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

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!! 

Oh my GOODNESS!!

HEY!!! GUESS WHAT???????

I re-tried Danny's Dinner Rolls!. . . . . . . . . . . .AND. . . . . . . . . . . .the recipe WORKED! Haha. Apparently, someone wrote the recipe down wrong. Too much salt. So now, my lovely blog readers, I can make Danny's Dinner Rolls. I am not going to sugar coat the raisin too much, so I have to say, I actually like my new roll recipe better. . . but these are still so very very delicious.

Eh. The phone camera doesn't capture the full essence of the magnificence of these beautiful rolls. . . . . . .I think I'm going to invest in an actual camera! The food must look as good as it tastes!

So. Even though Danny's Dinner Rolls won a whopping three times. . . . I emerged VICTORIOUS!!! :D

Keep living, keep loving, keep baking!

~MollyMarie

More Roll Attempts!!

Eh...they're getting there!!

This time, using the same recipe, I tried to make them smaller. Smaller rolls = more rolls per batch = less baking at crunch time (day before Thanksgiving). I think I let them rise too much the second time and they fell back into themsleves because the texture of the bottoms was a tad off...........but the taste was de-doubldee-licious!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the AFTER the dough was baked haha. Once they were baked, they expanded A LOT! I wish I had gotten a picture!! But they went lickety split, so all I have is the pre-completed product.

A couple more goes at these rolls and I will be confidently bringing them to be judged by my extended family! I wonder what THEY will think of the roll replacement.......but I still have much more perfecting to do before I'm ready to put my work on that chopping block lol.

~Molly Marie

The Pathetic Attempts #3 ...and a new approach

Fail. Fail. fail fail FAIL.

Only word to describe my experience. 

See? They rose this time, at least. And the taste was good...they just...weren't Uncle Danny's. Or maybe my brain and tastebuds have glorified the memory of those rolls. Either way, these rolls just did NOT cut it. It could be due to the fact that the rolls are cursed...and only Danny can recreate them. More likely is that the recipe was produced by request and came from roll-making that was primarily by "feel". So since my Uncle is in Australia, I haven't been given the Roll Initiation. There hasn't been a "showing me how" rather a "look at the recipe and flail miserably in the land of fail" kind of attempts.

SO.

I have decided to perfect my own roll recipe. And I am well on my way....

Exhibit A:

DELICIOUS!!!!! And I don't even care if I sound conceited.

They aren't perfect yet...but they are pretty darn close. And they'll only get better. Thanksgiving is looking promising!

These babies were huge. And a big success with my family.

Next step is to try them out on other people until they become PERFECT!! Time to think of a name for these delightful delectables...suggestions??

~MollyMarie

The Pathetic Copy of Danny's Dinner Rolls: Attempt One

My uncle recently moved to Australia. Now, this is a sore subject on a couple accounts. Firstly, WHAT?? That is like the coolest thing I can't be a part of!! I WISH I could live in Australia. I mean, making friends with koalas, kangaroos, and all manner of marsupials, who wouldn't want that?? My little cousins, Hannah, Ben, and Lizzy (all under 12 years old!) get to live in another country!! haha...but really not so much a haha but a sighing no fair. Secondly, I have no money and therefore can't visit. Thirdly, my Aunt Rachel is like the sweetest most creative person ever...and secretly I was planning on asking her to help with my wedding cake. It would have been the envy of everyone! But alas...her being in Australia for at least the next 5 years makes that a wee bit impossible. I just hope she'll be able to make it over to the US to see me get hitched! (...but...I'm not even dating anyone right now...so who knows, maybe the wedding cake will never be a problem!)

And finally, the most pressing matter of my uncle's moving is Thanksgiving. On this holiday, my Dad's family all gets together for a lovely and delicious feast. Present at this feast, in all their golden and delectable glory, are my Uncle Danny's dinner rolls. THEY ARE FANTASTIC! And this year, the possibility of getting them is slim (here is an appropriate place to shed a few tears and feel sorry for me). SO...

I decided I would attempt to recreate them and make sure a little piece of Danny, Rachel, Hannah, Ben, and Lizzy graces our Thanksgiving feast. I can guarantee, if my first attempts are any indication (like, I killed the yeast and accidentally used rancid oil. yup great start. so great that i'm not even going to post pics), that these dinner rolls will be a meager replacement...so I'm just going to call them "the Pathetic Copy of Danny's Dinner Rolls". haha. I'm not posting the recipe...it's his recipe after all...but maybe someday when i ask permission, he'll let me give it to you guys :)