Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Unicorn Cake

 






Read Across America Party

For Read Across America Day this year, Rachel and I gave ourselves a challenge to read a book that is set in each state. We gathered some from our shelves and from the local library. We found 17 to start with. We are going to color each state as we read the books. 



 

Homemade Fondant

Put one 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows and 2 Tbsp water in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minutes. Stir. Heat for another minute and stir. If it is not fully melted, heat for another 30 seconds. 
Add four cups of sifted powdered sugar to the marshmallows. 

Stir

Spread Crisco on the counter. Dump the marshmallow/sugar mixture out. Add two more cups of powdered sugar and knead. You will need to put Crisco all over your hands while you knead the dough. 

Break off amounts of dough to color. 
Add the food gel and knead. 


Put Crisco over the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Store in a Tupperware and put in the fridge until ready to use. 


 

Leap Year Dinner Party

For Leap Year, we had a green-themed frog party. I turned our hamburger buns into frogs with olive eyes and a red pepper tongue. We also had cucumbers, chocolate frogs, and frog cupcakes. 

Mardi Gras Party

 

The food for our Mardi Gras dinner included Cajun chicken tenders, dirty rice, air fryer hush puppies and hurricane punch. 
And a Mardi Gras party would not be complete without King Cake. 





Super Bowl Party Food

 



Lunar New Year-Year of the Dragon

 

We had Dragon Chicken for our main dish:
Ingredients: 
1 egg
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp ginger powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 pound chicken

Chicken breading: 
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
canola oil

Sauce: 
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp chili sauce
1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Stir fry:
1 cup unsalted cashews
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 white onion
1 red bell pepper
1 Tbsp ginger
6 cloves of garlic

Whisk the egg, 1 Tbsp soy sauce and spices together in a freezer bag. Add the sliced chicken to the bag. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. 
Whisk the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
Put the flour, cornstarch and chili powder in a freezer bag. Dab the chicken to remove some moisture after removing from the marinade. Put the chicken in the breading bag. Shake until coated. 
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the breaded chicken and cook for about 4 minutes. 
Toast the cashews in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat until there are some brown spots on the cashews. 
After the chicken is all cooked, add a little more oil to the skillet. Add the onion and bell pepper and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the sauce. Stir until thickened. Add the chicken and cashews and serve. 

We also had dumplings, fried rice, almond cookies, and dragon punch


For the dragon treats, cover the Rice Krispies with fruit roll-ups. 
I added dots, banana Laffy Taffy, candy eyes, and mini red M&Ms for the dragon head.
Then I added some foot by the foot for the tail. 






Disney Through the Decades Cake

For Rachel's 12 1/2 birthday, she wanted to do a Disney through the Decades theme. She picked a movie from each decade and we created a cupcake for it. 

Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Cinderella

101 Dalmatians, Robinhood, Littler Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas

Beauty and the Beast, Monsters Inc, Inside Out, Turning Red


 

Winnie the Pooh Day

January 18th is Winnie the Pooh Day, and we had a snow day, so I pulled out the Winnie the Pooh Lego set I had purchased and we threw ourselves a Winnie the Pooh themed party. 


We had Piglet punch, Tigger tails, honeycomb cereal, teddy grahams...

Rabbit's vegetables, orange donuts, and Eeyore's sticks.  




Monday, February 5, 2024

Sunday, January 28, 2024

A Message a Day Until Valentine's Day

For the past few years, I have left the kids a message a day from February 1st-14th. I have done inspirational quotes, memes, video messages from relatives, and others. This year, I found some scratch-off hearts at the Dollar Tree, so I decided to use those for my messages. 

I made a big card for each kid and put 14 heart spaces on the paper. I wrote a message on each heart and then covered the message with the scratch-off sticker. 

The kids will scratch off one heart a day until Valentine's Day to receive a message from me. 







Thursday, January 11, 2024

4th Annual Carlsie (Dundie) Awards

 

We hosted our 4th Annual Carlsie Awards over Christmas break. This has been a fun annual tradition for our family. We all love The Office, so we decided to have our own yearly award show. Rachel always picks the award categories and the recipients. We have our favorite Chili's copycat recipes and watch one of the Dundie Award shows from The Office. This year we had Texas Cheese fries, chicken/bacon quesadillas, mozzarella sticks, chips and salsa, and skillet cookie cake. There were blue lagoon drinks as well (blue Hawaiian punch and Sprite with gummy sharks). 

Recipe: 
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Melt the butter in an 8-inch cast iron skillet. Remove from heat and add the sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat your egg in a bowl and then add it to the pan, mixing well. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the pan. Mix well. Add the chocolate chips, being careful not to stir too much so your chips don't melt. 

Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with ice cream. 





Sunday, December 31, 2023

11th Annual New Year's Eve Balloon Activity Night

 

Our list of activities this year: 
Soft Pretzels
Play the cup game
Frozen hot chocolate
Science experiment kit
One word painting
Play Uno
2023 Trivia
Chopped Drink Challenge
Make fire ice cream
Sparklers
Can roll game
Year-end questions
Cup Toss game
Glow in the dark ring toss
Streamer ball

We moved our annual cheese bread and puppy chow to lunch so we aren't so full later. 





Monday, December 25, 2023

Cosmic Brownie Copycat

 

Ingredients: 
10 Tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp corn syrup
2/3 cup flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting:
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used just under 1/2 cup milk and 2 Tbsp butter) 
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. 
 
In a microwavable bowl, melt the butter for 90 seconds. Stir in the sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder. Let it cool for a little bit. Then add the vanilla, eggs, egg yolk, and corn syrup. Stir. Add in the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir that until just combined. Pour into the pan and bake for 25 minutes. 


Let the brownies cool completely. Then make the frosting. Put the butter and milk in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Add the chocolate chips. Let stand for 3 minutes before stirring. After you stir, pour over the cooled brownies and sprinkle with mini chips. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.