"Birthday Cake" Cookies

I realized it has been well over a month since I last posted a cookie recipe....far too long! Here is a fun one that you can easily adapt for any holiday (just change the color of sprinkles you use!). It's easy, your kids can help and it makes up some awesome chewy, flavorful cookies.

Birthday Cake Cookies

 Makes 2 Dozen

1 box white cake mix (18.25 oz)

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 C Sprinkles (Pick your Color to match the occasion!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, mix together the dry cake mix and baking powder. Add the egg, oil and vanilla to the cake mixture stir to combine. Grab your "helpers" to sprinkle in the sprinkles! Stir in the sprinkles.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes (I turn the sheet at 5 minutes for more even baking). Bake until lightly browned (don't over bake).They will be very soft at first and need to cool a bit to harden up enough to pick up. Let sit for 5 minutes after baking before you try to move them from the tray then enjoy.

 

 

At the Lake House

   For years I have read the summer “beach reads.” They invariably end up having a week get-a-way at a beach rental in the Hamptons or Nantucket or somewhere like that. I have always thought how amazing it would be to have a family tradition at a beach house. The chances of this happening were pretty slim since we live in Utah, land locked in the middle of the west.

   In a wonderful turns of events Jeff’s parents good friends have a house right on Bear Lake. It is an amazing house and the backyard walks right out onto the beach. They have been so very nice to let us use the lake house for a long weekend the last couple of years.  It is the summer adventure of novels. We had an amazing time in the water and hanging out on the beach. There is also a cute little lake town “Garden City” that has the most amazing shake shack.

 

   This year was amazing and the kids had a blast. They have asked several times when we are going back to the lake house (or Lake Housshth as little a says).

 

 

"Remy's" Ratatouille

Harvest season is upon us and it's time to start reaping the benefits of all those hours you have put into the garden (or all the hours your nice friends and neighbors have put in). The zucchini and squash are all ripening up and what better way to use them up than with an amazing ratatouille dish?

I don't know about you but I have a very hard time getting my kiddos to eat squash or zucchini (Yuck!). I have found that if I am a bit creative they will eat. One of my biggest wins was recreating the Ratatouille that Remy the rat makes in the Disney movie.  It turned out delicious, looked just like Remys (though completely cooked by humans!) and was a hit with the kids. A thanks to my friend Suzie for providing us the awesome squash!

Remy’s Ratatouille
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 Large Squash (I have used zucchini, eggplant, red bell pepper, really whatever you have like that should work)
Fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
parchment paper, 1 1/2 quart baking dish
Optional: Goat Cheese, mandolin

Preheat oven to 375 degrees .

Place baking dish on parchment paper and draw a pattern of the bottom of the dish. Cut out the pattern and see if it fits as a "lid" to the dish. You may have to trim the paper a bit. It's easiest to do this part first.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Stir in the onion, Garlic and 1 tablespoon Olive Oil, Season with salt and pepper.

Thinly slice the squash (or whatever you are using). I use a Mandolin for quick uniform cutting. I can't imagine doing this without one, but it would be possible.

Arrange the slices of squash (or what you are using) on top of the tomato mixture in the dish. Overlap the slices and alternate colors. Cover the whole dish like this (see pic below)

 Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over the arranged squash. sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves and salt and pepper.

Cover with your parchment paper and bake for 45-50 minutes until squash is cooked but not limp or browned and tomato sauce is bubbling up.

Optional: Serve with goat cheese dolloped on top.

The ingredients

your Tomato Sauce

Thinly slice your squash

Arrange your squash slices

Cover your masterpiece with parchment paper

Your finished Ratatouille!

Giving Tips on "Good Things Utah"

I had the most amazing opportunity. I was asked to present the content from one of my blog posts on our local Morning show "Good Things Utah."

It was a Great experience. Everyone was so nice. I have always loved the show and it was so fun to be a part of it. I LOVED Nicea and Troy, they were so friendly and sweet! It couldn't have been more fun!

Click on the Photo above to see the clip.

Turning 2

Our "Little A" has turned 2

 

 

I don't know where the time has gone. I still refer to her as "my baby" all the time. This is not factual anymore. She is now a sentence saying, crib climbing, opinionated toddler.

 

We had an amazing time for her birthday, SO much fun celebrating with friends and family. Her theme was Minnie and we did cupcakes (Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Almond frosting). She was totally spoiled and seemed to have a wonderful time. 

 

We also had her birthday photo shoot at FotoFly which turned out AMAZING as always. They have never failed to amaze me with their pictures.

The Birthday Girl from July 2012 to July 2013...

 

Celebrating at Toys R Us...
 She picked out play donuts!
Definitely related to her GrandMA!

Birthday Breakfast at Kneaders

 

 

FREE * Garage Sale Tags * Printables

Ever since my post on Garage Sale Tips I have had a lot of people ask me for the template that I use for my garage sale tags. Therefore by popular demand here is a link to the tags I made up....

http://freepdfhosting.com/065bf2ab6e.pdf

I simply cut them down to size and scotch taped them onto all my items.
They worked perfectly! Large enough to easily read yet small enough to put on most everything.

Happy Sales!!

 

Big A is a Builder

I don't know if you know this but Lowe's offers "build and grow" clinics periodically for kids to do a small woodworking projects. it's awesome, they provide all the materials, tools, etc. you just have to show up (well pre-register first) and do the project. I had looked at it last fall but the clinics then were for age 7+ so I thought that'd be future fun for the kids and didn't put any other thought to it. Then last week my friend Angie told me they were doing "Monsters Inc" clinics this month that were for ages 3+ (Thanks Angie!!) .

SWEET!!!

So I popped online and got Big A signed right up. He and Jeff attended the first one last weekend. It was to make wooden "Scarers." They had a FANTASTIC time and came home with two rather finely crafted new Monster toys handmade by Big A.