Gingerbread, A Family Tradition

There are some things about Christmas that bring back memories from my childhood. Certain smells, a special song, or an ornament placed on the tree. It is amazing how these things can bring the memories back into our thoughts as clear as the day we lived them. I want my children to have similar memories when they are grown and look back on our family Christmases.

One specific memory I have is making gingerbread houses with my grandmother. She made the gingerbread from scratch, warm in the oven as we walked in the door and smelling like Christmas. Then we would look at the kitchen table covered in goodies like gumdrops, cinnamon dots, tiny candy canes, and every color of sprinkles a kid could dream of. We constructed the gingerbread house together, taking hours to decorate every nook and cranny of the house.

Then later in life my first date with my husband was decorating gingerbread houses. He was blown away by my decoration skills.

Now that I have children of my own we began the gingerbread tradition, making the dough together, rolling it out, and cutting little gingerbread men and women with green cookie cutters. We decorated the people and trees with raisins and cinnamon dots. The kids loved making little men and women, giving each of their cut outs names and telling a story of where they have been. Then while the cookies were baking the kids sat by the oven exclaiming how wonderful the kitchen smelled and how they couldn't wait to taste their gingerbread people. While we waited we read the book, "The Gingerbread Man." I think this is a tradition that will be carried on for years to come.

Gingerbread Recipe:

Beat together:
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup molasses
6 Tbls softened butter

Sift into a big bowl:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice

Add butter mixture to flour mixture and beat until well blended. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick on floured surface. Cut using your cookie cutter or form into squares for a gingerbread house. Decorate your cookies with raisins, sprinkles, or other cookie supplies. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes (should be slightly firm to the touch for softer cookies). Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

I love baking. I used to bake a lot when I was in college. Cookies, pies, whatever, then deliever them to friends in the apartments in my area. Now that I am married and my husband doesn't eat a lot of sweets I rarely bake (at least not the way I used to). However recently I have gotten back into baking especially breads. Homemade bread is probably the best food on earth in my book. The house smells delicious and there are so many ways to make healthy options for my family.

I made rolls on Sunday for Easter and used the leftover dough to make cinnamon rolls this week. Not exactly healthy but DELICIOUS. Do you want to know my secret to the gooiest cinnamon rolls?

Start with a basic sweet roll dough. There are tons of recipes out there. Roll it out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Now spread melted butter over the entire rectangle (about 1/4 cup). Next spread corn syrup over the entire rectangle (about 1/4 cup). Finish with a coating of cinnamon and sugar, you can do these separate or use the mixed stuff I get from Costco. Begin rolling your dough lifting it as you roll to prevent ooozing and keeping all the good stuff in the roll. Once you get to the end take the end of the dough and lift it up over the roll and place it on top. This seals in your googey middle. Cut the roll into 1/2 inch pieces and place them in a greased casserole dish. Let the cinnamon rolls rise for about 3o min to 1 hour. Bake them at 375 degrees for about 20-25 min until golden on the top. Finish the cinnamon rolls off with cream cheese frosting (recipe below). EAT THEM WARM AND ENJOY A LITTLE SWEETNESS.

Cream cheese frosting:
-4 Tbls cream cheese softened
-4 Tbls butter
-1-2 lbs powerdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla

Whip the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Add the vanilla and slowly mix in the powdered sugar until it is the consistency you like.

Spring Theme Baby Shower

I love baby showers. There are so many options for themes and games. Pinterest is addictive when it comes to these ideas, haha. I am actually a person that is for a baby shower no matter what number that child is in the new mom's life. Maybe not necessarily for the gifts but to celebrate a new life and give the mom to be a little love to let her know she is beautiful and special. I recently had the privilege of throwing a shower for a new mom in my ward at church. I didn't really know her at the time but she was really quiet and I figured I would ask. This was her first baby and she was SOO GRATEFUL for the gesture. So the planning began. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, since she didn't know the gender of the baby I thought neutral spring theme. Fun. Here is what I came up with:

The Decor:
Petal Lanturns from Martha Stewart

I actually used roll on glue instead of tape and it made the process go a lot faster.

Thrift store vases that I spray painted with Daisy's

A charger and old vase, spray painted and glued together to create a cake stand.

Simple chevron stripes in grey and white throughout the house.

The FOOD:

Vegetable Pizza. This is a family favorite that I make every Christmas for our annual appetizer night.

Crock pot meatballs. Frozen meatballs from Costco thrown into a crock pot. Cover them with a jar of grape jelly and a jar of chili sauce. Cook for at least 2.5 hours. Another family favorite.


Fruit tray with Orange Cream dip Curried Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce

And finish it off with bar cookies, raspberry lemonade, and chocolate covered strawberries.

We all had a great time and it was fun to celebrate someone who truly deserved it.

Mardi Gras Spaghetti

I meant to post this last Tuesday but something silly was happening with my computer and I was not able to use Blogger. 

My daughter is an extremely picky eater but she didn't hesitate for a second when I gave her purple spaghetti!  The green sauce was also exciting for her.

I didn't have purple food coloring so I mixed red and blue.

Just add the color directly to your water before adding the pasta.

Boil your pasta and a few minutes later you have purple spaghetti!

The sauce was quick and easy too.  I used a jar of white sauce because I wasn't sure how the dye would do in red sauce.

I added some green food coloring and stirred until the color was mixed evenly.

Perfect festive Mardi Gras Spaghetti!

Remember you can turn your pasta other colors too.  Great trick for the picky eater!

I'm linking this post here.

 

Easy Valentine's Day Snacks

Looking for some quick and easy ways to make fun Valentine's Day snacks?  We recently hosted a Valentine's party for my daughter's play group.  I wasn't up to making time consuming goodies but I did manage to turn some easy snacks into "love food" for our party.  I purchased a set of heart cookie cutters from Target and used them on easy food items.

I put out a tray of deli meat and cheese along with peanut butter and jelly to accompany our heart shaped bread.  It was the perfect sandwich spread for our party.

I used the same heart cookie cutter to shape some brownies.  Conversation hearts brightened up the brownies.

A different heart cookie cutter transformed the jello jigglers into a fun addition to our desserts!

Have fun putting together some fun Love Day snacks!

 

Chinese BBQ Pork

Need a good appetizers for that New Year's Party you plan on attending? This recipe is delicious and always a crowd pleaser. Super easy yet impressive. Chinese BBQ Pork. There is a bit of preparation but it pays off with taste and flavor.

Here is what you need:

1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbls red food coloring
1 Tbls cinnamon
2 green onions halved
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices pork tenderloin

Instructions:
Trim fat from the meat. In a large plastic zip lock (gallon size) combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, honey, food coloring cinnamon, onion and garlic. Add the meat and turn to coat completely. Place in the refrigerator overnight turning the meat occasionally. Reserve the marinade.

Place the meat on a cookie sheet (I put foil onto the cookie sheet for easy cleaning). Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees basting every 15 minutes with the reserved marinade. The pork will no longer be pink when done.

Remove from oven and slice into thin pieces. Then serve with Chinese mustard and sesame seeds.

Father's Day Grill Cupcakes

Tonight I came across some pictures of the fun grill cupcakes we made at a family barbecue last year.  My brother and his girlfriend helped me decorate the cupcakes and my dad thought they were great!  These would be perfect for Father's Day! 

We had a lot of fun making these together!

The idea came from Disney's Family Fun magazine (go here to see the easy instructions).

 

Wow Summer Treat

Here is a yummy summer treat that is both healthy and fun. Smoothie pops. My kids love them and they love to make them. It is basically just a smoothie recipe that I make all the time (my kids LOVE smoothies) that I put into dixie cups and stuck a Popsicle stick in the center. Then I put them in the freezer for about an hour. Once they are done freezing I rip off the dixie cup and the kids enjoy a creamy frozen treat.

Here is the smoothie recipe. It is not exact but you will get the main idea.

-frozen fruit. I like frozen strawberries, or the mixes you get from Costco
-juice. I like to use V8 fusions because it has both fruit and veggies in it
-fat free 1/2 and 1/2
-yogart. I use either vanilla or flavored to give it a little sweetness.
-1 scoop of vanilla protein powder.

Put the frozen fruit in the bottom of the blender. Add the yogart and protein powder. Pour in juice until it covers about half the fruit. Pour in 1/2 and 1/2 to cover the fruit. Mix it all up.

You can eat it just like this or make it into pops. I figure it is pretty healthy with no added sugars and servings of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and some protein. A complete meal in a fun treat.

Celebrate Easter

Just wanted to share some Easter ideas with you all before the big weekend.

First I made my kiddos dress in their Easter outfits early just so I could snap a couple shots for all of you to see.For Elizabeth's dress I used white muslin for the lining, this gorgeous fancy eyelet in mint that I found on fabric.com, and moda fandango cotton (my favorite line from last season). I also used a gathered flower ribbon that I found at Hobby Lobby for $1 a yard (on sale). It is a basic bodice that I attached elastic in casing to for the shoulders. It gives it that scrunched look that I love. Then I added the skirt. I cut 2 pieces of the white that were 16 inch x 30 inch. Then I cut the eyelet 12.5 inch x 30 inches. I sewed a loose stitch all the way across the top and gathered the skirt. Then I added it to the bodice. I made the sash out of the white, and added the flower ribbon to the top. Then I created a fabric flower and added a yellow button to the middle.



Her head band is just fabric flowers that I played with and hot glued to felt. Then I wrapped a headband in white fabric and glued the flowers to the top.

For Jackson's tie I used the same fabric as the bodice of Lizzy's dress. I thought he deserved something special as well. He thought it was really cool to have a real tie like dad. He even had dad tie it for him. I got the pattern from this website: Purlbee

After the photoshoot we made resurrection rolls. I have seen these floating around the web and have to admit I love the idea for Easter and they taste really good. If you would like to teach your kids about Christ and Easter this is a great lesson and activity. You can find the instructions HERE.

Finally we made Easter cards for our grandparents and great grandparents. They love getting cards. I cut out the shapes and the kids glued them on (with a little guidance) and then added stickers and their own drawings inside. Here are some of the cards we made.