On the Road Again

               (source)

We're taking a road trip so I'll be away next week. Hoping the kids don't go crazy on our long car drive!

Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

With a lot of the recipes I make I'm always on the look out for something better. There are a few however that are just perfect in my book and this recipe is one of them. I found it in my Mrs. Fields cook book years ago and have been using it ever since. I always get great reviews when I make them.

 Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (sometimes I use light brown depending on what I have on hand)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk. Set aside. 

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars at medium speed. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix at medium speed until just blended. Do not over mix. 

Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed until just mixed. (Again, do not overmix.)

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer cookies immediately to a baking rack or cool surface.

Note: This recipe makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies so if I don't need that many I will freeze half of the batch for later.

Gooey Butter Cake

Or otherwise known as gooey cake is a dessert I remember well from my boarding school days. Contrary to popular belief boarding schools can actually have really delicious food. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving the staff at our school always made a big deal of our Holiday dinners, making tons of yummy home made goodies. This was no easy task as they were baking for a couple hundred at least. This dessert was a favorite among everyone. After leaving I forgot about it. I'm a huge chocolate fan so that satisfied my sweet tooth when Holidays came around. 

Until one day a friend of mine made this dessert and I immediately knew what it was. I have no idea if this is the exact recipe that was used but it tastes just like I remember and is delicious! I made it for Easter this year and thought I would share the recipe with you. 

Gooey Butter Cake: Recipe by Paula Deen

Ingredients

Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. 

Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Dish towel skirt {tutorial}

The holidays always bring about the most adorable little linens and I'm always trying to think of new ways to use them. I saw this tutorial on Lil Blue Boo and thought it was genius! I found these dish towels at Target for only $2.99 each. 

To make your own dish towel skirts you will need:

• dish towel 
• elastic
• lace trim
• sewing machine

Step one: Cut your dish towel in half. Cut off the side seams but leave the bottom seams.

Step two: I used the rabbit of a different towel as a patchwork panel so I trimmed the sides.

Step three: Sew the rabbit panel to the egg panel.

 Step four: Do the same to the other egg panel using one of the yellow pieces you trimmed from the rabbit.

Steps five and six: Iron the seams flat. Lay the front and back panels one on top of the other with right sides facing and sew the side seams together.

Steps seven and eight: With the skirt inside out fold over the top edge of the fabric about an inch and a half to form a casing for the elastic and finish the raw edge.

Step nine. Stitch the casing closed leaving about an inch open to insert the elastic into.

Steps ten and eleven: Thread the elastic through with a safety pin, sew the elastic shut and close the casing.

Step twelve: Add your trim to the bottom.

So pretty!

Linking up with a few of these parties. Check them out!

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Summary

We love Chinese food. Claire, my four year old, could eat her weight in sweet and sour chicken. And Matt’s not far behind her. This recipe is stellar for entertaining people because you’re baking the chicken after a quick fry. You could do the quick fry the night before so that all you need to do is add the sauce and bake. Also, because you bake it, you could easily take it with you to someone’s home. We made the sweet and sour but Matt loves spicy food and thought this recipe would work brilliantly for General Tso’s chicken. And it does. So below I will have the sauce for either recipe.

Adapted from recipe at Life as a Lofthouse.



Ingredients

Chicken
3-4 boneless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup canola oil

Sweet & Sour Sauce
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbs ketchup
¼ cup vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
½ green bell pepper, julienned (watch here if you’re not sure how to julienne)

1 8 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained

General Tso
1 cup hoisin sauce
½ cup rice vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3-4 roasted and crushed garlic
3 cups water
1-2 Thai chile pepper OR

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


Cooking Instructions

The Prep
     Step 1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

The Sauces

     Step 2. Mix all your sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk (excluding the green bell peppers and pineapple for the sweet and sour sauce or the Thai chile pepper for the General Tso’s sauce; you will stir those ingredients into the sauce after you have combined all the other ingredients).


The Chicken
     Step 3. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes.
     Step 4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
     Step 5. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.
     Step 6. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned (it doesn’t need to       be cooked through).
     Step 7. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish.
     Step 8. Pour evenly over the chicken and bake for one hour.
     Step 9. During the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.

Gumball Necklaces {Tutorial}

I made a couple of these gumball necklaces for Claire's Easter basket this year and thought I'd share the tutorial with you. I first discovered these last year when my friend Rachel made one for her little girl for Valentines Day. These are relatively easy to make and so cute! 

You will need:

• gumballs (Party City has bags of single colored gumballs)
• ribbon
• craft needle 
• metal skewer
• thick rubber band

First, using the metal skewer pierce one side of the gumball while holding the top of the gumball firmly in place with your other hand. {My hand was on my camera otherwise it would have been holding my gumball in place. =)} Then flip the gumball over and poke a hole on the other side directly across from your first hole. 

So now you have two holes directly across from each other.

Thread your craft needle with ribbon.

The hardest part is threading the ribbon through. Use a large needle to pull the ribbon through the gumball.  My needle kept slipping so I used a large rubber band to grip the needle which made it much easier to hold onto.

You can tie knots between each gumball or add embellishments like ribbon or flowers.

Wouldn't these make great party favors!?


Linking up with a few of these parties. Check them out!

Easy Applique Shirts {Tutorial}

Today I thought I would share with you an easy way to add some flair to a plain t-shirt. I wanted to make the girls Easter dresses this year but I was running short on time (as always) and they already have a ton of cute dresses so I decided to make them cute little egg hunting outfits instead. They each already had plain white t-shirts and I had all the supplies on hand already for the applique so I went to work.

You will need:

• plain t-shirt
• fabric
• iron-on adhesive like this one
• iron
• sewing machine to sew around the edges
• hot glue gun
• mini pom pom
• ribbon

 First, draw the pattern you want for your applique out on paper. I had a cookie cutter in the shape of the rabbits head so I traced it onto paper, made a few adjustments and this is what the finished product looked like.

 Your adhesive will have directions as to how to attach it to your shirt. I'll show you how I did it just to clarify.

Cut out a square a little bigger than your pattern from your fabric and from your adhesive. You will attach these pieces first before cutting out your shape. I put my fabric directly on top of the adhesive with the bumpy side of the adhesive against the wrong side of the fabric. I ran my iron on top of my pink face fabric to heat seal the two pieces together.

Then I turned it over and laid my pattern piece on top of the paper attached to the adhesive and traced it on. I made two at a time for both girls shirts.

Then cut them out. Next you will need to peel of the paper that is on the back of the adhesive. The adhesive should now be stuck to the back side of your fabric. If it did not completely adhere you can run the iron over it again until it sticks completely.

After you have peeled off the paper you will place the applique  on the shirt where you want it to go.

I covered the front of my applique with a thin towel and ironed it over the towel. Start in the middle and work your way out making sure to iron out any wrinkles.

After it cooled down I sewed along the edge of my bunny with pink thread and hot glued the ribbon bow and tail to the front of the shirt.

And then do you know what I realized after I had already let the kids wear em??? If I was going to put a bow on a bunny, I would put it on the front of it's head...not the back. So oops. I over embellished and should have left the bow off. That's what I get for finishing these at midnight while half my brain was gone. Wait.. my brain's not all there during the day either. =) So you can pick, bow or tail it's up to you! Hmmm... wonder if anyone noticed?

I made these skirts to go with them and will be sharing that tutorial with you soon. So easy!!

I added the outfits to their Easter baskets this year along with a few other goodies.

Here are a few photos from our weekend.

She found one!

I made carrot cake for dessert with some "carrots" on top. You can view the recipe here.

My friend Amanda made these adorable Easter basket cupcakes.

Peek-a-boo!

Sweet friends

 The Critter Keeper singing us some tunes. =) 

Here are a couple other shirts I've made. This one was for my niece. I thought these would be cute as favors for a ballerina party.

I made this one for Maddy's birthday. You can read more about her party here.

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter!