"Hawaiian" fruit dip

I was invited to a Hawaiian themed birthday party a few weeks ago and spent some time googling trying to come up with something clever to bring. I came across this recipe in a About.com answer and although I was unsure there was really anything "Hawaiian" about it, thought it sounded pretty tasty. And it was! This is definitely something I'll keep on hand during the summer when our house is over run with fruit. It comes together really quickly and adds an unexpected lime pop to fresh fruit.

Hawaiian Fruit Dip
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice, undrained
1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1 lime

Combine milk, sour cream, and pudding mix; whisk until smooth.
Stir in pineapple and coconut.
Zest lime to measure 1 teaspoon zest; juice lime to measure 1 teaspoon juice.
Stir both into dip.
Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.
To toast coconut, preheat oven to 350º; spread coconut onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.
Serve with fresh sliced fruits.

Amazing Carrot Cake

Last Saturday was Dimples' birthday, and as is tradition, I needed to make an awesome cake. Last year, much to my dismay, he requested funfetti (what adult wants a funfetti cake for their birthday?!). This year he requested carrot cake.

I was a little nervous because I've never made a carrot cake before, but I knew Dimples' aunt had an awesome recipe, so I emailed her to request it.



I multiplied the recipe 1.5 so I could have three layers of deliciousness. I didn't quite have enough frosting, so I had to make do. a This really is the best carrot cake I've ever had!



Cake



2 cups sugar

1 cup corn oil

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup canned drained unsweetened crushed pineapple

3 cups packed grated peeled carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. butter 2 9 inch cake pans with 2 inch high sides. Line pans with waxed paper. Beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Sift flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt into sugar mixture. Beat to blend. Puree pineapple in processor until smooth. Add to batter. Stir in carrots, walnut and coconut. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer to racks. Cool 15 minutes. Cut around sides of pan to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks. Remove waxed paper. Cool cakes completely.



Cream Cheese Frosting



2- 8 ounce packages of cream cheese

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract



Beat cream cheese and butter in medium bowl until smooth. Sift powdered sugar into mixture. Beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over top. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting in swirls over top and sides of cake. Chill until firm, about 1 hour. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover, chill. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.



So, happy birthday hun! I'm looking forward to making you many more birthday cakes :)

Where the magic happens

Or where it will happen, at least :) Yesterday Dimples and I took a trip to IKEA with one purpose: the Expedit Bookshelf and desk combo. I'd originally seen it on Young House Love's basement makeover, and have been obsessed with having it for my own ever since. Finally I think my husband got fed up with having my sewing machine on the dining table and scraps everywhere, and asked if I was ready for my desk!

So, here's a look at my new craft space in the corner of my guest room. I promise to make recovering my bench my next project :)


I love it so and I can't wait to use it (all of the time!). The workspace is HUGE! It's already a little too cluttered for my liking, but that's the hazard of a craft space. I can't believe I had all of this stuffed into two boxes in a closet for all this time.

What does your craft space look like?

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Recently, after forgetting to purchase bread for a dinner I rediscovered my good old hand me down bread machine. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it!

I'd seen the blog Grocery Cart Challenge mention these bread machine butter rolls a few times, and one day I decided that they sounded really good. I was looking for easy snacks to take to works, and Gayle makes a batch and freezes them, which I thought was a great idea.

These were really easy to make. too easy, almost. And so, so good! The only bad thing about them is that we ate almost the whole batch that night and didn't have any left to freeze. I'm pretty sure that's disgusting of us, but these are really that good! I made them again for my husband's birthday party, and everyone loved them.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees F.)
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. In bread machine pan, put all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer.
2. Select dough setting.
3. When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface.
4. Divide dough into 24 portions.
5. Shape dough into balls.
6. Place in a greased 13 inch by 9 inch baking pan.
7. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes
   
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe originally from Recipe Zaar.

Floral shirt

I'm really excited to share this shirt. For once I've actually made something that I will wear! In public! Squee!

Okay, enough of that.

This shirt started out life as two white shirts. both of them I wore often and one just wasn't white enough anymore, so I banished it to the rag bag. The other I was wearing to work last week when I spilled coffee down the front of it. I don't want to talk anymore about that.

After seeing such cute flowery/ruffly tops repurposed from other shirts at Hope Studios and Tea Rose Home, I decided to give my tired white shirts a second chance.

I found the tutorial for the flowers at Tea Rose Home, but I just made circles instead of the heart shape.

Then I purchased an inexpensive fabric dye and dyed the "new" shirt in a pot on my stove.


I'm in love. Probably just because i'm ridiculously proud of myself, but that's cool too.

Total cost for my "new" shirt: $1.66 (for the dye). Not bad!

Peach Berry Pie

I promised this recipe long ago, during the summer months when peaches were aplenty. Somehow, I forgot to post it! Ooops, well, bookmark it for next summer gals, because it's a winner. I loved this pie!
I loved to make this pie with local peaches and berries from the fruit stands that dot the highway out here. Score one for country livin', y'all. The produce is awesome.

First, I make my mom's super easy pie crust, recipe here.

Then, the filling:

4 cups fresh peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced
1 cup fresh berries
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 teas ground cinnamon
2 tbs butter cut into pieces

Place peaches and berries into a colander to drain for 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and toss in sugar, flour and cinnamon. Pour into prepared (not cooked) pie crust and put butter pieces on top of mixture. Top with crust. Bake 45 minutes at 400.

If you want your pie crust to be super pretty you can brush it with egg white and sprinkle with course sugar. I've made this pie both with the lattice crust top and a solid crust top, and it's delicious either way!

I have no idea where I got this recipe from, I scribbled it on a sticky note ages ago, but it's very easy and definitely a summer favorite!

Birthday Banner

My MIL turned 50 this March, and I offered to help with the decorations. FIL wanted to do the traditional black "you're SO OLD" decor, and I got to do all the shopping (yay!). For some reason nobody had black or black and white Happy Birthday banners. Even the party stores! They'd have all of this over the hill black and white stuff...and then a rainbow colored banner. Fail.

I remembered seeing this adorable birthday banner on Life in the Fun Lane and I decided to attempt my own.
I used Holly's fabulous tutorial, except instead of staining the paper with coffee I printed the letters on a gray background of swirls and flowers, and used black poster board for the larger circles.

I was thrilled with how it turned out! (I think I'm always thrilled with my crafts...oh well!) It was a change from the boring foil banners and it looked classy and frilly and pretty. I love it. I also curled the leftover ribbon ends after hanging, so they weren't just dangling there.

From start to finish this took me two episodes of The King of Queens, so about an hour, and cost me almost nothing. I paid 50 cents for the poster board, $1 for the crepe paper (which I used half a roll of-and it came with two rolls) and I already had everything else. Not bad for an hour of craftiness and .75 cents!

Sorry for the crummy photos! In hindsight I should not have taken them against a gray wall on a dark, gray rainy day. oh well, Holly's photos are awesome and you get the point!

Pina Colada Cake

Awhile back I came across a recipe for a pina colada cake on a cooking board, but foolishly didn't save the link. When it came time to think of a dessert for Easter this was the first thing that popped into my head. I tried googling for a recipe, but everything I found called for creme of coconut (what IS that?!) or Rum, neither of which was on the original recipe that I saw. So I came up with my own.

Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
8 oz can of crushed pineapple
1/2 C. shredded coconut

Prepare cake mix according to instructions on box, mix in crushed pineapple (I drained most of the juice and saved it for later) and coconut. Bake according to directions on Box. After removing from oven pour reserved pineapple juice over cake and let soak in. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting I made a combination whipped cream/cream cheese frosting, and I was so happy with how it turned out. It was delicious!

Frosting (recipe modified from Allrecipes.com)
1 box cream cheese
1.5 cups whipped cream (I made the real stuff-no cool whip :)
1/2 c. coconut
1/8 teas salt
1 teas vanilla extract
1 c. white sugar (I used granulated and it wasn't gritty at all)
2 oz. crushed pineapple

Use a mixer to cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla, salt, coconut and crushed pineapple and mixed well. Fold in whipped cream.

garnish (optional)
Lots of shredded coconut (all said I used an entire bag for this cake), some toasted.
maraschino cherries

I almost didn't want to add the coconut after I frosted it because I thought it looked pretty enough already, but it had to survive an hour and a half trip in the car so I'm glad I added it, it helped it stand up to the foil wrapped around it and we got there with only minor damage :)

winner!

I won something you guys! I'm super duper excited as this is the first time I've won anything since....I was 11 and I won a Christian music CD from the radio. This is way cooler.

CookiesandCups hosted the giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to GreenPartyGoods.com. I'm way too excited about it. I plan to load up on super cute cupcake wraps, liners and carrying boxes.

Thanks Cookiesandcups! I will never be without adorable liners again.

Fun birthday Craft

Many of my nieces and nephew are at the age where gift buying is HARD, but who doesn't like getting money? My Nephew turned 12 this year, and I decided that I was going to make his gift of Money a little more fun.

I took 25 crisp one dollar bills (straight from the bank) and taped them end to end with cheap tape (cheap so it peeled off easier). Every 5 bills I taped in a note like "Will it never end!?!?!?!". Then I rolled the whole shebang up and put it in a wrapped box with a slit in the top (I used a sudafed box, and I wrapped it first leaving on side open to insert the money into)

My nephew thought this was hilarious! We were cracking up the whole time. It really turned a dull gift into something exciting :)

Berry Limeade Cupcakes

On Friday I was considering making cupcakes as an excuse to use these adorable new liners I bought, but I wasn't so sure it'd be a good idea being alone with 2 dozen cupcakes all weekend. Then my Mom called me and asked me to make a dessert for a family gathering on Saturday, perfect timing, and perfect excuse.
So I searched a few of my favorite blogs for a white cupcake (because chocolate would have hidden the designs of my cute liners. Is that superficial of me? Oh well!) and I found these amazing looking Cherry Limeade Cupcakes from Annies Eats. And the best part: I had all of the ingredients on hand except the cherry juice, but I did have frozen berries so that was an easy substitute. Score!

I am very happy with how these came out, I think they're just adorable. And, as a bonus, they were pretty easy (although very messy) to make. A tip, don't fill up the cupcake well 3/4 of the way like you would for a rounder cupcake. You want these to be sort of flat and end below the wrapper so the glaze has somewhere to go.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

For the lime syrup:
3/4 cup limeade concentrate
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting:
3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tbsp. (or more) maraschino cherry juice (I used frozen mixed berries, pureed in the mini chopper)
red food coloring (optional)

For decorating (optional):
fresh lime slices
maraschino cherries

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed. Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack over wax paper to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, whisk together the limeade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lime syrup. Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in.

To make the frosting, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth. Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture. Add red food coloring if desired.

Frost cooled cupcakes. Garnish with lime slices and maraschino cherries, if desired.

Source: From Annies Eats, adapted from Baking Up Chaos

So...go make these now!

Crochet baby hat....with ears!

I've seen these adorable knitted/crocheted hats all over the interwebs, but since I have no patience to follow a crochet pattern (anyone else get lost in ch.1 dhc. dc. sl. in 1. turn and repeat from *. What??) I had to wing it. I like winging it. And the great thing about really fuzzy yarn like this is that you can't see if I made any mistakes. As a semi new crocheter, I love that!
But, I'll put my pattern here just for you, in case you are fluent in crochet. Actually, in case you are fluent in my short hand, because that's what my pattern is in.

Tiny (newborn size) baby hat with ears
ears
ch. 5, dbl ch in 3rd ch from loop, dbl ch in each ch. Tie off and leave about 5 inches of yarn. Make two.

hat
ch. 5, join with sl st.

row 1
dbl ch. in each st, join with sl st. turn.

row 2
2 single stitch, dbl ch in each st, join with sl st. Turn

row 3
2 single stitch, dbl ch in first ch, 2 dbl chain in next. repeat this pattern around and join with sl st

rows 4-8 (or however big you want the hat. mine has no brim, but you could easily add more rows to create a brim)
ch 2, dbl chain in each stitch, working in 2 double chains at every 10th st. join rows with sl. stitch

Once you've finished the hat, you sew the ears on using the extra 5 inches of yarn that you left at the begging.

Hope my short hand works for you! I love how this little bugger turned out, and it only took me a few minutes to make. I see many more of these in my future!

Jalapeno Cheese Bread

Sometimes a vegetable or two will end up in my crisper without being designated for a meal (I'm sure that happens to everyone. Right? right??). This week I had three lonely jalapenos with nowhere to go.
The other day I came across (another) beautiful cooking blog, Homemade by Holman, and what do you know, there was the most perfect recipe that called for the exact amount of jalapeno I had. It was meant to be.
This Cheddar Jalapeno Bread is easy to make and comes out beautifully, colorful, moist and tast-ay! We loved it, and I definitely think this will be the new chili partner in my house. I can't wait to make it with fresh jalapenos and peppers from the garden.
I made one alteration to the recipe, I had this delicious smoky chipotle cheese, and I used that instead of regular cheddar. mmmmm!

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread
Recipe adapted from Pink Parsley, originally from Savory Baking

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup milk (I used skim)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
1/2 cup green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup roasted red pepper, diced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8" x 4" loaf pan with baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, pepper, salt, and cheese. Toss together and make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine milk, oil, and egg and whisk together. Pour mixture into well in center of flour and stir mix together lightly with a wooden spoon. Add peppers and stir just until dry ingredients are all combined. The batter should be lumpy. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.


Bake bread for approximately 45 minutes until golden brown. Bread should spring back when touched. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, run a knife around all sides and turn out of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.


Also, you'll want to go check Homemade by Holman's photos, as mine don't do this pretty bread justice. We cut into it while it was still hot so it didn't cut so well. But boy howdy was it delicious.

Shamrocks and gold! Cookies, that is.

Okay, so my adorable husband thought my "gold" cookies were lemons, but hey, I don't spend a lot of time around leprechaun gold so I did the best I could. This is only my third attempt at Royal Icing and I'm loving working with it more and more every time I try it.
I used my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe from A Year in The Kitchen and the Royal icing recipe and tips from Annies Eats. I'm sure I'll never need another sugar cookie or icing recipe, as this is a most delicious combo (which usually isn't the case for highly decorated cookies).

I tried sprinkling sugar on a few, and I liked the look, but my poor arms were tired (and it was nearly 11pm) so I gave up. Those sprinkled ones went the fastest, though. People love sparkles! Also my pictures were taken at 6 am. That has nothing to with anything...I just wanted to share because the beginning of daylight savings is coming and with it comes the end of me being coherent at 6am!

Irish Soda Bread

I had a small carton of buttermilk that I needed to use and I was trying to think of something clever to make (it was originally intended for red velvet cake, but then I suffered from a case of valentine goody burn out...) Fortunately, allrecipes.com came to the rescue and I found this recipe for Irish Soda Bread, very appropriate for this month!
I've never even had Irish Soda Bread, let alone made it from scratch, so I was surprised that there was no soda in- just baking powder. But I trusted the recipe and I'm glad I did, it's delicious!

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon caraway seed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Beat eggs with buttermilk. Add the eggs and buttermilk into the flour mixture; stir in raisins.
3. Pour dough onto lightly floured board. Shape into a round loaf, adding flour if necessary. Place in a lightly greased springform pan. Sprinkle top with caraway seeds if desired.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I didn't have a springform pan, so I just shaped it into a round shape and baked it on a cookie sheet. I did pull it out of the oven about 20 minutes in to brush the top with butter. Mmmm. butter.

I will definitely be making this simple but tasty sweet bread again in a few weeks to go with my corned beef! (no cabbage, though! blech!)