Lemon Tea Cup Cupcakes

by penji1

Lemon Tea Cup Cupcakes

OK, how cute are these?  The daughter’s of a neighbor of mine are throwing her a surprise birthday tea party today and when I heard that, I remembered that I had these adorable silicone tea cups that you can actually bake a cupcake in so I called and asked if I could bring them to the party.  I got them at a store near me called Tai Pan Trading but I checked and you can get them on Amazon and right now they are buy one, get one free!!! I also had those cute flower cupcake liners from Wilton which I figured went nicely with the tea party theme as well.  I used my go to Basic Buttercream Icing for the cupcakes but substituted whipping cream for the milk as an experiment which worked out quite nicely being just a little less sweet than with the milk.

cupcakes:

1 lemon cake mix plus ingredients to make cake

1 extra egg

1 small box lemon pudding or 1 small box vanilla pudding and 1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 recipe Basic Buttercream Icing

Pampered Chef Lemon Sprinkles

1  Mix (adding extra egg and pudding mix) and bake as directed on package for cupcakes.

2  Frost as desired with Buttercream Icing and sprinkle with lemon sprinkles or yellow decorating sugar.

Here’s a closer look at those adorable tea cup cupcakes:

Lemon Tea Cup Cupcakes

Caprese Flatbread

by penji1

Caprese Flatbread

Here is my new favorite go to lunch or dinner, it is delicious!  You could mix it up into any combination you like.  You could use up the leftovers in the fridge.  The possibilities are endless!  I’ll calm down now.

mini Naan flatbread (I get mine at Costco)

olive oil

shredded Mozzarella cheese

tomato

fresh basil leaves

shredded Parmesan cheese

Brush top of Naan lightly with olive oil.  Top with shredded Mozzarella, tomatoes and basil leaves then end with a light sprinkling of Parmesan.  Place in preheated toaster oven until cheese is melted and Naan is toasted to your liking.  Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemonade Cake

by penji1

Strawberry Lemonade Cake

Here is Bob’s birthday cake which was the perfect summery cake.  Just a warning that the flavored whipping cream is really tart so if you don’t like tart then I would suggest cutting down on the flavoring.  The recipe comes from “Lolly Jane”.

1 lemon cake mix

1 small box lemon pudding mix

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1 cup water

3 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup (or less if you want to cut down on the tart) Country Time Strawberry Lemonade drink mix

16 oz strawberries

1  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease two 8″ round cake pans.

2  Beat together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil and water for 2 minutes.

3  Divide batter between cake pans.  Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

4  Cool in pans 10 minutes then remove from pans and allow to cool another 10 minutes on cooling racks.

5  Wrap each cake layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

6  Beat together whipping cream and drink mix on high for about 3 – 5 minutes or until medium peaks form.

7  Hull and slice about half the strawberries, reserving a little less than half for garnish.

8  Place one cake layer on serving platter.  Place slice strawberries on top then top strawberries with half of the whipped cream.  Place 2nd cake layer on top of whipped cream and top this layer with remaining whipped cream.  Garnish with whole berries.

9  Store in fridge.

Here’s a peak at the inside:

Strawberry Lemonade Cake

Baked Lemon Salmon

by penji1

Baked Lemon Salmon

Yesterday was Bob’s birthday so last night we had a little family Minion birthday party.  What you’re looking at here is his birthday dinner – Baked Lemon Salmon, Lemon Rice, sauteed veggies and fougasse!  It was all delicious!  The salmon recipe came from “Cooking Classy”.

Baked Lemon Salmon

4 (6 oz each) salmon fillets

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt and pepper

1  Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a 9 x 13″ baking dish.

2  Whisk together olive oil, lemon zest and lemon juice.

3  Place fillets in baking dish.  Salt and pepper tops then flip them over.  Brush tops of fillets generously with lemon mixture then salt and pepper.  Let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

4  Bake 12 – 16 minutes (mine took almost 30, they were still slightly frozen and I like them cooked really well, almost crispy).

Lemon Rice

Go here to the recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice, omit cilantro and substitute lemon for lime.

Sauteed Veggies

olive oil

1 onion, cut into strips

3 zucchini, cut into discs

3 yellow squash, cut into discs

Coat bottom of large skillet sparingly with olive oil.  Saute onion until it is starting to soften then add zucchini and saute for a couple of minutes then add yellow  squash and saute for a couple more minutes.  Place lid on skillet and turn heat down to medium and allow to cook until desired tenderness, stirring occasionally.

Fougasse

1  Get in car.

2  Drive to nearest Harmons.

3  Go to bread counter and ask for Fougasse.

4  Go to register and pay for Fougasse.

5  Drive home.

6  Eat Fougasse.

7  Call Penny and thank her for telling you about Fougasse.

Chewy Toffee Bars

by penji1

Chewy Toffee Bars

Look at those gooey squares of goodness, just look at them!  YUM!  Butter, brown sugar, toffee bits – what more could a person want?  These little bites of heaven are courtesy of the Food Network.

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter

2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 cup pecans, chopped

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup toffee bits

1  Preheat oven to 350. Spray 8″ square baking dish with cooking spray and line bottom and sides with parchment paper. Spray parchment with cooking spray.

2 Melt butter over medium heat; add brown sugar and stir until melted. Let cool 5 minutes.

3  Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Toast pecans in a medium skillet over medium heat, 6 – 8 minutes.

4  Stir eggs, one at a time, into cooled butter-sugar mixture, then stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in toffee and pecans (batter will be thick).

5 Spread batter in dish. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes, lift out of pan and cut into pieces.

Slow Cooker Easy French Dip Sandwiches

by penji1

Slow Cooker Easy French Dip Sandwiches

Made this for dinner last night, one of the freezer meals that I put together.  It was delicious!  It comes from “Six Sisters’ Stuff”.

2 – 3 pounds roast, either pork or beef (I used pork this time)

2 (14 1/2 oz each) cans beef consomme (located in soup aisle)

6 – 8 buns of your choice

Freezer Meal instructions:

Place roast in resealable gallon bag and pour consomme on top.  Place in freezer.  When ready to make, remove from freezer and allow to thaw in fridge for 24 hours.  Spray slow cooker with cooking spray and then add contents of bag.  Cook on low 8 – 11 hours or on high 5 – 7 hours.  Remove roast from crock pot and shred.  Strain juice in crock pot and reserve for dipping.

Straight to Crock Pot instructions:

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  Place roast in crock pot, pour consomme over top.  Cook on low 8 – 11 hours or on high 5 – 7 hours.  Remove roast and shred.  Strain juice in crock pot and reserve for dipping.

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Bars

by penji1

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Bars

YUM!  Cort and Jaren were over for dinner last night and Cort always wants a chocolatey treat so I decided to give these a whirl and they hit the spot for sure, more like a brownie than a sugar cookie but that is definitely not a complaint!  It’s a Six Sisters’ Stuff recipe.

cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup milk

1 – 2 teaspoons vanilla

3 tablespoons cocoa

2 – 3 cups powdered sugar

1  For cookies, preheat oven to 375.  Spray 9 x 13″ pan with cooking spray.

2  Beat together butter, brown sugar and sugar.  Add in egg, vanilla and sour cream and mix until completely incorporated.

3  Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix well.

4  Press dough into pan and bake for 13 – 14 minutes.

5  For frosting, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread on top of cooled bars.  Top with sprinkles if desired.

Sand Pudding

by penji1

Sand Pudding

The teenagers from church were coming over for a pool party last night and I volunteered to make them a treat so when I saw this, I knew it was perfect!  And apparently it was delicious too because the buckets were scraped clean!  The recipe comes from “Ma Nouvelle Mode”.  I found the buckets at Toys R Us for $3 each.  I doubled the recipe but probably should have made 3 batches and then the buckets would have been full and people could have had seconds, who knew it would be such a hit?  I used a bag of Wilton candy melts and made some sea shell shaped chocolates for the top which gave it just that extra dash of cuteness.

1 box Nilla Wafers

3 – 4 Oreos

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 small boxes French Vanilla pudding mix

2 3/4 cups milk

12 oz Cool Whip, thawed

1  Crush Nilla Wafers and Oreos in food processor.

2  Cream together cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar until smooth.  (I used my mixer for this.)

3  Whisk together pudding mix and milk until smooth.

4  Add pudding mixture to cream cheese mixture and stir until smooth.

5  Carefully fold Cool Whip into pudding/cream cheese mixture.

6  Layer in bucket starting with pudding then sand ending with sand.  (I actually crushed all of the Oreos since I bought a whole package and put the leftover Oreo crumbs on the bottom of each bucket as the first layer.)

7  Top with sea shell shaped chocolates if desired.

Here’s a top view of both the buckets:

Sand Pudding

Lemon Cookie Truffles

by penji1

Lemon Cookie Truffles

Don’t these look yummy and summery?  Last night we had an activity in my backyard for the ladies at church and I asked if I could make some sweets since I haven’t had much work lately and I need some projects so I made these truffles.  They are taken from the Oreo Truffle recipe on my blog with just a different cookie, you could make them with any cookie you like.  They are super easy!

1 lb, 2 oz package lemon sandwich cookies, divided

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1 bag Wilton yellow candy melts (I used 1/2 bag yellow and 1/2 bag white)

1  Crush 36 cookies in food processor until you have fine crumbs.  Put these in a large to medium bowl and mix with cream cheese until you have a smooth mixture with no signs of the white cream cheese, your hands are the best way to mix this together.

2  Crush the remaining 9 cookies and reserve for topping.

3  Using a teaspoon or a mini scoop to measure, roll mixture into balls and set on wax paper or parchment paper.  (You should get a pretty good amount, this time it made about 40.)

4  Melt candy melts according to package directions.  Carefully dip balls into melted chocolate and set on wax paper.  Immediately sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.  (I also sprinkled some of mine with Pampered Chef Lemon Sprinkles.)

Nectarine Crisp

by penji1

Nectarine Crisp

Last night Courtney and Jaren came over for a belated 4th of July dinner.  On the actual 4th, we were at The Stadium of Fire watching Journey, woo hoo!  And Courtney, who manages the Sodalicious Provo location, was working her little butt off!  So we had dinner together last night.  I had some nectarines from Costco that got a little squishy really fast in the heat so decided to try this nectarine crisp which was really good.  The recipe comes from The Dallas Morning News.

Fruit layer

6 cups sliced nectarines

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Crisp layer

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

6 tablespoons butter

1  Preheat oven to 375.  Spray 8 x 8″ or 9 x 9″ pan with cooking spray.

2  Mix together fruit layer ingredients and pour into baking dish.

3  Mix together crisp layer ingredients except butter.  Add 3 tablespoons of butter to crisp mixture using 2 knives or a pastry cutter/blender until mixture has only tiny clumps.  Sprinkle over fruit.  Melt remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and drizzle over topping.

4  Bake for 30 minutes, until fruit is bubbling and topping is browned.