Microwave Oven Peanut Brittle

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1 pinch salt (optional)

1 tablespoon butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Grease a baking sheet, and set aside. In a glass bowl, combine peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Cook in microwave for 6 to 7 minutes on High (700 W); mixture should be bubbly and peanuts browned. Stir in butter and vanilla; cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.
2.	Quickly stir in baking soda, just until mixture is foamy. Pour immediately onto wax paper (tried a greased glass dish..BAD IDEA). Let cool 15 minutes, or until set. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container.

Ginger Bread House

Butter Cream frosting with the Assortment of Cookies and Candy. Carysn was supposed to help but she was a little coughy. Besides she likes eating it rather than making it.

No Bake Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter or margerine

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

DIRECTONS:

Combine the first 5 ingredients and cook for 2 minutes after it starts to boil. Remove from heat and add the oatmeal, vanilla and peanut butter. Stir until thick and well mixed. Drop small tablespoons full onto wax paper. Wait until cool and ENJOY!! They may look like Poop, but they are melt in your mouth DELICIOUS!!

Pop-Up Reindeer Merry Christmas Cards

Inspired by Martha Stewart these are my Christmas cards that I decided to do. The pattern can be found HERE for all you brave souls with no work to do.

Top is the normal pattern to the Christmas Card. I ran out of the color paper so I had to improvise. The alien reindeer was my husband's idea and the banner saying "Merry Christmas Earthlings" was my idea. :) I don't need to make more but they turned out so cute that I might just do it despite my hand being worn down to a nub.

OMFG Cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon roll recipe is found HERE. Here is the picture of the finished product. The recipe turned out REALLY GOOD and they tasted devine! It was so good that we had to take a break from it because they are REALLY SWEET!! It was really good and we shared with the locals. We await their response or call from the hospital for sugar overdose. This is because they are not used to sweet things here in Poland.

All in all a Great recipe. :) The only modification to the recipe is that I used Dark Molasses Brown Sugar rather than regular. Makes for a richer flavor. Not like these needed it tough. :)

Alice in Wonderland themed decorations

This is the table with decorations. Notice the heart plates, napkins and the outline of roses

I scanned a regular playing card and enlarged it with the printer. The crape paper adds to the color to the decor.

A character banner

The inside of the 3 layered cake. YUM!

Get the spirit and dress up! Mad Hatter, Queen of hearts and Alice

Drink me juice bottles. BIG HIT with the kids. You can even write the kid's name on it so they don't loose their juice too!

A view of the whole table

Party hats

The invitations. What? You can't read it. Oh yeah it's in Polish. :)

Personalized gift bags saying thank you filled with yummy goodies and prizes

The decorations. Notice the hand-made tissue paper roses.

A closeup of the roses. I attached the roses to a length of twine to achieve a cascading effect. Came out rather nicely if I say so myself, don't you think so?

Happy Birthday sign of course

The mobile. Got the idea from the website thelongthread.

Eat Me cookies. I didn't know if the thirteen year old girl inside of me would allow me to write that on the cookies, but the polish kids didn't seem to get it. So it was my own private joke.

Carsyn's 6th Birthday Cake.

It is 3 layers of divinely delicious chocolate cake covered in Butter Cream frosting.

It is approximately 11 inches across and 6 inches tall. Took 2 days to Bake it.

Halloween Decor

Tis the season for Halloween. Here is the decor that is surrounding the apartment at the moment. Anything to get ready for the Halloween season.

This is the bat mobile that I made for the Halloween season.

This is the Balloon Bat that I made to add to the decor of the Halloween season!

Manly Cupcakes!

How do you make cupcakes "Manly" when cupcakes are basically a nine-year old little girl who believes in Unicorns? So this is what I came up with. Blue with moca trim. This is as manly as I can get them without giving them steroids or injecting them with motor oil. (not the preferred cupcake filling by the way).

Bat Piñata

This is the Bat Piñata I made for our Halloween party. I used a punching balloon for the base, then did 5 layers of paper-mache and one layer of black crape paper. The final layer is also crape paper, but I cut it half way to make a " Hairy" affect.

The wings ears and face are black poster board. I decided to make it a pull string piñata so that I could use it for next years party too. The trap door bottom was a little tricky, but it will be worth it not to make an other next year.

I made little pouches out of orange crape paper for the candy and tied it up with green ribbon to make them look like little pumpkins.

Puppets! (Paper Bag Style)

The reason I made these is because Carsyn kept doing little hand puppets with her bare hand. I had left over felt so I decided to make her a dragon. Then the dragon came out so freaking cute that I decided to make a Princess. Now I think I need to make her a ship captain or a pirate, maybe a mermaid, I don't really know yet.

Close up on the Dragon

Close up on the Princess

Hair of the Princess

Side spikey's of the Dragon

The Princess and the Dragon

The puppets in Action

Tuti-Fruity Cupcakes

So these are what I call Tuti-Fruity Cupcakes. I know that I have not posted any goodies in a while so that is why I made these cupcakes. I found these fruits for toppings and knew I had to use them. But for what...CUPCAKES. They turned out delicious as always and Carysn and David ate them up...Ok. I helped a little. I used my basic white cake recipe with butter cream frosting.

Easter Cupcakes

Very yummy cupcakes. The grass on the cupcakes is food coloring coconut. I made the carrots from a fruitella (similar to starburst)

And the finished product!!

Easter decorations.

Another Holiday that needed to have decorations.

Canopy Project

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

This was a 2 week project getting everything on the canopy. It was an original whit canopy from IKEA. Now it is a Under-the-sea canopy.

Apple Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon graded lemon peel
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cups Bisquick mix
1 package (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 cup firm butter or margarine
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 can (21 oz) apple pie filling (or any other kind)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet. In medium bowl, beat 8 ounces cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, the lemon peel and lemon juice with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth; reserve.In large bowl, place Bisquick mix. Cut in 3 ounces cream cheese and the butter using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions) until crumbly. Stir in milk. Place dough on surface well sprinkled with Bisquick mix; roll in Bisquick mix to coat. Knead 8 to 10 times.Roll dough into 12x8-inch rectangle. Place on cookie sheet. Spread reserved cream cheese mixture down center of rectangle. Make cuts, 2 1/2-inches long, at 1 inch intervals on 12 inch sides of rectangle. Fold strips over filling, overlapping strips. In small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over top.Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Carefully place on cooling rack; cool completely. Spoon pie filling down center of coffee cake. Sprinkle with walnuts. Store in refrigerator

A Dang Good Salisbury Steak Recipe!

SALISBURY STEAK WITH GRAVY

2 lbs. ground beef
2 pkg. brown gravy mix
2 1/2 c. hot water
1/2 c. minced onion
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

In a mixing bowl, combine ground beef, 1 package brown gravy mix, 1/2 cup water, onion, onion powder and garlic powder. Shape into 6 or 8 patties and place in pan at least 1 inch deep. Broil in oven turning to brown on both sides.

When browned, combine remaining package of gravy mix with 2 cups of hot water (instead of 1 cup recommended on package). Pour gravy over patties after they have been drained of grease.

Place in oven again and turn heat to 450 degrees (425 degrees for glass). When gravy begins to boil, leave in oven until it thickens a little, about 10 minutes, depending on pan size. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Just Because Cupcakes

So I decided to make cupcakes just because sometimes you just need to make cupcakes. So these are what I call "Just Because Cupcakes"

Makes 15 cupcakes or in 9x9 inch pan if you want to make a cake. Preheat oven at 175 C.

Recipe:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

GREASE AND FLOUR OR LINE PAN. IN A MEDIUM SIZED BOWL, CREAM TOGETHER THE SUGAR AND BUTTER. BEAT IN THE EGGS ONE AT A TIME. STIR IN THE VANILLA. COMBINE FLOUR AND BAKING POWDER ADD TO THE CREAMED MIXTURE AND MIX WELL. BAKE 30-40 MINUTES FOR CAKE OR 20-25 MINUTES FOR CUPCAKES.

Butter Cream Icing: (Makes 3 cups)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon milk

CREAM BUTTER AND SHORTENING. ADD VANILLA. GRADUALLY ADD SUGAR, ONE CUP AT A TIME. ADD MILK, MIX TILL LIGHT AND FLUFFY. STORE IN REFRIGERATOR IN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER AND WILL BE GOOD FOR UP TO TWO WEEKS. BRING TO ROOM TEMP. AND REWIPP BEFORE USING.