese. Roll and put in the baking dish.  Repeat.  Our 9x13 held six enchiladas.  Pour one can of rotel over the top.  Add a few more dollops of queso and some shredded cheese.  Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is golden brown and edges of tortilla are starting to crisp.  Serve with salsa and cilantro.

This was very easy to throw together and the boys just died over it.  They chowed down and kept moaning and oohing and aahing how I need to make these again soon.  They were shoveling it in so fast I told them to slow down so they didn’t choke.  They said it was one of the best recipe experiments I’ve done yet and that’s saying a lot.  We will definitely be putting this in the dinner rotation. 

Spudnuts

Review by Rachael:

Spudnuts:
4 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbl. vanilla
2 pkg. yeast
1 c. warm potato water (water that potatoes have been boiled in)
1 c. mashed potato

Mix the above ingredients and let set about 30 minutes or until foamy.

Then add:
4 well beaten eggs
1 Tbl. salt
12 c. flour

Knead, let rise until double in size. Roll out about 3/4" thick, cut as for doughnuts (we used two different sizes of circle cookie cutters). Let rise until double in size. Cook in hot vegetable oil, flipping when one side is golden. While still hot dip, in glaze.

Glaze:
1/2 c. boiling water
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. vanilla

Chocolate Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 Tbl. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbl. milk or water
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Slowly stir in milk and vanilla extract. Whisk until silky and smooth. If you need a touch more milk to make this a dippable glaze, add a bit more. Dip doughnuts in chocolate glaze and let rest to harden slightly.

When I found this recipe online it said to try half a batch if you weren't feeding a lot of people. I listened to this advice since it is my first attempt at making them. I mixed all ingredients together as directed and I found that it was a bit lumpy. So I took out a wire whisk and thought maybe that would help. But as you can see it just made smaller curds. Who am I to mess with the recipe, so I decided to let it sit for the 30 minutes.

Times up let's see what happens! I added the egg salt and flour. The flour didn't seem to be enough so we kept adding hoping it would help. It took a lot more flour than the recipe said it would to get the dough workable. Once it looked good I left it to rise. It never did get double its size. Although I only left it for two hours, maybe that's not long enough.

Rolling it out and making the cutouts was the easy part. Getting your oil to the right temperature took a little bit of work. Luckily, Jason was manning the "oil station" and he did an awesome job.

While Jason was cooking I started making the chocolate glaze. Perhaps I put just a little bit too much milk in because it was runny. We also decided to do a sugar and cinnamon mix and put that on top of some of the donuts.  Once they were cooked and started cooling off we started putting on the glaze & cinnamon sugar mix.

They turned out really well & half a batch made a little over 4 dozen donuts plus all the donut holes. We were split 50-50 on if the chocolate was better or the cinnamon sugar. I would try the other glaze listed on the recipe next time we make them. But a fair warning it will take you a long time from start to finish.

Not sure how you are supposed to store donuts but I did it wrong. The donuts were good on the first day when we made them. To store them I just put them in old ice cream pales with lids. Well that made them soggy, so I took the lids off for a while to see if they would dry out a bit & then they got stale FAST. The cinnamon sugar ones were still half way edible but the chocolate ones were done for. We threw them out, which was a huge waste. 

Groundhog's Day Snack Idea

Today, the kids are having a Groundhog's Day party at pre-school. In celebration of both G-Day and Jackson's B-Day, I found such a cute little snack to make when searching for the inspiration for this snack. I found this idea via http://coolestfamilyontheblock.com/2012/01/30/groundhog-day-goodies/. Holy crap -- this blogger worships the groundhog -- I found so many treat ideas here. I, of course, picked the one that looked the easiest, cheapest and quickest!

Courtesy of coolestfamilyontheblock.com'.

I, however, have run out of colored ink on my printer, and am not about to spend money on a colored cartridge in order to print out a groundhog, but I digress. So, I printed a little label that said:

Happy Birthday Jackson! 

Shadow or No Shadow, 

Jackson will celebrate his birthday on 

Ground Hog's Day! 

I was in luck --Oreo's were on sale at the Family Dollar this week. I made the kids bag the cookies -- one shadow cookie, and one no-shadow cookie. Then, I printed my labels, and attached them to the baggies.

 

If the weather here in Iowa is any indication of the weather in Pennsylvania, it would surprise me if Phil pops his head out to even see his shadow! Brrrrr!!

Does Your Tired Dolly Need A Bed???

This Christmas, Emma asked for a doll bed.  No, not just any old doll bed, she was quite specific.  It had to be big enough to fit her biggest baby -- a big girl we call "Bubba".  She wanted it to be purple, with a purple pillow and blanket, with necklaces hanging from it.  What???  How the hell am I gonna find something like that at Target.  Good thing Santa's star elf of the year (i.e. Melody) has the skills and workmanship to whip up such a creation.  

Remember the dollhouse made out of drawers?  Well, I had another drawer of that size left, and that became the bulk of my doll bed.  

So, how did I go from this.....

to THIS??????

1. First, I needed two garden stakes (see bed posts), I attached them to the front of the drawer with a screwgun.  I first sawed off the point part that you put in the ground so that it was square.  
2. I took the old knob from two of the drawers, and attached it on top of each bedpost with wood glue. 

3. I took an old cupboard door, and upholstered it with some foam lining to create a cushion, and covered it with one of Emma's old baby blankets to make the mattress.

4. I attached the mattress with a hinge so that it could open and close for extra storage (i.e. doll clothes and accessories).  

5. Then, I painted the doll bed purple (as requested).

6. Once dry, I attached some cheap necklaces that I bought from WalMart (as requested), and I sewed a purple pillow (beginner sewers can definitely do this), and blanket to match.  All found from old scraps of fabric I had laying around.  

In the end, we had a nice bed for Emma's dollies to sleep.  Emma finds it so comfortable that, even she, can be found perched on top of the doll bed!  Here's a picture of Baby Snow getting ready for her nap.  And, just so you know, Baby Bubba fits this bed perfectly, too, and now sleeps very comfortably.

Tissue paper floweres

Review by Rachael:

What you'll need:

• Pastel colored tissue paper
• Pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Ruler

How to make it:

1. Cut tissue paper into rectangles of desired size.
2. Stack around 15 pieces of tissue paper. Use the same color or different colors. If you want to use a smaller number of pieces of tissue paper, flower will not be as full.
3. Accordion pleat the tissue paper working from the long side.
4. Wind one end of the pipe cleaner around the middle of the accordion pleated tissue paper.  
5. Trim the ends of each side to give the pedals a unique look. Trimming the ends into a point (like a triangle), or a bump (like a half circle) will look very pretty.
6. Gently separate each layer pulling upwards toward the middle of the flower. Do the second side. Done.

I have all the items needed to make these around the house, so I thought this could be a fun to make for Valentine’s.

I took out white tissue paper as I have excess of it & wanted to see what I thought of the flowers before using my pretty colors. When I unfolded the tissue paper it already had seems of perfect rectangles so I cut along those lines and then stacked the pieces. (I used 16 pieces)  I followed the accordion pleat instructions and placed the pipe cleaner around the middle, leaving enough to make a stem. I decided to cut triangles at the end of my sides. Separating the tissue paper took the longest time, but wasn’t hard. You just lift it up and keep working with the paper to make the flower full. The only problem I had was getting the two sides to come together. I felt as if where the pipe cleaner was it kept separating and it looked bad. In the photo I am actually squeezing it together to look that good. This isn’t a hard project just not impressed with the end result. If the kids want to give it a try I would let them as it is easy & again I already have all the items needed. Next time I might make the rectangle a bit shorter. 

Quick and simple buttery garlic bread sticks

Review by Rachael:

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 tablespoon oil
3 cups flour (I use part whole wheat, part unbleached)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4-1 cup milk

1 + 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon parsley flakes 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place butter and oil in 9x13 pan and put in oven so butter melts as the oven heats up. Be careful not to let it burn!  Stir dry ingredients together (1 tsp of the garlic), and gradually add milk, stirring until dough forms and leaves sides of bowl. I don't bother to actually measure out the milk - just add it gradually until there's enough. Knead 5-6 times in bowl; place on floured countertop and roll out into 9x13-inch rectangle. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in the melted butter before placing dough in the pan.  Lay dough in pre-heated 9x13-inch pan, atop the melted butter/oil.  Cut into 1/2" strips. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Breadsticks may be sprinkled with parmesan cheese before baking.

I followed these directions & they were easy to make. They smelled wonderful while they were baking.  When I took them out the tops looked kind of dry but the bottoms were golden brown from the butter. We dipped them in marinara sauce and… not great. Jake took one bite & was done. I finished mine but wasn’t impressed. They were dry on the outside and almost flat. I feel as if they would have risen a little more they would have been okay. Jason loved the seasoning but wasn’t sure about the texture. I think I may keep experimenting with this one and see if we can find a bread stick the whole family can enjoy.