Cake Mix Cookies and Cute Packaging

One night, I needed some cookies. I mean, I NEEDED some cookies. Some nights are just like that. At the end of my twin pregnancy, I was gaining 2-4 pounds of water and baby weight PER DAY. Everything else was going well on paper, but I couldn't walk; couldn't even bend my knees or close my legs for that matter and was on total bed rest, or should I say, chair rest because I couldn't sleep on a bed due to the legs thing (again, with the water). If I tried to turn on my side, one leg would have to be totally up in the air and that was just plain silly. I ended up giving birth at exactly 200 lbs. I am normally right around 100lbs so that tells you something! Here is a photo- we had to take it quickly before I collapsed- notice the legs; that was as close as they would go together. Oh my, did I actually just post that? YIKES! It was probably the worst physical time in my life up to that time and what I craved more than anything was cookies. Now, I don't mean any store-bought kind! Oh no! Those would not do! I needed them to be hot out of the oven, home-made cookies. Ever since then, from time to time, I CRAVE cookies... NOW! Last week, we did not have the right ingredients for good homemade cookies so I had to improvise. After scouring the internet, I mixed up a few and came up with these semi-homemade cake mix cookies. Super simple and made it in-and-out of the oven fast! Here's what you need:Any cake mix- my daughter adamantly insists on Funfetti- but any flavor should work.
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all 3 ingredients and drop by teaspoon full onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Give them a bit of a pat on top to flatten them slightly and bake for about 10 minutes. Easy peasy! Fresh baked cookies! Now these will not be the best cookies you have ever had- they are, after all, from a cake mix; but they are better than anything at the store!

So, earlier this week, we found out Abby's little friend is moving from about 7 houses down from us to about 4 houses down from us. We wanted to bring them a moving-in gift and Abby absolutely INSISTED on the Funfetti cookies. It was really last-minute and I needed some cute packaging and then I remembered these DARLING Pringles can makeovers at Bayberry Creek Crafter I have been wanting to try and I happened to have just such a can all cleaned out and ready to go! Her's are just darling and mine don't do her's justice, but the intent was there! I love finding great ideas through awesome crafty sites!
I happened to have some paper that was already printed two-toned from Creative Memories so all I did was measure, cut and add some ribbon and a tag. Looking now, I sort of cringe as I should have added some punctuation, but oh well, we were in a time crunch!
We filled the decorated cylinder with our cookies and took them to their destination.
Here they are... isn't this cute? (There is an equally cute family right behind her as well).
Welcome to your new home- now even closer!


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Cat in the Hat Treats

When my daughter started Kindergarten, I felt like I needed a starter-mom course in the new parental expectations department. When I was in elementary school, nobody brought in treats on their birthdays and we didn't celebrate "school" holidays like Teacher Appreciation Week and Dr. Seuss's Birthday. Don't get me wrong, it's all well and good; I just wish I had KNOWN some of this stuff -although I still think the whole bringing goodies on your birthday thing is disruptive, exclusionary and encourages too many "sweets days", but for now, I'll consider it a necessary thing- especially since my daughter SHARES a birthday with the aforementioned Dr. Seuss. Can you believe that? I felt under DOUBLE pressure to come up with a treat that celebrated both. I remembered seeing a marshmallow-on-cookie pilgrim hat in an old FamilyFun magazine and had an idea: What if we doubled the marshmallows to make a tall Cat-in-the-Hat type had treat? It was super-easy although a bit time-consuming.

Ingredients:
1 bag Large Marshmallows
1 package White Almond Bark (or bag of White Candy Melts)
1 box Ritz Crackers

Stack two large marshmallows and secure them with a toothpick although I might try pretzel sticks next time so I don't have to warn the kids before they eat them. Next, melt the candy/bark. Place a dollop on a Ritz Cracker and place the marshmallow stack on top. Wait until secure (about 5 minutes) and dip the whole concoction in the melted white goodness. Be sure to scrape the bottom so there's not too much and place on wax paper to harden.
When the "hat" is dry, take a tube of red decorator's icing and pipe on stripes and a red top. Note: Although the effect was appropriately topsy-turvy, this technique was way sloppier than I had hoped plus it tasted just like pure food coloring. I think next time, I will make the stripes with red Fruit Roll-ups so I can make them neater. Any ideas?
In the end, you just can't go wrong with white chocolate, icing (even the gross store-bought kind), Ritz crackers and marshmallows (toothpick optional). They were a big hit with the kids- even thought they weren't the standard cupcake, and the teacher appreciated the fact that they fit the theme of the day.


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Pancake Art

Sometimes, when my hubby works nights, I find it really hard to come up with meals for me and the kids. It should be the same, right? Well, it's not- at least not over here. The kids get needier and fussier throughout the day and by dinnertime, we've all had it. Sometimes, I just make pancakes! And do you know what else? Most of the time, they aren't even from scratch (ew, it sends shivers up the spine just thinking about it so I won't even mention the Kraft Mac n Cheese, which shows up on days I've REALLY had it). So back to the topic at hand: Pancakes. To make pancake nights more fun, I've begun making pancake art. It's nothing too fancy, but it keeps us all a little happier on THOSE nights. First you will need to make some "artistic tools". You will need this stuff here:
Take an empty condiment bottle (you can get them at the dollar store usually) and cut the tip off a bit so your batter can get through without clogging every second. You could also use some heavy-duty scissors- ours are too dull and the tip kept sliding out.
You may need to file it down a little to clean it up. And then, you may need to poke through the hole with a bamboo skewer or an awl, and wiggle it around a bit. Then your done! You now have a new gadget in your pancake making arsenal.
After you make your pancake batter, fill your bottle about half way. You will need to thin it just a bit (unless you make thin pancakes) by adding a couple tablespoons of milk or water. Then shake, shake, shake to get all the lumps out. The "experts" (and by experts I mean THIS guy) suggest you beat it with a mixer (yikes! and too much work). Seriously, you really need to get the lumps out or you will get frustrated really quickly. Use whatever means necessary, but get the lumps out.Then grease up your griddle (or old skanky frying pan like mine) because you're ready to start making some magic! Start with a simple shape like a star... then, when that doesn't work out, because the first ones never do, just toss it aside and start again. Do not lose hope at this point.
Okay, so, using your bottle, make a star. Give it a couple of minutes and then cover it with your regular batters so it looks like a regular pancake. But you know it's secret...
...when it is time to flip, you will reveal that secret! A star pancake. Okay, so it's not the best- but your kids will think it is- or your Mom who thinks whatever you do is awesome! And the more you practice, the better you will get!
When you do this with letters or words, you will need to write backwards. If you need help with this, enlist the help of a mirror.
Here's another easy one:
Pile them on a plate, and serve them to the troops:
My kids were super excited and ate every bite! I know many of you have tried this before and I would LOVE to hear your insights and tricks of the trade!
Side note: This was obviously done before England went out of the World Cup. Please, be kind; don't rub it in. It was very traumatic for the family who were frightened as they had never seen their father, who is usually the epitome of calm and collected, get so upset he threw stuff before... There's always next time!

UPDATE: Thanks to a fantastic commenter, you can find even more, seriously, super-amazing pancake inspiration at Jim's Pancakes!

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Stars in Ice

My mom and sister were all excited to present me with these star shaped ice trays and wanted me to make red, white and blue ice cubes and see how it went. Well, here's how it went: I'd say swimmingly. I used blue Hawaiian Punch, Red Pomegranate Crystal Light and regular water to fill the trays. When they were good and solid, I took them out and the experiment began. I wondered how long before the colors tinted the drink, how strong would the colored cube taste be when diluted in drink and most importantly, how gross would the color be if I mixed the red, white and blue cubes? I decided to use Sierra Mist as the drink because a.) it was clear b.)water would be disgusting and c.) it was on sale. Plus, I thought the bubbles would be pretty. The colors tinted the liquid almost immediately, but it didn't look gross. The hardest thing about this was trying to take pictures while guarding the cups from all sides. I let the multi-colored drink stand out for about 20 minutes and, of course, it turned purple, but it wasn't too overpowering and it still looked really festive and tasted good. I actually liked the subtle taste the colored cubes added to the lemon-lime soda. And did it ever look pretty! Of course, if it bugs you, you could always just stick to red and white or blue and white. They'd totally look cute in a punch bowl or clear pitcher as well. An easy and perfect way to cool down during your Independence Day celebrations.

Chocolate Soccerball Cupcake Toppers

So, I got this idea at about 12:30 am the night before my hubby's Birthday which happened to fall on Father's Day this year, and could not get to sleep until I had tried it. I know, I really think I'm starting to go nuts! The good news is that it totally worked... we'll get to the bad news a little later. It is very easy to do and pretty quick going- I was done by 1:00am. Oh, and I must apologize ahead of time for the crapola photos- it was after midnight... need I say more?The first (and most difficult) thing you need to do is find a simple image to recreate in chocolate. Size it how you want it and print. Then, move your image to a hard surface such as a cutting board or an inverted cookie sheet and cover it with wax paper. Melt some chocolate using your favorite method and put it in a piping bag with a small round tip or do it the easier way and just melt the chocolate in a plastic baggie, squeezing every 30 second or so until completely melted. Squeeze a corner of the bag to free it from chocolate and trim off the very tippy top of that corner. Twist the opposite end of the baggie (the end with the zippy enclosure) until the chocolate starts to come out as you like it and there's your tool. Carefully and slowly, trace your chosen image on top of the wax paper, then, move your image and trace again until you have as many as you need. Don't worry about little splatters here and there as they are easily chipped away after they harden. I was then going to melt some white chocolate the same way and pipe it into the parts that should be white only... ...um, yeah, it seized... twice! I have no idea what happened- there was no water even near it- so that idea was nixed! I just hoped for the best and kept the chocolate outlines in the fridge until the next morning when I needed them and everything turned out perfectly! Actually, I think they turned out better so you could see the whipping cream underneath... that is IF the whipping cream had kept its shape for even one minute! Banoffee Pie is my hubby's favorite dessert and it is delicious but I decided to try and mix things up a bit and make Banoffee Pie Cupcake Tarts. Yeah, there is a reason you can't find a recipe for that! They were total flops! The whipped cream totally fell as I said before and everything else just sort of was messy. They tasted great- you can't really mess that up, but by the time it got to the table it was a total joke. My sister started laughing and insisted this go in the "flops"section... as if she had to tell me that. The good news was that I now have a new technique for creating unique edible cupcake toppers and my family has another funny story to tell about the failed dessert. At least THEY turned out- and even better than expected! Happy Birthday, Paul!