Popsicles

P.S. here. I love making popsicles. And now that i have discovered that yogurt pops are a thing, they are sorta easy to make in China. So here are some I have tried.

Oreo Yogurt Pops

I made these super easy (and possible to make in China!) and yummy Popsicles, and they where quite good. Even though they had yogurt, they still tasted really good. I would have added more Oreos, but that's just because I love Oreos. Also, I used normal oreos, rather than Birthday Cake ones.

Squirt liked them.

Bannana and Peanut Butter Yogurt Pops
These where super easy. I used a blender, since I don't have a food possessor in China, and I added a drop of vanilla to the plain yogurt, because I at least, think plain yogurt is discutsing. These are still in the freezer, so I'll update this when they come out.



Here are some that i want to make this summer:
3 Ingredient Strawberry and Banana Popsicles
4 Ingredient Strawberry Popsicles
Strawberry and Kiwi Popsicles
Chocolate Yogurt Pops
Banana Ice Cream Pops

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Christmas Style

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Christmas Style*

Mix:
2 cups butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
4 tsp. vanilla


In separate bowl, mix:
5 cups flour
1 1/2 TBSP. baking soda
1 cup cocoa


Mix all together - stir until crinkly (dough looks dry, it's okay).

Add 1/2 to 3/4 bag of mint Christmas M&Ms.
(If it's not Christmas, I use milk or white chocolate chips.)

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

These are delicious. I think I probably ate 2/3 of them myself... giving a few away and sharing a few with my husband, and letting my kids have tiny bites from mine.


*When I first posted this recipe in 2005, the mint M&Ms were small, like Plain M&Ms. When I added this picture in December 0f 2008, they are the size of Peanut Butter M&Ms and not as great for cookie making. I'm mad.

Cake Box Cookies and Homemade Oreos

Cake Box Cookies

Ingredients:

1 box of your favorite cake mix.
(Devil's Food is pretty rich... we've been liking Milk Chocolate Cake Mix lately.)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of oil.
Chocolate chips, M&Ms, etc. (whatever you want, however much you want)
(Or, to be healthy, add two eggs, 1/4 cup oil, and a 1/4 cup applesauce).

Directions:
Mix ingredients together. Scoop onto making sheet.
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, until cracked on top.


Variation: Homemade OREOS

Ingredients:
1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup shortening

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cube butter (softened)
4 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Mix together cake mix, eggs, and shortening. Roll into balls. (Try to make them the same size since they'll have to pair up). Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes. Let cool completely.

Mix frosting ingredients until creamy. Don't soften butter too much. Spread between two cookies. Enjoy.

Ice Cream Sandwich Torte

I thought I'd share this fun summer recipe with you. It's easy, yummy, cold, and very kid friendly. You'll just need some space in your freezer.

I made this cake for my daughter's art birthday party a few years ago.

Above is the recipe from the Pampered Chef.
Below is the Pampered Chef official picture.
Here's the link to a similar recipe I just found.

Pumpkin Cookies

image from coppergifts.com

I realize that just about everyone makes pumpkin shaped sugar cookies this time of year, decorates them with orange and green frosting, M&M eyes, a candy corn nose and a licorice smile, but these aren't sugar cookies... these are actually pumpkin cookies. My mom made them for my class parties all through elementary school. The recipe is actually for Pumpkin Cookie Pops, you know, with a wooden stick in them... I'm not that good.

Sort of like this picture ... but with candy decorations.

Halloween Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup each shortening and butter or margarine

1 ½ cup each packed brown sugar and granulated sugar

4 eggs

4 tsp vanilla

7 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

5-6 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Assorted candy decorations

Directions:

Beat together the shortening, butter and sugars until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until blended. Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice; gradually add to the creamed mixture, beating well to blend. Cover dough and chill until easy to handle.

Roll our dough (a portion at a time) on a floured surface about 3/8 inch thick. Cut with Pumpkin shaped cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to ungreased baking sheet, placing them about 2 inches apart. If dough becomes too soft, wrap and chill.

Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes (10 on stoneware, 9 on darker sheet), or until very lightly browned. Cool. Spread with orange icing and decorate with candy corn eyes/noses, licorice mouths, etc.

Icing: 1 cup powdered sugar and about 3 tsp milk. Tint with orange and green (stems) food coloring. 2 boxes of powdered sugars ices about 35 large cookies.

Turkey Cookies

I saw these in a Pillsbury ad and thought they were so cute.

Christmas Treats

Growing up my dad did a lot of the cooking, especially if it involved cookies. I'm not sure I've ever seen my mom make cookies. If it involved cookies, that was Dad's job. Especially at Christmas time. My dad would bake three or four different times of cookies, pile them high on a plate and then my mom would wrap them in pretty Christmas colored cellophane and tie curly ribbons around top. Then they'd deliver them to the families my dad home taught, neighbors, friends, etc.

I've continued this tradition, but tried spicing it up a bit. But not always with success. I always think it should be more than just cookies. So I try to add fudges, caramel/chocolate/sprinkle covered pretzel rods, or fancy cookies. It just ends up being way too much work. I don't know how my dad whipped out four different varieties of cookies in a night. I'd like to attribute part of that to having a larger kitchen or more patience or a TV in the kitchen. Or maybe the two ovens. But really, I think cookies are just simpler than all the other stuff I'm trying to fancy up my goody plate with.

My Holiday Goodies to Share Ideas:

These Chocolate Mint M&M cookies are one of my favorite holiday cookie recipe. Just slightly fancied up for Christmas.

Easy Snowman Sugar Cookie

This picture is from December 2004. Buy the ready made sugar cookie dough, bake some round cookies, and decorate them to look like a snowman face. My kids love doing this.

When my husband was working for the city of Camarillo a woman there brought in Candy Cane Bark for everyone each year. He finally got the recipe from her since he ate most of his tin of bark before it made it home to me. Now we make a ton each year. This is her basic recipe, none that I found online were quite the same.

Peppermint Christmas Bark
aka at our house as Candy Cane Bark

Ingredients:

2 bags of white chocolate circles (I get white candy melts from Michael's or Walmart)

a bunch of crushed up candy canes (the little ones are easier to get out of their wrappers)

Directions:

Melt white chocolate in microwave (1 to 1 1/2 minutes). Mix in crushed peppermint pieces. Spread evenly over wax paper on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate. Break into pieces. Enjoy.

Another super easy holiday recipe...
Pampered Chef's Quick Chocolate-Mint Fudge. Every time I've made this people have asked me for the recipe. And it's not even really fudge. It's basically frosting and chocolate. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1- 8 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate squares for baking (divided)
1- 6 oz. package white chocolate squares for baking
1- 16 oz. container prepared vanilla frosting (divided)
1/4 tsp. peppermint or mint extract
3 drops green food coloring
1/2 tsp. vegetable oil

Directions:
Coarsely chop the semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate (keep them separate). Reserve 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate for garnish. Cut two 12 inch squares of parchment paper. Place on a chilled square baking dish.

Combine white chocolate and half of the frosting in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Add peppermint extract and food coloring; mix well. Pour mixture onto chilled dish/parchment paper. Place in fridge for 5 minutes until mixture begins to set.

In the same saucepan combine semi-sweet chocolate and remaining frosting. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Carefully pour chocolate mixture over mint layer in square dish. Spread evenly to cover mint layer. Chill in fridge at least 5-10 minutes.

Lay remaining parchment square over top of fudge. Smooth top by gently rolling a small rolling pin over the top. Life fudge with aid of parchment paper and turn over. Carefully peel off parchment paper of mint layer.

For garnish, place the reserved 1/2 cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate and oil in microwavable dish and microwave, uncovered on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Drizzle chocolate over fudge. Refrigerate until firm (15-30 minutes). Cut into 1 inch squares. Store in tightly covered container in fridge.

*mine always cut pretty messy... maybe cut with a warmed knife.

Trailer Trash Truffle aka Oreo Balls

I have this friend from the South. She makes these things called "Trailer Trash Truffles." My husband gets mad at me when I call them this. He had a co-worker bring the same thing in except the co-worker's mom calls them "Oreo Balls." Add this recipe to your collection, call them what you will.

Pudding Ghosts

I love to make this recipe when Halloween is near.

Pizza Bubble Ring

image from food.yahoo.com

Jed is in some tiny class this semester that is basically discussing the economics of the current financial crisis. Each week someone is in charge of bringing refreshments. He joked that yesterday's refreshments should be bubble themed since they were talking about some sort of bubble dealing with the topic... he's explained it all to me, but it's too early for my mind to function on that high of an intellectual level right now. You can ask him if you really want to know.

Anyways, he joked about bubble theme food, and then ended up being assigned the refreshments for that meeting. I got the fun challenge of bubble foods. Yea. His first thought was cream puffs, but was worried that the people in the class (half girls) would be the kind of people who would freak out about fattening, treat foods. So I did a Google search for bubble food recipes and landed on this one. I made it for us and then another batch for his class. Yum. And even though I made it twice, I only remembered to take one picture (not the one above) and it's when they are in dough stage, waiting in another dish to be put into the fluted tube pan. Whoops. Oh well, the picture on the website that I posted above is much better anyway.

My adjustments to the recipe:
Cover with tin foil for the first half or so of baking so the top ones don't get to brown. They aren't really burnt without the tin foil, but to my kids, they are.

And I made Trailer Trash Truffles... also ball or bubble shaped.

Rhodes Rolls Cinnamon Knots

I wanted to make heart shaped muffins or something for Valentine's Day breakfast (which turned into a Valentine's Day afternoon snack). Then I decided to make heart shaped cinnamon rolls and found this easy recipe here.

First I sprayed a 9X13 pan with Pam, placed a dozen frozen Rhodes Rolls in and covered it with Saran Wrap. Then I placed the pan on top of my dryer while I washed and dried clothes all morning. This worked great when it's too cold anywhere else to get dough to rise.


After the dough was roll-sized, Princess Sparkley helped me roll each ball into a snake.


Then I tied them in a knot, dipped them in butter and sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar.


I placed each roll in a heart shaped silicone muffin wrapper. You could use a regular muffin tin. You could also probably just put them back in the 9x13 pan.


Then they went back on top of the dryer to rise again.


Once I was happy with how big they were, I baked them for 15-20 minutes at 350.


And iced them with 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 TBSP butter, 2-3 TBSP milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Yum.

Cool Treats

I'm in denial about summer ending. I love the crispness of fall weather, but I dread autumn because it means that winter is next. I am not fond of winter.

My kids have been living off of popsicles and ice cream these past few months. And when I was recently going through all of my cooking magazines, saving the recipes I wanted and throwing the rest away, I came across these three recipes that I'm excited to try.



Cookies and Creme Pudding Pops (and substitute vanilla for chocolate and you have a different treat)
Healthier version Cookie and Creme Pudding Pops



Frozen Fruit Pops



Oreo Split

Pumpkin Pie Bites

Pumpkin Pie Bites from Bakerella

How adorable are these? I didn't believe Bakerella when she said they were really simple, but they were. Although I made mine without faces. And so cute!!

Pilgrim Hats

We made these pilgrim hat cookies around Thanksgiving time.

Princess Sparkley had a kindergartner do her face paint at Girl Scouts, so ignore the war paint.

Buddy used A LOT of frosting.

And Baby X just loved munching it down.

Homemade Turtles

This easy holiday treat recipe from here makes me happy that I've recently acquired a taste for pecans. Thanks, Rae, for Facebooking this recipe.


Now that I've made them, can I just add that these are the PERFECT treats for your kids to be totally in charge of. They lay out all the pretzels, unwrap all the Rolos (since I certainly don't want to) and put them on the pretzels. I put them in the oven for 4 minutes. And then the kids squished the pecans on top. And we all ate a TON!

Bacon-Wrapped Corn Dogs

Can you feel your arteries clogging? It reminds me a bit of this creation Cristin and Erik made. The recipe name actually sounds worse than this picture makes them seem.

click picture to enlarge

This recipe is from Kraft Foods Food and Family magazine, Holiday 2007. I couldn't find it online with a picture, so I had to scan it in for you all to enjoy how much prettier these are than when you just do a google search for a bacon wrapped corn dog.