Piecaken, a Review

We made piecaken for Christmas.  For those of you who don't know what that is, its a pie baked inside a cake.  

So, was it worth it?  I personally think it wasn't.  I ended up realizing at the last second that my cake tin was too small to fit the giant pie I made and the cake batter so I had to shave off the edges of teh pie which was a big pain and a mess.  This caused the pie to leak into the cake.

Maybe if I had owned a bigger cake tin it would have been easier and tasted better, but either way it wasn't worth the effort in my opinion.  Honestly I think it would be better just to place some raspberry jam in the middle of the cake and then bake it.  Same effect, less mess.

Copycat Mystic Mint Cookies

My husband's family always had Mystic Mint cookies for Santa.  They don't exist anymore so my daughter and I dug up a recipe and this is our take on it...

Mystic Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

For Cookie dough:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped up and melted

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

For Peppermint Frosting:

5 cups powdered sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

6 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. peppermint extract

For Chocolate Drizzle:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

4 Tbsp. corn syrup

12 oz. dark chocolate chips

For cookies cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in microwave.  Add to eggs when cool.  Mix well, making sure to scrape bottom and sides of bowl.  Then add the flour and salt.  

On a greased cookie sheet add teaspoon fools of dough, try to form it into a vague shape of a ball.  Then smoosh down in a flat circular shape (think Thin Mints shape).  

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.  

For the Peppermint frosting mix all ingredients together until light and fluffy.  When the cookies are cool frost each cookie.

For the chocolate drizzle melt all ingredients on low in a small saucepan.  Drizzle onto peppermint frosting.  Enjoy!

My Holiday Menu

I love holiday baking.  Here is what we are eating this season.

Christmas Eve:

Every Christmas Eve we have a "Shepherd's dinner" which means we mind of eat what we think they would have eaten when the angel came.  We fudge this a little bit but mostly its things like: nuts, dried fruit, grape juice, dried meats, breads, crackers, and cheese.  We also dress up like shepherds.

My favorite thing is to melt Fontina, olive oil, and rosemary in the oven and eat it with good bread.  

Usually we end with fudge.  Here is my favorite recipe:  http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/fudge-smooth-as-silk/

Its tastes just like my mom's fudge but it never fails to turn out.

Christmas Morning:

We have really good chocolate milk and cinnamon rolls.  I make these the week before and freeze them so I don't have to bake any more than I have to on Christmas.

Christmas Dinner:

I would have ham, but my husband hates it so we have Thanksgiving dinner all over again with a few additions.

Turkey (with Alton Brown's brine)

Holiday Sweet Potatoes

3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

¼ cup milk

½ cup shredded coconut

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup margarine, melted

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup margarine, melted

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, coconut, salt, vanilla, and margarine.  Pour into greased 2 quart casserole dish.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Combine brown sugar, pecans, and margarine to make topping.  Sprinkle on sweet potato dish.  Bake for another 20 minutes until brown.

Serves 8

Mashed Potatoes and gravy

Rolls

Raspberry Salad

1 small pkg. Raspberry jello

3 oz. Cream cheese

          Dissolve jello in 1 c. hot water.  Combine cream cheese and dissolved jello in blender until smooth.  Add ½ c. cold water.  Let set up in refrigerator for about one hour.

Then add:

1 pkg. Thawed raspberries

1 pkg. Dream whip (whipped)

          Refrigerate until firm.

For dessert this year we are having a Raspberry Chocolate Piecaken.  
http://piecaken.blogspot.com/2013/11/raspberry-pie-nestled-in-flourless-dark.html

Easy Homemade Ornaments

We just made homemade ornaments. We usually make some every year.  These ones were easy.

Step One- Buy glass globes.  Walmart had them for a great price!  Found them in the craft section.

Step Two- Unwrap a few crayons (less colors the better) and break off a few small pieces.

Step Three- Insert crayon pieces in globe.

Step Four-  Hold globe in hand (use an oven mitt if you need to) and place a blow dryer on its hottest setting near wear the crayons are lying.

Step Five-  Move the globe around so the melting crayons cover the surface of the globe.  This will take a couple of minutes depending on how much you want covered.

Step Six- Shake out the crayon remnants if you can (we couldn't) and put the top back on.

The hardest part was the heat from the blow dryer.

 This one was a red, blue, and white crayon.

 This was an orange, red, and green crayon.

 This was done with green and purple crayons.

I used blue and white.  Forgive the no shower or make-up look.

My husband used red and green.  Those colors mixing turn to warm.  Warning!

Garlic Pasta

I didn't get a picture of this because we ate it too fast.  It was so quick and easy.  My husband loves garlic.

Garlic Pasta

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
8 ounces fettuccine
black pepper, dried oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes, to taste
1 cup finely chopped spinach

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the garlic and shallot and cook until translucent (about 2 minutes).

Add the chicken broth and milk.  Add salt and stir.  Add the dry pasta and gently stir until submerged in the liquid.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the pasta is al dente.  Add seasonings.  Throw in the spinach and serve.

You could also add cheese to this or other vegetables.

Crochet Baskets

I have gotten obsessed with crocheting baskets.  I found this Macrame yarn on clearance at Hobby Lobby and made these two baskets.  

 Then I used hemp rope and yarn together to crochet this...

 I'm giving it to my daughter for her jewelry because it doesn't all fit in her jewelry box.

This is how you crochet rope and yarn together.  Its a little tricky because sometimes you lose one of the strands.

 I twisted it together like it was one strand and make sure you pull both strands through each time.

Here is my favorite basket pattern:

Chain 3
1- 7 hdc in 3rd chain from hook.  Join with a slip stitch.  (8 hdc)
2- Chain 2, 2 hdc in each stitch.  Join with a slip stitch.  (16 hdc)
3- Chain 2, hdc in same sitch, 1 hdc in next stitch (2 hdc in next stitch, 1 hdc in next stitch) Join.  (24 hdc)
4-  Chain 2, hdc in same stitch, 1 hdc in next 2 stitches.(2 hdc in one stitch, 1 in next 2 stitches).  Join (23 hdc)
5- Chain 2, hdc in same stitch, 1 hdc in next 3 stitches.  (2 hdc in one stitch, 1 in next 3 stitches).  Join (40 hdc)
6- Chain 2, hdc in same stitch, 1 hdc in next 4 stitches.  (2 hdc in one stitch, 1 in next 4 stitches).  Join (48 hdc)
7- Chain 2, hdc in same stitch, 1 hdc in next 5 stitches.  (2 hdc in one stitch, 1 in next 5 stitches).  Join (56 hdc)

At this point you can stop or keep going depending on what circumference you want for you basket.
Just keep increasing by 1 stitch.  So the next would be 2 in one stitch, 1 in the next 6, etc.

When you have achieved the right circumference continue as follows:

8- Chain 1, sc in the front loops only all the way around (this will create a ridge).
9- Chain 1, sc in both loops all the way around.
Continue doing this until you have the height you want.

To finish you can have choose between two different handles.  In my first two baskets I did the two side handles

16- Sc in next 13 stitches (might have to adjust based on circumference), ch 10, skip next 10 stitches, sc in next 26 stitches, chain 10, skip next 10 stitches, sc in next 13 stitches.  Join.

17- Sc in next 13 stitches, 12 sc in each chain.  Sc in next 26 stitches, 12 sc in chain, sc in next 13 stitches.  Join and finish off.

Weave in ends.

OR

Chain the desired length of handle and count until half way from the start of your chain.  Join with a slip stitch into the half way point.  Then I single crocheted in each chain to make it thicker.

Preschool Party

My daughter is in a mother run preschool group and we had a Halloween party last week.  Here is what we did:

Ghost story/Craft

Tell a story about a mother ghost who goes to the store to get white food (ghosts only eat white food) and tells her children to not eat anything while she is gone.

The first ghost eats a strawberry and turns pink.

The second ghost eats a blueberry and turns blue.

The third ghost drinks orange juice and turns orange.

The fourth ghost eats broccoli and turns green.

The fifth ghost thinks if he eats ice cream that is white he will be fine but it was chocolate chip ice cream so he turns speckled.

The mother ghost come home, scolds her ghosts, and feeds them white food so they turn white again.

Then we colored plastic spoons so they could retell the story.

 Halloween dance party with instruments.

 Toilet paper mummies.

 Sugar cookie decorating.

 Pin the nose on the witch.

 Story time corner.

 We ended with musical rugs.  In my version you don't get out if you don't get a rug you have to share until all the kids are wedged onto one rug.

 The aftermath.