School Concert

On the 18th the girls had their school concert from 2:15 to 3:15. They both sang and did a good job. The photos are not the best. The gym was packed with parents and grandparents. I showed up 15 minutes early thinking it wasn't such a big deal, but I couldn't find a seat. Carly's in the first photo with a the arrow, Zoey's in the second with the arrow.

Family Photo

Every year the girls bring home some assignment that requires a family photo... I never have one. This is the best I could do, Troy's the only one missing. I guess it's something we have to work on.

Birthdays!

Carly and Zoey both have birthdays this week. I thought it would be fun for them to bring something healthy and delicious! So I made chocolate dipped bananas...



and strawberries...



and mixed fruit with dip!



I also finished Carly's cake, she can't wait to eat it!

Princess Puffs

The girls and I got bored one day and decided we should make a recipe out of the books they got from Christmas last year. We decided on Princess Puff because I had all the ingredients and it seemed simple enough to make. Not to mention DELICIOUS!








They melted in your mouth. YUM!

3 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
2 to 3 drops of food coloring
Sprinkles or edible decorations

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with foil. In a large bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. With mixer on, slowly add sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Add cream of tartar, vanilla or almond extract, and food coloring. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
Spoon mounds onto foil lined sheets, space about 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle with decor.
Place both cookie sheets on middle rack of the preheated oven and bake 1 hour. Then turn off oven and leave oven door door closed for 10 minutes. Remove puffs from baking sheets and store in air tight container.

Pumpkin Cake

Had some left over pumpkin from a dessert I make a week ago, found this recipe from AllRecipes.com

2 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bunt cake pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake in the the oven for 1 hour or until cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool.

I covered mine with cream cheese frosting.

Bake Sale

Tomorrow Zoey's kindergarten class is having a bake sale during Parent/Teacher Conferences. After a month of trial and error, I decided to make chocolate dipped Oreo cookies on a stick. I think they turned out pretty good. I used a pkg of Mint Oreos and a pkg of regular Oreos. I also used regular melting chocolate and vanilla flavored orange and green.

Halloween Suckers

This week I got a paper from Zoey's teacher asking parents to donate a baked good for their bake sale. After much thought, I decided to make suckers. I made the first batch with the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. It had butter, sugar, and corn syrup. The suckers turned out brown. The second recipe I tried was from AllRecipes and contained water, sugar, and corn syrup. I colored it orange and they turned out perfect.