OREOS

Make these cookies from the Rolo Cookie recipe - minus the Rolo's. Then make frosting to sandwich between them.

There are a few yummy frosting choices.

Regular old white frosting:

4 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup Crisco shortening
5 Tbsp milk (give or take to make the consistency you want)
1 tsp vanilla
Blend all together until smooth, adding more milk if necessary.

OR

Go a little crazy and make mint Oreos by substituting the vanilla with mint extract to the above recipe and adding some green food coloring.

OR

Get fancy and make Cream Cheese Frosting (you will end up eating more than your share of these).

4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 (8 oz) block cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla
Blend it all together until smooth.

Quick Change

Cute little fruit pics.
Nice, but they've been hanging around the kitchen too long.
Time for something new.



Take the frame apart. Separate the double mat. Color the little bit that shows of the 2nd mat with a black Sharpie. Cover the top mat with leftover wallpaper from the bathroom (could use scrapbook paper). Print out letters. Put it all back together and ta-da! Better, I think.




This only took about 30 minutes because I had everything I needed when I got the notion to switch it out. So instead of putting it on the bottom of the Projects To Do List, I had 30 minutes to spare so I just did it. The longest part was deciding on which font went best with the new mat.

Winner

Try the latest Pillsbury Bake-off winner, Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. They are super delicious. But here's where the chocolate comes in. We liked them best with chocolate ice-cream sandwiched between two cookies.
Oh boy, were they good!


1/4 cup peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough, well chilled

Heat oven to 375° F.
In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside. In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls. Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls.
On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with cooking spray; press into remaining peanut mixture.
Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

A Non-Chocolate Recipe

Last week we got our assignments for our big family Easter dinner. I was put in charge of the salad. Boooooring. I know that Rebecca was considering that I was visiting from out of town and I was basically a single mother of 4 for a few days until my husband got there. She is nice that way. So since I like to cook I spiced up the salad a little.

The recipe comes from my awesome friend, Jeanette. She probably doesn't remember but it was the first thing I ever ate at her house after we met and it was so good. I like it so much, I made it again, two days after Easter. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture, which was dumb of me but here it is anyway.

Mixed Green Salad

1 bag spring baby greens
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
4 to 6 mushrooms, chopped
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette (Ken's Brand is great)
1 cup chopped almonds or pecans (pecans for me)
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Toss greens, tomatoes, onion, mushrooms and Feta cheese.
To make the sweet and spicy nuts: Melt butter in saute pan. Add nuts and cook 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar and spices and cook until well coated. (This doesn't take very long - if you overcook them, they become hard.) Cool. Add dressing and nuts just before serving.

*Add dressing according to your taste but don't overdo it. But don't underdo it either. :)
Oh, and chop the veggies small. I think it makes a difference. Nothing worse than getting a giant bite of onion with some dressing on it. This way you can get a bite of everything at the same time.

A Little Late

It's lame to post this after Easter but we also had Spring Break last week so it was family time and limited computer time. Oh well, here's for next year.

I made a basket for an almost 10-year-old daughter who is not exactly into tulle and lacy princess stuff. It started out as a brown basket, which was painted Heirloom White.


The skirt is the boot-cut leg bottoms of some very old Gap jeans.
Everything was hot glued. No sewing involved.


I also used the waistband because I thought it looked cute and
thought maybe the Easter Bunny would bring her a cute little belt.


And this is my favorite Easter "basket" for boys.


I used to give these to all my boyfriends for Easter (not all in one year! different boyfriends, different years). The Easter Bunny now brings them to my boys.

Cake Balls

Seen these babies several times and have been wanting to taste one.
After getting the recipe and instructions from her friend Vanessa,
Amy did the messy work for us this Easter weekend and they were yum!

Bake one Devil's Food Cake Mix as directed on the box. Let cake cool.


Crumble cake up in a bowl, and mix in one can of chocolate frosting...oh yes!


Roll into small balls, and let them set up in fridge for an hour or so
for easier handling when dipping.


Dip balls into melted chocolate...I used milk chocolate chips,
you can thin with a tiny bit of oil.


You can also add sprinkles for special effect, or if you have cake decorating supplies, you could even pipe some flowers or other "fancy" stuff on them.


Thanks Vanessa and Amy!

Girly Curtains

The main part of these are made with a sheet that matches the sheets on the girls' beds. The bottom trim is made with some green gingham I thought went well with the purple. The tabs were made with random scraps by making tubes of fabric, where you sew a strip of fabric right sides together and then turn them right side out and iron them flat. Then they were sewn onto the curtain, front and back, spaced evenly apart. The extra large buttons were added as the final touch.



These were very easy with basic straight stitching. And since they are made with a mixture of random fabrics, a random stitch by mistake isn't going to really show up as a mistake. :)

Graham Cracker Fudge

The photo is MIA, but for now here is the recipe.

Graham Cracker Fudge
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp butter

Cook the above together until it forms a soft ball.
Remove from heat and add:
3 cups crushed graham crackers
20 large marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together well, then pour into a 9x13 pan. Cool and cut.

For A Princess

One day while walking through Walmart, my daughter spotted a cute little (cheap and flimsy) pink Easter basket. I plopped it in my cart but only to take it over to the craft department for a reference. I had already planned to make Easter baskets for the kids so I already had a basket for her at home. I picked up some tulle, satin ribbon and lace hem tape.
All of it in pink.

Here is the garage sale basket.
It was already pink or I would have spray-painted it.


I lined it with some pink fabric and then added the tulle and hem tape to cover the glue, then wrapped the handle with the ribbon, added some bows and done.



I didn't sew anything, just used hot glue all the way around under the rim of the basket and finished the whole thing before American Idol was over.

Now she has a sturdy basket she is already using to tote things around. It's not too big which is just how the Easter Bunny likes it - room for just enough candy for a 6-year-old.