Pina Colada Cupcakes

Dave had his ukulele group meeting over the weekend (the cupcakes I made one year ago for the groups yearly anniversary were my very first blog post! click here to read that one and see how pretty those cupcakes turned out) and to celebrate another year of the group going strong he asked me to make cupcakes again - actually he asked me to make the coconut cream cupcakes that I made for his birthday again (click here for that post, really they are fantastic!) but I told him that I'd rather experiment with something new. I asked if coconut pineapple would be ok with him - like a pina colada - and he agreed.

Cupcakes:

• yellow cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 8 oz crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Mix and bake according to directions on the box.

Frosting:

• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2-3 Tablespoons whipping cream (or as much as needed to get the consistency you want)
• pinch of salt

Beat the butter in a mixing bowl until smooth, slowly add the powdered sugar and other ingredients - using just a little cream at a time until it's right, beat until smooth and fluffy.

I put the frosting in a decorating bag fitted with a round # tip. Pipe the frosting out in a spiral, starting in the middle and going around. For some I rolled the edges in shredded coconut, some I decorated with sprinkles, and some I left plain. Top however many of them you want with a well drained maraschino cherry. So pretty.

Note: Dave said these were a huge hit, once again he didn't bring any home and I always feel like that's a good sign except I didn't get to try one to see how it turned out! He thought they were moist and liked them, except "not as much as the coconut cream" ;). Oh no, I've spoiled him from liking any other cupcake better then those haha!!

Wine Cork Keychain

This is just about the fastest easiest craft ever - it literally took me less than 5 minutes! ALL you do is put a keyring on a screw-in eye hook, then screw it into the cork. Done. What a cute fun inexpensive easy creative gift, it would be even better with a special cork commemorating a date or celebration. You could also add a little tag to the keyring to label the event or what the key is for.  Love this idea!

I made another one that took a minute or so longer by adding a little chain between the eye screw and the ring - also really cute and easy. 

found this idea online at Cleverly Inspired.

Junkin' with Candy (aka: Updating Old Stuff)

Candy and I went to a couple little antique/junk stores the other day and I found this plain wood holder with 3 clear jars. Normally I wouldn't have looked twice at this but for some reason I zoomed right it on it and knew just what I wanted to do to it - and it only cost $4 so if it didn't work I wasn't out much.

I lightly sanded the tops of the jars and the wood holder and wiped them clean. Using a 1" foam paintbrush I painted the jar tops with 2 coats of black chalkboard paint, and the wood holder with acrylic craft paint. First for some reason I painted it light lilac, that wasn't right so I covered it in cape cod blue...and that wasn't right either; finally I mixed together bright blue with a bit of yellow and orange and came up with this pretty dark teal color - ahhhhh, just right. My thought is to put this in the bathroom for cotton balls, qtips, etc. and write on the lids with chalk - but who knows, it's so cute I have lots of places I might use it!

Where Were You...

by Alan Jackson, found on Pinterest.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Cocktail

These are pretty, sweet, and easy to make. What's not to like?

Put some ice in a glass and add a splash of grenadine. Top with 1.5 ounces cake flavored vodka and 3 ounces pineapple juice. Stir and top with a maraschino cherry.

This has to be one of the shortest posts ever - but really what else can I add? These are YUMMY and a little dangerous. Word to the wise - remember this is vodka, not punch...they go down easy. Too easy perhaps. ;) Cheers!

Chopped Champion Aprons

Here's a quick follow up to the "Chopped" competition Brooke and I had a couple weeks ago - I thought it only fitting that she be awarded her own winning apron :). I got plain white aprons at the craft store, downloaded a Chopped logo and added "champion" to hers, then printed it on fabric transfer paper (you can find this at the craft store too) and ironed it on. Easy.

Brooke and her mom modeling the aprons

click here to read the original Chopped post.

click here to see more on how to use fabric transfers from my Halloween costume post.

My goal is to have another competition soon and win this champion apron away from her! HA!!

Rearranging Furniture

I haven't talked about this much on the blog, but I have a serious problem - well maybe not a problem exactly (although to Dave it is), more like an obsession...I love love love to rearrange furniture. Seriously, I love it and do it all the time. It is not uncommon for me to get up super early in the morning and decide everything needs to be moved - one time Dave came stumbling out of bed to everything pushed into the middle of the room and said "just tell me where I'm supposed to drink my coffee?" haha. I don't have any good tips or tricks necessarily - there are times where I measure and cut out little squares of paper (to scale) representing all of our furniture and play with it on grid paper (those are the days I'm saving my back from experimenting and only want to move it once) or there are times like today that I just keep moving things around (including the giant area rug) until I settle on something I like. I spent all morning coming up with different ways to put everything; I'd think it looked good then Sarge and I would sit on the couch for a sec and realize I didn't like it, and then move it again. Same thing with all the little decorative stuff - after getting the furniture in place I started in shuffling things around. I have a room in the basement that has standing shelves filled with extra stuff - baskets, doodads, candles, etc. So when I'm rearranging and looking for something different I go "shopping" in my own house and bring things out from the basement storage area. I try not to buy new things very often, just rotate thru what I already have.

Sarge was happy to discover 2 "lost" balls under the couch!

Today I shoved things off the main rug and gave everything a good sweeping, unplugged cords and took all the stuff off the tables - it's fun to start totally fresh once in a while. Dave was sitting just outside of where I was rearranging and after I asked a couple questions about what he thought, he got up and said he was leaving cuz I was going to drive him crazy. That's one way to get him out of my hair!

One thing I do that helps a lot (oh, maybe I forgot to mention that I do this totally by myself - I don't get a whole lot of grief about changing things anymore but I have to do it on my own. So the rule is if I can figure out how to move it myself then it can and will be moved) is to put those slider things under the legs of whatever I'm moving, it helps a lot. Just be careful that they aren't scratching the floor when sliding pieces around - sometimes I put a towel under the legs to help prevent that. Candy just gave me the idea to leave some sliders under the washer and dryer so you can easily move them out to clean behind - that's a great idea and I'm a little disappointed I didn't think of that myself!

Anyway - just hoping to inspire you to look at your rooms and maybe change them around and freshen things up! It's fun! Really! Maybe don't ask Dave though...;)

Brownie, Oreo, and Reese's Ice Cream Cake

I asked Brooke if she wanted me to make or buy her a dessert for her birthday dinner last night (that's usually my assignment - yay!), she texted back "MAKE". I replied "did you just yell that at me?" and she said "no, I screamed it at you"! Ok then, I guess I'm making it hahaha. I laughed. Her request? Ice cream cake, any flavor as long as it has peanut butter please.

First I baked the brownie crust (using 1/2 of a boxed mix) in the bottom of a 8.5" springform pan, then put the other layers on top. Note * I will do this differently next time and bake the brownie in a different 8.5" pan, then put it in the springform pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and lined with plastic wrap...the brownie baked in the bottom made the cake SO hard to get out this way! The pan really needs to be sprayed and lined before assembling the cake. Fair warning people. Other than that this is a super easy dessert to make - really you just wing it, whatever flavors you like and use your imagination for toppings and candy.

first layer of fudge, cookies and
peanut butter cups

For this one I put on a layer of chocolate ice cream (let it stand on the counter for a few minutes to soften up, then mix it well so it's smooth but not melted), put in the freezer until it's hardened up. Warm a jar of hot fudge until it's spreadable and put a layer of that on top of the ice cream followed by chopped up oreo cookies and chopped mini reese's peanut butter cups. Freeze again. Then add a layer of peanut butter ice cream (I just put vanilla ice cream in a bowl and using my electric mixer beat in a big spoonful of peanut butter - voila, peanut butter ice cream), freeze. To finish I spread a thin layer of cool whip on top, drizzled with additional warmed hot fudge (I put it in a ziplock baggie and cut off the tip to control the drizzling), topped with more chopped oreos and reese's. Freeze until ready to serve.

finished peanut butter cake

Now here's a funny thing - since not everyone at the party could eat peanut butter (Dave), I thought I'd be nice and make a second ice cream cake using the other half of the brownie mix, topped with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge and chopped oreos, topped with banana split ice cream, finished with cool whip and chocolate drizzle. Everyone except my sister ate the banana split one! Even Brooke - after she specifically asked for peanut butter. Good grief. I left both of the cakes with my sister, hopefully someone helps her eat the peanut butter one - there was a ton left!

banana split cake

top of banana split cake before the
drizzle froze to the aluminum
foil I wrapped the cake in, and then
 pulled off when unwrapping. ugh.
note to self - wrap these in plastic!

Japanese Steakhouse Carrot-Ginger Salad Dressing

comparing 3 different recipes. 

Our family has a tradition to make birthday dinner your "favorite things" - and it means just that, the birthday person gets to pick whatever they want...and it doesn't have to go together. I will say that in years past we've had meals that consisted of KFC, crab rangoons, pizza, no vegetables, and lots of chips - now everyone is fairly good about coming up with somewhat of a balanced meal. Except there's Brooke, who just turned 13, and has picked out some things that really don't go together! So we are having beef stroganoff with make-your-own-sushi, crabby mushrooms and buffalo dip, Japanese salad and cheez-its....sounds good, right? Ha, yuck. Anyway...My sister is making or getting most of the meal, but I thought it'd be fun to try to make the traditional orange salad dressing we get when we go to a Japanese Hibachi/steakhouse for the salad - I think it's Carrot-Ginger so googled a bunch of recipes and experimented with 3 different ones  (I went and picked up a small thing of restaurant dressing so I have something to compare it to) and I think I got pretty close - here's the winning recipe:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 medium carrot peeled and roughly chopped (I used baby carrots, about 4 ounces)
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a food processor, process until smooth. Chill until ready to use. Makes about 2 cups.

Note: this has a little texture to it, tiny little specks of ginger and carrot - you won't get it totally smooth and that's what you want. Serve over iceberg salad with shredded carrots and cherry tomatoes.

to use fresh ginger - buy the size you want (it's ok to break off a piece at the supermarket, you don't have to buy the whole thing...kinda like bananas). then remove the brown part with a vegie peeler and discard.

 different stages of the ginger - remove and discard the peel (on the right) and then grate it (on the left)

PS: there are a bunch of recipes out there that call for ketchup, celery, lemon juice...it doesn't taste like the one we are used to and isn't my favorite for sure - it just tastes like ketchup!

Happy Labor Day!

I couldn't find many cute Labor Day sayings, quotes or pictures - so I'm leaving you with this cute pic of Sarge...wishing you a day filled with friends, family, and a nice long nap!

Oh, and I'm totally wearing my white jeans after today - who's with me?