Fun Food Revisited

Forgive me for reposting old projects but we're still not baking much around here and these ideas were so much fun. Check them out if you missed them!

Octo Dogs and Shells
An Alien Invasion For Dinner
Hot Dog Cookies
Watermelon Beetle
Meatloaf & Mashed Potato Cupcakes
Sloppy Joe Race Cars

Have fun with your meal!

Shortbread Candy Cane Kissed Brownies & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I can hardly believe we are already at week 9 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. This has been so much fun seeing everyone's amazing creations. My stack of "to make" recipes is now huge but I can't wait to start baking them all!

We still haven't been doing much cooking at my house since my fall. The ankle is slowly getting better (thanks for all the well wishes) but it's not quite up to me standing in the kitchen for any length of time. So thank goodness I baked these bad boys before I decided to through myself down the stairs. Am I a planner or what??? =o)

I would love to claim this recipe as my own but I can't. Baking I can do. Creating a new recipe? That's a different story. I rely on everyone else's creativity and I just copy it. =o) So this idea came from Picky Palate's blog (which I absolutely love!) Here's were a Halloween version so I changed this up a bit to make it more Christmas-y. It's a great combination of flavors - shortbread (yum!), peppermint kisses and brownie. A trifecta of deliciousness!

Ingredients:
* 9x13 brownie mix (and ingredients to make brownies)
* 2 sticks butter
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
* 1 3/4 cup flour
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* Hershey's Kisses (I used the seasonal candy cane kisses - YUM!)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2. Make brownie mix according to package and set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add flour and salt.
4. Press shortbread mixture into a prepared 9x13 pan. (Line with tin foil and then spray with non-stick cooking spray.)
5. Top shortbread mixture with Hershey kisses.
6. Pour brownie mixture over top of kisses.
7. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

There's a close up for you. See the kiss in there?

They needed a little something so I melted some white chocolate and drizzled it over the top. What an amazing combination of flavors! The Candy Cane Kisses are peppermint so they added the right amount of flavor to these.
So now come check out what everyone else has been baking!

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A Little Corny Thanksgiving Cookie

This is my attempt at making a Thanksgiving cookie. I was planning on making all kinds of cute little turkey cookies but instead I decided to throw myself down the stairs and mess up my ankle. I know. Turkey cookies or the emergency room? Is it a tough choice? Apparently it was for me. I subconsciously chose the emergency room. So we're not doing much baking at my house right now =o(

I'm sad about the baking part but, to be honest, Thanksgiving isn't my holiday. Don't get me wrong. I love a holiday totally geared towards eating. But I've never been a big fan of Thanksgiving. Halloween yes. Christmas, holy smokes! But Thanksgiving, not so much. But when I saw these cookies over on Family Fun (have I mentioned how much I love that site?) I figured we'd better give them a try.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
vanilla frosting
green fruit leather
colorful candies (M&Ms, Reese's candies or Skittles)

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. In another bowl combine dry ingredients. Mix in the flour mixture a little at a time until the ingredients are well combined. Chill the dough for several hours or overnight.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Divide dough into 3 parts. Working on a floured surface, roll dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using a knife, cut out a corncob shape. (I used a round cookie cutter and then folded it in half and reshaped it.
Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes or just until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Frost the cooled cookies. Cover with candy pieces. Use kitchen shears to cut husks out of the fruit leather. Press the husks in place with the frosting.

It looks pretty good doesn't it? Not as fancy as on FamilyFun.com but I'm not a professional so I'm happy with it.

Here are my notes =o) I used white chocolate instead of the frosting. I liked it much better because it hardened and the candy pieces couldn't slip off.

Now enjoy. My daughter ate the candy pieces off and licked off all the white chocolate. I told her next time to let me know and I'll just make her a white chocolate blob with candy in it. =o)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Salted Caramel Butter Bars & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

When I saw this recipe over on Cookies and Cups I knew it was going to be one of my new favorite cookies. The pictures were so delicious looking and I love buttery shortbread cookies. So I thought this would be perfect for week 8 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. Yep, you read that right. Week 8. Yoikes. That means Christmas is almost here! Yeah!

Salted Caramel Butter Cookies
For the crust:
1 lb. salted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbls. vanilla
4 cups flour

For the filling:
1 bag (14 ounces) caramel candies, unwrapped
1/3 cup milk or cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbls. coarse Sea Salt (optional)

To make the crust: In a large mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla. Slowly add the flour and mix until smooth.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
Spread about half of the crust dough in the pan to form the bottom crust.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Bake crust for about 20-25 minutes (until lightly golden brown.)
Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes.
While bottom crust is cooling and the remaining dough is chilling, make with filling.

Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave safe bowl. Add cream and vanilla. Cook on high for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to cook in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until all the caramel is melted.

Pour over crust layer. I didn't quite melt all of my caramel because I was a little impatient. I wanted to hurry up and bake these so I could eat them!
Sprinkle the caramel layer with Sea Salt if you chose to use it.

Crumble the remaining dough over the caramel layer and bake for 25-30 minutes (until filling is bubbly and top layer is lightly golden brown).
Now here's the hard part... let cool. I wanted to cut into them right away because they smelled so yummy. So fight it... let them cool.
Doesn't that look amazing??? Here's a close up so you can lick the screen =o)
When they are cool, cut into squares and devour!
I know I say a lot of cookies are amazing but these kick amazing into a whole new realm. These are fantastically amazing!

www.lambaround.blogspot.com

Now come and see what everyone else has been working on.

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A Moment to Remember!!!

Does this look like the face of a happy boy? I'd say so! And what brought all this unexpected joy to him, you may ask. It's kind of a cool thing. Are you ready (because you won't believe it)...

On October 10th Cartoon Network was having a Ben 10 Alien marathon. What's Ben 10? You must not have a 7 year old boy living in your house if you have to ask this. Ben 10 rocks from what my son says. By default I have to watch it too. And it is rather entertaining. I mean really, the kid turns into crime fighting aliens for heaven's sake.

Sorry, I got off track. Anyways.... during the Ben 10 marathon they flashed "codes" on the bottom of the screen and you were to enter these codes on the computer on the cartoon network website. So we did it. Heck, if that's what makes my son happy I'll do it. Easy, right?! And as we were entering the codes I kept saying to him "now remember, there's no chance you're going to win so don't get your hopes up. Millions of people will be entering this contest."

We came home the other night to a box on the doorstep addressed to my son and the return address was Cartoon Network. What the?!?!? Yep, he won. Not first prize (which was $10,000, darn it) but he won 2nd prize. And Ultimate Ben 10 Prize pack. Look at all his loot!

He won a Ben 10 Wii game, the Ben 10 movie, 3 different Omnitrix watches and a bunch of action figures. Holy smokes! Thank you Cartoon Network! You just made my son's week, no month, heck, year!!! He'll remember this one for a long time!

So yeah for us!

After it arrived he said to me "I knew I'd win Mom, because I'm the biggest Ben 10 fan in the world!" Man, I love this boy!!!

Russian Teacakes & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

Every Christmas I try to organize a cookie exchange at work. It gives me a reason to bake a billion cookies and I love coming home with an assortment of different cookies for the holidays. One year a co-worker brought in these cookies. They have a lot of different names: Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Snowballs. But no matter what they are called, they are delicious!

So every year I make these cookies and I eat the entire batch. I'm serious. I eat them all! So one year I thought I'd be smart and make a double batch. Nope, ate those too. What's wrong with me?!?! They are so tasty. Not too sweet so you can eat a lot of them =o) but sweet enough to be a treat.

This year when I made them I had to pause to think about this time of year. My co-worker-friend is no longer my co-worker. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's last Spring and, as a result, has had to leave teaching. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. Because, have you ever met someone that just oozed kindness? Someone who's laughter truly is contagious and whose heart is amazing and kind and huge? Well, that is Peggy. She was born to be a teacher. She was put on this earth to touch the lives of students and parents and co-workers just by being her.

We used to laugh because the students used to get us mixed up. They would walk down the hall and say hello to me (but call me her name). Apparently we look alike, which I take as a HUGE compliment! I would laugh and remind them of my name and then say "She is much nicer and way better looking than me".

So when I made these cookies (and yes, I ate them all already. What's wrong with me?!?!) I thought a lot about Peggy and the justice of it all. Why someone so amazing would have to go through something like this. How I miss seeing her at work and hearing her laugh. Even though we still get together occasionally and hang out, there's something missing at work without her there.

So I will continue to make these cookies every year. I will think about how much fun working with Peggy was. I will email her each year and tell her thank you for making me eat another 60 cookies in one week. =o) And I will be reminded of how much one person can change the lives of so many.

So these are for Peggy. Except I ate them all =o(

Ingredients:
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup powdered sugar
* 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
* 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
* 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* more powdered sugar!

Heat over to 400 degrees.
Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla.
Stir in flour, nuts and salt.
Shape into 1 inch balls.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Cool a few minutes.
Roll in powdered sugar.
Let sit a couple of minutes.
Roll again in powdered sugar. (Make sure you do this step. it makes a difference!)
Now try to eat just one.

Come join us in week 7 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop!

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Hard Boiled Eggs Served With A Smile

Have you ever seen these things? They are egg molds? Egg what??? Egg molds! I saw them awhile ago and have been wanting to get them to try them out and here they are. Pretty cool looking aren't they?

You're probably wondering why in the world anyone would want these things though, right? Well, I love hard boiled eggs. I have passed that love on to my son (which I think it great!) Eggs are so good for you and I love that he eats them. So why not make them more fun, right? I mean. I'm all about making dinner time fun! So we made these.

They were easier than I thought to make. You just boil your eggs like normal. When they are done and still super hot, peel them. I wore my rubber dish washing gloves to protect my fingers. Worked like a charm.

Then place an egg in the mold and clamp it closed. The longer they cool, the better they hold their shape. So we put them in cold water and let them sit for awhile. Then I placed the egg (still in the mold) into the refrigerator for another couple of hours.

And voila! What do you think? I know! That's a hard boiled egg! So totally cool!


This one is my absolute favorite! Cool car, right??? My son loved them! He ate 2 of them for breakfast!

You can find these amazing things over on Amazon here. I know! Amazon of all places. They carry everything!

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Touchdown Taco Dip

I'm in love. I know, crazy, right? Yep, I am. With this taco dip! It's so darn delicious it makes me want to scream "muy bien! Mas pro favor!!!" Do you like how I did that? A little Spanish for you =o)

But seriously. This dip is amazing! It's called dip but that makes it sound like you can't eat the entire bowl for dinner. So maybe I'll call it a casserole. Then I can eat it for dinner, right? Either way... it quickly disappeared in my house.

The recipe came from my Pampered Chef consultant. I had a Pampered Chef party not that long ago and this is what we made. Oh my. Have you heard of Pampered Chef? I am addicted to their stuff. That and the little magazine cookbooks in the grocery check out aisle. Oh yeah, and shortbread cookies. =o) I love all their stuff and to feed my addiction I have a party every year in October/November. And I usually score about $150 worth of free products each year. How cool is that?!?! So I have a TON of Pampered Chef things and I love them all.

But let's get back to the dip. Oh, sweet dip. I mean casserole!

Ingredients:
* 1 can (9 ounces) bean dip
* 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1 Tbs. taco seasoning mix
* 1 garlic clove, pressed
* 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
* 1/2 medium tomato, diced
* 2 green onions, thinly sliced
* 1/4 cup olives, sliced (but I left these out)
* 1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh cilantro

The first thing I did, of course, is double the recipe! It sounded so good I wanted leftovers.

* Preheat over to 350 degrees.
* Spread dip over bottom of pan. (I used my Pampered Chef deep covered baker).
* Combine cream cheese, sour cream, taco seasoning mix and garlic.
* Spread cream cheese mixture over beans.
* Top with grated cheese.
* Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
* Top with diced tomato, green onion, and cilantro.
* Garnish with extra sour cream if you would like.

What do you think? Does it look oh so tasty?

It tastes even better!



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Fudgy Toffee Chip Toffee Bars and 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

For week 6 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop we decided to make these bad boys. Their real name is Fudgy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars. But we changed the recipe a little so we had to change the name. Where did I find this fantastic recipe you are wondering? In one of the million mini cookbook magazines I have. (I'm addicted.) This one was from the May edition of the Pillsbury Bake Off 100 Winning Recipes. Winning recipes! Not mediocre ones. Winning! So of course I had to buy it.

The cookies are easy to make and they are delicious!

Ingredients:
Bottom layer
* 1/2 cup butter, melted
* 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
* 3/4 cup of Heath toffee bits
Middle layer
* 1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips (next time I will use milk chocolate chips)
* 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
* 1 Tblsp. butter
* 1 tsp. vanilla
Top layer
* The original recipe calls for refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough. I didn't have any so we made the Toll House cookie recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. But I didn't add the chocolate chips. Instead we added a bag of Heath toffee bits. Yep, an entire bag!.
* 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
Topping to the top layer
* remaining bag of Heath toffee bits

* Heat oven to 350 degrees.
* Spray the bottom only of a 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray.
* In a medium bowl, stir the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Add 3/4 cup of toffee bits and mix well.
* Press mixture evenly in bottom of pan.
* Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until firm.

* Make the chocolate chip cookie dough according to the bag (leaving out the chocolate chips.) Add a bag of Heath toffee bits. Set dough aside.

* In a saucepan, heat chocolate chips, milk and 1 Tbsp. butter over medium heat, stirring frequently, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.
* Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
* Spread over graham cracker mixture.

* Add the remaining 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs to the cookie dough and mix until well blended.
* Crumble the cookie mixture evenly over the chocolate layer.

* Sprinkle with remaining toffee bits.

* Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.
* Cool completely, about 2 hours.

Doesn't that look tasty???

Now enjoy!!!

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