Cooking
White Trash Cake Pops
For Christmas I got a cake pop maker. I was pretty excited. I am not crafty whatsoever, but that does not stop me from trying every once in awhile. I usually wait for about the time it takes to make me forget how awful I was at the last craft I tried. Kind of like how we all forget how painful childbirth is and have more kids.
So when I unwrapped this cake pop maker I envisioned beautiful delectable master pieces. Ones that people would ooh and awe at and think I am marvelous and amazing. What actually happened was the complete opposite which was definitely to be expected with me being in charge.
I wanted to make these with my girls for New Years. Shout and I went to the store to get the supplies at about 6:00 pm. There was no way I was going to go to that huge grocery store that we all know the name of on New Years Eve so we went to a tiny local one. The options were pretty slim and we ended up with chocolate chips to melt, some crushed almonds, one can of white frosting, flower sprinkles and two different flavored cake mixes. I knew at home that I had some old oreos that perhaps were still edible that we could crush, then I later found in the cupboard some even older reeses pieces. Is anyones mouth watering yet? Also sucker sticks were no where in site at the small store. No problem we would cut shish kebab sticks in half. Perfect! I read that to do this properly you needed styrofoam to stick the completed pops in. luckily I found some in a package we received in the mail. Again totally perfect.
I set up all the toppings up and thought I was pretty gosh darn clever for using food coloring to make 2 additional colors, orange and pink. It looked all pretty and my kids were bursting with excitement. I have got to say. I loved doing this with them. It was the best way to ring in the new year. It really did not matter that they did not turn out picture perfect and that they did not stay at the top of the sticks and were a pretty gooey mess. They were unique just like each one of my kids, who had a fantastic time making them.
We will be doing this again and again and not changing a thing, well maybe leaving out the stale oreos and old reeses peeses. Here is a picture of our completed white trash cake pops in all of there imperfect glory.
I may not be Martha Stewart or Bakerella but sometimes I think it is better to be Living The Scream.
The Newspaper
Everyday Shriek brings home a copy of the newspaper in her back pack from school.I get all my news from online and go to the newspaper website to read the articles. So I never pay much attention to it.
The other day I was ready to throw the paper in the trash when I noticed there was writing on one of the articles.
It says ‘This looks good, yummmm, love berries, Good job!” it also has a check mark on it.
Shriek sees me looking at it and tells me that we have to try this dessert and that the people who created the recipe have a blog and we should go to it right away. The blog is Our best Bites. How have I never been to this amazing website? I am so glad my daughter showed it to me! I will now be a frequent visitor.
For our Sunday dessert we made the Mini Cheese Cake tarts and they were a hit! Shriek was so excited about it and so happy that it was all her idea.
Here is how ours turned out. SO yum!
I guess the actual newspaper is not so bad after all and I now have Shriek scouring it at school for other good ideas!
Domestically Challenged
I love this mom gig, I really do. But when it comes to the home and all the things that come with keeping it up I am not an expert or even close to being one . When I do accomplish something that I feel is pretty domestic I can’t help but want to proclaim it to the world. So here we go. Now before I start let me just say that these things won’t be so big and June Cleaverish to you but to me, my goodness they were ground breaking!!
I made my own Tortilla chips! I wanted some to go with dinner the other day and had none. But I had a bazillion packages of tortillas in the freezer. I cut them in 8ths sprinkled a few spices on them and baked them in the oven. Success! a few minutes later I had healthier yummy chips!
I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies and instead of just sticking the big hunk of dough in a freezer bag I rolled out balls, Flash froze them then put them in a plastic bag for easy convenient fresh cookies whenever I want. (Too bad they only lasted a few days because we ate them all so fast)
I made a Jello salad for Dinner. I live in Utah people I should have Jello in my veins. I never make the stuff.So I made a orange jello salad for my girls thinking they would be thrilled. Yeah, They each ate only a few bites and Squeal looked at it like it was nuclear waste. Maybe we just aren’t cut out for jello, but at least I tried.
So there you have it. I hope you did not giggle too loud about what I consider to be domestic in my little world. Now onto making my house look a little less like a bomb exploded in it. But only a little less.
Not Cooking
Ten reasons why I am excited I am NOT cooking thanksgiving dinner.
1. I don’t have to worry about cooking the turkey upside down like I may or may not have done in the past. Which may or may not have resulted in relentless teasing!
2. Because we are eating at Chuck A Rama! Endless choices and awesome scones. My girls could not be more excited. Chuck A Rama (a buffet restaurant) is as exciting as Disneyland around our house. My girls would trade unlimited meat for princesses any day. Well maybe not.
3. No clean up! Gotta love that
4. No prep! I am so bad at timing everything perfect when I am cooking. Nothing ever finishes at the same time. Yay for not having to make 6 different things be done at the exact same time.
5. I can spend the time I would planning thanksgiving on planning my black Friday shopping technique. Which may or may not include some awesome kung fu moves.
6. I don’t have to worry about my daughters complaining when I make the made from scratch stuffing vs the box! I can’t believe they like the box kind better!
7. I don’t have to feel bad that I have not made all the millions of adorable thanksgiving place setting and decor items that I read on blogs every day. Even if I did make them they would not turn out half as cute! So not worrying about that is wonderful.
8. Enjoying my meal and not worrying that people hate or like my cooking.
9. Not being home to watch Football because I am out eating!
10. I get to enjoy talking to family. Not having to rush around making sure everything is just right.
The only draw back to not cooking on thanksgiving and going to a restaurant is, no leftovers!!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
*Check my friend over at Lady of Perpetual Chaos She is doing a Giveaway of my Mom’s book Hairietta Hairison The One, The Only Me.
**You can also still enter my CSN Giveaway.
Rhodes Bake N Serve
For my first Living the scream in my own backyard segment I am going to talk about Rhodes Bake N Serv It’s an awesome product based in Utah. You can also find it in grocery stores all over the country.
Rhodes bake N Serve has been around for almost 51 years. It is frozen dough that you bake n serve (go figure right? ) I LOVE this product. This is something I have grown up on. I use it for my family often. I am not the making bread from scratch type! It is fresh bread without the hard work! You set the dough out to raise and then bake it in the oven.
A few days ago I got invited by Dee-dee from whatever Dee-dee wants to go to a bloggers demo at the Rhodes Bake N Serv test kitchen. I was so excited! There was so many fun people to talk to and I had a hunch I would get to eat a whole lot of amazing bread! what more could anyone ask for?
The first thing I noticed was the smell! fresh baked bread smell is definitely one of my favorite smells! The second thing was all the amazing stuff you could make. Let me just tell you that it was not just rolls and loaves of bread. There was so many dishes. pull aparts, casseroles, and adorable bread sculptures, everything! After I stopped drooling the hilarious Hedi from Rhodes started showing us all the things we could make and the best way to work with the dough. I loved watching her make everything. It was second nature to her but also looked liked something I could do.
The bread sculptures were adorable my girls would go crazy eating bread frogs, bunnies, flowers or spiders. I was also very excited about how easy it was to make bread bowls! I am going to have to try that soon! Here are a few pictures I took
it is just so convenient to buy dough this way. The recipes are really endless.
my favorite dishes that I tried were definitely the butterscotch bubble loaf, orange frosted cinnamon rolls (The frosting comes with the cinnamon rolls in the package) and the cinnamon blueberry crumble
To find out if Rhodes Bake N Serve is sold in your local grocery store just go here and type in your zip code. This is a product I have used many many times! You’ll love it!!
Disclaimer
I received a free Rhodes Bake N Serve cookbook, apron, coupons and a bag of their product, also a stomach full of amazing bread dishes! My opinion is of course my own!
