Stuff I didn't make this week:

Peanut Butter Balls - I was feeling zingy a while back and threw together the insides, but ran out of steam when it came to rolling and dipping them all (the much messier stages) and then I forgot about the mixture entirely and found it in my refrigerator this week. Oops.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Cookies - I bought a package of the pre-made break-and-bake mini cookies...and have been slowly eating the dough raw. Sorry mom.

Most of the blog link-ups I'd been looking at trying this week - while I think it's a swell idea and would like to try in the future, I'm not much of a "schedule" poster. I'm not much of a schedule ANYTHING these days, I create things when I have a deadline or when TC takes an unexpected nap, and that's not very often lately :)

4 Me? Why yes...

Day 4 of "THERE WILL BE FUN, DAMMIT!"

Today's happy moment: DQ Peanut Buster Parfait



It's freakishly hot and humid across the midwest today, so I was doubtful in my abilities to haul my saggy self over to DQ, but then I would have had nothing to post. So I did it for you, Internets. And you're welcome.

Burp.

State Fair Bridal Shower - Sweet Treats!

Any State Fair go-er knows the main attraction at the Great Minnesota Get Together is THE FOOD! Best way to experience the fair is to taste it, so we had a lot of fun defining the menu for this State Fair themed bridal shower. My favorite was the dessert table:



First of all, the signs were just laid out in PowerPoint - the rainbow is an option under "format background" and the font for both the large "FAIR FOOD" and the individual food signs is Coffee Tin from 1001FreeFonts (look under western). We kept the serving pieces simple in white and glass so that the food really stood out, such as:



Kettle Corn! This is one of my favorite fair (and ballpark) foods. My mom makes really good homemade kettle corn, but due to time constraints we "outsourced" with Amy's Organic Kettle Corn and holy cow is that good too. And a LOT easier. The large popcorn bowl we've had forever, and the smaller boxes are leftover from thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Hollywood Halloween Party I held a few years back. We also set up a secondary kettle corn station downstairs to make for easy snacking:



The above popcorn box was actually packaging for the zebra popcorn I was forced to buy on sample day at Costco when I fell for it head over heels :)



There's an entire booth at the MN State Fair that sells only cereal bars in every flavor imaginable - Rice Kristie Bars - so we made rice krispie bars on a stick (just the traditional recipe cut into long strips and speared on grilling kebabs). Cotton candy was another must-have fair food, and while you can rent or even buy machines to make your own, we weren't quite ready for that mess, and mini bites would be more suited to the occasion. So instead I bought bagged cotton candy from Target (just $1 for two flavors!)I cut it into strips and carefully wrapped it around lollipop sticks (in the cake and candy making aisle of Michael's or JoAnn's). We displayed both treats by poking their sticks into a block of styrofoam wrapped in tissue paper and taped to the table for support.



Those aren't really Sweet Martha's Cookies, but I swear I've seen the dough in the freezer case - we just couldn't find it when we were shopping for supplies. So we faked it. Costco cream puffs were a bite-sized reference to the giant State Fair cream puffs, and the eclairs just seemed to compliment the cream puffs :)



And rounding out the smorgasboard were a selection of "blue ribbon pies", a fun alternative to cake, and a nod to the folksy baking competitions in the Creative Activities building. We cut the slices small so you could freely sample more than one :)

Mmmm, I'm hungry again just looking at it all!

Click on the "StateFair" label to see more posts related to this bridal shower, and stay tuned for more pics and projects from the event!

When your feet are the size of the Easter bunny's...

We eventually plan to celebrate the bunnies & candy side of Easter, but at this point The Cupcake has no use for an Easter basket and neither of her parents needed another excuse to down a pound of chocolate, so we basically just skipped it. Luckily my mother (GrammyCupcake) put on a lovely Easter dinner and invited me and TC over to share in the feast (the hubby had baseball tix).

I'm still not great at getting out of the house with my little one, I tend to agonize over getting everything packed and ready so that I'm exhausted before I even leave, but the sleep situation has been getting better and better, and I found myself awake on Easter morning while The Cupcake was doing this:

(My Little Snugabunny Swing by Fisher Price, I <3 You!)

So I walked into my kitchen and whipped up these:



jumbo chocolate dipped strawberries, and two of these:



Vanilla cakes that I smushed the frosting of, but they still tasted okay. Neither of these creations was very exciting on their own, but when you realize that they signify MY FIRST BAKING WHATSOEVER since the baby bomb dropped on our lives, I'm pretty darned impressed! I think this may have been the first time the oven has been on in 4 months. It was exciting.

And then I somehow even managed to clean myself up a tiny bit, and wrestle TC into a pretty little dress so we looked presentable for about 10 minutes:



And then the puking started, so we were right back to the dirty stinky mess our lives usually are. And then I broke my toe on GrammyCupcake's beautiful but deadly antique sofa, so that kinda sucked too. But at least we had HAM! :)

Carin's Casa of Creative Crafting: Gingerbread House Party!

Carin is the crafty kind of person you love to have around for inspiration, but also secretly hate to try and live up to :) She is AMAZING! She's always crocheting (or knitting? I don't even know the difference), offering around GORGEOUS/NUMMY frosted sugar cookies, and building the most fantastical costumes. It's enough to make a moderate hobby crafter feel mopey and inadequate, but then she goes and wins you back over again by hosting a GINGERBREAD HOUSE DECORATING PARTY! Yeah, she's pretty cool. She made snacks:



And she actually BAKED A GINGERBREAD HOUSE for everyone who came! (Are you kidding me? I'd totally have bought kits :) But these smelled sooooo much better!) So I arrived and got this:



Which I then set about assembling:



And decorating:



I took a few cookie breaks - pretty sure I ate all the Xmas trees. The hedgehogs were too darned cute to destroy:



More decorating:



The snow is much prettier with sprinkles, don't you think? I wouldn't mind shovelling half as much if it were really this cute all winter:



IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I haven't done a gingerbread house since Daisy Girl Scouts, and I've always meant to, so I can't thank Carin enough for having this event (not to mention doing all the baking, mixing, and CLEANING! I'm pretty sure there was candy EVERYWHERE by the end, so sorry!). Everyone had a good time, and I think our whole "village" was pretty fun:



Having creative friends rocks:









Thanks Carin & everyone, what a great way to get in the holiday spirit!

Sugar & Spice...DESSERT Preview

As I mentioned before, I've cut down somewhat on my offering of high-sugar snacks in favor of a little more "real food" at the Halloween shindig this year - each previous year I've noticed that the savory dishes go fastest. But I can't cut the sweets down too far :) I'm really focused on theme, and tried to pick a mix of classic favorites and some special N'awlins desserts this year. As always, this sneak peek is subject to any and all whims that strike me in the next few days, but as of now here is what I'm planning on serving on the "sweet side" of the buffet table:



Bananas Foster - served over pound cake and/or vanilla ice cream

Mini cheesecakes with strawberry compote

Cupcakes (of course)

Pralines

Beignets

Sweet Potato Pie (Thanks to the Lovely Pie Afficinado, Alison)

Fruit Platter

Are you ready?!?!?

Time Out:

My husband has to remind me all too often this time of year that "Halloween is supposed to be FUN!" It's not that I don't love having my party, and egotistically soaking up all the "oohs and ahhs" at the decor and food (I seriously eat that up. Feel free to gush all you want. It validates my efforts :) but sometimes as the date nears, and the panic grows, I focus way too much on what I'm not going to get to or what isn't the way I want it to be.

So yesterday I declared a TIME OUT! Mission: don't forget to ENJOY Halloween!

Step one: giant gooey graveyard cookie from Byerly's:



Can I say again how thankful I am that I passed my glucose test? :)

Hope you're all enjoying your Halloween preparations! I know I'm really looking forward to seeing all my guests in costume (almost nobody has told me what they are going as this year, so lots of surprises ahead!), reconnecting with some people I don't see too often, and making my neighbors wonder once again just who moved in to our quiet little house :)

Sweet Thoughts

I just drank a big gulp of expired milk, but I'm willing to look past it because I'm munching another one of these:




Mmmmm, monster cookie.

I'm in a particularly cheerful (and uncharacteristic) mood today, most likely because I slept for 14 hours last night. I will eventually regret that move and begin to stress double time about everything I'm behind on and should have been doing, i.e. I had hoped to have my menu nailed down yesterday and that is not quite the truth. Food has basically been my nemesis for 6+ months now, so I'm finding it hard to take joy in the planning. Also complicating factors is my inner Martha wanting to make adorable theme-related Cajun dishes, and my outward picky eater knowing I won't actually eat any of them :) Ahh, dilemma...

Luckily Cajun DESSERTS seem to pass my muster just fine, I'm currently contemplating these fine treats:

Pralines
Crockpot Bananas Foster
Beignets
Mardi Gras Cupcakes

(Cupcakes had to be in there somewhere, I can't resist. And luckily, neither can most of my guests!)

This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course, but hopefully it's a little something to look forward to - in just 18 days! Eek!

The Perfect Brownie

Have you seen this infomercial?



I was gifted two of these pans for my birthday the past couple years (thanks!), and I finally tried them out over Easter. They were really cool!

First off, they're actually "brownie pan" sized, which means you don't have to combine two mixes to fill one out like a normal cake pan. You assemble the pan, pour in the mix, and set the grate in place before you bake. That gave me the opportunity to add walnuts to some, and leave others plain - even in the same batch. When they first came out, I was worried it didn't look like the grate had stayed in:



But it did, and they came out perfectly! I tend to underbake my brownies just a touch so they are really moist, which makes them a disaster to cut, but these were both moist and perfect little pieces. My family definitely enjoyed them at Easter dinner!



"The Perfect Brownie" pan = high marks! I'll definitely use this again.

Peanut Butter Rats

Hello faithful followers (if any of you exist?). I'm off on an adventure in the land of cowboys and conservatives, but for once I've planned ahead and have a few posts scheduled to publish in my absence, starting with:

Peanut Butter Rats!

My 2nd dessert for the Goth Party was a bit more time consuming, but much more creative as well. I had an idea in the back of my mind that skulls, spiders, bats, and rats were all dark and "gothy," so food in any of those shapes would work. From that came Peanut Butter Rats.

I started with my go-to peanut butter ball recipe.

When the filling had chilled, I molded it into mouse-like shapes (thinking of a computer mouse actually was pretty helpful) and laid them on a wax-paper coated tray. I added a pretzel tail - using pieces that had been broken off of large pretzels, particularly curves. I had considered using licorice, but I much prefer the taste of pretzels, especially when dipped in chocolate. For ears, I used Wilton Candy Melts - I happened to have a few peanut butter ones left over from my last project, which would keep the taste consistent. They were the perfect size.



The chocolate dipping part was fairly complicated. Curse Bakerella for making it look so easy with her cake pops :)

When the peanut butter gets warm, it droops and melts immediately, and the rats were larger than the 1" balls you usually make for this recipe. I ended up balancing them on a fork and scooping the chocolate over them (from a double boiler), trying to do as little damage as possible when removing them from the fork and placing back on the waxed paper (this was a challenge), and then once they cooled I flipped them over and added more chocolate to the "naked" parts the fork was covering during the first dip.

I was having problems keeping my chocolate consistent temperatures, so I burnt myself a few times and got a little gun shy in handling them - if you had a steadier hand you could probably get a smoother coating, but I don't think I did too bad:



I'd dip 3-4 and let them sit for a moment before adding the eyes, which were thick yellow sprinkles that came in a pirate decorating pack (I think they were supposed to be gold coins). Since the chocolate coating was still soft when I added them, I didn't need to mess around with making tiny dots to secure them, I just pressed them into the cooling chocolate. They were simple but creepy with their bright yellow color.



They ended up being a little big as far as eating - about 3" X 2", so that's a pretty big peanut butter cup, but they were still tasty! I didn't want to make them any smaller and have to spend twice as long dipping, so it was a trade off :) A few times I melted the ears off and had to repair. Several of the rats looked like they'd eaten radioactive waste or gotten smashed in a trap, but I felt that was still acceptable for a goth party :)

Clearly this would also work well for Halloween, or you could try other shapes - I'd never do these for my own Halloween party because it's too much work with everything else I try to get done, but for an event where I'm just bringing a dish, I'd be willing to try it again.

Moody Mini Cheesecakes - for Krista's Goth Party

When charged with bringing a dish for a Goth theme party, how do you reflect that in the food? Same way you turn regular hair and makeup goth, dye it black, of course!



Moody Mini Cheesecakes:

I took the super easy route, and used Philadelphia Cream Cheese's ready-to-eat cheesecake filling, which I first tried for the Wicked Wonderland party and found to be a huge time saver (and still tasty). I dripped a few drops of black food coloring into the container and stirred.



And a few more drops. And more. And at around 50 drops I got worried about the effects of that much coloring and decided that an angsty grey color was just fine too:



I set it back in the fridge to firm up before piping, and worked on the graham cracker crust. I followed the directions on the back of the graham cracker crumb box (definitely use pre-ground graham cracker crumbs, in the baking aisle by the ready made crusts. Both Keebler and Honeymaid make them, huge time saver). It's a very easy combination of crumbs, sugar, and butter. I scooped a heaping teaspoon into each foil mini muffin cup (foil is necessary to come off clean - don't use paper), then pressed it down till it was hard.



I baked them at 350 for 10 mins, until golden brown, then cooled completely in the fridge:



Then I used a pastry bag with a large star tip to pipe a swirl into each cup:



and topped each with a fresh raspberry.



This is a super easy treat, sort of the "half homemade" style of baking that minimizes time use without just buying something off the shelves. I think they look pretty cute and obviously you could dye them to match other party themes as well.

Mickey Mmmm....

If you are anxiously awaiting an update on circus class this week, I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you. I've had a crazy week with commitments every evening, and something had to give - I skipped last night!

Instead, here's a shot of the adorable rice krispie bars lil' sis slipped in my Easter basket last week - she just got back from a week @ the "Happiest Place On Earth"



YUM! When we went as a family in 1999/2000 I lived off these things. Not sure they're the breakfast of champions? C'mon, they're half cereal! :)

Martha saves Valentine's Day?

Dove Promises are sort of like fortune cookies only chocolate. I prefer the dark chocolate, though the caramel filled is also worth selling a kidney. For Valentine's Day they're heart shaped, and each has a foil wrapper with a fortune or tip (a.k.a. "promise") printed on the inside. For example, here's one found on the web:



Not a terrible idea, right? Sort of like how Snapple has the little trivia under their caps, and Laffy Taffy has bad puns. I can get on board. And I'm pretty forgiving with a mouth full of chocolate. But apparently to further celebrate V-Day, Dove got Martha Stewart to pen all of the "promises" this season.

And they're ridiculous.

Martha, I love you, but your projects do not transfer into a 10 word epitaph.

"Replace tea bag tags with red paper hearts."
Now, my husband loves tea, but I can't see him caring whatsoever were I to adorn his morning spot with red paper hearts. In fact, he probably wouldn't even notice.

"Gift wrap a chocolate bar with pink craft paper and doilies."
Please see above commentary regarding the effectiveness of paper embellishments.

"Glue silk petals on a jar to create a vase."
Now I'm crafty, but I just can't envision this looking good, at least not without some visual direction. Sorry Martha, but this is like MacGuyver saying you can make a bomb out of a pencil, dental floss, and a remote control. It might be possible, but it's not exactly intuitive.

"X and O cookie cutters make hugs and kisses sugar cookies."
So does Cub Foods, and then I don't have to do the dishes. Bazinga! Actually I think this could be cute, but it's a little "Captain Obvious", isn't it? Well, that trend continues...

"Keeping a bouquet in a cool area will help the flowers last."
Uh...duh? And this isn't even the worst, I swear I had one that said to keep chocolate out of the sun. Seriously. I should have saved it for you all.

I've eaten most of the bag, and I can tell you that the only remotely cute idea I've found is this:
"Hide love notes underneath each chocolate in a sampler."

Of course, I just ate a bag of chocolate to discover this idea, so I'm not super keen on starting over. Plus, it is t a little weird to open someone's gift and handle all their candy? That sort of messes up the fancy packaging that probably accounts for most of the product price. I think I'll suffice with our fancy dinner this year. But let me know if you try the petal vase or doily wrapping.

Or, come visit me at the Champlin Park Women of Today Craft Fair, and buy your lover a beautiful hand cut glass mosaic photo frame or mirror! I have some new heart shaped frames just for the occasion :) Directions in the sidebar at upper right!

Possibly the cutest birthday present ever...

Here's one more of the adorable b-day gifts I received at the epic 3-0 surprise. It's from my uber-creative cousin Holly, who we should all convince to create a blog of her own, since she actually gets projects done (unlike me lately). Her gift was so creative, both inside and OUT!



With the re-usable printed box, thick pink bow, and adorable ceramic gift tag, it was almost too pretty to open. Inside was a a fabulous Glitterville (Dept. 56) gift card holder, filled with a Visa gift card! Yay fun! Also, a beautiful blown glass cupcake ornament - how great will that look on my sweets tree next year?

Then there was also a "cup-a-cake" cupcake holder that I am so excited to try! They are single serving containers supposed to keep a decorated cupcake somewhat undestroyed in transit, i.e. for you to take to lunch:



You know I'll have to run a test and tell you how it performs. Speaking of cupcake disasters, this is hardly related, but worth passing along - at the memorial last weekend it was so warm, all of the cream cheese frosting slid off my otherwise adorable mini cupcakes:



I had little dessert platters on each table, hoping that would encourage people to munch as they were sitting. The chocolate frosting actually held up just fine, so I'll have to remember in the future that cream cheese frosting is not suited for warm temps or sitting out very long. Especially at a slight angle :)

"Sweet" Holiday Decorations

I did a bad thing. I meet friends monthly for dinner at our favorite Chinese food restaurant, which is next door to a cute little pharmacy. Sometime before Xmas I was early for our meeting, and stopped in there to grab a birthday gift for another friend. While checking out, I spotted the most adorable tree full of Dept. 56 and OneHundred80Degrees ornaments - all in the theme of candies, cakes, and other sweets!
I fell in love.
But I resisted.

...

Until after Christmas. When I was again early to our meeting. And thought I'd "just take a look." I was sure they'd be gone, and actually didn't see them at first, but when I did...at 50% off...well, you can guess what happened:



I bought them all. Well, nearly. I couldn't help it. They're just too cute for words. These little lolipops are my favorite:



Then there's the blown glass soda fountain drinks:



Goodie goodie gumdrops!



Brownie bites and petit fours:



Several colors of clay candy canes - with just a dash of glitter:



Everything is so adorable, I can't wait to have a tree with just "sweets" next year! I think I'll do the mid size one that was all red & silver this year, and stands on my whimsical Dept. 56 table. I'm dying for this garland to tie it all together:



I'm really excited about it. I spent a couple hours last weekend carefully wrapping up each one and packing it away. I've always had a Candyland or Willy Wonka themed Halloween party on my list - and I about died when I saw THIS PARTY on Bakerella's blog.

I'm dying again just looking at it. Can you imagine the fabulousness?

The play bakery with the dozens of felt cupcakes are just mind blowing.

Of course, my dog would eat them, just as happily as real cupcakes.

But I'm still in love.