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Blondies

I love blondies.I love everything about them. They are simple to make and very decadent. With just 4 base ingredients the possibilities are endless to the extremes that you and your blondies can go. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS USE REAL BUTTER! The better the quality of the butter,the better. I usually use Plugra or Kerry Gold. No need to worry about creaming and pulling out the stand mixer, nor do you need to bring eggs up to room temperature...they are really THAT easy!

This is what you'll need:

• 8x8 pan greased
• 4 ounces of unsalted butter melted
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of flavor
• 1 cup of additions such as chocolate chips, nuts or any combination of (see below) 

1. In a microwavable mixing bowl, melt the butter
2. Whisk in brown sugar until it is fully incorporated and smooth and then whisk in the egg and flavor.
3. Add the flour (I stir mine in with a rubber spatula, not an egg turner but a mixing spatula like this one.)
4. After all of the flour has been mixed in add your cup of additions.
5. Spread into pan and bake for 20 minutes
6. Remove from oven let cool. 

These are the additions that I have tried. Of course these aren't the only combinations in the world.Use your imagination and go by what you like!

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup of chips any kind white chocolate, dark chocolate, semi sweet, butterscotch or a variation of any

(I like Ghiradelli the best for chocolate/white chocolate chips and Toll House for butterscotch)

and

1/2 cup roasted pecan and/or walnut pieces

or

1 tsp lime juice

1/3 cup white chocolate

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup roasted pecan pieces

or

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)

or

1 tsp almond

1/2 cup of dried cherries

1/2 dark chocolate chips

or 
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup roasted walnuts

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Chicken and Dumplings

One of my favorite comfort foods, besides macaroni and cheese is chicken and dumplings. Anytime I see or smell it I am immediately transcended back to when I was a little girl eating at my grandmothers table. That lady made the best everything, in my opinion, and no matter what I do I can never top her recipe, but I can make my own.

The recipe starts out the way that most traditional chicken soup recipes do, by boiling a whole fryer chicken, about 3 pounds in chicken broth/stock, about 32 ounces, until it’s cooked all the way through. I cook mine in a 6 quart pot. To be safe I cook mine for about an hour and a half then I remove it from the heat and let it rest in the pot for about an hour. As long as the juices are clear and the internal temp reads AT LEAST 165 degrees Fahrenheit, you are safe!

Depending on how I'm feeling, I may use a couple cans of Hungry Jack Flaky layers biscuits or I may make my own dough for dumplings. To me, there isn't much difference in taste but because of food allergies and personal preferences you can make your own dough fairly easily and quickly. For this recipe I will use the store bought biscuits. The advantage to using the Hungry Jack Flaky biscuits in my experiences is that they are thicker and less prone to sogginess like some other off brands. Of course, use whatever brand you are most comfortable with.

I also like to add carrots and a garlic clove in addition to the celery and onion that is traditionally found in most recipes. To save on time you can get a bag of mirepoix from your grocer’s freezer section. Mirepoix is simply diced celery, onions, and carrots.

For seasonings I use celery salt, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and ground bay leaves.

The creaminess will come from the starch given off from the dumplings so there is no need to add any thickeners.

This is one of my daughter’s favorite meals that I make; she's almost 5 so that says a bunch! Lol! It's fun to make and there are many opportunities for your little one to help.

Keep in mind that the seasoning amounts I put are just a base to jump from, if you want to change or tweak go for it! I don't necessarily use the same amounts each time I make this either and usually the only thing I add at the end is pepper. Enjoy!

Chicken and Dumplings
*1 whole fryer chicken about 3 pounds
32 ounces chicken broth/stock
2 cans of Hungry Jack Flaky Biscuits, not the honey or honey butter just plain flaky. Cut each biscuit into quarters
1/2 stick of butter
1 large onion small diced
1 ribs of celery small diced
1 large or 2 medium carrots small diced
I large clove of garlic
(if using mirepoix already made from the grocery use 2 cups)
1T salt
1T black pepper
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
2t celery salt
1 T dried bay leaves


Start with a clean cut whole chicken, about 3 pounds and be sure to use every single piece excluding the innards. I like using a cut chicken because it’s easier to fit all the pieces into my pot. You can always get a whole chicken already cut at the grocery. *If you prefer also, you can use 3 pounds in chicken pieces of your choice, remember a good mixture of white and dark meat, bone on, and with skin makes the best taste. Both the skin and bones will be discarded later, don’t fret!

Place the chicken in the pot and cover with broth.
Add salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and turn the heat to medium and cover the pot.
Bring broth to a boil and then reduce to medium low to a simmer.
Continue to simmer for about an hour to an hour and a half, careful not to let the liquids boil.
After about an hour, check the internal temp on one of your thicker pieces of meat such as a breast to ensure that it reaches 165 degrees F. If it is remove the pot from the heat. If it is not then continue to simmer for about 30 more minutes or until chicken reaches the correct safe temperature.
I let my chicken rest in the broth for about an hour but if you are pressed for time you can now transfer the chicken pieces to a large plate/platter and let them cool.

While chicken is cooling, in a skillet or sauté pan set to medium low heat, melt the butter and then add onions, celery, carrots and garlic clove.
Sauté until the onions are translucent. Be careful not to brown vegetables.
After the onions are translucent remove from the heat. We will add these in a moment.

Once the chicken has cooled you can now begin to remove the skin, fat and bones and also discard the neck and the back as there is no useable meat on them.
As you remove the meat from the chicken, be sure to start pulling apart the larger pieces.
The chicken should look shredded after you are done.

Before adding the chicken back to the broth, using a skimmer or a very fine mesh strainer, strain the broth to filter out pieces of fat and skin to make broth as clear as possible.

Once you are done place the pot on medium heat and add vegetables including the melted butter, celery salt, and ground bay leaves, and the cream of chicken and cream of celery soup whisking until fully incorporated.
Add chicken.
Reduce the heat to medium low if it starts boiling.
Now you will begin to add the dough for the dumplings.
Drop dumplings into the broth gently stirring to prevent them from sticking together or to the pot.
Make sure that they are submerged in the broth so that they cook all the way through.
You will notice that the broth is starting to thicken up at this point. If it becomes too thick for you add a little milk, 1 Tablespoon at a time until it is to your liking.
Continue to simmer until the dumplings are done.

Add pepper to taste and salt if needed.

Tiered Tutus

I just wanted to post this because of all of the trouble I had trying to find a good tutorial for a tiered tutu in the past. Last year I wasted a lot of hours away on Etsy.com. I would find myself jumping from store to store admiring all of the craftsmanship that went into all of the crafty items, but mostly I was transfixed on the tutus. I was completely sucked in and mesmerized. But not just any tutus, no I could never be that practical; I was obsessed with the extremely puffy and tiered ones! (I'm not even going to go into how I have been working on a pettiskirt for 8 months now.) I had to learn how to make these layers upon laters if tulled deliciousness! That's when my complete and total compulsiveness kicked in and I went out and bought 1000 yards of tulle...I was ready to create some stuff! Lol:)
After making my daughter about 5 regular knotted tutus which all had about a million strips, I decided I wanted to try my hand at sewing them. After about 3 needles and 6 spools of tulle, I had made a method that I was comfortable with but not confident with...then I found the tutorial that changed my life! I found a comprehensible tutorial for a tiered tutu that didn't assume that I was a master seamstress.
The title of the tutorial is Three Tier Tutu and it can be found on Modderhood.com. What I liked about this method was the step by step photos, the clear concise instructions, and the way she made the skirt, to me, kind of looked like a pettiskirt, mostly because of the added waistband. Because of this awesome tutorial I was able to create this 2 tiered tutu for my daughter and she absolutely loves it!!

Found it!

I just had to post this!!
Do all things cute and sweet come from down under or is it just me? 
So I was doing my daily Facebook stalk of all the pretty party and cake pages that I follow and I happened to come across a page called Mini Style from CakesandKids page. As usual, I didn't know what the page was nor did I know what type of products it offered but I figured if it's on Juli's page, it must be super cute! So..I clicked and look what I found......

Nothing other than the infamous Gypsy chandelier!! I saw this beauty on a party site a few weeks ago and I was in awe at the colors and the design but I just assumed that it was custom made. I imagine had I actually read the details it would have told me where I could find it. But of course, I didn't.

If you love this as much as I do you can find it here along with a myriad of other colors that they offer. While you're there look around at what they have, if you love this you are in for a treat! I think the Hot Air Balloon in rainbow is another favorite of mine!

Late!

Considering I actually haven't created any posts for this blog in forever, this submission isn't technically late as much as it is out of season :). Since I've been on a roll these past couple days, I figured I'd add this too, what the heck!!

Last Halloween after seeing the very genius and crafty work of my dear friend Renee, I vowed that this Halloween I would make my daughter's costume. After 100's of different ides, from her of course, she and I finally settled on her being an "owl princess" which in laymen terms simply just means an owl. I know, I know owls are not very scary or humorous but this is what the child wanted so the mommy made it happen.

This is the tutorial that I used which is very detailed and easy to follow. Thank you to Elle Kate for the inspiration and direction!

I really enjoyed making this costume and seeing it all come together. The hardest part, besides threading my needle with invisible thread, was making the mask. I wasn't able to get the eye holes right after repeated tries so I simply created her headband like mask like a lot of the costumes offer now and days. Since I hand sewed the feathers it took me a bit longer but it wasn't a hard task at all.

Thank you to Megan at Megan Coleman Photography for all of the great photos!

 

Hawaiian sweet roll pudding

Ever since I bought 6 bags of Hawaiian bread on sale at Walmart for $2 per bag, I have had the idea that I would make bread pudding from them. Well today was the day! I already had my base recipe picked out and I had a pack of rolls ready..so I was literally ready to roll...pudding! *Insert rim shot for corny joke here*

Did I mention how much I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE Allrecipes.com?? Well..yeah, I do!!

Since the recipe called for 6 slices of regular bread I figured I had to pump my ingredients up a little because I would be using eat of the Hawaiian rolls and they are much thicker than just regular bread. I also planned on making my own caramel bourbon sauce to top it off with. Yummmmmyyy! I'm getting hungry all over again.
Here is the recipe I came up with and they came out absolutely fabulous!!!

Bread Pudding
8 Hawaiian rolls each cut into 4 cubes
1 cup melted butter
5 eggs
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup brown sugar (but can be taken down to 1/2 cup if you prefer)
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1/2 cup of raisins


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place bread cubes in an 8x8 baking dish.
Pour half of the melted butter over the bread cubes and then toss them around to coat with the butter then, pour the remaining melted butter onto the cubes and toss again just to get each piece moistened.
In a mixing bowl whisk together eggs, both milks, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended.
Pour mixture over the bread cubes pressing down pieces as necessary to moisten them with the egg and milk mixture.
Sprinkle your raisins on top. (Add more if you like more raisins.)
Place in your preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until it springs back in the middle.

If you want to take your bead pudding a step further and top it with caramel bourbon sauce here is the recipe. Enjoy!!

Caramel bourbon sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
8 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of heavy cream
2 t of bourbon

In a heavy sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and then add the brown sugar,cream and bourbon.
With a rubber spatula, stir mixture until it bubbles and thickens slightly, then reduce your heat to med-low.
Simmer sauce for about 5 minutes and then remove from heat.
Put you a heaping portion of bread pudding in your bowl and drizzle caramel sauce on top of it.
Yummy!

Bananofee Muffins

What do you do when you have 3 large over ripe bananas, a bag of Heath Bar bits, another bag of semi sweet chocolate chips, and an unlimited supply of butter and brown sugar???.....you make banana Heath bar chocolate chip muffins, of course!! This idea had been stuck in my head for the past two weeks and I was determined to make it happen....right after finding the perfect recipe.













After scouring over my favorite blogs and recipe sites I didn't find anything that struck my fancy. So I just did a generic Google search and low and behold, I'd found the most perfect recipe! How can any recipe that includes all of my on hand ingredients plus melted butter go wrong??

It couldn't. It didn't. As a matter of fact, everything turned out even Moore yummy, tender, and gooey than I ever imagined, all thanks to Cinnamon Girl Recipes and her Bananofee Muffins recipe!!

Nikki's Bridal Shower

I had so much fun planning Nikki's bridal shower I could hardly contain or restrain myself! As usual, I overdid it but the bride to be was pleased at the turn out and really, that is all that matters. The color scheme was purple, lavender, silver and black and I couldn't have been more impressed with the way they all came together to make a nice rich and warm tone for the room.

We did a sweet buffet and incorporated candy into the decor. My favorite was the white chocolate covered pretzels that I couldn't stop eating while I made them!

We also had various other sweets such as cookies, candy bars, kisses, gumballs, etc. and we used these as well as the customized water bottles for the guests swag bags.

This is Myself, Brittany and Kawanis with the BEAUTIFUL bride to be!!! We had such an amazing time!!!

This night definitely will go down in the history of party nights as it felt much more like a prequel to the movie Hangover than it did an actual bridal shower. With 9 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of Patron , 2 bottles of Champagne, and jello shots ALL being consumed you can pretty much guess that there was LOTS of laughing and good times going on!

I really wish that I would have gotten more pics of the table before we trashed it with Champagne glasses and napkins:) but there will be next time! I am really just happy that everyone had such a great time!

Photos by Sean Matous and edited by Brittany Black

New projects

I can't believe it's already December! I still remember last December when I was fretting over what I was going to do for my daughter's 4th birthday party, and yet here we are again. This time though, I have ALOT more on my plate. For starters, my employer just informed me and the rest of my co-workers a little over a month ago that as of January 1, 2012 we will be employed by a new company. Though I still have a job, unlike so many other Americans, the transition of working for one company to a completely differently one is none the less very very stressful to say the least! Compounded by the fact that I lose an entire week of vacation AND the ABSOLUTE WORST part is that I am missing my cousins nuptials in Las Vegas New Year's Day:( That fact alone completely bums me out. But hey! This is life in the new economy... right? Right.


Enough about my drama! On to the fun stuff....


I love baking and crafting! I can't help it, they just make me happy. I don't have much time for either though considering I'm a single mom with a full time job but I get in what I can when I can. As a matter of fact, right now I am working on my cousin's bridal shower. I figure since I can't go to Vegas, I can at least try to make her celebration as memorable as I possibly can, plus, this gives me a perfect excuse to make things that I've been dying to try. It's a win win situation here folks; with my crafting OCD and millions of ideas I am sure that I can make this thing happen.


The design is going to be pretty basic since it was a last minute thing and it's so close to the holiday's but I'm still hoping that it turns out beautifully. I had so many ideas for the last party I planned that I ran out of time and energy to execute and I failed myself miserably.
I can't wait to post pics of that soon!


After the shower and the holidays, I plan on doing a weekly projects. I follow so many blogs and I see so many beautiful things that I want to create that I have finally decided to stop saying "I want to do that" and I will actually start doing. I hope that from these project inspirations I not only  help to inspire someone else but that I also am able to think of other projects that I can create on my own.


I look at different blogs and Etsy stores daily in awe. The magnitude of beauty that has been created sometimes just makes my brain go into complete overload thinking of all of the possibilities.Blogs and stores that I love just to name a few are  Bakarella, The Daring Kitchen, Cakes and Kids, TomKat Studio, Sprinkle Bakes, The Food Librarian, and The Pioneer Woman. I admire their work, courage and dedication that they have put into their craft. I love that they motivate me to want to create something beautiful. Something beautiful. But what?
Well...that's what we will find out in 2012.
I look very forward to this challenge!

Bake to the Basics Bake Sale!

Special 2 dozen for $25!

When you buy your first dozen, get your 2nd dozen for just $10*!!

That's only $12.50 per dozen for you and your co-worker, friend, or relative:)

Dates: September 15th and 16th

Times: 12pm-4pm

Flavors:

Yellow cupcake with chocolate icing

Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing

Fudge brownies with or without walnuts

Blondies

Deliver Schedule
40201-40212, 40216 Thursday, September 15th
40213-40299 Friday, September 16th

All orders must be placed no later than Tuesday, September 13th at 11pm

Orders can be posted to the D'Lish Cupcakes Bake Sale wall or event page

*(Delivery must be to the same address)