Butterfly Cupcakes

We have most of our birthday celebrations in the spring here.  I asked the birthday girl what she wanted for her birthday, cake or cupcakes, flowers or butterflies or princess.  First, she had been asking for a Justin Bieber cake...well, I'm not that talented.  So these were the options I gave her and she settled on butterflies.  I saw cupcake liners that looked like flowers and was struck with an idea.  Bake the cupcakes in the flower liners and use the butterfly decorations to turn it into butterflies that were sitting on flowers.  I used a box mix for the cupcakes but made my own butter cream frosting, a recipe I've been using for a few years now.  I got the butterfly decorations, the pink gel  that I used for the butterfly body and the cupcake liners from Walmart, but they are by Wilton.  I missed taking pictures of the packages before using them.  Forgive me for being human, but this Momma will use products that can simplify making a birthday special for my kids when I also have to make sure that school happens for the non-birthday kids and meal times happen too.

 Here's the cupcake liners.

The butterflies resting on the light purple and pink flowers.

I filled a plastic zipper bag with the frosting and cut a bottom corner off to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.  Then I positioned the butterfly wings on the frosting.  Then I used the glitter gel to pipe the butterfly body.  They were a hit!  Thank you, Wilton, for making my life just a little bit easier!

Ham Soup

I have my friend Bev to thank for this inspiration.  When we visited her and her family about a year and a half ago, she made a ham soup and Steve and I absolutely loved it.  So I've made ham soup a couple times since, each time turning out different, depending on what I had on hand.  I had leftover ham from Easter, so I wanted to make a soup and some quiche.

I put the ham bone, with some ham still on it, in a big pot of water.  Brought it to a boil and then covered it and let it simmer for at least an hour and a half, a bit more if desired, till the ham is falling off the bone.  I then ended up cooling and putting it in the fridge, because I had started too late that afternoon to finish for dinner.  So I pulled it all out today to make the soup.  The fat had settled on the top, so I left some of it in the container, but used some too.  The gelatinous stuff left after baking the ham adds tremendous flavor to the broth.


INGREDIENTS:

Ham broth
Leftover ham, cubed
1/4 c butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped (I like to peel the stringy side to make it easier to eat)
2 handfuls of baby carrots sliced
5-6 baby red potatoes, cubed
8 oz. pasta of your choice
1 - 15 oz. can butter beans
Approx. 4 cups of water


To make the soup, before heating the broth, I chopped up the garlic, onion, celery and carrots while the butter melted in the pot.

 Then I added all the veggies except the baby red potatoes to the melted butter and let them sweat or soften up a bit. Before the veggies caramelized, I added the ham broth and the water. 

 Then I brought the broth to a boil and added the baby red potatoes.  After letting the potatoes cook for about 5 minutes, I added about 8 oz. of pasta (3/4 of a 12 oz. box).

I also made 2 ham quiches.  I'd love to share the recipes with you for the crust and the quiche, but they are from 2 of my cookbooks and I am learning about copyrights.  I tweaked the quiche recipe to fit what I was doing, but I always go back to this recipe when I forget the measurements.  If I can get permission to share these recipes, I will in the future.  This pie crust is one of my favorites.  It's from The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook.  It goes well with quiche, Shoo fly Pie, Blueberry Custard Pie...well, you get the idea, it's a very good recipe!  I'm going to ask my friend who shared the Blueberry Custard Pie recipe with me if I can share it with you.  I haven't mastered the art of rolling out a perfectly round pie crust yet.  And, I like the rustic look.  It's not that I don't like the perfectly pinched crust, it's just that I like the crust so much, that I don't want to take the extra off to make it look perfect and then hope that I end up with a piece with the extra crust.  Are you smiling with me about that?  I love a good pie crust.  Here the quiches are ready to go in the oven.

Fresh from the oven, ham quiche goodness!  Can you smell that?  Oh, I'm sorry!  I bet you wish you could!

And voila!  Ham soup and ham quiche.  Yum!

A Very Non-Traditional Easter for Us

I mentioned in my previous post that we have been fighting a nasty cold virus around here.  It was bad enough to keep the whole family home from church on Easter Sunday.  That was a first.  I've stayed home with a sick child once or twice before on Easter Sunday, but this was the first time the whole family was home.  We did not want to share this virus with our church family.  So instead of going to church we did some Easter activities at home. 

First of all, the kids and I watched The Animated Passion of the Christ on Good Friday.  Then Saturday night, Steve and I watched the original Passion of the Christ with our oldest.  Then Sunday morning we watched The Animated Passion of the Christ again as a family.

We also dyed some eggs.  I have a confession to make.  In 16 years of parenting, I can't remember ever dyeing eggs.  Ever.  Seriously.  I really don't know why.  I was inspired by Pinterest.  I had seen ideas for spider web eggs, kool-eggs and dyed deviled eggs.  And so, I present to you...kool-marbled deviled eggs.


First of all, I boiled the eggs in 2 pots.  Why 2 pots?  Well, I had some eggs that were old enough to boil and peel without much trouble, and I had newer eggs.  I boiled them separately with 2 different methods.  I wasn't sure how the newer eggs were going to turn out because I've had difficulty with new eggs before.  But, I had read about another method, so I gave it a try.  The older eggs I brought to a boil, covered, removed from the heat and let set for 10 min.  The newer eggs I added 1 tsp of salt to the water, brought to a boil, covered, removed from the heat and let set for 15 minutes.  Both methods worked!  Now I can boil new eggs and know they will peel just fine! 


Here are the packages of Kool-Aid I was able to find at my regular stores, mixed with 2/3 cup of water in each cup.  Not a lot of color options outside of the range of pinks and reds.  Vinegar is not needed because of the citric acid in Kool-Aid. 

It's a little hard to see here, but the eggs are gently cracked to allow some of the coloring to seep through.

The colors are pretty, even though we don't have any blues or greens.

This picture is larger to show the pretty designs on the shells.  The shells need to dry.

They peeled well and I love the marbling effect!

If you've never made deviled eggs before, it is rather simple.  I don't use measurements but go by feel and taste.  I'll try to give a general guide though.  Cut the eggs in half and put the yolks in a medium sized bowl.  Crumble the yolks with a fork.  Add approximately 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 - 2 Tablespoons of mustard, a dash of salt and a dash of sugar to the yolks and blend well.  It should be a little pasty at this point.  Next, add a splash of either vinegar (white or apple cider - both work) or pickle juice (if you happen to have it on hand) to make a creamier texture.  Taste and make sure you like the seasoning.  Adjust if necessary.  Depending on how many eggs you've used, you may need more or less of the mayonnaise and mustard.

When you have a creamy texture, it is time to fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture.  You can use a spoon or you can use a pastry bag with a tip to make it look fancier.  Or, if you don't like washing out pastry bags and tips, you can fill a Ziploc bag and cut off a corner to fill the whites.  I like to use Ziploc bags, because you can make it ahead of time and assemble at your destination, if you are taking them somewhere, and not get that dried out look on the yolks.  Using a container to hold your bag makes it easier to fill.

Once you have your yolk mixture in the bag, seal it and make sure to eliminate as much air as possible.  At this point you can store the egg white and yolk filling in the fridge until you are ready to travel or serve, but don't snip the corner until you are ready to fill the whites.

When you are ready to fill the whites, snip off a corner and then pipe the yolk filling into the whites.  It was a challenge to pipe and take the picture at the same time.

Just loving that marbled effect!

If desired, sprinkle a little paprika on the yolk filling.

Baby tried her first deviled egg and was intrigued by the texture and taste.

Later on, after some had naps, we made "Empty Tomb Rolls".  The symbolism was a good way to finish the day, especially since we had watched The Passion of the Christ, so everything was fresh in every one's minds.  The 4 middle kids thought it turned out pretty neat.  Here's a close up of one of the rolls fresh from the oven.  See the empty tomb?  They taste really good.  We will definitely make them again.

I hope your Easter was an enjoyable one!

Baby's 1st Birthday and Her Cake is...Oreo Pudding Poke Cake!

We recently celebrated baby's 1st birthday.  She hasn't really been a fussy eater, so I was challenged in deciding what to make for her meals.  See, we have a tradition around here of the birthday person choosing the meals for their birthday.  So I needed help from the family in deciding what we were going to eat for baby's birthday. 

We settled on cinnamon sugar blintzes for breakfast, which she hadn't had yet.  We love blintzes!  They are rather simple, but they take time to cook enough for each person.  So it ends up taking me, or the person who jumps in and helps me, usually Steve, about an hour to cook and serve everyone.  For that reason alone, we only do them on occasion.  She seemed to enjoy her blintz.

Then for lunch we treated ourselves to some Papa John's pizza, which the kids tell me is second to my homemade pizza.

For dinner, we had panko breaded tilapia (which sometimes is nice to have on hand from our local warehouse store)and sauteed veggies.  I have sauteed frozen green beans many times and change it up each time.  This time around, I had bought some red peppers that were a manager's sale for $.99/lb.  I also had bought some green squash after lunch on my weekly grocery trip.  So, Steve suggested adding both of them to the green beans this time.  Such a good idea!  No real recipe, just more or less throwing good things together to make them even better.  But, I realize that a recipe format might be easier.  So here it is:

Ingredients:

1/2 c unsalted butter
Approx 3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 green squash, halved and sliced lengthwise
3 red peppers, sliced lengthwise
1 onion. sliced
2 - 3 generous handfuls of frozen petite green beans (I get these in bulk from our warehouse store)
2 - 3 cloves of garlic chopped (or a couple teaspoons of pre-chopped garlic)
Fresh ground sea salt, to taste
Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Here I had sliced lengthwise the green squash, red bell peppers and onion.

Melt the butter and add the extra virgin olive oil.  Saute the onions and garlic for about 2 minutes.  Add the rest of the veggies.

And saute until tender.  Doesn't that look good?  If you like your squash firmer, just add it a little later.

She sure thought her dinner was good!  See that cupcake on her shirt?  Totally unplanned!  Steve dressed her in that outfit in the morning.  Good job, right?

Now, her birthday cake!  I got this inspiration from Pinterest.  The link that had been pinned lead me to Chef-in-training, but she got it from The Country Cook.

Ingredients:

1 Box Chocolate Cake Mix

Ingredients needed to make cake (usually eggs, oil and water)

2 (4 oz.)packages of Instant Oreo pudding

4 cups milk (2% or higher)

Crushed Oreo Cookies (optional)

Directions

Make cake mix according to directions and bake in a well-greased 9x13 pan (I use the nonstick spray that has flour in it).

Just before cake is done, start making pudding. In a medium bowl, add milk to pudding mixture and continue to whisk until most of the lumps are removed. Let pudding mixture sit for about 2 minutes. You want it to thicken slightly so it isn't overly runny but not fully thickened into pudding.

Pour pudding mixture over warm cake.

When cake is finished, while still warm, poke holes all over cake (about 1-inch) intervals using a wooden spoon handle or a straw.  (I didn't get any pictures of thus, but Brandie, aka, The Country Cook did)

Spread it out with a spoon and gently push down on the pudding to help get it into the holes.
Allow the cake to cool for several minutes on the counter then put into the fridge to set up. About an hour.

Once it is set, top with crushed Oreo cookies

Cook’s Note: This is great with so many different combinations; yellow or white cake mix with chocolate pudding is a good one. The Oreo pudding combination is our favorite.

Enjoy!

Steve helped make and bake the cake while I was checking out at the grocery store and making my way home with birthday balloons and groceries.  We used a dark chocolate cake mix.  I wanted her first taste of chocolate to be a good one, as well as memorable.  Here's what the cake looked like after poking the holes with the wooden spoon handle and pouring the Oreo pudding over top.

Since it's Oreo's 100th birthday, and I had found these on sale a week or two ago, we used them.  How appropriate!

My 12-year-old son crushed the Oreo's in a Ziploc bag with one of my pans.

My 10-year-old daughter sprinkled the crushed Oreo's over the cake.

My 7-year-old daughter was my helper at the store.  My little dilemma in deciding to make a cake that doesn't leave room for writing on the top was, how to identify that this is a 1st Birthday Cake.  We had decided to get these letter candles that I had seen on a previous grocery trip, and she had suggested that we get the 1 too.  Smart girl!  Warning though, the letter candles are basically a one time use candle set.  The letters end up melting away too quick to use again.  No biggie.

Apparently the B candle looked yummy!

Finger in the cake!

Her first official taste of chocolate!

Oh yea baby!  That was good!

Well, would this make you happy?

She seemed to think it was good enough to lick the plate!

Definitely a happy birthday cake for her!  To be honest, I think a couple of us had a second helping.  Believe me, it will be worth your time to try and make this cake.  Thank you for sharing the recipe Brandie!