Mmmmmm, summer!!!

So what happens when a big old pile of these......

collides with a big old pile of these???

You get this???....   lol (sometimes I think I am funny)

OOOORRRRR toss in a few more ingredients and you get this......

.......mmmmmmmm.....

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

Ya, you know those yummy lemon bars floating around everywhere with the shortbread crust and delicious lemon filling sprinkled with icing sugar? This is them, but with a kick of strawberries! And they are yummy. Enough said!!

Want the recipe? I found it off Pinterest, the link is HERE!!!! Enjoy!

Lasagna Soup and more!

 I have said it before, but I love Our Best Bites. I don't think I have ever been disappointed by a recipe. Some of the ones that I have recently tried and feel the need to rave about are the Lasagna Soup (which we had for supper tonight) and the Baked Potato Soup (which I have made many times before but just recently had again).

 Also we recently tried the Guiltless Alfredo sauce on a pizza. We have had it on pasta before and it is SOOOO awesome and so easy to make! Branching out from dinners I also LOVE the Brazillian Lemonade. Which isn't even made with lemons but rather limes...and it is to die for! Seriously go buy some limes now....and make it! I wish I had pictures for each of these things, but just go check them out because their pictures are a million times better anyways!

 But I can share a few pictures with you of something else I made recently.....not food, but super cute!

 I am getting antsy waiting for this baby and I am not so mobile any more, so sitting on the couch crocheting is a good way to pass the time. I made the diaper cover first to match this little blue and cream hat.

Then I made this hat to match the diaper cover and other hat. 

I am in love with this little hat and want to make a few more. I am no photographer, and the lighting is bad...especially between the two hats. It's all done in the same color yarn. Navy blue and cream. I also still need to find a button for the diaper cover. I acquired the wood button as a single button, but would love to find something that matches it. I guess we will see. Might be a hard find!
I guess if nothing happens between now and Sunday, you will also be hearing about my 40 week mark. :)

More baking!

You may have guessed by now, but I love baking.....mostly because I love the end results. Christmas is the one time a year I can sort of justify mass amounts of homemade sugared goodies in my house! Mmmmm, the smell that goes along with it is almost as good as the taste. I just finished making my second batch of apple cider caramels, and with any luck they will turn out. I kind of botched mixing the ingredients, but I think I was able to sort it out! Lol, the first batch was perfect though, and I am still doing it all with a broken candy thermometer!

This is where my thermometer freezes EVERY time. It never  goes higher than 210˚!

I also tried making an English toffee recipe. This specific recipe didn't want you to use a candy thermometer, so I thought it would be perfect. Well, it didn't turn into the hard break apart toffee it was supposed to, but it was deliciously chewy, and Mike an I still downed the whole batch. Maybe I will try again, because I really love that crunch.
I also tried a new recipe that I found off Pinterest. These were a total hit! Chocolate Turtle Cookies. I took them to a Christmas party and they were thoroughly enjoyed, and the recipe was requested by many. Mike is already asking me to make more because they didn't last long. I doubled the recipe and used some of the extra dough to stick candy cane kisses into. I love the peppermint chocolate combo too!

I also made a delicious Peanut Butter Toblerone no-bake cheesecake. I made it last year and we loved it, so it made it onto this years baking list. I didn't get a picture of the one I made, but you can check out the recipe and what it looks like here.
I may end up baking another batch or two of cookies, and I will probably give that toffee one more shot, but other that that I am nearing the end of my crazy Christmas baking spree.
I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!! And a Happy New Year!

Baking.....

      I am in my groove for Christmas baking! I love this time of year for that! Mmmmmm, homemade goods make me happy. We have done some gingerbread Santas......Mason unfortunately couldn't figure out what they were. Ha ha, his guesses included ninjas and spacemen. Oh we'll, at least they tasted good.

       We also made up some sugar cookies, and I had fun decorating them with a glaze icing that is fun to make cool patterns with. I used this recipe last year and loved it, I still have extra dough and plan on making some more but decorating them differently.

      I should mention that my go to website for recipes these days is ourbestbites.com . I love their website. I have never had a bad recipe off it! The gingerbread cookie recipe can be found here. And the sugar cookie recipe can be found here. They also have lots of different ideas for decorating all your cookies. The glaze/flood icing is also found on their website!
      Though this isn't specifically a Christmas dessert....I made it in the midst of my Christmas baking so it gets entered here. I had a few very over ripe bananas that needed to be used up, and I couldn't resist trying this recipe. The name alone makes it sound irresistible. Caramelized Banana Bread with a Browned Butter Glaze. Ummmm yes, I will take some please! I don't know if you have ever had "browned butter" anything, but it is amazing. I never knew butter could smell so good. This recipe didn't disappoint either. It is nice and moist and rich and the glaze is a perfect extra! The recipe for this can be found here.

I still have lots and lots of recipes that I want to try out. And some favorites from last year. I will for sure be making the Apple Cider caramels that I made last year. And I have a whole stash of recipes on pinterest that I am excited to try! I am sure there will be more posts about it all in the next couple weeks.

Extra Dough?

Do you ever have a bunch of extra cash lying around that you just don't know what to do with? Ya....me neither!!! :) But sometimes I do have extra dough....as in pizza dough!

I feel like I have a bit of a gem of a recipe and it is only fair to share it right? This pizza dough whips up so quickly I don't know why anyone would use another one. And it is good too! I have had this recipe book for a long time.....I don't even remember exactly where I got it from but it has some great recipes in it. The recipe book is called Back to Family Time.

I couldn't even tell you where to get a copy. But I will share with you a recipe from it. You can tell a cookbook is well loved when it practically falls open to the right page. And just so you can see how loved this book is.....

take a good look at that! That was always how I knew to find the good recipes in my mom's cookbook! The pages were well worn and often had oil spots!

But back to the actual recipe. It is seriously so easy!

Pizza Dough

In a medium bowl combine the following ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. instant yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

Add:

2 tbsp oil

1 cup warm water

Mix this up with a sturdy spoon and incorporate a little flour at a time while kneading to make a smooth ball. Roll out dough to fit your greased pizza pan or cookie sheet. Allow to rise in a warmed oven for 10-15 min. Place desired toppings on crust.

Bake for 15-20 min at 375˚F.

A few notes about this recipe. The dough is okay to be a little sticky still, too much flour will make for a denser drier dough. I like my dough to hold its shape but be a little sticky because it makes the dough really light and fluffy when baked. This will make enough dough for one round pizza pan or a really thin crust on a regular cookie sheet. The recipe also doubles really easy and this is where I have extra dough....I do it on purpose!! After you have devoured your pizza you can use extra dough to make this........

Heaven I tell ya!!

I divide the extra dough into 2 equal portions. Then roll them out into circles. On one layer I spread some melted butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon and white sugar. I place the other layer of dough over top and seal edges. Then spread a little more melted butter and cinnamon and sugar over the top. You can use your judgement here on how much butter and cinnamon

and sugar you use.....I won't tell if you use a lot....

Now to get the pretty twists use a pizza cutter or a knife and make slits in the dough (but not all the way to the center) around the pizza. So it looks like a sun. Twist each section 2-3 times and then bake it in the oven for 10-15 min. This needs less time than the pizza because you only need to cook the dough not all the toppings.

When it comes out of the oven drizzle with a glaze made of icing sugar and milk and then devour warm!!! It's good cooled too, not that it usually lasts that long!

Tres Leches Cake

So I said I would do another post about Mikes cake.....I had every intention of doing it the very next day....but suddenly I turn around and over 10 days have passed! I am not sure where all of January went...but it is almost gone!!

So for Mikes birthday I wanted to do a special cake for him. I always like doing special cakes for birthdays. I have played around with fondant a bit and this was his cake a couple years ago.

Yup his 26th birthday!!

I do not claim do be a fondant professional....but I enjoy doing it. This was probably only my second cake...so don't look to close at the imperfections!! Mike asked for a fondant cake again this year....but I told him I had something else in mind.

When we went down to Mexico last January Mike couldn't get enough of this one cake. He didn't know what it was called so he called it water cake....because is was sooooo moist. He ate multiple pieces every day!

I had to get a picture of him enjoying his favorite dessert!

So imagine my delight when I came across a recipe on pinterest for Tres Leches Cake. I figured this had to be it! I was going to keep it a surprise from Mike, but I also didn't want to disappoint him when he didn't see a fondant cake. So I also asked him what fruit he would like to have served on top. He picked 2 fruits I wouldn't have thought of so I was glad I asked him. We topped it with kiwi and pomegranate This was the finished product! It was a huge success. Mike loved it and that was what I was hoping for. I would definitely make this again! Thank goodness for pinterest!!!

It was super yummy...like REALLY SUPER yummy!!

The reason it is called Tres Leches Cake is because after you bake and cool the cake you poke it with holes and pour a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, evaported milk and heavy cream over top. That is what makes it so moist, but not soggy!!! If you wanted to give if a try the recipe is pinned from this site! I hope you enjoy it too!

Miracle Moment!!

It really was a miracle that my caramels turned out!! It was all too late when I realized that my candy thermometer (brand new I might add) was definitely not working!

I first saw this recipe on pinterest. My mouth was watering when I saw it! Apple Cider Caramels! Come on, that is like candy apple with out having to gnaw on the apple!!

I also happen to LOVE caramel apple ciders from Starbucks!! YUMMY!!

When I went to the website I found out that the recipe actually came from one of my other favorite sites, Our Best Bites, which you should totally check out if you haven't already!

This was my very first batch of caramels ever! I had read and re-read the recipe, it didn't sound too hard! Just had to make sure you got it to the right temperature!

But I knew something was wrong when that thermometer

wasn't going any higher than 200˚F!!!

It would get close and then drop, then close again and then drop!

If any of you have made candy you know there isn't a lot of time to stop and consult the internet for other methods to check your candy's readiness! So I went way over to the farthest corners of my brain and tried to remember what I had seen my mother doing.....like ages ago!!

Something was ringing a bell about a glass of cold water and being able to roll a ball with the candy! I don't know how many times I dropped candy into that water, but finally I had success! I poured it into my pan and let them set!

They turned out better than I could have expected! Soooo good! Unless you have someone standing over your shoulder snapping pictures as you go...its hard to get pictures of the process....so you just get to look at the delicious aftermath!