Edible Icecream Bowls Made with Balloons!

My daughter made these the other night and I loved how simple, but cute they were!  A perfect treat for Valentine's Day, Birthday Parties, After School Snack or Summer fun!

1. In a bowl mix 1/2 bag chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil and melt in the microwave 30 seconds at a time. Then stir chocolate and put in microwave another 30 seconds until fully melted.
2. Blow up mini water balloons.
3. On a cookie sheet, lay wax paper down.
4. With a spoon, put a circle of chocolate for each ballon you have (number of bowls you are making).
5. Dip each balloon in bowl of chocolate covering the bottom of the ballon entirely.
6. Place balloon in center of one of the chocolate circles on the tray.
7. Repeat process with all balloons.
8. Leave out to dry for 1 hour or until they are hard.
9. Pop balloons and throw all pieces away.
10. Serve ice cream and toppings in bowl and there you have it!

Enjoy!!

Ice Cream Christmas Tree

This is so cute and quite easy for you to serve at your family, work, church or school parties.  Simply use a cookie sheet and cover it with tinfoil. Then scoop large balls of mint chocolate chip ice cream to create a christmas tree.  The top  row will have 1 ball, the second row will have 2 balls.  The third row will have 3 balls, and so on. After you have rows of 5 or 6 ice cream balls (the size of your cookie sheet and the size of the ice cream balls will determine how many you can fit), your tree will be complete.  Then scoop two ice cream balls of chocolate icecream and place them at the bottom of the tree lined up vertically to look like a trunk.

Make sure you keep this in the freezer until you are ready to serve.  Makes a super cute treat and an incredibly easy way to serve ice cream to the crowd quickly! Thank you to our cousin, Cathy, for the cute idea!

Merry Christmas and check out some of our other Christmas ideas while you are here!

Sticky Rice and Mangoes Recipe

Thailand is special to our family because my husband spent time as a missionary over there. While there, he picked up a few good recipes. On our very first date, he made me this simple and delicious dessert. It is a favorite of ours! He has graciously helped put together this tutorial.

Sticky Rice and Mangoes

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups sticky (glutinous) rice
• 1 15 oz. can of coconut milk
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 t. cornstarch
• 4 mangoes

Instructions

• Rinse sticky rice with a bowl of water and drain water. Repeat three times.
• Fill bowl with enough water to generously cover the rice and soak for four hours.
• Drain water and place rice in traditional Thai rice steaming basket.

Sticky Rice Steamer Pot and Basket

• Boil water in pot and then place basket of rice with a lid over it on top of the pot and steam for for 15 minutes*
• Flip rice over and steam an additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

• Meanwhile, heat coconut milk and sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until it comes it to a boil; then remove it from the heat.
• Mix half of coconut milk/sugar mixture with the steamed rice in a serving bowl.
• Add 1 t. cornstarch to the remaining coconut milk mixture and return it to the stove,  cooking on low heat for 5 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove sauce from heat.
• Peel and dice mangoes.
• Serve dessert with sticky rice on the bottom, diced mangoes in the middle, and coconut milk sauce drizzled on top.

Cinco de Mayo Mexican Celebration Cookies and Picture Book

I can't believe May is already here! Today is May Day, and we've shared some fun May Day ideas in the past that you might like to check out here. But for today's blog post, I wanted to share some ideas for Cinco de Mayo which is just around the corner. Many of the Mexican-Americans around us use this day to celebrate their heritage, and we also like to get in on a little of the fun. We decided to check out The International Cookbook for Kids for some cooking inspiration. Although the title implies that the recipe book is for "kids," my kids are too young to appreciate or prepare these recipes themselves. But I had fun with it as an adult--the recipes I've tried so far are delicious! My kids are picky eaters and were intimidated by most of the dishes, but they loved these Mexican cookies (also known as "Polvorones") that we made.

Mexican Celebration Cookies

Ingredients:

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. confectioners' sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
1 t. vanilla
1 c. chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds* (optional--I omitted the nuts due to allergies/preference)

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl and put aside.
3. Beat softened butter, shortening, and vanilla in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth.
4. Add dry ingredients and combine into a rough dough using a spoon.
5. Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth.
6. Form dough into a ball and chill for 1 hour or overnight.
7. Shape chilled dough into small balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
8. Bake on the middle rack of oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes
9. Let the cookies cool and then roll the cooled cookies in the remaining powdered sugar!

Notes: The original recipe calls for 1 cup of nuts which I omitted due to allergies and the preferences of my kids. I also used two sticks of butter instead of 1 stick and 1/2 c. shortening. The recipe also originally called for baking the cookies longer---our oven tends to cook things more quickly than average so I shortened the baking time. If your oven cooks things more slowly, keep an eye on the cookies--they could cook up to 30 or 35 minutes.

That's it! The cookies are so delicious and soft that you may just find yourself eating 5 or 6 before you know it!

Also, if you want a fun Cinco de Mayo book for preschoolers, my kids like the silly and colorful book, Cinco de Mouse-O!

For more Cinco de Mayo ideas, check out our Cinco de Mayo recipes from past years or my Cinco de Mayo Pinterest board!

Treasure Chest Cake for Pirate or Princess Party

This month, we celebrated the birthdays of two of my children--my son turned 6 and my daughter turned 3. We decided to just have one birthday party for them and so we invited a couple of families over who had children both of our kids' ages and we had a party that combined elements of the princess and pirate birthday parties my sister previously shared.

After "dancing at the ball" like princesses, having "cannon ball fights" with black balloons, and more, the pirates "stormed the castle" (a castle pinata), and then we finished off with this treasure chest cake--which worked perfectly for both themes in our pirate and princess party! The cake was inspired by this one I found online, and more detailed instructions for a treasure chest cake can be found here.

I used different candies than those in the tutorial linked above to decorate my cake. We used red vines for the straps on the treasure chest, and we used milk chocolate balls cut in half to line the sides of the straps. I also used a Reeses peanut butter cup and a kit kat bar that was trimmed down to create the lock. "Treasure" inside the chest consisted of chocolate gold coins, milk chocolate balls, and Rolos. The "sand" underneath the treasure chest was made of brown sugar.

Be sure to check out our complete Princess Party and Pirate Party posts that we shared previously for more ways to celebrate!

Peppermint Dessert

Today, I share with you my husband's absolute favorite dessert!  This a great dessert year round, but seems to be served in our house most over the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentines. It's great for large parties, baby showers, and wedding showers because it's light and you can make it go far if you need to.  Happy December!

 

Peppermint Dessert

1 pkg Nab famous choc. wafers (I usually buy these at Harmons Grocery Stores, if you have one)

½ c. margarine

1 pint whipping cream 
1/2 cup powdered sugar

½ c. peppermint candy (crushed)

¼ c. optional nuts (chopped) 

8 oz. mini marshmallows

4-5 drops red food coloring (mix until it looks like cotton candy)

3 drops peppermint flavoring

Crush wafers and melt margarine.  Combine to form crust (reserving 1/3 cup crumbs for the top).  Press into 9x13 pan.  Whip cream until stiff, add powdered sugar.  Fold in flavoring and food coloring then candy, marshmallows and optional nuts.  Pour marshmallow mix over the cookie crust.  Sprinkle reserve crumbs on top.  Refrigerate.

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Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and Tips

Sometimes we all can get overwhelmed with the wealth of ideas online available for activities with kids. I love  doing crafts and educational activities with my kids, but sometimes the most simple things--like making chocolate chip cookies--are the best experiences. Our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is this simple recipe from the back of the bag of Tollhouse Chocolate Chips:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. butter
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 c. chocolate chips

Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Beat together butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for about 9 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations: We have also substituted other items for the chocolate chips--my kids love it when we have m & m cookies--the same recipe as above except with m &m's instead of chocolate chips.

A few tips I use for making perfect chocolate chip cookies are as follows:

• Don't let the butter get too soft--that can create cookies that are too flat.
• Don't overmix the dough--that can create cookies that are too hard.
• Don't overbake--I actually usually bake my cookies for about 8 minutes, then I pull them out of the oven and let them just continue baking for a minute or two on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack.

For those perfectionists out there, you could also check out this amazing article about making the perfect chocolate chip cookie. But my kids and I are usually happy enough even if our cookies aren't perfect--it is still a fun experience mixing, baking, and eating fresh chocolate chip cookies!

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Delicious and Easy Sugar Cookies Recipe

I came across this recipe a few years ago, and it has become my all-time favorite recipe for sugar cookies. These turn out so soft and delicious and they only take a few basic ingredients. My kids love rolling these sugar cookies into their favorite shapes. We make these for nearly every holiday and whenever else we need a fun activity.

WORLD'S BEST SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla; then add dry ingredients and mix well. Cover dough and chill in refrigerator (at least 30 minutes or overnight if you wish). After dough is chilled, roll out dough onto a floured surface and cut out desired shapes.

Bake cookies for 6-8 minutes at 400 degrees.

POWDERED SUGAR ICING

(This is a thin icing that is nice because it hardens up and makes it easy to store or transport these cookies. If you are having your kids decorate and eat the cookies right away, you could use a different type of frosting such as buttercream frosting.)

Ingredients:
1 c. powdered sugar
1/4 t. vanilla
1 T. milk + a little more milk to reach desired consistency
a few drops of food coloring (if desired)

Instructions:
Stir together powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Add additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time until icing reaches your desired consistency. Mix in food coloring if desired.

Variations:
For chocolate powdered sugar icing, prepare as above, except add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powdered to the powdered sugar and only use milk, not orange juice.

Also, as you can see from the picture above, beautiful frosting is not my focus (we usually just make these as an activity for the kids, so it doesn't matter if the frosting looks good or not--what matters is that we are having fun!)--but if you want to make cookies that look professional, check out the great tutorial here.

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Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream Recipe

Our favorite dessert is ice cream. And the best time of year is starting soon--when the berries are season and often on sale. Below is a delicious raspberry ice cream I made recently. We topped it with blueberries and it was perfect!

Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream

Ingredients: 

• 1 pint fresh raspberries
• 1/3 c. sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 c. whipping cream
• 1 c. sweetened, condensed milk, cold

Instructions:

• Combine the raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Whisk together the whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk until well blended.
• Mash the raspberries to a puree and stir into the whipping cream/sweetened condensed milk mixture.
• Transfer mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.

I have the Cuisinart 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker and it is so easy to use--you just freeze the bowl ahead of time, and then throw your mix into the bowl, put in the dasher and top with the lid, and then turn it on. In 20-30 minutes you have delicious homemade ice cream!

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