This Weekend

I made (with the help of my trusty assistant)...

a cake for my bosses son....

A German Chocolate Cake for the Chocolate Lovers at our house...

(I'll be posting the recipe for the frosting this week if you're interested)

Angry Birds and Pigs - For someone specials Birthday Cake.

Blueberry Muffins - Confession, until this weekend I had never made muffins from scratch - there, I said it!

(Recipe to come.) 

Jax

Jaxon and I had our first Parent Teacher Conference this week.  He is doing great and his teacher thinks it's time for him to start reading.  I don't remember reading in Kindergarten.  But, apparently that's how they do things now.  I am amazed at the things he is learning.  He is constantly singing various songs he's learned at school.  Some of his current favorites are "God Bless America" and "Days of the Week" (which is the same tune as the Adam's Family theme.)  This kid cracks me up!

He brought home his first report card last Friday.  He was SO EXCITED to give it to me.  As soon as I opened it up and started looking at it he asked me if we could write a thank-you card for his teacher.  I asked him why he wanted to do that and he said "Because Mrs. Garcia takes such good care of us in class."  He also asked if I would make some mini cheesecakes (his favorite treat ever, recipe here) to give to her.  He is so thoughtful.  True to form he asked me to help him with his card as soon as we got home.

Jaxon, please don't ever change.  Please continue to love to learn and be excited to go to school.  Please stay as thoughtful and caring ten years from now as you are today.  I know it's a long shot, but can I pray he skips his teenage years??  Everyday I worry if today will be the day that I go to kiss him goodbye for school and he says he's too big.  Thankfully, today was not that day.

St. Patrick's Day Treats

Here are some fun ideas and links for St. Patrick's Day Goodies.

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Homemade Oreos

(Replace cream cheese frosting with Mint Buttercream from above recipe.)

Key Lime Bars

Enjoy!

T'was the night before Christmas....

So we made and decorated sugar cookies. We hung our stockings from the fireplace with care and we spent the night at Harley's parents and stayed up causing chaos until all hours of the morning.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Pumpkin Roll

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet (I line it with parchment paper).

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir in pumpkin puree, eggs, and lemon juice. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Lay a damp linen towel on the counter, sprinkle it with confectioner's sugar, and turn the cake onto the towel. Carefully roll the towel up (lengthwise) with the cake in it. Place the cake-in-towel on a cooling rack and let it cool for 20 minutes. (It is important to do this as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, if you wait too long it will cool and crack when you try to roll it.)

Make the icing: In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar with a wooden spoon or electric mixer.

When the cake has cooled 20 minutes, unroll it and spread icing onto it (Be careful, you do not need to roll it tightly - you do not want to squeeze out all of the filing as you roll). Immediately re-roll (not in the towel this time), and wrap it with plastic wrap. Keep the cake refrigerated or freeze it for up to 2 weeks in aluminum foil. Cut the cake in slices just before serving.

This is a family favorite! It stores great in the fridge.

You can find my other recipes here.

Cherry Bars

These are pretty and oh so yummy!

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 (21 ounce) cans cherry pie filling (I use 1 can)
GLAZE:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons milk

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the extracts. Combine flour and salt; add to the creamed mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 3 cups batter into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan (I use two 8x8 pans). Spread with pie filling. Drop the remaining batter by teaspoonfuls over filling. (Be careful, this is a sticky dough.)

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Combine the glaze ingredients; drizzle over bars.

P.S. My Mom doesn't like Cherry Pie or cherry pie filling and she really likes these, so give the cherry a try, but you can always swap out other canned pie filling if you so choose.

You can find my other recipes here.

Time for the Diet

I spent more time at my Parent's house this week than I have since possibly high school. Tuesday I went over to teach my Mom how to make a new pasta dish, which everyone was instantly a fan of. Thursday I went over just to hang out and let my Mom feed us, I was not making dinner! Friday I found out that my Grandpa Koerner and Aunt Val were coming up for dinner, so I went over to help my Mom, I threw together dinner and made Cherry Bars (which are awesome - recipe to follow in another post). Then I spent almost all of Saturday and Sunday there watching conference and cooking/eating. Saturday I made steak with blue cheese sauce (I don't even like blue cheese and I think it's yummy) and Sunday I made a pumpkin roll and pumpkin roll cake pops.

Do you notice a running theme?

Where there is my family there is food. It is ridiculous how much we like to eat and some of us like to cook/bake. Boy was I ready to go back to work on Monday (just kidding) I really needed the break from being home.