Merry Christmas! Reindeer Pancakes

Merry Christmas!  Today was a memorable and exhausting day.  And to kick off Christmas 2012 I treated the family to extra yummy yogurt parfaits (honey greek yogurt layered with Bob's Red Mill granola and fresh berries), and reindeer pancakes.  The pancakes were so cute and really easy - you just need to make 3 different sized circle pancakes, some bacon and have fruit (or chocolate chips) for the eyes/nose.

Make a large pancake for the head, medium pancake for the 'muzzle' and two tiny pancakes for the ears.

To create the antlers I took two slices of bacon and cut them in half and made in to a 'Y' shape.

The blueberry eyes and raspberry nose were stuck to the pancakes with some yogurt.

Enjoy your reindeers and Merry Christmas to you!  I think I need to make these again soon, they were so cute!

Annual Girls Party

This morning I hosted my annual girls only gift exchange party.  Each year promises fantastic food (each guest brings a favorite item) and great gift exchange items. Of course there are no photos from the actual party or all the amazing food that we consumed, but I did take a photo of the little party gift I gave each gal as well as the table early today.

"A little something for your Mistle-Toes"

Santa's Beard

I forgot to post this Christmas craft!  I cut out shapes to create a Santa face (circle for face, two small circles for eyes, a mustache, hat and some fluffy looking trim for the hat) and the kids pasted the shapes together on green construction paper.  Every day in December until Christmas Eve, the kids add a cotton ball to create Santa's beard.  It is pretty cute and a fun decoration for our kitchen wall!

Terribly Terrific Toffee

I have been staring at this toffee recipe for some time.  I like the idea of making toffee for the holidays, but a toffee recipe that includes Saltine crackers?  Serious hesitation.  But, the recipe seems simple enough and Blake was excited to help me make something in the kitchen.  So I put the boy to work and had him line my 10x15 pan with Saltine crackers.

Meanwhile, I melted the butter and sugar together as directed.

Once the butter/sugar mixture is ready, it gets poured over the crackers and placed in the oven.

Once out of the oven I sprinkled the chocolate chips on top and let them melt a bit before spreading across the cracker/toffee layer.  When it was completely cooled I broke it up in to small one to two inch size pieces.  The end result was fantastic!  And it does make quite a bit - perfect for giving away to friends in cute packaging.

Terribly Terrific Toffee
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
40 Saltine crackers (YES! Saltines...)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan (or a 12x17-inch cookie sheet) with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. 
Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. 

After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer.  Let cool and break into pieces the size of your choice.

Graham Cracker (Gingerbread) House

I love making gingerbread houses with the kids each year, but those store bought house kits are really big, and I know my kids will probably each want their own.  Okay, I want them each to have their own to avoid arguments, sharing and space issues on the houses as they decorate.  

Thanks to pinterest I've been seeing a lot of mini gingerbread houses made of graham crackers.  I made a really strong frosting glue (basically powdered sugar, egg whites and water) and went to work.  I did learn if you don't plan out your house very well you have to make some silly additions of half or quarter crackers...

Looking good!

Until you realize you might need a longer cracker and have to add on a mini piece of graham cracker!

I then tried to make myself a slightly larger house.  What was I thinking!?  Bigger is not always better!

Off to decorate - wish us luck!

Under the Sea Birthday Party!

Today is the big day of my daughter's 3rd birthday party!  I have had so much fun planning this party and getting C's feedback on decorations and food.  Though I will say that getting back from a week's vacation, then right in to Thanksgiving, and then right in to a birthday party all in one week is not my ideal situation!

The attendees made 'jellyfish' with paper bowls and lots of different colored streamers and ribbons.  They also made 'headbands' using foam stickers in under the sea themed shapes.

Here are some of the fun details from the party...

"Big Kid Mermaid Juice" and "Little Mermaid Juice"

Sweet tooth fish (my kids and I love to talk about our 'sweet tooth' issues!):

"Octo-hummus" dip and veggies.  Gotta love an octopus created out of a bell pepper and some strips of bell pepper for legs.  The eyes on the octopus are hard sugar 'eyes' that you can buy at baking or craft stores (typically for cookie decorating).

PB & Jellyfish Seastar sandwiches.  These were so cute and so fast to make.  Nothing makes a kid like a sandwich more than fun shapes!

Lagoon Jello... this was probably the biggest hit of the party!  Who knew blue jello would be so interesting to kids!?

My personal favorite were the 'oyster' cookies.  I searched high and low for cookies that had a 'shell' appearance.  Finally I found some lemon Pepperidge Farm cookies!  I dyed some store bought frosting to a light shade of pink and added a yogurt covered raisin for a 'pearl'.

A mermaid photo opportunity!  I took a big piece of folding cardboard meant for presentations and painted an underwater theme.  Here is my boy mer-man testing it out!

Each attendee received a homemade barrette made with real shells.

As well as a goodie bag filled with an under the sea pearl bracelet, gummy fish and bubbles.

Seashell Pasta Salad.  

The food display:

And the birthday girl, not so sure about the sparkler candle!

Happy birthday to the sweetest little mermaid I know!

Baking a Ombre Cake

Tomorrow is my daughter's 'under the sea' 3rd birthday party.  I wanted the cake to be shades of blue to go with the decor and chose to make four layers, each with a different shade.  Light purple, light blue, mint green and white.

The baked cake color results...

For the frosting, I made a basic buttercream and dyed it to match the cake layers, and also had a bowl of white frosting.

I put on a thin base layer of frosting to the bottom and top layers, and then froze the cakes for a bit before adding the final coats of frosting.

The end result was a multi-colored cake.  Not sure if I loved the frosting colors or my new cake decorating turntable the most.  Why didn't I buy one of those sooner!?

The finished product with a seastar, three light blue candles and a sparkler '3' candle.

The inside of the cake...

Thanksgiving

Every year I make the pies for Thanksgiving.  I always make too many pies and this year was going to be no different.  I had a hard time decided on a pecan pie recipe so I made two.  Yes, two pecan pies!  One was my grandma's recipe and the other was a Cooks Illustrated recipe.  People who want a slice of pecan have to have one slice of each pie because I'm very curious to see what they think - and I won't tell them which pie is which.

Buttery, sugary, pecan goodness....

Pecan pie #1:

Pecan Pie #2:

The pumpkin pies asked to pose next to pecan #2:

And all five pies... two pecan, apple, and two pumpkin.

Oh, apple pie, how I love you...

Bennett and his mommy made a great, kid friendly appetizer.  A 'turkey' with cheese and grape skewers for feathers, an apple beak, bell pepper 'wobbler' and grape eyes!

And the real turkey.  Yum.

And no Thanksgiving is complete without Prudence the pitcher.  She loves to stare at you with this nasty face while you stuff yours. 

And the pecan pie taste test 2012 was a success!  I was amazed... everyone preferred my grandma's recipe (basically all butter) to the much lighter colored Cooks Illustrated recipe.  Both pies were phenomenal but they each had their own strong points.  Grandma Charlotte's pie won overall for texture, taste and flavor.

Below is grandma Charlotte's winning pecan pie recipe.

Pecan Pie, courtesy of Charlotte Smith

3 slightly beaten eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. light corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 c. pecans

1 1/4 c. melted butter

Combine eggs, sugar and syrup, vanilla, salt.  Put nuts in unbaked shell and add filling.  Bake at 400 for 10 min and at 345 for 40min.

Another Birthday!

Today is my daughter's birthday.  She turns a whopping three years old and had very specific requests when it came to her cake.  I am ashamed to admit that her cake came from a mix... I guess going to Maui, planning for her birthday party with her friends, and other plans resulted in mismanaged time.  But this gal got exactly what she wanted... a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, pink sprinkles and a mermaid on top.  A big shout out to Target for my frantic last minute trip to the store and you having a mini mermaid toy on clearance! Score!

She was also specific about dinner.  We had to go to 'sue-see' (sushi) at the place with colored, round plates that move (Blue C Sushi).  Happy birthday sweet C.  We can't wait to celebrate again with you at your party this weekend!

Birthday Love

This year I was fortunate enough to spend my birthday in gorgeous Maui.  Upon our return we had a fantastic dinner made by my mom.  Followed with a chocolate chocolate cake decorated by my two lovely children.  As you can see from the photos below my kids must really think I'm special.

A golf flag, horse, trumpet, clown head, santa, balloons, two people talking on phones (one apparently trampled by the horse), and many candles.  Nothing says love like a body-less clown! 

The cake was very good and my kids were so proud of the cake they helped make and decorate.  Thank you B & C! You're the best!