Pink and Green Monkey Topsy Turvy Fondant Birthday Cake

by penji1

Courtney and I are very proud of this one!  It is for Courtney’s friend’s Selsa’s baby girl Yocelynn who turned 2.  Selsa sent us a picture of the party theme which was green and pink polka dots with a cute monkey face so we went with a topsy turvy cake in 3 layers and covered it all in white fondant (Satin Ice Buttercream) and then put large pink polka dots on the bottom layer, medium green and pink polka dots on the middle layer and little green polka dots on the top layer and then Courtney cut out a darling little monkey out of fondant with a cute little flower in her hair for the top and she fashioned a 2 out of pink fondant and gum paste and then dusted it with glitter powder to give it a shimmer.  We then rolled balls out of fondant in white, green and pink to line each layer which I think looks just darling!  The cake is a yummy chocolate (using the White Almond Sour Cream cake recipe) and the frosting is my favorite vanilla buttercream.  I just love this cake!  🙂  Happy Birthday Yocelynn!

Yellow and Lavender Flowers Birthday Fondant Cake

by penji1

Courtney and I have been busy making cakes this weekend; we made 1 (this one) on Thursday, 2 on Friday and 3 on Saturday so get ready subscribers for a bunch of posts today!  I couldn’t put them on the blog until I knew that everyone had received them because they were all either birthday or Father’s Day cakes and I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s surprise.  Patty, Mary’s mom, asked us to make a cake for Mary’s birthday.  Mary’s favorite colors are white, purple and yellow and her favorite flavor is dark chocolate so I made her a nice deep rich cocoa flavored cake (using the White Almond Sour Cream recipe as a base and subbing 1/2 cup cocoa for 1/2 cup of the flour that you add to the cake mix), Vanilla Buttercream frosting (tinted purple for an extra surprise underneath) and the Satin Ice Buttercream Fondant bought online at Global Sugar Art.  We adapted this design idea from a Wilton cake design and I think it came out really cute.  Courtney made all the flowers and I love how she gave them dimension on this cake.  Happy Birthday Mary!

Best Shredded Chicken

by penji1

I got this recipe from the website http://www.food.com after googling shredded chicken.  It really is tasty and easy!  I was going to take a picture of my burrito that I made with the chicken but I was so hungry that I forgot so here is a picture of the leftovers!  🙂

2 pounds chicken breasts (I used 4 chicken breasts from a big bag of frozen ones from Costco)

1 (16 oz) jar salsa (I used a 24 oz jar and that was about right, 16 oz didn’t look like enough)

2 serrano peppers, chopped (I left these out because I’m a wimp when it comes to spicey)

6 garlic cloves, pressed (I used about 4)

1 packet taco seasoning

Combine all ingredients in crock pot (I put the chicken in first, sprinkled it with taco seasoning then pressed the garlic over that and then ended with the salsa on top) and cook for 10 1/2 hours.  (I cooked the chicken, which was frozen when I put it in the crock pot, for about 6 hours on high and it came out perfect.)  To shred chicken, remove from crock pot and 2 forks to pull apart.  Add sauce back into shredded chicken.

Good Low Fat Dressing

by penji1

I don’t remember where I got this recipe, it might have been off the internet but it’s great and goes with any salad.  I threw together this salad of Romaine, red cabbage, broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrots, celery, mini cucumbers, Feta and grilled chicken and the dressing went perfectly.

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar (the balsamic can be a little strong so if it is for you, cut it to 1/2 cup and up the olive oil to 1/2 cup)

1 clove garlic, pressed

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 pinch salt

1 pinch pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

49ers Football Field Fondant Cake

by penji1

front of cake

This one was a challenge for us!  🙂  We struggled a bit to make it look good but it came out ok in the end.  The cake is “Ann’s Poppy Seed Cake” recipe without the poppy seeds so basically just a really yummy yellow cake and then for the frosting, we used my favorite Buttercream Frosting recipe but I added about 1 cup of cocoa to the basic recipe to make it chocolate frosting (it was yummy!) and then the green fondant was Duff’s Buttercream Fondant that we got at Michaels.  Courtney made the goal posts out of gum paste, the football out of chocolate fondant and the helmet out of fondant.  The letters were half gum paste and half fondant.  Happy Birthday Tyler!

back of cake

 

Cilantro Lime Rice

by penji1

My niece Amber and her husband Taylor and 3 year old son Noah came over today so I decided to do a taco bar for dinner where everyone could make what they wanted, either tacos or burritos or taco salad and I wanted to try and make some lime flavored rice like they do at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida so I googled Lime Rice and this is the recipe I found from a website called http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com.  It was soooooo good!!!!!  I left out the cilantro because I can’t stand it but next time I make this rice, I think I’ll just have some cilantro on the side for anyone (like Bob) who wants it but I thought it tasted perfect without the it!  (PS  I doubled the recipe and it came out perfect.)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup basamati rice or regular long grain rice

1 1/2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegan)

2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

zest from 1 lime

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1  Add oil to saucepan and heat on low.  Add garlic and rice to oil and saute for 2 minutes on medium, stirring frequently.

2  Add chicken broth, salt, lime juice and bring to a boil.  Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes or according to rice package directions.

3  When rice is done, add lime zest and chopped cilantro and stir to mix in.  Serve immediately. (If you are using regular long grain rice, which I did, follow the cooking directions on box regarding amount of liquid to use and cooking time.)

Mango Confetti Salsa

by penji1

My sister in law Mary requested that if she didn’t win the Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor (which she didn’t, sorry Mary) then could she please still have the recipe for this Pampered Chef salsa so here it is Mary, enjoy!

1 large mango

1/2 small jicama

1/3 orange bell pepper

1/3 red bell pepper

1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed

1/3 small red onion

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Pampered Chef Chili Lime Rub

tortilla chips

1  On a large cutting board, cut mango using Mango Wedger.  Remove skin from mango using Avocado Peeler.  Peel jicama using Serrated Peeler.  Dice mango, jicama and bell peppers into 1″ pieces.  Cut jalapeno in half and remove seeds using Core and More.

2  Combine mango, jicama, bell peppers, jalapeno and onion in Manual Food Processor; cover and pump handle until coarsely chopped.  Add lime juice and salt; pump handle to desired consistency, removing lid and scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.  Pour salsa into serving bowl.  Sprinkle with rub.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Yields about 2 cups salsa which is approximately 6 servings

And the winner of the Pampered Chef Giveaway is . . .

by penji1

KATHRYN STONE!

Congratulations to Kathie – my friend, fellow Bunco Babe and also fellow Pampered Chef lover!  You just won a Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor valued at $49.00.  I’ve also got some recipes for you to try out with your new food processor!

Thank you all for subscribing to my blog!  I wish I could give each and every one of you a food processor but stay tuned for more giveaways!

Graduation Soda Pop Candy Bouquets

by penji1

All the kids in my Sunday School class graduated from high school on Thursday and I wanted to give them all something so Courtney and I (but mostly Courtney) made them these soda pop candy bouquets to congratulate them.  The idea came from the little “Candy Bouquets” book that I got recently.  Their idea started with a small can of pop covered in soda pop flavored hard candies (which I couldn’t find) so Cort and I stuck with the little soda pop can and covered it with Jolly Ranchers and then I used my Cricut to cut out little graduation caps for the toppers.  Just a warning if you decide to make these, they end up being pretty heavy and break easily so be careful if you need to transport them anywhere.  (Yes, I dropped 2 of them and had to redo them!)

hot glue gun

1 (3 x 2″) styrofoam disk (found these at the Dollar Store)

1 (8 oz) can soda (we used 7 Up and Orange Crush for the color of the cans, if you live near me, Maceys grocery store has these)

1 (1 pound) bag soda poppers hard candies (we used Jolly Ranchers, you could use any hard candy and if you live near me or have a WinCo near you, you can find lots of hard candy choices in their bulk food department for about $1.48 a pound which isn’t bad)

50 – 60 quilters T-pins or straight pins

1  Using the glue gun, squeeze glue on 1 flat side of the styrofoam disk.  Attach the disk to the top of the soda can; let dry for 3 – 5 minutes.

2  Insert a pin through 1 end of the candy wrapper and affix pin and candy to the styrofoam.  Starting at the bottom, place candies in single rows around the outside and top of the styrofoam.  Repeat until top and sides of disk are completely covered.  Alternate candy flavors as desired.

(I used my Cricut to cut out a small graduation cap and tassel and then glued them onto half of a bamboo skewer (like the kind you used to barbecue with) and then pushed it into the top of the styrofoam.)

Panda Bear Graduation Fondant Cake/Ann’s Poppy Seed Cake Recipe

by penji1

This is the last cake we made yesterday for graduation today.  It was for our awesome, sweet, funny friend Marlene who loves pandas!  The head of the panda is a Devil’s Food cake made in the Pampered Chef batter bowl (recipe on blog under “Barbie Doll Cake”) then covered in vanilla buttercream frosting and finally Buttercream Fondant.  The bottom layer or beginning of the panda’s body is a Poppy Seed Cake (without the poppy seeds as Marlene just wanted yellow cake, which comes from a recipe that my friend Ann gave to me, recipe to follow), covered with vanilla buttercream frosting and then chocolate fondant.  Her little graduation cap is also a chocolate chocolate chip muffin covered in chocolate fondant and her ears are solid chocolate fondant.  Happy Graduation Marlene, we love you!

Ann’s Poppy Seed Cake Recipe

1 yellow cake mix

1 small box vanilla instant pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

4 eggs

1/3 jar poppy seeds (left these out for Marlene who wanted yellow cake)

Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended.  Pour into greased bundt pan (I did two 8″ layers) and bake according to cake mix directions.