Easter Weekend

Oh Easter weekend :)
It's one of those times when a smile follows a little sigh of satisfaction. Not only is it a time to reflect on the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (which really should be a thing we do EVERY day...but not the point) but it's a time to bake! (which also should be a thing I do every day...haha)

Right up there with Christmas, Easter is a holiday that involves a lot of sugar. And butter. And sugar. And umm a lot of eggs haha. I mentioned sugar right??

I know it's a week after the fact, but I wanted to share with you some pictures of the stuff I made!

The Recipes, like seemingly always, will have to wait until next post. I am going to friend's wedding today, so I'm a wee bit crunched on time. I'll have to be posting the recipe next time. But, to keep you interested...here are the yummies I made!

Exhibit A: SUGAR COOKIES

Seriously the best and most adaptable cookie for any holiday! It's all in the frosting baby!

Honestly. People are ALWAYS impressed by these cookies. They can be as time consuming or as easy as you choose. The more intricate the design on top, the more time. BUT these taste amazing. So regardless of whether you replicate Picasso and Rembrant with your frosting, or just slather on anice spoonful, they'll be a hit!



And I can GUARANTEE, you'll have people praising the ground upon which you walk...especially if you accidentally drop some crumbs.

Exhibit B: PEEP WARS

I have been wanting to try this for years. I don't know why I never did. Sometimes, I'm not a very logical person.

 But whatever. 

I did it this year. 

 Haha, it didn't exactly go as smoothly as I had hoped it might,

 BUT. I had a lot of fun. And so did my little brother. (I can't say the same for our Peep warriors unfortunately...)

Aaaaand the end result was delicious!!

 I guess that's all that really matters, right!?

Exhibit C: CAKE

I LOVE decorating cakes. I LOVE eating delicious cakes. And so occassions that allow me to do both...oh beautiful times!

 She turned out purdy, didn't she! And really, all this consisted of...

-a box cake mix (Vanilla!! my absolute favorite!)

-buttercream frosting (I posted the recipe yesterday which you can find **)

-food coloring (for the diff colors of frosting)

I know, I use cake mix. Sue me. I never said I was Betty Crocker. Or Mary Poppins. Besides, cake mixes taste amazing AND are less time consuming. I'd say it's a win-win.

AND

Exhibit D: (D for DELICIOUS) PEANUTBUTTER COOKIES.

Honestly, is any holiday weekend complete without these?? Not in my home. Not in my stomach.

 they just look gorgeous. With their peanutbuttery color and their peanutbuttery taste. And their peanutbuttery smell. Oh the peanutbuttery heaven!! It's quite easy to obtain this peanutbuttery bliss...and I've already posted this recipe!

(click here to begin your quest of peanutbuttery heaven attainment)

I wish you and your loved ones a very delicious and delectable day.

Keep dreaming, keep baking (really it's all the same)

~MollyMarie

April Fools Day!

I have never been one to really get into April Fools Day. I mean, there are only so many times one can say "April Fools!" before your pranks/jokes/whatevers don't work anymore...and I've never been a very clever pranker.

That is, until I discovered the world of April Fools food pranks. Genius. GENIUS!

I really got into the holiday this year!

[*now, you are never supposed to start presentations or conversations or blog posts with disclaimers or apologies because then the audience is already judging you negatively...whether they mean to or not. But I MUST start this off with a lament. I'm still taking pics with my camera phone. And let me tell you. It's hard! Not only am I an amateur to begin with, having the right equipment DOES make a world of difference. That being said, please continue reading and now judging the pictures lol]

Starting with breakfast burritos.
What's so April Foolsie about plain breakfast burritos? you ask with your eyebrows furrowed. Well nothing if they really were plain. Unfurrow them eyebrows my friends! because my burritos weren't plain... they contained green eggs. Haha. Ok. Not so original. But it was fun to see my family's reactions to something they just weren't expecting!

For the next part of our April Fools fun...
I put together a little variation of this wacky meal idea.

Instead of having an entire meal, Jon and I decided to do sandwiches. So we both started with two slices of bread. In a cup we put slips of paper with different sandwich fillings. (peanut butter, jam, mayo, mustard, pickles, bananas, honey, pepper, etc.) Each of us drew 3 slips and had to put those fillings together on our sandwiches.
Lucky Jon ended up with something edible. Me on the other hand...
... not so fortunate lol

Jon's: Peanut butter, honey, and turkey lunch meat on toasted white bread
Mine:...shredded chicken, honey, and pickles on soft white bread
Uhg. It was disgusting lol. But fun! :)

Next: Cake in an Egg.

For this lovely little trick, I baked cake INSIDE an egg shell and placed the shell back into a carton. So when my dear daddy went to make us some dessert for after watching General Conference  (which was FABULOUS by the way!), hahaha he ended up cracking a cake shell!

These weren't even that difficult to make! All you need:

about 12 eggs

a cake mix

muffin baking tin

aluminum foil

you can find the directions here!

AND

For the FINALE: meatloaf cupcakes!

Using Pioneer Woman's Recipe for meatloaf with some little tweaks, which you can locate here, these turned out DELICIOUS!! (The tweaks: instead of wrapping the entire loaf in bacon, we put the meat mixture in large cupcake tins and put slices of bacon on top).

After cooking the meatloaf, we used Pioneer Woman's mashed potato recipe (located here) for our "frosting". Oh so goooood!!!

And of course. A cameo appearance by my delicious rolls!

The end result...

A wonderful April Fools Day Dinner :)

I suppose the moral of my story is this...there is no such thing as too much butter. Or don't cast judgement on a holiday that you just don't understand. I think each lesson has its own merits.

The Sky is FALLING!!!

April Fools!

~MollyMarie

Happy St. Patty's Day Snickerdoodle Style!

I just had to make a quick post in honor of the greenest holiday of the year!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! :D

I just love St. Patrick's Day! Every year the Leprechaun visits and leaves us gold wrapped candy. Yummy yum yum!

This year, Jon and I made a little treat to thank him...Snickerdoodles!! But not just any snickerdoodles!!!

GREEN snickerdoodles!

 

They are quite simple to achieve and don't take any special ingredients. Just a good snickerdoodle recipe (which I'll be posting next week, so stay tuned!) and some green food coloring :)

These are kid friendly too! Rolling the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture is one of the best parts and is super easy for a child to help :)







These snickerdoodles are easy, fun, and a GREAT way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

Patrick O'Leprechaun's Snickerdoodles

   We didn't catch Patrick this time...maybe next year lol

Keep searching and someday you'll find your gold at the end of the rainbow :)

~MollyMarie

Back to My Bread

*sigh. Sometimes I wonder if I should just turn this into a bread blog. I honestly LOVE my bread recipe so much!! And since I didn't have time to try making anything new for Valentine's Day. . . I decided to put a twist on a recipe that I know EVERYBODY loves!!

So it's really just a normal bread braid using the dinner roll recipe from previous posts, but instead of leaving it in a line-braid, I connected the ends and then pushed the middle in the make a heart shape. Easy, delicious, and PERFECT for Valentine's Day :)

This idea could be used for any holiday or just for fun! A four-leaf clover for March? Maybe an oval shape for Easter? even a Mickey head? This recipe is quite delicious in whatever shape you eat it!!

~Molly Marie

(the roll recipe can be found at Our Best Bites Seriously, check these guys out. Everything they make looks FANTASTIC!)

Christmas Timeeeee

Holy toledo and two gingersnaps!! Seriously December has been soooo crazy!!

The Gingerbread House War was last Friday. . . and boy was it STRESSFUL to put together!! But the results were FANTASTIC! Everyone seemed to have a ton of fun and we had a lot of people participate. I'll be putting up a post dedicated solely to the War so I won't say too much more about it, except that it went SO MUCH BETTER than I thought it was going to turn out!! :D

But other than that, I started doing "24 days of Fun" with Jon. Each day of December I'll make a little card-type-thing and have planned some fun craft or project to do together. 

I found out my phone does this neat little collage shot. . . so i had to use it! lol. But so far there have been 14 Days of Fun and Jon is in the Christmas Spirit!

I on the other hand am still trying to get myself to feel the holiday cheer. I just finished my last final of the Fall 2011 semester!!!! So I'm headed in the right direction. I mean, honestly. This semester, 15 units of 500-level history courses was TOUGH!! The sheer number of books the professors required me to read. . . .INSANELY RIDICULOUS!!

After looking back at finals week: a 9pg paper, a  12 pg paper, 2 in class essay finals [cumulative], and a presentation. . . i realize I'm lucky to be alive!! haha

But now that school is over until January 18th, I can focus on CHRISTMAS!!! Gingerbread house here I comeeeee!! (haha told you I was addicted!!) I'm so excited for all the baking I get to do!

-gingersnaps
-peanut butter blossums
-russian snowballs
-gingerbread men
-sugar cookies
-snicker-doodles
-chocolate chip cookies
-almond rocha
-peanut brittle
-magic cookie squares
-rice crispies
-cinnamon crackles
      and all the other regulars!!

Oooooh I think I'm getting the Christmas Spirit just thinking of all the baking!! :D

Cinnamon Tortoise Shell Muffins (DELICIOUS!)

  just the beginning of my Christmas baking adventures

Sugar cookie decorating station

Me at the Tree Farm!

This'll be the BEST Christmas ever!! I'm sure of it!

Keep loving, keep living, keep baking!
~MollyMarie

Gingerbread House WAR!!

I told you already. I'm addicted. Therefore I offer this next post with no apologies!! Especially since it's gingerbread season!

I organized a Gingerbread House War/ Competition. Girls versus Guys. . .yeah, a little unfair. . .but still extremely fun!

On Sunday, we (the girls) issued our Declaration of War. We set up a poster and set out some cookies. . .

Pre-plated (oh so cute!)

                      and plated (they looked great!!!)




Along with the cookies and poster we sent. . .

a written declaration










and the rule sheet...








The challenge was taken up with enthusiasm. The girls are getting WAY into it. We have some super cool planning ideas going on...the guys really don't stand a chance! haha :) But it should be an interesting fight. The guys seem pretty stoked as well and I've heard some talk that since "canons" and not "cannons" were included in the restricted items...that there will be some actual weaponry. It's gonna get INTENSE!!

I can't wait until the 9th!! I'll post pictures and results. Too excited to contain myself!!!!

Life's the GREATEST!
~MollyMarie

Day After the Feast

All went well! My rolls were received with much love and the meal was FANTASTIC!!! I found a new adoration for sweet potatoes, I found out that just because my stomach couldn't fit anymore turkey or stuffing didn't mean that cookies and pie could not be consumed, and I found that even when your pants no longer fit your waist. . . one can still be quite content.

My Aunt decorated the house so cute and being around family was seriously the best! The food was aplenty the football was a playin and we skyped with family from Idaho. . .which included my sister this year!! Since she's up in Idaho for school (I know, poor poor child lol) she spent the holiday with my cousins. I really do miss her (but shhh. don't let her know! haha). AND Uncle Danny and Aunt Rachel skyped from Australia! They're doing swell and are coming over to the States soon to spend Christmas with us!

Speaking of Christmas. . . . . . .

It's officially the season!! We started decorating!!

Christmas Oh Christmas. The best time of year.

The piano is one of my FAVORITE things about our house. . . and come Christmas, I love it even more!! :)

 An awkward angle. . . but the houses really look cute! Go Mom for your creativity! The house looks great so far!!!



Life is just the bees knees! And come December 1st, Jon and I are starting the 24 Days of Fun! Each day we will make a craft, make a treat, or do something special (like playing at the Christmas tree farm.. . yeah you read right! There's a Christmas tree farm by our house!). It'll be very memorable for Jon and for me. . .and as he grows up I want him to have those good memories of his sister! :)

 I'll keep you all updated on the crafts and awesome Christmas shenanigans happening throughout the month. . . so just stay tuned!!

Keep Happy!!
~MollyMarie

THANKSGIVING!!! the day of reckoning...

Thanksgiving FINALLY came!!

Last night was spent in the kitchen...and I mean ALL last night...AND ALL yesterday morning...or as I so intelligently called it a few days ago "last morning." (Yeah. I got teased for that one! But the more I think about it...the less wrong it sounds lol. I may just go with it haha.)

As you may have guessed. . . . I didn't go to Magic Mountain. My responsible side won out. But I'm glad I chose to stay home. Not only did I finish the rolls, which turned out splendidly, I went to class, which was super good because even though the teacher said that not coming wouldn't penalize people. . . we ended up learning A LOT! I'm pretty sure that if I had missed, I would have come to class Monday and been completely and utterly lost. BUT I went and so I'll be great and good on Monday :) Also. I ended up making cookies!! Peanut butter for my Mom and sugar cookies for Thanksgiving night.

 ADORABLE right?!? haha follow the link to see where I originally got the idea! Only thing I changed is due to laziness! Instead of using icing for the beak and feet and M&Ms for the eyes. . .I just stuck a candy corn on for the beak and used some leftover candy from my gingerbread kit for the eyes. It doesn't look quite as good as the original, but I'm still pretty happy with them!
http://theherberfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanksgiving-treats.html

 

Yeah check out my other post
 for the recipe and better pics!
nutty for my peanut butter

BUT I KNOW THAT YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT. . . . . .  THE ROLLS!!!!

Well. Here they are :) My babies. . . . 

 There are sooooo many. I think I've made my quota of rolls for the next decade!! lol. But I did enjoy perfecting my own roll recipe!








Only a few of the batches...

They LOOK SO GOOOOOOOD!!!! And they taste even BETTER!!! Huurrraaaahhh for perserverance and hardwork! Go Me...and of course all those who helped me succeed!

We'll see how it goes!!
MollyMarie

PS: I wrote this BEFORE our Thanksgiving Feast...But IT WENT SPECTACULAR!! My next post will include comment on people's reactions and on just Thanksgiving stuff :D

Thanksgiving Fast Approaches

The big day is almost here!!! Aaaaaaaaand life has just put me in a crunch : / While my siblings get the week off for the holiday, I have school until the bitter end. School on Thanksgiving Eve!! SO UNFAIRRRRR!!! I had hoped my teacher would be really nice and graciously cancel class. . . I found out today that he was not as great as I had originally thought. I mean really?? Doesn't my teacher want an extra day of break?? I kow I would! I had super hoped class would be cancelled. Not only just for Thanksgiving Eve. . . but because a group of my friends planned a Six Flags trip that day. I LOVE 6FLAGS! I WANT TO GOOO!!!! But missing a 500level college course isn't the most ideal thing to do. . . So now I have to decide whether or not to be responsible. . . bleck. BUT on top of that:

The Rolls

When would I have time to make my rolls? It's an all day thing for me to make just one batch. . . but to make multiple batches to have enough for our Thanksgiving feast. . . it's gonna be crazzzieee. If I went to class like a good child, I'd have to make the rolls in the afternoon and into the night. Deciding to go to Six Flags means I decide to make the rolls into the wee hours of the night. . . after walking all day and wearing myself out. People are counting on my rolls. I'd have to REALLY commit to staying up if I did go, even if I felt like my feet were going to fall off and my brain slip out through my ear holes. Blah de blah humm. What to do. I have no clue.


BUT. On a different topic.

From the Front

I finished my gingerbread holiday house! :D

Scarecrow?
 (my mother informed me
 it looked like a sheep...ah well)

Haha! My TootsieRoll Turkey!

The Back Yard

 only pure talent lets you make a car out of mini 3muskuteers, milkyways, and gum drops!

and the final touch : Melt chocolate chips with peanut butter and then GLOP IT on the roof!! 

Holiday Houses!

I AM ADDICTED. Not only to peanut butter, sugar, and singing at the top of my lungs when no one is around . . . yeah, don't judge haha. . . .but I also am quite thoroughly addicted to making holiday houses. Holiday houses as in gingerbread houses and their knock-offs. What are these knock-offs, you ask. They are the other types of bread houses used to create gingerbread house look alikes for other holidays.

FOR EXAMPLE. . .
Halloween:
chocolate bread house.
Thanksgiving:
chocolate bread house (an adapted version of the Halloween kit which I got on sale for $2.50. Score. . . cuz i would have bought it at full price lol. Mwhahaha! They lost potential money!!! ha. . . . .ok I'm done being awkward)
Other holidays:
I plan on buying extra christmas gingerbread house kits for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. . .but the other holidays. . . I might end up making from scratch. . . addictions are addicting, so i will definitely, maybe end up going all out on these things!! haha

Over the years I have made many a house . Christmas and Halloween are the main ones . But this year, my Thanksgiving house is looking mighty legit!!

Holiday House: Thanksgiving (incomplete)

Ain't it just lookin prime?? Haha. A mixture of cereal, leftover Halloween candy and candy that came with the kit, this house is my most creative!! See the car on the left?? Milkyway body, gum drop wheels, piece of cap'n crunch for the front fender thing (believe it or not I'm not a car person and don't know everything!! lol), and a mini 3musketeer for the top part. I'm cool, I know.

I'll definitely post more pictures once I've completed it!!

Here's my Halloween House project! I did a lot of it with Jon so it's pretty darn awesome and a bag and a half of extraordinary!!

He's a master! Such Concentration!

 that's a spiderweb on the back. Jon threw (literally!) green-colored sugar on it to put in a "haunting effect." 

i love the candycorn walkway...it's sooo pretty! 

 haha...those are sugar cookies in the back. Thing about me is that I have to be working on multiple projects at the same time or my life is just not crazy enough! Aaaaand, I forgot to take a picture of the end product of the cookies : / but they were suuuuuperrrrr cute and went suuuuuperrrr fast!

I just LOVE making these houses! Can't wait to be able to work more on the Thanksgiving House! ALSO! Watch out for my post with the legit Christmas gingerbread houses!! They're gonna be great!

Stay Happy. Feed your Tastebuds.
~MollyMarie