Friday, September 2, 2011

Kitchens

Just a little eye candy today "Kitchen Envy" from my pinterest notebook. Enjoy the weekend.
This is on my to-do list! I LOVE this personalized caddy
Remember to add flowers and fruit

An inexpensive table & chairs can look great if done right

Same table & chairs...different look

Are you brave enough for that back splash?

Again, revamp your kitchen with flowers and fruit
All great kitchens have french doors

Beautiful lantern and a herringbone patterned floor...LOVE

On my wish list: 2 upholstered wing chairs for the dining table!
 Images found here

Monday, August 29, 2011

MUST TRY RECIPES

My Currant Favorite
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars



Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:
10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8" square baking pan with parchment paper or foil allowing a little overhang and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Leave your oven on while you prepare the dough.
3. While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Using your hand to form clumps, distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Be sure to use all of the dough.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Chill in refrigerator overnight or for at least a couple hours.
6. Lift the bars out by the overhang and cut into squares for serving.

Source:  very slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction
(get the printable recipe here)

They were AMAZING!



Mini Snickers Caramel Cheesecakes


2 c. chopped Snickers Bars
2 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbl. granulated sugar
5 Tbl. melted butter
2 8oz packages softened cream cheese
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbl. pure vanilla
3 Tbl. caramel sauce


**The original recipe suggests making these in a  muffin top pan, but I used a mini muffin tin pan and they worked fine!  If you are using a regular muffin tin, use a little bit less than 1/4 c. when you are pouring the filling into each tin so they don't overflow.**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place chopped Snickers Bars into a bowl, set aside for now. Place graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter into a mixing bowl to combine. Spoon a couple spoonfuls of crumbs into each section of the muffin pan and press down and up the sides. Bake for 5-6 minutes or just until browned. Remove from oven.
In a stand or electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined, scraping sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in caramel sauce until well combined. Pour about 1/4 c. of cheesecake mixture over each baked crust then top evenly with chopped Snickers. Bake for 23-26 minutes or until cheesecake edges are just starting to brown and centers are nearly set. Remove and let cool completely. While still warm, loosen all edges with a plastic knife to make for easier removal from pan. Refrigerate once cooled then top with caramel sauce and whipped cream to serve!

12 individual cheesecakes
Source 



Always a Fall Favorite!
 PUMPKIN COOKIES WITH CARMEL FROSTING

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Frosting
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, sift together the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
 
To make frosting: In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cream, and brown sugar over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture just begins to boil; remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool then stir in confectioner's sugar.  Spread frosting over cooled cookies.
 
Let's Dish
The frosting is the star of these cookies, and it's a nice change from the cream cheese frosting that often accompanies pumpkin desserts (I love that version too, though).  Really, they're more like little pumpkin cakes. They're so moist, I've left them out on the counter overnight and they were still fantastic the next day.  These don't flatten much during baking, and the dough is a bit sticky to flatten it before baking.  I flatten mine slightly with the bottom of a glass just as they come out of the oven.  Once they're frosting, no one knows!  This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies.
 
Who Dished It Up First
Adapted from allrecipes.com

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE 


My Kids Love These!
 BACK TO SCHOOL PIZZA PUFFS

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
  • 4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup)
  • 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced 


Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
  2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining 1 tablespoon basil. Serve the puffs and red pepper slices with the pizza sauce for dipping.

    NOTE: All my batter did not fit into the 24-mini muffin pan. So I made a full size muffin with the leftover batter. Some pans are larger than others so you may not have have an issue.


 

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Fellow Bloggers

I found this picture awhile back and pinned this to my Pinterest folder marked "Family Photo Ideas" HERE (I will be explaining Pinterest soon) And a few days ago I found the blog this picture belongs to
 Written by Cherish a local mom and D.I.Y.er! What a cute blog and Cherish is very down to earth. She has some great pictures on her site like these new ones I found and will be adding to my folder of "Family Photo Ideas"   
How Cute!
Adorable

Great Location
Some great recipe links HERE

A cute silhouette project HERE
See what she's doing Today Kiwi Freckles

   

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

POTATO PANCAKES

AKA: Latkes or Latkas
From the dining tables of France to the farm tables of almost every country in the world, potato pancakes make a great breakfast dish or a side for any meal.



If you have no left-over mashed potatoes on hand, start by mashing some freshly boiled ones or using ones of your favorite mashed potato mixes.

4 cups cold mashed potatoes
2 large eggs
1/2 package real bacon bits or leftover bacon, crumbled
2 tablespoons chives
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the two eggs until the yokes and whites are thoroughly mixed.

Add the mashed potatoes, salt and pepper and stir until the ingredients are combined into a smooth batter.

Add the bacon bits and chives and stir again until thoroughly mixed.

Cover the bottom of a large skillet with cooking oil and heat on high. Place dollops of the batter in the skillet and let spread until they form pancakes about four inches in diameter.

Fry until the cakes are firm. Turn them and cook on the other side. The pancake should be golden brown.

They should be accompanied by bowls of apple sauce and sour cream for tasty toppings. Serves four.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

1500 ELLE DEE DESIGNS WINNER

 It's time to announce the winner of  Lani's 1500 Elle Dee Designs giveaway contest......
  She was looking to hit just over 1500 fans and ended up with 1750 fans over 40 vendors (like myself) and how about this number 5650 entries!!! Which she had to verify each one....WOW!!  

And the winner of our VINTAGE EGG BEATERS TEA TOWEL is  Hennley Sah of Port Melbourne AUSTRALIA
Congrats Hennley!! This is headed your way.
In case your were wondering which part of Australia also(bottom right)

Monday, August 15, 2011

Trash to Treasure


I absolutely love the endorphin rush I get from finding something no one wanted and transforming it into my own little gem!

This time the credit goes to my daughter. Awhile back we had one of those trash day pickups the city sponsors and everyone puts their trash to the curb for pickup...well my daughter must really pay close attention to me. On this day she came running in to me extremely excited to announce that the neighbor had put out a mirror and she was sure it was exactly what I have been wanting. To say I completely ignored her would be close, I think I said something to the tune of "I will look in a little bit". If you knew my daughter you would know she has a mind of her own and decided that would simple not do...So she retrieved the mirror herself and ran it in to me.

OMG!! I jumped up and down with her! She finally got the response she was looking for. I went outside to see if there was any more treasure to discover in my neighbors pile, only to see two trucks pull up taking the rest of the pile. And it hit me if she had not taken over.......
I WOULD NOT HAVE THIS.

                                         My New Mirror
And here is what we decided to do with our fabulous find...
 

First we took it apart


Gave it 2 coats of gloss white

Turned the mirror over and spayed the back with chalkboard paint

Let dry
                                                                                                                 

         


What do you think?



Now where are we hanging it? Seriously....not sure?


Maybe something like this!

Or we could repaint it?

Or use it outside?

 
Here is one I found for you online from Shabbymcfabby for $149.00 HERE

A great big "THANK YOU" to my daughter and my neighbor Lorie!! 
  















                                                                                         picture sources