Summer Gummies!

Fender and I LOVE fruit snacks.  When it comes to them there are only a few brands that we like and unfortunately they are NOT the healthy versions!  I had to pull out my old recipe, dust it off and use our beach shaped molds before Summer was over!  Here's how to make 'em:



 Gather the following ingredients:

4 T gelatin

6 T sugar
4 T corn syrup

food coloring

flavored extract

silicone trays 

   

1. Mix the gelatin and 1/4 cup of cold water and let sit in a small bowl for 5 minutes until the gelatin is soft.

2. In a small saucepan combine and cook the corn syrup, sugar and 2/3 cups of water over medium heat until all the sugar has melted.

3. Stir in the gelatin and continue stirring until it has melted in the sugar mixture.

4. Add food coloring and flavoring (about a teaspoon of extract usually does the trick!)  I used strawberry, banana, raspberry and orange.

5. Pour the mixture into the molds (I used Ikea ice cube trays - fish and star fish shapes) and let set up about 2 hours before pulling them out of the mold!

6. Enjoy your yummy gummies!



Happy National Waffle Day!

Kind of a weird Holiday...but I LOVE celebrating!

Fender, dC and I started our morning off with homemade blueberry waffles, topped with whipped cream, fresh blueberries, and syrup!  Happy Day!

Toulouse

I caught Toulouse sitting at the table and I just couldn't help but capture this moment. 

Five Years Coming! Month 2

 

This is month 2 of my "Cake a Month" challenge that I've set out to do.  You can find the recipe for it here.  It was a very easy cake...just tedious as you had to wait in between each of the three ice cream/sorbet layers for them to harden before adding the next.  It turned out deliciously!  If I had it to do all over again...I wouldn't have just bought vanilla ice cream to put peaches in...I would have just bought peach ice cream!  The local peaches here were hit or miss!

Reminiscing on a Sunday

Just thinking back to when Fender was a baby...

Cake pops!



Everyone is obsessed with cake pops!  I sell them at Starbucks and sometimes the company cuts me off from ordering, since they can't keep up with the production!

I'm ready to get on the bandwagon...so I went to the cake pop guru over at bakerella.com (she's written a book, devoted many hours of blogging, and well, quite frankly hers look the best!)  You can get her recipe here, but the gist is very easy...

1. Bake a cake according to the box directions
2. After the cake is cooled break up the cake into crumbles in a large bowl

Fender thought this was the coolest part

3. Mix a can of frosting in with the crumbles
4. Roll into small balls

5. Melt candy melts
6. Dip the tips of each stick into the melted candy and insert into the balls

   
  
7. Freeze them for 30 minutes
8. Dip into the candy melts (making them all smooth and removing any gloppy excess)
9. Decorate!

Not too bad right?  Right.  The problem is...step 8 and 9 are super messy and very tedious!  There is also something way too nauseatingly sweet about the smell of cake, frosting and candy melts all together.  And I'm a SWEET TOOTH!  My hubby had to open the windows and turn on the fan to dissipate the smell!

I got it out of my system and I am over it.  I will leave these cute confections to the pros!

Fender LOVED decorating them so that was a plus!

He LOVED eating them even more!!!

The finished product!

I decorated one with S'mores Goldfish

 

Peach Galette

 

I decided to try a new way of making a tart - the galette.  It's more rustic and free-formed and you don't have to worry about making a tart filling or using any special tart pan.

For the dough:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1 T sugar

1 stick unsalted butter (cold)

Place all of the above into a food processor and blend until it resembles coarse meal.  Add 2T to 1/4 cups of ice water until the dough comes together.

Turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap, cover and mold into a disk.

Refrigerate an hour.

Line a cookie sheet with a silpat (or whatever you use to bake cookies with)

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface until you have quite a large imperfect oval.  Make sure the dough is about 1/4 in. thick, but the more rustic the edges look the better!

Transfer to the prepared cookie sheet (don't worry if it touches the edges...they will be folded up soon!)

For the filling:

4 large peaches washed and cut into slices

3 T sugar

pinch of salt

Combine all of the above in a bowl.

Let the peaches macerate a  bit to create some juices, tossing them in the sugar to do so.

Line the peaches up in neat rows leaving a 2 in. clearance on all sides.  Make sure to get all of the juices out of the bowl (that's what makes the galette delicious!)  Fold up the pastry all around the outsides, crimping around the corners as necessary.  Make sure there aren't any tears or the peach juice will spill out and burn (I know from experience!)

For the outside:

1 egg

sanding sugar

Break the egg and beat lightly with a fork.  Brush the outside of the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sanding sugar!

Bake 35-40 minutes in a 425 degree oven.  Turn it down to 400 if the pastries start to get too dark.

delicious!



Good Will Hunting

So as you know I love WHITE!  I'm not a big fan of Good WIll or yard sales, but lately since I have been finding amazing kitchen pieces for nothing...I'm getting a bit obsessed!

found these two square dishes



found this cat at a yard sale across the street



purchased this teapot for $8 and found it going on Ebay for $100

I'll probably never drive by another yard sale or GW without stopping!

Painted Kitchen

So I have been working on a budget remodel of my kitchen, first starting with new plates (We're retiring our wedding dishes after nearly 7 years) and then a little paint job.  Nothing much, since our house was built in 1928 and needed a major remodel when we first moved in (3 foot counters, bathroom size sink, and no dishwasher just wasn't going to work for me!). 

I love white!  dC and I searched everywhere for new dishes and were coming up with nothing...until we found these.  Then since our entire kitchen was white, I was feeling a bit of an overload and needed some color.  I love the green color Martha Stewart uses on her website...it's kind of a sea green.  But I ultimate fell in love with the back cover color on this book.  We took it in to Home Depot, scanned it, and came home with a bucket of paint. 

bright new color and much more organized!

less clutter for my cake stand collection



Harvest Time!!!

Our garden is teaming with little carrots and peas and our trees are drooping with apples.  It's time to pick it all and make something of it!  So we made...



steamed peas with butter








and applesauce



To make apple sauce:

Peel and core as many apples as you can pick from your tree

Dice the apples and place them in a large pot with 1 cup sugar

Add water to fill 1/4 of the pot

Cover and simmer over low heat until the apples are soft

Use a potato masher to smoosh the apples

(I like to leave bigger chunks in mine)

Enjoy!



Chunky Monkey

So I made homemade chunky monkey ice cream last night!  It turned out deliciously, but the best part was the mini waffle cones that I made on the waffle iron to put on top!   

You can find the recipe for the waffle cones here!  I used a waffle iron (since pizzelle irons are hard to come by) and then finished them off on a hot grill pressed with a heavy pot to add crispiness.



Homemade Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

Put all of the following into an ice cream maker:

1 quart whole milk
1cup + 1T sugar

1 t banana extract

After the ice cream has a thick consistency add:
1 banana (sliced)
1 bar of chocolate (or chocolate chips)

I like to then freeze my ice cream a bit more than just using the machine.  Then eat!

PS~ Using local milk is the best!