Happy Birthday Jesus Cupcakes and Manger Food Tray

 I was looking for some ideas for a dessert and food tray for our Birthday Party for Jesus. I wasn't able to find anything on Pinterest, so it forced me to come up with something. It was pretty fun!

What You Need For Cupcakes
Cupcakes of any kind with white frosting. Here is the recipe that I used, http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/09/17/red-velvet-cupcakes/ .

Circus Peanuts (I got mine from The Dollar Store)
Shoestring Potatoes
Butterscotch Chips
Black Food Decorating Pen
Waxed Paper

To assemble the baby Jesus start by melting the butterscotch chips in a mini crockpot or in a small pot on the stove. Be sure to spray the crockpot with Pam before melting the chips. Put a dab of butterscotch on waxed paper and start laying the potato sticks out as the bed of hay.

Add the circus peanut and more of the potato sticks while the butterscotch is still warm, then add the little eyes and mouth.

Place "baby Jesus" on top of frosted cupcake and add the frosting swaddling clothes  .

 

I wasn't able to make my cupcakes the day of the party and found that the shoestring potatoes lost their crispness after sitting for a day and a half. So in the future I would make them the day of.

I added an updated version of the tray now that I have a star cookie cutter. I stacked the cheese angels and star 4 slices deep so they were even with the blueberries.

Celebrating Spring with Flower Pot Ice Cream Dessert

 I am Story Hour Coordinator at a Christian gift and book store and love my time with the kids! I decided to put together a spring story hour to celebrate the season. Our typical story hour consists of a bible story along with two other stories, songs with actions, and a craft to coincide with the bible story. There really is no spring bible story, but I wanted to celebrate the season with the kids and show them how we are like God's plants and need to be fed by God's word. I picked up packages with 6 gladiola bulbs per pack from the Dollar Store and made up these little packets with this simple poem. 

I couldn't find a Christian kid's song to go with our celebration of spring, so I decided to come up with my own. What kid doesn't know the song,"Let it Go", from Frozen! I put these words to the refrain from the song.




                  

                         Let us grow, let us grow                        
                         Let us grow in God's holy word.
                         Let us grow, let us grow
                         Grow to love him more and more!

                         I want to share what God has to say,
                         His Son died for me
                         So I can live in heav'n one day!

Our craft was inspired by something I saw on the Food Network by the Pioneer Woman. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/ice-cream-flower-pot-desserts-recipe.html  I have a limited budget so I used paper cups instead of clay pots and Dollar Store flowers instead of fresh flowers.

Breakfast Enchiladas

Here is another great recipe from my favorite recipe book, "Southern Living All-Time Favorites". This is a great recipe to make the night ahead and serve the next day. This has been a hit with family as well as my eighth grade class (a tough crowd). I love it!

Cheese Sauce Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 (4-oz.) can chopped green chilies
3/4 tsp. salt
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, about 6 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, and whisk in remaining ingredients until cheese is melted.

Egg Filling Ingredients
1 lb. package pork sausage
2 Tbs. butter
4 green onions thinly sliced
14 large eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat stirring frequently for 6 to 8 minutes or until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink. Remove from skillet and drain. (Use some of the grease from sausage to to saute onions and cilantro, or melt 2 Tbs. butter called for in recipe.) Add eggs, salt, and pepper, and cook without stirring, 2 minutes or until eggs begin to set on bottom. Gently draw cooked edges away from sides of pan to form large pieces. Cook, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5  minutes or until eggs are thickened but still moist. (Do not over-stir.) Remove from heat, and gently fold in 1-1/2 cups cheese sauce and sausage.
8 to 10 (8 inch) soft taco flour tortillas (recipe calls for 8 tortillas, but I've found that it makes more)

4-oz. of Mexican style cheese...I love my cheese, so I just top with as much cheese as I think looks good.  (Recipe calls for shredded Monterey Jack cheese with peppers, but I've never had any luck finding it.)

Toppings
Grape tomatoes (or any other tomatoes you like) , sliced green onions, chopped fresh cilantro

Inexpensive and Easy Fall Centerpiece and Table Decorations

This has to be one of the best mistakes I've ever made,"Necessity is the mother of invention."  I was carving pumpkins to use as centerpieces for a women's retreat and had one of the pieces of my carving break off after it was almost completed. I decided to cut a hole around my mistake and use my Dollar Tree leaves that I spruced up with glitter to cover the hole. I used hot glue to attach the leaves to both the pumpkin and to attach one leaf to another. I used 2 or 3 flame-less candles inside the pumpkin so that I could leave the top on the pumpkin without worrying about real candles burning a hole in the cover, and also to add a little more glow. 

I glued the Dollar Tree leaves together in groups of three, allowing enough room for the flame-less candles to show through to make additional decorations for the table. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Shrimp Taco With Spicy Cream Sauce

Here is yet another recipe from my favorite cookbook "Southern Living All-Time Favorites". I've made some changes to this simple but tasty recipe. Now if only I had a margarita to go with it.


Ingredients
1-8oz. container light sour cream
1&1/2 tsp. chili powder (divided)
3/4 tsp. ground cumin (divided)
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper (divided)
3/4 tsp. salt (divided)
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup milk
1 to 1-1/2 lb. peeled and deveined, medium-size raw shrimp
1- large red bell pepper sliced thin
1- small onion sliced
3 Tbs. orange juice
2 garlic gloves
3 tsp. olive oil
1 avocado sliced
8 (6-inch) tortillas, warmed
(Mexican blend cheese optional)

Direction
1. Whisk together sour cream, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. cumin, 1/4 tsp. red pepper, 1/4 tsp. salt,
1/8 tsp. cinnamon. Add 1/4 cup milk, stirring until smooth. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
2. Combine remaining 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/4 tsp. red pepper, 1/2 tsp. salt in a large zip-top plastic bag; add orange juice and raw shrimp, seal bag, turning to coat. Chill for 1/2 hr. Remove shrimp from marinade, discarding marinade.
3. Saute' red bell peppers and onions on medium, in olive oil in large skillet for about 5 mins., remove from pan and set aside. Add a little more olive oil and garlic and saute' for about 2 mins. then add shrimp and saute' until shrimp turn pink. Return the onions and peppers to the pan and stir and heat until warmed. Serve with sour cream mixture and avocado. Mexican cheese blend can also be added.

 

Wisconsin Cheese Curd Lovers Bacon and Sausage Quiche

If you haven't experienced Wisconsin cheese curds, it's something you must try if you ever visit the "Cheesehead state". They are nuggets of cheese that when fresh and bitten into, provide a delicious squeak and flavor that are like nothing you have ever experienced. They are affectionately referred to as "squeaky cheese" by those who love them.

Ingredients
1 deep dish pie crust (I used frozen ready made)
1/3 lb. Breakfast Turkey Sausage
1/3 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 lb. fresh crumbled bacon ,or 6 slices precooked bacon (crumbled)
1/4 lb. (about) yellow cheddar cheese curds ( cut into nugget sizes)
3/4 measuring cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup or 3 green onions sliced (I include 1/2 of the green portion)                                                 

4 sun dried tomato halves (chopped in small bits)
8 large fresh basil leaves julienne or about 1/4 cup
4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp. dry ground mustard          
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. course ground pepper 

It's definitely best to get your cheese curds as fresh as possible. There are grocery stores in Wisconsin that will have a table loaded with cheese curds marked,"Fresh Today". The fresher the curd, the squeakier the bite.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place about 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese in the bottom of the pan. Fry up bacon and sausage (sprinkle oregano on sausage while frying). Distribute sausage evenly in the bottom of the pie crust. Place nuggets of cheese curds, half of the bacon bits, onions, half the julienne basil, and sun dried tomato bits and evenly distributed in the pan. Mix milk, eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper and poor over ingredients in pie shell. Sprinkle the top with the remaining mozzarella cheese and bacon. Place in preheated oven for about an hour (check at 50 mins.), or until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle of the pie. Sprinkle with remaining fresh basil on top.  Let sit for about 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

 I love that the curds get warm but don't totally melt, leaving you with little chunks of ooey-gooey deliciousness.

Seafood Stew

I saw Michael Symon make this dish on Live with Kelly and Michael, and decided to try it. I loved it and have made it several times since, but was unable to pin it to share with others because there was no picture to go with the recipe. It's not difficult to make, and then there is the fun part where you get to set the dish on fire! :) Symon mentioned that it's important to use San Marzano tomatoes for their taste because they are sweeter, less bitter, and have less seeds. I loved the flavor of the tomatoes and have started using them in other dishes that call for tomatoes. I used some fun pasta I found at World Market to go with the stew.

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbl olive oil

6 to10 scallops (drypack)

10 to16 shrimp shell on deveined (I used 1 lb. of shrimp that were shelled and deveined.)

1lb. calamari (I did not include this...maybe next time)

1lb. mussels (I used 6 mussels so we could all try it.)

2 cloves sliced garlic

4 sliced scallions

½ cup chopped parsley                                                          

½ tsp chile flake
                                                                      
2 oz Sambuca (I bought this Italian Anise flavored liqueur in a mini bottle to save on buying something I wouldn't use often.)

16 oz San Marzano tomatoes (chopped)           

10 oz. stock (I used fish stock)

1 pinch saffron

zest of 1 orange

¼ tsp ground coriander

salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Season shrimp liberally with salt. In large pan heat olive oil over medium high heat

Add shrimp and scallops and sear for 1 minute

Flip and add mussels and garlic

Add sambuca and flame (This is the fun part!)

Add stock, tomatoes, pepper flakes, coriander and saffron, then bring to simmer.

When mussels open add calamari, parsley and zest. Remove from heat and serve. Garnish with green onions.