Recipe: Sugar Cookies

I use the same recipe every time I make sugar cookies and I always get compliments on them. I love these cookies. They taste good. They're easy to make. I see no downside. I've made these for baby showers, birthdays, Christmas, Super Bowl, etc.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. In a separate bowl whisk together flour and baking powder.
2. Beat together unsalted butter and sugar. Once mixed well, add in egg. Mix again, then add in vanilla.
3. Slowly add in flour mixture about a cup at a time. Mix until dough forms and begins to clump together. (I don't always end up using all of it, so make sure you're paying attention. You can use the extra for dusting.)
4. Gather up dough and knead it with hands until it's nice and smooth. Roll it into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and place in fridge to chill. I like to let mine chill about 20-40 minutes. You will want it to be kind of firm, but not hard. If it's too hard, just leave it out on the counter for just a little bit until it softens up. Then you can work it a little bit to soften it back up. After I've cut all my cookies, I place them in the freezer for 3-5 minutes before putting them in the oven so that they don't expand at all when baking.
5. Bake at 350, time will depend on cookies size and thickness. Normally, between 7-11 minutes.
6. After they have cooled, decorate and eat!

St. Patrick's Day Cinnamon Rolls

We decided to make a green St. Patrick's Day themed breakfast! Ever since our little one has become big enough to actually understand what's going on around him, my husband and I have really gotten in the holiday spirit and I'm not just talking about Christmas. We get in the spirit for every holiday! Christmas, New Years, Superbowl, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, 4th of July, you name it, we love it! Plus, most of the things we do are fairly easy and inexpensive. Like these clover cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients:
-canned cinnamon rolls (8-ct)
-green food coloring

Steps:
1. Preheat your oven according to your canned cinnamon roll package. Ours said to preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Grease a 9x13 pan.
3. Make 6 hearts by unrolling the cinnamon roll, fold in half, then roll the edges toward the middle. Place 3 hearts into ¾ of a circle and the other 3 hearts in the same way on the other side of the pan. With the 2 remaining cinnamon rolls, unroll them, fold them in half, and then put one in the open space between each set of 3 hearts.

4. Bake according to the packaging. We baked ours for 13 minutes.
5. While your waiting for your cinnamon rolls to finish baking, take your icing that came with the package and squeeze it into a small bowl or squueze bottle. Put a couple drops (I used 5) of green food coloring in and stir. To make this easier, I actually microwaved the icing for 10 seconds. It made it runnier.

6. When the cinnamon rolls are done, let them sit for a couple minutes to cool. Then spread or squeeze the icing on top and serve!

I think they turned out great! What are you doing for St. Patrick's Day?

Valentine's Day Twinkies

This year, my husband and I are going cheap on Valentine's Day. He just started a new job taking a pay cut so we didn't want to spend a lot of money on things that we probably don't need. Anyway, I got my husband a 6-pack of a beer he recently tried and really liked (Kentucky Ale) and a bag of shelled peanuts. Just to add a little something extra in there, I decided to make some almond bark covered Twinkies! (Don't worry, I saw this on Pinterest) How good does that sound?

I started out with your average box of Twinkies. (Aren't we all glad they're back?) I shoved a lollipop stick (which I bought at Hobby Lobby) in one end while I kept one finger on the other end making sure that the stick didn't poke through the other end.

Then I melted my almond bark. I always use my double boiler. I used to melt it in the microwave, but when I started doing it this way, I learned it's so much easier. It's VERY hard (nearly impossible) to burn the chocolate and it stays nice and warm and thin. I covered the Twinkies in the almond bark the best I could. Honestly, mine don't look pretty after this step, but as you'll see, that doesn't much matter so I suppose it's pretty hard to mess up.

Then I added a couple pieces of red melting chocolates. I think I added about 10, but the number really does depend on what color you want and how much almond bark you have left. Keep in mind, you can always add more. I made mine a medium pink. Then I drizzled it over the Twinkies.

I added more red melting chocolates to make the color a light red. I then drizzled that over the Twinkies. I added even more red melting chocolates to make a true red and drizzled that over the Twinkies. I decided that was enough, but if you wanted, you could easily start with a really light pink and go to a dark red. To finish them up, I added some pearl sprinkles and red sugar.

I think they turned out pretty good and I really think my husband is going to love them!
Oh! and what did I do with the leftover chocolate you ask? Well, I couldn't let it go to waste so I put a couple handfuls of pretzels on a sheet pan covered with wax paper and separated them to make a single layer. Then, I put the rest of the almond bark in a squeeze bottle and used a fast drizzle method to cover the pretzels. I added some sprinkles and bam! An extra dessert! (This is why diets don't work! Kidding..)

Valentine's Day Breakfast

I'm taking a week off from organizing my house to bring you a special breakfast! My husband and I don't really get a lot of alone time so since my mother-in-law was in town this weekend, we decided to pretend like it was Valentine's Day. We had a great date day (more on that later). For breakfast, we had Red Velvet Pancakes and Heart Bacon.

For the pancakes, my mother-in-law had brought a mix. It even came with it's own glaze. (I added the sprinkles) For the bacon, I just shaped it the best I could and cooked it on the griddle.

This was a great breakfast! and I think it's perfect for Valentine's Day.

Paper Heart Chain

I was online looking for a cheap and easy way to decorate for Valentine's Day when I found this. I looked, but couldn't find the original link (sorry!).

Anyway, it was pretty easy. It only took me about 15-20 minutes.

You Will Need:
scissors
stapler
ruler
8½ x 11-inch paper (I used 3 pieces, but you may want more if you want to make your chain longer)

Steps:
1. Cut your paper like this:

2. Follow the pictures above=Take 2 pieces of paper and staple them together. Bend them down, put 2 more pieces of paper in place and then staple again. Continue until you're out of paper or the chain is as long as you want it.
3. Hang your chain up someplace as a decoration.