12 Mommy Daughter Dates

Last year I was trying to think of a good gift for my girls for Christmas. They really love quality time so when I found Shopkins Live tickets for a few months later I thought it would be awesome! A few months prior, though, I'd taken them each on a fun Mommy Daughter date to soak in the time together before their baby sister made her arrival. We had SO MUCH FUN and they talked about it for weeks. So I came up with giving them a years worth of Mommy Daughter Dates!

This picture should really start with a January envelope, but...I didn't take one of them before I gave them to my girls so...

I really loved the idea of giving this to them at Christmas time, because after you've done all your Christmas activities, Santa shopping, regular shopping and funding all the goodies, it feels like your money is in your hands for approximately 2 seconds before it's flying away again! I didn't have to pay for all of these dates up front! HA!

My goal was to spend around $10 on each date, but many of them are free. The real goal was to just spend time together one on one. I learned very fast that they didn't mind that at all! They didn't think about not "getting things" because they were just thrilled as heck to be hanging out with me (something that won't be usual in just a few short years). Since they each got a date every month, that put it to around $20 a month, which I felt was highly worth it, but you can customize however you want!

I kept the Shopkins Live idea for Febuary and decided to do a combined Girls Night Out twice in the year where we all do something together as girls. They just opened their 2nd Girls Night Out date which was our date for August.

As far as putting these together, it's incredibly simple! I found some fun multi-colored envelopes at Walmart...

And I designed each date on the computer to print off on cardstock to stick in the envelopes. You can honestly just chop papers up into squares and write the dates with a Sharpie if you want! The effect will be the same. They open theirs on the Sunday before a new month starts and we plan when we'll do it. They usually get excited and want it right at the first of the month. But for things like this one in September, it's best to wait until the end of the month!

Here is the list of dates I made for the year. A lot of the dates I did the same each month for both girls. But sometimes I'd use the same date idea, but put them in different months for them because their personalities called for it. And some are different for each girl that month because the other girl wouldn't be interested in the other date. Does that make sense?

Basically, just look at your months and what your girls like to do during those months and what they like to do in general and just go for it. Things like Starbucks I wouldn't put in the dead of summer and I wouldn't take one of my girls to Bath & Body Works because she doesn't care for it like the other does. They both like Great Harvest but one would love it in the winter more.

$10 at Deseret Book +
Pick out Florences Chocolates

Girls Night Out!: Shopkins Live!

Movie Night 
(Kick the family out for an at-home movie night with treats or go out to the theatre with a few treats smuggled it heh-heh..)

Lunch at Great Harvest

$10 to Claires+
Cookie Place

$10 to Bath and Body Works
(Try on all the fun scrubs and lotions!)

$10 to Ulta
(Try on all the fun makeup!)

$10 to Hobby Lobby +
Lemonade
(We love Chick-fil-A lemonade and use our app to get it curbside! Not gonna lie we also ordered a chocolate chunk cookie)

Prepared Pantry & Baking the goods we picked out

Soda Tsunami
(Or any fun soda shop)

Scooter date!
(We scootered to our local Icy shack but you can go anywhere!)

Girls Night Out!: Dress up and go out to dinner with an at-home spa night afterwards

Fall bike ride & picnic

Starbucks date & Christmas Shopping

$10 to Barnes & Noble

Explaining Santa's Gifts

We're approaching the big holiday season. Already. I'm still trying to get a nap in from last years Christmas. But, ready or not, it's coming. Are you prepared?! Your kids are older this year, and just might give you a run for your money with the Santa questions.

Every Christmas, we see parents all over trying to teach their kids the importance of giving, service and kindness. We see them doing their best to add a child in need to their Christmas list to be a good example. We bake cookies for neighbors, we drop off a turkey anonymously to a family's doorstep that we know is struggling financially.

But, when a child asks, "why doesn't Santa go to the homeless shelter?" Or, "why can't I ask for this $500 gift from Santa?" what do we say? That Santa picks and chooses which kids to visit, and that he also has a budget? Santa has RULES? Where's the fun in that?!

While there are plenty of great churchy and inspiring ways to deal with things like this where you can sit down with your children and give a lengthy and perfectly worded explanation, sometimes you need just a few words to get your point across. The best words I've ever heard someone say to their kids when these questions started popping up was,..

"Yeah, Santa brings the gifts, but Mom and Dad still have to pay for it."

I know there are many families out there who don't do the Santa thing, and that's okay. Every family is different, so if you're a family who cherishes those few years where your kids still believe in Santa and you don't want to break down saying, "Santa isn't real" when they ask the tough questions, this might be what you're looking for! These few words allow the magic of Santa to continue on while allowing some reality to the situation to be factored in. 

Children can grasp the ideas of some families having a larger budget than others. That's life, and they're typically already aware of it before anyone ever actually brings it up to them. Simply stating that Mom's and Dad's are still in charge of paying for their Christmas even when Santa and his helpers do all the work connects so many dots for them!

A family in need is still a family in need, even when Santa is involved. A $500 toy is still a $500 toy, even when Santa is involved. This answer might not be what you were looking for or work for your kids. If not, that's okay. There are plenty of other ways you can talk to your kids about these things. But for our family, it has worked great! 

Thin Mint Brownie Ice Cream Cake

 I have some pretty big news! Yesterday our family went to Lagoon, and while we were there we wandered around Pioneer Villiage. We came upon a little shop that had a sign saying they sold Swig sugar cookies! I absolutely HAD to get one. I had only ever heard about them (a lot) up until that point. MAN were they good!!!! My husband had to listen to me marvel at how they got it to the perfect sweetness (both the cookie and the frosting) without feeling like it was just a bunch of powdered sugar, or worse, feeling the sugar while you ate it. It was just.....perfection. I turned to my 9 year old and asked if she wanted some.

"No.....I only like your sugar cookies."

Um, what? I tried to convince her that these were like mine but better! She was insistent on the fact that no, she doesn't like any other sugar cookies but mine and just won't even bother trying any others. This was news to me. 

The same thing happened for her birthday dinner. Her favorite food is taco's so I'm thinking okay we can go out for tacos or something. She said NO. "Mom's tacos." She likes mine more than anything.

SAME THING HERE, FOLKS. She wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday but wanted ME to make it. I'll be honest, I'd never made an ice cream cake before. I'd spread some ice cream over an oreo crumble before but the cake addition thing was new for me. 

She absolutely loves mint chocolate chip ice cream (and anything mint really). I spotted our girls scout thin mint cookie brownie mix in the cupboard I'd picked up since I had an Ibotta rebate for it. Why not give it a try?

I'm not sure why I decided to crumble the brownies and press them into a pan. Probably because the instructions say to use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and I wanted an ice cream cake that was 13x9. So I was able to make a larger ice cream cake with just one box of brownies. The base layer was just a bit thinner than maybe some people would like their cake to be in it. 

I also decided to put the cool whip layer between the ice cream and ganache. In my head I was thinking that the ganache might melt the top part of the ice cream if I put it directly on top of it. But in reality, I'm sure if I'd just dumped it on when it was completely cool it would have been fine? So, do your layers however you'd like! You could even do ice cream as the bottom layer and brownie it up on top! Who cares! Have fun!

What you will need:  

• 13x9 cake pan
• 1 box Pillsbury girl scout thin mint cookie brownie mix
• 1 tub mint chocolate chip ice cream
• 1 tub cool whip
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 8 oz. baking chocolate chopped up (I used German chocolate)

Directions:

• Bake brownies according to directions
• When brownies are completely cooled, crumble them up and press them into 13x9 cake pan
• Place brownie layer in the freezer to firm up a bit
• Pull out ice cream and cool whip and let it thaw for about 20 minutes so it's spreadable
• Scoop out all the ice cream onto the brownies and spread evenly
• Spread cool whip on top of ice cream
• Freeze again until firm
• Place chopped up chocolate into a bowl
• Heat up 1 c of heavy cream until just boiling
• Pour cream over the chocolate an let it sit for about 5 minutes before stirring
• Stir gently until well mixed and you have a nice smooth and creamy ganche
• Either let it cool and spread it over the cool whip, or you can drizzle the top right before serving. Or you can let it cool completely and then whip it up into a frosting. The choice is yours!

German Chocolate Cake with German Chocolate Frosting

It's called a German Chocolate Cake, but zero German chocolate was used. So what does that make it? Really it's just a good ol' rich chocolate cake with that traditional coconut and pecan frosting. The frosting is CRAZY good. My 5 year old took a spoon to the pan and sat on a bucket in the kitchen scraping off the sides until there was absolutely no trace left.

So, legit German Cake or not, this recipe will be used and used again in our house! Hop over to A Dash of Sanity to check out the background on this amazing cake!

What you will need:

Cake

• 2 C white sugar
• 2 C all purpose flour
• 3/4 c cocoa
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 C milk
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C boiling water

Frosting

• 1 C evaporated milk
• 1 C white sugar
• 3 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 C chopped pecans
• 1 C coconut
• 1 T cornstarch

Directions:

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Grease 2 9x9 round cake pans, 3 8x8 round cake pans, or 1 13x9 cake pan (I just made 2 9x9 cakes)
• Add all dry cake ingredients into a mixing bowl or Kitchen-Aid and blend well
• Add all wet ingredients except for boiling water one by one and blend well
• Add in boiling water little by little until mixed in
• Blend for about 1 minute after water has been mixed in
• Pour even amount of cake batter into each cake pan
• Bake about 30-35 minutes
• Allow to cool completely

Frosting

• In a sauce pan, mix evaporated milk and sugar together
• Add in cornstarch, mix well
• Add sugar and eggs, blend well
• Bring to a slow boil
• Start stirring constantly for 12 minutes while it thickens
• Add in vanilla and mix in
• Remove from heat and stir in pecans and coconut
• Let it cool before frosting

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow, a title doesn't get any more simple than that, does it? Chocolate chip cookies. What a wonderful name.

About 4 years ago or so I created my own "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe. It was fit for me. It had everything I wanted. Chewy, soft, spread out just right, not too dry, not too fluffy, gooey and buttery golden flavor (yes, "golden" is a flavor).

I hid it in my computer labeled "secret cookie recipe."

And then my computer crashed. We recovered some pictures, but no cookie recipe came along with it. I'd had it memorized for a while and slowly, I started forgetting exactly what it was. I settled for making the recipe on the back of Nestlea Tollhouse packages. They were satisfying enough. But I still longed for my cookie.

Fast forward to today, scrolling through Pinterest and I see a picture of a cookie that looked exactly like mine! I had to try. And boy, I tell you what. These are BETTER than mine! I did add 1tsp of water to the batter and it was just heavenly!

I will not use any other recipe other than this from now on. This is it, you guys! This is perfection! I stared at my nestlea chocolate chips and my guittard chocolate chips trying to decide what to use the first time around. I went with guittard. They're huge. And I wanted chocolate. So these were very, VERY chocolatey. I can't wait to make them again with the regular sized chips now.

The fact that I have no clue where this woman lives and having this recipe work brilliantly in my high altitude desert of a city says a lot to me. It's gotta be fool proof!

Here's my picture. But I promise you, the pictures of the cookies on her post is what makes it and does them justice. RUN to her page at Gimme Some Oven so you can see what you can really expect with these! Maybe I'll update my photo once I don't have these huge honkin' chocolate chips all over. Maybe.

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/3 C white sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 C chocolate chips (+ some to stick on the tops right before they go in the oven)
• Parchment paper (optional, but it does make a difference!)

Directions:

• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add in the vanilla and egg and mix until well blended
• Slowly add in the flour, corn starch and baking soda until well combined
• Toss in the chocolate chips and mix it all up
• Refrigerate the dough about 20 minutes (I didn't........so I guess you can see the difference!)
• Preheat the oven to 350*
• Lay some parchment paper over a baking sheet
• Roll the dough into balls, or scoop them using a cookie scoop (I scooped with a cookie scoop and then rolled them into a ball)
• Place each ball onto the baking sheet and stick a few extra chocolate chips on the tops of 'em
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Pull them out and let them finish cooking a bit on the sheet
• EAT. RIGHT AWAY.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

First, I just want to say how great these would be if you wanted to make a treat for Thanksgiving but aren't so good at the pie thing! Or even a treat to make and hand out around Christmas time for your neighbors. So perfect!

So, has anyone else seen that FB post going around with the peanut butter balls and the M&M's inside them?! Cause the second I saw them, I knew I was making them immediately. Their FB name is "Tasty" and there wasn't a website as far as I could see! But go look them up, such a fun page!!

I didn't use the m&m's, no one in my family really loooooves m&m's so I thought I'd try them plain at first. I did stick a few baking snickers in the middle of some just to test it out, but I didn't give myself any way of knowing which was which so I haven't come across one yet.

Here's the thing. My husband does NOT like chocolate. I know. It's a tragedy I have to relive every single day. But I discovered that if I have to melt chocolate for anything, all I have to do is add some butterscotch chips to melt with it and the flavor is changed just enough that he can't get enough. (think scotcheroo chocolate, that's the flavor we're talking about here. Just a little more mild since I didn't want it to over power the peanut butter in this).

The recipe doesn't say how many chocolate chips exactly, so I just used whatever I had lying around. It turned out to not be quite enough so the balls weren't coated all pretty and even or anything. But I'll tell ya what we cannot stop EATING THESE!!!!! My husband has eaten more than I have even. This is a miracle. He doesn't really like desserts in the first place, let alone one with chocolate. So this is huge. That's how good these are! And they are SO SO easy to make!

Someone in the FB comments said these were like pb cups on crack. They're definitely better than pb cups. Pb cups have a bit of a grainy, stale peanut butter feel and taste to me. These are so much better!!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C melted butter
• 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 1 2/2 C peanut butter
• Some chocolate chips (I'm gonna say at least 2 C will do it. If you want to add some butterscotch chips, toss in about 1/4-1/2 C)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients but the chocolate together until well combined
• Roll them into equal sized balls and freeze them for about 20 minutes
• You can reshape them a bit after they're frozen and make them look nicer if needed
• Melt the chocolate
• Dip the balls
• Refrigerate or Freeze again until chocolate is set (that's what I did anyway cause I used regular chocolate chips so I didn't want to spend all day waiting for it to set at room temperature!)

Pumpkin Bars

I was in my early twenties when I tried pumpkin bars for the first time. (???!!!!) A sweet neighbor brought some by and at first I thought it was some yummy cake with vanilla frosting. My heart sank a little when I learned it was both pumpkin bars AND cream cheese frosting. I hadn't totally converted to the cream cheese thing at that point.

They sat there and I was a little unwilling to eat them, but I didn't feel happy about tossing them out. So I stuck them in the fridge.

Well, true to self, my "tensies" kicked in at night (my husband and I call our craving for food "tensies" because it always ends up happening around 10pm) so I decided to give them a try.

UMMM heck yes! Where had they been all my life? And cream cheese frosting? What in the world? The most confusing time in my life right there. (Not really...)

I've loved them ever since. But now, I always like them chilled a little. It's just my thing. Maybe a reminder to try new foods or be open to new experiences. I just got deep there for a second!

So here they are. Mmm.

What you will need:

Pumpkin Bars

• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
• 1 2/3 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 C canola oil
• 2 C flour
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. all spice
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 tsp. salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 C powdered sugar
• 6 oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-2 T milk 

Directions:

Pumpkin Bars

• Preheat the oven to 350*
• Mix together the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil
• Add in the cinnamon, all spice and mix
• Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together 
• Spread the batter into an ungreased jelly roll pan
• Bake for 25-30 minutes
• Let cool completely

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy
• Spread over pumpkin bars when the bars are completely cooled
• Chill in the fridge (optional)

Fall Favorites

Hello FALL! Technically, the first day of Fall is September 23rd. But I thought, just in case you were like me and do a big "FALL DAY" or something, you ought to be prepared beforehand! Our Fall Day is actually on October 1st so I don't feel odd incorporating some Halloween fun into it. I put up the Halloween decorations while kids are at school and they walk into the door to the smell of yummy candles and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We have some soup for dinner and watch a Halloween movie. My oldest daughter has requested chicken noodle soup this year! But she has been counting down the days for a couple of weeks now for the cookies and decorations :).

Here are a few Fall Favorites!

Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup

Apple (peach) Dumplings

Chicken Noodle Soup

Pecan Pie Bars

Oven Baked S'mores

Parisian Hot Chocolate

Cinnabon Popcorn

6 Minute Caramels

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider

Butterbeer

Caramel Popcorn Balls

Stew

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Helloooo General Conference weekend! I let out a little secret on my Instagram today. I gain more weight during General Conference than I do at Christmas! It's the combination of the need for comfort food in the fall and being snuggled up inside during the weekend. It's just the atmosphere! Christmas time I am usually busy playing and making sure things are going as planned (where IS that special stocking stuffer I got for so and so?! It was here yesterday!!! Sound familiar?) General Conference? I have nothing to do but cook, eat and relax.

One tradition that I make every year is my mama's Beef Stew & Rolls (click the link to get the recipe. So delish!) But this year I tested out something else! I have my own "perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe" that I created last year (which I have yet to share with anyone), but when I saw these tiny ones on Pinterest I absolutely had to make them. I HAD to! I don't trust myself to convert a typical choc. chip recipe into a mini one so I went with someone who knew, Jaclyn at Cooking Classy, and boy does she know! These are heavenly! And so much fun for the kids! And of course....sooooo cute. Jaclyn's are cuter than mine because I didn't have any cornstarch and made them anyway :( haha. So if you're wondering what kind of difference that 1tsp of cornstarch makes, just compare my pictures with hers and you'll understand. But, if you're not worried about looks and taste alone, they taste mighty excellent even without the cornstarch so have no fear!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp. + 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/3 C flour
• 2/3 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degree's
• Blend dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cornstarch) into a small bowl and set aside
• Cream together butter and sugars
• Add in egg and mix well
• Ad in vanilla and blend
• Slowly add in dry ingredients until well combined
• Add in chocolate chips and blend
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (I just lightly greased the cookie sheet)
• Roll dough into heaping teaspoon sized balls
• Lay balls out 1" apart on cookie sheet
• Bake for 5-6 minutes until edges are slightly golden (they will look underdone)
• Let them finish baking/cooling on the sheet for a few more minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack

Veggie Dip & Superbowl Food

For a girl that grew up with the Superbowl landing on my birthday or on the day I was wanting to celebrate my birthday, I'm surprisingly not very bitter towards the whole thing ;).

My first memory of a superbowl was when I was about 7. My Mom took my brother and I to Albertsons and let us get whatever treats we wanted. The vision I have stuck in my memory is of my brother and I dumping out all our treats onto his bed with the superbowl on the TV in his room. So of course I associate the superbowl with delicious things now.

I haven't shared this recipe before, and it's usually because it's all eaten before I can take a picture of it. But it is the PERFECT recipe to have ready to go for any get together, especially the super bowl! It is the best veggie dip I have ever had. Ever...ever ever ever. It's not thin and runny, or lumpy and goopy. It's the perfect texture (and believe me, I am a complete psychopath about texture).

I will mention that this is hard for me to actually make. The smell of cream cheese literally makes me gag. Once it's all made though it's absolutely delicious and I couldn't care less about cream cheese being in it.

Keep scrolling, cause I'm sharing a list of foods I'll be making for game day at the bottom!

What you will need:

• 1 1/4 C sour cream
• 1 C cream cheese, softened
• 5 T Ranch dressing mix (or more to taste)

Directions:

• Using a kitchen-aid or hand mixer, combine the sour cream and cream cheese until blended well and is formed into a nice creamy but firm texture
• Add in the ranch little by little and taste as you go. I prefer a more extreme ranch flavor whereas my husband could do without quite as much :).

This year I've invited some family&friends to my house for the superbowl. So I get to make whatever the heck I want! So, aside from all the chips, desserts, veggies/dip and soda, here's what's on the menu-

1. Football Cheese Dip
I mean...it's called football cheese dip. And the best cheese dip I've ever had. WIN!

2. Meatballs
Been making these for years. It's straight from my grandma's cookbook. You'll love it!

3. Crack Bread
Go ahead and get creative with this one. Throw on whatever the heck you like!

And of course you can't forget DINNER....

4. My BBQ Root Beer Pulled Pork sandwiches
I still claim that this is the best bbq root beer recipe.

5. Fresh Basil and Pepperoni Tortellini Salad
Honestly this will be eaten throughout the game because I can't keep it away once I've made it. It is soooo goooood. 

6. Corn on the Cob
Who can even have bbq sandwiches without corn on the cob?

Sugar Cookies

Happy Holidays!! I won't be around for the next few weeks. We're MOVING! And visiting family and celebrating and all things nice and Christmas-ee. Yesterday I had the urge to bake cookies in the middle of all the packed up boxes taking over the place. I had to rummage through a few of those boxes to find what I needed but it was totally worth it. My daughter walked in from school to see the first batch of cookies cooled and ready to decorate and she was just so excited! About the same time my other daughter woke up from her nap so they were both in heaven with these.

This recipe makes around 50 cookies or so. I burned an entire batch of some cute bells, though :(Quick tip here: If you check the cookies after the timer goes off and you decide to let them brown a tad more, don't forget that you decided to do that :). The flavor of them are really good, too. A lot of sugar cookies end up just tasting like bland dough. But this has a nice buttery sugary cookie-ee flavor. I really wanted to make some cookies and use sour cream, but I didn't have any, so you'll have to deal with this instead, even though I didn't really miss it in there!

Sorry about the frosting. I don't know the recipe. I threw it together until it tasted and felt right. I used a blend of almond and vanilla, though. It was gooooOOOOoood. And it had a GREAT texture. Creamy and smooth, but still glossy and firmed up just enough so that it wouldn't get all over the place when you stack the cookies. Perfect if you ask me.

What you will need:

• 3 sticks of unsalted butter
• 2 C sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 C flour + 1 C flour for rolling out (any time I make sugar cookies, I cut the original flour call by 1 C because I don't want them to end up dry or tough after adding in more flour to roll them out. I want to be able to use as much as I need without worrying. So this is how much I ended up using for both mixing and flouring later)

Directions:

• Cream butter and sugar together
• Add in vanilla and eggs
• Add in baking soda and salt
• Add in flour one cup at a time
• Mold dough into a ball and flatten it down into a thick disc shape
• Lay it on some greased plastic wrap and wrap it up
• Chill in the fridge for an hour or more
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Flour your dough surface
• Roll out your dough to about 1/2" thick (I found that the 1/4" thick cookies ended up a little more crispy than I liked and the 1/2" ones stayed softer, so if you like them a little crunchier, make them thinner)
• Cut them into shapes and lay them on a baking sheet (I put down some parchment paper, but you don't have to)
• Bake for 6 minutes and check them. If they are just baarely starting to brown on the edges, take them out. 

Grasshopper Frozen Dessert

I made this for my daughter's 3rd birthday! It was really yummy. I mean it's basically just mint & chocolate chip ice cream, so of course it was good. But sometimes you just need that extra oomph to your desserts!

One thing I would note is that I'd try and make this the day before serving. I made mine the day of and the oreo's were still crumbly. The next day they were the perfect ice cream-crust texture!

What you will need:

• 1 pkg. Oreo cookies
• 1 1/2 cartons Mint & Chocolate Chip ice cream
• 1 8 oz. carton Cool Whip, softened
• 9x13 pan

Directions:

• Allow ice cream to soften up. I waited until I was able to press a spoon into it and it was really soft on the top and still pretty firm down in the middle
• Separate the cream from the cookies in the Oreo's
• Add Oreo's into a larg Ziploc bag and smash the heck out of them (or use your food processor, which I didn't do and wished I had ha!)
• Press Oreo's evenly into the bottom of your 9x13" pan
• Scoop large amounts of the ice cream and plop them all down onto the Oreo's crumbles (don't spread it until all the ice cream is "plopped down" first)
• Once all the ice cream is there, start spreading. It will take a bit of work. The best way I can describe the method that worked really well for me is a short and quick "sawing motion" with my large spoon. I'd spread some, then do the sawing motions, spread some, do the sawing motions. But do whatever works for you!
• Spread Cool Whip on the top of the Ice Cream and add sprinkles, chocolate shavings or whatever your heart desires
• Cover and freeze!
• Pull out about 20 minutes before serving to soften a little!

Making Your First Turkey

With Thanksgiving around the corner, that means turkey time is around the corner. The turkey idea is kind of scary if you've never cooked one before. But it shouldn't be. This is a basic guide for your very first time, and as you get more comfortable with it, you can experiment and play! There are sooo many different opinions and ideas on how to cook a turkey. So I'm going to give you the easiest way with the best results possible. But do keep in mind that this is not the only way and you might be better off calling your mother-in-law because whether you want her advice or not you score brownie points.

Here's the thing. I've made a whole lot'a turkeys in my day. It's not a "just for Thanksgiving" kind of meal for this household. I plan for them rather often because their leftovers feed for days! :).

 Fresh or Frozen?

This really is up to you, but the "fresh" turkeys are usually not even technically fresh. Frozen turkeys are usually frozen immediately after being butchered, whereas "fresh" turkeys have been sitting around for many days after the processing, trucking to the store and then sitting in the store until purchased (although I am sure there are locations where you can buy an actual super fresh turkey, but they'll be cost a significant amount more.) I would suggest with it being your first time to save yourself the money and go with frozen.

To brine or not to brine?

With this being your first turkey, the stress and amount of work outweighs the results so I'm going to say no. I do not brine my turkeys. A lot of people insist that you need to brine your turkey the day before cooking. It is said to make a juicier turkey and bring out the flavors more. However, extensive studies have shown that turkeys that have been brined vs. turkeys that have just been salted before cooking, just turned out more watery and less flavorful. The salted turkeys were tender and juicy. Salting is not even completely necessary to create a juicy turkey, it can just be used as more of a buffer in case you over cook, but I have a psycho salt tooth so an excuse to go nuts with the salt is fine by me ;).

However I will say that if you feel that brining your turkey will indeed make a significant difference, I would suggest seeking out advice from Alton Brown. I'm sure he has a brining secret that will make you weak at the knees:).

Defrosting

Now about defrosting. You'll want to keep your turkey in the freezer up until about two days before you plan on cooking depending on the size of your turkey (consider this for your guide). Never defrost your turkey at room temperature. Instead, clear out a space in your fridge and place your turkey on a cookie sheet or something that will catch the juices. If you're planning on salting your turkey, apply a liberal amount of kosher salt over your turkey and lightly cover it with plastic or cheesecloth.

Preparing

Preheat your oven. Enough said?

TAKE OUT THE BAG INSIDE. This is so easy to forget. After you've taken it out, look inside to make sure it's cleared out in there. You'll want to make sure the neck and gizzards are removed (they're usually in the bag, but just in case they aren't...check).

The gravy packet. Most frozen turkeys come with a gravy. You'll want to use this later, and I'll post more about it below for the most amazing gravy you'll ever find anywhere ever ever.

Stuffing. You'll wonder if you should use a stuffing. Don't. The thing about stuffing is that the turkey tends to cook faster than the stuffing does and it soaks up all of the uncooked turkey juices. So you are left with the choice between overcooking your turkey to make sure the stuffing is safely cooked, or eating cold stuffing with raw turkey juices. Hmm..I'll take my stuffing on the side. Feel free to play around with it, but wait until you're comfortable handling a turkey first.

Butter. Butter butter butter. Paula Deen has kind of annoyed the heck out of me for years but the woman knows what she means about butter. Sometimes it just takes things to the next level. I've always just grabbed a stick of butter, cubed it up and shoved those cubes in all kinds of crevasses of that bird. I'll slide some underneath the skin, too. Salt and pepper it some more if you'd like.

Now, my little trick. But first an embarrassing story. One day I went about making a turkey (I hadn't had much experience) and thought multiple times about how it looked kind of funny. I cooked it anyway. When it came out I was like what the crap there is like no meat on this thing. And that's when I realized I'd cooked it upside down. Best mistake of my life! Cooking it upside down made all the juices flow down to the bottom and keep it all nice and moist. So having it upside down and then flipping it for the last hour or so for it to brown is my advise for you.

Covering. You can never use too much tin foil to cover that beast. I layer it and seal it tight like a mad woman! (If you plan on doing "the flip" make sure to keep it uncovered after you've taken the tin foil off for that last hour)

As for the gravy. There are 3 important parts to it. The gravy packet that came with your turkey (if yours didn't, your gravy will still be amazing without, don't worry), McCormick brand brown gravy (1-2 packages) and the cooked juices from your turkey. Heat up the gravy packet first and add in the first package of brown gravy mix. As it thickens up, slowly pour in the turkey juices until it has reached the desired consistency that you like. If you've added too much and it ends up watery, add more of the brown gravy mix. If it ends up too thick, just add more turkey juices. Find a nice balance between those. The finishing touch will be SALT. Nobody else that I know makes gravy this way and they wonder why their gravy is gelatin-ee, colorless, flavorless or all of the above. Trust me. Do it. You'll thank me later. I will post a separate recipe for this gravy soon, so until then rely on this as your recipe :).

So, aside from flipping it over when there's about an hour left, that's it. Salt and butter, baby. It will turn out great, no need for fancy shmancyness on your first turkey. Just get use it and then play as much as you want!

Homemade Horchata Ice Cream

I'm a little late posting this, but this recipe is a GREAT idea for a Cinco de Mayo celebration! Top it with banana's and homemade Dulce de Leche and you have yourself an amazing treat!

What you will need:

• 1 1/2 C white rice, toasted*
• 2 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1 1/4 C whole milk
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Pour rice into a blender and blend until coarsely ground
• Heat milk and cream in a saucepan until warm and creamy (do not boil)
• Add ground rice into pan and stir
• Cover the pan, remove from heat and let it sit at room temp. for 2 hours
• Set a mesh strainer lined with a few layers of cheesecloth over a large bowl
• Slowly pour milk/rice mixture through cheesecloth to remove the rice
• Add ground cinnamon to rice milk and reheat rice milk until steamy
• Whisk egg yolks, eggs and sugar in a large bowl
• Slowly pour heated rice milk into egg/sugar mixture whisking consistently
• Return egg/milk mixture to saucepan and add a pinch of salt
• Over medium heat, stir the custard constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon or spatula
• Remove cheesecloth and pour the hot custard through the strainer only
• Stir in the vanilla
• Chill custard over night
• Use custard in your ice cream maker according to your ice cream makers directions

*To toast the rice, pour the white rice into a skillet on medium high heat. Stir constantly until the rice turns golden; about 3 minutes

Vanilla-Orange Cream Filled Cupcake & Fresh Orange Frosting

I really really wanted a fresh tasting orang-ee cake. I wanted each element to have fresh orange taste, but I didn't want the entire thing as a whole to be IN YOUR FACE Orange. I put these ideas and flavors together and created a well balanced orange cupcake! I haven't put my heart into a dessert in so long, it was time!

This is considered a "poke cake." The cake is drizzled with orange jello-o after it's baked, cooled and holes poked through it so the flavor settles into the cake.

The filling is a nice spin on the classic "creamsicle" taste with a mixture of vanilla and orange flavors, and the frosting is a homemade butter-cream frosting with fresh orange juice.

 I topped them with coconut and sprinkled with fresh orange zest. I personally don't care for toasted coconut, but I'm sure it would be great if you like that sort of thing!

What you will need:

THE CAKE

• One box vanilla cake mix (or your favorite vanilla cake recipe. I have yet to find one that I love so this has that typical "box cake" flavor. Booo)
• Ingredients the boxed vanilla cake mix calls for 
• 1 pkg orange jell-o, prepared
• Muffin tins

THE CREAMSICLE FILLING

• 1 pkg vanilla pudding, prepared with 1 C cold milk
• 1 pkg jell-o mix (not prepared)*
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 8 oz. carton cool whip

THE FROSTING

• 1/3 C butter, softened
• 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 5 T fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp. orange zest

Directions:

THE CAKE

• Bake cupcakes according to box directions
• Once the cupcakes are cooled completely, poke holes throughout the cake
• Pour a small spoonful of prepared jell-o over each cupcake (to be honest I used a medicine dropper)
• Refrigerate for 4 hours (or over night)

THE CREAMSICLE FILLING

• Prepare vanilla pudding and mix with the jell-o mix and vanilla
• Fold in the cool whip
• Fill the cupcakes with the filling

THE FROSTING

• Mix butter, powdered sugar, orange juice and zest until it reaches desired consistency. 
• Add more fresh orange juice if you want more flavor!

*I have this "thing" where I feel like fruity desserts taste like fluoride. So, I didn't use the entire package of jell-o mix in the filling.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I stumbled on this recipe while I was scoping out ideas for my daughters Valentine's Day party coming up. They were super fun to make, and I'd never tried chocolate sugar cookies before so I absolutely had to! I think you'll be amazed. We frosted ours pink with pink sprinkles, but I prefer them without frosting at all!

What you will need:

• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 C cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 C butter, softened
• 1 C sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the egg and vanilla
• Mix until well blended
• Gradually add flour mixture into butter mixture until blended
• Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes
• Bake for 8-10 minutes

Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Oooh wow. These cookies are AMAZING! I am so glad I decided to try them out. They are a perfect holiday cookie! And I love that they didn't call for anything out of the ordinary with the exception of the candy cane kisses. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of regular, I'm not sure if that's makes a ton of difference or not.

There was some debate in this home on when to put the candy cane kiss on the cookie. I didn't want it all melted, but my sweet man tried one that had melted and insisted that was the way to do it. He fell in love immediately soooo I'm torn. Try it out at different stages and see what you like the best!

^^Some of them are melted more than others. What do you think?

What you will need:

• 1/2 C shortening
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 C+2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 2 C chocolate chips

Directions:

• Combine shortening, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract and mix well
• In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder
• Combine all ingredients and mix well
• Fold in chocolate chips
• Refrigerate cookie dough for 30-60 minutes to prevent the cookies from flattening
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until they are set up but the middle is still soft
• Allow cookies to cool for 1-2 minutes before adding the candy cane kisses
• Allow cookies to cool until kisses have hardened

Grinch Chocolate Chip Cookies

For some reason I thought I posted about this last year! We did a theme night last December and baked some Grinch cookies before watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We had some cherry chocolate chips and put one in the center right out of the oven to symbolize the Grinch's heart :).

Other than that, all I did was add green food coloring to this chocolate chip cookie recipe and voila! 

Parisian Hot Chocolate

My sweet friend Kelli spent a while in Paris and while nothing could ever quite compare to the real hot chocolate in Paris, she found a recipe that she is satisfied with and was nice enough to share it a while ago! I tried it and fell in love with it and have been making it ever since. I love that you can choose the flavor based on what chocolate chips you use. It's perfect!!

I made this one for my daughter, so that explains why it's all girly :).

What you will need:

• 1 C heavy whipping cream
• 1 C chocolate chips of your choice (I use Guittard chocolate chips! I think chocolate chips are all disgusting by themselves except for Guittard milk chocolate. They are AMAZING! Heck, you could use white chocolate chips if you wanted.)
• 2 C whole milk

Directions:

• In a pan, heat the heavy whipping cream just until the edges begin to boil
• Add in the chocolate chips and whisk together as the chocolate melts
• In another pan, warm the whole milk up over medium heat
• When the chocolate chips and heaving cream are well blended, pour the mixture into the warmed milk and combine

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easiest recipe ever. The original recipe asks for an entire 15 oz. can of pumpkin. I learned tonight that I like about 3/4 of a 15 oz. can of pumpkin. They're not as orange, but I like the taste better.

What you will need:

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix ingredients together
• Bake for 18 minutes