Spring crafts!

So wow, it's been a bit busy lately, but I did manage to get a few crafts done. I have a bunch of things I wanna share, but won't be as fast as I'd like, so please be patient with me for a bit. :)

I don't know about you, but I'm soooo ready for Spring. Winter, once again, has overstayed its welcome. ;) Here's some fun Springy these I made:

This cute lil pomander flower ball. So springy and go well with my cherry blossoms!

My sister and I made some fun easter eggs! Get some styrofoam eggs (I like the smooth ones, got mine at Hobby Lobby), paint (optional, but so cute!), dry, spray with adhesive and sprinkle glitter evenly all over. Poke hole in top and hot glue ribbon on. Show off wherever you want, I hung mine on some branches I spray painted white with white glitter and stuck in a tall vase. Love it!

Aren't those boingy carrots so cute?! Got them at Tai Pan.

Chocolate ice cream wraps

When I went on my little excursion to AZ, we visited my favorite shop there called The Orange Patch. I think I love about every store that ends in "patch". :) Just a cool word!
We noticed some chocolate wraps and thought what would you use those for?! The awesome owner shared an idea, making us very eager to get back and try it out. We cleaned them out of their last 2 packages... I sorta felt bad for the lady behind us who was eyeing them also, but not bad enough to give them up :) It's not like I can go there everyday.

mmmmm Yum, right!

What you need:

* Chocolate wraps (recipe at bottom)
Ice Cream (your choice of flavor)
Whip cream/cool whip
Fudge/caramel sauce
Strawberries

Thaw ice cream. Smother ice cream on wraps
Roll up, wrap the wrap in saran wrap....HA :)
Put in freezer for a couple of hours til set up.

Slice the rolls, top with fudge sauce, whip cream and strawberries. Better yet, skip the whole cutting part and eat the whole thing yourself! ;) FYI, do more than one wrap, trust me, one is not enough!

I don't know where you can buy chocolate wraps around here (bummer!) so I found a recipe you can use to make your own!

* Chocolate Tortilla

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (get high quality cocoa like Ghiradelli)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut, melted (or vegetable oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 dash salt
• 
  

Combine ingredients until smooth.

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Pour 1/4 cup tortilla mixture in center of pan and tilt to spread batter into a circle.

Let cook for 2 minutes then flip to cook other side for another 1-2 minutes.(Be careful not to burn or else the tortilla will be too stiff for folding.).

Let cool to prevent ice cream from melting during assembly.

Thin Mint Truffles

Everyone get their girl scout cookies?!? I definitely got stocked up with mine :) Everyone's favorite is Samoa's right! ;) Thin mints is a close tie.
I couldn't resist trying these thin mint truffles and they are as good as they look! Great treat for St. Patty's..... and every other day :)

Thin Mint Truffles

9 oz box of Thin Mints
4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
Dark chocolate almond bark or dark chocolate candy melts
Nonpareils

Crush the Thin Mints very finely. You can do this by placing them in a large Ziploc bag and rolling them with a rolling pin, or use your food processor, which is what I did.


Once they are crushed, pour them in a large bowl and add the cream cheese. I would like to say that you can just mix it up with a wooden spoon, but if you want to do things properly you are going to have to get your hands involved. Squish them up real good until it's thoroughly combined and the cream cheese is no longer visible.

Roll into 1 inch balls, place on a wax paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Melt almond bark or candy melts and using a toothpick, dip truffles completely and twirl to allow the excess to drip off. Place back on lined baking sheet and sprinkle with nonpareils before set. Refrigerate until firm.


*Makes about 24 truffles.

St. Patty's cookies

Faith and I spent half the day baking up some fun treats for St. Patty's day. I thought these rainbow and shamrock cookies were super cute! Definitely a fun one to include the kids in! More fun than play dough cuz you can eat it! :)
Recipe found HERE.

For some reason, the purple looks blue in the pix...hm

"Despicable" party!

Given a few choices, Faith picked Despicable Me as her theme. Not surprised, as she watches it at least 3 times a day. It was fun to plan though and it was gender friendly too, not just for girls. The best way to plan a Despicable Me party is to play off the minions with the color scheme of yellow, blue and black. Those little guys are my favorites.

These are the invites.

For treats we had:

• Minion Goggles (mints)
• * Girl Scout Cookies, named from the movie (Coconutties, Choco Swirlies, Minty Mints, Lemon Cremies, Berry Munchies) turned the boxes inside out and wrote names on.
  
• * Minion twinkie cakes (aren't they the cutest things ever! Thanks to my sister Tam, I didn't have to spend all day doing them by myself)
  
• * Anti gravity Serum (Lemonade)
• * Dr. Nefario's juice (where he says "Do you want to explode?" favorite line in our house)
• I found some test tubes for cups and flasks for pitchers, after the longest search ever found them HERE. They worked out perfect!
• Vector's crazy straws
  

hahah what more can you say about the Box of Shame :)

• For favors, I gave every child a balloon attached to Moon Dough. Went along with the theme of Gru stealing the moon. Tried to redeem myself from sending them home with loads of candy last year from Faith's sweet Candyland Party.
  

Games played:

• Gru Says (like Simon Says)
• Knocked Over (3 tries to knock over "spaceship" with ping pong balls.)
• Annoying Sound Contest (based off part in movie where Gru says 'No annoying noises' and girl says 'Does this count as annoying'.) We got a movie of this, pretty fun.
• Carnival game (throw big ball through moving hula hoop.)
• Steal The Moon (someone hides 'moon' [spray painted styrofoam ball] and the rest try to find or "steal" it.)
• Watched Despicable Me movie after gifts and cake.
  

I love my sweet girl she was so excited for her party and to see everyone. Thanks to all you who could make it, wouldn't have been a party without you!

Lucky charm shirt

I'm not all that big on St. Patty's, but I will wear green so people don't think they have reason to pinch me (although I'd just pinch them back no matter what I'm wearing haha). This holiday's usually so close to Easter that it's not worth decorating for, Easter's way better. I do love to have fun with the food however! (recipes coming up!)

When I saw this tutorial, I thought what a fun, different way to do a shirt! I had fun trying this out...and nearly passed out from all the bleach fumes. hah Best to do this in the garage/outside.

Now my little sweet pea can ward off all the pinchers out there in style! :)

If you want to use the pattern I made, download it over at My Pookie Designs!

Happy Happy birthday Faithy bug!!

Sweet Faithy bug,

I can't believe you are 4 years old today! Life was even more happy when you came into our lives. It is no coincidence we named you Faith. My faith grew right along with you from the very day I found out I was pregnant with you.

At 4 years old your favorites include:

COLOR: Pink (it changes every day so I think it's all the bright colors!)

MOVIE: Despicable Me, Cars, Veggie Tales

CEREAL: Lucky Charms

SONG: I love to see the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

FOOD: Chicken nuggets

FRIEND: Mikkie (duh! :)

TOY: Ponies, flowers, Mikkie frog

BOOK: The Mercer Mayer Little Critter stories

THINGS TO DO: Preschool, games on Zoodles, dance, violin, play with Kuzco (aka chase him around with things that scare him), memory games (SOOO good at these!), road trips (hehe as long as you have the iPod).

You are an extremely smart, bright, fun, funny, talented little girl. Or should I say big girl! You amaze me every day and bring daddy and I so much joy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!!

I took advantage of the amazing weather in AZ, got a fun birthday outfit and went to the Mesa Temple for a photo shoot. We came back to the cold, depressing weather and I thought how glad I was we did her pictures there! Faith was excited about her cowgirl boots! The only thing that would have made the pictures even better is a cowgirl hat and our little rocking horse. Darn it. Oh and a pro photographer of course, I'm not pro by any means but I think they turned out pretty good. Faith did very well after continually being bribed with a yummy treat after or in my exact words, "Whatever you want!" haha How's that for a bribe?! I said that knowing very well she would be completely content with a cookie. :)

BRB

So much goin on and so little time to do it all! I'm in sunny AZ right now, soakin up the glorious sun with the gals!! I'm so not looking forward to going back to the cold.
I have some fun stuff coming up, so I'll brb later! :)

Funny story: Driving into Arizona and Faith sees a cactus and says, "Woa, look at that crazy tree!" hahaha First time seeing a cactus. She's quite the little traveler and likes it here so far!

$100 YouTube contest!

Do you play the piano?

Do you want $100?

Do kitty cats meow?

Then you should enter into this fun YouTube piano challenge with the amazing Dale Jessee!
Check out the details here to enter! Good luck and have fun!! :)

Valentine dinner

Since we celebrated Valentine's early (and it's too crazy to eat out on Valentines!!), Faith and I made a fun, festive meal at home! Tim was quite surprised and loved every bit of it.
Our menu included:

• Pizza with heart-shaped pepperoni
• Salad with heart-shaped carrots and 'cupid arrow' tomoatoes
  
• Heart cut-out apples (we need healthy with all the bugs going 'round)
  
• Dairy-free chocolate covered strawberries, special for Tim
  
• Berry smoothies with 'cupid arrow' straws!
• Sparkling cider, of course

Ever since we discovered how yummy and EEEAASSYY pizza's are on pita bread, we can't get enough of it! I'm never making homemade pizza dough again! And it's fun to have our own personal pizzas to put whatever we want on it, Faith looooved having her very own pizza.

Anyone else stay home and do a fun dinner?! Or breakfast?

Happy Valentines!!

I RUFF you!



Happy Valentines Day!! :) :)

Cream-filled strawberries

Ever heard of mascarpone cheese?
Mascarpone pronounced mas-kahr-POH-nay is a soft unripened cheese that belongs to the cream cheese family. It comes from Switzerland and Italy and is a thick, buttery-rich, sweet and velvety, ivory-colored cheese produced from cow's milk that has the texture of clotted or sour cream. It delicate and mild flavor is great with fresh fruit and is probably best known for its use in Tiramisu.

.....Uh, YEA! That screams delicious! I would suggest trying the mascarpone over cream cheese, it's very delicious!

Cream-filled Strawberries
Recipe from: CafeJohnsonia.blogspot.com

12-16 (more or less depending on the size) large strawberries
4 oz. cold heavy cream
4 oz. mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese, room temperature) {I found the mascarpone at Smith's with all the specialty cheeses.}
2-4 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar (make is as sweet as you like)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
a little vanilla extract

Beat the mascarpone (or cream cheese) and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer. Add the heavy cream. Continue beating until the mixture thickens. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Cut an "X" into the bottom of each strawberry.

Fit a pastry bag with a star tip and fill it with the cream. Carefully pipe the cream into the center of each strawberry, allowing some of it overflow from the cuts you made on the strawberry.

Serve immediately, or cover with plastic film/wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.You can't stop at just one with these!

This makes a nice light, but addictive little treat for that special someone! :)

Want a cute tag to go along with it?! Go HERE to download!

Red velvet bonbon truffles

Just sittin' here eatin' my bonbons....literally. :) Of all the truffles I've tried, this one is by far one of the best! You think the oreo truffles are good? (and they are!) You'll love these! A hard, crunchy shell along with a melt-in-your-mouth-creamy, smooth center, the best of both worlds. Mmmmmm.

My centers don't really look as red in pictures, but they are red.

Don't have a tag to go along with these, but nothing says "I love you" louder than chocolate truffles, eh! :)

Red Velvet Bonbons

Original recipe by Lindsey Johnson
MAKES 18

For the centers:

8 oz. milk chocolate
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 16 pieces
1/2-1 tsp. red gel food coloring (I used Wilton)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For dipping:
8 oz. tempered white chocolate (at about 80 degrees F.)
8 oz. tempered bittersweet chocolate (at about 88 degrees F.)

Chop chocolate and place in a large, heat-proof bowl. Add the cream. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. (You can take the bowl off the heat when there are still some larger chunks--they will melt.)

Remove bowl from heat. Add the cream cheese chunks. Switch to a whisk. Whisk until smooth. Add the food coloring and vanilla extract. Let cool to room temperature. Press waxed paper to the surface and chill overnight or at least 5 hours.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Use a small ice cream/cookie scoop and drop evenly sized blobs of the ganache onto the waxed paper. (You should get about 18.) Place baking sheet in freezer for two hours to harden.

Once the chocolate blobs are firm, remove them from the freezer. Dust your hands with cornstarch and roll into smooth balls. Put the balls back on the baking sheet and chill again for a few hours.

Instructions for dipping:

Take one ball of ganache at a time, and drop them into the tempered chocolate. Carefully turn the ball around in the chocolate so it is uniformly covered with chocolate. Use a regular fork, or chocolate dipping fork to remove the ball from the melted chocolate. Drag the bottom of the fork over the edge of the bowl to remove the excess melted chocolate.

Place the bonbon on the waxed paper. Repeat with remaining balls. Drizzle leftover chocolate over the tops of the dipped bonbons. Let harden in the fridge until ready to eat.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container, or layer bonbons on waxed paper in a freezer-proof container. Let some to room temperature before serving.

Chocolate mousse filled cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Does that name catch your attention or what?!? :)

My mom told me that cupcakes are goin' out and pies are the "in" thing now. Well, not for me, especially with these. I do love a good pie, but this is not your ordinary cupcake! I've been wanting to make filled-cupcakes for a while and decided to try it out with my chocolate mousse.

I found this handy little gadget, specifically designed for filling cupcakes, at Orson Gygi. (my new favorite store!) Some of the gadgets I see though I think, come on you'd have to be really lazy to buy this! :) You could easily just scoop out centers with a spoon, but I'd rather poke it and twist it than spoon it. :S

As I was writing this, it reminded me of the game "Bop It". If you've heard of it, you'll know what I mean....bop it, twist it, pull it. :) I forgot to show the "dip it" part, that's the funnest (it IS a word ;) part!

Aren't they so pretty! They're so good, even my milk-allergic hubby couldn't pass one up! Poor, poor guy. :)

hehe. :) That may or may not have been me who devoured that.

Chocolate mousse-filled cupcakes with ganache
*One box cake mix (I used devil's food)

Follow instructions on cake mix box. Once cupcakes are cooled, make mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
(from my mousse cup recipe last year)

Whip 1 pint heavy whipping cream to medium stiff peaks. Stir in 1 pint jar of Kraft double fudge topping and 2 teaspoons cocoa.

Make holes in center of cupcakes (whichever method you prefer). Fill with chocolate mousse. Refrigerate til it sets up a bit.

Chocolate Ganache
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Put cream in double boiler. When it starts to simmer a little, take off heat and add chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.

Now, the fun part. Take cupcakes out of fridge, dip tops into ganache making sure it's all covered. Sprinkle with cute pink nonpareils or anything of your choice. This may be too much chocolate for some (is there such a thing!), but I tried doing buttercream frosting on it, and there's just no better way to do it. The ganache goes very well with the mousse. Put in fridge to set up.
Hurry and stick in these cute cupcake toppers I made and give to a friend before they all magically disappear. :)

Strawberry Popcorn + printable tag!

Thinking about the other popcorn recipes I've seen and tried, I looked around for one for Valentines but found nothing really. I decided to experiment (I don't do this hardly ever, especially with food) and see how my idea of strawberries and cream popcorn would turn out.

I got some chocolate and found some strawberry extract and started. 2 minutes in, I stopped. haha Nothing worse than seeing your smooth chocolate instantly turn chunky (well, I guess it's far more worse seeing yourself instantly turn chunky, lol). I figured since peppermint extract worked for the peppermint bark popcorn, this would work. Not the case..supposedly it's water-based. Oh, poop.
Orson & Gygi have everything, so I called to check and I found something even better than extract.....strawberry flavored chocolate! Perfect!

I started off with strawberry popcorn, drizzling white chocolate for my strawberries and cream. Then I thought it might be too strong, so I did vanilla popcorn drizzled with strawberry chocolate. Then I thought....HEY, chocolate covered strawberry popcorn!....woa :) It's as good as it sounds! I took a poll for people's favorites and the verdict was:

#1 White chocolate drizzled with strawberry.
#2 Close tie was chocolate covered strawberry.
They're all good though, in their own way. :)
Not only is it yummy but it's such a bright, pretty color of pink!! I love it!

Strawberries & Cream Popcorn

15-16 cups popped popcorn
1 lb. of either strawberry flavored chocolate or white
white, strawberry or milk chocolate for drizzling
So many possibilities!

Melt 1 lb chocolate and pour over popcorn. Stir around til it's all coated. spread out on wax paper to dry. Drizzle with chocolate of choice using a fork. let dry. Break up in chunks and eat! :) Or wrap it up cute, print off these fun labels I made to go with it and deliver to a friend or special someone!