2 years

Gingerbread Cookies

I got this wonderful recipe from my friend Rachel last year and everyone loves it! Rachel makes her cookies with a cream cheese frosting which is devine, but for easy transporting and storage I've changed to a buttercream frosting which is also pretty tasty.

Gingerbread Men Cookies

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

Beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg, beat well. Mix flour, spices, and salt in large bowl and gradually add to butter mixture until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut into gingerbread shapes. Place 1-inch apart on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Ice with cream cheese or buttercream frosting. Makes 24 5-inch cookies. 

Family

Kevin defined

Ready for Christmas

Lazzzzzy Me

Ahh! I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. I'm horrible at this blogging thing! The holidays would be a good excuse, but I'm not sure that's really the reason... I guess I'll admit to a long-lasting lazy period... i.e. winter.

Pretty Hair Cuts

Awesome Pasta Salad

This is my favorite pasta salad ever! I got the origional recipe from allrecipes.com (same recipe name)

and have changed it to suit my tastes. It makes a great light lunch.

1 box tri-colored pasta (12-16oz)

2-3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 lb provolone chees, cubed

1/2 lb colby or colby/jack cheese, cubed

1/2 lb salami, cubed

1/4 lb sliced pepperoni, cut in half

1 cucumber, sliced and quartered

1 bottle Italian salad dressing

Cook pasta according to directions on box. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Once pasta is cool mix in the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat.

Save about 1/4 bottle dressing to toss with salad right before serving.

This recipe is best made the day before so the ingredients have to time to soak up the dressing.

Doesn't it look yummy?!

Family Scrapbooking Page

Just finished these two pages an hour ago. They are pictures from

my brothers wedding in Wyoming. I'm actually catching up on

my stack of pictures to scrapbook - if you don't count the wedding album!

Dog Tired Scrapbooking Page

Love this page I did of the doggies. They are sooo cute!

Engagement Announcement Scrapbook Page

I did this page a couple of weeks ago.

This is the first page I've done for our wedding album

(Yes, it's taken me two years to even get started)

Love these flowers I found at Archiver's

This is some of the embossing detail I did, hopefully you

can see it from this picture.

Butterfly Kisses Scrapbook Page

I just finished this page of Kevin and his niece Jayne for our wedding scrapbook.

I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out.

Black Bottom Pie

This last week for our weekly watching of Dancing with the Stars and dinner I had the dessert to go with Michelle's pasta and Carol's salad and garlic bread. Of course I wanted to make something with pumpkin, as is fitting for the season, but since we'd had pumpkin desserts the last two weeks I was feeling a little sorry for Kevin (who doesn't like pumpkin). I decided to make Kevin's all-time favorite dessert... Black Bottom Pie. This recipe is a little bit of work, but totally worth it! It's a chocolate crust with a layer of rich chocolate custard and a fluffly layer of meringue topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. YUM!

Crust:

I just used a store bought chocolate cookie crust (don't use the oreo one).

If you would like to make your crust from scratch:

1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.

Press into a pie plat to form a crust. Bank for 5 minutes. Cool completely.

Fillings: 

1 Tablespoon (1 pkg) unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

Add gelatin to water and stir slightly. 

Set aside and let the gelatine soften while the custard cooks.

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

Melt in microwavable bowl, stirring every 30 seconds. Set aside.

Custard:

3 egg yolks

1 1/2 cup milk

1 1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons Flour

Mix sugar and flour in a sauce pan. Whisk together milk and egg yolks then

add to flour mixture. Whisk until there are no more lumps.

Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly with a woodend spoon until the mixture

boils and forms a custard.

Rich Chocolate Layer:

Mix melted chocolate and one cup of cooked custard.

Pour in bottom of pie crust.

Mix gelatin with remaining custard and place in fridge, stirring every 10 minutes until cool, but do not let set completely or it will be lumpy when mixed with whipped egg white mixture (below).

Fluffy Meringue Layer:

3 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Beat egg whites with cream of tarter until foamy.

Gradually add the sugar to the egg whites and continue to beat till

stiff and glossy peaks form. Beat in the vanilla.

Gently fold egg white mixture with the cooled custard mixture.

Pour in crust over chocolate layer. If mixture is not stiff enough to

mound on pie crust refrigerate untill set up a little.

Whip Cream Layer:

1 cup heavy cream

3 Tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat whip cream until almost stiff. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla. 

Spread the stiff cream over the cooled custard layer.

Finishing:

Grate or shave a square of semisweet or unsweetened chocolate on top.

Doesn't it look absolutely wonderful!  

bzzzzz for Halloween!

Mia as a beautiful butterfly!

I'm loving the antennas! 

Callie as a busy bee! 

Sooooo cute!

This is the first year I've dressed the doggies up for Halloween and it turned out so cute. Not sure they loved it as much as I did, but after freaking out for the first couple of minutes they realized the costumes got them more attention and that made it worth it - they sure love attention!