Home made clam chowder

I have been meaning to write this blog for SO SO long. It's been a LONG time since I posted here. I am still crafting and cooking, I just don't have time to share here like I wanted to. My son is THIRTEEN now! I am as busy as ever with work, Scouts, PTA, and keeping up with the house and such. 

I normally HATE a recipe that has a big old long story to it. I apologize in advance because this soup is SO good but so much also about the story and meaning behind it. 

My mom, she passed away on August 13, 2016.  In some ways, it seems like forever ago. In others, it seems like just yesterday.  She shaped SO much of who I am today.  She did the best she could with me and my sisters.  I look like her, am creative like her. I think at times I should have been a teacher like her but I took a different path in my life.  One of the things I remember the most about my mom is how she always was doing something for others sewing or cooking something for a church potluck or something. I would like to think she liked to cook, though my later memories of her were how she hated it.  Being that I am now in my 40's been married for 20 + years, I kind of understand how at times it can be SO exhausting to have the responsibility of working full time, volunteering, doing what fills your own cup, AND putting dinner on the table every night.  It sure gets old.  Anyway, this is not meant to be a Debby downer post.  It's mostly a love letter to my mom, and how much those specialty dishes shape your memories and childhood.  

Here is a picture of her and me from 1985 when my parents took us to Disneyland. 
 I miss her. 

If you knew my mom, you knew she was a good cook. She made the best soups. Some I liked more than others. My favorite was her Clam chowder, and chicken noodle soups.  If you were at a church event and you saw these, you were in for a treat! This is the original instant pot! She had at least two or 3 of these babies. No, they never exploded, but one time she thought she left the pot roast on low when we went to church, and we got home and it was BURT because she left it on high. It was by God's grace the house didn't burn down. That may have been when she added a 3rd one to the mix. I think my dad had to use a sander to get all the burnt stuff off!

Did you ever use an old school pressure cooker?  

So much good food came from these growing up!

My mom was the type of cook to just throw whatever in and wing it. I know at times she would make this soup with frozen hashbrowns!  I myself say a recipe is a guideline, don't tell ME what to do! This has lead me to some success and failures in my kitchen. I cook to taste. When it's often good, I can't always reproduce it! I get that from her. <3 

My little sister has asked me several times for this recipe; she reads and follows them to a T! I have often texted her what she needs. This has been a fun adventure for her because often I forget to tell her about some important ingredient or two. This is also a chance for me to write it down so I can share it with others. My hubby and son, say I should take it on shark tank and open a restaurant. Well, that seems like work, and my soup comes from a place of love, work makes it not worth it. So world here it is, my soup inspired from the way my mom cooked it growing up.

Warning! This makes a lot and it freezes well. It's so good though, it won't last. When you reheat it you will find it can be thicker leftover you can thin it out with more cream. :) 

Ingredients: (I eyeball everything but tried to measure and write it down a while back. I am linking to the sites I found to help me estimate how much I used in measurements) 

You will need at least two large pots for this recipe. Sorry, I have no idea how to make a small amount. Pictured above is a 5 quart, 2 different 4 quarter pots.   

2 medium-size onions - chopped (about 4 cups)
4-6 Stalks of celery - chopped (about 2 cups)
APROX 5 lbs potatoes peeled and cubbed up small.
You can use pretty much any type of potato you have. Russett are the cheapest. They work fine but Yellow and Red make a much creamer soup. I will mix it up if I plan it and add a mixture of red and yellow.  
 1 - 2 packages of bacon if you like bacon, or making big pots use 2. If your pots are smaller one package is enough. I like to use Farmland Thick Cut Bacon when I make this soup.  When my son was younger we got him to eat it by calling this bacon soup. (We did not tell him there were clams in it!)

1 51 oz (3lb) can of chopped ocean clams.  You can find cans this size at Smart Food Service, Costco. (Anywhere that sells restaurant supplies) If you use the tuna can size of clams you will need 8 cans and I would put 4 in each pot. 

Optional - clam juice.  I will use a bottle of it, or a 51 oz can. It just depends if I have clam juice I don't use as much water when cooking the potatoes. 

Chicken Stock broth mix - like better than bouillon. (you can find this at Costco or restaurant supply stores like Smart Food Service. I don't buy the brand name when I get it at Smart Foodservice.  - 4 tablespoons - a big heaping scoop in each pot to taste.  

Optional - Ham soup base mix  (I only find this at Smart foodservice) Better than bouillon makes it but I have yet to find the ham one in a store - 1 tablespoon or spoonful to taste

Optional - Clam soup base mix. (again Smart food service or a restaurant supply store)  1 tablespoon or spoonful to taste

2 tablespoons of minced garlic. I keep a jar of this on hand in my fridge and just drop a couple big spoons full in the cooking celery and onions.  

Roasted Garlic Red pepper seasoning 1-2 tablespoons per pot  (I buy mine in the bulk foods section at Winco).

4 bay leaves (2 in each pot)

Old Bay seasoning (1 - 2 teaspoons per pot)

Pepper to taste

Liquid Smoke  1-2 teaspoons per pot to taste  

Paprika 1-2 teaspoons per pot to taste 

Salt - to taste (you may not need any it depends on what you think after adding all other seasonings)

1 Quart Heavy Cream 

1 Quart Half & Half

1 package IDAHOAN® APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON MASHED POTATOES Optional for thickening 

1. Peel and chop your potatoes, you want to make them small and uniform cubes. (about the size of a sugar cube or a little larger.  After all your potatoes are chopped dump them in your pan, and rinse them off to remove some of the excess starch. You should have about half of each of your pans full of chopped potatoes. just cover them with water and bring to a boil to begin cooking them.

To the potatoes and water, add your soup base mixes. I just take a big soup spoon and drop a scoop of each into each pot. It's probably about 1-2 tablespoons. If I use the ham and or clam stock I add that as well. Add the liquid smoke and all the other dry spices except the salt in the water and potato mix.  Stir it up.  If you're using clam juice you can add that now as well. Watch your liquid ratio because you will need to add the clams and your half -n-half and heavy cream later once the potatoes are all cooked.  Bring potato mixture to a boil.

2. While potatoes are cooking slice up the bacon. TIP! Leave it in its stack right out of the package, slice it into "strips" dump it in a large skillet. It will separate while it's cooking. Cook the bacon until soft, not crispy. on med-high heat. stirring occasionally about 4-6 min. Start with #3 chopping celery and onions while it is cooking.  Once it is to a soft just cooked texture,  Remove it from heat, and spoon it onto a paper towel on a plate to drain off some of the fat. You can also just take a big spoon and dump it into the pots cooking the potatoes.  You should be stirring the potato mixture occasionally to make sure they are not sticking to the bottom of your pots. If they are rapid boiling reduce heat to medium to simmer. 

3. While the bacon is cooking chop up your celery and onions.  Once you have removed the cooked bacon from your pan you are going to use the bacon grease to cook the celery and onions. My family is not a big fan of celery so I make sure I cook it extra long. They don't want to taste it.  I personally love it, if you like a bit of texture you can cook them both at the same time or start with celery.   I cook it for about 5 min, then add the onions After about 2-3 min add your fresh minced garlic to the skillet and cook this for about 2-3 more min or until the onions are translucent.  

4. Take the celery and onion mixture and divide it in half and put it in each of the pots. If your pan has nice brown bits on it, I like to add some of the liquid from the potato mixture and deglaze my pan. I dump that into the pots as well. 

5. If you have not added all the rest of the spices but salt add this to the potato mixture now. Open your clams and dump clams and their juice into the soup pots.  Let it simmer for about 2 min. I now would taste it to see if it needs salt.  Your clams will add salt to your soup which is why I add salt last. 

6. Let the soup simmer for about 12-15 min until the potatoes are falling apart. My son is not a huge fan of chunks so I take the potato masher and mash up a lot of them but I do leave some.  You can opt not to do this depending on your preference. The soup mixture may or may not be super thick depending on how many potatoes you used. (We use a lot of potatoes!) 

7. Add half & half and heavy cream to the soup mixture.  If it's rapid boiling you may want to take some of the soup mix and put it in a large 2-quart measuring bowl to warm up dairy so it does not curdle when you add it to the hot soup. You can also stir vigorously as you pour it into the soup, but be careful it's hot, and it can curdle if you don't do it right.  I use half of the heavy cream, and half of the half & half into each pot.  If you want to try to reduce the calories, you can only use half and half but I think the heavy cream makes it a richer more tasty soup!

8. If you find that your soup is thinner than you want it to be this is where I use the bag of instant potato mix. I REALLY like the flavor that the Idahoan applewood smoked bacon ones add to it! Start with about 1/4 of the bag and stir give it a minute or two, if it's still not thick enough add more.  If it ends up too thick you can always add more half & half. 

Serve with a side of nice crusty garlic bread. My family is partial to ciabatta bread! Enjoy! 

My Inappropriate Elf

Well I caved, in the spirit of all that is fun for Christmas, and because well lets just be honest, now that I have a blog, I wanted to join the Inappropriate Elf Contest.  And, I want to use it to teach my son its more about giving than receiving..  We watched Elf on the Shelf the CBS Special on friday, and again this weekend.  Tim and I had our elf arrival tonight. His name is "Flashy Christmas"  More on that later.  This is supposed to be an Inappropriate Elf post.  So here it is.  At first, I thought about making him a brown trench coat, and have him flash his cristmas light... he he he but, then I thought, that is just not good enough.  Both winners (year one) and (year two) were both based on current buzz in the social media webs.  And? They were funny!

I was trying to think of major events of 2013. There was the whole Miley thing, but like twerking everyone is doing it.   Round the mom blogs I read? Babyshaming.  It all started from Dog Shaming.  And bummer for me, there is a whole Elf Shaming blog! But this one it's mine, so here it goes, Wish me luck.  I may post some more naughty ventures, as well as some fun ones we do for my son.  Eirly bird gets the worm gotta get this done to get it linked to the contest Babyrabies Inappropriate-elf-contest More Christmas posts to come! For now check out Jill on Baby Rabies, if you have never been there before, sit down, take some time and be ready to Laugh!

#InappropriateElf

Grilled Pizza with a little help from my Winco!

One of my favorite things about summer is the Barbecue.  I think anything made on it is 100% better.  For real.  I have this awesome Char-Griller 3001 Grillin' Pro. Yes, I know it's the propane one, and only the best grills are Charcoal.  But, I AM trying to grow when it comes to my BBQ skills so we have a side fire box attached to it for charcoal.  (I hardly ever use it.  Lets face it nothing beats charcoal but it takes TIME and planning to use it, and the fact that I need to learn to cook on it....)

One of the other favorite things I love and my boys as well, is pizza!  What we can't agree on is the toppings.  Believe it or not it's the first disagreement my husband and I had.  It was over pizza toppings, and just like Joey Tribbiani from friends says, "Joey Hubby doesn't share food!", and he wont compromise on toppings.  Our answer? 2 pizzas. Then we have lots of yummy left overs.  Well enter the picky child who "only likes cheese".  Pizza to make everyone happy can be expensive.  Well my friends, do you know about Winco Foods?  If you do not I have 3 words for you:  I am sorry.  And 3 more: Go. There. Now! 

Many of them have  Leonardi’s Pizza Co. inside them.  They will make pizza for you, I think there is a take & bake too. I have had their pizza at parties but never bought it myself because.... they also SELL THE DOUGH!  Hello?!?! How awesome is that?  Fresh pizza dough for $1.98!!??! That is cheaper than you can get the canned stuff and it is fresh and tastes better! You find it in the refrigerated section where you get lunch meats and pepperoni.  It can also can be found in the deli section. (How ever here is my secret, you can go to the bakery and ask for it frozen, that's where they have it, and you throw it in your freezer and have dough any time you want.   You can use it for bread sticks on spaghetti night, or cinnamon rolls... endless possibilities!  Also I am not required to bake it before the use by date because we all know stuff comes up during the week right?)  

With Winco's awesome prices we can afford to have healthy homemade pizza just how we like it.  All of my ingredients were found at Winco except for meatballs. (and you -can- find those there, we just like the Trader Joe's ones better.. sorry Winco)

Pizza Dough: $1.98 each
2 Lb bag Cheese: $4.99
8 oz Bag Cheddar Jack: $1.78
6 oz Bag Parmesan Cheese: $1.78 or 1.98
Pepperoni: $? I can't remember but less than 3 dollars maybe less than $2.00
Farmland Bacon: $?  Less than $4.00 some times it goes on sale for about $2.98 not often any more though
Tomato: $.98 a lb
Fresh Basil: $3.98 for the WHOLE BUNCH! (Its fresh and lasts a long time, some of that living stuff) 
Both the Ranch, and Red sauce were less than $2.00 each they sell it by the pound from the deli so it will vary in cost.
Now of course if you added all those up you might say it's still expensive but I can usually have three or four different meals with all this cheese, Pepperoni, basil, and Bacon.  And I know you could also make your dough cheaper, I simply do not have the time.  (Full time working mom here)  During the summer months I gather it all up, some times we take it in all in the back yard for a whole outdoor activity on the picnic table.  It depends on how hot it is.  :)

Here is my Grill:

I have found placing the pizza right on the grill cooks the bottom too fast.  I took the legs from my side firebox that I didn't use because its not a table top and saved them to make a riser. Then I put the pizza stone right on top of them.  It works GREAT!  I LOVE this grill.  It has 3 burners in it and a thermometer this really allows me to keep the heat just right.  When your grilling pizza it is so easy to under cook it, or burn it.  I also unscrew my top rack because there isn't enough clearance and it usually hits the pizza.




















We are big fans of bread sticks at our house as well.  I always use one bag of dough for bread sticks. SO yummy!  I cook those on the grill as well and here is how I get them browned on the top.  I start off baking them on the top of the grill, then I move them to the inside through the side firebox. So the gas grates are above them.  I LOVE that I can do this! They get all golden brown and perfectly toasted that way.  ** Note you probably wouldn't want to do this if you were using your side fire box but I don't use it that much charcoal takes time. :)

While the bread sticks bites are baking, (this time I made bread bites it depends on my mood)  I get started on my pizzas.  We like to eat the breadsticks while waiting on the pizzas to bake.  I do not roll the dough,  I used to try to toss it (lots of practice!)

Just stretch it out on these pizza pans.  The holes help the dough stick to the pan and they keep it stretched out nicely and the dough goes on evenly.  I really like them.  ( Because we always make at least two pizzas I have two of them so I can make a 2nd pizza while the 1st one is baking)

My helper; dough presser, sauce spreader -  he may or my not have worn PJ's all day... 

 


We love the garlic ranch sauce we buy at Winco.  It makes THE. BEST. Chicken Garlic Pizza!

We also LOVE bacon at our house.  Have you ever baked it?  I have tried to do it on the grill but I end up burning it. Therefore I always bake my bacon.  It comes out so perfectly crispy and yummy this way.  To bake it just lay it on a cooling rack over a foil lined pan at 325 for about 30 min.  On nights I grill the pizza, I use my toaster oven to bake it so I don't heat the whole kitchen up.  The chicken pictured is from a left over chicken I cooked a couple nights before.  I love to cook a whole chicken and then shred it for several different things. :)  

The lower right photo above is a shot of cooking pizza on the grill. Here is what I have found works best:
1. The pan on top of a pizza stone.  The crust browns perfectly.  Pizza doesn't stick to it or the stone.  
2. If you have wood chips just toss them on grill. You get this amazing Smokey flavor. MMMM. I always forget to soak them so I often skip the wood.
3.Keep the heat around 400 - 425 it is going to change of course when you open the lid so I am constantly adjusting the heat.  You can't really walk away from it.
4.  Every 3 - 4 min turn the pan.  That way you don't have heat just in one spot.  I have found it has worked best if I start with all 3 burners on low, turn off the center for the second set of 4 min, then in the third set of 4 min I turn it back on.  Total cook time is between 12 - 15 min. 
5. The second pizza always cooks faster on the bottom.  I think this is because the stone is already super hot at this point.  I wish I could rotate them out but I only have one.

It has taken me about a year to find the perfect technique.  In the beginning I was using just the stone and it would stick and burn.

Here is Hubby's Pizza ready for the Grill:

Baking on the Grill:

Slice of goodness, the finished Product:

Have you made pizza at home? Do you have Any Grilling Secrets to share?  What are your favorite toping combos?


This is not a sponsored post.  Winco Foods did not ask me to write this.  I just share my Winco love because they awesome, and everyone should know and shop there if they have one in their town. :)

FIRE - How to make one fast with DYI Fire Starters & Camp Fire Doughnuts

So we love to camp.  Not Rough it camp, but throw stuff in the car, set up a tent, blow up the air mattress, light up the tiki torches, and plug in the Christmas lights camp.  It's fun, we get outside.  If we are lucky we stay dry.  Tim likes to call our camp sites tarpville some times as it rains so much where we camp in the North West.  One of the things we are not so good at while we camp?  Camp fires! They are essential to the camping experience you cant suck at this. That is us, we sucked.  All the lighter fluid in the world could not help us keep one.  Super frustrating! Last year, per my sister I saved dryer lint and toilet paper rolls, well the burned but FAST.  Too fast, again we would try the lighter fluid.     Along came pintrest and I kept thinking I need to figure out how to make some fire starters!  

You can check out some of my camping pins here:
http://pinterest.com/timandceri/camping/  

In the last few months due to some hand pain, I have had to pull out my paraffin bath.  The wax was old and gross, but it still did the job.  Once I ordered some new stuff I wanted to clean it out but did not want to waste the wax.   

I found some ideas for inspiration and went from there.  Most of them said to use sawdust.  I assure you, you do not need it.  

I didn't get some good pictures when I made them.  Forgive me the pictures above are staged.  That paraffin is brand new I don't want to make another batch right now.  Plus when I was doing it, taking photos for a blog post wasn't on my mind.  And, ya your hands are covered in wax and dryer lint.  

Things I learned.  You might want to cover your work surface with news paper.  The wax squirts out of the tubes and it can get a little messy.  Also, don't wear a nice shirt... again, it squirts....  It does dry pretty quick, as soon as the wax cools.  I used the kind of wax you use in a paraffin bath.  I am not sure if any other kind of wax would work or not.  If you try it with a different kind and have positive results let me know.  It takes a while for my wax to get gunky.  I don't want to waste it!  

Finished Product.  All bagged up!  I just stored them in a zip lock bag.  

This stuff WORKS.  Like it BURNS, and it is amazing, You can hear a couple pops so it gets really hot!

Look what we made on our fire! 

I found the recipe for the camping doughnuts here: http://www.camping-tips.com/recipes.html
- refrigerated biscuits or frozen bread (thawed)
- 2 cups olive or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup granular sugar (I mixed in cinnamon)- 1/2 cup powdered sugar 
from there, I just winged it like I always do.  I did not poke the holes, maybe next time I will try that.  We also used some Jiff Hazelnut Spread. (Like Nutella!)

 My son believe it or not is not a big fan of smores, or melted marshmallows.  He just wants to eat them before they are toasted.  We had some left over Ghost Peeps from his Halloween themed birthday, (those things never expire!) and we decided to try these out.  He thought they we SO cool!  And yes, they are so so good toasted, but I love toasted marshmallows. Do you have any camp fire tips, or yummy camp fire treats to share? 

Baby Shower Cake - "A Star Is Born"

As I have established I like to bake.  I offered to help out for a fun baby shower that was happening.  The theme was "A Star Is Born".  It was on Oscar night.  I was told the colors were: Hot pink, white, silver and black

Here was the inspiration:  

Source: rosebakes.com via Ceri on Pinterest

It was fun!!  I took Friday off work so I wouldn't be up all night the night before.  Note to self: DO THIS ALWAYS!!   

The Plan:  I started baking thursday night so the cakes would cool and Friday I could make the fondant and cover it, what I didn't finish Friday  I would do Saturday.    


This is my go to fondant recipe: marshmallow-fondant-macsmoms-butter cream-flavored-variation. Super super easy, and it tastes good too.  

I really like Rosebakes.com!The host of the party shared the cake idea with me.   Rose linked to this cake blog post on cutting ribbon out of fondant:  

Source: rosebakes.com via Ceri on Pinterest

 

Until now, that has been a lost technique on me.  It was super helpful, and made it WAY less scary to try. (I had back up real ribbon in the plan just in case.)

I used 2 boxes yellow cake, 1 box strawberry cake mix.  Don't judge me.  I don't care that it comes in a box.  It's EASY, Hard Mess Up, and Tastes GREAT.... Maybe one day I will try it from scratch. Who am I kidding?? I never will.    I do however "mix" it up.  I follow the box directions but I add a box of instant pudding.  FYI: It makes the mix much thicker when mixing.  I think that it makes the cake dense and so so moist, and adds another level of flavor to it. 

• Yellow mix got the following changes:  1 box vanilla pudding, and subbed milk for the cup of water. 

• Strawberry mix:  1/2 bag frozen strawberries.  I pulverized them in their frozen state in my Cuisinart 9-Cup Food Processor. (I LOVE that thing!) until they were tiny bits.  (it was about 1 half cup.)  I figure that I should remove 1/2 cup liquid, so I subbed 1 cup water with the half cup strawberry mix, and then about 1/2 cup milk.  These are estimates, I am a mix an go kind of cook.  When adding the pudding it makes it so much thicker so you have room to play with.  

After the cakes were all baked and cool, I filled them.  Confession time: I cheat with butter cream frosting.  I go to Albertsons, and buy it from the bakery.  They sell it by the pound.  With the cost of butter, it is about the same, and I do not have to make it.  WIN!!!  

I filled it with layers of  Bavarian Cream (I cheated again and bought it at united grocers, cash & carry ran out of time because of the strawberry mix do over) and strawberry filling that I found via pintrest.

Source: allrecipes.com via Ceri on Pinterest

It tastes good and was super easy!  (we will leave out that I burnt the first batch Friday night, and had to make a new one Saturday)   (It was really easy, I just got distracted waiting for it to boil watching American Idol on the DVR)





If you have ever filled a cake before, you may or may not know a trick for keeping it oozing out.  It's called a dam.  You can use that by piping butter cream around the edge.

I wanted a layer of the filling to be strawberry cake A thin layer.  I baked one of the yellow cakes in a spring form cake pan.  The other cakes were done in an 8 inch round cake pan.  I trimmed some of the yellow from the spring form pan, to add a thin layer of yellow in the middle of it.  

This is what it looked like cut:

Anyway, I stacked them up, and dirty iced it.  I need to get better about making them all the same. exact. size, and doing a 2nd layer of icing after the dirty ice has dried.  (I always rush this part and regret it)  From what I read it will help with the lumps I have that annoy me so badly.  

So now, the 2 cakes are baked, iced, and covered in the white fondant I made Friday.  Things are going good!  But.... of course the top was too heavy so I used some of these  Hidden Pillars 4/Pkg-6  from Wilton. ..  First I just put one in.... still sinking.... then I trimmed one so that it opened up like a flower and set the top cake upon my make shift pedestal.

Next I proceeded to make black fondant.  Wow, it took forever, I like the CK Products colors they work really well, but to make black it takes a TON of it.  Luckily I added some raspberry LorAnn flavoring oil.    so it did not taste like food coloring. (I made that mistake before with Red) Using the ribbon cutting method from Rosebakes - how-to-add-ribbons-and-ribbon-borders-to-cake to make the ribbons.  

What I want: Wilton Decorate Smart Fondant Ribbon Cutter Set. What I used: OXO Good Grips Pizza Wheel it works right?? Now I was worried my fondant would stick together so I decided to use my Reynolds Freezer Paper.  This was great for my Kneading, but it STUCK TO THE PAPER SIDE.  So I rolled it back out and cut it again with the freezer paper folded in half so the plastic was on both sides.  (Normally I use parchment paper but i was out)  I was really surprised how easy it was to cut with a pizza cutter and ruler.  Also it helps if your fondant is a little thicker I think.    

RESULTS!

Next I worked on the Stars I cut up many.... borrowed some vodka from my neighbor to paint on silver and platinum dust.  Then I made these:

Don't look at the mess! All the freezer paper cuttings, I am a very messy cook....

Source: planetpals.com via Ceri on Pinterest

I made the rope stanchions from paper straws, and Twizzlers Pull 'n' Peel.  I dipped them in sugar water, and then rolled them in colored "glitter" sugar I made from this pin:

Just mix a few drops of food color, paste, or gel to regular sugar.  Then bake at 350.  There is a note that the paste colors do smoke.  And they are right, it did but I caught it before it got bad and burnt.  Turned out perfectly! 

PROGRESS!

Then I rolled out the red hot pink carpet using the same technique above.  (Still worked well)  Not before discovering the HORRORS of making Gum paste!!  My stars from the day before were not drying out well.  Because I was making a wall I wanted to make sure it was going to hold and to dry out.  At first I thought I could half the container.  I planned on making a 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste.  Maybe that was where I went wrong?  It was bad.  

So I had to mix about half a bag of powdered sugar..... way way more than the 1/3rd cup the instructions called for.  It's amazing I got it off! Hubby had to help, and used a spatula....  well this mess turned in to this

   

Simi FINISHED PRODUCT! (I added the shooting stars on the wire once I got to the party:

FRONT

BACK

I did not know it was going to be sitting on an island.  My messy ribbon ends and back of the wall were not perfect so I added a bunch of the extra fondant stars to cover it up.

Well there you have it.  My first baby shower cake!  The shower was pintrest perfect!  Super sweet hostess and co-hostess!  I want to go to more of their parties!  Super excited for the Parents to Be and their soon to be Baby KMG!  

Thanks for Reading... :)

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Neapolitan Cupcakes - What I do for the hubby

So last night, I forgot that I was going to bake something for Tim's team potluck at work.  Today is the last day of the old shifts, and although he is keeping his same shift (YEA!) he will have a new supervisor, and a new team of coworkers.  At his job, they do enjoy a good potluck. (they have them kind of often)  I am pretty much known for my Cake Cookies.  (I will get around to sharing them here one of these days) He told me about this a couple weeks ago while we were at Winco.  He said, "and I don't want cake cookies".  Now, I do love them because they are SO simple, and SO good.  Fine I said, what DO you want me to make.  I don't know why I ask him that, I mean really, I am just going to make what I want.  (Don't tell him that though!)  Perhaps, just to get an idea yea, that's it.  So I said, "How about strawberry whoopie pies, with Lemon Filling?"  He agreed and I picked up a box of mix.  

Enter 10:30 PM, last night.  He reminded me that the Potluck is tomorrow morning.  Why do I always wait till the last minute to do these things????? (maybe because I work full time, have a kid, and I am tired?? HA!)  I go to get started (forgot to turn off oven from dinner YES! that will speed things up!) and I find, I am out of Parchment Paper. Uggg! I pull out the  Silpat® Baking Mat and gross it need a good washing.  This is going to take too long. Well, we are no longer making Whoopie Pies...... How about cupcakes with Lemon filling? I ask him.  Do we have brownie mix? He asks back.  Why, yes we do! Along with strawberry cake mix, and yellow cake mix.  And a plan is forming....  Of course I am thinking WOW this is a MIND BLOWING IDEA! How about a Neapolitan cake? Made with Brownie, Strawberry and Yellow cake mix I ask.  He says humm look it up on Pintrest.  If it's any good you will find it there.  Well apparently I am not the only one with this idea bummer.  Can I call it my own?  Maybe.  I did think of it before looking on pintrest right?  I saw several ideas.  I clicked on this one: from SixSistersStuff.  I will say they confirmed my own inspiration.    I give you Neapolitan Cupcakes!! 

I mixed the brownie and Strawberry Cake Mix separately for that part, I followed the instructions on the box.  In the strawberry mix, I added a couple heaping spoon fulls of my home made strawberry jam and decreased the amount of water by 1/3 cup.  I used some liners from Ikea to line the pans.  They were a little tall because they were for one of ika's DRÖMMAR Muffin tin which is a bit taller than a normal pan.  I have not used them before, they were on a cheap sale. Honestly  I -really- like how they baked in them.  They make for a bit larger of a cupcake, nice and tall and don't over flow.  I will be getting some more of them!  I used my Oxo Good Grips® Medium Cookie Scoop and put one scoop of brownie mix on the bottom and 1 scoop of cake mix on the top.  I then baked them in the oven at 350F for about 25 min.  

While the cupcakes were baking I got to work on my frosting.  If you follow me on Pinterest I have a things to bake board, where I have found some pretty tasty recipes. For my sons birthday in October I made one of the "Marshmallow" Frosting recipes for his Ghost cupcakes.  I really like how well the frosting looked, and held up so I went back to the board to find the one I made before. I didn't use the same one which can be found here because it was too much.  This time I made one from Veronica Hurly's blog.  It can be found here   

It was so simple to whip up with my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer.  You combine 4 egg whites, 1 cup of sugar, heat that on the stove, and then whip it up with 1 tsp vanilla extract.  I then dumped it in a gallon zip lock bag with my  Jumbo icing tip, sniped off the end and iced away. 

24 cupcakes cooling and waiting to be iced!

all iced don't they look tasty!  

 I really like this icing, it allowed me to frost them while they were still a bit warm.  I topped them with some chocolate balls, and sprinkles  and a bit of red sugar crystals. 

I emailed the hubby to see how they went over, he said "One of the people that sits next to me mentioned the cookies. I told her you always make cookies so I asked if you could try something different. She said she likes the cookies :)"  .... ha ha could have gone with the cookies, but I got a 2nd email that said: Cupcakes are a hit. So far still have a bunch left but everyone enjoyed them and commented on how moist, professional looking, how you should make them all the time, yadda yadda....  well there you have it!

Enjoy!